Stop | HyunIn

21

Hyunjin was wandering aimlessly. Recently, he's been thinking too much and ended up walking down routes that took him anywhere but home. At least he wasn't alone when he was outside. Usually he'd get annoyed at himself for not going home, but today he was glad he was where he was, when he was. 

He saw Jeongin walking and jumped around a corner, still to embarrassed to show his face to Jeongin. He was just going to wait for Jeongin to go past and then continue walking, but he heard Jeongin talking to someone. 

"Move out of my way, kid!" 

"I'm sorry." 

Out of curiosity, and possibly worry, Hyunjin poked his head around the corner and tried to see what was going on. The was some man, who he didn't know, glaring at Jeongin and some sort of liquid, probably alcohol by the look of it, all over the floor, with some broken glass from a bottle. 

"Sorry?" The man yelled, incredulously, stumbling. "What about my drink, you piece of shit?" 

Hyunjin unconsciously clenched his fist at those words. His anger rose even more as the man kicked Jeongin onto the floor. Hyunjin wanted to say something but he was still embarrassed. What would he do anyways? He flinched as The man kicked Jeongin onto the floor again as he tried to get up. 

What the hell was Hyunjin doing? Embarrassed? How could he be thinking of that now? 

The guy wanted a drink? Hyunjin began franctically searching through his pockets. Sweet wrapper, no, headphones, wow they're going to be difficult to untangle later, pen lid, no. Ah, here it was. 

He ran out from behind that corner and went to intervene. The man was about to punch Jeongin. Not if Hyunjin could help it. He ran and did the first think thing he could think of. He kicked the man into a lamppost. Before it became his turn to get punched, Hyunjin pressed the money against the man's chest. 

"Go buy yourself a drink and leave him alone." 

It would've been dumb to reject that offer, so the man snatched Hyunjin's money and walked away. Hyunjin exhaled; he was scared shitless, but tried to sound as intimidating as possible. He looked around and saw Jeongin speed walking away. 

Smiling a bit, Hyunjin called out, "Wait!"

Jeongin stopped and turned around, while Hyunjin quickly tried to turn his smiling face into a serious one. 

"Don't I get a thank you?" 

"Thanks." Jeongin muttered, not bothering to turn around. Hyunjin walked over to where he was standing. He was going to put his hand on Jeongin's shoulder, but when he did, it was soaking wet. He pulled his hand away immediately and wiped it on his trousers. 

"What happened?" 

Jeongin didn't respond. Hyunjin sighed.

"Come." He beckoned Jeongin to follow him. Jeongin didn't move and Hyunjin rolled his eyes. "You can't seriously be going home like that. What about your mum?" Hyunjin knew Jeongin's mum quite well from when they used to be friends. He knew that she would be worried and angry at Jeongin. It also didn't help that Jeongin smelt like alcohol. 

"I'll just wait for it to dry." Jeongin said, beginning to walk away. Hyunjin tutted and grabbed Jeongin's wrist, pulling him back. 

"Just come." He slid his hand down from Jeongin's wrist into his hand. Suprisingly, this time, Jeongin went with Hyunjin, without any protests. Instead, he caught up with Hyunjin and pulled his hand away, as they walked side by side.