ashes [hyunin]

chapter two

When he got home from school, his mom was sitting at the kitchen table with his little brother. She was attempting to walk him through homework but it was not going well.

"Hi, guys." Jeongin set his bag by the front door.

"Innie!" His brother got up from the table, running over and hugging him.

Jeongin laughed a bit, hugging the boy and picking him up.

"Jeongho, get back here and finish your math." Their mother sighed.

"Can Innie help me? Please?" He drug out the 'e'.

"Fine. But only because I have a headache. Finish it before you go to bed." She pointed at the young boy.

Jeongho smiled as Jeongin set him down and he ran over to the table, sitting down.

Their mom stood up and walked over to Jeongin, "Thank you." She patted his shoulder.

"No problem, Mom. Go rest."

She nodded, walking out of the kitchen and to her room.

"So, what's the problem?" Jeongin sat across from his brother at the table.

"Dividing fractions."

"Oh dear." Jeongin stared at the paper, he had no clue how to do this.

"Mhmm-"

"I'm gonna be honest, I can't remember these well," Jeongin laughed, looking at the paper. Jeongho pouted, crossing his arms

"Don't worry, dude. I'll call a friend. He'll remember how and we'll surely get this done."

Jeongho nodded as Jeongin pulled his phone out. He quickly found Seungmin's contact, hitting the call button.

It quickly went to voicemail and he was met with a text, 'out w/ chan. can't call rn.'

There go two of his options.

He knew Jisung would be busy, he was always catching up on old missing work.

He sighed and hesitated before clicking on Hyunjin's contact and hitting the call button.

The phone rang a few times before a voice spoke on the other side.

"What's up?" Jeongin's smiled as he heard Hyunjin's voice.

"My brother needs math help and you're in my class so I figured you could help-"

"Call Seungmin."

Jeongin frowned, he tapped his brother's arm mouthing 'I'll be back in a sec.'

"Seungmin is busy and I figured you'd remember-" He walked off to his room, closing the door.

"He's like nine, now, right?"

"Turned nine last week, yeah."

"He doesn't know about us?"

"No, he doesn't. He knows of your existence from when we worked on that history project together, though."

Jeongin heard a sigh before Hyunjin spoke again.

"Don't tell him we're a thing."

"I won't. Don't worry."

"Okay. I'll help."

"Thank you," Jeongin smiled, walking back into the kitchen and placing the phone on speaker.

"Okay. Let's get this done, yeah? Hyunjin, you remember how to divide fractions, right?"

"Vaguely."