"you're dating my ...mom?", Jisung found it ridiculous that the new transfer teacher was dating his mother. Especially when he came out of nowhere.

He had thought that the teacher was just another teacher that will transfer away once he realized that the students in his school was too wild for him. He didn't think this teacher would be his candidate for future step father.

The teacher held out how a hand to Jisung for a handshake. Jisung accepted the offer although he reached out very timidly.

"I heard you had a fight with you friends", Jisung narrowed his eyes, scooting as futher away from the old man. His mother had went to the kitchen to cook and he was left alone with this person.

He rumbled, "mom told you..."

He was a bit uncomfortable since the old man was looking at him in a way he hadn't ever seen how people viewed him. The teachers always viewed him as a rebel but this person was looking at him as if he was a toddler. That...had felt weird but not bad. Nonetheless, still uncomfortable. "Yeah, she told me a lot about you. I practically am close with you"

"No, not cool old man. You sound like a stalker", by the time he warmed up with the teacher, he was practically did not care about his manner anymore.

-
"Who is this?", Hyunjin asked, his brows knitted into a frown when an unknown number had called him. He was in the middle of work, talking to the trainees about their movements and what they should improve. "..."

He retracted the phone away from his ear, glaring at the phone. He wasn't sure if it was a prank call or a scammer. "Hello?", He asked again but there was no answer, he could only hear breathing sound and silence before the phone called that lasted for 1 minute ended.

"What was that?", He put his phone away and resumed with the class, not realising that a text had came in with the same unknown phone number. Do you want to know what Jisung been up to?

"Heesu! Stop trying to pick fight with dongyu in my class!".

After a while, the class ended and Hyunjin was yet to check his phone. He wasn't someone who would look at his phone while at work unless if it was to talk with Jisung.

He saw Changbin walking out from his studio and slowly approached him. "Hey", The shorter male flinched, his shoulder going up in tense before he turned around. "H-Hyunjin", the male said surprised but then relieved, making the younger wonder if he was avoiding someone.

"You going out for lunch?", Changbin nodded, he hadn't been out from his studio for almost two days. He even stayed the night at the company yesterday. He sniffed himself and his face turned sour. "Don't come near me. I don't smell nice"

"Like you ever do, hyung", the older kicked him by his shin and they kept walking to the cafeteria. "You're not going to eat with Jisung?", Changbin asked since Hyunjin never missed the chance to eat out with Jisung.

Hyunjin skipped his way to a table with his tray of food. "Nope. He said he has something to do", he said, opening his phone to see the message from the unknown number.

"He's snooping around again?", Changbin asked, chewing his rice. "Hey... don't say it like that. It's not like he's doing something bad.", Hyunjin put down the phone, screen on the table.

Changbin shook his head, poking a meat with his chopstick. He knew Jisung wouldn't do anything bad but he was worried. "I'm just concerned about you"

"I don't want to see you crying because of him again", Hyunjin groaned, he didn't want to remember about that. In the first place, Jisung didn't do anything wrong. He was just a bit sensitive when they first got married and felt upset whenever Jisung ignored him. He thought Jisung had found someone else behind his back.

Then there's the time Jisung said he thought he was cheating, he also cried but didn't show it to anyone but it was cleared up— well, almost. Jisung told him he wasn't cheating on him. That was good enough and he would get his explanation tonight.

"That was like 4 years ago, hyung. What about you? You had been drifting away too.", If one wanted to say about snooping around, Changbin shouldn't be the one talking about it. He never come whenever their group of friends said they wanted to eat out together and he was always busy.

Changbin said nothing, pretending he heard nothing. Hyunjin sighed at this. "I heard Jeongin is coming back next week", so, he changed the topic. Knowing well that Changbin would definitely be interested when it came to Jeongin, he decided to talk about it.

"Oh...right. Maybe we should eat with him when he return", Changbin suggested. He adores the younger so much, he would be delighted to mess with the younger with broken English just to tease him. "With the others too?".

"...."

Changbin picked up the empty tray once he finished eating. "Yeah, sure". Changbin actually didn't want to eat with the others. Especially, not with Felix and Jisung.

Not when they kept hurting Hyunjin. It wasn't that he treasured Hyunjin so much...he would have done so to if the others had been the one in Hyunjin position. This junior of his was naive and innocent, he let himself be played around by Jisung and Felix. He didn't know what Jisung was up to now but he knew he was lying to Hyunjin again. The only reason he didn't tell anything to Hyunjin about 10 years ago was because he looked happy now.

Hyunjin gripped the phone in his hand. The unknown number's message had been bothering his mind. Even when he returned to the class. He didn't even notice some trainees had been slacking off at the back.

Then came another text, if you're curious. See you at Camellia ceramic studio by 7.

-
"What do you mean by I..."Jisung trembled in fear. He had explained his condition to his step father and expected him to give him an answer to his questions.

"I'm not sure but the ripped pages are most probably about that", he lowered his head and sighed heavily. As an adult, as Jisung's parent and also as a teacher, he felt overly guilty that he had met Jisung made such a mistake in the past.

Jisung shook his head. The reason Hyunjin had to work 10 times harder than everyone and the reason Hyunjin had to struggle finding work was because of him. "How could I do that?"

"I mean...I know I hate him but how could I throw his acceptance letter?", Back then...10 years ago, Hyunjin was supposed to go to an art academy oversea. He was supposed to have bright future but when Hyunjin thought he wasn't accepted, he went around wasting his time being sad over it.

He also started his military service earlier than he was supposed to. He was brooding around for a long time because when he tried to apply for other university, he couldn't get into the major he wanted to. He took engineering instead but still hadn't give up and tried making videos online until the staff at JYP found him.

Jisung wanted to come clear with Hyunjin. He would come clear to him but the thought of Hyunjin hating him after this made him scared. It scared him that he will be left alone.

"Don't think to much about it. Maybe I shouldn't have told you all about this"

"Why didn't you stop me?", Jisung stood up abruptly, holding the old man's collar. "You were a teacher! You were an adult. You should have known I was a foolish kid back then. You should have stopped me!"

-
"Jisung. Can you give this to Hyunjin later?", Jisung stared at the letter in his future step father's hand, frowning a bit at it with a look that was so obvious he was annoyed. The one that said 'why should it be me?'

"Don't make a face like that. You always walk to school with him. He even come to your house often to eat together", Jisung rolled his eyes and all of that was because of who? It was his mother that had forced him to do that for the sake of having a good friendship with the neighbour.

Jisung took the letter anyway, thinking he will just do it unless he wanted the old man to nag at him. "You could have done it yourself...why must you ask me when you know I hate him", he mumbled but Mr.Myeon could hear him just as clear as when he speak loudly. He only shook his head at Jisung. It was a coincidence that Jisung went there to carry a teacher's book and stuff, if he knew the brat would talk back to him, he wouldn't have asked in the first place.

Then Mr.Myeon waited. He waited for few days that Hyunjin would come to meet him but he didn't. He felt something suspicious about it and decided to ask Hyunjin. "How is it going with the scholarship?"

Hyunjin looked down at his feet before smiling weakly at the teacher. "No, I haven't received any mail".

Then his suspicion was answered when he called Jisung after that. "You..."

Jisung looked away, he didn't want to hear any nagging from this person. "Where did the letter went to?"

"I threw it away", The teacher slammed his hand on the table and stared at Jisung, his eyes fuming with anger. "Why would you do that?" But his voice was calm.

"I told you, I don't like him", Moreover, he didn't want to see Hyunjin being happy now. It was because of him that Felix left. The last person he wanted to see happy was Hyunjin.

"What about the mail", Jisung frowned. "What mail?"

The old man started to act restless, he shifted in his seat. "Jisung... didn't you delete that mail? Hyunjin is supposed to receive a mail in his phone."

"I didn't do that.", He suddenly felt wronged. He might have threw the letter away but he wasn't someone who would snoop around someone's belonging— well, except that letter.

"You won't trust me? Is that it?", Jisung turned away, he felt angry. Terribly, a lot that he wanted to punch someone in the face. If things hadn't been bad around him lately, he wouldn't be this angry but even the adult he trusted was accusing of something he didn't do.

He returned home earlier, making excuse that he was sick.

He glared at the letter in the trash in inside his room. He said he threw it away but he didn't really threw it away. "Fuck this", he said, picking up the letter and coming out from his house.

He walked towards Hyunjin's house and placed the letter inside the mailbox. "I hope you're happy and well", he said sarcastically before going back into his house.

-

Jisung sat back on his seat, the memory that he remembered was as if it had been there all this time. "I didn't..."

"The reason I hated you wasn't because you knew my secret", he pressed his hand in his head. He didn't hate Mr.Myeon because he knew something. He hated him because, "you didn't trust me"

"What?", The old man made a confused face. "You didn't trust me even after all these years" that's why months ago he kept bothering Jisung as to why he was treating his mother coldly and even Hyunjin. That was why he had to give the journal to the old man because he needed a prove... He needed a prove that Jisung was suffering just as much as they were.

"Jisung what do you-"

"You see me as a rebel. As a bad person, didn't you?",he couldn't deny it. The old man couldn't deny it. He did see Jisung as someone bad and he found it even worse when he knew Jisung's sexuality. Jisung hated him because of his closed mind.

However, Jisung could see that recently the old man had been more accepting. "I'm sorry", was all the old man said to him.