Jaemin came back to Sohyun's room with two plates of Omorice and placed them on the little table in the middle of his room. "Let's eat..." Jaemin said calmly.

As soon as Sohyun glanced at the dish, he was completely surprised by how it looked delicious. "Woahhhh!!! This is perfect!!!" Sohyun said excitedly and then smelled his dish. "Even the smell is great!!!"

Jaemin grinned and then started to eat quietly while Sohyun was still praising him.

Sohyun picked up his spoon and took a bite. "Woooooaaaahhh! It's damn delicious!!!"

Jaemin chuckled at his excessive reaction. "Stop exaggerating..."

"I'm not! How can you cook this well seriously?!" Sohyun asked in wonder.

Jaemin's smile faded away as he replied, "I learned it from my grandma."

Sohyun stared at him in admiration and said hesitantly. "That's really great..."

~

While they were busy eating, Sohyun's mom called him, and Sohyun picked up his call to answer. "Yes, mom."

"My son! Have you had dinner? Order something for yourself if you're not..." She said in concern.

"I'm eating right now. When do you and Dad come back anyway?..." Sohyun said.

"Actually, we have an important meeting tomorrow with our shareholders, and we're swamped with work. So we will probably have to stay the night at the company..." She said worriedly.

Sohyun was taken aback. "Oh! Really?!"

His mom asked, "Um... Will you be okay alone?! Should I just come back home?!... I'm worried about leaving you alone there."

"I'm totally fine! I'm with one of my friends! So you don't have to worry!!! See you tomorrow evening then!" Sohyun replied.

"Oh! Okay! Have a good night, dear!" His mother hung up the call after she was assured about Sohyun.

Hehe... This is a great chance! I can force Jaemin to stay the night, and we can solve the problems between us!...

Sohyun glanced at Jaemin and said, "My parents won't come tonight."

Jaemin nodded calmly and said, "I heard that."

"Then, did you hear that I said my friend was with me?" He asked with a grin on his face.

Jaemin looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "So what?"

"You're gonna stay the night here!" He said excitedly.

Jaemin shook his head in panic. "No. No. No. That's not gonna happen!!!"

Sohyun whined, frustrated. "Why not?!... You know that we won't get this kind of chance easily! Every teenager has this dream to be alone with their friends at home without their parents!!!... And I've never experienced that!!!..."

Jaemin got up from the floor and said, "What are you blabbering about? I can't stay here! There's no way! Never ever never!!! Understand?"

Sohyun wondered how he could convince Jaemin to stay with him. He then said as an idea came to his mind, "I'm... scared to stay alone in this big house!... And my ankle hurts badly... I need someone to help me!... Don't you pity me?... How can you leave me like this?... "

Heh! This trick should work!...  I just need to keep my expression as pitiful as possible!!!...

Sohyun grabbed Jaemin's leg as he was still sitting and lifted his head, trying to keep his eyes focused on Jaemin's, "Hmmmmm?..."

Jaemin sighed as he was totally falling into Sohyun's trap and then said, "Fine. I will stay."

Got you!... Sohyun thought and then raised his arms upright in excitement, "Hoorayyyy!"

~

Jaemin washed the dishes and got back to Sohyun's room. Then he approached Sohyun's closet to grab a mattress with a blanket, but Sohyun said as he was lying on the bed, "My bed is big enough for both of us. Sleeping on the floor won't be convenient!"

Jaemin turned his head back and stared at Sohyun with his furrowed eyebrows. "We're going to be uncomfortable that way..."

"I'm not uncomfortable around you, though. Just come and lay down here!" Sohyun grumbled.

Jaemin crossed his arms and leaned against the closet, "Are you really comfortable even though you heard from those guys earlier that I'm gay?..."

Sohyun laughed and said, "That's exactly why I feel safe with you! You won't do anything to me since you can't be interested in me at all..."

However, I feel a bit dissatisfied... He's literally husband material... But still, I'm grateful to be just friends!...

Jaemin asked suspiciously, "Don't tell me you forgot what gay means!"

Sohyun flinched at what he said. God damn it!!!! I forgot that I was a boy!!! How can I be so stupid!!! This is embarrassing as hell!!!!...

His cheeks were completely red out of embarrassment, and he muttered nervously, "I-I know!... What... It means!... I mean we're friends!!! That's why!!!"

Jaemin chuckled again, "You look a bit dumb after you got amnesia... Hahaha..."

Then Sohyun grumbled shyly, "Aaagh! Don't mock me!!!" And tucked under his blanket.

Jaemin walked and lay down beside Sohyun, "Even though you can't remember me, you still believe in me unexpectedly..."

Sohyun rolled back and looked at Jaemin, sleeping on his back and staring at the ceiling blankly. "You look like a trustworthy person..."

Jaemin glanced at him with a smile on his face but sorrowful eyes. "Thanks."

Then Sohyun asked, "Can you tell me about yourself? I wanna know your story; Why did you try to kill yourself, or why are they bullying you in the first place... And why are you avoiding me..."

Jaemin's heart crumbled in pain and remained silent for a while, but he then started to talk.

~
⚠️Trigger warning: Bullying, Homophobia.⚠️

Jaemin's POV:

My parents died in a fire accident when I was 6 years old. Our house suddenly caught on fire in the middle of the night, and my dad took me out of the building first, telling me to stay away. He then rushed back to the building to help my mom get out of there, but they'd never come back.

At the funeral, my acquaintances were quarreling about who should be responsible for taking care of me. However, none of them were willing to take me with them.

That was when my grandma scolded them and took me to her home after that incident. Her financial status wasn't really well, and she had a hard time raising me alone, but she always had a smile on her face and supported me no matter what.
Her only wish was to send me to university so that I'd get a decent job. We were living peacefully and happily until everything suddenly changed into a nightmare.

It's been a year since I found out that I like boys instead of girls, but I have been struggling with myself for such a long time, not wanting to accept the fact. However, no matter how hard I had denied it, I accepted what I really was in the end with someone's help.

There was a senior who I liked for a while, and he was working at a convenience store. Strangely enough, he had noticed that I had a crush on him as the days passed by.

One day, he suddenly took the initiative and asked me if I was interested in him. Obviously, I couldn't hide the fact that I liked him.
As a result, we started to talk and hang out with each other for a few months, and I came to realize my true identity.

The first person who I've ever come out to was you. It was around 6 months ago that I finally got the courage to talk to you about this.
I was so worried about losing you because of that, so I struggled with myself a lot until I finally opened up the matter.

Nevertheless, my fears were nonsense when you acted so cool and understanding. At that time, you warned me to be careful at school since we had bullies there, but I was too careless...

Since no one had known that I was gay, I had so many fan girls at school to the point that most of the guys were mad at me out of jealousy, but I never took their madness seriously.

When the new term began, a guy kept following me around, sticking to me all day. At first, I thought he just wanted us to be friends, not knowing what his true intentions were, but he was becoming more and more clingy until I got frustrated by his actions.

One day, I couldn't hold back myself anymore, and I decided to tell him to stay away from me. I was supposed to meet him in the basketball club room, so I waited for him there for a while.

When he walked into the room and I started to talk, he suddenly grabbed my neck and started kissing me. I was so shocked that I stayed frozen in my place for a few seconds before pushing him away...

As I shouted at him, "Have you lost your mind?"

He suddenly smirked menacingly and then said, "I knew that you're a pervert. I've seen you with a guy out of school. Your era is over now, Jaemin."

I stared at him, wondering, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You will see... Soon." He said and left the room.

~

As I came to school tomorrow morning, I sensed that everyone was staring at me while whispering to each other. I ignored them and just walked to class, but their heavy gazes didn't leave me alone.

When I sat down, one of our classmates put her phone on my table and then asked, "Is it true that you're gay?"

I glanced at the screen and saw a picture from yesterday when that bastard kissed me. My whole body became numb, and my hands were trembling in fear, unable to speak. They started to talk to each other again, saying:

"It's true! Look at his scared face!"

"So he really likes guys!"

"What a shame."

...

After that day, the whole school knew about me, and I didn't really want to lie and deny it, so I just thought, "Let it be."

However, things have gotten worse as rumours spread around. That group of bullies started to pick fights with me whenever they got the chance.

I fought against them and beat them all a few times, but they didn't stop. Their group was getting bigger every day since they were determined to torture me.

Things continued like that for days until the school's principal caught us in the middle of a fight.
We were all taken to his office and he called our parents to come.
I explained everything to the principal when their parents and my grandma arrived there, but those kids' parents were just like them.
They started to blame me for my preferences and fight back with their sons. I was so furious at their nonsense that I told them I would report all of them to the police that day, and I really did.

But things didn't end there...
.
.