"They're my property, you're not allowed them. Don't touch my stuff." Kangwoo snapped bitterly as he crossed his arms and pouted. "I just don't -- they're hard. To be around, just... the noise. And the way they eat. And the way they ... and Tae does that thing. With his face! Urgh."
Looking cute and happy even when shit was bad. What was wrong with the little freak. Kangwoo rocked himself a little, trying to calm down his urge to lose it. "They're mine, you can't have them." His to keep. "Just -- don't get yourself all worked up, fairyboy. I'll not throw them again. Okay?"
"If you don't give them to me, then I'll be in your life. Cause they are my cousins and I care about them. Your father and my father worked together, right? We can do that too." Minjun said it as if it was no big deal and as if it just had to happen. Maybe he could just trick Kangwoo into it. "Then maybe we can find ways things are less stressful. We could watch Star Wars together. Come on. We always did that! It was such fun. Remember, you were Luke and I was Yoda and I had to carry you? Almost broke my back."
"I don't watch Star Wars. It's for nerds." He didn't like to think about Star Wars cause then he felt like he wanted to be happy but he couldn't. Also recently Cheon had said only fat basement dwelling nerds watched shit like Star Wars and now he was hyper aware of his dorkiness. God, he missed Star Wars. "You can work for me if that's what you're after. You want into the family? Fine. You can do my boring paperwork."
Because he was already bored of it. "And for the record, you were a shitty Yoda. You couldn't even do the voice."
"Whatever. Sure, I can do paperwork." Minjun shrugged his shoulders, running a hand through his hair. Then he frowned, feeling challenged. And he did his very best to do a Yoda impression. Even more so as he realised, while he spoke, that the quote was really fitting for what Kangwoo was going through. "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."
And here his cousin was. Suffering. Minjun looked at him for a moment longer, then he hugged him.
Honestly, he didn't think Kangwoo could throw him. He wasn't that built.
Yoda was always so wise. God, he missed Star Wars. And Yoda. And Luke. And his light saber. He had limited edition figures that were worth millions right now... God, his heart ached to think about it. He missed his stuff. He missed his childhood, even if he'd barely had it. And then, out of nowhere, he was suddenly being hugged.
He was so thrown by it, he didn't know what to do so he just stood there, feeling overwhelmed and his whole body suddenly hyper aware.
He let out a whine like he used to before a melt down and jerked his head back. Nope, nope, he couldn't handle it. He grit his teeth hard.
"It's okay, hyung." Minjun kept his voice quiet, remembering that Kangwoo didn't like things being loud. And he kept holding on to him, wishing he could do something more. Wishing he had a real way to get through to him. "A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defence, never for attack."
And definitely not to throw his little baby brother. "So." Minjun stepped back. "You have honour, right? You keep your promises?"
Kangwoo made a noise of pain and raised his hand to tug at his hair and try to get himself back into reality, he tanked hard and hissed, looking at Minjun with dark eyes. "I won't throw the brats." There. That was as much as he could give right now. "So you can stop bugging me and touching me, you weirdo." He turned around and opened the door, eager to just have some space.
"I got work to do. Have someone call me when Tae wakes up." Whatever, he was busy. He didn't have time to be hugged and coddled. It was creepy.
"Fair enough. Will do. Though, hyung, I meant your other promise. The one to Tae. About getting him a toy." Minjun smirked and then he walked out of the room, heading back to Tae and Jiho. Maybe better not to poke the bear any more.
He stopped next to Jiho, pulling him into another hug. "How's he doing, huh? He's woken up yet?"
"He's in and out. He woke up to ask if I had lunch and then fell asleep again." He was worried about hyung, as always. Poor idiot, he shouldn't worry about others right now. Jiho lay on the bed next to Tae, holding him close and protectively taking care of his tiny brother. He looked at Minjun, hoping he was staying around. "Are you... are you going?"
"Did you have lunch? We should order something, huh? Or do you have a cook in house? Because I can't cook worth a damn." Minjun frowned, rubbing the back of his head. "I'm staying. And I got Kangwoo to agree he won't hurt you again, so hey. Not saying he'll keep to it, but agreeing is an important step. We'll get him to be bearable yet."
"He was never bearable. He was always a jerk." Jiho didn't remember Kangwoo not being mean... mostly because he didn't remember much past his toddler time and that was when Kangwoo was, admittedly, more agreeable. He nuzzled Tae a little and cuddled him close. "I haven't eaten, I was too worried about Tae. I think Kangwoo killed the cook, we've been making our own stuff... Cheon wanted to fuck her and she said no so -- I mean, I haven't seen her since." Jiho sighed and closed his eyes, leaning against his baby brother.
"Okay then. Let's order stuff, yeah? What do you like to eat? And Tae, he might wake up. If not, he can have leftovers later." Minjun was already opening the app, sitting down on the desk chair. Damn, this room was barren. "So, Tae is a happy boy, huh?" That really was weird, given everything. No wonder Kangwoo was confused by it. Not that that excused any of this. "Jiho, do you know Star Wars?"
"I don't like a lot. I mean... I guess sushi. I dunno. I don't like eating out." He had a weird phobia that he might be sick so he avoided eating out like nine times out of ten. He was funny about food, always had been. Weirdness ran in their family. "Tae loves fried noodles so maybe those." Even if he was eight, he still adored it when Jiho fed him a mouthful of noodles, he chewed so happily. "Uhhh... Star Wars? I -- No? I mean maybe. Is that the spacey one?"
"I'll get sushi and noodles, that's easy enough." Minjun ordered quickly, enough to have leftovers. Enough for Kangwoo too, he remembered he liked noodles and he didn't seem like the kind of person to change such preferences. "Food is on the way. And yeah. You know, when you were really little, when we still lived here, your brother loved Star Wars. We always watched it together and we played from it. We played with you too. You were a droid usually, because you couldn't talk so well yet."
"... I never played with Kangwoo. That sounds like a lie. Kangwoo doesn't play, he's psycho." He just assumed he had and always would be psycho too. He'd never really seen much humanity in Kangwoo. After all, he was kind of a bully most of his childhood. He gave Minjun a funny look. "How old was I? ... Oh, man, did you kidnap baby me and make me do dorky stuff? Cause you two suck if you did."
"Hmm... You must have been like... Two? Three? I dunno, one? I'm not good with baby ages. You were tiny. You would mostly just beep. And laugh. You loved it. You were in your crib and we pretended to be on a mission to save you." Minjun laughed, shaking his head. "We didn't kidnap you. Just picked you up and kissed you. Tickled you a bit sometimes. It was pretty fun."
"... Kangwoo kissed me? Okay, that has to be bullshit. He hates me." No, he didn't scare if he was swearing or not, he was willing to be rude and disrespectful around Minjun cause he didn't care. It was pretty cool. "He said he wished I wasn't born. Tae too." And yeah, it hurt a lot. He wished his big brother liked him but he just didn't. He was never sure why. "How come he hates us? What did we do?"
"You didn't do anything. Look, it's a whole thing." Minjun got his phone back out again, pulling up something he'd saved. "Okay, first read this. That's a diagnosis. That's a diagnosis my father had done when he took Kangwoo to an expert. He was just a tiny boy then, younger than you now. Take your time, read it slowly. I know it's a lot. You can ask me if you need anything explained."
"What's ... What's a ssss-en-sorry overload?" Jiho asked as he read it over slowly, finger under the words so he didn't lose his place, trying to sound words out. Reading was a challenge for him and there was a lot of new, big words. Words he couldn't understand. "What's a spectrum too, hyung?" He was curious. The symptoms were... interesting. Meltdowns, temper tantrums, inability to process emotional information properly, poor verbal skills. His hyung being non-verbal? Was that even possible?
He frowned and then looked up. "Why did your uncle take my hyungnim to an expert?" He read over one sentence a few times. "Prone to self harm and can't cope with routine change."
Minjun explained all the words as best he could, laughing a couple times when he got hung up on some Korean word he rarely used. His Korean was good, but he just wasn't used to speaking it so in depth all the time and it was a difficult language. Still, in the end he managed to explain it to Jiho sufficiently. And then that question.
"Well. My father really liked Kangwoo, but Kangwoo was a bit different than most children. And he wanted to find out how he could best be helped, you know? So he wouldn't have those breakdowns and all that. So he needed an expert's opinion. Unfortunately, when your father found out, that was when he basically exiled my family. He threatened to have me and my mother killed if we didn't leave. And we couldn't help Kangwoo. My father really wanted to."
"... If he had this, do I have it? Is that why I'm dumb?" He was worried because he knew this word. It was a bad word, what was wrong with Kangwoo... wasn't that the one that kind of poisoned people's genes and made them bad and wrong? He didn't want to have that.
"He kicked you out because of Kangwoo?" Great. He lost his cousin because of appa and whatever was up with Kangwoo. He bit his lower lip and frowned. "Why doesn't Kangwoo seem more... special?"
"He's just a bit different. And maybe you are too, in your own way. He isn't bad because of that. If I had to guess, he is bad because your father was a jerk." No nim this time. Just a jerk. "Tae is really smart, you told me, right? But he is still really silly too. Everyone has different sides. And I guess Kangwoo just learned to hide it a little. But not really. He was crying before, when I first got here. He was so worried about Tae. And I don't think he knew he was crying. You are really good with emotions. Even though your father was a jerk. Maybe you are slower at reading and all that, but you are way smarter than Kangwoo-hyung about emotions."
"I like the part where I'm smarter than Kangwoo." Jiho beamed a little and then laughed, holding out what he'd been reading to Minjun with a much more positive smile. "I'm also way better at batting than he is. He's a good pitcher but he can't swing as good as I can." Oh yeah, in the Baek family, baseball was a big deal. Especially between all the brothers. Even if little Tae never quite grasped it was a contest and cheered for every side. Poor dork. "I'm glad you're staying, hyung. Even if you're a weak pitcher and hitter."
"Uh-huh. Well, I thought it was pitcher and catcher, so what do I know. Not even sure what sport you're talking about." Honestly, he just knew the gay allegory. Who cared about sports? Well. Evidently his boyfriend did, but whatever.
"You just gotta know, Jiho, my family never wanted to leave yours behind. And I wanna take care of you and Tae. And even of Kangwoo too. He's not... There's good in him. I promise. He even said he'd buy Tae a toy."
"Pfft, I'll believe it when I see it. He's evil, hyung. Maybe he's sick or something, I dunno but he's always been a jerk. And he hurt Tae." And Jiho didn't see any shred of good in him. He didn't think he'd ever give Tae a toy. He curled around his baby brother and pulled him into his arms, whispering to his little TaeTae.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
no subject
Looking cute and happy even when shit was bad. What was wrong with the little freak. Kangwoo rocked himself a little, trying to calm down his urge to lose it. "They're mine, you can't have them." His to keep. "Just -- don't get yourself all worked up, fairyboy. I'll not throw them again. Okay?"
no subject
no subject
Because he was already bored of it. "And for the record, you were a shitty Yoda. You couldn't even do the voice."
no subject
And here his cousin was. Suffering. Minjun looked at him for a moment longer, then he hugged him.
Honestly, he didn't think Kangwoo could throw him. He wasn't that built.
no subject
He was so thrown by it, he didn't know what to do so he just stood there, feeling overwhelmed and his whole body suddenly hyper aware.
He let out a whine like he used to before a melt down and jerked his head back. Nope, nope, he couldn't handle it. He grit his teeth hard.
no subject
And definitely not to throw his little baby brother. "So." Minjun stepped back. "You have honour, right? You keep your promises?"
no subject
"I got work to do. Have someone call me when Tae wakes up." Whatever, he was busy. He didn't have time to be hugged and coddled. It was creepy.
no subject
He stopped next to Jiho, pulling him into another hug. "How's he doing, huh? He's woken up yet?"
no subject
He didn't want to be alone with Kangwoo any more.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
He frowned and then looked up. "Why did your uncle take my hyungnim to an expert?" He read over one sentence a few times. "Prone to self harm and can't cope with routine change."
no subject
"Well. My father really liked Kangwoo, but Kangwoo was a bit different than most children. And he wanted to find out how he could best be helped, you know? So he wouldn't have those breakdowns and all that. So he needed an expert's opinion. Unfortunately, when your father found out, that was when he basically exiled my family. He threatened to have me and my mother killed if we didn't leave. And we couldn't help Kangwoo. My father really wanted to."
no subject
"He kicked you out because of Kangwoo?" Great. He lost his cousin because of appa and whatever was up with Kangwoo. He bit his lower lip and frowned. "Why doesn't Kangwoo seem more... special?"
no subject
no subject
no subject
"You just gotta know, Jiho, my family never wanted to leave yours behind. And I wanna take care of you and Tae. And even of Kangwoo too. He's not... There's good in him. I promise. He even said he'd buy Tae a toy."
no subject
No one would hurt him. Not again.