𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞, ph.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀𝐱𝐢. i don't care.

⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀𝐱𝐢. —— i don't care.

─ i ─

Rome walked into the house and almost immediately bumped into his older brother.

"Well, look at that. Now you're not even trying to pretend that you're normal?" Noh mocked, stepping in front of Rome again once the boy tried to walk around him.

"What is your problem?" Rome asked with annoyance.

"It would be a shame if someone walked past that car, wouldn't it? If anyone saw you two being disgusting together," Noh smirked once Rome's expression turned into a panicked one. Honestly, he was too surprised by Pick's kiss to even think about that before, but... If Pick didn't care, then why should Rome? "Or worse, if anyone took a picture. I wonder if your boyfriend would be okay with the whole university knowing. Oh, and what about your girlfriend and her dad? And our dad? Rome, I never knew you were so brave," he added, waving his phone in front of Rome's face.

Rome could have sworn that his heart stopped for a moment. First, he thought about Pick; would he be okay with it? Rome remembered how Pick told him in the parking lot that day that if he cared about what people talk about him, he would've gone crazy by now, but it was one thing to speculate about it, and another to actually experience it. Rome knew all too well how big the difference was, something like this almost ruined his life once before. And then Rome thought about the other people Noh mentioned; if Liz's dad will find out about this, there was no way he'd want to sign the business deal with Rome's father─he'd think Rome humiliated his daughter, it wouldn't go well.

There were just so many people he could hurt by... by being himself.

Rome didn't think much about his next actions, he lunged forward and tried to snatch the phone from Noh's hand. But Noh, after three years of basketball training, had much better reflexes than Rome and managed to raise the phone even higher, making Rome's fingers only slide against it. The younger boy felt anger, he never did anything to Noh, there was absolutely no reason for his older brother to hate him as much as he did. It wasn't some sibling rivalry, it went way beyond it.

So Rome took a swing and a few seconds later his fist connected with Noh's jaw, making the taller boy stumble back probably mostly due to surprise; Rome wasn't very strong and his fingers immediately started to hurt. Noh looked stunned, he blinked back at Rome as if he couldn't believe that he got hit. Noh quickly slid the phone into his back pocket and pushed Rome back, making him bounce against the front doors. Rome tried to defend himself, he knew he got a few good punches before Noh pushed him to the floor and it made him feel slightly better about the whole thing. He had never hit his brother back before.

Noh was sitting on him and his fists kept coming down on Rome's body, Rome could only try to cover his head; he could already feel the blood in his mouth. Then Noh kneeled on his wrists to hold his hands down and Rome had no way of defending himself.

"Hey, what the hell are you two doing?!" Their dad's voice boomed through the hallway and a second later the weight was gone from Rome's body, and he felt like he can breathe again. He coughed out the blood and grimaced when pain shot through his ribs. He tried to pick himself up from the floor, but it was difficult and he probably wouldn't be able to do it if it wasn't for his dad's girlfriend holding him by his elbow. "Have you lost your mind? What was this about?" the man asked, standing between them to make sure that none of his sons would try anything again, his hand was squeezing Noh's shoulder.

"Ask your faggot son, he started it!" Noh yelled, shaking his dad's hand off and pushing past Rome to storm out of the house.

"Rome?" His dad sounded surprised, he knew Rome wasn't aggressive and he never started fights. "What was Noh talking about?"