Chapter Text
He was frozen. He couldn’t move. Damn it Yeosang, get yourself together.
He breathed in.. and out.. in.. out...
His uncle’s footsteps pounded as they walked from the back door towards front of the house. Towards a small room. Yeosang’s room.
He felt frozen to the spot, his limbs tingling and his breathing coming out as quiet and slow as he could get it to.
He stared down at his homework as his ears trailed the loud footsteps coming closer and closer.
Suddenly his door was thrown open and he immediately stood his pencil upright again, continuing to write down nonsense.
The man behind him wasn’t making any noise. Yeosang could feel his heartbeat picking up even quicker, his vision blurring together. What was happening right now? He hated when his uncle did this, just open his door and stand there doing who knows what.
He continued pretending he wasn’t there for another few minutes before he heard a grunt and his eyes widened, his body tensing up.
He really hoped this wasn’t happening. Oh my god where was his mom.
She might be just as much as a bitch, always blacked out but at least his uncle wouldn’t bother him as much.
He shut his eyes, fingers gripping his pencil so tight he was grateful it hadn’t cracked yet.
His eyes snapped open, suddenly his uncle walking up behind him. With years of drug and alcohol damage, a gravely voice spoke up behind him. Right behind his ear. God Yeosang felt like crying.
“The fuck you doin’?”
Yeosang himself had years of practice on his voice. He learned at an early age that with just the right tone and facial expressions, he could avoid so many situations.
With a cheery but soft voice, “Just doing my homework, Sanghun Hyung.”
His uncle didn’t move for a second and Yeosang felt his smile strain when he noticed his uncle might be able to tell he was only scribbling nonsense. Fucking shit what the hell does he do now.
His uncle grunted again before standing up and putting a hand on his shoulder.
Yeosang felt his throat constrict and he swallowed as his uncle removed his hand and walked around his room.
Yeosang slowly relaxed his limbs as he stood up and turned around to softly smile at him. His uncle sat down on the edge of his mattress and Yeosang mentally cringed at the sight of those dirty pants touching his sheets.
“Sanghun Hyung did you want me to bring you something? Maybe some water or–“ He flinched, his fingers tapping together behind his leg.
“Just bring me some damn food would ya, I’ve been starving all day! You wouldn’t want me to go hungry now would you?”
Yeosang quickly bowed down, “I wouldn’t uncle, that would be terrible I’m sorry for not thinking to get you some food sooner.”
His uncle grunted and waved him off. Yeosang quickly stood up and excused himself. As soon as he was in the dingy kitchen he stood over the sink and turned the water on.
His breathing had started to come out quickly and his eyes were tearing up.
Damn it Yeosang get yourself together!
He really didn’t want to think about what would happen if uncle saw him crying.
He shut his eyes, focusing on the water flowing on his hands and quickly schooled his expression.
He took a deep breath and turned the faucet off before heading to the fridge to grab some eggs.
Yeosang knew it was probably not okay how quickly he was able to stop himself from crying and how quickly he’s been able to control himself so far but all he knows is that whether it was ok or not, it was needed when his Uncle and Mom were involved.
The sizzling from the frying pan distracted him for a bit before he added the egg to the boiling ramen on another pot. He sighed softly, his mouth watering. He hadn’t had ramen since Friday. It was Tuesday and he was really hungry now that he thought about it.
When he poured the noodles into a bowl it was as if on queue that his stomach growled. He stared longingly down at the brown bowl as he carried it to the shabby table in the corner of the kitchen, hoping to lure his uncle out of his room.
He set some old wooden chopsticks down along with a bottle of beer and two small white pills.
He knew what the pills were. He sighed, his eyes half lidded as he stared down at the small arrangement he almost robotically made. He debated hiding the pills before quickly ridding that thought, a chill running up his spine.
He’d tried once before to get him mom and uncle off pills a few years ago but that quickly backfired when they found out he was the one hiding them. Let’s just say... he wasn’t allowed to make an appearance for the next few weeks.
He quickly paced back to his room before knocking on his door, “Hyung?”
“What do you want.”
“Your ramen’s ready, Hyung.”
Yeosang stood outside his door, his fingers tapping together in a familiar pattern before the door swung open and his uncle shovelled past him, “Did you get everything brat?”
Yeosang quickly nodded, “Yes, Hyung. Everything.”
His uncle mumbled as he walked toward the food and Yeosang followed, standing at the entrance.
His uncle stared at everything before swallowing down the pills with the beer before sitting down.
“Is that all you need, Hyung?”
“Fuck off!”
Yeosang half heartedly bowed before booking it to his room. As soon as he quietly closed the door he sighed and looked around.
It was sad. Yeosang knew his room was sad, he’d seen those posts his classmates would send to their class group chat, boasting about one thing or another.
As soon as you entered, there was a small, almost broken black desk he found in a junk yard, a small wooden stool in front of it right on the opposite side of the door. Then next to it was his mattress.
Yes. You heard that right, a mattress. Neither his mom or uncle worked, it was a miracle they still had the small house. The only income that they got was money his mom got from child support. He heard his dad left when he was born but with all the shit his guardians spewed when they were high, drunk, or just angry was never to really be trusted.
Either way, Yeosang knew his mother got more that enough money each month to pay the house bills. He knew there should be money left over for food and clothes and furniture and basic necessities but he also knew both his mother and uncle couldn’t live without their ‘precious’ organ killers.
He was actually quite surprised he wasn’t sold off as a child but that’s a whole other thing.
Nonetheless the only other thing in his room was his closet that once had some really nice white doors but now as he stared, he could see the patches of large holes only attainable from some type of limbs.
Yeosang himself had patched those holes up. In fact, his room was most likely the nicest room in the whole house. He always cleaned up the messes either guardian would leave in his room, and any type of holes in his room was filled in with some homemade paster.
He would like to think he has a crafty hand because most if not all his belongings were found by Yeosang himself. If he hadn’t made the choice a few years ago to visit a junk yard on a whim he wouldn’t have desk or stool which was a necessity in his mind. He always worked better when he had a flat surface to work on.
Back to the present though.. he decided to continue working on his homework packet. He really wanted to finish it so he could go to sleep. It was already almost 9 pm and he needed all the rest he could get. He didn’t have an alarm clock anymore after the last one got smashed into two after a fight with his mom and it wasn’t like his mom or uncle would wake him up. Plus he had a flip phone, and his apparently didn’t have a clock option.
That thought made him scoff, his leg bouncing up and down as he erased the previous illegible writing.
He continued finishing up his homework before walking over to his closet and slowly opening it. He made a mental reminder to try and find some oil for the creaking before bending down and slowly lifting up a small piece of the floor and grabbing a small bag full of his toiletries. Everything he took from the store were always travel sized to be able to fit here.
It’s not like he could keep his things out in the open unless he wanted them taken. He never really knew why they took them, it’s not like they could sell them and it’s not like they would use them. All he knew was he himself needed them so he would hide them under the damn carpet if he needed to.
He quickly walked outside and peered into the kitchen, noticing neither uncle or mom were in sight. He sighed softly as he pushed the bathroom door open and turned the faucet on.
He quickly brushed his teeth, using his shirt to dry his face.
He walked back out into the hallway and quickly closed his door, shoving the toiletries into the bag and back under the floor, placing his pair of shoes on top.
He placed his homework inside his red backpack and laid down, his blankets surrounding him and giving him a sense of warmth. He shut his eyes and breathed out, his feet playing with each other and soon he was off to dreamland, his last thought praying he woke up on time.