I'M SORRY IF YOU GUYS DON'T LIKE THIS CHAPTER IT'S NOT VERY ROMANTIC!!!

Mark sighed and wiped some sweat from his forehead. He was keeping busy with packing up the rest of their stuff while Yugyeom was at school. They ended up getting evicted anyway, the stupid landlord told Mark that he’d been waiting for them to slip up so he could boot them out. Luckily Yugyeom had read about a small apartment available for leasing. It was a nice one bed/bath apartment that was both close to the school and Mark’s job. The only problem was that, collectively, they had too much stuff to fit into the smaller apartment.

Luckily Mark had a storage unit he’d rented when he moved to Korea, he was packing up the things they were moving into it. He looked around their empty apartment, all the rest of their stuff in boxes placed all over the new apartment. Despite the terrible landlord, Mark really liked this apartment it was his first home in a new country. His reverie was interrupted when he heard a knock on the door, he tossed the tape gun down and stood to answer it. “Ildong-ssi,” their landlord, “What brings you here?” Mark asked with a forced bow.

Ildong looked down his nose and pushed past Mark, “I came to inspect the apartment to make sure there are no damages,” he informed, his trusty clipboard and pen poised in his hands. Mark nodded in understanding, ‘Anything to get you out of here faster,’ he thought as he shut the door. Mark sat back down to finish packing and let Ildong do his little inspection in peace, he knew that there were no damages to the place so he wasn’t worried. Ildong returned to the living room a few moments later, his thick glasses sitting on the tip of his nose, and addressed Mark, “Yes, everything seems to be in order.”

Mark nodded, “As expected,” he replied with a nonchalant shrug. “It’s a good thing too, I have a nice wholesome couple coming by and I don’t want any traces of you and your…boy-toy left,” Ildong sneered. Mark felt his patience wear thin, “Excuse me?” he asked standing up, “Boy-toy?” Ildong sized Mark up before answering, “Yes, you and your infant lover,” he chuckled with his next statement, “Well now that you’re moving out I can speak freely.”

Mark crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at the shorter balding man, “Please do, because I have some things to get off my chest too.” “Fine, you and your adolescent lover disgust me,” Ildong fired off, “I could ignore your abnormal lifestyle if it were just you, but to drag an innocent teenager into your erse world is just plain sick.”

“The only thing disgusting is your backwards views about homouality, I didn’t lure my ‘innocent adolescent lover’ into being with me. He’s always been gay,” Mark retorted. Ildong snorted, “Oh please, he’s barely an adult. Clearly you took advantage of his naivety and filled his head with your demented ual preferences. But I’m not surprised someone like you would prey on such a weak-minded boy.”

Mark couldn’t stop himself from punching the homophobic landlord in the face. He’d never been spoken to in such a way, the man acted like he wasn’t human.

“How dare you lay your hands on an elder,” Ildong yelled as he rubbed his swelling jaw. “ you, you old homophobic prick,” Mark yelled in English, he was too upset to translate for the ignorant man. He was about to punch the man again when heard a shocked voice call out his name,

“Mark-hyung,” it was Yugyeom. “What are you doing?” he asked in bewilderment. Mark didn’t look at his boyfriend but he did answer, “I’m about to send this old man to intensive care.” Yugyeom tossed his book bag to the floor and intercepted his livid boyfriend from behind, “You can’t do that hyung,” he said holding the shorter man back.

“Yes the I can,” he yelled in English before switching back to Korean, “Let me go right now.” He bucked against the younger’s hold as he tried to get to the cowering landlord. Yugyeom didn’t know what had transpired between the two, but he did know that beating the landlord up could land his American lover in jail.

“I think you should leave,” he directed at Ildong. The old man fearfully scrambled to his feet and fled the apartment, leaving behind his trusty pen and clipboard. Mark bucked again as he tried to break free to follow the old man, “Mark-hyung please calm down,” Yugyeom said in his ear while he tightened his grip.

“Let me go,” the elder demanded, his chest rapidly rising and falling in rage. Yugyeom shook his head and firmly stated, “Not until you calm down.” “Kim Yugyeom, get your hands off me,” the elder growled out in an authoritative tone as he finally wrenched free of the younger’s grasp. Before Mark could run out of the apartment, the scared and confused younger grabbed onto his arm, “Please calm down and tell me what happened hyung,” he pleaded.

Mark snatched his arm away and glared at his boyfriend, “Fine I’ll tell you what happened. That man basically told me a I’m a sick and twisted e,” he yelled out. Yugyeom looked taken aback, “What?” he asked shaking his head, “Why would he say that?” “Because I’m not a real person in his eyes, Yugyeom. To him I’m just some disgusting ert who tricked you into coming to the dark side,” Mark told him as he kicked one of the boxes, he heard something break inside it.

Mark planted his hands on his hips and began to pace, trying to appease his anger. “OK what he said was wrong, but you shouldn’t have hit him Mark-hyung,” Yugyeom reasoned, “He’s an elder. He deserves respect.” Mark shook his head in disbelief, “Are you freaking kidding me?” he asked stopping in his tracks, “I had no choice but to hit him, he deserves the beating of a lifetime and if you hadn’t stopped me he would’ve gotten it.” Yugyeom shook his head in denial, “No hyung, what he said wasn’t reason enough for physical violence.”

Mark shook his head again and ran his fingers through his hair in irritation, “You don’t get it, so let me explain it to you. There are people like him everywhere, people who feel like they can just do and say as they please without any consequences. I refuse to let anyone talk to me or treat me like I’m something less than human just because I’m not attracted to women. You don’t understand what it’s like to feel threatened because people can’t accept the way you were born, they can’t accept something you can’t change. You don’t understand how many fights I’ve been in or how many times I’ve been jumped for just trying to be who I am. I mean, part of the reason I moved out here was to get away from people like that.” He took a step back and began to pace again, “People like him don’t deserve respect,” Mark concluded with a shake of his head.

“So what are you going to do? Beat up anyone who has something negative to say?” Yugyeom queried from his seat on the floor. Mark glared at his boyfriend and answered, “It’s better than idly sitting by while they attempt to strip me of my humanity.” Yugyeom shook his head, “I just don’t think it’s right to create conflict like that.”

Mark noticed that his boyfriend looked distressed, he was clearly upset about having to break up the altercation. He halted his pacing and stooped down before the younger, “Look kid, I understand that you don’t agree with my methods. You don’t like conflict. But what you have to understand is that at some point you’re going to have to deal with people like Ildong. Now you can either choose to ignore the hate and let it continue or you can fight back,” Mark wisely told him.

Yugyeom let what he said sink in, he wasn’t sure how he would react in such a situation. He looked up when Mark ran fingers through his hair, “Just know that I’ll be there to either defend you or help you kick someone’s ,” the elder promised him. Mark pressed his forehead against the younger’s, “No one is going to make me feel bad about loving you,” he said, no one except himself.

I PROMISE THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE EXTRA FLUFFY