Hyobin's Sadness
Forever Shorties
Hyobin locked herself in her room the moment she got home from school. She buried herself under the blankets and cried. She didn’t want to talk to anyone in her family, knowing they would just try to make her feel better. She didn’t want to feel better.
“Bin-ah! Come down stairs. It’s almost dinner time.” Jaejoong knocked on his daughter’s door.
“I’m not hungry,” Hyobin called.
“I’m coming in, Hyobin. Is the door unlocked?”
“Hold on.” Hyobin pulled herself out of bed and unlocked the door. She didn’t even acknowledge her father when he walked into her room.
“What’s wrong, Sugar-Pea?” Jaejoong sat on the edge of the bed. His daughter had been going through a drastic change of personality lately. She even began redecorating her room. At the moment, it looked like The Pistols crashed a Disney princess party.
“I don’t want to go to school anymore. I hate it there and I hate people.”
“What happened?” Jaejoong rubbed Hyobin’s arm.
“Just everything. Everyone keeps acting like I’m weird. And they say stuff behind my back when they think I can’t hear them.”
“What kind of things?” Jaejoong took a deep breath. He knew his family wasn’t exactly normal.
“They think it’s weird that I’m so close to Moonbin. And they talk bad about Changmin. They don’t understand him and they call him a freak.”
“Oh,” Jaejoong was waiting for this to happen. He and Yunho had been getting calls from Hyobin’s teacher for the past couple of weeks concerning her change in attitude and behavior. He had tried to ensure her teachers that she was fine and was simply going through a phase. Much like the phase Jyuni went through.
“Why don’t people understand us?” Hyobin sobbed.
“What do you mean, Sugar-Pea?”
“It’s like, everyone looks at you and Daddy weird. And they treat Changmin different. And they act like Moonbin and I have some disease or something.”
“A lot of people don’t like our family. They don’t like the relationship Daddy and I have.”
“But that seems stupid. You and Daddy love each other so much. Why would anyone hate that?”
“Because not everyone can see that. Why do they treat you and Moonbin oddly?”
“I was getting my stuff out of my locker and Moonbin came over and gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. All his friends starting teasing him.”
“I’m sorry. Not everyone is as tight-knit as we are.”
Hyobin sat up. “I hate them all.”
“I know, Sugar-Pea. But you have to go to school and you have to be nice to people.”
“But they make it so difficult.”
“It was difficult for me too. But everything will work out in the end. You’ll see.”
“Not with these people. The teachers don’t do …”
“Language Hyobin,” Jaejoong warned gently.
“Sorry. It’s true though. They never step up and punish the other kids. Half the soccer team had Moonbin pinned in a corner the other day. The coach just watched.”
“I know Sweet-Pea. And Daddy and I took care of it. People are going to treat you and Moonbin differently and we can’t change that. But we also can’t stoop to their level. The angrier you get at them the more you feed them. And the more they will keep messing with you.”
“So, really what you’re saying is I just have to deal with this until they get bored?”
“Pretty much. Later I’ll tell you stories about when I was in middle school and high school.” Jaejoong smoothed down Hyobin’s hair.
“But you had Daddy. We don’t have anyone.”
“I didn’t always have Daddy. How about this weekend we do something, just the two of us.” Jaejoong tucked Hyobin’s hair behind her ear. “But right now, we have to eat dinner.”
Hyobin shrugged and followed Jaejoong down to the kitchen. She looked around the table at her family. She knew they weren’t the norm; that most kids didn’t have to Dads, that most kids didn’t enjoy spending time with their parents. But as she watched her Daddy pulled her Dad into a tight hug, she knew she never wanted to be in a normal family.
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Another super-shortie. I wanted to write a little bit about Hyobin. I like her for some reason. Maybe because I kinda modeled her after my older sister.
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