Seokjin and the Heirs of the Korean Miracle - BOOK 1 ✔

Chapter 3 : I don't belong to you

Seokjin was not crying when he left the office and closed the door carefully but he was in so much pain that  he had trouble walking straight. When he started down the sumptuous oak stairs, he missed a step and let out a little cry as he felt himself falling  dangerously without being able to catch hold of anything.

He could already see himself hurtling down the entire flight of stairs head first when he heard soft footsteps running on the carpet and felt someone grab him from behind, wrapping their arms around him and knocking them both backwards on the fluffy carpet.

Seokjin landed heavily on someone he didn't immediately see but whose voice he recognized:

"I got you but it didn't go far!"

Although he would have liked to take the time to recover from his fright, the voice persuaded Seokjin to immediately get to his feet. But as he tried to get up immediately, the arms around him wouldn't let go of their grip and Seokjin got frustrated and clung to them in an attempt to break free.

"Aren't you going to thank me for saving you? You would have looked silly coming to your football game tomorrow with a broken leg!"

"Thank you for saving me," Seokjin replied, "now let go of me!"

"That's not polite, Jinnie," replied the amused voice of a fifteen year old teenager.

"Please, let me go, young sir," Seokjin said with as much sarcasm as possible.

The other boy let out a small laugh at Seokjin's insolence.

"Fine, but first I want to know if you are fit to go home on your own."

"I am! Besides, I live in your garden, I don't need anyone to come home," Seokjin replied, rolling his eyes.

"It's really a big garden you know?"

Seokjin sighed realizing that the boy was laughing at him and refrained from answering him.

"Otherwise, you know you can sleep here with me whenever you want. The door to my room is always open to you even though you still refuse to enter: I always have pajamas ready for you. Plus we hardly ever see each other this year and I've really missed you!"

Seokjin refrains from telling him that he was absolutely delighted to see him as infrequently as possible and that he wished the rest of his family also disappear from his daily life.

"No matter the context and the number of times you ask, the answer will always be no," he replied instead, rolling his eyes in the sky trying to clinch the hands that did not loosen their grip on his waist and kept him firmly seated on the boy's lap. "I don't want to stay in this house, neither with you nor with anyone else in your family. That's not where I belong."

"I'm not like them, I thought you knew since a long time, I'm hurt Seokjin," the other said in a mock hurt tone.

"What are you talking about, what is different about you? Your parents raised you to be just like them! So now-"

"You're hurt tonight so I'm going to forget about this gratuitous meanness to me, my little Jinnie," the other boy cut in a suddenly more serious tone, placing his large palm on Seokjin's back. "If I press there, does it hurt?"

"AAAAOUCH!" Seokjin cried out in pain, before clapping both hands over his mouth, remembering that Ms. Kim was reading. "Why did you do that?!"

"I knew it!" the other exclaimed triumphantly, not caring the least bit about disturbing his mother.

"Please don't make me scream and don't scream either," Seokjin begged, not wanting to incur Mr. Kim's wrath so soon.

"Okay, I quit," the other promised. "But tell me Jinnie you don't ask why I'm here?" asked the older one, disappointed. "You never ask."