4*TOWN

☆ Solace

.

..

Tae Young sits on the floor in the middle of his room. He stares at his laptop in disbelief, unmoving, his lips pursed in an unreadable expression.

Someone's knocking at his door, but he doesn't turn to look or answer.

"Tae, I'm a little worried right now. You okay in there?"

Jesse says softly, still not getting a response.

"Okay, I'm coming in."

He opens the door, seeing Tae sitting in the same position, hunched over before his laptop. Jesse walks over to him, kneeling and placing a hand on his back.

"Hey, are you alright?"

Tae finally turns his head, blinking and letting the tears fall, tears that he failed to notice himself. Jesse wears a concerned expression, moving to fully sit beside him.

"Did something happen?"

Tae nods, gesturing toward the computer before dropping his head on Jesse's shoulder. Jesse looks at the screen, seeing it open to an email. From Tae Young's father.

Jesse's face contorts in anger, and suddenly he understands why Tae's acting this way. He clicks out of the tab, closing the laptop and pushing it away. Tae cries silently onto Jesse's shoulder, and Jesse frowns. He couldn't even read the message; it was in Korean. Not like he'd have wanted to hear anything that Tae's father would want to say. He only saw the name, and anger instantly flooded into him.

"Did you read it?"

"...Yes."

Both of them are completely silent for a while.

"If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. You don't have to."

"I... I know. But I want to."

Tae says, his voice breaking as he's still crying. Jesse didn't expect that response at all, but he still nods.

"He was telling me that... he and my mom are, um... they got divorced. And that he wants to see me... He said he'll call in a few hours." 

Jesse narrows his eyes angrily.

"Why?"

"I... I didn't read that far. I couldn't."

Tae breaks down again, and Jesse wraps an arm around him.

"Hey, it's okay, bub. I'm right here."

Jesse is comforting him as best as he can, but Tae is sobbing harder than before.

Earlier that day, Tae was in a good mood. That was until this email. Just upon reading the sender's name, dozens of childhood memories came rushing back to him, causing him to crumble completely on his bedroom floor.

Jesse knew something was wrong when Tae hadn't been out of his room all day- it's not like him at all. Especially since no one else is home, which is why he'd came to check on him in the first place. And it's a good thing he did, because if he hadn't, things wouldn't be going much better.

The only one who really knows about Tae's situation is Jesse. Sure, Robaire's been told about it, but what he knows is very surface level. Jesse was there.

After a long while, Tae's cried all until he can't anymore. Now, he's just sitting with Jesse, his eyes closed, breathing slowly.

"Are you feeling any better?"

"Yeah."

☆

Later, Tae's finally forgotten about the earlier incident and is still hanging out with Jesse. They're now in the living room watching a movie, and Jesse's hair is braided and decorated with butterfly clips, thanks to Tae. Jesse just let him do it, to help him keep his mind off of what happened.