Chapter Text
Contrary to what you might have guessed, it’s not a Sunday, the day that we begin this story. It’s the day before, a Saturday, cold, sunny, and bright. A child, five years of age with fluffy black hair and broken, thin rimmed glasses sits alone near a ditch. He was playing with old toys, plastic peeling and wood chipping. The state of his playthings and quality of their composition didn’t worry him. Not because he was desperate, but simply because he has never been given something in better condition.
A cat approached him, and sat close by, flickering its tail and ‘batting’ its eyes. It was well trained in the art of mooching off humans. It knew how to use its ‘cuteness’ to get what it wanted.
The boy stopped and stared at the cat. As if he had anything to give to it in the first place. If he did, he surely would. Unfortunately, poverty controls you. It takes and takes what isn’t there, until you’re left only with yourself. At least you still have that, unlike the mindless pawns that flaunt their riches achieved by pure investing and nodding of heads.
After a minute, the boy returned to his fun. He picked up a toy among the four others, one that seemed to be in the best condition. Not much plastic peeling, the colors were kind of pretty, and he didn’t have to wash off any mud before playing with it.
‘Would mommy let me take it home?’
“Hey.”
A voice interrupted his train of thought. Another person was behind him.
The boy turned around slowly, frightened. Sometimes kids around the neighborhood would come to bully him. Sometimes old women would shoo him away because he ‘disturbs the peace’. Sometimes drunk men would come to try to beat him because of his ‘little annoying face’, just barely managing to land a single bruise on him before he manages to get away. To say the least, he was safe with no one around these parts.
Behind him was another boy. He was around the same age, a slender boy with black hair hanging in a fringe over his eyes. He wore clean, neat clothing, unlike the other, who only ever had what his mom could afford.
The sitting boy shrunk a bit. He was slightly frightened, of course. Kids always come around to pick on him, because he doesn’t have a father, because he wears glasses, because he’s a little chubby, all sorts of reasons. He stands up.
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
“Um…”
“What’s your name?”
“H-Hyungseok… Park Hyungseok…”
Oh no. He’s really in it now. He cowers, and avoids looking at this boy. Of course, just when he thought he’d be able to have a nice saturday without anybody to bother him.
“That’s a nice name. I’m Jaeyeol. What are you doing? Are those toys?”
Hyungseok looked shyly down at his playthings. He didn’t want to have to give them away. They looked pretty good, and there was a chance that his mom would let him keep them for once.
He nodded,“P-Please don’t take them.”
“I’m not going to take them, why would I take them?” Jaeyeol tilted his head and inquired, “My dad’s car broke down over there,” he turned to point in a specific direction, “and he let me go where I want. Are you alone?”
“um...Yes…”
“Do you want to play?”
The thought struck Hyungseok now. No one has ever asked him to play before. He used to ask the neighborhood kids if he could join their games, but they never did let him join in. It was always, “You’re too weird” and “You can’t play with us” with them. What was wrong with him, he never found out. His mom always told him that they were just jealous when he did bring it up, but usually it was a topic deeply hidden and never discussed.
So this boy wasn’t going to hurt him?
“Ok…”
“Let’s be friends.”
Friends. What an unfamiliar concept.
“Fr-Friends? Ok.”
Jaeyeol beamed. He was almost shiny, in Hyungseok’s opinion. Like a little star.
The kids began to play. All the games that Hyungseok had ever so desperately wanted to be part of before, they were playing. It was like a dream that he didn’t want to ever let go of.
“Jaeyeol,” Hyungseok pointed to his new friend’s face, “why is your hair like that?”
“I don’t know. It’s just like that.”
Hyungseok couldn’t suppress his curiosity. He tilted his head a bit and smiled at Jaeyeol, “Can I see your eyes?”
“Sure.” Jaeyeol brushed his fringe to the side for a second.
His eyes were two different colors. The right was a lovely deep shade of blue, deep in some kind of magical way. The other was a radiant shade of violet, soft and light.
“You have pretty eyes.”
“Yours are prettier.”
“No they aren’t,” Hyungseok blushed, “I’m not…”
Jaeyeol stopped for a second. He smiled at him.
“Yeah you are. I like your eyes. It makes me happy to look at them.”
Hyungseok didn’t know what to say. Nobody ever said things like this to him. No one ever called him pretty. No one ever actually wanted to be friends. No one ever spent time with him like this. Jaeyeol was a relief for Hyungseok’s reality, with such benignity towards everything, his voice soft and his touch tender. He brought happiness in his wake, and Hyungseok was more than happy to bask in it for as long as he could.
“JAEYEOL!”
Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be very long. Jaeyeol whipped around to search for the source of the deep, booming voice calling his name. His fringe fell back into place.
“Oh...My dad’s here, Hyungseok. I have to go. I...I’ll tell my dad to bring me back again one day! I’ll see you again! Bye Hyungseok!” Jaeyeol frowned as he walked back to his father waving goodbye to Hyungseok.
Again, the boy returned to his ineluctable loneliness, the bite of the silence once again at his neck. The sweet moments with Jaeyeol had been brief, but the memory of his experience would last forever. Most of it, at least. Over the next few years, Hyungseok would come to forget his first friend’s name.
It was just then, at that moment that Jaeyeol left and Hyungseok gloomily wandered to a little junkyard not too far from his first spot, that his life as he knew it would end, and a new one would begin. Well, not exactly. He still had about a day left to go.
Hyungseok huddled in a corner in the aforementioned junkyard, some kind of unexpected latibule that was so uncomfortable, yet so reassuring. There, he could stay silent as long as he wanted, unbothered by anything, in a state of peaceful contemplation. It had always been a place for him to go when in need or in doubt. At least, until now.
“Kid. You Park Hyungseok?”
A man of daunting appearance suddenly came up to him. It was a wonder that he even knew Hyungseok was there, he was hiding in such a tight spot concealed from the rest of the world. The man was donning black clothes all over, dark undershirt, dark dress pants, dark overcoat. It looked as if he were going to a funeral. Hyungseok shriveled under this man’s piercing gaze, this man who seemed to tower ten feet over him with evil in his heart and total destruction of the peace in life his goal.
“...um...”
“Hey, answer me will ya?”
“...mm...”
The man dragged Hyungseok out and pulled him along, his coarse, scarred hands cutting into the small boy’s arm like a knife as they went.
“Can’t believe I have to do this myself....It’ll be easier like this, if you are Hyungseok. We won’t have to resort to plan B. Not like it really matters, but this is a lot less messy. And if you aren’t Hyungseok, well...we can just get rid of you.”
The man threw Hyungseok into a black car parked right on the side of the road and slammed the door behind him. Hyungseok was frightened out of his wits. Millions of questions and alarms came to his mind and screamed in his face. He had to get out. Anything to get out.
Hyungseok sat in the car on his own for a long while, silent. The only sound that could be heard was his breathing, and the muffled chatter from outside the car. It was dark when something finally happened. Hyungseok was desperate.
Some random guy opened the door. Hyungseok later on assumed it was a friend of the other guy. He had no time to think now. He bolted out the car door just as the man was opening it, and struggled to free himself. The man kept trying to force him in, but he wouldn’t let up.
He bit his nose, as hard as he could. God, it tasted awful, but none of that really mattered at the moment. Hyungseok pushed past the guy as his hand flew up to his face to touch his new wound.
“Agh! Fuck! Fuck!”
Hyungseok darted off into the darkness of the night, not once looking back to see what had happened afterwards, not once stopping to listen to the first guy’s angry shouts.
He only realized what he had done when he got close to home. He had blood on his face, fear in his eyes, and dirty, tear streaked cheeks. He’d have to clean up first to not worry his mom. But how?
Hyungseok tried to think of an answer but quickly found that the anxiety of arriving home any later than he already was going to petrified him, so he did the best he could do and used his finger, licking it, then swabbing at each spot on his face. He got whatever he could feel, which was pretty much most of it. Now came the hard part.
Hyungseok walked into his home, eyes downcast and hands behind his back. He knew what was coming. He accepted it.
His mother came running to him upon entering their little run-down home. She kneeled and placed her hands on her son’s shoulders, tenderly, but firmly.
“Hyungseok-ah, it’s so late, where have you been?”
She was angry, of course, it was expected, but she didn’t rule over her son with a heavy hand of rules and decisions like most mothers. She hugged her son and demanded he explain why he had been out so late.
Hyungseok hesitated.
“I was sleeping all day and I woke up really late.”
A blatant lie, of course. It was necessary.
‘I’m sorry Mommy.’
***
“Be careful today, Hyungseok-ah, don’t stay out late again. Come back in time for lunch, ok?”
“Yes mommy. I’ll be back soon.”
Hyungseok had felt guilt gnawing at him all night the day before. He lied to his mom again. Again. Just because he was scared she’d make a big deal and he’d never be able to go out again.
Had he said anything, would things turn out differently? Would he still have become the person he is now? Would he have met them, the people that changed life for them? He’d never know. That’s just not how life intended for him to be.
Hyungseok sat in a garden in a rich part of their town. Beautiful flora all around, the owners of the house would never be able to see him there. He leaned back to relax, psithurism filling the quiet and sounds of the chirping of birds making him forget, forget all about the days past.
God, if only it would last forever.
A person came to mind. His new friend. Where was he now? Did he still want to be friends with Hyungseok, now that he left? Would he come back? Probably not.
‘Let’s be friends.’
Hyungseok blushed.
He picked up a small collection of flowers he picked for his mom. Hydrangeas, Carnations, and Freesias. A beautiful combination.
Hyungseok rushed to get home before the flowers began to wilt. While approaching his street, Hyungseok looked into his pocket to see if he could find the copy of the key his mother had given him. The key wasn’t there, but he did find a piece of paper. It was a photo, a photo of him and his mother at Notte world that they took earlier in the year. They were smiling such wide smiles. He puts the photo back in his pocket for later.
Looking up again, Hyungseok noticed. Their door was wide open for some reason.
He walked into the house and—
‘Mommy?’
His mother was on the floor. Not moving. In a puddle. Red puddle. Not moving. Eyes wide open. Lifeless. Not. Moving.
Oh God.
~~~~~~
And so, the beginning of Hyungseok’s new life took place, right at that moment when he walked in on his mother’s corpse, right at the minute that someone placed a hand on his shoulder, prompting him to turn around in total fear. Right then, that second that he realized that the hand belonged to that man from the day before. The man started talking.
“You shouldn’t have escaped, kid. We’d always find you.”
Hyungseok couldn’t even muster the strength to protest, to scream, to fight back, to leave, not even to cry. He just went with them, got in their van, and stared ahead at the blacked-out windows, not saying a word.
Yes, here it begins.