Angelic || suhyeok x cheongsan || aouad || ON HIATUS

Chapter 10 - butchered

Both Su-hyeok and Cheong-san were hunched over the floor, tears streaming down, still laughing. A pain had begun to form in their sides and chests, from the lack of oxygen and length of time that they'd been laughing continuously for. It seemed to be that once it died down, one would burst into laughter again, leading to the other joining them. Thankfully for them, they calmed slightly. They were practically glowing red.

Once the colour faded, and they felt they could stand, the thought that hit Su-hyeok was a gut punch. Cheong-san noticed his change in demeanor instantly, and shifted towards him.
"Angel, what's wrong?"

SU-HYEOK

I tried to laugh it off, and assure him that it was nothing, but Cheong-san wasn't having it.
"Tell me."
I inhaled sharply, but still shook my head. He took my hands into his. His were surprisingly cold.
"Tell me."
Fuck.
"Fine. My, uh, mother found out I went out last night, and then... this," I pulled at the skirt.
"And?"
"She... well, she wasn't exactly happy with her son wearing a skirt. She then, uh, yeah..." I trailed off, taking back my hands to start picking at the skin near my nails.
"What did she do?" he gently slapped my hands to stop me picking them, and held them again, "You can tell me."
"She called me, uh," I looked to his eyes for reassurance, which, of course, I received, "Fuck... She said it. The other f-word."

CHEONG-SAN

Of course I knew that Su-hyeok's parents weren't accepting, but I never thought they would go that far. I didn't even know where to begin. Everything I tried saying fell to nothing. I held him, expecting him to cry, but he didn't. Every tear had already been shed.
"We've still got lessons," he eventually plucked my hands off his back, and turned to the door.
"Su-"
He was already gone.
Shit. He'd been put through so much, that having this thrown in his face by his own mother just made him more closed off from others than he'd been in the period before we were friends, and just after he'd left Gwi-nam and Myeong-hwan's group. He hadn't said much then, and now he'd started to regress back into that mental state.
Fuck.
I ran after him.

SU-HYEOK

Unsure of what had persuaded me to do so, I walked back to my lesson. I was grateful that Cheong-san didn't hate me, and it was nice to be in his arms again, even if it had only really been less than a day since we'd last been like that.

"Ah, Su-hyeok are you feeling okay?" Ms Park asked me as I entered the empty classroom.
"Yeah, fine. Where, uh, is everyone?"
"Lunch. You can go, but I still need to take you to the principal, so if you could meet me here five minutes before the end, that would be great."
Shit, I'd forgotten about that.
"Sure."
"Where's Cheong-san by th-"
"Sorry, Ms Park. Oh... Is it lunch?"
I turned to see an out of breath Cheong-san leaning against the door. Ms Park laughed quietly, and nodded, sending us to lunch.
"See you five minutes earlier," I smiled, leaving.

We left the classroom, Cheong-san wrapping an arm around my waist and we wandered to lunch.
"Why are you leaving lunch early?"
"The principal wants me for something."
"Oh."
He was quiet for a while. I sensed he wanted to speak, but didn't dare. It irritated me for some reason. I despised people I was close with keeping things from me – granted, I was a hypocrite as I tended to keep most things from my friends. I just wanted to protect them from my shitty life.

Fuck. Now Cheong-san was doing the same.
"Just say whatever you want to say," I snapped.
His arm dropped from my waist. I was hit with guilt almost instantly.
"I'm sorry," we spoke together.
"You go," again, we were in perfect timing.
I stopped walking, took Cheong-san's wrist and nodded at him.
"I'm sorry. About your mom and everything. If you need anything, and I mean that, anything text me."
"I, uh, don't have my phone. And I'm... not going home."
He licked his lips, and nodded slowly. His feet tapped like he needed to pace to be able think, then less than a minute later, he lit up.
"You can stay at mine!"

CHEONG-SAN

I was truly a genius this time. My mom loved Su-hyeok and would do anything to help. I hadn't told her that we were in a relationship yet, and I didn't think it was wise to tell her, especially if he was staying in my room, which he would be. There was no way I was letting my boyfriend sleep on the couch.
"Are you sure? I don't want to be a nuisance."
I could have slapped him. He was so stupid sometimes.
"Moron, my mom loves you, and she'll give you more chicken than you could eat in a week just in one day."
Su-hyeok laughed.
"Thank you. Seriously."

We continued to walk to the cafeteria, which was taking an unusually long time to get to today. Maybe Su-hyeok was just distracting me from walking. He was perfect. Better than perfect. All I could do before we became something was just stare at him from across the room, probably looking like a stalker. I'd caught him looking at me a few times, but I would ignore it, and think he was looking at Nam-ra. Then I would always end up jealous. Like we were something.
Well now we are. And he wasn't looking at Nam-ra. I openly smiled as we entered the cafeteria, at first not realising Su-hyeok was trying to steer me towards the table instead of the wall I was about to walk into.

His arm flew out in front of my face so I walked into it instead of bricks, "Hey! There's a wall, dumbass."
"I know, I know!"
My dignity hadn't been defended very well. Su-hyeok just stared back at me, confusion taking over his entire face. He nodded slowly, eyebrows raised, and dragged me towards the table before I could damage myself. Fortunately only Gyeong-su had seen, so a quick kick to his shin instantly gave him the message to not take the piss.

"What were you guys doing in the bathroom?" Dae-su grinned.
"Yeah, you were gone for ages," Woo-jin leaned forward.
"Nothing like that, fuck off," Su-hyeok laughed.
"But something, hm?" Joon-yeong joining in the other two's ridiculous theories caught me off guard.
Maybe we were too obvious. But still, we hadn't done anything that they were implying.
"Well obviously something, because that's what the bathroom's there for," I rolled my eyes at them all. 
"Well it must have been something good if you're that distracted that you walk into a–"
I kicked Gyeong-su on the shin.
"Ow, you fucker," he protested rubbing where my foot made contact with him.
"What did you walk into?" Woo-jin pried.
"Nothing."
Su-hyeok smirked at me when the other four started to mutter incoherently among themselves. I raised my middle finger and he blew a kiss.
"Oh fuck," he looked at the clock in the cafeteria, "I've got a meeting or something. I'll see you whenever I see you. Wait for me at the gates?"
I nodded. He struggled to stand up, tripping over the chairs, getting his bag all tangled. I stopped him, helped him up, and handed him his bag. He smiled and left.

Whatever the meeting was about, I hoped he would be okay.