Quiet | Seungjin

43

Seungmin was sitting on the floor of his bedroom writing in his journal where there was a knock at the door. He waited a couple seconds to see if they would just come in, not really wanting to get up. Thankfully, his father did just that and let himself into Seungmin's room.

"Hi Seungmin," he greeted softly.

Smiling up at the man, Seungmin watched as he walked over and sat down on the floor in front of him. "You've been in your room all day—you usually come sit with me in the living room when I don't have work. Whatcha up to?"

Seungmin shrugged before letting out a quiet, "writing."

"Can I see...or is it a secret?"

For a moment, it felt as if Seungmin was ignoring his words; however, the boy was only reading over the words he'd written down. He had been sitting there writing for hours but he only had one sentence on the paper.

Hyunjin,
Today in therapy, Mrs Park told me I should talk to you more about what happened, but I don't know how to do that.

Finally looking up at his dad, Seungmin held out the journal, letting the man take it from him.

"Ah...so you're writing to Hyunjin?"

Seungmin nodded.

"Do you write to him a lot?"

"Sometimes."

The man let out a quiet hum, reading over the words once again. "I think it's sweet," he started, "me and your mother used to leave letters to each other when we first got married as silly as that sounds. I worked mornings and your mom worked nights...so we never got to see each other. I always thought it was nice to just get...whatever was on my mind out. But it doesn't seem like you have a lot on your mind."

Seungmin took the notebook back from his dad and sighed.

"You don't know what to write?"

He nodded once again.

"Well do you want to talk to Hyunjin about what happened? Your mom told me he already knows the basic information...so what did your therapist ask? For you to talk about it in more detail?"

"I think," Seungmin started hesitantly, jumping at the sound of his voice as it bounced off the walls, "she...wants me to be...comfortable..."

"Talking about it?" His father answered for him when he saw his son struggling to find the words. When the younger nodded, he answered, "what happened...it's still hard for me to talk about...so I can't imagine how you feel, Seungmin. I think it is a good idea to talk to Hyunjin about certain parts of it because he didn't see any of the aftermath first hand like me and your mom. And your brother."

The boy didn't answer. He agreed with his father's words, but that didn't make the situation any easier. He wished that in order to help himself heal that didn't mean he had to talk about it.

Understanding the lack of a response, Seungmin's father decided to change the topic. "Speaking of your brother...he's going get here in an hour or two. He's spending the weekend with us. And he also told me that you haven't been responding to any of his text messages."

Seungmin closed his eyes for a moment, hearing Hyunjin's voice in his head telling him to just take a deep breath. He was still mad at his brother. He was mad that Wonpil thought he knew what was best for him—but he was also mad that he went to Hyunjin first.

"I know you're upset with him still," the man spoke, not quite sure if Seungmin was listening to him since his eyes were closed, "I understand why you're upset...but just give him a chance to apologize and explain himself. You're still brothers."

✨✨✨

It felt as if Seungmin had finally finished the letter to his boyfriend the exact second he heard the front door open. As much as he didn't want to see his older brother...his dad was right...they were still brothers.

With a sigh, Seungmin climbed off his bed and headed towards the living room to greet his brother. When he opened the door, the man was already standing at the door.

"Seungmin," Wonpil smiled, "Can I talk to you?"

Seungmin nodded. The two walked over and sat on opposite ends of Seungmin's bed, the younger still avoiding looking at his brother.

"I wanted to apologize to you. After having both mom and dad yell at me over what happened...I realized what I did wasn't fair. I guess I just have a hard time accepting that you're not a kid anybody and you don't need to me to protect you anymore."

"I'll always need you," Seungmin whispered as his vision blurred with tears.

"I shouldn't have messed with your relationship. I'm sorry. I just feel like nobody's ever going to be good enough for you."

A small laugh slipped past Seungmin's lips at his brother's words.

"Do you like him?"

"I love him."

"You love him," Wonpil repeated, "I'm guessing that means you worked things out? I didn't ruin everything?"

"We're okay."

"Mom and dad were telling me they think he's a really good kid. I think he really cares about you. It's hard to find guys who don't want to rush things...and he was very adamant that he didn't care if you guys never even kissed. I think that's worth something."

Wonpil didn't expect much of a response from his brother, however, when he saw a small, embarrassed smile rise to Seungmin's lips, he got his answer. "Did you guys kiss? Is that why you're so red?"

Seungmin's eyes fell down to his lap, thinking that if he couldn't see the elder maybe he would just disappear.

"Oh my gosh...you did!"

Reluctantly, he lifted his head and whispered a soft, "yeah."

"You had your first kiss...that's so exciting~" his brother gushed, "do mom and dad know?"

Seungmin quickly shook his head, his eyes widening in horror at the thought of all the conversations his parents would want to have with him.

———
Updating early once again just because of my busy schedule.

How was your week?

Thank you all for reading <3