The Happiness Project [Jungkook x OC]

3. Family Roots

"Eun Hye-ah?" 

"Umma!"

Without a second to spare, her mother instantly gave her daughter a warm hug. There were bright, joyful smiles on both women as they rejoiced their long-awaited reunion.

"My sweet daughter. How have you been? And what a surprise! What brings you back here?" The mother cheerfully asked.

"Umma.. come on!" Eun Hye smiled as she playfully pouted. "I wanted to celebrate your birthday. I even brought you cake!"

The daughter raised up the bag to eye level with a cheerful smile on her face.

"Oh now.." The mother replied with a somewhat depressed tone. "You know I don't celebrate my birthday anymore."

"Umma.." Eun Hye looked straight into her mother's eyes. "You haven't celebrated your birthday for the past seven years. Even if you don't want to celebrate, there's cake for dessert and I know I smell something delicious in the kitchen!"

A light, loving smile appeared on the mother's face. "Ah.. well then you must be hungry! Come on in."

Both women stepped inside the house and her mother immediately took the cake out of her daughter's hands. She brought it into the kitchen as Eun Hye took off her shoes. Although it had been a year since she moved out of the house and into the city, it was still the same. The furniture, the layout, ane even the smell were the same. Pictures hung on the foyer wall hadn't changed either. Eun Hye took a looks at those pictures, and surely, it brought back memories.

She looked closely at those three pictures. The biggest, main frame was a posed family picture of her, her mother, and her younger brother. That family picture was years old, and if Eun Hye remembered correctly, it was taken six months before the kidnapping. She bite down her lower lip hard, trying to surpress the tears that were beginning to form in her eyes. She had to divert away from that painful memory, so Eun Hye turned her attention to another picture.

It was a picture of her and Tae Jun at the beach when they were kids. She smiled and started to giggle a bit at how her younger brother was eating sand, while she was diligently building a sand castle. Those were the best times, when they were carefree and only cared about having fun. There was another picture of the two siblings in their school uniforms, posing before heading to the first day of spring semester 2009. Eun Hye remebered that she always escorted Tae Jun to his school before going to her own. It was tedious back then, but as she looked back to the past, she wished that she had appreciated the time she could spend with her younger brother.

Eun Hye naturally headed upstairs, as if she was coming home from school. The first door on the right was her old bedroom. She opened the door and turned on the light to see a somewhat empty room. Her bed, desk, and wardrobe were still present, but only a few personal items remained. Eun Hye walked in and closely looked at her old journals, reading some of her old entries.

March 25, 2008

I've always wondered about dad. I've never see him in photos, nor remember any moments of being with him. There have been countless of times that I've asked mom where is dad. Every time I've asked her, she doesn't react and she ends up changing the subject. Tae Jun has always seemed to say that he knows where dad is. Of course, he is much younger than me, so I didn't exactly believe that he knows where dad is or what he even looks like. Tae Jun kept saying that dad left mom and that he didn't love us. He seems to be quite resentful against dad, but for me, I want to meet him. Even if he's a bad person and isn't making the right choices in his life, I still want to meet him. I just want to know that somewhere out there, my dad is alive and well.