Mission Wall-E || Jakehoon

Twenty-three: Idle Town

As much as Sunghoon liked Jake, and how he seemed to just know things, how he could look at a person and tell exactly what they were thinking and feeling without having to examine their body language like a science experiment, how he just got 'it'(whatever 'it was), he didn't like how he sometimes assumed things. Sure, assuming was natural, cause certain actions usually meant or showed certain feelings. It just makes sense. But however, it's just sometimes Jake couldn't look at the broader picture. Just like now. He heard Sunghoon say a few words back inside, and automatically put a label onto what they meant inside his head. Just because he assumed that he 'knew'. When really there could be thousands and thousands of other labels that could have been put on those words he said. Inside Jake's head, he would go with what just seemed right and didn't explore those thousands of other possible rights.

"Are you okay? I know that you don't really like confrontation-"

"No, I'm fine, okay. The confrontation had nothing to do with this."

"Oh, I just thought that's why you got so upset."

Sunghoon scoffed and kicked at a little brown rock beside the shoes he put on seconds after Jay had demanded he'd go outside. Which he was also quite annoyed with. He didn't see the point in talking with someone to calm down, when talking is what got him acting like this in the first place. Why add more of the inevitable miscommunication that came from two human brains? He'd honestly rather be by himself so he could sort his head out, but he knew it would just stress everyone out. Which was his struggle currently.

It was like this back home too. Whenever he'd get slightly annoyed, his mother and father would push and push for him to talk about why, then assume why he wasn't talking. They'd say 'you can't shut down every time someone says something to you that you don't want to hear'. Which he totally agrees with. But it just wasn't the case for him. He was fine with hearing such things like 'you need to do the dishes more often' or 'you can't keep skipping practice', and yes even Jay saying he was pushing Jungwon too hard. Because they were all true. It's just the illogical assuming of his feelings and intentions that would come with it that made him want to shut down and not talk. If his parents had just asked him why he wasn't doing the dishes instead of assuming he was being selfish and not considerate of everyone else in the house (which really hurt if he were to tell the truth), they would have found out that he had just been so nervous and cloudy headed about nearly every aspect of his life at the time, that he couldn't even notice that the kitchen was messy for the two minutes he had been in it. And they hadn't even asked him to do them in the first place, they just wanted him to 'know when to do them'. He really just thought that if they wanted him to clean the kitchen they should have just asked because he's not good at the 'knowing'. The gut feeling of assumption will usually just back up and help guide his logic, not start it like everyone thinks it should. But not once did his parents ask. It's not like he even tried to tell them though. It was a miscommunication on both parts, and he'll admit that.

He just didn't like people trying to read him. Because usually, the reading went wrong.  He always feels like an open book, having eyes on him all the time. He'd be okay if people read the words on the pages of his skin correctly, but they never do. The pages were written in a language only he seemed to know. Even Jake doesn't know the said language. He might understand the alphabet, but not the vocabulary. Cause Jake assumes. And even if Sunghoon likes him, and spent several minutes zoned out by the way his lips (pink and soft with mint chapstick that Jay loaned him) curved around the words of the songs he, Heeseung, and Jungwon sung at the stream across the road from Ten and Lisa's house, he still hated him assuming.

Right now Sunghoon could feel Jake looking and attempting to read his pages. And Jake didn't look at the words and realize he didn't know the language, he looked at them and assumed they were English or Korean for some reason. And Sunghoon wanted to snap his book shut and continue kicking the small rocks that made up the driveway in peace. The boy he like's eyes may be beautiful, but they still felt like hot coals against his cold skin.