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Choi Han, diligently going through the stances, practiced his sword art in the family training grounds. Each stroke was slow and deliberate today, rather than the usual speed with which he’d zip through the methods, and his movements were almost more meditative than for practice.
He was deep in thought about his nephew’s new friend.
Swooooosh-
Little Choi Jung Soo, ever the friendly and cheerful little punk, had come home from school pretty late just the day before, dragging behind him a gloomy and small boy. At first Choi Han worried that his nephew had kidnapped some poor toddler as little Jung Soo “snuck” the boy into the kitchen, but then he’d overheard their one-sided conversation.
“How can you be my age? You’re so small!”
Swooooosh-
The small, scrawny boy hadn’t responded. His gaze was blank, though not without a sense of wariness about the unfamiliar environment. Jung Soo dug through the pantry until he found a box of cookies, setting this out along with a lot of other snacks before heaving out a heavy kettle to boil water in.
Choi Han, watching from the shadows of the doorway, had to suppress a snort at the sheer unhealthiness of the treats his nephew shoved at the smaller boy.
Swoooooosh-
“Rok Soo, Rok Soo! Do you like sweet tea? Uncle Han says you shouldn’t add too much sugar to your tea, but I like adding honey. Honey makes it really yummy!”
Rok Soo, as little Choi Jung Soo had called him, simply nodded. Jung Soo gleefully started glopping large amounts of honey into a cup.
“Not too much, Jung Soo,” Choi Han stated simply.
Swooooooosh-
This was the part that bothered him ever since.
Rok Soo had jumped like a frightened cat, fallen off the stool Jung Soo had sat him at, and curled into a ball with his arms over his head. It wasn’t even five seconds later that the boy seemed to realize where he was and promptly bolted from the house.
Jung Soo was miffed and scolded him for scaring off his newfound friend before running after him with a little bag of treats. Choi Han had been left in the kitchen to stare at the boiling kettle of water.
Swoooooosh-
Shhhh.
He stopped to mop his brow of sweat and caught his reflection in the blade of the sword. He was a teenager, but he knew this wasn’t normal for younger kids, even shy ones. Rok Soo’s situation worried him, but he worried even more about his nephew, whose innocent action of bringing a stranger home to feed them might have gotten him into more than he could chew.
But he didn’t want to dissuade Jung Soo from being a kind kid.
He worried at the hilt of his sword. Little Jung Soo hadn’t talked to him since yesterday and actively walked off with a dramatic huff every time they caught sight of each other.
Choi Han went to swing his sword again and resume the methods, but caught sight of Jung Soo sneaking out the back of the garden with a bag over his shoulder and stopped. His mind raced for a moment before settling on a decision, and he lowered the sword, choosing instead to jog over to his nephew.
“Choi Jung Soo,” he called.
Jung Soo gave a little jolt and shot him a guilty look before it turned into a pouty glare. He went to run off, but Choi Han caught him by the back of his shirt and gently held him in place.
“Meanie! Bad uncle Han!” Jung Soo squirmed.
“Please apologize to your friend for me.”
Jung Soo stopped and looked at him in confusion. “...Huh?”
Choi Han let him go with an awkward smile. “I didn’t mean to scare him. So, please apologize for me.”
Little Jung Soo’s expression morphed from his previous indignation to the usual vibrant, cheerful and silly face Choi Han loved so much. “Oh! I’ll do that! Bye Uncle Han! I gotta go!”
Choi Han watched him blunder off towards the bus stop with a knot in his stomach.
Hopefully this wasn’t a mistake.
The next time Choi Han saw Kim Rok Soo it was well over a month later. He was holed up in his room and studying for a test when Jung Soo peeked into his room.
“Uncle Han? Are you busy?”
Choi Han looked up and smiled at him. “Hm? What’s the matter, Jung Soo?”
He gave a soft gasp as Jung Soo stepped into his room, pulling a slightly bloodied Rok Soo by the hand. “I, uh, I can’t reach the antiskeptic.”
Choi Han nearly leapt to his feet, but stopped and took in the sight in front of him. Little Kim Rok Soo, tiny and pale, was covered in bruises. There was no way to hide the black eye or the blood dripping down his brow and over his slightly trembling lips. The boy was almost hiding behind Jung Soo and avoiding looking at him.
“...Are Auntie and Uncle home?” Choi Han asked, standing up slowly and walking to the door to check the hallway.
“They’re out shopping.”
“Okay.”
Choi Han led the two children to the bathroom, where he had Rok Soo sit on the edge of the bathtub while he searched for the first aid kit. “Jung Soo, take a towel and fill it with a cup of ice.”
“Ice?”
“For his head.”
“Oh! Right! Rok Soo, I’ll be right back! It’s okay, Uncle Han’s not scary! He’s nice!”
Choi Han’s hands twitched, but resumed pulling out antibiotics, a bucket of warm water, and a washcloth. He knelt in front of Rok Soo and wetted the cloth before holding his hands out to the child with his palms upward.
“May I?” he asked softly.
Rok Soo stared at him impassively, but Choi Han could clearly see the emotions behind his eyes. There was a moment of silence before the child slowly nodded, and Choi Han smiled gently at him. He reached out and touched the cloth to Kim Rok Soo’s face, but kept his motions slow enough that if the child wanted to pull away he could.
Rok Soo flinched at first, then held still for him. He cleaned the boy’s eye first, then moved to washing the blood from his hair. The water bucket was soon filled with grime and bits of dried blood.
Jung Soo came crashing back with a towel full of ice--
And a popsicle.
“I’m back!” he whispered loudly, thrusting the popsicle at Rok Soo. “And I found this! Oh, um, sorry Uncle Han, there’s only one left. This is okay, right?”
Choi Han chuckled even as he found the nasty looking cut on Kim Rok Soo’s forehead and proceeded to clean it. “Yeah, it’s fine.”
Little Jung Soo peeled open the popsicle and handed it to Kim Rok Soo, who perked up on it being subsequently shoved into his mouth. His head had to have hurt, especially as Choi Han applied the ointment and gauze, but Jung Soo held his hand and excitedly kept talking, which kept the boy relaxed even as Choi Han moved on to washing off his bony arms and skinned knees.
When he was done, Kim Rok Soo looked immensely better. They dressed him in a set of Choi Jung Soo’s clothes and threw his old ones in the wash, then sat him in Choi Han’s room with a bunch of pillows, snacks, and Choi Jung Soo’s favorite stuffed animals. Choi Han returned to studying and refrained from asking questions, instead watching the two boys out of the corner of his eye in silence.
Rok Soo was a quiet child. He barely spoke, seeming to be content to let Choi Jung Soo be the talker of the two. But he was anything but inattentive, especially when little Jung Soo spoke of his favorite novels to read.
It was peaceful and warm.
Choi han relaxed into the atmosphere and focused on his studies. After a while he realized it had gotten quiet, and looked up to see what was going on. What he saw was little Jung Soo reading a book…
And Kim Rok Soo, curled up at his side, covered in plushies and asleep.
Jung Soo caught his eye and grinned, putting a finger to his lips as if he were a conspirator of some great plan. Choi han felt a bubble of warmth flood his limbs from the small gesture and couldn’t help but smile, then stood up. He quietly padded to the closet and grabbed a blanket, draping it over the sleeping child and ruffling Jung Soo’s hair before returning to his desk.
It became a habit for Choi Jung Soo to bring Kim Rok Soo over to Choi Han’s room at least once a week. Choi Han got used to setting out Jung Soo’s favorite novels, snacks, and a pillow and blanket for Kim Rok Soo to nap with. At first he set these items out off to the side, but over time the snacks and pillows seemed to migrate closer and closer to his desk.
Before he realized what was happening, Jung Soo was leaving for extracurricular activities with Kim Rok Soo dozing curled up beside Choi Han while the teenager studied.
Choi Han never asked questions of the scrawny boy, but he began to notice patterns in his nephew’s behavior towards Rok Soo. Most of the time when he showed up, little Rok Soo was covered in bruises, withdrawn, and timid. When Jung Soo would take Rok Soo home, the increasing reluctance between the two of them to leave Choi Han’s room was getting more and more apparent.
Jung Soo also started saving his allowance in a strange way, and one week when little Rok Soo didn’t come over he finally admitted to Choi Han the reason why.
“...He doesn’t get an allowance,” Jung Soo mumbled.
They were going through sword stances together in the garden, a place where they could talk about their mutual little friend without being overheard. Choi Han moved slowly so Jung Soo could follow along, though he really didn’t need to; Choi Jung Soo was a talent all of his own with the sword.
“So you’ve been paying his train fare?”
“Yeah… because if I don’t, he doesn’t eat.”
Choi Han paused in his stance. He’d suspected as much from how much food Jung Soo liked to push at the little fellow, but just what kind of…
He took a breath and started over. “How much is the fare?”
Jung Soo did some calculations in his head. “Um, there and back is…”
Choi Han listened to the amount and did some calculations of his own. “He lives pretty far, doesn’t he? How did you meet him?”
Choi Jung Soo, lovable little twerp that he was, snickered. “You know how mom took me to that martial arts competition a little while back so I could watch and study, and when we came back I was grounded for a few days?”
Choi Han paused and stood up straight, giving him a side eye that was mildly suspicious. “...Go on.”
“Well… um, I smelled something really yummy, but mom was distracted, and I kind of got lost looking for the source, and…”
Choi Jung Soo fell silent, the grin fading. Choi Han watched him, patiently waiting for him to go on. It took Little Jung Soo a few minutes to gather his words before he continued.
“I, um. I found him getting beat up by this group of older kids. It really wasn’t fair! He’s so small, y’know?? And when they couldn’t find any money on him it just got worse.” Jung Soo got a little agitated, waving his hands around. “What was I supposed to do? I beat them up. I beat ‘em all up, Uncle Han, I was so mad.”
Here his grin came back. “I was super cool though. Rok Soo admitted it yesterday.”
Choi Han knelt in the grass. “...And then?”
“Well, um, I didn’t see him for a while after that, but then when dad and I went shopping dad told me to wait by a mall fountain while he went to buy something, and he was there, just wandering around with this gloomy face. And I wanted t’ know what happened after I beat up those kids, and…”
Jung Soo trailed off again, then took a deep breath.
And Choi Han learned of the situation of one orphan Kim Rok Soo, trapped in the vicious cycle of having nowhere safe to go. It clicked in his head all at once why the little boy slept all the time, why sometimes he whimpered in his sleep, or flinched away from physical touch. He’d suspected something from the ever present bruises and malnourishment even though they constantly tried to feed him, but now it was clear.
Choi Han had to take deep breaths to avoid seeing red.
“Jung Soo.”
Choi Jung Soo looked up at him, his face fraught with a mixture of anger, shame and sadness. Choi Han patted his head, a plan forming in his mind.
“Here’s what we’re going to do.”
The plan started with Choi Han getting a part time job in the city little Rok Soo was in. He put most of the money he made away and used the rest to pay for Rok Soo’s bus fare to the Chois’ house, and even though Kim Rok Soo started trying to bring him things like pretty rocks or help do house chores to “pay him back”, he insisted that the child didn’t need to.
The second step was getting the rest of the family in on the situation. The rest of the family was used to seeing little Rok Soo around the house by now, but he hadn’t been officially introduced to them. So Choi Han and Jung Soo cleaned him up and introduced him properly, and then Choi Han felt free to leave Rok Soo at the house for a while. Neither himself nor Jung Soo let Kim Rok Soo in on the plan, though both of them could see the wheels turning in little Rok Soo’s head.
The third step was investigating.
And if Kim Rok Soo’s uncle mysteriously got some bruises that he didn’t remember getting on the way home from drunken gambling once or twice while Kim Rok Soo was staying the night at the Choi’s house, well, that wasn’t their problem, now was it?
It took some time, but by the time Choi Han graduated from high school and officially became an adult, they were ready to put their plan into motion. The rest of the Chois saw it coming long before Kim Rok Soo did and had known somewhat about little Rok Soo’s situation. They all pitched in at one point or another in helping Choi Han and Choi Jung Soo prepare, especially since little Rok Soo was basically living at their house now.
And so when Kim Rok Soo woke up one day and was guided to the main rooms of the house instead of Choi Han’s bedroom, he was understandably confused and overwhelmed at the sheer amount of balloons, presents, and family waiting to welcome him home. But he never had to go back to his uncle again, and Choi Jung Soo was all too happy to inform him that they were officially cousins now, since Choi Han had put in the work and formally had him adopted into the family.
No one judged him for breaking down and crying. They fed him cake and gently pressed him to open up his presents of new clothes and new school materials, though all of them knew the biggest gift of all wasn’t material.
He still took naps in Choi Han’s room with Choi Jung Soo’s stuffed animals instead of his own, though.