The meal had passed without conversation, everyone too busy consuming the exquisite food that had been laid down before them. It all looked like 5 star dining, and Yunho knew that meant it couldn't possibly have been prepared by his mother. She wasn't exactly the 'cooking' type. Every bite, despite being delectable only made his stomach call out in despair for Jaejoong's food. He would have preferred instant ramyun to this stuff, if it had been made by the other boy.

Unfortunately, now that the meal was over, it was time for the part of the evening everyone had been waiting for most, and which Yunho, thus, had been least looking forward to. His father had excused himself, not having cared to endure any of their guest's company for longer than he had to.

Changmin had attempted to stay out of a sense of compassion for his brother, but had been dismissed to his room, by his mother. Yunho would never treat his brother like that when they were living together. It would be Changmin's choice whether he wanted to stay for a conversation in their household or not.

He could see that his brother wanted to disobey her so badly. He wanted to stay in order to support his older brother, but Yunho pleaded with him with his eyes. Changmin didn't need to cause hassle for himself, just to be there for Yunho. He was the older brother; he'd be able to handle a simple conversation, no matter how unpleasant it might be.

So Changmin, eyes glittering with displeasure at his harsh exclusion, and loyalty and sympathy for his brother's plight, stood, and politely excused himself to his room. Knowing Changmin he'd listen in from the stairway, or had already bugged the table or something. That boy always had to know what was going on.

It was moments like this that were the reason Changmin had so much respect for his easy-going, kind of foolish older brother. Despite all of his other traits, that should have theoretically annoyed his mature, introverted younger brother, he was also the only man Changmin knew who could face the equivalent of a firing squad with dignity in this day and age.

His mother sent a look to her friend, something like a cross between embarrassment and pleading, “Sorry, but could you give me and Yunho some time alone. I have a few things to say to my son.” she informed her friend, trying to keep her voice as light and airy as possible, despite Yunho knowing she was quite clearly annoyed with him.

Mrs Park bowed, giving her friend an easy smile, “Of course. I'll just go into the other room.” she excused herself. That woman spent more time here than either Yunho or Changmin, so who knew what she'd do to entertain herself, though Yunho suspected she might be waiting for him. He could ignore her for the moment; as much as he'd wanted to speak to her, it was clear that his mother wanted to speak with him first. Besides, the thought of his talk with Mrs Park terrified him.

Now that the two of them were alone, his mother rounded angry eyes on her eldest son. She looked like she really wanted to hit him, which wouldn't be a first. However, she seemed to be trying to talk out her anger this time. He guessed that perhaps she wasn't as angry as he'd first suspected. He'd do well to try not to irritate her too much.

“I don't know where to begin with you, Yunho. Even when I speak it makes no difference. I tell you to visit, but you don't. I ask you to call, but you won't. No one else has to worry about such disobedient children.” she huffed to herself, and Yunho bit his tongue.

Realising her son wasn't going to contradict her, she moved on “This Jaejoong fellow, you're living with. No doubt you heard about the incident with Seohyun earlier this week?” she questioned. Yunho sent a quick prayer in thanks to Changmin for telling him about it. He nodded his head, once. “Well? Are you going to... end your current....living arrangements with him now that he's shown his true colours?” she pressed.

Yunho quirked his eyebrows at his mother's question, he'd revel in his amusement at her discomfort with mentioning Jaejoong later on, when he was alone, and on his way home. Even though it was funny listening to her trying to refer to their relationship while still not acknowledging that it even existed. “What? Of course not, why would I do that?”

She looked as though Yunho had struck her, or forgotten his manners or something. It was so hard to construct metaphors about his mother. She treated everything that she didn't like as equally offensive. “What? How can you stay with someone who talks to a young lady like that?” she demanded.

“That young lady, you're referring to was the one that started their fight!” Yunho exclaimed, in surprise. He couldn't believe that his mother was still taking Seohyun's side in this matter, when she was clearly the one at fault. Whatever Jaejoong had given her, would have been entirely deserved.

“It is irrelevant whether or not Seohyun started their disagreement. What is relevant, however, is that Jaejoong proceeded to talk in such a manner to a young lady.” his mother argued back.

“I'm not going to leave Jaejoong because Seohyun started an unladylike attack on a stranger, who then defended themselves and won.” Yunho returned, exasperated. He'd always hated that his mother saw things in such biased ways, and then expected everyone to agree with her all the time. She liked Seohyun, therefore Seohyun could do no wrong. She didn't like Jaejoong, so therefore everything can be twisted to be his fault and it's okay.

His mother's look tightened in her annoyance, she always saw Yunho not agreeing with her as his being stubborn. Perhaps he was being a little stubborn about this, given how little he actually knew of what had happened, but he wasn't about to abandon Jaejoong because of it. He could give his friend; his love, the benefit of the doubt on something like this, couldn't he? Especially when his fight was with Seohyun, whom he disliked intensely. But of course, because his mother didn't share his feelings, that meant he was disagreeing with her for the sake of it; not because he had a legitimate point of view. That's what annoyed him the most. His disagreeing with her about things was taken as him being deliberately obstinate; his being childish.

“Mother. I love Jaejoong. That's why I started going out with him in the first place. That's why we're living together. I've told you for years that I wasn't interested in Seohyun but you just didn't want to hear it. I'm not going to drop the man I love, for Seohyun, and you're going to have to accept that. I'm gay, and being gay means there's no place for Seohyun in my heart.” he told his mother firmly.

She glared at her son, unable to control her temper anymore. She reached out, slapping him harshly across the face. The blow stung like nobody's business. But he wouldn't flinch; he wouldn't give her the pleasure of seeing that she'd managed to hurt him. He hated that no matter how many times he'd experienced this sort of thing in the past, it failed to dull his senses to this sort of pain.

Her look only got colder in the face of Yunho's blank features after her blow. “You've always been so selfish, Yunho. Your father and I didn't raise you to be this way. We taught you to have standards when choosing someone. We raised you right; so why do you insist on fighting us on this? I'm your mother, I know what's best for you. That's why you're going to marry Seohyun. You are not gay; my son is not gay.” she exclaimed, and Yunho could tell that his mother had not been starting to accept the fact that he was gay, like he'd thought; like he'd hoped. Changmin would be so disappointed when he told him that he'd been wrong about that one.

He got up, moving to leave the house, his mother storming off deeper into the house. He knew Changmin would forgive him for leaving without saying goodbye. When they were leaving on such bad terms, it would be dangerous to run into his mother again. He had once, as a result of having forgotten something, though what he couldn't recall. She'd chased him out of the house, throwing things at him. He was just lucky she hadn't hit him. But that had been years ago; his last visit. The one where he'd first told her he was gay.

He was so wrapped up in his thoughts of how much better things would be once he made it home again. He got distracted by his imagination conjuring up images of him and Jaejoong, curling up on the lounge. Of playing video games together. Of his trying and failing to help Jaejoong with his assignment. Or of his curling up with that narrative he was reading for his major essay. A few thoughts involving hugs and kisses to fix the evening, and what that might lead to had managed to slip into his thoughts as well, distracting him further.

All of this meant that he got a nasty shock when he was hastily pulled off to the side, from the hallway he'd been walking along, as he headed for the door. He found himself pressed up against a wall as someone ravaged his face, and then his neck with kisses, that very quickly descended into the realm of passionate nips from their sharp teeth.

There had been only two people there that evening who were shorter than Yunho, and one of them had stormed off in the opposite direction. As if the actions themselves weren't evidence enough, he thus knew there was only one person that could have possibly been before him. “Mrs Park?” he asked, his voice wavering slightly, her flurried attack having caught him off guard.

She might have answered, but if she did Yunho didn't hear it, her response having been muffled into incomprehensibility by his skin. “P-Please, Mrs Park....I-I can't do this...I have a...boyfriend.” he gasped, the force she was applying to his neck constricting his oesophagus, as he tried speaking.

“What are you doing? Why are you telling me that lie?” she whispered harshly as her fingers slipped to the buttons of his shirt, hoping to expose the skin that lay beneath. He tried to bat her fingers away as he spoke, but her fingers were more nimble than his, and succeeded at undoing a few of them as he fumbled with his words.

“But I do have a boyfriend, Mrs Park.” he implored. He knew he couldn't afford to annoy the woman, but just by being here; knowing as he did what Mrs Park was going to do, he felt like he was betraying Jaejoong. Even if their relationship was a lie.

“Yunho...I'm the one that set that whole lie up for you. That Seohyun had been getting too comfortable since you moved to the city. Why won't you stay here with me, like I asked, hmm?” she purred, eyes flickering dangerously as her hands fisted the material of his shirt.

Yunho groaned, despite himself, when her fingers caught some of his skin in their grasp. He'd done so out of pain, at the strength her anger had imbued into her grip, but to Mrs Park Yunho's pain and pleasure in these encounters were effectively interchangeable. He loathed the thought that his noise seemed to only spur her on.

“Because, I want to be in the city, with my boyfriend. And what are you talking about you having set up my relationship?” he demanded, careful to keep Jaejoong's name to himself. Mrs Park finding out the name of his boyfriend could be very dangerous for him; for the both of them. He didn't want her to know who he was seeing, even if she were right and it was a lie.

The fact that she knew that already, troubled him.

She huffed angrily at Yunho, waving off his concerns flippantly. She didn't want Yunho knowing what she was getting up to. That was none of his business; she was a free woman now that she was alone, and that meant she was free to do as she pleased. No one else had to know anything she was doing on her own time.

Yunho tried to push her hands away decisively, so that he'd be able to escape her grip, despite knowing such attempts were to do him more harm than good. He'd always been physically capable of escaping had he wished to; had he truly felt threatened by the much smaller woman. But the power she held over him, was not physical, and was potentially much more devastating for him.

At the movement, her eyes glittered dangerously. Her fingers trailed up and down his stomach, before threateningly in the waistband of his dress pants. “Yunho, I think you're forgetting something important here. This 'boyfriend' lie of yours must be messing with your head.”

Yunho tried his best to meet her hard look as strongly as he could. He wanted to tell her to leave him alone. He wanted to remove her fingers from his person. He wanted to shout that he belonged to Jaejoong. He wanted to extricate himself from all of this, right this second. Heck, he'd wanted to do it for years now. What was keeping him here?

Noting the way Yunho was looking at her, as though he were about to challenge her; challenge their relationship she cooled her passionate gaze to one of disinterest as she gazed down at her own manicured fingers. “Changmin is in his last year of school. Soon he will be going to university. Your mother and father have already decided that he will be attending the local university, while you are stuck in the city, alone. I see your brother all the time. With you avoiding my advances as of late, it wouldn't be surprising for me to need to vent my desires on someone else. How long do you think it'd take before I had him, like I did you? A month? A week? An hour?”

“Don't.” he whimpered, just the idea of Mrs Park preying on his younger brother, sent the word tumbling from his lips before he could stop it. She had gotten him; he couldn't allow her to get to his brother too. Changmin was too shy; too sensitive. He wouldn't know how to handle an advance like that. He wouldn't let her have his brother too; he had to protect him, even if it was killing him to do so.

“Ah, so my Yunho is still in there somewhere. I was beginning to think you didn't care about your brother anymore, now that you have this boyfriend of yours.” she stated, false surprise dripping in her tone. Her hand dropped lower, cupping Yunho through his pants, as she hissed. “This is mine. And no pretend boyfriend is going to steal it from me, unless you plan on giving me your brother in exchange. You'd best not forget that again. Or else, next time I might steal your brother from you as well.”

“You can't do that, you don't have the power to.” Yunho muttered, willing himself to still his body's automatic attempts to shrink away from the woman's harsh grip. He wanted to cry knowing she was touching him like this again, but he knew the reason he allowed her to do this was worth the pain it caused him. For reasons he didn't want to dwell on, he found himself praying that Jaejoong would forgive him for allowing this to happen.

For ever having allowed things to go this far; to get this bad.

“Think about what you're saying Yunho. He's here; living at home. One word from me to your mother about the two of you. I could convince her to whisk Changmin away. To another city; another continent who knows. Then you'd never see that beloved brother of yours again. Then what's to stop me using him as I see fit. You'd never be any the wiser.” she sneered. Yunho cringed at the thought of losing his brother like that.

Having lost interest in the scenario she'd been painting, her grip loosened, subtly rubbing , much to Yunho's annoyance. But one look at her told him that her passion had cooled. She'd had to speak too much; fight with him too much. She'd lost interest in him for the day. For which he was immensely grateful.

“Now, the next time I try to contact you. You will come.” she told him, her tone leaving no room for argument, after how articulate she'd been about the potential consequences of Yunho's disobedience. He reluctantly nodded to the older woman, who stepped back, releasing him. He didn't leave any room for her to change her mind, quickly scurrying out of his parents home.

He'd known this would go badly.