"What did you get for question number 9?" Chanyeol had asked Junmyeon, as they were sitting at the table doing homework.

"96." The leader responded.

Chanyeol cocked his head. "96? I got 93."

The two went over the problem again.

"Ah, I got it now." Junmyeon nodded his head, erasing his answer and putting 93 instead.

Chanyeol is a smart kid. He's also quiet a prankster. He's wasn't always that way, it kind of grew to be a coping strategy.

Chanyeol ran away from home when he was 14, but he didn't survive more than a month on the streets before getting in trouble and being put in this group home.

Chanyeol's parents neglected him. 

They didn't just neglect him, but they straight up pretended like Chanyeol didn't exist.

Ever since the giant could remember, he had to take care of himself. Chanyeol cooked to eat, bought clothes to survive, and worked for people in his neighborhood just to earn a days pay.

He ran away from home, not being able to take it anymore. 

He wanted someone to care, so the giant went searching for a person who would.

He slept in various places. On his friends couch, in a store, and even in a gas station bathroom.

One night, his friends invited him out to drink. Chanyeol, not having anything else to do, agreed to it.

The giant didn't know what he was thinking. Actually, he wasn't thinking when he took a toolbar and recked a cops car. No, he wasn't thinking at all.

His friends, if you could call them that, encouraged him to do it. They pressured him, and Chanyeol was always one to do things for show.

4 smashed windows and flatten tire later, Chanyeol found himself locked in a jail cell.

He saw his parents from his cell. It took everything in Chanyeol not to yell out for them, not to cry at the utter sight of them.

Because in reality, the 14 year old giant missed his parents. How is it possible, to miss someone who wasn't even there? It made no sense to him.

He watched as his parents signed some papers. His mom left first, taking a phone call and never coming back. She never even glanced his way. Maybe he didn't really exist in her eyes.

Then, there was his dad. He had finished the papers only 15 minutes after his wife left.

Chanyeol thought his mom not looking at him was the worst thing. He was wrong. 

The worst thing was when his father looked at him, with complete anger and disgust.

That's what broke Chanyeol.

That look was the only thing he could think of. He could only think of that look when he spent the night in the cell with a garbage smelling man. It was the only thing he could think of when his lawyer showed up. It was the only thing he could think of till he got to the group home. That look haunted him. His fathers eyes were foreign to him, they were terrifying.

"Chanyeol!" Baekhyun yelled, jumping up onto the toilet seat. "You know I don't like bugs!" Byun Baekhyun was currently on the toilet seat because of a fake spider that Chanyeol placed in the bathroom. Baekhyun is deathly afraid of bugs.

"Ah, that never gets old." The giant laughed, coming out from where he was hiding and picking up the fake creature. "Seriously, you should stop getting scared of these. You know they're fake."

"It just surprised me, that's all." Baekhyun jumped down from where he was, giving the giant a sarcastic smile.

"Whatever you say," Chanyeol inched the spider closer to the shorter, and like expected, Baekhyun jumped a bit. "You see? It still gets you!" The giant laughed, exiting the bathroom.

"Yah!" Baekhyun yelled from behind, but the taller ignored it. "Stupid Chanyeol and his stupid fake spiders." Baekhyun mumbled, going back to brushing his teeth.

This was Chanyeol's way of coping. He wanted others to notice his presence, unlike his parents ever did, so he played tricks on his housemates so they would be reminded that he was there. That he exists.

"Hey, freak!" Zitao called. They were at school, and it just so happened that the two boys were outside for gym.

"What do you want?" The giant asked. Chanyeol didn't let anyone mess with him, not even the school bully. That's what made him so popular, especially among the girls.

"I heard you've been hitting on my girl. Is that true?" Chanyeol had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. 

Zitao had two different acts. One for the group home, another for school.

At the home, even though Tao was a bully, he was a scaredy cat too. The martial arts master was one of the best persons for Chanyeol to prank. The fake spider scare never failed to work on Zitao. Even worked better on him than it did on Baekhyun.

At school, the Chinese boy was stiff, cold. He was even a bigger bully here, messing with kids who breathed in his direction. Zitao is definitely a fake, Chanyeol thought.

If it wasn't for the group home, the giant would of never expected for Tao to be so not-scary. If it wasn't for the group home, Chanyeol would think the Chinese boy was all high and mighty, like everyone else in this school (with the exception of the other boys who live in the home.)

"Are you listening to me?" Tao slapped Chanyeol back into reality. The bully's friends laughed. Kris was there, watching without really caring.

"She's not your girl, Tao. She not a freaking object."

Zitao stopped laughing, glaring instead.

There was no teacher in sight. Any second now, Tao could have the giant crunching in pain. They were equal in height, but there was no way Chanyeol could take on the younger. Tao knew martial arts, and could easily kick his .

Honestly, bully plus martial arts, why would that ever be a good combination?

"She's my girl because she is my girlfriend." Zitao stepped closer to the giant, menacingly.

"Really? Because that's not what she told me." Chanyeol just didn't know when to stop. He didn't want to stop. The giant found thrill in making the scaredy cat mad. 

There wasn't another word said before Tao threw a punch. Then another, and then one more. He didn't miss, and all the punches were continently landed on the giants nose.

Chanyeol grabbed onto a tree branch for security, his bloody nose staining his shirt. That was the least of his problems though. The pain that was shooting through him occupied all thought. It felt like a thousand needles were stabbing him, the pain non stopping.

Zitao punched hard, but his kicks were even worse. Thankfully, the giant didn't get those. Tao's kicks left bruises that can last for a month.

"Next time you try messing with my girl," Tao yanked Chanyeol's hair. "Remember this feeling." One last punch to the stomach, and Zitao and his posse left.

The giant doubled over in pain. 

All this because of one girl. Chanyeol didn't even do anything, she just asked him what time was it and he answered. Chanyeol's stubbornness is what always gets him into these situations.

The giant went to the nurse after he was able to stand. Nobody helped, they just watched. Not that Chanyeol cared much, nobody in this school would dare oppose Tao. Everyone's afraid of him.

Maybe it was to get attention, or maybe it was to remind people that he did exist, but Chanyeol always picked fights in school.

The giant didn't go out and plan on fighting with people, but when the opportunity comes, the giant doesn't miss it.

"What happened?!" Heechul yelled when Chanyeol entered the home after school. The caregiver just repeated what Junmyeon asked all throughout the day.

"I got punched." The giant replied. His face was now devoured in cotton swabs and bandages, curtesy of the school nurse.

"Who did this to you?! I'm about to call the school right now and report this!!!! Damn cheap school, they're good for nothing! WHO DID THIS TO YOU!"

All the boys turned their attention to the giant. The caregiver was furious, his face red.

As hard as it is to believe, Chanyeol enjoyed this type of attention. Now the boys were reminded that he did in fact exist.

"Zitao." Junmyeon responded when the leader figured Chanyeol wouldn't.

"Zitao!!!?" The caregiver repeated. Then, in a heartbeat, everyone turned to the bully.

Chanyeol wanted to scream. Why was he getting the attention now? Stupid Junmyeon.

Heechul proceeded to yell and scold the young Chinese boy, punishing him with extra chores and a night in the laundry room.

"The laundry room?!" Tao repeated, scared and shocked.

The laundry room, like its name, was where the boys did their laundry. It wasn't so bad. It was small, cold, and noisy, but it was just a room.

The reason Heechul used that as a punishment was because Tao was paranoid and thought there were bugs down there. It was the perfect punishment to use against someone like Tao, who constantly gets in trouble.

"Chanyeol," The leader said when they were getting ready for bed. Jongin was finishing some chores, so he wasn't in the room at the moment. "You got to stop doing this."

"Doing what?"

"The way you're dealing with things isn't good," Junmyeon sighed. "I know you want people to pay attention to you, but this isn't the way to do it. We know you're here. We are not your parents. You don't have to keep getting hurt just to prove to us that you're alive."

The leader knew Chanyeol's fear. It was crazy, how much Junmyeon paid attention. Chanyeol couldn't lie to him even if he tried.

"I know." Was all he could say.

"I always tell you this and you always reply the same way. But then, you do it again." The leader spoke fast, feeling sorry for the giant. "One day, you could end up dying because of the way you act. Then what?"

It hurt, the leaders words, but it was true. 

And as much as Chanyeol didn't want to admit it, he knew what he was doing is not right. How picking fights could end in much worse things that just a broken nose.

But it was embedded into the giants mind, no matter how many times Chanyeol tried to rid his way of thinking.

He needed people to know he is alive, to know he is here. 

He doesn't want to go back to before, living with people who didn't bother. Living with people who neglected him. Chanyeol wasn't ever going back to that.

It would take something far worse than a few broken bones to change his way of thinking.

****

Short chapter :( sorry. Hoped you enjoyed though :)