Chapter 26 - Bonus Chapter: Butterfly Kisses (1/2)

A year and a half later after Yunjae and Jinho married…

An excerpt from Kang Jinho's diary:

Remembering the years that passed, I recalled how I used to loathe each and every day – my actions driven by anger, by revenge. There was one thing I've learned after that. Revenge would take you nowhere. If you thought that by hurting the one you love would lessen the pain in your own heart – you thought wrong. The one whom you'd hurt the most by hurting the one you loved was yourself.

I knew it. I felt it. I regretted it – and when I did, I was surprised.

I just realized that by forgetting my resentment, I was finally able to see clearly. With it, I was able to save my heart and reach my dreams.

I now have my heart which had been broken a long time ago pieced back together again. After two years of going on living each day without direction, I now found my purpose once more – and that's to be with the love of my life and our children.

Sometimes, when you reached that part of your life when all you've ever dreamed of having already came true, the small things, small wishes that people never thought could become very important became your source of strength, hope, and happiness.

In spite of the painful years that had gone through, alas, fate had decided to smile upon me, and I treasure every moment of my life now. I was a buŧŧerfly who finally found my home.

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A loud sound of glass shattering echoed from the other room, and the man who was seriously working on his ŀȧptop computer looked up towards the doorway where the tall oak door creaked open and a tiny slip of a boy came peering inside.

Almond eyes met almond eyes and the man's mouth curved into an inviting smile as he beckoned to his eldest child – his son with the crook of his finger. ”Yuan,” Jinho called, and the young boy puffed his cheek as he shyly entered his father's office, and slowly, clumsily padded the carpeted floor towards his sire.

”What happened? What was that?” he softly asked his son as he lifted him up and settled him on his ŀȧp.

Yuan was still young – only almost three years of age but the way his baby boy pouted and looked forlorn as he fidgeted in his makeshift seat meant he understood his father's question. Not only that, the way his son looked at him sheepishly told Jinho that his son had something to do with the crash. ”Yuan?” he prompted and he tried hard not to smile when his son glanced at him under his heavy lashes looking very guilty.

Yep, his son got into mischief alright.

Jinho was not alarmed however since he'd glanced over Yuan's small frame and there was no trace of any injury. He should by any means scold his son if he did something wrong though, else his wife would reprimand him in return for letting their son get away with his wrongdoings, spoiling him in the process.

God knew, ever since he found out about Yuan's existence, he'd been chided by his wife that he'd been letting the boy off easily when he did something wrong. Yunjae couldn't blame him for his earlier lax in disciplining their child, however. Jinho had missed so much in Yuan's babyhood that he just wanted to cosset his son. He felt that he owed that to him.

Jinho had to agree on the other hand that Yuan was growing and he had to be a little stricter when it came to rearing him. He really shouldn't let his son get away with his mischief nor willfulness – his refusal to speak for instance. Until now Yuan couldn't say anything else aside from his usual ”dadas” which was a cause for their concern since his learning process was delayed – or not since as the doctor said, Yuan could but just didn't want to speak.

”What happened back there, sport?” Jinho prompted once more as he ruffled his son's hair, making his baby feel that he could tell him what's wrong –and hoping that he'd somehow make him talk.

When Yuan opened his lips, Jinho's breath faltered in anticipation, but his hopes plummeted as soon as his son spoke.

”Dadadada,” Yuan said woefully with his head bowed down in guilt and his father sighed as he smiled in surrender just as the door opened once more and his wife who carried their sleeping daughter on her shoulder stepped in.

”Ah, so you ran towards daddy again,” Yunjae commented as she shifted Na Young in her arms who stirred for a while but didn't wake up. ”Have you told daddy what you did?” she added sternly as she stopped a few feet away from them and rocked the sleeping infant.

Hearing his mother's voice, Yuan dove in his father's ċhėst, hiding his face in his parent's shirt as his chubby arms clung onto him. The gesture took Jinho by surprise, rendering him speechless as he stared wide-eyed at his son's head, his lips parting, his hands slowly lifting to wrap around the child's tiny body as his throat clogged with tender emotions like buŧŧerfly kisses in his heart which overwhelmed him whenever he held Yuan in his arms.

The feeling of awe he had when he first held Yuan was the same – and it never changed since.

”Jin,” his wife called his attention and he slowly turned to her.