Seokjin was not crying when he left the office and closed the door carefully but he was in so much pain that he had trouble walking straight. When he started down the sumptuous oak stairs, he missed a step and let out a little cry as he felt himself falling dangerously without being able to catch hold of anything.
He could already see himself hurtling down the entire flight of stairs head first when he heard soft footsteps running on the carpet and felt someone grab him from behind, wrapping their arms around him and knocking them both backwards on the fluffy carpet.
Seokjin landed heavily on someone he didn't immediately see but whose voice he recognized:
"I got you but it didn't go far!"
Although he would have liked to take the time to recover from his fright, the voice persuaded Seokjin to immediately get to his feet. But as he tried to get up immediately, the arms around him wouldn't let go of their grip and Seokjin got frustrated and clung to them in an attempt to break free.
"Aren't you going to thank me for saving you? You would have looked silly coming to your football game tomorrow with a broken leg!"
"Thank you for saving me," Seokjin replied, "now let go of me!"
"That's not polite, Jinnie," replied the amused voice of a fifteen year old teenager.
"Please, let me go, young sir," Seokjin said with as much sarcasm as possible.
The other boy let out a small laugh at Seokjin's insolence.
"Fine, but first I want to know if you are fit to go home on your own."
"I am! Besides, I live in your garden, I don't need anyone to come home," Seokjin replied, rolling his eyes.
"It's really a big garden you know?"
Seokjin sighed realizing that the boy was laughing at him and refrained from answering him.
"Otherwise, you know you can sleep here with me whenever you want. The door to my room is always open to you even though you still refuse to enter: I always have pajamas ready for you. Plus we hardly ever see each other this year and I've really missed you!"
Seokjin refrains from telling him that he was absolutely delighted to see him as infrequently as possible and that he wished the rest of his family also disappear from his daily life.
"No matter the context and the number of times you ask, the answer will always be no," he replied instead, rolling his eyes in the sky trying to clinch the hands that did not loosen their grip on his waist and kept him firmly seated on the boy's lap. "I don't want to stay in this house, neither with you nor with anyone else in your family. That's not where I belong."
"I'm not like them, I thought you knew since a long time, I'm hurt Seokjin," the other said in a mock hurt tone.
"What are you talking about, what is different about you? Your parents raised you to be just like them! So now-"
"You're hurt tonight so I'm going to forget about this gratuitous meanness to me, my little Jinnie," the other boy cut in a suddenly more serious tone, placing his large palm on Seokjin's back. "If I press there, does it hurt?"
"AAAAOUCH!" Seokjin cried out in pain, before clapping both hands over his mouth, remembering that Ms. Kim was reading. "Why did you do that?!"
"I knew it!" the other exclaimed triumphantly, not caring the least bit about disturbing his mother.
"Please don't make me scream and don't scream either," Seokjin begged, not wanting to incur Mr. Kim's wrath so soon.
"Okay, I quit," the other promised. "But tell me Jinnie you don't ask why I'm here?" asked the older one, disappointed. "You never ask."
"Because you come home once a month, nothing new. You must miss your parents that's all."
"You know it's not true, I prefer to stay away from them as much as possible. No, if I come every month, it's only because I miss you so much! But every time, I can't see you because you run away from me!"
Seokjin rolled his eyes and was about to reply but he suddenly jumped when he heard a door open behind them:
"What are you still doing here, you don't have work to do?!" shouted the harsh voice of Mr. Kim who looked at Seokjin before turning to his son: "Namjoon! If you come in to cause trouble, I'd rather you stay in your school dorm. One annoying boy in this house is already enough for me, I don't want another one, especially not mine. Let him go home, and as for you, go do your homeworks."
Frightened at the prospect of facing Namjoon's father's wrath a second time that same evening, Seokjin unhooked Namjoon's hands from his waist, whose grip had loosened when Mr. Kim arrived and hurried out of the big house, grabbing his backpackleft by the door by Boram as he went.
Sighting, Namjoon followed him with his eyes until he left, unhappy that his father had prevented him from accompanying him home, after failing to convince him to sleep at his place.
"I should have forced him to stay," Namjoon muttered.
"This boy has nothing to do inside of this house, I forbid you to let him sleep in your room," his father retorted.
"Oh, did you hear me father?" Namjoon said in a mock surprised tone giving him a fake smile.
"Go to your room before I lose my patience!" his father shouted authoritatively on an angry tone.
"Alright, alright, I'm going, don't be angry father,"accepted Namjoon who did not want his legacy to escape him.
That night, Seokjin, lying inside of his warm futon, was awakened by the rumbling thunderstorm.
The walls of the small house being thin - the house looking more like a big garden hut - it was very cold there in winter, very hot in summer, and Seokjin did not feel safe there when the storm rumbled for he had the impression that lightning was falling on the roof and threatening to kill them. Which was obviously not the case but it woke him up in the middle of the night like that one. He heard the droplets crashing on the roof and against the windows.
This nocturnal awakening allowed him to realize first the strong smell of perfume for men which was not his since he did not wear perfume, and secondly the sleeping form next to him hugging him tightly around the waist as he lay on his side.
It was glued to his bruised back and even though his mother had treated him as soon as he got home from the Kims' house by disinfecting him and applying band-aids to the wounds and ointment to future bruises, he winced in discomfort.
Will he never go away? he sighed inwardly. Seeing the light coming from outside the room, he muttered:
"Mom?"
His mother did not take long to arrive and asked worriedly:
"Seokjin baby, are you still in pain?"
"No, I'm fine but why did you let him come ? I don't want to sleep with him tonight!"
"Is there a day you want to sleep with him?" his mother giggled before reminding him more seriously: "you know I can't forbid him to come, we live on his parents' property, so he's at home too here."
"But I have to sleep to be in shape for tomorrow's game," Seokjin grumbled.
"You can sleep in your Ji-chan's futon if you want, he fell asleep on the couch. But honestly, I think it was the storm that woke you up, you never have a problem sleeping when the young sir is there."
Seokjin sighed as he realized his mother was right. However, now that he was awake, he didn't want to stay with him. He sneezed loudly without waking up the other boy:
"I'm sure I'm allergic to him, why won't anyone believe me," he whined before sniffling loudly.
"What nonsense are you talking about again?" his mother laughed softly at the childish remark of his son before going to get him a box of tissues.
"His new perfume stings my nose," Seokjin said grimacing.
"It's true the smell is strong, it spread around the room, it must be a really expensive perfume," his mother remarked Unlike her son, she seemed to enjoy the smell..
"Yes, well, his expensive perfume stinks," Seokjin stubbornly pinched his nose, making his mother laughed again at his sincerity. "When I'm rich, I'll buy you some but they'll smell good."
"Thank you my sweet Seokjin," Yoko thanked him smiling tenderly at him and wondering again how lucky she was to have such a nice and well-behaved son, no matter what Mr. Kim found fault with.
Then looking at her sleeping young master with a concerned air, Yoko said :
"Nevertheless, it might be better for you to sleep away from him if you caught a small cold because of the rain, he shouldn't catch a cold too."
Her son nodded eagerly while blowing his nose, glad he had found enough of an excuse to run away from his futon and its unwanted new occupant.
Yet, when he tried to get up to join his mother, he felt the hug tighten around his waist and prevent him from getting up.
"Stay," muttered the boy's sleepy but authoritarian voice.
Yoko, who was standing in the doorway, gave her son a sorry smile.
"I guess you have no choice after all."
"Moooom!" Seokjin protested plaintively, wanting his mother to side with him and help him escape.
"Anyway, I'm sure he'll be gone when you wake up as always, so try to get back to sleep as soon as possible," she advised him.
"Okay," Seokjin muttered sulkily, seeing his mother close the door and plunge the room into the darkness of night.
A few minutes passed without the two boys speaking and Seokjin believed that the other fell asleep again. The silence was interrupted sometimes by thunder and other times by Seokjin's sniffles. Since they shared the same cushion, their heads were close together and that was enough to startle Seokjin when the other suddenly said to him:
"You're warm."
He was still glued to Seokjin's back and felt the warmth of his body which spread pleasantly inside of the futon while it was cold outside.
"I think I have a fever, I didn't dry myself properly after taking the rain," Seokjin explain without looking back. "I also have a running nose, so you should leave before you get sick."
"Good try but I don't care. I'm staying."
" But I care!" Seokjin retorted.
"Oh, you care about my health, it's adorable!"
"No, I just don't want your father to blame me for making you sick," Seokjin protested, going all out to get rid of the other boy.
"I won't tell him so shut up now, stop talking about him and let me sleep," the latter growled, unhappy with what Seokjin had just said.
Sighing, Seokjin let go of his futile struggle and closed his eyes. He could never have the last word with the Kims. They all believed that Seokjin belonged to them, and he understood that until he got his scholarship for the sports high school, he would have to do their bidding meekly. He couldn't wait to finish middle school!
Soon, I will be free from you and you'll finally realize I don't belong to you," he promised himself.