After he went back to Korea, Areum was punished for leaving in a way that brought the whole reason he left in the first place into very obvious light.
Because he hates to admit it now, but it took the young kid so many years of unnecessary pain, not only to himself but what he had to do to others, so many years of losing the battle with his own mind to finally figure out that they had been using him all along.
Only when he met Bes did he realize he needed to really really leave that place. That he never wanted to go back because this is what real care feels like. This is what love and kindness feels like.
Bes taught him that just because someone gives you a home, doesn't mean you owe them your life.
That was a huge discovery for Areum in his young tortured brain, and it took a while for him to compute how to even handle going about it when he was barely stable enough to have control over his own brain when around his abusers.
Areum has only scimmed the surface of this life to Bes. He spoke more about it to his best friend the first time they met because now he had the added weight of how getting out of one bad situation got him landed in the next.
Prison.
Which wasn't a walk in the park either, but Areum needed to keep Bes in his brain the whole time. Through everything because the feline was the only source of light Areum ever got graced with in his life. The most beautiful ray of sunshine that warmed his skin in a way his flames never will, a touch so gentle and comforting it was like his wounds were sewing back up by the second.
Every time he thought of grabbing Bes' hand... sitting with him on the side walk... laughing with him and leaning their backs on each other.. Every time he thought of seeing that light again, it kept him on the path to getting out. To being able to control his emotions and his own brain and with the empty void and sheer determination Areum had to see Bes again?
He was able to get better.
To see a therapist in prison, get a diagnosis, get medicated the proper way, and to this day he still goes to therapy once a week in order to keep bettering himself.
The pain Areum went through by having the knowledge that he needed Bes? It helped him.
Areum was a sweet boy to Bes when he had met him. But Bes had no idea of the monster he had been spending all his time with.
If Areum wouldn't have gotten help.... he wouldn't have been able to live a normal life around... anyone.
And sometimes that stirs in his brain the most. How it could look to Bes once he knows all of it. Because eventually, Areum will tell him everything, even if the thought is fucking petrifying.
For now though, he touches on the topics lightly, but still bringing more than enough feeling and sincerity when making it clear that he would have fought for Bes until the end of time.
Just the same way he would let their tongues dance just as slow and passionate as their bodies were.
With warm arms wrapped around Bes in an all encompassing way, he let's the kiss and the moment drown in every ounce of his affection and frankly his need for his other half.
