Art

3

Again?
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It was late evening, and the boy sat with his father in the living room, playing a bunch of card games. They shared laughs and had some jokes in their sleeves, just the daily dose of quality time. He really cherished moments like this a lot. Before the incident with his mother, he was.more careless, didn't really show affection and rarely smiled. But his mother incident taught him that he had to cherish moments with the people that he truly loves, and to take his steps carefully, to treat people with kindness, even though he rarely got treated with kindness himself. He learned to spend time with his close family, since they were his closest and most important friends of all time, but also to make sure to make space for himself when he needed it. It was beyond crazy, how such a traumatic situation, can teach someone so fragile, how to be strong and wise. Even when going through hard times, he would smile.

"Jeongin! Not again.." his father whined, losing for the 9th time in a row, eventually giving up, making the boy, aka Jeongin, giggle.

"What do you mean?! You did great..you almost won over me and to say, I'm a master of card games" Jeongin spoke, being proud of his self announced title, causing his father to roll his eyes jokingly.

They spend hours on playing various of games, but it got pretty serious with this one card game, a simple game play of traditional fish. Jeongin knew he was good at keeping a facade on, and even his father struggled to look through it, despite knowing him in and out. They spend all 17 years of his life together, but if there was one thing his father never mastered at, was to win over him in fish.

"My son, I gotta say, if you co time like that, you'll make it big" his father spoke, encouraging the boy to feel good about his special talent. Which of course worked.

Just by seeing how Jeongin broke into the biggest smile, made his father smile aswell. He was already told his smile was contagious, which was probably the reason why the old ladies next door, still saw him as a sweet little kid.

He really didn't mind being looked down at such ways, he knew the old ladies had lost a lot in life too. So if his smile could bring back good memories, and encourage them to smile more, he would smile for each and every single one of them. call him a people pleaser, but he truly loved seeing others happy, even if it meant going through a difficult time himself. But he wasn't exactly alone, cause his father was by his side.

He still remembered that time he figured out he was gay, at the age of 13, closeting himself cause he didn't want his father nor mother to be disappointed in him. He went through a long depressive episode, due to always hiding who he actually was, too not expose himself. He was scared to seek to feminine, too clingy, and too sensitive. So he hid his feelings away, and began working out more attempting to gain muscles. But deep inside, he knew that he had to come out sooner or later, cause he loved his rather petite body frame. He knew that being in denial a out his sexuality wasn't the right way to cope. So he talked with his parents about it, his mother having to take a bit more time to understand the concept of it, since she grew up in a strictly Christian household. But his father was quick to embrace him in a hug, telling him he was proud that he came out, that he promised to research about his sexuality, and the possible difficulties..everything to get a better understanding of his own son. That warmed his heart, and he felt loved immediately.

The best part was, that they just didn't say he was too young to figure that out, or to get mad at him, or to ignore him in general. They handled it well, and he truly appreciated that.

So he really meant it, when he swore he would take a bullet for them both.

"Shall we watch a movie, or do you need some time alone?" His father asked, knowing that his son needed his individual breaks when he needed them, and gladly accepted that and let the boy have his privacy.

"I would love too. But mind if I go out and boy some snacks first?" Jeongin asked, hoping to receive a yes.

"Of course, remember to be careful on your way okay?".

"I promise!".