He Started It by Hitting on Me

A Night to Remember

I have to sit in the middle of their argument.
My mom made me. She said that I can't leave or she'll have to punish me.
So, I'm sitting on the couch with my arms folded and looking down on the ground while they go at it.
Well, mostly it's just my mom yelling.
My dad is telling her to calm down.
I stay quiet.
"WHY ARE YOU HERE?!" my mom asked.
"I just wanted to see my daughter-"
"HOW THE HELL DID YOU FIND US?!"
"I have my ways-"
"WHY ARE YOU IN MY HOUSE?!" she yelled again.
He sighed. "Look, I'm just here to say hi, nothing else-"
"WE DON'T NEED YOUR HI'S OR HELLO'S. GET THE OUT."
"But-"
"GET THE OUT!" she yelled.
He grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "Stop acting like a baby. You're a mother now, and this is how you act in front of our daughter? Is this how let her see you?" Dad asked.
She growled at him. "Let go of me!" she yelled.
She pulled back and kept panting hard, angry of course.
I look at the floor.
I find her eyes looking at me.
"You... why did you let him in?" she asked.
I didn't speak. Whatever I say will get me in trouble.
"Speak now."
I sighed. "He was in front of the yard, and I let him in," I say.
"What?! WHY?" she yelled.
I look at her with cold eyes. "He's my dad," I answered.
"Don't have sass, lady!" she growled, as she went toward me.
I closed my eyes. Get ready Mi Young...
I hear footsteps and a thump.
I open my eyes.
Dad was in front of me.
"Don't you dare hit my child," he said.
He was holding her arms with a strong grip and she looked like she was about to explode.
"She's my child too! Don't touch me!" she yelled as she pulled back again.
"You don't treat her as your child. You treat her like crap. Perfection isn't everything if you wanted to know, Eun Byul" he said.
"Don't call me that!" she yelled.
That was her name.
"Then what am I supposed to call you? Ms. Lee? Or Mrs. Park?" he asked.
She slapped him. He didn't look at her.
I looked at them. "Don't...call me that," she whispered.
After a moment of silence, she stormed off somewhere, probably the backyard to go somewhere and get a drink.
My dad sighed and looked at me.
He smiled. "I told you I'd take care of it."
Then he went upstairs and locked the door to some room.
I stay on the couch for a long time, thinking about nothing.
I sighed loudly and got up.
Time to go outside.
I take a jacket and put on my boots.
It's like 9:30 pm.
It's been hours when Mom and Dad kept going at this. Like, 5 hours.
I go out and lock the door.
I sighed and looked around the snowy neighborhood.
I look at the front yard and there I see a figure in the dark, looking up at me smiling and freezing.
"Where the have you been, ?" he asked, shivering.
Jonghyun.
I widened my eyes. "What... are you doing here?" I asked, surprised he was here.
He shivered, hugging himself.
"W-well, I still had t-t-that bad leg so I couldn't move. So, I decided to camp out here," he grinned.
I scoffed, not buying it.
"Were you here just for me?" I asked, teasing him.
He scoffed. "N-no! Of course not."
I folded my arms, shook my head and sighed.
I looked at the ground. Then I looked back up at him.
"Okay, well bye!" I say, heading to another direction.
I heard him sigh and chitter-chatter because of the cold.
I sighed.
The things I do when I pity people.
I stomp my way to Jonghyun and plopped down next to him.
He looked at me in surprise.
"What? It's not the first time I pitied you," I told him.
It's true-this wasn't the first day. I remember when I got so mad over the orange paint prank he pulled on. I saw him in the park and then when I was just about to pull a prank on him, I saw his beaten-up face and decided to help him.
Curse my pities for stupid people.
Anyway, back to reality.
Jonghyun nodded, remembering the day I pitied him.
"You were still mean, though," he pointed out.
I sighed. "I didn't like you at all back then," I explained.
He grinned at me. "Oh. So you like me now?" he asked.
"Eww. No, of course not."
He sighed.
"I heard... what happened in the house," he whispered.
I stayed silent.
"Okay, whatever it's done. Mom's gone anyways," I muttered.
He looked at me with sad eyes.
"I pity you," he said.
I smiled a little.
He laughed breathless.
"Is your Dad still there?"
"Yup."
"...You know, you have friends to cheer you up along the way... you're not alone you know that?" he asked.
I raised an eyebrow. "I have only one friend," I say slowly.
He shook his head. "No. You have... Hea Won and Onew and Key and Taemin and Minho and... me," he coughed the last word.
I look at him really carefully. Then I say,"That's the most nicest thing you have ever said to me."
He shrugged. "Well, our friendship can't be always hateful. There has to be some nice things in it..."
He's right. We can't always keep on hating each other. Even though I still don't like him, maybe someday in the future I will like him as friend...
"You know, both your parents are good looking... I'm just wondering... what happened to you?" he asked.
Okay, maybe not.
"I'm special," I answered, sticking my tongue out at him.
He smiled. "You're a weird girl," he said.
"But then I wouldn't be Mi Young," I told him.
He looked at the sky. "Yeah. Then you wouldn't be that ," he chuckled.
I smiled at him. "Yeah..."
I can see he stopped shivering and that's probably because the body heat of mine caused him to warm up.
I had my hand in the snow because well, I don't freaking know why.
But I felt warmth there... and that warmth was moving and felt warm to me.
I didn't know what it was but I just let my hand stay there, the warmth coming to me.
Suddenly, the warmth was on top of my hand and that's when I realized... it was another hand.
Jonghyun's hand.
I widened my eyes and almost pulled back but then Jonghyun grabbed it from pulling it back.
He was looking at the sky but then looked at me.
He smirked. "We can't hate each other forever," he said softly.
I look at him, my eyes a little big but then I relaxed and let my hand stay there where his hand was.
"Yeah," I whispered.
My mother may be getting drunk right about now, and my father must be unpacking to be staying here for a little while. And I may just have to wait for more hell to come, but this doesn't stay in my mind.
The only thing that stays in my mind is the feeling of warmth I'm getting from Jonghyun.
Where his hand is with mine under the snow, the only warmth we can find in the snow and we're both just looking at the blue sky which won't last in a couple of hours.
This isn't hate anymore. It's not love either.
It's the friendship between us two.
A crazy, complicated relationship that most people won't call friendship. But only I or Jonghyun can call this friendship.
Because this is our one hell of a friendship.