III: Tolerance

On Angel's Wings
Please Subscribe to read the full chapter

III

 

Tolerance

   

Jonghui asks him questions everyday, and they range from where he came from to what kind of tea he prefers (and there are few that Baekhyun can answer honestly and even more that he has no idea how to answer, such as the tea one). By the time he’s been staying with her for three and a half days, Baekhyun has already picked up on her pattern of asking questions— one in the morning after they have finished breakfast, one at lunch after they finish eating, and finally, one after dinner. He tries to avoid the questions as best as he can, but somehow he can never quite dodge them.

 

He tries to avoid Jonghui, also by staying in the bedroom she lent him, but seeing her is inevitable because she doesn’t seem to work and is mostly always at home. Baekhyun doesn’t quite trust himself to wander around the house carelessly (especially the one time he was exploring the kitchen when Jonghui had gone shopping, and out of curiosity the stove and forgot to turn it off, which she actually got quite frightened about when she came back) and there’s so many things that he isn’t sure how to use. The cluelessness makes him mad, but the thought of asking Jonghui how to use the light makes him even madder. Thus Baekhyun remains in darkness when night comes and sleeps early, because he can’t quite figure out how the lights work.

 

(And really, he’s more or less thankful sometimes that she doesn’t mention when he has to leave or if he even has to, but Baekhyun doesn’t relay that thanks to her.)

 

One thing he notices about Jonghui is the calendar she keeps next to where she places her laptop. Each day that passes is marked with a red pen, and when Baekhyun flips open the calendar, it only goes up to October.

 

“Why is it that short?” he asks Jonghui, when she comes back the day after he found out about the calendar (and Baekhyun thinks that it’s probably the first time he willingly started a conversation with Jonghui). “It only goes up to October, and there are still two more months after that. What happened to November and December?”

 

Just this one time, it’s very obvious to Baekhyun that she’s not smiling— in fact, she looks kind of scared and very sad. “Five months from now may be all I have,” she tells Baekhyun, and the somberness in her tone is hard to miss. Baekhyun doesn’t quite understand why she looks that way or why she seems so unlike herself, but he drops the subject. Still, he can’t help but glance at the calendar: May 19th is the date today. May 18th is crossed out with the red pen that lies beside the calendar. Undeniably, Baekhyun acknowledges that he is still curious what the calendar is for and why it’s so abnormal, but he doesn’t ask her anymore.

 

Jonghui is back and smiling after the incident with the calendar, and Baekhyun counts six days that he’s been with her. It’s tiresome and fruitless to try to avoid her, so Baekhyun forces himself to sit through conversations with her (they aren’t half as bad as he tells himself they are).

 

On the eighth day (by then, Baekhyun’s caught Jonghui turning on and off the lights and he knows how to do so), the doorbell rings and Jonghui opens the door to a stranger.

 

She looks startled for a moment and Baekhyun freezes and stares at the stranger in shock. He’s never left the house since he arrived, nor has he seen anyone other than Jonghui, so seeing the other boy at the door is quite odd. And, Baekhyun notices, the boy is taller than him, and even taller than Jonghui still. It makes him feel annoyingly insignificant.

 

“Jongin!” she finally exclaims after a moment of dead silence, “I haven’t seen you in a long time. You should phone me if you’re going to, uh, visit.”

 

“Since when did I ever phone you for something like that?” he asks, though he’s no longer looking at her. Baekhyun feels the boy’s eyes zero in on him and he unfreezes, crossing his arms and glaring back. Jonghui follows Jongin’s gaze and turns to look at him also, and then smiles sheepishly. In his peripheral vision, he can see Jonghui tapping her fingers against her jeans in an odd kind of pattern and she looks extremely nervous.

 

“This is Byun Baekhyun,” she says, and Jongin frowns at him. Baekhyun mimics the frown. “Baekhyun, this is Kim Jongin.”

 

“Byun Baekhyun,” Jongin repeats incredulously. “Jonghui… why is there a boy at your house? I don’t remember Jongdae being friends with him. Is he one of the international kids your brother is housing?”

 

“Uh, Jongdae actually doesn’t know he’s here…”

 

Jongin steps through the doorframe, and close up, he’s even taller. Baekhyun raises his chin.

 

“Then why’s he here?”

 

Jonghui’s fingers continue to tap on her legs, now faster, and Baekhyun continues to hold Jongin’s glare. He remembers Jonghui mentioning something about having a brother, but she also said her brother was approximately the same height as him and Jongin is definitely not the same height. Apart from the similarity in their names, Kim Jonghui and Kim Jongin look nothing alike, either. Jongin’s skin is more sun-kissed, features more prominent and all in all, there’s no way possible they could be siblings.

 

“Um, the thing is, last week—”

 

“He’s been here for a week?”

 

Jonghui raises her hands as if trying to pacify Jongin but he looks positively furious. “See, the thing is, he was injured—”

 

“You could’ve sent him to the hospital if it were that bad! He’s a man, Jonghui, and you just let him in? Even though he looks really scrawny, you’re not going to be able to do anything if he decides to do anything to you—”

 

“He’s a nice person.”

 

Baekhyun chokes, and unsuccessfully tries to turn it into a cough. Nice person? He’s not sure why Jonghui is even trying to cover for him, because even he admits that he’s been anything but nice to her. Not that he actually did anything bad, either, but still…

 

“You’ve known him for a week! There’s no saying if he’s a nice person or not.”

 

Jonghui crosses her arms, unwavering, and there’s an odd air of certainty and stubbornness around her. “If he wanted to, he would’ve done whatever a long time ago. Anyways, if you’re here to argue— gosh, you didn’t even bring Sehun— then you can leave. Or buy my groceries for me and make yourself useful.”
 

“What about him? What has he done?”

 

“What about me?” Baekhyun can’t help but shoot back, “Who are you anyways? Her brother?”

 

“Her cousin.”

 

Makes more sense.

 

“So what?” he says instead.

 

“Stop being childish, you two.” There’s an air of authority in Jonghui’s voice that’s hard to miss, and she marches towards the living room. Baekhyun’s never seen her like this and though it’s hard to describe, Jonghui simply appears stronger. He finds himself following her to the living room, and there’s an underlying threat that hides behind the calmness in her voice (“Continue being childish, or else”) that makes both him and Jongin obey.

 

The taller boy seems to have given up on arguing with Jonghui, and Baekhyun decides that he should hold his own arguments back also.

 

***

 

“You’re really not going to do anything bad?” Jongin has calmed down a lot, but there is no doubt that Baekhyun still feels uncomfortable sitting at such a close proximity to him on the couch.

 

“What do you think he’d do?” Jonghui calls from the kitchen. “He’s not a bad person!”

 

Baekhyun feels Jongin looking at him, but he refuses to look back and stares at the opposite wall instead. He feels insulted— very— and though he’d rather not here on Jongin expand on ‘what he thought he would do (because it’s not a pleasant imagery),’ he’s still offended that Jongin would assume he would do such vile things. Me, a seraphim— well a once-seraphim… insulted by a human, and Jonghui’s cousin no less—

 

“Noona,” Jongin finally calls back, “When are you going to tell me why he’s actually here? And why you didn’t even tell your brother?”

 

“I’ll tell Jongdae when I want to. Please don’t mention anything to him. And actually, Baekhyun refuses to tell me much, so in all honestly, I don’t know why he’s here either.”

 

“You ask too many questions,” Baekhyun grumbles back, though Jonghui sticks her head out of the kitchen and seems to have overheard. The rest of her body appears and she walks out with a plate of food.

 

“You answer too little questions,” she shoots back, before setting the plate down in front of Jongin. “Water? And you haven’t told me why you’re here today at this time. You normally get off on weekdays around six, even with Sehun helping you out. Did you ditch him and come here? He’s going to be mad at you again.”  

 

It’s Jongin’s turn to look a bit embarrassed, and he fidgets next to Baekhyun (and it’s annoying, so Baekhyun scooches even further away from the other boy to avoid all contact). “Actually… uh…”

 

“Jongdae sent you to check on me?”

 

Jongin glances

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter
Like this story? Give it an Upvote!
Thank you!
Emilieee
[6/28/2017] Ignore the last update IDK what happened lol

Comments

You must be logged in to comment
jade3579
#1
Chapter 1: U KNOW IM GOING TO DEVORE THIS


this will prob b the first story i read on here after like5 years of doing nothing
poprocksgum
#2
Chapter 20: I was reading cutlass and x marks the spot earlier this week and wanted to read something else but i didn’t realise that this was an angst fic and now i just cried for over an hour straight😭😭
pxstellxx
#3
Chapter 21: Such a wonderful story. I read almost all of your works and this is one of the best beside Cutlass. The ending and the epilogue… made me cried. Even though I don’t cry as much as Jongdae’s :D
beesoondingie
#4
Chapter 20: Hi! I've been crying for like two hours nonstop while reading the last chapters and all I can say is: I love you and I hate you so much, Emily hahaha (*sobs*). Anyway, thank you for writing 😭💙 (((Btw, I'm not sure if I'm imagining things but I'm convinced that Chanyeol was somehow in that past hurtful life that Baek choose to forget (*continues sobbing*))))
SwooshingHana
#5
Chapter 20: Hii!

I've mostly been a silent reader, but if I'm honest it's because I was too engrossed in the story lmao.

I really really really enjoyed this. I've had a hard time mourning the people I've lost, and this story was incredibly reminiscent of my journey to healing in the best of ways. I don't know if I'm completely healed yet but just being able to read this with a fond smile instead of being filled with bitterness tells a lot.

Thank you for you, and thank you for doing that for free! Lotsa love.
Baekkyoongja
#6
Chapter 21: 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
Baekkyoongja
#7
Chapter 20: 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 am sorry that I didn’t comment in each chapter.. everything is so perfect am crying again but because am so happy, at least they will have time together again in heaven 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
Baekkyoongja
#8
Chapter 19: OMG.. I can’t stop crying 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭.. Omg… and that’s so deep the forget-me-nots.. 😭😭
owlettenvr #9
Chapter 21: Why am i only seeing this fic now where have i been?! This is so good and I’ve been following cutlass from the beginning and x marks the spot and prodigy aahh youre such an awesome writer i mean i really really love your writing, thank you for all the storie \^_^/