chul
"but who brought most of us here? friends, maybe, but also family. family is a very important topic," christian says, "and i know some of you don't have the best families, but we can still go around the room and discuss, yeah? darren, why don't you talk a bit about yours?"
"pass," he says, and christian winces; yet it's so slight that it nearly goes unnoticed. darren crosses his arms and shakes his head. "i don't want to talk about them."
"okay," christian says, and his eyes land on chul. "how about you?"
there's no point in lying, no point in refusing to talk if it will truly help, so chul shrugs, but instead their eyes are on darren and not christian. "i've been going from foster home to foster home for as long as i can remember. i've been bullied, and it worsened when i started high school and didn't feel comfortable identifying as a boy. so i began dressing however i wanted, and my foster brother wasn't comfortable with that, so he and his friends bullied me." they don't break their gaze away from darren's dead stare. "and i started using because of that. i was caught when child services visited for a checkup, and i was adopted by my now legal mother. she sent me to rehab, and i got clean. now... here we are."
"do you love her?" christian asks, and chul finally looks away. "your mother."
"yes," chul replies. "i'm getting sober for good this time."
darren is still silent, and chul lets christian the floor again. they wonder what the black-haired boy is thinking.
