imma keep it really with you chief, this chapter has 2503 words...I haven't proofread it lol
Lee Minhyuk
The two of us stepped off the bus that lead to the seafront, greeted by a breeze that carried with it the smell of small fried chicken joints along the side of the road and the sea.
Above us the sun shone unforgivingly, the temperature high enough for both of us to hold our jackets in our hands as we walked.
"I haven't been to the seaside since I moved to Seoul," Jooheon suddenly announced. "back when I was in Daegu I would always go to the beach?"
"How come you came all this way just for university?" I asked, falling into a nearby bench. He followed suit, producing a sigh.
"I did it to get back at my Dad," the head tilt I offered him made him elaborate. "when I came out my Dad wasn't okay with it. My stepmother accepted me wholeheartedly but my Dad was just..off about it. He claimed he didn't see me any different but soon stopped inviting me out with him because he thought I wouldn't be interested in the stuff he does and whatnot, and he was a bit..frontal with one of my boyfriends."
"What went down?"
He suddenly laughed. "In hindsight it's quite funny, but we were having dinner and they were talking when he suddenly asks my boyfriend if he's just using me for sex and I'm sat there feeling as if I'm totally naked whilst they're going at each other's throats and my stepmother is trying to calm them down. Needless to say, we broke up not long after."
"Your taste in men is...fantastic." I shook my head.
"I attract idiots, that's what," he smiled. "but I moved because while he had good intentions, he kept on alienating me and then we had a pretty big fight about it, so I moved out here for school on the condition that the moment I asked either of them for financial help I would have to move back. If this restraining order story goes ahead, I'd have to move out and while I can afford that right now, I wouldn't be able to even afford food after that for a good month since that would be all my savings, so I'd probably have to move back home."
The thought of not seeing Jooheon's panicked face sprinting down the stairs when he's late for work or his smile when he comes into the cafe for coffee made my chest feel tight. It's not that I wouldn't want him to leave, but I have grown used to how he constantly smells of a mix of paint and chalk, how his hair bounces with every move he makes & even some of the random stuff he remembers to text me at 3am in the morning. I'd grown used to him.
Maybe I didn't want him to leave me.
"What about you?" He snapped me out of my thoughts. "You're this strangely anonymous looming presence that has made it their lifetime goal to help me."
"What are you talking about?" I scoffed. "I'm an open book. A transparent person."
"You're about as transparent as a concrete block." He grabbed my arm to pull me up, the two of us beginning to walk.
"What do you want to know - um, I have a little brother, as you know, but he isn't my biological brother because I was adopted-"
"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't want to upset you-"
"No, it's okay, Jooheon. It's not like the cliche adoption stories - my parents are actually really kind to me, most of the time," I said. "I'm also a drug dealer."
"Get out."
"I'm serious." I looked him dead in the eye, biting the inside of my cheek to stop myself from bursting out laughing at the sudden change in his expression.
"Seriously?" He whispered.
"No," I laughed, and he immediately slapped my arm. "There really isn't much to me, Jooheon. I'm now studying Law in hopes to become a prosecutor; come by and ask me then, I'll probably have a much interesting answer."
"I'm certain that you do have a good answer," he smiled. "I probably just asked the wrong kind of question. Here's this; what's your biggest fear?"
"My biggest fear?"
"Mmm-hmm."
A few minutes passed before I could work up the courage to say what was on my mind, and I was very grateful that he patiently waited for me with an encouraging smile. "I think my biggest fear is to die. Not the actual process of dying; I would rather it be that my fear was what death may be like, but it's more what I am leaving behind. Who'd be left behind and how I would affect them, if you know what I mean? I don't want to imagine how Changkyun would feel, how much Kihyun would blame himself or how heartbroken my parents would be. I don't ever want to put that on them, and it makes me sick that I ever even considered it."
"There's more to this, isn't there?" He asked quietly. "I'm sorry I keep dragging stuff out of you."
"I wouldn't say it unless I felt comfortable with you. But it's okay, we can save that one for a more depressing day than today," I smiled. "should we eat? The acid in my stomach is about to burn a hole in my stomach."
"Sounds solid to me. Last one at that restaurant has to pay!" He suddenly announced before taking off, and frankly I didn't stand a chance against him even if I tried, but I let him win purely because of how this could have been the happiest I had ever seen him since we met, giving him the green light to order whatever he wanted only to be stunned by how much he ordered, stunned again by how he inhaled it all, and furthermore at how he still had space for ice cream.
"I'm an abyss when it comes to eating." He lamely whispered after we left the restaurant, the amount of food even impacting how he walked. That made me reach my breaking point, cackling so suddenly he jumped a sold 4 metres in the air.
"That was perhaps the most impressive thing I have ever seen you do."
He slapped his hand on his chest, pretending to be offended. "Not even saving you from your inevitable end on that rainy evening? Not even my-" he gasped. "-art skills."
"I have never seen your drawings before, Jooheon. I can't make a-" he held up a hand to silence me, swinging his bag off his back and pulling out a previously black sketchbook- I say previously because it was covered in every art media possible, Jooheon getting some chalk on his hands just by touching it.
He handed it to me without a word, and at first, I expected it to just be the average sketchbook, but it caused me to stop walking.
Each sketch, each colour, each detail was placed so perfectly I almost wanted to question if he's just printed out artwork to trick me, but his signature at the bottom of each told me otherwise. I landed on a sketch of a tiger, roughly half of its face finished. "And you're not getting paid for this?!"
"Of course not," Jooheon chuckled. "the art business is a gamble, Minhyuk. I might luck out, I may not. Working in an art supplies store is my favourite way of being close to what I love. This is what I get up to when the store is slow, which is basically everyday apart from workshop and stock days."
"This is so good, Jooheon," I said, still in disbelief. "I can't even draw a proper circle."
"I'll help you with that one day, for the time being, however, that photo booth is calling your name. Can you hear it?"
I winced. "Suddenly I'm deaf."
"Come on!" He whined, pulling me along and into the tiny box, pulling the curtain shut. "What should we do? How about-"
The boy suddenly threw 3 different poses, all too cute for me to even dare try to replicate. I blinked.
"Sounds great to me."
"This one's on me," he put some coins into the machine. The first 3 photos came rather fast, and I tried my best to keep up with him, but just ended up stare at him grin for this final one. "Okay, the fourth one gives you a breather. We have 15 seconds, what are we doing?!"
"I don't know!" I shouted back in a panic.
"Look!" He pointed to the top corner of the booth and I looked in the direction he showed, only to feel two arms around me as the flash went off. I slowly turned around to him. "I knew you would have never gone along with it; it was a matter of life and death."
All I could do was stare into his slightly widened eyes for a few moments before I managed to choke out a sentence and control the blush that was about to take over my face. "Let's see them, then."
He moved out of the booth, smiling as he looked at the strip of photos. "They look cute. Look."
He turned the photos in my direction, and for long seconds, a kind of daze took over me, increasing in intensity as I looked at each photo. The third photo caught my eye. It was him with a peace sign up near his eye and me, sat staring at him with a small smile. Is that how I look looking at him?
The final photo came out the best; him with his arms around me and a beaming smile whilst I looked to the top right corner with a confused look.
I stole a glance in Jooheon's direction whilst he still looked at the photos, a shy smile on his face as he moved his hair from his eyes.
It was that moment, that right there. That was all I needed to confirm it, and it was equal parts scary and fucking exhilarating.
It was the fact that I was desperately, madly in love with Lee Jooheon.
***
"I think it's best if you keep them," Jooheon suddenly announced. "I don't know how well that would sit with Woobin."
"Yeah, sure." I replied, returning to my silent state, which had lasted since the great epiphany I had.
It was perhaps the dumbest thing I had ever done; fall for someone who is already into another person, regardless of how terrible that person may be.
Since then, I could count on one, maybe two hands how many words I had said. At first, Jooheon didn't notice; he was tired too, and ended up knocking out on the trip back home. But we were now just metres away from the stairs leading to our apartments, and I had yet to say anything major.
"I had a good tim-"
"Are you okay-"
The two of us laughed. "You go first." He said.
"I had a good time today, we should go back one day," I smiled. "what were you saying?"
"I was going to ask if you were okay. You were quieter than you usually are."
"I'm just tired, that's all-"
"Jooheon."
I was stood enough to watch as the smile on his face dropped into a look of terror, turning paler than anything. The two of us turned around, facing a rather angry-looking Woobin - he didn't even bother to put on the caring boyfriend act today. "Where were you?! I called you all day."
"I was hanging out with Minhyuk, nothing bad." Jooheon laughed nervously, as Woobin squared his eyes on me.
"So it's you." He basically hissed.
"It's me what?" I furrowed my eyebrows together. "You're reaching big time, b-"
It wasn't the fact that he punched me that irritated me, it was the fact that I didn't see it coming, and how quick I was to bleed. I brought my hands to my lip, blood staining my fingertips.
I lunged in his direction with a kick to his gut, but it surprisingly didn't make him fall; in fact he was quick to return, trying to punch me again.
I can't remember very much from that apart from feeling Jooheon, Kihyun and Changkyun pulling us apart. I spat a mouthful of blood at the pavement.
"Watch your back, you," Woobin said with a growl. "let's go." He gripped Jooheon's arm as he tried to say a load of apologies but I couldn't stand around and watch, since my brother and best friend had dragged me into the apartment.
"Are you insane?!" Kihyun yelled. "You just got your job back, Minhyuk! You can't lose it again."
"Well I'm sorry but I can't just stand around and stare at his cocky face when he thinks he has the upper hand. He sickens me, Kihyun. And to know that Jooheon has to be under the same roof as that-" I sighed, tugging at my hair. "it hurts."
"The two of you need to get a move on." Changkyun said.
"What do you mean?"
"Get that restraining order and get together," he crossed his legs. "it's true! I haven't seen you care for someone like that in forever."
"I'll work on the first part, but in the meantime, I'll be in the shower. You guys can eat without me, I just need to lay down."
"Hey, Minhyuk," Kihyun asked, in that very careful tone that made me feel like a child. "are you okay?"
"I am, I am."
It was a lie. The moment I turned away from the living room, I couldn't bring myself to stop crying - even through the shower, and even when I got into bed. I only stopped when I caught maybe 30 minutes of sleep, for the next 3 hours I just laid awake, too many thoughts racing through my head.
As I reached for my phone, I heard the doorbell ring. I shot up, pulling on a hoodie and basically jumping down the stairs. I opened the door, greeted by Jooheon.
At first he didn't meet my eyes, keeping them focused somewhere on my chest.
His fading bruise had come back with full strength, this time accompanied by a series of tiny cuts on his face, one prominent one on his bottom lip.
The moment he looked up to me, he broke down, falling into my arms as he wailed uncontrollably until he eventually just gave up and sat on the ground, knees pulled to his chest. I threw my arms around him with little hesitation, stroking his head as he cried into my chest. "I'm so sorry."
From seemingly nowhere, Kihyun and Changkyun appeared, supportively patting him.
"I.." Jooheon said after a few minutes. "I think it's time to go ahead with it, Minhyuk."
I took his hand in mine. "Let's finish him."