Chapter 23 – Offers and Agreements

“I'm back!”, I shouted through the house, finally able to relax my shoulders as I took off my thick jacket. I had been thinking about Minhyuk's reaction to me being cold for the whole day and to be honest, I felt bad for having him grow desperate. I wanted to see what he'd do now. How he'd talk to me, if he even did. I didn't receive a reply at first but could make out the sound of someone rummaging upstairs right before casting a glance at the living room where Jooheon was sitting at the table. Déjà vu, I thought, suppressing a roll of my eyes as I walked up to him who was doing his homework.

“What happened yesterday? With Exo, I mean”, his rough voice sounded before I had even reached his chair though he didn't bother looking up.

“Uhm... Nothing big, I don't like those Exo guys and taught them to watch their manners, that's it”, I mumbled, leaning on the table, but Jooheon didn't seem very convinced.

“Then why has Minhyuk been cracking up ever since he came back?” He stood up to glare at me from narrow eyes. “Did you do something to him as well?”

“What? No, I-”

“Hyungwon.” I froze when I heard Minhyuk's voice. What was wrong, why was Jooheon worrying about him when I had done all I could to prevent him from getting hurt? It didn't make sense.

The student turned to look at Minhyuk. “You know, you've been weird the whole day and since you won't tell-”

He cut him off with a wave of his hand, his eyes fixed on me. “You'll go to the bathroom right now and sit down on the chair. Don't even think of objecting.” I blinked in confusion, unable to move and he covered the room's width to stop right in front of me and shove me back, inevitably hitting my damaged ribs. His brows raised when I couldn't suppress a hiss. “What are you waiting for? You didn't hear me? Get moving.”

I glanced at Jooheon once more who seemed to be just as shocked as me before stumbling up the stairs. What the hell was going on?

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Hyungwon wanted to play running-away-from-your-problems again? Well, I didn't.

I grabbed a few things from the little bathroom shelves and stared at them for a moment before raising a brow at the person that was awkwardly sitting in the middle of the room. He moved, just a bit, but I could see how he wanted to stand up. “I told you to keep sitting.”

He froze and his jaw tensed as he let himself fall back onto the chair. “Look, I'm tired-”

“What's with your chest? Must be the most tiring thing today.”

He stared at me for a solid ten seconds, inspecting my blank face until he started chewing on his bottom lip. “Y-you are...”

My shoulders lowered with a sigh and I walked over, crouching down so that I wouldn't make him feel uncomfortable by towering over him. “Yeah, I'm worried. I can tell something's not right, so just let me patch you up and we're good, okay?”

Hyungwon clawed at his sweater, not exactly knowing where to look. “I can do it myself.”

“Sure you can. Now, where does it hurt?” He had to huff at my persistence.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Do I need more of a reason than helping a hurt friend?”

“Friend?” He lowered his gaze to the ground and chewed on his bottom lip, contemplating on something for another moment before actually giving in. “Alright.” I couldn't suppress the urge to take a sharp breath once he had lifted his shirt over his head to reveal a giant rainbow-colored bruise on the right side of his torso.

“Huh”, he muttered, looking at himself in the mirror. “Didn't think it would look that bad.”

I swallowed, my eyes darting from his face to the bruise and back up again and I didn't allow myself to appreciate how well he was built despite his skinny arms. Well, maybe I did, however, I cleared my throat and touched the bruise with my cold fingertips, causing goosebumps to form on his skin. “What happened?”

“It was during the fight with Yi-...uh...Lay. He went all out to hit me, I guess”, Hyungwon stated while inspecting the dark spot himself and I raised my head to find our faces just about ten centimeters apart which had him turn away in a hurry. “I-it would be best to just stabilize it for now”

“Stabilize, yeah, right”, I stuttered, motioning him to stand up as I started wrapping his chest with gauze, causing him to take a few strained breaths while tightening the fabric to make sure it wouldn't be too loose.

We remained silent for a while but then his expression turned into a slight frown. “Why does it feel like this isn't the first time you're taking care of something like that?”, he asked seemingly casually but I saw him play with his fingers as though he was anxious.

“Jooheon”, was all I mumbled before letting out a sigh. “You can't imagine how often the wretch gets into fights at college.”

His fingers stopped moving and he let out a snort. “Oh, I think I can. I wonder...What about Changkyun? Do they catch him often when he tries to steal?”

A lopsided smirk appeared on my face and I ran my hand over the gauze to straighten it out. “Sadly, they don't. He's a hit and run kind of guy, stealing and then hiding somewhere nobody really knows until they give up on finding him. If they do get him before that, he'll go to Kihyun who will take care of his injuries in silence. It's one of the rare moments where both are quiet and don't argue. Kihyun always remains clear-headed when it comes to injuries, he would've become a great doctor if he hadn't... well, yeah.” I glanced at his frown for a moment and raised a brow. “We're some sick bunch of idiots, right?”

Hyungwon looked away, pressing his lips together and I saw him suppress a slight smile. “Yeah, I wonder why I'm even here.” He was so different from before. He let me help him. We were getting closer and it filled me with a feeling of relief.

“Like will to like, I guess.” My eyes fell on a row of six numbers on his waist, their pitch black color forming a contrast with his white skin and I let my index finger run across them. 041394. He shivered. “What's that?”

Hyungwon kept looking at himself in the mirror, not daring to let his gaze stray towards me again, but he knew exactly what I was talking about. “It's a mistake from many years ago.”

“What does it mean?” I pulled on the gauze once last time to tighten it and he clenched his teeth before I patted the dressing. “All done.”

He quickly pulled his sweater over his head and clenched his fists, causing me to my head to the side. “They are my parents' birthdays and my year of birth.”

“Oh, but that's rather cute. Why do you say it's a mistake?” He huffed and took a deep breath before turning towards me with a weird look on his face I couldn't quite classify.

“Cute? I don't think my parents ever want to see me again and neither do I. They're probably wishing for me to have kicked the bucket on the streets. I don't think that's what you should call cute.”

I put a hand on his shoulder and for one of the first times he didn't shake it off. “Why are you saying this? How can you be sure-”

“I wouldn't be here if they loved me. But I was never the perfect son, so, why should they in the first place?” He let out a dry laugh and opened the door to the corridor to make his way downstairs without giving me a chance to hold him back, so I quickly uttered my thoughts.

“Every child is perfect the way it is. You can't be an imperfect son.”

He stopped in his tracks and looked up at my face at the top of the staircase, a sad smile gracing his lips. “I wish they'd thought the same back then.”

“Good thing you found us”, I whispered, proudly returning his smile though I wasn't sure whether he could actually hear the last bit. “Because in this house we're all just right.”

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I would never admit it, but after getting my chest wrapped up in gauze I really felt a lot better. Yes, it was a bit hard to move every now and then, but at least I didn't thoughtlessly make a wrong move. I also felt a lot lighter, metaphorically of course. Once I had sat down on the couch in the living room Jooheon cocked his head to the side and closed his books to rest his feet on top of them on the table. “Well?”

He didn't need to ask twice, but I still took my time, trying to read his books' titles without much success. “I was injured, he was worried. No big deal.”

No big deal, huh? My mind replayed the way Minhyuk had made sure that the gauze was just tight enough, his gaze fixed on the fabric in concentration. The way he had noticed the numbers. The way he just mentioned them in passing as though this wasn't the only thing about me I couldn't hide from the guys. He simply trusted me when I explained their meaning and I was relieved but also feeling bad for him. I'd have to tell him the whole truth someday. And I could only hope that I would be able to do it before he had to find out on his own.

I felt Jooheon's gaze boring holes into my skull and I cleared my throat in a hurry. Change of topic. Quick. “I heard you get into lots of fights at college?”

“Yeah.” He leaned back and started rocking his chair back and forth. “Surprised?”

“Not really.” We both shrugged. “But I was just wondering...what exactly are you fighting for?”

He stopped for a moment, pursing his lips while I heard Minhyuk come down the stairs. “Not quite sure. Honor, maybe?”

“There's nothing honorable about someone who's walking around randomly beating guys into a pulp”, Minhyuk mentioned, walking past us and into the kitchen with a roll of his eyes only I could see.

“It's not at random!”, Jooheon growled, his head snapping towards the kitchen door. “They are all hating on my damn parents, what am I supposed to do? Theirs are the ones who are , why should I let them ing step on-”

“I hate it when you get worked up”, Minhyuk interrupted without even shooting a glance at the other. “You're getting vulgar.”

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