Private Leave The Beach Behind

italics designates Korean - Thread takes place in mid March

With each step closer to his Aunt's house, Jae felt something tighten in his chest. That something could only be anxiety, and the teen had to consciously remind himself that things will work out. He shouldn't stay with his aunt if she. . . if she was going to hit him. Still, what would his aunt say or do when confronted like this? Jae had no idea, and perhaps that was what scared him the most.

Aunt Taliah's house was small, and situated right on the shore front with only a road to separate it from the beach. The outside was blue and well cared for. Jae opened the door, as his aunt rarely locked it. The teen stood in the living room, at the other side was a arched doorway that led to his aunt's workroom. Aunt Taliah sat at her work desk and looked from Jae to Edwin. Her golden eyes narrowed at the stranger.

"Joka, what is the meaning of this? Who is this man?" She said, her steely gaze kept on Edwin.

Jae faltered for a moment, "This is Ewdin St. Aubwyn. He is an art teacher at school and, um." Jae couldn't look at his Aunt's face. "He's here to, here to help m-me move into the school dorm."

"Aboslutely not!" Taliah said, switching to English. "I am your guardian, there is no need for you to live at the dorms. You will stay here where I can watch you and that is final. And you!" She looked to Edwin. "I don't know what my nephew told you, but he is none of your business. You may leave."

"Imo," Jae tried to protest, but Aunt Taliah quieted him with a glare.

@Zora

"By the sturgeon it is!" Aunt Taliah stood and crossed the room, and stopped before Edwin. "He shall not. I am his legal guardian and I will not have strangers bull sharking into my business." And as Edwin told Jae to start gathering this things, she moved to interject. Jae, however, was already gone and down the hall into his room. The door quickly shut least she could shout and call him back.

Aunt Taliah let him be for now, and turned back to the stranger in her home. "You do not know what you are doing." She said. "Jae cannot leave my care. I am not only his guardian but it is the will of my colony." The boy not only had siren powers, but then there was the matter of his mother. "You know nothing of his situation!"

"His best interest is where I can keep an eye on him." Taliah said firmly. "Jae is not apart of the colony." She pinched her nose, as though Edwin could never hope to understand. Taliah certainly had no desire to explain the politics of traditions of the colony. However, it was apparent to her that this man would not leave without a fight. "You can not take him because you nor the school can protect him from his mother!

"She has kidnapped him once already and if she ever got hold of him again she will ensure he becomes a siren like her! One siren is powerful, but two would be devastating!" Taliah leveled Edwin with a steady look. "Before bringing him to Manta Carlos I had hoped he could become part of the colony. Instead his mother kidnapped him. We got him back but he was traumatized and his memory of the event had to be wiped."

She sighed, "He already has a siren's magic. It would not take much from that woman to fully corrupt him. So it is my duty to the colony to ensure that does not happen!"

Taliah was not used to being questioned so, nor her authority challenged. It showed in her face, clear frustration and carefully controlled rage. "This is a matter of the colony!" She hissed, but made no other argument. She could not consider that the school could offer better protection because this was a colony matter and all matters of the colony stayed within it. Tradition and law's claws were deeply embedded into her thinking.

In his room, Jae had packed the majority of his clothes into a duffel bag and now debated over his collection of magazines and letters from his aunt and uncle. Some people might call him silly for agonizing so over magazines, but they were more than that. These Korean magazines were his connection to a home he deeply missed. Though Aunt Taliah spoke Korean, she preferred English. Jae missed his childhood home, missed hearing his native language.

The magazines would be too heavy, so he packed the letters on top of his clothes and threw school supplies beside that. Jae hefted the bag onto his shoulder and steeled himself before leaving his room.

Jae kept his head down and immediately moved behind Edwin. Aunt Taliah stared holes into his back. "I wash my hands of this!" She finally hissed and switched to Korean. "I have done my diligence, and I am paid with ashes. I am not responsible for you anymore." Jae flinched as though she had physically struck him once again.

Jae flinched at the unexpected touch, but relaxed when he realized it was Edwin's hand on his shoulder. The teen shakily nodded and turned towards the front door. A part of him wish to look behind, to maybe see regret on his aunt's face. That maybe she would see him and take back what she said. Jae kept his gaze forward, because if he looked back he knew what he would see.

Outside Jae took a deep breath, the salt in the air a balm to his nerves. Aunt Taliah did nothing to stop them, and that left a tangle of feelings in his chest. Jae did not feel ready to untangle that mess in the moment. Right now, he wished he could forget this whole day. "Thank you," he said, knowing he's said it before but couldn't help but repeat it again.

"I'm . . . I'm sorry but. . . please don't hate her." Jae wiped the wetness from his eyes. "Please. . . don't." He thought of the journal Aunt Taliah kept hidden her desk. The one that held his mother's scale. Her handwriting.