the moment all the kids had gotten in the car, hongjoong could feel how horribly tense the atmosphere was and knew something was wrong.
"so... how was everyone's day?"
no response. hongjoong glanced in the rear view mirror for a moment to see jongho sitting with his headphones in, looking unhappily out the window, wooyoung just sitting there calmly, yeosang scratching his head with a small smile on his face, san hugging his bag with tears in his eyes, yunho stressfully glancing at san, and mingi curled in a ball with his arms covering his face.
the father let out a quiet sigh. even though he enjoyed quiet, he didn't enjoy this kind of quiet. he would rather have the chaos that constantly ensued when they were all five years old and under.
"is anyone gonna answer me? if anything's wrong, you guys know you can tell me, right?" he said.
yeosang yapped yunho on the shoulder and signed him something to tell hongjoong. "yeosang said he'll tell you what happened at home because it's a secret." yunho translated to hongjoong.
"alright, yeosangie, what about everyone else?"
"well, my day was great until someone had to ruin it." mingi said, obviously directing his words towards yeosang. the older rolled his eyes.
"how so?" "a group of kids in my class told me to join their group because they didn't want me to be lonely, turns out i'm a good fit for them and i was going to hang out with them after school but someone had to come in and yell stupid, random gibberish and embarrass me in front of all them, only to drag me out of school against my will." mingi rambled on angrily.
yeosang's smile faded. he crossed his arms and looked out the window. stupid, random gibberish, huh? it's totally not like i was trying my best, mingi. the child thought.
"hey, it's alright, he just didn't want you guys to be late. i see where both of you are coming from."
"dad?" "yes, san?" "yunho hurt my feelings."
yunho curled up into a ball the same as mingi had before and put his head down. he knew this was coming, and he was just waiting to be scolded at this point.
"why?" "well, we had free time in class, so, obviously, i pulled out shiber and used him as a pillow and was trying to just fall asleep or something, and there was no problem. but then yunho had the nerve to ask me to put shiber away, because i was apparently making people stare at him and embarrassing him. he even said i was making him uncool, just for hugging a toy dog! he made me wanna cry, i almost did." san nodded as he finished his speech. yunho waited anxiously for words.
"yunho." "y-yes.." "you know you shouldn't be saying those things. you can't assume everyone is staring at you, i understand that kind of fear, but it's never actually true. no one is staring at you, as much as you think they are. i expect you not to do that again, alright?" "yes."
before the father could finish the car talk with the rest of the boys, they arrived home. seonghwa was already home from work, and so he was excitedly waiting.
the family walked in the door, and saw seonghwa sitting at the kitchen table with a wide smile on his face.
"boys, go and start your homework, please. i need to talk to your father for a little bit, okay?" hongjoong said as all the boys muttered "ok"s before shuffling into their rooms. the father turned to seonghwa.
"hi babe." "hey hon, what's wrong? you and the boys are acting weird." seonghwa asked.
"it's just... i'm worried about them. i mean, they're all about twelve and eleven, and i did some research, and they are in prime time to start puberty." hongjoong started. seonghwa muttered a long "ohhh.." in realization, while the younger continued. "and, you know, puberty is obviously gonna be hard for all of them, like we know that jongho, wooyoung, san, and yunho are gonna suffer a little bit, and i have my concerns about them, but my main concerns are on mingi and yeosang. since i did research on it, apparently, puberty can cause depression, so the first thought i had was that mingi was gonna struggle even more; and i'm not sure if any of us are strong enough for that." "we'll get through it, i promise. why yeosang?" "well, remember the time the therapist told told us that the chemicals associated with puberty will have lots of friction with the chemical imbalance that causes yeo's disability. i don't even know what the side effects will be for him... i'm just really worried about both of them." the father rambled, ending the speech with a long sigh.
"you're right, i'm worried too. well, mingi has therapy tomorrow, we can ask them what to do and how to cope with it. and for yeo, why don't we go to his psychiatrist after mingi's therapy and ask what to do for him?" seonghwa suggested. hongjoong nodded, as yeosang then walked out of his room and into the kitchen.
'mom, dad, can i tell you a secret?' he signed, and both parents nodded nervously.
'so.. i met this boy.. he's a grade above me.. he came to me when i was sitting alone at lunch. he kept complimenting me, it was making me really shy because no one ever compliments me.. well, besides you guys. but it confused me.' he signed.
this left hongjoong to explain what it meant, as yeo's words cause seonghwa to literally shut down.
the older parent's eyes had gone wide, almost popping out of his head, and he then hid his face in his hands and leaned down face-first on the table.
"maybe it's just that he wanted to be your friend, yeo, and get close to you." hongjoong suggested.
'but i've seen how other boys are with their friends. they never compliment each other like he did... neither do the girls. i would say it's just friendliness, but it doesn't feel like that. i'm just not sure what it means, if it can't just be him being kind and friendly.' the child signed quickly and eagerly.
"hm.. well, do you want me to tell you honestly? it's gonna kill your mom..." 'sure.'
"well, i think.. if he really likes to compliment you.. and it's definitely not just friendliness... he might, just kind of... like you. like a crush." hongjoong smiled.
seonghwa cried out, making the father face palm.
while in the middle of being done with seonghwa's freaking out, he didn't see that yeosang was standing in completely silent shock for a few moments. after processing hongjoong's words, he booked it back to his and wooyoung's room.
wooyoung watched as his brother came darting in the room and diving right into the bed, then proceeding to cover himself with the blanket and stay there.
"what the hell?" the younger said.
yeosang's hands suddenly popped up from under the blanket and signed, 'i think someone has a crush on me.'
"who? i'll beat them up for you."
'no no no! beomseok! the kid i just met, he kept complimenting me and giving me lots of love and praise, and i asked dad and he said he probably likes me!' the older child signed aggressively.
"well, if he breaks your heart, just know i'm gonna beat him up, ok?" 'ok.'
hongjoong frantically fanned seonghwa as the older was sort of hyperventilating, breathing into a paper bag that hongjoong had snatched from the pantry.
"stop, stop, hwa.. if he sees you, he'll feel bad that he made you like this." the father said.
seonghwa took a very deep breath in, then exhaling, a little more relieved and finally calming down. "i'm sorry.. it's just.. my baby is finding love.. what if yeosang likes him back? what if they confess? what if they get together, a-and yeo won't have any time for me anymore.." seonghwa blabbered on and on.
"hey, trust me. you're always going to be his priority, it's just that, if he finds someone else to love, you and that person will just have to share the first place spot on his mental priority list." hongjoong said and chuckled.
IM GOIMG TO CALIFORNIA TOMORROW TO SEE MONSTA X AGHHHFBSHXJJXKX
