if thereās one thing seyoon has learned about parents, itās that they will always leave their children behind when it is most convenient for them.
itās what his father did, after all. his father had taken off without so much of a goodbye to his children. every night that seyoon tried and failed to stay up past his bedtime to see if his father would come home had been for nothing. jaeyoon used to tell him āheās not coming back, thatās what divorce means.ā seyoon never understood why people had to divorce and jaeyoon never understood why his little brother wanted their father back so badly, when all the man had done for them while he was around was make their lives miserable.
but seyoon had known that misery since the day he was born. after six years of living in hell, it was odd not having the devil around. somehow, a quiet home was far scarier than a home with constant shouting. if his father could disappear so easily, couldnāt his mother too? at least when his father was around, he always knew what to expect. the changes frightened him so much, he spent every day for months hoping that heād wake up and realize it had just been a dream and that he still had the same family he had the night before when he went to sleep. he wanted nothing more than to wake up living the same life, even though it was sometimes very hard and sometimes very scary. what was life without a little terror and pain? was it even possible to live without it?
later, seyoon learned it was. most of the time, anyway.
when heās seven, itās his mother that abandons him. itās just the first time, too. what he thinks is going to be a fun family holiday ends with him realizing that he was never meant to return to seoul in the first place. he shouldāve known it was going to happen. sheād asked him countless times whether he wanted to go stay with his grandmother in sokcho to have some fun adventures. heād told her countless times no. he preferred to stay in seoul with his mother and brother, with his friends, and have fun adventures there instead. one thing heās come to learn, however, is that when youāre just a kid, you donāt always get what you want. itās a shame this time he only wants to go home.
āmommyā¦ā
āiām sorry, baby. your grandmother will look after you for just a little while, okay? mommyās gotta go back to the city and work. itās just for a little bit.ā
āno.ā a thousand times no. a thousand times donāt do this. āi donāt want to stay.ā
heejin can feel her heart breaking. she knows he doesnāt want to stay. truthfully, she doesnāt want him to stay either. but being a newly-divorced single mother struggling to make ends meet is hard enough. itās harder when one of her children is still so young and needs someone to look after him when heās not in school. that responsibility often falls upon her eldest son, who - at seventeen - makes the best candidate for babysitter when itās just the three of them alone in the city together. the cheapest candidate, anyway. but a teenager looking after a young child is not the most ideal situation in any case, and especially not when jaeyoon needs to be focusing on his studies himself. not when he should be spending his free time playing with friends and relaxing. heejin feels terrible that sheās turned her son into a parent, but leaving her youngest to fend for himself at such a tender age is worse. she knows. sheās tried that, too.
āi know. i know you donāt want to stay. but itās just going to be for a little while. just a little while, i promise.ā itās hard not to break down in tears like he has. she wants to be strong and console him, but as much as it hurts him to be left behind, it hurts her more to be doing the leaving. she doesnāt dare pull her fingers from out of his hair. she knows the moment she does, sheāll miss the feeling of it all too much. āi have to go to work so i can get money to buy you nice toys, okay? and then when i have a little bit more money, iāll come back and get you. soon, baby. i promise. donāt cry.ā
āno! i want to go home with you! i want to see hyung!ā
āhyung will be waiting for you, donāt worry.ā her eldest hadnāt been totally set on the idea either. though he didnāt enjoy having to watch his brother all the time, leaving seyoon with their grandmother almost seemed cruel. the lady was nice enough, but they hardly knew her. he knew that seyoon wouldnāt be comfortable, at least not at first. but he had to agree that having her care for him for a while wasnāt the worst idea ever. it sure beat having to leave him alone now that he was on break from school. āwhen youāre home, you can tell hyung all about your fun adventures here with your grandmother. you can tell us both all about what you did. and your friends too.ā
ābut i donāt want to stay here!ā
āseyoonā¦ā
āno!ā heās sobbing right into her stomach, clinging onto her for dear life. he knows that if he lets her go, she might slip away and never come back. āplease donāt leave me here! i donāt want to be here, mommy. please! take me back with you!ā
heejin can feel the tears building in her eyes. though she knows sheās doing whatās in her sonās best interest at the moment, she canāt help but feel like the worst mother in the world. itās not the first time sheās felt like this, either. āseyoon-ah⦠my baby⦠listen to me well. youāre gonna be back before school starts again. i promise you, okay? i promise that youāre going to be home very, very soon. itās just that mommy has to work very hard and wonāt be home to take care of you, and hyung canāt either right now. so, your grandmother will take care of you in the meantime and make sure youāre having a good break. itās like an extended vacation. itās going to be fun. and iāll be back to get you very soon. and until then, iām going to call you everyday. okay? weāre going to talk on the phone every single day and if you miss me too much still, you can have grandmother help you write me a letter.ā
āi donāt want to write you a letter! i donāt want you to leave me!ā
āwhen i get back to seoul, the first thing iām going to do is book your ticket to come home. you understand? thatās the first thing iām going to do.ā her voice is cracking. she needs to go before itās too late and she changes her mind. her mother seems to sense this, because she starts to reach for him. āand then iāll tell you what day it is so you can look at the calendar and count it off. itās not going to be a long time, i promise you. iām going to bring you home as soon as i possibly can.ā
āno!ā
āseyoon-ahā¦ā despite her instincts to hold onto her son and continue comforting him, heejin knows sheās got to rip him away like a band-aid and just get it over with. otherwise, this is only going to get harder and itās only going to hurt worse. though he struggles, it isnāt too hard for her to pull him away and pass him off to his grandmother. the poor woman is trying to offer words of consolation, to entice her grandson with promises of ice cream and a good time, but the boy whose world has been ripped away from him is not listening. all he wants is his mother. because of this, itās impossible for heejin to say goodbye to hers. āgo with your grandmother, seyoon. itās going to be okay.ā
āno! mommyā¦ā
āiām sorry, baby. mommyās sorry. this is just how things have to be for a little while. itās not going to be forever. youāll see. youāre going to be fine.ā sheās already making her way out the door. she canāt bear to look at him any longer. she doesnāt want to cry in front of him again. āyouāre gonna be fine. i promise. iāll call you tomorrow.ā
āmommy! please, donāt leave me!ā
āi love you, sweetheart. i love you so much. iām sorry. please be good.ā
and then just like that, sheās gone. for the second time in the span of one year, seyoon is left behind by his own family. in the blink of an eye, heās lost his mother too. even worse, heās also lost his brother in seoul by default. itās what heās been afraid of since the day his father left. he knew this was going to happen. it was only a matter of time. but it hurts worse this time, though. itād been hard for him to wake up no longer having a father, but itās harder to say goodbye to his mother after sheād promised him months ago that she wouldnāt leave too. if she promised him that she wouldnāt disappear like his father had, then how could he really trust that sheād keep her word and come back for him? she promised it wouldnāt take long. she promised sheād be back for him soon. but the scariest thing of all is that seyoon, at age seven, has learned that promises really mean nothing to everyone but him. otherwise, he wouldnāt be crying into his grandmotherās chest like this. he wouldnāt have to be so scared.
seyoon doesnāt understand why people have to get divorced. heās certain heāll never understand it, in the same way heāll never understand why parents always leave their children behind when it is most convenient for them.







