Quiet | Seungjin

14

"Hi Seungmin," Mrs Park spoke softly as she walked out to the waiting room where the boy was sitting silently, hands folded in his lap.

Looking up at the woman, Seungmin sent her a small smile before getting up and following her to the familiar room he spent one hour every week. He walked and sat down in the same comfortable chair across from Mrs Park, putting his hands on his knees in anticipation. Although neither of them had spoken a word, he couldn't help but glance at the clock, wondering how much time he had left. When you were sitting in front of a woman who expected you to talk about everything going wrong in life, time didn't feel real. Seconds felt like minutes...and an hour felt like an eternity.

"So..." Mrs Park started as she glanced over the notes on her clipboard, clicking her pen a few times, "I didn't talk to your parents at all this week because I'd like you to start telling me the things happening in your life if that would be alright? We can figure something out whether it be verbal explanations...or writing it down."

Seungmin slowly nodded as he listened to her words, not too convinced, but willing to try. Habitually slipping his shoes off, Seungmin pulled his legs onto the chair, wrapping his arms securely around them.

"Alright let's start small, what happened this week? You can just list things off and I'll write them down so we can come back to them."

"I..." Seungmin whispered, his voice heavy in his throat, hesitant to come out, "I had another nightmare...but then...I had a...a friend come to my house."

"You invited Shuhua over to your house?"

"...Hyunjin."

Mrs Park raised an eyebrow before quickly scribbling something down on the paper in front of her. "Hyunjin?" She asked in almost a baffled tone, taking a few seconds to place the name, "Are you talking about Mrs Hwang's son?"

Seungmin slowly nodded, remembering the time he spent helping around there.

She let out a small hum, "he's a sweet boy, I assume you enjoy spending time with him if you invited him over?"

The boy nodded once again, the tight knot in his chest suddenly unraveling as the subject changed from himself to Hyunjin. "He's kind," Seungmin started softly, a small smile gracing his lips, eyes fluttering down to stare at his knees, "He...he doesn't care that I'm...difficult to be friends with."

"Why would he need to care about something like that?"

"I assume it's exhausting," Seungmin whispered, his words getting quieter and quieter as his eyes welled with tears, "for him...to do so...so much and get...nothing back."

A soft smile formed on her lips at the boy's confession before asking, "Does he ever look annoyed if you don't provide a verbal response to anything?"

Seungmin slowly shook his head, sinking further into the chair, wishing it would suddenly swallow him whole.

"If I can be certain about anything, Seungmin, it's that nobody is ever annoyed when you don't respond in full sentences or even words." She shuffled through the pages clipped to the board and clicked her pen a few times. "Seungmin, does this friendship with Hyunjin bring anything up for you? Do you ever feel uncomfortable around him."

The boy shook his head once again, not having to take much time to think about about it. "He's patient," he spoke faintly.

"Do you think you'd ever be able to tell Hyunjin about what happened? I don't mean anytime soon...but do you ever see yourself doing that?"

"No," the boy answered quickly, tightening the hold around his legs.

"Why not."

"I can't," he started, his words becoming breathy and thin, "...talk about it. Never."

Her eyebrows knit together subtly before scribbling something down. "Would you want him to know? Not as far as you having to tell him, but somebody else?"

Seungmin pressed his lips together tightly and took a deep breath, suddenly getting that familiar chill sent down his spine. Finally, he nodded at her question. He didn't know much about Hyunjin...they hadn't known each other for long; yet, there was an unfamiliar comfort he felt whenever he was with the elder. Telling anybody about what happened sounded scary...but it would only help Hyunjin understand him on a deeper level.

"Let's move to talk about your nightmare if that's alright?"

The boy only shrugged, suddenly feeling all too overwhelmed from the barrage of words that had fallen from his lips.

"I assume it was about that night?" The woman asked softly, trying to see if there was any changes visible on his face. When he nodded she continued, "what did you feel?"

"M...My skin—it burned." After the words flew past his lips, Seungmin tried to pull his legs even closer as an unbearably uncomfortable feeling washed over him. He put his head down on his knees, squeezing his eyes shut as tightly as he could. The sound of Mrs Park faded into a dull buzzing as she shook his head, finished talking for the day.

✨✨✨

"Hey," Wonpil spoke softly as he walked into his brothers room, sitting on the end of the bed. The boy looked up from the journal he was writing in and smiled at his older brother, quickly closing it and setting it to the side. "Did you have a good day?"

Seungmin nodded. The word count that seemed to hover over his head had reached zero long before he saw his brother, leaving the two in silence. Pulling his knees up to his chest once again, Seungmin laid his head down and looked up at Wonpil expectantly, wordlessly asking him to keep talking.

"Y'know I have so many stories from college that I haven't gotten the chance to tell you." He moved his body towards Seungmin, crossing his legs to get comfortable. "I've made a lot of friends, had a lot of horrible professors, and done a lot of crazy college things."

Seungmin nodded, his eyebrows raising ever so subtly, asking the elder to tell him whatever he wanted to.