where am i going? how do i get there?
—
"i-i don't understand, mother." wooyoung voiced. he really didn't. why was his mom telling him this? after all those years of just letting him be whatever he wanted?
his mother sighed. she sat down on the grand sofa and took a sip from her champagne. "how many times do i have to tell you this, wooyoung ah? you're to go to america after your senior year to receive further education upon business and managing. am i understood?"
wooyoung shook his head. his mother was about to talk, but he beat her to it, "no! mother, you've always been free with me; i understand that hyung had somehow failed your expectations, but you can't just expect me to say yes to this! plus, you've already clearly given up on me when you threw me out of this mansion when i entered high school. why—why are you forcing your unfinished self onto me?"
his mother gasped, along with his father. his father stood up from his seat and striped towards wooyoung, and the next thing wooyoung felt was — was a slap. a sharp, painful sting on his left cheek as he was knocked to the right side by the sheer force his father poured into that slap. his mother didn't do anything, the maids didn't do anything. he understood, though. who would dare to defy the all powerful mr jung?
wooyoung snickered, "i've been trying to be the person you wanted me to be since forever. i get to the top of every single final exam so i can show you that i haven't given up on myself. why are—why are you giving up on me before i've given up on myself? am i that much of a disappointment to you? another losing game so you can fuck up kyungmin and turn him into your puppet? is that what's going to happen now?"
his parents didn't answer at all. however, he heard a faint sob from behind him and to his dismay, he saw his little brother behind him. wooyoung could tell that kyungmin wasn't mad at him; no, kyungmin was just as mad at their parents as wooyoung was. he could see it in his eyes. kyungmin's eyes told stories like how wooyoung's mind illustrated stories. wooyoung walked away from his parents with pride, proud that he just said all those things to his parents, and approached kyungmin. kyungmin's eyes were filled with tears, but he could tell that his little brother was proud of him.
"are you going to stay here, hyung?" kyungmin asked brokenly. wooyoung only hummed. he kissed his little brother's forehead and started guiding him to his bedroom. once there, wooyoung took in the sophistication of it. there were wall paintings, — fucking wall paintings in a 7 years old's room — a huge pile of stuffed toys that each looked like were worthy of an entire month of wooyoung's rent, and finally a huge king sized bed that was definitely too big for a child. wooyoung really didn't understand his parents; they probably had too much wealth for them to spend alone, but why couldn't they just put those excess money into charities? or even just give it to orphanages so they could have better facilities where children can grow more happily? why wouldn't his parents do that?
because they are heartless, wooyoung answered himself.
and in his brain, it made sense. they were borne into the rich world, knowing nothing of the struggles outside of such constraints. they were raised to marry each other and then create a fairytale life out of themselves in a not-so-fairytale world. in some ways, wooyoung felt bad for his parents. his parents never experienced the thrill of jumping on a train and letting their instincts to decide where they're going to end up in. his parents never experienced the laughter of dancing in the rain among the people in a festival, giggling as they raised glasses of alcohol in the air in celebration. his parents were raised only to impress and look good, but wooyoung bet that it'll never feel good. and for that, he felt bad. he felt so bad. he just wished he could help his parents experience these before the world tortured and moulded them into monsters, into such heartless creatures.
"hyung?" came kyungmin's voice into his mind. wooyoung looked over and saw kyungmin in a make-shift bed. there were mattresses, pillows, blankets — all the things wooyoung used to make his own pillow fortress when he was kyungmin's age.
wooyoung kneeled down and tucked kyungmin into bed, "is this where you sleep, baby?"
kyungmin liked it when wooyoung called him his baby, it made kyungmin giggle and scrunch up his cute nose, which wooyoung loved to see. there was nothing more that wooyoung wanted to see than his little brother happy. that was all that mattered to wooyoung, now and forever.
kyungmin nodded, a soft smile on his face already, "i don't like the bed. it's too big for me. and everything's so... so..."
"so unlike you, huh?" wooyoung prompted, and kyungmin nodded. wooyoung was glad to know that his brother was just like him. neither of them fit in with the extravagant world of the rich, yet they're forced to live a part of their life like this. they hated it. but wooyoung will get kyungmin out of this. he would.
"kyungmin, listen to hyung," wooyoung started. kyungmin's eyes were droopy, laced with tiredness, but he tried his best to stay awake and listen to his older brother, "one day, hyung will come back and get you out of this mess. we'll live together or separately, it doesn't matter. but i promise you that i'll come back and get you out of here. you don't have to follow mother's plan for you if you don't want to. all you need to do is tell hyung and i'll get you out of here."
kyungmin was thinking. wooyoung was still surprised on how well he knew his brother's expressions: how he could tell disapproval of their parents from a scrunch of kyungmin's nose, how he could tell that the little one was thinking from this far away gaze in kyungmin's eyes, how he could tell how happy kyungmin was from his smile and glitter in his eyes. they really were brothers, and wooyoung would never, ever want to leave him alone here.
kyungmin slowly nodded. wooyoung grinned as the nods got more frequent, "yeah. yeah, i'd want that, hyung."
wooyoung engulfed his brother in a tight hug, smiling hugely as kyungmin giggled in delight, "hyung will come back for you. i swear. i promise. i will."
—
a/n: a sweet chap of wooyoung and kyungmin bc i never wrote ab them n i feel like we need some cuteness
YOU ARE READING
CHASING YOUTH. wsn ✓
Fanfiction"perhaps we laughed and cried too much, perhaps we were too busy chasing the fallen stars"
