The Car Crash Club • Monsta X

xxvi.

Another camping trip, another night of watching the stars. They go into the tent for the night, and Hyungwon asks Father if he's made up a new game for them. Father says he hasn't, not yet, that he's still thinking of what they should play, but he has something else for them to do tonight.

He brings out a glossy magazine, and on the cover is a girl who isn't wearing anything. Hyungwon stares at the picture. He feels like he shouldn't be looking because it's wrong to look at someone else who's naked, but Father tells him that it's okay to look, it's not wrong. Father flips through the magazine slowly, and Hyungwon sees all different men and women, most of them with no clothes on or some with only very little. He tells Father he still feels wrong looking at the pictures and that his stomach hurts, and Father closes the magazine, looking over at Hyungwon.

He asks Hyungwon why he thinks it's wrong, and Hyungwon says that they shouldn't be naked and that he shouldn't be looking at them when they are. But Father tells him that it's okay to be naked, that being naked with people is how you show them you love them. Hyungwon tells Father that he doesn't know the people in the magazine and how could he possibly love them or them him?

Father laughs and admits that Hyungwon is right, that he's such a smart boy, and Hyungwon feels a little better. But Father tells Hyungwon that he doesn't have to love the people in the magazine, but are there people in his life that he loves very much?

Hyungwon looks up at Father. You, he says as though it's the most obvious fact in the world. And to him, it is.

Father agrees with him and says that he loves Hyungwon very much, and that Hyungwon should remember how he's the only person who really cares about Hyungwon.

Hyungwon says that he knows that. Father asks if he's the only one Hyungwon really cares about in return, and Hyungwon hesitates. What about Mother? he asks.

Father says it's okay to love Mother, as long as Hyungwon doesn't love Mother more than he loves Father. Hyungwon says he thinks that's okay because he loves Father the best, and this seems to make Father happy.

He says they don't have to look at the magazine anymore for tonight, but that Hyungwon should always remember that it's okay to show the people you love exactly how you love them, and that you can do that not only with your words and your heart but with your body too. Hyungwon isn't quite sure that he understands yet, but he tells Father he does.

--updated 07/07/20, part 3/3--