Dark to Baby: A Changjin Story

Chapter 18

"So... you gonna help me or just play with my dog?"

There was Felix, sitting on Hyunjin's bedroom floor, legs pretzeled, trying to get a red bone out of Kkami's mouth. The two small beings fit perfectly on the patch of carpet in between all the furniture pieces that Hyunjin was still trying to get used to.

The evidence of violence from this morning was gone apart from the barely noticeable cut on his cheek. Everything apparently picked up and disposed of along with all the other knick knacks that were previously scattered on the floor. His messy mesh hamper had even been removed from the corner of the room and was replaced by a neat stack of clothes on his dresser. It looked sterile, unlived-in. With moving and school, he had only had enough time to put out the essentials. Not even his various posters had made it on the walls, leaving the room prominently grey-blue in color.

"Felix?"

No response.

"FELIX!"

Said boy jumped and turned his head towards Hyunjin, Kkami winning the fight for the bone.

"What?" Hyunjin gestured to the open textbook on the bed, "oh, right."

Felix untangled his legs, walked over, and fell sideways onto the bed, his head propped up by one hand.

"Let's see here..." He flipped the book around and examined the problems. After a few seconds, he looked up.

"So what's the problem?"

Hyunjin passed him the quiz he had taken the day before, a nice, red thirty scribbled on the top.

"Oh," Felix scanned the paper full of triangles and wrong answers, "I see."

"So it looks like you just don't know when to use what. Am I right?" Hyunjin bobbed up and down, moving the entire bed in confirmation.

"Okay, then. Let's get started!"

Felix turned the quiz over and placed it between them. He dropped onto his stomach and crawled on his elbows towards the paper so he could write on it.

"So let's start with triangle types and move on from there?" Hyunjin shrugged as he made himself comfortable beside Felix.

"You're the expert." Felix giggled and drew a few triangles on the paper.

"Okay! So each of these triangles have something special about them. Can you figure out what they are?"

Hyunjin stared at the paper like it was growing a head. They were triangles. All a little different, but he definitely wouldn't use the word special.

A minute passed, then two. Felix didn't even look at Hyunjin while he thought. Instead, his hand wiggled over the edge of the bed, attempting to entice Kkami into playing again.

Five minutes passed and Hyunjin was still unsure why the triangles were so special.

Felix lifted himself so he was once again fully on the bed and glanced at the paper.

"Why didn't you write anything?"

"Uh..." Felix watched as the uncertainty in Hyunjin's eyes led to an awkward smile. Felix couldn't help but laugh.

"It's okay! Let's do it together."

"Okay..."

"So, each of these triangles are named based on their sides." He looked over at Hyunjin to make sure they were good so far. Hyunjin was nodding, so he assumed it was alright to continue.

"This first one has little lines on each of the sides to symbolize that they are all the same length."

"But they're not all the same length."