Two Of A Kind || Lee Heeseung

21 ¦ Caught In A Lie

I didn't stay long at Jay's the next morning, but headed home already around noon, because I was sure that my mother wouldn't approve if I delayed things any longer.

I left the sweater Jay had given me on because my clothes were still a little damp, but my jeans were completely dry so I could at least wear pants that fit.

Jay offered to drive me home and I gratefully accepted the offer. His little brother Jake also rode along and as I got out of the car in front of my house, he asked me hopefully if I would stop by again, to which Jay replied in the affirmative in my place.

Luckily for me, my mother hadn't seen Jay's car when he dropped me off, or my lie would have been exposed and the ensuing argument would have only gotten worse.

Contrary to my expectations, my mother was actually relatively calm, she was standing in the kitchen preparing lunch when I entered the house and when she heard the door slam shut behind me, she came walking to me in the hallway.

Her brow was furrowed, whether with anger or concern or maybe both I couldn't tell, for a moment we just looked at each other and then my mother nodded towards the living room. I followed her motion and settled down across from her on the couch.

Lewis was sitting on the couch as well and he furrowed his brows a little worriedly when he noticed us. "We need to talk." Opened my mom redundantly to the conversation and I just nodded.

"So you're with Heeseung?" my mother asked me, looking a little hopeful, as if she hoped I would deny her question. For a second I was confused, I had almost forgotten that the cause of our argument had been Heeseung's claim that we were together.

I thought about what to answer, on the one hand I was exhausted from the whole argument and wanted to settle the matter once and for all, but on the other hand I wanted to be fair to Heeseung, even if he wasn't exactly the nicest person.

In the end, my pride and defiance decided and I nodded determinedly. "Yes." She heaved a sigh and shook her head. Her voice sounded dejected as she continued "I don't understand. Why are you with this boy? I thought you didn't like him? That's what you told me, anyway." "I did at first, but later I just said it to appease you."

"What about this other boy?" "Jay?" She nodded. "He's just a friend." Something stirred inside me at those words. Uncertainty and confusion spread, and I wondered why I was doing all of this right now.

Heeseung had never really been nice to me, except for that one time when he had comforted me on Friday night. We couldn't even stand each other and yet I lied for him and went into conflict with my mother, from my point of view, he really owed me.

"Why didn't you ever say anything?" my mother just wanted to know and I raised my shoulders. "Because you wouldn't have accepted it anyway." I thought about what Heeseung had said to me; that I let her run my life and again I felt the need to tell my mother off.

"You never accept what I want. You constantly tell me what to do and treat me like a child." I tried to make it sound less like a mean-spirited reproach and more like a nice suggestion for improvement, but my mother's face darkened.

"That's not true Clara." She protested and her voice grew louder, Lewis gave her a meaningful look, over the edge of the book. "I'm your mother and sometimes I have the right to tell you not to do things. You have to accept that." "I know you have some things to decide, but you're overdoing it. You treat me like I can't think for myself."

Now my voice was getting louder, too. "I don't want to spend my life being ordered around by you!" I stood up to emphasize my words. "If you didn't act so childish, then I wouldn't have to treat you like one. You reproach me and yourself you just run away and come home late at night and then you disappear in the morning already. That's no way to behave as an adult person!"

"I'm only behaving like this because of you!", I was almost shouting, getting angrier and angrier. "Don't yell around here!" she commanded and I let out a dry laugh. "There you see, you're doing it again," I accused her. "Because you can't behave... what's gotten into you? You just disappear, yell around and are together with a no-good boy who can't go any further than causing trouble!"

I looked at her, trying to just swallow my anger. "You don't know anything," I snorted, turning on my heel. For a second I considered leaving the house again, but where was I going to go? I didn't want to ask Riki for a favor again, and neither did Jay, who had just dropped me off here a few minutes ago, and Sunoo had gone away with his parents this weekend and wouldn't be back until tonight.

The thought of going to the Lee's and asking for Heeseung twitched through my mind, but I quickly pushed it away. So instead of leaving the house, I just stormed up the stairs to my room. I ignored my mother's shouts for me to come back down immediately and slammed the door to my room behind me.

Anger throbbed behind my eye and I could feel myself starting to get a headache. With my eyes closed I leaned against the door, only when I heard footsteps I pulled myself up.

Startled, I realized that there was already a person in my room and I wanted to get up from the floor to be able to defend myself better, but I banged my head against the door handle. Cursing, I stood up and ran my hand over the painful spot, now I would definitely get a headache.

When my shock and pain had dissipated a little, I finally mustered the energy to glare angrily at the person who had frightened me so.

Heeseung had been sitting on my bed and was now grinning and taking a few steps toward me.