The funeral was carried out carefully and the family then returned home after taking care of all the necessities. There was no sound in the car on the way back home. Hongseok was driving, Yan An sitting right next to him while Changgu and his mother sat behind them.
Usually Changgu's mother would speak with her son during drives but that day was different even for her. None of the men in the car believed her to be that shaken about their current scenario but her silence was the same as everyone else's. In her mind, she only had one family member left. Hongseok knew that tensions would rise as soon as they set foot in the house without their father there to come to the rescue. He felt the worry of not being able enough to keep everything steady ever since his father got ill. Yan An on the other hand had other thoughts clouding his mind. Yan An hardly ever spoke out about his feelings or worries to anyone for the household so he understandably kept a lot many secrets. He too knew that the elder leaving them behind would create the most problems for him. He was in no way connected to anything like the other two were. He felt that Changgu was the one with the least amount of worries and all that he felt was grief but he didn’t know how wrong he was. Changgu of course had the support of his mother but he never cared about the status or the money. He found joy in being with family which his mother could never come to understand. Although he never quite got along with Yan An for obvious reasons, he hoped to change that now than ever. Hongseok and Changgu knew, that they only had each other to accomplish such a feat.
As they reached the driveway, everyone got off before Hongseok parked the car in their garage. After he turned off the engine and got out, he kept standing there next to the car while holding the door handle. It was fear that was stopping him from going into the house. He understood that things would be a whole lot different than what he lived through these past few years. He knew his 'family' all too well and even though he had the will to make things better and to look after his brothers, he could not help but feel defeated somehow. But there was no question of running away from it so he finally let go of the car and enter into the house.
He went in and up to the dining room and found everyone sitting at the table. It was nothing that would catch someone else's eye but Hongseok realized that his step-mother was in fact sitting on his father's chair. Somehow, it felt quite eerie to the man but he didn't wish to comment or dwell on it for the time being. They kept silent until Hongseok entered through the hallway. “What took you so long?”, said their mother while looking straight at Hongseok with an irritated look. Before Hongseok could say something or apologize she continued “Sit down” with a sense of authority. She was indeed the eldest in the household now and it would be ignorance to not see how proud she was of that one fact. Hongseok didn’t anything further and sat down across Changgu. They looked at each other and made exchanges using expressions only. Hongseok looked away to see Yan An sitting with his eyes down but his posture was upright. He kept looking at Yan An for about two seconds but he knew that Yan An wouldn’t look his way no matter how much he hoped for it.
The silence was once more broken by the woman in the room as she said in a blank voice, “The lawyer will be here the day after tomorrow to discuss about the will so I expect everyone to be here when asked”. Yan An couldn’t bother less about it but both Hongseok and Changgu looked at each other and they knew that both of them thought it was too early to be talking about such things. “Mom isn’t it too early to be doing this?” said Changgu as a reply to her statement but she refused to listen to their opinion by saying “The sooner the better. God knows what’s in it”. Curiosity has been killing her for quite some time since their father never told anyone about what was contained in the will, not even his own wife. Her words made Yan An sigh in somewhat disgust and he only kept waiting to go to his room and staying there for the rest of the evening. Thus he was the first one to get up and leave when she said “That’s all”. All the other two could do was to watch him leave. None of them tried to stop him either because they knew there was no use. Changgu’s mother kept wanting to talk to her son so she insisted Changgu left the room with her, which left Hongseok sitting alone.
He was not afraid of the responsibilities but he couldn’t stop thinking where things will lead all of them from here on. And the thought of having no plan whatsoever, scared him the most.
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Feels Like Family
Mystery / Thriller"Doesn't matter how we met or why we're here, we're together and that's enough"
