It's Just A Picture (BL)
Chapter 222: Care to explain this?

Chapter 222: Care to explain this?

Dongwoo was asking them to watch if someone were to suddenly start humiliating him. He was asking them to stand and watch while others threw insults at him.

Yes, he would try to handle himself but what if it was a situation that was bigger than him? They had to keep their promise. They had to do nothing.

Because if it was a situation bigger than him then the other person was someone he could not offend. And someone whom he could not offend would definitely be a hot topic and do the twins get involved... If they got involved... His eyes grew teary... He didn’t know anymore.

’Say it already. Promise me before I change my mind.’ he pleaded in his thoughts.

"Alright, Hyung." Seojin said and Dongwoo raised his head, showing his teary eyes. Seojin swiped his tears off and tried to smile at him. "I promise not to do anything so don’t cry."

Dongwoo nodded with a little sense of relief and he held his hand.

"Thank you." He leaned on it and smiled. "Thank you." He repeated.

Seojun looked at him sadly and then threw his face away. He didn’t like this. He hated it.

How could he sit still while someone assaulted or insulted him? He couldn’t do it. He just couldn’t.

"Seojun." Dongwoo called. "Please, it’s for the good of all of us."

"But I don’t want it. I don’t want to stand back and watch." He said, and Dongwoo pursed his lips.

Yes, he was always the stubborn one.

"Then, can you do me a favor and look away?"

"What?" He asked, his face contorting in anger. "What are you saying?"

"If such a thing happens in the future, and you feel you can’t watch, please look away." He said and then shook his head. "No, I want you to look away. I... Don’t want you to watch."

He cleaned his tears with his palms.

"Bht let’s hope that something like that doesn’t happen in the future." He smiled heartily that Seojun could not deny him.

He bit the insides of his mouth, hoping he would not come to regret giving his promise this very day.

"Alright, Hyung. I promise. But... If it’s too much, I won’t sit back. I really won’t." He said, and Dongwoo nodded.

"Good enough."

It was an absurd request. Very unreasonable but he was glad the twins agreed to it.

If there were such rumors surrounding him, then he would only pull them down with him, and he did not want that.

Even if he was surrounded by such rumors, they wouldn’t affect him because he was used to it, used to the hurt and pain that came from it too.

But the twins were new to it and he wanted to protect them.

Meanwhile, in another part of the world, Italy, Allegra stood in front of her aged father who stared at her with disappointment in his eyes.

"Care to explain this?" He asked, throwing the article at her face.

Though it did not reach her face and fell on her feet, she was sure he wished it did.

’Seriously, who reads newspapers these days?’ she thought and bent down to pick it up. ’I guess he really is old.’

She had a feeling she knew why she had been called in. She stared at the newspaper, her eyes scrolling through the headlines and then she glanced up at him.

"What would you like me to explain, father? It’s quite a self-explanatory article, don’t you think?" She asked and he beat his cane to the ground.

"Don’t be insolent, child. What have you done?" He asked with a great amount of displeasure and disappointment leaking out of his words.

She stared at him. Would he ever know?

Would he ever know that ’they’ always found a way to pull at her heart? No, he would never.

She swiped her hair behind her ear and said,

"What do you want, father?"

"I said don’t be insolent, child!" He beat his cane to the ground again. "You may have clocked forty-nine but you are still much too young to speak to me in such a manner. Now, explain to me why your sons, my grandsons, are going around posing for cameras in the most disgraceful manner? Did you put them up to it? Just because I stopped you from doing it, you decided to get your sons to continue from where you stopped? Answer me, Allegra Barone!" He demanded and Allegra’s heart shook.

Yes, she was turning fifty in another year but she couldn’t grow mature. Why? Because she hoped she could always be that child who would be showered with love and affection but since ’then’ it was all gone.

She stared at her father.

This man... The man who tried to raise her with an iron fist after her mother passed away. The man who remarried a woman who brought hell into her life.

Till date, she still asked in her heart the question she wished she could ask him,

’Father, did you ever ask me why I ran away? Did you ever ask me why I chose to stand in front of millions of people, strange people, and felt happier than when I was in this house?’

"Allegra Barone!" He called more strictly and she flinched.

"Father, none of this was my doing." She answered. "And I certainly did not put these boys in the field. It’s not like they would ever listen to me anyway. You know, they hate me just as much as they hate you, so how could they listen to me and go on to pose for the camera?" Her lips curled up in a scoff. "Maybe it’s karma."

"Allegra, get those boys back right away." Her father demanded once more but in a more calmer manner than before.

The truth must’ve hit him hard.

"It’s no use." Allegra said. "They never listened to me when they were young. How could they listen to me now that they’re all grown up, adults, and can make decisions for themselves."

(I swear, I have a thing for dads like eh, my father isn’t exactly the unreliable type but he’s not reliable either and just like Allegra’s father, he believes he’s always right about his own thing and goes with this quote, ’I know what’s best for my children’s and he wouldn’t let my brother chase his dreams because he said it’s too simple. I got lucky because growing up, I had the same grand dream as him, but I deviated now, and my family is currently torn apart welp. It’s not that much of a painful subject but it is painful. And now I’m kinda wishing I didn’t write about it but I hate Alfonso, Allegra’s father. Though I created him, and he’s the character that I brought to life, but I still hate him. I’m like his mother, ya know. Haha."