Unreachable [Chapter 3/?]
Title: Unreachable
Rating: PG || Genre: Romance/Drama || Status: On-Going || Chapters: 3/?
Pairing(s): YooSu
Previous: Trailer || 1 || 2
Basic Synopsis: Yoochun and Junsu's lives get entangled the moment their parents decide to marry each other. Yoochun is older, shorter and not cool at all. Junsu is younger, taller and overly cool. For Yoochun, his "brother" is perfect and that is annoying. For Junsu, Yoochun is perfect in his own way.
Sometimes, looking for something won't let you see what is already there...
After that incident, I acted like nothing happened. I couldn’t tell my mom, Junsu’s father or Junsu himself because they would be worried and also because there was nothing they could do about it.
I was definitely not telling Junsu; I was older so I was supposed to be responsible and take care of everything he could not handle, but the truth is that he could do everything.
His perfection irritated me.
“Hey Yoochun, is something bothering you?” he asked me
“No, why do you ask?”
“You are so quiet. More than usual.”
“I’m studying, Junsu.” I answered, trusting that he would stop talking, but he didn’t.
“Studying what?” he asked, getting close to me and putting his head over my shoulder “Oh! Yoochun, that result is wrong.”
“Where?”
“Here. It should be minus twelve.” He pointed out at the math equation on my notebook.
“Why?”
Junsu smiled and started explaining me why I was wrong. I remember thinking that I would like to be as inteligent and carefree as him.
On the next morning, I left home prepared to face my new “friends” again. I thought about not giving them what they wanted, but then again that would be looking for trouble and who knew? Maybe it was just this time.
I was so naïve…
“So, did you bring me what I asked you?” The taller of the three asked.
“Yes” I replied, taking the money from my wallet and giving it to him.
“Ohhhh! Our buddy is so generous! Thank you Yoochun-ah.”
“Now I can go, right?”
“Sure. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow.” Tomorrow? Why tomorrow? I started panicking and he looked at me, realizing it. “Didn’t I tell you? We are going through some difficulties right now and I am going to need your help, so you know what you have to do.”
“But-”
“And ‘ya know what’s gonna happen if you don’t, don’t ya?”
I knew and I suspected it would not be nice for me…
As weeks and months went by, I realized that the money from my allowance was gone way before the last day of the month came. On the first and second month there was no problem in asking for a little extra money, saying that I needed to buy a new book that the teacher asked for or even saying that despite taking lunch to school I was still hungry and needed money to eat. The real problem started when I ran out of acceptable excuses.
“Again?” My mother asked “Did you spend all of your allowance already?”
“It’s not that, mom. It’s just that lately I have been having some expenses and-” She cut me off .
“Expenses? With what? You have everything you need at home, things for school are bought by us, you take your lunch and snacks to school… Exactly what is making you spend so much money? Yoochun, you haven’t been ditching school to go to those arcades that kids of your age usually go, have you?”
“Of course not”
“Then don’t tell me you are addicted to someth-”
“Moooom!! It’s nothing like that, okay? If you don’t want to give me any more money, just say so.” I left the room and my mom started yelling my name, but I did not look back.
“I’ll talk to him” I heard Junsu said, and I sensed him coming after me to our room.
I was so screwed up… I had no money, so how was I supposed to go to school the next morning?
“Hey, Yoochun, what’s up? Are you having problems?”
“No, it’s nothing” I lied
“C’mon, you can tell me. It’s a girl, right?”
“What? Where did you get that idea?”
Junsu pressed his hand against his chin and started explaining his theory “Well, it’s simple: you leave early everyday to go to school, but you arrive later than I do, then you start spending all of your money when you always wanted to save it no matter what and you don’t tell anyone what is going on. It’s obvious.”
So, he wasn’t that sharp after all…
“Junsu…”
“If you want to, I can lend you some money. You can pay me later. I’m sure you want to buy her something, right?”
“Junsu, there is NO girl. Just leave me alone!” I shouted and he didn’t say a thing after that.
It didn’t matter how good his intentions were, I had to put an end to that story and so, on the next morning, I went to school empty handed.
They found me at the end of the day.
When they realized that I had no money, they obviously became violent and I ended up on the floor, being punched and kicked by three guys who seemed like they were having a blast. I tried to protect my face as well as I could and I managed to get only a tiny cut on my eyebrow. My body was a different story though since I could barely move when they finished.
Before leaving me, they searched my wallet again and my pockets, finding my cellphone and taking it.
“I am confiscating this. I hope you learned your lesson so that you know what awaits you if you try to be rebellious again.”
Great! I had been beaten up by three guys that thought of themselves as the neighbourhood’s terrorists - although they were for me - I could hardly get up and even if I wanted to ask for help, I wouldn’t have a way to.
Slowly, I ignored the pain I had all over my body and got up, trying not to make it too obvious that I was dragging myself around.
When I got home, my mom was in the kitchen and Junsu’s father hadn’t arrive yet which made it easier for me to make a strategic detour and head to our room without letting her see how I was. The ony problem would be Junsu.
“Welcome home” he greeted me, turning away from the tv to look at me for awhile “So? Did it go well?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Didn’t you have an emergency of some sort? Wasn’t that the reason you needed the money yeasterday? Did you solve it?”
“Sort of. I’m going to take a bath now.”
“Sure. Oh, by the way, can you lend me your cellphone? I don’t have money on mine and I need to make a phone call.”
I froze. Why did he have to ask for it? “I’m sorry but I don’t have it with me. I lost it. Mianen.”
“Where did you loose it? Did you look for it?” he insisted.
“I don’t know, Junsu. I just lost it. Now let me go and take a bath, okay?” Without saying another word, I got in the bathroom and closed the door.
I didn’t like lying to him, but I could not tell him that I was afraid to face the neighbourhood gangsters.
I ended up taking my clothes off so I could take a shower and I remember that I got a fright when I saw the bruises I had. My back was a mix of purple and dark pink, and although the front was a bit better, my legs were terrifyingly bruised and had small cuts. I didn’t really know how the blood didn’t show on the outside of the clothes.
After a shower that would have been heavenly if the pressure of the water itself didn’t hurt me, I got dressed into my pajamas and opened the bathroom door, seeing that Junsu was still watching tv.
I laid down on my bed and thanked for the fact that my fear of heights made me choose the lower bed. If by chance I slept on the upper bed, I wouldn’t be able to climb up the stairs, since I could barely walk straight.
“Junsu, can you lower the volume of the tv please?”
“Sure.”
He did what I asked him and a moment later I heard my mom calling us for dinner.
No way I was going to get up again just to eat and so, I asked him to go alone and tell my mom that I was already asleep.
He turned the tv off and left the room. I believe it didn’t take long until I fell asleep because the only thing I remember was waking up the next morning, in a lot more pain than the day before. Surprisingly, on that morning, Junsu got ready earlier and as soon as I was preparing to leave, he came to me. I tried telling him that he didn’t need to go with me but it was all in vain.
The morning went by peacefully and at school, I managed to avoid participating in PE class. In the afternoon, when I left school, I looked around searching for Junsu but did not find him.
Yes, I admit it, I was afraid those gangsters would show up again and I sure wouldn’t mind having my younger brother around at the time. Eventhough it might sound childish.
When I passed by the place where those punks usually were, I didn’t see them and I thought that maybe they were busy robbing some olher guy that might look like he had money. Without delay, I hurried back home and when I got in, I let out a sigh of relief. I got up the stairs and headed for our room, closing the door while taking my backpack, slowly due to my pain.
“Oh you’re here.”
I jumped suddenly at the sound of Junsu’s voice “Don’t do that!” He appologized and started folding his school uniform. “I didn’t see you after class. Did you come straight home?” He nodded “I thought you wanted to come with me.”
“You don’t like me to follow you around.” He said and his tone was weird, so I figured there was something wrong with him, but I pretended that I didn’t get it and smiled.
“See? Now you got it.”
“Yes, you are right, hyung” he agreed, putting his arm around my shoulders and looking at me “I cannot depend on you always, right?” he proceeded into smiling then and giving me a slap on my back, making me tremble a lit at the pain I felt. “And more importantly I can’t do that when you don’t trust me at all.”
I stared at him blankly, not understanding what he meant by that, until I saw him put his hand on is pocket and taking out something I recognized immediately: my cellphone.
Throwing the device that landed on top of my bed, he put his hands inside his pockets again - as if wanting to hide one of them, slightly reddish and swollen - and got ready to leave the room.
“I found it today by chance. Now you don’t have to worry again”
Junsu turned his back to me and left the room despite my stunned expression, looking at him. I did not want to think what might have happen and so I did not ask him a thing.
Something changed on that day. Was it admiration, fear, or maybe something different that that Junsu had awaken in me?
I didn’t know what but whatever that was, made me join the school’s taekwondo club the next day.
Year of 2002
Park Yoochun, 16 years old, height: 1,74m and now standing as tall as Junsu. Oh yeah! Okay, so it might sound like I was obsessed with it, but that is not true. It’s just that I was older and it was not good to be smaller than him.
At the age of sixteen I was a perfectly normal teenager, I had miraculously found that I had a natural talent for taekwondo and there was no one in that club that could beat me. Well, maybe there was one person…
Despite that, my brain had corresponded to my expectations and although I was not brilliant yet, I was clearly smarter. Another thing that I was proud of was my popularity with the girls that used to come running at me every time. There was though another person that I seemed to attract without fail and that was my little brother that had found out that the fact that I was popular made him eaven more popular, so, as the teenager with raging hormones that he was, he wouldn’t stop bugging me with ideas of group dates.
Group dates, or as we could simply designate as teenage orgies! Okay, so maybe they were not really orgies - not in the true sense of the word - but it was basically the way that a group of teenagers that could not go to night clubs or drink feely would find to organize dates between boys and girls. The parents would innocently think that their sons and daughters were having fun at a karaoke room or at a friend’s place - which was true so far but of course that it involved someone who could secretly get a few bottles of “sour drinks” as we called it and it would surely involve the multiplication of pheromones…
Sound promiscuous, right? Well… it really was.
Well, it was just out of curiosity actually. It was not like we were doing something but yes, it was pretty normal to share magazines that were a little more “artistic” for example.
I admit it: I started…
“What do you have there?” Junsu asked, innocently.
“Nothing!” I blurted quickly, surprised by his sudden appearance.
“Let me see!”
“No. You’re not old enough to see these things.”
“I am as old as you are. Now let me see!”
I tried to stop him, but like I’ve said before: he was stronger than me…
His eyes widened when he spotted the pictures “Ohh… this is some interesting reading…”
“There’s not much to read actually.” I know, I was not helping.
“You are so right! This is more like a visual reading! Where did you get it?”
I pulled my chair, near the desk and took a seat “I bought it. Stucked it in the middle of the other magazines so the cashier did not notice it.” Junsu looked at me in a suspecting way.
“Now you steal porn? Either way, nice technique. You should have brought one for me too”
“Care to give it back? We are going to be in trouble if-”
“Yoochun, honey what ar-”
Yes, my mom… She has such a nice timing to get into my room without knocking, doesn’t she?
Well, Junsu made it as quick as he could to hide the magazine behind his back, with little or no discrecy.
“Is something wrong?” My mother asked me.
“No!” I said, almost shouted.
“Junsu, what do you have behind your back?”
“Nothing! I mean, it’s just a book.”
“Can I see it?”
“Mom, you don’t want to see it, trust me.” Junsu said, trying to dissuade her, but failing.
Junsu let out a sigh and gave her the magazine at last. Her shocked expression was really scary. She looked at the cover and must have had an inner cardiac arrest, but tried to act cool, giving the magazine back to Junsu.
“Well… I believe it’s only natural for boys of your age to be curious about…this. Keep it where I can’t find it, alright? Oh, and Yoochun, I would advise you to spend your money wisely, son.
Why me? It was Junsu who was holding the magazine! Why was I automatically pointed out as ‘the source’? Even if it was the case, it was unfair.
After that scene, I thought that the matter was forgotten until my ‘father’ came one day and sitting next to me on the couch, where I was reading - a real book - and told me that if I ever had any questions or troubles due to my ‘teenage growing’, I could talk to him.
Of course that I would think that he had lost his mind for telling me strange things if he had not slipped - discretly - a package of condoms into my pocket. Coloured condoms.
Why coloured for God’s sake?
As if the embarrassement that our parents had been making us go through after realizing that their children were going through a ‘difficult’ phase of adolescence was not enough, we would still have to deal with the perverted girls that threw herselves at us in school and with our own morning ‘problems’. And our night ‘problems’. Or both actually.
Is there something more embarrassing than the conversation between a father and a son about adult contents and consequently a box of condoms? Yes, there is and is something like getting caught by your younger brother while having your hand inside your pants and later on waking up while he does the same.
It was really bothering me! He could at least keep it down…
Tired of hearing my ‘upper neighbour’ make weird sounds that I recognized well enough, I released one of my legs from the sheets and hitted his matress hard with my foot, obviously scaring him.
“Yah!” he whispered, trying not to raise his voice “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I can understand how you feel, but can you at least do that in the bathroom?”
He peeped from his upper bed, looking at me with his most innocent eyes and smiled “Do what?”
“Talk with your friend. You’re too noisy.”
Suddenly, he jumped from his bed, not using the stairs and looked at me intently.
“What?” I asked
He let out a sigh “I lost my concentration.” Saying that, he went into the bathroom and closed the door.
That was weird and the night revealed to be hard, with strange dreams, some of them having the ‘guest appearance’ of my brother and a very uncomfortable awakening for me to say the least.
I definitely needed something that distracted me.
A/N: Here's the 3rd chappie. Next installment to Yoochun's POV. As you know, Junsu's POV will come later.
Please enjoy and let me know what you think okay? *chu~*