Bad Behavior
Chapter One
Yongguk POV

At that time, a new day just meant a new hangover for me. Curled up on the couch of my dirty apartment, the nausea hit me in unison with the headache. It pounded, and pounded, and pounded until I thought I’d go insane. But, I soon found out it wasn’t my head by itself, but instead, a pounding on the door.

I groaned, rolling over feeling cracks and pops down my spine. The door flew open and a ball of brown, white, and pink rushed in. I knew right away it was HImchan. in displeasure, I rolled right back over.

“Ya... Bang Yongguk get your drunk out of bed,” he demanded. Sleep was so close, singing so sweetly to me. And I’d be damned if I let Kim Himchan keep me from another sweet dream. I ignored him, hoping that somehow I’d disappear and float off with the clouds where there were no such things as hangovers, jobs, or annoying neighbors.

“It’s important,” he insisted, his voice just sort of bubbles in my sleepy state. I could feel the saliva sliding down my throat, and the crust that held my eyes shut Even if I had wanted to, I wouldn’t have been able to break away from the iron grip of the sandman.

“Go away,” I mumbled, my voice stolen by my garbled speech and my croaking voice. Sighing, I was close to those clouds.

“You have to sign the divorce papers today.”

And then it was gone.

All at once I was falling right back down to Earth feeling like a piece of space junk. The atmosphere was burning me so severely that there was no physical pain until I hit the ground and everything crashed down on me like a wave. The divorce. The drinking away the pain. The loss of the most wonderful woman in Korea. The helplessness.

“She’s waiting at the courthouse already. So, get dressed, and for god’s sake try to look like at least half a man.”

I couldn’t blame Himchan for the harsh words, but they still stung. For weeks, I had stopped going to work, and not even bothered calling in. I was surely fired by now, and whatever savings I had  must have blown in booze at night when I got too drunk to remember my own name, let alone who I was. I knew what it was like to hit rock bottom, and it felt like .

I peeled myself off the couch, my tight muscles whining in discomfort. A quick shower and shave later I was sitting in my bedroom, stark looking at what I had. For two months, I had been living in this dump of an apartment while she got the house. She got the car too, and most of the friends that had to choose one side or another. And I got Himchan. Just HImchan.

Himchan pounded on the door to tell me to hurry up and I got dressed in a daze. It was like I was in a trance, my natural instinct taking over since my mind couldn’t be bothered to come out of its sorry state of anguish long enough to comprehend the situation.HImchan drove me to the courthouse and a lady there showed me to a little windowless room.

Himchan met with her lawyer in the hallway, discussing the terms, and I sat across from her. Song Jieun, easily the most beautiful woman in Korea. She looked good, even then, dressed in nice clothes, and not a single hair out of place. She had always been like that, keeping up appearances no matter what was wrong. That was probably why I didn’t notice our failing marriage until she had slammed it in my face.

“This is totally screwing him over!” I heard Himchan growl through the thin walls. Jieun turned her head away from me, refusing to look at me in my sorry state. I couldn’t blame her. Sliding the little door open, I interrupted the feuding lawyers.

“Let her take what she wants, just let me sign the paper Himchan” I demanded.

“This gives her right to half of what you own, and gives her the right to take it straight out of your bank account,” Himchan exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air with an exasperated huff.I shook my head, feeling Jieun’s eyes boring into the back of my skull.

“I said later he take what she wants. I don’t care anymore, HImchan.”

He looked at me with those crazy eyes of his that shone like polished wood for a long time. Sighing, he handed over the papers and told me where to sign. Jieun watched me, as I nearly tore the papers from writing too hard.

I noticed in small print on one of the pages a clause that said I couldn’t go within a hundred feet of her after that day.My jaw became tight, and I glared daggers at the woman I still loved. How she could be so calm and collected, facing the end of a marriage, I didn’t know. I wanted to hate her as much as she obviously hated me, but I could do nothing. Still, I loved Song Jieun with all of my bleeding heart.

Begrudgingly, I signed the last few spots. Passing the papers toward her, I didn’t even stay to watch her sign the contract that marked the end of our lives together.

“Yongguk.”

I froze in the hallway, her thin fingers holding the hem of my sleeve. I swallowed hard, standing rigid.

“I’m sorry,” she said softly.

I laughed. I laughed so hard at that, as I ripped my sleeve out of her tiny grasp. Himchan looked at me like I was crazy, because before I had even noticed laughing had become crying, and I looked like an idiot in front of my newly decided ex-wife. Once out of the courthouse, HImchan passed some money off to me.

“Take a taxi home, get some sleep,” he urged me softly. I rubbed my sore eyes, running my fingers through my messy hair.

“Did you see her, Himchan? She didn’t look any different. She doesn’t care a bit,” I spat. Himchan squeezed my shoulder, nodding to me.

“I have to get back inside, I’m going to file that contract before her lawyer tries anything else. Maybe you should call the university and tell them what happened... And your joint bank account. Close that before she bleeds you dry.”

His advice was always practical and it was killing me to hear it.Not even my best friend understood the pain that was filling up my body.With sorry eyes, he left me to return to his job, leaving me there on the steps. I wasted no time getting a taxi before I had to see her driving off in the car I had bought with my salary.

Things only got worse from there.

I wasn’t in the right mind to teach, so I stayed away from the university. I kept living the same way I had, drinking away the pain, sleeping, and then drinking again. It was the only way I could keep Jieun from invading my thoughts. Even when she wasn’t there, she took my job from me, and even worse, my pride. HImchan visited me each day to make sure I wasn’t face down in a puddle of my own bile, and to make sure I hadn’t given myself alcohol poisoning yet.

“You’ve got to find a job,” Himchan told me, a month after the official divorce. I hadn’t paid the rent, I hadn’t bought groceries. I hadn’t even showered in days.

“I can’t.”

“Yes, you can! For god’s sakes, you were tenured college professor, it’d be a walk in the park to get hired,” he spat. I shook my head, leaning back in the chair. HImchan wouldn’t understand; He couldn’t understand. He lived stiff as a board, and had only been on a handful of dates in his entire life. He didn’t understand that when you fell in love with someone, you gave away half of yourself. I had just gotten my half stolen and shattered.

“I can’t,” I said again, more forcefully. Himchan gave me an exasperated glare as he took the seat across from me.

“Yongguk.”

“Go away, Himchan,” I moaned.

“Bang Yongguk---”

“I said I don’t want to hear it!”

Himchan wasn’t one that backed down easily. He had never been that way. Even though he was smaller than me, he had a lot of spunk, and competed on my level. At my raised voice he shouted right back.

“And what would you rather do? Sit here and feel sorry for yourself? You’re ing pathetic, Yongguk! You’re not even half a man, you let her take everything from you!”

I cringed at the words that I knew were all too true. Lowering my gaze to my lap, I heard Himchan sigh.

“I got you a job,” he said, the air between us electric with tension. My eyes shot back to him, and he stared back to me with his mousy eyes.

“What?”

“You heard me. It’s tutoring, so it should be easy enough. It’s for a family that I work for. They’re loaded Yongguk. You’ll make bank off of two hours a night,” he elaborated. I groaned. Himchan always got the worst ideas.

“Himchan...”

“Just one kid. A teenager, a boy. Choi Junhong, he seems nice enough. I already told them you’d at least go in for an interview, so go shave and wash your hair... And for god’s sakes, Yongguk, brush your damn teeth, I can smell the soju from last week.”

And that’s how Kim HImchan got me primped and polished to be paraded in front of the prestigious Choi family. It wasn’t without argument, mind you, and Himchan did get a nice bruise on his ribs for trying to style my hair and pick out the stupidest outfit I had ever seen. In the end, I ended up with damp hair, khakis, a white v-neck and black blazer.

I didn’t much care what I looked like, after all, I was just humoring him anyway.

The interview was held in their home, which was located in an upscale neighborhood almost half an hour away from my apartment. The entire ride, Himchan reminded me of my manors and quizzed me on what to say. I had been to job interviews before; I knew the drill.... Or... So I thought, anyway.

No amount of coaching and pep-talks could have prepared me for what I walked in on.

The Choi house was huge. Looking at if from the outside, I would say that six or seven bedrooms was a conservative estimate. Their house was shut off from the rest of the neighborhood and a good minute’s drive down a driveway as long as my apartment building. I had lived in a nice house with Jieun, but not this nice.

“Don’t gauk or anything, just go. Show em’ what you’ve got,” HImchan scolded, patting my shoulder. Sighing, I was reminded of a kid on his first day of baseball practice, being seen off by his father. Except Himchan was a piss-poor dad, and I didn’t see any homeruns in my future.

As I approached the door, I noticed it was open, and several other guys were lined up. Awkwardly, I took a seat beside them. Most of them were even older than me, extending into their forties and fifties. I felt awkward and out of place, even more so than the one woman who sat away from us.

Nobody spoke as a door opened, and a boy stepped in. His was tall and thin, dressed in baggy pants and a T-shirt, with a hat hiding his bubble-gum colored hair. I raised an eyebrow, wondering just what  HImchan had got me into. Pinky scanned the line of us with narrow eyes. Pointing to the woman, he spoke.

“You.”

She stood nervously.

“Get out, I don’t like female teachers.”

I withheld a groan. Great; Himchan wanted me tutor a spoiled brat.

The kid repeated that action, sending away the ones that were too old, or too fat, or ones that he just didn’t like the look of. Soon, there were only one other guy and myself. Pointing to me, he smirked. Sighing, I stood to leave, but his words stopped me in my tracks.

“Come here. We’ll take you first.”

I followed him back through the door that lead to a study of some sort. Bookshelves lined one wall, stacked to the bursting until it reached the ceiling. In front of them there was a couch where a woman was busy reading through some papers. I assumed that was the kid’s mom and he ran over to plop down beside her. Noticing a chair placed across the room from them, beside a desk, I assumed it was for me. Taking a seat, I looked at the two of them.

Awkwardly, I nodded. “Good morning,” I said, trying to smile.

“It’s one o’clock in the afternoon,” the boy corrected. My lips twitched, as I laughed it off.

“Whoops. Time flies,” I said quickly, covering the mistake. All time pretty much ran together when you were hungover. After that, luckily, the kid mostly shut up, minus a few snide comments here and there. His mom was a lot more pleasant, though she seemed rather bored and a little robotic.

It was an average interview. She asked about my job, and  my education, and I recited them for her. I told her my relationship with Himchan, and I briefly danced across the topic of my divorce. The kid got interested in that.

“What’d she leave you for?” he asked. I went rigid in my seat and his mother glared at him.

“Junhong!”

“Whaaaat!” he whined, leaning back on the couch. “Maybe he’s a ual sadist, or a wife beater. Do you really want to leave me alone with such a scary man, mom?” She shook her head, letting out a sharp sigh.

“I have to apologize for him, Junhong sometimes speaks without thinking,” she apologized. I smiled a strained little smile to tell her it was fine. Beside her,  Junhong made a bitter face, sprawling his gangly arms out over the back of the couch. I tried  hard to pay attention to Mrs. Choi as she discussed a few of the finer details, like pay, and hours, but I hardly heard a word. I could feel Junhong staring at me, and it made me uncomfortable as hell.

“Well, that’s all we need to hear,” his mother said with a smile. “If you could send in another participant---”

Junhong cut her off rudely. “No need, I want him,” he told her, like I was a puppy in the store or something. We both looked at him skeptically, and he stared right back, serious as could be.

“I don’t want to sit through another one of these,” he said innocently. “He seems really smart!”

Sighing, his mother complied with his requests, excusing herself to go grab the contract. As the door shut, Junhong sprung up. I watched him carefully as he approached me. He was even taller up close, I noticed, as he circled me, looking me over.

“I’ll give it a month. Then you’ll quit,” he declared.

I couldn’t help but laugh.

“What?”

Junhong didn’t look amused, as he glared at me. Grabbing me by the lapels, he pulled me closer to him, looking me straight in the eye. “I’ll break you, Bang Yongguk. Just like I did Yoo Youngjae, and Jung Daehyun, Jun Hyosung--- All of them. So, watch your back.”

Junhong separated from me in the knick of time as his mother returned. Tiredly, she discussed the contract with me as Junhong stalked off to some other area of the house. Without thinking, I signed where she told me to sign, my head reeling. Just what had Himchan gotten me into this time?