Shattered

Yonghwa went downstairs his father and that woman were having breakfast his dad was getting ready to go to work

"moms death anniversary is coming up" Yonghwa stated from the dining room entrance

she dropped her fork with a clatter on her plate

his father looked at him with a guilty expression written all over his face

"I know you forgot," Yonghwa said "it's fine, I'll prepare her memorial on my own

so you don't have to make time for it, I know how to visit the graveyard on my own too

so you don't have to be involved, it's better that way, only the people who genuinely care about her memory should mourn her anyways"

"Yonghwa I didn't mean to forget I have just been busy with work and didn't realize the date was getting was near," his father said

"It's fine" Yonghwa cut him off "you don't have to make your excuses

I would like the family photo albums so I can get nice pictures of her

to use for the memorial and I would also like her quilt I wish to get it framed and hung up I already went to the antique store and saw a very nice one"

"the quilt?" his father said he couldn't remember where the quilt was he had put it away somewhere he was frowning over his plate

"you don't know where it is, do you?" Yonghwa asked seeing his expression "did you throw it out?" he asked horrified

"I didn't or at least I don't think I did" his father cried

"something like my mother's quilt and you don't know where it is? youre joking?" Yonghwa cried in disbelief

"what quilt are we talking about?" his stepmother asked

"it's my mom's quilt," Yonghwa said "its hand made, mom stitched it for dads wedding anniversary,

It's a family heirloom, I thought it would be nice to have it framed and hung up in her memory

never mind ill look for them myself"

Yonghwa said heading back up the stairs

"what wait a minute don't go in our room ill get you the photo albums" his stepmother cried in a panic

she was pale and her reaction made Yonghwa run up the stairs before they could stop him all his instincts were screaming at him go get his mother's photo albums, go get them right now!

into their bedroom, he began pulling out their drawers looking for the photo albums,

"so help me if she has done anything to my mother's photo albums" he growled

"Yonghwa stop it" his father cried entering the room seeing him searching "we will give you the albums theres no need to"

too late Yonghwa threw open the closet and he gasped in shock

both his mother's photo albums had been chucked into the

back of the closet and all the pictures were fallen on the ground amongst their clothes and shoes carelessly, callously, the photo albums were in complete disarray

he couldn't believe this Yonghwa looked up seeing his fathers expression and back at the photos anger boiling inside of him he got on his knees and began to pick up the photos from the floor

"if you can not respect my mother's memory enough to at least keep her things in a decent way, if you don't care about anything to do with her anymore, then just give them to me"

Yonghwa said "I will take good care of them and do not do this and ruin and destroy her things don't touch my mother's things ever again, do you hear me,

I want all of my mother's personal effects, it doesnt matter what it is if it belongs to my mother then I want it"

"Yonghwa," his father said "this was an accident your stepmother just wanted to see the pictures to try to understand you better"

"I am sick of your excuses every time you do this its always an excuse, you always defend her when I know better" Yonghwa screamed

"she hates mom I heard her talking about how sick she is of seeing her face, I heard her with my own two ears call my mother a mistress how she wishes she could get rid of her

do you really think she wants to look at an album full of her pictures if she can't even stand the sight of them around the house?

why do think I took all of them down? " she doesnt want to understand me! She's just trying to find weapons she can use to hurt me how dare she thinks she can use my own mother's memory against me like some kind of tool

my mother's memory is not something to be treated like that I won't let her or anyone distort and twist my mother that I love into someone

ugly disgusting and disgraceful she doesnt deserve that she has never done anything wrong other than love a bastard like you! I won't let your b***h! do that to my mother!"

Daesook slapped him hard across the face for his words for the first time Yonghwa was hit by his dad he felt hot tears spill down his face he felt pain and hatred so deep he had never known before

his father didn't know what to expect now he had made an unchangeable mistake Yonghwa only gazed at him with red cheek with his handprint

that was now going to swell and undoubtedly leave a bruise his eyes gone so dark they were nearly black he was shaking on his knees but he wouldn't move from his spot stubbornness he was too strong

" you are so obvious youre like an open book to me" Yonghwa growled through gritted teeth glaring at his father's eyes

"you don't love my mother and you never did," Yonghwas said he continued to gather the pictures from the floor stacking them and putting them

in the photo albums, he would sort them out perfectly again later for now

he cradled them against his chest protectively as he collected every single picture he could find he would not leave until he had them all

"I know you don't love my mother" he continued to himself "you don't have to pretend you did, I saw mothers journal you only married her for her family's money,"

"so it's reasonable that you want to forget her as soon as possible you want to be with your real love now it's also reasonable that you don't love me either, I am just an obligation to you while you wait till I get my inheritance in a few years"

"I'm just a payday to you I am not your son that you should love and cherish more than anyone you only know how to love money but that doesnt mean its the same for me "

he finished picking up the pictures

he yanked open his fathers bottom drawer of his closet and he felt more tears slip down his face at the sight of his mother's quilt stuffed in there

covered in dust and smelling of mold and dust mites and moths and a pile of his father's junk on top of it

it was the drawer his father used when he had stuff he didn't want anymore but he couldn't throw away for various reasons

they were just kept in the junk drawer until it was appropriate to get rid of them his mother had joked about his dad's junk drawer more than once

how did he know somehow that he would find his mothers quilt here? he wasn't even surprised anymore his heart just felt hopeless emptiness now

he only silently pulled it out it was covered in dust and cobwebs it had been in there for so long his stepmother was holding her nose against the dust that came out

"do you know how this quilt was made?" Yonghwa said to her tears slipping down his face

"my mother stitched this by hand while he was at work, very lovingly very diligently every stitch every patch with her own two hands

she took weeks to make this for him so it would be ready in time he would have a meaningful gift for his wedding anniversary

I helped her make this for him look, see here, every patch is embroidered with a memory about our family or a story,

so that he could know how much mom loved him and wanted to be family together with him,

his stepmother was pale realizing the significance of such a quilt and what the effort to make it must have meant to Yonghwa's mother

it had been a labor of love to make the dusty quilt he held clutched in his hands now

he began reading the messages stitched into the quilt his father's face was pale his son did not cry from being hit as he expected

he was crying for the pain in his heart he was ignoring the blow as if he didn't even feel it

"Yonghwa's first word was dada" he read

"15th June Daesooks birthday our first birthday celebration as a family" he read another one

this one he pointed to it

"Our first Christmas together was so happy a white Christmas with our baby" was the message

she embroidered a small cute picture of her husband dressed in a Santa suit holding a baby Yonghwa in his arms

and she was standing beside them dressed as an elf under a Christmas tree with lights on it there was a little window with white snowflakes falling outside

"she left these types of meaningful memories and messages for you and this is where they end up?

in your junk drawer because they mean nothing to you? ungrateful son of a b***h" he cursed at him

"you don't deserve to keep her things you don't have the right!" Yonghwa grabbed a shoe and hurled it at his head

he couldn't take it anymore he had dared to put his mother's quilt in his junk drawer to be thrown out like it was nothing

he had let his b***h wife toss around his mothers precious photo albums when they were all he had left to remember her

it was her death anniversary and he couldn't be bothered to even remember to hold her memorial and visit her grave

he had even hit him slapped his face for saying the truth to defend that woman he had hit his own son when he had never hit him before

his father was a heartless bastard in his son's eyes he could never be forgiven

Yonghwa was hurling shoes and anything he could grab at his dad and stepmother

and screaming curses at them he was beyond angry and hurt beyond the breaking point he felt like he was losing his sanity

"only I love her so give me her things all of them you bastard" he yelled

"if only I love her then I am the only one who should have her things don't you dare touch my mother anymore you b***h! don't you dare treat her this way I hate you so much!"

Yonghwa was screaming and crying and raging throwing things at them

as he destroyed their bedroom and chased them out of the room

"give to me all of my mother's personal effects I want her clothes and everything else that belongs to her" he yelled he was ransacking his closet and pulling out his mother's clothes finding the boxes of her things that his father had been storing

"I will take care of them myself so return them all to me and f**k off!" he yelled into his fathers face as he left the room

clutching his mother's precious photo albums and quilt in one arm and dragging the storage boxes of her things stacked on top of each other with the other he dragging them after him to his room

his father ran a hand through his hair helplessly not knowing what to do he had never seen his son like this ranting screaming crying enraged like he was going crazy what had he done?

his wife could watch shocked horrified Yonghwa had completely trashed the bedroom