fairytale hell asteroid | l.dh

sixteen.

Donghyuck was clutching onto the boba drink as if he could drain the energy from it, and the energy would protect him from this never-ending argument he was having with his parents.

The sight of you continued to float into his head, like a ship that refused to sink in a storm which sole existence derived from the angry sea. After the ship, you were the clouds, the pearly white ones that indicated a sunny day amid the pouring gray ones. After the clouds, you were the calm body of the ocean that was no longer angry because, in thinking of you, he was no longer angry, but that still would not fix the problem at hand.

His parents and their miraculous ability to always get on his nerves.

"My answer is not going to change no matter how many times you ask me. I was busy catching up on the final project I have due soon," Donghyuck repeated the same thing he had been saying since the moment he walked into his home.

Pacing around the living room and trying to look for things to do, he dismissively began to fumble with whatever he could fix his eyes on—fluffing the cushions on the couch, kicking the hallucinated dust under the coffee table, pushing the remote control away from the counter edge, setting down his drink and picking it up again. All in an effort to ignore his father's looming presence over by the corner.

"My group partner did a lot of work already, I didn't want to drag them down," he added to the silence.

"That is all you have done for your entire life–you drag people down, Donghyuck," his father muttered as he rolled his eyes. Putting a hand on his hips, he looked as if he was trying to think logically and appeared to be the more clear-minded person in the room. "You have not once taken your academics seriously in your life! I am supposed to stand here and believe you when you tell me the reason why you didn't come back when we asked you to was that you had a final project due?"

Donghyuck nodded, his eyes holding a factual yet deadpan gaze after he whipped around to stare at his father. "Yeah, dad. That is exactly what you are supposed to do."

He refused to set his eyes on his parents for longer than three seconds, so he was quick to turn away again. Still, his sensitive ears could hear the whispered voice of his mother making small attempts to calm his father down. His mother was trying from the side, as usual. He knew very well how futile her opinions were in front of his father's frustration on what hell of a child he has grown to become.

Not to mention, his mother wasn't trying for his sake. At the end of the day, his parents would never do anything drastic unlike your father. His mother was just trying to cut down the time they would waste arguing with him.

"Ha! Right, yeah. I am so sorry for not doing the fatherly thing of unconditionally trusting you," his father exclaimed. Boasted, even—Donghyuck would argue his tone was that of a man trying to brag about his accomplishment, something out of pure mockery. "Maybe that would have come easier to me if you have a cleaner track record!"

"It's not unconditional if I need to have a clean track record for you to do that," Donghyuck retorted, his smirk hid with exhaustion and a lack of victory in plucking out his father's literature mistake.

"Technicality rarely makes valid points. Have I not taught you that?" His father muttered with a roll of his eyes. "Either way, it does not matter. You don't have a clean record."

"I do have a clean record–whatever the hell that even mean!" Donghyuck mocked with exclamation, making air quotes with his hands and pulling a face at his father. "How do you think I got into university, huh? Not with your money, for sure!"

"Donghyuck, you can't act like this–"

"Mom–mmm!"

Donghyuck pursed his lips into a harsh line and closed his eyes upon realizing it was his mother by his side. The aggression in his arm faded away before it went limp, allowing his mother's gentle hands to lay at the crook of his elbow. Seemingly calming down, courtesy to the drastic tone shift between his mother and his father's voice, he let his shoulders slump and turned to look softly at his mother.