❛ 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐞. 𝗌𝗄𝗓 𝖺𝖽𝖽𝖾𝖽 𝗆𝖾𝗆𝖻𝖾𝗋

❛ :: 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗌𝗍𝗈𝗋𝗒 𝗈𝖿 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝖻𝗂𝗋𝖽𝗌

PERHAPS CHARLIE SHOULD HAVE listened when Chan warned him that teaching Jeongin how to drive was maybe not the smartest of ideas.

"Well. It appears we have hit a wall." Charlie was calm, and Jeongin didn't know whether that was a cause for concern or not. The elder of the pair scanned his surroundings for a brief moment, then let his eyes fall onto the frozen boy beside him, glancing at him up and down. "Are you hurt?"

There was no response from Jeongin, who was frozen in place with both hands on the wheel. Charlie leaned forward slightly to study the expression on the younger boys face, it was emotionless—utterly emotionless.

"Well, physically you seem fine. Might be a little emotionally scarred, though," Charlie observed. Heaving out a sigh, the dark haired boy unbuckled his seat belt and reached for the door. "I'm going to check out the damage. Don't—just stay as you are." There was still no sign of movement from Jeongin.

Sliding out of the car, Charlie moved to see what damages had been done. It wasn't anything that couldn't be fixed, at least. The main priority to Charlie was that Jeongin was okay and right now, he seemed shaken up. So, despite not wanting to hear a lecture from their leader, he pulled out his phone and found Chan's contact.

"Hey hyung, how's teaching Jeongin to drive going?" Chan's chirpy voice sounded through the other end.

Charlie pressed a hand to his hip and tapped his foot, quite unsure how to word his next confession. Throwing a glance to a frozen Jeongin and then to the car, Charlie decided it was best to be blunt.

"He crashed into a wall."

Several clangs roared through the line making Charlie believe that Chan had dropped what he was holding to the ground in a state of shock.

"Oh my—"

"Yeah. Car is ruined at the front but nothing that can't be fixed. The Maknae, however, might be in shock." Charlie glanced over to the front seat of the car where Jeongin was crawling out of it, curling up on the floor next to the car with his knees brought up to his chest. "Scratch that—he's definitely in shock. I think you're going to have to come down here. I'm not qualified for helping in these situations."

"I'll be there as soon as possible, send me your location. In the meantime, please don't do that thing you always do."

Charlie frowned, suddenly offended. "Thing I always do? What thing?"

"Where you accidentally make matters worse by being too blunt. Just let him react the way he needs and comfort him, don't be brutally honest."

With that, Chan hung up. Charlie dispatched their location before sliding his phone back into the pocket of his trousers. And then, he took a deep breath.

"Hey buddy," Charlie cringed at himself as he kneeled down next to Jeongin, delicately putting a hand on his arm. "You doing okay?"

"I crashed the car."

Charlie nodded sympathetically. "Yeah."

"I crashed the car with us both in it."

"Well duh—" He was about to make a smart reply, but Chan's voice echoed in his mind: don't be brutally honest. "It could have been worse, Jeongin. Honestly, this is nothing compared to what I did on my first try."

That was a lie, Charlie was an excellent driver from the moment he first got behind a wheel. Jeongin didn't need to know that though, all he needed was reassurance and Charlie was going to do his best to provide that even if it meant telling a little white lie.

"What did you do?"

Charlie paused for a moment to think of a lie that would make his situation seem worse than Jeongin's. "I drove right into some old woman's garden, broke her fence, ran over all of her flowers and crashed the car into her little birds nest killing all of the birds."