The Desperate
Love In Pieces
“Byun Sohyun, you literally said five more minutes.”
Earning an irritated grunt from the young lady, Baekhyun stepped into the room completely marching towards his sister. “Yah.” The older brother calls out making her face him, only to get a finger flick right on her forehead. “Oppa, what’s that for?” She cries before looking back to the mirror, checking if the flick has made any crack on her full-coverage foundation. “You’re fifteen, you don’t need this much product on your face.” Baekhyun lectured while pulling out a couple of sheets of Kleenex right from its box on Sohyun’s vanity table. “Take it off, now. You said it’s all girls in the birthday party, who are you getting all pretty for?” He adds with authority.
An impish grin came out of his sister’s face. “You’re saying I’m pretty, Oppa? I learned this look from Youtube.”
Rolling his eyes in response, he tosses a sheet of Kleenex right on her face before walking back to the door. “I’m giving you five minutes to remove all that from your face and get to my car. I have a parent-teacher meeting at eleven, we need to go.” He said before closing the door. “You’re really a guy, Oppa. Kleenex alone can’t remove makeup easily.” He heard her muffled reply from inside the room. He shook his head in amusement—and exhaustion—towards his silly and stubborn young sister.
Passing by the next room, Baekhyun pushed the door ever so gently to check on his brother this time. He was on his bed and playing a video game on his thirty-two-inch television right across his bed with the game console set just beneath it on the television stand. Cases of video games scattered around the floor close to the television, several cans of soda piled up on one corner and an empty box of pizza on the edge of his bed. Baekhyun knew he saw him open the door but the young man ignored him completely. “Juhyun.” He called although expecting to be ignored since he was wearing headphones for the game. “I allowed you to take a time off university because you said you want to work full-time for a while to save up first. How’s job-hunting?” He asked anyway and walked into the room.
“Yah.” Another attempt to get the boy’s attention, this time grabbing one side of the headphones and pushed it down, allowing the device to land right around the boy’s neck. “What?” Juhyun finally acknowledges his presence. “How’s your job-hunting? Didn’t you say you went to three interviews yesterday? How were they?” Baekhyun asked for updates. “I don’t know, we will see when they call or email. Just leave me alone, please. I’m going to lose here.” Juhyun curtly responds to his brother’s demands before putting his headphones back on. Knowing that he’s not getting any more word from him, Baekhyun just shook his head in distress before leaving the room.
He raised his hands up, pressed and rubbed his palms across his face as if doing so will release all the stress in his system.
Like he would always tell his friends, it’s hard being a sibling and a parent—both a mother and a father—at the same time to two growing and developing young adults.
“Oppa, I swear to god if all my friends have pretty make up on and I don’t have because of you, I’m not going to talk to you for a week!” Sohyun, out of nowhere, marched out of her room ranting and slamming her door shut very loudly to show him how upset she is. She then walked away soon after leaving Baekhyun just weakly standing there in exhaustion, yet again. He released a weighty sigh before following the girl out of the house.
After putting the car on park on the side of the road in front of a cinema, Baekhyun took out his wallet and pulled out some bills. He handed it to Sohyun. “Are you just going straight to Hana’s house for the party after the movie?” He asked. Sohyun took the money with a grin on her face before nodding. “Maybe go to the mall and walk around first and then we go to her place, her mom said we can take our time since she’s still probably cooking by the time the movie ends.” She explained thoroughly knowing that’s what her brother wants or else she won’t be able to get out of the car.
“Okay, then. Enjoy.” Baekhyun sighed as he started the engine again. “Thanks, Oppa. You’re the best!” Sohyun happily tapped her palms on Baekhyun’s shoulder as if playing drums before getting out of the car. He watched her from the glass wall of the cinema until she met up with her friends at one corner. Once he was satisfied enough knowing she was safe, he finally drove off.
As he has expected, he was a little bit late for the meeting. When he got to the floor of his classroom slash office, he already saw some parents seated on the benches in front and across the rooms. The way he planned the meeting for this month is a general meeting with all of them first and then he would go one-on-one to discuss about each student with their parents. In his past elementary school, he never got a complete set of parents for meetings so seeing only a couple of them today was not a surprise anymore.
Unfortunately, to some parents, this kind of meeting doesn’t matter anymore unless there are real and known issues surrounding their children like fights, cheating on tests or even some school fees they want to inquire—complain— about.
“Hello, sorry I’m late. Good morning everyone! I’m Byun Baekhyun, I’m the new home room teacher of G1 – Class 2. Nice to meet you all, I’ll set up really quick. I’m so sorry again.” He had to apologize, greet and introduce himself all at once very quickly while bowing and struggling to unlock the classroom with his keys. Briefly observing each one of them, they seem to be forgiving abo
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