Ishihara // ATEEZ ✔

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"Are they bad people, mother? Are we in danger?" the boy looks like he's about to burst into tears but the mother gives him a reassuring smile and a pat.

"Nothing's wrong, dear. I just need to talk to them for a while. You still haven't finished reading the book, the ones with the dragons and knights, have you? Why don't you finish that up and you can tell me all about it, Yeohan?"

"Yes mother." His curious eyes still stay glued to the crowd before he decides to obey his mother, his thin legs bounding over the wooden floors. They soon hear a subtle thud, signalling that he is indeed already in his room.

"May I help the two- four of you?" she quickly corrects herself when she notices that there are two ladies idling behind. They came in a group, but it appears that only the two men are keen on coming close to the cottage. She avoids the gaze of the shorter young man - one that makes her heart ache as she returns them.

"Are you perhaps... Min Haneul?" Seonghwa returns with a question.

There is a slight change in her posture. "If you came all the way here to ask us for help, I'm afraid we can't do that. We left the practice a long time ago. It's better if you return back to where you came from before it gets dark."

"Please, we need to sort some things out. It was hard for us-"

"The baby boy. The dead child," Wooyoung cuts Seonghwa off. "Are all the rumours true? If you are indeed Min Haneul, I need to hear it from you." I need to know whether you are my mother - that I am indeed the child.

"Why... did you come here?" She knows it's no use to hide it anymore - she's never known to be the best of liars. She feels the tears pooling before cascading down her cheeks, the image of the young man in front of her too much to bear.

When Wooyoung sees her like this, it pains him. There's an unspeakable connection that he feels as soon as he lays his eyes upon her, that her pain becomes his too. He still needs to confirm it; there is still no definite proof that the woman is his mother. He sees it; how his lips and nose are the same as hers, how her features morph into his. But it's still not enough. He wants to hear it from her mouth, saying how he is the child they abandoned on the palace's steps 22 years ago. He wants to know the reason why he's left all alone in Nyla, when the child that opened the door could live with them, calling them as his parents. He wants to know why he was left questioning his own being, the blue blood his only clue that got him nowhere. He wants to know why he had to grow up feeling empty without a blood-connected family. He wants to know why the moment he arrives here, he wanted to get angry but couldn't.

"Please," is the only word that manages to come out of his mouth.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." the woman chants through her sobs, wiping away the tears with the sleeve of her dress.

Then Wooyoung does what he has wanted for so long; he embraces the woman and pulls her into a tight hug. The woman sobs into his chest loudly. Seonghwa understands this and he steps back, giving them the privacy they need.

"I need to know one thing..." Wooyoung says. "The blanket you wrapped the baby with." He doesn't elaborate further, hoping to confirm it with this one.

"Purple," she sobs. "Fleece with yellow ducks on it."

He closes his eyes and heaves a sigh of relief; no one would know besides the palace's occupants. There might be outsiders who saw them 22 years ago as they went to Nyla, but it was unlikely they would remember such a small detail. But that's not the only confirmation he has; as he hugs the woman, he knows that she is his long-lost mother. He just knows.

They stay tangled with each other until the woman's sobs die down. She pulls back before tipping her chin to look up at the young man in front of her, cupping his face. "You look so much like your father. Your name... what do they call you?"