Almost blind | Haobin

56| Before It's Too Late |56

"For help?" Hao's voice cracked like glass under pressure as he straightened in his seat, the ceramic cup in his hand rattling gently against the saucer. His entire body tensed, eyes sharp and locked on Yujin with a fury that seemed to rise from somewhere deep, somewhere hurt and bruised and still bleeding.

Yujin flinched....not dramatically, just enough that Hao noticed how his fingers trembled as he placed them down on the edge of the table, trying to appear steady.

The boy nodded slowly.

And that nod? That damn, quiet, cowardly nod almost made Hao's blood boil. "Help with what?" Hao asked, his voice low, his fingers curling slowly into fists on the table as if holding back the tremor of rage in his bones.

Yujin broke the gaze. His eyes wandered down to his lap, to the floor, anywhere but back at Hao. He looked like a child who'd been caught lying, trying to string together a sentence with borrowed courage. "He told me that he wanted to... um, that he was thinking about suicide."

The word hung in the air like smoke from a fire that had already devoured everything in its path. Hao didn't move at all. His heartbeat felt like it slammed against his ribcage hard enough to bruise. "He told you?" he whispered, stunned, disbelief wrapping around his voice like frost. "He told you he wanted to kill himself and you...god, you just sat there?"

Yujin's lips parted, but Hao didn't give him a chance to speak.

"And you did nothing?" Hao snapped, the chair beneath him screeching as he stood up, his whole body shaking with emotion that had nowhere to go but out. "You sat there, listened to him say that, and you just... left him there? You walked out that fucking door like he was talking about the damn weather?"

"I didn't know he was serious!" Yujin shouted back finally, panic sparking in his voice. "I didn't think he'd actually do it! He..he told me not to tell anyone, Hao! He made me promise!"

"Then you should've told someone anyway!" Hao's voice broke. "You should've told me! Told anyone! You let him die with your silence. And you know what's worse?" Hao leaned across the table, his eyes glistening but hard. "You used him. You went there for me. You wanted information about me, and the second he handed you something you didn't want to deal with, you ran."

Yujin's mouth opened like he had something to say, but no sound came out.

"You don't get to stand here and say you're sorry when you knew. You knew something was wrong and you chose to do nothing."

"I-" Yujin's voice wavered. "I'm sorry, Hao. I really am. But you don't understand how hard it was to know that. I didn't know who to go to. I was scared. I didn't want to break his trust-"

"You didn't want to feel guilty," Hao interrupted. "So you made the rest of us carry it instead."

The air was thick. The silence that followed wasn't peaceful-it was choking.

"Get out," Hao said suddenly, quietly, so quiet it was almost terrifying. His voice didn't need to be loud to shake Yujin to his core. "I don't want to see you right now."

"Hao, please-"

"I said go!" he screamed, finally letting his tears spill, the grief and the anger tangling together in his throat. "You don't belong here! You don't get to walk into this house and confess like you didn't help put him in the ground!"

Yujin's face crumpled, guilt flooding his features, but he decided to fight back.

"You didn't answer my calls," Yujin snapped suddenly, his voice sharp but brittle. "You ignored my messages. You flew to Canada with Hanbin and cut me off like I was nothing. Don't stand there acting like I had a choice. Even if I wanted to tell you, you wouldn't have picked up that damn phone."