❝ chapter eight: talking
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                                   chapter eight of forever mute, a -byungkitty-  storyline

Myungsoo was still quite fast, even with his slight limp, and it took me a while to catch up to him. I tapped him on the shoulder and when he didn't respond, I grabbed his arm and pulled him back. That resulted in him pushing me away with his shoulder and a grimace to come from his mouth.

The idiot was hurt, but he was still his stubborn self. Helping him wasn't going to be easy because his pride and big ego would be in the way. I clicked my tongue and spotted Aunt Lin's house a block away. After Myungsoo had bumped into me, he had gone in the opposite direction of the school, meaning I had followed him closer and closer back to home.

An idea came to mind and I grabbed his arm again, this time with both hands. He tried to shoulder me away but I dug my fingernails into his skin and dug my heels into the ground to keep my hold and he let out a curse, revealing that he was obviously in pain. I twisted his arm to the side to catch his attention and let go once I knew he got that I was being serious.

Wait right here and don't go anywhere, I signed to him before taking the spare house key from under the flower pot on the porch and unlocking the front door. I ran inside, looking for some sort of First Aid kit in the kitchen, in the closet, and in the bathroom before finally emerging out of the house with a medicine case. It had taken several minutes to find it and I was afraid Myungsoo had left by now.

Surprisingly, he hadn't left and was sitting at the curb of the driveway. I sat down next to him and placed the case in my lap. I knew Myungsoo had tried to play the 'silent treatment' card to not talk to me right now, but he did anyways.

"What the are you doing?" he said, surprised, and backed away from me. I grabbed his arm again and kicked his shin to make him stop moving so much.

He was being childish, really, and kept turning his head away when I tried to get a good look at his bloody lip. I had to smack his head several times for him to stop struggling in order to eye his facial injuries; other than the bloody lip, he had a bruise under his right eye and a small cut over his left eyebrow.

I sighed and opened the case to go through all of it's contents. There was a packet of disinfecting wipes and I ripped it open to take it out and carefully dabbed the outer edges of Myungsoo's lip.

"-!" he hissed out, his lip stinging, and turned the other way again. I put my hands on both sides of his head and turned it back, but this time to put a small bandage on it. I did the same with the cut over his eyebrow, and he struggled just the same.

I pointed to his right shin, telling him to roll his pant leg up, but he refused, so I did it myself and looked at another bruise on his skin. This bruise was bigger and looked even more black than the one on his cheek. It was a wonder he could stand up and walk so quickly earlier.

I went back inside and searched the fridge for some icepacks and found only one. As a temporary icepack, I filled a ziplock bag with ice and wrapped it in some paper towels before going back out and handing one to Myungsoo. He held it in his hand and stared at me, as if he didn't want to take it, so I pushed his hand to his face and the icepack met with his bruised cheek.

He winced as I pressed the ziplock bag against his bruised shin, which was starting to make me feel sick the more I looked at it. We stayed in that position for awhile, his hand on his cheek and mine on his shin, to keep the ice packs in place and reduce the swelling. He didn't say anything to me, so I decided to ask the questions this time.

Setting the icepack down, I signed to him, What happened to you? How'd you get hurt?

Myungsoo looked away before answering bluntly. "I got into a small fight. Happens all the ti- !" The movement of his jaw stretched his bloody lip and he winced.

I frowned upon the answer and his choice of words. Can't you stop it with the swearing? I would never have even thought about confronting him with a sort-of-confident air, but for some reason, now that he was injured, I felt like I could. He seemed less... intimidating, I guess.

He rolled his eyes and batted my hand away from his leg. "What the does my swearing have to do with you?" Rolling his pant leg down, he flung the ziploc bag onto the sidewalk and got up.

It's crude and not pleasant to hear, I tried to reason, but decided it wasn't worth the effort. I got up to my feet as he shrugged and threw his ice pack next to he ziploc bag. Aren't you going to go to school today?

The injured boy shrugged again, as if not knowing if he wanted to go or not, but started walking in said direction anyways. I followed closely behind him, wondering if he minded looking like that. "Why aren't you in school anyways?" He asked the question without turning around to face me.

The alarm clock didn't go off, I replied, so I woke up and left the house late. That's how I ran into you.

Myungsoo didn't say anything else and just stuffed his hands inside of his pockets. The walk was silent and leisurely, as though he wasn't concerned with tardiness or absence. We didn't exchange any words or signs until the school building came into view.

"I don't owe you a thank you or anything, just so you know." He suddenly said for me to hear, stopping right outside the gate. "It was you who wanted to help me; I never asked you to. So don't go around telling anyone about this."

I wanted to scoff; as if everyone else would understand me, anyways. The only action left for me to show him I got it was to nod. Hopefully satisfied, he turned away with his usual cold manner and stalked off to class with me trailing behind by a few feet. Class was already in session when we entered the classroom and everyone looked up upon our entrance.

Ms. Jung Ah eyed us suspiciously. "What are you doing, coming to class so late? Were you playing hooky or what?" Myungsoo kept his mouth closed and shoved his hands inside his pockets, smirking at the teacher. Although he had a bandaged lip and a purple bruise, his expression was still of that cocky badass he was. Why was this kid so bipolar?

"Oh? Ye Jin?" The teacher caught sight of me once Myungsoo went to sit down. "You don't need to worry about being tardy for today, you're an exception."

I nodded, wondering why she wasn't going punish me or whatever Korean schools did to late students, until she turned back to the rest of the class and said to Myungsoo, "As for you, you're different. After school detention with me today."

Said boy half-shrugged with an I-don't-really-care-at-all expression on his face and I could already hear the whispers coming from the watching students; rumors planning to blossom throughout the whole school today.

As I got to my seat, my eyes found Ji Eun's and she gave me that worried look she always gave me. I must be troubling her a lot, appearing and disappearing all the time... Well, I guess she'll have to deal with it one more time today, because I had plans for after school.

Now that I had the chance, maybe it'd be the perfect time to learn some more things about Myungsoo when he was busy in detention.

-- ♥ --

My original plans for lunch was to talk to Sunggyu about Myungsoo, but he didn't come to the music room early like the other day. Once he did, Sungyeol and Woohyun were with him and that kinda kicked it out of the question, so I had to wait until after school.

When the bell rang and I was sure Myungsoo had left for detention, I looked around for Sunggyu. He wasn't with his usual gang, only Sungyeol was with him, and I decided that was good enough.

I took a deep breath and approached the two from behind. Getting within an arm's reach, I tapped Sunggyu's shoulder and he turned around.

"Oh, it's Ye Jin." he said and Sungyeol stopped walking to turn around as well. He stared at me, but at least not with disgust. "What is it?"

I took out my notebook, something I find rather useful now, and wrote, It's about Myungsoo.

"Sure, let's talk about him," Sunggyu gladly nodded and accepted, but his friend thought otherwise.

Sungyeol eyed me weirdly and said to the other, "What do you mean? There's nothing to tell her."

"Yes, there is. She deserves to know about why he treats her like he does, don't you think?" Sunggyu calmly replied, as if already knowing this would take place.

"She doesn't need to know about what happened to Myungsoo." He argued. I took note that he sounded rather defensive, like he was speaking for Myungsoo himself.

Upon his next words, the older looked over at me and said, "I think she does. After all, she does remind him of his first love, right?"

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✉(A/N);

Yeah, sorry... short update, bipolar characters, y storyline, slow progress... oh well. I only updated today to celebrate my 1-year-anniversary here on AFF ^^ Yep, I have had this account for one year already, ever since September 14th, 2012! It seems like just yesterday I was writing my first horrible fanfic. Ahahaha.... good times, good times.

Right. The following updates might be a little rushed and weirdly-worded/put together because of school. It's stressing me out and I don't know how to deal with fanfics + homework altogether, so... let's see how this goes xD