#benefits of being a homeschooler

[whyoneartheven]

guys i was trying to do school but then the wifi just...

stopped working???

so i took a nap instead

[explorersofsky]

when i took psych in high school we were talking about memory and my teacher was talking about things fading over time and was like “how many of you can remember the name of everyone in your third grade class?”

and i was like “oh i can” and he thought i was bullshitting him and told me to name everyone and then i was like “it was just me. i was homeschooled” and then he gave me a piece of candy as a reward for being a smartass

[identitty-dickruption]

random asker

your inbox is sad 😞

what’s your thoughts on homeschool? Or unschool?

(Genuinely I am very intrigued)

hello!

I was homeschooled for exactly one year (year five, ten years old) and I think it was good for me. but as with anything, there are a lot of variables. homeschool can be good if there is a concerted effort to keep the family in safe and healthy communities, and if the kids have access to a variety of information sources

sometimes homeschool is the right decision, and sometimes it isn’t. depends on the kid(s), the parents, the other school options, etc. I probably would’ve died if I’d had to stay in traditional school through that year, because I just was not coping. when I was reintroduced into regular school again, it was with a much better mindset, I think. so I don’t think any child should be forced to stay in a traditional school if it’s really not working for them…. but I do also feel for parents who may not have the time, energy, or resources to homeschool their kid

I think homeschooling has an unnecessarily bad rap though, and that more families should be given the resources they need to do it (either in part or in full)

[literallyimthenerdemoji]

"i tell people 'how you act' and they ask what happened" uh, the modern American school system, the curriculum and the promotion of the death of creativity and genuine joy in said curriculum, hope this helps!

[marblepasta-creepyhornet]

Hey, could you do some headcanons for the creepypastas x lonely reader? Thanks, and welcome to tumblr!

———

A/N: Awwww, thank you ❤️

Characters used: Toby, Jeff, BEN, EJ

———

Toby:

he was bullied when he was younger in school by kids his age, so it was hard for him to fit in so he was alone most of the time, not much changing after he was homeschooled.

He understood what it was like to be lonely, so he started to try and spend more time with you!

Despite your initial weariness in letting him in, he proved to be very trustworthy and nice the more time you both spent together

He’d even talk with you about his experiences, y’know, to help you feel less alone 🥺

Taking you on missions, late night walks through the forest, mini-sleepovers- the whole nine yards to make you feel less lonely.

Jeff The Killer:

Now, let’s not kid ourselves! Jeff’s a sadistic bastard and he could care less about how you feel-

But, let’s just say you’ve been at the mansion for a while; barely talking to anybody, not even responding when others need you/are trying to get your attention. Then it becomes an issue with Jeff (especially when he needs something)

What started out as annoyance from him soon morphed into worry then a weirdly overprotective side of him started showing.

A lot like Toby, he started spending time with you and hanging out (minus the extra effort, because, well, it’s Jeff. He doesn’t do anything extra unless it’ll benefit him)

Overall, Jeff starts out as not giving a fuck to then caring a lot (but won’t admit it 😒)

BEN:

Even after being in the mansion for so long, you still isolated yourself from everyone (Bad past issues), rather than joining everyone, you opted to stay in your room.

That was until Ben started to join in, showing up on the screens of your electronics to talk to you!

You couldn’t get this man away from you 😔

You’d be playing animal crossing and his character would show up like “Hey, bitch” and start hitting you with a net 😭

It’d start out as annoying, but just wait till you grabbed an axe and slowly turned to him-

Overall, he’d be smitten with just waiting for you on your own time. But, for now, he was okay with just appearing in your games :)

Eyeless Jack:

He couldn’t explain it, but he felt very overprotective of you.

He wanted nothing more than to talk to you and get to know you more.

But, he knew you struggled with loneliness before the mansion and as a result, isolated yourself.

On the rare occasion you were out of your room he’d have a note pinned to the fridge with your name on it, followed by a dark blue heart 🥺

When you opened it this time, it was a letter from Jack saying to check your pillow.

With confusion written on your face, you made your way back to your room, and when you opened your door you gasped.

Now, I personally headcanon Jack as a guy of many talents and that includes (I’m totally not projecting-) crochet!

On your pillow was a little Jack doll he crocheted of himself 😭😭😭

Next to it was another note, yet another blue heart scribbled on it.

“I know it’s taking time for you to warm up to everything, but if you ever feel lonely, you can talk to him” -EJ

[reareaotaku]

Love in High Places

Summary: You never wanted to choose between your two friends, but for some reason it seems like they want to have your attention on them Tw: Clingy Jon, Best friends fight, Mostly Damian x Reader, Unrequited love? Taglist: @6000-fandoms, @eros-kiss, @lucy0976, @crustyowos, @wtvbabes Part I: Superboy vs Robin | Pt III: Apple of My Eye

You may not have always been the brightest, as you were homeschooled by woman who didn't know much about Earth, you still could tell something was off with your friends. They were acting different. You had originally thought that maybe they just missed you or they had changed a little; it had been a year since you last seen them, but this... This was not them.

---

You sat on the roof, before taking a deep breath and running a hand through your hair. You had finally escaped Jon's hold and were now alone. He had been so clingy lately, and while you missed him, it was starting to drive you a little crazy. It didn't help that he had just made a scene at a party.

"But you've been alone for a year? Why can't we just stay like this a little longer?"

You sighed, before looking at the party goers, some of which were now focusing on you and Jon. "Jon, can we talk about this later?" You whispered, hoping that he'd drop it- But he didn't.

He frowns, his eyebrows scrunching together. "What? You don't want to talk about it? What is it? What do you want to talk about? Tell me- Don't make me wait- I've waited so long, Y/n." He practically demanded in an accusing tone, as if you were the bad guy for leaving to train.

You sigh, rubbing your temple, "People are beginning to stare, Jon."

"Let them! What's the matter? Why are you being like this?"

"Me? You're being so clingy- Just leave me the fuck alone!" You quickly covered your mouth when the words came out of your mouth. You hadn't meant it in that way- But it was too late. The room was quiet and people were starting to stare and whisper. Jon's face looked as if you had just told him his mother died. And instead of apologizing, you quickly left, pushing your way through the crowd, hoping he didn't follow you.

You scrunched your eyes together. You had only been back a few days and it seems you already ruined the relationship with one of your closest friends. Though, before you could dwell on it anymore, you heard footsteps. You quickly stood up and looked around, your eyes scanning everything.

You felt a presence behind you and quickly grabbed them, before pounding them into the hard tiled roof-tops.

"God, it's just me, Y/n."

You sighed, letting go, when realizing it was just Damian.

"What's got you in such a jumpy mood?" He already knew the answer. Jon had called him when you left the party, begging Damian to find you and talk some sense into you.

"I'm sorry." You say, rubbing your face. "It's been... a rough night."

"I heard."

You groan, leaning your head back and looking at the night sky. You couldn't see the stars because of the terrible pollution in Gotham, but you could imagine what the sky might look like. It was one of the things you hated about Gotham- Besides the growing crime rate. Maybe if they could see the beauty of the night, they would stop the senseless violence. But, probably not, because humans had a thirst for violent. A thirst that could never be filled or controlled. But it was nice to have some hope.

"I know Jon can be a little much," Damian began. He didn't know why he was helping Jon win you over. Maybe it was because he cared for Jon more than he loved you- God, he must really care about Jon. Or maybe, he hated seeing the only friends he had fighting, even if they're fighting could benefit him. Because, whether Damian admitted it or not, he cared about them, a lot. "But he's really missed you."

"I know."

"He talked about you every day- Seriously, Every. Day." Damian exaggerates his hands to prove a point.

You chuckle at his movements, before pushing a hair out of your face. "I believe it. It's just... He's overwhelming, you know?"

"Yeah, well, that's Jon for you."

"Yeah. I should apologize, huh?"

"I'm sure he already forgives you."

You laugh again, this time your head going back, "God, you're probably right. That's so Jon, though. He's such a forgiving guy. A good guy."

"Yeah... He is, isn't he..."

[rax-writes]

I went looking for trouble… and boy, I found her.

Xavier Thorpe x Reader

warnings:  reader is a member of the Frump family (Morticia’s twin’s daughter) but no physical description is given, SMUT (MINORS DNI), slightly dom!Xavier, blood kink, unprotected sex, public sex / slight exhibitionism (but no one is around), brief choking, oral and fingering (f!receiving), p in v sex, porn with a bit of plot

Being the daughter of a pastel-loving, effervescent flower child such as Ophelia Frump was exhausting. Truth be told, she was a good mother – always doing her best to indulge in your macabre interests, or phoning her twin sister for some assistance in such endeavors – but the disconnect born from your polar opposite demeanors was ever-present.

After an incident in kindergarten that left you banned from all the local schools, you were homeschooled by private tutors. (Oh, how proud your Uncle Gomez and Aunt Morticia were – and oh, how horrified your mother was.) You had always dreamed of attending Nevermore Academy like your aunt and uncle, and being around other “outcasts,” but being that you somehow managed to always return from summers at their house even kookier and creepier than before, your mother feared what a stay at such a place would do to you. However, upon hearing that your dear cousin Wednesday would be attending the school, you had the leverage to work up some fake tears and a compelling argument to your mother about how it would benefit the poor girl to have a familiar face there with her, and off to Nevermore you went.

----------------------------

“Uh, Wednesday…?” Enid began, momentarily ignoring her breakfast to stare over her roommate’s shoulder with furrowed brows. “Do you happen to have a family member coming to visit?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Because a goth version of Stevie Nicks with the same creepy, calculating look as you just walked in.”

Wednesday’s eyes widened a fraction, and she breathed your name in realization as she turned in her seat to lock eyes with you from across the Quad. Considering the bright, elated smile that crossed your face as Wednesday rushed to greet you, Enid noted then that you must be a bit more in the realm of “normal” than your pigtail-wearing family member. Although, Enid doubted that anyone in Wednesday’s family could truly be considered as such.

Determined to ensure that you got a positive perspective on Nevermore, being that Wednesday would undoubtedly give a grim depiction of the school, Enid insisted on joining the two of you for the introductory tour. Enid delighted in the way you smiled at her jokes, and even told a few jokes and anecdotes of your own, some of which even brought the faintest of smiles to Wednesday’s face. By the time the group returned to the Quad, it was lunchtime, and there were twice as many students as before.

In the midst of Enid’s thorough explanation of all the trouble Wednesday had already gotten herself into in less than a fortnight at Nevermore, the conversation was interrupted.

“Hey, Enid, have you seen – woah.”

The stunned whisper marked the abrupt end of the sentence of the young man who had jogged over to your table as you turned to face him. He just stared at you with wide, sage green eyes that seemed to look straight into your soul. And you stared right back, taking in the deep emerald hue of his irises, how pretty his lips looked, the light brown hair that brushed against his shoulders.

“Whenever you two are done mentally undressing one another, I would suggest introducing yourselves.”

Wednesday’s deadpan interruption of the tense silence caused him to look away, and shake his head as though to clear his mind, which brought a smirk to your face. He found you just as attractive as you found him. How delightful.

“Uh, sorry. I’m Xavier Thorpe,” he stated, reaching out to shake your hand. You did the same, but he then appeared confused. “Frump? I thought you’d be an Addams, judging from how similar you seem to Wednesday.”

“She’s a cousin from my mother’s side. Her mother is my Aunt Ophelia, the white sheep of the family,” Wednesday explained.

“Don’t you mean ‘black sheep’?” Xavier inquired.

“No,” you and Wednesday both replied in unison.

“My mother is exceptionally fond of… color,” you explained, saying the word as though it were something morally reprehensible. “She decorates with the most abrasive array of bright, colorful maximalism you can possibly imagine. Wednesday visited once, and went into anaphylactic shock the moment she walked in the door. She spent three days in the hospital.”

“It was deeply unpleasant,” the grayscale girl added earnestly, then shuddered as one typically does after seeing a repulsive insect.

“Ah,” Xavier said with a chuckle. “Well, it’s nice to meet you. Hopefully you’re more fond of Nevermore than your cousin, and hopefully we’ll be friends.”

A devilish smile spread across your lips. “We’re not going to be friends.”

From anyone else, it would have sounded insulting. But the way you said it sounded more like a promise, and fuck, did it thrill Xavier.

----------------------------

Naturally, you were right.

Which is how you found yourself desecrating the perfectly manicured lawn in the Nevermore gardens, Xavier’s head between your thighs, his soft hair tied back as his hands, mouth, and tongue caused you to see stars despite the cloudy night sky.

Although the arms keeping you propped up was weak, it was worth fighting the ache in your biceps to see him devour you. He did it so ravenously, yet with so much intention; always mindful of which motions brought out the shrillest whines or sharpest gasps, and doing them repeatedly, until you were a panting, whimpering mess.

When Xavier could tell you were getting close, from how ragged your breathing was and the incoherent muttering of “gods, please, please, Xavier, please,” he spared a glance at you to take in the positively wrecked look on your face. The way his emerald eyes bore into yours, just as they had the very first time you met him – you were a goner. You bit your lip so hard you tasted the familiar metallic taste of blood, to avoid waking the entire castle with your cries of pleasure.

The groan that left Xavier at the taste of you sent vibrations through your overstimulated flesh, causing you to jerk violently, and he then took pity on you and leaned back on his heels with a wicked grin. Seeing him leaning back like that, smirking as he unbuckled his belt, was truly a sight you never wanted to forget.

“God, I love that you’re always so pretty and put-together, and everything you do or say is so poised and perfect – but every single time I get my hands on you, I get to see this fucked-out version of you,” Xavier mused, shoving his pants and boxers down past his knees as you stared at his pretty cock with glassy, hungry eyes. He leaned down then, caging you in with his arms, before one hand reached up to grab your jaw – a bit forcefully, just the way he knew you liked it. “All for me. All mine. Isn’t that right, baby?”

“Yes,” you breathed, eyes fluttering shut at the feeling of his tip at your entrance. “All yours, my darling.”

“Good girl,” Xavier replied with a grin, before releasing your jaw to guide himself into you. He eased himself in slowly, allowing you to feel every inch of him, but once he was all the way inside, he drew his hips back, then thrust himself in again, fast and hard. Thankfully, he had the foresight to clamp his free hand over your mouth, muffling the loud, obscene moan that tumbled from your lips.

The psychic set an unrelenting pace, having been too turned on while eating you out to take his time with you. He had become far too addicted to getting you off to be selfish about it, though. So, in stark contrast to the fast pace of his hips slamming into yours, he slowly trailed his hand down from your mouth to your throat, giving it a firm squeeze and earning a moan from you, before continuing the descent until his arm wound itself around your lower back. Xavier used it to prop up your hips just a bit – enough to hit that particular spot deep inside you that had you biting your lip again, the taste of blood momentarily flooding your senses again.

As you wrapped your legs around him and hooked your high heel-clad ankles behind his back – knowing full well how much he adored that – he groaned, low in his throat, and leaned down to capture your lips in a kiss, not minding that they were covered in crimson. When Xavier broke the kiss, and you saw your blood coating his plump lips, the burning intensity in his eyes, all while his cock hit your sweet spot again and again and again – your orgasm hit you like a freight train, and you came with a soft, breathless cry of his name and your sharp black nails raking down his back.

“Oh, fuck,” Xavier moaned, low and gravely, immediately following suit, and the sensation of his release filling you up was nearly enough to make you come again.

The arm under your back released you to help Xavier prop himself up, and he was a vision. Eyes closed, brows slightly furrowed, lips still tinted red with the blood from the cuts on your lips, and a thin sheen of sweat across his forehead, neck, and chest as he basked in the afterglow, still buried inside of you.

Unable to resist, you simultaneously squeezed his cock with your lower muscles and gingerly raked your nails along his sides. Xavier shuddered from over-sensitivity and pulled out of you with a hiss, unable to handle the feeling. He leveled you with a glare, only to be met with a sinister smile.

“You’re evil.”

“Thank you.”

Xavier chuckled breathlessly, before standing to quickly fix his boxers, pants, and belt. He then grabbed the hoodie he’d worn to your rendezvous, and kneeled in front of you to tidy you up with it. Always the gentleman, you thought with another smile as he balled the hoodie up to hide the mess from anyone you may encounter on the walk back, then extended his hand to you. He hoisted you up off the ground without much effort, and as you both moved to fix your dress, you noticed in unison that your legs were still shaking from your orgasm.

Xavier merely held up his hands in surrender and said nothing as he reached down to grab his t-shirt, but that shit-eating grin was still on his pretty lips – along with the blood.

The two of you locked eyes, and just as Xavier smiled and opened his mouth to make an undoubtedly cocky, smart-ass comment, you held up a finger and warned, “Silence, or I’ll hex you.”

“Oh, but my love, you’ve already bewitched me,” Xavier said dramatically, holding a hand over his heart to further his theatrics.

“Mhmm,” you replied dryly, although you failed to fully hide your smile. “How about you just put your shirt on and walk me back to my room, Shakespeare. I’ve got a potion to brew.��

“I would also advise you to wipe your mouth. You look more like a vampire than a psychic at the moment.”

He appeared confused, but did as you bade him, and the implication of your words dawned on him as he saw the blood on the back of his hand. Evidently, in his lust-fueled haze, he hadn’t even realized he was kissing your bloody lips. Then, a lightbulb visibly went off in his mind.

“Wait, you liked that, didn’t you?” he asked, stunned. He had seemingly pieced together that you finished right after he kissed you and you saw the blood on his lips.

“Indeed.”

As you so often did, you somewhat expected him to shun you – to be appalled or horrified by you, as most typically were, for some reason or another. It was a very common experience for members of your family.

But, as always, he did nothing of the sort. He was entirely unphased. In fact, the corner of his lips turned up slightly, and Xavier merely replied, “Noted. Just promise you won’t dump me for a vamp. Since, you know, they’ve usually got blood on them, and it’s more of a rare occurrence for me.”

“You have my word,” you responded with a warm smile.

Xavier draped his arm over your shoulders, and the two of you began walking back to the academy, leaving the newly-christened gardens behind you.

“Have I told you how much I love those contraceptive potions of yours?” Xavier mused, with a happy sigh only a man who’d just finished inside a woman could produce.

“Every time we have intercourse, yes.”

“Hm…. Have I told you how much I love you?”

“Also yes, but I never tire of hearing that one.”

“Good, because I love you.”

“And I love you, Xavier.”

----------------------------

➼ this fic could be considered a part two

[tizeline]

How does Draxum deal with raising three super soldiers, mentally? We know from the show that Draxum becomes depressed after realizing that he helped unleash the Shredder and almost became one of the reasons why Yokai kind gets destroyed alongside humanity, but when the boys were younger did Draxum have any doubts about raising the boys as child soldiers or did it take up so much energy as to make him depressed?

Also, we’ve touched up on how the boys might react to Draxum’s destroy humanity’s plans after meeting April and Donnie but how do the boys react to Yokai reacting negatively to Draxum’s plans. Especially considering human society are a part of Yokai business resource chains even if unknowingly. I doubt normal Yokai like Hueso would react positively if they every heard the boys and Draxum’s plans to destroy humanity considering he lives on the surface with his kid. Also if you think about how Hueso is wanted in the Hidden City, Hueso Jr probably goes to school in the human world.

Draxum might know to keep quiet about his highly illegal plans to destroy humanity and mutate humans but were the boys ever told by Draxum to keep the plans secret from other Yokai? Does Raph considering he wants to become a police officer does he become devastated when he realizes that what he’s been raised to do is illegal according to Yokai laws?

I just want to mention that early on in the show Draxum calls mutants “Yokai” before he hears what the mutants were calling themselves, and tried to ingrain himself with them by creating the evil league of mutants. So do the boys call themselves Yokai like what Draxum would’ve wanted or do they come to the conclusion that they should be called mutants anyway?

In the flashback with the Council of Heads Draxum talks about mutating humanity into “Yokai” in his plans to prevent the prophecy of Yokai kind getting destroyed from occurring but the Council mentions that the actual prophecy makes no mention of humans being the ones to destroy Yokai kind. Did Draxum ever bring the prophecy being the whole reason he wants to destroy humanity up to the boys? How do they react to everything they’ve ever been told being a lie or the result of their dad making a mountain out of a mole hill?

Woah, lotsa questions, here we go! :D

While Draxum probably feels at least a bit anxious about sending his sons off to fight (dad instincts yknow) he doesn't really feel bad about it. He's very much convinced that humans are going to destroy the yokai if they don't destroy the humans first, so really, having his sons fight alongside him to save yokai-kind is would actually just benefit the boys is the long run. Sure, turning them into soldiers is putting them in danger, but in Draxums mind they are already in danger just by humanity existing. And while raising three hyperactive mini super soldiers was definitely a bit draining, it didn't have a particular detrimental effect on his psyche, mentally he's doing fine.

Raph, Leo and Mikey already know that the majority of yokai wouldn't vibe with the destruction of humanity, even tho there are yokai who don't particular like humans, that doesn't mean they wish any harm on the entire species. The Drax Trio's explanation for this is that CLEARLY those yokai don't truly understands what's at stake! If they did, they'd OBVIOUSLY side with Draxum because their dad knows best! And yeah, Draxum wouldn't want the whole truth of his ambitions to be known, what he's doing isn't exactly legal so the turtles would have to keep the yokai-world-domination plot on the down-low. That being said, it's not illegal to dislike humanity so it wouldn't be a secret that the Draxum family is quite anti-human.

(You know, I always assumed Hueso Jr was attended school in the Hidden City or was homeschooled, but I really like the concept of him going to a human school while using a cloaking brooch likee Sunita)

(And Raph wouldn't have any desire to join the yokai police force in this AU, so there's that)

And yeah, you make a good point. Mutants are essentially just artificially created yokai, so Draxum and his sons would just use the term yokai when reffering to the turtles. Donnie and April would be the ones to start using the term mutant probably, but I like the idea of The Drax Trio being very opposed being called mutants themselves. Obviously they'd know about their unusual origins, but they'd still consider themselves as part of yokai-kind, and the term mutant would probably feel quite "othering" to them.

Draxum would've told his sons about the prophecy really early on, (he probably used it as a bedtime story lmaooooo) so they'd already be quite familiar with the details of it, INCLUDING the fact that humans aren't mentioned at all in it. But it also doesn't mention what exactly it is that destroys yokai-kind at all, so the trio just figure that if Draxum deduced that humans are the biggest risk to yokai and are therefore the unpsecified threat spoken of in the prophecy, then that must be right cuz there's now way their super smart dad would be wrong, right?

[blkdaddie]

A Trad Husband's Handbook: Cultivating Traditional Skills and Hobbies

Traditional husbands should cultivate and take joy in gentle skills and hobbies. Sewing, gardening, and hospitality are fun and benefit the whole family. What greater joy is there than swaddling a baby in a blanket knit by your own hands!

Show your pride in your home with custom décor, including tiling and murals. Kids change interests quickly, show that you're listening to their wants and needs with a full bedroom and playroom redecoration every year or so.

Cultivate a bountiful garden so your family can eat fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs daily. Throughout the spring and summer, cut fresh flowers daily to adorn countertops and nightstands.

Make every day special! It goes without saying that meals should be cooked from scratch and with food from your garden whenever possible. Birthdays and accomplishments should be celebrated with special treats and hand-made favors and decorations. Pro tip: Baking is a great way to teach fractions for homeschoolers.

Speaking of baking, if you do choose to send your kids to school, keep tabs on their activities and how the school is being run by being the head of the PTA. Bake sales, tricky trays, chaperoning field trips, etc. What a great way to get some extra time with your kiddos.

Part of being a good homemaker is ensuring the household is both tidy and functional. It is your responsibility to keep the home organized and running smoothly. A good calendar system will help you with meal prepping, scheduling prenatal and beauty appointments, and ensuring you have sex with your HoH (Head of Household) at least 9 times a week.

Remember, there are 24 useable hours in every day! When you're doing what you love for the people you love, it never feels like work.

[serpentface]

I don't remember if you've ever said, but I assume Hibrides' children aren't coming along for the pilgrimage so...who are they staying with? Janeys' family? As a bonus, what's the schooling/care arrangement like for them and kids living in the larger Wardin cities in general?

Yeah they're left behind. Janeys' household is being managed by one of his aunts, but most of the children's care is in the hands of their tutor and his one permanent hired servant. These two also provide the majority of the practical day to day care for the children in general. This is in large part due to 2/3 of the parents involved not wanting to be parents at all, but is not outright atypical of a noble family- it's very common to delegate much of the basic childcare to servants. Janeys' main involvement in his children's lives is Being The Guy That Is Ostensibly Their Father And Exists In The Same Household, Hibrides does Some childcare and is teaching Erubi to weave but is like, emotionally distant, Brakul kind of just does whatever he can get away with (the one thing he consistently gets to do is tell them stories).

The children are too young to for school and probably will never attend (unless either gets nepotism-inducted into the Odonii and thus attends a priestly school, which has already been suggested but not officially decided for Erubi). Janeys and Hibrides both came from families that utilized private tutors for homeschooling instead of attending school and consider this to be a superior form of education.

---

Parents are expected to provide some degree of education in basic skills for their children, which is somewhat separated by gender- mothers focus more on teaching daughters women's tasks and will have them assist in rearing of siblings, fathers will have their sons accompany them at labor. This separation is less intense in the lower classes (eg: textile work is an endless everyday task, women and girls may perform the bulk of the work but husbands and sons will participate in free time) and more intense (with less parental involvement) in the upper classes (which will typically have servants to assist in domestic tasks, lightening the workloads of both parents and allowing more separated roles).

Being formally educated (and ESPECIALLY being literate) is culturally valued, but education is not compulsory and there are significant class (and citizenship) barriers to comprehensive, longterm education.

Formal education is largely inaccessible to the rural poor, and necessary life skills will typically learned by working with family and community members hands-on. Schools exist primarily within the major cities, generally as boarding schools that the children will live at semi-permanently for 4-6 years. The majority of these schools are run by temples (though are separate from priesthood-specific schools) and separated by class. Some are specifically made for children of nobility (or those otherwise wealthy enough to afford it), though will occasionally offer scholarships to notably promising commoner children. The rest are Effectively free and considered a benefit of citizenship, but more easily accessible to the mercantile classes (many poor families need their children to assist in labor and household tasks and cannot afford to send them away).

In terms of nobility or otherwise very wealthy families, hiring private tutors is often preferred over school attendance. These will typically be scholars who have received higher education and are considered capable of providing a comprehensive one on one education to children. Depending on the arrangement, they will usually visit (or even live in) the family's home on a daily basis for lessons, and often serve additional functions in providing some childcare. (The hiring of servants is also ubiquitous in any family that can afford it- this is generally for household tasks, but most wealthy families will have servant(s) that specifically assist in childcare).

A standard, basic education will include: literacy and writing, religious and moral topics, civic duties, some basic mathematics, and other broad life skills. Education for girls includes all of the above and is otherwise mostly tailored towards domestic tasks (cooking, textile work, home economics, etc). Boys will receive training as warriors (which is very important- all citizen men can be called to combat as footsoldiers and are expected to have basic competency).

An upper class education additionally includes: calligraphy, poetry, music (mostly song and dance, which have important religious roles in addition to being valued art forms), etiquette, and specialized civic duties. The education of upper class boys will delve into politics, rhetoric, economics, law, some basic philosophy, and higher-skill warrior training that includes mounted combat and swordsmanship (intended to funnel these boys into ranking groups of soldiers). Upper class girls typically are granted a greater spectrum of educational topics in addition to domestic tasks, with a particular focus on the arts.

Most major priesthoods have their own schools for child initiates, which typically teach a basic core curriculum in addition to specialized skillsets of their respective priesthood and a more in-depth religious education. In these cases, the children are sent away permanently and the majority of their rearing is performed by priests and attendant servants.

[technologyculturedneo]

SOS: Am I Alive?

“As long as I’m still here, you’re still my bitch.”

SUMMARY. Tending to commit crime and causing havoc, Mark and Haechan tagged along with their brothers find themselves trapped in a rich mansion with two spoilt wealthy girls. Dae and her sister Yezi pray for their father (Chenle) or even the police (Jaemin and team) to save them as they’ve failed to hold their own ground. With no saving arms in reach the girls end up submitting to all of the boys request, including degradation and demoralization- all in the name of preventing bloodshed.

PAIRING(s). Burglar, Delinquent!Mark, Haechan, Jeno, Renjun; Police!Jaemin, Jisung; Husband!Chenle, OC (original character) 

GENRE. Longshot. Angst. Crime. Strangers to lovers. Smut (non-consensual). 

WARNINGS. Alcohol, smoking, marijuana use, toxic relationship, family, swearing, s content (non con, choking, restrains, intercourse, degradation)

Read next: SOS: Poison In My Mind

S1: E1-7

"But mum I've got tickets-"

"Even if you have tickets, the answer is still no if you don't place all your assignments on my desk." Our step mum, Chungdae, drones out like a machine to my 16 year old sister, Yezi, while focusing her mind on preparing a meal for my dad. “Just because you’re homeschooled shouldn’t give you the right to flunk on your assignments whenever you want.”

"Come one mum, Professor Doyoung said it'd be okay if I hand in my work on Monday. Which means, I still have today, tomorrow to finish the work." Yezi points off her fingers seemingly desperate in trying to convince mum. “Come on mum,”

“I’m not off. And I don’t care how many days you have. Those are my rules. You’re not going anywhere until your work is on my desk. All of your work.”

One thing Yezi tremendously fails at doing is trying to get mum to say yes to anything. Already knowing that, it would be fair to not even approach mum with any proposal, unless of course it’s educational content- not some kpop meet and greet. 

"Come on mum. You let Dae do it all the time. It’s not fair." Yezi nags, slowly losing her cool and temper. But mum is immune to it all by moving back and forth from the cooking book to the pot on the stove that’s steaming hot.

Pointing my fork, that has a pineapple slice, to Yezi, I chip in to defend myself. "That's because I'm in college, responsible and go to events that actually benefit me in the future." Yezi rolls her eyes. "Not what you do-"

"That's because you're boring. B O R I N G. Boring." Yezi deadpans leaning over the kitchen counter, blocking my mum from reading the ingredients book with her hand. “And mum you don’t need this book. I hate all the dishes here-”

“It’s for dad you idiot.” I remark getting irked by her nagging tone. “Not you.”

“Did I ask you?”’

“I don’t need your consent to speak.” I counter back munching on the rest of my pineapple salad.

Mum picks up the homemade cooking book that Mrs Chittaphon gave her, a book given in order to prepare new and cultured dishes for my dad.

Mrs Chittaphon is our Thai neighbor who over the weekends (for free) teaches Yezi how to speak Thai. She’s also the person I blame for influencing Yezi in a lot of weird eastern side culture. Not that it's a bad thing to learn about another culture, but I think it’s personally annoying hearing Yezi continuously watch 'Thailand dramas' and claim that their history facts are all that.

But regardless, at this point Mrs Chittaphon is almost like family, simply because she's Thai who speaks Chinese and is familiar with Chinese culture- and we're half Korean half Chinese, who speak no Chinese or Thai. 

I think my dad just wants us to keep the ‘Chinese culture’ by being with someone of our own, and someone like Mrs Chittaphon who speaks many languages being Korean, English, Thai and Chinese. Her presence is essential to my dad, as he gets the piece of mind that culture is not lost. So thus, she's almost like family. Almost...mostly to my dad and Yezi, to me and mum she's a mean lady from Thailand who's married to a monk man, Mr Chittaphon. Or as we like to call him Ten, because it takes 10 seconds for him to curse us out whenever we step foot on his perfectly trimmed garden whenever we visit.

The reason Mrs Chittaphon is so close to us, is because my dad mentioned that it would be nice if mum learnt a few Chinese dishes, so that he would feel more at home instead of eating salads and unseasoned Korean diet meat. The other reason is so that mum could also become 'friends' with Mrs Chittaphon and learn Chinese. Which is impossible, the lady and her husband basically hate mum- having to do with the reason that she’s my dad’s second wife and that she knows nothing about China. Can they blame her, she’s never been to China before, she’s full Korean and knows very well about her motherland, our motherland.

Fine culture is what graces our lives, yet mum is more humbled and not as flashy as dad, me and Yezi.

"Sweety don't call your sister boring," mum says distantly, trying to focus on the ingredient list. Crinkles appear on her forehead when holding garlic and ginger. “Which one is it?” She mutters.

"Okay fine mum, I promise before 4 p.m. I'll get all my homework done and it’ll be on your desk ready for Professor Doyoung who'll come Monday. Then can I go?" She proposes with perky attitude. Shaking my head and placing my bowl in the sink washing it- I wonder on the final verdict from my mum.

"You can go. As long as Dae goes with you."

"Oh my fucking god. What?"

“Language Yezi.”

"I don't wanna go to her stupid thing." After drinking my glass of water, I turn around drying my hands. “It’s useless to me.”

"Mum she can't go! She'll ruin the whole thing!" A frown and sharp stare attacks Yezi’s eyes as we stare brutally at each other. “Just look at her.”

"Oh come on sweety she won't ruin the whole thing-"

"Yes she will!" Yezi boils out and screeches- catching us by surprise. "Come on mum, she's the best at all she does and all she does is make people hate her!"

"Sweety don't say that about your sister-"

"Mum I don't even want people thinking we're related!" Yezi exclaims again. "I could get stoned for knowing someone like her."

"You pissy brat!" I throw a spoon at her to which she dodges and throws back her shoe.

"Girls! Girls!" Mum stands in front of me. "Dae you're 19 years old, act your age, you're too old for partaking in this behavior."

"Tell her again, and don’t forget to mention she’s too old to still be living in her parents house." Yezi folds her arms fuming. "Mum pay attention to me leave her alone," She whines again.

Cooling down, I take a seat down on top of the counter and fold my arms glaring at her. "Why are you screaming when she's right here? You're so annoying."

"And you suck."

I roll my eyes mocking her tone. "You suck."

"Ugh! I'll just have to go ask dad," She huffs.

"Sweety, don't. Listen. He came in late last night. Let him him rest." Rigidly  leaving the ingredient book on the counter, mum walks to Yezi holding her shoulders.

Our dad, Zhong Chenle, an infamous Architect designer and real estate agent for his own housing and company creations. He works around the world designing and building houses for rich and partly famous people, he showcases a lot of his work in London, the States and China, thus making him constantly on the move and travelling. Being the heir to the family business, he’s often on work mode and hardly gets time to rest. On the days that he does have time to catch a break, he prefers to spend it with us, yet mum advices and convince him to catch a break before engaging with the family. 

Right now if Yezi had to go to him, disrupting his sleep, he would allow for her to go to that meet and greet and also for her to go alone because of the guilt he feels for not being around- if anything Yezi has a sharp tongue and can make anyone upset with her words. Unfortunately, my dad is weak to that. He’d even go as far as giving her extra money to waste. There’s always something about him throwing money at us to cover the guilt he’s feeling, it somehow makes us all feel better. It’s something dad constantly does, to the point where I also believe that throwing money at all my problems will make them mysteriously hush down. But seriously, money talks and has the ability to shut out all the guilt. So even though mum doesn’t like that we disrupt him from his sleep and make him feel guilty, we still prefer to run up to him just to get the dad bank. If we don't bother him then who will?

"I want all your homework on my desk before 4 pm and you’re going with Dae end of discussion." Mum says walking back to the counter and book.

Yezi's face becomes as red as a chili pepper about to explode. She stomps her way out the kitchen- like every other time when things don’t go her way.

"Oh shame are you going to cry because things aren’t going your way again? Spoilt brat." I mumble the last part when her door slams loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear. “Such a brat.”

Mum lets out a breath going back to her station. She clears her throat, "Your sister is something else. It feels like she’s a riffle gun just shooting out nonstop." She sighs. "I wonder how your mother did it."

I smile at her. "You know mum, you're too nice for your own good. You need a back bone," 

"What do I do now?"

"Don't give up. Just have a little more strength and stop treating her like a baby, she's already spoilt." I hug her from behind hanging my head on her shoulder. I don't like seeing her stressed out because of Yezi or anything. She's a really good woman who I've grown to love. “Plus, dad will enjoy this dish. You know he loves it tradition style,”

“Yezi said he’d hate it.” She laughs a little, "I am glad that she's not the only child."

"And I'm glad that my dad remarried,"

Haechan, a young thug, drives to his usual parking spot which is by a small arena venue. He isn't expecting a mob of girls to be flooded at the parking rentals. Turns out there is an occasion this evening, in the small assembly. 

It’s in the afternoon when he parks his car, and together with his partner in crime Mark, they carefully snuggle into the cars around to get out a ‘thing or two’. Easy money is following a large crowd and getting lost in a sea of people. So while Haechan only came to park his car, he found himself staying longer because this spot right here was gold free of charge. And as the sun slights sets Haechan and Mark’s eyes peer over at all the girls that leave the venue. “Who are we gonna rob?” Mark enquires having his eyes fixed on the cheer filled girls leaving the arena and entering their cars- some of which Haechan and Mark had already stolen from.

Now the sun is out of sight and the once fully packed arena is now almost vacant with about 8 or 9 cars. Throughout the wait, he and Mark drink light beer beverages and smoke in the car to not draw any attention to themselves. The only thoughts in their head is who to rob next.

After the meet and greet: 6pm on the dot.

"OMG did you see the way he looked at me!" Yezi squeals beside me jumping up and down with all her gift bags and posters in her hand.

"Please there were 3 other girls behind you whose breast were practically begging for attention,"

"Do you enjoy sucking the fun out everything or are you naturally a bitch?" Yezi sends sharp eyes in my direction but I ignore her. I'm missing out on spending time with my friends for her stupid meet and greet and she's bitching. "You're negative because they didn't look at you,"

"Neither did I." I fake a smile going back to texting my friends in our group chat.

The event went successfully well and was kind of fun, as much as I don't want to admit. A lot of girls were there wearing nothing but the most revealing of clothes, few were decent but majority were overruled by revealing clothes. Yezi wore a black jumpsuit with a white top inside- upon seeing the styles in which the girls were dressed in she nagged and whined about how she should've worn a skirt too. I on the other hand wore all black, long sleeved shirt and high waist skirt with my black knee high socks and black boots. I dressed up, because I was still going out and thought I might as well be presentable. But eventually after getting bored, I found myself outside texting with my friends and waiting for Yezi. But now that she’s done, I have to multi task in ‘talking/ignoring’ her as well as texting my friends.

Hendry: u still out?

Me: Yep and my sisters bitching

Hendery: send her over, we've got an ancient Chinese healing that will whip her back into shape

Xioujun: I wonder why ur sister likes those type of music- Chinese melodies is where it's at!

Yangyang: You guys clearly haven't heard of WAP. That’s literally where it’s at.

I end up sending a message to my dad once Yezi is done mingling and getting contacts with some of the other girls. Feeling lazy to walk to the bus stop or order an uber and listen to my sister talk non stop about her experience that's not even interesting- I text up my dad.

"Are we walking?"

"No, I sent dad a message." I answer. "He'll be here soon,"

Yezi sighs joyously staring out into the empty. "Imagine I marry him and become Mrs Min-" I burst out laughing at what Yezi says.

"That name is awful. It sounds like that house cleaning product Mr Min,"

"Dae you are so heartless. Every time I try to talk about the things I like you shut me down."

I roll my eyes but stop halfway when catching something behind her. A guy. He’s leaning on a wall, drinking on a glass bottle of what looks like Terra beer. Chugging a mouthful of the alcohol- he downs the remaining in one gulp. He does all that with his eyes on me... Uneasiness washes over me. But I try to ignore it.

The event ended half an hour ago resulting with majority of the fans and people leaving. There’s only a few people loitering around outside the building and inside as well. Yezi and I are part of the few inside the building sitting on the vacant chairs, as the workers clean up... so maybe that’s why he’s looking at us...at me. Maybe because he works here and is possibly a manger trying to lock up...otherwise it wouldn’t make sense why he’s looking at me.

The man downing down his beer for a living propels himself to lean on the wall. He looks zoned out and not here, yet his whole figure screams out that he’s not acting normal. He’s got such a defined face, and his eyes although small are distinctively on me. My heart beats in speed when he tilts his head to the side his eyes going down my sitting figure- 

“It’s like you don’t even care about me.” 

Yezi’s voice brings me out of the trance I seemed to have gotten myself in with that guy. Peeking back only for a little bit, his lip curls up into a sly smirk. This time he preys open another can taking a big gulp of the can still with his eyes on me. I gulp down and look away feeling uncomfortable watching him drink on while using me as some sort of muse for him to watch. 

“Earth to Dae? Hello?”

Shaking my head and blinking my eyes away from the guy, I pane my view back to Yezi only to be irritated by the sight of her face- which is so close. 

“Look Yezi, if I don't care, I don't care. Go marry that cleaning product and leave me alone."

"That's his name." She says clinching her jaw and looking away while shaking her head. “And I wasn’t even talking about that.”

“Yezi piss off, I’m busy.” My eyes focus on the chats sliding up by every new incoming message. 

Trying not to mind the drunk gaze that heavily lingers on, I try to focus on the chats. I finally relax and we fall in deep silence. She takes selfies with her items while I chat on, but then she stops, her eyes looking back occasionally.

"Dae," she whispers my name.

"Hmm,"

"Is it me or has that guy been looking at us?" She tilts her head nudging to the side. I follow her head and my eyes land on that guy again. This time he’s seated on one of the chairs.

He’s seating backwards on it, while leaning his drowsy head on his arms as his lazy eyes directly rest on me. Our eyes meet again, and just like before, he doesn’t back away maintaining a firm stare. Aside from this present moment, a part of me feels like I’ve seen him before. His jet black hair and his buff build being contained by the leather jacket he has- only enhances his appearance as if I’ve seen him before.

"Uh let's go outside and wait for dad." I end up saying feeling a bit creeped when his eyes begin to travel down my body.

Yezi and I make our way outside instantly spotting one of our dad's black vehicle’s pulling in. "Thank the heavens." Yezi begins jogging towards the car, while I take my time walking on the parking lot- afraid I might slip with my high boots if I run.

However I quickly regret my decision when hearing faint whistle sounds. My head turns to the side spotting an almost faded rusty car, with some guys whistling out. “Yes babygirl, fuck, yes,” A guy moans out looking at me. “Just like that, fuck-”

“Shut the hell up.” The bitter tone of my dad can be heard resonating out the car, and I can only assume he’s talking to the boys because no sooner then later, they let out mocking laughs.

“Fucking sexy girl,” The rude insolent boy comments again. Getting to the car, I finally get in the front seat hearing the boys whistling grow louder in praises. “Yes baby,”

“What- what-” My dad’s about to get out his seat and open the door but I close it shaking my head. As irritating as it is, I can’t have my dad about to lose his mind on his day off.

“Dad, just ignore it. They’re a bunch of low, poor class, hooligans who don’t deserve an ounce of our energy.” I fiercely comment. “Are you really gonna get mad, when they’re car looks like that? They’re not worth it dad. It’s okay.”

My dad’s sharp glare leaves the window as he takes a deep breath and looks to Yezi behind. Yezi’s eyes immediately calm down and she tries to change the atmosphere in the car. “Dae’s right dad, besides look what I got! San threw it to the crowd and I caught it!” She announces brightly- easily getting my dad to smile tightly. The anger and irritation still evident on his face- yet it fades for Yezi’s sake.

"What did you get?" He asks with a clear genuine interest, even though his eyes shoot glares towards the car once more time before he drives off. Meanwhile the question sends Yezi over the top as she basically starts to yell about the event pointing at her items. 

My dad laughs surprisingly being stunned by the ‘shirt’ Yezi caught, as he drives out the venue. I look out the window shaking my head and not wanting to listen. I end up making eye contact with the guys who made those idiotic comments. One of the guys licks his lips and sends me an air kiss. I fake a smirk his way giving him the middle finger mouthing out 'fuck yourself' before rolling up my tinted window.

He laughs and slowly waves.

Creeps.

Minutes before...

A luxurious black Range Rover slowly drives past Haechan’s small red and rusty old car, catching his attention behind the wheel. He stares at the big car as it drives past and stops by a parking space. “This is it.” He mumbles.

Something about the way this car carries itself turns Haechan on.

"What a sexy car," Haechan's cold eyes checks out the car mumbling out praises. Sternly looking at the black posh Range Rover he adjusts himself on his seat wanting to see clearer. "Mark, Mark look at the car, look at the car." He whispers out.

Mark, on the passenger seat adds more ‘relaxation’ to Haechan’s high when he blows gusts of weed into the air, before placing the bunt between his lips inhaling again. With all the windows up, the smell lofts around the car leaving the boys in all zooted smiles and high. Mark turns to the spotted car that Haechan motions to and sits up.

Just like Haechan, he’s struck by the glossiness of the car. Seeing the lavish car, his head lights up with another idea. “This night is already beginning with a bang.” Mark comments. 

In the back seat Renjun, Haechan's adopted brother, tries to sleep with his head against the window, with his neck in an uncomfortable angle as he half listens to what the two in front were talking about, while also keeping his nose stuffed in his mask to avoid the weed smell. Unlike Mark and Haechan, Renjun only wanted a ride from campus and back home, and was not a part of their crew. To his surprise, he was dragged everywhere and witnessed the menacing actions and robberies his brother performed.

The two juvenile boys, Mark and Haechan watch the car as their minds wonder darkly in the same orbit. They give each other mischievous smiles, having the same idea. "Are you in?"

"Let me finish my bunt," Haechan snickers just as Mark puffs out another wave of smoke out in the car. “Here comes Jeno, he looks drunk as fuck.”

Jeno, Mark's young brother stumbles into the rusted car in silence. 

“Geez man, how much did you drink?” Mark turns to his brother in the back seat catching his drowsy state. Before Jeno can answer, his eyes look out the front window getting a glimpse of the last two young girls leaving the center and going towards a Range Rover. A few minutes ago, he found himself inside the building drinking can after can without his brother’s watch, meanwhile his eyes also kept still on the two girls lounging around. Most specifically, he kept his eyes on a girl named Dae. His mind wondering around on how it must feel to be rich.

"This night keeps getting sexier, look at those girls Haechan," Mark breathlessly chuckles.

Mark’s gaze holds onto the girls, or rather the one trailing behind with her arms folded and her hips moving hypnotically. Her skirt is short and shows a portion of her milky legs, and the way she walks seems almost too purposely- otherwise his pants wouldn’t be bugging so much. Maybe it’s the weed, but he’s pushed into ecstasy wanting to have the girl. 

“I need to have that,” He opens his door, stepping a foot out, leaning over the doorframe and begins whistling. “Hey babygirl, come over for a bit?”

“Mark get in the car-” Haechan starts laughing when the man in the fancy rich car gives them a sharp look, glaring at them. 

Mark, despite the warning, ignores the gnawing and death eyes of the man continuously cat calling the girl. “Yes baby fuck, yes,” He moans, his hand patting his bulging member. “Just like that-” Profanity words can be heard from the car however that doesn’t stop Mark from hooting his mouth towards the girl, leaking his lustful comments. The girl even goes further to ignoring him. “Fucking sexy girl,” The moment she gets into the car Mark- like the dog he is hypes her every moment whistling out and praising her. “Oh yes, yes, yes, bend that body for me. Oh- oh yes, just like that, fuck. Yes baby,”

The posh car abruptly stops once the girl closes the door and Mark can see the man in the car trying to come out. Must be the father. Mark takes on the challenge now directing his attention to the supposed father. “Big boy wanna come out? Come out big boy,”

“Idiot,” Haechan is bowling in laughter when Mark gets back in the car, closing his door shut chortling a little when nothing happens.

“2 baddies,” Mark comments inhaling the bunt getting high  again. “And a grumpy man,”

“Mark you fucking shit head.” Haechan finally calms down from his goofy laugh. He drinks his last can of beer in one big gulp letting out a strong groan by the substance hitting his throat bitterly- yet tasty. “Let me get in on some of  that,” He sticks his hand out to Mark, who offers him to take a huff and puff of his weed. Haechan gives back the stick shaking his head exhaling out.  

Haechan rolls down his window with force while applying speed wanting to see the fuming pretty girl in the massive car more clearly. Mark chortles rolling down his murky window too, wanting to see her face. "Ah, fuck, she’s so sexy," Mark puffs out from his weed bunt again. "Jeno you seeing this?"

Renjun’s eyes are grave serious when looking at the mess the two boys in the front wheel caused. “Is that Dae? What the hell are these two idiots doing cat calling her like that?” He quietly asks to Jeno, who’s is extremely quiet yet drunk. “You need water.”

Jeno watches on, stuffing his hands in his leather jacket while looking out the window to the car and ignoring Renjun's words.

"She's looking, she's looking," Haechan gets on cloud 9 sitting up on his seat and blows her an air kiss. Jeno in a calm daze watches her, she casually throws her middle finger up in the air. 

"Who taught her to do that?" Mark asks taking a whiff of his bunt and puts it in his mouth breathing in. “Rich bitch,”

Haechan laughs bitterly, "Daddy's little rich princess."

“I’d love to be her daddy,”

"Can you guys stop that. She’s got enough intel to call the police on you guys. Her and her father." The 'sleepy' Renjun states in a raspy sour voice as he watches the girl in question roll-up her window. He suddenly sits up groping his neck in pain. “You should just be lucky they didn’t get your number plate.”

"You know the girl?" Mark asks in bewilderment.

"Yes. Dae, proud, top of her class, rich, narcissist. We go to the same college," He enlightens both Mark and Haechan. “Her father is a real pioneer. He’s known to have built some faculty buildings on our campus, as well as upstate houses and penthouses in extremely rich areas.”

“He said rich right?” Haechan chortles. “Rich bitch,”

“I don’t know about rich, but I would love to teach that brat a lesson,” Mark scoffs throwing his finished bunt out the window, already beginning to roll up another one. “She should learn to respect her elders,”

"Let’s just go home." Jeno speaks up with an irritated throat and throbbing head, either trying to deprive the older ones dirty thoughts into something else or, away from Dae.

The Range Rover already begins to drive out the entrance gate, causing Donghyuck to quickly start up his own small car, with a little rustle his car starts. “We’ve been waiting all afternoon for something. Should we follow it?” He peeks in Mark’s direction who nods his head.

Haechan and Mark exchange quirky looks again recalling their initial plan.

While Jeno and Renjun share worried looks, Renjun is the one to voice out a question that seems to already be answered the moment the car starts moving in a similar direction as the classy car. “Donghyuck, what are you doing? Why are you following the car?”

"If it’s not already clear,” Donghyuck, just a few cars behind the black vehicle watches as it takes a left turn to a road he’s never gone on before. “I want that car."

"Don't forget to do the dishes Yezi!" Mum reminds while forcing her foot in a pair of white heels going together with her sun dress. “Do I look okay?”

I nod my head watching her frantically moving around her wardrobe looking for a scarf or jacket.

"Don't forget okay. I left sticky notes on the fridge and in the cooking book." Mum says running around her room making sure all her stuff are in her carrier bag. “Don’t leave Daegal outside, nowadays she seems to like being outside,”

"Don't worry mum, Yezi and I will be fine. Besides, Dad will be here." I point behind her to dad who's putting on his black blazer. “It’s not like we’ve been left motherless before,” I darkly joke, causing dad to peek up from his phone shaking his head. “What? Too soon?” I chuckle.

“Yes honey I will be here, stop freaking out,” Dad states while going back on his phone. “She’s arrived at the airport, c’mon let’s go.”

Him and mum are going to the airport where Mrs Chittaphon is at.

Mrs Chittaphon mentioned that she was going to China for a few weeks and offered to take mum along with her, dad gladly accepted on mum’s behalf. It was exciting at first since dad thought he could go too, but Mrs Chittaphon sternly said she wanted mum, so not wanting to ‘disappoint’(?) Mrs Chittaphon she agreed to going. Still scary and shocking since they don't get along that well, but my dad assured mum that it would be a bonding experience.

Escorting mum with her bags, we follow dad out to the garage as he selects a car. Switching on the brown Jaguar with the remote he opens up the boot while mum and I fill the boot with her bags. Our little dog, Daegal barks around the tires of the wheel keeping my dad in a smiling trance as he looks down at her. Daegal loves this car the most. This is like a special car for them, since this is the car he had when he was still in the dating phase with my mum and he got Daegal for the first time too.

Yezi finally comes out the parking with silk pink pajama shorts and a merch t-shirt with a face of one of the guys we saw today... it’s probably the shirt they tossed out and she caught. When we came back from the venue Yezi went straight to her room, posting pictures and unwrapping her merch. She has been there ever since asking for nobody to disturb her, but yet as soon as my dad starts the car she's out the house. She gives dad a tight hug and walks over to us. She smiles and gives mum a big and tight hug. "Have fun in that country with no internet. We'll miss you and also thank you for letting me go," she let's go of mum and looks at me sticking out here tongue. "I hate you and I still think you're annoying."

"The feeling is mutual." l I can't hide my grin. I know Yezi loves me. “Isn’t that the cleaning supply husband you wanted to marry?” She hits my shoulder mumbling profanities going back in the house.

"Guys don’t fight.” Mum lets out closing the boot and turning to me. “I guess this is it," mum says.

"Don't say it like that, we'll see each other in like a few weeks time." I open the front door for her and she gets in. I bend down to see dad in the car busy with Daegal on his lap while massaging mum’s hand.

“Why are you shaking,” Dad laughs teasingly. “Daegal, why are you shaking? I wanna know, I wanna know,” He plays with the dog on his lap gently setting her in the backseat. I guess he's taking her with him.

"Dae make sure to lock the house and close the front door, I left it open for Daegal to enter, but she’s already here. Make sure Yezi sleeps on time, she's got a bad habit of sleeping past midnight," Mum says rubbing her hands together looking to dad. "Okay,"

"I'm coming soon." Dad says and drives out. I head back in the house looking at the control panel waiting until I hear the car out the driveway. Meanwhile I switch on the lights outside. When I hear the car drive out I press the button that closes the garage.

Haechan's car comes to a stop, parking down the road and away watching from afar. They’ve been seated in the car for some time, simply taking in the view of the enchanting residence. The neighborhood is built on exquisite land and even the air itself smells different. All the boys in astonishment take in the sight of the various mansions around.

Haechan blames it on the cream sunset that slowly sets behind the dwelling place of the deluxe rich family, creating a luxurious and costly aura around the house, for him to be taken aback and in almost tears. “This is bank,” He mumbles already scheming inside his head.

The house the boys arrive at is everything one would desire. A palace, a fortress, a gold dripping tap with four stories stacked high adorning lavish balconies and vast verandas covered by gardened fence built on polished bricks- even the garden itself was cultivated, refined and neat. The design, the layout of the house, is something out of a novel, a comic book, a past that with held old money and a future that would take over the rich. The scenery itself is ingenious and and screams out rich. The house itself looks grand and high class, even the heavily guarded gates are artistic with the layers of polished Chinese ancient styled stone. 

Jeno, partly drunk looks out his window to a particular floor on the house- the one which he knows is her room. Dae. She was breathtaking and he couldn't help but become attached to her. What started off as something small, turned into stalking. He didn't consider it to be stalking until he realized that he had more pictures of her in his photography collection them anything else.

Following Renjun one time to school, he found himself becoming obsessed with Dae and her charming glow. There was something about her that he couldn’t put his finger on. Although arrogant and proud, she seemed like the type of person to wear a mask of faces, and that’s what made Jeno curious about her ever since. He followed her once or twice back home escaping her glances- the days he followed her was when she would sneak some guy back to her place. Those where the only days where she’d walk from school to home. It only took one to three trips for the sight of her house to be so deeply engraved in Jeno’s mind.  

He took pictures of the neighborhood and her house, in particular her room when the curtains where open. It was tough taking from the ground level especially since the house was tilted high- but taking pictures none the less only made him fascinated, especially whenever she was by her window. He’d snap a shot avoiding any preying eyes. Whenever he would take a picture of the residence he was greatly reminded and would feel belittled by the differences between their two worlds. 

Their house itself was a stone mark of being high in status and above everyone else. In some parts, Renjun was telling the truth when he said she’s a narcissist. It came out naturally for her because her family is beyond rich and wealthy, they’ve entered god mode. It’s something she tried not to show to others lower then her, but it still showed by her appearance. She was prideful and like Haechan said, a rich princess in her daddies castle. 

“How long are we gonna sit here?” Jeno asks when the throbbing pain slowly kicks in is head. He leans forward on his seat taking the can of beverage in the cup holder. Picking it up, he drinks on it letting out a satisfied grunt. Being an alcoholic had it’s perks. He’d drink and feel woozy for a certain amount of time before returning to a hinged conscious version of himself- even though he’d still be tipsy, he’d still be conscious. Right now more than anything, he wanted to be unconscious of the actions he knew his brother and friend would take.

Mark and Haechan hold similar thoughts being, tonight would be a fortuitous night. 'The bigger the better' Mark always said. The mansion is situated on the far side and Southern hills of the city. In this area all the house's are far away from each other, almost by a bridge gap, but yet this house is steep and the highest on the hill sitting at the top. It should’ve scared the boys away, but for some reason Mark and Haechan were determined. They’ve only robbed one floored houses, and to at some point robbed apartments- yet looking at the wide spread mansion and all it’s charms, they know this is something new for them and should tread carefully. 

"Until the sun goes down. We wouldn’t want god to disturb our luck,” Haechan mumbles with lustful eyes, raping the house bare. “Rich people," He scoffs. "They just can't relax without making the rest of us feel like shit," His awestruck emotions quickly turn sour after digesting the house for way too long.

While following the Range Rover they had to refuel, almost got lost, nearly got pulled over by the police- twice! At some point there was a security border gate for the area of houses situated on the hill, fortunately for them, Mark who was already used to cracking safe boxes, put his skill to the test when entering a 4 digit code. He got it wrong 2 times, but was lucky on his third try. 

Despite all the drawbacks, it seemed like the mansion they were going to rob wanted to be robbed- nothing held them back at this point. It was all worth it since the prize would lead to a glorious landscape of house. "They've never walked a day in our shoes, might as well teach 'em a lesson," Mark runs his fingers through his dark hair that was unevenly cut with scissors.

The mansion is perfect for the plans Mark and Haechan had. Jeno, still half drunk, saw it as an opportunity to get closer to Dae and see where she lived up close. His fantasies coming to life.

"Guys this is wrong. Please can you just turn the car around and let’s go home. Please." Renjun on the other hand, the only one feeling petrified for his life, urges the boys for them to snap out of their high and return home. Never in his life has he ever gone through the motions of being mad- but right now in this car he felt as though he’d gone mad. How is he the only one to realize that this is wrong?! The only one sober and trying to wake up the conscious of the drunk and high guys. "Guys you need to snap out of it!" Renjun fusses getting quiet and then louder by the second. "You know the embassy will send me back to China if I get caught in this mess. Or worse, we could all be sent to jail! Donghyuck!”

"Jail isn't a place I'm afraid of." Haechan leans back in his seat, eyes dead set on watching the house. “Besides, we didn’t do anything yet. Stop crying like a little bitch.”

"Jeno! Don't tell me you're also going along with this?" Renjun asks his friend, confused and shocked that he too would even consider what the others were thinking.

"Renjun I’m just sitting. Please stop screaming in my ear-" Jeno pushes Renjun off his side. “Just enjoy the view-”

"No!" Renjun yells again gaining a glare from his brother in front.

"Listen here you twat. You're only here for a ride so shut up," Haechan glares at his brother from the rearview mirror.

"No Donghyuck! You know this is wrong. Mum can't handle any more of your troubles." Renjun points at the silent and not interested Mark. “Mark, do something, why are you allowing this to happen? It’s all your fault why we’re here. Just say something, anything and Donghyuck will listen to you.”

Mark thought about the fortress and also wondered about the girls, in particular the one with the stunning legs. His fantasies already playing out like a movie in his head. Waiting outside felt like hell especially since he had to bounce his knee to ignore the poking in his pants. Rolling up another wrapped weed bunt, he smoked it and let the lucid fantasies play out in his mind. 

Feeling and groping her body, her breast, her ass, those juicy thighs- tearing off her clothes from her body and slapping her around until she was red. Choking her while his fingers worked inside her slippery wet pussy. He could almost feel the stickiness between his fingers and how good they’d taste in his mouth. Grabbing her by her long hair and making her suck his long cock and-

"Mark!”

His head jerks away from the distant thoughts hearing a wailing Renjun in the backseat. “Why can’t I have my thoughts in peace?” He mutters turning his head to Haechan. “Did you really have to bring your orphaned brother here? He’s starting to piss me off.” 

Renjun abruptly cuts Haechan before he can even speak. “You turned Donghyuck and Jeno into thugs-"

"Listen up you ass whip, I didn't change anyone. The thug life chose Haechan and as for Jeno," Mark smirks at his young brother, who watches the house intensely. "He liked what I offered."

Mark rolls up another weed bunt feeling good and settling himself to be comfortable to let his imaginations wonder off again.

"Besides, do you see any police around? Live a little Injun," Mark smiles while licking the edge of the wrapper of his bunt. “Now shut the fuck up.”

"It's Renjun. And we’re all going to go to-"

"I’m gonna say this once, since you didn’t catch me clearly. I said shut the fuck up. If I repeat myself again I’ll deport you back myself to the border that you jumped over." Mark sits upright on the seat and turns to Haechan once dismissing a defeated Renjun once he’s finished making his weed bunt. "Do I look high?"

“Nah you’re good.”

“Good.” Mark nods his head stashing his wrapped weed bunt in his pocket along with a packet of cocaine from the dashboard. 

“What’s that for?” Jeno in the back asks curiously. 

“My dear brother, this is for when the fun will begin.” Mark drapes his black hoody over head. “What are we waiting for?”

"Nothing." Haechan replies leaning over to his side opening the dash panel, grabbing and gripping his pistol by its edge taking some bullets. He fixes his snapback on over his black lengthy hair, making sure his eyes are covered.

"Jeno you coming?" Mark asks.

"Mmhm." Jeno silently replies making Renjun’s jaw drop.

“I thought you said you’re not gonna-”

“I just wanna see inside the house.”

Renjun scoffs. “And you’re saying that confidently as if you know that you’ll excel in getting in the house.”

“Hey border jumper,” Mark slurs on Renjun with a cocky laugh. “If you could jump over from your country to here, what makes you think we can’t do just that?”

Renjun humphs. “Because this isn’t some country you can jump into. This is a freaking house- a house you can’t get caught in! This is Zhong Chenle’s house-”

“I don’t give a fuck of who this Zhong Zhong guy is. Clearly he’s also a border jumper-”

“He is a multi millionaire. This home is a line straight to hell if you get caught in it!”

“Clearly you don’t know me or your brother.” Mark chuckles picking at his own gun. “I gracefully walk into prison when I’m caught. Besides, what will a border jumper do to me? Haechan, I like your brother.”

Haechan rolls his eyes, finding the whole encounter between Mark and Renjun hilarious. He’s partly sober, yet also partly drunk, but one thing in his mind that’s clear, is the mansion. “That house is calling my name, are you ready?”

“Yeah.” Mark confirms and Jeno simply sticks out his thumb, taking another can of beer in his pocket.

"One more thing," Haechan says. "Let's use codes instead." 

"Mark." Mark says not bothering with a nickname knowing that none of them ever called him. “You don’t even have to call my name, just look at me and I’ll understand what you need. Jeno?”

"Uhm, I don't have one."

"How about Zeno?" Haechan suggestions making Jeno breathlessly laugh. 

“You really hate me, don’t you.” Referring to a nickname Jeno once gave himself when he was young. Zeno Zee The Zuperzero.

"Okay then Zeno and Haechan." Haechan points to himself turning to Renjun. "Stay in the car and if you wanna piss do it outside, not inside."

"What are you even saying? You guys do know you're gonna get in trouble? Big trouble. Donghyuck you can't be serious. Are you guys really going in there?" Renjun asks but no one answers him, they all leave the car treading carefully along the sides of the neighborhood before making it to the edges of the house.

“It’s either I’m high or this house is fucking huge.” Mark mumbles looking up the walls. Seeing no sharp barricades he pats Donghyuck. “Let’s climb over the wall.” 

As the wall is built on furnished stone, they find it simple to go over the wall with their climbing skills, jumping down to the soft grass. Briefly chuckling amongst themselves and preying closer to the house. 

Haechan being the lead, walks along the sides of the house deciding to move to the back. The front door was off limits knowing that they would immediately get caught, even though it was wide open they couldn't do it. The temptation too real.

The boys crouch by the wall of the house reaching a large back open space with a covered swimming pool. "How do we get in?" Jeno asks, his heart pounding loud from the adrenaline rush he felt.

“C’mon,” Haechan speaks as though he’s been around the house before. One thing Haechan always knew about breaking and entering houses, was that the layout was always the same. Small houses had joined sets, while big house had disjoined sets. Meaning that either everything was outside, or it was all inside. And by the tough exterior of this mansion, Haechan knows it’s a joined house. He just had to find another opening- and as if luck is truly on their side he spots a long drive way with a garage and right at the bottom there’s a little box. “Bingo.” He nods his head. “You got a knife?”

“Always,” Mark nods his head understanding that he needs to defuse the box, to make it easier to enter. Whether their are security camera’s or not, Mark and Haechan continue by chance. 

“What if they catch us?” Jeno asks wondering why everything felt easy.

“It’s always like this.” Haechan speaks lowly. “Rich people with such high security, don’t really think they’ll get robbed and so they don’t keep their guards up. They think that nobody else is around them- so why look around when they can only look up? The only problem, is that they don’t see the troubles down below.”

“It seems too easy.” Jeno mumbles chuckling.

“They’re never prepared for the unexpected.” Haechan speaks again. “They think, their untouchable. That they can’t get robbed.”

“What happens when we go inside?” Jeno curiously asks.

This time Mark turns to his brother with high red eyes. “Just follow us, and you’ll be okay.” Their about to sneakily run through the drive yet right on cue- the garage slides up very slowly and majestically, revealing a brown Jaguar that’s making it’s way out.

"Shit!" They all say and duck hiding themselves behind the wall and tall garden bushes. Mark spots two people behind the dark tinted windows of the car as it drives out.

"There there there!" Haechan silently yells, the boys speed up while crouching towards the open garage before it closes. Pressed up against walls, still crouching and panting hard Mark hits his brothers side, feeling ecstatic that his brother tagged along.

“Fuck yeah!” Mark whisper yells hitting on Jeno. “Nice, boy, nice.”

"Holy shit," Haechan lets out when the lights of the garage dim down and he sees what’s actually inside the garage. “Mark, fucking look at this shit.” Standing up looking around the garage, he’s joined by Jeno and Mark who peek around. The two boys look around too and their eyes light up in the car. Rows of gleaming glassy fancy rich motherfucking cars, all different brands and colors. “You gotta be shitting me.”

Haechan practically jogs to the cars touching each one and checking their brands. Mark looks around a smirk placed on his face, "I told you, the bigger the better."

Jeno bites his lips and heads towards the wall of keys. "Is it this easy?"

Haechan notices the keys and pushes his gun in his back pocket. "Damn." Haechan mouths. "Mark start working on the fuse box. We need to get the garage door open if we’re going to get them out."

"Look," Mark nudges to a door that's by the corner. "Fuck me, let's cause some trouble first before we go,"

“Nah, that’s too risky.” Jeno shakes his head still a bit drunk but well aware of the pressing conversation and the two boys already walking to the door. “You guys only wanted the car.”

“You pussy,” Mark laughs walking towards the door regardless. “I saw two people in the car leaving, if I’m correct it looked the grumpy man and a high class maiden with a tote hat. Let’s cause shit, come on, Zeno.”

Jeno nervously sighs feeling hot. “Shit, okay.”

"Dae!"

"What?" I ask entering the kitchen, where Yezi's washing the dishes. I open the fridge taking out a can of cold drink.

“Those guys at the parking lot were pretty rude.” Yezi mumbles. “Are you okay?”

I turn to Yezi hearing her concern and feel a bit touched. “A bit disgusted by it, but I’m okay. I just hate that dad had to be there for that,”

“Did you see his face?” Yezi asks peeking at me with wide eyes. “I’ve never seen him look so dead ass cold. He even stopped the car ready to jump out and fight.”

“He was about to explode, I know.” I lean on the counter shaking the image of  my dad in anger out my head. 

“Low life boys are such fucking pricks. Which is why try your best to keep up the standard when it comes to guys. No disorder, just respectable men in suits with paper. I don’t even wanna marry a guy from here, I want a man from Thailand,”

“Those pricks in the car could be from Thailand.”

“Ew no. They weren’t from Thailand, you could see them, they’re from here, the disgusting and filthy side though. I want a respectable intelligent Thailand man.” Yezi states blissfully. “I mean, a respectable man who prides himself yes, but also a man who isn’t all about intellect. No.”

“What? Why?” I question.

“Because I want to have fun. And a guy who’s studied his whole life, won’t understand when I tell him ‘we should have fun’. He’ll look at me and say I’m a child.” Yezi reasons. “For example, that sugar daddy guy Kun, the one you were dating,”

“It was just a fling, we weren’t dating. What could he offer me that dad hasn’t already gotten me?” 

“Uhm sex?” Yezi laughs.

I shake my head blushing at the mention of him. A nice sweet rising businessman who wanted to spoil me rotten with gifts and everything money can buy.

Yezi’s eyes widen. “He was so fucking hot and he knew how to have fun. I wouldn’t mind him taking care of me for the rest of my life. I want someone like that, chilled and not too serious but still respectable and decent enough for dad,”

That makes me laugh. “I think dad’s a bit disappointed that I didn’t want to take over the family business. So I’m gonna have to pass on a man taking care of me. I need to sustain myself and prove to dad why I chose journalism,”

“Uhm because you suck at math? Thought it was obvious,” Yezi jokes around. “I also don’t want anything to do with architecture. You better pave the way nicely for me,”

“What do you want to do?”

“Duh, a man who knows how to have fun? That’s what I want to do.” She shrugs her shoulders. “I’ll cross that bridge when I’m there. Hey by the way, where's Daegal? Mum left the front door open for her, but she still hasn’t come in,"

"Dad took her. Please don’t forget to close the door," I mumble yawning a little. "I'll be in my room."

"Wait, wait. Dae, look over there by the corner," she motions with her head to the window. I walk to her being confused by her stricken face. Looking above the sink window out to the street below, right across the street at the far end there's a small car, all rusty and crispy.

"What's wrong?" I ask shrugging my shoulders opening my can.

"Its on our street, dad didn't call any one over and Mrs Chittaphon isn't here, so who is that?" She asks watching the car. She washes her hands wiping them with the cloth. She goes out the kitchen into the living room, I follow her just in time to see her sending a silent alarm to the police station.

"Really Yezi? Like seriously? Dad's gonna be pissed. That isn't a toy you can just play with you know." I walk past her and to the kitchen to throw away the can while picking up a banana. I begin walking up the stairs eating the banana. “Yezi lock the garage door as well as the front door,”

“But you were in the kitchen just now, why didn’t you close the garage door?” Yezi whines.

"Because I didn’t open it,”

“Well neither did I,”

“Oh well, you’re gonna have to close it. I'm going to sleep. Wake me up when dad's back, I wanna be present when he yells at you for playing with the silent alarm," I head to my room leaving her in the living room watching TV and ignoring me.

I enter my room closing the main light switch but suddenly feel eerie when thinking of the car that was outside. Come to think of it, it looked like the crispy car from that center. Opening the twinkle lights setting the color mood to red, I pounce on my bed picking up my phone. 

Feeling skeptical again, I get off my bed and walk over to the window. Checking the window, I pull open the curtains only a little watching the car.

That car does look suspicious. All the way from the the second floor of my room, I can see light coming from the front door. Damnit, Yezi being stubborn in her not closing the door will- Before I can even close the curtains to my room to go downstairs and close the door- I catch a glimpse of a person getting out and running towards... our house. The person disappears down below and I can’t see him anymore. After waiting a bit trying to determine if I’m being paranoid for no reason, my eyes enlarge when seeing the person’s hand gripping at the top of the bricked wall and hurling himself over. Shit! “Yezi! Close the-

"DAE!" 

My heart accelerates at the sound of Yezi's blurted scream and I pounce out of my room sprinting from my floor and the long corridor all the way to the stairs. My heart bloating and swelling up as I try not to panic rapidly going down the stairs- I instantly freeze in my tracks, by the door of the living room as something cold and hard presses against my head stopping me altogether. My whole body trembles in cold sweat and I look to the side when my eyes meet Yezi's bloodshot stare in pure fear looking up to the man that has her trapped on the chair. His whole body lunges close to her with a sickening smile as she has both her hands covering her mouth. My body shivers just looking into her tears fall from her eyes as she trembles in uneasiness. The hooded guy resembles the pervert who kept patronizing me while I walked to my dad’s car, he even sounds like him.

I focus my attention on the guy who's holding the gun to my head, disgusted by that same dirty smile plastered all over his face, my mouth shakily opens up as I gasp out in horror. It's that guy from that center, the guy who was in that car. "Oh my god.”

“We decided to come out because the sun went down. We didn’t want god to see this.” He smirks. “Oh sweet cheeks, why do you look so nervous to see me?"

"Please. What do you want?" I ask holding back my tears from spilling but fail as they start blurring my vision. I gulp down the lump in my throat, yet my tears still fall over my cheeks. I back up just as he positions himself in front of me.

"Awe, where's the confidence now?" He chuckles running the barrel of the cold metallic gun down my chest and over my stomach. My body is paralyzed in a gripped dread as I feel the gun pass over my skirt before he puts it underneath and pushes the barrel in between my thighs rubbing it against my shaken core.

“Please,” I tremble when he begins to rub it while forcing both my hands above my head.

“Please what baby?” He darkly laughs whispering in my ear. “You want it?” I briskly turn my head to the side. Seeing Yezi now up on her feet visibly trembling while the hooded guy positions himself in front of her. She still has her hands covering her lips with tears streaming down her face. 

“How old are you?” The hooded guy smiles and runs his long slim fingers down her chest and over her silk pajama shorts. “16? 17? You’re so perky, I bet you would be such a good fuck.” He then positions himself behind her and wraps one arm around her abdomen before thrusting his covered member into her. Her gasp is mixed with a sob and I cry. 

“Please stop, we’ll give you anything you want, just stop please.” My croaked voice trembles to the guy who’s hands play with my exposed skin by pinching and groping my bare things underneath my skirt, yet still with his gun in hand.

"Anything? He laughs out. “I want your pretty little middle finger," he smirks. "In my mouth.” He pushes me hard against the wall with his gun now moving away from underneath my skirt and between my legs to his pocket. Freeing his hand and allowing himself continue to touch me while his teeth sink into my warm neck causing me to squirm and whimper. "You're so fucking hot you know," he whispers in my ear. I quiver as his fingers go up my exposed skin under my crop top fumbling with breast that’s covered by my bra. Cowering and shaking under his control my hazy eyes meet Yezi’s pain stricken eyes as she’s now seated on some guy I never thought was in the room.

“You still a virgin right?” The hooded guy asks to the man who Yezi sits on. The guy shamefully nods his head but moans when the hooded guy stretches open Yezi’s legs and grips her hand forcing her to palm the man underneath her. “You can’t have a big boy body but have never been touched before. Come on girly, make my brother feel good.”

“No!” Immediately I push the guy off me with shock strength panicking and coming back to my senses. He stumbles back but gets back at me with speed slapping my face tightly. 

“Don’t play with me rich bitch,” The guy in front of me warns forcing both my hands up.

"Haechan she's mine," The hooded guy says forcing Yezi up with a playful smile. “Take this one, she’s a fucking virgin. She’s still tight.”

I now notice that the other guy in the room is the same guy from the center. My eyes widen when I do realize that it is truly him, the one who was watching me while drinking. He palms himself before taking something out his pocket- a beer can and opening it. Drinking, my eyes watch his adams apple and I’m stunned that it’s actually him. Silently observing, he sits on the chair shaking his head and ruffling his hair groaning out. I should've known from the moment that I saw him that something bad would happen. But not only that- he looks familiar again.

“Dae! Dae!” My eyes snap to Yezi who’s now being forced on her knees while the hooded guy lifts his hoody and starts fumbling with the belt on his pants.

"Please let go of me!" My attention is forced to the guy with a snapback. I try to push him away but he pulls out the gun and straight into my mouth. 

“What’s wrong?" He dangerously whispers in my ear with a cold laugh. “I thought you had a sugar daddy. You should have experience in this stuff. Be a good rich bitch and open your legs,” he leans in closer to me again his hands going back to where they were. I bite my lip feeling the urge to beat him away from me.

"NO!" Yezi shrieks out loud when the hooded guy grabs a handful of her hair, leaning down and whispering to her.  "NO! PLEASE DON'T!" Yezi urges in piercing screams. 

Finding fear strength again, I sharply knee the guy in front of me in the groan and he doubles over yet grips the gun to my head.

"Fuck. Why’re you being so difficult sweet cheeks, just give me what I want and I'll let you and your sister go." He says. I spit on his face and try to run to Yezi but the guy grabs a handful of my shirt pushing me back to the wall roughly. "You fucking cunt. How dare you spit on my face?" He whips of my spit, pressing me harder to the wall.

Yezi screeches and fights the hooded guy with her hands and legs- the adrenaline finally kicking in her when she tries to resist the man with his belt open. The guy is strong and rapidly turns her around and plants her face roughly to the pillow on the chair. "I like rough sex, so if that’s what you’re into I’ll gladly comply. So stop squirming!" he says and then looks at me pulling down his hoody. "I wanted your sister, but you’ll have to do." I gulp feeling all the nerves in my body heighten. “You’re gonna watch me fuck your sister.”

"Zero get me something to tie this girl up." The guy in front of me says. The guy on the couch, Zero, gets up and walks out to the tv set, ripping out  the cables from the various power supplies coming closer to me. His eyes are hooded and he looks a bit unstable- he’s drunk. Now that I think of it, they all look like their not conscious with their red eyes and uneasy postures.

Haechan grips both my hands and uses the cable ropes from the TV, that the Zero guy hands over. “Haechan, don’t tie it too tight.” Zero mumbles out to the Haechan guy in front of me.

"Alright here's what's gonna happen," Haechan presses himself against my back leaning to my ear. "Show me daddy's possessions and goods and then I let you go okay sweet cheeks?" My face is red as all the blood and tears rush up. Regardless I nod and he pulls me up and pushes me out the living room but I bump into another body and both me and the person scream out.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU GUYS DO!!?" We all get startled by the loud voice. The hooded guy and Haechan rapidly turn with their guns ready to shoot. I turn to look up at the guy in front of the living room entrance and see a panicked looking guy- Renjun?

"Renjun!" I call out his name and try to escape to him but Haechan's hand grips my shirt and brings me back to his hard chest.

"DONGHYUCK WHAT THE HELL! YOU SAID YOU ONLY WANTED THE CAR-" Renjun is on panic mode and looks to all the guys in the room. His breathing is uneven and he grabs his hair.

"Oh great the border jump decided to join. Haechan handle your brother before I do." The hood guy says. I look to Yezi noticing that the Zero guy ties her hands behind her back with her legs also in the process of being tied. She squirms and shakes but the hooded guy holds her down firmly with the pistol in her mouth. He looks up and smiles at Renjun. “Came to  have fun?”

I look back at Renjun whose eyes are wide open and his hands are still on his hair. Is he confused at what's going on? "Renjun do something please!" I yell with a trembled tone.

"JENO WHAT THE HELL?! DONGHYUCK! MARK PLEASE LET HER GO! YOU GUYS ARE GOING TO JAIL! HOW ON EARTH DID YOU GUYS EVEN GET IN?!" Renjun yells walking over to Haechan, who points the gun towards Renjun.

"How the hell did you get in? Don’t tell me you walked in the front door like a little bitch. I told you to stay in the car!" Haechan says pushing me back and I stumble falling to the ground- into the arms of the drunkard Zero guy. He pulls me down on the chair laying my back flat. I'm about to scream but he forcefully puts his hand against my mouth. 

"Don't scream I’ve got a fucking headache already. I won't hurt you, I promise. Just don't scream please, please." He begs in a whisper tone looking sincerely tired.

My tears slowly start to come out and I can't handle or control the flow that leaves my eyes while hearing the two boys fighting. Now there are four boys in total. Renjun, the one complaining and fighting, Zero (or rather Jeno as Renjun called him) the drunkard, the one hooded guy called Mark, who’s sitting by the edge of the chair smiling at the two fighting. And finally the ‘sweet cheeks’ guy Haechan. My heart pants when Haechan grabs Renjun by the collars before harshly punching him down.

“Give him another one!” The Mark guy cheers Haechan on. Haechan gets on his knees holding Renjun’s collar again. “Come on border jumper, show him-”

Suddenly the house makes a noise, making everyone fall dead silent. It sounds like the doors and windows are closing, imprisoning us! Haechan gets up moving to the curtains by the corner living room pulling them open. I see the metal bars locking the house and I gasp- the control panel. Snapping my head to the control panel I see the Zero guy with his finger on one of the buttons! He pressed on it, the lock down button.

"What the hell is happened?" Haechan asks with befuddlement.

"Calm down it's just on lock down mode." The Zero guy says breathing out. "There's bars around the windows and main doors leading to the outside.”

Haechan moves back to Renjun. “Take your ass back in the car and wait for us. We won’t be long-”

“Speak for yourself Haechan, my dick is loaded-”

"Fuck you Mark!" Renjun gets up on his feet again glaring at Mark before turning to Haechan again. "Donghyuck this is serious, if we don't-"

"Stop saying my name." Haechan lands another punch on Renjun’s face and I shut my eyes crying out. I can hear Yezi crying out when the Mark guy on the end of the couch leans closer and slaps her butt. His knee sinks on the couch and he places his body on top of hers with a dark chuckle-

Bzzzzzz

All heads turn to Jeno who looks back to control panel when the buzzing sound comes again, it's the outside buzzer connected to the monitor panel. He presses on a button and waits.

'Hello? Mr Zhong Chenle?’

Oh my soul! It's Officer Suh Johnny from the police department. I hope he didn't come alone. My heart raises up in anticipation.

Renjun raises his hands to his hair ignoring the blood that slowly travels from his hair over his head as he crouches down, a string of curse words leaving his lips. “Donghyuck-”

“Shut up you bitch.” Haechan growls out and in an instant draws closer to me, pulling me up and heading towards the speaker pushing the Zero guy away. He places the gun on my head again pushing it against my head. He breathes heavily in my ear, "If you dare defy me I will blow your brains out and rape your sister. Do you hear me!" I rapidly nod not having time to think about it. "Answer it." Haechan leans close and presses the ‘answer’ button on screen. Johnny’s face appears on the screen taken from the outside camera.

"Ye-s he-llo," I say trying to make my voice come out natural as possible.

'Miss Dae is that you?' The male police officer asks.

I look to Haechan and he nudges me to answer. "Ye-es it's, it's me." I squirm a bit, making Haechan angry he pushes the gun harder against my head making me cry.

'Miss Dae what's going on? Are you okay?' He looks around concerned.

I think of a lie quickly and answer, "Yes I'm okay- it's just it's just, I'm watching this movie with Yezi and it's so sad." I lie holding in my tears.

The police officer seems to believe it as he smiles a little. 'I understand. There was a silent alarm sent to the department and I was close by deciding to check on you guys. Is everything alright?'

"Tell him it was an accident," Haechan whispers in my ear- strangely calm as if he’s used to this.

"It was an accident." I repeat.

'That's okay this happens all the time, but may you please come to the gate for a bit.' I look at Haechan who shakes his head. 'There seems to be an abandoned pick up trick on your street and your house is under locked.’ The officer says seriously. ‘Are you sure everything's okay?'

"Tell him some people are fixing the lights," I repeat what Haechan says.

I look over to Haechan who looks tense and looks over to the couch. I follow his gaze watching the hooded guy get off Yezi with a gun in hand. They eye each other down before the hooded guy nods, hastily taking off. Haechan presses a button- the unlock button- and the house starts to unlock itself.

“OFFICER SUH! THERE ARE 4 MEN IN THE HOUSE! PLEASE WE NEED HELP!”

Haechan’s eyes enlarge the moment Yezi yells out. “MARK FUCKING SHOOT THE POLICE!” Haechan yells out and ditches me running out of view the same place Mark ran to. The Zero guy quickly comes and stands next to me as we both watch the screen of Johnny on full alert with his gun positioned forward as he looks at the gate. 

“OFFICER SUH RUN THEY’RE COMING-” Jeno is quick in shutting me up frantically covering up my mouth with his whole arm while he forces me back.

BANG! 

A gun fire breaks out but I can’t even see where it’s from as Jeno drags me back.

BANG! 

Mark shoots again from far sprinting forwards when he sees he’s landed a shot. The gun fire echo's around the whole house and also around the quiet deserted street. Mark uses the front door to escape running down the driveway before reaching the house entrance gate, he holds the gun steady in his hand and watches the police male figure try to crawl away. He doesn't get far, only two walking feet away and Mark chuckles.

Officer Suh Johnny holds onto his radio by his collar still pushing and dragging his body forward. The thoughts running in his mind is to protect the girls and send backup quick. "Back up.. please. Mr Zhong's residence. 4 men. Pick up truck aban1doned. 2 girls inside. Hurry. I've been hit."

Mark watches with fascination, the thought that the police had a shot at escaping death makes him chuckle.

Haechan appears at the doorway seeing Mark between the bared gates at the end of the walking way. He runs to where Mark is and his eyes fall to the police officer. He looks over at Mark, who's still smiling and looking at the male. "What the fuck Mark. He's still moving." Haechan says calmly. “Kill him already.”

"He won't get far," Mark smirks and points the gun once again aiming for his back unaware of the bulletproof vest.

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

While he shoots, Haechan watches the officer. “He’s got a bullet proof vest.” Johnny’s back arches obviously in pain and he wiggles on the floor, a crimson color of blood trailing behind him as he still wiggles and moves on the floor - trying to get away.

"Damn, he's strong 5 bullets and he's still going on. Wow, what it means to be a fighter." Mark pouts his lips loading his gun again with an evil smile and red high eyes looking ahead in delight. 

“Shoot his head.” Haechan says. “We need to take care of those bitches fast and leave.”

“Let's see how many it'll take to finish him." Mark is deaf to the rest of Haechan’s words and aims his gun at the polices head. “You ever seen a head explode Donghyuck?”

“No.” Haechan shakes his head still with his eyes trained on the wiggling police officer who was now closer to his car.

“I have.” Mark’s lip twitches in a pained smile that’s quickly covered by his horrendous laugh. “It was my father’s head. It bursted out like...” Mark pulls the trigger on the police officer and splatter chunks of blood spurts out. “Bang. Just like that. And I shot one more time, to make sure he was dead.”

BANG!

Similar actions are done back in the living room by Renjun as he holds onto his chest every time the gun goes off. His bottom lip trembles, and just like the crying girls he’s also in tears and afraid. Standing up in absolute fear he tries to breath but gets his heart shocked when the gun fires three more times and it becomes silent again. The silence too tense and almost tangible.

Yezi wails around the couch tears streaming down her face, Dae on the other hand didn't even budge from the floor with Jeno right on top of her. Jeno held her down with his eyes trained on the monitor screen. Dae knew that something was wrong when Jeno’s eyes widen every time a gun shot was heard. Officer Suh must’ve been on the receiving end of those bullets otherwise Jeno wouldn’t be letting out a breath of relief and grabbing his canned drink and downing down another lump.

Renjun roughly pulls his short hair back and furiously marches to Jeno pushing him back. "Jeno, they killed him. Stop drinking we need to get out of here." He pushes him again and Jeno falls on the ground- losing his balance totally- the alcohol merging with his senses. 

Dae takes her chance and tries to get up even though her hands are tied up behind her. She runs with speed to another corridor in the dark hallway, to where another monitor is. Her teary eyes see the still body of the officer on the ground with blood pouring around him and she trembles and with her tongue she firmly sticks it on the screen trying to send another silent alarm. Her tongue hazing on the screen until it’s sent. 

Her whole head snaps back when hearing Yezi wail out louder. She panics and carefully goes back to the living room seeing Haechan squeezing her neck tightly slapping her cheek again. Cowering back in fear she tries to run back to the hallway again but hits into a hard chest falling back down. Mark is in front of her with a smirk. He pulls her up by her hair clicking his tongue. “I found her.”

"You think you can get away from me sweet cheeks huh," Haechan bitterly laughs walking away from Yezi. “I was teaching your sister a lesson for opening up her big mouth. Jeno told me you snitched as well, so I think you deserve this too-” The moment Haechan reaches Dae and Mark his hand swings back and he gives her a wild back hand slap sending her flying to the ground as Mark let’s her hair go. This time Haechan grabs her hair pulling her up. “I hate when my plans go south-”

"Please! Let me go! Donghyuck-"

He slams her back on the floor before grabbing her hair and dragging her to get to the living room. He throws her on the floor once they’re in the living room again. She let her tears fall down screaming out when seeing Yezi’s red face with tiny bruises. Haechan points his gun at her and clicks his tongue. "Don't you dare say my fucking name ever again!"

"Donghyuck! What the- what the hell!?" Renjun taunts out again hurrying over to his brother gripping his shoulders. "Mark shot the police! He shot the police! You said you were gonna steal the car! Not tie up the girls and shoot the police!"

Haechan becomes silent in hearing that, the image of the police’s head being shot several times still fresh in his mind, he gulps and points the gun to Renjun. "This wouldn't have happened if you stayed in the car like I told you." Haechan says holding the gun back down. "You could've warned us that someone was coming or you could've told the police a lie!"

"What lie? That my brother went to hijack a car!"

"I didn't say the truth! I said lie! Lie! You could've lied for us!" Haechan grabs his hair feeling stressed not knowing where his 'in and out' plan would lead to. "We need to get the hell out of here before more police come. We need a plan Mark. Jeno lock the house again, just in case somebody comes unprepared."

He looks over at the girl on the couch and the older girl on the floor, he sighs and scratches his head removing his cap letting his black long hair fall over his forehead as he scratches his head. 

Breathing out he begins talking. “Right. We’re gonna take a car-”

Sirens are heard outside startling everyone in the house but not as much as the bursting gunshots that shoot from the outside.

Renjun curses ducking his head down. Yezi and Dae look around in relief thinking they're safe but it’s when Dae notices that Mark is nowhere to be seen that she begins to panic. Especially with Jeno leaning on the wall watching the monitor, struggling to stand straight still downing the last bits of the can before smiling. “Mark is fucking awesome.” He whispers out. The sirens stop but the gunshots continue on. After some time the gun stops too.

Dae's view:

The hooded guy appears by the door, looking jolted, signaling Jeno to lock the house. Jeno presses the button and looks around as the house makes the imprisoning sound again.

"Yah! Mark what the fuck? Were those sirens?" Haechan quizzes.

"I don't know." Mark leans on the door putting more bullets in his gun. He pushes the gun in the front of his jeans, he pulls up his jersey revealing another gun, he pulls the other gun out and puts bullets in that one too. I watch his actions, afraid that he might kill Yezi and I. "I pretended to be a fucking gardener and they said another silent alarm was sent." Mark scoffs. "It's either that or that dead cop called for backup."

Haechan eye's immediately snap to mine.

"Another silent alarm was sent. Oh fuck I hope you had nothing to do with it sweet cheeks." He comes close to my face pulling me up to my feet his black eyes burning into my brown eyes. "Aggh!" He throws me back on the floor making Mark quickly hover above me. He makes me sit down properly and rubs my back lightly.

“Don’t worry baby girl, there’s nothing to be afraid of. Are you okay?" Mark darkly chuckles laughing out. Why is he laughing as if everything is funny? His red eyes, show how high and wasted he is, just like Jeno who can barely stand straight. My body shakes by his touch and I gasp out when leans his head and dives straight for my neck. I close my eyes and twitch a bit when his teeth nibble on my skin, as his hand immediately spreads my legs while his palm cups my-

“Mark you can’t be serious- we’re about to get caught in a cross fire and you’re fucking making out with her?” Haechan questions pacing around. "Shit! Shit! Shit!" Haechan yells out. Pulling his dark hair back. He puts on his cap backwards and sits on the couch.

"Jeno tie her legs up." He points over to me. "Put that one in a room," he points to Yezi.

"What? After all that's happened you still-"

"And I certainly don't want you around!" He points to Renjun dead shot. "You're gonna keep an eye on that girl and Jeno, watch her." Haechan bosses around. "Put them in separate rooms. Mark and I are gonna scoop the place, get what we can and fill it in a car. When we’re done, we leave." 

“Be good baby girl,” Mark gets up following Donghyuck, not before patting my head.

Jeno and Renjun are silent but soon obey.

"Now how do I carry her?" Renjun asks looking at Yezi, who looks like a net.

Jeno picks me up gently putting me up on my feet. I look back at Renjun who's trying to lift her up. Renjun’s soft eyes turns to me, his eyes in pain as he looks at me and Yezi's hands tied. He looks down with shame. "I'm sorry.."

I'm unable to reply as Jeno pushes my back.

"Lead the way to your room," his deep voice makes me shiver. I walk slowly, climbing the steps.

"I like your style, I couldn’t stop looking at it at that center," he says very quietly. The alcohol can be smelt from his breath. I look down, seeing my crop top exposing my bare stomach and my high skirt exposing my bare legs.

S1:E8-15

Zhong Chenle's pov:

"Please take care of the house and the girls and-"

"Don't worry, my love. Everything will be okay." I kiss her lips softly drawing her body near, ending with a sweet peck. "Now go before Mrs Chittaphon takes the flight without you. It’s a miracle she waited for you." We both turn our heads to where Mrs Chittaphon is by the terminal gate staring at us. Seeing that our attention is on her, she turns around and is out of sight.

"Shoot." Chungdae laughs kissing my lips again before quickly walking off.

"I love you!" I scream out waving my hand. She turns around her face pink, revealing a row of nervous perfect teeth. She blows out a kiss and I cringe while catching it and looking down at the heart before shaking my head and placing it in my front pocket. Knowing she’s expecting one back, I peck the palm of my hand and blow it out towards her. She catches it like a giddy little girl before speed walking to the terminal gaze. Standing in place simply watching her until she’s out of sight I breathe out feeling suddenly empty. I already miss her and the aeroplane hasn’t even yet taken off.

We were under the impression that the plane would leave exactly at 7pm, so by 6.30 we were already pulling into the parking lot (as our home isn’t that far from the airport) to our surprise the plane is said to leave at 8pm. The reason we even came late instead of at 5pm like Mrs Chittaphon suggested was because Chungdae didn’t want to spend hours talking with Mrs Chittaphon. But even though coming late, she still has a hour hour and 30 minutes to chat with Mrs Chittaphon.

Oh well. Two weeks. I’ll see my wife again in two weeks. 

I get to my car moments later getting myself some coffee, seeing how two lurking people are staring at my car. "Daddy look, is this Jaguar as fast the real Jaguar?” The kid’s eyes light up as he bounces up and down. “The Jaguar! The Jaguar!" The boy's father looks over at me smiling an embarrassed smile taking a hold of his son’s hand who was about to touch my car. 

I return an awkward smile and get in the car thankful that the little boy didn’t set a print on my car. Making myself comfortable and seeing Daegal still sleeping on the passengers seat, I place the little treat bag on the chair and turn on the engine. Wanting to be bit spontaneous, I put on a show for the little boy by making my engine roar to full maximum power.

As expected:

The kid

Loses

His mind.

He begins to jump up and down literally screaming in joy, "Oskar vrrrr ! Oskar vrrrrr! Oskar vrrrrrrr! vrrrrr! vrrrrr! vrrrrr! vrrrr!~~" he chants aloud bouncing around his father.

His father gripping him trying to bring him back on Earth. I laugh silently carefully driving out the parking spot and eventually out on the road, pushing down on the accelerator making my car go as fast while passing the other cars on the highway. Taking my eyes off the road for a second, I peer at my phone that’s planted by the phone grip. I press long on it’s side turning it on. I chuckle to myself when thinking of my wife and how she always nags about me having a phone when I hardly even use it. While it switches on, I turn on the radio switching through the channels to find any music station as my CD record has no CD’S of my taste whatsoever- most likely because of Yezi, it would explain those random Thai CD’s.

Upon turning the radio, my face frowns when I hear my name on one of the stations. I quickly go back, finding the chatting team.

‘From what we hear the police have barricaded and surrounded the mansion, it’s also been reported and said that his two daughters are inside with those burglars.’ The hostess speaks causing my anxiety to rise. I’m sure that I heard my name a second ago- but among hearing that two daughters are trapped in a mansion with potential burglars my heart pounds harder. Did they just say police have barricaded and have surrounded the mansion? ‘But can you just imagine the intense amount of fear traversing through the father at this moment? His own home that he built with his very hands being used as a prison for his daughters. What sick cruelty.’

‘It’s moments like this when you realize that even millionaires who try to live amongst the ordinary- still get picked on by burglars.’ A male hosts comments. ‘I personally thing it was a mistake for Zhong Chenle to pick out a situated area like that. I understand he’s humble enough to reflect that he’s richly ordinary, but maybe a more reserved area would’ve been well fitted for him and he wouldn’t be stuck in this predicament of having his daughters trapped in a building,’

Did I hear right? 

I’m not even sure because all I can hear are the heavy thuds of my heart.

‘I agree. Let’s just hope the situation gets better,’ The hostess comments. ‘This has been Build Architect Talk on 94.7 highveld stereo, send your comments through twitter on what you think about the-’

My heart races to the same speed of the car, the wind swamping through the little space of the window. I slow down the car seeing the traffic lights a few pints away. I stop at the red light picking up my phone urgently now noticing the white light that flashes through HOME LED. Oh my god.

_____________________________________________________

|*⚠3 ALERTS FROM: SYSTEM HOME

______________________________________________________

|*▶1 NEW VOICE MESSAGE            

______________________________________________________

|*↙ 9 missed calls

______________________________________________________

|* ✓ FRIEND REQUEST(s) ON FACEBOOK

___________________________________________________________

|*Yezi: Dad please buy some takeaway for us?

____________________________________________________________

|*$ Cash Transfer/Deposit

____________________________________________________________

Why are there three alerts from system home?

I click on the Alerts patiently waiting for the system to load. I breath out only expecting to be proven wrong by what I just heard from that radio station. How could the radio station be informed before me? But then how would I have been informed if my phone and any other gadget used to contact me were off- Two silent alarms sent?! My head begins to throb as I read the feedback report and the times the house was locked? If two alarms were sent on different times it means that it was not accidental and the girls sent it for valid reasons. But now reading the report of the house being locked multiple times only sends me in a frenzy. What the hell is happening? The 9 missed calls are all from different people- but none from the girls. 4 are from the police?

Speed dialing Dae’s number- her phone rings and rings until my call is directed to voice mail. I try again two more times- but they all go to voice mail. I try Yezi-

HONK! HONK!

Getting startled by the car behind and the bright green light on the traffic light I curse out. I press on my paddle at the green light speeding down the road ignoring all the speed limits and pass the other cars in a flash.

“Please be okay. Please be okay.” I mumble continuously while swerving through the other cars my heart beating on raider and loud for the whole world to hear.

I'm startled again when my phone vibrates on my lap. I pick it up immediately answe’ring the call, swerving the car avoiding accidents.

"Dae?" I call out my voice rising.

"Mr Zhong Chenle. Thank god we finally got a hold of you. Sorry for the intrusion but this is urgent-”

"I'm sorry I can’t right now- I need to get to my home-”

The guy over the phone calmly interrupts with a bold statement that paralyzes my core. "This is regarding your house with your two daughters. I think it would be best if you drove to your residence as soon as possible," The officer cuts off sternly. I hear my heart pound hard against my chest, my vision becoming blurry.

"My god what happened to them." My emotions get heightened and the words from the radio all come back to me.

"Mr Zhong please be calm everything will be okay. Drive safely and get home as soon as possible.”

Once the call cuts- I drive anything but safely on the free way continuously pushing the limits to the point where I’m even unaware of the trial of traffic cops following behind me, my only concern; that my girls are safe. It’s only when I drive into the residents housing area do I notice that on my street- a large gathering of police cars and men in uniform surround the house all proactively doing something. I barely shut the car off but all I know is that my feet are hot when running out and straight to the gate of the entrance gates. I’m about to open up the gate with my remote key but I’m hurled back by strong arms holding tightly onto my whole body.

“My girls! My girls! My girls are in there! LET ME GO!”

“Unfortunately we can’t do that.” 

A voice cuts me short of breath as I stare wide eyed to one person I’d really not like to see. 

“Zhong Chenle, CEO of G.H Constructions, the same man who evicted me and 29 other people from a main land building, all in the name of building a fucking bus station-”

“Moon Taeil, is this really necessary now?” Chenle yells out. “My daughters-”

“Yeah they’re in house, we know. We’ve been trying to reach you, but you were M.I.A. on all the calls, so we had to proceed without you. And for your information it is General Moon, respect the initial-”

“General I don’t think that’s necessary right now.” A punctual and straight voice interrupts Taeil’s ‘superior speech. I pant out frustrated when the hands of the Officers around me let me go and I turn to the new officer showing me a screen on the tablet. I dive in closer gripping the tablet seeing an image that’s been zoomed in. It’s Yezi’s window. She’s pressed against the window with a gun to her head. “The moment we tried intruding, this is what happened.”

“Tried?” I stand back looking at all the cars around. “You mean to tell me that even with the number of police officers out here- you still haven’t done anything but tried?!”

Moon Taeil steps forward with stern eyes. “Mr Zhong. We are tying to do our job-”

Staring at him in disbelief I grab him by the shoulders shaking him up. “If you’re considering this just a job then you should go! My two daughters are in there and all you can do is brag around about your new job and title? I can make one phone call right now and you’re entire career is over-”

Taeil tsks while scoffing. “You’re children are hostages in that stupid mansion and all you can think about is ruining me? Haven’t you already tried that? I wondered why you never even cared about the 29 people who were left homeless, I should’ve realised back then that it’s because you’re a narcissist. Even your own girls are there but you just want to-”

“That’s enough General Moon. You placed me in charge of this case, now with all due respect I need you off the premises effective as of now.” The Officer commands with his hands sharp out the ‘General’. He sharply turns to me with stern eyes. “Mr Zhong I need you to calm down. Engaging in trivial matters right now isn’t good for your blood pressure or ours. We need to stay clear and focus. Now if you may, follow me.”

“Who the fuck is that?” I glare at the Officer man walking away. 

Moon Taeil scoffs. “If you must know everything, he’s the man you will be answering to if you want your daughters to leave there safely. Now if you’ll excuses me, I’ve got errands to attend to. I would say all the best, but I don’t even think you care.”

I try getting a grip of myself and not allow myself to lunge at the parting General. My daughters are trapped inside the house right now, and all the barbarian officers can think about is their stupid titles and power over me. 

“Uh Mr Zhong, I’m Officer Park Jisung,” An officer appears in my face looking a bit hesitant. “Officer Na Jaemin sent me to fetch you-”

“I’m coming.” I sharply glare. “And who is he?”

“Officer Na Jaemin?” The Officer Park’s eyes widen. “He is second in command and one of our youngest military transfer. The Chief and General recruited him after an impressive take down of a kidnapping situation. He did that all by himself." Jisung chuckles. "Chief calls him a man team."

“Youngest? How old is he?” I ask before looking up and down at him, seeing he’s also young. “And how old are you?”

"Oh," Jisung chuckles again. "He's 23 years old. Don’t let the age fool you, he’s a gifted prodigy recruit straight from the highest military academy. He's got honor badges and was the top of his class, passed with flying colors and dignity. He respects and handles all situations well, so he’s age is just an age, but mentally, he’s on fire." Jisung continues rambling on about the achievements of the Officer as Chenle zones and follows in the direction the stern serious Officer Na Jaemin left to. 

After turning around several police cars I finally find the ‘Officer Na’ and make my way towards him. “Officer Na, tell me if you’ve got a way to end this right now. If not then I can make a phone call to National Security and end it quick.”

Officer Na raises an eyebrow in my direction seemingly trying to refrain himself from making a haste comment. “I understand your dying urge to save your daughters from the scene, I have kids of my own, but they’re mice and their trapped inside my apartment with a frenzy crazy cat.”

My eyes enlarge. “Did you just compare my precious daughters to your-”

“Here’s what we know so far.” Officer Na cuts throws revealing a journal with hand written notes. “You’ve got two daughters by the name of Dae and Yezi. They were in the house until they sent a silent alarm to the station around 6.57pm. By the details of Officer Suh, now in another place, he stated there was an abandoned car parked by a distance on this street. This car right here-” Officer Na turns to the vehicle on the side and I pane my eyes as well doing a double take. I’ve seen this car bef-

“My god.” My eyes enlarge. “Those perverts.”

“You know this car?” Officer Na asks and I bite my lip in fury.

“Continue with what you’ve gathered.”

“Upon checking the security footage by the neighbors house, there car seemed to have arrived minutes after yours drove in. And that was around 6.10pm. It stayed and rested there with no movements. Around 6.30pm we saw 3 boys exit the car and make a straight bee line for your house. They climbed the gates and that was the last we saw of them. Moments later we saw your gates opening and a car getting out, we assume that was you and your wife, and that was around 6.45. From our calculations between 6.45 and 6.57, 13 minutes were in between. And we assume that the 3 boys somehow entered the house, to our surprise one more guy left the car at 7.00pm and climbed the gates over and entered, resulting to their being 4 boys in total. Officer Suh, who’s now in... critical condition, arrived at your house at 7.09pm and constantly kept speaking into the monitor. He mentioned your eldest daughter Dae answered the monitor and her voice sounded shaky, he heard voices in the back and persisted to ask about the abandoned car. She stated somebody was fixing something inside, and that’s when he knew something was wrong. He offered for her to come to the front, but before any movements could be done he heard the girls over the monitor yell out that they were trapped with four boys and that they were going to kill him. Just like that rapid gun fire came his way. He sent a distress call of a hostage situation of 4 burglars and 2 hostages- from the security footage, it shows he was shot about 7 times while trying to make it to his car.”

“Where is he now?” I ask in worry. If they shot him mercilessly, how sure am I that my daughters are in ‘safe’ hands. 

“Right there in the ambulance truck.” Officer Na motions with his hand. “Like I said, he’s in critical condition.” Officer Na states, avoiding to mention that Officer Suh is now dead, after being shot on the back of his head. “After he sent the distressed call around 7.12, another silent alarm was sent 7.13pm and 4 officers we’re already on the move in 2 separate cars. Upon reaching the house and seeing the Officer Suh’s body on the ground they proceeded with caution where they met a ‘gardener’. They explained the situation and the ‘gardener’ supposedly shot out to them to which they returned in a shoot out battle, where unfortunately the ‘gardener’ had the upper hand. By now we know you have no gardener and that it was actually one of the boys. From the means of it, after searching their car, we’re 100% sure that most, if not all the boys are under substance influence as we found marijuana and weed plants in the car, multiple of beer cans scattered around and dust of cocaine on the dashboard.”

Officer Na turns the pages of his book, but I quickly ask. “What else did you find in the car? Anything about those boys?”

“We looked for anything else to identify the boys as the security camera couldn’t capture there faces- we found nothing but a school bag. Within the school bag there were art supplies and sketches and drawings of flowers and portraits of people- that’s not important, but what is important is that it belongs to a scholarship student Huang Renjun.” Officer Na points to the hood of the rusted car, were smiles files and notebooks were place. “We did background detail on him and found out he was adopted by a widow, Mrs Lee. We gave her a ring, but she was at church. She ended up calling back and we asked about her adopted son and the mishaps he caused. To which she was flabbergasted as Renjun would never do such a thing. The usual mother talk. However, as she was completely against the idea of her adopted son Renjun causing malicious crimes, she was purely certain that her own son Lee Donghyuck was involved. Lee Donghyuck, a mastermind of schemes and trouble, he’s a regular at juvenile prison. Commits minor crimes and serves his time for a short sentence, before doing the same thing. He’s a kid who’s seen trouble one too many times. And from that information we know for certain that Lee Mark is also involved.”

“Brothers?”

“No.” Jaemin shakes his head. “They first met in juvenile prison when they were 13. Know Mark, is one of those kids you never want your child to come across. Buys and sells drugs to minors, is always in possession of illegal cocaine and  frequently gets into fight with anybody that looks at him. So it’s no brainer that him and Donghyuck are a match made in heaven. They were inseparable since meeting, they mixed up in the wrong crowds together, caused twice as much damage then they did alone, served their sentences together, and eventually joint by the hip by a common love for crime. Where one is, you’ll most likely find the other. So now we know for certain that Lee Mark, Lee Donghyuck and his brother Haung Renjun are there. As for the fourth guy, we assume it could be Lee Jeno, as he’s Mark’s younger brother and every time Mark isn’t with Donghyuck, he’s with his brother, Jeno. But we don’t know yet. Jeno has no criminal record, went to primary school and dropped out of high school performing side jobs here and there.”

“What side jobs?” I ask.

“He’s a self proclaimed photographer.” Jaemin answers, spreading out the printed photo’s of all the boys on top of the car. Where Mark and Donghyuck both are mugshot photos, Renjun and Jeno are seen in high school photo’s. Renjun an honor student, and Jeno a shabby looking boy who barely smiled.

“They are so young.” I mumble. “How old are they 17?”

Jaemin grunts. “These are old photos. They’re all in their 20′s currently. Mark and Donghyuck are both 21, Mark being the eldest and Renjun and Jeno are both 20, Renjun being the eldest.”

“We assume they’ve got eyes on the premises outside, partially because as soon as we tried to enter from the back, they held up your daughter Yezi by her window and we withdrew from anything further.” Jaemin says yet, he leans over the car unwrapping a white A3 folder. “As we’re talking now, a team led by my best man Officer Sungchan are hidden inside the premises outside the garage door. On my go, they’ll enter as soon as I give them the greenlights. Speaking of greenlight, are their any surveillance cameras in the house- so that we can get our setup guy to activate?”

I shake my head. “My family disliked the ideas of the cameras in the house. They didn’t like the idea of being ‘watched’ so I took them out. The only camera’s we have are outside of the house.”

“That’s okay. With your 2 daughters in there, we need to be extremely careful otherwise-”

“Officer Na! Officer Na!” 

We both turn our heads to a an out of breath officer. It’s Officer Na who grunts. “Jisung I told you to stay off the scene. And what the hell are you doing with that damn dog?”

Seeing the white fluff ball in his hands, I instantly go over and pick up dog from him. “Oh Daegal, where you sleeping in the car?”

“That’s yours?” Officer Jaemin questions with confusion before looking to Jisung. 

“I was outside off the scene like you said, but I saw Mr Zhong’s door open and I could hear a dog barking. When I went closer, I saw the dog and also-” He looks down when the large phone in his hand began ringing. “The phone keeps ringing.”

I take a hold of my phone seeing Yezi’s contact ringing on the screen. My eyes widen instantly answering the call. “Yezi-”

“Shhhh. I’m sorry sir. My name’s Huang Renjun and-” I place the phone away from my ear setting it on loud speaker for Officer Jaemin to hear. Surprisingly I can hear stone hard Chinese leave the young boy’s lips. “- telling you this to help get us out of here. I don’t know what was going on in there minds but I swear they didn’t hurt the girls. I just need help- I’m not sure how long they’ll be down there but we need help.”

Yezi watches as Renjun keeps one of his hand on the phone and the other on the cold cloth covering his bruised cheek. “Are you sure he’ll answer?” Renjun looks to Yezi on the bed still with her hands tied up. Feeling bad that she was in this situation he untied her legs and allowed her the space to cry until she composed herself. Now after having charged her phone it was 15% he opened and searched through the contact until finding her dad. She said, her dad would know what to do.

“Yes he will.” She whispers. “I saw the police outside when they pressed me against the window. I’m sure he’s there now.”

“But it’s been ringing and he’s not- oh.” He’s stunned when hearing the connecting sound.

“Yezi!”

He hears Zhong Chenle speaking into the phone and he can’t help but break out into Chinese while feeling panicked. The words flow out so fast that not even the people on the other hand get a grasp of a word he says. He silences down when hearing a voice over the phone.

“Listen here. I need you to calm down and breath okay? The only thing we heard was your name, Renjun right?”

“Yes.” Renjun answers in a much calmed tone while standing up pacing nervously. 

“Okay good. It’s Renjun on the phone, he somehow has your daughters phone-” Renjun can hear the voice, but the male isn’t talking to him. Meaning he must be on speaker. “Where are you now?”

“I’m in...” He looks to the girl nervously. “What’s your name?”

“Yezi.”

“I’m in Yezi’s room. They sent me here to make sure she doesn’t escape.”

“Yezi’s room?” The Officer asks and from the outside they look up as soon as they see a figure approaching the curtains. The curtains open up a little and Renjun places his hand on the window. “Hold your fire,” He hears the Officer speak. “Okay Renjun, I need you to listen to me and answer my questions. We already know you, your bother and his friend are in the house, failure to come to a middle ground will put you all in danger-”

“No disrespect sir, but I’m already in grave danger talking to you. My brother could appear any moment and I can see the police want to shoot me-”

“Okay, okay. Calm down. Relax,” The Officer interrupts hearing the panic through the phone. “Renjun remain calm okay, we’re not going to shoot you okay? Listen to me, can you confirm this? Are their 4 boys in the house?”

“Yes.” Renjun looks carefully to the door. “Me, my brother Donghyuck, his friend Mark and his brother Jeno.”

“Did you guys bring any weapons?”

“I don’t know but I saw Mark and Donghyuck with guns-” Renjun scratches his head pacing around and walking to the window again looking at the scene outside before, seeing a hand wave.

“That’s me, you’re talking to me.” The Officer comments. “Are-”

“Officer I’m scared right now, but I can’t go to jail! My mum is sick and-”

“Renjun I need you to calm down buddy, it’s alright-” 

“No it’s not- Donghyuck goddamnit. He just likes following Mark around and-”

“Lower your voice.” Yezi whisper yells in panic, feeling scared nervously looking to the door. The fact that Renjun was badly beaten on the face and shaking like a fish out of water only made Yezi more anxious that something bad would happen to him if he was caught.

“Okay I’m sorry. I got carried away for a minute- they’ll be finished in any moment.”

“Do you know what the other boys are doing now?”

“Donghyuck and Mark said something about filling up a car with materials. So I think they’re both downstairs. Jeno and I are upstairs in each of the girls rooms.”

“Were you the one holding the girl Yezi by the window?”

“No- that was Donghyuck.” Renjun answers remembering the scene. “They tied her hands and legs up, so when Jeno helped me carry her to her room, I undid her legs but she tried to run away and then Donghyuck held her at gun point shoving her to the window telling her he’d kill her for everyone to see.”

“Where’s Yezi now?”

Renjun looks back at her. “She’s on the bed, she told me where her phone was and said to call her dad.”

“You guys did good, don’t stress.” The Officer says before speaking into the radio monitor to which Renjun makes out. “Stand by.” The Officer looks back up and clears his throat. “If it’s possible, I need you to stay on the phone with me okay? We’ve got a plan, but we need your cooperation, cool?”

“C-cool.”

-

“Something’s wrong.” Donghyuck mutters looking out the creak of the window behind the blinds. As soon as they put the girls in their rooms, him and Mark searched around the place for anything valuable and began stashing it inside the car. Upon Yezi’s outburst and attempt to escape, Donghyuck warned her by forcing her against the window. His initial plan was to scare her by throwing her out- but as soon as he saw the arrival of the police cars and the officers outside he panicked. He placed the gun to her head before closing the curtains and commanding Renjun to watch her. 

When he got downstairs, he was surprised to see mugshots of himself as well as Mark. Mark was sniffing in powder of cocaine while watching the news. After much convincing for Mark to hurry up in stalking the car with materials- he found himself inspecting the downstairs window again. The police were outside...doing nothing. 

Which was strange at first, but then Donghyuck thought that maybe it was because of holding Yezi at gun point. Even so, right now there still seems to be no movement. No one is doing anything, they’re just standing outside. Plus, one of the officers keeps looking up- not to the window he’s peeking out of, but instead to one of the girls’ room- most likely Yezi.

“Yho Haechan, you need to see this,” Mark stands by the living room door. Donghyuck get’s up from his position against the wall following Mark who goes into the kitchen and then gets to the door leading to the garage and stops before peeking inside. “Look,”

Donghyuck leans against the door looking inside. The light are switched on and the large black Jeep car has the trunk open. It’s the car, they plan on taking. “Do you see that?” Mark asks.

“What?” 

“Under the garage door.”

Taking a look at the garage, my dead tilts to the side upon seeing something weird. There’s a twig like stick poking from underneath the door. “Is that...”

“A tactical electronic under door camera from Call of Duty? Yes.” Mark nods his head. “I was walking around and noticed it, I tried not to be obvious but I purposely moved around it enough to see it’s a camera. They’re watching us. Follow me again.” Following Mark we make it to the living room where the monitor is set. “I kept fiddling with this trying to see if I could turn on the garage light, and as soon as I saw this-” He points to the screen where there are buttons of: Porch, Garage, Swimming Pool, Back Yard, Veranda, Hot tub, Garden and many of the outside areas. “When I saw this, I thought is was the lights for outside, but then when I clicked garage, I saw this.”

He clicks on ‘Garage’ and surely a surveillance footage of the outside comes up. The area around the garage, the drive up path and the little bush around. 

“Check this out,” Mark points to the long thin black stream line- the same one we saw in the garage- it’s connected and it’s leading straight to the bush, where Donghyuck makes out a hand. “Do you see it?”

“They’re gonna come in through the garage?”

“I counted and saw 6 here.” Mark comes out of the garage footage and moves to the yard footage. “Counted 4 here,” Mark comes out again, while going to the next footage and the next. “Swimming pool 2, veranda 2, porch 2, hot tub, 2 and garden, there’s only 1 guy. In total there’s 19 guys around the house right now, ready to take us out.”

“I bet they’re waiting for a signal.” Donghyuck’s eyes widen and he drags Mark to the living room blind where he was. “If they wanted to take us out, they would, but look.”

“Wait a minute-” Mark leans closer squinting his. “Is that Officer Na Jaemin?”

“The parole officer?” Donghyuck going to the other side of the curtain. He can’t see the faces clearly but still sees that one officer looking up. “With one command they’ll come barking in.”

“We need to stop it.” Mark comments rubbing his red nose. The extra intake of cocaine in his system made him extra alert and attentive to any small movement around. “Is he on the phone?”

“He is.” Donghyuck answers, still wondering why they’re not doing anything. 

“Oh I know that look,” Mark laughs while looking at Donghyuck’s face structure. “We’re about to have some fun aren’t we?”

“They don’t know who we are if they think they can fuck up our plans.” Donghyuck mumbles with a pissed off tone and trudges towards the stairs- having a feeling that the Officer is surely looking at something on the window. Perhaps the same window where he threatened the girl- 

“C-cool.” 

Donghyuck barges into the room instantly catching Renjun off guard as he was talking into a phone. Balling his fist Donghyuck lunges to Renjun punching him on his already busted up face. “Fucking knew it!” He lands a fierce punch and grabs the phone placing it to his ear ignoring Yezi who cries out in the back worried about Renjun. Donghyuck points a gun towards Yezi causing her to rapidly silence up. “Get the fuck here.” He grates through his teeth at her. 

Meanwhile over the phone, he hears the familiar voice. “I assume this is Lee Donghyuck on the phone,”

“How do you know my name?” Donghyuck asks already anticipating to connect the dots to what Mark said. It really could be the Parole Officer, Na Jaemin. “You know what, let me make this quick and clear. I spotted some of your men by the garage and around the house. Get them off or I start shooting.” Donghyuck is quick to pulling the curtains open before grabbing Yezi by her neck and slamming her against the window throwing the phone after placing it on speaker and pulling out his gun. 

“Donghyuck w-”

BANG!

Yezi screams out shutting her eyes as soon as Donghyuck shoots out the glass window. “CLEAR ENOUGH FOR YOU?!” He yells out the window down to the officers. 

“SEIZE FIRE DON’T SHOOT! I REPEAT DON’T SHOOT!” Officer Na Jaemin yells out to the other officers, with his hands up. “Seize your fire Donghyuck! Don’t shoot!”

“Give me the phone Renjun!” Donghyuck yells out to Renjun on the floor. Like a wounded puppy, Renjun gets up with more blood pouring out on his mouth and nose as he scampers to the phone and hands it to Donghyuck. Grabbing the phone from him, Donghyuck continues to point the gun to Yezi, who’s got her eyes shut tight as she’s trembling with tears running down her face. “Get them out now or the next thing I target is her.”

“Tell him about that Officer I shoot in the head.” Donghyuck hears Mark from behind. Mark leans by the door lighting up his brown wrapped weed stick. He looks down seeing the carpet is stained with blood from Renjun, who’s face is botched up making Mark chuckle. “Border jumper, what happened?”

“He was snitching like a bitch.” Donghyuck comments for Mark to hear before talking back to the Officer. “If you think I’m bluffing, you’ll see blood flying out.”

“You’re going out of line Donghyuck-”

“I didn’t ask any questions! Get them out now and then we talk!” Donghyuck cuts the call closing the curtains- yet the wind still blows lightly on the curtains. He pushes Yezi to the ground next to Renjun before pointing the gun to the both of them. “I’m asking this once,” Donghyuck shoots the floor making both Renjun and Yezi yell out by the blowing wind of the gun shot on the floor. “Who’s idea was it to call the police?” Donghyuck asks, knowing very well that if the Officers couldn’t hear the screaming, then they most likely heard the gunshot. “Mark check on the monitor, make sure their all going.”

Mark puffs out once before leaving, he winks to Yezi on the ground. “I’ll be back for you babygirl,”

“Renjun, do you want to end up with a bullet in your head?”

-

With her hands and legs tied with a scarf that Jeno found resting around the room, Dae’s laying on her bed with her mouth stuffed with socks that Jeno found in her drawers. Ever since being placed in my room, he walked around lazily and wobbly as he tried to tie her up. His headache only irritated him more. The fact that he was trapped in a room with a girl he’s watched from afar, a girl that he had fantasies about- the fact that he was trapped with her and his head kept pounding only made him irked with annoyance. Maybe he shouldn’t have drank so much. After tying her up, he warned her not to do anything stupid and ended up going downstairs to help Renjun carry the younger sister into the room upon helping Renjun, he went downstairs (while Donghyuck ran upstairs because Yezi tried to escape) and found Mark sniffing some cocaine on the table.

“Mark we should get out of here.” He said to his brother who was down on the table blocking one nose airway while sniffing in the powdered substance from the table.

“Jeno, you’ve got a beautiful girl laying on her bed right now.” Mark started, his reddened eyes telling Jeno just how high he was. “Seize the moment, everything you want to do, simply look around and do it. You’re free. Enjoy these minutes right now, because what will happen next, will be dark. Which is why I’m preparing myself.” Getting back on the table sniffing out the lines, Jeno got up leaving Mark alone. Not wanting to confront the girl who he’s admired since, he walked into the kitchen taking his brother advice. Everything and anything he wanted to do... he didn’t want to remember hurting anybody or even remembering what his fantasies wanted to do to her- so he looked around the fridge and cabinets for anything strong like alcohol or even wine.

Getting out the kitchen, he ended up finding a wine cellar. With various flavors and brands from all around the world, this wine collection was absolute heaven for Jeno. Best part of it was that the flavors where from the weakest to the strongest. He took 4 bottles the absolute strongest and found himself in Dae’s room- chugging down the 2lt glass bottle of a bitter drink until his mind went blank. His eyes couldn’t help but admire the red mood lighting around her room. Not only did it create a dim sensual feeling but it made Jeno feel really drunk as the only color he saw was red.

He walks around her room, touching on all her stuff, opening and closing drawers either observing or blanking out. Dae’s eyes observe his every move- the fear of running away so strong but after what happened and how she heard Yezi screaming out and some bullets shooting out- she didn’t want an encounter with the person shooting the bullets. Her best option was to comply, and so far the only thing she could do was sit still and watch a drunken Jeno barely standing up straight and leaning here and there every while.

He leans forward on her desk as an attempt to get balance, but also because of a book that’s wide open. Her handwriting looked so decent and modest, as if she herself were a machine. Even in his drunken state he felt her superiority. Something as simple as handwriting showed her status and her level in society. Jeno liked that she didn’t even need to try to show how powerful she has, the air she breathed showed that she was a somebody. Picking up the book and stumbling back a bit, he trips his way over to the bed before sitting down with a hard fall. He groans from his head being dizzy before placing the book on her lap. “R-read it,” He slurs out before swinging the bottle back into his mouth.

Dae looks down to the book in her lap and back to the drunk male who could barely keep his eyes open. “Why?” She shrieks back when his body fumbles on the bed over her legs before weakly placing himself beside her.

“I said read it,” His words come out slower then before but his eyes are now open- attempting to stay open as he looks down on the page.

Taking a deep breath trying to calm her heart, her eyes scan over the words. She wrote this entry today after getting back from the meet and greet. “I swear on my entire life that I will work as hard as my father, to achieve all that I’ve reached out for. I will work my ass off until I see myself going higher instead of lower. After the sight my eyes bare witnessed to this evening, I know for sure that I never want to be poor. Upon finishing my home school studies and started attending an actual university, I was stunned by the different types of people who’ve walked crazy journey’s to get to where they were. One of the guys who I’ve recently started to get to know, was this boy from China. I mean, he’s lived here most of his life, but I found it interesting how he’s from China. His name is Renjun-”

“I knew I wasn’t tripping when I saw his name.” Jeno mumbles upon hearing his friend’s name. “Carry on,”

Dae bites her lip, feeling aware and cautious of her writing. She knows what it’ll led to but she prays that Jeno’s half conscious doesn’t hear a thing. Little does she know, Jeno’s conscious is wide awake upon hearing his friend’s name. Why would she be writing his name?

“His name is Renjun. He’s an Art student. I think he mentioned something about art therapy...Can’t you do something else? Like-huk-” Jeno’s hand lifts up to her throat, slapping it before carefully massaging yet squeezing it. Dae feels his fingers tightening on her neck and she shrieks in pain.

“Is there something wrong with your voice box?” He questions blinking his heavy eyes. “I said read it.”

Once letting go, Dae pants out and looks down on her book feeling angsty. “Art therapy. He’s a top achiever in all his classes. On Monday, we were told that all the top achievers would be treated lunch at the ‘Royale Cuisine’. I thought it would only be the rich and smart students, little did I know that he would be there. You could just see it, he didn’t fit into our type of world, but yet he tried. As if thinking that coming to our country and working hard will get him somewhere. I hated him at first, because it was funny how he thought he had a chance, but now believe it or not, I’m actually intimidated by him, by how he thinks he has a chance. After the trip, his invalidated self came up to me and he actually spoke. I can’t even believe that he had the nerves to come and talk to someone like me. His conversation was too useless to remember but I do remembering telling him that my dad owned part shares to the school and that anything he said badly against me would only get him in deep trouble- basically just letting him know of my position above him and him below me.” 

Dae licks her dry lips feeling hot and embarrassed reading her words out loud, trying to lower her tone to one of humility, her words still strike so hard and are so condescending on their own. 

“Someone like him, can’t just walk up and talk to me. It’s humiliating and embarrassing on both hands- for me to be seen with him and for him to think he even has a chance. I watched him walk off and he went off to this other boy who I’ve started to notice more. I don’t know his name- but I’ve caught him a few times secretly taking pictures of me. I don’t want to be retarded and think he was taking pictures of me when he wasn’t- but I will say I’ve caught him on multiple occasions with a camera in his hands and aimed at me. So to make it easier for him, I walked up to Renjun and told him to take me a picture and keep it for his friend- so that his friend will stop taking pictures of me. He was confused but took it and went his way. I saw that creepy stalker again today, I saw him enter a car with other low class friends and I even think that Renjun was there. Someone like him, like Renjun, should never be allowed out of the cage he crawled out of. In their poverty stricken world, they are the dogs that scamper around for food- they are the type to run around with their brains gone and rob stores to get money so that they can even try to afford food. How can he even dream that big to think he can talk to me? That’s why I have to work hard- to make sure that someone like him will never forget his place. Someone like him will always be made for the - AHHH!”

Dae finds herself yelping out squeezing her eyes shut when he throws the glass bottle roughly against the wall- he rolls and stumbles out of bed bending down to get another bottle. “Why’re you yelling princess? Are you disgusted that someone like me from my poverty stricken world, managed to get in your highly praised house? You’re a bitch. A heartless-” 

He scoffs still standing woozily and forcing the thub off the green beverage bottle. Popping it open he takes a deep swing of the liquid, his face imitating the harsh taste as it pours down his throat. Barely even finishing the bottle his legs loosely lumber to Dae on the bed and he grabs her cheeks tightly crushing and squashing her jaws inflicting hot-blooded pain on her. Tears form by her eyes and her face becomes red- just what he wanted to see. 

“You think you’re so high above the clouds?” His lip quivers with anger. “I bet if I punched you in the face right now you’d bleed like every other low life dog, wouldn’t you?"

“No- please don’t-” 

“Please?” Jeno babbles out. “You know that word? Someone like you, a rich narcissistic bitch, knows the word please?” Jeno jerks her head once with vigorous anger. His grip tightens on her jaws as he still squashes her cheeks watching the tears leave her eyes and her lips quivering. His words come out flimsy and fragile while looking deep into her eyes. “Tell me Dae.  Why am I poor and you’re rich?” Dae looks into his wobbly eyes while her own tears pour out silently. “Is your money guaranteeing your safety right now? Is it protecting you from someone like me? You’re such a bitch.” 

Jeno seems to come back to his senses when he blinks. He clenches his jaw before picking some socks on the floor and stuffing it in her mouth.  

“Shut your mouth if you don’t want to die.” He pushes himself off her looking around her room. “I may be a low life, but at least I can keep my room clean.” 

He bends down still with a heavy brain mixed with alcohol and begins cleaning. Once in a while, he slits his finger tips accidently while trying to pick up the broken glass pieces on the floor. He groans wiping off the blood on his jeans before carrying on to clean the floor, until there’s nothing left on it. He rubs on his eyes picking up another drink and laying on the edge of the table drinking, while looking at her. His alcoholic mind blurred with her belittling words- looking at her was beginning to piss him off.

Upon finishing 2 and a half (not to mention that one bottle he broke) out of the 4 bottles he brought in, he takes a seat on the edge of the bed, holding onto his head jolting straight whenever his body slightly jerked back. He feels tired and weak- but Mark and them aren’t yet done. 

Dae gets startled with shock when his heavy body falls flat on the bed passing out completely. Her eyes widen seeing the weightless body of the big man on her bed. Hastily, she fumbles with the scarf tied tightly on her wrist trying to get it off. Her wrists buckle and turn in uncomfortable angles while her teeth grip on the scarf material pulling with all her might. Whatever this knot was- it was messy, drunk and complicated but eventually she breaks free from the hard material with red bruises around her wrist. She quickly tries to unfasten the material around her ankles too, realizing it’s faster to attempt to get one leg out. 

Picking the sock out her mouth throwing it on the floor when she gets one leg out with a struggle, she carefully sets on foot down on the floor glancing down at his sleepy face. Finding balance while setting her other foot down on the ground, she attentively gets up hearing her heart race against her chest. 

The moment she lets out a shaky breath of relief his eyes snap open- his pupil freezing her in place. Her gasp is shortened as she bolts for the door but is instantly grabbed from her shirt before both his heavy arms haul over her mouth and body- one tightly over her mouth and the other compressed around her torso. Even though drunk- his grasp around her is paired with precision and weight. With much pain being inflicted upon her, her arms shoot up grabbing onto his own arm around her mouth trying to prey him off so that she can breath.  

His tongue pokes against the side of his mouth as he shakes his head at her poor attempt. “With all the riches you have, you couldn’t even afford lessons on self defense? What bull crap are you trying to do?”

In that moment, her door opens up with Renjun. Dae’s eyes are wide open when seeing his clobbered face full of swellings, bleeding forehead, nose and lip and raptured busted lip and nose. He holds onto his jaw with his own hands his eyes enlarging. 

“What the hell happened to your face?” Jeno too is in shock upon seeing his friend’s face.

Meanwhile Renjun’s eyes are engulfed by the red lighting room as he witnesses Jeno manhandling Dae to her bed- picking her up and swinging her back with ease. He grabs the scarf she broke free from and begins tying her up while also kneeing her stomach down on the bed. She cries out in pain- causing Renjun to watch defensively. His face already hurt from Donghyuck using brute force against him- when he took the blame for Yezi’s suggestion.

He was sure that her room was red instead of his own blood blurring his vision. But the sight of Jeno being violent has him blinking in pain. With his lip being slit, his mouth hurt whenever it opened by he needed to stop Jeno. “Jeno stop-”

Jeno groans out holding onto his head when he’s done tying up Dae on her wrists and ankles even tighter. “Shut up Renjun. My head hurts like a bitch Renjun.”

“Please let her go-”

“Why do you even care right now?” Jeno bursts out asking his friend who’s following behind him while he attempts to open up another bear bottle. “Why do you care so much about these heartless girls?”

“Because this is wrong.” Renjun lets out weakly and closes the door behind him. “Did you hear those bullets earlier? Jeno, Donghyuck is losing his mind and the police are outside right now. Mark and Donghyuck both know what they’re in for- but we don’t. Jeno just stop for a minute-” Renjun rounds around Jeno holding onto his shoulder trying not to cry. The only person who would listen to him was Jeno, and if that didn’t work, then he’d have to kiss everything goodbye. 

“Why’re you crying Renjun?” Jeno asks seeing the brim of tears pool by Renjun’s eyes. 

Renjun ignores Jeno and ask. “Why did you even agree to join them when you know deep down that this is wrong?”

“I wanted to see her.” Jeno rolls his eyes pointing to her. “But that was a complete waste. Fuck my head hurts.” He snorts a dark chuckle. “She’f fucked in the head-”

“Jeno! Look at you right now! If she’s fucked up in the head then what about you? You were supposed to be the bigger and better man out of-” 

Jeno grabs onto his hair backing away with boiling rage. “Fuck Renjun- better man for who when those police are out there aiming at us? It’s no use fighting at all when we’re already being accused-”

“I’m angry too! I’ve done nothing but worked hard but now I’ll be charged as a criminal with my stupid brother.” Renjun pants out. “Jeno, it’s hard being wrongfully accused but it’s even worse when the people looking down on you are are clods who have never read a book or traveled more then twenty miles from the place where they were born. Please, Jeno.” 

Looking up into Renjun’s eyes seeing that one is clogged with blood and the other is swelling around, Jeno can just imagine the amount of pain Renjun has endured this night alone just wanting to stand up for this being wrong. Jeno breaths out even with his throbbing head- he can barely stand up straight but when he does he nudges his head towards Dae on the bed. “Is she a clod?”

Renjun breaths out lowly holding onto his left eye. “Jeno we need-”

“I don’t want to do anything without cleaning you up,” Jeno gets down picking up his beer bottle. “You look like shit,”

Renjun gulps down a lump acknowledging the discomfort and soreness all over his face. He looks to Dae on the bed who has her eyes wandering all over his face. “I’m sorry to ask this but, do you have medicine?”

Dae nods her head her heart swelling in pain upon the face of a person who has been trying to simply get his friends out the house. “There’s medicine in the washroo-”

“Save it princess, we don’t need your help.” Jeno’s groggily lets out, still bitter about her view on Renjun. The door creaks open causing all eyes to move to the direction of the door.

Mark’s eyes are in awe looking up to the twinkling lights that set a red mood theme- unaware of the eyes that fall on him. His eyes move over to the bed where Dae is placed and he can’t help but be lust struck by her position, especially combined with the red lightening around the room. 

“Your sister should really know when to shut her mouth, I wish her luck with Haechan, he’s sure gonna lose it,” Mark chortles inhaling onto his weed turning his gaze to Jeno crouching on the floor and Renjun with one hand to his face. “Border jumper, things would’ve gone easier if you stayed in that car. You wouldn’t have been beaten to a fucking pulp? You’ve chosen death.”

"Why are you here?" Jeno asks when he senses his brother glaring holes into Renjun’s head. It’s hard enough feeling like his whole world is spinning, but to have his brother on the edge and influenced to knock out Renjun has Jeno trying to focus and stay clear of his brother. Jeno gets up grabbing Renjun’s wrist making wearily line for the door- only to be blocked by Mark.

“You wanna leave?”

“We can’t leave him alone with her,” Renjun whispers hoping Jeno can hear.

Jeno rolls his head around lazily looking at Mark. Mark sees the impatience in his brothers eyes, not only is he dead drunk, but he’s pissed, only making Mark laugh. 

“Are you guys done searching the house? We’ve overdue our stay.” Jeno grunts out bitterly.

“You can make yourself comfortable in the car,” Mark moves out the way but Renjun un-grips his wrist from Jeno’s hold looking at Mark. 

“What are you planning on doing now?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know snitch,” Mark walks away from Renjun edging close to the bed where Dae lays. “How you doing baby girl?" He asks causing her to shift uncomfortably and away from him. He gets one knee on the bed with a coy smirk on his face looking down at Dae. He wanted her. Badly.

“Mark-”

“Why can’t I have my thoughts in peace?” Mark groans shutting his eyes. "I'm not gonna repeat myself border jumper. Get out.”

Renjun on the other hand enquires again while forcing Jeno’s weak grip away- again. “Mark haven’t you guys caused enough trouble? Can’t we just leave? Enough is enough-”

“Enough is enough.” Mark mimics in a high pitched voice. “You sound like a fucking little girl nagging. Leave.”

“No.” Renjun surprisingly stands his ground. 

Mark turns his head to Dae leaning over with the bunt in his hand passing it through her lips. “Since you like expensive things, why not put this in your mouth. Don’t drop it.” Mark cheekily warns before shutting her eyes with his other two fingers.

Before anything else can happen Dae hears ruffling and pounding going against the wall. She peeks her eyes open before shutting them tight again sharply inhaling her own breath to not draw out a cry and also not to make the stick between her lips fall. 

“How many fucking times do you want me to remind you that I’m not your brother? I’ll kill you with my bare fucking hands and deport you back to your fucking country you cunt.” Mark has Renjun hurled up against the wall with his bare veiny hand around Renjun’s throat. 

Renjun’s face is red tightened in grief while gripping onto Mark’s hand. Jeno lunges in trying to get Mark off of Jeno- but it’s too late when Mark lands a straight punch right into Renjun’s face causing him to get knocked out on the spot.

“Fucking cunt.” Mark mumbles when being pushed violently from the back just as Jeno attends to Renjun. Crouching down and picking up his friend from the shoulder, Jeno struggles to be balanced straight and sways to the side from Renjun’s heavy lumpy body to his own mass weight.

Dragging his own mass as well as Renjun’s body weight out the red room, Jeno leaves behind a panicked Dae alone with Mark. The bedroom closes shut with Mark cockily turning around as he nears the bed with Dae slightly trembling. To Mark, her vulnerability is the hottest thing he’s seen. Hand tied in front, legs trying to break free of the knot around her ankles, weed stick in between her lips and the coated sinister red room, he can’t help but bite his lip at the sight of her. 

“You know, we were in the house when you and your sister had that little chat about ideal types and whatnot. And I’m curious to know, did you really have a sugar daddy? Did you have  sex with him? Even with all the money your father has, you still went ahead and had a fucking sugar daddy?” He chuckles removing his own jersey remaining in a black t-shirt. “So tell me, how good did he fuck you?”

His hands gently skim the scarf material tied around her ankles, before his attention diverts to her shoes and he begins to unfasten them. His eyes preying up on her slim and juicy thighs with such lust. A leering smile coats his lips once he gets her shoes off and looks at her small feet. He sinks into the bed like a predator about to devour his prey slowly crawling up her legs while his head lowers allowing his nose to smell on her smooth delicate skin.

“I’m guessing he was old,” Mark lowly laughs when pressing little kisses over her belly that’s exposed by her crop top. “You know guys with money, they only have sugar babies for sex because no rational girl can climb up on their tiny dicks. So tell me baby girl, did you climb up his tiny dick?”

Dae’s breath hitches when his lips move up to trail against her neck planting kisses. Feeling him suck a hickey on her neck she shuts her eyes feeling mixed emotions swirl in her stomach. Unintentionally her body reacts to his teeth that graze up her earlobe. Her reaction edges him to breath down her neck lapping his slippery wet tongue over the bruised hickey spot. With his legs on either side of her body, he feels himself growing hard with how heated up she was. Moving back a little, he admires the hickey he gave her as he removes his weed bunt from her lips. In haling it and blowing it on her trembling lips he chuckles.

“If you did climb on that fucker’s little dick, you’ll be surprised when you see my massive cock,” Without wasting another moment, his tongue brushes up against her lips before he sucks-hastily getting into her mouth with his greedy tongue. The kiss is sloppy, messy and Dae finds it the most difficult to breathe. 

“I bet you’ve never been kissed like this before.”

S1:EP 16-20

5 minutes before

“If I even so see one cop car tailing us, we’ll kill them.” Donghyuck spits out through the phone before cutting it and turning to Mark who leans by the door way of Yezi’s room. 

“Where’s your brother?”

“Who knows?” Donghyuck glares at Yezi on the bed. She’s back to being tied on her hands, as Donghyuck can’t trust her. The tears are still running out her eyes. It’s because of her he had to beat up his brother and now she’s crying as if he hit her. “What the fuck are you crying about now? Do you want me to give you a reason to cry?”

“Leave her alone,” Mark chuckles a little. “What the hell was that about? On the phone?”

“Bargaining with the officer. They intersect and the girls will get hurt.” Donghyuck gets his eyes off her crying face to her hands that are wrapped around a tight fabric of a scarf.

"Are we taking them? As sex slaves?" Mark questions, the thought of touching the girls tingles his senses.

"No, as wager so they don’t think we’re bluffing." Donghyuck shakes his head closing the curtains walking over to the bed. He runs his fingers through his hair removing his cap completely shaking his messy tossed hair. Mark takes a whiff of his weed. “This whole thing has fucking been brought out of proportion. We can’t afford to take them with us.”

"Actually, they could become sex slaves while we’re on the move.” Mark suggests.

"We go with them in the car, drive until we lose the cops and then ditch them when we're done?" Donghyuck thinks out his head. Following as his brain connects the dots to what Mark says. Donghyuck is hesitant in agreeing but his lips move and his voice projects what he knows Mark wants to hear. "Good plan,"

"I know." Mark says cockily.

"We still need a backup plan.” Donghyuck says. "For instance, we’re shot down while pulling out the driveway, even if we had to hurt the girls, we’d still be caught. We can’t afford getting caught. Or the drive way-"

"Burn it."

Donghyuck pauses, trying to figure out what Mark said. "Did you just say..."

"We.." Mark looks around Yezi’s room just as she looks up in horrid fear and he gestures around with his bunt. "Burn the house." 

Donghyuck twists his head and this time it’s evident on his face that he doesn’t want to agree. “Mark I think you’ve smoked enough weed for tonight, put it down and-”

"The officers can't see with smoke around. They’ll be too occupied in the girls wellbeing. We find another way out and make a run for it,”

Donghyuck sighs. 

“Come on Haechan.” Mark peers into his friend’s withering eyes. Mark knows how much Haechan hates when things don’t go according to plan, he also knows how stuck and conflicted his friend is, considering it’s not just the both of them but their brothers as well. Mark can only imagine how much pressure Donghyuck is feeling for involving Renjun. “You, me, Jeno, Renjun settle around and linger on for a few more minutes and then we burn it. The cops come charging in and we run off- with the duffle bags no need for the car if we’re at risk.” 

Hearing the logic behind Mark’s words, Donghyuck nods his head seeing a plan he can agree to. “That sounds like a plan.”

“Good. How much time did you bargain for?” Mark asks before scoffing. “Do you really believe he’ll stick to his words? Officer Na? We can’t trust him, you know that right?”

Donghyuck nods his head. “I asked for 20 minutes, but I know they’ll be barking down in 10. All I know is that we have to leave as soon as possible. Have you have a duffle bag?”

Mark nods his head throwing the duffle bag over his shoulder to the ground. “Found these in the master bedroom. How much do you think we’ll get selling these?”

Donghyuck crouches down on the floor opening up the bag. His eyes enlarge as his hands run through his hair. Jewels, gold pieces, other ornaments and gadgets. “Fuck. Their filthy rich.” Donghyuck mumbles.

“Fucking bastards. The only filth here is you. Scampering around like dogs looking for bones.” Yezi quivers with tear venom in her eyes. “You don’t even have shame. You wanna burn down our house so you and your useless brothers can escape? You fucking beat him up without mercy.”

“Speaking of which,” Mark snickers at her outburst and pats the door. “I’ll check for your brother.” And he closes the door leaving an unbothered Donghyuck with a possessed Yezi. Possessed by anger.

“You people are monsters.” Yezi continues to tremble out of sheer anger more than fear. “Have you no mercy at all? No remorse? No humanity?”

Donghyuck ignores Yezi, still looking around the bag at the different jewels adorned, his hands scheming the different gadgets. According to Renjun, the owner of this house is an architect, so business related matters would be within all his gadgets. No humanity? Donghyuck rolls his eyes feeling generous. He picks them all up; the phones, laptops, tablets etc. getting up and planting them on the table. However looking down on her table he’s surprised to see an expensive laptop on the desk along with a tablet. Of course their father would also buy them these. Taking her gadgets instead, he places them inside the duffle bag- ignoring her continuous hate speech.

“What the fuck is wrong with you people? What the fuck is wrong with you!? Normal people don't do this. Do you think just because you've robbed us you'll gain something? You're so pathetic.” Yezi’s mouth firing all the words that strike up in her heart. The distaste too severe for her to shut up. “You’re so fucking worthless. No amount of money will ever change that.”  

Donghyuck finds himself looking around her room, nonchalant to her blabbers. His eyes scan for anything else that may be of value. Before scoffing up when finding something appealing to his eyes.

“You say I’m worthless?” He holds onto a test paper. “If I’m worthless for doing the unexpected, then you are worthless for these marks? 58 out of 100, is that your best? I scouted 80′s and 90′s in my school days. You’re even more worthless with these marks, but let me guess, since you’re some big shot family, society will overlook these marks right? And give you anything you want on a silver platter right?” Donghyuck taunts. “Worthless.”

Yezi being baffled curses out. “Fuck you. How dare you call me worthless you filthy bastard?”

“How dare I not.” Donghyuck mumbles going back to opening up her wardrobe and picking out anything that catches his eye. Without all the father's gadgets in the duffle bag, there's still room for more things the he and Mark can sell. Ignoring her tantrums, he continues to stuff the bag with clothes before moving to the window watching the officers outside. Hopefully Mark's plan works out well and they can leave without any eyes on them.

“Jewelry, electronics, thrifts, even clothes. You’re parents must be so ashamed of you.” Yezi ends up saying in huffs of anger. “Their lousy son, breaking into homes to create self worth by selling stolen goods. Are you even proud of yourself?”

Donghyuck picks up the phone, Yezi's phone, that’s on 7% and begins his search on locations. “What’s the address of this place?” Donghyuck asks unbothered.

“Why? You’re really planning on using me as a sex slave to fulfill your fucked up plan and escape?”

“Fucking hell,”  Donghyuck sighs in disbelief. “Can’t you just cooperate for 2 fucking minutes? Aren’t you tired of bitching? Don’t you want to see your fucking rich father already? Just cooperate and I’ll fucking leave.”

“Fucking leave to your fucked up family?” Yezi pants out. “No. How can I cooperate with you, when you're planning to use me and my sister for you sick deeds! And why can't you cooperate with the police for 2 fucking minutes?"

"You're a pain." Donghyuck holds onto his neck. "I need to leave before I lose my brain here."

"You won’t leave. You need to go to jail for all this mess you’ve caused! Let your useless family see their shameful son!”

“Useless family? Is this how your parents raised you? To look down on families. What can I expect from a worthless class bitch.”  Donghyuck turns his head in her direction with stern eyes. Not expecting his reaction, Yezi feels the urge to pounce on his family some more. He's getting tired of hearing her voice. “What’s the fucking address?”

She’s pissed that he feels no remorse whatsoever about what he’s doing. “You’re so shameless!”

“Fine. You wanna be stubborn? Be that way.” Donghyuck sighs, deciding he doesn’t want the address anymore. He's about to look away but the pent up frustration builds up in him and he turns towards Yezi to complain. "I fucking hate you rich people. Always feeling entitled to everything and wanting the fucking law to be taken seriously on those who aren't up to your level. What if I told you right now, that you and I aren't any different? I bet you the second you're in trouble or in a puddle, someone else takes the blame for your mess. The system is fucked up and you're just as fucked. It’s clear you lack the skills to live in the 'ordinary' world.” Donghyuck responds. “Otherwise you would’ve known that the world is a dark place. You getting robbed, is something that happens every where so get over it. You're not as special as you think.”

“You’re so awful. Is that what your family taught you?” Yezi shakes her head with tears brimming in her eyes. Tears of anger. “How dare you come in my fathers house and try to rob us and have the nerve to say the systems fucked? Hello am I the one disgracing my family?”

Donghyuck rolls his eyes sitting by the edge of the bed trying to think while ignoring her words.

“What can I expect from a low class worthless scumbag as yourself? No value, no integrity, no humility- nothing but cheap upbringing by-”

Donghyuck sighs leaning his head back with his eyes closed. "You and I both sweet cheeks. You're just like me.”

“You’re wrong. I am nothing like you.” Yezi spits. “I was raised much more privileged and dignified then you. Because I have two parents who love me. What would you even know about love? Nothing! You look like the type of guy who was rejected, thrown to the curb- all because your parents didn’t love you. My family raised me with love. Something that you can’t relate to-”

Yezi's tantrum speech is endless and her nagging voice is the only voice fueling up the room, Donghyuck tries not to be enraged by her words. Yet the images coming to his mind of his family, sets him on edge. What would she even know about love when it was given on a silver spoon? His own father’s prime example of love was to follow his heart and leave his family behind so that he could unit with his new lover. His mother’s prime example of love, that can even be described as the bane of her existence, is to always be together and survive as a family. If it weren’t for his mother, Donghyuck knows that he would’ve long abandoned his mother the way his father did. But because she’s been consistent in keeping the family together- no matter how much trouble he caused or how long he would’ve been locked up for- his mother always had her arms open for her son to return-

“You’re not worthy of love, or any type of affection. You are a crude pathetic excuse of a human being. Instead of taking the blame you're throwing it to far more superior people then yourselves. You've got two legs and hands, yet the only thing you can think of is causing trouble and expecting to bare fruits. The only fruits you bare are of pain, so it’s no wonder your parents never showed you any love.” Yezi’s voice continues to nag, bringing Donghyuck out of his own thoughts and into Yezi’s hateful spite words. “Your parents failed at raising you. You are nothing but a product of failure who resorts to using his useless brain to fucking up people’s lives. It's clear that you're only this way because of your pathetic fami-"

“You're talking so much crap right now. Can't you just shut up?” Donghyuck groans out in anger. He gets up running his hand down his face. "You think you're better then me? Right now you're the one proving to me how much of a bitch you are-"

“You’re the real bitch here.” Yezi strikes. "A low life bitch-"

Donghyuck grumbles as he gets down to zip up the duffle bag. “You’re getting on my last nerve. Shut up.”

"Why? Because I'm telling the truth? Because you're a disappointment to your family?"

“It’s either you’re the biggest disappointment in your family or you just like talking a lot of shit.” Donghyuck’s jaw tightens when spotting the Officer Na who sticks out 10 fingers.

"Talking shit?" Yezi pipes up after a second of silence. "I don't know anything about shit, so tell me, does your father talk shit, or maybe your mother? In fact, while talking about your mother, tell me, does she ever regret giving birth to you?” Yezi voices out while watching him stand by the window. He stands there, peeking out the window and attempting an escape in his mind, meanwhile, Yezi thinks of her dad. The thought of these boys using her and sister makes her so upset that the only thing she can do is cry. The tears well up by the brim of her eyes, but she doesn't want to let them out. Not in front of a low life. Her crying would only make him feel good. “I wish your whole family dies.” Yezi spits out with venom sniffing back her tears.

"Just shut fucking shut up already!"

“I really hope your stupid family dies. Your pitiful brother, your scornful friends, your hopeless family-"

"Aren't you tired of talking-"

Yezi yells out again. "All of them! Your garbage father, your disgraceful mother! I hope you all die and go to hell! Just die! Die! Die! Die!"

"You finished?" Donghyuck asks after closing the curtains when seeing the other man who's standing with Officer Na, peek at the window. That must be their father. "I need you to shut up now."

However Yezi's eyes are drenched as the tears spill out nonstop. "I wonder if your mother ever feels ashamed of you, out of all of you, I hope she dies the fastest. For giving birth to such a thing like you, she should be punished in hell for committing the greatest sin of all."

By Yezi's ill mouth begging for his mother to die, he can't help but stop in place. His death glare egging Yezi. “Don't talk about my mum.” Being triggered by Yezi's sentence he deeply breathes in and tries to regain his composure. His mum is sick right now. She's been looking for means to pay off her medication refusing for any help from him. The last thing, he'd want right now is for his mother to die without him helping her to get the money she needed for treatment.

"Why shouldn't I talk about your wicked, shameful mother who's spoilt you rotten-"

"Shut up." He whispers trying to breathe in and out while closing his eyes.

"A disgraceful woman like her should be hanged and burnt and go straight to hell-"

By her absentminded sentence his hand is faster then her lips' when he sharply slaps her head to he side glaring down at her. "I said shut up!"  

“Why should I stop? If I too had a son like you, I’d want to die! To be put into an early grave-”

He grabs onto her neck banging her against the headboard of her bed. “Do you wanna die-”

“At least if I die I have a clear conscious unlike you and you’re trashy-” Donghyuck bangs her again but her mouth doesn’t stop talking- only cutting him with her words with full force matching the fire in his eyes. “Your useless worthless mother will go to hell for raising such a disgusting-”

“Are you fucking deaf?”

“I’m not deaf you shitty bastarded! I'm just saying facts about your worthless, useless, pathetic mo-"

“I said close your fucking mou-”

“Or else what?” Yezi challenges not being able to back down even with Donghyuck grabbing her by her hair pulling towards his face. “You’ll teach me a fucking lesson?! What am I going to learn from someone with no value who's unlucky?”

“Do you want to be taught a lesson?” Donghyuck pants with rage.

“On how to be a useless mother who gives birth to disap-”

“Bitch.” Donghyuck’s hand, hard and tight when he smacks the side of Yezi’s face. Yezi’s breath hitches and she peeks back into Donghyuck’s burning red eyes.

“She must be so ashamed of you! You’re an unlucky bastarded only making those around you suffer-” Yezi’s eyes bulge out again as she gets another tight back hand across her face.

Donghyuck spits out. “I dare you to speak again!”

“You'll pay for this! You filthy! Cheap! Vain! Unlucky! Worthless! Useless! Pathetic! Miserable! Fucking–”

Donghyuck pins her tied hands above her head. “Unlucky? Me? Really?” In a quick move he grabs the material of her merch shirt ripping it off her body completely exposing her. She yelps kicking her legs up but he gets on top of her pinning her down on the bed. “I’m gonna enjoy making you my bitch.”

While Donghyuck throws the ripped material of her top on the floor, he reaches in his pocket for his corkscrew knife. Cutting the material of her white bra from the middle- he’s eyes darken as her boobs pop out and splatter side ways. From the way she rambled on and on made her sound like a child, however upon seeing her body Donghyuck feels excited and doesn't waste a second instantly covering her mouth.

Even though her mouth ran too much for his own liking, the sight of her breasts gives him edge to be inside of her.

Just as Donghyuck positions his hardened member against her shorts penetrating her covered core- Mark is in another room turning Dae over and allows his hands to go up her spontaneous sides and gifted behind, lifting up her skirt taking in the glorious view of her black lace underwear. His eyes are enlightened each time he takes in the sight of her body. In reality he never cared if a girl was rich or poor, all that mattered was for the girl to look after herself, and looking at Dae, he can tell that she pays extra attention to her body. His hands roam over her two firm and smooth behind instantly feeling pleased by how soft they feel. He smacks her ass once just to watch her butt shake. A sight to behold, he licks his lips his hands kneading on her flesh with desire and lust. But unlike Donghyuck, he takes his time in admiring Dae's precious ass. The cold rings press against her warm skin making her shiver arousing him more when seeing what the cold does to her shaking ass.

Dae grunts and whines softly when his hands begin massaging her- a little then she likes. Her eyes flutter closed when feeling her half thong slide in between her cheeks when, Mark, in his own world, grips her underwear watching the material disappear between her ass. He chortles in pleasure before sinking his face lower until Dae can feel another form of heat. His teeth biting on her ass- leaving kisses and hickies- The feel of his teeth sinking in makes her grunt and arch her back trying not to make a sound. She didn't want to make a sound, making a sound would only mean that she enjoyed it and that's the last thing she wants him to know- OR EVEN THINK. He paws her ass and grips her flesh smacking it and watching it change color. Mark takes his time, despite the time limit and enjoys each tingle when his pants seem to get tighter. His eyes were practically being mind fucked and his hands were stimulating his own urges. As Mark takes his time, giving Dae's body attention- Donghyuck is nothing like Mark.

Yezi is short of breath and trembling begging the predatorial eyes of Donghyuck.

"Please don't-" She cries, her voice lowering by how he's going. Reaching his sweatpants he pulls down his front releasing his hardness barely looking into her face when his knife breaks through her shorts watching her squirm and shakes. He smirks and viscously pulls aside her white panties- his dick having it’s own brain as it pokes into her. He spits down into her core and by a rapid instant she gasps by the moisture being stunned and truly afraid. Her lips are frozen shut only quivering as her eyes watch all that's happening to her.

"Don't-”

Her ear piercing scream erupts throughout the whole room the moment Donghyuck thrusts straight into her. He roughly pushes deeper into her smirking by her cries. He quickly let's her hair go covering her mouth while pushing the knife close to her neck as he continuously thrusts his hardness into her slamming himself roughly as pleasure shoots all over his body especially lower abdomen. "Ah fuck you're so tight shit." He fills his cock inside of her making sure his whole dick enters her warm, squishy core- "Ah shit! You feel so good aguh shit, oh fuck, agh," Donghyuck moans out incoherent words laying himself over her body his hips moving extremely fast. It's been a while since he's last been in a girl, but all the girls he's been in- have been so loose. However her body was just right, the feeling of her heat taking him easily after a while. "Ah shit, you're a virgin right?" Donghyuck can feel her mouth opening up and his ears can hear her inaudible sounds of desperation. Tossing the knife on the bed, he grabs her neck straggling her and blocking her airway. Looking into her tear filled eyes that shut with a mixture of hatred and the burning slow pain...that slowly turns into something else. Her mind is muffled with extreme stress as she refuses to let those feelings out...the feelings of pain turning into...sadness of being used? She refuses completely refuses- her tears still pouring out while she squeezes her eyes shut. Her hands struggle in the knot using her tied hands to try and push him but Donghyuck uses the hand on her neck to pin her arms down again.

“Fucking bitch.” Donghyuck moans out- his strokes hitting differently and deeper. “I’m gonna fill your pretty little whole with all of my cum.” He whispers into her ear licking on the brim still having his way- getting dizzy from all the pleasure he’s in, he’s so amerced into her that he accidently lets her mouth go- she shakes her head screaming out her sisters name but as quick as his hand leaves her mouth- it's back and he slaps her cheek forcing her head to the side and keeping his hand on her hair grabbing the knife planting to her neck. “I dare you to make a sound.” He grabs her face forcing her on her headboard as he changes his thrusts into rough strokes pounding into her- her cries coming out arousingly for Donghyuck- who thinks she’s moaning. But at some point- as all the pain subsides, she grunts angrily at the pleasure boiling into the pits of her stomach. She didn’t want this. “Dae-” Her mouth keeps rambling- yet her voice gets hoarse with each pump his cock produces into her.

Jeno downstairs- hears the scream the first time Yezi let’s it out and ignores it. He lazily continuous to whip out the blood with a damp warm towel on his passed out friend- as he failed to find the first aid kit. Renjun, still knocked out- jolts up when Yezi screams out again. In pain his eyes widen and his head snaps to Jeno. His heart beats with worry and he peeks at Jeno. “Why haven’t you helped them? Why are they screamin- Jeno-”

“Renjun-”

“Jeno I don’t like this.” Renjun breathlessly talks out feeling dizzy and drowsy. The adrenaline over his body striking up his nerves and paranoia.

“Renjun-” Jeno groans out when Renjun flinches by the contact of the hard cloth.

“Jeno-” Renjun gets up grumpily. “Please-”

“We’ll help them after- you’re in-”

“How can you be so heartless?” Renjun panics with stress. “We’re here and they’re screaming!”

“Sh- shit” Donghyuck in the room groans as he thrusts into Yezi once more, his hard heavy thrusts turn into slow, long strokes as he feels himself pouring out in pleasure erupting in pleasure. Staying still for a few seconds as he fills her with his cum. “All mine-” he pants as he kisses her trembling lips roughly before going slowly and eventually softly. Her mind still hazy from the fucking, mascara running down her cheeks as he chuckles at the fucked out image of her in front of him.

“Still wanna run your mouth?” he softly asks as he tucks a strand of hair behind her ear- he pulls out slowly. A tiny whine escaping her from the emptiness of his member. Her worn out eyes going down to his cock that was coated in cum- tears filling up her eyes again. She watches a wet string line of whiteness flowing from his member.

Her eyes still in black out dots cries out silently filling unclean- still crying out her sisters name. Her low shaky breathes and pants reach Donghyuck’s ears and he groans out sitting on the edge of her bed cleaning himself with the torn shirt.

Dae, on her back, in her room struggles to close her legs when the baby blue vibrator Mark found under her bed fits perfectly into her tight hole as his fingers work on her swollen clit. Cum trailed down her pussy, lubricating her asshole which Mark still found fascination upon- while pumping his own cock. He changes her position again, wanting another view. With her face stuffed to the bed and her butt propped out with her legs spread open on demand, it’s difficult for her to closer her legs- even harder to stop them from shaking and trembling.

Eyebrows pushing together, her mouth slowly gapping, legs shaking and sweat coating her chest and forehead- feeling her stomach twirl with the need to let go, she edges on refusing to please his oggling eyes. "Come on babygirl, let me taste you, fuck. I wanna see you leak," Not ready to let go, a small grunt leaves her lips, curling her toes as the coil in her stomach tightens- she’s taken by surprise when the vibrator bursts out of her tight whole by the amount of squirts that leave her whole by force. She closes her eyes in tears- her legs shaking while Mark marvels out by her squirts.

"Ah, Ah! Yes, fucking cumming... I'm gonna cum!" He says as the other hand that was on his dick stroked hard and fast. Mark slaps her ass multiple times turning her body around on the bed so that her face was now in view. Not minding the tears- he grabs her shirt pulling her up and in a quick movement both his hands grab the edge of her shirt and he pulls roughly tearing it up watching her boobs pop out- “Fuck yes.” Mark moans out- fapping harder, his own set of cum flows out his dick onto her chest and he moves up trying to force his hard dick in her mouth. She twits and turns her head- but when the knife comes out and parts her lips- she has no choice but to look into his eyes in unease as her tongue comes out and licks his tip.

Mark hisses at the contact. He grabs his own base rubbing his cock in onto her mouth. He fucks himself in and out of her mouth grabbing a hold of her hair. Watching her gag before closing her eyes tightly.

“Fuck baby,” he groans out, “So fucking good.”

Dae doesn’t know why she let Mark use him- when minutes ago she was fighting and resisting his touch. But the moment she heard her sister- her baby sister scream out her name- her whole body froze. The pain in Yezi's voice- blocked out the sneaky fingers of Mark that entered her when she was distracted from the scream. From what Mark mentioned- Dae only thought of the worst. Could Donghyuck be doing what Mark was doing to her?

She feels useless alternating between fast and shallow when swallowing and taking in Mark’s dick in her mouth. Mark edged himself- loving the feel of her warm mouth that got him on the brink of bliss.

The sounds of his ecstasy fills the dark red room. Deep gasps, shorts breaths, hisses, throaty grunts, quiet moans. He was basically masturbating with her body and mouth- so when a clouded Jeno busts into the room in attempt to proving to Renjun that the boys where doing nothing with the girls, catching his brother on top of Dae and fucking her mouth- he’s beyond enraged and his eyes are snapped in paralyzing shock. Snapping out of it, he pounces on his brother tackling him to the ground- his fists catch his brother, Mark, off guard as he continues to strike blow after blow-

His intoxicated and tipsy brain is in pure dejection when seeing the girl he’s admired lay motionless on her bed, her legs open and her eyes trained to the ceiling as the tears slowly leave her eyes. While Mark is still on the ground- Jeno gets on the bed taking off his own jacket pulling her skirt to cover her wet parts. He can’t even bring himself to look into her eyes- but when he lifts her stiff body up covering her with the jacket - he lightly hits her cheek. “Hey, hey, stay with me Dae, stay with me,” As drunk and clouded as his brain is, the complete zoned out stare she gives- springs all his attention on her. “Dae- Dae- I need you to listen to me-”

Dae doesn’t even hear a thing when looking into Jeno’s lips. She can see they are moving, she can feel his hand wiping on the cum that’s dripping out her mouth, she can see him-but all that’s in her head is her sister. Her little sister, being defenseless against a grown guy forcing himself in her. “I couldn’t even protect her,” Dae cries out weakly. “My sister,” She hiccups but Jeno consistently shakes her, his own eyes suddenly watering.

Is this what Renjun was feeling? Powerless to stop all the deeds being done.

Whatever Renjun felt- Jeno knew it was nothing like the emotions he felt when looking into the eyes of the girl he failed to protect from the destruction him and his brothers have caused her family. “Dae, you need to listen to me. You can save your sister-”

Jeno’s words are cut off when a heavy blow knocks him off the bed. Mark stands up whirling his hand around as he glares death eyes at his brother. “What the fuck is your problem-"

“Dae go now!” Jeno yells out when Mark goes over to him grabbing his shirt.

Prior to Jeno entering Dae’s room- Renjun limps around the empty living room waiting on Jeno- as seconds turn to minutes Renjun feels oddly strange. His eyes looking out the curtains watching the officers climb the fence and running towards the back where he couldn’t see. Time is moving fast and it only makes him worried- especially after seeing the cop- he tries to climb up the stairs, but his leg stings. He keeps forcing himself- if only he can get himself on the first floor. If only he can reach Donghyuck and try talking to him again. He knows Donghyuck has a limit to when it comes to hurting people.

And as Renjun takes a step at a time up the stairs- Donghyuck is still seated on the edge of the bed flicking the corkscrew blade in his hand open and shut. His eyes are fixed on the broken window as his ears listen to the little girl behind him let out weak cries. He’s emotionless, trapped in a state of limbo just listening to her sweet cries of sorrow. Broken and sad. Her cries sounding similar to the one he'd hear his mum weep alone in her room whenever she felt hopeless. It feels like a trance, he can't see Yezi, but he sees his mum. Vulnerable, alone and sad. The last thing he wanted was to have sex with Yezi- to rape her, the last thing he wanted was to disappoint his family. Again. Fail his mum, again. Make his whole family ashamed. Once again, he let his emotions get the better of him and as a result he's brought back to the days as a kid when it was only him and his mum.

Single mother. Broke. Heartbroken. Lost. The only thing he remembered about his dad was how much he hurt his mum and degraded her so much that he allowed for others to do so as well. When his dad left, he left his mother burdened and shattered. While Donghyuck was just a boy, who wanted his mum to no longer be in pain, Haechan (his alter ego) had a bad temper and hated seeing his mum in tears. From an early age, he would lash out whenever and where ever, because people would bad mouth his mother. He wasn't the type of kid to take nonsense, so it was engraved into him at an early age- in order not to let people talk bad about his mum, he would let people talk bad about him instead. He could take it, he really could. He couldn't stand to hear his mother crying and thinking suicidal thoughts. So he allowed himself to be the bad guy, to take on all the hate anyone would throw. The more gruesome and dark he'd be, the more attention was off his mother and on him. Of course some would say it dates back to how she was a bad mother- but to his own mother, Donghyuck would never allow himself to look down on his mother.

Maybe it's how all women sounded when they cried, but Donghyuck can't differentiate the voices between his mum and the girl behind him. Her tears seclude him from the personality he evolved into. Haechan seems nowhere in sight- it's only the little boy Donghyuck feeling ashamed and remorseful for his actions.

The moment the room is silent, Donghyuck carefully turns his head to the side.

The pain still there. Tangible in her heart and soul, she whimpers while hugging her body shielding herself from the preying eyes of the cruel rapist. Donghyuck quietly sighs out. He wants to say something. He wants to apologize, but her bare back causes a heavy weight to befall upon his shoulders. Would his mother be proud of him?

"Stop crying." He lets out lowly. "Please don't cry..." he whispers.

Yezi's hoarse voice breaks into the silence as she quietly cries, quietly calling her sisters name and choking on her own tears.

Donghyuck’s jaw trembles. He kept falling, failing, getting tricked and losing a piece of himself every time he was out with Mark- and if he’s honest, also when he was out alone. As time passed, it no longer became about shielding his mother, it just enveloped into him to be ruthless. To others although he looked worthless, pathetic and a bad son, what those people never saw were the times he’d pay for his mother’s surgery, buy food and groceries for the house, or pay for his brother’s high tuition fees- All he wanted to do, was make the people he cared for to be happy.

Who could ask for a better life then that?

But seeing the girl, Yezi shivering and exposed- his walls crack and break. He raped her.

He gets up from the bed picking up some clothes on the floor. Getting close to her, his eyes flame in remorse when seeing her red blotched face and torn clothes. He really did that?

“Are you cold?” He finds himself asking as he clings onto her hands and breaks the scarf off that tied her- holding tight when she tries to pull away. Having changed his mother many times when she was weak- his grip on Yezi doesn’t wither while he dresses her up in a yellow short that seemed long enough, keeping silent as she whispers for him to die and how much she hates him and how he’s a rapist.

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

Donghyuck’s head snaps to the door and he holds onto his own gun when the door bursts open and Jeno stands there panting and bleeding and alert.

“Are those gunshots?” Donghyuck asks blaring wholes at Jeno.

Jeno points out and looks back into Donghyuck’s eyes. “M-Mark shot Ren-Renj-”

Donghyuck’s eyes widen even before Jeno can finish his words. Donghyuck bursts out the room anxiously running passed the red room and furiously down the stairs. Spotting his brother at the bottom of the staircase with blood- Donghyuck breaths out rigidly sprinting down until-

In an instant an explosion erupts from downstairs causing the bottom of the house to erupt in flames. Donghyuck’s eyes widen and he yells out. “RENJUN!” Getting up weakly on his feet and still sprinting down into the heavy smoke of fire that’s coming from the garage with all the cars- Donghyuck makes out Mark’s figure shooting out to the open garage door. Quickly pulling his brother’s arms and coughing out- Donghyuck’s eyes water with the stinging from the smoke. He moves his way towards an empty hallway that’s clear of flames. Looking down at Renjun’s bloodied form- Donghyuck’s eyes search all over until he finds the new source of bleeding from the side. He presses down with his hand earning an aching grunt from Renjun who flickers his eyes.

The tears pour out by themselves when Donghyuck tries to remove his hoody to try and wrap it around Renjun. “RENJUN! STOP PLAYING!" Donghyuck’s shaky fingers get in contact with Renjun’s skin slapping him lightly, trying to keep his eyes open. His cheeks bounce softly with every pat. "Please Renjun you twap, don’t die on me, don’t die on me,"

[flashback]

“How’s my mum?” Donghyuck rushes across the corridor upon seeing Renjun. Renjun is seated on the plastic chair his leg bouncing up and down in worry.

“She’s my mother as much as she’s yours-”

“You’re not her blood child, so don’t you dare try and pull that card orphan boy.”

Renjun glares upwards into Donghyuck’s eyes. “You really wanna do this here? Oh yeah? Okay you, her blood child who's full of worth, is that right? Oh god help me! How can you be so cruel, inconsiderate and so self involved? She’s in the hospital because of you. She got a phone call from the police department again- because she somehow had to look for money to bail you out of prison- do you even know how much she’s owing our neighbors? Do you know how much weight she’s lost just because of you, her blood son? Do you even know that her stress levels are above the maximum limit- only because she worries about you? The left side of her whole body isn’t working because of her blood pressure- she went into hyper shock this morning all because of you- her blood son! Every time she’s in pain- it’s always because of you. Every time she’s drowning deep in stress and debt is always because of you- for crying out loud- I gave all the money you gave me for school fees just so that she wouldn’t stress about money- do you even care about her? Why do you keep flaunting that blood son title if you don’t even act like a blood son? I may be an orphan but she’s given me a life more than my own mother could ever given me. I recognize all the struggles she’s undertaken just so that I could be a part of her and your life. She’s given me everything and for that I’m eternally grateful. She’s clothed me, fed me, given me the love and warmth I never thought I could receive- but yet here you are. You only show up when she’s in trouble- you only show up when she’s in pain- you only show up when we’re at the lowest and right now you’ve got the biggest nerve to bring out blood son? Are you serious right now Donghyuck? Her blood son hasn’t even seen her smile once but he’s got the nerve to own up and claim to that position. You haven’t even been living with us for the longest of time, but you’ve got the balls to barge in here and say you’re her blood son? Idiot. Please leave. Please leave before something bad happens to her because of your presence.”

Renjun glares at his older brother in pure anger and resentment. Every word he said came from the depth of his heart. Renjun, from the first day he stepped foot into his new 'home' was grateful for all that his new mum had done for him. Upon meeting her son, Donghyuck, Renjun assumed that he'd get along well with the older boy. But Donghyuck would always show his superiority over Renjun and the fact that he was the only son to his mother. No matter how hard Renjun tried to befriend the older one- Donghyuck wasn't kind enough to roll out the welcoming carpet. But after that day- after that day when his mother almost died, Donghyuck had a change of heart regarding both his mother and orphaned brother.

[End of flashback]

It happened 3 years ago, but till today- Donghyuck would never forget the urge he got to want to be like Renjun. Renjun was adopted yes, but the way Donghyuck’s mother would put Renjun on a high pedestal only made Donghyuck want to keep the state of happiness around his mother. He liked the peace and joy his mother was in when being with Renjun. Although it was a working progress, Donghyuck tried as hard as he could- to accept Renjun. After all, Renjun was remarkable. He'd bring back home marks that were astounding, he'd get scouted by top businesses wanting to work with him and he'd especially get praise for his artwork whenever he'd win competitions. With all those marvelous achievements, Donghyuck felt some sense of pride towards the boy considered his 'brother'. From that day on, he vowed to be Renjun’s brother.

The change happened bit by bit- he would suddenly pick Renjun up from school- try to initiate conversation with him- he would go supply shopping with him and even going as far as attending Renjun’s stupid award ceremonies. Donghyuck knew himself- he had a high temper and easily irked, but something about being with his mother who looked upon Renjun with angelic eyes made Donghyuck content.

Even though he was never his mother’s pride and joy, as she constantly was quick to pick Renjun over him any day- somehow made Donghyuck want to be close by to where Renjun- because wherever Renjun was, his mother was always there rooting on for him he was glad that she could be proud and joyous of his brother.

So seeing Renjun in pain and bloated with beatings- Donghyuck feels himself about to lose his mind. Did he really do this to his brother?

[Flashback]

"So, I want to run something by you," Renjun says sitting on the grass, next to Donghyuck who's smoking weed while taking in the warmth of the sun on his skin.

"What?" Donghyuck asks with no emotion, his eyes closed, his lungs breathing in and out the toxic fumes of air.

"On what conditions would you willingly beat me up?"

The question causes Donghyuck to hold the air in his mouth a little longer then usual. When puffing out the air, his eyes open squinting at the bright sun, before he turns his gaze to Renjun who's got his fingers scissoring the grass- trimming it with his fingers. "What?"

"I want you to beat me up."

Donghyuck blinks once. He sits up and sighs out. He offers Renjun a smoke to which Renjun refuses. Donghyuck puts it back in his mouth only staring at the boy. "You wanted to run this by me?"

Renjun nods his head. "So, in order for me to get a grant at the Social Security Agency as a foreigner, I'd either need to be disabled or married, however upon reading over the conditions there were sections that kind of resonated with our current living. Such as the foster child grant, whereby a foster child is placed in your custody by court and if ever the family needs aid- extra cash for the child then they can fill a form. However, right now my identification documents aren't in the right state and mum doesn't want to take any risks in changing them because of how they threatened to deport me. So it's out the way. There's also a section that states if you've been a victim to gang fights or fraud, or government fights or fraud file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission online- and I'd be willing to do that, but going up against the government is not my cup of tea. Which then results in this non-profit organisation that I saw in our area. It helps abused children and their families with a free counselling service. It deals with issues such as physical and sexual abuse and so on. The 'requirements' are being abused or mistreated by either a family member or community," Renjun takes in a deep breath waiting upon Donghyuck's words.

"So you want me to beat you up to get money?" Donghyuck concludes watching Renjun nervously nodding his head. Puffing out some smoke Donghyuck runs his hands through his hair. "Where's mum?"

"She went to church."

Donghyuck nods his head. "What do you want the money for?"

"She told me not to tell you because you might do something crazy again..." Renjun anxiously let's out before taking in a deep breath. "She went to the hospital for her regular check up and the Doctors discovered something-"

"What?" Donghyuck stops smoking urging Renjun to speak on.

"She's got a brain tumor and since they found it early in it's developing stage they're willing to remove it. The surgery sums up to 7k maximum. They set a date for 2 weeks from now, but she said she'd get back to them in order to sort out her account funds and records. Donghyuck, I went with her to the bank and she doesn't have enough. So, she wanted to reject the surgery and go for treatments instead. But...brain tumors are deadly and she could die-"

"Don't even finish that sentence. She's not going to die." Donghyuck breathes out. He sinks back in the ground and smokes on the weed bunt again. "I'll get the money and I want you to give it to her. If she asks where you got it from just say you won a prize or something. There's no way I'm beating you up for a grant that may or may not be approved - or even helpful."

Renjun's eyes widen. Although he's grateful, he's also on edge of where Donghyuck will get the money. "What will you do?"

"I've got a friend-"

"Mark?" Renjun questions. "You do crazy things when you're with that guy."

"Listen here twat." Donghyuck sighs sitting up once again. "Mark isn't someone I want you to linger around. He's not your friend, neither is he mine. If you think I'm 'crazy' then it means you haven't crossed Mark yet. He's dangerous. Profoundly dangerous and smart and that's a deadly combo. We just get along because we find common interests in things- making money by the means of extracting from people who don't deserve it. Okay, I'm no hero or Robin hood or whatever, but that's just a logic to keep me sane. As long as mum's happy, as long as you're happy, automatically that makes me happy," Renjun smiles a little. Donghyuck never says sappy sappy things like that, so for him to be saying it now means that he's being vulnerable. "So I'm not gonna beat you up. I would be absolutely crushed if something had to happen to you especially on my account. You're my brother and you make mum happy and I don't want to take that away by hurting you,"

Being flustered by all the strange praises and acts of brotherhood Renjun's ears turn a shade red. "Hey," Renjun clears his throat. "Can I ask you something?"

"You've been talking, I don't know what's different if you ask a question. You'd still be talking," Donghyuck mummers.

"Would you go to rehab?"

"I don't need it," Donghyuck answers simply. Taking one last breath of the weed, Donghyuck throws it behind him to somehow prove a point. "I can control myself."

"I..." Renjun shuts himself up quickly before shaking his head.

"I'm in a good mood today. Say what you want to say or go away." Donghyuck closes his eyes now wanting to sleep under the sun.

"I've seen that you get pretty violent when you're on drugs." Renjun says. "And I'm just hoping that you can really control yourself, because if you get the money and mum gets the operation, we'll need to be on our best behavior to not cause her stress."

[End of flashback]

Mark full of anger dodges the blasts of flame as well as rapid fire that blazes all around the kitchen. He sprints away reloading his gun with his last round of bullets. As he's away from the flames and engulfed in smoke- by a specific hallway where he once saw Dae hiding in, he spots Donghyuck on the floor cradling Renjun. There's only one way this plan will work without them having to carry excess baggage or being tailed by the police- and that's to leave the excess baggage.

"Haechan we have to move right now." Mark announces. "Let's go, both of us."

Donghyuck hearing the low voice of Mark before feeling a hand grab on his shoulder instantly turns his head to Mark with bloodshot red eyes. "You shot Renjun?" Donghyuck's voice comes out low but the growl and grunt that follows afterwards makes Mark stunned. "Did you?! Huh!?"

"Fuck man chill! Now's not the time to-"

Before Mark can finish his sentence he's sprung backwards as Donghyuck furiously tackles him to the ground rapidly landing a good rock hard solid punch over Mark's cheek. Blood bursts out of his mouth as Donghyuck lands another aggressive punch on the other side of Mark's face. Being dizzy by the impact Mark lays motionless panting out while Donghyuck grabbed his collar. It's true they were both skilled in combat, however compared to themselves, Donghyuck was actually a much better fighter while Mark was a better gun man. So when Donghyuck hurls out his fist tightly to knock out Mark- Mark is quick to pull out his own gun and blow out straight on Donghyuck's abdomen.

"Fuck!" Donghyuck aches whilst Mark uses the opportunity to elbow him in the face. Getting up lazily on his feet, Mark pants up spitting out the blood before pointing the gun one more time towards Donghyuck's leg.

"See you in prison." Mark mummers quietly. "Or not."

BANG!

Jeno is mindful when carrying Yezi bridal style trying to maintain all his strength and composure on not dropping the girl. Upon bursting into her room and informing Donghyuck of Mark's madness- Jeno quickly went to Yezi's side. However the blood stain that was on the bed and seemed to be dried out on her leg only made Jeno more weary of what Donghyuck did to the poor girl. Renjun was right. He was right about the girls being defenseless against the hard cold boys in their homes. As soon as he lifted her up he could hear her crying lowly and calling her sisters name. But now upon going up the stairs of the third floor where their parents master bedroom is, he jogs to the open door going straight to the private bathroom where he left Dae.

Dae is still motionless hugging her knees staring at the shower. Hearing footsteps she snaps out of the nothingness and sees Jeno with- "Yezi! Yezi!" Dae crawls over to where Jeno lays down Yezi. Jeno gets up grabbing a shower head and flickering it on splashing his hand with some water to sprinkle some on her face. Yezi awakens from her trance of trauma and shoots up blurting out tears and sounds of pain. The sight of the two sisters grabbing onto each other hugging, comforting and embracing their sorrows almost makes Jeno feel so ashamed. He was late at doing what's right, stopping his brother, rescuing the girls and failing to keep his best friend alive. Sinking down against the polished wall far from the girls he lets himself finally breath out as he sniffs back a cry.

This is not how this night was supposed to go.

And as far as he's come, he still needed to save the girls. Sniffing back and getting up he walks out the bathroom moving around the enlarged brown themed room until he sees the curtains leading to the balcony. He opens it up, seeing their at the back of the house. Down below there's a swimming pool and... two officers. He quickly runs back to the bathroom looking down at the two girls. "Can you walk?"

Dae's legs were weak and she couldn't even make a run for it when Jeno was still occupied with Mark. After mindlessly giving Mark a fisted backhand, he managed to dodge his brothers grasp as he ran to Dae on the bed, throwing her over his shoulder and running to the door slamming it shut with the key before he ran and ran- and went up the stairs where he saw an open door. Getting inside, Dae instructed him where the bathroom was. Her legs were sore. As for Yezi, the blood stain alone made him feel uncomfortable. Yezi buries herself deeper into Dae while Dae looks up with dark eyes that are smeared with her messed up make up, she shakes her head.

Jeno gulps and runs his hands through his hair. "Alright, look." He blinks sharply trying to focus. "There's some cops outside near the swimming pool. I don't think you guys can get out through the front door, so this is the only way."

"Take Yezi, I'll try to walk," Dae attempts to get up balancing on the basin. Jeno picks up Yezi who is wildly trembling. He wants to apologize, but the words are stuck on his throat when thinking of the blood. For fucks' sake why Donghyuck and Mark have to go so far? Going over to the balcony door the lights are all turned off and the floor shakes after a loud explosion. Yezi squeaks covering her ears. Jeno hurriedly moves to the outside seeing the two officers running to the cause of impact getting out of view.

"Shit." He curses. He sets Yezi down avoiding her eyes that are worriedly moving around. He hurries back inside trying to make his way in the darkness using the moonlight. Dae is shaken up when Jeno puts his hands on her. "It's only me." 

She breaths out and slowly her grip on her skirt stiffens and her eyes open wide. "What happened?" She whispers, the pitch black bathroom suddenly has a threatening view. Jeno's arm wraps around Dae carefully bringing her close to him. The distant sound of crinkling fires and the light wave of smoke passing in the air makes Dae more panicked.

*

Mark curses as the power erupts, only leaving the flames to bear out light through parts of the house. He secures the baggage of goods in the duffle bag over his shoulder as he quietly wakes out of Yezi's room. The air is hot. He covers his nose with his hand. Going upstairs will only corner him, so he seeks to go downstairs again. But at this point, downstairs is spreading with rapid hell flames and he can hear the police calling out.  

Hearing the police march in union, he ducks and finds himself in the darkness of Dae's room- he feels on his temple when the heat wave brushes past the open wound given by Donghyuck. Thinking about Donghyuck, Mark hopes that Donghyuck isn't caught or trapped in the fire. The blood drips down his forehead and he groans, he grips the bag in his hand...

Looking at his hand, notices a little red light beam. He's quick in moving away grabbing the alcohol bottle and flicking it out the room. He grabs a few more bottles- mostly likely Jeno who drank and he charges out the room in speed towards the staircase where he thrusts his hand to throw the bottles watching it catch flames and shatter over the police who are covered in protective gears. Shit! He won't be able to escape. Running back to Dae's room he grabs the nearest piece of material and stuffs it in the bottle before taking his lighter and lighting up the material and letting his lighter touch the tip of the blanket with the fire- he watches the fire spread all over the blanket- leaving it inside and he runs out the room running into the hallway before jogging up the stairs. He turns back when hearing the loud explosion again burst and erupt from Dae's room. Now two floors are burning he stands up and throws the bottle near the police officer on the carpet. The fire from the bottle crushes to the floor creating an explosion.

Outside, Chenle cries on his knees on the ground as he watches his house burning up in flames. Officer Na and the rest of the police squads had gone inside after the sign was clear for them to go. It first started with the garage explosion that Chenle knew that the mission wouldn't be easy. He thought after waiting a couple more minutes that the police Officers would be out hand cuffing the boys- instead he watched as two officers with heavy bodies on their backs ran out placing the two bodies on the stretchers. Whether those were one of the boys or their officers- it was difficult to tell.

Chenle hauls himself up from the floor with tears running down his face to the snots mixing with the streams, he begins to run to the open gate where the rest of the squad disappeared to.

"You can't go in! You can't go in!" He's stopped by an alarmed and panicked Jisung. "Officer Na-"

"FUCK MY KIDS ARE GOING TO BURN! LET ME GO!"

In him yelling out loud at the top of his lungs, he hears a distant yell. "Daddy!" Both him and Jisung's head snaps to the opposite side of where the Officers left.

"I'll go and check it-"

"Fuck you!" Chenle fits off running in the direction of the open yard with Jisung hot on his heels.

S1:EP18-20

"I have to go," Jeno suddenly says. "Go to your sister."

"No, no, no, please don't leave us." Dae begs trying to see him in the dark while holding his top, fear crawling all over her.

Jeno is flushed by her grip and holds onto her hands. "Get yourself and your sister out of here. Yell or something." Jeno gets up and moves to the door. He carefully moves along the passage going down the stairs but is completely stunned when his eyes are engulfed by the flames. He turns his head back when hearing a voice yell out "Daddy!" in distress and he hopes the girls are getting out safely. He goes down the stairs avoiding the fire and heat it causes and without a plan he attempts to look for his brother yelling out, "Mark!"

Little does he know that as soon as he got out the masters bedroom, Mark instantly hid himself behind the corridor wall. Watching his brother leave, he hears the yell of one of the girls calling out to their father. It's too late to use the girls as sex slaves, but if he wanted to get out of here in one piece, it was worth a try. He gets inside the dark room instantly freezing when hearing low pants.

"Jeno?"

It's Dae. Mark matches her voice and hastily while being stealthy he covers her mouth backing her up against the wall while she tries to fight with her fists. Yezi is still outside screeching out her father's name being unaware of Dae who tries to fend for herself. The tears are brimming by her eyes as her fists really try to get rid of the man in front of her. In the dark, she makes out his eyes and she can't forget the wild look he generates.

"YEZI JUMP!" Dae yells out when Mark lets go of her mouth in order to pull her close to him. Just as fast as his hand is off her mouth it's back against her mouth but this time he drags Dae behind and out the room as he legs kick and struggle to follow on.

Yezi's head snaps back when hearing Dae yell out. Panic overcomes her again and she hesitates on whether to jump as told or go back. Her legs ache when she stands so she takes it upon herself to jump instead. Getting over the rail her legs throb and hurt in pain before the adrenaline pushes her off and she jumps. The bind of the pool net catches her gripping her with the tight rope and cold waters. All the new felt pain is gone when seeing her father running with speed towards her- while few other officers are behind him. He's quick in tripping his way on the net securely getting closer to his daughter, his last daughter who is bloated with tears upon seeing her father.

"Dad!"

Tears are overflowing when Chenle holds onto his daughter with all his might his hands moving all over her head and back- the pain his ears feel when hearing her weeping. "It's okay baby, it's okay baby, daddy's here, I'm here now okay. Nothing's going to happen to you, you're alright, you're alright, don't cry my child, don't cry. Oh god, my Yezi," Chenle digs his head into the side of her head. "My Yezi, my girl, my baby, don't cry,"

It's as if he already knew the traumatic experience she faced in the house, from the way she was crying and gripping onto him, to the way her tears were ever flowing and voice was hoarse. His poor daughter was so shaken up that she began hyperventilating and shaking badly.

"My baby," Chenle leans back removing her hair from her face trying to look into her red eyes that are filled with horror. "Come on," Too overwhelmed to ask for Dae he helps her off the pool net and follows the Officers as his heart pounds in his chest for his eldest daughter. "Come on Dae," his lips tremble.

The house is falling apart, some of the ceiling is on the floor with hoards of flames. Jeno only realizes now that he has no plan. As he thinks to himself he is down the last step his eyes enlarge when he's being grabbed and forced against the wall as soon as the flames that were in front of him gage furiously.

Officer Na grips Jeno by the collar while Jeno panics. "Please I'm innocent!" He screeches.

"Innocent?" Officer Na scoffs. "Where's your brother?"

"I- I don't know," Jeno's eyes enlarge when panicking that Mark still hasn't been found. "Shit! Shit! Shit! Dae! Dae! She's with her si-sister- the master bedroom- Mark, Mark could be th-"

"Come here," Officer Na roughly picks up Jeno by the collar, "You're gonna help me look for your brother," Jeno struggles to stay on his feet as Officer Na runs side ways avoiding the fire while strongly gripping to Jeno's jersey. "Good working men and a women died this evening because of the chaos you boys erupted," Officer Na grunts when heavy wood from the ceiling lands on his shoulder. "Damn," He grunts as he and Jeno try to climb the stairs only to fiercely stop when a fire bottle comes out of nowhere shattering against the wall. Jaemin and Jeno both shift forward by the blast of the bottle erupting in flames behind them.

Jaemin saw something similar to this, a bottle flying out from the darkness and hitting one of his Officers in the face- instantly burning him up. At first he thought it was mishap disaster but now seeing it again- he knows it might be Mark, after all, Donghyuck was rushed out of here in terrible condition.

"Is that your brother?" Officer Na looks up through the empty staircase spotting a shadow move away. Holding Jeno by his collar with his gun pointing Jeno in the back- he runs up the stairs as quick as possible pushing Jeno forward. Once away from the smoke lit second floor- he holds out his gun shooting once to alert Mark.

"EHY MARK YOU RASCAL!!" Officer Na yells. "COME AND GET YOUR BROTHER!"

A fire bottle comes out of nowhere at their direction yet again. Officer Na is quick to duck dragging Jeno along with him.

They run up the long criss crossed stairs, up to the top- getting on the third floor where the fire was still at bay simple steaming the smoke everywhere. A smoke screen of air. Shooting a couple of bullets in the direction where the bottle comes from, Officer Na ignores Jeno's plead of not killing his brother.

"Watch out!" Jeno eyes enlarge a second too late as the bottle thrushes against Jaemin's shoulder setting his leather coat jacket on fire. Catching fire and nearly plunging the Officer in smoke, he's quick in removing the leather piece stepping it quick to not let the fire spread on the carpeted ground.

A laugh is heard somewhere in the midst of the clouded air. Mark. "Be careful Officer Na, you might hurt her."

Her?

"You rascal!" Officer Na yells holding Jeno close. "I'll kill your brother this second. Where are you? There's no where to go."

"Maybe you're right, but I know you're bluffing. You won't kill him." Mark says, sounding close. Mark peeks his eyes around the corridor revealing himself. Across from him with a large gap separating him from the Officer, he walks carefully. Right through the smoke, Dae's pleading body comes into view. She's cuffed in his shirt and her mouth is stuffed with something not clear. Mark picks her up tightly holding her neck. "You won't do it, because if you do, I kill her. And you know I'm not bluffing."

Officer Na clinches his teeth together looking at Dae. Her eyes are puffed and she's bloody resembling Mark's state. The burn mark over her arm is evident to Jeno and he cusses inside when her eyes swell up in tears staring at him.

"Hand her over now!" Jeno snaps his eyes to Mark by the words of the Officer.

"Fuck Mark! Let her go!" Jeno yells out. As much as he tries to understand Mark, he can't seem to wrap his head around why Mark is going over board and literally fighting till the death. "Come man, just give it up already. You're surrounded man."

Mark chuckles. "By who?" He looks around. "Everyone's already dead, except him." He points to Officer Na.

Officer Na walks slowly closer to Mark holding the gun sharply to Jeno. "Do you wish for your brother to die?" Jeno holds his jersey at the back struggle to keep up with the police harsh grip almost tightening around his neck.

Mark doesn't budge but holds Dae tightly on the back of her neck now forcing her on her knees with the gun at the back of her head- causing Officer Na to freeze. "I killed one of your Officer's like this." Mark presses the trigger and Dae's eyes pop out in patronizing fear when nothing happens. The sound is voided by the sock stuffed in her mouth- but she lets it out. Officer Na and Jeno both have widened eyes hearing the gun go off and watching Dae quivering so hard that she's practically levitating from the ground. Mark's raspy laugh gets their gripped horrored eyes on him. "Safety's on."

Pressing on the trigger again- Dae feels her skull heavy and sore. But nothing happens again. She can't see anymore. The tears drowning out all her senses.

"Fuck it! Stop!" Officer Na feels useless watching a psychotic Mark toy around with their emotions.

"The guns empty." Mark mumbles tossing the gun down- yet in a sharp move he spins Dae around strangling her neck while picking her up. "You're such a fun sized human being," Mark laughs looking into her blotched eyes before turning to Jaemin. "You want her? Too bad, because I want to get out of here."

"Are you willing to negotiate?" Officer Na questions trying to maintain composure.

"I've watched my prey choke before, but they were all men," a raspy laugh leaves Mark's throat. "I've never seen a girl choke before."

Weapon less? Officer Na acknowledges. He nudges Jeno to stand and tosses his gun aside. "Mark." With his arms out but Mark quickly gets her underneath his embrace.

"One more step and I'm cracking her neck." Mark warns with red eyes. "I'll twist it so hard she'll die in an instant. Do you want that?"

"What do you want?" Officer Na grumbles.

"Get out the way. And don't follow me." Mark shifts his eyes between both the men. The fact that they were both standing only made him on edge. It's a 50-50 percent chance. Anything can happen. Literally anything. Because when Dae hastily beats her head backwards colliding into Mark's face- both Jeno and Jaemin gallop to the delinquent. Jeno with a bold diving punch and Officer Na with his taser- they both get Mark in a haste that when Dae can even open her eyes- she's in Jeno's arms just in time for the floors to creak and fragments of the cement below compresses and tramples-

"Run!"

Jeno takes the lead caring Dae and with her passed out weight he dashes towards the masters room with Officer Na bearing a knocked out Mark picking him up by his torso over his shoulder. The floor collapses from within however Jeno hurls himself over the balcony fence jumping straight into the net with Jaemin doing the same as well- just as the house tramples and bursts up into flames from the inside out- not to be caught up in the distortion of the building Officer Na gets out his knife and rips the net allowing them to sink into the water. Jeno thrushes straight into the water holding onto Dae shaking her body to wake her up quick in enough- but she's completely passed out from fear.

From the outside, where the other Officers and news crew watch the house detonate and bursting in flames- the firemen make their move as the other Officers move in hopes of finding Officer Na. Chenle shelters Yezi from the view- but still Yezi bursts out screaming when seeing their house compress and explode in flames. Chenle tries to be strong but the words exit his mouth and all his emotions are set wildly. "DAE!" He let's go of Yezi moving out of the ambulance truck and runs to the scene being stopped by a set of Officers.

*

"She's alive, but unconscious. The impact from the burns, the frantic emotion imbalance, the aggressive intake of smoke as well as water and distorted state set her to a mild panic which gave her a heart attack. In covering, she'll survive, all she needs now is rest." Officer Jisung explains to Jaemin, Dae's state of condition. Jaemin breathes out nodding his head.

"Thank goodness. Thought we really lost her back there," He recalls how fast Jeno kept trying to breath air back into her before the other Officers stepped in. At this moment, standing with Jisung in the hospital foyer, Jaemin sips on the plastic cup filled with dark coffee. After this hectic night, he needed 8 more shots of coffee if he was going to survive the war and rage that the millionaire Zhong Chenle was charging into for the full physical actions and trauma set and cost of both his daughters and of the damages to his home. "What about the boys? I would not want to be them right now."

Jisung lets out a breathless chuckle. "Likewise. Renjun and Donghyuck are actually in severe surgeries right now. Renjun might not make it. Several broken ribs, his face is erratically beaten up, dislocated joints, critical fire burns, apparently was also shot on his hip, severe intake of smoke and fractured hips and spin. Donghyuck was shot twice, once in the abdomen and the other by his leg, critical burns, heavy intake of smoke and raptured kidney, but he'll live. However on the other spectrum, Mark and Jeno are both in scathing health. Jeno had drunk one too many bottles and was running on adrenaline out through the night. His intake has now kicked in and he's in a deep sleep like coma. So deep that the doctors patched up the burns without a dosage of anesthesia. Mark very strangely is fine. The doctors haven't yet discovered why he hasn't woken up yet, although they assume it could be because his system is filled with cocaine."

Jaemin nods his head after hearing all their conditions. He turns to Jisung. "Thank you for rescuing me."

"Oh," Jisung looks flattered and blinks twice shaking his head. "It's no problem-"

"No seriously," Jaemin insists. "I prefer fire over water any day. So diving into the pool was my worst nightmare. I can't swim for shit. After I cut the safety net and fell inside that pool to stay alive, I drowned just trying to stay alive. Mark shot up like an eel and began choking me. Hell in water. So when I say thank you, I say it with every breath I have. If it weren't for you, I would've been in there with them, or worse, dead. And now that I think of it, you're actually pretty good and handy on the field. You really jumped in and fought underwater, carrying both Mark and Jeno, going back Dae and swimming down in the deep to get me. Despite the house burning up and shooting fragments of scorching cements and walls, you got us all out. By yourself. That bravery deserves a medal."

Jisung humbly places his hands to his side smiling down. He recently entered the police force as an intern and was partnered up with Jaemin. Jaemin being an idol in the police force that he's always admired and wanted to be like. But it wasn't easy even talking to him. For 3 months now Jaemin never acknowledged his existence- except for when he needed paperwork to be done. They never went on field missions together, Jaemin did his things privately and never asked for help, Jaemin moved through his work as if Jisung wasn't even his partner. In fact Jisung wasn't even supposed to be at the Zhong resident mission, he just happened to overhear and ended up going- only to be reprimanded by Jaemin. That's why it feels like such a huge honor to be praised for doing his job, his skills that he acquired over the years in military bootcamp, he feels honored to be acknowledged for something that landed him the position as an intern in Korea's most respected police institution- next to Officer Na Jaemin.

"Thank you sir,"

"I'm the one thanking you, don't steal my spotlight." Jaemin jokes before turning serious again when seeing Mr Zhong Chenle. "Has your daughter Dae woken up?"

Chenle shakes his head his jaws clinching with anger. "I'm from speaking with Yezi." He breaths out angrily. Having Yezi, his loudest daughter, talk in a muted way because of what one of those guys did to her breaks his heart. They raped his daughter. They deserved to die. "I want them, all of them, to suffer the highest punishments'."

"Mr Zhong Chenle, from the highest billionaire family of the Zhong's, is a self-made millionaire, a CEO at the world's top 10 best architectural planning's, G.H Constructions, with favorable clients, world wide recognition and enlightened public views, has finally taken to court a case that's been on lively and well-known by the democratic public, after 3 full weeks of silence. The attackers have awakened from their coma and are expected in court today. We hope that justice will be served. This has been Build Architect Talk on 94.7 highveld stereo, be sure to send your comments through our twitter page on what you think will be the outcome of the case."

The court building at the central House of Law, is ruled off by police officers who barricade the parameter from journalists, news crews and the general public. Zhong Chenle is seated inside one of the prestigious high court rooms looking at the peace symbol of justice hoping for the highest punishments to be served. Seated on the front row is the family of Chenle; their step mother Chungdae, Dae, Yezi and Chenle. Beside them is their lawyer, Lee Taeyong. Behind them, or scattered around the spacious court room are 4 Officers who were at the scene that will testify as witnesses, Dae's friends; Xiaojun, Yang Yang and Hendery are seated on one row a couple of seats behind. Officer Na Jaemin and Jisung sit some rows behind keeping mind of the door and whoever enters. Chenle strictly ordered that no press should enter. On the other side of the court, there's a lady in a heavy black padded jacket, she has strands of grey hair and looks agitatedly worried and sick. Yezi doesn't know the lady, but from a flashback that reaches her mind she wonders if that's Donghyuck's mother. If anything she didn't look like a wicked monster, she looked like a shriveled stressed out mother. Yezi almost forgets that Donghyuck isn't the only son being charged, Renjun was well. She turns to Dae by her side and holds onto her hand tighter.

"I'm scared," She whispers.

Dae, someone who's always realistically aware of her own capabilities, but also aware of her own limitations, not tempted by vanity or self-importance, is seated with her legs together in worry. For the first time in her life she looks precarious and anxious. She gulps holding onto Yezi's hand tighter. "Me too." They look into each other's eyes coated with fear before leaning onto each other embracing and comforting the other. Chungdae who's on Dae's side rubs onto her back while Chenle rubs onto Yezi's back, he and his wife make brief eye contact before the front door opens and all eyes move forward.

The public defender walks in, making brief eye contact with Taeyong in front. One thing that always made court cases troubled were public defenders- especially if they were defending guilty attackers. Why were they defending the attackers? The court appointed lawyer, or rather the public defender, Nakamota Yuta takes a seat on the opposite side of the court placing all his materials down. Despite being on the enemy side, he had reason to believe that if the boys where to be charged, then they would be charged correctly and not through bribery of the wealthy. Justice had to be served through the proper means of the penalty not because a rich father wants what he wants. No sooner then later the door opens and instantly Dae and Yezi tense up.

Donghyuck is the first to walk out in a white shirt and white pants, in handcuffs, he looks cold and angry. The next to walk out in handcuffs is Renjun, he's got a thick plaster over his arm with a sling attached and his neck is wrapped in thick bandages, while also his face is red and only his cheek is merely a yellow purplish blue with a plaster on over his jaw, he looks abashed and remorseful as he follows behind Donghyuck. The police guard in charge helps them enter the attackers zone and makes them sit removing their handcuffs.

The lady in the heavy padded jacket hesitantly stands up getting the attention of both Renjun and Donghyuck, it’s their mother. She walks up cautiously being cautious of the strict eyes of the police guard. She holds out a yellow file that Yuta gently takes knowing it's contents. Instead of taking a seat at the back where she was before, she sits on the row right behind them timidly. Renjun feels the tears prinkle from his good eye, but he refrains from crying, especially with straps of bandages being laced over and under his eye. Even though he was grateful to being alive, there's nothing in this moment that makes him grateful. He wished he were dead. While the public defender Yuta opens up the file and explains to Renjun what's going to happen to him, Dae's breath is uneven while facing the door at Mark who enters in the white uniform as well looking emotionless. He turns his head towards the girls and upon making eye contact with Dae, he smirks.

Nothing but fear runs down her spine and her grip gets tighter to which Yezi also returns when seeing the sinister smirk. Jeno, too in handcuffs follows behind Mark with his head down. He had a headache, from staying up all night to stressing about today, he hated the lights in the room and the fact that he would be facing the girls again. If anything the headache probably came from thinking too much about the girls- it only made him stressful. He and Mark woke up from their coma sleep earlier then Renjun and Donghyuck. So the two brothers had faced a lot of time together, which ended up being pretty ugly and made the boys bitter towards each other and towards the girls. Jeno couldn't even remember the full night. He remember drinking in the car and breaking in but from their his memories fogged up, but one thing he remembers is Dae and her biased rich mentality. However when Dae spots Jeno, her heart simmers down... he was alive. For some reason, a reason yet to be discovered, she felt fond of him. Perhaps she wanted to thank him. After him reading her diary, him saving her from his brother and helping her escape has her heart in esteem.

Hatred boils in Donghyuck upon seeing Mark, who betrayed him at the last minute and shot on him and his brother. Mark takes a seat next to him. It takes everything in Donghyuck not to lose it and hit Mark- but by his own will power he can't, instead it's the hand that lands over his clutched fist that he stops and takes a breath. Renjun holds firmly over Donghyuck's fist the moment he sees it forming. The last thing he wanted in the court room was another hectic scene- especially in front of their mother.

The judge in his black robe with maroon straps enters the room with everyone standing up as instructed by the officer. The judge takes a seat fixing the glasses on his face. "Trail case of Zhong Chenle against juvenile boys. I am Kim Jungmyeon Suho, present for the position of primary judge. The court is now in session." After the Judge Suho introduces himself he beats his gavel on the desk and an Officer closer to the stage stands up presenting the case to the jury of people who sit on the opposite side of the stage. He goes over each of every time slot and the given description of what happened on the day within the hours that the boys attacked.

Lawyer Taeyong stands up introducing himself to the judge and jury before mentioning the girls, the victims, and briefly tells the story of what happened using quotes and phrases the girls had said. He explains his theory of the case, the key elements to be proved, photos and evidence of the scenes, he touch basis on the side witnesses and what they'll testify, as well as emphasizes with conveying emotions of the themes expressed in the house. He looks to the jury stating what he wants from them, to punish and convict the boys of their crimes if possible at the same level and degree punishment. He takes up to 5 minutes but for Dae and Yezi, it feels like they were reliving the traumatic moments in the house being trapped with the boys.

The public defendant Yuta stands up introducing himself, and already the way he speaks brings Taeyong to the trials he recalls fighting against Yuta. Yuta is no ordinary public defendant, if not, he's the best lawyer, but for some reason he was always on the contradicting side and took favors of the attackers. Any case he fought against, he'd usually win, but the same goes for Taeyong, any case he'd pursue, he'd also win in it. So hearing Yuta speaking on the point of view of the boys, he wonders what's up the man's selves.

"The facts of this case are straightforward, nothing to defend there. My clients are charged with penalties and the evidence will show their participation in breaking and entering, offence related to fraud and theft, dealing in drugs, smuggling of ammunition and attempt at human trafficking-

"You're forgetting rape and murder." Taeyong raises his hand stating boldly.

Yuta looks to his side nodding his head firmly. "Of course. Rape and murder. In this case you will see the evidence leading to their crimes. However this I'll be countering with acts from the article laws. This is a civil case and the boys must prove their case by a preponderance of the evidence." As Yuta speaks, Donghyuck is puzzled as much as pissed off by their defendant who seemed to be digging their early grave. For sure by this rate they would get the full penalty and more. "Articles such as Article 14, 15, 17 and more stating negligence, justifiable acts, crimes committed through commission and omission and more. Seoul's Neo Cultured Law exists to protect, as well as encourage individuals to report illegal activity in their communities. My clients here aren't responsible for the full claims given, for these reasons after you've heard all the evidence, at the end of this trail I ask that you return a verdict in favor of each of my clients. Or rather at the end of the trial, I ask you find the defendants guilty of the severity of what each one did."

"So he wants the punishments to be fair?" Jisung whispers to Jaemin, who nods his head. Thinking back to what the father wanted; whereby all the boys be punished with the same crimes.

"That would mean each of them will have a punishment given according to how severe they acted." Jaemin briefs before Taeyong calls out to him as the first witness. As soon as he's finished, Jisung goes up next answering the questions from the lawyer and so do all the other witness officers. Yuta is up next bringing to the witness stand the mother of both Donghyuck and Renjun. As respectful as he can be, Yuta creates a story based on values and needs, making sure that the elder woman is not ridiculed by any of the people in the room- he knows how biased the rich and wealthy could be. His one witness.

Everything seems to be going well, the whole ordeal and flowing of movements is going in favor of Taeyong- as the boys crimes are evident and in need of punishment. Yuta is well aware of the bricks he has to place in order to get a fair sentence and knows that his chance of favor will begin when the judge speaks. Although it might be harsh, he knows his way to get the right sentences out of the jury and judge. The attackers are told to stand in front of the judge as their pre verdict would be given. Facing the judge, Renjun, Donghyuck, Mark and Jeno all anticipate their sentence. Mark and Donghyuck knowing the judge Suho, knows that if he gives his verdict, they might spend a long time in prison, meanwhile Renjun and Jeno are petrified of the daunting eyes of Suho. Being placed with chairs behind them, they sit and wait on the judge.

"Lee Jeno rise." Judge Suho calls out. Jeno stands up and moves over to the seat in front that's close to the podium of the judge. Sitting down he keeps his head down and his hands on his lap. "The crimes to be charged given by your public defendant are detention, fine and house arrest. Lee Taeyong, do you agree?"

"Negative." Taeyong stands up peering at Jeno, who still has his head down. "On the offender Lee Jeno, we'd like a full maximum sentence of imprisonment for breaking and entering, dealing in drugs and offence related to theft."

"Nakamota Yuta, is there an agreement?" The judge asks.

"Negative." Yuta stands facing Taeyong who still stands. "As I stated in the beginning I'll be referring to Article 15 for Lee Jeno's case. Article 15 states, Misunderstanding of Fact. Jeno's act was performed through ignorance of the facts which constituted especially more to severe crimes performed by the other members. The act states that he shall not be punishable for such severe crimes not committed by him-"

"Your honor-"

Yuta quickly dejects Taeyong's protest. "If anything, the witnesses and even victims can testify to his innocence."

Taeyong snaps his head to Yuta's direction. "Which victims?"

"Miss Dae." Yuta calls while picking up a sheet of paper. "In your questioning with the police you stated and I quote, 'He only tied up our hands because he was told to do so, but throughout the night he did nothing more but drink and eventually helped my sister and I escape. He also helped out Renjun.' Are those your words Miss Dae?" Dae's eyes are wide when looking at her dad and lawyer, the words were true.

"Y-yes," She meekly answers causing Jeno to look up. According to what Mark said, Dae turned her back against him. So to hear that he helped out and get a blurry image of bursting in her room with Mark being on top of her gets him to snap his eyes in Mark's direction. Did Mark lie to him?

"Not only Dae your honor, but the Police Officer Na Jaemin, witness, can testify in the last minute assistance of Jeno in capturing the real offender. There is a recording of him saying that and a questioning of him thanking Jeno. Officer Na, am I lying?"

Jaemin composes his reaction, avoiding the intense eyes of Zhong Chenle from the front. He simply blinks. "No."

"Another testimonial is Officer Park Jisung, who stated as that Jeno performed CPR, well mannered and well trained if I can add, on Dae who had drowned. So you see your honor, Lee Jeno is only guilty of breaking and entering. Because the dealing of drugs was not performed by him-"

"Your honor-"

"According to the doctors report and Dae's statement, his system was only filled with alcohol, no drugs as being claimed." Yuta pauses briefly peeking at Taeyong who clinches his jaw. "As for offence related to theft, Jeno clearly left the house with nothing in his hands but a dying Miss Dae as everything was burned down, so no charge there. And for that, we ask for the minimum sentence of detention for his participation in breaking and entering, a fine for his drinking actions and house arrest to keep him in one place."

"You're honor that's preposterous-"

"Is it?" Yuta questions. "What's actually preposterous is you throwing in drugs- which is something he didn't even do, all that to get him a sentence? If the police officers and victim herself can testify in his non involvement in the severe matter what makes you butt in? In fact, before the fire erupted, a police recording by Renjun stated that Jeno was the one who patched his injuries, injuries given by Lee Donghyuck. Your honor, my client is only guilty of breaking and entering."

Taeyong clinches his jaw staring wide eyed at Yuta. So he was going with that approach huh? Not only Taeyong but Chenle has fierce eyes. If Jeno was off the leash so easily- what would that mean for the others? "Taeyong?"

The judge beats the gavel dismissing Jeno and calling up Renjun. Taeyong gathers his papers on Renjun making sure that he would at least pin him down as he's an immigrant who performed illegal activities in Korea.

"The crimes to be charged given by your public defendant are suspension of qualification, minor fine and house arrest." Renjun's eyes are widen when hearing suspension of qualification. This would mean they'd kick him out of school...or worse. "Lee Taeyong, do you agree?"

"Negative." Taeyong firmly responds reading from his deck of papers. "On the offender Huang Renjun, a Chinese citizen, we'd like a full maximum sentence of imprisonment for breaking and entering, Offense related to exchange control, extortion, fraud, document forger and compelled rape."

"Nakamota Yuta, is there an agreement?" The judge asks unaware of the eyes that widen up by the surprise word.

"What do you mean compelled rape?" Yuta questions strictly looking to Taeyong, before looking to the judge. "No your honor, I do not agree."

"I didn't r-r-rape anybody-" Renjun's bottom lip trembles and his eyes water switching his eyes from the judge, to Yuta, to the girls briefly before looking at his shocked mother and brother. Donghyuck shakes his head knowing very well that Renjun didn't rape anybody- because the coward is still a virgin. He knows that he raped the girl Yezi and Mark had his way with the other girl Dae. So what where was this coming from?

"Your honor. My client did not... should not be charged for rape as he-"

"Your honor, my client Yezi, is the victim of rape, underage rape, that was forced on her-"

While Taeyong gives a brief description of what he's client Yezi testified, Yuta scampers though his papers to Yezi's statement remembering that he read she had no memory of who raped her. His eyes widen when realizing that the closest description of her rape was detailed as Renjun was in the room with her. What's strange is that Donghyuck who stated to raping her is not even mentioned by the lawyer Taeyong - who pines that Renjun is the rapist. Renjun is a stuttering mess and is crying while trying to defend himself.

"How can you be certain that from the description given it was Renjun? From her statement-" Yuta tries to speak above a wailing Renjun still trying to be respectful to the present girl, Yezi in the room. If it's something she truly can't remember then Renjun is in trouble. "My client did not-"

"My client was traumatized by the force of the grown man that she blacked out-" Taeyong continues looking firmly at the judge but when Donghyuck bangs his fist on the table standing up- everyone is in shock.

"Judge Suho I don't know what bullcrap their talking but I'm the one who raped that underage girl-"

"Donghyuck-"

Yuta's warning call is in vain as Donghyuck continues his speech directed to the judge who beats his gavel. "Order-"

"Fuck this order! Renjun did not touch that girl-"

"Control your individual Yuta." Taeyong warns. "We can charge him for being indifferent to sensitivity and being-"

"And what the fuck do you mean she doesn't remember?" Donghyuck continuously raises his voice, his anger shooting up the roof when he glares back with hell flames in his eyes as he peers at Taeyong before looking down at Yezi. "You fucking bitch- You don't remember who touched you? Do you need me to remind you who? Huh?! Who ripped off your clothes-"

"Donghyuck control yourself!"

"Who cut your shorts with a knife?! Who fucking ripped off your white panty?! Who kissed you?!-" In a quick movement he gets off the front row of chairs charging towards Yezi who panics- her father, Dae, Chungdae and Taeyong all have wide eyes ready to throw the guy off.

"Donghyuck!" Even as his mother and Yuta, yell for him to stop it- Donghyuck still speaks up above all the noise even though he's instantly strained by the guards.

"Order!"

"You still don't remember? Did that jog up your memory?!" Donghyuck is forced against Lee Taeyong's table as they try to restrain him but his eyes are firmly on Yezi who pants out unable to look away from the rageful eyes of the man. "Bitch who touched you?! Broke your fucking virginity?!" Staring at Yezi with blazing eyes, Donghyuck doesn't hold back even as the tears pour out her eyes vigorously. Looking into her eyes, he knows that's she knows that he did it. He knows she's lying and pretending- and that only enrages him since she's the one who caused him to take drastic measures to shutting her up from talking about his mother. "Do you not remember my tongue on your nipple?! Your pink nipples! Do you not remember me slapping you?! Do you fucking remember saying my mother should die!? Do you?! So who!? Who?! Who touched you?! Who fucked you black and blue? Who fucked you?! Who?! Who?!"

"You!" Yezi cries out as Dae and Chenle cling to her side while the Officers take him away as he grunts out. "You- it was you!" Yezi yells out all the rage coming back to her of that night. Her fingers pointing on Donghyuck. "You fucking monster!"

"Order!"

"Yezi calm down-" Chenle shields his daughter tightly holding onto her feeling his heart break when her cries get louder. "Baby it's alright, okay? Please just-"

"No." Yezi cries softly her words being a mumbling mess. "It was him, only him. He raped me. Daddy it was him. He raped me." Yezi breaks down into her fathers arm as her cries are pained by the memory. "It was him."

"Fucking bitch." Donghyuck grunts out when they restrain him against his own table cuffing up his hands again. "I fucking told you didn't I?!" Donghyuck still yells at Yezi. "You fucked up rich people always feeling entitled and wanting the law to be taken seriously on those who aren't at your level. What did my fucking brother do to you huh? I told you we aren't any different! The second your weak ass pathetic self is in trouble someone else takes the blame for your mess. You fucking mess with my brothers future again and I'm gunning for you! How dare you!? How dare you! You fucked up bitch! Fucked up system! Fucked up court! Fuck!"

Just as Donghyuck is dragged out the court room by the officers including Park Jisung, Mark pays attention to the continuous gavel that's been beating on the podium as the judge tried to maintain order. Even for Mark, that felt personal. Blaming the border jumper for a crime he didn't commit- he'd also get upset. Renjun has his head face down on the table as he silently cries- for the crime that he was about to be charged with. He didn't even remember her name, but he knew that he helped her the most between the girls- he even took a beating for her from the person who actually raped her. But she was about to blame him.

A 10 minute break is given by the judge who's astounded by the down turn.

The girls and their father are in the separate room with their lawyer. "At this rate I don't think it's possible for the boys to get the same punishment. At the rate Yuta's going, it's best we stick with the crimes' they committed rightfully. Are you okay dear?" Taeyong asks when Yezi is done drinking her beverage of coffee. She nods her head.

When Taeyong told her not to say anything without a lawyer, she stuck to silence. And when the father suggested that all the boys serve the same sentence, Taeyong said it would be possible to do so if they committed a sexual offense or if they committed murder. Only Mark and Donghyuck would be charged higher, but it was his suggestion to use the 'amnesia' technique to pin point Renjun- if her word would be stronger then anything Yuta would say- but then Donghyuck just had to stand up and confess- dramatically.

"What about you sir?" Taeyong asks. "We can take drastic measures to get them all in the same sentence but we'd be playing dirty and Yuta likes the dirt. Plus, it wouldn't be worth it if the girls aren't mentally strong for this."

"No forget it. As long as they all go to prison, then fuck it." Chenle immediately answers still rubbing Yezi's back. "Let this be over with. Opt for a restraining order as well, if they do get out of prison soon then I don't want them anywhere near my family."

Getting back inside the court after 10 minutes, Yezi and her mother Chungdae are watching from the empty room through the camera feed as Yezi feels too nervous to return. Dae sits next to her dad as they bring Renjun back on stage.

"Have your charges changed, Lee?" The judge asks.

Taeyong nods his head. "Yes your honor, we want to charge him with breaking and entering and offense related to exchange control, extortion, fraud and document forging."

"Yuta-"

"Negative. I don't agree with the charge. My client has renewed papers-" Yuta lifts up the yellow file with the renewed documents of his passport.

"But when committing the crime, his papers where out of date and expired. Meaning we had an illegal citizen breaking and entering into a Korean household-"

"Your honor-"

"If we take it a step forward, he forged his papers and identity while getting into Korea's high institute-"

"That has nothing to do with this case-"

"Yes it does." Taeyong firmly speaks picking up a paper. "Huang Renjun entered the same institute as Dae. He tried to get closer to her and even at some point took pictures of her. Who knows, maybe he's the real mastermind behind this whole plan-"

"What the hell are you people even talking about?" Donghyuck questions out furiously whilst his leg bounces in anger. "I was the one-"

"Okay fine. Mr Lee Donghyuck wants to take the blame for that too? Fine. Can Renjun at least admit to the crimes of forging his documents?"

"I-I-"

"My client-"

"You illegal foreigner, entering into our country with wrong papers, you have the nerve to go to school with forged documents, you break into a home and did who knows what to those girls- and sit here with a busted up face, broken bones claiming you did nothing?" Taeyong fires out glaring wholes into Renjun's eyes. Renjun's lip trembles and he cowers looking away from the lawyer. His mother sinks in her seat shedding light tears. Donghyuck breaths out heavily- restraining himself remembering the warning he got. "Your honor those are our charges. If the public defendant can't agree to it, we leave it in your hands." Taeyong ends his charges firmly, being fueled by anger.

The boys were the bad guys in the situation, why is that even a question?

The judge beats the gavel when Yuta says nothing else looking at Renjun with remorseful eyes. If anything, Renjun didn't deserve to be punished, after everything he said, he and Jeno were the ones who helped the girls. Up next to Donghyuck and he sits down.

"Permission to speak." Donghyuck firmly starts even before the judge can speak.

"Granted."

"I know what I did, I wasn't drunk or high, so I can remember every single word that left my mouth, all the actions I did and most certainly knows who snitched on me." Donghyuck starts. "I plead guilty to all my crimes, only the crimes I committed. I stand by the book of law, every word that comes out of my mouth is the truth. I'm the one who forged my brothers papers-" It's a lie. Donghyuck knows it, Renjun knows it, his mother knows it and Taeyong and Yuta are both puzzled knowing very well that he's lying. "I forged his papers for him to go to school and try to at least have a good life because the fucking goverment didn’t want to do shit for him. I planned out the entire scene of breaking into that rich man's house. Renjun didn't break into the house- I forced him in the house and threatened to kill him. I had weapons with me, a gun and corkscrew knife. I tied up the girls and sent them off to their rooms with my brother Renjun to watch the underage girl and Jeno to watch her." He points at Dae before firmly looking to the lawyers again. "I stole from all the rooms. I barged into my brother when he was on the call with the cops using the underaged girl's phone. I beat up my brother with my fists. I raped that underaged girl and I beat up Mark who shot my brother." Donghyuck leans back in his seat with burning eyes. “I smoked weed too, but that’s not illegal.”

Yuta said it was best for them to admit to their crimes in hopes of perhaps getting the judge and acclaimed sit in jury to see how sincere he was.

"Your honor. For Lee Donghyuck we want the charges of breaking and entering, forging of documents, offense related to theft, smuggling of ammunition and firearm and rape." Yuta states.

"Mr Lee do you agree?" The judge asks.

Taeyong turns his head to Chenle as confirmation. Chenle nods his head with his arms around Dae. "Positive."

"Good." The gavel is beaten down. Donghyuck gets off his seat going down the stairs before passing Mark.

"Why didn't you take responsibility for my crimes too?"

"Fuck off-" Donghyuck attempts to hit Mark but the guards following behind him quickly hold onto him.

"Order!" The judge immediately says hearing Mark chortle lowly.

Yezi watching from the room, recalls his words and the argument that led up to her being raped. From the way he confidently said his crimes- including his brothers crimes as well, Yezi feels how much his family means to him. The fact that he's willing to take the whole bullet and weight and punishment over his brothers crimes- shows how Yezi that the words he spoke to her that night were true. He may be a low life, but just like her, he was raised more dignified with honest values. And since he's a low life, he knows the spectrum of how the world works against him. Maybe his parents didn't love him, but he loved them. In him defending Renjun the way he did, just shows Yezi that he would willingly die for his brother- even though things in the house looked fragmented, Donghyuck's security and protection over his brother showed mightily. Even though he raped her selfishly, Yezi knows through her own words, it's what provoked him to inflict on her, the pain.

As Mark sits down, he doesn't say anything and waits on the judge. Being caught wasn't in his plan at all, he tried to avoid prison. But now that he's caught, he doesn't mind serving the sentence assigned to him as long as he's with Donghyuck. They really needed to speak.

"Mark you're charged with, murder, attempted human trafficking, smuggling of firearms, dealing of drugs and breaking and entering with intent to commit crime." The judge reads and turns to Taeyong. "Do you agree?"

Taeyong nods his head and while the judge asks Yuta, Mark's eyes pane over to Dae. She holds in her breath not being able to look away from his eyes. He forced her into sexual activity that she didn't want...rape. But for some reason, it's not listed as a charge.

"You having pity on me babygirl?" Mark asks, not aware that he interrupted Yuta's speech, who tried to debunk the other claims- even though they were all true.

The sight of Mark on top of Dae with his cock inside of her mouth burns in Jeno's head as he pants out. Especially when he thinks of how he held her and she cried in his arms. Why wasn't she telling that he used her?

"Order!" The judge beats the gavel. "Mark you may sit. We'll have a 5 minute break and we'll call you back in for the final sentence."

Mark doesn't say anything not even hearing what the judge or lawyers say as his eyes are still on Dae. It's either she didn't confess it because she didn't want him to suffer more punishments, or could it be that... she liked it. The thought of Dae being aroused makes him chuckle with excitement. "That was fun," He mutters out.

Meanwhile Jeno turns his head to the back where her father is now hugging her. With her head over her fathers shoulder, she accidently meets his eyes and he begins to wonder why she didn't confess it. He was lucky to leave with a light charge, but barging out like Donghyuck did for Renjun could only affect his charge more. So silence it was. But the burning image in his head doesn't sit right with him, especially since Dae's eyes seem to understand his conflict. Something must've happened for her to keep her mouth shut.

While the rest leave, Yuta walks forward to the boys with his hands in his pocket. He breaths out running his hands through his hair. "We asked for the minimum sentence for both Renjun and Jeno, so your serving might be 1-2 years of imprisonment. Donghyuck and Mark, minimum could be 15 years and maximum could be 25 years. With parole I can simmer it down to 5 years. That's only if you've truly learnt your lesson. Despite your charges, Renjun you asked me if they'd charge you for burning the house. The answer is no. Miss Yezi claimed that Mark stated he would burn the house, but when checking the footage outside, the house erupted in flames due to the oil leakage from one of the cars before it bursted. So damage of property is not in your case, besides he's got insurance for that." Yuta adds. The only person who needed parole was Renjun and Jeno, the rest should be convicted, but Yuta isn't about to say that. As long as his job is finished and he got the rightfully claimed punishments then he was satisfied. "Actually Renjun, even with your renewed papers, there's a high chance they might send you back to China for imprisonment, so try not to be shocked when they give that sentence."

Donghyuck clinches his jaw the whole time, even as Yuta leaves the judge comes back and everyone is seated again and their told to rise. He knows he deserves punishments, Mark deserves it, Jeno... the point is, Donghyuck knows that it was his fault in the first place why Renjun was dragged into all of this. Is wasn't his fault. He didn't deserve the punishments. So when the Officer spokesman begins to read the servings, he hopes in his head that Renjun will get a lighter sentence.

"Lee Jeno. Guilty, of the said charges. His sentence, 10 months in county jail and 2 months of community work in house arrest. Huang Renjun. Guilty, of said charges. His sentence, 12 months imprisonment and will be deported to China for another 6 months of serving."

"Th-that's 1 year and a half," Donghyuck whispers and turns to Renjun. "Yuta can probably simmer it down. Don't worry okay, it's cool."

Renjun bottom lips trembles but he nods his head agreeing with Donghyuck. He's just upset that he has to be deported back to China.

"Lee Donghyuck. Guilty. His sentence 10 years in prison with parole and community service of 2 months. Lee Mark. Guilty. 15 years in prison with parole."

While the boys are stunned by the minimum sentence received Lee Taeyong as well as Chenle are enraged with the sentences. What the fuck is 15 years? For rape and murder? 10? 15? Chenle can only sigh in bitterness as his hands move up and down Dae's side.

"Your honor. My client opts for restraining order as well."

Yuta nods his heads. "And my client Renjun opts for a recheck on being deported. He's got his papers in order and article 16 of Mistake of facts, applies for today's time. He's papers are in order."

Taeyong rolls his eyes. "Even if his papers are in order, he should still be punished and learn never to walk around a foreign country with fabricated documents. Does he even have legal adoption papers?" Renjun flinches by Taeyong's harsh tone.

"That's not-"

"Your honor." Taeyong cuts Yuta in anger. "We do not agree to the appeal."

Judge Suho beats his gravel. "All sentences are to be carried out with no changes. Restraining order granted. This court is now dismissed."

5 Years later

The metal gates slide close after Donghyuck steps out. He rubs his wrists looking up to the hot sun taking in the air of his new freedom. Finally. He’s out.

-

Getting out of prison with a warrant wasn't easy at all, but not as much as it was to get a job of any kind with so many prison charges. Thankfully, Donghyuck's mother came to his rescue. She worked as a day care teacher assistant and their school was in need of a cleaner. It wasn't a luxurious position, but Donghyuck took it just to prove to his mother that he was serious in mending their relationship.

So being a 'janitor' his main responsibilities included getting on the school grounds early, cleaning up classes when students were not inside, disposing of trash and waiting until the school day was over and all the kids went home to clean again. Those were his responsibilities, but it became tough when parents didn't pick up their kids on time at 13.00. Donghyuck hated when parents would fetch their kids late. Reason being, because he'd need to make sure that the school was 100% empty before him to go home. And if it was not 100% empty, then he wasn't allowed to go home.

Donghyuck picks up the heavy green plastic of trash consisting of used but not limited to dirty recyclable materials, and walks out the classroom and onto the hallway that would lead to the playground field where all the different sets of dumpsters would be. After dumping the trash inside and closing the lid he digs into his pocket to his buttoned phone to check the time.

15:29.

Thirty more minutes until he could knock off. Upon walking back to the classroom, his eyes squint into the playground distance to the empty entrance gate- well not so empty. What catches his eye, is some sort of homeless looking guy in dirty black sweatpants and a faded out red Coca-Cola t-shirt with holes, walking towards a child sitting on a bench. Donghyuck sighs and walks towards the entrance. His whole presence alone causes the homeless guy to deviate and part away crossing the street. The vulnerable child isn't even aware that she's been spared from danger as she continues humping on the bench. Getting a bit sexual and seemingly trying to reach her pleasure.

Donghyuck scratches his neck wondering if he should be stopping the child or tell his mum once again. Even though they still weren't on good terms, he promised to be on his  best behavior if it meant his mum helping him out. 

Getting closer to the bench, Donghyuck notices the child seating down yet rocking her hips back and forth on the bench- almost grinding herself on it. 

The sight is perverse. 

However for Donghyuck, he'd gotten used to only one of the day care students who was consistent in grinding on anything and everything when she was bored. Areum.

Making himself more visible to the young girl, Donghyuck sits on the bench next to her. Her motion stops and she peers to the elder sitting next to her, a bright smile coating her lips. "Hi Mr Sunshine!"

"Hey Kid." Donghyuck greets in a mumbling tone making the girl chuckle. With his hands in his pocket and peering down at the girl who slowly continues to grind herself again, Donghyuck sighs. "Where's your parent?"

The child blinks causing Donghyuck to internally roll his eyes groaning lowly.

"Where's the person who's going to fetch you? You mum or dad or guardian?"

"Oh! Mummy's at work." She says nodding her head. "Uncle Jung is going to fetch me."

Donghyuck nods his head allowing the silence to take over. However his attention draws to the girl once again when she rocks her hips back and forth again. It's not the first time she's done this, however, every time that she does it, Donghyuck feels slightly uncomfortable. He's caught her on this bench all by herself on multiple occasions grinding for pleasure, not only the bench, but sometimes in class as well, on her chair. Donghyuck just wonders what exactly is going on in her head, while she literally dry humps the bench.

"Why are you doing that?" Areum peeks up and blinks her eyes. Donghyuck breathes out. Not wanting to say foreign words or words she's never heard before, he motions with himself and dry humps the bench similar to what she was doing. Areum catches on and smiles.

"It's a secret!" She leers. Despite her words, she seems excited to share the so called secret. And Donghyuck takes advantage of that, throwing his best cunning and charming personality.

"Can I know the secret?" Donghyuck asks with a pretense stunned face, being cunningly friendly. "I thought we're friends?"

"Okay." Areum looks around skeptically. "It's a secret." And laughs. "Uncle Jung said I should tell no one, even if its nice."

Donghyuck's brows furrow. "What's nice?"

Areum laughs covering her mouth frantically. In Donghyuck's head she looks the happiest while trying to be cryptic. She stands up and jumps up happily before her fingers begin to move. Donghyuck's eyes widen when she lifts up her white skirt revealing her yellow panty. He hesitates for a second until he realizes that her hand fumbles and makes it's way inside her panty. He's quick to taking her hands out while having a morbidly shocked face.

She giggles, being way too excited. "Let me show you."

The secret? The secret has something to do with an uncle and a child? This only makes Donghyuck widely panic. "Fuck,"

"Oh oh." She covers her mouth in sudden surprise. "Do you also play fuck like Uncle Jung?" Before a smile latches onto her face. A chill runs down Donghyuck's spine. "Uncle Jung said fuck is a game. It's my favorite game." She whispers out.

His eyes widen. In all his years of being in prison, he sorta had the chance to reflect on where he'd like to be once he's out. And right now, talking to this girl feels dangerous. It's a problem. And this is not what he wants at all. If he tells his mum, there might be a high case of him being in a feud with the family of the young girl's parents. At the same time because the daycare already don't like him, he and his mum might both be fired from god knows what- Donghyuck is aware of how much they're waiting for him to slip up. But yet, he can't stop himself from asking. "Can you tell me more about his game? I don't know it."

"Don't tell anyone. Not even Mrs Chittaphon. Or mummy. Only Uncle Jung and I play this game," She nods her head and smile. "It's a nice game. I get to sit on him and ride the horsey!"

Donghyuck's eyes burst out of their sockets. Just as his lips become dry. He clears his throat asking. "Does he remove your clothes?"

She shakes her head. "No." She smiles. That sort of makes Donghyuck cool down again, however he's still in edge by the word horsey and what exactly she rides or what exactly has he shown her. "Can I show you?"

Donghyuck shakes his head with a tight smile, feeling bad for the little girl who seems brainwashed. "It's fine, I don't want to play the game today,"

"Uncle Jung likes to play it after work," Areum smiles. And that literally breaks Donghyuck's heart. Such a small, sweet and innocent little girl being manipulated by a ravaging uncle wolf.

"What does he do in the game?" Donghyuck asks after gaining her trust by sealing his lips shut with an invisible key.

"He tickles me here." Areum points to a part in her skirt (most likely her private area) and that makes Donghyuck mad. The urge to telling his mum growing. "And does like this," using her middle finger, she surprisingly rubs it on her yellow panty causing Donghyuck to quickly hold her hand.

"Your fucking uncle is raping you." He can't hold himself back when he glares into her eyes while shaking his head.

"My playing uncle is raping?" She asks with a puzzled face. "What's rape?"

Donghyuck sucks in a breath, and with distress he runs his hands through his hair. Before he turns back to Areum his eyes latch onto a black vehicle pulling up on the street. "Shit. Hey sweet cheeks, I need you to listen alright. Don't tell Uncle Jung that you told me, okay?"

She instantly nods his head. "I won't tell him. He'll be angry with me. Don't worry Mr Sunshine, it'll be our little secret."

The black vehicle parks right in front of them, with Donghyuck creating some distance while Areum can't stop giggling at her secret. A man, smartly dressed in a suit with parted hair, steps out the car with a charming smile growing on his lips when Areum jumps from the bench running to him. Donghyuck stands up with his hands stuffing in his pocket.

"Uncle Jung!" Areum cheers hugging him by his legs. Upon hearing the name, Donghyuck's eyes do a double take towards the man. The man squats all the way down with an antagonizing friendly smile, and puckers his lips allowing for Areum to kiss his lips before she giggles like the naïve little girl she is. She begins jumping up and down in place while the man stands. "Did you buy the toys?"

"My little puppy, I bought you so many toys for you to enjoy. They're gonna make you feel real good," Hearing the voice of the older male, his underlying tone of condescension and how much authority he has over the little girl, Donghyuck can't help it when his fists tighten into a ball. His jaw clinches when the male with a charismatic smile grins his way. "She wasn't a bother was she?"

Donghyuck's jaw locks and he looks away, only making Jaehyun continue as if he didn't get ignored.  

"Either way, thanks for keeping her company."

Placing Areum in the backseat and placing her bag in the boot, the man known as Uncle Jung gets into his driver's seat and begins driving away. Donghyuck can only stand with his fists balled up as he watches the car stride away. In his head, although the situation was sickening, he already told himself he wouldn't get involved. His mum's reputation, as well as his own reputation was on the line.

"Poor girl." Donghyuck sighs walking back in the school. Little did he know that the little girl in the car of the grown old ‘uncle’ was his own ‘bastard child’ from the night he raped Yezi.

*****

The End: to be continued in SEASON 2: SOS: POISON IN MY MIND 

WC.  47k if you like reading longshots then this if for you

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for refusing to file for disability in order to pay bills?

I quit my job right when COVID started surging in 2020 because my boss refused to mask and I'm immunocompromised; I also didn't wanna bring that home to my partners (I'll call them Fox and Rabbit), one of whom is also immunocompromised, or our then-toddler kid either. (Plus, my boss wasn't paying me consistently on-time or the full amounts I was owed, but that's another can of worms)

However, I wasn't able to find anything work-from-home (I have auditory processing issues that make phone jobs impossible, plus we didn't have internet so I was just hotspotting off my phone to get online), and because of lockdown, safety concerns, and lack of a vehicle, I couldn't really get an in-person job either, so I did as much as I could taking care of household budgeting, conflict resolution, and looking after our 3-4yo kid along with Fox (who did most of the actual housework, as I wasn't able to be outside my room much because I was severely allergic to the pets there at the time).

Rabbit (kid's bio-parent) became work-from-home after a brief stint on unemployment due to their employer fucking around, staying over with their coworker/other partner (I'll call Rose) for the internet, and our other roommate contributed to rent until he moved out, so we were able to stay afloat and safely isolated for a while at least, and I started teaching our kid to read and write as my main share of the household contribution, which everyone at least claimed to be fine with.

Fast forward a bit, and both me and Rabbit got extra people in the household mix; a partner who I'd been involved with online for some time (Chomps) moved in with us, and Rabbit married Rose and moved in with her officially, with the kid staying on non-workdays with them and otherwise being looked after mostly by Fox and I. Eventually, with leases on both our places running out but with all of us outspokenly committed to working together, we all moved into Rose's parents' house (while they were overseas on vacation; they wanted caretakers there to look after Rose's younger sibling, who is disabled). Rose's parents--who are also polyam and very well-off--offered to bankroll a new home for all of us so we didn't have rent to pay for a while and could just catch up on things. Chomps even secured a decent-paying job. Things were going very well!

Then, a significant wrinkle came when Chomps needed to quit due to COVID concerns (anti-vaxxers in a high-risk environment, no vaccines available for small kids yet so we were mostly worried about the kid as we'd all been vaxxed at that point otherwise). At the time, everyone agreed that was a good idea! So, everyone braced for financial belt-tightening, and Chomps quit.

At this point, I was barely eating one meal a day out of guilt for my inability to contribute much, but I was also homeschooling our then-pre-k-into-kindergarten-age kid, and helping cook food and handle chores. Due to both Rabbit and Rose working from home and complaining of connection issues whenever anyone else used internet, me and Chomps could barely job-hunt (our phones didn't really get signal out there either), and without the ability to drive or a consistently-available vehicle, we worried constantly about providing for the household. Still, Rose and Rabbit reassured us that it was fine and getting handled.

Until one day it apparently wasn't, and Rose started getting onto me specifically (having been jobless for a couple years at this point, only getting two interviews despite putting in literally hundreds of applications) about filing for disability. Her opinion was that I could "just be on it until [I] got a job". That is not how disability works, and I told her as much, and refused to even start that process instead of continuing to look for work that I could feasibly do (which, frankly, was already taking as much time and effort as a full-time job, just with no financial benefit).

Granted, I could probably qualify for disability benefits, since I have physical and mental issues that make my range of possible employment pretty limited (though, as I'd been able to put in hundreds of applications to things I was sure I could do, it's far from impossible for me to work). However, the type of disabilities I would most easily and likely qualify with are the kind that would also very probably have my autonomy removed (this has been confirmed by two doctors and a therapist independently of one another). Plus, I'd be unable to marry Fox (as we'd agreed to do years and years ago) or get a job again without risking the loss of any benefits I could manage to secure, and also making it incredibly hard to recover those benefits if/when I further deteriorated down the line due to age, injury, or other factors and actually couldn't physically work.

So, while continuing my (unexpectedly unsuccessful) hunt for employment beyond a once-monthly gig that paid ~$75 (which is how I bought my own essential toiletries and groceries), I homeschooled the kid (which was a success, to the point that they later rolled into 1st grade with reading, writing, and math proficiency well above their peers!!), did most of the house troubleshooting and repair, and used as few resources as possible to minimize my impact on household finances, to the point that I averaged eating only one meal each day for years. Still, AITA for not just biting the bullet and giving up on the job hunt to prioritize securing disability payments?

(It's been about two years since that point and our current situation is stable despite partial dissolution of the polycule, with Fox and Chomps both working and paying the entirety of my portion of "rent" on the place Rose's parents bought her, while I continue to job-hunt with help from the state's vocational rehab dept. Fox and Chomps reassure me every time that they can see I'm doing my best and they're happy to take care of me as needed; I still feel fucked up about not being able to contribute financially and take care of them and everyone else in the same way, and wonder all the time if I made/am making the right call by refusing to pursue disability benefits unless I absolutely physically cannot work.)

What are these acronyms?

[idontknowreallywhy]

Comb

A wee commute-fic. Unedited. Very random dad!Scott moment. Not entirely unrelated to how I spent my Sunday evening…

💙❤️💙❤️💙❤️💙❤️💙❤️💙❤️💙❤️💙❤️

It wasn’t an activity ever likely to make it on to the parenting highlight reel.

Alan squirmed and whined as the comb caught an invisible tangle and the towel slipped off his shoulders.

“Try to keep still Allie, it’ll just take longer if I keep losing where I’ve got up to.”

“Ugh this is so gross and embarrassing and soooo unfair.”

“Happens to us all, little bro. But it’ll be over quicker if you stop wriggling.”

If only he’d been the only thing wriggling. Scott resisted the urge to scratch himself violently. It was just psychological, but they did give him the creeps.

The 12 year-old huffed but relented and leaned back against his big brother’s legs. He wiped the comb and started again, methodically parting and combing, parting and combing. To be fair, Scott suspected he hadn’t been particularly cooperative when it had been him been cross legged on the floor in front of his Mom’s towel-covered knees…

He could remember the sensation of her gentle fingers through his hair, the half frustration half amusement in her voice:

“Try to keep still little Bluebird, it’ll just take longer if I keep losing where I’ve got up to.”

Young Scott was a fool to try to wriggle away. Old Scott pushed his shoulders back against her legs and relished the moment of closeness before something distracted him again.

“Are you done?”

He’d frozen, comb in midair, lost in a memory.

“Nearly. Hang in there.”

The Tracys hadn’t needed to battle an Infestation for years - one of the benefits of Alan being homeschooled. But he’d returned from a week at coding camp playing host to an old enemy. Luckily Scott had watched Mom give Virgil and John the same treatment so he knew what to do when the baton was passed to him. Part it, comb it, comb it again, part it, comb it…

Allie’s hair wasn’t as baby soft as it once was, the slight greasiness of the teenage years was beginning and it was a darker blonde now. Scott put the comb down and added the weird smelling gel, threading his fingers through slowly to cover every strand. If he lingered a little longer, than necessary, relishing a task his fast growing charge still needed help with, nobody would know. He was just being thorough.

Finally he wiped his hands and placed them on Alan’s shoulders, leaning around to look him in the face while keeping his own hair a decent distance from his brother’s - he didn’t want anyone to have to return the favour.

“You’re all good. Leave it half an hour then shower it off and it’ll be no more than a memory.”

Moody blue eyes softened as they looked back at him.

“Thanks. Sorry I was a pain. I guess Dad-Bro triumphs again, huh?”

Scott smiled.

“I guess he does.”

💙❤️💙❤️💙❤️💙❤️💙❤️💙❤️💙❤️💙❤️

[oneforthemunny]

janitor!eddie munson x reader blurb

eddie au where he starts working at hawkins elementary as a janitor. steve is a fourth grade teacher there and gets him the job, something with benefits and better hours than selling weed and working at the plant.

eddie's nervous being in a school. he graduated a few years before and vowed to never go back. it was no secret he'd been severely mistreated in his school days, but steve assured him they were elementary school kids- they wouldn't care.

he finds its a pretty easy job. sweep the halls, scrub the desks from any doodles, change the trash. the worst part is when a kid throws up, but that's not as common as he thought. as it would turn out, elementary school kids are pretty clean and tidy- he supposes it's the age.

they're also pretty sweet. always high-fiving 'mr.munson' in the hallways, and cheering when he'd come in to fix the pencil sharpener. it's the first job eddie has that he looks forward to. especially, when he gets to see you everyday.

steve introduced you two, in the teacher's lounge. eddie was sitting at a table with him, lunch pail with a ham sandwich he'd thrown together that morning. you'd waltzed in, sunshiney and smiley, chatting with another teacher. he'd noticed your skirt, how bright it was, bright and pink, hitting your calves at a respectful length. it made you look so cheery, happy, instantly brightening the space you walked into.

"y/n," steve called, waving at you when you grabbed your lunch bag out of the fridge. eddie's breath caught, feeling like the sandwich doubled in size ever bite he took. you grinned warmly, excusing yourself from the other teachers and walking over to steve.

"hi, steve." you greeted, taking a seat at the round table between the two of them.

"y/n, this is eddie. he just started her as the new custodian." steve said.

eddie wanted to roll his eyes, and give his usual response, "custodian. pssh, quit fancying' it up on my behalf, harrington, I'm a janitor."  but he couldn't. not when you looked over at him, eyes lit up and smiling.

"oh, it's so nice to meet you." you laughed, introducing yourself. eddie wiped his hands on his navy coveralls- the school had insisted he wear- clammy hands shaking yours.

"we're hallmates." steve teased, joining you in a laugh.

"we teach fourth grade. mr. harrington does math and science, and I do language arts and history." you said with a smile so wide eddie couldn't help but match yours.

eddie wanted to reply, but his head was swimming, blushing so furiously he was sure it was rising up his neck. "so, are you from hawkins too?" you asked, looking at eddie.

he nodded, clearing his throat gently. "y-yeah. I went here actually... back in the day. it-it's been a while ago, obviously, you knew that." eddie rambled, running a hand down his face.

you smiled, steve giving eddie a knowing smirk over her shoulder, making eddie blush even more. "a-are you from here? I haven't ever seen you around, but ya know, that doesn't mean anything. I mean, you could've been homeschooled, right? we're you homeschooled?" eddie stammered, mind whirring and buzzing. he couldn't stop rambling, spilling out the words as he looked at you.

you shook you head. "no, I wasn't homeschooled, and I'm not from here." you smiled, and eddie swore he saw you blush a little.

the next few weeks, you two talked in friendly conversation. you always greeted him with a cheery and bright 'hello!'. when he'd get your trash during your planning period, you would chat with him, asking about his weekend. he liked that you didn't fake conversation or ignore him like some of the other teachers did- the one's who remembered the outcasted munson boy from his time there as a child.

it wasn't until one day after school, eddie was pushing his cleaning cart, making his rounds through the classrooms, that he saw you. "hey, eddie?" you called, poking your head out of the classroom.

eddie was surprised you were still here. school had been out for a while, all the other teachers and staff had gone home.

"could I get your help, please?" you asked, biting your lower lip. eddie's heart pounded. "if you're not busy."

eddie pushed his cart to the side, making his way down the hallway to you. he liked that your door was always decorated, pictures that your student's had drawn surrounding your name and room number, colorful and inviting on the usual dull, wooden door.

"surprised you're still here." eddie grinned.

you laughed, shrugging softly. "yeah, well, I've been doing this," you pushed the door open, revealing the classroom.

eddie's eyes bulged, your room looked like a red and pink bomb had gone off in it. paper mache hearts, painted cupid's from the 60's, construction paper links of red and pink draping each of the student's desk.

"wow," eddie said, looking around him.

you smiled sheepishly. "I've been a little busy, can you tell?" you giggled.

eddie gaped, fingers trailing over the lace doilies around the hearts. "you, uh, you like valentine's day, huh?" he asked.

you shrugged. "it's alright. I'm sure it better when you have someone to share it with." eddie's head whipped around, shocked. no way you were single.

"I just like to go big like this for holidays, all holidays. it makes the kids happy, especially in the cold months. they always get kinda sluggish and sad, so if I can do this to make them happy, then I will." you said simply.

eddie smiled. "your kids are real lucky to have you." he said. "I woulda killed for a teacher like you. I had teachers like mrs. burns." he shuddered. you cringed slightly. that pre-historic woman was still teaching. eddie had thought he was being haunted when he first saw her this year.

"I- thank you." you said, blushing, hiding your smile. "I had a teacher once, ms. mccason, and she really inspired me to be a teacher. she was always so fun, and exciting, made me actually want to come to school." you gushed. eddie watched you, carefully, happily. he liked seeing you like this.

"she would decorate like this, and- oh!" you turned, grabbing some of your decorations. "that's why I needed help, actually. she would always hang the decorations from the ceiling, and I thought that was the coolest thing, and I wanted to do that, but I can't exactly reach to put the cupid's up." you said, looking at eddie hopefully.

eddie nodded, pulling out a chair, stepping carefully onto it with his heavy work boots before pushing up on the ceiling tile. you handed him one by one, chatting with him as you went. about school, how he met steve, what you liked to do outside of school, even eddie's band.

"I play at the hideout, sometimes." eddie said, hanging the last one before stepping down. "uh, you should come sometime."

your eyes lit up. "yeah?" you asked.

eddie nodded, cheeks flaming. "yeah. I-i mean, if you want to." he blushed. "we play every tuesday. sometimes we get the thursday or friday spot. just depends if tony's being a dick or not." he muttered and you giggled.

"yeah, I'd love to come sometime." you smiled, swaying slightly, hands clasped in front of you.

"cool." eddie grinned. "I'd love to see you there."

you had gone, the next tuesday. steve joined you with his friend robin and dustin, two mutual friends of eddie as well. the three of you made up most of the crowd, but eddie didn't mind. he was just happy you'd showed up.

the two of you stayed crowded in a booth, even after everyone else left, sharing beers and giggly stories. you didn’t care that it was a school night, too caught up in eddie. he kissed you when he walked you to your car that night, boozy and blushy, stammering apologies and wide eyed when he pulled away.

you grinned, pressing a kiss to his cheek. on friday, you had your valentine’s day party. students hyper on exchanged candies, little cards tucked away in their handmade boxes.

you stayed late, pulling down decorations before the weekend, perking up when you heard eddie’s cart squeak and wheel down the hallway.

“need any help?” eddie asked, leaning in the doorway.

he helped you pull down each decoration, sharing heart shaped suckers and conversation hearts that were left in your own valentine’s day box.

“oh,” you said, spinning around, and opening the top drawer of your desk. “I almost forgot.”

you handed a small, red envelope over to him. your pretty writing scrawled on the top.

‘to: eddie’ with a small heart besides his name.

he’d blushed, laughing when he opened it. a cartoon guitar with flames and hearts that read, ‘you rock, valentine!’ in obnoxiously large font. beneath it, you’d scribbled a little note.

‘thanks for the best night out. you do rock. wondering if you’re free saturday?’ your number in the following lines.

eddie looked up wide eyed at you. you winked, blushing towards him. “if you want to go out again.” you shrugged. “I’d love to spend valentine’s day with you. maybe go to the movies? or the bowling alley?”

eddie nodded, blabbering yes while blushing so hard he was sure his cheeks would melt right onto the ground.

you waited for him to lock up, walking you to your car. he promised to call the next morning, and he did. when he showed up at your little town house, he greeted you with a dozen red roses, his blushing cheeks matching them.

[sigynsilica]

Conservatives be like "tHey'Re tRyiNg tO dEcOnStrUcT tHe fAmiLy uNiT"

Yes. Exactly. That is exactly my goal in life.

Then they be like "wElL yOu mUsT wAnT tHe wOrLd tO bE fUlL oF siNgLe pAreNtS"

No

You think it's LESS family I want? You have it backwards. It's MORE.

Let me explain.

One of the most integral parts of humanity is community. Humans are pack animals. We do better in groups, physically, mentally, and spiritually. Everything humans have accomplished, they did via teamwork.

This is a leading reason why I'm a socialist, because Capitalism is, by definition, the advancement of the individual over the collective. That's a concept that goes against human nature. Capitalism gives credit to one person for what a team of people did, and allows that one person to decide for themself what portions of the benefits of creating something goes to who. This despite the fact that the creation would not and could not be possible without the whole team of people. Even if one person creates one thing, they could not do it without materials harvested or tools invented or concepts thought of by someone else. Somewhere down the line, someone was pushing the buttons.

It's a very isolationist way of thinking, to claim that a CEO deserves more money for producing a product than the assembly line workers who actually made the thing.

This mindset has then been projected onto basically every single aspect of American life. (I can't speak for other countries because I've never been anywhere else)

People are their own human, and that means they can't ask for help. Collaboration is a myth, and the credit for anything really only goes to the head of the endeavor.

Enter the nuclear family.

One mom, one dad, and an assortment of children. The mom stays home and raises the kiddos and cleans the house and makes sure everyone has clean underwear and also finds time for sanity somewhere, while the dad works his butt off at a crappy corporate hellhole of a job. Add in some fundamental Christianity, because America Is A Christian Nation apparently, and you have pressure to homeschool. This only further enforces the isolation, the individual, the Doing Everything By Yourself as the only way to go.

This is why so many conservatives and fundamentalists like the Duggars so much. Think of it! Twenty homeschooled fundamentalist Baptist children, all raised to believe in God, while the dad does Politics and Mission Stuff at the church and the mom homeschools All of them.

And of course you have friends, right? But woe upon thee if your house isn't spick-and-span or the children are being disruptive when they come over. They can't see your mess. They can't see your imperfections. Nobody actually goes to their neighbors to ask for a cup of sugar. You should buy your own sugar. Jeez.

In this mindset and mentality, if your children are "unruly", that reflects badly on you as a parent. Your children are seen as an extension of yourself, and if you don't have everything in your life put together, you're getting judged by randos in the grocery store, now. If both parents need to work, just send your kid to the local daycare. What's that? You can't afford daycare? Hire a babysitter. What's that? You can't afford a babysitter? Hm. More judgement. Get the kid's granny to watch them or something.

So here's the facts. The more adults a child has in their life who show them support and are a safe environment for the child, the more the child will be likely to succeed in their adult life.

And by that definition, yes. I want to destroy the family unit. I want it gone.

The notion that if the two people who were directly responsible for the child's existence can't adequately provide for their child, that's it's a moral failing on their part? That's bullshit. I want it gone. If you need help raising a child, so does everyone else, and it should be socially okay to reach out to a trusted member of your community for help. It should also be socially okay for someone who you trust to want to care for a child with no financial compensation. Children are delightful.

Taking care of a child is hard work. Someone has to be on call 100% of the time for at least the first ten years of that kid's life.

Of course, in making the decision to have children, a parent should consider their capability of caring for the kid. But it shouldn't be their capability of caring for a kid ALONE. No one should have to raise a child alone.

Every parent should have a full support system to fall back on. Every person, let alone parent, should have a community of people who would be willing to help care for other people in their community, especially vulnerable people in that community, like children.

This is what I mean when I say I do want to destroy the family unit. I don't want any child to have to grow up in an environment where the only people who feel responsible for their safety are their parents.

Of course parents are responsible for a kid's safety, more than any other people on the planet, because the parents were the ones who chose to bring the kid into the world.

But they are not the only ones. They should not be alone. There should be no more talk of "well, your parents ought to teach you how to behave," because children learn from everything and everyone around them. You can't stop that. Not even if you try.

The thing is, parents should not, and cannot be the ultimate authority on life for their kids. My parents tried, while simultaneously insisting they weren't perfect, but if you grow up thinking only two people who are Biblically one person are the only ones who are right about things, you're going to have a lot of unlearning to do, no matter who those people are.

Humans, all of us, have a responsibility to look out for each other. Community is our greatest strength, and it's founded on the principle of all of us in a community having each other's backs.

So no more Two Heterosexual People being an island and a solitary beacon of what a family is supposed to be. A family is a community, and we all look out for each other. We all make sure we're safe and we have what we need to live. And we all teach each other things about how the world is.

[shadowuserannie]

KOTLC Miraculous AU (pt. 2)

Did not expect the people saying they would actually read it;

So fun fact, it's been a hot minute since I last reread KOTLC (well aware the graphic novel doesn't Really Really count). So now I'm making a list of Fitz character flaws that I want to use my narrative to punish him for, so that he can grow, in my AU.

Because Fitz isn't just the angry golden boy. He's someone who doesn't realize all this privilege is a privilege. The Vackers may fight for 'good' but they still largely benefited from the KOTLC system. Playing back into why Plagg is a good match for him-in canon, both Adrien and Keefe don't care about the status that being Mari/Sophie's boyfriend comes with. But Fitz does.

So Detruire is flirty towards Ladybug. Because who better to impress and benefit his status than the superheroine of Paris?

Then the attraction stops being superfluous. He gets a vibe check-from LB or Plagg, maybe both. Plagg has had too many holders to count, and too many who were angry but angry because of their low status in life because of where they were born/born into poverty. Fitz is angry because of his pressure and lack of freedom (in this AU)-which while is equally valid, means that Plagg will be able to vibe check Fitz's privilege. Will be able to question him, call him out, get him to realize the superfluous reasons why he chases Ladybug.

So that he falls in love with Sophie. The clumsy, funny, slightly awkward classmate who smiles just a little crooked and tugs on her eyelashes and isn't all-powerful, isn't all-seeing. Just Sophie.

(Not the perfect Ladybug. Not the perfect Moonlark.)

(HAHAHAHAHAHA WATCH ME MANIPULATE THE SQUARE FOR MORE TORTURE)

so yes, YET ANOTHER PLOT LINE IG

(fixing character issues ONE BY ONE)

wait but then see Sophie realize Fitz isn't perfect. She screams in Detruire's face that Ladybug isn't perfect, she's not perfect, it's not possible for anyone to be perfect and chasing such an ideal is stupid. See her realize her own hypocrisy. Let Ladybug watch as Detruire changes, stops flirting and gets more genuinely joking instead. Treating her as a real person and not something to attain. LB watches Detruire change, and she starts to fall for someone who has proven they can. Because Detruire listened, and Detruire is trying, and fuck SHE JUST GOT HIM TO QUIT FLIRTING WITH HER-

(extra torture when I reswap the square yay)

Also before you ask, no this is not going to be some kind of s5 swap. Idk when I'll insert this in, BUT IM DEFINITELY NOT GETTING STAMINA TO EVEN THINK OF THAT RN so it'll likely be earlier in the timeline

Rayni as Lila; I saw this in a reblog, AM ADOPTING!! (thanks @ohmygoly) I dislike extra salt and I like the tentative beginnings of Rayni's canon redemption, so let's see if I'll get there before SM either hits or misses in canon!

(also @tiana4evahh I have Plans with Dex and the Lila thing hahahaha hes one of my favs)

Biana as Kagami; BEFORE I GET SHOT. Remember that canonly badass Della will have to be Emilie Agreste. So while Fitz is homeschooled (and I already have a plot reason worked out why Della agrees) Biana Vacker is sent to multiple boarding schools from a young age. When she returns, she doesn't like Sophie trying to make moves ON !HER BROTHER!! So for a while, Sophie sees her as an enemy. (also that means no Kagami/Adrien will exist in this AT ALL JUST TO CLARIFY UTTERLY)

Biana eventually befriending Sophie despite disliking her at first. Biana seeing her brother's indecision and making HER MOVE. Short Sophie/Biana while Soph tries to get over her current thing for Detruire. Biana TELLING HER OWN BROTHER NOT TO HESITATE IM TAKING LUKANETTE AND MAKING IT KAGAMINETTE I DO WHAT I WANT

Btw yk how in canon Mari and Adrien don't question their powers? Sophie and Fitz are too nosy not to HAHA AND THEY START HUNTING DOWN THIS AU'S MASTER FU ALONG WITH HAWKY

Also side note that's kinda irrelevant; When Tam and Linh eventually come in when I finally figure out how to include them, assume they are either already adopted by Tiergan (this will be indicated by their last names being Alenefar and them being proudly introduced as such) or have yet to be adopted by Tiergan and thus the plotline will come later (not introducing themselves with last names)

(@tiana4evahh okay fine I won't scrap this, but I will likely make changes if I ever write in full ao3 fanfic form and not just bullet-pointed)

And finally! While I am taking suggestions for this AU, I'm not going to do stuff because one character in KOTLC matches one in MLB perfectly. That'd be boring. I put characters in slightly unexpected roles because I think the angle would be fun to explore and wouldn't be the same role, same character, same lines. This is adapting MLB's story and adapting KOTLC's characters. I'm not looking to make perfect comparisons and copies (hence my reasoning why Keefe is not the Chat Noir/love interest in pt 1) I'm trying to make a new story where everything is not a repeat of just one of the stories it's adapted from. Not just a copy of MLB but with different names. So please do not expect as such.

Go ahead and rag on me for repeating this too much, but I've always preferred story value and not surface comparisons, which is why I am trying to make this completely clear. I'm not going to make one KOTLC character be the exact same role they had in KOTLC. This is why I am exploring the temporary Sophie/Biana. If you tell me the roles don't perfectly match, then okay! Go create your own AU! (this is not sarcastic) I just don't want getting comments on the whole [but it's not the same thing] because it's not MEANT to be an exact match, and again, sorry for being repetitive. I may include this on all posts of this AU until I finally start writing and fire spoilers.