Dark Night [Sequel to 'White Night']

Chapter 12

Warning: violence, abusive relationship. Nothing too graphic but we'll look a little further into Jinwook's relationship with Choi Suwon, so just a little heads up.

“How was dinner with your Mom yesterday? I was already asleep when you got back”, Jinwook questioned the next morning while making coffee. Kogyeol sighed and slumped down on one of the chairs, after he'd just finished taking a shower.

“Choi Suwon was there”, he said. Jinwook visibly tensed up. “I didn’t stay very long. He was pushing his luck and I promised you not to murder him...”, Kogyeol continued.

Jinwook sat down across from him while setting down one of the coffee mugs in front of his boyfriend. “You know, I really want my Mom to be happy but...I don’t know if I can sit through an entire wedding with Choi Suwon in the same room. And I don’t want to put you through it, either...”

Jinwook didn’t answer, instead he just took a sip from his coffee. “I should talk to her...my Mom, I mean...”, Kogyeol continued. “And tell her what?” Jinwook questioned. “I don’t know...maybe that I just don’t get along with Choi Suwon and-”

“Please, don’t...”, the older interrupted him. “Your Mom deserves to be happy. And even if Choi Suwon is not the best stepson, you shouldn’t disapprove of the wedding only because you know what he did to me. It would break her heart”, he explained.

Kogyeol took his hand across the table. “What am I supposed to do? I can barely stand a dinner with him and I probably have to see him more often from now on...and my Mom wants you to come along next time...I don‘t want you to be closer to him than you have to be”, he said to Jinwook who was staring into his mug.

A silence followed. Jinwook pulled his hand from Kogyeol’s grip and took a deep breath. “I...spoke to Wooseok yesterday...after you left”, he admitted. Kogyeol furrowed his brows. “Okay?” He wasn’t quite sure where Jinwook was going with that. The older took some time before he continued.

“I told him that I didn’t want to be the reason for your new family not to work out...”, he finally said. Kogyeol looked even more confused. “Why would you think that?” he asked. “Because...you’re right. I’m not okay. I’m less than okay...but if I had told you that from the start you would have ripped Choi Suwon’s head off. I repressed my feelings after the whole incident. Not even Wooseok knows everything that happened between me and Suwon. I shouldn’t have bottled it up but I did and seeing him yesterday made me realize that I never really got over it. I just thought I did because I never talked about it...”, Jinwook said.

Kogyeol got up and went around the table to crouch down next to Jinwook's chair. “Then talk to me. I want to help you...”, he said, his tone full of worry. 

“I can only tell you everything from beginning to end if you promise me not to freak out and beat up Choi Suwon. I need to be able to trust you with this”, Jinwook said shakily. Kogyeol nodded firmly. He would do anything in his power to help Jinwook get over the situation. If it meant not murdering Choi Suwon, he would accept that.

Jinwook rose from his chair and walked over to the bed. Kogyeol followed and they both took a seat, cross-legged. Jinwook took another deep breath. He knew he should have done this before. Talking about it was the only way to cope with it. Even if it meant re-living it for a short span of time. He trusted Kogyeol more than anyone in the world and he knew that he was the only one who could help him through this.

“Okay, as I told you before...”, Jinwook began. “He was very possessive after we got together. He would demand for us to spend time together all the time and every time I declined he got super angry. He’d say stuff like ‘I didn’t know your friends mattered more to you than I do’. He’d literally guilt trip me into going on dates with him. I began to stop telling him when I was meeting up with friends because he would always tell me to do something with him instead. I didn’t want the others to notice that something was weird, so I tried to make as much time for them as possible. I felt watched sometimes...like he was stalking me, but I never saw him when I was out with my friends...he’d often message me to ask where I was.”