SUBURBIA ━ hyunbinlix ✓

四十五

Saturday, November 9th

Changbin had nearly passed out upon receiving the message when he woke up from Hyunjin, telling him that himself and Felix were heading over to his place. Apparently the eldest boy had found out his address by looking it up on snapchat, an app that Changbin never even touched since the sixth grade.

The boy fought back the urge to shove his face into his pillow in a silent scream, and instead pulled on the hoodie he had borrowed from Hyunjin, hoping if he put the hood of it up and kept the sleeves down it would conceal the new bruises that had been painted onto his skin the previous night.

Chewing on one of the strings hanging from the hoodie anxiously, he made his way down his hallway towards the living room, his footsteps hardly making any noises as his festive Christmas socks came into contact with the wooden floors. Although it was okay November, he was already in the holiday mood. Christmas was always a time where his father tended to be gentler.

He knocked on the wall of the living room, signaling his arrival in the room and watching as his dad turned to face him.

"What do you want?"

Changbin continued to chew on the string nervously, hesitating as to whether or not it was a good idea for him to be telling his father rather than asking.

'my friends are going to come over. is that okay?'

Changbins eyes raked over the several empty beer bottles and cans scattered around the living room, taking in his homes overall disheveled appearance.

His father stared back at him, the house filling with a tense silence aside from the sound of the football game playing on the television.

"Clean all of this up first."

Changbin wasn't going to complain about the task, as he was simply grateful for his father's lack of negative response towards what he had just told him.

He set to work quickly, working around where his father sat and trying his best to stay out of the way of his line of view of the television.

Once the bottles and cans had been recycled into their proper bins outside of his home, the raven haired boy speed walked back inside, making sure everything looked in place to create the illusion of just a normal home. Of course, he couldn't do much about the holes that sunk into the walls, nor could he clean up the suspicious red stain on the living room carpet, however he thought he had done a fairly decent job. It wasn't an odd task for him to complete, as he'd done it many times growing up whenever company was to come over.

He stood in the bathroom mirror, nervously fixing his hair and applying a bit of concealer to his under eyes to make himself look at least slightly more presentable. Although Hyunjin and Felix were both aware of his situation, he still felt embarrassed by his appearance.

The boy forced a small smile at himself in the mirror, not missing the fact that it looked less forced than it had in the beginning of the previous month. His heart felt slightly lighter at that, a flicker of hope seeming to ignite in his chest.

He adjusted his snakebites, feeling satisfied towards the fact that the skin around them was no longer a glaring red from irritation.

After a few more moments of fussing over himself more than necessary in the mirror, five rhythmic knocks at the front door caused the boy to jump into action, practically sprinting to the door however slowing to a casual walk at his father's shout for him to stop acting crazy.

He let out a soft breath to calm his breathing, before turning the handle and swinging the door open.

Hyunjin and Felix's grinning faces greeted him once the door had opened, Changbin feeling a smile of his own tugging at his lips simply from just seeing the two.