Jonghyun was outside in his car waiting to pick his boyfriend up to go to school. He texted him a few minutes ago to let him know he was outside and waited patiently for him. 

His little brother Taemin sat in the back seat just playing a game on his phone, he went to the same school as him, just a few grades lower.

He leaned his head back and rested his arm over his eyes. He was tired and overworked from his job the past few months. But he needed money to pay off his car payments and to provide other necessities for himself since his mother and step-father saw no need to care for him anymore, even though he was only eighteen. 

Taemin was his half brother. They had different dads, and he couldn’t stand his step-father. His real father provided no support for him either.

But these are stories for later. Jonghyun just wanted to focus on the now. 

His head popped up when he heard his car door on his passenger seat being opened up. 

"Hey Bummie." He said getting ready to start up the car again. But he haulted his movements when he didn't get a response. He looked over to him and noticed his strange appearance. Over his uniform he wore a big grey sweater with the hood covering up his face and over his eyes. 

"Kibum what's wrong-" 

He tried asking when he leaned forward to try to assess what was wrong with him. But his boyfriend only turned his head towards the car window, further hiding his face from him. Taemin looked up from his phone and looked between the two curious to Kibum’s behavior, but didn’t say anything. 

"Just drive, please." Kibum said in a monotoned voice. 

Jonghyun just sighed and started up the car to fulfill his request. His boyfriend had mood swings sometimes. 

They drove in complete silence watching the grey colored sky drop small droplets of rain. The droplets penetrating the windows lightly, causing the only presence of sound that existed in their moment. They arrived to school some minutes early and had time to sit and talk. They usually did this, so Jonghyun was surprised when he saw Kibum immediately unbuckle his seatbelt and try to hop out the car. Seeing that this situation might make a turn for the worst, Taemin saw it as best to just leave quietly and let the two handle their situation.

Jonghyun caught hold of Kibum’s sleeve. 

"Whoa, whoa! Bum where are you going? We're early." 

Kibum tried yanking his arm away but Jonghyun wouldn't let go. 

"I know. Just let go." 

"Talk to me for a minute." 

"No! I said let go!" Kibum finally snatched his arm away and was free from his hold. Jonghyun jumped out the car. 

Then it hit him. 

He knew what was wrong. 

Kibum was hurriedly walking away trying to take fast paced steps but stopped when Jonghyun jumped in front of him. He held one of Kibum arms to keep him in place and used his other hand to swiftly throw off his hood covering his face. 

He gasped. 

Kibum’s right eye was swollen shut with purple and red hues to bring even more attention to it. His lip was busted and swollen as well, perfectly matching his eye. 

"I-i thought you said h-he stopped?" Jonghyun stuttered from shock. Kibum shrugged not giving him an answer. "Answer me! I thought you said he stopped?!" He said unintentionally raising his voice causing his boyfriend to scoff. "Well he did stop hitting me...in obvious areas for a while at least..." 

The light rain still fell from the sky on their heads and faces. Their clothes slowly becoming wet and sticky from the light rain. 

"Why would you lie to me about something like that?! You said your dad stopped hitting you months ago! I thought you meant completely!" 

"I didn't want you to worry about me anymore..." 

"What? Why wouldn't I Kibum? I care about you, I love you." 

Kibum always cringed whenever he heard Jonghyun say those three words. He hadn't said this back to Jonghyun in the three years that they had been together, but Jonghyun never shyed away from saying it. 

"Let's just go, schools about to start." Kibum said trying to avoid this whole conversation. 

"What? I'm taking you to the school nurse first." 

"God Jonghyun, can we please just not do this right now?" He begged. Jonghyun's hold tightened on him a little bit. 

"Let's skip school today, okay? Let me take care of you. Just me and you.”  Jonghyun tried. 

"Jonghyun, please!" Kibum yelled. 

Now he was irritated and pissed. Jonghyun knew this was the time to back off. Kibum always got like this if he doted on him too much or when he would be concerned with his past injuries. 

He released him and had his arms lay loosely at his sides. Kibum threw his hoodie back on and just walked away from his worried boyfriend. 

• 

Kibum wasn't good with expressing his feelings all to well. That's why he wondered why Jonghyun stayed with him, because he knew he was the exact opposite. 

Kibum was quiet, not shy, but he  preferred to keep to himself. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t the nicest person around. He was easily agitated and impatient. This explained why he had no friends in school. 

Except Jonghyun.

 People also saw him as an outcast and just never bothered to speak to him either. He and Jonghyun met freshman year in their history class. 

Kibum was quiet by choice but Jonghyun wasn't. Jonghyun was shy and distant around people, but he was nice and liked to talk to new people.

They had a group project together and they just...clicked. They became friends before Jonghyun confessed to him a year later and ask him to be his boyfriend, at the time Kibum figured "why the hell not?". He hadn't had a boyfriend and just started dating him for the hell of it...at first. 

He didn't date him for the right reasons at first but over the years his feelings developed and turned genuine. Although Jonghyun tended to over think and was easily provoked emotionally he was the sweetest and most caring person he ever met. Now he couldn't imagine being separated from him. 

After a while he had this feeling that they were meant to be together because of how they clicked so fast. It felt natural. It felt like they had always been together. It was a strange feeling...

He fell for him quick, but hadn't been able to say those three words that Jonghyun said to him so often. He didn't know why, he just wasn't able to say this back to him yet. But Jonghyun never bothered him over it. 

They always stuck together because no one else wanted to associate with them. Besides their distant personalities it may also be due to the fact that they were the only gay couple in the school. But they wouldn’t let that phase their relationship. 

He stopped daydreaming about his boyfriend and scribbling his name in his notebook when he heard his teacher call his name for role call. He looked down at the twenty plus time he sketched Jonghyun's name into his notebook. He cringed at himself, he looked like some love sick high school teenager. 

But wasn't he just that? 

He had started thinking of him when he thought about how worried he possibly made him. Now he felt bad... 

When the teacher got to his name she called it out and stopped to look at him to make sure he was actually present. When her eyes landed on his face she gasped loudly causing other people to stare and turn back to look at him. Great, now all eyes on him. He hated being the center of attention. Even more so when his bruises from his loving father were evident. "Here." He answered, hoping now that everyone would turn away. 

But they didn't. 

"...Kibum do you need to see the school nurse?" His teacher asked. 

"I don’t see why I would." He answered sarcastically with little to no emotion in his voice. The students continued to stare to stare at him. 

"What?! What are you guys looking at?" He snapped. At this the students slowly averted their eyes from him one by one. The teacher cleared and continued role call. 

• 

Jonghyun was in his last class eagerly awaiting for school to be over so he could speak to see his boyfriend. 

Their senior year they didn't share any classes together, much to his dismay and discomfort. Especially since he had a couple of specialized classes for him because he had trouble reading because of his dyslexia. He was self conscious of this fact, but Kibum always tried to make him feel better about it and helped him practice reading and writing outside of school.

He only felt comfortable around Kibum. Not having him around much in school this year wrecked his nerves. 

He didn’t know if Kibum was safe sometimes or if he would get into another argument with a teacher or student. Occurrences like that have happened over the course of the years. Bullies would sometimes attack them or Kibum would get into verbal arguments with his teachers or fights with other students because of his or their snarky remarks. Having classes with him made him feel at ease because he was able to calm him down if Kibum’s mouth got out of hand.

He nervously tapped his pencil against his desk and chewed on his nail while he stared at the clock above his teachers head. 

When the bell finally rung he jumped out of his chair. He had to walk pass a group of boys that he hated to go by to get out of class.

 "Look, I bet that illiterate is running off to his little boyfriend." One of the boys said. Jonghyun stumbled over his feet a little. He tried not to let comments like those affect him. It's not like he didn't hear it at home anyway, what difference would some high school boys make? 

He kept walking and listening to them snicker and say more disrespectful comments. But he was shocked when he found himself falling face down onto the floor suddenly when one of the boys tripped him. 

"ing s..." He said rubbing the side of his cheek as he stood up. 

"What did you say Kim? Wonna be brave all of a sudden, huh?!" The guy that tripped him yelled. 

Jonghyun gathered the things he dropped and walked out. To his dismay three of the boys started taunting him as they followed him down the hall. 

He met up with his younger brother outside his last class as usual to take them home.

“Leave him alone!” Taemin said as he saw the boys were still following him. Taemin was a small skinny freshman, so obviously they didn’t take him seriously and just laughed in his face. Jonghyun patted his back to put Taemin at ease somewhat. He felt bad for his little brother as he was picked on for having a gay reclusive brother. 

“I bet he’s gay just like his brother!” One bully said.

“Let’s just go Tae.” Jonghyun said calmly. He didn’t want him to get involved.

He met Kibum in the usual spot they met after school near his car. 

When Kibum saw them coming he ran up to him with the intentions of telling the other guys off. 

"As usual I see you you soon-to-be-drop outs have nothing better to do, leave him alone dickheads." He hissed walking past Jonghyun to confront the boys. One of the bigger boys stepped up to Kibum in a threatening manner. 

“Aww saving your little illiterate boyfriend huh?” One guy taunted.

“Wow! I’m surprised you even know what that big word means!” Kibum said with a fake shocked expression. “...because if my memory serves me correctly, you had the lowest marks in our korean class...right? So low, you were close to failing the easiest course.” Kibum said tapping his chin with a fake concerned expression.

Jonghyun sighed at his boyfriends behavior.

The guy taunting them took a step closer to Kibum almost in his personal space, alerting Jonghyun.

“Listen -“

“Tsk, keep your mouth shut and save me the trouble of having to breathe through my mouth. I don’t care enough to listen to what you have to say anyway.” Kibum said covering his nose in disgust.

The bully was now fuming and had a dark look in his eye.

"How would you like another black eye to match that one?" He said clenching fist. 

Kibum clenched up his fists as if he was ready to fight back, but with that said Jonghyun stepped up and harshly pushed the bigger boy back causing him to stumble. 

"Lay a ing hand on him. I dare you." Jonghyun growled. He pulled Kibum and Taemin off in the direction of his car and practically pushed them in. He had to force Kibum in the car as he kept screaming insults and challenging them. He got in the drivers seat and practically raced off.

 The weather was still dreary and dark outside. But at least the rain stopped. 

"They didn’t touch you guys did they?" Kibum mumbled. 

“No.” Taemin said lowly.

Jonghyun chose not to answer and instead chose to ask his own question. 

"How's your eye and lip? I can still turn back and take you to the nurse you know." And now Kibum took his turn not to answer him. 

They drove in silence, again. Kibum hesitantly spoke up when he saw what direction Jonghyun was driving in. 

"Take me home, please." 

"No way, you can't spend the night there. I'm not taking you home." He said firmly. "I'm not arguing with you on this. Take me home, now." Jonghyun rolled his eyes. "Why are you so stubborn?" 

"And why are you so annoying?!" He barked back. 

He immediately saw Jonghyun's face change into a solemn expression. 

"Sorry. I didn't know me caring about you annoyed you." Jonghyun relectantly made a u-turn in the direction of Kibum's home. When they got there Kibum got out. Usually when they departed they would kiss or show some type of affection, but they were irritated with each other right now. But before Jonghyun could pull off, Kibum spoke. 

"Look...how about this. After you get off work tomorrow you can come see me and take care of me however you want." He spoke to him softly.

"Why don’t you come home with me. Stay the night." Jonghyun pressed. 

"Your parents hate me." 

"It's not like they don't hate me either. Just come, it's not safe for you to stay here." Kibum contemplated it. It wasn't the first time he spent the night at Jonghyun's after being beaten. 

But Jonghyun's parents hated seeing them together, but they somewhat pittied Kibum whenever Jonghyun would bring him over littered in bruises. He honestly didn't want to stay with his alcoholic father either. But he hated making Jonghyun worry, but maybe he should worry about his health first. But still... 

"I’ll be fine Jjong.” Kibum whispered. Jonghyun huffed but stepped out of the car to hug him and plant a soft kiss on his cheek since his lips were busted. 

"I'll pick you up after work tomorrow, okay? Pack your things." He whispered in his ear. 

Kibum nodded.

“Bye Taem. Let me know if any guys give you trouble.” Kibum said.

“Thanks Hyung.” Taemin said with small smile.

He drive off once he saw Kibum get to his house safely.

“What the hell happened to Kibum’s face?” Taemin asked once he was out of sight.

Taemin was nice and a good kid, but sometimes he let the first