It's winter break. Ever since the interrogation with the cops, my dad hasn't spoken to either my mom or me. My mom still tries to interact with him. She cooks breakfast and she goes over and give it to him. He just slightly smiles and nods. My mom walks away. I don't try one slight bit. Ever since winter break started, about 3 days ago, I haven't spoken to TaeHyung. I hope he figures that I'm going through something right now and that's why I didn't call or text.

 

There's a knock on the door. I stand up from the couch and go to it. My parents are in their room, getting ready for something. I peek through the window and it's an officer. I groan quietly and open the door.

 

"Miss JaeEun?" The officer asks. A man gets out of the cop car in front of my house. He's dressed in a nice suit, and he walks towards us. I nod my head.

 

"Are your parents home?" I nod, and they both invite themselves in.

 

"Mom, there's someone here." I shout. My mom comes out of the room and freezes for a while when she sees the officer. I see her sigh to herself as she walks down the stairs and greets them.

 

"Ma'am, we're here for one last questioning. But I'm not questioning, he is." The officer says, pointing to the well-dressed man.

 

"Hello." The man says, holding his hand out for a handshake. My mom shakes it and bows. "I'm a social service worker, also working on this case. We're just here to investigate your daughter, and only your daughter one last time hopefully."

 

My mom nods and she just gestures that I'm available. The man nods and he extends his arms towards the front door, telling me to go outside with him. I follow as the cop stays inside with my mom. I hear my father walk down the stairs.

 

We walk to where the cop car is, and he takes out a file.

 

"So I just want to ask you a few things. First off, is your dad still abusing you? Or has he been abusing you more lately?" He asks. I shake my head and he raises an eyebrow and nods.

 

"When was the last time?" He asks.

 

"About a week." I answer. He tilts his head and then closes his file.

 

"So he completely stopped?" He asks, and I know where he's going with this. No, my father has not changed. Please, don't say he did. He's going to kill me if you guys say we're good.

 

I can feel tears starting to form in my eyes and he opens up his file again.

 

"Why do you think he stopped?" He asks.

 

"Because he doesn't want to be caught." I honestly answer, a tear falling. The man nods.

 

"Right now, if I went in there and said we're good and no more interviews will happen, and then we left you in there with them, what do you think will happen?" He asks.

 

"I'll end up dead." I say. Fear built up inside me. It really sounds like they were going to say, "Your dad has stopped. Everything is fine now."

 

"Thank you, Miss JaeEun." The man says, escorting me back to my house. We walk in and my father and mother are standing next to each other, near the couch looking at me. The cop nods his head up at the man.

 

"We'll be back tomorrow, so be here." The man says and the cop sighs and walks out the house with him.

 

 

 

It's the next day and guess what has happened. The most amazing thing has happened. A miracle happened. A prayer has been answered.

 

My father got arrested.

 

I didn't know how to react to it. It's over. It's gone. My nightmare is gone. I'm free. I'm 18 years old, and I finally can be free. My mother hugs me tight and tries not to cry.

 

"I don't know how you did it." An officer says. My mom lets go of me. "I don't know how people like you can go through this. It breaks my heart whenever I have to do cases like this."

 

I nodded at him and he flashes me a comforting smile.

 

"You two are okay now." He assures us. My mother nods at him and rubs her eyes.

 

They talk while I excused myself out of the house. I took out my phone and immediately call TaeHyung.

 

"JaeEun?" He answers.

 

"TaeHyung!" I slightly shout.

 

"Hey! Are you okay? You haven't replied to me for like 3 days." He says, I chuckle. I can feel myself smiling really huge. I don't know if it's because my dad is arrested or if it's because I'm talking to TaeHyung.

 

"Yeah! Yeah! I'm good! Guess what?" I go. "My dad's gone. They just arrested him."

 

"Seriously? Oh my gosh, that's great!" He goes. I nod to myself from being so happy.

 

I hear someone yelling in the background. TaeHyung groans.

 

"Is it okay if I come over?" He asks. "With my sister?"

 

"Uhm, yeah sure." I say. He just hangs up.

 

 

 

Twenty minutes later and TaeHyung arrived at my door. My mother opened it while I stayed on the couch.

 

"Oh. Hello." I hear her say. "TaeHyung? Right?"

 

"Yes. Hello! This is my sister, SooHyung." He says. I look over and my mom invites him in, pointing to where I was. He sits down next to me and puts his sister on his lap.

 

"Hello!" He says, smiling at me. I smile back.

 

"Why'd you want to come?" I ask. My mother walks upstairs and goes into her room. He sighs.

 

"My mom was being a total pain again. She was yelling at SooHyung and I just needed to get us out the house." He says. I frown a little and place my hand on his arm, giving him a comforting smile. He smiles back.

 

"But I'm glad that you're okay now. Gosh, I'm so happy that you're okay now." He says. I chuckle. "Does your mother like me?"

 

I look at him and shrug.

 

"I don't know. I never really talked about you to her. But I bet she will." I answer.

 

"Well, my birthday is tomorrow." He goes. My eyes widen. "And I know you hate MinKyu with a passion, or you just don't want to see him but, I let him host my party and it's at his house. And since your dad is gone, I want to know if you wanted to come."

 

"What about your sister?" I tell him. He looks at her and combs her hair with his fingers.

 

"I made sure my mom knows she'll be sleeping over her friends house tomorrow." He says, smiling at her. He then frowns and looks forward.

 

"You know, sometimes I wish my mom would hit me." He goes. I give a puzzled look. "You know? Because people hardly pay attention to you when you have wounds inside you. All you really get is it up. You're a man. It's just words. Don't take it too personally. She's doing this because she loves you. But no one tries and helps, until it's too late you know? I mean, for some people."

 

I just look at him and he looks at me.

 

"You're not talking about-"

 

"Yeah. But I have my sister and I won't leave you, so don't worry." He cuts me off, smiling a little after. "That's why I wish that if my mom hit me, I can call the cops myself. Imagine being an officer on the line and you get a phone call going, My mom keeps yelling at me and my sister, calling us this and calling us that! They have people being and beaten and murdered that are more important than two children being emotionally harassed. We just get recommended to counselors, but those don't even help."

 

I scoot closer to him and hug him from the side. His hand reached up and held my shoulder. SooHyung stayed quiet.

 

"I'm sorry." I say. He shakes his head as I pull away.

 

"It's okay. Just 5 more months. I'll work. Rent an apartment. Tell the police what happens and hope they will let my sister live with me." He says. I smile at him and he smiles back.

 

"I'll go with you to the party." I say. "I mean, I've never been to a party. And this is for your birthday, so why not?"

 

 

 

Like I've said, I've never been to a party and this party is exactly what I see in high school movies. Beer, alcohol. It's everywhere. I never thought TaeHyung would be this kind of person, but then again the host, his friend, is this type of person.

 

He holds my hand as he walks through the living room to find MinKyu. He spots him holding a bottle of beer.

 

"Huh? Having fun?" MinKyu says, pushing himself off the wall and walking towards TaeHyung. He looks at me and I can see him slightly roll his eyes. Then, he gives TaeHyung his beer bottle. TaeHyung shakes his head.

 

"I'm fine. Thanks." He says. MinKyu scoffs and puts his arm around TaeHyung, dragging him away from me. Our hands released and I stood there alone. I went next to the wall and just leaned on it, looking around the place.

 

A minute later TaeHyung came back to me.

 

"Sorry." He says, leaning against the wall next to me, crossing his arms. I shake my head.

 

"It's your birthday. Don't apologize." I say and he smiles.

 

We both just look at each other, without having anything else to say. I don't know what to say. We're just leaning against the wall at a party full of drunk people, while we're probably the only sober ones here.

 

He uncrosses his arms and extends one hand towards my face, cupping my cheek. I look at his hand and then I look back up at him. He's leaning closer to my face.

 

Our nose touch and he stops coming closer. My eyes are still opened but his are closed. I look at him, seeing how close he was. My breathing slightly got faster, and then he leans closer and kisses me.

 

I kiss back. It was a passionate kiss. I had no idea if I was doing it right but it felt nice. Then again, he probably thinks he's doing it wrong too.

 

His other hand lifts up and he rests it on my hip. At first I was a bit embarrassed because we're in a room full of people, but everyone's too drunk and busy to even care about someone kissing.

 

"Everyone!" I hear MinKyu shout, the music turning off. We pull apart from each other and he puts both of his arms around my waist, turning his head towards MinKyu. I turned my head as well.

 

"Tonight, we celebrate my best friend's birthday." He says, holding up his bottle. "To TaeHyung!"

 

Everyone repeated what he said and TaeHyung smiles.

 

"Happy birthday to you." MinKyu starts singing and TaeHyung turns his head away from him. I guess everyone is embarrassed to be sung happy birthday to. Everyone else joined. When they finished, they all clapped and the music turned back on. MinKyu came walking towards us. He raised an eyebrow at us as if he finally notices me there with him.

 

"You two are a thing?" He goes. "Or are you already too drunk to even care Tae? You drank before you got here?"

 

TaeHyung scoffs and roll his eyes.

 

"We're a thing. And no, I haven't even taken a sip." TaeHyung tells him.

 

"Yet." MinKyu adds. He looks at me. "You should take a sip. It'll help you release your mind from the...pain, you know?"

 

I don't even want to know what he was trying to imply. I shake my head.

 

"We won't be drinking." TaeHyung says.

 

"Ah, you're no fun. I bet if she wasn't here you'd be drinking like it's nothing." MinKyu goes. He shoves the bottle into TaeHyung's hand and walks away.

 

"He hates me more now." I say.

 

"Don't worry about him." TaeHyung says, putting the bottle down on the floor.

 

"Would you really drink if I wasn't here?" I asked him. I wasn't going to get mad if he said yes. I don't really mind, I'm just curious.

 

"Maybe. I don't know, depends. I don't know if I'd have enough self-control. I'd probably end up very drunk." He says, chuckling. He looks at me and pecks me on the nose.

 

His phone rings and he looks at it.

 

"Yes?" He answers it. I look at him. His facial expression totally changed. It kind of scared me. It went from happy to annoyed in a split second.

 

"I told you MinKyu was holding a party for me." He says. He stayed silent for about a good minute and a half, just listening to the other person on the phone talking.

 

"That's fine." He says. "MinKyu can let me sleep here then."

 

He was silent again but for a longer time. He shakes his head and rolls his eyes.

 

"Fine." He says, and then hangs up. He stays looking at his phone and doesn't lift up his head.

 

"TaeHyung?" I ask. He keeps looking at his phone for a while and then looks up at me. His eyes were red and teary. He's about to cry.

 

"What's wrong?" I ask him. He sighs and shakes his head.

 

"It was my mom." He barely lets out, but no tears are falling. He shakes his head again. "It's nothing. She's just doing it again. I'm okay. Don't worry."

 

I hug him and he hugs me back. He helped me win my battle, now I'm going to try and help him win his.