Chapter 10 – Only Three Weeks

Year 2: Semester 2: Week 6: Wednesday

 “I like Wonshik!” Taekwoon practically screams at Hakyeon when he gets home, slamming the door as he enters.

Hakyeon almost falls off his seat at the table, eyes wide at Taekwoon’s sudden appearance and volume. He can tell that Taekwoon has found out about the fight and the lies somehow. It was probably Hongbin, not that he’ll hold it against him, it had been a selfish request anyway.

“I know,” Hakyeon says calmly.

“Why do you have to ruin it then?! I-I’ve never liked someone before, why can’t you just support me?”

Hakyeon is about to deny trying to ruin anything but ends up asking, “What about Mai?”

“I thought you liked Mai and wanted to be friends with her. That’s why I tried to be friends with her when you told me to be.”

“Really? I thought you were heartbroken when she turned out to be a .”

“I wasn’t. I was kind of glad because she really didn’t know when to shut up and she’d just talk at me for the entire class.”

Hakyeon doesn’t really have anything to say to that, since he’d sort of liked Mai’s chatterbox tendencies, and stays silent. Taekwoon however remembers that he’d come here to prove a point, he does turn down the volume though.

“You don’t have any right to tell people to stay away from me. If I want to be friends with someone and they’re willing to put up with me, then it’s up to us to have a relationship that works. Wonshik is the first person in forever that doesn’t give a crap that I can’t speak around a lot of people, and he doesn’t get freaked out when I touch his arm a lot.”

Taekwoon thinks that may be the most he’s ever said at once. Hakyeon is thinking the same thing, trying to process the words and come up with an answer.

“I was worried that maybe you guys were going to get into something too fast and that you were going to get hurt.”

“What does that mean?”

Hakyeon sighs. “You’ve only known Wonshik for three weeks.”

That doesn’t sound right, Taekwoon frowns to himself. It can’t be only three weeks, it has to be longer. He feels like he’s known Wonshik for ages. Three weeks can’t be right… He did see Wonshik in the library for a long, long while, but he couldn’t say he knew Wonshik during that time. Did Wonshik feel the same way?

Hakyeon interrupts Taekwoon’s pondering. “It’s only been three weeks since you officially met each other and you’ve only seen him a few times since then and you’re already doing the arm touching thing with him. It took you a year to do that with me and two to do it with your foster mum, Woonie! You don’t even do that with Jaewhan and you’ve known him for three years now.”

“I was a little kid back then, Hakyeon! I didn’t know how to communicate!”

Hakyeon had never willingly brought up the abuse Taekwoon had suffered at the hands of his birth parents before. He’d known everything from the very beginning. Known that they’d beaten him every time he’d opened his mouth to make a sound from the time he was a baby. Known that when he was three Taekwoon had been taken away from his parents and put into foster care after a hospital had treated him a number of times, gotten suspicious and reported the abuse.

Hakyeon’s parents had told him that Taekwoon was put into kindergarten because adults scared him and maybe being around kids his own age would get him speaking. They hadn’t skimped out on the details and by the time he was five Hakyeon had known Taekwoon’s whole situation.

Taekwoon knew that Hakyeon knew everything there was to know about him, and he didn’t mind. It was up to Hakyeon to inform their friends of why he didn’t speak when he felt they were close enough to know. It was up to Hakyeon to talk to his teachers and lecturers and tutors over the years and explain why Taekwoon wouldn’t be participating in class discussions and presentations. It was up to Hakyeon to protect him from bullies, either in the form of other kids or teachers or parents. Taekwoon wouldn’t let it all be up to Hakyeon anymore. He was no longer a little kid that needed to be protected all the time.

Taekwoon is trying to sort the thoughts in his head when he happens to glance over at Hakyeon and see that the other is crying silently. Hakyeon is staring, waiting for Taekwoon to continue his scolding with tears on his cheeks.

“I’m sorry,” Taekwoon mutters, holding back his own tears. He’d only seen Hakyeon cry a few times before, but this time it was his fault.

Hakyeon shakes his head and hastily wipes away the tears he didn’t know were there. “Me too. I didn’t mean to get involved.”

They both take a minute to calm down before Taekwoon says. “I want you to apologise to Wonshik.”

“But he told you –”

“I know,” Taekwoon interrupts. “But I also know his side of it now. I wasn’t even upset when he told me to do that and it isn’t like he knows what he did to deserve this.”

“Hongbin mentioned something like that too,” Hakyeon pouts.

“I’ll ask Wonshik if I can tell you.”

“You’ll ask him?”

Taekwoon knows what the real question is.

“I want to talk to Wonshik. I want to talk about a lot of things with Wonshik.”

“Okay,” Hakyeon nods slowly. “I’ll apologise to Wonshik.”

Taekwoon sits down on the couch, putting his feet up on the coffee table. He knows how much Hakyeon hates it but he also knows that he’ll be allowed to get away with it today. Hakyeon joins him on the couch and waits.

“What?” Taekwoon asks after almost a minute of being stared at.

“I thought you were going to be angrier at me, to be honest.”

Taekwoon shifts down in his spot, embarrassed. “You were doing what you thought was best for me. Just don’t interfere in my relationships again.”

“Deal,” Hakyeon sighs. “I had extreme guilt the whole time anyway.”

They’re silent for a little but Taekwoon can sense Hakyeon’s question.

“Tomorrow.”

“What?” Hakyeon asks, surprised.

“I’ll try talk to Wonshik tomorrow. He completely ignored me the other day at the library though so I don’t know how that will go.”

“Sorry…” Hakyeon mutters. “How will you get him to talk to you if he’s avoiding you?”

“I don’t think it’ll take much.”