Lone Thorn on a White Rose || soonhoon; hoshi-centric

chap 6: tiger talk

Soonyoung's pronouns:

Tig/Tig/Tigers/Tigerself

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It was late at night, close to midnight, when Jihoon arrived back at the dorms. The interaction with Soonyoung earlier in the day had left him irritated and unable to focus, making his work take much longer to finish. He had slipped his shoes off by the door, ready to quickly change into his pajamas so he could crawl into bed. That was until he turned to make his way down the hallway only to be met with one very angry looking Boo Seungkwan.

"We need to talk." The words were firm, leaving no room for argument as Seungkwan turned and started to walk away. His previous tone indicating that Jihoon was to follow him - which he did without question, not wanting to risk waking up the rest of the dorm if Seungkwan were to decide he wasn't moving fast enough and chose to have whatever this conversation was about in the middle of the hallway.

The two soon entered Seungkwan's room, the youngers back still facing Jihoon as he took a deep breath. "Sit." The same commanding tone as he pointed at the chair near the desk in his room.

An unpleasant, stiff silence filled the room as Jihoon sat down, staring at Seungkwan's back, the other still not facing him.

"You're a real piece of shit, you know that," Seungkwan spoke, voice shaking, unstable, his anger beginning to rise.

Jihoon was stunned into silence, unable to comment on what the other had just said. This was not how Jihoon was expecting this conversation to start.

"How dare you make Soonyoung feel like that," Seungkwan roared, voice raising to a concerning volume for this late in the night as he turned to face Jihoon. His eyes shook, a glossiness to them as the younger tried to reel in his emotions. "How dare you invalidate tig like that!"

What?

"Tig?" Jihoon asked, a lilt of confusion laced in the word.

"Your fucking partners pronouns you- you absolute asshole!" Seungkwan couldn't think straight, he was starting to become so upset, vision becoming nothing but red. He could strangle Jihoon in that moment, if he didn't know the older man could absolutely body him to the ground -- maybe if Seungkwan became angry enough that wouldn't even matter.

"I don't understand what you're talking about?" Jihoon defended, becoming more and more confused. It felt like him and Seungkwan were on different pages, different chapters, heck maybe even different books because Jihoon sure as hell did not understand half the information presented in this conversation.

"Of course you don't," Seungkwan continued in the same loud tone, unable to contain the anger any longer. "Because you shut tig down as soon as tig tried to explain. Not just shut tig down, but humiliated tig!"

Jihoon felt his face burning red. Anger? Embarrassment? Maybe both, Jihoon wasn't sure anymore. Everything was happening so quickly it felt as though he didn't even have enough time to process the emotions he was feeling.

"I didn't- I thought-"

"You thought wrong," Seungkwan seethed, cutting off the older as he tried to speak. "Maybe you should have let Soonyoung explain, knowing tigers gender identity has been a particularly touchy topic lately, maybe you should have bit back your unwanted opinion for once, and let tig explain." The comment intentionally meant to dig into the over proud ego Jihoon had.

And Seungkwan was right, he should have let Soonyoung explain, but that doesn't change what Jihoon thought was going on at that moment. Jihoon can't change that moment.