Between meeting and parting

Minhyun, his truth

Aren't you part of our family? Act like one!

You're my son. You're two years old and you can't even use chopsticks?

Honestly, have you ever seen a two-year-old child anywhere in the world use chopsticks?

They always ask me to do impossible things.

After doing all of that with great difficulty, the one word that comes back is

You're only doing this now? You should have done it sooner!

I was surrounded by so many people, just like them. I was so invisible to everyone else that I was grateful for those who treated me like I was invisible. I grew up, or rather, was raised, with the sole purpose of being someone's son within our family.

From the way I dress to the way I speak, the way I walk, my likes and dislikes, I was their 'puppet' who changed myself one by one into what others wanted me to be, to the point that I didn't even know what my real self was. That's how I, or rather Hwang Min-hyun, was.

I've lived for 14 years. I first went to school when I was 14. By then, I had already learned all the courses up to the third year of high school. So, my father was very satisfied. It was so much to see that expression on the face of my father, or rather, the chairman, who only comes once or twice a year.

It was fun. Back then, all the students at school came to me, so I stopped caring about their feelings. Even if someone disappeared, another would fill their place, so that was the case, at least until recently. Just recently, there was a kid who asked me a question.

"Why do you live like that?" I felt, in my own way, happy with who I was now. I thought I was much better than when I was stuck between them, blind to the light of day, a puppet created for them. So I said, "I'm happy enough now."

The child asked again. "Really?" I replied again. "Really?" Then the child pointed somewhere with his hand. There he saw children laughing happily. "Then if you're truly happy, why haven't I seen you like that?"

Yes, I'm not happy. It's been that way ever since. Yeoju, the one who chased her...

I didn't realize it. I thought she would eventually see that my methods were flawed. But she didn't.