#;pa

"Is this a new method Doctor? I don't want to do it. I can't do it. We're not there yet? You said so yourself, right?" Kyungsoo's voice echoed through the empty house. He'd never liked the place. It was too empty. Granted Doctor Kim didn't spend too many nights at home, what with working at the hospital and such. The furniture still looked brand new and the walls were pristine white. Yongsook didn't have any kids nor was he married, there were no hand marks on the walls, sticky finger prints or crayon drawings.

But he had Kyungsoo.

Yongsook had always understood, unlike his parents. The man had tried his best to make them see Kyungsoo wasn't just an Aspie. He was a kid too, a person. His disorder was all they saw though. 

"Yongsook hyung?"

"This....it's not funny. Is it? If it is, I don't understand." Kyungsoo roamed the seemingly empty house, fighting the urge to stick his thumb between his lips and nibble diligently on the already sore skin. The Doctor had always scolded him for doing that, as soon as Kyungsoo set foot in his house, the older man had stuck gloves on his hands. "I don't like this, hyung. I don't like it." His voice rose an octave and his eyes burned with the effort it took not to cry.

The origami dog, unfolded and already creased from Kyungsoo's constant fidgeting, now lay on the wooden floor. It wasn't a new method the doctor was trying out. It was real. Yongsook had been taken by the infamous bastard everybody feared, and he'd been hurt. The wide eyed boy couldn't even begin to understand why somebody would do this. How damaged, how incredibly cruel did a man have to be, to even be capable of such things? "I can't do this. I don't know how."

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Coex Mall, an hour later. 

Kyungsoo stood in the entrance, frozen to the spot. People pushed passed him, gave him wary glances as if to confirm the fact he just didn't belong there. His gaze landed on a family, a young child tugging on it’s mother’s sleeve, whining until she gave the child her full attention. The family wandered into a small toy store, Kyungsoo followed, his steps clumsy and out of time. 

Adults were judgmental and quick to think the absolute worst of a person. Children were brutally honest but they also tended to give the benefit of the doubt to strangers. Maybe kids were his best bet? Kyungsoo ran his fingers over a plastic robot toy, though his attention was else where. The kid wandered around the store as it’s parents indulged in gossip with an elderly woman behind the counter. The young boy stopped to stare curiously at a large remote controlled car,

Kyungsoo edged closer and hunched over, lowering himself to the child’s level.

“Do you like cars?”

The boy nodded shyly, “When I grow up I want to drive one like Appa. It’s really big and loud.”

“Is that so? What about this? You don’t like this one?” Kyungsoo picked up a smaller red car, the type you pulled back and then released to watch it go flying across the floor.

“That’s a girl car.”

He furrowed his eyebrows “Cars….don’t have a gender, don’t be silly.”

“You’re silly.”

“Actually no, and by saying that you’re just proving my—”

The child was suddenly yanked away by a pair of strong arms, startling both of them. “What have I told you about talking to…” the woman shot Kyungsoo a look that made his stomach clench. A mixture of disgust and disapproval. “….to strangers.”

Kyungsoo quickly rose to his feet, clumsily knocking a shelf with his elbow and causing a shower of hot-wheels cars to rain down on them. From across the store the elderly woman shouted at him. Ordering him to pick them all up and pay for any damages, lest she call security to remove him from the building.A sour taste filled his mouth as his stomach churned and his heart rate soared. He was going to vomit. 

Turning on his heel, Kyungsoo made a run for it, almost tripping over his own feet as he passed other customers. He didn’t stop running until he reached one of the many bathrooms, charging inside to occupy one of the free stalls. It was all he could do not to burst into tears, and his eyes stung with the effort, only adding to the need to cry. He doubled over and tightly clutched himself as the tang of acid filled his throat, burning his insides as the contents of his stomach moved in reverse. Warm tears soaked his cheeks while he stood hunched over the toilet bowl, waiting for the world to stop spinning. 

Sunhwa screamed because he called her “dear”

Cernunnos: What is your favorite animal?