❛ point it home
krjongin:
The thing is that it doesn’t even pass through his mind that someone else besides Jongdae would answer the door. Not even Baekhyun — and now that they’re thing and oh boy, Jongin thought they acted like an old married couple but now they just unlock a whole new level that the escort ever thought didn’t even exist but here they are and he always has this mix of feelings of happiness and pride for his brother and disgust but it’s like watching your parents kiss and being lovey dovey and just that realization that they do have a sex life and just eeeeew — so for a moment he freezes at the door step, eyes wide and his arms go to curl around himself like he can hide his bruises like that, like there aren’t those on hi neck too.
The thing is that Yeri is like his younger sister. Jongin is proud and selfish about his role as a baby especially in Jongdae’s eyes so he admits that he might’ve been a little jealous the first time that she came around but that didn’t last that long, because there was something inside of him that tells him that he should protect her, cherish her and Yeri is just too precious anyway for him to not do that. He’s sure that somehow the fact that she has the son of Apollo inside of her the same way that Jongin has Apollo has something to do with it, but it isn’t only about it. It never was. And instead, Jongin also ended up adopting her as his own baby ( while also exploiting with her Jongdae’s weakness for puppy eyes and pouts ).
The thing is that she shouldn’t see this, because this is broken Jongin. This isn’t her Jongin, the one that is dork and helps her with pillow forts, the one who tells her bed stories better than Jongdae ( because Jongin is the king of drama, after all ) even though they’re all too old about it, the one who is always saying something to make her laugh, the one who only cries during their dorama nights and that’s ok because he’s crying because of someone else’s sadness and in the end it’s just Jongin being his ridiculous self.
The thing is that Jongin can’t bring himself to smile, to make this seem like a joke, to tell her that the bruises aren’t real, this is all a stupid a joke and Jongin is fine, he’s fine and she doesn’t need to worry, their little happiness bubble doesn’t need to be broken. It makes Jongin panic because his brain is blank. The harder he tries to think about a way out of this, the emptier it gets and it’s like this loop. Jongin tries to get out of it because the last thing that Yeri needs to see now is him getting into a panic attack.
”Y-yeri, what are you— Jongdae hyung—”
The thing is that he smiles anyway, small and broken, and not the confident grin he wears most of the time but he tries. Jongin uncurls from himself, licks his lips and smiles. “H-hey, uh…Oh, boy, this is awkward.” He laughs awkwardly and forced. “I was— you know, this is— uh, trying things out for halloween?”
There was something completely terrifying about seeing someone you care and love like this. She knew about his line of work and what escorts did, but because jongin never talked about it, because he was always the adorable dork that let her play with his hair and gave some of the best cuddles, the truth had never really settled or sunken into the girl's brain. Her cousin was an escort, and sometimes, escorts aren't treated like people.
There was that feeling again. Jongin had gotten hurt before and in those moments she always had that weird feeling, her chest felt tight and she felt anger building deep inside of her. She knew it was Asclepius who made her feel that was, her cousin had his father inside him after all, but this was a jongin she had never seen before, only heard of him. He looked weak, tired and he was curled into himself, instead of the proud dork who'd always make her laugh. Her eyes scanned through his body, desperately trying to figure out just how badly hurt the other was.
"bullshit" she cut him off mid-sentence. "you're a terrible liar." her eyes travelled back to his face, where a broken smile resided on his lips. Her expression softened, she felt like crying because she hated seeing him like that, but she couldn't, she had to heal him first.
"what happened?" her hand reached to touch his face lightly, the ugly bruise around his mouth automatically healing as she touched it. "who did his to you?"
