5th Chapter - Part of the Pack

“I guess it’s my time now, right?” Changmin smiled and winked at me. I smiled back and nodded. For some reason, King didn’t seem to like this interaction as he looked at us and cleared his throat.

“I probably am the one who can relate with you the most. I joined this society after my brother’s death. He was executed because he helped a family who committed treason. The only thing he did was giving them a bit of food.”

“What about your parents?” I asked.

“They don’t really care about me.” I seemed horrified, but Changmin added quickly. “Don’t feel so surprised. Most of our parents are either dead or don’t care about us. If they did, do you think most of us would still be here? That’s why we were taken back with your proposal. It needs a lot of guts to sacrifice our lives and our families.”

“So my mother will be in danger?”

“It depends. She won’t if you cut ties with her. But that’s something for you to think carefully whether to take the risk or not.”

I nodded, and Sungmin spoke. “Hmm… As for me, I’m just a messenger here. I was looking at a part-time when I randomly found this society. After my part was done, they obligated me on staying, making me swear that I wouldn’t tell anyone but giving me freedom to go and come back. When they found out that me and Xiah were friends on elementary school they started to trust me. That’s it.”

“Wow, I’m learning so much today. I’m happy.” I said, eating a bit of the cake Jaejoong had brought before. I turned to Yunho. “Hmmm, so what about you?”

And the horrified silence started again. Gosh. What had King done for them to be so scared of him? This was not just respect. This was pure fear.

“Let’s clean up.” King said, and left the room.

“Okay”, I thought. “He doesn’t want to talk and also leaves the cleaning to others. How nice.”

When we stood up and were ready to clean up he suddenly came back. I thought he had made up his mind and decided to help us, but he just had forgotten something.

“We didn’t get to discuss the main reason for this meeting.” On these words, everybody sat down. “We have been quiet for a bit already, it’s time to make a move. Ideas?”

Sungmin moved his hand to the air and King let him speak. “What about an attack to a quarter?”

“Too risky”, Changmin replied.

“And we have no purpose to do so.” Junsu added.

“Then…”, Jaejoong suggested, “What about sending a letter to foreign countries?”

“Hmmm, that’s pretty hard as they control everything. But it wouldn’t be bad to do something like that, I’m sure it’d make them crazy.” Changmin replied.

I suddenly got an idea, but I was scared that it could be laughable so I didn’t speak. However, Yoochun seemed to have noticed as he signaled me to speak. “So… Making use of Hero’s idea, why not radios? It can be harder but more effective. I noticed you guys have your own secret frequency, right? And you can make citizens listen to it whenever you want, right? I remember, my mother used to listen to radio and one time there was some kind of interference that came with a warning against the Government. On that time we didn’t say anything but we had listen to some revolution words. So, what about trying to catch the antennas of international radios or something like that?”

There was a brief silence before Yoochun spoke. “That seems a good idea, but we should think a lot about it. We’d need material and also a special location. It’s also a bit risky, but all our missions are like that.”

“I disagree.” Changmin said. “It is hard to complete and it’s also expensive.”

“I agree with Mia and Micky.” King replied. “We should think how to do this. Micky, you try to find the location. Xiah, check the materials we need. I’ll do the same. Hero, think of a strategy, you do those kinds of things well. Changmin and Sungmin, please think and help your comrades too. Meeting dismissed.”

“Hmmm…” I pulled his arm. “What about me and Eun-, I mean, Joanne?”

“Start worrying about your future. That’s all.” He said, and left.

On that day, I asked King for a leave. I needed to think well on what to do and maybe tell my mother.

I walked all the way to my house while looking at the streets and observing the people. It was already bad how many of them wouldn’t even step outside, not to mention the people who’d hide at the sights of me, but why weren’t children on the streets? Why weren’t they playing?

After a while, I saw my small house. I opened the gate, not before I picked up the milk bottle that was probably left by the delivery boy this morning. I took off my shoes and walked in just to see my siblings already there, waiting.

“Mom didn’t come to pick you up today?” I asked Seungho, the oldest of the two.

He shook his head, cuddling Maden. “She didn’t, so I got Maden and we went home. But he’s unusually cold, even though I tried to dress him better.” He said, and I looked to the 3 years old Maden who almost seemed an eskimo, for all the clothes he had on.

“You should have called me or waited! You’re only ten years old, Seungho!”

“Well, kids my age do a lot more things nowadays, sis. And it’s not I know where you are… I didn’t even know your school number.”

He was indeed right. I wondered what my mother was doing that she forgot to pick them up. She