Let's Play Ball ⟨Markhyuck⟩|| completed

chapter 21

The end of the school year was approaching and Donghyuck could have gotten held back to redo the year again. Fortunately, Donghyuck was an intelligent boy and passed his state tests at the end of the year with an advanced grading level.

It had been almost three months since the incident. His eleventh birthday was tomorrow but the boy was not excited for it because it will be his first birthday without Sunny.

The next morning, Donghyuck had woken up with a glum face. His father barged in to his room and to think Donghyuck thought his own father would wish him a happy birthday, was absolutely wrong.

"Get up. You're filthy," his dad criticized.

Donghyuck had his head hung low as he slowly slid off of his bed, "I-I'm not dirty..."

"Yes you are!" Donghyuck's father grabbed him by the arm and yanked him into the bathroom to display his body. "Look at you. Look how disgusting you are! You look the same as when the firefighters found you! Sickening!"

Donghyuck stared at himself in the mirror, slowly believing his father's cruel words. This had been an ongoing routine ever since he had been discharged from the hospital that his father did to him to embed in Donghyuck's brain that he was filthy, dirty, and did not deserve to live.

"You're disgusting," his father whispered in his ear and shoved the small boy in the shower, turning on the cold water which began to wet Donghyuck's clothes and body.

Donghyuck gasped at the cold water as he began to shake while his father scrubbed his arms with the loafer. The little boy winced in pain as his father was scrubbing too rough, which left marks on his arms as his skin began to bleed.

Donghyuck's father left him in the bathroom after several minutes of abusing and creating a rash on his arms. The little boy began to cry as he stepped out of the shower with his soaking wet clothes, peeling them off one by one as his body shook due to the cold.

He covered his body with a towel and walked back to his room to get changed into dry clothes, throwing on a black t shirt and shorts. His mother was in his parents room, drinking again and not wanting Donghyuck to see her like this. However, the now eleven year old boy knew very well and was not stupid about what she was doing.

He hated her. He actually hated her for leaving his father with him unattended to do all sorts of crap to him. He hated how she continued to drink as if she lost her only child. Donghyuck was here too. He survived. Sure, Donghyuck misses Sunny like crazy, but it is not making it any better that he is not receiving comfort or reassurance from her or either of his parents actually.

Donghyuck had went over across the street to Jeno's since his cousin said his parents had a cake for him. At least he gets to celebrate with someone from his family. They greeted Donghyuck with a happy birthday as his aunt squeezed him in a tight hug. Donghyuck wiggled out of her grasp immediately as he hated being touched by someone who was not his sister.

"Please don't touch me," Donghyuck stated, his skin flaring with goosebumps at the thought of him becoming dirty again.

He really was convinced by his father that he was dirty and that it really should have been Donghyuck who died, not Sunny.

"I'm sorry...I won't do it again, Hyuckie," Donghyuck's aunt frowned, but was very understanding.

She knew Donghyuck was going through a lot right now. What concerned her though, were the marks on his arms, afraid that Donghyuck had been harming himself. But little did she know that was not the case...at least not yet.

That's right. Donghyuck began to harm himself as his mental health grew terribly. He had just came back with his parents from visiting Sunny's grave which was one of the worst days of his life. Donghyuck knew he was not the only one who lost someone dear to him and that other families were suffering.

But he had to sit here and endure it all, without his parents help. Instead, his mother neglected him because of her depression, completing forgetting about her living son while his father mentally and sometimes physically abused him. He was living in a household that forbid him from being happy.

He was living in complete and utter misery as he was no longer the happy child everyone once knew. He was being forced to play a sport he did not want to participate in anymore because it reminded him too much of the past, but he could not do anything about it because of his father.

"Don't fuck up the one thing you're actually good at." Donghyuck's father told him as he also reminded the boy how much everything was his fault and that he sucked at pretty much everything but baseball.

Nothing made him happy anymore and all he wanted to do was be with Sunny, his best friend.

The mourning of many families still went on for years and the names of the ones who did not survived were all over the news...

-Kim Jungwoo (killed instantly)
-Lee Sunny (killed instantly)
-Zhong Chenle (dead at the scene)
-Park Jisung (dead at the scene)
-Moon Taeil (suffered injury before death)

And so many more names were constantly read to remind everyone who died due to the tragic incident. In place of the SM Mall that collapsed, they created a monument of the names of the very few survivors and those who passed away. Donghyuck hated it. He hated being reminded of what happened that day as all the horrors and trauma he had to undergo flooded his brain all over again.

It was a never ending nightmare...

Years had gone by, Donghyuck and Jeno were now entering high school as freshmen. Donghyuck was still silent, but newly caused trouble as a source of rebellion. He even developed the nickname 'Perfectionist' by the people around him because he liked things done a certain way. He hated that nickname. He did not go anywhere without sanitizing the area first. He showered multiple times a day in scorching hot water, scrubbing anything he perceived as dirt off of him which became a habit due to his father's abusing actions.

It was his formation of his self harm on himself. And to his surprise, he no longer found it painful from doing it for so long. He found it addicting, fascinating, and pain free. He always wanted to test how far he could go before he actually killed himself. He was unapproachable for many people, but a lot of the students found his aura insanely attractive and disregarded what he went through, creating their own disturbing fantasies.

He was a difficult person to deal with as teachers complained about him, especially his coach. They could not do anything about it though because despite him being a pain in the ass, Donghyuck's work ethics were commendable so they let him do as he pleased most of the time—mainly because of what happened years ago. Donghyuck only acted this way because he did not want their pity. He wanted to be treated like everyone else when they would get in trouble, not privileged and pitied for because he lost someone precious to him years ago.

He blamed everyone and everything for what happened. And this went on throughout high school, leading up to where he is now in his senior year...sitting on Mark's bed in shock and realization.

———————————tbc———————————