The school days had settled into familiar rhythms again. During recess, Corvin rarely stood still for long enough to be found in the same place twice. One moment he chased a soccer ball across the schoolyard, the next he disappeared into a loud game of tag with half a dozen classmates running after him.
Still, no matter where Auron spent his breaks, he always checked for his younger brother at least once. It had become routine by now. Sometimes he spotted Corvin immediately. Sometimes it took a minute. But sooner or later, he always found him somewhere in the moving crowd.
Not because he expected something to happen. Corvin simply occupied a strange space in Auron’s mind where concern and confidence existed at the same time. Because somehow, despite his endless energy and complete disregard for caution, Corvin was surprisingly sturdy.
If he tripped, he stood up. If he scraped his knee, he complained for approximately ten seconds before sprinting off again as if nothing had happened. Auron had long accepted that his younger brother seemed nearly indestructible.
The rest of Auron’s breaks rarely changed either. He spent all of them beside Nanako.
Most days they stood together in a small circle with their closest friends, talking about whatever occupied the school that week. Rumors. Teachers. Exam results. Who had somehow survived difficult assignments and who had clearly not.
The topics changed constantly, but somehow Auron and Nanako always ended up standing close together, occasionally exchanging looks only the two of them fully understood. Without realizing it, they had become nearly inseparable and nobody around them seemed particularly surprised by it anymore.
At home, things looked very different. Age differences had never mattered much inside the Scott household. Even now, despite the years between them, Auron and Corvin spent an absurd amount of time being completely ridiculous together.
Sometimes they wrestled across the couch cushions. Sometimes they argued dramatically over meaningless things. Sometimes they simply laughed until nobody remembered what had even started it.
Auron never seemed to mind. He had always been gentle by nature, endlessly patient in ways most people noticed immediately. And when it came to Corvin, there was very little he would not do.
One evening during dinner, Corvin suddenly looked up from his food. Henry sat nearby while Auron absentmindedly picked at the last few bites on his plate.
Without warning, Corvin spoke.
“You know…”
The room stayed quiet. Corvin looked directly at his older brother.
“I think you're really cool.”
Auron blinked.
Corvin continued eating for another second before casually adding: “When I grow up, I wanna be tall and strong like you.”
The words came so naturally that he barely seemed aware of what he had said. Auron looked at him immediately. There was no teasing response. No embarrassed reaction. Only warmth. The kind that reached his eyes before anything else.
Across the table, Henry quietly watched the moment unfold and somewhere deep inside him, something softened immediately. Because no matter how much children grew, no matter how different they became, seeing one child become someone another looked up to never stopped feeling special.
Several weeks later, another beginning arrived. Early in the morning, Yujin stood in front of Adam Entertainment for her first official day of work. She looked calm. Perhaps even relaxed, but only on the surface. Inside, nervousness moved through her in waves she tried very hard not to show.
Fortunately, that feeling did not last long. Almost instantly she discovered that the people around her were kind, welcoming and surprisingly helpful. Questions never felt inconvenient. Mistakes never felt embarrassing. The atmosphere softened her worries quickly.
By her very first day, she was already invited to participate in an important team meeting where monthly numbers and strategies were discussed. Marketing plans. Idol schedules. Audience reactions. New ideas.
Yujin listened carefully. The entire world felt unfamiliar, but exciting. Very exciting.
Later, during lunch break, she spotted a familiar face. Siyeon. The moment her daughter saw her, her face brightened immediately. The excitement was impossible to miss.
They sat together through the entire break, talking and laughing so much that neither fully noticed how quickly the time passed.
Siyeon looked genuinely happy. Not simply because her mother worked in the same building now, but because Yujin had found something that belonged only to her. Something beyond routines, beyond motherhood, beyond caring for everyone else first. And somehow, seeing that felt important.
That same day became important for someone else too. Corvin had reached another small milestone. He was no longer considered a child. Now, officially, he had become a pre-teen.
Of course, Corvin himself mostly cared about what this meant immediately. More freedom. More independence. More opinions people supposedly had to listen to. And if there was one thing everyone in the Scott household already knew - Corvin had never exactly struggled to make his will known before.
Now, it simply seemed likely that his determination had become even stronger and somehow, everyone suspected the household would notice it very soon.
🔵 To read the full Scott story from the beginning, click here.
🔵 Scott - Chapter 14: An Extraordinary Day at the Park
The Scotts spent the afternoon only a short walk away, at Harang River Park. It felt far enough to count as an outing. Cassian tried fishing for the first time, standing beside Henry and following his instructions carefully, but his patience ran out long before anything could bite. He laughed it off and abandoned the attempt.
Auron surprised everyone by enjoying himself the most. Away from his computer, he ran into classmates from school and lingered near the street musicians, listening closely to the live music drifting through the park.
Henry spent most of the time sitting with Yujin on a bench near the river. They watched their sons move through the park and talked about how quickly everything had changed. Both Cassian and Auron seemed settled again, even after Siyeon had moved out, and seeing them adapt so naturally brought relief. The moment stayed gentle until Yujin suddenly stiffened. The contractions began without any warning. Cassian immediately took Auron home, while Henry helped his wife into a taxi and went with her to the hospital, the park receding behind them as urgency replaced the calm silence.
Two days later, Henry and Yujin returned home together. This time, they carried someone new with them. Standing in the living room, smiling despite their exhaustion, they introduced their sons and Octavia to Corvin Scott-Son.
The house shifted instantly. Auron embraced his role as a big brother with pride and spoke about it freely at school. Cassian and Octavia took the change in stride. Both of them were familiar with babies and didn't feel any need to hover.
Octavia often offered to watch Corvin for an evening, giving Henry and Yujin a chance to rest, and they accepted gratefully. Even so, Cassian and Octavia appreciated the quiet of school whenever it provided a break from the constant sounds of a newborn.
Corvin became the joyful center of the household. He passed from arm to arm, surrounded by affection, but no one held him longer than Henry. After work, he rarely put his son down, carrying him through the rooms as if reluctant to miss a single moment. The house adjusted once again, not dramatically, but decisively. Another life had settled into its rhythm and everything else shifted just enough to make room.
🔵 To read the full Scott story from the beginning, click here.
The mornings inside the Scott household had settled into a rhythm that rarely changed. Henry was always the first to leave.
Every weekday, one of his colleagues pulled up outside the house just after sunrise, honking only once before Henry stepped outside with a quick wave toward the front window. Within moments, the car disappeared down the streets toward the newspaper office.
The rest of the family left together.
Cassian and Octavia had long since started their own lives elsewhere, leaving only Yujin, Auron and Corvin to make the familiar walk toward the nearby subway station.
After returning to work at Adam Entertainment, Yujin had rediscovered something she had missed over the years. She could have taken the subway only one stop before reaching the company building. Instead, she got off early every morning and walked the remaining distance on foot.
The city felt different before it fully woke up. The sidewalks were quieter. The air was cooler. Even the sunlight seemed softer during those first hours. It became the calmest part of her day, and she found herself looking forward to those peaceful walks almost as much as the work waiting for her afterward.
School had become... considerably more complicated for Corvin. Not because of classes. Not because of homework. But because more and more girls had started noticing him.
Some greeted him before lessons, others found reasons to walk beside him between classrooms. A few simply joined conversations he had already been having with someone else. Most of them genuinely wanted to get to know him.
Corvin appreciated their kindness. Still... being the center of attention had never come naturally to him. Whenever Auron noticed another group slowly surrounding his younger brother, he usually appeared only moments later.
"So..." Auron would casually interrupt.
"Didn't you want to tell me how your science project went?"
Or...
"I still need your opinion about something."
The conversation almost always shifted away from Corvin immediately. The girls usually followed Auron's new topic without thinking much about it, giving Corvin the chance to breathe again.
Whenever nobody else was watching, Corvin nudged his brother with a grateful smile.
"...Thanks."
Auron always answered with a simple grin.
"You're welcome."
Of course... It didn't always work.
Whenever Nanako happened to be nearby, Auron occasionally became distracted himself. Sometimes all it took was spotting her across the schoolyard. Other times they became so absorbed in conversation that Auron completely forgot he had originally intended to rescue Corvin.
On those days, Corvin had to manage the situation alone. Fortunately, someone almost always appeared before things became too awkward. A classmate needed help with homework. Another friend wanted to borrow a notebook. Someone remembered a funny story from yesterday.
Without realizing it, they usually dissolved the attention surrounding Corvin before he ever needed to find an escape himself. By the end of the day, he often laughed about it more than anything else.
Not every unexpected conversation made him uncomfortable. Sometimes Corvin was the one who approached someone first. It rarely had anything to do with appearances. Instead, there were moments when someone simply caught his attention.
A warm smile. A gentle laugh. The quiet way they listened to someone else before speaking. There were people whose presence simply felt kind.
Whenever Corvin noticed that feeling, curiosity usually followed. He would introduce himself without overthinking it, asking simple questions and letting conversations develop naturally. Some lasted only a few minutes, others slowly turned into genuine friendships.
Corvin never quite knew what drew him toward certain people. He only knew that warmth was something you could often recognize long before anyone spoke about themselves. And somehow it had become one of the qualities he valued most.
🔵 To read the full Scott story from the beginning, click here.
Auron sat across from his mother in the early evening, the clinking of cutlery filling the room. For a while, they ate without much conversation. Then, almost too casually, Yujin looked up.
“Oh—Corvin mentioned something yesterday,” she said, as if the thought had only just come to her. “About a girl from your school… Nanako, I think?”
The timing was too precise to be accidental. Auron noticed it immediately.
There was a certain brightness in her eyes that she did not quite manage to hide, no matter how casually she tried to present the question. It was the look she always had when something caught her interest and when she had already been thinking about it for a while.
Auron tried to keep his expression neutral though.
“It’s nothing,” he said at first, hoping the simplicity of the answer might be enough.
It was not. Yujin waited, her attention steady, giving him just enough silence to continue. He sighed quietly.
“We just… get along well,” he added. “Same interests. That’s all.”
“Mhm,” Yujin replied, as if accepting the answer, but the small smile that followed suggested she had already drawn her own conclusions.
About an hour later, Corvin returned later than usual, his cheeks still slightly flushed from the cold and the excitement of playing outside with his friends. He sat down at the table with Henry, who had only just found the time to eat himself.
They shared a simple meal, the kind that required little to no conversation, until Corvin suddenly looked up.
“Dad,” he said, “how did you and Mom meet?”
Henry paused for a moment, then leaned back slightly, considering the question.
He spoke about London, about moving to Dowon, about the unfamiliarity of everything when he first arrived. Then, almost casually, he mentioned the small kiosk where he had met Yujin. A chance encounter. A short conversation. Something that had quickly become more.
Corvin listened carefully. When Henry finished, Corvin frowned slightly.
“That’s it?” he asked. “I thought it would be more… I don’t know. Bigger.”
Henry laughed softly.
“I suppose it felt bigger at the time.”
Corvin nodded, though he did not seem entirely convinced. The idea of love, at least in the way his father described it, did not quite match whatever he had imagined.
Outside, winter had begun to settle over Dowon two weeks ago. The cold air brought a stillness, broken only by the occasional sound of distant traffic. A thin layer of snow rested on the garden, barely enough to cover the ground.
Auron sat on one of the sun loungers. He had not planned to come outside for long, but the cold helped him think. Or at least, it should have. No matter what he tried, his thoughts kept returning to the same place. To the same person. Nanako’s voice, her expressions, the way their conversations had unfolded. It replayed in fragments, repeating without his control.
Even when he tried to distract himself later, opening his laptop and returning to his projects, it did not last. His focus slipped. Again and again.
The next day, Corvin found himself paying more attention than usual. During recess, he watched his friends closely, especially the girls. Not in any obvious way at first, but enough for one of them to notice.
“Do I have something on my face?” she asked, brushing at her cheek where a trace of snow still lingered.
Corvin shook his head quickly.
“No,” he said, but he kept looking, trying to understand.
He compared what he saw to what he had heard. To what his father had said. To what Auron seemed to be going through. In the end, he could not make sense of it at all. No matter how closely he looked, he could not figure out what exactly made it all so special.
Auron, meanwhile, had the day off. The house was quieter than usual, his parents occupied elsewhere, leaving him with more time than he knew what to do with. He decided to leave, stepping out into the cold and making his way toward the nearby park.
The walk helped. A little, but not enough. His thoughts still circled back to Nanako, uninvited and persistent.
Then, as he moved along one of the paths, he heard a familiar voice - Cassian. He stood a short distance away, speaking with two women seated on a bench. The conversation seemed casual, unimportant, so Auron approached. Cassian noticed him almost immediately, greeting him with an easy familiarity before finishing his conversation.
They walked together afterward, side by side. It did not take long before Auron brought it up. Nanako and how often he thought about her. How difficult it had become to focus on anything else.
Cassian listened, a small smile forming. He placed a hand on Auron’s shoulder, a gesture both reassuring and knowing.
“That sounds pretty obvious to me,” he said with a quiet laugh. “Maybe you should try getting to know her a little more.”
Auron nodded, though he did not respond right away. The idea had already been there. He just had not said it out loud before.
When he returned home later that day, the thought had settled enough for him to act on it. He found his father and, somewhat unusually, started a conversation himself. Henry looked up with mild surprise, though it quickly gave way to interest.
Auron explained everything. Slowly at first, then with more certainty as he continued. About Nanako and the thoughts he could not quiet. About not fully understanding what it all meant just yet.
Henry listened carefully. When Auron finished, he nodded once.
“That sounds about right,” he said.
Auron looked at him.
“For what?”
Henry smiled faintly.
“For something worth figuring out.”
He paused for a moment before adding, “You don’t have to understand everything immediately. Sometimes it becomes clearer when you simply move forward.”
Auron considered that. It was not a direct answer, but it was enough for now.
🔵 To read the full Scott story from the beginning, click here.
Corvin settled into school faster than expected. Within a short period of time, he seemed to know everyone, or at least enough people to never be alone. Most days, he returned home only briefly, just long enough to eat before rushing off again. One invitation followed the next and his afternoons quickly filled with voices, movement and laughter.
Corvin and his friends often gathered in the parks scattered across Dowon. The open spaces gave them room to run freely, chasing each other across the grass in endless games of tag. Between bursts of energy, they sat together, talking about the newest anime episodes or characters they admired, their conversations overlapping with excitement. The laughter came easily, carrying across the park and blending into the lively sounds of the city.
Auron’s days followed a quieter rhythm but brought big changes too. A few weeks earlier, he had met someone by chance between classes. Nanako Fujiwara had been part of an older grade and their first conversation had been brief, almost accidental. Yet it did not stay that way. They began to talk more often during breaks, discovering shared interests that gradually formed something more consistent. Among those was a simple idea: they both wanted to take better care of their fitness.
It seemed like an easy reason to meet outside of school. They agreed to train together at the Scotts’ house, where the family’s fitness room offered more than enough space. The equipment stood ready, neatly arranged, waiting to be used. But once they were there, the original purpose of their meeting faded almost immediately. They talked instead.
Time passed quickly, their conversation moving naturally from one topic to another. Whatever tension might have existed at the beginning softened into familiarity. When they eventually stood closer than before, the shift felt almost unnoticeable. Auron hesitated only briefly before leaning in, and for a moment, it seemed as though the distance between them would disappear entirely.
Then the door opened...
Corvin stepped into the room without hesitation, his presence as lively as ever. The moment dissolved as quickly as it had formed. Auron straightened slightly and introduced his younger brother, and whatever might have followed gave way to something simpler. Nanako greeted Corvin warmly and the two of them connected almost immediately. She spoke to him with a natural ease, one that suggested she genuinely enjoyed being around children. The atmosphere shifted again, lighter now, though not quite what Auron had hoped for.
Later that evening, Nanako left, and the house returned to its usual calm. Auron stayed in the fitness room a little longer, with Corvin lingering nearby. While Auron attempted to settle into meditation, Corvin filled the silence in his own way. As so often, he began to sing. Softly at first, then with growing confidence, as if the room itself encouraged him. Auron remained still. It took effort, but Corvin’s voice no longer pulled him out of focus as easily as it once had.
Eventually, the two of them left the room together and prepared for the night. Corvin moved through the routine with visible contentment, clearly enjoying the shared moment. Auron followed along without resistance. He had no intention of sleeping yet, but he did not say so. Some things did not need to be said.
🔵 To read the full Scott story from the beginning, click here.
Yujin and Octavia finished their training in the small gym of the house when Yujin asked her to stay for a moment. The air shifted instantly. Yujin chose her words carefully and explained that as much as everyone appreciated having Octavia and Cassian there, the situation would soon have to change. Corvin was growing quickly. He would need his own room before long, just as all of her children had always been given one.
Octavia listened without interrupting. She nodded, understanding before the explanation had fully unfolded. She promised to speak to Cassian as soon as possible. For a brief second, she gathered the courage to ask about Henry’s investigations into her family. She had heard about them from Cassian. Yujin only smiled gently and said she did not know much about it. If Octavia had questions, she should ask Henry directly. The answer came softly, but it closed the door all the same. Octavia realized then that shared activities and warm conversations had not deepened the bond as much as she had believed. She left the room, carrying a sadness she did not show.
Yujin returned to Corvin, who moved through the house with surprising steadiness now. He walked confidently, growing more independent with every passing day. Time with him felt effortless. She loved all her children, but something about Corvin felt unique and instinctive. They understood each other without needing any words.
Auron continued to program with enthusiasm, but his world had widened beyond the screen. After school, he often wandered through Dowon for hours, observing people, noticing details, tracing streets he had once only explored digitally in games. The city unfolded differently when walked through slowly and with eyes wide open.
That evening, after finishing his homework, he sat down for a late meal and found Cassian waiting there. The conversation began casually, but Cassian’s tone shifted quickly. He told Auron that he and Octavia had decided to move out. They had made the decision soon after her talk with Yujin. Auron was the first person they wanted to tell and he felt honored by that, though sadness followed immediately. He would miss them. Still, he offered his help without hesitation and Cassian gratefully accepted.
A few days later, Corvin grew up. The house filled with small preparations. Yujin and Auron arranged a cake, music and a large teddy bear nearly as tall as the boy himself. Corvin climbed onto the old rocking horse that had once belonged to his brothers and managed to move it on his own for the first time. Laughter followed him everywhere.
The brightness of the day eased the pain of the other thing the day held. Cassian and Octavia moved out. The entire family helped with the boxes. Henry treated Octavia kindly, no differently than before, but distance lingered beneath the surface. Trust did not disappear in a single argument, yet it did not repair itself instantly either. Some adjustments required more time than others. By evening, the house felt both fuller and emptier at once. Corvin’s laughter echoed through rooms that had already begun to rearrange themselves.
🔵 To read the full Scott story from the beginning, click here.
