step bully || Hoonsuk

jihoon

Six months later

"Hyunsuk!" Ryujin came bounding up to us, a big smile on her face, dragging her boyfriend behind her. "Hi, Ryujin." Hyunsuk chuckled. She gave him a one-armed hug that was still somehow tight enough to crack his back. 

"You're strong." "Swim team, baby." She slung her arm over her shoulder. "Haechan, say hi." She nudged her boyfriend. "Hi." Haechan was a nice guy, and Ryujin's opposite in every way. She was bubbly and extroverted and flitted between social groups. He was quiet, reserved, and didn't seem to have a lot of friends, at least as far as I knew. 

"I'm sooooooo happy you guys came." Ryujin peeked over Hyunsuk's shoulder at me. "Now that you're famous and shit." I snorted. "Famous?" "Yeah." She kissed Hyunsuj on the temple, then untangled herself from him and snuggled up to Haechan. 

"If I printed out the pic from the news story about you guys, would you sign it?" Hyunsuk groaned and dropped his head on my shoulder. "Kill me now." Laughing, I wrapped an arm around him. "Pleeeeeeease."

 She batted her eyelashes. One of the local papers had run a story on my dad's campaign, and while they'd talked about him and his platform and Jennie and the kids, the bulk of the story had been about us. The forbidden love story of two stepbrothers. 

Apparently, we were a human-interest piece. Dad didn't love how much attention we were getting, but he was happy his name was attached to the stories about us because there was no such thing as bad publicity.

 A few of the reports had been less than supportive of our relationship. Some people had issues with us being stepbrothers, and others had issues with us being a same-sex couple. The hardest part for me wasn't being out. It was how people automatically assumed that we were both gay because we were together. 

I was still bisexual, even though I'd chosen to be with a guy. The bi-erasure was real, and it bothered me. But considering everything, life was pretty good. We'd spent Christmas with Dad and Jennie. Things had been a bit awkward with Dad, but we'd had fun. Surprisingly, Jennie had turned out to be our biggest ally.

 She'd actually sat me down before Christmas and apologized for her part in pushing me out of the family. She'd told me her insecurities about being the second wife had made her so distant, and she wanted things to be different moving forward.

 She'd even called me her bonus son and promised I'd always have a place with her and my brother and sister. One conversation and a holiday weren't enough to erase the years of neglect and trauma, but it was a start, and it gave me hope that maybe things would be better from now on. Mom and Kai

 had come around too. Kai still wasn't all that keen on us being together, but after that conversation in the living room, he'd kept his mouth shut and seemed happy to pretend like we were just really close friends.

 Mom, on the other hand, had come around and let us sleep in the same room for the few nights we'd spent with them over the holidays. She wasn't thrilled with the situation either, but she'd accepted us being a couple. Things weren't perfect, but they were the best they'd been since our lives had been turned upside down at fifteen.