Zhan's pov
"Zhan I want you to meet someone." My father said as he introduced me to another man, "Meet him, his name is William."
Currently, we were sitting in the living room, I looked at the guy and he gave me a kind smile, he looked a lot like my father.
My father then said, "he is my brother."
This shocked me.
It has always been me and my parents, I never knew that my father had a brother, in fact, I didn't know anything about their families or their backgrounds.
"Brother?" I asked and my father nodded.
"Yes. I wanted you to meet him."
"But Dad, you never told me you had a brother."
My father smiled and said, "That's because I had no contact with my family due to some issues, but yes I have a brother, a sister, and parents as well and yes both my parents are alive but I don't talk to them.
I just reunited with my brother after your mother's passing."
That was honestly a lot to take in. My father had an extended family.
"Dad, what about mother? does she also have an extended family?"
My father thought for a few seconds before he nodded, "Yes she did, but I don't know where they are since she was in no contact with them."
"Wow." I said as I thought for a while, "Why did the two of you have no contact with your families?"
My father spoke, "Because our parents were not kind to us, mine never really favored me because I was average at everything, and didn't want to join their business, I was basically the scapegoat, but what broke the camel's back was when I met your mother, her parents hated my parents as they had some history so when we told them that we are going to get married there was chaos.
Your mother's parents wanted her to marry a man three times older than her, they would have preferred her to live miserably rather than pursue her dreams, in the end, she fought with them and I fought with my parents and we had no contact with them.
Besides your mother was already pregnant with you at that time and let's just say that both families were not happy with that, they wanted us to give you away or terminate the pregnancy and move on, it was very toxic and messy.
Your uncle and aunt were very young at that time, and my parents kept them away from me. But I want you to get to know my brother, he is my first child, I had practically raised him."
My uncle laughed, "he is right, this guy here was stricter than Mom and Dad, growing up, I was more scared of him than Mom and Dad."
"Well, you were a brat."
"Oh please... you were too uptight." I smiled as I listened to their banter.
We chatted in the living room for a while before we headed to the kitchen and cooked it was nice.
My uncle was a good person, he was easy to approach and I felt comfortable with him.
Uncle William started to come by frequently, I also met my aunt, Nara, she was kind too.
Uncle William's wife was nice too and I heard that he had a son and two daughters and Aunt Nara had a daughter and a son, soon my house was filled with people, aunt, and uncle frequently came by and we bonded together.
However sometimes I felt that my father was hiding something from me, I often saw him and my uncle talking about something, and when I asked what it was, they told me it was nothing.
I didn't pry.
~~
In school Yibo helped me study, he ditched his group and sat with me during lunch helping the best he could. I also noticed that he made another close friend Henry.
Not that I was jealous or anything but I was curious about him, but when I asked about Henry Yibo would just change the topic.
Whatever it wasn't like Henry could ever replace me.
Today while were sitting together, a few people came to talk to Yibo, "Yibo, you made it to the final round what happened? Why did you back out?" a guy asked.
Yibo smiled and said, "I had a family emergency."
"That's sad, I am sure you would have won."
"Well, what can I say, forget it maybe next time." after they were gone Yibo turned to me.
"What did I miss?" I asked.
Yibo looked at me and said, "I had participated in a dance competition, and made it to the final round."
"Which dance competition?" I asked skeptically.
"You know that happens anally."
"Are you nuts? why didn't you go? you could have won and got the prize money which would be 5000 dollars!"
"Forget it," he said.
"Why didn't you go?" I asked, "Yibo you love dancing you should have gone."
Yibo loved dancing, singing, and sports basically, he was talented in everything, when we were little, I would always attend all of his competitions and feel proud when he would win. And since there was not much I could give him, I would always give him a rose when he would win.
But as I grew older I became bitter, I wanted to learn swimming, martial arts, and Guitar but my parents never had the money to put me through any of the classes, it was already very hard for them to pay for my tuition. So I didn't ask much.
But I grew jealous of Yibo, I slowly stopped attending his competitions while I was distancing myself from him.
"Forget it Zhan focus on maths."
"No you tell me why" I asked.
Yibo sighed and said, "It was on the day of your mother's funeral."
I became quiet after hearing that.
I am truly a horrible person.
"I am sorry because of me..."
"It wasn't your fault Zhan. I wanted to be with you in your tough time, I didn't want to leave you alone."
His kind words did nothing to soothe my heart in fact they made it worse.
"You know what? If you are really sorry, then you are going to study and get good marks and pass with flying colors."
I sighed and nodded slowly, "Sure"
However, I could not forgive myself for treating Yibo so badly these past few days, I wanted to talk to him and ask him about what he is up to these days. How many more events have I missed?
I wanted to ask how he was doing, what was happening in his life, and most of all I wanted to tell him that I missed his mother's cooking.