Chapter Text
Iseul Kim loves three things. He loves many things, actually, but these things are… more universal, one could say. A core part of his being.
The first one is being an aberrant, of course. He knows about how aberrants are looked down upon, and yes, that isn’t very fun. But the power is worth it, the title, the experience, and one day he’ll stand at the top of the Corps. Level 10 Officer Kim, that’s what Iseul will be.
Iseul Kim was always known as the son of an aberrant. As a result, everyone avoided him. Any childhood friends he could’ve had would never exist. Teachers were more strict when it came to him. His mom, who was a human by the way, had left them when he was three. All because his dad was an aberrant, and anyone who was associated with aberrants was naturally also dangerous, or at least asking to become a social pariah.
But he could hardly care about all that, because after all, his dad was the coolest, the most epic. Iseul knows he's done so much awesome things because he was a powerful aberrant, one of the strongest in fact.
Because his dad was the former Level 10 officer of the Third Headquarters of Aberrant Corps. Iseul has to match that at least, right? They say like father, like son, and Iseul likes to imagine he is a lot like his dad. His dad is cheerful, Iseul is cheerful, and both of them only need each other to be happy. They liked a lot of the same things, like sugar twist donuts, Grandma’s braised chicken, and being able to go anywhere they wanted to (as long as his dad wasn’t busy, of course).
Like father, like son. Iseul was going to be as strong and cool as his dad one day. Watch out world, Iseul is going to be the best Aberrant Corps officer the universe has ever seen!
And then he died.
Iseul was eleven perhaps. An officer he doesn’t remember the name of arrived at his home. He was a Level 6, which is one of many. He told young Iseul Kim that his dear dad was killed in battle during some important mission far away. He also told him that his mom had apparently died in the eight years she had been absent from his life, but who cared about her? Not Iseul, he hardly remembers her. To leave someone as great as his dad, she didn’t deserve him in the first place.
His dad.
…right. He’s dead.
Since he obviously can’t go live with a dead mom, they send him off to live with Grandma. That’s his mom’s mom, if you want to know. His dad’s parents are both dead Corps officers. Iseul isn’t sure why Grandma stuck around even though his mom, who is her daughter, ditched on them. So he asked her.
“Grandma?”
“Yes, Iseul?”
“Why did you stay with us?”
Grandma seems a little caught off-guard by this question, but not full-on surprised. Iseul knows she’s been expecting this question for a while, he could see it in the way she held herself around him sometimes, as if waiting for him to say something.
Something as in the question he just asked twenty seconds ago.
“Are you asking because your father was an aberrant?”
“I’m asking because my mom left. …which I guess is also because he was too cool for her.”
She laughed.
“You silly, silly boy. I stayed for you and that charming personality of yours.”
“For... me??”
“Well, no matter who your father is, I won't abandon my family. Your dad wasn’t half-bad, anyways, personality-wise. …besides, you’re the only one I have left now, anyways.”
Iseul made a confused face. Something didn’t add up.
“Dad said you have siblings, though.”
“Oh those old farts? They all were dead as of two years ago.”
Oh. Well that explained a lot.
Grandma is really nice. She doesn’t care that his dad was an aberrant, and she didn’t care when Iseul found out that he was one too.
That day, Iseul Kim was a sophomore in high school. Some kids thought it would be a great idea to throw a baseball right at his face. After all, he’s still the son of an aberrant, only now the aberrant is dead. And when someone’s out of the picture, people are more prone to making bold moves. A baseball to the face is nothing compared to some of the other shit he had to go through this year.
Except this baseball is special. It’s enough to trigger the next revelation in his life. He feels an energy flowing through his body, and the baseball stops, enveloped in an orange aura… orange! His dad’s essence was orange, too. Like father, like son.
Just like that, Iseul was no longer just the son of an aberrant, but an aberrant himself. And he couldn’t be any happier.
Because Iseul Kim always wanted to be an aberrant.