Sehun must have been too shaken about what just happened that he wasn’t speaking, and I gave him some time to think for himself after I had cried my eyes out against him. He let me do it for some reason, without a word of complaint even if I already wetted his uniform.

But the most baffling thing was that as I pulled away, he had his sweat shirt pulled out from his bag hastily and had it tied around my waist, gruffly telling me to wear it until I was home. I was not sure why that I unsurely nodded in agreement, still puzzled by his words. Was he trying to take care of me?

I went out of the infirmary, half dazed, still wondering. Why did he give me his sweat shirt? Did he know I was cold? Did I wear little on me? I looked down on my PE shorts I was still wearing and thought they were a bit shorter than usual but they looked decent enough to cover a good portion of my thighs.

What could it really have been? I sighed, turning to the left when I felt a hand shot out of the blue and gripped on my wrist, pulling me back.

Astonished, I widened my eyes when I saw Jongdae by the door to the infirmary. He placed a finger over his lips, motioning for me to keep quiet. I nodded, following him when he told me to. Jongdae was being extra stealthy that I couldn’t help but ask him why the heck we were sneaking away.

“Are we escaping from someone?” I asked, still with a lowered voice.

He looked back, grinning, and then shook his head as we stopped by the stairs. “I just want to speak to you without that brat in the infirmary hearing,” he said, scrunching up his nose at the mention of Sehun. I only noticed it, but Jongdae seemed to dislike Sehun for some reason, but at the same time he didn’t look like one to hold grudges. There was not even anger in his eyes, just plain annoyance.

I was confused why he didn’t want Sehun, at all, to hear what he was about to tell me that I pressed on the subject. “What is it you want to say that you didn’t want Sehun to hear?”

Upon bringing back the topic, Jongdae suddenly had a hard time picking up his words. He was trying his best to explain it to me but it was as if he was torn into explaining it to me the simplest way possible without giving too much away.

“Well,” he said, his lips nervously. He subconsciously scratched at his cheek, that had a bruise forming, too hard that he winced slightly and muttered a curse. “In short, I just want to tell you how dumb Oh ing Sehun is. He beat those bad guys, but not for no reason. It’s—it’s just that…” he brushed back his fringe and groaned in frustration.

I only blinked at him, not understanding what he was coming to.

“How do I say it without him killing me?” I could hear him muttering to himself while tapping his foot on the floor desperately, but I didn’t really know who he was referring to.

“Okay, let’s just put it this way,” he said, frustrated, grabbing on my shoulders with a deadpanned look on his face. “ThatingbratkilledthatthuginthefieldbecausehewasactuallyspeakingdirtystuffhewantedtodotoyouinfrontofhisfriendsrightatSehun’sface. You get it?” He nodded to himself, not waiting for my reply. “Get it. Because I don’t want to get hit a second time trying to help him fix his relationship with you. Bye. I should get going.”

Jongdae was about to leave, but I tugged on his arm with both hands, trying to really understand what he just said in ultra-speed. “What do you mean? Did-did he really do that to Kijoon because of…” I searched his eyes, unable to say the last word.

He nodded solemnly, rolling his eyes. “Yes, you.”

“But—“

“I’m not mistaken. I asked him why he did it and in the middle of the talk that turned to an argument got this,” he pointed at his bruised cheek. “And sorry but not sorry, I returned him the favor. Just look at his cheek. He should thank me for it.”

I did not stop Jongdae any more from leaving. My hands fell to my sides as I took in everything that he said. Somehow it angered me that he was the reason for the huge blotch of a bruise on Sehun’s cheek and not Kijoon, but he got his fair share of it. They were both dumb boys who knew nothing but to use their fists.

But more than that, I couldn’t shake the feeling that rose to my chest at the thought of Sehun getting into another fight because of me. It was just so…out of the ordinary after five months of not bothering to care about me. I didn’t think he’d do that for me. Not now. That I doubted Jongdae’s words. Perhaps, instead of a bruise he got something worse like a concussion that he was able to delude himself of such things? And perhaps I was too gullible to actually fall for his words.

But who was I kidding? When did Jongdae lie? I mean, he looked like he could, but he was not a fraud. Instead, I was the fraud who was trying to mess up something again to deny the truth.

I shook my head, minutely shaking off all the troubling thoughts away as I willed myself to find the parking lot and rushed to get inside Mr. Oh’s car. Mom and he were silent at the front seats, their eyes away from each other, making me wonder whether they’d just been in a heated argument before I arrived.

The tensed silence and the pissed off look on Mr. Oh’s face at the rear view mirror confirmed my hunch. Mom probably launched a mouthful about how he shouldn’t have acted that way in front of his son. It must have been it or otherwise he wouldn’t have heard anything from mom. She must have been still scarred by the physical beatings she took from her ex-husband years ago that I couldn’t help but understand mom and worry for the both of them.

What if Mr. Oh turned out to be as abusive as my father? What if he hurt not just Sehun but mom too? What if this issue caused everyday fights between the two of them? Will we be truly happy as one family?

A little later the opposite door at the back of the car opened and in came an indifferent looking Sehun. He slammed the car door harshly and laid his head on the window to sleep as soon as the engine revved and we sped away to back home.

It was as If nothing happened with the way the father and son were acting that quiet in the car. It was as if nobody got mad or nobody almost struck someone, but I knew it was only their initial reaction to the anger eating them inside. This was how both of them had been living before we even came to their lives. That it was no wonder they were real father and son—that they were related and not estranged from each other. Both of them were similar in this way no matter how they didn’t admit to it.

And it made me all the more eager to want to fix their relationship again. Since what they only had was each other. And that too couldn’t be broken.

Reaching home, both Sehun and Mr. Oh went their own paths in the house. The younger Oh went back to his room. The older Oh went into the kitchen. I sighed, seeing how they were fixing things. It was close to childish. They keep running away from the problem when they could have fixed it with an honest conversation.

I shook my head, thinking of how stupid the men of this household were. I hope they could forgive me for saying that in my thoughts but they were truly the epitome of the definition of dumb with handling their own feelings. It was awful. I knew I was one to speak but I try to repair what I could. There was no running away anymore from the problem. No turning back.

That after getting out of my PE uniform, I took a short bath and dressed into my house clothes—a pair of shorts and some big t-shirt I randomly picked out from my closet. I folded Sehun’s sweat shirt and placed it on my bed before rushing downstairs, ready to battle the first enemy. Mr. Oh.

We hadn’t really been in an enclosed space alone, just the two of us. I knew that one of the reasons to this was that, though I didn’t dislike Mr.Oh, I was worried I didn’t have anything to talk with him that I avoided being alone with him as much as possible. For some reason I managed to do that for about a year and some months, and this thing I was doing was quite some change. It was overwhelming in a sense and in fact I already wanted to just go back to my room.

But then I bit my lip and sat on a stool on the kitchen island in front of him with two glasses of milk in hand. It seemed childish and stupid of me to offer an adult a glass of milk but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to share what was mine. Won’t that let him know I wasn’t mad at him?

“Mr. Oh,” I said, extending the glass to him.

He looked up from his laptop and the papers in front of him that he was working on and his eyes widened at the offer. But still, he took the milk and drank on it slowly while eyeing me.

I couldn’t help but suppress a smile. He was just as suspicious as Sehun was. “I’m just thinking I hadn’t really talked to you before properly and thought it wouldn’t hurt for me to. I guess, I just have to find something to talk with you.” I shrugged, grabbing my glass with both hands and downing it in one gulp. I excused myself for a bit and jumped off the high chair to grab the box of fresh milk from the fridge, this time leaving it on the counter.

When I got back, I could tell Mr. Oh was amused and I couldn’t help but blush that he must have thought I was funny. “Sorry about that.” I said quietly.

A small chuckle finally escaped his lips and he shook his head, smiling tenderly at me. The look on his face gave me relief that I calmed. “No worries,” he said, typing on his laptop again. “Just that I thought you’re like your mom with your habit with milk.” I blushed. “Even when we were kids, she used to not miss it. She had it every night and she even shared with me just like this whenever she couldn’t fall asleep.”

“Oh,” I said. “Were you that close since you were kids?”

He nodded, smiling that smile that made his eyes wrinkle, the lines on his face telling the story of how much he’d aged and how much he’d experienced. “We used to be neighbors. We played a lot during our childhood years and became the best of friends. That’s why… you have no idea how sad I became when she left the town.”

“And married my father,” I added.

That silenced him. He must have not really liked the topic of that old man. Well, the thought of him didn’t really sit right with me either. We were on the same boat even though I was my father’s blood and he was the second man in my mother’s life and