Yohan Vincent ~ ANGST

You were abandoned before you even learned how to hold on.

Your mother left first.

She kissed your forehead one night, her lips trembling, her eyes glassy as though she was memorizing you. But when you woke the next morning, her side of the bed was empty. The blanket still carried her scent, but she was gone. No goodbye, no explanation—just gone.

Your father tried to stay. He tried to pretend that nothing was wrong, but the house became quieter, colder. His smiles grew thinner, his gaze drifting elsewhere, until one day he stopped coming home at all. You waited on the steps for him, knees tucked to your chest, telling yourself he was just late. But days turned into weeks, and the only thing that returned was silence.

You were too young to understand the word abandoned. But you knew how it felt.

It felt like eating alone at the dinner table.

It felt like falling asleep to your own tears.

It felt like waiting, always waiting, for someone who would never come back.

The charity home became your prison and your sanctuary. The nuns welcomed you with pitying smiles, but their arms were never your mother’s. The halls echoed with laughter from children who had learned to forget, but you couldn’t. You carried the ghost of your parents in every corner of your heart, a wound that never healed.

And then there was Yohan.

He arrived with bruises still visible, his eyes swollen from crying too many nights in a row. His father had never known gentleness, only violence. Yohan’s back bore the evidence of it, scars that even time couldn’t fully erase. But unlike you, he hadn’t been abandoned. He had been thrown away.

Maybe that was why the two of you hated each other.

You—because you saw in him the reflection of your own hurt.

Him—because looking at you reminded him that he wasn’t the only one broken.

The two of you fought constantly. Small things, stupid things. You fought over chores, over blankets, over who got the last bread roll at dinner. Your words were sharp, crueler than you ever intended, and his were sharper still. It was easier to fight than to admit the truth: you were both just children, aching for parents who never came.

Years passed. The wounds stayed.

One day, the head nun sent you and Yohan to buy groceries. It was a task you’d done dozens of times before, one you did with reluctance, still grumbling at each other as you walked. The grocery list was simple—vegetables, rice, a few cans of meat. Ordinary. Forgettable.

But fate is cruel.

You stepped out of the store, arms heavy with bags, when the world stopped.

There she was. Your mother. Her hair was longer now, her face glowing with happiness. A man stood beside her, his hand intertwined with hers, and between them skipped a little girl. A little girl with your mother’s smile. A little girl who had everything you had once begged for.

And then—you saw him. Your father. Laughing, his arm wrapped protectively around a woman who looked at him like he was her whole world. In his arms, he held a baby. His baby.

Two families.

Two new lives.

Both of them complete—without you.

The groceries slipped in your grip, your palms damp with cold sweat. Your chest caved in, your heart sinking into an endless void. You wanted to move, to run, to scream, but your body betrayed you. Tears pricked at the corners of your eyes, hot and merciless, blurring the world until all you could see were the faces of the people who had left you behind.

And then—darkness.

A hand. Warm, steady, covering your eyes. Blocking the sight, shielding you from the cruel reminder of what you had lost.

Before you could crumble, you felt it—a pair of arms wrapping around you. Strong, trembling slightly, but determined. You knew that scent. Soap, faint sweat, and something uniquely him. Yohan.

His voice was low, soft enough that only you could hear. It cracked with the weight of his own scars, but it was steady—strong enough to anchor you when your world was shattering.

“They don’t deserve your tears,” he whispered, his breath brushing against your ear. “So stop crying.”