Everlasting #22: Taken For Granted [Part 3/3]

[kaisoobiography]

After two hours of searching, Jongin and Kyungsoo still couldn’t find Sehun. Kyungsoo dragged his husband to the nearest park and sat on the bench when they saw no sign of Sehun anywhere. He leaned his head on Jongin’s shoulder as Jongin wrapped an arm around the smaller male’s shoulder. Sure, it was cold outside but nothing could beat the icy feeling in both of their chests after realizing that they were failures as parents.

“Kyungsoo, be honest with me, do you think we are shit parents? I know what I said before but I can’t help but feel discouraged.”

Kyungsoo looks up at his husband and sighs gently.

“You know, I didn’t think being a parent would be a walk in the park, but I also never thought it would be this hard. We were only trying to do what was best for Sehun. Sehun’s still young and he’s still very irresponsible. With time, I think he’ll be able to realize his mistakes. Even though he was a brat, you can’t deny that you still love him.”

“But maybe he was right, Kyungsoo. Maybe we weren’t cut out to be parents, I mean look at us we can’t even handle a teenager. Imagine he if was a young child. Maybe we are only good with kids that aren’t ours. I mean Eunkyung loves us but would she love us if she lived with us. Would she find us overbearing too?”

“I can’t answer that Jongin, but what I can answer is this… you are an amazing father, even if Sehun says we are overbearing, think about all the things you sacrificed to make him happy, the things you sacrificed to make me happy. If you were a terrible father you wouldn’t go out of your way to make Sehun happy, neither would you be thinking if you failed Sehun as a parent. You’re acknowledging your mistakes and willing to change them for Sehun. To me, that makes you a kick-ass parent,” Kyungsoo joked.

Jongin laughed as he recalled the night before they started the adoption process. He remembered tell his husband that they were going to be kick-ass parents. Looking back, he hadn’t known what to expect but he never voiced out his worry to Kyungsoo because worry or not this was both his and his husband’s dream.

“I think deep down Sehun knows this too, Jongin. He’ll come home. We’ve all made mistakes and there is always room for improvement.”

Jongin pursed his lips, staring back at the empty playground.

“Hey, Jongin?”

“Hmm?”

Kyungsoo removed the hand from his shoulder and grabbed his husband’s warm hands into his own, “I just wanted you to know that you are also an amazing husband. I love being able to come home to you, and Sehun, everyday knowing that you guys are my family. I love knowing that you’ll be by my side no matter what. And Sehun will come around eventually. You’re right about him maybe being too young to understand the things we do for him and what kind of hardships we also have to face, but he’ll come to understand when he’s older. So don’t worry, love. Everything is going to be alright.”

“Thanks Kyungsoo.”

“Anytime, now let’s go home. Maybe he’ll return home.”

“Should we call the police?”

“They won’t do anything to until the morning probably. It’s best if we just wait for him at home.”

The couple walked hand and hand back to their car, hoping, praying that Sehun will return back to them.

Jongin and Kyungsoo had arrived back at their home around one in the morning with no luck of finding Sehun. Even though, Kyungsoo had long stopped crying, the hurt in his heart didn’t heal. He really just wanted Sehun to come back home, even if he hated the two of them, at least he would be safe.

Jongin had deemed it better for the two of them to stay put in the living room just in case Sehun decided to come back sometime during the night. They couldn’t report him missing until the morning anyways.

Neither could really sleep a wink. Any sound of movement outside had them waking up and peeking through the window, praying it was Sehun. But each and every time they were met with disappointment. The television in the background did a good job lulling the two into a brief slumber. They wouldn’t let themselves fall into deep sleep just in case Sehun came back. They just couldn’t.

Suddenly the doorbell had both Jongin and Kyungsoo springing up from their seats. Jongin practically ran over to the front door, in hopes that it was his son.

When he opened the door, Sehun stood there with his face looking down. A big surge of relief filled his body as he pulled Sehun into a tight hug.

“C-Can I come in?”

Kyungsoo practically pushed Jongin out of the way at the sound of Sehun’s familiar voice, “Of course you can. Are you cold? Do you need a blanket? Here take mine.”

Kyungsoo took the blanket off of his shoulders and wrapped it around Sehun’s cold body. He brought the teenage boy onto the couch and walked to the kitchen to make him some tea. With a cold weather like this, Sehun was lucky he didn’t have a mild case of frostbite. Jongin joined Sehun on the couch and rubbed his hands along Sehun’s arms as if to warm him up.

The thirty-eight year old male walked back into the room with tea for the three of them. He offered a cup to his son and husband before taking a seat on the loveseat.

“Thank you, Kyungsoo,” Sehun said with a small voice, “Do you guys hate me?”

“Oh son, we could never hate you. Even if you robbed a bank, we would-could-never hate you. We love you and we’ll always stand beside you even if it’s just us three against the world, you understand. And despite what anyone says or thinks or does, you will always be our son.”

Sehun’s tear flow back out. “I didn’t mean to say all those hateful things. How could I ever think those things about you guys? You’ve done so much for me and I’ve just acted like a spoiled brat. You’ve given me love, a home, you’ve given me everything I’ve ever needed and I just took that for granted. I don’t think I’ve ever even said thank you.”

At that the couple’s tears began to cascade down their faces.

“Sehun, we don’t need a thank you because I know that when you wear the clothes I buy you, even if you don’t like it, you still wear them with a smile. Or the guitar lessons, even though you skipped most of them, you still went to make us happy. Seeing you happy makes us happy. I just wish that it was genuine but I think that’s our fault.”

Before Sehun could retort Kyungsoo’s last statement, Jongin cut him off, “You don’t have to say anything to spare our feelings. We could loosen the reigns up a bit but I hope you know that we are just trying to make you a respectable young man. When you do things like fight at school and disrespect us we can’t help but punish you because a respectable young man does not do that; that's not the way one should live.”

“I would really like start over with you guys please. I want to show you the real Sehun, not this kid whom you guys kicked out. I want to show you the Sehun who is terrible at math and would actually like it if you, Jongin, tutored me, the Sehun who can’t play an instrument to save his life but could dance as if his life depended on it, the Sehun who is really sorry for everything.” Sehun sat with his shoulders slumped, hoping that he could get his sincerity across.

When he left the house, he was so messed up emotionally that he didn't know where to go. The arcade would be too easy for his parents to find him so he opted for the park. The park was big so their chances of running into each other were slim.

He literally just sat on the park bench and did nothing but observe the families playing on the playground. All these kids were surrounded by their parents and they were all laughing and having a good time in each other's company. Sehun wanted that. No, Sehun had that and if Kyungsoo and Jongin took him back he promised he would be better.

But then he noticed a young mom talking on her phone, while her child was trying to grab her attention so that she could play with him, sitting across from him. The young woman kept shushing the kid and telling him to go play on the playground with the other kids, while she continued to laugh and talk to whoever was on the phone. The kid pouted but nonetheless, ran back to the playground to play with the other kids. The sight broke his heart. How could someone just do that to a child?

Thinking about it, though, he was no different. Sehun was the mom pushing her kid away while his parents were the little boy being pushed to play with someone else. Jongin and Kyungsoo did whatever they could to get Sehun’s attention, while Sehun had just pushed them aside, busy with his own thoughts and life. He didn't realize how sad his parents must have felt every time Sehun pushed him away. Things really look different from an outside perspective.

Not just that but Sehun was lucky to have parents who wouldn't push him away if he wanted them to play with him at the park. Jongin and Kyungsoo would join him in a heartbeat, playing and goofing around until it was time to go home.

After his realisation, he was scared to come home in fear of rejection and decided to walk around a bit more before deciding to finally come home. Sehun really appreciated Kyungsoo and Jongin a whole lot more now.

“We would love all those Sehuns. Despite what you might think, we even loved the brat Sehun too,” Kyungsoo calmly said, pulling Sehun out from his thoughts.

Sehun chuckled.

“In return, we would like to be the parents you always wanted. The ones where you can proudly show off and say ‘yup those are my dads’, the ones you secretly hate because we didn’t let you go to some dance concert with your friends, the parents you are grateful for understanding that math is quite hard and not everyone is going to be good at it. We want to be that to you.”

“I am proud to be your son!” Sehun said with slight eagerness.

“We also want you to know that we can't always be friends. We need you to respect us as your parents too. That means listening to what we say, doing things we ask, and just spending more time with us. Friends aren't forever like family is. We were kids once too, you know. We understand that there are things you don’t want to do, but sometimes we could use the help around here.”

“I’m really sorry. I can’t promise that I won’t give you attitude again or obey everything you tell me, but I can try. I want to be a better son to you.”

“We are a family now and that means we are in this together. We aren’t perfect and neither are you. We can’t expect you to be this perfect child because let’s face it, you probably aren’t going to be. But all your flaws and just you being you, that’s perfect for us. We wouldn’t expect anything more.”

The three of them stood up in some kind of understanding. Sehun was hesitant to lean in for a hug, but with Kyungsoo inviting him in with open arms, he went in for it and wrapped his arms around Kyungsoo. Jongin joined too, making the hug more into a Sehun sandwich.

Kyungsoo stands up and wipes the tears of his face. “Well, it’s almost three in the morning. I think we should all head to bed now. And Sehun, tomorrow we can talk about your punishment for running away.”

“I guess that’s fair.” With that Sehun begrudgingly walks up the steps with his shoulders wrapped in Kyungsoo’s blanket.

Once Sehun is upstairs, Kyungsoo wrapped a hand around Jongin’s nape and planted a small peck on his lips. “Come on, big guy, let’s go to bed.”

When the couple finally laid in bed with the lights off, Jongin and Kyungsoo stayed still, just staring at each other. Jongin smiled and planted a kiss on Kyungsoo’s nose.

“He came home, Soo. He really came back.”

“I know, love. Hopefully from now on everything is going to be okay. We are all going to be fine,” Kyungsoo motioned Jongin to turn around as he spooned his husband from behind. He loved Jongin’s broad back.

“Of course, with you as his father Jongin, our Sehun is going to be so wise with you guiding him.”

“And with your cooking, our Sehun isn’t going to die from starvation.” Kyungsoo smacked Jongin’s arm.

“I was kidding. With your loving nature, our Sehun will no longer doubt your love for him. We’ll be a kick-ass family. I guarantee it.”

Three years later:

“Are you sure Sehun wants us here. Remember last time we came here? You embarrassed our poor kid, Jongin.”

Jongin crossed his arms as he followed his husband into the seating area. They had been running late since Jongin couldn't find a clean shirt to wear. Kyungsoo was on the verge of attacking the man because they were going to be late to arguably one of the most important days of Sehun’s life. Fortunately for Jongin, he found a clean shirt in the back of his closet. The couple rushed over to the school and pushed through the incoming people so that they could get good seats.

How Kyungsoo wished seating wasn’t on a first come, first serve basis.

“Stop complaining, Kyungsoo. Sehun assured me last night that he wanted us to be here. Besides I thought we agreed as a family to never speak of that incident again.”

“As if Sehun and I would ever let you live that down,” Kyungsoo tsked.

True to their word, Kyungsoo and Sehun really hadn't let Jongin live down the moment. Poor guy was just trying to be a good father by picking up his son from school when an unsuspecting teacher (read: one of Sehun’s teachers) accidentally rear-ended him. Jongin got out of his car and immediately went to check the back of his car to see if there were any damages. If there was none, he wouldn’t have any problems with just letting the other person go. After all, accidents happen.

When the teacher got out of her car, she immediately began yelling at Jongin for his incompetence and his lack of driving skills, even though he was parked legally along the curb. It wasn’t his fault that she couldn’t get out of her tight spot. But nonetheless, Jongin argued right back because there was no way in hell that he was going to be blamed for her rear-ending him.

The two heatedly spat back and forth, causing a scene for other student and parents alike to see. Sehun almost immediately ran out to his dad when he saw all of the commotion. He had heard some girl say that some parent was arguing with one of the teachers before exiting the gate and let’s call it a gut feeling, but somehow he knew it was going to be Jongin.

What he didn’t expect was to see his dad and his least favorite teacher arguing over who knows what.

“Jongin, what are you doing?”

“This lady was getting mad at me for parking here. Seriously, if she knew how to drive she would have been able to get out of that spot without rear-ending me. It wasn’t a big deal until she started shouting at me.”

“Just drop it, Jongin. You’re making a scene and it’s embarrassing me. That’s my teacher that’ll still be teaching me for the next three months. So knock it off and apologize so we can leave.” Sehun peered around embarrassedly, hoping that no one he knew was watching and observing the scene.

“Sehun is your son? That explains things,” the teacher said with a hint of mockery in her tone.

Jongin would not stand for a ridicule of his son. Him? Sure, why not? But his son, oh no. “Um excuse me, what’s wrong with Sehun huh? That’s my son. You should feel lucky to have him in your class because he’s a bright boy with a bright future. He’s kind and respectful, something his teacher clearly isn’t, and I know for a fact that he isn’t the type to cause trouble. So whatever problem you have with me should be with me, not my son.”

“Jongin, please, let’s leave,” He looked over to his teacher and back to Jongin, “She’s not worth it,” He whispered to Jongin.

“Let’s just leave, Sehun. I don’t have more time to argue anyways.” Jongin turned his nose up to the teacher and turned around, grabbing Sehun so that they could get in the car.

After that day, Jongin kind of became infamous amongst Sehun’s friends as the guy who told off one of the crankiest teachers in school. Sehun was kind of proud that Jongin had stood up for him because for the whole year, that teacher had been nothing but bitter toward him for some unknown reason.

It goes without saying, but Sehun started walking to the cafe down the block from his school to get picked up by Jongin for the remaining of the year. Kyungsoo nearly passed out when he heard about the scene his husband had caused at their son’s school.

“Soo, stop laughing. I already told you I had a bad day at work and was already moody when she picked a fight with me. It’s been two years, when will you believe me.”

“Every time you say it, I believe it less and less.” Kyungsoo gave Jongin’s cheek a pat before grabbing his hand and leading him to some empty seats.

“There are some seats right there. Now hurry up and go sit.”

Many things had changed since their confrontation three years ago. Sehun had started opening up to Kyungsoo and Jongin more and more as each day passes. Both Jongin and Kyungsoo were very pleased with the progress they had made with their son. Kyungsoo had agreed to loosen the reigns a bit but still he couldn’t help but worry for his son. Sehun appreciated Kyungsoo more and even began to cling to the older man, making Kyungsoo very happy. Sehun and Jongin had also grown very close to each other thanks to their love for dance and all the math tutoring they did together.

Dinners remained the couple’s favorite part of the day. With the addition of Sehun, there was never a dull moment at the dinner table. The first few weeks after Sehun had ran away, things were awkward between the family, but over time wounds healed and everything fell back into place.

“Can you see him? He’s the one wearing red.”

“They're all wearing red, Kyungsoo. This is a graduation ceremony.”

“Oh yeah, my bad. Let’s just wait until he gets called up.” The ceremony had been going on for an hour already and the couple was getting impatient. They didn’t really care about the speeches given by Sehun’s classmates or teachers. They just wanted to see their son get his diploma.

It was an important day for the family of three. Sehun was finally ready to spread his wings and fly off into the unknown world known as university. Three years seemed to fly by in an instant. One minute Sehun was this small, shaggy fourteen year old and now he was this tall, handsome eighteen year old senior who was waiting to get his diploma signifying the end of his high school career. The teacher and veterinarian couldn’t believe how fast their lives were going.

“Oh look there is Sehun. Quick, take a picture Kyungsoo!” Jongin shoved the camera in Kyungsoo’s hand as he tried to wave Sehun down. The senior had been peeking around in the audience looking for his family while he was waiting in line to be called to the stage.

“You do it; you’re taller so you can see him better.” Kyungsoo shoved the camera back into Jongin’s hands.

“Should we wave and embarrass him?”

“One step ahead you of you, babe. I made this banner made last night,” Kyungsoo said as he lifted the banner, decorated with an embarrassing picture of their son and the words ‘Congratulations Sehun’, above his head. He loudly shouted, “Sehun! Sehun! Over here, smile for the camera.” Kyungsoo nudged his head in Jongin’s direction when he caught Sehun’s attention as Jongin snapped a bunch of pictures on his camera, giving the boy a thumbs up.

A few parents looked back to see what all the fiasco was about, but Jongin and Kyungsoo didn’t mind nor care about what others said about them. Love was loud, and so were Sehun’s parents. Sehun’s opinion was the most important opinion to them anyways.

Meanwhile, Sehun shook his head laughing as he saw his parents trying to get his attention. Those two were definitely something else. He walked up the stage and shook hands with the principal as he grabbed his diploma and faced the audience for a quick picture. He looked for Jongin and Kyungsoo again in the crowd and gave his biggest smile when he spotted them still waving and taking more pictures of him. Sehun pointed to his diploma in his hand and gave his parents a thumbs up.

Jongin and Kyungsoo smiled at the gesture.

The rest of the ceremony lasted another thirty minutes before everyone was released to be together. Jongin and Kyungsoo stayed on the lawn and hoped that Sehun would come find them because there were many people around trying to find their own kids.

“Maybe I should’ve given him his phone back for today. It would have been easier to find him.”

Despite their new relationship, Sehun did still have the tendency to get in trouble with Kyungsoo. Last week, for example, he crashed Kyungsoo’s new car into another car on the street because he was texting and driving.

“He’ll find us eventually,” Jongin said nonchalantly. He was just enjoying the breeze.

“Let me see the pictures you took of Sehun, Jongin.”

Jongin took the camera off from around his neck and started going through all the photos with Kyungsoo while they waited for Sehun to find them.

“Oh, this one looks good. We should print this one out and send it to our parents. I’m sure they would love to see Sehunnie’s graduation picture. I can’t believe he’s already done with high school, feels like just yesterday we barely enrolled him into his first year. Now he’s going to be off to college in the fall and I’m stuck with only you again,” Kyungsoo pouted, feigning sadness.

“Hey now, try not to sound too upset. I’ll have you know I’m great company.”

Kyungsoo shrugged his shoulders, “That’s debatable. We should get a dog. Like a cute puppy that will not leave us ever.”

“Dads.”

Kyungsoo looks around, “Was that Sehun’s voice or am I hearing things?”

“I didn’t hear anything.”

“I guess I mistook some other kid as Sehun but it almost sounded liked Sehun was calling for us.”

“Wasn’t Sehun th-”

“Dads.”

Jongin looked around. “Oh that did sound like Sehun.”

Out of nowhere a strong force captured both Kyungsoo and Jongin into a big hug. This was definitely their Sehun.

“Just because you’ve grown taller than us doesn’t mean you can manhandle us. We are your parents!” Jongin said with a big smile on his face.

“I know. I’m just showing my love for you guys,” Sehun rolled his eyes. “I’m really thankful you guys came, even though Jongin has some bad memories here.”

“You guys hate me.”

“Nah, we love you, that’s why we tease you. You know, Jongin, as Sehun’s favorite dad, I know how his mind works. He’s just like his old man, handsome and a tease.” Kyungsoo patted Jongin’s shoulder in a comforting manner.

“Ew dad, I hope you weren’t referring to yourself because gross,” Sehun scrunched up his face in disgust. Apparently, the older Sehun got, the more crude his parents’ jokes became. Sometimes it was funny and sometimes it was borderline gross.

“He was, Sehun, but don’t worry we can discuss this more at your favorite parent meeting,” Jongin faked a shocked expression and pressed his lips together toward Kyungsoo, who was standing with his eyebrow quirked up. “Oh, oops I didn’t mean to let that slip in front of you, love. Maybe next time I’ll convince Sehun to let you join the meeting.”

Kyungsoo dismissed Jongin’s taunting. “Yeah right, you wish you were Sehun’s favorite parent you big fluff ball of nothing.”

“Was that supposed to be an insult? Because it was weak.”

“Wanna know what else is weak? Your pull out g-”

“La la la. You guys didn’t say that. You guys are celibate, I don’t want to know.” Sehun had his fingers stuff in his ears, hoping to block out his parents odd banter. He truly missed their dry humor.

“Sorry Sehun,” they both apologized.

“It’s okay. But really thank you guys for coming. It really means alot to me.”

“We wouldn’t miss this moment for the world, kid,” Jongin smiled from ear to ear.

“You guys are both my favorite dads. The favorite parent meeting is on Monday, so be there or be square.”

Sehun hugged his parents once more before breaking away to approach a lady standing near them. Kyungsoo and Jongin were confused as to what Sehun was trying to do.

“Excuse me miss, do you mind talking a picture of me and my dads?”

When the lady agreed, Sehun walked back to his parents and wrapped each of his arms around their shoulders. “I think it’s time that we had a nice family picture, I’m tired of looking at the one of us in Hawaii where you guys are posing next to me while I slept. It was cute when you first put it up but it’s not anymore.”

“But that’s such a great picture,” Kyungsoo whined. Jongin wrapped a hand around Kyungsoo’s mouth, effectively stopping Kyungsoo from further embarrassing himself in front of a stranger, and added, “We can take it down.”

“Alright, are you guys ready?” the lady said, letting the family fix their positions for the picture.

With Sehun’s nod, she focused the camera on the family and voiced out, “On three, everyone say cheese. One, two, three, cheese.”

“Cheese,” the three of them yelled out. The lady looked at the picture before handing the camera back to Sehun. He politely thanked her and walked back to his parents. They all look at the few pictures together.

“Aw, that’s a keeper,” Kyungsoo stared down at the picture.

“Now should we go to our usual restaurant to celebrate Sehun graduating high school?”

“Yes, please I’m starving. Dibs on shotgun,” Sehun lit up like a puppy seeing his owner after being away at a long day of work.

“I think not Kim Sehun,” Kyungsoo said sternly.

“It was worth a try.”