Chapter 5
Coffee Shop Down the Street
-Your POV-
It's been about five or six weeks since that incident in the lunchroom and Daehyun telling everyone about us.. Time really does fly by quickly when you have a special someone.
Turns out, Daehyun was right, and none of the girls ever bothered me about our relationship, although a few whispers in the hallways were occasionally overheard by us. All was totally fine though because Daehyun was awesome.
Always so caring and there wasn't ever an awkward silence between us, plus Jieun and him also got along pretty well too.
Today Daehyun and I were going to go on a date- but it's not like we haven't for the past two months.
But we hadn't previously done this together: shopping.
As in, he was gonna buy girly stuff that he wanted me to wear. It took me a bit of convincing since I'm a very stubborn child and I hate to wear anything but my plain T-shirt and jeans or shorts.
"Oh, ~~~~! I feel like you'd look amazing in this." Daehyun held up a rather.... revealing miniskirt, all the while smirking and adding a wink. I facepalmed.
"Daehyunnie...no..jus- no. Put it away." I chuckled and turned away from him, pretty embarrassed.
"Hmph..I'll just buy it when you're not looking, then." he muttered under his breath.
"I heard that!" I shouted across the store. Daehyun blushed and stuck out his tongue.
What a kid..
Daehyun ended up purchasing a lot of things for me... two skirts, one blouse, three pairs of shorts, two pairs of jeans, one beanie, two pairs of earrings, a necklace, couple rings, and the list goes on..
"Dae oppa.... why'd you buy so much for me? I really can't accept all of this.." I felt so guilty, and he refused to let me carry any of the bags either!
"Hehe...Dae oppa...I like that." he laughed his stupidly adorable laugh.
"Yah..don't ignore my question..you shouldn't spoil me you know!" I lightly slapped his arm.
"But I want to. It's so nice seeing your face light up whenever you see that pair of shorts or earrings and then having me buy them for you! I mean, when a guy loves a girl, he wants to spoil her as much as possible, it's just the way it works." he simply explained.
....Did Daehyun just say "love"?
He...loves me?
"Oppa...hollup. Repeat what you said just now." I commanded him.
"Well, you like pants."
"After that."
"Oh, I said I loved you and I want to buy as many things for you as I can." he easily repeated himself.
"...L-love." I hadn't used that word in so long.
"Yes, love. I love you, ~~~~! Do you love me?" he stared at me with those adorable puppy eyes.
..Do I? Do I love him already? It all seemed so simple.
"....Yeah. I love you too, oppa." I hugged him, although it was a bit difficult what with the ten bags he was currently holding.
"Gimme a bag to hold!" I reached out to grab one, but he retracted and pouted.
"It's my job~" he stuck his tongue out again.
"Aish...there really isn't any way of getting through your head is there?" I knocked on his skull, widened my eyes, and cracked up after I heard a hollow sound.
"Nope."
Remaining in the mall for about, say, eight more hours, I finally got Daehyun to stop and go home.
"But...fine. We're definitely coming back here next Saturday though."
So the two of us made our way to his car and proceeded to drive to his parents' house because they had invited us over for dinner.
When I made no attempt to call my parents for permission, Daehyun got a little confused.
"Won't your parents worry about you being out so late? I mean, like, you should at least give them a cal-"
"My parents won't care." I quickly cut him off before he could say anything else. His mouth formed a small 'o' shape as he nodded quietly and continued to drive.
"So what are your parents like? They must be really cool, being all chill and letting you do whatever all the time." Daehyun asked cheerily, trying to make small talk after I became silent.
I remained in my previous state, refusing to speak in fear that the tears might come through.
"...~~~~? Is something wrong?" the boy next to me nudged my arm.
"Oh...ah..sorry. It's just.. my parents are a hard topic for me to discuss is all." I stated blandly.
"I see.. Do you want to talk about it? It'll be quite a while before we reach my parents' house." he replied, offering me a kind smile.
I let out a long, weary sigh. Only Jieun and Misoo know of my family's history.. buy I trust Daehyun. Something about him just tells me that he'll always be there for me.
So I decided to confide in him.
"Well..I'm not sure if you want to hear, hehe...it's nothing too special.." I trailed off. He took my hand in his and squeezed it.
"I want to hear it. It seems to bother you."
..It sure does, my dearest Daehyun, it sure does bother me.
"It all started at the beginning of middle school... I was in sixth grade at the time. School wasn't flowing too well, my grades were dropping because of the stress. My mother always...she always called me 'a disgrace to the family', 'worthless', things like that." I laughed dryly.
Daehyun's gaze on the road darkened as his hand trailed away from mine. I continued, trying hard to keep my voice steady.
"As for my father, he was always working. I don't even think he knew of my existence at all. Always working. I... I had a younger brother at one point in time. But my parents... they drove him mad. Literally- he's in a mental asylum- and so they just..left him there. He's probably dead by now, for all I know..I wonder if he's ok every single night." I let the tears fall on their own accord.
As if on cue, it began to rain lightly on the windshield.
It seemed as if the clouds were crying with me.
"It was just a matter of time before they left me on my own to fend for myself, you know? Parents who didn't care, brother who I don't know the location of to this very day, a crumbling family. It came to the point to where I would just sit on my bed and laugh to myself. 'What kind of life do I lead?' Would be a question that came up pretty often. It never occurred to me that my parents would... actually leave one day. It's just not very understandable." I clenched my fists on the car seat, knuckles whitening.
Daehyun had still not said a word. I took that as an indication to keep going, oh, I had so much more to say. My emotions just poured out.
"Towards the middle of sixth grade, it got really bad. I was frequently hit and slapped by my mom for not doing well enough in school. I would always have to wear long sleeved jackets and jeans so that no one could see the bruises. Basically, it was child abuse. But I never complained. I had no words to utter, nothing came out at least. There just came a day when I arrived home from school and noticed that there was a moving truck outside and half of the apartment was empty, with suitcases and everything everywhere. It then occurred to me that my parents were either one, packing all of our bags and moving or two, they were leaving me behind. The latter seemed more likely, and it was just what had happened. I hid behind a wall as I listened to my parents' loud rustling from the other room. 'Let's get out of here before she gets home.' Was the last sentence I ever heard from my mother." From that moment, my eyes just wouldn't stop crying.
It wasn't even funny anymore, how pitiful my life was.
"They left me fifty dollars. Fifty dollars has lasted me 6 years. I had to do various things and sell most of my belongings to get enough money just for one meal. It was..horrific. It disgusts me to even call them my parents." I refused to go on, too repulsed to say another word.
"~~~~..." I looked over to a blurred Daehyun, and could just make out that he was crying as well.
I shouldn't have told him..
"~~~~. I didn't...I didn't know how much you've been hurting. I'm so sorry...I'm so sorry." He apologized to thin air, things were far too screwed up for sympathy anymore. But I took his hand and we cried together in the car, and luckily Daehyun didn't crash or anything.
For the rest of the car ride there, I began to slowly change the topic from my family towards more cheerful topics, like my favorite foods. Daehyun smiled and replied every now and again, but I could tell he was hurting from my story and occasionally he'd steal a glance over in my direction and frown sadly.
".....We're here." Daehyun said slowly.
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OHMYGOD. This was. This was so saddening to write ;A; but chuknow. Stuff happens. It was a pretty long chappie too.. But yeah ;-; Chapter 6 will be up soon!!
~carelesswhispers
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