She looked at them dumbfounded. It didn't register to her yet what her son was saying, Jin had been out of their lives for so long that she never expected to hear about him again.
Not that she had lost hope, all the lower district people knew about the mysterious disappearances and once someone vanished they were never found again.
"Jin? It's not Jin, it can't be him." She said mechanically, not really in control of what she was saying or thinking.
"I'm so sorry mum." He moved in to hug her, but she was still processing it. Everything had gone blank for her.
All of them wore gloomy expressions. Like children being scolded, they didn't quite know how to insert themselves into the conversation but they decided to leave it to Hiro. As much as he said he couldn't lie to her, he was doing a pretty good job keeping himself composed.
"Jin isn't dead, he's just missing, just missing." She said her mind not all there yet.
Hiro didn't like seeing his mum in that much emotional distress, he wanted to cry with her but it wasn't the time. He'd had his fill, now it was time to hold his mother while she grieved for her husband.
"You won't recognise him at first, but it's him." He told her softly, guiding her to the back of the vehicle.
"I'm sure you've been watching the news, I'm sure you saw the video about what has been going on, well mum dad was part of the kidnapped. They did something to his body so it's bigger than you remember.
"He died trying to save as many kids as possible. In a way, it was honourable. He was the Jin you loved and married until the very end." His eyes were teary at this point.
His friends simply watched without saying anything. Nikolai was especially emotional at the scene before him, he'd lost his mother way too young but he still remembered her love and her death that was right in front of his eyes.
He caught himself shedding a tear, which he quickly wiped away. Felix saw this and squeezed his shoulder for support.
"You can go baby." She told Hiro while embracing him.
Hiro left them. They had to prepare to bury him, his mother wouldn't be able to do anything, he was sure of that. He felt relief that Freya came, he was just a child too the emotions were too much for him. He was glad Isao wasn't there at the moment.
Jin Misaki was buried in the estate the next day, dying at just 35 years old. Yuri had to be pulled out of school for the funeral. The only families apart from the Waynworths that came were Khans and Silvas.
The funeral was kept concealed for many important reasons. The most important being that, the man who kept Jin and experimented on him lived in the same neighbourhood as them. Finding out about this would prove difficult for Kiro and his friends, there would be questions and suspicions.
"I can't believe he's really gone." Hiro sighed, standing next to Kiro having a drink.
"This will sound cheesy but as long as you remember him, he'll still be alive for a long time." He said taking a swig of his drink.
"You're right, that was cheesy." He chuckled.
Kiro smiled, glad that his friend could still crack jokes despite what him and his family were going through. They stood at the balcony of the back complex building, looking down at the service that was done by now, people were just helping tidying up.
"Hey Ki, about what my dad said, about your grandfather—"
"It's okay," he cut him off, he didn't need to hear an apology not from him. "Lil and Zak told me that it was something my grandfather wished for." He tried to soothe his guilt not wanting anything to change between them.
"I don't want you to doubt my resolve. This experience makes me want to do more to ensure someone else doesn't go through this." He mumbled.
"I know you do!" He hit him on the back.