AHH STOP WHAT EM I DOING HERE FINALS START MONDAAAYYY :OO

Haha. Whatever. Enjoy childreenn~~

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Chapter 8: Interacting

                The walk is long and the air is cold as Daehyun treks home. He would have found a bus to get on if he hadn’t been trying to stall as long as possible. Because his parents aren’t going to be happy…

                He pulls out his phone to see 13 missed calls. Scrolling through the log he sees his mom, dad, and…Woohyun.

                Ah. Right. His brother is visiting this weekend…

                “Hey hyung,” Daehyun greets cheerily after he picks up.

                “Where the hell are you?” Woohyun growls in response, his voice low.

                “Mm…” Daehyun glances up. “32^nd, passing the 7-11.”

                “Well get home. They’re ing pissed. They actually stopped arguing for once.”

                “Hm. Did they?” Daehyun asked good-naturedly. “That’s…surprising.”

                “Yeah. Feel special,” Woohyun responds, but it’s nowhere near a compliment. It’s cold and sneering.

                “I’m coming home now. Don’t worry.”

                “Yeah. Hurry up.”

                “Right,” Daehyun acknowledges lightly before hanging up. “I’ll see you soon.” His brother doesn’t respond and he’s instead greeted with the plain dial tone as he walks home, the sun’s rays just peeking over the buildings and shops.

                “Where have you been, Daehyun? You were gone all night.” His father’s voice is cutting, accusing, but it doesn’t phase Daehyun in the least.

                “Sorry, I wasn’t planning for it to go like that, either,” he shrugs, about to go upstairs.

                “Stop. Where are you going? We have to talk about this. Where were you?” It’s his mom this time, but he can hardly muster the respect to listen to her. He knows it’s rude, disrespectful, and he knows he didn’t do anything like this a year ago, but…that was a year ago. That was before the fights that drove him crazier than it did his parents, before the petty arguments he had to witness them go through, before he saw them both deteriorating into not the loving parents he once knew, but adults that existed simply to hate the other.

                “Upstairs. I’m tired. And a little hungover.” He knows it’s a mistake, but he can’t help but add that last part just to piss them off.

                “Did you finally get the balls to take a sip?”

                Woohyun. Waiting for him. As always.

                Daehyun rolls his eyes. “Sorry I don’t have the tolerance you did when you were 12.”

                “So who were you drinking with all night? Don’t tell me…did you actually find a girl? Someone that would spend the night with your sorry ?” Woohyun asks, and he’s laughing, something cruel.

                “No, Woohyun, I didn’t. You’re still better than me, no need to get your boxers in a bunch,” Daehyun responds calmly. “By the way good job being the good son tonight. Did they pay you to care about me?”

                “Not to care about you,” Woohyun shrugs, and Daehyun can tell he’s answering the question honestly.

                “What an angel,” Daehyun scoffs.

                “Thanks,” Woohyun sneers. “But for real, aren’t you going to tell your hyung about what happened? Come on, shouldn’t you trust me?”

                “I have a million reasons to hate you and none to trust you.”

                The cold words don’t even faze his brother, who only laughs. “My break is only for a few days, don’t waste all your hate tonight,” Woohyun advises sarcastically. “You’ll run out of steam by the time I leave.”

                “Believe me, that won’t be a problem.”

~X~

                “Oh, back already?” Himchan asks, cracking one eye open as Yongguk stumbles into the apartment.

                Yongguk nods, yawning deeply. “Got ed over last night. Jumped by some ing that wouldn’t even show me who they were.”

                “Sounds like the work of Myungjun and the guys to me,” Youngjae laughs, and Himchan even smirks as he closes his eyes.

                “You piss them off? Usually Myungjun only gets physical if he’s provoked. He’s too much of a wimp to do anything any other time,” Himchan adds, his eyes still closed as he pulls his sweatshirt down over his hands.

                Yongguk shrugs. “Not really.” He doesn’t add anything else, and his friends don’t ask. The only person that really ever got him to open up was…well, it was Jieun. But that was a long time ago. He hasn’t heard that familiar, “No Gukkie, what really happened?” (which was repeated a few more times when he refused to answer) for a long while. She always had a way of making him admit things he didn’t want to.

                “Oh, by the way Yang called, like, ten minutes ago. He wants to see you.”

                “,” Yongguk swears under his breath. “What did you tell him?”

               “What could we?” Himchan cuts in sleepily. “We said you’d be there in half an hour. You’re lucky he was that generous.”

               “Right. Thanks,” Yongguk mumbles hurriedly as he headed to the bathroom and beings to attend to his wounds, trying to make it all less noticeable. Yang was one of the big shots that supplied him while Yongguk did all the dirty work, selling and distributing and trying not to get caught and having to go through the annoyances of police.

               Yongguk is nervous as he takes the familiar path to get to Yang’s main hub. It takes a lot of twists and turns and at least a dozen times going there to memorize the way but soon enough Yongguk arrives at Yang’s office door, and he knocks three times crisply.

               “You’re late,” Yang announces as soon as Yongguk’s head is visible.

               “I’m sorry.” It’s all Yongguk can say at a time like this. Arguing with Yang is just plain stupid.

               “Well, we need you to take Cho’s list. He got caught.” Yang’s expression hardly changes, but Yongguk can tell how pissed he is. Yang doesn’t have any sympathy, only annoyance at his business being slowed down. “There will be a reward, of course. For taking the extra load.” Yongguk his head ever so slightly, and Yang continues. “You get to choose the punishment for him.”

               Yongguk cringes inwardly, but can’t show any outward emotion. That’s not a reward. That’s a sick punishment, choosing how his own comrade will be tortured. “When?”

Yang shrugs, momentarily taking the time to scribble something down. “I dunno. I’m not sure how long he’s in for. This is his second offense,” Yang mumbles, contemplating. “Well, no matter. When he does get out he knows well enough to return.”

                Yongguk nods slowly. He knows Cho won’t want to return, but he’ll have no choice.

                “Well, you can go now. You’ll get the list on the way out,” Yang commands, and Yongguk isn’t able to not follow his every order, leaving with a quick nod of his head.

                “Oh my God,” Jieun gasped, jumping up. “What happened?” She was at Yongguk’s side instantly, trying to support him as he limped to the sitting area of the luxurious apartment they shared.

                “Nothing,” Yongguk coughed, lifting up his shirt to wipe the blood off of his split lip.

                “This isn’t nothing,” Jieun insisted, almost in tears at the beat-up shape her boyfriend was in. “Tell me what happened. Please, let me help.”

                Yongguk was too tired to fight anything Jieun was saying. “My deal went wrong. The cops got wind of it and we couldn’t pull it through.”

                “The…cops? That’s why you weren’t home yesterday night?” Jieun asked, her forehead crinkling in confusion.

                Yongguk let out a mirthless laugh, closing his eyes and resting his forearm over his eyes. “Nah. I got away from them. It’s Yang I have to worry about. He doesn’t like failure.”

                Jieun cringed. “But…you’re his worker. You’ve been there for years…”

                “Doesn’t matter,” Yongguk countered. “I messed up. That’s all that matters.”

                Jieun frowned, not asking what exactly Yang had done. “Alright. Well come on. Let’s get you cleaned up.”

                Yongguk shifted his shoulder away from Jieun’s gentle touch. “I’m so tired. It’s fine. I’ll be fine.”

                “No, Guk-ah, you’re definitely not okay. Let’s go, now.”

                Yongguk resisted more vehemently, shaking her hand away. “I said I was fine. I’ve done this a million times, I’ll just sleep it off. Nothing’s broken.”

                “And how many times have your wounds gotten infected? How much longer has it taken to heal? Yongguk, stop taking these…these risks—“

                “Those risks are a part of my job, Jieun. What gets us this apartment,” Yongguk snarled, sitting up.

                Jieun closed her eyes and let out a breath. “I don’t care about your job. I know what you have to do to survive. Just look at what I do. I’m talking about you letting yourself deteriorate like this. Yang and the guys don’t respect you, but you need to respect yourself. If anything, respect me. Respect the fact that I hate seeing you like this, that it hurts me just as much as you’re hurt. Please, try to understand me,” Jieun whispered, her face drooping into a heavy pout.

                Yongguk looked up at Jieun, for once looking into the eyes of someone who genuinely cared about him.

                “You know you’re too good for me, right?” he asked, grabbing her hand.

                He hadn’t noticed her crying before, but now he sees her trying to avoid his eyes to hide the tears, and he knew it was his fault. And damn, that was worse than the injuries he had received tonight…

                “Baby, I’m sorry. I’m sorry, okay?” he implored, grabbing both her hands and turning her to face him.

                She let out a breath, something halfway between a laugh and a sob. “Stop it. Don’t. I don’t know why I’m crying.”

                Yongguk laughed, pulling her down and into him, cradling her. “Because you love me and I still can’t get that into my stupid head. I’m serious. You’re too good for me. You’re the best thing I’ve ever had.”

                Jieun looked up at him, letting out another half-laugh-cry. “Stop it. Let’s just get you clean.”

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Ughhh searching for a main image for this was like THE most devastating thing evar because the WHOLE tumblr newsfeed was filled with bap in american concert images/gifs/videos and i was just sitting here like "UGH WHY DOESN'T ANYONE CARE ABOUT CHICAGO WHY COULDNT I HAVE GONE I LOVE YOU SO MUCH" and literally so sad so anyone else yeah no k cool #obsessed. I'm so sad I just used hashtags on aff. #wentthere.