05 — A SECOND CHANCE TO LIVE
the reason seungyoun had never even questioned his own past.
—
2006
and just in a snap, he was gone.
mr lee never felt burdened by the presence of young seungyoun in his household. hell, the kid's actually quite a marvelous helper, he allows himself to do basic chores and house activities pretentious kids like him aren't usually acquainted to. his presence also enlightens the day of his two children; his first daughter eunhee tends to enjoy the latter's interesting stories, whereas his son eunsang — who is still barely old enough to even learn how to speak — just simply likes seungyoun's bright presence.
seungyoun, who has finally gained his power of mindreading, tries to learn this new power of his without the help of anyone else. the problem wasn't the difficulty of reading someone's mind (he can listen to everyone's voices in their head without even trying) but rather it was the difficulty of trying to block off that crazy amount of thoughts that keeps ringing on his ears. that's why he tends to avoid large crowds and mostly stay at home; hiding from the public eye because of his quite well-known reputation is one thing, but the effort to filter a bunch of people's thoughts could actually kill him if he wasn't strong enough.
eunsang, to him, was a strange case to say the least. he doesn't know if it was because he's still a baby, but to him he wasn't able to catch anything at all from the latter's thoughts. nothing. was it because the boy was still so young? or is it because he's blessed with the ability of not thinking? whatever it was, it certainly bothered seungyoun a lot, but he didn't care about it much. he knows there's still much of his powers that are left undiscovered, and he rather keeps it that way.
mr lee never knew the risk of letting seungyoun stay in a crowded place for too long, mainly because he didn't even know of the boy's unexplainable ability at all. so when he runs up to the street, engulfed by the sight of the boy lying on the cold concrete floor after getting brutally hit by a car driven by a drunkard, excessively bleeding, he immediately regrets everything. he regretted his decision of inviting the boy to shop groceries with him at the first place.
he hated himself for it.
just like that, 5 year old cho seungyoun had himself in a deep slumber for around a week, lying down against the hospital bed and barely even moving. mr lee later on found out the consequences of him providing shelter for the boy who ran away from the grip of his ignorant family, his own boss, and now he had to face all of it, because no matter how many reasons he tries to offer he's still indefinitely going to be considered guilty as charge. without doubt the cho family had the ability to ruin his whole life in just a snap, so he better be cautious of his words, especially after he had technically 'kidnapped' their son for a short while.
boa couldn't even believe what she heard from her secretary. his husband, getting involved in a car crash after a long drunken night, hitting a little boy in the process.. and that little boy turns out to be seungyoun? the kid he's been dying to find since his disappearance?
no matter in what perspective she sees it, that occurrence will never sound realistic to her.
her husband's irresponsible acts are one thing, but seungyoun's safety was what mattered to her the most, for the reason she was mad wasn't because of him coming off drunk whilst driving, but rather because he had brutally injured seungyoun along the way, and she will never forgive him for it.
in one of the dark and wispy nights of november, boa visits the patient room in which his husband has been assigned to a few weeks after the incident happened, and though it provided lack of illumination to help her see clearly (the scenery of seoul's city lights seen right outside the window was the only thing able to guide her from tripping into something) she immediately could distinguish how different this room is than the other rooms in the hospital. it looked more like 5-star luxury hotel boutique room to her, as it was far too luxurious for it to be something consumed by the wide public.
the man was still wide awake, his eyes staring directly towards the window. her presence didn't even provoke him one bit. "after a rowdy few weeks, my beautiful wife has finally given her time to visit me. how romantic."
boa scoffs. "you've been enjoying your time with all of your lawyers and cho's representatives, i don't think you've found the luxury to even miss me."
"oh darling, but i do miss you." he purses his lips. "it's a miracle from god if you still love me after everything that happened."
"the reason why i'm still here is all just for the sake of my son."
"our son."
"exactly. our son." she repeats again. "it's just a disgrace for him and a huge humiliation for me to admit that we are acquainted with you in such a way."
"ouch, don't you think that's too harsh of a comment, sweetheart?" he laughs. "besides, what i did certainly had helped you. would it kill you at least show a little bit of gratitude?"
she raises an eyebrow. "in what way did you exactly help me?"
"deep down you wanted to know where the runaway x1 had gone, and just like that i helped you to find him." a sly smirk appears on his lips. "you didn't state whether you wanted him dead or alive though, so i brought him to you whatever his condition is."
she doesn't even feel the slightest satisfaction out of his quirky attitude. she scowls. "this is not the time to make jokes."
"really? i must've had gotten it wrong then." the smile in the man's face immediately faded. "i don't know if it's just me, but honestly i feel like you yourself.. have been acting like an absolute joke recently."
her eyes widen in surprise. "excuse me?"
"you're a doctor who can't even heal yourself." he snaps harshly.
"mind your own business, asshole."
"deny it all you want, my words are true." he continues on. "you're dying, my love. aren't you aware of that? you've been hiding all of your ct-scan results away from me, you've been acting all strong and unbothered as much as you like but the truth still haunts you, you know. there's no way you're able to get rid of that."
"yeah, and you're saying sabotaging a life of an innocent child is the way out to all of this?" she shoots back. "you find my stances as absolute garbage, but i could barely find anything logical in yours either. what's the point of doing all of this? injuring seungyoun in such a brutal way?"
he grins. "trust me, the car crash did not affect him that much. in fact, he's recovering faster than i thought he would be, his immune system is rebuilding in such a fast rate that all of it just appears to be so.. inhuman. no other kind of 5 year old would ever survive a crash that deadly, no one other than him." he informs her with a slight pride on his voice. "i've checked all the datas and reports from his doctor, his results were remarkable. the extra y chromosome in his genes allows himself to heal far faster than a normal human being."
expecting interest to appear in the woman's face, he was quite surprised when he realizes that the woman once again responded to him negatively. she groans. "so that's what you planned to do? now you're doing tests on him?"
"we weren't able to examine him after he received the injection because of his spontaneous escape, why not take the chance now?" he raises his head, gazing at the woman directly in the eyes. "this is good news, my love. don't you see? the kid has an incredible immune system! with his marvelous powers, we can finally heal you! if we run a couple of tests on him, we might could find a cure for every disease!"
she hits the table in anger. "i'm NOT going to use the boy just for the sake of my ego!" she exclaims quite frantically. "and i won't let your plans of turning him into a lab rat slide so easily, for i forbid it. i will have seungyoun transfer into another hospital immediately this morning."
she was about to make her dramatic exit before the man opens his mouth to speak again. "you really think his parents would agree to that?"
she stops walking. "his parents don't give a shit about the boy."
"yeah, but they absolutely give two shits if it were to affect their company's reputation and their partnership with ours." he snaps feverishly. "they would like the news of their son running away from home and ending up getting hit by a car driven by a drunken conglomerate to be stored far away from the news anchors as effectively as possible."
boa couldn't believe her ears. "you're going to block everything away from the media?"
he nods. "why would we be open of the things we're certainly not proud of? it's better not to be released in such a period of time, or possibly forever. why do you think i've been getting visits from cho's representatives? paying a plentiful amount of money to both the lawyers and the police caused a slight deterioration of my bank account, perhaps i should start learning how to save money again.."
boa wasn't having any of it. "you are unbelievable. this is unfair!"
"unfair to whom, exactly?" he asks again. "the kid doesn't have consent for himself. his parents however agreed that they won't put charges on me, and we agreed to continue life just as it is again. which part of it is unfair to you, sweetheart?" a smile creeps upon his face again. "just because you don't like it, doesn't mean it's not a choice i'm allowed to take."
boa was just so done with everything. she's done with her husband's foolish acts, done with the unjust world, done with her sick body, she's just done with the world. because her emotions were too vast for her to control, she decides that it's best for her to take her departure as early as possible.
"that's it. i'm leaving you." she announces without doubt, her voice nearly close to breaking. "i'm bringing euigeon with me. don't expect to see us when you return home."
"you're leaving?" he was more surprised than how she expected he would react. "there's no need for you to rebel on me, dear. anything you're planning to do will never change my decision."
"anything you're planning to do will never change my decision either." she shoots back.
he laughs uneasily. "but you can't just leave like that, a divorce would just ruin our company's reputation! our whole life's work of research, gone!"
"if you try to ask me to stay one more time, i'll make sure this whole company wither to dust." she replies sharply. "go continue your life with that wretched cho family you're so obsessed with. either way i'll still keep my eyes on seungyoun, even if it's from afar. i'd be the first one to know if you even think of doing harm to him, to euigeon, and to the rest of the xyy boys."" she threatens him. "and if you're stupid enough to do so... i won't remain silent."
"what do you mean?"
"news articles of this tragedy will be released immediately in that day, covered up with legal documents and solid proof." a smile appear on her face. "i'm not afraid of you, you know. unlike your business partners, you have nothing against me, for i have nothing to lose."
she turns her back from him again, now even more eager to take her leave. sighing in disappointment, the crippled man raises his voice. "i don't plan to harm cho's son anymore, my work on him is done."
though boa never really did formally understand the context of his ending statement, deep down she feels like she has gotten a hint of it, however she just doesn't want to accept it for herself.
what is this 'hint' that she's implying, if you were to ask?
the next morning was the last time she planned on ever stepping foot on that cursed hospital. after a few examinations and slight talks with the receptionist, she was ready to leave everything when suddenly she encountered the figure of the boy, heading towards her in a wheelchair, guided by a nurse.
as seungyoun went pass her, his eyes were visibly gazing towards her. he arches his eyebrow.
he leaves.
boa didn't need an explanation. hell, she didn't even need him to talk to her to even notice. it's the bittersweet truth that she'd like to change just for the sake of it.. but it wasn't worth it. it wasn't worth the risk.
the boy doesn't remember her.
that's why junyoung said his work is done.
—
ooooooo i wuv boa in this story tho i have killed her character HAHAHAH this is so sad
200 votes for next chap :)