Hunger makes you do things you never thought you’d do, like steal a wallet off a dead man. Minhyun pulled the wallet from the corpse’s pocket with shaking hands, checks inside and finds a few bills. He stood up to walk away and found himself face-to-face with another street urchin. Minhyun braced himself for a fight, but the other boy wasn’t interested. “Leave his ID,” the boy said in a feather light voice laced with sadness. “His family will be looking for him.” Minhyun broke down at that; cried because he couldn’t believe how low he’s sunk. Gentle arms had wrapped around his shaking shoulders.

“I’m Ren,” the feather light voice whispers. “Want to stick with me for a while?”

A while had turned out to be almost six years. When he first met Ren, Minhyun had been an orphan for exactly 5 months, and on the streets for 4. Ren had no idea how long he’d been homeless for, but he often bragged that his first memory was knocking out a kid twice his age for trying to steal his jacket back when he was four.

“Kid called me a dirty little beggar,” Ren would recall, cracking his knuckles and glaring at invisible enemies. “Told me to show him some respect. Well, I showed him alright.”

Ren was insane, fought dirty and played by his own rules. Minhyun may have been just as poor and homeless as Ren was, but they were polar opposites. Minhyun blamed Ren for that actually; no matter how hard he tried to back Ren up in a fight, the other would not allow it. Ren would come home bruised form a fight and refuse to tell who hit him, refuse to let Minhyun follow him into dark alleys and shady buildings. Minhyun also had no idea where Ren got the money he occasionally brought home (home being a tarp stretched between the walls of two stores), but he had a hunch it was either stolen or drug money.

They scrapped the bottom for six years, trusting no one but each other. They huddled together on cold nights, shared blankets and food and breathed on each other’s hands to try to warm up. That all changed when Ren came home one night with a new boy in tow.

“This is JR,” he’d said, gazing at the boy in wonder. “He saved my life.”

“What?” Minhyun had gasped. “From what?”

Ren shrugged. “Some creep tried to shove me into a van, JR knocked him out. Took him 10 seconds, maybe 12.”

Before Minhyun could chew Ren out for not letting him come along for back up, JR cleared his throat.

“I have  a proposition for you gentlemen,” he drawled.  

________

Two weeks later JR introduced them to Aaron, a boy 2 years older than them who grew up in North America. He’s quiet and reserved, and he has a long gash on his right arm.

“How’d you get that?” Minhyun blurted once, his curiosity getting the better of him.

“Knife fight,” Aaron muttered. JR comes up and claps Aaron on the shoulder.

“He’s got really good reflexes,” He bragged, looking at Aaron like a proud father would. “Not as good as Ren’s of course, but he’s got a powerful arm. Cut through that other guy like paper.”

Aaron flinched and Minhyun blanched. JR pretended not to notice.

________

A month went by but JR said they weren’t ready. “We’re missing someone,” he said.

They spent every night trolling up and down the streets, dodging other gangs and cops. JR didn’t say what or who he was looking for, and the three of them didn’t ask. Finally one night when it’s pouring freezing rain, JR stops in front of a boy huddled against a dumpster.

“Found you,” he cried, stopping in front of the kid. “Baekho, old buddy!”

The kid looked up and Minhyun almost gasped—he was even thinner than Ren.

“Who—JR?” The kid mumbled, recognition and amazement in his voice. “What are you doing here?”

“I came back for you of course.”

“Why?”

JR knelt in front of him and smiled. “That’s what friends do.”

Minhyun saw Aaron hold a hand to his face and knew the older boy was tearing up at the scene.

Baekho looked up and Minhyun saw that he too had tears in his eyes. “Friends?” He echoed, sounding like he hardly dared to hope.

JR held out his hand. “Come on buddy, let’s go home.”

________6 Months Later________

They sit in the old warehouse atop a hodgepodge of old chairs and desks, softened with ripped up couch cushions that Aaron has plucked from the trash piles on the street sides.

“This is our kingdom,” JR had announced when he’d showed it to them, full of trash bags and broken glass, rats and roaches scurrying up the walls. Ren had scoffed and spit on the floor.

“Shut the up,” he’s said. “This isn’t a kingdom, this is a glorified jail cell.”

JR had laughed at that, kicked aside a garbage bag. “That is true,” he’d agreed, “But it is ours.”

“Yeah,” Baekho had chimed. “This is our place.”

Three months of intense cleaning later and the place at least looked better, and the roaches and most of the rats had gone, chased off by the smell of cleaning products that Aaron had procured (read stolen). That was how Aaron had become their go-to man whenever they needed something. Usually, it was Ren who needed something.

“Aaron,” he wheedles now, not even looking up from the magazine he is flipping through, “Can you get some new sheets or something? It’s goddamned freezing in here at night.”

Aaron makes an affirmative noise in his throat. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“I mean really,” Ren continues, and Minhyun slides off his chair and grabbed a piece of chalk from his bag. He starts to draw a tree and begins a countdown in his head of how long it will take for Baekho to snap.

“We could at least get something to cover the windows. What are we going to do in winter when it’s minus 3?”

JR hums an old tune under his breath, refusing to acknowledge Ren’s complaints. Ren pushes a little further, hoping to get a rise out of somebody.

“If we die of hypothermia before we can carve out a niche for ourselves, I’m gonna be mad pissed.”

Finally, Baekho opens his mouth. “Why don’t you quit your ing and shut your mouth before I shut it for you?”

Minhyun stops counting. 18 seconds. Now to count how long it will take for Aaron to join the fray.

Ren laughs haughtily. “You wanna go with me?” He asks, mirth coating his voice. “Let’s go then, find out which one of us can come out on top.”

Minhyun thinks it’s a shame that they can’t get along, he thinks they could be best friends if they’d only stop henpecking each other.

Baekho refuses to rise to the challenge. “You may be fast but I’m bigger and stronger,” he taunts. “I could knock you down with one hand, pansy.”

Minhyun winces. That’s a low blow, Ren’s always getting crap for his petite size and feminine looks, but then again Ren is also famous for his biting remarks. He’s made several people cry, many of them grown men twice his age. Now, Ren seems to puff up like a cobra, ready to strike. Before he can, Aaron puts a hand on his shoulder.

“Let it go,” he insists softly. Ren looks about to protest, but before he can Aaron admonishes Baekho.

“Don’t bait him,” he scolds. “Friends don’t do that to each other.”

Baekho kicks the ground. “I’m not his friend,” he mumbles, but everyone knows that Aaron’s words have impacted him.

Through it all JR never says a word, never acknowledges the tension among his team. He may be the leader but everyone knows it’s Aaron who keeps the peace.

Not that he’ll need to play the role for much longer, since the reason everyone’s so antsy is because they want to start moving in, to get a territory and chase off the scum that inhabits their neighborhood. But they have to take it slow, as JR knows only too well. They’d be fools to waltz into Anti-territory and declare war, they’d be slaughtered on the spot. No, they have start low, work their way up. And JR has a plan for that.

________

Part one of JR’s plan is already complete—get a group, set up a headquarters. JR scooped his group out of the gutters, literally, but the five of them have more street smarts than the rest of the gangs put together. Those groups rely on brute force, and they bulk up on steroids and drugs that will destroy them in the long run. JR relies on wit and strategies. Their headquarters might be run down and drafty, but it’s in a good place—nobody comes near it, and nobody knows that they own it.

And they do, own it. JR actually paid money for the place, Minhyun saw the transaction with his own eyes. He also knows that JR has more money, and he has a hunch as to where it comes from. All along he figured JR wasn’t an orphan like the rest of them. He had a family backing him, or at least a Sugar Daddy. No way he was in this for the same reasons as them, for the same reasons as 99% of the gang members in all of South Korea. Minhyun can’t figure out why JR’s in this but he knows it’s real, so he doesn’t ask questions.

_______

Part two of JR’s plan is weird, and is met with much resistance, especially on Ren’s part, but in the end the five of them go to school. Though it turns out, it’s not much of a school. Half the teachers don’t even show up, and nobody even knows who the principle is.

“Look around,’ JR whispered on their first day. “These guys are your enemies, rival gangs. They’re the ones we need to push out.” He wrinkles his nose. “They’re unsophisticated and brainless, sure, but they’re not to be underestimated. We’re here to sniff out their weaknesses.”

“How?” Baekho asks, clearly confused. JR winks.

“Just look around,” he says cryptically. “Blend in and see what happens.”

Aaron is a pro at blending in. He’s quiet and solemn, nobody spares him a passing glance. JR has a motor mouth but manages to keep it shut when he needs to, and Minhyun and Baekho walk around with their eyes down and keep out of trouble.

The opposite could be said about Ren. All Minhyun hears is about how Ren’s got half the girls at their sister school wrapped around his fingers. Ren doesn’t even go to class, he sneaks over to the alley between the two schools and meets up with his girls. Minhyun has even heard that he’s been with some guys, although he has no proof and Ren has never confirmed it. Minhyun finally caves and asks JR about it. When he does, the older boy bursts out laughing.

“You ask him,” he says when he calms down. “You’re his best friend.”

Minhyun shakes his head sadly. “Sometimes I don’t feel like I am,” he confesses. JR takes pity on him and pats his shoulder.

“Well, he’s never said anything to me about it,” he reassures. “Besides, it seems to me like Ren started those rumors himself. You know how he likes to play tricks like that.”

Minhyun soon learns that Ren’s philandering around is not what it seems. Like JR, Ren has a strategy. Whatever he does with those girls, it has them spilling their guts to him. They tell him about their exes, boys at their school. Who hates who, this one is going to backstab his whole gang one day. Ren reports these tales to JR, secrets passed around like stolen candy—even sweeter because of how you got it.

Slowly, JR uses his gathered info to break the gangs apart. He puts a little pressure on each relationship, with a something as subtle as a whispered word or as loud as a message spray-painted on a wall. Cracks form at their school, groups of friends break apart and threaten to shatter with just the right amount of pressure. At the same time he extends a hand of friendship to the under dogs, pats their shoulders and tells them that while it’s okay to cry, you also have to fight back. He offers to teach them how, but they’ll owe him later on.

JR manages to pick apart his competition in under 4 months. The school erupts with gunfire one afternoon and by then end of it, JR is the last leader standing.

Part two is complete.

________

“Now what?” Ren demands, echoing everyone’s thoughts. It seems like JR has it all—his group of trusted coconspirators, a bunch of people who know how to fight and owe him something, and very little competition standing in his way.

JR stretches his arms over his head. “Now,” he says, drawing out the word until he has all four of them on the edge of his seat. “We get to go to sleep.”

Ren thwacks him on the back of the head; not even Baekho tries to stop him.

“Ow, hey!”

Aaron laughs. “Come on JR, what do we do now?”

JR rubs the back of his head and glares half-heartedly at Ren. “Now we sleep. Tomorrow, however, we paint the town with our name and let them know that we’re here to stay.”

“And what name would that be?” Minhyun asks.

JR grabs his bag and pulls a can from spray paint from it. He walks over to the wall of their warehouse and paints a word onto it.

NU’EST.

“Lame,” Aaron teases. JR sticks his tongue out.

“Well, get used to it,” he says haughtily, tossing the can aside. “Soon everyone will know it. They’ll be chanting it in their sleep—NU’EST, our saviors. Protectors of the innocent, Anti’s beware, you’ve met your match.”

The four of them cling to these words, to the image JR paints in their heads from the moment he grabbed that can of paint. The dream that one day, they will be kings, and no matter what, they will always stick together.

End

*The Anti’s are a gang from an AU that I’m currently working on—that I have been working on for over a year. In this AU (which revolves around Super Junior) the Anti’s are one of the largest gangs in Seoul, and also the worst. Basically in the fic all the idols are gang members, and then I saw NU’EST’s MV and…well it fit the plot perfectly, so I wrote this up. consider it a teaser.

This AU will hopefully be released at the end of this summer.

ALSO I KNOW THE MV JUST CAME OUT AND I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M ALREADY WRITING FANFICTION FOR THEM WHEN I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEIR PERSONALITIES ARE LIKE ASDFGHJKL; 

So yeah if they seem out of character...they have no character yet :| Also it's an AU, they're not supposed to keep their exact character. 

[This excuse is also known as "Artistic licence"]