neighbours (hyungwonho)

18

"m-mum.."

the boys were now at their respective homes, with wonho being sent back so that hyungwon could have some time to explain to his own mum.

wonho was sitting on their sofa in the living room as his parents sat across from him, nervousness in their faces. his parents didn't know what had happened, only opened the door to a scared wonho and an angry mrs chae.

both wonho's parents were silent as they waited for wonho to speak. they always adored wonho and knew and trusted that the boy would never do anything bad, so they waited patiently, waiting for wonho to speak up for himself.

"I-I..." wonho started off, not finding the right words to say.

although he had come to terms with his sexuality quite early on in his life, he had never told his parents. he had time and time again wanted to come out to them but those fears he felt overcame him time and time again. hearing stories about parents kicking out their children after finding out about their sexuality was one thing that stopped wonho.

wonho always found that his parents were quite open and understanding but he was just scared, with how society put homosexuality, it wasn't an easy thing to come out to even the most intimate people you had.

"I...I..."

his parents nodded, eyes gentle as they urged their one and only son to speak up.

"mum..dad... I'm g..gay" 

eyes closed and head down, wonho breathed in and out heavily.

unbeknown to him, his mum grabbed mr shin's shoulder, aggressively turning both their bodies so that the back of their heads were now facing their son.

"pretend to be surprised"

giving an 'okay' sign, they both turned around as they let out a low gasp.

"oh... we didn't know" mr shin announced, a hand over his face.

"hoseok, baby come here" his mum said, her heart aching at the sight of her son in front of her.

standing up slowly, wonho trudged over to his parents, stopping right in front of them before sitting in between the two.

"hoseok.." his mum called, making the boy look up, "we, we don't care whether you like boys or girls, we just want you to be happy"

wonho's eyes lit up at that as he turned around to look at his dad who was also nodding, a gentle smile on his lips.

"m-mum, dad.."

wonho couldn't finish off his sentence as he burst into tears, resulting in a big family hug.

-

on the other side, hyungwon was now sitting opposite his mother at the dining table. the boy had been through a rollercoaster of emotions in merely 6 hours and was feeling exhausted yet the underlying fear sitting in his mind grew bigger and bigger with each passing second.

"s-so you're gay..?" his mother asked, voice tired and weary, eyes and body equally tired.

hyungwon, at the moment his mum had entered his room, had given up on giving any excuses, too tired to even think of anything.

"yes. I am." hyungwon replied, voice surprisingly calm despite the way his body was slightly shaking.

there was a moment of silence before hyungwon's eyes widened as he heard his mum holding in her sobs.

this led to another onslaught of tears in hyungwon as he shakily got up from his seat and walked towards his mum. kneeling in front of her as he tried to hold her cold hands with his trembling ones, he tried his best.

"m-mum.... please don't cry, I..."

but he didn't have any words and so he just held her hands, that was the best and only thing that he could do in this moment.

finally when her crying ceased, she looked up, her eyes shaking as she looked down at her son.

"w-what else are you hiding from me hyungwon?" her voice shaky from the cyring, "just how much more do you hide from me?"

hyungwon's doe-like eyes trembled once again as the tears fell.

"I-i'm sorry mum, I-I just felt like you wouldn't a-accept me," he croaked out before he himself started crying hard.

"hyungwon"

looking up, he tried hard to swallow his tears, tried to listen to whatever his mum would say and tried to stop crying.

"hyungwon.. I-i'm so sorry... I-I wasn't able to give you all my love and attention all these years... I... hyungwon, I will always accept you just as you are... I just want to be part of your life. I want to know what you do, how you feel at school, even who you like... I just want to know what's happening with my son"

hyungwon looked up, tears still streaming down his face, his mum equally as broken.

"I honestly don't care what you do as long as you enjoy it, be it with your djing or liking boy... as long as it's not hurting anyone else and not hurting you hyungwon.. and I want to know too.. I want to know how my precious son is coping... I just don't want you to kick me out of your life hyungwon."

only muffled cries could be heard in the chae house as hyungwon finally understood.

"m-mum... i'm so sorr-y"

hyungwon was now a sobbing mess, he wasn't even able to say another 'sorry' before he broke down. after his parent's divorce when he was around 6 years old, his mother had always worked harder than the day before, not wanting hyungwon to miss out on anything because of her.

every day and night she would be working and working and in itself was hard for hyungwon, who as a child was left alone a lot. he never really tried to think from his mum's perspective. all he thought about was the need to hide everything from her because he was scared she wouldn't agree, wouldn't accept it and then would be angry and disappointed.

he had been too self-centred, not even thinking about how lonely his mum would be, her one and only son hiding so many things from her.

a small but protective arm wrapped their way around hyungwon's thin shoulders, pulling him forward as the pair shared their long overdue embrace.

----

I think I got a little carried away with this chapter.. but it think it came out okay?? 

I will be ending this book soon~!! thank you for all the support so far!! <3