|Huidawn|

•Hyojong•

The next morning the two boys were working on their essay. Well, Hyojong was, Hui was trying to get him to stop working and do something 'fun'.

"Please, it's been like an hour. Aren't you tired?"

"No it's ten o'clock... this only has to be 2,000 words right?" Hyojong asked turning to Hui.

Hui thought for a moment, chewing his bottom lip in a manner that made Hyojong uneasy. How was this guy so attractive?

"It was 1,000." He said finally and Hyojong groaned.

"We were done yesterday..." He murmured in a defeated tone.

Hui, unaware of Hyojong's despair, jumped up smiling.

"Great, now we can hang out!" He laughed and Hyojong rolled his eyes.

"We still have to proofread, and print." Hyojong said. Hui frowned but perked back up.

"I have a printer in my Dad's office." Hyojong sighed in relief. In this moment, he was thankful that Hui's parents were wealthy. Well, wealthy on his terms, where Hyojong lived he visited the library to print his assignments.

The two were in the office in minutes. Hyojong was a bit hesitant though. He had reasons, Hui said that his father got angry when people went in there. But Hui claimed that the 'family' printer ran out of ink.

But boy, if Hyojong knew anything about angry. His body coiled in fear at the thought of crossing his father. Hui seemed lax enough though, so he hesitantly followed him into the office.

Hyojong found that Hui was smarter than him when it came to technological things.

But that didn't mean that Hui was smart with technological things.

He spent five minutes finding the jack to connect the printer to his laptop. After he told Hyojong that it didn't exist, and that the jack was for show, he tried Bluetooth.

That was even worse. For some reason Hyojong didn't know, Hui had his laptop already connected to something.

"I have no idea what X3JRL is." Hui murmured and disconnected the laptop's Bluetooth. He went back to the printer and pressed buttons blindly.

The door opened slowly and revealed an older man in a suit. He had a stern look to his face. One that frightened Hyojong, he nudged Hui and he turned to his father.

"Oh hey dad! We were gonna' use your printer for our essay but it broke or something."

His father ignored his look of confusion and turned to Hyojong. His heart raced as he anticipated a hand to strike him.

"I'm Hui's father, you're a friend?" He extended a hand. Hyojong controlled his flinch except for the slight jolt of his eyes as the wanted to close tight while he cowered.

He put his hand out and shook the tall man's.

"I'm Kim Hyo-Jong, but I go by Hyojong. I'm no good with electronics and neither is Hui. We would have been done half an hour ago if not for that." He said quietly. Hui's father smiled slightly and walked to the printer setting a bag down in his wooden desk.

He pressed a few buttons, connected a cord to the laptop, and the file began to print.

"When is the project due?"

Hui looked to Hyojong who looked away. He wasn't too eager to talk further. Hui couldn't blame him either, his father was intimidating.

"Tuesday I'm pretty sure." Hui said, the last page came out and Hui's father handed him a stapler.

"My son isn't too bright in Literature. I'm going to assume you wrote this?" He took the essay from Hui and read it over. Hyojong slightly nodded but Hui's father wasn't looking.

"Are you staying for dinner? Wife won't be in tonight." Hyojong nodded and Hui's father handed him the papers.

"Well where's mom?" Hui asked and his father led the way out of the office.

"Work in Japan, had to fly over there immediately." Hui's father went to the front door. A second later the door opened revealing Hui's younger sister. Mr. Lee took her backpack and put it in the closet.

"Yeah my mom always leaves on business. My dad is a lawyer so... the house is usually mine." Hui said smirking at Hyojong.

"And your sister's." Hui's father added and Hui frowned.

"Yeah." He mumbled before he lit up again. Hyojong wondered what kept him so happy. It was like he was a machine that kept running. Any bump in the road, a fried circuit, preplaced in a second. Of course he drank his problems away, but there was something that kept him going.  Hyojong wished he worked like that. Everything was so hard on him. Every since he was young things were that way.

And no matter how long he endured the pain it never ceased to affect him. 

Word Count 792