Teenage Dirtbag (My cruel summer) | Seongjoong

1. He rides a motorcycle.

"So, care to explain the C in mathematics?" Hongjoong squinted his eyes at the paper his mother flipped right in front of his face. The boy groaned with his mouth full of cereal as he realised she was talking about his final grades from this school year.

"Well, I passed." He murmured and wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his oversized sweater. He couldn't believe it was just the first day of his summer holidays and his mother was already talking about school again. He wished his dad wouldn't be gone for a business trip, maybe he'd be able to stop her madness.

"Passed? You're supposed to be better than average, Hongjoong." The woman grimaced, once again looking over her son's grades.

"What's wrong about being average? It's not like I'm failing and you know I'm focusing on my music anyway." Hongjoong rolled his eyes but tensed up right after speaking, realising his mistake. "Those are only junior year's grades, ok? It's not like they matter for college anyway." He immediately added, hoping his mother wouldn't start complaining about his future career choices. He was definitely not in a mood for this conversation again - to be honest, he never was.

Hongjoong knew she was not very keen on him getting into the music industry. She made it very clear when he took interest in it back in primary school, when he wanted to join the band and learn how to play the instruments. His mother wanted him to be as successful as one can be, and she strongly believed that choosing a career anywhere near the creative field is like tying up your own shoelaces together right before a race.

She absolutely despised that about her son. In her opinion he was way too ahead of himself, talking about something as unimportant as music 24/7, renovating his already perfectly fine clothes, improvising with his hair colours and styles, and even trying out make-up every now and then. It was 'ridiculous' enough for a man to wear eyeliner anyway, but she gave up on it long ago, after Hongjoong would just steal her cosmetics each time she confiscated his own. So she just settled on disliking all the qualities her son wore (but not without voicing them out every change she got of course).

"Anyway, you can go and start packing now." The woman send Hongjoong a fake smile as she sat down on the couch in front of him.

"Pack where?" He frowned, swallowing down another spoonful of cereal. He once again used his sleeve to wipe some milk from the corner of his lips, which immediately made his mother's grimace reappear on her face.

"You're not 5, Hongjoong-ah." She remarked with a scrunched nose, before continuing and answering his question. "You'll be spending the summer outside of Seoul, in the countryside with your aunt, uncle and your cousins, Wooyoung and Kyungmin." She fixed her tight skirt and straightened her back even more, as if she was part of the royal family. In Hongjoong's opinion she ended up looking just ridiculous and fakely profound, but who was he to judge.

"Huh? Why?" He scrunched his nose, putting the empty ball down onto the coffee table and looking at his mother confused.

"Because I decided so. You haven't spent any proper time with our family in a long time and every time I'm on a phone with my sister she keeps telling me how much they miss you." She put her hand on her chest, glancing to the side with sadness, and Hongjoong had to take a moment to decide whether she was being honest or just manipulative again.

"You sure it's not so you can get rid off me for 2 months?" The boy wondered out loud, already knowing the answer, and only rolled his eyes when the woman ignored his remark completely.

"You'll be staying in Jaesung's room since he just got into university and wanted to move out beforehand to get everything ready ahead of his studies. What a great son." She gazed into the wall behind Hongjoon's head and said quietly, but loudly enough for him to hear.