0.5: the sun shines on a flammable house
title the sun shines on a flammable house
rating pg13 (for now)
pairing jaebum/jinyoung
warning R themes e.g. psychopathy, murder
disclaimer inspired by lionel shriver's we need to talk about kevin
summary jinyoung's new stepbrother was nothing he had asked for, and everything he had not
a very long foreword posting this was more catharsis than responsible writing of any sort - which explains why this is chapter 0.5 and not 1, which i envisioned to be a better-framed and smoother-flowing opening. i just needed to get it out of my system before i begin my exams, im so so sorry!! anyway, i'll likely be coming back to edit this, but updates wont be any time in the near future :( more importantly, i have absolutely no idea where this is going, especially since this is a new genre to me (and it's my first time actually posting a fic??). im not sure about general reader sensitivities as well, so do alert me if anything offends you and i'll try to warn/correct it :) ALSO im not sure if i even want jaebum and jinyoung to end up together, bc theyre stepbrothers and that's?idk controversial?? :(
-
When Jinyoung had been coerced into meeting his stepbrother for the first time, he did not expect to be driven right to the entrance of Cheonggam Boys’ Home; yet surprisingly, he was charged not with fear but a kind of self-destructive satisfaction that this would be another occasion to add to his list of Things my new stepdad conveniently forgot to tell meunder the umbrella list Reasons to hate my new stepdad. As he sat in the passenger seat slightly numb, he briefly considered his reverse-parking mother a stranger: someone who, under the exhilaration of having found herself a rich man to marry, also conveniently forgot to let him in on the fact that his new sibling was a… pickpocket? Vandal? Murderer? Wow, Jinyoung could not waitto find out.
Honestly, Jinyoung hated feeling like a part of a clichéd plotline where the protagonist was stepfamily-averse for no justifiable reason. But there was something so superficial about his stepfather - something about the way he gave Jinyoung attention only after his mother revealed his position as Student Council President at his high school - that had irked him deeply. For all it was worth, it did look like Jaerim liked his mother, and his mother him, and that money was not so much a condition as it was a bonus. But really, the fact that his new sibling was a…
“So what did dear brother do, Mom?” Jinyoung asked, unable to control the cynical twitch in his brow that his mother luckily missed as she unbuckled her seatbelt. Another thing he did not expect, though, was for his mother’s hands to halt just above the seatbelt catch before a pregnant silence pervaded the car. In retrospect, there was a comical quality in how the scene panned out: a laughable attempt to delay the impossible with an unsustainable quiet. Jinyoung’s mother had probably already braced herself for this question - no, beyond that, she had probably already familiarized herself with every possible manner it could be asked and every possible way it would be answered. But to see the perfectionist Heesun hesitate for just those few seconds was enough of a response. If slightly more belligerent since the marriage announcement, Jinyoung was not heartless, and acted to relieve his mother of that situation of not being in control that she so hated. “Uh - was it murder or rape?”
Pause. “Jinyoung.”
“Yeah?”
“You have to know that… crime… is a terrible thing. You know that Mom would never make light of it, and neither should you. But I’ve met your brother twice, and he was… he was alright. I don’t want you to judge him right off the bat. After all, he did what he did when he was thirteen; you wouldn’t have known better.”
Jinyoung let out a dry chuckle. Alright?Just how bad could his stepbrother be that his mother was not jumping at the opportunity to praise him to the high heavens, like when she first described Jaerim? Criminal or not, Jinyoung’s mother was a moral relativist who had actually stood up for Hitler simply because he liked puppies and children. “Well, I heard he liked his niece a little toomuch,” Jinyoung had retorted, much to her chagrin. In her mind, though, Hitler remained redeemably charismatic and suitably loving - better than “alright”.
“I’ll let you know something else, though. His name is Jaebum and he’s two years older than you - turning eighteen in about two months. And that’s when he’ll be released too! Isn’t that great?” While spoken in a sickly excitable tone of a kindergarten teacher, Jinyoung did not miss the fact that the last part was less a rhetorical question than a real one directed to both him and herself. The smile on her face reflected the same uncertainty, and she held it for as long as she could before the right corner of her lip trembled, and she turned quickly to get out of the door. Jinyoung followed suit.