#frisk!trapeze | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thecosmicsen · 4 years

Text

✮ : 𝑎 𝑐 𝑎 𝑡 𝑎 𝑙 𝑒 𝑝 𝑠 𝑦

A balmy gust of wind tickles the bangs across seven year old Jaewoo’s forehead that elicits a dreamy sigh from the boy. The incessant chirping cacophony of cicadas simmers into the dusky summer haze along with the occasional enthused chirruping from various birds. If he strains his ears even more, he can detect his twin brother Taesoo mockingly trilling along with the warbled mating calls. An amused smile tugs on the corner of his lips as he tunes into the singing contest of Taesoo versus an innocent unknowing bird. With the final few tepid dusk sunrays melting like strips of butter across his cheeks, Jaewoo shuts his eyes tightly in bliss.

He’s content.

The twins escaped from the foreboding gloom of their household for the day. They already have to cope with the sweltering humidity of the city that invades their airways with vicious glee, bearing the same malicious intention of suffocation as their parents. As soon as their mother went to lay down for a heat-induced afternoon nap, Jaewoo immediately grabbed their backpacks to stuff it with leftover gimbap. When Taesoo realised what he was planning, his features instantly brightened up as he cheekily held a finger to his lips. Upon seeing that, Jaewoo almost burst into a snorting fit of laughter but the thought of their enraged mother waking up viciously wiped the delight off his face.

Digging into his shorts, Jaewoo managed to unearth some leftover change he scored from running neighbourhood errands. He decided it was time to indulge the two with extra banana and strawberry milk for the day since the twins are still reeling from the aggravated fury of their father last night. It eased his mind to see Taesoo joyfully poking the straw into his strawberry milk and frantically gulping it down with renewed vigour.

Thanks Jaejae! I owe you one! I love you so much in the whole wide world! Do you know that!? Even bigger than the distance between the moon and the sun! My love is more, got it?!

Now he affectionately watches his brother frisk about the pond in the park they trekked down to. There is breezy tranquillity in the sunset’s glowing performance that boasts different hues of peach and corals. But it is the calm in the serenity that he is still getting accustomed to. He can’t remember the last time he didn’t feel as if he forced to tiptoe across a trapeze line jagged with cut glass shards. There is nobody to be in tensed apprehension of. Only peaceful solitude exists in this little utopia of the nearby park and that is what he joyously indulges in with one of his astronomy books safely tucked under his arm.

That is until he feels a sharp jerk underneath his head, shoving him off his makeshift backpack pillow.

“Hey!” Jaewoo vehemently protests loudly as he scrambles up to see who attacked him.

An unfamiliar boy slightly older than him with a sneer etched on his face stands before him. He hangs Jaewoo’s backpack upside down to empty it of its contents but a few pencils and the leftover foil from the gimbap rolls dully thud on the grass. “What kind of poor bastard walks around with an empty bag?!” the boy unceremoniously snorts as he chucks the backpack at Jaewoo’s face. “You got any spare change on you? I’m all out and I’m thirsty. I want soda.”

“Get your own soda, lazy bastard!” Jaewoo immediately fires back with a scowl, throwing his own backpack on the ground in frustration. He’s already endured far too many ugly physical clashes from his father to care about some bored preteen attempting to nab his pocket money.

“Whoa, watch your tone runt!” the boy mercilessly whacks the side of his head with his palm before grabbing a fistful of his shirt to drag him to the pond. “That’s your runt twin over there? You bastards must be beaten up before for running your mouth to your elders. Who already beat you up before huh? When will you learn some respect? Your parents will thank us for teaching you a lesson.”

To Jaewoo’s sinking horror, he realises the boy has two other of his cronies with him who are currently surrounding a defiant Taesoo. The ringleader roughly shoves Jaewoo to the ground beside Taesoo which ignites a feral sound from the younger twin. With a grimace, Jaewoo immediately steadies himself upwards as the ringleader crouches down to Taesoo’s height with a mocking grin.

“Hey, runt two. You got any change on you? I’m very thirsty and I’m going to get really pissed if I don’t get a soda soon.”

“Eh, really?” Taesoo gapes at him before tapping his chin. “I don’t have any change on me but let me help you with your thirst!” within in the next second, he immediately grabs a nearby twig lounging on the ground before leaping up to shove the stick up the ringleader’s nostril that causes the boy to freeze in shock. Before any of his cronies can react, Taesoo hastily kicks behind his knees to get him buckling to the ground before he shoves the boy’s face in the pond, dunking him in and out repeatedly in the pond by clenching his hair. “Drink up drink up! Today’s special flavour is duck droppings!”

“Freak!” one of the cronies snaps out of their stunned daze and reaches out to grab Taesoo. With his own instincts kicking in, Jaewoo sticks a foot out to trip the guy that sends him flying and lands a blow to the abdomen of the other guy that leaves him reeling for air.

“Taesoo, that’s enough!” he holds a pleading hand out to his twin. Taesoo shrugs nonchalantly before obediently shoving the ringleader to the dry ground and casually plucks the twig out of his nostril. Using it to jab at the ringleader’s cheek now, Jaewoo can hear him softly murmur. “Don’t ever lay a hand on my brother ever again or I’ll kill you.”

The third guy whom Jaewoo landed a punch on now stares at the twins, completely stupefied. But he immediately runs over to check on the gasping ringleader. The other one quickly recovers from Jaewoo’s impact and lunges his body at him, landing a good punch to his jaw. Blood immediately fills his mouth with its tangy metallic taste and he hears a faint crunching sound when his jaw is hit. Before the boy can throw another punch at him, Taesoo wallops a craggy rock against the boy’s cheek with a wild glint in his eyes.

“Not so fast, pig!” he shrilly yells out, about to strike the boy’s smeared bloody face again but Jaewoo hastily knees the boy away from both him and Taesoo. Also grabbing the nearest ridged stone, he holds it up defensively in case they try scuffling them again. Apparently, the ringleader is too shocked that someone almost half his height managed to dunk him in the pond so he calls his cronies to back off.

“Leave those freaks alone,” the soaked boy groans although he throws them both a dirty glare. “Good for nothing dirty bastards. They probably live off the streets fighting other brats.”

"We can still teach them a lesson,” one of them venomously spits out as he marches over to grab Jaewoo’s astronomy book to carelessly chuck it over his shoulder into the pond. “Make sure we don’t ever see you freaks again or you’ll really be in for it.”

“We look forward to it!” Taesoo gleefully calls out as he grabs a few more rocks, waving a hand frantically around at them. He holds a particularly rugged rock in the sky, posing as if he is an archer about to strike bullseye but the trio of boys hurriedly gets up to start moving away, pitifully throwing a few of their own pebbles at the twin’s direction. This elicits raucous laughter from Taesoo as he snipes the ringleader’s arm with his rock. The twins are confronted with more feeble insults which abruptly cut off when the twins start gathering more rocks and Taesoo starts walking towards them chirpily. Then they leave for good after a few more sour looks.

“Don’t worry Jaejae, I’ll get your book for you!” Taesoo cheerfully declares as he begins to take his socks and shoes off but Jaewoo hurriedly rushes over to him, holding his hands in place.

“No no. Please don’t go in there. It’s filthy. I can always buy a new book.” Jaewoo forlornly sighs as he eyes the bottom of the murky pond. The thought of even reaching down there with bare hands makes him nauseous since the tepid dark brown colour of the water ripples is anything but appealing. “Thank you though, Taesoo. I knew I could always count on you. They didn’t hurt you too badly, did they? Are you injured anywhere?”

“Are you sure Jaejae? I really don’t mind going in. Shall we try fishing it out? Or I’ll get those pigs to turn into mermen for you and fish it out for us!” Taesoo peers at his face earnestly before flinging his arms around Jaewoo into a heartfelt bear hug. “I’ll buy you a new one, promise! You always buy nice things for me!”

Snuggling his twin back, he grins as he pets Taesoo’s hair. “With what money! It’s okay. I’m your big brother. I’m supposed to look after you and buy you nice things!” he flashes Taesoo a bright and deeply appreciative smile since he is innately glad that he has his brother on his side at least. Giving him a thumbs up, he grabs hold of his brother’s hand before fetching his backpack. “Too bad our outing had to get ruined like that but I had fun today!”

“They’ll pay for it in the future!” Taesoo enthusiastically cheers as he clings to Jaewoo’s hand. “But I had lots of fun too! Can we do this again tomorrow Jaejae? I don’t want to spend time at home. Let’s spend the rest of the summer here please! If those losers trying coming back again, I’ll make sure they will regret interrupting us!”

Squeezing his palm reassuringly, Jaewoo nods eagerly with his own toothy grin. “Yeah sure! If we can go out, I’ll bring you here everyday! Pinky promise.” he holds his pinky out and the twins seal the deal.

“Yay, thank you so much! I love you Jaejae!”

“I love you too!” Jaewoo wiggles their arms about playfully with a spirited laugh as he tries ignoring the dull throb in his jaw. This doesn’t go unnoticed by Taesoo who immediately halts in his tracks to stare at Jaewoo intensely, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.

“It hurts, doesn’t it?” Taesoo moves a hand to poke at his jaw with his eyes glossing over with zero emotions. “They hurt you...”

“I’ll put ice on it when I get home. It’s fine Taesoo. These things happen! When we grow up, we will look back at our memories as kids and laugh about it!” Jaewoo attempts to console him with the same wide bright smile never leaving his face although his eyes harden in pain each time his jaw moves in sync with his mouth to talk.

“I’m sorry Jaewoo...” Taesoo suddenly appears to be crestfallen with his cheeks flushing in annoyance. “I didn’t get to protect you well. I won’t let them get away with it next time. Nobody is allowed to hurt you like that.”

“Hey, we worked as a team together! You did well. They were just bored. These fights happen between boys all the time. It’s fine. We stood up to them!” Jaewoo tries nudging his side to get him to laugh before holding their tightly held hands together as a victory fist pump into the air. The gesture makes Taesoo burst into elated laughter and Jaewoo’s heart is set at ease again.

#( I've been slow with replies because I've been working on this!!#if you are curious about the twin's dynamics before everything then have a skim through it #it's a bit long BUT I had to write it out to keep exploring their previous dynamics #time for replies now honest )#* : ✮ ┆𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑏𝑦𝑠𝑠 (𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑡).#* : ✮ ┆ 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 (𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑠).#tw: bullying

2 notes · View notes