YELLOW | yj x bg

☀︎ thirty nine.

It was in the middle of the night when Beomgyu called Yeonjun up, on the verge of tears. It was 10 minutes later when Yeonjun arrived at the parking lot of Beomgyu's house.

Silence enveloped the car once he got in. The motor grumbled as Yeonjun turned the engine on. He didn't know where he was going, but he did know that Beomgyu wanted to be as far away from his house as possible.

"I'm sorry, Yeonjun. I didn't know who else to turn to," Beomgyu's soft voice reverberated through the silence, as if he's never known a day where he's been more regretful for a cause. "Hueningkai's busy with his night shift in the burger shop, Soobin just went traveling back to his hometown to visit his family, and Taehyun's cramming for his exam tomorrow."

He takes a deep sigh before saying," I only had you to turn to," he shifts his head slightly to make eye contact with Yeonjun hesitantly, but seeing as it proved to produce no fruitful efforts (Yeonjun's eyes were dead-set on the road in front of him), he averted his gaze and instead focused on not breaking down utterly and completely.

Beomgyu reached his hand to switch on the radio, and after 2 minutes of baseless noise and songs that disturbed the silence and made it all the more uncomfortable (thereby defeating its own purpose), Yeonjun turned down the volume to 0.

Silence enveloped the atmosphere again. Beomgyu could have said he's never felt more suffocated than he does now, but that would be a lie compared to what he feels at home.

5 minutes after the radio was switched off, Beomgyu had an intense staring competition with his lap, nervously fumbling around with his fingers, unable to erase the thought that screamed at him, 'Great. You've even lost Yeonjun's trust now, the only person who saw any light in you.' He continued pulling threads from his cardigan sleeve until he could take the silence no longer-

"Could you at least say something, Yeonjun?" Say something so that the voice inside my head shuts up. "I'm not used to getting the silent treatment from you." But he was met with even more silence. His heart started to swell as he realised Yeonjun is not looking at him, not speaking to him, treating him as if he's invisible. Tears started to well up in Beomgyu's eyes without warning, his vision getting blurry- his eyes turning glassier each second.

"And I'm not used to you acting like this." Yeonjun spoke up suddenly. "How long has it been, Beomgyu? How long do I have to keep on going pretending like you're okay? How long are you going to continue this, Beomgyu?" Yeonjun's eyes were still fixated on the road as he spoke, robbing Beomgyu any chance of his value and importance.

"Continue what?"

A click of Yeonjun's tongue indicated his accelerated impatience. "This fucking act that you've put up," his voice rose an octave, startling Beomgyu. "You're acting like you don't even remember what happened on the night of your birthday. I felt like crying seeing you like that..." Yeonjun choked.

Beomgyu looked down, feeling as if he'd failed Yeonjun.

The car halted to a stop as they reached a red light. Then, all of a sudden, Yeonjun grabbed Beomgyu's arm forcefully. He pulled the sleeves of the black sweater up, and what he saw shocked him: there were bruises. Blue-black marks. It confirmed Yeonjun's suspicions.

Not saying a word, Yeonjun let go and stared outside the window.

"So that's what's been going on." His voice was so cold that it resembled shards of ice piercing deep into Beomgyu's soul. "That's what's been going on behind locked doors."

Beomgyu breathed in, and breathed out. A volcano was bubbling at the surface of his heart, threatening to explode from within, but with every ounce of energy he could muster, he forced it back in. Yeonjun is someone he can't talk back to, every response coming from him would just add salt to the wound. "I'm sorry, Yeonjun." His breath caught up in his throat as he spoke, "I'm sorry for making you think everything was alright when it wasn't."

Upon hearing Beomgyu being moments away from having a mental breakdown, Yeonjun swiftly makes a turn to an abandoned alleyway and parks the car where no one can see them.

"You have nothing to be sorry about, Beomgyu. I just-" Yeonjun choked. "We're friends, alright? I mean- I get that you wanna have secrets but... why did you keep something so big from us? Why didn't you tell me your mother did those-" He hesitated. "-things to you?"

"Things haven't been the same since a few months ago," Beomgyu started, erupting into several sobs between words and needing to take a break as he did so. "And I feel myself changing from the inside but I can't pinpoint the exact reason why. Mom's punishments accelerated. I hate being in the same room as her." These words brought Beomgyu to a new breaking point, causing Yeonjun to hand him several napkins and sat patiently as Beomgyu blew his nose quite loudly. "I just wanted to feel okay, Yeonjun, but I can't do that with my mother around. I don't want to grow up, Yeonjun." He sniffled. "I just wanna stay young forever."

Yeonjun crosses his arms over his chest, his eyes sympathetically watching over Beomgyu get stuff of his chest that he never got the chance to before. A wave of unsettlednes settled over him as he thought, 'there sure are two sides to every story.' A voice softer than what he recognized as his own spoke up, "You won't ever have to feel that way with us."

"What?" Beomgyu turns to look at him, the corners of his eyes lined with tears that weren't fully wiped away, his eyes brimming with slow-building hope.

"I said-" He leans in, so close until they're a few inches apart. He whispers into Beomgyu's ear as if this is a secret that they're the sole contractors of; them against the world: "You don't ever have to be scared if you're with us." He wipes a tear that slid down Beomgyu's cheeks without him knowing. And it seemed as if Beomgyu's heart had stopped still at that very moment.

"Now what do you say, wanna pay a visit to the ramen shop? It's been a while since we've last been."

Beomgyu smiled the most genuinely he's smiled in a while, and it melted Yeonjun's heart. "Sure."