Being raised in such a household, isolated from what was considered normal by the rest of society, it had never felt particularly strange to have so many siblings. A hassle, perhaps. He liked most of them individually, and though exhausting he didn't mind doing his part in raising them while his mother spent most of her time pregnant. Now it was difficult to imagine giving up the luxury of privacy, even if he didn't quite know what to do with himself sometimes.
"I wish I were joking," he frowned, although he couldn't quite find any resentment for his brothers and sisters. They hadn't asked to be born any more than he had, even if that only added to the amount of work forced upon him. Even if every new birth had felt like a curse than the blessing his parents claimed, a celebration of life and family. Donovan was sure he never wanted children, now.
Nobody else knew about his family, he avoided the subject with the few that had bothered to ask. Mainly to prevent anyone from discovering the truth of his running away, even if he was old enough not to worry about being found now. But he knew well enough that public opinion held such large families under scrutiny, for their extremist religious practices and questions of morality. Donovan didn't want to be held accountable for his parents' choices, didn't want to be viewed as weird on the basis of coming from such a background even if he had removed himself from it.
It was a relief that Kyu-Sik only seemed a bit surprised instead of completely put off. "Miscarriages," he answered simply, though impressed the other boy had been paying close enough attention to notice the discrepancy.