partners ⁀➷ k.sw ✓

8

SUNWOO
jihyun open your door

read 3:30 p.m.

I leave my phone on the bed and head downstairs to open the door. Sunwoo comes in once I open the door, taking off his shoes.

"Is your mom home?" He looks at me.

"No. She's at work." I shake my head.

We go upstairs into my room, and he leaves his backpack on the floor leaning against the dresser. We sit on the floor, and I get out my things for the project.

"Sorry about that." He speaks up.

"About what?" I look at him.

"The hyungs. They're all.. I don't know." He sighed.

"Is that why you were late? Because you were arguing with your parents?"

He looks down at the ground, gulping.

"Yeah. They-" his voice cracks.

"They're the worst." He whispers, tears running down his cheeks.

I didn't know what to do but sit there, frozen. He was shedding tears and I froze up, not knowing what to do. I understood him, I understand where he's coming from. My parents used to argue all the time and it was the worst feeling.

Arguing with your parents is worst, though. You feel like you have no one on your side. You feel like you're literally ruined.

He hid his face with his hands and began sobbing quietly but hardly, not stopping for even a second. My eyes widen and I panic, not knowing what to do. I scoot closer to him, sitting behind him as I wrap my arms around his waist.

This was super weird for me, but he obviously needed comforting.

He sobs even harder as I frown, feeling bad for him.

"They're the worst.." he said in between sobs.

"Shh.." I rest my head on his back.

I sat there, hugging him as I listened to him sob for long minutes. Eventually he stopped crying, wiping his tears. I let go of him and scoot my way to sit in front of him. He avoids eye contact with me and continuously wipes his tears.

"Sorry. I'm distracting us. Let's get to work." He gulps.

"No, we can work on it tomorrow." I shake my head.

"What do you mean tomorrow? I'm right here." He sniffs.

"We'll take a break today." I give him a small smile.

"Thanks, Jihyun.." he finally looks at me and gives me a bitter grin.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I ask him.

"My parents haven't been there for me ever since I started high school. They've been on business trips almost every day, and when they take the day off, they nitpick at everything I do. They don't even acknowledge that I'm there, they don't eat dinner with me, they don't do anything with me."

"They said I'm not their son anymore." He laughed bitterly, more tears clouding his eyes.

"I'm sorry." I whisper, my voice cracking.

I don't know why I was so sad. I was on the verge of tears, I felt so bad for him. He heard my voice crack and looks at me. I quickly look away, since tears are in my eyes. He grabbed my hands before I could wipe my tears that were rolling down my cheeks, and he intertwined them with his, holding them tightly.

"Why are you crying, Jihyun?" He giggles bitterly once again.

"I feel bad.." I whisper.

"Don't feel bad." He leans in closer to me.

He looks into my eyes, his eyes gleaming with sadness and disappointment.

"I'm sorry you have to go through that." I frown, more tears rolling down my cheeks.

Soon enough, his tears escaped his eyes too. He smiled, shaking his head.

"I'm used to it. Stop crying, you're making it worse." He pouted.

He let go of my hands and he wiped his tears, so did I.

"Sorry, I don't know what got into me." I say.

"Don't be sorry." He chuckles softly.

"I feel bad. I've been such a bitch to you." I frown again.

"You didn't know, it's okay." He ruffles my hair.

"I'm sorry, Kim Sunwoo." I repeat.

"I shouldn't have made you go home yesterday."

"That's okay, Jihyun~ stop!" He exclaims.

"You can stay as long as you want today." I smile at him.

"Really? You'd do that?" His eyes light up.

"Yeah. Feel free to come over and stay as long as you need."

"Thank you!!" He gasped.

"No problem." I giggle.

Maybe he isn't so bad after all.