"It's been three and a half months, Hyungwon," she said, her voice coming through the telephone hanging loosely in Hyungwon's hand. "We thought that you would be done with this by now."
I thought you would stop coming by now, Hyungwon thought but didn't say anything. He didn't feel like saying much of anything at all these days. He just stared back across the glass at a face that grew less familiar each day.
"You have a place in our family, and there's a general expectation that you return to fill it," she continued. She always had something to say. "We enrolled you in this program to fix whatever the problem was, but you've shown no signs of progress. You've failed every weekly evaluation. And frankly, judging from your appearance and lack of respect, you're only getting worse, not better."
But Hyungwon wasn't listening to her cruel opinions. Instead, he was thinking about Jooheon.
Hey, Skeleton. You look like shit today. Did you sleep at all? His seemingly harsh, rough way of caring.
He thought about Minhyuk. Hyungwon! Did I ever show you my birthmark? Because I swear it moved two inches to the right last night- His easy friendship, an internal warmth that he carried with him in a place that provided none.
He thought about Kihyun. Sorry Wonnie but we're locked in for the night. His quiet, honest comfort.
"-did you hear me, Hyungwon?"
Hyungwon blinked and stared back at the woman.
"You're a disgrace and I..."
Hyungwon slowly pulled the phone away from his ear and set it down on the ledge, not placing it back on the hook to end the call, but setting it down so he didn't have to listen anymore. He watched her mouth move from the other side of the glass, but he just stared back, watching as her lips parted and her mouth shaped different syllables all with the purpose of wounding him.
"You can hang up the phone if you want to end the visitation session," the ward guard said from behind him, and Hyungwon turned his head to meet the man's eyes.
"You said as long as I don't hang up, I don't have to go back, right?" Hyungwon asked. He didn't want to return to the half-empty classroom. And he didn't really care what his mother had to say anymore. He couldn't hear her words anyway.
The guard hesitated. "Well, yes, you have thirty minutes from the time you start the call until the time you end it, but-"
"Then I'll take my thirty minutes," Hyungwon said, turning back to face the glass. His mother glared back at him, his father's mouth puckered uncomfortably, but Hyungwon just pushed his chair back, put his shoes up on the counter, and closed his eyes. He could hear the buzzing of the phone very distantly, and then after a few minutes, the buzzing stopped. He opened his eyes to see that his parents had left the other room.
"You have eleven minutes left," the guard said. "Are you sure you don't want to go back now-"
Hyungwon closed his eyes for eleven minutes, and when the eleven minutes were over, he picked up the phone with delicate fingers and placed it back on the hook.
