prettier than flowers (jookyun) [✔]

11

"sleep tight...baby"

changkyun woke up in a bed much bigger and softer than his own, but this only made him feel smaller and colder. changkyun rubbed his eyes a bit before he regained consciousness and remembered what had happened last night. 'where's jooheon?', he thought to himself.

changkyun sat up on the bed as he heard noises from outside. jooheon was speaking and although his voice was slightly muffled, changkyun could hear what was being said.

"look, we can't just step onto their ground. it's their place and obviously they'll have more people and equipment there...yes, i know but that is not a solution to this."

changkyun strained to hear more, it seemed like jooheon was on the phone but to whom was unknown.

"look, i'm coming now, i'll be there soon okay? i'll come and then we can think of a solution. don't you dare do anything rash."

the younger could hear footsteps a minute after the call ended before he heard the front door opening and closing. after some time, changkyun got out of the bed and walked outside. he felt empty inside and he felt somewhat betrayed as he walked past the living room and all the memories of the night before played in his mind again. the boy sighed before moving to the kitchen for some water.

changkyun reached for the jug on the kitchen table when he saw a yellow post-it note on the edge of the table. plucking it off, changkyun read it.

'hey, sorry i had some things to take care of. you can stay all day or leave, i'm really sorry, i'll call when i'm done. take care baby'

changkyun sighed again. although the message was sweet, changkyun was reminded that jooheon was part of a gang.

jooheon was doing dangerous things that could get him hurt, and changkyun didn't like that. he felt stupid though. he wanted to convince jooheon to stop being part of a gang but who was he to stop jooheon? they had only known for 2 weeks and changkyun wasn't sure if their relationship was even official. changkyun was starting to feel small and insignificant again. just like how he felt when he was with his parents.

the boy sat on the chair next to him as he recalled the conversation he had had with his parents last night.

"changkyun, we've really had enough with you being like this. your dad and i have discussed and we want you to go to college to study medicine. it's the best choice for you son. you have the brains so you should use them well. we don't like seeing your talent wasted because of your so called dreams"

"mum i-"

"no, changkyun. this is the last straw, we want you to go to college. if you really don't like medicine, you can choose law or even education. we just want you to have a bright future unlike us, okay?"

changkyun had sighed through the phone, he had heard these words over and over again but what constituted a bright future for him? one where he was happy or one where he was not? the answer was clear to him.

"is-is this about kihyun?"

there was a hushed silence and changkyun already knew the answer.

"n-no, what are you talking about? this has nothing to do with kihyun" 

"mum. just because kihyun is now a doctor doesn't mean i have to be one...i honestly don't know if this is for me or for your pride", changkyun retorted, mumbling the last part.

"im changkyun! how dare you say that to your mother!"

"yeah, yeah mum. i'll see you another day, i won't be home tonight... bye mum"

changkyun sighed. he knew that his parents were doing everything for him out of the best intentions...right? he told himself multiple times a day that they were doing everything to let him live a life better than their own. but were they really?

yes, changkyun had always excelled in his studies and his parents had always been the 'model' parents that visited the school during events, helped out at these events and attended every teacher-parent meeting and information nights, but was that only because the boy was naturally smart? changkyun sometimes wondered how his parents would have treated him if he had come last in the class instead of topping each subject and the scene he imagined gave him the shivers.

behind the whole perfect parent facade changkyun's parents wore, they were strict, judgemental and pride was very important to them. changkyun always felt a sense of suffocation when he was with his parents outside of the house, everything was so fake. the way they greeted other parents, yet cursed at them behind their backs was something that made changkyun question the sincerity of his parents to him.

and when he had told them he wanted to pursue poetry outside of college, that was when he received a concrete answer. although changkyun knew his parents loved him, they were using him. for pride, for face. kihyun, changkyun's family friend was a little older than changkyun and had recently finished his studies to become a doctor. 

despite not seeing kihyun for years, changkyun knew because he had overheard his parents talking about how they would look if changkyun didn't even go to college and how the yoo family would look down on them.

that was when changkyun started rebelling. coming home later than usual, not answering his parents and basically not communicating with them. in all honesty, changkyun wished he could move out of his house, but he didn't have the money.

the money he had in his bank from over the years was enough to get him a place to stay but not for long. the money he made at the florist wasn't much either, since half of it went back to his parents for "rent, food, electricity, water and more", as they said.

the boy sighed again. he didn't like his life at the moment and he didn't know how to change it. changkyun's mind was clouded with so many thoughts that he felt himself starting to suffocate and so he got up and walked out the door. the boy didn't even know where he was but he just walked. changkyun just walked and walked. his feet walked while his mind thought.

after a few hours, changkyun finally felt tired and so he found a small park to sit at. it was around 4PM and the clouds were starting to darken in colour. changkyun liked watching the sky, it usually gave him inspiration for his poems. today, the sky was pink and orange with wisps of gold that would probably darken soon.

after another hour of just idly sitting and watching as the clouds moved around, changkyun got up again wanting to go home.

at first he got conflicted. what or where was home? he didn't want to go back to his parents or face them because he didn't want to hear what they would say but where else could he go? he wasn't sure if jooheon would let him in again or let alone even be at his house.

the air was starting to get chilly and changkyun decided to enter a small mall that was a short distance away. changkyun's tummy immediately grumbled when he passed the foodcourt and changkyun frowned to himself as although he had brought his phone, he didn't bring any money with him. and now it struck him that, besides the popcorn that he had eaten last night, the boy hadn't eaten a proper meal in the past 24 hours.

this only made the boy more hungry and changkyun just stood outside the maccas as he salivated watching people bite into their delicious burgers.

"changkyun?"

changkyun's head whipped around to the voice that called him and was surprised to see them.

"jieun?"