⎛ Part Two ⎠

“What are you doing!?” Hyunwoo screeched, his hand coming down hard on his cousin’s . His eyes flared, and suddenly he was running frantically around the room, trying to pick up all of the bottles that Baekhyun somehow managed to drain, as a red handprint began to stand out on Baekhyun’s back. “Get up!”

Baekhyun winced and cringed and grimaced all at once, his entire torso searing in pain as the sting of Hyunwoo’s has lingered on his back. He groggily opened his eyes just as Hyunwoo snatched the glass from his hand, a sudden migraine pounding on his head. It’s as if a hundred elephants have a hundred hammers and are stomping and swinging all around in my head.

“Nice philosophy, wise guy. Now get up, get dressed, and make yourself look alive. There’s a girl your age in the shower downstairs and your father’s coming to pick you up soon. Yes, I told him you were here. Yes, I told him you wouldn’t put down the alcohol. Yes, I believe this is for your own good,” Baekhyun didn’t even know that he spoke the words he thought, and each of his questions were answered even before they were past his lips. “And don’t even try arguing with me. I’ll whip out my own good philosophies on you if you even so much as mutter a protest to going home and facing your father.”

Baekhyun knew Hyunwoo was right; there was hardly a time when he was wrong. Hyunwoo knew all the right things to say, even if they weren’t the most pleasing to hear, but he had a point. Baekhyun had to go home eventually, and he supposed sooner was better than later. Ever since he ran off, he knew how wrong he had acted. He felt an overwhelming amount of guilt crawl up form the depths of his heart and rest on top of it, realizing that he truly did hurt his step-brother’s feelings. Actually, he probably crushed them underneath a steam roller.... Fifteen times.

So rather than protesting, Baekhyun slid from the bed, only then realizing he was completely , and struggled to find his clothes. Once he found them though, he hopped on one foot then the other as he pulled his boxers and pants on, then yawned widely as he pulled his shirt over his head. Looking in the mirror, he saw bags under his eyes, and with a frown he began to look around. He knew the solution: eyeliner. Not that he put it on all the time... With a shrug, he pulled a stick of the dark makeup form Hyunwoo’s bathroom, not entirely too surprised to find it there, and then applied it, smiling to his reflection in the mirror.

“Face your problems,” Hyunwoo had told him a week before, shaking his head and patting Baekhyun’s back as he cried into his shoulder. “You have to tell your dad how you feel in a much less accusatory tone. Don’t yell so much, it only makes things worse. Calm yourself down, then approach him with reasonable statements, keeping a cool head.”

Ever since then, Hyunwoo had been trying to get Baekhyun to go home. But he refused, and after a few days, alcohol became his best friend. While Hyunwoo was out rescuing people all over the place, collecting their tears, Baekhyun shed them countlessly over bottle after bottle of wine, hating himself and his dad for ruining his life. But he also shed tears for his mother, the dead woman of his life that he believed deserved to be treated much better than what she was.

Hours later, Baekhyun and his father were sitting face to face in the living room, the unmistakable stench of alcohol being exchanged between them. Baekhyun wouldn’t meet his father’s gaze, and his father wouldn’t look anywhere else.

“Baekhyun,” He started after a long, stony silence. “Your mother is long gone. You have to accept it. People don’t live forever, you know? And when they die, you have to move on and accept what happened, not dwelling on it. The past is the past, Baekhyun, and now, your mother is a part of the past.”

Baekhyun finally looked up, his eyes wide, tears pooling. “It’s funny, I recall Hyunwoo saying the same thing to me in a dream. Is mom really gone, forever? She can’t be. She’s a woman, she’s your wife, she’s my mother, for pete’s sake. I get that you found someone else, but don’t use my mom as an excuse. They will never be a part of my family, Chanyeol or this stepmom lady. I get that you love her, but you better not forget that you love me and mom too. I’m not calling her my stepmom. I’m not calling him my stepbrother. They are just additions to my family, they’re just another two people added to the big happy family that we had before mom died. Do you understand, dad?”

His father sat there for a minute, silenced by his son’s rant, and after a brief moment of visible hesitation, he nodded slowly.

Hyunwoo watched form the stairwell as father and son hugged, more tears being shed. Maybe, he thought to himself, pushing himself from the railing and silently making his way back upstairs, I’ll let these tears go for today. They deserve to keep them.

⎛ end ⎠