aversion | bbangnyu

53

Mrs Choi was sitting on the couch in the living room talking away on the phone to her husband while he was on break at work. She was listening to him complain about a coworker when her son stormed through the front door, heading straight to his room.

"Chanwoo, you'll have to tell me about this when you get home tonight. Chanhee just came home and I'm pretty sure he's crying. My son comes first, sorry."

"Oh don't worry about me—go check on Chanhee. Call me if I you need me to come home, okay?"

"I will. I love you~" after listening to her husband say the same words back to her, Mrs Choi quickly hung up the phone and rushed to her Son's bedroom.

The woman knocked on the door ever so gently before carefully pushing it open, calling out a small, "Chanhee? Sweetie, are you okay?

Letting herself into the room when she didn't get an answer, she saw the boy sitting in the center of his bed, knees pulled up to his chest as he cried into a pillow. "Did something happen to you at school," she asked firmly, hoping that today wasn't the day something serious happened with one of the bullies at his school, "are you hurt?"

"I want to be alone," Chanhee whimpered, gasping for air in between each word, "please just go away."

"Chanhee."

"What?"

"I love you and I respect your words, but I'm also your mother. If I want to be in your room, I'll be in your room." She sat down next to the boy and placed a hand on his trembling back. "Can you please tell me why you're so upset?" There was nothing but warmth to her voice as she spoke, only wanting to comfort her son.

There was a long stretch of silence between the two before Chanhee finally whispered, "we broke up—Younghoon broke up with me."

"Oh honey...I'm so sorry," she didn't ask anything else. She didn't need to know anything else to know how hard this was for him. Just the way Chanhee looked at Younghoon gave away just how much he adored the boy.

"Do you want me to call you dad?"

Although his father wasn't too fond of Younghoon to begin with, Chanhee still nodded. Ever since he was little, Chanhee would only ever talk to his father when he was upset. His brother was the same way with their mom...so it all evened out in the end.

✨✨✨

"My Chanhee..." Mr Choi said softly when he walked into their house, quickly ambushed by a tight hug from his son. He stroked the back of Chanhee's head as the boy cried into his shoulder. "Oh my baby...what are we going to do?" The man asked gently, his voice bringing a small smile to Chanhee's lips.

"I feel sick," Chanhee muttered when he finally detached himself from his father, bringing the backs of his hands up to wipe at his cheeks, "I think I'm going to throw up."

Pressing a hand to Chanhee's forehead, Mr Choi made sure the boy wasn't actually sick before telling him, "Just take a deep breath. You've done that since you were a little baby—crying until you get sick."

He listened to his dad and breathed in until his lungs burned with oxygen, blowing it all back out only a second later. "I don't know what do dad," Chanhee spoke, his eyes filling with tears once again, "Should I call him?"

Mr Choi led the two over to the couch so they could sit and talk instead of standing in the doorway. "Do you think calling him would fix things? Or would it just make you feel worse?"

"I think that Younghoon's..." Chanhee paused and glanced over his shoulder to make sure his mother wasn't anywhere around them before whispering, "an asshole."

"Did you say something mean to you? I may be old but I can beat somebody up."

"No—he wasn't mean to me necessarily but I still...I still don't get it. We both knew things were going to be hard because his parents couldn't know we were dating. All of the sudden it was just there's no way to make this work. I don't know—I feel like we could've figured something out."

The man let out a soft hum and took a few seconds to think. "We can never really know what's going on unless we're there. I'm not defending Younghoon at all...I'm just saying maybe there was more to the situation," he stopped for a moment shrugged, "I'm sure you can do a lot better Chanhee—wasn't he kinda small?"

"Dad—I didn't care how buff my boyfriend was. And I don't want to do any better—he was perfect for me. We were perfect together."

"Oh Kid, I know, love is tough. It's going to be that way for the rest of your life even when you find the one."

"I don't want it to be—that's stupid."

He let out a soft laugh at his sons words before held up his car keys. "What'll make you feel better, huh? Do you want me to buy you dinner? Ice cream?"

"I think dinner will do just fine," Chanhee nodded as he took the keys from his father and headed out the front door.

"Jieun! I'm taking Chanhee to dinner!" He called out.

"Okay...I guess I'll be here...alone."

✨✨✨

"So I'm assuming you need to stay home from school tomorrow?"

Chanhee send the man a small smile and nodded. "I already texted mom and asked her since you'll be at work..." he said quietly, "I don't think I'll ever be able to go to school again."

"Chanhee, if you stop going to school then you'll lose your scholarship and graduate from a public school."

"Well there's only three weeks left before schools over anyway I'm sure my grades would do just fine if I skipped every day and just showed up for exams."

"I know you're heartbroken, but you're not allowed to skip school after tomorrow."

"Fine."

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