Chapter 6: Cracks Beneath the Surface
Yunseo used to think his family was perfect.
His father would ruffle his hair every morning before heading to work, and his mother always had warm breakfasts waiting. They used to go on weekend drives, just the three of them, with music playing and his parents stealing smiles when they thought he wasn't looking.
But that version of his family started to fade six months ago — when she arrived.
Her name was Mina. She walked into their house with polished heels, a sweet smile, and a son around Yunseo's age — Minjae. No one told him why they were staying. No one explained anything.
His mother didn't smile anymore. His father barely looked at her.
And Yunseo?
He watched everything silently, feeling his world fold in on itself.
Minjae was quiet, polite, and unnervingly perfect. His father praised him constantly — his grades, his table manners, the way he played piano. Yunseo tried not to care, but every compliment thrown Minjae's way felt like a slap to his own face.
"You should try being more like Minjae," his father said once, after Yunseo got a B on a math test.
His mother had flinched.
But she said nothing.
She always said nothing now.
Yunseo hated the way things had changed. The dinners felt like performances. His father rarely asked about his day anymore — only if he'd finished his homework. He missed the warmth, the jokes, the gentle way his parents used to move around each other. Now there was tension, silence, and a woman sitting in his mother's seat.
Still, no one said a word about what had really happened. His father acted like this was normal. His mother pretended to accept it.
And Yunseo?
He began writing in a notebook.
Not a journal — just random thoughts, lines of questions he couldn't ask out loud.
Why is she here?
Why does Dad smile more at her than at Mom?
Why does no one ask me how I feel?
He felt invisible.
Just like Jiha.
One evening, Yunseo overheard something that cracked everything open.
He'd gone downstairs for water. The voices from the kitchen stopped him in his tracks.
Mina's voice: "He doesn't even know they're brothers. You said you'd tell him."
His father's tense reply: "Not now. Not yet. He's not ready."
Brothers.
Yunseo's heart pounded in his ears. He stumbled back up the stairs, forgotten glass of water in hand.
Minjae was his half-brother.
And that meant his father had betrayed his mother long before Mina ever walked through their front door.
Yunseo sat in his room, the weight of it crashing over him. His hands trembled. The questions in his notebook had just become answers — and none of them made him feel any better.
He curled into himself, the same way Jiha did night after night.
Two houses.
Two broken children.
And the silence between them would soon begin to crack.