Chapter 192: Hyuk/ Nam Kyu

My baby brother was everything I had hoped hoped he was; he was a big chubby baby with my father's face as I held him proudly in my arms. I had to admit, I almost didn't come but I hadn't seen mother for so long and I didn't want to stress her out too much, not after everything she had been through in one afternoon so I had my aunties drop me home for a short while. I turned to look over at my mother who had burst into fake tears at the sight of me but I just scowled at her in return, I knew this was her way of making me feel guilty for not returning with Hana. I handed my brother over to Geon who looked like he had never seen a baby before and Chul had to help hold him correctly before I threw myself at my mother's embrace for the first time in years. She swallowed me up just as I expected and to be honest I was grateful, although I would never admit that to her. In fact I was damned near on her lap before my father came in...with a face on him I had never seen before. We were all a little scared of him at this point...but not my mother. In fact, she greeted him home as if he was in his right mind which he clearly wasn't. He made his way to her and held my new brother and looked at him for a long time before he finally noticed all of us and his face...changed. We were too preoccupied with this we didn't even notice the battle scars he had from the chaos in the streets which had finally calmed down until Hana pointed it out first with a worried look on her face before she ran to get the medical box we all had in our bedrooms. My father managed to calm her down as my mother proceeded to treat him before he asked us boys if we had sustained any injuries or not.

My cousins were ok but we were all tired so they went to the guest room to sleep. We all usually slept in our parents room when they came around because it was a lot more fun that way but now things were different and we needed our space away from them and they knew it. Hana watched over Hwan whilst my father out of nowhere grabbed me by my collar and put me right in front of him and looked over at me until he found a bloody arm of mine. I couldn't read the expression on his face for the second time today as he started tending to my wounds in a way he never had before. Usually it was my mother who was all over us like a rash if we had any wounds or scraps but this time it was my father but he wasn't being gentle at all like mother was. In fats, he was ending to my wound rather harshly and repetitively until my mother had to clam him down and take over herself. But I would never forget that moment for as long as I lived, it was like he was saying a lot of things he couldn't say or express properly to me when he tended to me, live how much he did really love me and wanted to protect me. It gave me the strength to carry on with my plan and doing anything else I needed to do to protect my family whilst my father took over the big things...and his own demons it looked like.

I made my way to the guest room where my cousins had fallen asleep whilst my sister was up waiting for me. The few hours we were apart had already felt strange enough without me knowing exactly where she was and what crazy plans she had carried out by herself. We felt...disconnected yet not entirely separated yet; I could tell just by looking at her face that she was an uncomfortable as I was, it was like we were both walking on eggshells without each other. I got in the same bed as her and I held her tightly in my embrace as we both fell asleep together at the same time just like we always did before we would go over our plan again and what exactly we were gong to do with these new...or rather old guests our parents now had to deal with. "Are you sure about this Hana?" We all asked her a couple times before she got fed up and stated throwing pillows at all of us out of frustration "of course I am, why else would I be this involved in it all? I know it's risky but in case you haven't noticed, these women seem to have 100 lives and won't stop coming back to mess everything up over and over again. So, we either let that happen or we fix the problem once and for all. As for mother...well I didn't exactly choose the timing did I? They did, Hwan is finally here and we have no choice but to carry on now." She was right and we all knew it.

The truth was that no matter how...playful, youthful and free spirited my mother was, she was strong enough to sort the situation out by herself, she was even stronger than my father in this matter. My father would take on the world for us...but if he had to separate from us which we all knew was going to happen eventually when those witches made their demands, then he would't be able to cope well without us whereas my mother could go to any lengths to bring us back together, even if it meant isolating herself.

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I was left alone in the freezing dark but nobody cared at all, least of all the person I was doing all of this for. In fact I could hear them doing...something loud together. She had just given birth this very day so it was impossible that they were doing what we thought they were doing already, but whatever it was it was setting us both on edge. We could hear them...panting, moaning, calling to each other...and everything else we didn't need to hear. I was in pure agony with every sound. The noise...it carried on until I couldn't take it anymore and started banging on the door of the god-forsaken room I was locked in once again until our hands bled. After what seemed like hours the door finally opened, and were greeted with Hui-Jee and Hwa-Wol again as they both beat me with everything they had...until the rebels came again but this time they surrounded the mansion.