Once the door is open, he makes me go in first then closes it.

"Is that true?" he starts with a question, and I wipe my tears away. "What...?"

"What Joonha said right now, did you cry because of me?" he sticks one hand in his pocket and touches the desk on his right, but since it is useless to lie, I decide to deal with the embarrassment that reality will bring me. "I just cried because it scared me..."

A sharp exhalation runs out of his mouth, and he glances down, but I do not keep quiet, willing to make him realize how much his anger affected Joonha. "I'm sorry for being immature and not answering you. I just know that the way you reacted hurt Joonha a lot, and it makes me feel a lot of pain to see you both fight because of me."

"This is not because of you, stop blaming yourself," he says it as if he was tired of hearing me. "I..." he licks his lips, and another sigh escapes him, but he comes closer to me, and without saying anything, he wraps his arms around me and tangles his fingers in my hair to keep his hand in the back of my head.

I cannot even control my emotions anymore, this physical contact triggers an even stronger impact on me and my mind, and I end up falling for it against my will. I hug him back and close my eyes to sob in his chest.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," he slides his hand down to my neck to hold it and rubs his thumb over it. "I shouldn't have reacted the way I did, but in the spur of the moment, not getting a clear explanation as to why you both left so suddenly then seeing Joonha being so cold, that made me lose it, and I got really mad at him, but I shouldn't have. Especially right in front of you," he delicately brushes his skin over mine nonstop, effortlessly erasing all the trouble I had in my head after what happened. "And I won't be mad at neither of you, I just wanted to know why you left, and why Joonha refused to tell me anything."

"It's just me, I'm a bit oversensitive, and I was upset about the fact that you kinda seemed to care more about her than me," I do not even avoid the truth anymore, not having the power to do it, and his head lowers. His lips skim my forehead, and his hand cups the side of my throat. "I do not care more about her. Far from it."

I hate how easy it is for him to make me give in and feel good.

"I care much more about you, so you come first. You're my little girl," he whispers and smiles against my ear, and the butterflies invade my stomach. This nickname made my entire inside tingle. "Unless you don't want—"

"I do," I tighten my hold around his small waist, and he chuckles but presses his lips on my forehead and comforts me. "I won't let anyone hurt you, and I'll always be there for you, even if I'm far away, I'll be there."

"Thank you," my voice quivers, hearing those types of words for the first time and feeling deeply affected by them. "Don't thank me for that," he kisses my cheekbone and glides his hand down my back to rub it and hold me tight against his warm body. I feel so good right now.

"I'm going to apologize to Joonha, okay? He knows I didn't mean to react that way," he relieves me, and I feel happy about coming up to him and speaking up instead of staying quiet. "I'm glad you will, he was really hurt."

"I'm going to do it now," he slightly pulls away and pats the back of my head. "You're alright now, right? You don't need me to stay a little more?"

I shake my head, even though I would love to hug him for much longer. I want Joonha to hear him apologize and not leave the house. I want him to stay.

"I'll tell you once I'm done with him so that you can go back to his room," he smiles and opens the door, and I nod to him, so he leaves the room and closes the door, but as soon as I know that he is not coming back, I hurry to head up to lock myself in to make sure my stepmother will not come and take it out on me for the jealousy she feels.

30 minutes later...

[ you're not leaving, right? >

I send a text to Joonha after Mister Jeon came up to me to tell me they made up, hoping for him to stay here with me.

< you love me that much, hm? ]

< and come in my room now, I'm still heartbroken about early and wanna cuddle you ]

[ heartbroken about what? >

< the way you cried literally two times and made it hard for my heart to not stop beating, so you come here ]

I do not answer his cute texts but get out of my bed to leave the room and head upstairs. I open the door and step out, but I cannot help it, I have to check on what Mister Jeon is doing and if my stepmother is being too close again.

They are talking, but only the tone of her voice is enough to get on my nerves, so I do not listen and walk up the stairs but receive a new text.

This is from Mister Jeon. Did he hear me?

< can you tell Joonha to come downstairs, please? Dinner's ready ]

[ I will >

I go a little faster to enter Joonha's bedroom without knocking on the door, and once I am in, he looks at me and smiles, not focusing on his game anymore. "Come here," he gestures me to get on his lap, so I move up towards him but do not sit down. "Your dad asked you to go and eat dinner."

"I'm not eating downstairs, he told me to bring food for you and eat here," he stands up, not waiting to do it. "Don't take two dishes, she's gonna understand it's for me."

"Yes, mommy. You're lucky I'm doing this for you or I'd already had run over her with a fucking plane," he heads towards the door but makes me scoff. "A plane? Literally? That's a lot of effort for such an irrelevant person."

"It'd be worth it, trust me," he smirks but goes out, so I sit down on his comfortable gaming chair and wait for him. He was playing Minecraft again, and the double bed with the flower pot is still there, that is so adorable.

Not hearing anything but the sound of Choco playing with his noisy toy on the bed, I peek down at my phone screen to check if Mister Jeon has sent something and see a new text from him.

< You're a sweetheart ]

I smile like an idiot in front of this but cannot leave him on read.

[ 🥰 >

I saw the opportunity, so I took it and snuck some hearts in. He will not get the meaning of those, but at least I am silently sending him my love.

I did not expect an answer to this though, but he acutely sent one.

< Why don't you come and eat with us? It's empty without you ]

[ I can't. I'd rather eat without my mother around >

< if you're comfortable and okay with it, could we take about this matter someday? ]

[ Sure >

< good, but I'm not rushing you, I just need to talk about it with you when you're ready ]

[ I know, don't worry about it >

< Joonha's coming back with dinner, so I'm leaving you alone to eat, but I want you to eat as well. Alright? ]

[ I'm hungry so I will, and Joonha will not let me starve anyway >

< I told him to make you eat, so he won't, but I wouldn't want you to do that even if none of us was there to make you eat. We care about you and your health, and you should too, so take care of yourself, you're important ]

[ I will, Mister Jeon. Thank you so much for caring so much >

< I told you, you're my little girl, so of course😚 ]

He is going to make me lose my mind.

[ I'm happy to be >

[ but don't ever tell my mom about that, she won't like it >

< Don't worry, I won't let her know ]

No time to realize what he just said, Joonha comes back, so I put my phone away and get up. I have been starving, I feel like a hungry animal that has not eaten in weeks.

"You have no idea what just happened downstairs," he comes closer and sits down, so I get on his lap and grab the chopsticks. "What happened?" I dig in the mouth-watering food before he does, but he does not even say anything about it, he opens the can of grape-flavored soda. "Girl...I was filling the dish up with some food while my dad was texting someone, and at some point, the bitch said 'Do not force or pressure y/n into eating, please'," he mimics her annoying voice in one of the best ways ever, and I ignore the 'texting someone' part.

"And I swear, I thought about you to calm down and not hit her with the pot full of boiling hot stew," he takes a sip of the drink we are going to share, so I take another bite of the mouthful of the meal while listening to him. "So I ignored her, I didn't even look at her, but she fucking tried again and dared to say my name. She was like 'Joonha, can you answer me, please? I don't want you to make my daughter uncomfortable'," he takes the food I brought to his lips and eats with me. "But since I was not planning on acknowledging her existence, my dad did it for me and said I wouldn't, but I fucking hate how soft he is when he talks to her. He was all 'Harin, he won't, don't worry about it'," he expresses some anger about it, but I pretend to not have heard that. "You should always do that. Ignore her and don't give a damn about her. She won't do anything to you anyway."

"Are you implying that she'd do something to you?" he makes me realize the mistake I made, so I make quick to fix it. "No, it's just a figure of speech."

"Hm..." he seems skeptical, so I fly some food to his mouth to make him think about something else, and he takes it. "I don't know why you act so weird when I mention this, but if something like that is really happening to you..." he wraps his arms around me to hug me. "I hope you'll tell me. I'll sit down with you for ten hours if I have to so that I can hear all the story, but I'll feel better if I know the whole truth and that I can protect you and help or heal you, in some ways..."

I smile at him but cannot let anything out. "You're such a good person. Seriously."

"I just care about you, and my dad does too," he intertwines his hands to keep me in his embrace, not knowing how much this means to me. This might seem simple to most people, but those types of words could make me cry.

— Three days later —

Saturday, August 14th, 2021.

4 pm.

< hey, I don't know if you're busy or not, but I'll be home a little later than planned but I'll be on time, so don't be worried, I'll be there for the movie and we'll go together, okay? ]

I read the text Mister Jeon sent me right when I was worrying about him not being back yet, and some relief fills me at the speed of light. It is so sweet of him to tell me about it instead of not caring.

[ hey, it's okay, take all the time you need. Work is more important >

Since I know he must be busy with one of his students, I put my phone down and take a look at what Joonha is doing on this computer but see him facetiming Seunggil, and a girl I have never seen before. "Babe, shut the fuck up," he rolls his eyes. "She's not gonna believe that bullshit."

Feeling a bit too possessive to not want to know who this girl is, I stand up and walk up to him so that I can see her from closer.

Well, I would rather not think much about her yet. However, Joonha notices me and does not let me out of the camera. He pulls me in and puts me on his lap. "Yes, my baby girl is here," he smiles but disconnects his headphones so that I can hear them talk, and he uses his streamer's like microphone he can move around easily. "Shut the fuck up, asshole. I told you to stop talking about that," he gets mad over something I did not hear, so I ask for some context. "What did he say?"

"This little bitch likes to bring up the fact that he skated with you all alone, damn kid," he still expresses some bitterness about it when I thought he erased it from his head, and I chuckle but see Seunggil show satisfaction. "She liked it. Stop being jealous. Right, y/n? We had a lot of fun together on that night, didn't we?"

"We—"

"Bro, I'm actually gonna leave the call," Joonha puts his hand over the mouse, not sounding like he is joking. "Such a baby boy, give him a hug or he's gonna cry, y/n."

I do it without thinking twice to comfort this submissive boy who I can tell is seriously not over the fact that I went out with his best friend alone.

"You told me you didn't have a girlfriend," the girl speaks out at the scene she is witnessing with Seunggil. "Girl. She's not my girlfriend. You think I'd date this little brat? She'd make me go crazy in less than a week," his mean words get me to take my arms away and want to hit him instead. "She's not my baby, she's my mommy," he giggles at his embarrassing reply he did not have to add, and I hit him for being so dumb. "It sounds so fucking wrong, dude, don't," Seunggil, who is the only one to laugh, tells him. I guess Seunggil and I are the only ones used to his dark and weird humor.

"You're boring," he shows some disappointment with a 'tch' he let out, and I smile and look at the screen, but a text that I received grasps my attention, and all my happiness disappears in a matter of short seconds.

< come downstairs, we need to talk ]

No time to think about an answer, Joonha seizes my phone and sticks it under his thigh as if he had read what my stepmother said. I glance up at him out of surprise, but he acts like nothing happened at all.

I am way too terrified to go downstairs when Mister Jeon is not here anyway, so I would rather pretend that I did not see the text.

Not willing to talk about it, I do the same as Joonha is doing, and I listen to what Seunggil is saying. "I'm gonna buy a fucking car next week, so let me tell you, we're gonna have even more fun on the weekends."

"I wish I could buy myself a car," Joonha sighs. "You showed me your bank account the other day and you have so much money, what are you talking about?" she exposes him, making me wonder how close she is to him. "Girl. I wanna go to college this year, so I'm saving money. I can't do both at the same time."

"Wait, you're gonna leave for college?" I cannot believe this is not a joke, no matter how serious he is. I do not want to think about him not living with Mister Jeon anymore. "Yeah...I talked about it with my dad already, but I'd like to go to college at some point, but don't worry about it, we'll talk about it later," he runs his fingers through my hair, but now that I heard this, I am even more eager to know more.

"I'm not gonna tell you about my experience with college because I dropped out after a few months, but you should be sure of it. For real, it's difficult as fuck and since you're close to your dad, it's gonna be hard to live far away from him every day," Seunggil gives him advices, being a good friend. "But I'm gonna come back every weekend to see him. I'll try to get used to it because I need to. I cannot live here for too long anymore."

"I know, but I'm just warning you. It might be hard, and you might regret it after a few weeks, so think thoroughly," he opens a bottle to drink, and Joonha nods. "I know. That's why I didn't go yet. I've been saving money, and I thought about it this whole time. So I'll do my best and get a diploma to make my dad proud, that will motivate me a lot to think about how proud he'll be if I succeed."

"Yeah, you should use this as a motivation. I didn't have any since my parents are two assholes, and I had no one to make proud, but it will definitely help you a lot," he reveals something about his life that I did not know about, but right when Joonha was about to say something, someone knocks on the door. My heart beats hard right away, but as if Joonha could feel the fright that struck me, he touches my back and rubs it up and down. "I hope I won't fail though. I'll work as hard as I can, but medical studies seem terrible hard."

"They don't seem, dude. They are," he speaks facts, but despite the wall that separates us from my stepmother, and the safety Joonha is providing me with physical contact, I cannot calm down. I know she is mad at me, Mister Jeon is not home, so this is the perfect opportunity for her to take her anger and jealousy out on me, and the thought of being brought back to my bathroom with her and no one around puts me in a panic state.

Since Tuesday, every time I step into my bedroom, into my bathroom, I can only remember the lack of air in my lungs, the water filling them, and the thought of drowning to death. All of this because she cannot stand to see me close to the man she wants to have.

"But I have a big brain, unlike you, so I'll get out of that hell with a diploma and flex about the fact that I'll be able to become a doctor," Joonha takes my phone to look down at it, so I check what he is doing but see that my stepmother is calling me. He turns my phone off without asking me first, and he drops it on his desk but grabs his. "You'll marry me after being a doctor, right?"

"No, you gold digger," he does not fall for it and knows what his best friend's intentions are, replying while texting his father.

[ text me if you wanna talk to y/n bcs her phone is turned off >

"How can you think that of me, I'd love you for who you are, not what you have," he pretends to be offended, but my mind cannot focus on their conversation anymore once I hear some banging at the door, my heart pounds me in the chest, and my breathing shortens.

"Wait, Seunggil. I'll be back in a minute, talk with her," he reconnects his wireless headphones, but this time, puts them over my head, and he makes us both stand up, so I get back on his chair but keep my eyes on him while he is heading towards the door.

"Is everything okay?"  Seunggil asks, and my heart skips a beat when Joonha opens the door, but he goes out right away and prevents me from seeing her by slamming it.