MY FOSTER SON

Reason Kai

Despite knowing that Kai is deliberately bullying her and causing trouble with her, Jojo is not angry at all. He did not show any resentment or annoyance towards Kai.

"Are you going to tell this to Kalingga?" ask Kai.

"For what? it's not an important issue" Jojo replied.

Although feeling strange, Kai is grateful if indeed Jojo will not complain about this to Kalingga. Because Kalingga would definitely be angrier and add punishment for him.

After finishing his cereal and milk, Kai headed to the living room to play video games. While Jojo chooses to rest in the room, he plays a cell phone and exchanges messages with Irene.

As the day gets darker, Kalingga comes and tells Jojo that he doesn't have to cook tonight, as only he and Kai will have dinner at home. Keenan had to film overtime until morning, while Kylan had a sudden arrival of models that required him to shoot until night.

Jojo was happy, Kalingga seemed to lighten his work by accident.

"I'll order pizza, what flavor do you like?" ask Jojo Kalingga.

"The pizza? did you buy it for me too?" ask Jojo to make sure.

"Yes, the three of us are going to eat pizza tonight."

"Hmm, whatever taste I like, just a big brother who choose," said Jojo.

Kalingga nodded in understanding. He made a pizza order through an online application. Only thirty minutes later, the delivery courier had arrived at the front of the house carrying a pile of various flavored pizzas.

"Wow, that's a lot, brother. Are we having a pizza party?" jojo asked in amazement after receiving food from the courier.

"I don't know what to order, so I ordered all the variants" replied Kalingga.

"Ah, are all the rich like you, brother?" joked Jojo. Kalingga did not reply, he just smiled as he shook his head slowly.

After arranging pizza on the dining table, Kalingga asks Jojo to call Kai in his room. Since Kalingga's return, Kai seemed to avoid and shut himself in the room, maybe he was reflecting on his mistake.

Jojo goes to Kai's room and asks the boy out for dinner. Kai initially refuses, but Jojo says Kalingga is waiting for him. Although Kai felt lazy, he couldn't possibly ignore his brother.

Jojo and Kai sat next to each other, while Kalingga chose to sit opposite Kai. As the eldest son is also the successor figure of a father, Kalingga is very firm and quick in taking action for anyone who makes a mistake. Kalingga is an older brother who never takes an apology for granted without teaching his younger siblings a lesson.

"You can eat as much, leave one for Kylan, he'll be home at nine" Kalingga said. His face did not show any anger at Kai at all, he was very good at hiding his feelings.

Jojo happily ate a few slices of pizza and tasted all the flavors. For Jojo, pizza was included in a fancy meal, during his lifetime, perhaps only once or twice he bought pizza for himself.

After finishing eating, Jojo immediately cleaned the table. He left a box of pizza and kept it so Kylan could eat it later.

"Where are you going?" kalingga asked as Kai stood up from where he was sitting.

"We need to talk, sit down," Kalinga pinta softly. Kai was already feeling anxious, he knew Kalingga would not be that easy to free him after making a mistake. Kalingga again asks Jojo to sit next to Kai, they have to talk to solve this problem.

Calmly, Kalingga began to speak. He asks Kai carefully about the reason the boy was being so bad to Jojo that he had to spoil all the food that Jojo cooked.

"You got a problem?" ask Kalingga. Kai shook his head, as long as Jojo worked in this house, the girl never made a mistake, only Kai didn't like any strangers in his house. What's more, Jojo is the one sent by Merlinda.

"I don't like mama snobs caring about us. Why did you send Jojo, we're used to living without mama's interference" Kai replied.

"Then, did Jojo have anything wrong?" ask Kalingga. Kai just shook his head.

Now that Kalingga understands, Kai hates Jojo just because Jojo is the one sent by Merlinda. The boy tries to get Jojo out of the house so that Merlinda doesn't interfere in their lives.

"Mama is still our mother, she gave birth to us. Is that how much you hate him?" ask Kalingga.

Kai got up from his chair, he felt his heart ache as their conversation led to Merlinda.

"Why does he care about us after all this time? uh huh? what he did for us is too late, brother!" exciting Kaivan. It was very noticeable in the boy's eyes how much he hated Merlinda, how disappointed and neglected he had been all along. Jojo just fell silent, he did not know what to do or say what, he did not know at all about the tragedy of what really happened so that made this family fall apart.

"You can hate your mom, but don't involve other people who don't know anything" Kalingga said.

"Mama sent Jojo just because she wanted to look good in front of us, why not mama herself who came and took care of us all, brother? why send someone else when we need them more!"

Kalingga was silent, he could not refute what Kai said, because even though the sentence was outrageous, it was a reality.

Kai leaves the dining table, Kalingga and Jojo just keep quiet with their own thoughts. Jojo saw Kalingga's face looked sad, like there was a heavy weight on the man's shoulder that he hid.

"Sister, if Kai can't accept my existence, I can quit this job" said Jojo. Although he was not sure of the decision he had made, Jojo tried to understand the feelings of the people in this house.

"You're very much needed in this house, Jo. Be patient, Kai needs more time, he has a hard time accepting anything related to his mother" Kalingga explained.

"All right."

Kalingga returns to his room, he is quite restless with Kai's never-changing behavior. His feelings of hatred for Merlinda are really deeply embedded even though Kalingga has tried hard to give understanding.

Kalingga sat on the sofa of his room, looking at the childhood photos of the four of them with Merlinda as well as Crish, their father. The times where their family is like a happy family in general, before the big secret is revealed and shatters their happiness to pieces.

Kalingga once hated Merlinda, even more than what Kai felt. But as he got older, Kalingga began to not care, he already felt able and able to take care of his family alone without the presence of parents. He tried to accept Merlinda's presence, though most of his heart refused.

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