The last practice came fast and Wooseok had insisted on coming to watch them. Dongyeol knew that arguing wouldn’t get him anywhere in this case and since Wooseok had rested all week he didn’t see a problem in letting him come along.

They decided to head to their favorite diner to get milkshakes after practice. “Okay, if you play tomorrow like you did today, I have no doubt that you’ll win”, Wooseok told the team. “And I will personally beat your asses if you don’t!” he joked. Dongyeol caught Hwanhee’s gaze but the older looked away the very next second.

“We’re going to watch the game between the Steels and the Barons on Thursday evening. Are you coming along?” Gyujin asked Wooseok. The older took a sip from his strawberry milkshake before nodding. “I’ll be back for the final game so it only makes sense if I come along to check out our final opponent”, he replied.

“I just hope it’s not the Steels...”, Kogyeol said absent-mindedly. That caught the team’s attention. “Why not?” Wooseok questioned. Kogyeol sighed and sipped his vanilla milkshake. “Their captain is going to be my stepbrother soon”, he announced. Eight pairs of eyes widened and stared back at Kogyeol to determine if he was joking or not.

“Choi Suwon?! Wait, didn’t he and Jin-” “Apparently, his Mom is getting married to Choi’s Dad”, Jinwook interrupted Sooil, fixing him with a glare that shut his slightly younger teammate up immediately. Kogyeol looked from Sooil to Jinwook, obviously taking notice of their silent conversation.

“Well, Steels or not, I’m confident that we can actually win this season!” Wooseok spoke up, successfully directing the attention back to ice hockey. He caught Jinwook’s grateful glance in his direction. “Now, we should probably all go home and rest before tomorrow’s game”, he announced when he saw that everyone had finished their milkshakes.

~

Jinwook dropped off Dongyeol and Wooseok at their respective homes – Wooseok decided to actually sleep at his own place tonight – before driving to his place with Kogyeol. They didn’t talk much on the way. Jinwook hoped that his boyfriend hadn’t caught on to Sooil’s almost-slip-up back at the diner. That was something Kogyeol didn’t have to know.

They reached the apartment and went inside, still without talking. Jinwook had a weird feeling in his stomach. He knew how sharp Kogyeol was. He’d probably really figured out what Sooil had tried to say, which meant that Jinwook had to talk about it.

“I’m going to take a shower”, Kogyeol announced. Jinwook took a deep breath, bracing himself for the conversation to come. “Wait!” he called out. Kogyeol stopped in his tracks and turned to face him. “You’ve barely said anything to me since we left the diner...”, Jinwook pointed out. Kogyeol’s jaw tightened, like he was contemplating whether to say what was on his mind.

“You caught on to what Sooil was trying to say, haven’t you?” Jinwook questioned with a lowered head. There was a long silence in which Jinwook didn’t dare to meet Kogyeol’s eyes. He should have just been open about it but the younger had already been upset about his mother remarrying. He didn’t want to add to that pile with his messy past.

“Was there something between you and Choi Suwon?” Kogyeol asked suddenly, causing Jinwook to jump at the sound of his voice. He finally looked up and saw the younger staring directly at him. “Yes...”, he admitted. Kogyeol exhaled, his face unreadable.

“I’m going to take a shower”, he repeated and disappeared to the bathroom before Jinwook had the chance to say anything else. The older flinched at the sound of the bathroom door slamming shut. He let himself sink down on the bed, burying his head in his hands. He didn’t know what to make of the fact that Kogyeol didn’t want to talk about it.

Jinwook never would have thought that Choi Suwon would come back to haunt him like that. He should have known that it was too good to be true that their team never had to face the Steels in the year since he’d joined. He had done his best to avoid the fact that his ex was the captain of his team’s biggest rival. And now he was going to be his boyfriend’s stepbrother. Jinwook wanted to kick himself for not telling Kogyeol right away. What if the younger was mad enough to break up with him?

The bathroom door opened and Kogyeol stepped out, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. He walked over to the closet, which he and Jinwook had kind of started sharing since Kogyeol spent most of his time here anyway, without looking at the older. Jinwook wanted to say something but the words got stuck in his throat.

Finally, after getting dressed from the waist down, Kogyeol sat down on the bed next to him. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked. Jinwook stared at his own knees. “I don’t know...I don’t like to talk about him...”, he said with a small voice. “Are you mad at me?” he questioned, carefully looking at the younger. Kogyeol sighed and ran a hand through his damp hair.

“No...I just wish I’d known...everyone else seems to because they’ve known you longer than I have”, he answered. Jinwook reached for the younger’s hand. “I’ll tell you what went down between us if you want to know...”, he said, even though he had promised himself never to talk about it again. Choi Suwon was a part of his past that he had wanted to forget.

“You don’t have to. I don’t want to force you”, Kogyeol told him. Jinwook shook his head. “I don’t want any more secrets between us. I hate keeping things from you...I just wasn’t ready to talk about it, I guess...”, he replied. He took a deep breath and noticed that his hands were shaking.

“So...um, I met him in my freshman year and he seemed nice so we went on a few dates and, well, eventually got together. At first, it was pretty good...like, your average college relationship. But then he started changing. He was possessive...like, really possessive. I later found out that even beat up one of my classmates because he hugged me to thank me when he got a good grade on an exam I helped him study for. He would always call me his and he got aggressive when we...you know...”, Jinwook trailed off.

“I wanted to leave him, especially, after I found out that he beat up my classmate, which I only found out because I cornered him and asked him why he avoided me and why he was so bruised up...that poor kid was scared out of his mind, thinking I’d tell Suwon if he told me the truth...” He remembered not wanting to believe that Choi Suwon would actually go this far only to state a point.

“Yeah, as I said, I wanted to leave him...but, honestly, I was scared of him. Every time I mentioned taking a break he would literally go crazy, telling me that I couldn’t go anywhere and that he loved me and once he-...”, Jinwook’s voice broke at the most terrible memory he had of Choi Suwon.

Kogyeol’s grip tightened around his hand. Jinwook didn’t have to see his face to know that he was angry. “Did he force himself on you?” he asked through gritted teeth. Jinwook’s head snapped in the younger’s direction. “No! I mean...yeah, he tried but I fought back...but, then he lost his ...”, he explained.

“I got this from him”, Jinwook said and pointed at the little scar he had above his eyebrow. Kogyeol had, of course, seen the scar before but he’d never thought about the backstory, assuming Jinwook might have fallen as a child. Hearing the real story behind it made him ten times angrier than he already was.

“It was actually Wooseok who found me passed out in my room and he took me to the hospital. But, before you confront him about it, I begged him not to tell anyone about what happened. The others don’t know about that. All I let Wooseok tell them was that he got too violent...Wooseok is the only one who knows everything...”, Jinwook finished his story.

Kogyeol needed a few seconds before he trusted himself to speak again. “Did he stay away from you after that?” he finally questioned. “Sooil, Sungjun and Changhyun went to his place and threatened him to leave me alone and he seems to have taken it to heart...”, Jinwook answered. Kogyeol put his arm around Jinwook’s shoulders and pulled him into his bare side and pressed a kiss on top of his head.

“I’m sorry...”, he mumbled into Jinwook’s hair. “Why are you sorry?” the older asked. “Because I ed at you for not telling me...” “Don’t apologize for that...you didn’t know...”, Jinwook replied. “And that’s okay because I never wanted to bring it up again. It took me some time to get over everything that happened. I didn’t go outside until my face was completely healed and once it was I tried everything to avoid Suwon. I took a semester off from college and I managed to get it out of my system and now I’m no longer scared of him...”, Jinwook assured him.

“But how can I let my Mom marry his father now?” Kogyeol questioned. Jinwook looked up at him and intertwined their fingers. “I told you...give the man a chance. He doesn’t have to be like his son. I’ve never met him but from what I remember Suwon was never particularly close with him...”, he told the younger.

Kogyeol wasn’t sure if he could give Dr Choi a chance. And even if he could, he sure wouldn’t be able to play happy family with the guy who had dared to lay a hand on the love of his life. The feeling of Jinwook’s lips on his cheek ripped Kogyeol from his thoughts.

“Let’s go to sleep for now. Wooseok will kill us if we’re not in a good condition tomorrow”, the older said softly. “I should shower first, though...”, he added. Kogyeol wasn’t quite ready to let Jinwook go yet. He wanted his boyfriend to know that he was here for him and that he would protect him from guys like Choi Suwon. Most importantly, he wanted Jinwook to know that he would never treat him like that.

He let Jinwook go eventually, though he was still a bit reluctant. He never would have guessed that his boyfriend had such a terrible secret. The older’s story ran through Kogyeol’s head the entire time while he got comfortable in bed and waited for Jinwook to finish showering. When he did, Kogyeol opened his arms for the older. Jinwook chuckled quietly but welcomed his boyfriend’s embrace. He always managed to fall asleep quicker in his arms anyway.