After opening up to his parents and brother about what he's been through, Sooha felt a relief he had not known in a while.
Talking about his brother's life and meeting his baby sister filled him with an immense amount of happiness.
And it hit him how different his life had been from theirs.
However, there were things about Elysium Sooha was not aware of.
Certain things seemed strange, but too much was going on for him to puzzle everything together.
After a long day of socialising with his family, he finally mustered up the courage to revisit his old room
When he stepped in, it came as no surprise: it was the only place in the house where time had stopped.
All the plushies, toys, and books, the clothes, sheets and pillows—they were all how he remembered them.
They were untouched, for the most part.
All except for one thing.
On the table stood a military badge from the academy; it was meticulously placed on top of a small piece of paper.
He picked it up, brushed off the dust, and read it.
Today I finished the academy, and I will no longer need you to take care of my wounds for me, Sooha.
He froze.
There was only one person who could've left it.
It was Damien.
It was the reason Luke was gone.
It was the Son of the man who signed his life away.
The little boy used to patch up every day when they were kids.
The man he grew up to despise.
And note stirred something in him, something he couldn't quite put into words.
He felt nostalgia for the old days; he remembered how much Damien had suffered as a child at the academy.
Sooha had been taken when Damien was just fourteen, meaning he must've left this message at eighteen, right after graduation.
Six years ago.
And no one threw it away? Why?
Sooha stormed out of his room and went to his mother's office.
She was buried in paperwork when Sooha stormed in, pale and visibly shaken.
"What's the matter, dear?" she said, looking at him with a worried gaze.
"Why was this still on my table?" he demanded, voice trembling.
"You know well it was his father who blackmailed you and signed me away!" Sooha said with his throat tightening after each word.
"Sooha... for the first four years, until he graduated, Damien would come into your room. He'd just sit there, quietly. Always bruised, sometimes bleeding, and the poor child never let me patch him up. He came straight here after his graduation and left that message and his badge. I had no heart to bring myself to throw it away, and it was a reminder of your kindness and made him act that way..." Her gaze fell upon Sooha; she wanted him to see that his disappearance hurt others.
"Damien is ... was not your enemy, Sooha," she said, carefully choosing each word. "He cared, Sooha. Even now, he contacted me the moment he heard you were back. He arranged everything... your ID, your access. He did it all."
She came to him and placed her hands on his shoulders, rubbing them softly to ease him up. "He wouldn't do that for anyone else. As the Marshal Prime, he rarely even visits the Security Bureau anymore..."
"What? But he was there the whole time! He held my reintegration interview himself," exclaimed Sooha, confused.
"Sooha, that makes no sense. He would never do such irrelevant jobs." Miss Kim looked just as dumbfounded as her son.
"I don't know, Mom, maybe it was because he knew me..." he shrugged it off, but something stirred inside him.
"He killed my boyfriend," Sooha said quietly.
Ji-Hye froze. "What?"
"I didn't want to say it in front of Tae... but it was a car accident. Luke and I crashed, and while I was healing him, Damien used his power ... and I couldn't save him." Tears started forming in his eyes, but before he started crying, he headed back to his room.
He wanted to hate Damien. But he couldn't ignore the warmth that came from knowing someone cared enough to go that far for him..
And on top of that, it was during that period of his life.
He wanted to go see him and talk about the past.
Pondering the thought, he paced around the room with Damien's badge in his hands.
Moments later, he finally decided he would do it, and so he ran downstairs
"Where is the driver, Dad?" he asked William, who was lounging in the living room and helping Tae with the homework he brought home earlier.
"In the staff room, probably, why?" his dad asked, curious.
"I have to see someone", he said, hoping it would end at that.
"Ah, fine! Just be back before curfew." He said, his attention shifting back to the homework and Tae, who was struggling with it.
Sooha waved Tae a small bye and left the house, saying, "I'll try".
The drive was short because the councillors, as well as other high-ranking government officials, lived in the ruling part of the city, and their kids mostly knew each other from a very young age due to events and galas happening around them.
They were the ones who were going to inherit all the power over this city anyway.
And while Elysium may not have been a monarchy, it sure wasn't a democracy.
In a sense, it made Sooha sick; the money bubble Elysium enjoyed and all the privileges it had were due to the exploitation of its lower classes.
They made it look like everyone was living in a utopia when Elysium's they barely scraped through; still, they were at least safe, and it was more than enough to stop them from revolting.
Damien's apartment building was enormous, as each floor belonged to someone else, Sooha was thankful the driver knew the location.
"Greetings, sir. May I ask which apartment you're visiting?" said the woman at the reception with that sterile kindness everyone else had.
"I am visiting Damien Van Der Lys. He is home, correct?" He said, his voice confident and rather overly professional for his taste, he had to fit in, though.
"Yes, he is present at home; however, I'll need to see your ID and ask the reason for your visit." She said with a wide smile.
Annoyed by the Elysian protocols already, he just handed her the ID card, which, with a simple swipe, already revealed way too much information.
"And the reason for the visit? "She said in the same monotonous voice, and that infuriatingly polite smile plastered on her face.
"Miss, we are friends. Which floor is he on?" Sooha said, losing his patience.
"Floor thirty-six is where you will find him! Thank you for the cooperation," she finally turned her attention towards the computer.
Sooha made his way to the elevator, which whisked him past thirty-six floors in what felt like seconds. He stood before Damien's apartment, realisation hitting him way too hard, but still, they needed to talk.
Upon ringing the bell twice, a few seconds later, the door swung open.
There was indeed Damien in front of him, in a tight black tank top and grey pyjamas with dishevelled hair and adjusting his glasses.
"What are you doing here at this time?" Damien asked, surprised, that he had not checked who was out front.
"We need to talk," Sooha said, determined, already trying to head inside the apartment.
Damien put his hand in front of him.
"Did I say you could come in?" He looked at him from above.
Damien glanced behind himself and back at Sooha, heart suddenly racing. He hadn't had time to hide the 'things'.
Sooha was dumbfounded, embarrassment spreading across his face.
" I ... We... " he was dumb not to think this through. Why did he think Damien would let him into his apartment for no reason? He was a grown man now, not a teenager who left the badge on his desk.
Oh, right, the badge, remembered Sooha.
Damien raised an eyebrow at the rose-haired man, not planning on letting him through.
Sooha reached into his pocket, the metal cold against his flustered fingers.
He held the badge up to Damien's eye level, his gaze shifting away.
"I said we need to talk."
Damien's eyes widened slightly at the sight of that old thing; he hadn't expected this.
His jaw clenched a bit, and muscles danced on his cheek.
He hadn't thought the day would come when Sooha would receive that piece of paper or the badge itself, for that matter.
Did he also know about how he kept coming back to Sooha's house?
Something uneasy curled in Damien's chest.
He wondered what could be so urgent for Sooha to act like this.
Damien's voice was low. "Wait here."
He shut the door in front of him.
Inside, Sooha could hear footsteps. Drawers opening and stuff rustling.