“Why was I the only one adopted?” … Lee Gun-joo's younger sibling's tears unveiled a hidden family truth
In “Dad and I,” the younger sibling opened up and cleared up misunderstandings.
On the broadcast of TV Chosun's “Dad and I” on 17th, Lee Gun-joo spoke with his younger sibling.
Lee Gun-joo, who met his younger brother Geon-cheol for the first time in 18 years since being adopted to France, shared a deep conversation about their family history.
That morning, the siblings sat in a quiet café in downtown Paris and began to share their past experiences. Lee Gun-joo expressed, “You waited for me for a long time, and I was glad. I’m curious about what has happened during that time.”
At that moment, Geon-cheol cautiously opened his mouth. "Actually, I was really curious about my parents. I wondered if our mother was the same and why I had to be adopted… what had happened within the family. I had asked back then, but I couldn’t understand properly because of the language barrier."
Lee Gun-joo calmly responded. "Mom is the same. At that time, Dad had just been discharged, and Mom was twenty years old… They were too young to handle us and were struggling financially. Grandma was leading the family by herself, but my aunts were students too, so it was tough for them to raise both of us." He recalled. "In the end, Grandma… still hoped that at least one of us could grow up in a good environment, so she decided on international adoption. I didn’t know about that back then," he said, choking up as he revealed this for the first time.
However, the wounds of the younger sibling did not heal easily. "But why was I the only one adopted… If it was really hard, why didn’t they send both of us? It’s fortunate that I was able to stay with the family as the older one, but being the only one adopted was… too big of a wound." He confessed, and as the older brother, Lee Gun-joo lowered his head in silence. "Hearing those words… my head went blank. I didn’t know how to comfort him or what to say," he said. It was a moment when unspoken feelings finally faced each other after a long time.
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