Bad Behavior
Chapter Two
Junhong POV

“Junhong.”

I could hear my mother calling to me, but I remained where I was, the music blasting my eardrums to shreds. I knew the drill, if I ignored her long enough, she’d get annoyed and either come get me or leave me alone. I was always hoping for latter.

Don’t get me wrong, my mom was okay, I guess. A nice gal, really, and much better than my dad, but it didn’t make her voice any less obnoxious. I sprawled myself out over my bed, hoping I could play dead, or at least pass for asleep. I hid under my covers, an impenetrable fortress of---

“Junhong.”

The blankets were pulled away, and my headphones pulled down to sit on my  neck. “Sorry, he’s not available to take your call at the moment, please leave a name and number at the tone and he’ll get back to you as soon as he can.” I laughed at my own joke, but my mother wasn’t quite as amused. She was always so dry and boring; Between her being dry as a desert and my dad being a class-A douchebag, I had no idea how they had a functioning life.

“You were incredibly rude back there,” she stated. I wasn’t sure what she was expecting to get out of me, but I waited. Did she want a sorry? I hadn’t done anything wrong in my book, just asked a question to see him squirm. She apparently couldn’t pick up on the fact that he was itching to get out of that room.

“I want you to apologize to Mr. Bang when he comes tomorrow to help you with your English,” she told me at last. I rolled my eyes, and my body, laying on my stomach.

“Sure.”

“Junhong, I mean it,” she said stiffly.

“What! I said ‘Okay!’ What more do you want?”

She sighed, leaving me with that and a soft slam of the door. I could tell she was angry, but still she tried to stay calm and collected, covering it up. She was always getting on my back for not controlling my temper, but adults were the same way. They put on calm faces, but I knew her blood was boiling underneath. I was just waiting for the day she’d smack me hard enough to leave a mark so I could get out of this ing house forever.

I stayed in my room until it was dinner time. I didn’t really do anything besides lay there in that almost asleep, but not quite awake state. The kind of feeling where you could feel the sleep spreading behind your eyeballs, and you couldn’t move, but you knew you were still awake. It was like a coma, except, I had the pleasure of seeing my parents in a few hours, rather than a few weeks.

We didn’t have the long empty dining table like you see in movies, but I kind of wished we did. Of all the cliches in my life, that one would have been kind of cool. I sat down at the table with my mother, while my father sat at the breakfast bar. It had been a week since he sat with us at the table, and it had been a week since we had stopped caring.

“Did you do your homework?” he asked, sipping his whiskey.

“Dad, it’s Sunday,” I pointed out. Jongup, our cook, placed three different meals in front of us. My mom had never bothered learning to cook, and my father was always too busy to do much of anything. I was lucky we had Jongup, otherwise I probably would have died of malnourishment before either one of them cared enough to do it themselves.

He squeezed my shoulder as he put my pizza in front of me. Greasy and artery clogging; Just the way I liked it. I grinned at him, as he placed a steak in front of my father, and a chicken salad in front of my mother. He was a pretty good guy. He couldn’t do much besides cooking, and was a little slow in the head, but he was always smiling. I had always liked that about him.

We didn’t really talk beyond the necessities. It was always just the needed things with them. Did you do your schoolwork, is your room clean, do you need money for anything. The answer to all of the was no, but I still feigned a yes to the first two. “Do you like Mr. Bang?” my mother asked as I was stuffing my face. I gave her a skeptical look, chewing my way down a string of cheese.

“Oh, yes, he’s quite the fellow,” I said sarcastically. “I haven’t even talked to him, mom.”

My father gave me a cold look from the counter. “Don’t argue with your mother,” he told me. I hate to bite my tongue not to spit his words right back at him.

“Yes, dad,” I said through gritted teeth. Standing up, my chair screeched on the tile. I left without asking to be excused because I was just such a rebel. Rolling my eyes at the very thought, I locked myself up in my room and tried to sleep before the nighttime entertainment took place.

At first, I found my parents’ fighting exciting. I figured, however, that there’d only be one or two fights and it’d be over. But, for the past two years, it was an every night ordeal, and their shouts always seemed to find a way to get up into my bedroom.

We had had an unspoken agreement, them and I, that I like to refer to as the don’t ask, don’t tell. I didn’t ask, and they didn’t tell. Though, it wasn’t a two-way street . They were always sticking their noses into my business and trying to do that thing called “parenting” that was more of a myth than ing big-foot to them

It wasn’t that they were awful to me, or anything. They weren’t great either, though. They weren’t really anything. Everything was a schedule with them. I’d see them the same time everyday and get asked the same things. I hated the boring repetition of it all!

Sighing, I sunk into my bed, letting the dreams overtake me. Below me the nightly war began, but I closed my eyes and ears to the sound. And everything was as it should have been. That is, until had my first tutoring session with Bang Yongguk.

I was lounging on the couch after school when he came. I made no moves to advance toward the sound, but Jongup gave me a disappointed look. “Tell him I died or something,” I begged, getting a laugh and a shake of a head in reply. It was worth a shot, at least.

“Give him a chance,” he encouraged, giving my shoulder a pleasant squeeze. Sometimes optimists made me want to puke. Sighing, I flopped back into the cussons.

The way my mother had set it up, he’d spend two hours with me each night of the week. The first hour would be dedicated to whatever homework I had that day, and then the second would be his time to play professor and teach me about a specific subject. I had been brought professors before, but this guy just didn’t seem smart. I assumed he had either been lying, or he came from a rich family and bought his way into tenureship.

The door opened to the living room and that guy was smiling at Jongup, laughing at something his head. “Alright, I got it,” he told him, and I got curious. Had they been talking about me? Well, if Jongup thought he could prepare this guy for me, he was wrong. I had given myself a month to get rid of him, but he seemed to have a pretty bad temper, so I bet I could do it in two weeks.

“Good afternoon,” he said to me, as he placed his pile of notebooks and books on the coffee table. I couldn’t help but snort because he was actually taking this serious.

“Sober enough to know the time today, Mr. Bang?” I remarked, sitting up. I watched him for a reaction, but he didn’t even flinch. Maybe Jongup had told him more than I thought. I didn’t mind, I could play hardball too.

“Schoolbooks,” he said, looking at me. “Where are they?”

“At school.”

He frowned at me, and I smirked.

“No homework,” I lied. Nodding, Yongguk leaned back in the chair that sat beside the table.

“Okay, let’s move straight into Russian then. Or maybe you’d like to do some calculus? I brought a workbook for that. Oh, and remember, your mother expects to see everything you work on,” he said smugly. He smirked right back at me, and I wanted to smack him. I didn’t know what he used to teach, but he had to be bluffing.

Sure enough, he pulled out a work book full of calculus questions, and Russian flashcards. Maybe he wasn’t a ual sadist or a wife beater (though, I didn’t roll these possibilities out entirely) I knew there was something up with him. Nobody acted like this for real.

“Oh, wait, we might have had something,” I groaned. He wore that smug grin again, and I noticed he had a pretty ugly face. His teeth were too long and you saw his gums a lot when his lips folded back. Rising from the couch I stalked off to get my  bag that I had carelessly tossed against the wall upon my arrival.

I tossed it to him and he ped it, placing my folders and books beside his own. I watched him as he read through the daily assignments, crossing my arms. “No introductions? You’re not a very friendly man,” I commented. He flicked his eyes up to give me an uncertain glance.

“Bang Yongguk. I’m your tutor, nice to meet you,” Yongguk spat sarcastically. I narrowed my eyes at him as he chose English as the first torture. I opened my mouth to ask him another question, but he cut me off. “I’ve been a teacher for a lot of years, Junhong, anything you could possibly use to stall me, I’ve heard it.”

He was a formidable foe, I’d give him that. Reluctantly, I went along with him for a while. While he wasn’t as painfully boring as my real teacher, there was something I didn’t like about him. He seemed bored and disinterested in me, even though this job what was keeping him afloat. I was curious as to just what thoughts captivated that annoying brain of his, and it distracted me from the work.

After English and math had been knocked out of the way, I looked at him. “What’d she leave you for?” I asked again. He didn’t look at me, but his lips twitched just barely. I expected him to tell me it was none of my business, but he told me something twice as annoying.

“A kid like you wouldn’t understand,” he said, passing my science notebook to me. “What are you struggling with here?” I glared at him, and as his eyes met mine, I wanted to hit him all over again. A kid like me? Just what did that mean? I hated how adults had such an arrogance about them.

“That’s a bad excuse,” I told him. He removed his reading glasses, rubbing bridge of his nose wearily. Sighing, he looked at me again. I sat obstinate, refusing to look at the papers in my lap.

“A kid like you wouldn’t understand,” he repeated, leaning back in the chair. “Because an even an adult like me doesn’t understand.”

I wasn’t sure what it was about Bang Yongguk, but he caught me off guard. There was no, “Leave it alone, Junhong,” or, “I already told you once, Junhong.” It was a crappy reason, but he validated it to me, just a little bit. I didn’t like my tutor any bit more, but for a moment, a fraction of a second, I respected him.

“That’s just because you don’t feel like understanding,” I pointed out, looking down at the biology notes I had just barely taken.

“Same to you, kid,” he said. I looked back up, confused. I watched as he wiped the lenses on his shirt and placed the glasses back on his face. “You understand all of this, you don’t need a tutor. Why are you failing?”

I was stuck for a moment, unable to think of a good reply. He was absolutely right. I had no problem comprehending the work that was given to me, it was just that I didn’t do the work. I didn’t care, and it did nothing for me in the long run.

“An adult like you wouldn’t understand,” I told him. He laughed at me, a deep booming laugh as he shook his head.

“Alright. Let’s back to work then, Junhong.”

I didn’t argue. The conversation had become uncomfortable for me as well, somehow. No other tutor had dared talk to me the way he did. They knew I could get them fired in a second, but Yongguk didn’t seem scared of that.

Soon, the homework was completed, only thanks to his annoying nagging, and we moved on to the teaching time. “What did you teach?” I asked him,  looking him over. He wasn’t the kind of guy you’d assume was a college professor. He was short and stocky, and he looked pretty young too. He had come dressed for the part, with a suit jacket over nice shirt and a pair of slacks. But, as I knew so well, anyone could be dressed up for a role.

“Guess.”

The tutor smirked at me, as he gathered up the books he had brought, shoving them back into the bag he slung over his shoulder. “I taught everything orally, this is just for show,” he explained. I scrunched up my face at his smug attitude. I really hated guys like him. The kind that thought they were cool by saying and doing bold things.

“If you ask me, I’d say you look like a janitor,” I replied smoothly. He laughed at me again, and I was really beginning to dislike Bang Yongguk.

“Well, it’s true that I wasn’t part of the fashion department, so you can rule that much out.”

He was taking all my remarks way too well. He didn’t even have that face that my parents wore where you could tell they were upset deep down. It was like he genuinely enjoyed my verbal abuse. I quickly added ual masochist to my list of leads.

“Math,” I said. He shook his head.

“Warm.”

“Art.” He took a moment to consider the guess, tilting his head from side to side as he mulled it over.

“Lukewarm.”

“Psychology.” He smiled.

“Hot.”

I soon grew tired of the game, so I just waited for him to tell me.

“I was a logics professor. Logic retains to everything, so everything would be a pretty good guess,” he explained. And that explained a lot to me. So, that was how he was a professor! He didn’t teach a real subject.

“So, are you going to teach me about logic?” I asked.

“Actually, let’s not and say we did.”

And yet again, Bang Yongguk surprised me.

“So, you’re just going to let me go back to watching TV?” I asked. He shrugged.

“People only learn if they want to. Just smile and say hyung taught you a lot when your mom asks, okay?”

I blinked a few times, and had to bite back a smile. Maybe I would let him last a month. I didn’t show my growing fondness to him, since he did still annoy the hell out of me with his stupid remarks and stupid face.

For the next hour, he busied himself with a book, and I busied myself with the television, mostly channel surfing. He didn’t talk, so I didn’t either. I caught him glancing in my direction every so often, but I soon found out he was watching the window in case my parents were home. I was the one watching him, waiting for him to do something that I could act upon. But he didn’t do a damn thing. He sat there and read for the entire hour!

My opinion of Bang Yongguk wasn’t definite. It teetered between like and dislike. One moment he was annoying, and then he’d say something that was almost funny, and then he reverted back into his boring self. The weird thing was, I kept expecting more, and he surprised me by doing... Nothing at all. He had a different air about them adults I was used to, but still, he fit the profile of a boring old man.

Suddenly his eyes flicked upward, and I tore my eyes away from him. “And that, Junhong, is how you solve that logic problem,” he said, raising his voice as his book was quickly placed behind his back. I caught on quickly, flipping the TV off in a rush.

“Thanks for reworking that for me, Mr. Bang,” I said, smiling. My mother entered the room to see us smiling fake smiles at each other. It really must have seemed like I had a new lease on learning to her, since she looked quite pleased.

“How did it go?” she asked us. He stood to bow respectfully to her, and I motioned to the stack of assignments we had finished.

“I got everything done,” I told her. And boy, did the old gal look happy. She flew into a string of questions broken up by thank-yous to him, that he laughed and waved off.

“He’s a good kid,” he said, slinging an arm around me and patting my shoulder. It must have looked real heart warming, because I thought my mom would burst into tears at any second. I smiled and squirmed uncomfortably and he pulled his arm off of me. I could smell a mix of bad cologne and alcohol on him, and it really stunk. Once again, I became wary of him.

After checking over my homework, and chatting him up for a few more minutes she sent him off with a check and a tip. “He’s good,” she commented, and I had to hold back a chuckle. If only she knew that he was a total slacker that didn’t teach a real subject. I kept this information to myself for a while long, figuring Bang Yongguk was a better tutor than the last one at least.

Proudly, she showed the work to my father who had been locked up in his office the entire time. He looked it over and I got exactly what I expected to get. “About time.” No good jobs from dear old dad. It had been that way for so long that it had just stopped bothering me. Shrugging it off, I sat down for dinner, receiving another pleasant squeeze from our chef. He looked at me with big eyes that implored details, but I pretended not to have seen it. There was nothing to tell, Bang Yongguk was boring.

Yet, that boring old man took hold of my thoughts. I kept thinking over every curious comment, and every little movement that seemed out of place. I was reading so far into it, I barely touched my food. I kept wondering about that bitter smell, and the way he let everything roll off his back just like that.

But most of all, I wondered about that divorce of his. And that curiosity stayed with me late into the night, keeping me awake.

“A kid like you wouldn’t understand, because an adult like me doesn’t even understand.”

His words replayed in my head again and again. Just what did he mean by that? The curiosity ate away at me. In the time I had spent with him, he seemed okay. Not exactly my taste, but I wasn’t into guys, especially not older guys. He didn’t have the temper I would have guessed, and he held it all pretty well. Just could he have done to make someone leave him?

It was obvious that it hurt him. He kept the words around it few in number, meaning it hurt him to talk about it. I think if I were to be divorced by some girl I would have nothing bad things to spit out about her. And that lead me to wonder just what kind of woman he married.

I really wish I could have just shut my brain off, but I couldn’t. I tossed and turned, but the moment I stopped focusing on something else that desire to know was back again. It was about midnight when things turned for the worst.

In my house, with its open floor plan that permitted no secrets, World War III began. I had no sirens to warn me, and I had no bomb shelters to hide me from the battlefield. Only explosions between two opposing forces.

“He’s doing better!”

I buried myself deeper into the mattress.

“This always happens! He’ll be right back where he started in a week.”

“Well, maybe if you encouraged him every once in awhile it wouldn’t be like that!”

“Don’t even try to pin it on me, Seohyun! You’re too damn soft on him! He has  no consequences, so why try?”

Their voices grew in volume as they headed for their bedroom, located down a long hallway from my own. My jaw felt tight as I heard them arguing about me. I was the treaty of Versailles, and Lusitania all at once. I was the straw that broke the camel’s back on a marriage that never should have existed in the first place.

The blame passed between them each night, but the problem was still me. I was the black sheep that loved to dance with the wolves. I had bad grades, and I hung around the wrong crowd. I had pierced my own ears and dyed my hair pink without their permission. I was the baby boy they had lost, and the thing that was tearing the family apart.

As I heard the sickening sound of flesh on flesh, hand to cheek, my head filled with thoughts of divorce again. Though, instead of Bang Yongguk’s dysfunctional marriage, I thought of my parents’.


I told myself I would leave gaps inbetween these first couple chapters so I could get ahead... But I wanted to prove that Junhong isn't just a snobby brat! Haha ^^ ;; I'll update again this weekend, probably!