Ju Manshik was a narrowly avoided crisis. Maybe if that kid didn't show up, he would've ended up with another boyfriend and with the midterms were on all their heads… no, HwaShin couldn't afford to fail. Even the slightest drop in his grades would affect his report card and his scholarships could be cancelled. (They wouldn’t really, but HwaYoung never had the heart to tell him there was no scholarship.)
No… the days of living recklessly were to be put behind. He didn't have as much money as his friends did, they could afford Ivy Leagues, he couldn't. He needed those scholarships and recommendation letters.
"Shin-ah?" A knock on his door startled him from his thoughts and he looked up, blinking several times to accustom the silhouette of his mother in the dim lights.
"Eomma." He smiled, hands carefully hiding the scholarship account books under his heavy books. "What's up?"
"SooMin was here a while ago. She was asking about you."
"K-Kang SooMin?" Shin stammered, now with a new found sense of danger lingering on people who viewed him through a rose tinted glass. The girl next door who loved cakes and liked to hang around Shin a bit too much. These days she was trying to deliberately study higher mathematics just to corner Shin and ask doubts. "Why? Why's she here?"
"I don't know?" Shin's mother shrugged, play dancing in her eyes. "Don't you like her?"
"Who, me?" Shin said, unnecessarily loud. "No! Never! She's a child."
Shin's mother stepped in his room, eyes judgmentally falling on the old stuffed mouse lying face up on his bed (which has a bedsheet with hamster print), the raccoon pen stand on his desk with its tail doubling as a cellphone holder and that panda desk lamp illuminating his notes. Not to forget the rabbit-in-a-sushi-roll stickers stuck on the edges of his barely legible notes.
"Who exactly is the child, Shinnie?"
"You don't know, Eomma. Times have changed. Earlier it was okay to like someone younger than you, but now it isn’t. It's criminal to do so."
"And who told you that?" HwaYoung mused. She sat down on the edge of Shin's bed, nose wrinkling up distastefully at his messy blanket. "Almost everyone in my generation would be a criminal then."
"No. You guys are old enough to make rational decisions. What I mean is, I shouldn't force someone younger than me and take advantage of their innocence just for my own satisfaction."
"You sound old." Shin's mother leaned back, dipping the mattress carefully. "Look baby, I know studies are hard and the pressure is too much… but don't deny yourself happiness."
"Dating isn’t happiness," Shin shrunk down on his desk, "it's just that I can't say no."
"That's indeed a problem. Would you mind helping me in the bakery if you're finished with homework? Might clear your mind up?"
"I want to watch a show right now."
"Please baby? I'll give you a chocolate?" HwaYoung offered a flimsy, half hearted bargain. For the love of all sweetness, Shin lived upstairs in a bakery. His mother was a baker. He could have all the chocolate he wanted in the world. But for the sake of a joke, he decided to play along.
"Make it five."
"Two?" His mother grinned.
"Nah-uh. Nothing less than five. Those bear shaped ones with caramel inside. And I want the bunny shaped custard filled mooncakes too."
HwaYoung pursed her lips, seemingly in deep thought. "Okay. Now come to the counter."
"Alright," he said. "Just let me clear up my desk." He pulled open his drawer and swooped his elbow over his desk, carelessly swiping everything down his eternally hungry drawers. Then he picked up his woodland animal theme highlighter set out from the rubble, polished it on his pants and put them back into his raccoon pen stand.
"Hurry up!"
"I'm coming!"
Shin's house was a small, three story building with the ground floor used as a bakery and the kitchen, the first floor with barely four rooms and a room on the terrace which doubled as a guest room. However their house had no visitors, apart from Shin's friends, the part timer ahjumma who sometimes stayed back for dinner and some… unwanted people.
The ahjummas in the neighbourhood didn't take HwaYoung settling down between them very well, but they soon realised that she had a ten year old son and wasn't really inclined in preying on their husbands. Also, they didn't quite want to mess with the ex-wife of a minister.
Rather than the extremely gorgeous woman, now the bakery had someone else as their visual selling device. The extremely handsome son. Which, by far, Shin hadn’t really realised why his mother's bakery was so popular among middle school girls and even some boys… the shock of truth left Shin reeling.
"Good evening," he said to a woman carrying an infant on her hip, "what would you like?"
"Four slices of carrot cake and an apple pie. To go."
"Great," Shin said half heartedly, eyes falling in dread at the doors where a group of giggling girls stood, their hands on their phones and taking pictures of someone they had absolutely never asked permission from. "I'll be right back."
He crouched behind the glass display counter, saving himself from camera lenses even for the barest of moments if he could, and scooped out the apple pie on a tray before standing upright and grabbing the cardboard packing box. His mother's low humming melodies did nothing to drown the storm of conflict pacing inside of him.
Three slices, yeah no four slices… carrot cake, carrot cake, there it was. Looking pretty and gross at the same time. Shin never liked carrot cakes. The menu board beside the counter changed every other day, with HwaYoung writing out the names in her beautiful calligraphic penmanship— one thing that Shin could never inherit from his mother.
"Thank you," the woman said. "Good night."
"Good night." Shin bowed down, dreading as that group of girls in uniforms slowly began to inch towards the door. They are harmless, all they'll do is giggle and laugh and go away. Nothing big, keep calm, don’t smile. Their hesitation was perhaps larger than Shin, for a young man brushed past them easily and entered, rattling the wind chimes with a force that made even Shin's mother look up and peek outside, momentarily forgetting her batter mixing.
"Hello Seonbae," said the young boy dressed too maturely for someone his age. A beige jacket over black shirt and jeans, hair tousled to a degree that could only be achieved by design. He definitely tried to look casual and laid back… but ended up looking like he was going to some opera show. The collars of his coat were turned upwards, flimsy protection from the cool summer wind.
"Er… Kim JaeHwan?" Shin blinked.
"You remember my name. What a coincidence." The kid bounced on his knees, a ghost of a smirk crossing his lips for a split second before the casual facade fell back into place.
“Nice to see you again.” Shin gave him a bright smile. “It’s a little out of character, seeing you in a cake shop so far away from where you live.”
“Oh no, I love cakes.” JaeHwan pursed his lips, as if in deep thought. He quickly looked down, busying himself in the wide assortment of colourful cupcakes (vanilla ones with fruit flavoured frosting; extremely popular among elementary schoolers) then to the high colorie chocolate bomb cakes (those weren’t a particularly healthy choice but still a best seller) and the cake pops with googly eyes… the more JaeHwan looked, the more his nose scrunched up.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out what a taekwondo athlete – someone notoriously famous for watching their diets – was doing inside Shin’s house.
"I was visiting a friend, and I just saw you from outside. Thought I should drop by." Finally, JaeHwan looked up.
"That's nice." Shin chuckled. ShiAhn had said something about a junior, but the words of that warning floated into limbo; for Shin was busy memorising which substrate came after succinic acid. "I live here,” he added, hoping that would discourage JaeHwan from wandering back in. It was better to tell it himself rather than him getting to know from unreasonable sources.
“I know.” The kid grinned. “I mean, this house looks pretty residential.”
"Is it a friend?" HwaYoung poked her head outside, her bright blue eyes gawking at Shin.
"A junior. Some kid from school."
"Shin's schoolmate?" HwaYoung grinned and opened the kitchen half door, now coming fully in view. "You can have a discount."
"He doesn't, haha… hah, he doesn't need a discount, Eomma." Shin exhaled shakily. "So, Kim JaeHwan, would you like anything or you just came by to say hello?"
“You can sit over there and do your homework too.” Shin’s mother pointed her buttercream covered spatula at the empty seats beside the glass wall, the top of which was decorated with ivy and lit up glass bottles. She ruffled her son’s hair then, for reasons Shin had no inclination of, leaving a trail of white flour on his hair and forehead.
Shin decided to leave it as it was.
"That's your Eomma?" JaeHwan asked, hands in the pocket and confused gaze locked on the kitchen partition window behind Shin. "You too really look alike."
"I know." Shin forced another smile.
"No, really, really alike. I could mistake you for twins."
"Alright, such comments make us uneasy so please refrain from speaking on those lines again. Please. Now, what would you like?"
"What do you suggest?" JaeHwan, that immature kid dressed like a movie star, winked. He winked.
"Do you even like cakes?"
"Yeah. Of course I do, Hyung."
Hyung. When exactly had Shin given him permission to call him Hyung?
"Listen uh, just keep this between us, okay?"
"What?" JaeHwan chuckled, like he had some sort of upper hand between them.
"That you were here."
"In your house?"
"Look, I don’t resort to such methods of advertisement for my family business.”
“Five of these.” JaeHwan pressed his fingers over the apple pie slices, “ten of these and two of this. That will do, yeah?”
“Give me five minutes to pack up. In the meanwhile, you can go sit there —”
“Isn’t this like our secret, Hyung?” JaeHwan interrupted, a wide, shit eating grin on his face. “Just the two of us.”
The kid was weird. But crushing his immature spirit was not something Shin wanted to do. He resorted to the last thing he had on his list to drive out the poor kid. “No. But be sure to come next time. I’ll notify you when your order is ready. To go, yes?”
JaeHwan happily slid his black card across the counter. What the kid didn’t know was money was the last thing that could ever impress Tae HwaShin.
*****
"HwaShinnie?"
The fairy lights flickered twice before lighting up fully and Shin squinted, barely making out the silhouette of his mother's slender figure on the stairs. He sat on the same table where JaeHwan did, but his eyes were immersed in his book. Unlike the kid, who was obsessively gawking.
"It's eleven thirty, baby. Don’t you want to sleep?"
"I have homework," Shin said, tone curt.
"Which you can do in your room." HwaYoung dragged her moccasins across the tiled floor, the surly sound of rubber sales slapping against the ground making the room a little alive. She stopped beside his chair, drew her shawl across her shoulder tighter and yawned. "Or, we could just hang out together. Watch a movie."
"I'm eighteen, Eomma."
HwaYoung settled on the chair across from Shin. She laughed, then casually flicked on the pages of Shin's notebook. "This is so ugly…"
"Still prettier than your kitchen." Shin didn't look up.
"Hey! You love all the things that come out of my kitchen." HwaYoung leaned further, crossing her arms on the table. The glass bottle above them flickered, maybe the light inside it needed changing.
"And you love my grades, don’t you?" At that, Shin set his pen down. The fluffy panda on the pen cap matched with HwaYoung's moccasins — something she had stolen after Shin got bored of them and switched over to hedgehogs.
"Still up for the movie?"
Shin grunted an incorrigible no.
"When you were small, you used to dress up in a mouse onesie and force me to sit with you, watching cartoons all day long."
At that, Shin felt a little vulnerable. His old house held a lot of memories; packed in a vintage frame with nostalgic flowers and scented in rose hold dust. Those times felt like a piece of hushed history — dark secrets nestled beneath his collarbones.
"And Minister Yun would yell at us for being useless shortly after."
"HwaShin," HwaYoung's expression flipped, "he is your father. He would never do anything bad to you."
Sometimes, Shin's treacherous side would spill over and he would want to scoff at his mother. But that wasn't his intention. He would never willingly hurt the one person who looked at him like he was sugar glazed moonlight. Both of us know who he hates. You wouldn't have left if you were the one he was hurting.
"You should go sleep, Eomma." Shin's voice cracked a little, filling up with the emotions he had buried down deep in his marrow.
"So should you."
Shin resumed scratching his pen.
"Baby, you can’t do this, you know."
"Why don’t you say no?" Shin's head shot up. "You don't like Principal Yoo, and you have no intentions of getting back with Mr. Yun —"
"Tae HwaShin," her irises flared up, "he is your father."
Shin bit down the words he was about to say next. He himself doesn't think so. "Just tell them no. I know you aren’t interested, and people talk behind your back. I am sick of hearing such trash —"
The phone rang. Twelve at night, like a cursed clockwork.
"Alright." HwaYoung smiled, her blue eyes burning up with tears. There was a hint of agitation, a wound up desperation to break free. "You know what, we'll leave the phone ringing."
"And have him show up at our doorstep tomorrow?" Shin deadpanned. The phone kept on ringing, its shrill sound filling in the silence. "The worse, we don't even know which one it is."
"Please don’t say that."
HwaShin was a copy of his mother. Every single trait, genetic or somatic, was passed down to him. Including the inability to say no.
*****
"Student on the third bench by the window, please stop yawning." A flying chalk piece, fired at a projectile distance about nine metres away north-east, landed splat in the middle of HwaShin's forehead.
"Care to tell us your daydreams?"
Hamsters in viking battle gear? Not a chance in a thousand years. "Nothing, Professor Ahn. I simply zoned out."
"Simply zoned out. Why yes, you are indeed a remarkable example of honesty."
Shin's nose twitched. SunJoon, sitting on the desk behind him, stifled a giggle. That started a chair reaction within the entire realm of the four boundaries of his academic existence. Suddenly everyone was focused on Shin.
"I suppose you must be well versed in the citric acid cycle?"
"I uh…" Shin sucked in his cheeks.
"Name one enzyme found attached to the inner mitochondrial membrane."
Shin spoke before he could slap his mouth shut. "Two, actually. Succinate dehydrogenase and cytochrome oxidase."
The second one wasn't in the book. Professor Ahn's nostrils flared. "The catalyst acting in the conversion of alpha ketoglutaric acid and succinyl —"
"Dehydrogenase complex and NAD." A pause. "Which turns into NADH, with the evolution of carbon dioxide…"
"Get out!"
Shin flinched, but gathered his notebook and pen and fished out his bag from inside of the desk.
"I didn't give you a free pass to go to the library and study, Mr. Smarty pants. Stand outside the class."
Shin looked up, trying to look as pathetic and small as he physically could.
"Okay." Professor Ahn sighed. "Just two books and you can sit outside the class."
Morosely, Shin dragged himself out of the class and slumped down on the floor right outside the door. He wasn't able to sleep a wink last night, plagued by nightmares of yester years. Glancing at his runny notes ignited some form of irritation — exasperation, even — something that wouldn't have been warranted if not for the gnawing terror in his mind.
Which one was it? He pressed the pen’s nib on the corner of his notebook, soft paper denting proportionally to Shin's troubled state of mind.
"HwaShin-ah?"
Shin jolted up at the voice. There existed only one person apart from YooChan or ShiAhn who could take his name with such ease.
"Principal sir…"
"What are you doing outside the class?" The man asked, looking amused as always. From his perspective, Shin was crouching at his feet like a mouse and from Shin's perspective, the 6'1" man was a towering giant. "Slept late at night again, didn't you?"
Thanks to you, probably. He talked like he knew Shin, knew his habits, likes, dislikes, down to the very core of Shin's basic personality.
"Erhm… Professor Yoo, Sir, you were saying economics fest?"
Yoo SeJong completely ignored Professor Nam by his side. He turned to Shin again, this time with a warm hearted chuckle, like he didn't know the rumours floating around in school. He didn't care, or maybe he liked hearing those things; why wouldn't he, in retrospect?
"How are you studies?"
"Fine." Shin answered, tone curt, language calm.
"YooChan was telling me you two had plans for some kind of a vacation."
"He had plans, I told him no," Shin decided to clarify, "I can't afford that currently."
Sejong sucked in a deep, calm breath. He said nothing for a few moments, tempting Shin to fill the gap with his own explanations.
"I mean… I have to study, midterms are coming." Shin bowed his head down, refusing to stand up for childish reason.
That was the secret behind Shin's intelligence. A cute little audacity and victim card played at the right moment. Teachers wouldn't want to hold back a genius who brought back trophies and medals everywhere he went. They wouldn’t also wish to bring up his well presented underprivileged circumstances (he wasn't that poor) and ultimately, Principle Yoo would never want to cross him.
*****
The universe was in JaeHwan’s favour. Gone were the prim and proper fitted uniform of head boy Tae HwaShin. He was dressed in a hoodie and shorts last night, one that featured a rather cute velociraptor (JaeHwan didn't know they could be cute). His hair was sticking in all directions, looking like a plush dragon's beard in a way that made JaeHwan feel like a question mark, emotionally.
"One of these days, you'd end up in jail."
Kim JaeHwan was up on his high horse, not even listening to SeokWoo's warning. He high fived his middle school Taekwondo partner, walked to his locker and started getting dressed. First came off the dobok tunic.
"Can't you convince your brother?" JaeHwan pressed his ear piece further in. "It'll be fun!"
"It's called illegal trespassing. Does the head boy know you're planning to invite yourself to his house?" SeokWoo's static voice grew louder.
It's a universal truth that a hormonal teenage boy in love can't be persuaded that his actions are creepy. "Alright," JaeHwan groaned. All his spontaneous shopping went directly as afternoon treats for the employees of his mother's architectural firm, since his mother liked it very much. JaeHwan didn't tell her where he got it from; he didn't want to make things awkward.
"No. But hey, I found his spot in the library after school." JaeHwan pulled his shirt on, hastily buttoning up and rolling the sleeves. School hours were over, so he could make the uniform a little sexy now.
Rolled up sleeves, tie hanging loose shirt half tucked in… exactly like the bad boys in dramas he had binged for educational purposes.
"I'm going home." Seokwoo huffed.
"Bye."
After staying up the entire night, brainstorming about what Tae HwaShin could possibly like, JaeHwan had decided on a monochromatic steel pen with a gold plated nib, engraved with ornate patterns. A perfect classy gift for a classy, altruistic gentleman like him. The problem was, however, how to give it without appearing unwanted.
Summer's evening glow illuminated HwaShin's sharp cheekbone. After a week of tailing him from the shadows, he knew that the head boy liked to delay his chemistry homework as much as he could and hung around the library like a lost soul, oftentimes munching on fruit leathers stuffed in a blue pouch hidden in his pencil case.
Currently, he was reading a book on Kepler's laws.
"Hyung." JaeHwan strolled in. "Nice to see you here."
Shin slowly raised his head. "JaeHwan?"
The kid swore his heart fluttered a little. "Hi!" He grinned, dropping his backpack down across the table from HwaShin. "What are you studying?"
"Nothing." The head boy closed his book. "I was about to leave. Finished studying for today."
JaeHwan glanced at the watch hung above the adjacent windows. Then he was back to studying the microexpressions on HwaShin's face. "The midterms will be here soon."
"I know. I am leaving this place, so you can study in ease."
"No!" JaeHwan grabbed HwaShin's wrist. It was a horrific mistake, the realisation of which dawned upon him when the head boy slowly started looking up from his wrist to JaeHwan’s head. Apparently, the Hyungs in real life didn't like the drama cliche wrist grab. JaeHwan immediately let go and flexed his fingers.
"No, I mean, I will leave. You don't need to be worried."
"Oh no, please," HwaShin smiled gently. His hand rose towards the younger's head, but stopped midway, at the same time as his smile fell. JaeHwan's disappointed hopes wished he'd have gone ahead and patted his head. "I should be leaving anyway. I have to get home soon."
"You mean the bakery?"
HwaShin smiled again, but this one wasn't gentle. "Yes. The bakery."
"That's great. I mean I…" JaeHwan snapped his book shut and stuffed it inside his bag. "I was leaving too. Going home that is. My home," he added with an awkward pause. "Not yours. Bakery. Or home, whatever."
While standing up, their vertical differences grew more pronounced. JaeHwan was only a little over ten centimetres taller, and he would tilt his head downwards to look at the head boy. That angle allowed him to gaze at HwaShin's long lashes, the golden dust on his cheekbones and the pinkish hues of his lips. He felt surreal, oftentimes. As if he wasn't a product of chance genetics but he was an exquisitely crafted specimen of something heavenly; built in the image of angels. How could something possibly be this gorgeous?
Really, teenage boys in love had far fetched flings of imagination.
HwaShin then laughed. "You're funny, kiddo."
"Don't call me kiddo. I'm barely a year younger than you."
"Two years," HwaShin corrected.
"You were born in December and I in February, that eradicates the second year."
"Did you look me up?" The head boy arched a perfect eyebrow, his pupils staring at JaeHwan through heavy lashes.
"No. Not at all. Isn't your birth month general knowledge? I'd have looked you up if I knew your birthday, but I don’t know it's on the twenty-ninth…" They say one feels the heat of summer only when the sun is overhead already. JaeHwan realised he had spoken too much only when he had spoken too much.
HwaShin patted JaeHwan’s arm in silent solidarity, for the second hand embarrassment was more pronounced than the breach of his personal information.
"December is far away…" JaeHwan said in a small voice. "But I bought something for you already…"
"You can give it to me in December. For now, focus on your studies."
"Hyung." JaeHwan frowned. "This isn’t what I wanted to say. But whenever I look at you, I mix up my words and forget what was initially on my mind."
"Do you want to go back, or are you planning on standing there all day?" HwaShin raised his eyebrow and chuckled. "Come on, we can sort that out on our way back."
"Sort it out?" JaeHwan dragged himself to match HwaShin's pace, although that turned out to be slower than he had expected. On the stairs, the head boy stuck closer to the walls than the railings, but he didn't once glance at the pictures on the stairwell wall.
On the second floor, science frames, JaeHwan spotted three consecutive pictures of the head boy. "Hey, you're here."
HwaShin turned around. "Those are old, and they'd be replaced soon."
"National biology… no way, you represented our country in Munich two years ago?"
The head boy sighed. "I came eighth, I know."
"But you're still holding that trophy!"
"That was a neurology quiz, not the olympiad. Both the events were just a week apart."
JaeHwan couldn’t stop staring at his childlike face; long, uncut hair that hid his vibrant eyes and the way his oversized representational blazer drowned his skinny frame. He skipped three steps to rush down to his senior. "You were so cute back then."
"I was almost your age at that time."
"Ay, you speak like some old sage, Hyung." That sentence however, had two meanings. I went to Munich when I was your age, won a trophy and represented my country internationally. Or, the other, much friendlier one. I looked cute back then, so you must look cute now. Needless to say, JaeHwan decided to stick to the latter.
"How are you going home?"
The head boy sighed again. "By the bus, if I am lucky."
"What do you mean?"
"Nothing. Anyhow, I should leave now. You can still run back and continue studying for four hours," he said with a brief glance at his watch. A Swiss brand, but old. The straps were shabby and its seams were falling apart. "Or more. You should focus on studying if you want to be a headboy one day. All that," he pointed to his picture on the wall, "is taken into consideration."
"Of course I'm intelligent," JaeHwan scoffed, "what do you take me for?" For a moment, almost, JaeHwan wanted to brag about the stocks he dabbled in. But he then tried settling himself in a third person's perspective and realized how foolish that would look like to HwaShin. "Actually you know what? I'll just walk you to the exit."
"I'd like that. Thank you."
They didn't talk until they reached the first floor, and that gave JaeHwan ample amounts of time to mull over his next question. "Hyung," he began, while HwaShin had his fingers outstretched, tracing the outlines of clerodendrum hedges lined beside the pathway, "what kind of a man do you like?"
"Assuming the fact that I'm gay?" HwaShin chuckled.
"You've dated guys before." JaeHwan put his hands in his blazer pockets and kicked a stray stone.
"I've also dated girls before."
"I'm asking for your preference."
"And I am asking why are you asking for my preference." HwaShin's sudden gaze, the piercing blue eyes hinted with part softness and part hostile curiosity, stopped JaeHwan’s breath. But… was that all? JaeHwan halted in his tracks. Tae HwaShin was beautiful, it was on the outside for everyone to see, then what made it so that JaeHwan was bewitched?
He couldn't be attracted to just beauty, no, that was too rudimentary. It attracted everyone else. Then why did his heart speed up and throb, his senses seep down to his nerves and electrocute them, sending him into an overdrive of azure euphoria. It was magnetic, that buzzing spark of beauty.
"I want to know you, Hyung." JaeHwan chose those words, saying them unabashedly to Shin's back. In that split second of time, under the gentle shades of a golden shower tree and summer breath, only they existed. "I know it sounds weird and you've only known me for six days but… I just, I can't help it."
A beat or silence, cool as the summer breeze, wrapped around their bodies. No one spoke anything, nor did HwaShin look away.
"Young Master Yun?" A clipped voice made both the boy's turn around. Young Master was a fairly common greeting among the chaebol sons, but none of the two boys went by Yun. "The Minister is here for you." A man clad in black suit and black glasses gave a curt bow, again a sight not very uncommon to JaeHwan.
"I uh…" HwaShin rubbed the back of his head, bouncing on his heels and then clutching one strap of his bag. "If I happen to… that, uh…"
"Hyung? What's going on?" JaeHwan frowned.
"If I happen to run, will you catch me?"
"Yes, Young Master."
"No chance of me escaping?" HwaShin pressed his lips in a thin line and squinted, the position of his feet telling that he wanted to dash. "Even a tiny bit? Teensy one? No?"
"I don't want to harm you, Young Master."
HwaShin's expression faltered, shifting to something small. Almost brittle.
"Hyung, you're not associated with loan sharks, by any chance?" JaeHwan stepped in, mentally preparing to exercise his skills learned in the dojo. The sight of HwaShin looking so absolutely lost wasn't a pretty one; it was just an addition to the deep sea depths of his true persona, one of the many things he hid.
"No that's not… see this uh, how should I explain this…" The head boy pulled JaeHwan’s hand and raised himself on his toes, all in a heartbeat; his fingers woven between JaeHwan’s hand, his lips barely a breath away from JaeHwan’s ear, his voice… soft and breathless… "that's my father's driver."
JaeHwan gulped. Their intimate reverb (at least in JaeHwan’s head), resonating with flowers and fire, soft anguish and unrequited emotions… could it be… love?
"He wants to drive me back home and… I, I don't want that…"
At some point, JaeHwan stopped listening. One single centimetre and Shin would plant a kiss on his cheek.
"Tell him you're coming to my house."
HwaShin pulled away. "What?"
"Hyung's promised to tutor me, so he's coming to my house today. See you later."
"Young Master, you should know that your father took out time to come and see you."
HwaShin bit his lip, one canine jutting down and pressing down on the edge of his bottom lip. “But I’m going to my friend’s house,” he said in a small voice.
"Minister Yun took out time from his extremely busy schedule to come see you, and you do not perform the basic act of filial piety—"
JaeHwan sucked in a breath. "Hey hey, you're just a driver. Watch your mouth. Who the fuck are you gaslighting here?" As soon as those words left JaeHwan’s mouth, Shin's eyes widened into immaculate saucers.
"I'm sorry young master, who is this again?" The driver's nostrils flared.
"He uh…" Shin bit his lip.
"Kim Dantae's son." JaeHwan snapped. "Go tell your boss that I said HwaShin's coming with me."
"You can't possibly treat young master Yun like that —"
"I can very well drag young master Tae around and all you'll do is watch. Now fuck off, you third grade employee." True to his words, JaeHwan grabbed Shin's wrist and marched off. Somewhere lost in the rhythm of their asymmetric footfalls and suppressed laughter, evening fell.