"so going from the beginning, you know i have a younger brother, seojun."
felix nodded again.
"well we also have an older brother, jongsuk. our parents passed away when i was about thirteen- my mum passed away after giving birth to seojun and my dad couldn't bear life without her so he took his own life when i was at school one day, not long after mum died."
felix gasped and rubbed his thumbs over jeongin's hand, looking at him sympathy.
"what made it worse was that dad had died on jongsuk's birthday- he felt like the world was out to get him or something, and since mum died after seojun was born, jongsuk saw him as a devil child, like he was the whole reason his life was falling to pieces. he's hated seojun ever since he was born, and it was up to me to make sure he got looked after and that he was fed, got to school, had everything he needed. from the age of thirteen, that was extremely challenging at times and the only thing we've had to stablize ourselves is jongsuk's part time college jobs and now his full time job after he finished college."
jeongin took another breath.
"it only gets worse from here though. the job he has is pretty well paying, and that's really good considering there's three of us to deal with, but jongsuk went off the rails. he was paying for me and him constantly, he never really had anything against me except the fact i actually loved seojun, but he started using the money we should be spending on seojun's well being on alcohol instead, meaning he started drinking often after work. it wasn't that bad at first, he's an adult and has his own choices, but he gradually got extremely aggressive and violent with seojun often when drunk, hurting him a lot whether i was there or not, but he'd never hurt me before."
"poor seojun.." felix whispered in sympathy. from what he knew, seojun was only six years old and he was even younger then when jongsuk started hurting him.
jeongin nodded, then continued.
"if he ever hurt seojun in front of me, i would always go and stand in the middle of them, attempt to calm jongsuk down, which usually the majority of the time, and then went to take seojun to his room and help him get better. yesterday though..."
felix held jeongin's other hand as well, rubbing both if them with his thumbs for comfort to the obviously troubled male.
"i-.. he-.. he hurt me instead. seojun and i got back from the cafe yesterday and jongsuk was completely sober, completely fine, he just ignored seojun's existence while i took him to his room. when i came back, jongsuk said he wanted to talk in the living room, and he started saying that now i've graduated i should get a job, part time or full time, to help him pay the bills and look after us. i said that i wanted to but needed to stay home to look after seojun when he got back from school, take him to school, bring him back, cook for us because jongsuk often stayed working late and take care of seojun until he was old enough to stay home alone and look after himself. i said that i would get a part time job in future, but jongsuk kept saying that it was too long to wait for that time, and started getting angry at the fact he thought i was choosing seojun over him. he kept saying stuff like 'he's a devil child, why do you care so much for him? i'll throw him out onto the streets one day, no matter how old he is and whether you're here to watch or not. i'm the eldest here, i pay the bills, i'm in charge, so i control whatever happens in this house, i don't want to have to deal with that demon much longer! if you love him so much more than me, get a job, move out with him and go have your own little perfect lives without me, if i mean so little to you!' and it was getting too much for my head so i shouted at him that seojun wasn't to blame, he was just a kid and barely knew what was happening in the world around him, so he should stop hurting him so much. no one had ever shouted at him before, and i'd never seen him angrier. he slapped me, really hard. the cut is from the rings he wears often. he didn't stop though, he thought another hit 'would knock some sense into me' so he punched me too, hence my lip. then he left, probably to go get alcohol. i just ran to my room and didn't leave at all until i had to take seojun to school this morning, then stayed out of the house until i came here."
felix stared at jeongin in horror, fear, and sympathy after he'd finished talking.
"i- oh my god, jeongin, that's.. t-that's terrifying, how did you cope with it all these years? he could get arrested, child abuse is illegal!"
jeongin shook his head and looked at the floor.
"i-i'm too scared. what if the court dont find him guilty and he just hurts both me and seojun worse afterwards? plus, i have no proof either way, so i couldn't."
"jeongin.." felix said softly, the said male looking up at him.
"i don't know how we'd do this, but i'll help you, okay? i said i'm here to help and support you, remember? you're a great person and seojun is a great kid, neither of you deserve this and i'm going to help you figure this out, okay?"
jeongin stared at felix for a few seconds before standing the both of them up, pulling him forwards gently by their still joint hands and engulfing him in a hug, jeongin's head in burried in felix's shoulder.
"thank you so much, lix. thank you so, so much."
felix smiled and wrapped his arms around jeongin too, stroking his back gently.
"no problem innie, it's the least i can do. plus, friends help friends, okay?"
"mhm."