ꜱᴀꜰᴇ

•12

"You cried a lot."
I glared at Mingyu, but shrugged. "I'm sorry, I didn't want certain people to die." I pouted and looked around. "I'm tired."
"Let's go get coffee," he suggested.
"Is there a café in the mall?"
Mingyu nodded and took my hand, tugging me along as he walked out of the theater. He walked in the directions only he knew, while I just kind of walked beside him with our hands locked.
There was an awkward silence between us, like Mingyu wanted to say something that he just wasn't saying.
The line in the rather small cafe was quite short, not giving me a lot of time to pick what I wanted. My eyes hovered over the menu choices, narrowing it down because I knew I wanted something frozen or iced.
"Welcome, may I help you?"
Looking down from the menu, I met eyes with a young girl with gorgeous, capturing green eyes. Long, dark brown (almost black) hair fell in tight waves to her waist, and it looked glossed. Her eyebrows were thick, and her lashes were long. But her eyes were definitely the captivating feature.
Mingyu cocked his head to the side and squeezed my hand. "I would like a caramel macchiato."
"Iced or hot?"
"Iced," he responded.
The girl, whose name tag showed that her name was Lauren, tapped on the screen of the auto-cashier thingy. Then she looked at me, signaling for me to order.
"Um-." I pursed my lips and looked back up at the menu. "I guess, same as that but mocha instead of caramel."
"Iced, right?"
"Yes, please."
"Okay," she sighed out contently, "your total will be $7.34. Cash or credit?"
Mingyu pulled his hand out of mine and began to reach for his wallet, but I slapped his arm.
"Let me get this," I told him as he looked over at me.
He shook his head, proceeding to open his wallet. "Let me pay-"
"Mingyu-"
"Let me pay as an apology for the events of last night," he said. He gave me an apologetic, yet warning look, as he pulled his credit card out of his wallet and handed it to the girl.
She swiped the card through the scanner, then handed it back to Mingyu as she pressed a few buttons. Then she looked up and said, "You can collect your drinks over there. Thank you." She gave an ending smile, forming from her pretty teeth and dark, stained lips.
Mingyu wrapped his arm around my shoulders, walking me over to the counter where two iced macchiatos stood. He handed me my drink, then took his and led me over to a table, where we sat down across from each other.
"So," he mumbled, looking down at his cup, "I'm sorry about last night."
I shook my head. "It's a natural cause, Mingyu," I told him. "It happens all the time, you don't have to apologize if it isn't your fault."
"It is my fault," he said as he looked up at me. "I should have stepped in."
"You would have made it worse." I took a sip of my coffee through the straw. "I was hoping you wouldn't step in. My dad doesn't know I'm gay, and he would have questioned me as to why I had a boy in my bedroom."
Mingyu shrugged. "You could have explained-"
"No," I interrupted, "even if I had explained, he would still; Number one, beat me for being gay. And number two, for having a person in the house without his permission. So there's no conversing about it, you shouldn't have stepped in, and I'm glad you didn't."
The boy looked at me with glossy eyes, like he felt that it was his fault no matter what I said.
I laid my hand over his on the table. "Listen," I mumbled, "don't think it's your fault, please. It's not mine. It's not his. And it certainly isn't yours." He looked down at our hands, pursing his lips. "I don't want you to hold this on yourself. This is going to happen so many more times, Mingyu, I can't even count them. My dad is an angry man. You're going to see stuff like that happen a lot. And the most you can do is comfort me when it's over. I'm sorry, Mingyu, but I don't want you stepping in. You need to understand that it will make it worse. Okay?"
"I want to help-"
"You are." I ran my thumb over the back of his hand. "You're helping by not getting involved. There are plenty of other things you can help me with. You can help me with my anxiety in the future, all the fears I have, everything that's wrong with me. You can help later on."
Mingyu shook his head. "Nothing's wrong with you."
"Everyone has something wrong with him or herself," I told him. "It's a matter of patience, Mingyu. It's a matter of personal stability. You just have to control yourself."
His eyebrows furrowed, and he looked up at me.
"I don't want to sit around and wait for beatings to pass over," he said. His voice had raised a little bit. "I really like you, Wonwoo, and I don't want you going through that kind of pain."
Smiling, I moved my hand away from his and looked down at the table. "I've been going through this kind of stuff for a while, Mingyu," I told him. "It's not like I can't handle it. He rarely ever says things like that, I'll be fine."
"Please, I don't want you going through that anymore."
I pursed my lips and looked back up, meeting eyes with him.
"I'll tell you what," I mumbled, "I'll come out to him."
Mingyu cocked his head to the side. "Don't rush your outing-"
"Hush," I interrupted. "I'll come out to him. Then it'll be easier to understand if you somewhat punch him. You're just being protective."
"I think anyone should punch him, boyfriend, or not." Mingyu shook his head and took a sip of his coffee. His hair settled right over his eyebrows, making him look less offensive than he would if he'd styled it.
"It's not necessarily your call," I said. "But if you really fear for me, I'm not gonna ruin that by not letting you do what you want to do." I leaned back in my chair. "If you ever hit him, though, don't intensely hurt him, please. I'd rather not be an orphan."
Mingyu shrugged and took another small sip from the straw. "With all due respect, I think he deserves anything that comes at him. Child abuse is illegal, Wonwoo."
"I know it is," I argued, "but I don't want my father in jail." I sighed. "How did you come out?"
Looking up at me, the boy shrugged. "It was a little easier for me," he said. "My mom and I have a good relationship, and you see my 'status' at school. For my mom, she just accepted it. As for the school, everyone kind of blew up about it, but I only got teased once or twice. No one likes to mess with me."
"You kind of give off the 'don't come at me' vibe," I teased. "You don't really look like a gay person. You look like one of those douchebags from Grease."
Mingyu glared at me, then rolled his eyes. "We've been through this," he said, "that's just a reputation I accidentally built. There's no meaning behind it."
"I know, calm down." I smiled and ran my index finger around the lid on my cup. "I'm just asking a simple question."
"I came out on a live broadcast for school, but I'm assuming you want to know how I came out to my mom." When I nodded, he continued. "After school, the day before the broadcast, she was making dinner. I was in the living room watching TV, and it was just really bugging me. So I went into the kitchen and told her I needed her full attention. She put everything down to listen to me. And after I told her, she just hugged me and cried a little bit. She even made me stay home from school the next day because she said I was too vulnerable to return to school."
Smiling, I looked over at the other people in the café. "She sounds like an amazing person," I mumbled.
"Oh, yes," Mingyu answered. "She'd love you." He cocked his head to the side and just kind of watched me. "You should meet her one day. Maybe even today."
I looked back over at Mingyu and raised an eyebrow. "Today? You don't think it's too early in the relationship for that?"
He shook his head. "No, considering I like you as much as I do."
"I don't know," I mumbled. I felt Mingyu's hand rest over mine, and he smiled.
"It's okay," he said. "I'm inviting you, it's not like you suggested the idea. I want you to meet her. She would adore you."
Pursing my lips, I sighed and studied his eyes. "You promise I'm not intruding?"
"I promise."
I smiled. "Then sure," I told him. "When are we going?"