【low battery】MEANIE

sometimes

『當你牽著我的手的時候，
我周圍的黑暗都變亮了。』
_______

"when you hold my hand,
the darkness around me
becomes lighter."

_______

Mingyu hears a whimpering noise, and snaps awake. He opens his eyes sleepily, before realizing that it's Wonwoo who's making the crying noises.

He leans closer to Wonwoo, finding that Wonwoo's asleep. There's a troubled, almost pained expression on his sleeping face, and Mingyu feels worried. Wonwoo just be having a nightmare.

Wonwoo kicks Mingyu's leg on accident, and Mingyu winces. Wonwoo lets out a louder, crying type of noise, and Mingyu quickly shakes his shoulder.

"Wonwoo?" Mingyu calls, and Wonwoo snaps awake.

Wonwoo looks around frantically, before sighing. "Sorry. Had a nightmare."

Mingyu nods, murmuring, "I can tell. Want to talk about it?"

Wonwoo hesitates. He was never one to tell people about this certain experience since it sometimes still choked him up, sometimes still made him cry. He still remembers the day as if it was just yesterday, the day that his mother left them. And that will always haunt him.

_______

"Dad?" Eight year old Wonwoo asks, panicked. "Why is mom angry?" He asks hesitantly.

His father forces a smile, patting his head. "It's going to be okay... I promise."

Wonwoo frowns. He knows that it's a lie. Nothing feels okay at all.

A whimpering sound comes from the corner of the room, and Wonwoo looks over to see his younger brother, Bohyuk, glancing at him in confusion.

Four years younger than Wonwoo, Bohyuk was only four years old, and to him, everything was a blur. He heard so much yelling, crying and everything that he didn't like. He cried, and Wonwoo ran over to him and hugged him tightly, making him feel safer.

"I'm leaving now," Wonwoo's mother says. Wonwoo stares in confusion.

"Mom?" Wonwoo calls. "What do you mean?"

"I'm leaving, to my real family."

Wonwoo gasps, and looks over at his father. "Y-You cheated on dad...?"

Wonwoo's father hushes him and tells him to go to sleep, but Wonwoo shakes his head, standing firmly. "I'm not a newborn child, I can understand what's happening... I'm eight, I'm old enough to know that you cheated on dad!" He snaps at his mother.

"Wonwoo, come on." His father puts an arm around his shoulders. "We'll be okay."

Wonwoo reluctantly nods. He doesn't know if they'll be okay.

Wonwoo's mother just exits through the front door, not even looking back.

Wonwoo and his father just watch her figure get smaller and smaller as the rain grows larger and larger.

"Wonwoo," Wonwoo's father sighs. "Be careful who you fall in love with when you're older someday. And break it off before it's too late. That's all I can say."

All Wonwoo can do is just stand there, paralyzed, feeling numb as he watches his mother, who never even once loved him, walk out of his life. He would never see him again, and nothing in his life would feel the same again.

They were never once a happy family, were they?

_______

"I... I had a dream about my mom," Wonwoo starts off. "When I was eight, she left our family. She cheated on my father."