The Elephant Between Us || SKZ

chapter four

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

ABUSED BECOMES THE ABUSER

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"Hey, Jeongmin, what happened here?" As Bangchan approached her wrist to look closer, Jeongin widened his eyes, turning his face to quickly glare at him.

Suddenly, the chairs got upside down, the table fell, and the glasses shattered on the ground, with lemonade flooding their feet and wetting their clothes.

"DON'T YOU DARE TO TOUCH HER!" Jeongin shouted as he pulled Bangchan away, standing and grabbing him by the collar. 

In less than a second, everyone's eyes were on them.

"JEONGIN, STOP!" Jeongmin shouted and stood up, getting to her brother's side, dumbfounded. "Jeongin, you're not being rational, stop this immediately!" She whispered to him while looking into his furious eyes, anxious. "Everyone's looking, Jeongin!"

"Touch my sister, and I'll break the hell of your f.cking goddamn smiling teeth," Jeongin said, his head inches from Bangchan's, clearly out of his mind as Jeongmin's words were not even thought about.

It was like fume came out of his red skin, out of his veins and out of his ears. Jeongin emanated fury, and Jeongmin knew she could do nothing to calm him down. He had his reasons, after all.

On the other hand, Bangchan stood silently, his eyes widened. He was scared, mainly because he didn't have any clue of that boy's limits, and, looking at Jeongmin's frown, he could understand he had none.

The employee had to come to the boys for Jeongin to let go of the male's collar.

"Do I need to call the security?" The man threatened, visibly bothered and embarrassed. By the nervousness in his tone, it was probably his second day working in that place filled with tobacco smoke and guys breaking each other noses.

"No. That won't be needed." Jeongin said, clearing his throat and walking back a few steps, his eyes still on Bangchan's.

The man, however, didn't move an inch, and Jeongmin could already guess why.

"We'll pay all this..." She said, looking and pointing at the broken glasses and lemonade all over the ground. "...and clean it, too." 

Nothing was for free. Empathy? Nah, Jeongmin was sure that didn't exist. She was already counting the days left for people to start paying for each breath they took.

F.cking lemons.

With a smile on her face, Jeongmin saw the man finally leaving their sides. She sighed and, before walking over to the counter to grab the mops, she glared at Jeongin. 

You're so done with me.

It didn't take long for Bangchan to be left alone, extremely confused.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"I still think we were stolen," Jeongin said, his hands on the wheel as he travelled back home with Jeongmin sitting by his side. "Twenty dollars for two glasses? Absurd. Outrageous. Ridiculous. I can't believe you didn't contest it-"

"It was not just the glasses, Jeongin. It was the glasses, the chairs, the table, the lemonade, the noise, the entire emotional damage we caused on the customers." Jeongmin said, her arms folded over her chest as her eyes were stuck on the buildings outside the window, as always.

"You're still mad, hum?" That was not even a question: Jeongin knew it already.

"You were the one saying we shouldn't play a show, that we shouldn't stand out, that I shouldn't go to the local parties wearing dresses... but look at you: attacking the first guy that says hi to your sister." She was more than disappointed. "Great job, bro." 

"I was protecting you."

"And I did not ask for your protection, Jeongin."

"He was about to touch your wrist, sis!" He exclaimed and glanced at her, feeling extremely misunderstood by his sister. "He would have seen your bruises if I didn't stop him, Jeongmin! Can you understand how serious this is?"

She gulped.

"What would have happened? Tell me!" He insisted, parking the car in front of the building as they had finally arrived home.

It was already dark outside. They had spent the entire day shopping for groceries and taking a look at shop windows, trying to find the cheapest chairs and beds - as well as a couch - and Jeongmin had no patience left to listen to any more words. 

"Jeongmin, tell me! I had to do something! I had to shift his focus!"

"By grabbing him by the shirt?" Jeongmin finally turned to look at her brother, her eyes teary.

"It was the first thing I remembered." He sighed. "And yes, I got my super-protective older brother mode activated, but try to understand my side, sis. I am doing the best I know."

"I understand, and I thank you," Jeongmin said lowly, smiling shortly before leaving the car to quickly get inside the building, not waiting for Jeongin.

That surprised him. Had she just thanked him? Damn. She really had just done that.

While Jeongin stayed inside the car checking his phone, Jeongmin made her way upstairs. She was taking the keys out of her pockets when she suddenly crashed into someone.

"I'm sorry-" She started, shutting up once she lifted her gaze and noticed it was Bangchan. "Oh..." 

"Yeah, it's just me." He said, pressing his lips into a thin line as he prepared to move on. 

"Wait!" He waited. "I'm sorry," Jeongmin said, frowning and sighing. "I mean, not just by not watching where I'm going, but by everything that happened today at the café... you got into a situation you didn't really deserve."

His silence forced Jeongmin to continue, less comfortable. 

"Look, my brother is not a bad guy. He's caring and really nice and extremely protective, mainly when it comes to me... do you get that?"

"Yes, I do. Don't worry." Bangchan said coldly, leaving. 

Of course, he was mad, and she couldn't blame him for that even though that was all she wanted to do. Her brother had grabbed him by the collar, after all. What else could she expect? 

She sighed and turned her key in the lock, stopping as she suddenly heard something, an echo coming from the stairs. 

A... giggle?

"Bangchan?" She asked in a whisper, her goosebumps gradually standing out as the noises continued. "Bangchan, is that you?"

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━