𝐛𝐚𝐝 𝐛𝐨𝐲 || 𝐤𝐢𝐦 𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐣𝐨𝐨𝐧𝐠.

18

"because you fought? about what? aren't you the one always bragging about how you guys are the most perfect couple?" seonghwa frowns at the sudden revelation by his best friend.

as usual it was lunch at their usual spot at the rooftop and seonghwa was worried because dahee had been absent from school for the past three days without a text to himself or hongjoong at all. "look, dude, she's probably just not ready to see me yet." hongjoong states, leaning against the bench as he continued playing on his phone.

"well, i'm your best friend. aren't you gonna tell me what you two fought about?" the older chugs down his soda before setting it aside to fully face his best friend. "just," he hesitantly begins before locking his phone and putting it aside too.

"i found out my mum's dirty secret from the past and worse, she even has a boyfriend now. that woman cheated on my dad and she doesn't even feel bad about his death because now she's already running around with another man with my dad's money. i would've been fine living my life without knowing all that! do you know how much it hurts here?!" he hits his chest repeatedly, eyes getting watery.

"i–i'm sorry about that, joong. you know i'm always here, right? my family is, too. my parents even think of you as their own son, too." he pats him on the back comfortingly to which hongjoong replies with a small smile. "so then what happened between you and dahee, then?"

"i don't know, i guess i was so angry at everything at that time, i lashed out on her too. i— dude, i said some pretty harsh things to her, man. she probably hates me so much, fuck, why did i do that?" he groans, running his hand through his hair in frustration.

"joong, calm down," seonghwa grabs his hands to get him to stop messing his hair. "what did you say to her?" he asks his best friend. the younger sighs, not knowing whether or not to tell him but he decides to do so. and so hongjoong tells him everything. every single thing because he felt so damn guilty hurting the girl he loves. "are you stupid? how could you say that to her? you can't just assume something like that about her!" seonghwa screams, standing up, hongjoong doing so too.

"you don't get it! she tries to comfort me all the time but what the hell does she know, hwa? she's living a perfect life! she can't understand the pain i've been through for over a year!" he starts getting defensive when he realises that seonghwa was defending dahee.

"dude, you know what i've been through all this while! she can't possibly know what that feels like! you have no idea how annoying it is to have someone like her think she can relate to me, hwa! i love her a lot but what she convinced me to do was too much!" seonghwa lets out a scoff at this. "are you hearing yourself, joong?"

"what?" the younger retorts. "have you never heard of not judging a book by its cover? did she ever talk to you about how great a life she's living?" the taller raises his voice at the stubborn boy. "no but she's always so—"

"no, joong! you can't assume her whole life story just from what she chooses to show us, okay? look, you weren't supposed to find out like this but i need you to snap out of this, okay? i get it, your mum hurt you and i'm sorry about that but you can't just hurt other people because you think you're the one hurting the most! dahee, dude she's.." he paused, shaking his head, not knowing how to tell his best friend about it. "what, hwa? tell me!"

"you always wonder why she always has a jacket on all the damn time, right? well, let me tell you why. under that layer of clothing is what you would have never expected from that 'perfect girl living a perfect life'. she's hiding so, so much under that one layer over her body. she's suffering, man. both physically and emotionally. you two are a lot more similar than you think you are, joong." he reveals, leaving hongjoong speechless and in shock.

"w–what do you mean, hwa?" he stutters out, frowning in confusion. "you're not the only one with family problems, dude. she, just like you, just lost a parent. her mother passed away and she's only left with her father and sister. but her sister is working outside the country and so she only has her father. but you know what's even worse for her, joong?"

"w–what?" the younger replies, too shocked at the sudden revelation. he didn't know dahee's mother had passed away. she never mentioned it to him. that's because you never shut up about your own problems, stupid. he scolds himself in his head. "you know she only has her father?" hongjoong nods at this, prompting the older to continue.

"he doesn't even act like a father to her. he hits her, dude. why do you think she wears the jacket? she hides all her bruises under that one layer, just like how she hides her pain behind that bright smile on her face." the older scoffs bitterly. "that sound like the perfect life to you?"

hongjoong could only look down in silence as guilt ate him up. the guilt sat unmoving in his chest. what he had done was something he could not un-do. he shut her out, walked away from her because of his own stupid assumptions. now he's lost the most important person in his life.

because he was too blinded by his own pain, he didn't see that dahee was slowly falling apart right in front of him this whole time.

"that's what i thought." seonghwa stands up, about to leave hongjoong when the younger grabs his wrist. "i–i'm sorry, okay? i've been stupid, i know. but can we please go check on her? what if— i don't know, dude, what if something happened to her? what if her dad did something to her? what if thats why she hasn't been coming to school?" hongjoong begs his best friend.

"okay, you know where she lives, right? let's drop by after school today." seonghwa suggests and hongjoong agrees immediately. "yes! yes, let's do that." the two boys were extremely worried about all the possibilities of what could've happened to dahee. they were just hoping that at the very least, she was still breathing at this second.