awaken | hyunjin. [🗸]

08. the phone is ringing

Brrrrrring! Brrrrrring! Brrrrrring!

The landline howled from somewhere outside Hyunjin's bedroom, and since he hadn't yet probed the rest of the house, he decided to find the phone and answer it himself. It should be here somewhere...

Alas, at the end of the laundry room, which was more of a hallway with a door and a washing machine in it than an actual room, the phone secured to the wall was blaring away. Hyunjin had to stand up and walk to it because his wheelchair wouldn't get over the mounds of dirty clothes and beer cans that were blocking the way; it was a good stretch for him though. Hopefully the phone wouldn't stop ringing before he reached it.

Remembering what Hana said about moving his legs in small movements, Hyunjin slowly advanced to the phone while keeping his hand on the wall to stabilize himself. It stayed silent for a string of seconds before starting up again, so Hyunjin could only wonder whether the caller was persistent enough to have rung twice or if he was so unused to hearing the phone ring that there actually was normal spacing between trills.

He finally picked up the silent-again device and brought it to his ear. "Ma'am, I was just calling to hear back about your payments," said an unfamiliar voice. Hyunjin didn't say anything, knowing he was eavesdropping on something.

"I'll take care of it," Mrs. Hwang replied, sounding utterly annoyed. Hyunjin noticed she didn't care much about displaying her loving mother image in public anymore. "Will you stop calling already!"

"Sorry, ma'am, it was required," said the caller shyly. "Before I go, remember those payments are due at the end of the month. Have a good day."

She hung up, but Mrs. Hwang continued to mumble on her half of the line, so Hyunjin put the phone back in its cradle and began the journey back to his room. Mrs. Hwang came downstairs the second Hyunjin sat back down in his wheelchair (still just outside the laundry room), and she eyed him suspiciously from the base of the stairs.

"What'd you just get into?" Mrs. Hwang asked, pointing her chubby finger at her son.

"I was answering the phone."

"And?"

"Which aren't you paying for: my physical therapy or my hospital bill?"

"Listen, you. Don't go telling people we're poor 'cause I got someone to cover the coma fee."

"Don't call it that," Hyunjin asserted, knowing very well that his excuse of a parent was upset about the financial situation. "I didn't mean for this to happen."

"Yeah, well why don't you go back in time and tell your ten-year-old self not to drink my booze and go suicidal on me!"

"I didn't!" Hyunjin screamed back, rising to his feet with perfect balance, his chest heaving. That one word she used--suicidal--struck a nerve in him, and suddenly he saw his late father's face in his head. The face from the Christmas photo on his laptop--at first Hyunjin didn't recognize it as his father, but it was definitely him, and unfortunately that seemed to be the most recent picture Hyunjin had of him. "Don't talk to me about suicide. I'm not over it."

"Me neither, buddy," Mrs. Hwang said. "Get your things. P-T starts in a couple minutes." They were going to be late because Mrs. Hwang had prioritized belittling her son instead.

- 천천히 -

"Very good! You're already getting better," said Eunkyung extraordinarily happily after Hyunjin walked with the balance bars without her guidance. The differences between Changbin's mom and Hyunjin's mom were startling yet soothing at times like this. "Maybe next time we'll try the treadmill. Now, I have to go and take my son home--I apologize again for the short notice. Class dismissed!"

"You mean Changbin?" Hyunjin wondered while Mrs. Hwang lazily pushed his wheelchair to him (she was supposed to let him walk to it himself). Eunkyung nodded her head at Hyunjin and opened the door for her client while he sat down in the chair.

"Yeah! He's right here if you wanna say hello," she offered kindly, gesturing at the hallway where a face and body materialized. Changbin. He must have been in the waiting room.

"Hey," he waved merrily. "Been a few days. How are you?"

"I'm fine," said Hyunjin. "What are you doing here?"

"My car is getting fixed so I had to catch a ride home with my mom," he said. "I'm not on a schedule or anything, but traffic will hit in an hour or so."

"Smart," Hyunjin noted. He cleared his throat briefly, lowering his face timidly but still maintaining eye contact: "I spoke to Felix last night."

"What! How?" Changbin gasped, coming forward and staring at Hyunjin expectantly. They both noticed when Mrs. Hwang grabbed Eunkyung's arm and started blabbering about imaginary friends and their age limits.

"Skype," Hyunjin said. "It was an accident; it didn't go well anyway. Let's go out there." He and Changbin headed through the doors and toward the waiting room while their mothers spoke.

"What went wrong?" Changbin frowned, pushing Hyunjin's wheelchair in front of him until they reached the waiting room. "Is Felix okay?"

"He got mad at me," Hyunjin confessed. "It was like he thought I should've told him I was in a coma, you know, from my dimension."

"Come on, it's not like you were dead," Changbin chuckled. "Still, there's no way you could've told him. If anything, it's your mom's fault." He whispered that last part and peeked over his shoulder to make sure Mrs. Hwang was out of earshot; Hyunjin was proud to hear the slander from someone else. Changbin sat down in a chair in the waiting room so that he was eye-level with Hyunjin.

"Can't argue there," Hyunjin laughed. His joy disintegrated fast though: "I told him to hang up on me."

"Why would you say that? Didn't you miss him at all?"

"Of course I missed him!" Hyunjin erupted, but somehow Changbin still didn't look offended by the change of tone. That was a good characteristic of his, as he was trying to befriend Hyunjin, whose anger management skills were massively underdeveloped. "But he had no right to get mad at me. I hardly even recognized him as my Felix anyway--he changed."

"No offense," Changbin said, placing his hands up defensively, "but he probably thought the same thing about you. I don't know what you looked like as a kid but it can't be the same, can it?"

"Even so--"

"Come on, Bin," Eunkyung interrupted unknowingly, beckoning Changbin to the glass entry doors. He stood up instantly. Neither of them had noticed Eunkyung and Mrs. Hwang approach.

"I'll give you my number before I go. Text me," Changbin said, pulling a pen out of his shirt pocket and signaling for Hyunjin's hand to write on. The latter obliged, thinking how embarrassing it would be to have to tell Changbin he couldn't text on the landline.

"That feels weird," Hyunjin complained as the older boy scribbled on his palm. "Do you want to talk to Felix after I call you?"

Changbin glanced up and smile; of course he wanted to talk to Felix, and judging from Hyunjin's anecdote, he would probably get to see Felix's face as well. "Why don't I just come over sometime? That'd make it a lot easier."

"Are you free right now?"

The boys managed to ride together in Eunkyung's vehicle to Hyunjin's house and escape Mrs. Hwang's hostility by simply tuning her out. Changbin didn't make a single off comment about Hyunjin's dark, dirty bedroom but instead complimented the "rustic look," then helped interpret all the Skype messages Hyunjin received in foreign symbols. They were Korean, just difficult to read after eight years of dreaming he spoke English. Hyunjin sat on his bed next to the card table while Changbin sat in his wheelchair and prepped himself to see Felix again. Their conversation lasted longer than expected, and Hyunjin dozed off for a few minutes after the two started talking in English.

He refused to say hello or show his face but his heart lurched when he overheard Felix asking about him.