Chapter Text
Speckled lights of the celestial body broke through the darkening sky, indicating an end to the day’s hours of sunlight. Luminescent, the stars twinkled brightly around a waxing gibbous that gleamed its white light upon the dusky neighborhood.
Glitch, eyes sore and glowing a bright shade of red, gazed up at the sea of stars in wonder. They strengthened their light as if communicating with him. Better yet, they laughed at him. Taunted him, reminding him of the proud smile on his mentor’s face whenever the protégé successfully struck a dance move.
Reminding him that it was all his fault.
He tore his gaze away from the haunting sight, where his elbows rested on the black fabric of his dress pants that matched his suit. His knees grew numb from the immense weight of his elbows digging into them as if attempting to snap his legs in half. Both of his hands curled into tight fists, blanching his knuckles a ghoulish tint as his nails pierced deeply into the soft flesh of his palms.
The pain was hypnotizing. It was addicting. And he deserved every ounce of it.
It had been one week since Mo left this world. Seven torturous days full of reminders that it was all because of him. Every thought of Mo only fed the burdensome sorrow that dismantled him piece by piece from within.
He wanted to cry. He wanted to break down right there on the front porch of the family home. But was he even allowed to shed tears for this irreparable horror he had caused?
Even if he were allowed to, he wasn't sure he could even. He had already drained his eyes of any tears he had left.
A male voice sounded from behind him, breaking him out of his sour thoughts. At least for now, though.
“Oh, there you are. I thought you already left.”
Even above his loud thoughts, Glitch could sense pain in that tremulous voice. Something he has never heard in this particular man’s voice before.
The young dancer straightened his posture and loosened his curled fingers. He glanced down at his palms, where light red crescent moons had emerged on their surface, just barely breaking blood. Glitch rubbed his watery eyes and looked over his shoulder to face this visitor.
A tall man with light blond hair stood underneath the porch light with a black suit and tie hugging his body. The man rubbed his eyes on his sleeve before stepping up to Glitch. The younger dancer shifted his gaze to the light concrete beneath his feet.
Bodie frowned and kneeled down next to the young teenager. He extended a hand towards him, but quickly drew it back. He found it best not to invade Glitch’s personal space, especially at such a time like this.
“You know, Mo wouldn’t want you to blame yourself like this,” Bodie attempted to reassure him.
Glitch remained silent. He shifted himself ever so slightly to find a more comfortable position. The Korean boy brought his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, still avoiding eye contact with the older dancer.
“Glitch, it’s really not your fault,” Bodie said, “We一”
“It is!” Glitch interjected, finally snapping his head towards the blond, “It’s because of me that he… I… If I never…”
Warm tears scalded his eyes and cut off his initial speech. Glitch wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his suit. His jaw clenched tightly, like it could break any moment. His head ached and pounded on both sides from attempting to fight those tears back.
He didn’t have a right to cry. But, at least he knew he still had tears left.
The door clicked from the front of the house, followed by soft and sorrowful chatters. The voices of Mo’s parents mixed in with the other voices, bringing guilt and shame to the young dancer. He had caused them pain, along with everyone else at DCI.
A finger tapped lightly on Bodie’s shoulder. The blond dancer looked up to see his dance partner standing above him in a black dress. Behind her, the thin crowd of visitors all dressed in the gloomy color of black exited the house to go on with their night.
No words were needed. Bodie knew what she was trying to tell him. Sighing, the tall dancer rose to his feet. He held his hand out to Glitch with his palm facing upwards. The young boy stared down at the dancer’s hand, examining the trio of curved lines naturally embedded into his skin. Extending from one side of his palm to the other.
“We can take you home if you want,” Bodie offered.
Glitch shook his head back and forth. Drying his eyes one last time, the Korean boy stood up, leaving Bodie’s hand hovering emptily in midair. He didn’t dare look at the pair of dancers as he took a step forward.
“I can walk,” Glitch mumbled, “It’s not that far.”
That was a lie, though. He had to take the subway to get here. Of course, he could just take the subway back, but he dreaded going back to that house and wanted to elongate the time it would take to arrive. Without Mo’s presence, nothing was the same anymore. And, he did not want to remember the last interaction they had with each other.
“Are you sure?” Emilia asked, “It’s dangerous at nighttime.”
Glitch wordlessly took off walking, leaving their question unanswered. Or, rather, his actions answered for them. Bodie and Emilia watched the young boy in concern. His small figure stepped off the driveway and continued down the sidewalk, growing smaller as the distance between them expanded.
He knew it was dangerous at nighttime, that’s exactly why he didn’t mind walking the distance back home (if it was even home anymore). Maybe he could get ambushed by a gang or get hit by a car driving thirty miles over the speed limit. After all, it was not uncommon for cars to drive fast late at night.
Besides, his dark clothing blended in with the night.
Emilia looked at her dance partner, who reciprocated her gaze. It was then that Bodie noticed the white envelope in her hands. A certain name had been engraved on its surface in green ink. Glitch’s name to be exact.
“Mo wrote this last year when he first recruited Glitch for his crew,” Emilia explained, “He… He told me to give it to Glitch if he ever… You know…”
Bodie drew his eyes back ahead of him, where Glitch’s figure had already disappeared into the darkness of the night. The cars in front of the house roared to life as their blinding headlights flickered on. The crowd of vehicles thinned out one by one, leaving Bodie and Emilia underneath the yellow light of the front porch. Bodie reached his hand into his pocket and wrapped his fingers around his keys.
“Let’s wait on that,” Bodie suggested, “The kid doesn’t look too good.”
~
The clock already read half past midnight by the time he arrived. Glitch closed the door behind him, not bothering to lock it. He could care less if a burglar broke in and threatened him at gunpoint. As a matter of fact, he would just laugh and tell his attacker to pull the trigger if that were to happen. Why should he be scared of something he wanted so badly?
The kitchen shined cleanly as if this were a newly built home and he was the first resident. Mo would have been proud of how spotless it looked. But it wasn’t like Glitch ever had to use the kitchen anyways. Food just didn’t seem like a necessity anymore, and the thought of eating only disgusted him.
Mo’s skateboard sat perched against the wall of the living room. A faded dark red stain absorbed into the rough, black material of its surface. The stain that will forever haunt him day and night. The one that never failed to dig out his last memories of Mo as if it were a curse he had to bear with for eternity.
Glitch arrived home after yet another long day at school, expecting to be greeted by Mo. However, to his dismay, his dance partner was nowhere to be seen. Probably must have gone out with friends. Glitch dug his phone out of his pocket. Normally, Mo would have sent him a text message if he were to head out. But this time, his screen appeared to be free of Mo’s contact name.
Though, now that he thought about it, Mo has been acting rather wonky for the past month or two. Glitch would catch him fidgeting here and there, almost as if he were hiding a dead body in his room. Whenever Glitch asked, he would just mention something about Taye. But Glitch knew it was more than that.
Now that he had the house to himself, he might as well attempt to uncover Mo’s little secret. Glitch slid his backpack off his shoulders and tossed it onto the couch. He made his way to the nearest bedroom 一 Mo’s room. He poked his head through the doorway, where his mentor’s phone lied flat on his desk.
Well, that explained why he hadn’t notified him about his absence.
Glitch took a careful glance at the front door of the house. With the coast clear, he pushed the bedroom door open all the way. This mobile device called out to him, drawing him closer to it as if it were some sort of mind controller. Such a device did hold so many secrets after all. Maybe it held the answer Glitch was seeking.
Glitch fetched his own phone out of his pocket and allowed his thumbs to get to work. Breaking into Mo’s phone (or anyone's phone) served no obstacle for him, thankfully. He made it through the lockscreen in no time, giving him access to whatever Mo looked at all day. Glitch placed his phone on the table and switched it out for Mo’s now-unlocked device.
His text messages didn’t seem too important right now, as tempting as they may be to take a snoop at. Besides, he wasn’t here to eavesdrop on Mo’s conversations. If anything, he was probably just flirting with Taye.
Glitch opened up the browser, where a rather familiar web page full of pictures and white spaces popped up. He scrolled downwards on the screen to gather more information. His eyebrows curled into upward arches at the sight that lied before him.
Profiles. Specifically, his parents, whom he had been separated from for as long as he could remember. Whom he had been dying to know more about, but never quite managed to find his desired information. He hardly even remembered their faces, but those strikingly familiar green eyes on a raven-haired woman gave it all away.
He scrolled further down the screen, which held valuable information ranging from the names of his parents, their birth dates, hometowns, and all that.
But why was Mo looking at this? What did he need this information for?
More so, how did he find this information in the first place? Glitch was the tech whiz here, yet he's never even been able to find pictures of his parents.
Glitch’s horde of roaming questions remained unanswered when the voice of his dance partner alarmed him from behind.
“Glitch? Why are you in my room?”
Panic arose within him as Glitch jumped around to face this interruption head-on. Mo’s eyes landed on his phone, which rested in the protégé’s hand. A whirlwind of emotions surged through the younger dancer the longer he looked at his mentor. Anger, fear, and a combination of other emotions that probably didn’t even have words for. But they weren’t pretty ones, that’s for sure.
“Did you look through my phone?” Mo asked with his voice heavy in annoyance.
Mo stepped up to his protégé. He reached out to grab his phone, but Glitch tucked it behind his small back, keeping it out of Mo's reach. His fingers tightened around the hard frame, desperate to receive an explanation as to what he had seen on this device.
“Explain,” Glitch demanded.
“Explain what?” Mo drew his hand back, “I think you’re the one who needs to explain yourself, Youngin. You know damn well not to invade my privacy here.”
Deep down, Glitch really did feel ashamed for his actions. But, unfortunately, his feelings of rage overpowered his guilt. And it demanded an answer to his overflowing questions.
“My parents,” Glitch raised his voice ever so slightly, “Why and how do you have information on my parents?”
Mo’s expression fell blank. His stomach twisted and curled into irregular shapes that cramped painfully on both sides of his body. He knew he’d have to tell Glitch about this someday, but this wasn’t how he’d expected it to go down. Nor was he ready to confess just yet.
The truth would only tear the young boy apart.
“Look, I know you’re angry with me and you wanna know more about them,” Mo began as calmly as he could muster, “But can we have this conversation when you’re not upset?”
That suggestion only fed the boiling anger that crescendoed through him like a raging tempest. Glitch's fingers clenched so tightly around his mentor's phone that his entire hand palpitated violently.
“I have a right to know!” Glitch snapped.
Mo sighed heavily, “Look, kid. I一”
“Tell me,” Glitch commanded, “I'm not giving you your phone back until you tell me.”
Glitch's eyes stared him down, eyebrows slanted into steep, downward slopes. They read nothing but pure fury and pierced through him like a pair of honed blades, something he had never seen in those forest green eyes before. Sure, he had seen him angry a few times, but this was… Different.
Mo knew it would just add to his anger if he stayed silent any longer. Thus, he practically had no choice but to speak up.
Mo slid his hands into his jean pockets. He shot his head to the side, eyeing his wall of posters pasted beside his bed.
“I… I found your parents' whereabouts,” Mo confessed under his breath.
Silence fell upon the room the second those words left Mo's lips. Glitch's eyes gradually expanded to the size of dinner plates like water balloons being filled. As if it were even possible, his hand that constrained Mo's phone intensified its palpitations.
“You… You what?”
No words in the English language could possibly describe Glitch's emotions. He had spent years searching for his parents, but all he could ever find was useless information no matter how deeply he searched the web. And yet, Mo had already uncovered what he was seeking?
“Now, let me explain,” Mo's volume returned to normal as he looked back at Glitch, “They一”
"How long have you been keeping this from me?" Glitch interrogated.
“Glitch 一”
“You could have told me. Or helped me. Anything other than what you did!”
“Look一”
“You know how important this is to me, Mo!” Glitch exclaimed, “I 一 ”
“Glitch, listen to me!” Mo yelled in annoyance, “Why can't you just let me speak for one second?”
“Why can't you just man up and tell me about this earlier?" Glitch retaliated, "I could have一”
“They abandoned you, okay?” Mo shouted, “They don't want you anymore! Why do you think you were left alone at the subway station for… Who the hell knows how long?”
And just like that, the silence that filled the room earlier returned for this very moment. Not even the crickets chirped their tune in this empty void. Those last words that Mo had said lingered thinly in the air, remaining an echo against Glitch’s eardrums.
Slowly but surely, his eyebrows broke out of their slanted state. The burning rage extinguished from his eyes and was replaced by a look of pain. The look of a young teenager being torn apart carbon by carbon from the inside out. Of a child who had been stripped of his childhood.
The verdant orbs of his irises twitched inside his white sclerae, as if he were on the brink of tears. At that moment, Mo wished he had kept his mouth shut or at least worded it better. At the same time, things would have gotten worse if he didn’t tell him the truth. So, either way, things were destined to go downhill.
Finally, Glitch’s fingers loosened around the frame of Mo’s phone, allowing the mobile device to fall back onto the desk behind him. Mo’s face read sympathy as he took a small step closer to the distressed teenager.
“I’m sorry, Glitch,” Mo lowered his voice, “But 一 ”
“Just stop talking,” Glitch muttered in a tremulous and brittle tone, “I… I’ve heard enough.”
Mo’s lips curled downwards into a steep frown. He reached his hand out towards the protégé, only for Glitch’s own hand to slap it away. Dipping his head downwards, Glitch shoved past his mentor and sprinted out of the room at the speed of a bullet. Panic rose within Mo as he followed after him.
“Glitch! Come back here!” Mo called after him from the doorway, “Glitch!”
Too late. The young dancer had already exited through the front door of the house. He slammed the door behind him so hard that the entire house trembled from his aggressive use of force. He could have torn down the doorway had he added more strength.
Mo stood in the middle of the hallway with his hands clenched into fists on either side of him. Their previous conversation ripped him to shreds from within, replaying in his head over and over like his favorite dance routine on repeat.
Only, this was no dance. Nor was it his favorite. But if it was a dance, it was one he never wanted to perform again.
Though, Glitch knew he had a curfew. Mo hoped with every inch of his being that Glitch just needed time to sort out his feelings, that the kid would come back in a couple hours. He couldn’t blame him for being upset.
After all, nobody wanted to be told that they were unwanted.
***
Two hours past curfew, and there was still no sign of the kid. It was beginning to get dark and chilly out, a dangerous time for someone his age. Glitch left his phone here, so Mo had no way of getting into contact with him.
Worry consumed him as Mo reached for his own phone. He tapped on Lil’ T’s contact name and brought his phone up, where the mobile device vibrated against his hand and ear. The fingers of his free hand drummed anxiously upon the kitchen counter as he waited for the little girl’s voice to answer the phone.
“Hello?”
“Hey, have you seen Glitch at all today?” Mo asked, “He doesn’t have his phone on him, so I can’t call him.”
And the kid probably didn’t want to speak with him right now, anyways. He would just get sent straight to voicemail if he even tried.
“Well, I saw him at the park a couple hours ago if that counts,” the young girl answered, “He didn’t look too happy, though, so I left him alone.”
Mo perked up with hope surging through him, “Do you know where he is now?”
“Nope. Sorry, Mo,” Lil’ T sighed, “By the way, did something happen? I’ve never seen Glitch like this before. And if you're calling me asking where he is, something's definitely up.”
Mo silenced the rhythm of his fingers, which he hadn’t realized were still tapping. His fingers slowly curled inward, collecting into the palm of his hand. His chest sank and disintegrated into his stomach acid just from remembering the day’s earlier events.
“I don’t really want to talk about it right now,” Mo replied silently, “But thanks anyways. I’ll ask the others if they’ve seen him. Tell your sister she still owes me a date.”
His voice showed no flirtatious hint like it usually did. Rather, it sounded emotionless and empty. Like the electronically programmed voice of an android. Lil’ T’s voice spoke as he took the phone off his ear, but he ended the call before he could even take in her words. Mo proceeded to scroll through his contacts, calling every dancer and repeating the same question over and over again in hopes that Glitch was safe with one of them.
Ill-fatedly, he had received the same negative answer from everyone. His partner’s whereabouts remained unknown. Cursing under his breath, Mo ended the last call he was on. He stood up from the kitchen counter and shoved his phone inside his pocket. Guess he had no choice but to find the kid himself.
Mo stuffed his house keys in his other pocket and fetched a flashlight from the counter. With his skateboard underneath his arm, the dancer took off on what he never knew would be his final night underneath the stars before he became one with them.