MO' PROBLEMS, MO' PROBLEMS

BUZZ—ZAP, and just like that, the power was out. From his spot on the floor, Mark’s eyes trailed up to light fixture above his head, “What the hell?” he furrowed his dark brows and mumbled in confusion. “Mark-hyung what happened to the lights?” an equally confused Yugyeom asked entering the living room. “I’m not sure,” Mark answered pushing past his boyfriend and walking into the kitchen.

He looked out the window above the sink, “The building across the street still has power and so do the people who live next door, so it’s not a blackout,” he deduced. He grabbed the two fat candles he kept beneath the sink as well as the lighter he kept in one of the kitchen drawers and made his way back into the living room. “Hyung I think I may know what the problem is,” Yugyeom guiltily said as he watched the elder set the lit candles on the coffee table. Mark sat down on the floor and looked at his boyfriend’s softly illuminated remorseful face, “What did you do?” he asked seriously.

Yugyeom swallowed hard and slowly answered, “It’s what I didn’t do, I forgot to take the rent check to the landlord.” “How in the hell could you forget to do something so important?” Mark yelled at him in disbelief as he hopped to his feet. Yugyeom stood up as well, “I’m sorry hyung, I got caught up in studying for my exam and it slipped my mind,” he explained, “Please don’t be angry.”

“Don’t be angry?” the elder repeated incredulously, “Yugyeom! It’s the middle of winter and we have no lights, heat, or water! How can I NOT get angry?” Yugyeom visibly cringed at how harsh the elder sounded, “I’m sorry Mark-hyung,” he whined taking a step closer. Mark shoved the younger back down onto the couch, “I don’t need your apologies Yugyeom, they’re not going to make the utilities come back on. I can’t believe you forgot. I asked you to do one thing for me, you had one job: take the rent check down to the landlord’s office, and you couldn’t do it,” he chastised. 

“Can’t I just take it to him now?” Yugyeom pleaded, he wanted so badly to fix his mistake. Mark sighed and sat back down on his cold hardwood floor and placed his face in his palms. “Yugyeom it’s the middle of the night and the landlord already hates us, he’s not going to open his door for us,” the elder mumbled into his hands, “The only reason he hasn’t kicked us out yet is because I usually pay the rent on time.” “Maybe if I explain to him what happened he’ll understand,” Yugyeom frantically said, his heart sinking with every passing look of annoyance on his boyfriend’s face.

Feeling his anger resurface he yelled at the younger again, “YUGYEOM, please just stop. The guy is a creep, but him accepting our rent check is the least of our worries now. You seem to forget that it’s the dead of winter and we have no heat. We have a total of two blankets and these two candles. We need to be more worried about not freezing to death.” Yugyeom felt helpless, so he did what he usually did when he felt helpless: retreated inside himself. He hugged his knees to his chest and buried his face between them, he didn’t cry (he never did), he just kind of shut down.

Too pissed off to care right now, Mark grabbed one of the candles and made his way into the bedroom. He set the candle on the dresser and turned around to feel for his phone in their messy bed. “,” he hissed when he stubbed his toe on the base of the bed. He ignored the throbbing pain and continued to search the bed, he successfully found the phone and mentally cheered.

Maybe one of his friends would let them crash at their place tonight, “,” he cursed again, his phone had literally just died in his hands. He fought the urge to throw the useless phone onto the floor, instead he opted for finding his boyfriend’s phone. He dropped to his knees and felt around on the floor beside their bed where the younger usually kept it.

“Yes,” he cheered when he felt it beneath his hand. He lifted it to his face and pressed the home button, he felt his heart sink when he heard the ‘BEEP BEEP’ sound indicating that the phone was about to die. He quickly dialed Jinyoung’s number and, just as he picked up, the stupid phone died. Mark rested his back against the bed and let out a loud groan of pure frustration, he felt a headache coming on.

After silently counting to 120, Mark got up from the floor. He grabbed the two covers off their bed and threw them on the floor in the living room, Yugyeom was still in the exact same position. He made one last trip to their bedroom and grabbed the candle as well as both of their coats. The coats may have been a bit too much, but he wasn’t taking any chances.

He placed the candle back down on the table beside the other and slowly sat down beside his boyfriend, seeing his current position made Mark feel a twinge of guilt. He usually did his best not to yell at the younger because he knew he was sensitive and had been through a lot, but he couldn’t help but feel like Yugyeom deserved to be yelled at this time. He threw Yugyeom’s coat over the younger’s shoulders. Yugyeom flinched but made no other movements. After putting on his own jacket, Mark wrapped an arm around Yugyeom’s shoulders and pulled him close.

 Mark rested his cheek on his boyfriend’s hair, “Yugyeom-ah, I’m sorry for blowing up at you,” the elder apologized. No response, as expected. “Don’t apologize hyung,” Yugyeom had said after 10 minutes of silence. He pulled away from his boyfriend and sullenly looked at him in the darkness, “I screwed up and now we might not have a place to live anymore.” Even in such a terribly lit room Mark could clearly see the distress marring his boyfriend’s features, just the thought of being homeless again must have had the kid terrified.

“Look Yugyeom, don’t worry about that OK,” Mark told him. Yugyeom worriedly ran his fingers through his hair, “How can I not? You don’t know what it was like for me growing up, hyung. Bouncing around from homeless shelter to homeless shelter, not knowing where my next meal was coming from. It was amazing that I even managed to finish high school,” he confided. Mark grabbed the younger by the wrist and tugged until Yugyeom’s head was resting on the pillow in his lap.

“Hey,” Mark said softly as he his boyfriend’s hair, “Didn’t I promise you that I’d take care of you no matter what?” Yugyeom nodded, “Yes hyung, but nothing like this has ever happened. I’m so stupid,” he said as he hit himself on the forehead. Mark gabbed his boyfriend’s hand and placed it on the younger’s chest, “You made a mistake Yugyeom-ah, we all up. We’re not going to be homeless, if we get booted then we’ll just find another place,” he reassured.

“What if we can’t afford a new place? I’ll start looking for a job right away,” Yugyeom volunteered. “No you don’t need to do that, you’re already having a hard time maintaining your scholarship,” Mark said shaking his head, “I can take care of us. Tomorrow I’ll go talk to the landlord, he may not put us out. Maybe he’ll be in the Christmas-giving mood and overlook the late check.” “And what if he doesn’t?” Yugyeom asked, not fully convinced. “Just let me worry about that OK? You just get some sleep. We’ll be fine,” he promised as he continued to the younger’s hair.

Yugyeom nodded, his eyes already beginning to droop. Mark leaned down and grabbed one of the blankets at his feet. He threw it over his stretched out boyfriend’s body and then went back to rubbing his hair. He was happy that he’d gotten Yugyeom to stop worrying, but he wished he could say the same for himself. Though he’d reassured the younger that all would be OK, that he could take care of them, he wasn’t so sure he could. He hated lying to Yugyeom, but in situations like this it was better.

The truth was that the landlord was a prejudiced prick who made gay jokes every time he saw Mark. He’d made it a point, on several occasions, to tell Mark that if there was any screw ups he and Yugyeom would be out. Mark prayed that the landlord would let this little mishap slip. Mark prayed that they would be able to pull through and find a new place if they did get kicked out. Mark prayed that for once God would listen.