Seasons

{

Disclaimer: All the characters, places, names and situations are fictions. They are not made to offend any individual's identity or thoughts. They are just character background and my characters do not define me, but just my thoughts for the character. I also request my readers to not have any biased mindset, the stories are meant to stir some feelings in you, so just go with the flow and enjoy. Please do not copy the stories and repost them.

Love💜

P.S.: I own the photo!

Copyright © WD, 2021 All rights reserved.

}

Don't ask me when it started. Because I don't remember it. All I remember is being alone while I grew up, people tried coming, you know socializing and stuff, but that never helped. I had an issue of staying in my world. My MBTI says 0% extrovert and 100% introvert. I couldn't help it, so I started reading. Soon enough I was ranked 1st in the book worm category of the school library, and books in Korean seemed to lessen so I self taught myself with English and German. Probably that is why you came here to live with us.

When you will get this I will be gone, but I have kept all the books in a stack packed in sequence. Go through them and you will be through with Korean speaking and writing,  that should take another 6 months for you. Next three years will be hassle free. 

I have some favor to ask in return for my tutoring services. You will have to take care of my mom, just help her sometimes in choosing the best bed sheet color, or let her know what you would want to eat and maybe accompany her for grocery shopping. And for my father, just check on him at nights, he sometimes gets up in the night and drinks too much above his capacity. 

I am following everyone's advice so I am good. I am not needed in anyone's life and no one feels the emptiness, mom will be fine with her friends and parties. And for times when she is at home, three years with you will be enough to forget my existence and for father he never wanted me anyways. I could never give him the grades and he had to drop out from his friend's parties because he had nothing to tell them about his son. With me gone at least he will be able to rejoin them and enjoy his life. I don't know the subject I wish to take, nor do I know the college. Being so clueless all the time, being so helpless and useless has been very tiring. So I have finally decided to end everybody's misery. 

Maybe I will see you someday.

Lee Hyun

D-3

"Hyuna no gyeran gajowasso" (Hyun, did  you bring the eggs)

"ne omma" (Yes Mom)

"Hey, she asked for eggs right?"

"Yeah, you are catching up fast!"

"Thanks mate, it's all on you."

"How is college by the way? I don't see you sketching much these days."

"Oh, that's because I got blisters in my hands and so I am resting now. How about you Lee? How is the last year in school going? You better apply to my college. We will go together, I won't be alone anymore."

"Stop it already, girls have taken English classes to converse with you. And you have learnt enough Korean to live your life here. I am not that necessary. But hyung (a term used for older brothers by younger males in korea) tell me one thing, when you find yourself stuck and you don't know what to do, what do you do?"

"Umm, you see this athletic body of mine, I run. Running away from problems is not a cowardly act. It's a modern day solution. So if you are stuck with a girl you don't want to date "ppalri dalryora" (run fast)"

"You should know I don't talk to anyone. If it was not for you to stay here in my room I would have not talked to you too, and you are an exchange student. Hyung you are too dependent on me for me to act all introvert in front of you. Remember to pay back for my services okay?"

"Geurae hyona, nega wonhaneun daero halkke! (Yes Hyun, I will do what you want!)"

"Daebak (Amazing), that was your first complete sentence hyung."

D-1

"Why are you suddenly cleaning things up?"

"I don't like untidy things, also I won't get time later."

"Oh yes you are going to start with your late night preparations right? Do you want me to bring you food when you are studying? Or maybe some manly stuff to chill out a little😈"

"Hyung, I will be studying, so keep your dirty mind with you!"

"Okay my dear Lee, my super well mannered boy. I will just bring you food."

D-DAY

Choi Lee Hyun is gone! Forever.

Mark's POV

What did he leave me with? Just a self addressed letter asking me to take care of his parents while he is gone! Just that. 

Was I so immature that I couldn't see the signs that he was giving? Was I so distant that he decided not to talk. Was it me and my advice of running away that he went? Am I to blame for these tears here? 

This feeling is so weary, all I feel is being stuck, stuck in the loop of events that happened in our lives. I keep looking back at them on repeat. Was this his plan from the very beginning? To make me stay with him and prepare me to cover for him?

These tears, are they real? Do I really miss him or am I just scared of living alone? I know I am being a bad guy saying these things out bluntly but let me be me for a while in these pages, what did he want me to do? 

I have never seen Aunty and Uncle being so concerned, looking around for things that he might have left for them. I somehow got to check the mailbox and so the letter remains safe with me. She is crying but why does it look fake, like a glycerin bottle dripping down her face. Uncle has efficiently emptied 5 bottles of alcohol. Is it because he is really sad or has he got a chance to finish his daily dose of alcohol in the morning today? The house must have been in shatters but this seems to be pretty much intact to me.

Am I the bad guy to think this way?

Lee Hyun's Mom's POV

Brat! All gone for nothing. I had so many plans, the family photo, his graduation. I had told everybody that he would get into the best college with his English and grades, why did he have to go now?

All blame goes to the new age technology and that specific "depression". All of my friends are bad mouthing my motherhood, that I couldn't even keep my only child happy and safe.

Was it really my fault? All I did was to give him space, he never really talked but all those times in the grocery shops he felt happy, he brought things with me and even asked me to make his favorite dishes. Was anything more expected of me? Why did he never tell? Why did he choose to leave?

That day when he asked me if hens would feel sad when the eggs were taken away from them, was that a sign? I should have not told him that they don't mind having their eggs gone. There is always another which can take the place of the gone. 

Why does Mark seem so sad, it's only been 6 months for him to be with Hyun. Is he genuinely sad or putting up a show so that he can stay here? And this man has been drinking since morning. Does he even know what has happened? 

Everything seems so broken, this reputation, these relationships and this house.

Lee Hyun's Father's POV

Did he know? Did he find me somewhere wasted on someone else's lap? Ahh these people I told them I had a young boy in my house we should have gone to some other place where young boys don't come. Was I the reason he left? Or was it the time when he suddenly walked to me at night and asked how much I loved him and his mother. I should have answered him properly rather than just laughing it off.

I should have taught him to drink like a man and I should have counseled him for his future. Was the money that I gave him not enough? I don't even have much to think or talk about him. Was I ever a father?

That brat he never accompanied me to golf parties or breakfast brunch. Why would he waste his good looks for nothing, he would not be wooed by those pretty rich girls in the party! Was he some less of a man? Did he and Max had something I didn't know? Is this why Max seems more sad than any of us?

Kids these days can't control their hormones. I did give him so much he could have got himself a girl if he was so depressed, he was good looking too. Anyways I am too drunk I feel like I have lived in this situation for years now.

~•~

When you leave, it's just you who leaves nothing or no one stays affected for long and that is the reason why I had to leave them. I was no good to them but in that pretentious hole I was no good to me too, for them I died in the crematorium. Books give you ideas, being an introvert gives you time to think and I had plenty of both.

I ran away after that, changed my name to Kim Ji Shik, repeated my last year of school and went to college. College for experimental psychopathology in the US. Because anything that made me feel me for all those 19 years in the junk hole of pretentious people was to study people. I sensed and knew what they thought without judging them. That is what my profession requires of me. And so today I will probably call Hyung, he is a good man. I should fix a meeting with him. He might be a good architect by now. It's already 8 years, and I have to buy a house before I turn it into a home with the woman I love. He might give me some concessions. 

*Ring Ring 

I really hope this number remains the same.

*Click pick

"Hello? Hello? Yoboseyo?" (Hello?)

"Ne Hyung, jal jinaesso?" (Yes hyung, have you been good?)

"Nuguseyo" (Who is this?)

"Hyung naya, Lee Hyuna!" (Hyung it's me, Lee Hyun)

You don't get to choose how, when and where, but you certainly get to change! Just like seasons...

So next time run and change for yourself rather than staying in that same mundane situation, no one has the power to bind the entity called "you". Break Free!  💜❤