They were just about finished with the house, which Kibum was quite thankful for. He didn’t mind being there as much as he had in the beginning, but he was just ready to be done with it and get on with his life. It was summer and he wanted to be spending his brothers having fun while they were on break from school. Heechul had even agreed that if they all did extra chores around the house they could host a slumber party in a couple days. Henry and Eunhyuk would be there, Mir was coming home for it, and all their friends were invited to spend the night.

Except for Tiffany because girls aren’t allowed to spend the night. Only that’s not fair because Key is openly gay and he gets to have male friends spend the night and that’s technically the same thing.

Kibum huffed his breath, offended that his girlfriend had to leave by midnight. He wasn’t going to argue about it because this was something exciting regardless of the rules. Tiffany was completely thrilled to receive the invitation – and they literally mailed invitations out the everyone with an RSVP – and had accepted right away with the promise of buying a new, super cute pajama set because once Heechul saw how sweet and innocent she looked he would cave and let her spend the night.

He chuckled as he dipped his hand in a bucket of soapy water, squeezing out the excess water from the cloth, and slapping it onto the wall. He moved up and down, side to side, making sure to clean every inch of it because all he had left to do was make sure the house was sparkling clean, while Heechul finished up everything else. It seemed fair enough to him and he was determined to get most of it done before noon, that way he could go home and help Donghae and Key with the extra chores Heechul had assigned.

“Kibum! When you’re finished in there, wipe down the banister before we forget,” Heechul called from somewhere upstairs. His voice carried a long way and sounded like an echo, so Kibum assumed that he’d found the door to the attic.

Kibum hummed softly under his breath, wiping the walls robotically. His mind was in another place though, but this time it was the night thoughts of the upcoming slumber party that was pushing away the dark thoughts. There was so much excitement surrounding the event and he felt giddy just thinking about it.

I’m going to buy cute pajamas too, that way Tiffany and I will match and look so cute that Heechul will definitely have a hard time saying no, he thought to himself with a mischievous glint in his eyes. He made a mental note to clean his room once he got home, because there were some items in there that he didn’t want Tiffany to find.

She would chop my balls off if she ever found the pictures of my make-out girls, Kibum thought with a shudder. The pictures had somehow got tossed in one of the boxes he’d taken home but he hadn’t found them yet. He prayed that Tiffany never came across them.

“Hey, I’m getting hungry,” Heechul announced, walking into the room. “I’m going to get us some lunch. I’ll be back in a bit, keep working.”

Kibum nodded and watched him go before pulling his phone out of his pocket and checking the time. He was shocked to see that it was already past twelve, which put a damper on his plans to help his brother with any of the chores. Not that it really mattered; he didn’t particularly want to do more work.

“Oh well, for them,” He said to himself smugly. He grabbed the bucket and headed into the kitchen to pour it out in the sink. Once the water had drained, he put the bucket in the sink and the hot water to make new cleaning solution, but when he looked around he couldn’t find the bottle of bleach.

Oh yeah, Heechul took it outside because it was leaking.

He turned off the water and wiped his hands on his pants, turning around and walking out of the kitchen towards the front door. He pulled it open, ready step out, but found that there was someone standing right outside.

“Hey there, kiddo! Long time no see!”

Kibum stood there completely frozen, unable to look away from the police officer in front of him. His breath caught in his throat and a shiver of fear rolled down his spine as memories of Officer Choi flooded into his mind.

The officer chuckled at his inability to speak and put his hands on Kibum’s shoulder to push him back into the house, following him inside and closing the door behind them. He kept his hands on Kibum’s shoulders and stared down at him, with a smirk tugging at his lips.

“I’ve been watching you the past couple of weeks. You’ve found yourself a new family, haven’t you?” Officer Choi said, the question rhetorical. “You seem happy, which is good. I wouldn’t want anything to ruin that happiness. But, if you ever happened to confide in your new family about certain aspects of your life…”

The smirk on his face faded and Officer Choi tightened his grip on Kibum, pushing him backwards until he slammed against the wall. Kibum winced at the pain when his head bounced off, whining in fear when rough hands wrapped around his neck and tightened enough to make it difficult to breathe, and then enough so that he couldn’t breathe at all.

Officer Choi leaned down, whispering into Kibum’s ear. “Bad things happened to people who talk too much.”

He loosened his grip around Kibum’s neck for a moment and then threw him to the ground as if he were a sack of rice. He stepped over so that he was standing above Kibum, staring down at him with cold, threatening eyes. Then he turned around and left without another word, closing the door behind him.

Kibum stayed on the floor for several long minutes, unable to break free from the memories playing in his head of that man coming to this house to hurt him. He started trembling from being so fearful and hugged his arms to his chest protectively. Tears welled up in his eyes, as he was unable to shake the feeling of hands around his neck.

He didn’t know how long he was on the floor, but some time later he heard a car door slam from outside on the street. The sound broke him from his reverie and released the paralysis on his body. Kibum shakily pulled himself off the ground just in time as Heechul opened the front door, holding two fast food bags and two drinks.

“I bought us milkshakes!” Heechul informed him with a bright smile, moving towards the kitchen. “You deserve a treat for being such a good – ”

“I want to go home,” Kibum interrupted him, grabbing his arm to stop him from walking away. He looked up, desperation clouding his eyes. “Please, let’s go home. I don’t want to be here anymore.”

He didn’t exactly give Heechul much of a choice, because he was already pulling on his arm. Heechul frowned but allowed Kibum to drag him out of the house, pausing for a brief moment to lock the house up behind him.

“Kibum, what’s going on?” Heechul demanded once they were in the car. He twisted around to deposit their lunch in the backseat before buckling his seatbelt. “Did something happen while I was gone?”

Kibum shook his head in denial, feeling only slightly relieved when Heechul drove away from the