Apr. 14, 20XX
Of Paper Planes and Paper HeartsAfter that day, an idea came to Junhui's mind where he knew now it would be the best if he started planning out sessions to help Jeonghan if the plan was mutual for both sides. Now here Junhui was, staring intently even though the atmosphere was rather awkward but he had to accomplish something or else they'd be back to square one. He spoke up quietly, "Jeonghan, my eyes are up here."
The long-haired boy still flinched at the sound of his voice as he was looking at the couch that they were sitting on as though there was something new about it as he fiddled with his fingers. Jeonghan barely turned his gaze upwards before immediately letting out a small yelp and looking down again, his now red ear peaking through his hair.
He could only sigh and lean back in defeat, wondering what he could possibly do now that he was cold-free and spring had fully taken place. Junhui murmurs a rant of some sort, "I'm completely stumped here. We made some sort of progress when you stepped out of your house and we've been trying to make these sessions in trying to progress further but I feel like we're missing a crucial step somewhere... Now that I think about it, do you keep eye contact with Yewon whenever you guys talk to each other?"
Jeonghan shook his head, making Junhui think of a different plan, "How about you try keeping eye contact with Yewon then?" and that was where Jeonghan flinched as the coincident of the door opening happened, revealling said girl.
"Yah Junhui, I thought I told you to make sure oppa stays in his room while I'm away even if you guys are doing your session things! We don't want another PTSD moment to happen now do we?!" Yewon's voice was raised in irritation as per usual for Junhui but that line did bring up a certain point: the day that Jeonghan left the house was the only day where he wasn't afraid of the barriers between his house and the outside world. His fear of going outside and being exposed it it came back once Junhui got better.
Somehow she still manage to scare Junhui- especially with that door slam in her moment of anger and forgetting that Jeonghan disliked and was afraid of loud noises- and he can only stutter, "I-I know, but do you mind coming over here for a moment?" to try to move to a different topic as he got up from his seat and motioned for the small girl to sit where he was sitting.
Yewon raised an eyebrow at the motion before following along with Junhui's motions, she turns to Junhui after sitting down, asking, "Is this another part to your session thing?"
"Yeah, I'm just trying to figure something out right now though but this should be a good first step for him," Junhui informed, "Hey, Jeonghan, can you try now?"
She looks back to her older brother in confusion as the latter didn't move at all, fiddling with his fingers. Slowly, Jeonghan raises his head slightly and meets Yewon's confused gaze with his own scared one for a good couple seconds before his cheeks turned a light pink and he looks back down, fiddling with his fingers more.
"Are you trying to help with his anthropophobia first?" Yewon asked, a concerned look on her face.
"Well that's what I've been trying to do. I was thinking that since you're the closest to him that maybe that was the first step to helping him..." Junhui murmured, deep in thought.
"But I'm not the closest to him."
The sentence put an abrupt stop to his train of thoughts as he saw Yewon's ashamed gaze as she looked away, "I... Well, yes I've been there to protect him... but there are some things that even I don't know about him... all I know is that those that were closest to him were the same reasons why he has so many problems."
Junhui could only scratch the back of his head as he looks over to Jeonghan, who's head was now dipped lower than before. He lets out a small sigh because he really did want to help the boy but the first step seemed too far and too complicated.
"Is there a different step to start with?" Junhui turns back to Yewon, "It would be helpful if you gave me a list... well, that is if Jeonghan doesn't mind that I know," a quick glance and he sees a small but quick shake of the head from Jeonghan.
Yewon lets out a small sigh herself before using her fingers to count, "Anthropophobia, social anxiety disorder, PTSD, agoraphobia, and somewhat minor haphephobia. Five- you have a total of five starting points."
"The last part I haven't heard about," Junhui said.
"Well like I said, I consider it somewhat minor for the reason that only I can touch him without anything going terribly wrong and even then it has to be light touching," Yewon said, "That's one of the reasons why we're not living with our parents- they are really protective and soft-hearted people so sometimes they'll make skin contact with oppa forgetting that he has haphephobia. Other than that, oppa ends up scratching the area he's been touched until he bleeds."
That was where realization and panic dawned on Junhui as he thought back to the day that he was sick and how he heard all of the shuffling. He turns back to Jeonghan, "W-Wait, but your hand... when I was sick..." and he thought back to previous sessions where he remembered that he was too focused on eye contact.
And at that Yewon managed to connect the pieces before turning to her older brather, worry laced into the tone of her voice, "Oppa, did you...?"
Suddenly, Jeonghan stood up as he held his hand with his head down and quickly walked back upstairs and to his room, leaving the room in tense silence.
"... It's best if we leave him alone for now..." Yewon said quietly as she staired at the stair case.
"... I'm-"
"Don't apologize. Just... for now, give him some space... I'll call you out if something bad happens again."
Just know that it isn't your guys' fault either... so Junhui wanted to say but he could only slowly but surely grab his school bag before quietly leaving the house, too many thoughts pounding against his head.
Comments