Two houses

Best friend

Kyung never realized how close he was with Jiho.
They were 13 now in middle school, and they had never separated from each other since the day they met. They'd travel to school together, meet together with their other friends at lunch, and at the end of the day they'd walk home together or just hang around and have rap battles dissing each other about their moms or some dumb teenager things. They enjoyed each other's company, it was apparent.

Jiho to Kyung was like having a brother, but cooler, and less whiny. They were "basically attached at the hips," Kyung heard his mom say, which was a pretty accurate analogy. It didn't help that they were neighbors as well; this kind of access made it easy for sleepovers, hangouts, and sneaking out to go to the 24 convenience store down the street. Kyung liked to go to Jiho's house more than Jiho coming over to his own. He thought his family was nice and tight-knitted, and he liked to be around that kind of atmosphere. Kyung's parents worked in the morning, and most times came home in the middle of the night, giving not as much time to bond with their children as Kyung would like. He didn't really get along with his siblings that well either, so to him he felt a little disconnected with his family.

Today was like any other other weekend. Kyung and Jiho would have their regular sleepovers, this time at Jiho's house (again).
They'd do the same regular routine they always did at their sleepovers. Get snacks from the convenience store, eat, play with Kyung's new electronics, and talk about random stuff until they fell asleep. Although the routine was the same, the feeling was different.

Kyung had felt uneasy the past week. He had noticed his parents fight intensely the past few days. They had fought many times before, but this time Kyung could feel the hatred between them. He could feel the fire that burned in them, and to him, it felt like the fire would burn their house down.
Just the day before the sleepover, he witnessed his mom slap his dad across the face. He saw it from the corridor that he was spying from, like he always did. He'd never seen their fight get physical, so when he saw his father get slapped, he felt his cheek ache too. After the heated and physical argument, his dad walked out of the room in a fury. As he stomped out, Kyung asked him where he was going, almost on the verge of tears. And when his father finally stopped in front of the door to look at him, he saw it. In his father's eyes Kyung saw the hatred. The anger. Kyung just stood there, scared of his own dad. His father then walked out the door and drove to who knows where, leaving Kyung to cry silently in the hallway.

The next morning Kyung woke up to hear muffled sobs from his parent's room. He walked up to the door of the humongous room and opened it so that he can only see a crack of the room. He looked through the crack to find his mother sitting on the bed crying into one hand, while the other holding a phone. She spoke into the phone with a whisper, as if she was trying to keep whatever she was saying a
secret between her and the other line. He couldn't hear the conversation all that well, but the word "divorce" was heard as clear as day, and that was all he needed to know the context of what they  were talking about. Kyung quickly ran to his room and grabbed his backpack, filling it with clothes, his toothbrush and toothpaste, and his brand  new Nintendo DS and charger. He ran out of his house and went straight to Jiho's.

Kyung started knocking on the window of Jiho's/Jaewoon's room. Jiho and Jaewoon were still asleep, but luckily Jiho was the one who woke up to the noise and opened the window up. "What are you doing here so early...." Jiho said groggily while rubbing his eyes. "I'm gonna sleepover again, that ok?" Kyung responded in a rush. "Ya, whatever." Jiho opened the window all the way to let Kyung climb through...

It was nighttime now, and Kyung had stayed the whole day at Jiho's. They were laying down with some blankets on the ground where Kyung would sleep. Jaewoon went to stay at another friend's house as well, so it was just the two of them in the small bedroom. The room was quiet as the two boys were focusing on different things. Jiho was playing with Kyung's DS in awe, amazed at the graphics of DS games and just the overall gameplay. It was different from Kyung's Gameboy Advance that he had brought over before. Kyung was next to him reading some old comics that Jaewoon let them borrow. Kyung was reading what a character was saying to another, but got confused and had to read the whole page again. 'I forgot with these Japanese comics I have to read them backwards,' he thought to himself. That was when Jiho said something that broke the long silence.
"Kyung, did something happen?" Kyung looked at him in confusion, only to see Jiho was still looking at the screen. "What do you mean?" He said, putting down the comic and sitting up. "Well for starters, you came here really early." Jiho started to save his game, and looked on the sides of the DS to find the power off button. "Sorry, I woke you up pretty early huh?" Kyung was rubbing his neck, embarrassed at his actions. "It's fine. You sounded rushed though, like you were running from something." Jiho was now looking straight at Kyung. He didn't sit up, but flipped onto his side. Kyung looked down at Jiho, trying to figure out what to say. "Well..I mean..things are happening at home and I didn't want to deal with it, that's all." Kyung said. He noticed his hesitation and hoped Jiho didn't catch on. He didn't want to tell Jiho about his parents probably divorcing, although he didn't know why he didn't want to tell. "What? What kind of things?" He could tell that Jiho was slightly worried. "Just...i..." He heard his voice crack. Why was he so nervous to tell his best friend? Jiho suddenly sat up from his position. "Whoa, are you ok?" Jiho looked at him with so much concern. He didn't want to look at him. He knew if he did he'd start balling his eyes out right away. He didn't like people to see him cry. If he cried in front them they'd start to become worried, which was what he didn't want. "It's ok...you can tell me." Jiho said softly. Kyung wanted to tell him. He just couldn't. "Whatever it is, I'll always support you dude. We're best friends aren't we?" Jiho said with a small smile. "Yeah,
We are," Kyung thought. Kyung could trust Jiho with anything. Kyung started to gather up the courage to tell Jiho. "My...I think my parent are going to..." Kyung trailed off and looked at Jiho.

And that was it. He couldn't do it.

Kyung started to feel a hiccup in his throat. He felt the tears coming. He closed his eyes tightly to keep tears from falling, but failed. He started sob into his forearm. He tried to control his hiccups and tears, but it was no use. He turned his body the other way so Jiho wouldn't be able to see him cry. He heard Jiho get up and sit in front of him. In the middle of his cries, he felt arms wrap around his body awkwardly. He looked up to see Jiho pulling kyung into a hug. He had his head turned to Kyung's back, but Kyung saw Jiho's cheeks flushed red because of how awkward the hug was. Jiho wasn't really one to comfort those around him, so for him this was a first. Kyung just closed his eyes again, his tears still falling. He was still crying, but he felt more at ease.

After a long silence, Jiho finally spoke. "It's ok..if they are getting a divorce, it doesn't mean they love you any less...they just don't feel the same away about each other." Jiho didn't know what else to say about the situation. He never had to deal with his parents fighting, let alone divorcing. He wasn't sure if his words were comforting to Kyung, but he was trying his best to be there for him. "If anything happens, you can always come to me about it. I'll always be there for you." He blushed as he said that. He's never said anything like this before, let alone something so cheesy. Kyung just hummed in response.
Then Kyung all of a sudden started to laugh. Jiho jumped at the sudden loud noise. "W-what's so funny?" He questioned. Kyung just looked at him and started to laugh even harder. "N-no it's just-" he had to hold back his laughter in order to speak normally. "You d-don't usually say stuff like that! It's so weird!" He went back on to laughing like a maniac, while Jiho just stared in embarrassment. "Do you wanna die or somethin'?" Jiho jokingly said as he pretended to glare at his friend, who was as red as a tomato from all the laughing. "The way you said it! It's like I'm your girlfriend or somethin'!" Kyung giggled out, his laughs starting to die down. "PFFT! You WISH you were dating me!" Jiho stated as he ran his hands through his hair like a model, trying to look somewhat sensual. "EWW DONT DO THAT" and Kyung pushed him on the ground and Jiho started to roll around laughing. They laughed at how dumb they were acting, and after the moment of hyperness, they calmed down and started to talk about random things, almost forgetting the little drama that Kyung had dealt with.

Their eyes were heavy with drowsiness. Their bodies were lazily slow. Jiho went to get up to turn off the lamp;Kyung laid inside the blankets on the floor, yawning. After the dim lights were turned off, Jiho climbed up to his bed and tucked himself in. Kyung's eyes were closing when Jiho slowly leaned on the edge of the bed. "Kyung, remember what I said earlier..." Jiho whispered in the darkness, hoping that Kyung was still awake. Kyung was half asleep, but he hummed to Jiho in response. "Kyung... I'll be by your side all the way, no matter what." Jiho was glad the lights were off, because the blush on his cheeks were very prominent. Kyung didn't hum this time, he just said slowly, "I'll be by your side too, Jiho." And with that, Jiho laid back into his bed and fell asleep right away.
Little did Jiho know, Kyung was happy that the lights were off, too.

*LMAOO this chapter was cringy af. It's weird to write fanfics for the first time (at least for me). I have awesome ideas in my head but when I transfer it into writing it comes out awkward. If you also write fanfics, do you feel the same way too? Pls comment what you think so far and how I can improve as a writer.

**also I want to thank the person who gave me my first upvote for this story too! It encourages me to write more so thank you!