Second upload!

After a string of short little ones, here is a longer story to sink your teeth into.  A bit angsty, but not overly so.

#84 – Reality

Reality could be a real . 

With the changing of the laws and legalization of marriage, Kibum had allowed himself to think that all of the fighting and prejudice was over.  That he wasn’t going to have to deal with any of that ever again and his children would be able to grown up in a world without that hate.

But just because the laws had changed, doesn’t mean that the people did.

Kibum came home from work to the sound of hushed voices traveling down the hallway.

Kibum furrowed his brow – the kids shouldn’t be home yet, Munhee had soccer practice and Jinae was supposed to be at a friends working on a group project. 

Kibum mindlessly toed his shoes off and stepped up into the apartment, only to hiss is shock at the sudden wet chill that his foot had encountered.  Glancing down, Kibum saw smears of mud tracking down the hallway and around the corner.  Paying more attention now he saw Jinae’s shoes, sitting in a heap next to Munhee’s soaked and muddy shoes.

Kibum was confused into silence, an unusual occurrence for the man.  He followed the muddy puddles down the hallway and as he neared the bathroom he could hear a mild sniffling. 

It was Munhee, he could recognize that with seeing the boy.

The sniffling was interrupted by a sudden, sharp intake of breath through teeth.  “Ouch! Jinae that stings!”

“You were covered in mud, we have to disinfect the cuts and get all the dirt out.”

Kibum rounded the doorframe and saw Munhee, clearly having freshly showered, his muddle clothes piled on the floor next to the shower.  The 9 year old was sitting on the toilet in a pair of basketball shorts and a plain t-shirt which clung to his improperly dried body.

Jinae kneeled in front of her brother carefully dabbing at one of the many cuts and scrapes that covered the boy’s body.

“Munhee!” Kibum gasped, unable to help himself.

The boy’s snapped up and Jinae whipped around, overbalancing and toppling against the counter. 

Kibum felt tears springing to his eyes.  Munhee was sporting a blackened eye and a generous fat lip. 

“Baby,” Kibum sighed sadly, walking forward and laying a gentle hand to his son’s face, “what happened?”

Munhee focused his eyes on the ground, refusing to look at his father.  Jinae was doing the same, twisting the hem of her shirt in her hands. 

“Munhee?”  Kibum pressed, a stern edge entering his voice.

“It’s nothing,” Munhee mumbled, “I fell down on my way home from school.”

“Really?” Kibum asked, not believing him at all.  “Since when does falling give you a fat lip?”

Kibum looked over the work that Jinae had done taking care of her brother.  She had done a very good job and Kibum continued where she had left off, using alcohol to clean the scrapes while waiting for Munhee to answer him.

“Munhee?” He prompted as the little boy glowered at the wall.

“It’s nothing okay!” The boy shouted, jumping to his feet and storming past the man, running to his room and slamming the door loudly in his wake.

Jinae looked shocked, her head darting between her father and her brother’s closed door.

“Jinae, what’s going on?” Kibum asked, rising to his feet, an unsettling feeling digging deep in his gut telling him that this was something far worse than he feared.

“Munhee should be the one to tell you…” she mumbled, staring at her toes.

“Jinae…” Kibum began but now it seemed it was Jinae’s turn to yell.

“Just ask him!” and she turned sharply on her heel and ran off to her room.

Kibum’s jaw dropped and he glanced into the mirror, not recognizing the flabbergasted expression on his face.

“What is going on?”

The man slid his phone from his back pocket and hit the speed dial for Taemin.

“Hey Bummie, what’s up?” Taemin answered cheerfully.

“You can’t work late tonight,” Kibum started in without preamble.

There was a second of silence and then, “We already talked about this Bummie; I’ve got to edit the story for…”

Kibum cut him off, “I don’t care, get it done now, or tell your boss you’ll do it tomorrow, but you need to be home.  There is something wrong with the kids.”

“What?!”

Kibum could imagine the picture that Taemin made right now.  He imagined that Taemin had been leaning back in his semi-reclining seat at the office, but he would have shot up to ramrod straight at the news that there was something wrong with his children.

“Kibum what’s wrong?” Taemin voiced had dropped low and a steely edge that seemed far too strange for his easy nature had entered his voice.

Kibum sighed, “I wish I could tell you.  I came home from work to find Jinae fixing up Munhee who was…well…” Kibum felt a tightening in his chest, “it looks like someone beat him up.”

Taemin was silent on the other end. 

And he remained so.

Kibum’s eyes drifted shut.  He knew that Taemin would be very worried, as any parent would be, but Kibum also knew that the idea of his child having been beaten up would recall memories of Taemin’s own past.

“I’m coming home now.”  Taemin announced and Kibum could hear the rustle of fabric as Taemin grabbed his coat.  “I’ll be home in twenty minutes.”

Kibum sighed and snapped his phone closed after Taemin hung up. 

He still couldn’t get over the fact that his kids wouldn’t talk to him or tell him what was going on here. 

They always talked to him about everything.  So what was going on now that they didn’t want to talk to him about?

Kibum slumped down the hallway towards his bedroom, stopping momentarily outside Munhee’s door and raising his hand to lie gently against the wooden frame.  He was struck by the odd realization that he was a little afraid of what had just happened.  Munhee’s reaction had scared the man a little, and he did not like the knowledge that he was afraid, even infinitesimally, of his son. 

He was so shocked at his normally good-natured son blowing up at him that he almost couldn’t wrap his mind around it.  And as though the behavior was contagious, Jinae had followed suit and lashed out as well.

What where they hiding from him?

Kibum heaved a heavy sigh and drifted into his own room, making quick work of changing his clothes into something more comfortable.

There was still a good ten minutes at least until Taemin would be home and Kibum found himself full of an antsy energy that he needed to get rid of until the other man arrived home and helped him figure this whole thing out. 

Kibum stepped back into the hallway and spotted the mud on the floors that he had temporarily forgotten about in the wake of all that had happened in the last few minutes. 

“Guess, I’ll clean that up,” he muttered to himself.  He mopped up the floor from the entryway to the bathroom and unceremoniously dropped Munhee’s discarded clothing into the shower and the faucet, letting the water do what it could to rinse the mud from the fabric that looked beyond aid at this point.

Kibum heard the door slam shut as Taemin made his entrance.  Before Kibum could open his mouth to call out a greeting he heard a thud that actually shook the apartment. 

He darted out of the bathroom to see Taemin laying spread-eagled and looking momentarily dazed on the floor of the apartment.

Taemin shook his head and glanced up at Kibum, “I slipped…” he said slowly.

Kibum walked forward and reached out a hand to help his husband up, “Sorry, the floor is wet…”

“It’s fine,” Taemin said, shooting up with Kibum’s leverage.  “Now tell me what is going on.” 

Taemin’s eyes bored into his husband and Kibum felt that clenching feeling coming back after its short vacation while he had distracted himself by cleaning.  Kibum told Taemin in detail exactly what he had come home to.

He didn’t even realize that he was crying until Taemin swiped the first tears away with his thumb.

Warm arms encircled him and Kibum tucked his head in on Taemin’s shoulder.  “Why won’t they talk to me Tae?”  Kibum clenched his hand into the fabric of Taemin’s shirt, not caring about the wrinkles that he knew would form.  “Why won’t my babies tell me what’s wrong?”

Taemin rubbed small circles on his husband’s back, his own mind in turmoil.  What is going on?

Eventually the pair parted and headed to their son’s room.  It was time to sort all of this out.

Taemin knocked on the door lightly with a quick tap of his knuckles.

“Go away!”  Munhee’s voice came from inside.

“Munhee,” Taemin started, “I’m your father and I’m coming in whether you like it or not.” He finished sternly.

He dropped his hand to the door handle and turned, glad that the door had no locks so their son couldn’t keep them out. 

Taemin opened the door to seeing his son sitting on the bed, glaring at the door and now them, arms crossed over his chest. 

Taemin faltered a bit as he took in the sight of his son.  The black eye was starting to swell and so Munhee’s left eye was only partially open and on the boys arms he could see scrapes and scratches and bruises forming on the usually flawless skin. 

Taemin pulled the chair from Munhee’s desk and pulled it over to the bed so he could sit facing the boy.

“Munhee, are you alright?”  Taemin began, not quite knowing what else to say.

Munhee attempted to raise his eyebrow at his father, but with his swollen face the look became more comical than anything else.

Kibum returned, though Taemin hadn’t noticed him leaving, with an ice pack, wrapped in paper towels, which he held out to Munhee.

The boy darted his eyes between the offering and his Appa.

“For the swelling,” Kibum insisted, jerking the pack a little in his hand to encourage Munhee to take it.

Munhee grumbled but accepted the offered aid.  The boy laid it against his eye and the side of his face and after a moment, they could see a little of the tension leaving the boy’s shoulders.

“Just tell them Munhee…” a soft voice came from the doorway where Jinae stood, peering in.

“Please Munhee,” Kibum whispered, kneeling next to the bed and hesitatingly reaching out his hand to lie against Munhee’s leg.  “We want to help you…”

The boy snorted.  “It’s because of you.”  He said shortly, biting his lip and then gasping at the renewed pain, having forgotten about his lip being split. 

Kibum furrowed his eyebrows and Taemin leaned forward.  “What do you mean bud?” his Papa asked.  “What’s because of us?”

Munhee looked at his father like the man must be an idiot.  “I get bullied because of you two!  They all like to make fun of the kid with the gay fathers!”  He threw the ice pack across the room in a moment of anger and they watched it slide down the wall and hide itself behind a dresser.  “Why does our family have to be different?  I just want to be normal like all of the other kids.”

Kibum felt like he had been punched in the chest and he felt the wind go out of him a little and Taemin ducked his head and stared at his own knees. 

“How long?”  The younger man asked.  “How long has this been going on?”  He looked back at Jinae who still lingered in the doorway.  “How long have you both been hiding this?”

Jinae looked away, holding onto the doorframe, but looking like she wanted nothing more than to bolt away and leave this conversation behind her. 

“A while.” Munhee said, as though that was enough to explain what was going on.

“How.  Long.”  Taemin asked, slowly and deliberately in a way that would have been frightening somehow coming from anyone else, but Taemin just sounded determined to figure out the truth.

“Two months.” Jinae whispered, but in the silence of their apartment it seemed to echo as though she had screamed it.

Taemin’s eyes went wide, “Two months?!” He glanced between his children.  “This has been going on for two months and neither of you told us?!”

Munhee tilted his head back and leaned against the wall, heaving a sigh at the same time, seemingly deflating against the wall.  

“Munhee…tell us the whole story.”  Kibum said quietly, squeezing his hand around Munhee’s leg in encouragement. 

The boy tilted his head and looked at his father with a deeply sad look in his eyes, a look far too old for a face that young. 

“What do you want me to tell you?” Munhee asked quietly, a begging look crossing his face now.  “That the other boys take my food at lunch?  That they write horrible words all over my desk…which gets me in trouble with the teacher?  That they steal my homework so I have nothing to turn in?” Big, fat tears were rolling down Munhee’s face, sliding from his wet eyes as his fathers finally heard the reality of their son’s life at school.  “Or do you want to hear how they’ve started to wait for me on the way home from school…and that Jinae has skipped lessons before to help take care of me after they beat me up?”

Munhee pulled his knees up into his chest, shaking off his Appa’s weak grip.  He wrapped his arms around his knees and placed his quivering chin atop them. 

“And the entire time they do it…they tell me that no one should have two fathers.  That it’s wrong and dirty for two men to be together…and that that must make me wrong and dirty.  And that is why they hit me…because I’m not like them and they say they are better…”

Munhee trailed off, not willing or able to say any more.

Kibum couldn’t believe what he was hearing.  He could hardly believe that it was the truth…but he could see the affect that this had on his children…he could see the bruises and hear the pain in the child’s voice.

The man crawled up onto the bed and pulled his son to him, enveloping the boy in his long arms, patting his hair as the boys lost his tentative grasp and dissolved into sobs. 

Jinae soon joined them up on the bed, wanting to comfort her brother, and needing a little of it herself too.  Taemin sighed at the mess that this was making of his family before he too joined the huddle on the family, wrapping his arms around his children and trying to offer was comfort he could.

For several minutes they all just remained like that.  Not speaking, just hanging onto each other and trying to bring themselves back to a semblance of normalcy. 

Taemin finally leaned back into the chair, pressing the heels of his hands hard into his eyes, trying to bring his world back into focus and calm himself down.

“Have you told anyone at school?  Teachers?  The principal?”  Kibum asked, unwilling to take his arms away from his children knowing now what they had faced when he let them go out into the world.

Munhee just nodded against his father’s side.

Taemin removed his hands from his face, his eyes flaring wide.  “The school knows?” 

This time Jinae answered.  “I told Munhee to tell a teacher since he wouldn’t tell you…he didn’t want to worry you…”

Kibum clenched his son a little closer, placing a kiss on the top of the boy’s head.  “Oh Munhee…”

“Why didn’t they do anything…?” Taemin whispered to himself.

“They told me to make friends with him…” Munhee mumbled against Kibum’s side.

Taemin snorted, “They told you to make friends with the kid that was bullying you?”

“His father is someone important…” Jinae said quietly.

“What?” Kibum focused his attention on the girl.  “What do you mean?”

Jinae squared off her shoulders.  “The boy’s father, he works for the Office of Education.  He’s really important there.”

Taemin clenched his jaw tight, bunching his hands into fists for a moment before forcing himself to relax.  “The school doesn’t want to make him mad because it could affect their funding.”  He growled out.

Kibum felt frustration clawing at his throat, a scream trying desperately to work its way out, but he held it back.

“Munhee, are you the only student he’s bullied?”

“No.” the boy answered quietly.  “He was picking on some of my friends and I told him to cut it out…that’s when he started picking on me.”

Taemin stood up and grabbed Munhee, lifting the boy up into his arms and hold him close.  At any other time Munhee would have complained that he wasn’t a baby anymore…but right now he wanted to be close and seek the comfort of his father.

“We’ll figure this out kiddo, we’ll make this better.”  Taemin met Kibum’s eyes and said, “I promise,” and the other man nodded.

The family called it a night early, so exhausted from the revelation.

Taemin curled up into Kibum that night in bed and finally let the tears of pain and frustration fall.  His child was being bullied…because of who he was.  He had hoped that these times were behind them but reality could be a harsh mistress. 

Kibum calmly held Taemin while the man finally let go. 

“We’re going to the school tomorrow.” Taemin announced when he had calmed.

Kibum nodded his agreement.  “We promised right?”

*****

Taemin ground his teeth as he sat outside of the Principal’s office waiting for the secretary to let them in. 

He still couldn’t believe that his children had gone to the school, and not only had the school not done anything about it, but they had never even called to let Taemin and Kibum know that their son was having problems at school. 

“Mr. Lee, Mr. Kim,” a woman in her mid-forties stood before them, “Principal Seo will see you now.”

Kibum grabbed Taemin’s hand and squeezed it tight as they rose, not letting go as they walked into the Principal’s office and sat down in the offered chairs facing the man’s oaken desk.

“Mr. Lee, Mr. Kim.” They were offered a wide smile.  “It’s nice to see you both again.  To what do I owe the pleasure today?”

“How long have you been aware of our son’s bullying here at school?” Taemin demanded, eyes boring into the suddenly slackening face of Principal Seo.

“I’m…I’m not entirely sure what you mean…” The older man stuttered.

Kibum pulled his phone out of his pocket.  He had taken a photo of Munhee last night.  The boy stood in just a pair of basketball shorts, his body displaying the scrapes and bruises and swelling that he had endured.  

He called up the picture and showed it to the man in the suit. 

“We’re talking about coming home yesterday to find our son like this.”

The man’s eyes drifted shut as he took in the image.

“I’m sorry that your son has been hurt, but there has been no recording of bullying…”

“Mr. Seo,” Taemin interrupted.  “It’s really not a good idea to try and lie to a reporter.  I’ve already spoken to Munhee’s friends who’ve told me exactly how long this has been going on.  As well as his homeroom teacher, who told us how she went to you with Munhee’s story of being bullied.  Hell, even the woman at the snack shop outside the gate told us of how she had seen them tormenting our son with homophobic slurs and that it has escalated to physical altercations in the last few weeks.  She also told us that she called here and spoke to you about because she knew that they were students here at this school.”

Taemin smirked at the man.

“You want to revise your story?”

“Mr. Lee, boys roughhouse, I’m sure you did at their age too.”

“This!” Kibum exclaimed, indicating his phone again, “This is not roughhousing.  This is an attack on my son.”

“You have to understand,” the man began slowly, “we cannot get involved with actions that happen off of school property.”

“According to Munhee, most of it happens on school property.  He said yesterday, the entire lunchroom got to see when his lunch tray was smashed out of his hands…” Taemin said calmly, though he didn’t know where that feeling was coming from considering how worked up he was right now.

“We were told that the boy doing it has a father in SMOE.” Kibum said softly, turning the Principal’s attention onto him.  “That he gets away with everything here in school because his father threatens to cuts funds and staffing to this school if anyone goes against his son.”

Principal Seo sighed, “There are 600 students at this school…I’m trying to do what’s best for as many as I can.”

“And sacrificing our son if you have to?”  Taemin sneered, finally losing the battle he was having with himself to maintain his composure.  “You’re not doing what’s best for all of your students when you ignore this.  When you let one boy run rule over the school…you have failed in your mission…” 

“Mr. Seo, we are going to be pressing charges against the other boy’s family.  If would help our case if you would speak with us about what was going on.”  Kibum said softly, trying to reason with the man who looked so broken and ashamed.

The man sighed and removed his glasses, rubbing at the bridge of his nose, but remained silent.

Kibum stood, tugging Taemin up with him.  “If you would prepare Munhee’s records for us, we’ll be transferring him to another school where he will be safe to attend classes.”

The couple turned to leave.

“He is chaebol.  His family has money to burn and a team of lawyers.  There is no way that you can win.” The Principal implored. 

Taemin stopped dead, but didn’t turn around.  “My father is an attorney – he’ll take the case if no one else would.”

Then Taemin turned slightly to look over his shoulder, “But even so – If I can’t get him with they law, I’ll try him in the court of public opinion.  I reminded you earlier, I’m a reporter and I help shape the narrative of the public mind.  There’s no way the public condones a grown up bullying a school into covering up his son’s bullying of students.”

Then the couple turned and left, closing the door a little louder than necessary, but it made them feel a little better.

“Well,” Kibum began, sliding in behind the driver’s seat of the car.  “Let’s start looking for other schools.”

Taemin nodded and the couple pulled away into the busy traffic of Seoul. 

I had a lot of trouble ending this one…and I still think that it feels incomplete, but I can’t think of anything to add to it at this point. 

Anyway, hope you enjoyed and please remember to comment!