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

Chapter 13 - all untied

Cheong-san stayed awake for an hour with Su-hyeok in his lap, before the repetitive motion of stroking his hair soon sent him off to sleep.
His parents arrived home three hours after, finding the two of them – Cheong-san slumped and sprawled, Su-hyeok curled tightly, as close to Cheong-san as was physically possible. His mom smiled at the sight of them, carefully covering them with a blanket.
"School must be tough these days," she muttered to herself.
"Each to their own," Cheong-san's father had replied, rolling his eyes affectionately at them.
They wandered to the kitchen area and sat down at the dining table, since the sofa had been taken.

Cheong-san shifted in his sleep. His legs had pins and needles, and in moving them, Su-hyeok's head started to fall off the sofa, followed by his torso. His shoulder hit the floor first, the pain waking him.
"Fu-" he saw Cheong-san's parents leaning over him, "-dge."
They helped the rest of his body off of Cheong-san, and pulled him up. The loss of weight caused Cheong-san to wake up too. Bewilderment surrounding his face, he couldn't seem to understand why his parents where with him, and why Su-hyeok was now using his dad to lean on.

CHEONG-SAN

To say I was confused was an understatement. I tried to stand but instantly fell back onto the sofa as my legs still felt fuzzy. My parents were still fussing over Su-hyeok, sitting him down at the table, my mom making sure his head was alright, my dad grabbing a glass of water. I smiled knowing that Su-hyeok probably never had had this type of attention before, especially not from his parents.

I tried to stand again, and, thankfully, I could. I walked over to the table, and hugged Su-hyeok from behind.
"Sorry," I whispered, embarrassed that I'd practically kicked him off the sofa.
He briefly turned to me, mouth slightly open, signalling with his eyes that he was waiting for my mom to step away for a moment before saying something. She left, eventually, to tell my dad to hurry up with the water, as he had drank the first glass.
"Fuck you," he grinned.
"When?" I licked my lips, smirking.
He blinked very slowly. Shit. Had I actually said that out loud?
"I... Moron," he muttered, still smiling, but rolling his eyes.
When my mom came back with the glass, his face lit up. Shit I'd put him on edge in my house – the place he was supposed to feel safe.

SU-HYEOK

Cheong-san's reply was... unexpected. Even yesterday, I wouldn't have thought anything along those lines would ever emerge from Cheong-san's lips. Let alone whilst being that close to his parents. I wasn't nervous exactly, but it certainly threw my guard off. I suppose there may have been some excitement with how daring Cheong-san could be.

Shit. I had to stop thinking like this else Cheong-san's parents were going to find out about us before we were ready to tell them. It wasn't like they wouldn't accept us, it was just that I couldn't imagine any parent being happy with their child sharing a bedroom with someone they were in a relationship with. I couldn't blame them – Cheong-san and I could barely keep our hands off each other at school.

You're going to ruin it all.

Fuck. Fuck. Not now. I clenched my hands and squeezed my eyes. I tried to slow my breathing but I was so useless alone.
"Su-hyeok?"
Shit.
"Hey, are you alright?"
He clearly doesn't care about you if he's asking that.
Cheong-san's hand rubbed my shoulder, his breath loud in my ear.
"I'm here."
I opened my eyes, reaching up for his hand. His parents had dissipated somewhere. Thank fuck. I didn't want anyone to see me in this state, not even Cheong-san. But he calmed me down. He pulled a chair out from under the table and rotated it towards me. He sat, leaning forward clasping my hands.
"Tell me."

CHEONG-SAN

I knew that if I didn't ask, he would never share. I don't think he ever truly realised how much I cared about him, and that broke my heart.
"Not here," his eyes directed to my parents, who were sat on the sofa, probably discussing my terrible grades.
Lucky me.
I nodded, and brought him to my room, telling my parents we had homework, which Su-hyeok would help me with – they didn't need to know his grades were worse than mine.

Su-hyeok stood awkwardly in the corner, starting to pick at the skin near his nails again. I had to pry his hands away from each other, and force him to sit down on the bed. I settled on the opposite side, noticing he still didn't look comfortable.
"I'm getting worried about you. Tell me."
I was never just going to let this go, as he'd probably hoped. I didn't want any secrets in our relationship. I couldn't stand the thought of Su-hyeok going through something alone. He pivoted to face me, crossing his legs.

SU-HYEOK

Fuck, I didn't know if I could tell him. He would think I was crazy. He would never want to go near me again. But he wasn't going to let me do anything without telling him. Shit.

I inhaled sharply, closing my eyes for a moment before I went ahead to destroy every belief Cheong-san had in me. He was never going to view me as sane, and then he'd yell at me because he would be scared that I was going to harm him, and then I would have to run away and try to survive in the streets of Hyosan. Then I'd die alone and young, maybe from starvation or I'd get stabbed and bleed out until a stray cat found me. It would tell all it's other stray friends and I would be cat food. I didn't want to be cat food. Fuck. I couldn't tell him.

"Su-hyeok?"
I breathed, not knowing I'd hadn't been doing so for the past thirty seconds. Cheong-san probably saved my life and now I was going to ruin everything.
Ruin it all. You don't deserve happiness.
"I hear stuff. Like my subconscious. But louder."
He blinked back at me.
"I'm not dangerous."
It slipped out.
"Why would I think you're dangerous?"
"Because... crazy people hear this sort of thing."
"Does it tell you to hurt people?"
"No."
Fuck, he was so rational. It was nice to be surrounded by someone like that. To be surrounded by him was nice.
"Then you're not dangerous," he patted the area of the bed closer to him, and I shuffled forward, "It's okay, angel."
He tapped his chest, and I laid down, my head right on his heart. His arms loosely hung around my chest, his right leg rubbed mine, and he whispered gentle sounds into my ear. I sunk down. The beating and the whispering muting anything my thoughts could scream at me.

For once, everything was quiet.