jongho sat down on the bench in the locker room, resting his head on his hand and looking down at the floor to avoid eye contact with anyone.
he slowly started to mindlessly listen in on his peers' conversations.
he suddenly heard something. "hey, stop calling me she." "why? aren't you a girl though?" "no. i'm—" "so you're a boy?" "...n-no. my pronouns are they/them, please just call me they and not she..."
jongho slowly lifted his head to see who were the people having this little conflict.
he saw a few of the tall, more jock-like boys looking confusedly at this kind of short person, who had short black hair and a lot of ear piercings.
"they? isn't that used for multiple people, not one person?" "it can be used for one person.. please, it's not that hard, just say they instead of she." the mystery person sighed as they said.
"but you sound and look like a girl."
jongho was started to get irritated. how hard is it to just respect someone's pronouns? he thought.
"well, i'm not. i'm sorry if you cant accept that, but, i don't have a gender. please, just call me they. i don't think i'm asking for too much."
the boy chuckled. "that's so dumb.."
a wave of anger suddenly hit jongho. something in him snapped, and he completely forgot about his "quiet kid" reputation. he finally stood up, and walked over to the group.
"hey, if they want to be called they, then just call them they. it's none of your business why, just respect their pronouns. how would you feel if someone kept calling you she, even when you defended yourself and said that you were a he? exactly, you wouldn't like it. so leave them alone, and respect their pronouns."
the three jock boys were a little surprised. jongho never talked, especially not that much.
"well—fine. god, why do the quiet kids always have to be the most annoying when they talk..." the boy muttered as the group walked away.
"hey, thanks for that. i'm not very good at dealing with confrontation." they laughed nervously.
"it's no problem. things like that just really get on my nerves, like, it's just simple pronouns, it shouldn't be that hard for them to understand." jongho said.
"yeah.. uh, you're jongho, right?"
"mhm." "ah, well, i'm eunsoo. thanks for—"
eunsoo stopped as the bell rang. "—defending me. time for p.e, heh..." they said, scratching their head as jongho smiled and walked into the gym.
"m-mom.. can you help me..."
seonghwa turned, putting his phone down on the kitchen table and watching as a nervous-looking mingi shuffled through the living room.
"yeah, what is it, hon?"
"w-well i was taking a nap a-and.. i had a nightm-mare... but not j-just any nightmare... it was about my m-m-mom..." he said, trying to hold back tears as he fearfully walked up to seonghwa.
"oh, honey, was it about the.. kidnapping.."
"y-yeah.. i keep th-thinking about it and i'm s-scared.. i don't know what to do.."
"it's okay, baby, it's okay.." the parent's voice became higher pitched, as he stood up and wrapped his arms tightly around the boy. mingi cried into his shoulder, as seonghwa rocked him back and forth.
"it's okay.. it's all over now, you'll always be safe here.." he whispered.
it was only about a year ago that the kidnapping incident had happened. mingi's parents were going to be in jail for a long, long time, so he knew the child was safe. he knew mingi would start having nightmares about it, though.
"yeah.. it feels weird talking to you and getting a verbal response. it's cool though." wooyoung laughed as he said.
"y-yeah... it-it's s-s-still.. kind o-of hard to.. t-talk.. b-but i'm getting th-th-the.. hang of i-it.." yeosang said slowly, with a big smile on his face. his goal in life since he was a young kid was to beat his disability and learn how to properly talk, so now that it was happening, he was thrilled.
"do you even know why you're—or, i guess, why you were—mute? how did the doctors even find that out when you were still so young?"
"w-well.. i-it's a long st.. story.. s-so i'll use si-sign lang..language." he said. wooyoung nodded.
'so, i don't remember that well, since obviously, i was super young. but i do remember being told later on that while all the other kids were saying their first words and broken sentences, i wouldn't even make noise. i wouldn't cry, i wouldn't laugh, i wouldn't make any noise. apparently, the first noise i ever made was some happy noise i made when i saw mom for the first time. i still don't know who my parents were, or why i was put up for adoption in the first place... what about you?'
"what? what about me?" wooyoung suddenly got confused by the last sentence.
'i meant what is your backstory. i don't think i've ever heard yours.'
"oh.. well, i read it from my documents, even though i didn't really remember.." "y-your d-d-docu..ments? h-how did you f-find.. those?" yeosang suddenly cut him off.
"well... i might've done a little snooping around. don't tell mom and dad.. besides, it was years ago. and it's not like it's anything i shouldn't know."
yeosang raised an eyebrow.
"anyways, it said something about 'toxic home.' and so i thought about it.. and i had a bit of foggy memory about being abused by my dad. and then i remembered overhearing a lady talking to someone back at the adoption center, and i remembered her telling the other person about this kid being in a really bad home. like, she talked about how his dad would lock him and his brother in their room and wouldn't let them eat, and would only beat them and.. something else. i don't really remember what it was. but i slowly came to realize that she might've been talking about me.. so i'm still trying to solve my little mystery. i must've had a brother, before, because she kept mentioning two kids.. but only one of them made it out."
wooyoung exhaled as yeosang took a few moments to process everything he'd just been told.
IM SORRY I HAVENT UPDATED IM REALLY TRYING,,
ALSO THANK YOU FOR ALMOST 100K!!!!! ILY!!!!
also also i got vip tickets to see monsta x in my home state so not only am i meeting ateez but i'm also meeting monsta x 😭 i'm so happy
again thank you for all the support!!!!!!
