MUFFLED GROANS || J.JK × Reader ✔

chapter 31 | Under the mask

"Is everything okay?"  Seunggil asks, and my heart skips a beat when Joonha opens the door, but he goes out right away and prevents me from seeing her by slamming it.

"Yeah, it's okay," I answer after an eternity, making it obvious I am not telling the truth. "Is it your stepmom?"

"Yeah," I feel some astonishment but guess that he has been told about the whole issue. "Oh, alright. Just focus on us, he must be taking care of it. No need to worry. You know how good he is during arguments."

"Hm, the argument is not what worries me," I peek at him but push one ear back to try to listen to what is happening in the hallways. "Wait, we're coming back in a few seconds Iseul, we need to talk about something," he tells her but reveals who she is. She is the one who has a crush on Joonha, the one he hung out with for her birthday. She agrees without seeming pleased. "I can just leave it, stay together in this call," she goes away to leave us alone.

"Can you tell me what is happening? Why are you scared?" he asks in a soft voice, showing genuine care. "She told me to go downstairs by text, but Joonha took my phone so that I wouldn't answer, so she came here to knock on the door...and...she called me, so he turned my phone off...but I know she's mad at me..."

"Y/n," his voice does not resound the same way anymore as if he was serious, and I look up at him but feel the anxiety hasten the speed at which my blood is running through my throbbing veins. "Are you scared of her because she does something to you? Does she hurt you...?"

I shake my head but feel and see the tears grow in my eyes, feeling tired of lying, tired of all the overwhelming emotions that are suffocating me at the thought of Joonha being hurt by her right being this door.

"Hm...Well, I'm gonna talk to you about something very personal, and you can tell me if you don't wanna hear about it, okay?" he talks to me very carefully, making me feel like Joonha has talked a lot about her and me. "I wanna know..." I snivel but keep my hands on the ears of the headphones to cover mine and listen to him. "You must have heard what I said about my parents some minutes ago, right?"

I nod and let him continue. "Well, when I was young, I used to be very scared of my parents. Not just my father or mother, but both, and it all started when I was seven. There used to get drunk and high all the time, they weren't working, they were spending all their money into that shit without caring about feeding me or buying me clothes and stuff for school, and the worst started when I was around ten, I'll never forget that day when I came back home, but I was five minutes late because my teacher talked to me about how worried she was for me, and I had to run back home since I missed the bus, I was literally scared because I knew my dad would not understand but be mad, and I kinda ran for my life but almost fainted because of how hard I pushed, and when I got home, my mom had already shoot some heroine in her veins, so she was barely conscious of anything, and my dad was drunk, but I tried to explain to him, and since he was intoxicated, he took it as some disrespect and thought I was shooting back, and I will never forget the way I felt my body fly into a wall and hit the ground," he tells me everything but manages to not even shed a tear while I am crying.

"That was the most terrifying and most agonizing moment I have ever lived in my entire life, I still have nightmares about it, I can still feel the pain and fright he made me feel after beating me up, and he never stopped until I was able to leave the house on my eighteenth birthday," his story makes me speechless. "So...I just feel like I know why you feel that way around her, I know that you must be keeping it to yourself because you think no one's going to be able to help you, or that you'll bother people with your problems, you're maybe scared to take it to the court, or you think that you deserve to be treated that way, but trust me, I went through that type of pain and manipulation, so trust me, you don't deserve any of that, you're not bothering anyone, and I know that Joonha or his dad wishes you would tell them the truth and not allow this woman to harm you or have any type of control over your life..." he cites every little thing, every worry, and every thought that I have but never dared to talk about, and I feel like I have never done before. He knows exactly how I feel. I did not expect that from him.