Freedom - Sope

6

Chapter 6-

TW:
Abuse.

"Looks like you're having fun, boys!"

We turned at the surprise of another person. As soon as Hoseok saw who it was, he ran over and hugged them (tried to anyway).

"Eomma! I thought you were leaving today."

"No hugs! You're soaking! Oh, and they cancelled last minute. Manager got sick," she explained, ruffling her sons hair.

After telling us the reasoning behind the failed trip, she left to take a shower.
Before she was out of sight, we heard her yell the words "Make sure you're dry before entering the house!"

We both knew she was serious but we couldn't help but laugh.
We weren't laughing at her or what was said but at the fact that we were going to do that exact thing.

We waited outside until Miss Jung had come back down, so we could get some towels. In the meantime we turned the hose up and placed it by the deck chairs, beside the pool.

We sat there for a bit, before he grabbed me and jumped into the pool. Quickly swimming to the surface to catch my stolen breath.

Once Hoseok came back up, we started splashing each other with water.

Choon-Hee must have been back downstairs because there were three towels on the porch, when we got out of the pool.

Quickly drying off and casting our soaked shirts onto the floor before running inside to get more ice-cream.

While we ate the last pots of ice-cream we put that show back on- which was apparently called 'Riverdale'. But this- somehow- ended with us running around the room, having a pillow fight.

We stopped when someone knocked a plate on the floor. It smashed into pieces, spreading out across the floor.

I took the pieces of shattered plate out of my feet, once we had finished cleaning our mess up. As I struggled with getting some bits out Hoseok went and got tweezers and plasters. Almost all of them bled.

Once he finished with mine, I helped him with his. He even manages to get one in his thumb and palm, but not many in his feet.

After all the energy we had wasted that day, we agreed to chill in his room for the rest of the day.

As the day neared it's end, I dreaded the thought of going back home. Facing the wrath of my father was going to take some courage. Courage that I did not have.
Hoping that things wouldn't be so bad was a bad idea... because it was bad. In fact it was worse than bad.

I knew that yelling at him was a bad move when he got his belt out.

Then, my arms and legs were covered in cuts and bruises where he hit me.

That night only got worse. My punishment didn't end until I was screaming, even when I wasn't touched.

When he finally stopped, he told me to leave. The only problem was I couldn't walk. I ended up falling to the floor.
This made things even worse. He started kicking me in the stomach, making me throw up a lot. He made me clean it all up when he got tired, leaving for bed.

Once I'd cleaned up the mess I'd made, I laid on the sofa and fell asleep.

Although, not for long as I was woken up by the yelling of my parents.
Just one more year. One more year and you're free of them.

Suddenly, my mother came running down the stairs, pulling me into an embrace while repeating 'I'm so sorry'.

After I'd calmed her down, she told me that she still owned her old house: it was the house she lived in before marrying my dad.
Apparently she was moving out, that she was going back to her place. She asked me if I wanted to leave with her.

Of course, I agreed. I didn't want to stay there any longer. She helped me up to my room, sitting me on my bed.
"I thought you would want to come, so I got a suitcase out ready," she explained. I nodded as I was too tired and didn't have the energy to talk, as I watched my mother dance around the room: packing all my stuff into the suitcase.
As she'd already packed her things, she grabbed my suitcase and helped me back downstairs to where her suitcase was placed by the door.

After helping me into the car she rushed back inside to collect things like phones, laptops and chargers, before getting our suitcases and putting everything into the boot and backseats.

Before falling asleep in the car, I went to send Hobi a message explaining what was going on. In the end I never sent it.