2014, DAY TWO
Saturday, August 16, 2014 5:53 PM
Waeng arrives at the main building before Taehyun's parents do. Cici and other Waeng superfans help Angel tear down the set while Beomgyu, Shelly and Kai check in on first Yeonjun, then briefly Soobin and Taehyun. Soobin gets Taehyun awake enough to talk to Officer Jackson, and he confirms that Mayumi only slapped him. "No knives, no weapons. I got...into the bathroom before...things got worse," he explains in bits and pieces.
Then Taehyun's parents arrive. Roger and Melinda Rhodes are as middle class and white as you could possibly ever get with a couple, and Soobin wonders just how Korean Taehyun Rhodes could be their son. But when they enter the first aid room, Taehyun starts crying when he sees them, and they hold him close. Roger then goes with Officer Jackson to review the damage to the RV.
"The RV itself is in working order," he explains when he gets back. "We can clean it up pretty easily and drive it back tonight. Terry, you can get a good night's sleep in your own bed, and we can address the rest of this in the morning."
"Actually..." Taehyun looks at the ground. "I want to stay. Can I stay? Please? I'm okay now, and, well, I have my friends to...help me out with things."
Roger looks at the motley crew of friends his son has amassed: three Korean men, a woman who is clearly transgender, and another man of dubious heritage. "I love you, son, but is there any reason you have to stay here?"
"I mean, we'd hate to miss Sunday," Yeonjun says with a smile.
Ivy, still behind Yeonjun, snaps her fingers and stands up. "Yeah, that's right! Our set is tomorrow at 3 PM. You guys should come!"
"Oh, I don't think we would miss that for the world," Soobin says. "Miss Ivy and her boyfriend helped your son out when he couldn't get out of the RV."
"We should all go," Beomgyu says, eyes on River. "You look like my kind of musician."
Yeonjun grins. "I'm sure we can do even more than that. I wanna know everything about your set, who's playing, what kind of music you play, the works. I bet you didn't know I'm a music blogger."
River stares back in shock. "I didn't know that!"
"Can I please stay?" Taehyun asks his parents. "I know it would be easy to just go home for a bit, but...I wanna stay here, and relax for tonight, and catch up with my friends. I don't want to do anything fancy, just keep it simple. But tomorrow, I want to go back out with them, and go see River's show, and enjoy them. They're only up from the city for today and tomorrow."
"Oh, honey," Melinda says, "I'm so glad you have friends! You only hung out with Mary for so long, and this seems so much healthier."
"You have no idea," Taehyun mutters.
"But first," Roger says, "we have to clean up the RV. Who's with me?"
Taehyun knows at this point that Mayumi has wrecked his DJ equipment. He has already cried over it, with Soobin on one side and Yeonjun on the other, and Beomgyu has already come up with at least three ideas on how to replace it. But Taehyun does not need to see the RV a mess right now. If he's going to stay in the RV again tonight, all of Mayumi's things need removed, as well as the ruined elements. So Soobin, Kai, and Shelly go with Roger to the RV, while the others stay with him and he formally gets cleared by first aid to return to the festival.
"Put the curtains in here," Roger says as he produces a plastic bag. Shelly and Kai get to work on the electronics; Shelly puts all of the DJ turntable pieces together, while Kai keeps the computer safe. They may be able to extract the hard drive information and put it on a new laptop for Taehyun. Soobin pulls all of the blue from the corners, from under the dining room booth, when he sees a different color.
He pulls it out carefully. He would know that orange-pink color anywhere.
The t-shirt has been ripped clean down the middle, with several other slashes through it. An entire section from the side is missing, and Soobin can't find it. But the back is mostly preserved, and Soobin folds it into a small pile. He puts it on the booth table, and Roger sees it immediately.
"What's that?"
"This is my project." Soobin looks up at Roger, hoping Taehyun's dad won't ask questions. "I need to take care of this one. Don't tell Terry, okay?"
Roger almost insists that he should know, but after the day it's been, he doesn't need any more drama. He's been aware for some time that the son he raised isn't the son he knows at all. So he nods, and then he gathers up the rest of the curtains.
The curtains are thrown out. Shelly takes the busted decks to the Waeng trailer, putting all of the small pieces in a bag and keeping the rest of it safe. Since they know the model number, they'll be able to raise money for a replacement. Kai puts Taehyun's busted laptop in a drawer, sealing it tight so he won't have to see it yet. Eventually, Taehyun will have to face that music, but not this weekend.
And Soobin takes Taehyun's ripped T-shirt with him back to the Waeng trailer. He enters, then finds his bag and puts it at the very bottom. Let Taehyun think it is gone for now. He's sat by and let the world happen to him for too long. Let him fix this one thing.
Once the RV is clean, the others come back. Yeonjun and Beomgyu walk by Taehyun, who is okay on his own feet but has to move slow. He's still exhausted from the day's events, but it's all fatigue and not actual pain. And Soobin opens the door for him, and they all crowd inside, Beomgyu and Shelly and Kai and Yeonjun and Soobin and Roger and Melinda and Taehyun, in the center of it all.
Taehyun looks over the RV. "The curtains are gone."
"She destroyed those too," Roger says. "But the bedroom should be all right."
Taehyun slowly walks to the back, pushing the curtain aside. The queen bed is made, sheets tight. It smells like somebody sprayed Febreze through the entire room. There is no sign of Mayumi or any of her things. "She's really gone."
"She did it to herself," Yeonjun says, right behind Taehyun.
He turns and gives Yeonjun a big hug, suddenly, out of nowhere. "I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't come to my rescue. I owe you. A lot. Thank you."
Yeonjun laughs, and then he whispers in Taehyun's ear, far away from his parents. "I did it so you could see Soobin again."
Taehyun exchanges a glance with Soobin, and he is too tired to feel anything, much less the fireworks and butterflies he usually sees when Soobin is around. But it sits in his stomach like a warmth, something he knows will be there, when he's ready for it.
Roger and Melinda stick around for a while, and Roger orders enough pizza for everyone. Typically deliveries to the campground aren't allowed like this, but Yeonjun talks to Jessa and Jennie, and they intercept the delivery man and take them straight to RV 774. Beomgyu almost goes back to his RV for alcohol until Roger mentions his house doesn't drink, so they stick to orange soda and bottled water. The TV blares in the background as everybody talks, a spontaneous party set up in the little RV. Roger and Melinda sit in the drivers' seats, and people crowd around, on the floor, sitting on counters, meeting one another, exchanging as much information as they are comfortable with. Yeonjun and Kai sit next to each other, and while they don't make any motion of being together Taehyun already gets the hint. Before long, Roger has Taehyun's deck of cards, and as they play the biggest round of Slapjack possible, Taehyun's parents learn how to pronounce names, Yuhn-joon and Soo-bean and Bum-gyu, rhymes with ew, and Tae plus the Hyun in Hyundai, rhymes with fun. And they mess up a lot and they still call him Terry, and Taehyun doesn't seem to mind at least for now.
Eventually Roger and Melinda leave, with the promise that they will be back tomorrow after the show at 3 to help get the RV back to Taehyun's house. Yeonjun disappears to his own RV, taking Kai with him, and they run away to the tune of Beomgyu's cat calls and chants of "Kiss him! Kiss him!" And when Kai stops Yeonjun from running away and gives the crowd what they want, the remaining group erupts into cheers.
"We're headed back to the Waeng trailer," Beomgyu says. "Well, I am, Shelly's going to her own place. Soobin, what's your plan?"
Soobin looks at Taehyun. "I assume you don't want to stay here alone."
Taehyun almost opens his mind to say he will be fine, but then he catches a glimpse of the nearby window, without its curtains, and he remembers what kind of a day it's been. He probably shouldn't be alone. "Soobin, can you sleep above the driver's cabin? I think I'll be all right, but...you're right, I don't want to be alone. Not like this."
Beomgyu and Shelly agree, and they stay with Taehyun while Soobin gets his backpack from their trailer. They then leave, and Soobin and Taehyun both change separately into their night clothes, Soobin in the bathroom, Taehyun in the bedroom. And as Taehyun pulls his white t-shirt tight onto his frame, he realizes that he has no clue where his paint shirt is. He sticks his head from out around the curtain, but the drawer that had held both his DJ equipment and the paint shirt is gone. His dad had taken it back to the house.
"Taehyun?" Soobin is seated at the booth. "Are you okay?"
Taehyun looks up at Soobin. And he realizes just how empty the RV feels for some reason. It's like Mayumi's voice is echoing out into the space, like it's taking up where the curtains used to be, like she's going to come through the door any moment and finish what she started. The buzzing in Taehyun's ears increases, but he doesn't feel sick, he just feels like Mayumi —
"I don't know," he says, and he feels Soobin's arms around him, loose, giving him room to breathe.
"Do you want to lay down?"
"I...I don't know if I can sleep here." Taehyun doesn't know how to explain it. He's kind of half scared that Soobin will think he's a wuss.
"Are you thinking Mayumi's gonna come back?" And there it is, the elephant in the room.
"I know she's not. I just...feel really jumpy like she is. I'm so used to having her around."
"Then come here." Soobin points to the side of the bed. Taehyun sits, then lays down, and Soobin turns on one of the side lights and lays next to him, giving plenty of space between them. For a moment, it's awkward. Taehyun had been supposed to break up with Mayumi at the Waeng set, and he should be discussing things with Soobin, kissing him, even.
But Taehyun doesn't have the energy for that right now. There's still fear coursing through his veins. He feels like, the moment he kisses Soobin, Mayumi will barge in. He hates this.
"You're scared?"
"Yeah."
"I think it's normal to feel that way. I obviously haven't dated someone as crazy as Mayumi, heck, I haven't dated anybody else before. But...you want to move on from her, right?"
Taehyun nods. "Soobin, you said that nothing has changed, right?"
Soobin turns his body to face Taehyun. He doesn't make a move to kiss Taehyun, or even to pull him into his arms. But he reaches over and taps Taehyun's hand, then holds it. "Nothing has changed. But you're not okay right now."
"I'm really not."
"I know. I'm not going anywhere, but I also need to give you space. I think it's totally normal to expect Mayumi to show up. She always did before."
Taehyun stares at the ceiling. "So now what?"
"I stay here, with you. And we do what you're comfortable with. If that's sitting and talking and holding hands, because you can't sleep, then that's what we'll do."
"Soobin, don't you need to sleep?"
"I live in a city that doesn't sleep. I think I can be okay for now. I want to make sure you're okay."
"I don't want to think about Mayumi. I want to sleep, and I want to go to River's set tomorrow, and feel normal. I don't want to think about music right now, so it's probably good that River just plays guitar and has friends who back him up in a band."
"Yeah, no EDM sets for you for a while." Soobin realizes what he's said, but Taehyun laughs, just a bit.
"I'm so glad you're here." Taehyun squeezes Soobin's hand, then rolls on his right side so he's facing Soobin, distance still between them. "I'm...I really thought things had been messed up because of Mayumi, and you're still here, still trying. Why do you always keep running after me?"
Because I love you, Soobin thinks, but those are not the words Taehyun needs to hear right now. Instead, he says, "I didn't really do anything. Beomgyu and Kai came up with the plan, and Yeonjun saved you. I just sat in a trailer and picked my nose."
"Yeah, but you're the only one who really matters. Yeonjun wouldn't have done that for you, Beomgyu and Kai wouldn't have planned things around their set, if you didn't —" He laughs. "I answered my own question."
"You did?"
"Yeah. I —" Taehyun pauses, his tongue set on those three little words, before he swallows them. "I like you, Soobin. I still like you. I'm scared, and Mayumi is awful, and I have a lot to figure out. But I can say, right now, with certainty, that I like you. And I would be really happy if you stayed near me to make sure I get through the rest of this festival okay."
Soobin smiles. "And I like you too, Taehyun."
"I know that. That's the reason you're still here." And they both laugh, neither one pushing things, just content to be at the moment.
"Are you tired, Taehyun?"
"No. Still not. I slept for like three hours today, man, I'm not tired at all. How about...how about you tell me what happened to you in the year between us being here, and now? Like, we left NeoNara last year, and Mayumi ate me alive. And I know what happened with Waeng. It was hard to miss, I was kind of a part of that. But I like you and yet I know so little about you. Are you still going to school? Oh, man, what's it like going to school in New York City? That would be so cool."
"Do you want me to tell you? Okay, I will." And Soobin talks to Taehyun about Baruch College, and how he had traveled from Seoul to be there, and he reminds Taehyun of how he met Yeonjun and how they became roommates. "He just graduated, and he moved way uptown, so I have a new place to live now. I'm still getting used to it." And he talks about subway trains and bodegas and gross, gross pigeons, and somewhere between Gramercy Park and Harlem, Taehyun finally dozes off.
And Soobin lets go of his hand, then kisses it quickly before setting it back down. He turns off the light, then heads to the pull-down bed by the drivers' seats. Taehyun is finally safe and sound.
Finally.