Chapter 11 : Mrs Kim

Jong Suk wakes in the morning to a safe and warm feeling around him. He flutters his eyes open to find Woo Bin leaning on his left with a sweet grin plastering his face. Jong Suk blinks, trying to remember why he can see Woo Bin’s face this close to him. He remembers spreading out his blankets on the floor, then going to the night stand so he could give Woo Bin his medications, then Woo Bin’s arm pulling him to the bed…He gasps and jerks when the images from last evening flash before his eyes, but the pair of arms tightly wrapped around him allows less than a centimetre separation between their bodies.

“Argh!” Woo Bin winces when his casted arm laying gently over Jong Suk’s waist yanks away under his struggle. Jong Suk stills seeing the pained expression on his face. His eyes dart to the fractured arm and back to Woo Bin’s screwed face.

“W—What are you doing?” he asks, catching the dark orbs glancing down on him.

“Let’s sleep bit longer,” Woo Bin mumbles, pulling him closer if that is even possible. Jong Suk can’t understand what caused his sudden flip of personality, but he has to agree that he prefers this Woo Bin over the cold, dark version of him.

“Let go of me!” he turns around and tries to wiggle out of his grasp carefully as to not hurt his fractured arm, but it only causes the grip to tighten. “Woo Bin~” he whines fruitlessly.

“Just ten minutes,” Woo Bin mutters as he shuts his eyes. It is the first time he has seen this childish side of Woo Bin that he would have never guessed he possessed. Then again he has seen a lot of different sides of this boy within the past few days. Sometimes he can’t help but wonder if this cold eyed dinosaur is also like him…broken and hurt…hiding behind a cold mask.

“Mom will be coming home soon,” Jong Suk tries to reason “I’ve to get up and make us breakfast.” The grip never shows any sign of loosening. He gives up trying to escape and relaxes into Woo Bin’s chest. Strange enough, Woo Bin’s warmth feels somehow familiar; it chases away all the shadows in his mind…perhaps like a bright florescent light? He likes the humming rhythm of Woo Bin’s heart thumping in his ribcage. It pulsates through his chest and transmits into Jong Suk’s back, almost connecting with his own heartbeat that has started to fasten a bit. It sooths his mind and lulls him to a deep quietness.

***

Mrs Kim turns the door knob, clicking the door open. It creaks in the silent house.

“Aren’t they home?” Mr Kim asks slipping out of his shoes.

“It’s too silent,” she says, waiting for her husband to tuck away his shoes into the rack. She neatly places her red heels next to her husband’s and follows him into the living room.

“Where have they gone?” Her husband speaks out the question running in her mind. For a moment she feels a wave of dread tinkles through her chest. Has something happened to my Jong Sukie? She jerks at the sudden thought. Perhaps he had one of those ‘attacks?’ She knows too well that her nephew can’t handle strangers’ touches. What if Woo Bin has picked on him or something? The boy always seems to despise the fact that he has to share his bedroom with Jong Suk. Her bag slips from her grip and drops on the floor.

“Honey, can I get a coup of c—” Ignoring whatever her husband is saying, she rushes toward the stairways. It is Sunday and almost one o’clock in the afternoon. She doesn’t know about Woo Bin, but Jong Suk definitely should be home. He is not a boy to wonder around outside unless it is something inevitable. Mrs Kim hurls the door to her nephew’s shared bedroom open. It crashes on the hinges and swings toward her. She clutches onto the door knob as she scans the room hurriedly. Her eyes widen when she locates the two boys sleeping on the bed, cuddled up into a bundle. It is the first time Jong Suk was relaxed into someone else’s embrace, let alone another man. She doesn’t know why, but something inside her stirs, a little warning perhaps. But she decides to ignore it as over reading the situation. What is important now is the fact that Jong Suk has let someone else touch him. That means he is opening up to someone other than herself. A smile creeps on her lips unknowingly, but that doesn’t last long.

“Honey?!” her husband’s loud call breaks her from the little happy world and she immediately releases the door.

“Is something the matter darling?” Her husband calls again, this time his voice comes from much closer distance. She hears his steps creaking up the stairs and her heart leaps to . What will happen if her husband sees the boys like this? No, she doesn’t even want to imagine it. There is no way she’d let anyone hurt her sweet little nephew. He has been hurt enough! Let this be a friendship between the two boys or something much deeper like her instincts said, though she dearly wished it would be wrong, she can’t risk her husband seeing them like this.

“Can you put the kettle on please dear? I’ll be down in a second,” she yells over to her husband and locks the door after her, just in-case. She leans on the hard wood, listening at the crack between the door and the wall. A sigh of relief leaves her lungs when the steps retreat further down the house. 

She steps closer to the bed, eyes never leaving the two boys. She stops when her eyes catch the casted arm lying over Jong Suk’s waist. She is sure when she last saw Woo Bin there was no cast on his arm. Then she spots the awful looking bruises on the boy’s sleeping face, half of which is buried into Jong Suk’s neck. What happened to him? She wanders, shaking Jong Suk’s shoulder to awaken him from his slumber.

“Jong Suk-ah…” she calls gently, and the boy flutters his eyes open. He rubs away the sleepiness and stares at his aunt.

“Mom..?” he mumbles, still half asleep.

“Sweetheart, you should get up now,” She says smiling kindly at him.

“What time is it?” he asks trying to sit up, but something strains him.

“It’s almost one in the afternoon,” she says and he gasps. He jerks back his head to the side to locate a still deep asleep Woo Bin clutching tightly onto his waist like a little monkey afraid to let his mom go. He unwraps from his hold and slips out of the bed.

“When did you come home?” he asks her while cracking his brain for some logical explanation for what she has witnessed. Nothing comes to his mind and he hesitantly gazes at her, waiting for the questions to fire. But nothing of the sort comes to his relief.

“Take a shower to wash off your sleepy face,” she says giggling at his messy bedhead, “We bought some food for you two.”

“Oh…okay,” Jong Suk mumbles, his eyes patterning the floor.

“What happened to Woo Bin?” She asks pointing her head at the sleeping boy. Jong Suk follows her gaze, wondering what he should say. Woo Bin probably doesn’t want them to know that he was in a fight. But he can’t think of a better lie either.

“I’m not sure,” he mutters, deciding that he should let Woo Bin do the explanation, for whatever has happened, when he wakes up “He never really told me the details,” he is not lying here. Woo Bin really never told him exactly what plunged him to such state, he has assumed by the way it was that he was in a fight. That’s the only logical explanation he could think of.

“I see...” she mumbles, turning around to leave. She stops at the door and turns back, “Jong Suk-ah…” she calls him gently, her voice almost inaudible. Jong Suk doesn’t hear the hidden crack, the hint of fear hidden in her voice; he simply waits for her to continue. “I…” she pauses again, eyeing Jong Suk carefully, and says “Yesterday, I met your…” she swallows down the rest of her sentence and smiles at her nephew. Jong Suk gives her a puzzled look to which she replies “Never mind. It’s nothing,” and clicks the door shut after her.