Saturday, December 25^th
   Christmas Day
   8:35 a.m.
   Gongchan's Hospital Room

   The first thing that Jinyoung registered was the immediate stinging sensation radiating from his cheek, followed by another round of sensation as his hand reactively reached up towards his face. The flare of anger that appeared in the older woman's eyes had been expertly repressed, dragged back down into the swirling depths of whatever maelstrom lay under the stony expression she had donned after her hand had left its mark across Jinyoung's face. 

   Sitting up, Gongchan quickly spit out he first words that came to mind without considering the repercussions of his speech.

   "What's wrong with you? Don't hit him!" Gongchan yelled at her, incredulous. Immediately regretting what he said, Gongchan sank down in his hospital bed. Earning the fury of the woman in the room, Gongchan was rewarded harshly with the sound of heels clacking back across the tiled room over to him, and the same resounding slap Jinyoung had unwittingly earned just by entering the room.

   "You will learn to be respectful to your mother when you speak, insolent child!" Gongchan's mother, Gong Jin Ha, seethed. Immediately turning on her heel back to face Jinyoung, she continued to spit out her words with increasing vehemence.

"And you," she began, "are to never speak to my son again. All you are is a disgrace to the human race, lying with other men. You disgust me and have corrupted my son. If I ever catch you near my son again, I'll—"

   "You'll what?" Jinyoung said rather curtly. Immediately after uttering that sentence, that's when Jinyoung saw it. The fear in Gongchan's eyes, hidden behind iron-walled barriers crafted from what he could only assume was years of dealing with this environment. Would it be so evident to people who didn't know what they were looking for? Jinyoung didn't think so. Hell, he wasn't even meaning to look for that fear, but he knew the beast all too well.

   "How dare you—" Jin Ha began, ending up getting cut off when Shindong forced his way into the room, pushing Jinyoung out of the way. 

   "Not to interrupt anything here, but Ms. Gong," Shindong said quickly, obviously meaning to interrupt whatever what happening here, "the papers are ready to be filled out. Please go to the clerk's desk and fill them there. I'll just finish things up on your son, and the two you of you can then leave."

   As soon as the older woman left the room, Jinyoung immediately asked a question that everyone in the room knew.

   "Why are you releasing Gongchan to her? Release him to me instead." Jinyoung insisted, knowing all too well what Shindong's answer would be.

   "She's his mother, Jinyoung. You have no more say in this than I do. Compared to her, you actually have no rights. I'm sorry that there's nothing we can do." Shindong said apologetically. 

   Sighing and accepting the fact that Shindong was right, no matter how much he wanted to admit it, Jinyoung turned his head and studied the boy in the bed. Gongchan looked very sullen, slightly pale. Gongchan's head drooped down, face staring into his hands that lay open in his lap, palms facing himself. Although usually exuberant, Gongchan looked as though he never had experienced a moment of happiness in his life. The glow in his eyes had died, leaving behind a pair of dull marbles.

   Deciding that he was no longer content to just stare at him, Jinyoung walked over and asked another question of whose answer he knew in advance.

   "You okay?" Jinyoung slightly mumbled. When Gongchan didn't reply, Jinyoung just assumed that he didn't hear him. Reaching out, Jinyoung put his hand on Gongchan's shoulder, giving it a light, encouraging squeeze. When Gongchan also did not respond to that, Jinyoung felt as though the time had come, and left the room, taking out his phone and arranging a meeting with Suzy to discuss what had happened. They had been friends since childhood, surely Suzy had to know something.

•   •   •

   Checking his watch, Jinyoung was astounded by Suzy's punctuality. 1 o'clock on the dot. 

   "Right on time..." Jinyoung muttered to himself. Already taking the time to order for them, Jinyoung had taken the three-chaired table that Gongchan, Suzy, and Minho were sitting in when he first laid eyes on his pup. Once Suzy entered the shop, they exchanged their pleasantries and got right down to what Jinyoung wanted to talk about.

   "So what's up?" Suzy inquired, lifting the emerald-colored straw to and taking a slow sip.

   "Well, I wanted to ask about Gongchan. More specifically, I wanted to ask about his parents." Jinyoung said rather seriously, feeling as though now was not the time to joke around.

   "Oh... Uh... Sure." Suzy obliged, albeit uncertainly. "What do you want to know?"

   "Why is his mom like that?" 

   "Like what?"

   Jinyoung became just as puzzled as Suzy was, until he felt extremely dense as Suzy had no idea what pattern of behavior he was referring to in Gongchan's mother, seeing as how she wasn't in the hospital room to see what events unfolded.

   "Uh... Well, I went to go see Gongchan at the hospital this morning. When I had gotten there, this woman, Gongchan's mother, walked over to me and slapped me." Jinyoung explained, recounting the events from earlier to the woman in front of him.

   "Well, I'd slap you too if you were the reason that my son was in the hospital." Suzy said with a smirk on her face. 

   "That's the thing though. I didn't say anything to her, nor did I get the chance to. I don't think anyone told her anything about what had really happened. I just walked in, and she immediately walked over to me and slapped me. Not only that, but she was surprisingly violent and angry towards Gongchan and I." Jinyoung recounted, still lost in his reverie. 

   Taking another sip of her drink, Suzy tried to think of more ways to stop herself from answering the question she felt was coming, but she also felt that she was being worked further and further into a corner that she couldn't escape from. 

   "Did you have anything out of the normal with you?" Suzy asked. Jinyoung shook his head.

   "Nothing that I can think of. All I had were a change of clothes for Gongchan, since he likes to have clean clothes to change into, and some flowers for him."

   "Ahhhh, then that was it..." Suzy muttered to herself, but evidently, not quietly enough.

   "What was it?" Jinyoung inquired, catching Suzy off-guard. How is she going to explain this to him? She didn't want to break his heart or anything, but she didn't think there'd be any way of getting around it either.

   "Well uh... Okay, I'll tell you. Just, don't go to Gongchan with this, okay? He may seem outgoing, but he likes to keep things like this under wraps, so to speak." Suzy explained, only continuing when Jinyoung nodded slowly, obviously encapsulated by what Suzy had to say. "Gongchan is from a big entertainment company, just like I am. That's actually how we met. When our parents were in a meeting, we ended up meeting outside the conference room and the rest is history...

"But I digress... When Gongchan was... Say 15? He started dating. Well, he didn't date a girl, he dated a guy. When his parents discovered said act, they went ballistic. They said not only did he bring dishonor on himself, his parents, and his parents' company, but he brought dishonor on his ancestors as far back as they went. Not content with that painful insult, they actually threw him out for a week and told him that he was cut off from family funds. They ended up sending him to a rehabilitation clinic for a month once he came back." Suzy paused, holding up her finger to tell Jinyoung to hold his horses while she took another sip of her coffee.

   "Sorry, I was getting really thirsty." Suzy smiled sheepishly. Jinyoung shook his head, judging her hardcore. "Anyway, once he came out of 'rehab', he was terribly depressed for about a month, finally overcoming his depression by devoting himself to his studies and to tennis. He'd always been a tennis fanatic really."

   "Then, if you don't mind me asking, how did his parents react when they find out about his other boyfriend, Sandeul?" Jinyoung asked, genuinely curious.

   "Oh, they didn't find out. I don't think they ever will either. By the time they started dating, Gongchan had already moved out, had a job, apartment, and was enrolling in SNU. How they found out about you though, is a mystery to me." Suzy mused, leaning back in her chair and crossing her legs, absent-mindedly sipping on her straw as she lost herself in thought.

   Jinyoung looked out the window at the wispy cirrus clouds that drifted lazily high up in the baby blue sky, not really thinking, but not really not thinking either.

   "Isn't it to all of us?" Jinyoung said in a monotone fashion.

   "Mmm!" Suzy 'said', as she swallowed the drink that was in . "It wouldn't surprise me though, if they pull him out of the hospital and lock him up all Christmas vacation though. I wouldn't put it past those two demon parents of his."

   "Considering what happened last time his parents rained chaos down on his life like that, I sure hope that doesn't come to pass." Jinyoung retorted, as the two went into idle chatter for a bit before Suzy had to leave to attend to company business.

A/N: Hey guys! So I have the next few chapters planned, plotwise. I know how I want to take it, but the writing aspect of it will be a little tricky, so bear with me if it takes a bit for even one chapter to come out c: Also. 

silentloving10 (Apr 14, 2014 22:15:09) says about chapter 17: x
Gongchan's mother? 

The first try? Really? I was amazed by how quickly people caught on to that o:

As Key would say:
"Always thanks for your support and... Thank you very much! *Cute smile and cute wave*"