Rent A Boyfie

the proposition

"What was that sound?" your mother drawls from the kitchen. You hear the shuffling of her bedroom slippers as she makes her way towards yours and Juyeon's stunned forms. Your siblings and grandparents don't pay you any mind and continue to take their places at the table, assuming that the ruckus was just because one of you had dropped something. It is worse. Much worse.

From your view, Juyeon's shoulders seem to relax ever so slightly when he realises that the man who had stumbled his way into your childhood home wasn't a random drunk man but your father. But then, he realises that it's your father and he's drunk, and Juyeon is on high alert all over again. He continues to hold your hand as he hides you behind his broad body, the grip he has on your hand vice-like and so telling of how he is feeling; scared, unsure, shocked. You feel the same. He squeezes your hand and you squeeze back.

"Y/N? What's wrong?" your mother asks with a frown. She quickens her pace when you turn to her and she sees a slight glint of fear flash in your eyes. When she turns the corner, your mother seems to heave out a sigh of relief. What she is relieved about, you are unsure.

"I'm sorry you have to see this, Juyeon," your mother mumbles as she rushes to help your father off the floor. But as soon as she takes hold of his upper arm, your father shrugs her off, barking, "I can help myself up!"

You wince at the volume of his voice and Juyeon lets go of your hand to help your father too. You stay rooted in your spot, not wanting to go anywhere near your father. Now, let's not misunderstand here; he's never hit you or any of your siblings, neither has he laid a hand on your mother. You just hate how he always raises his voice, how he always finds something to be angry at, how you are always somehow the reason behind his anger. Your father is strict and absolutely unaccepting of nonsense or any of that sort. He used to scold you for asking questions and for getting in his way. He used to scold you for everything. And because everything was a reason for him to raise his voice, you kept quiet, never asked questions, learned about everything yourself. You dealt with your own problems and didn't share anything with him.

Ever since you left for university, this stifled part of you start to speak up, started to heal and you realised that everyone is not your father and because he wasn't around you all the time anymore, you could say and do and ask whatever you wanted. But now that he is here, angry and raising his voice, it is like an invisible switch at the back of your neck flipped on and you've become that robot that you were your entire childhood, speaking only when spoken to, moving only when told too, helping only when asked to.

The bad memories come back in droves and your heartbeat picks up as you remember and instinctively reach out to hold Juyeon back, to get him to stay as far away from your father as you can, lest he go through what you endured for years. But your fingers miss his shirt by a hair and Juyeon is bending down to help your father up from his keeled over position.

"Sir, are you okay?" Juyeon asks as he hesitatingly ghosts your father's arm, not helping him up in any way. Instead, your father manages to get to his feet and lift himself up in his inebriation. Juyeon follows him, hands held out as he too draws to his full height, ready to catch your father if he keels over again.

"Who the fuck are you?" your father bombards when he finally notices Juyeon. Juyeon pauses for a moment, a little stunned, before he takes a step back and bows.

"My name is Lee Juyeon and I am Y/N's boyfriend," he states in a loud unwavering voice, standing up straighter than a ruler after his bow. If someone heard this without any context, they might think that this were the military and Juyeon had started dating his superior's daughter. You suppose this isn't that far off, seeing how your father has always been the dictator of your household, ruling over you, your mother and your siblings with an iron fist.