Chapter Text
“I’ll help!” You exclaim, rushing to your mother’s side when she drops a few boxes. You pick them up with ease, your weight training working to your advantage.
Your mom purses her lips at you guiltily when you take the ones in her arms, too. “You really don’t have to, honey..” She says, but you smile at her reassuringly.
“Just leave it all to me, mom. You’re getting too old to lift heavy things.” You catch the leering stares from your siblings in the next room over, who are just sitting around on their phones.
You watch with amusement as your mom blushes, looking flustered as she exclaims, “I’m not that old, yet!” But she gratefully takes your offer and sits down tiredly in the room with your siblings. As you’re heaving the boxes upstairs, you hear her say, “How come you’re all just sitting around? Why aren't you helping your sister?” You hear them groan in annoyance, but no one makes a move to help you.
You smile sadly to yourself, already used to your sibling’s treatment towards you. They all call you “goodie two shoes” and sometimes “kiss ass” when they’re really angry.
Sighing, you bring the rest of the boxes up on your own, making sure to separate everyone’s belongings in their own rooms. Your parents, wanting to reward you for your good behavior, gave you the only room by yourself. Your siblings threw a fit, of course, especially your older sister, but it’s been finalized.
When you've brought up the last box (which was yours), you exhaustedly fall onto your made mattress and close your eyes. Moving to a different city was not only a long drive (with siblings you always bicker with), but also a little nerve-wracking.
Even though you moved into a good neighborhood, your parents warned you all to not go outside at night, since motorcycle gangs drive around. You've never had to deal with that in your old town, so you’re terrified of accidentally bumping into one.
But if you stick to the rules, like you always do, then you don’t have to worry about it. With that comforting thought, you stand up refreshed and head downstairs to see if your parents need any more help.
At dinner, you’re the one who cooks and sets the table, wanting to let your dad rest since he did all the driving. He’s usually the one who cooks meals, and he’s the one who showed you how to make the family recipe (a secret!).
“Why are you always smiling?” Your little brother sneers at you when you pass him his food. You blink at him in confusion the same time the rest of your family does. “It’s goddamn annoying how fake you are.”
“We do not talk like that in this family.” Your mom berates him, but he glares at her, too.
“You’re only saying that because it’s _____! If it were any one else you wouldn't say a damn thing!” Now your father gives him a pointed look, shutting him up.
“I’m not fake..” You mutter, slightly hurt at the accusation. Your older sister rolls her eyes at you.
“There’s no way you can always be genuinely happy when you help out.” She grumbles, tapping away on her phone. “We all know you suck up to get what you want.” Your mother tells her to put her phone away, and your older sister does it, but not without glaring at you first.
“I am genuinely happy, though.” You defend yourself, gripping the serving spoon a little too tight. “Why wouldn't I be? I’m taking care of the people I love–”
“Oh, shut up.” Your little brother cuts you off.
“Enough.” Your father sighs, rubbing his temples. “We just got to our new home to start a new life, can’t you all get along for one night?” You immediately feel guilty and hang your head, causing your older sister to slam the table with rage.
“There you go again! Pretending like you’re better than the rest of us!” She yells at you, and you flinch back at her outburst.
“E-Excuse me?” You utter, your knuckles white around the handle of the spoon. “I don’t think I’m–”
“Yes you do!” Your little brother chimes in, looking equally as livid. “You don’t get to feel guilty, because you’re always being such a kiss ass–”
“Shut up!!” You scream, dropping the spoon on the floor. Your siblings are staring at you with wide eyes, and your parents are looking at each other worriedly. Your breath is shallow, your heart is pounding loudly in your ears, and your voice is shaking when you whisper, “Why do you hate me so much?”
But you don’t give them time to answer as you run out of the dining room and upstairs, to your bedroom. Your father calls after you, but you ignore him and lock yourself in your room before sliding to the floor and curling into a ball.
You sob quietly, wondering why you've always been the odd one out. It’s not just in your family, but also at school. You’d have some admirers for being so ethically just, but mostly be ridiculed by your fellow classmates.
You cry more, knowing it won’t be any different in a new city, not if your siblings can help it.
By the time you've calm down enough to see clearly through your tears, it’s dark outside because the streetlights have been busted. You crawl over to your window seat, peering out into the night.
It must be past your bedtime, because there are no cars driving down the busy main road to your left, and the moon is high in the sky. It’s a clear night, perfect to see the stars, but you can’t find it in you to appreciate it. You’re still down about the fight earlier, and you can’t think of anything other than sleep that will distract you from it.
That is, until you hear the sound of a revving engine.
Suddenly, headlights appear at the end of your street, and you hear loud whoops and cheers as twelve different bikers drive in circles in front of your house.
Your heart is pounding quickly, and your eyes can’t look away from the sight because – they look so carefree, like they don’t care what other people think about them. This thought is only more prominent in your head when you watch one of them ride onto someone’s lawn and back off again.
To their credit, they don’t look as scary as you thought they would be. For a gang, their bodies are surprisingly lithe. You've always imagined bikers to look like how they do in the movies: big, burly, and hairy. Of course, you can’t see if they’re hairy or not underneath their helmets, but you can see that they’re not big and burly.
You watch in awe as they circle around one last time, hollering before they drive off to disturb another sleeping neighborhood. You feel oddly disappointed that they hadn't stayed longer, before your drowsiness from being emotionally worn out hits you like a train, and you force yourself into bed before passing out.
The next morning is awkward, and you expect that your parents scolded your siblings after you left because they aren’t coming at you with any insults. Your mom tells you good morning and your dad gives you a late breakfast, since you didn’t come out of your room until after you knew your siblings were up.
“Thanks, dad.” You smile at him, and he gives you a sad smile back as he sits down at the table across from you. You look at him, waiting because you know there’s a serious talk coming.
“I’m sorry about last night.” He apologizes, but you wave it off.
“I’m over it.” You tell him sincerely, cutting into your pancakes and taking a bite.
“I’m still sorry, because you don’t deserve it.” He says, and you look at him again. “So I have a suggestion,” He prompts. “I know part of the reason why your siblings don’t treat you nicely is because they never get to spend time with you. You’re always helping your mom and I, so today you should hang out with them.”
“But dad,” You say quietly, so your siblings don’t hear you in the next room. “If I try to do that, they’ll just call me a suck up again.” You purse your lips, but your dad doesn’t change his mind.
“Just try it, _____. Maybe it’ll work out for you.” You nod your head, not able to say no to him and you finish the rest of your breakfast in silence. When you’re done, you wash the plate and silverware and set it on the drying rack, before heading into the living room to find your siblings.
Once again, they’re on their phones, not even looking at each other. “Hey guys,” You announce, and they barely glance at you when you sit down between them on the couch. “I’m sorry I yelled at you last night.” You mumble, and your sister drops her phone and looks at you.
“You’re apologizing?” She asks, and you look at her in bewilderment. “We yelled at you.”
“But I yelled back.” You say. “And I shouldn’t have, I should have let you rant.” Your sister shakes her head and scoffs, picking her phone back up.
“This is why we hate you.” Your sister says coldly. “You’re so pure-hearted, and we know it’s not an act. It pisses us off, because we can never be like you, yet we’re always getting shit about it.”
Your heart wrenches at her cold words, and you look away from her and to your little brother. He’s acting just as distant, not even acknowledging your presence. So you stand up and walk out of the room, figuring they may want space.
“And your conscientiousness only makes it worse!” Your sister calls, and you don’t even make it up the stairs before you’re crying again.
“Dangit..” You whisper, wiping at your face in frustration. Why does everything hurt lately? How come you can’t handle their words like you used to? Maybe the years of being ostracized is finally getting to you, you think as you hole up in your room again.
You spend the whole day in there, not even eating lunch or dinner because you don’t feel like seeing anyone in fear of crying all over again. Somehow, you managed to stay an emotionless husk while by yourself, and it was doing you well to sit alone until sundown.
You feel a little cold from not moving all day, so you open up your windowsill to let in the night’s summer air. It’s only then do you realize what time it is, because the moon is once again directly above you.
Your heart is suddenly thumping against your chest, and you feel the rush of adrenaline course through your veins as the familiar sounds of cheering round the corner of your street. Just like last night, they start circling the front of your house, and you can’t stop yourself this time.
“Excuse me!” You’re surprised your voice even carried to them when they grow quiet and slow down their circling. When you see one of them look up at you, you shut your window and stumble backwards, tripping and falling on your bottom.
You sit there for a minute before you just listen to your body for once, letting yourself run from your room and down the stairs. You scribble a quick note and leave it on the kitchen table before leaving your front door and seeing–
“I told you she’d come down.” One of the bikers said to their friend, and they hand him a twenty dollar bill. You aren’t sure what to do now that you’re outside, still in your pajamas and looking dumbfounded. The guy shoves the bill into his back pocket before looking at you, leaning on his foot to balance his motorcycle. “Well, are you coming?” He asks you, and you don’t know why, but you nod your head.
The guy holds out his hand to his friend, and he forks over another twenty dollar bill as you watch in amusement. He then slides off his helmet and grins, and you’re taken aback by his handsome features and boyish charms. You’re also shocked by his age, because even if they weren't big and burly, you were still expecting them to be older, not your age!
“The name’s Junmyeon.” He says, tossing you his helmet. You barely catch it as he says, “What’s yours?”
“_-_____.” You stutter, still gaping at him. He shrugs off his leather jacket, holding it out to you. Underneath his jacket is a plain white t-shirt, but it doesn't detract from his good looks. In fact, it almost makes him more attractive. You walk over to him, letting him help you put it on before he takes the helmet back and lowers it over your head.
“Is this your first time on a bike, _____?” He asks as you climb on behind him, wrapping your arms around his waist.
“Yeah.” You reply, and you feel his chuckle through his back, making you blush at the closeness.
“Hold on tight, then. It gets pretty intense.” After he says this, he kicks off the ground and the his friends start hollering again. You can’t help the smile that spreads across your face, because this is by far the riskiest thing you've ever done. It makes your heart beat just thinking of how reckless you’re being.
“I call the next pretty girl who calls out to us!” His friend says when he rides up next to you guys. Through his helmet visor, you see him wink at you and you blush. “The name’s Chanyeol, babe.” Junmyeon scoffs at him, making Chanyeol pout cutely.
“Aren't you the one who lost forty bucks?” You ask him, making his jaw drop. Junmyeon laughs loudly, making a few of their other biker friends turn their heads to you. You look away in embarrassment, not sure where that line came from. You notice when they stop driving in circles and go to the end of your street.
This gives you at least some nerves, since you’re starting to realize what you've gotten yourself into. “Will you bring me back when we’re done?” You ask Junmyeon, then realize he can’t hear you through your helmet and over the wind, so you shout it, hoping he hears it this time.
“If you want.” He shouts back, and you nod against his back so he feels it. The lot of them are a lot friendlier than you pictured them to be, and even though you don’t ever see their faces well, you learn to differentiate them.
Baekhyun is wearing a blue scarf around his neck, Jongdae is the one with studs on his shoulder pads, Kyungsoo is the one that has a smiley face sticker on his helmet, Jongin is the one who keeps swerving dangerously to the side as a joke, YiFan is the one who’s wearing expensive looking leather gloves, Minseok is the one with a handkerchief tied to his jeans, Zitao is the one who’s screaming the loudest, Yixing is the one who looks like he’s riding smoothly, even over the road bumps, Sehun is the one who keeps howling with laughter, and Lu Han is the one who keeps trying to drive in front of the rest of them to knock them off course.
You also notice that Chanyeol stays close to Junmyeon’s side, even while the rest of them are going everywhere. Their sporadic paths would normally make you anxious of a crash, but no one is out this late at night, so the roads are left empty for their exploration.
“Have you ever been to Locke Bridge? That’s where we’re heading!” Junmyeon calls over his shoulder to you.
“No, I just moved here!” You yell back.
“Really?!” He asks, laughing again. You realize you enjoy the feeling of his body vibrating and hug him closer. “No wonder you came out with us, everyone else is too afraid.”
“That’s because you all look uncontrolled.” You tell him, and you pause before adding, “But that’s what brought me out.” You aren’t sure if he heard you because he never answers, but you don’t mind the silence that goes for the rest of the ride until he starts slowing down when they turn to ride in a field of grass.
Up ahead is a small stone bridge over a stream, and you realize you’re in a park. The guys that were ahead of you two stop their motorcycles first, and you and Junmyeon are the last to park by the end of the bridge.
“You joined us on the right night, _____,” Junmyeon tells you as he takes the helmet off of your head. Your start to take off his jacket, too, but he waves it off. “Tonight is cold.” He tells you, zipping it up your front and smiling. “And we brought sparklers.”
“Yah, are you going to introduce us or what?” Baekhyun says as he strides over and takes off his helmet. He, too, is attractive, and you’re starting to feel self conscious about being the only ugly one when he says, “You can’t hog the pretty girl for yourself.”
You blush, ducking your head bashfully and Baekhyun pokes your cheek, chuckling at your reaction.
“This is _____, everyone.” Junmyeon declares, and their immediate warm responses make your stomach flip, because when was the last time someone besides your parents treated you so nicely? “I’m sure she knows all of your names already, since you guys can’t shut up when we grind.” You assume ‘grind’ means riding, and you nod your head to agree with him. “She just moved here, so we should show her how to have fun in the city, right?” He grins, and they guys all whoop excitedly.
“It’s nice to meet you all.” You say, and even though you know you should feel uncomfortable being surrounded by men you’ve just met, but they smile at you and you can’t find any feeling in you but trust. “So, where are the sparklers?” You grin, and Baekhyun wraps his arm around your shoulders as they lead you toward the stone bridge.
When the guys start jumping below it, you watch curiously until you’re the last one up there. “Jump down.” Jongin beckons, holding out his arms to catch you. Figuring that nothing worse than a broken bone can happen, you leap down.
As he silently promised, Jongin catches you in his arms carefully, setting you down gently. “Thanks.” You laugh breathily, surprised you actually did it. He grins down at you before taking your hand and tugging you underneath the bridge.
It shields you all from the moonlight, which is just what they want, because the moment the sparklers spark, they all start cheering again. Jongdae is handing them all out, and when he gives on to you, he says, “Careful.” You giggle at his mom-like feel and let go of Jongin’s hand to take it.
Baekhyun suddenly makes an outburst, holding his sparkler out at arm’s length and spinning around in circles. His boots splash in the small stream, sending water everywhere and soaking everyone’s clothes, but they don’t seem to mind it and join him.
Pretty soon, you’re standing by yourself again, alone with your sparkler. You start thinking that this is how it always is, you being left out and cast aside by your family and classmates, and now strangers.
“_____!” Kyungsoo calls out, smiling for the first time since you've met him. “Come join us!” You’re about to decline, when it suddenly hits you that he’s inviting you over. They’re all inviting you over, because they’re watching you expectantly.
“Coming!” You exclaim, running into the water with your sparkler. They all holler and cheer, making room for you in the middle and you loosen up, not holding yourself back as you all mess around.
By the time you’re all too exhausted to run around anymore, your pajamas are completely soaked, thanks to playful Baekhyun (who splashed you mercilessly until you started doing it back). You shiver as they start a small fire using a match, and they let you huddle up in the middle graciously.
During your game earlier, you slowly came to realize that there is a sort of silent leadership in the group. YiFan and Junmyeon being the leaders, that is, and the guys always listen to each other when they talk. It’s a sort of respect you rarely see, even within your own family if it’s not you doing it. It’s refreshing and nice to be a part of, and you find yourself smiling again.
“So what made your family move here?” Minseok asks you once everyone’s settled down around the fire, curled up against each other or lying in each other’s laps.
“I was being bullied at my old school,” You say, still smiling. “But it really wasn’t that bad.”
“Why were you being bullied?” Yixing asks you sadly, sitting up from Lu Han’s lap to face you. You look away from their watching eyes and pick at your drying pant legs, squeezing out as much leftover stream water as you can.
“Everyone thinks I’m a goodie two shoes.” You confess, feeling on the spot. “They call me names and try to make me feel bad about doing the right thing, so I usually end up in my room to escape it all.”
“Is that what you were doing when we picked you up?” Junmyeon asks on the other side of the fire. You pull his jacket closer around your shoulders as you reply.
“Kind of. I got into a fight with my siblings about it.” You frown guiltily. “Their words hurt more than anyone else’s.”
YiFan sets his hand on your shoulder, urging you to look at him and he gives you a sympathetic look. “They’re family, so I can see why.” You take in his expression and features, noticing the cut over his right brow and the sharp bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry you have to go through that, because there’s nothing wrong with doing what’s right.”
You nod your head and smile at them gratefully. “Thanks guys,” You tell them softly. “You don’t even know me, and you’re treating me like a close friend.”
“You feel like a close friend.” Zitao quips, and you look at him in surprise.
“And you’re really cool.” Jongdae adds and the other guys make noises of agreement.
“Fun.” Baekhyun says.
“Pure.” Lu Han waggles his eyebrows playfully.
“Pretty.” Sehun says, and by the time they finish complimenting you, you’re as red as a tomato.
“You’re all dorks.” You exclaim, covering your blushing face in embarrassment, and they all laugh affectionately. Suddenly, your stomach growls loudly, and you remember that you haven’t had anything to eat all day today besides breakfast.
The boys all look at you questioningly, a few of them wearing cute smirks while others look genuinely worried.
“Is there a store nearby?” You mumble awkwardly, clutching your tummy. “I haven’t eaten lunch or dinner yet.”
(The End… or The Beginning?)