Chapter 4:Scavengers

A week later

                The sun had not risen in the sky yet. The streets were dim and gray in the early morning stillness. Jonghyun’s feet could not work themselves fast enough, he needed food. For the past week he had to content himself with scraps he had smuggled into the house.

                He had never been to the dumpsters on the east side but if a scrawny guy like Taemin could get away with pillaging around there, then a half-assed weak kid like him could definitely get away with a bit of food without another bloody nose.

                The wind blew right through the sweatshirt he wore and he shivered, he knew winter was close and it scared him. There would not be much to do about it but put on all his clothes on top of each other when he went out, they would fit he had lost a lot of weight lately. Jonghyun turned down another street and came upon a row of dumpsters that probably belonged to the cheap restaurants whose back doors opened to this street to dispose of the extra and rotten food, basically whatever they could not sell.

Jonghyun sniffed the air; it stank of some kind of burnt noodles, old soy sauce,  rotten vegetables, and the vaguely greasy smells he recognized as Chinese food. He was not a big fan of Chinese but beggars cannot be choosers.

Heading over to the third dumpster or so (which was pretty full and looked promising) a shoe caught his eye.  It was worn and old looking with holes around the sole area and appeared to be attached to a body covered in a cardboard box, probably somebody’s makeshift blanket. Jonghyun steered clear of softly rising cardboard and started to try and climb the big dumpster without hurting his painful ribs. It did not work so well as every time he raised his arms to lift himself higher it sent a painful tug down his abdomen so he ended up making some low painful grunts.  Finally he made it to the rim, cursing his shortness and oversized trash bins.

There was a lot of promising containers and he found a styrofoam container of some half eaten rice that did not look too disgusting and he began shoving some into his mouth quickly. Below him a tangled head of hair popped up beside the dumpster. Jonghyun looked down with full cheeks to see a slightly familiar face peering up at him. 

“You!” Jonghyun mumbled through a full mouth.

Taemin blinked up at him and seemed to be in a daze. His eyes slid back closed for a second before slowly opening and blinking several times before he seemed to acknowledge the other boy. His hand half raised in a wave before he dropped it and stood.

“Jonghyun?” He asked while rubbing his sleepy eyes.

Jonghyun opened another container finding some old egg rolls and tossed them down to the other boy who tried too late to catch it and it fell onto the ground at his feet.

“Thanks for telling me about this place.” Jonghyun nodded.

Taemin fidgeted uncomfortably not meeting his eyes.

“It’s no big deal.”

They both sat across from each other eating their second hand food, not quite looking at each other and not speaking for a while.  Neither had much experience in normal contact with other people their age and did not feel comfortable with sudden company.

“Did you sleep there the whole night?” Jonghyun asked. Taemin nodded ‘yes’ and grabbed a handful of rice in his dirty palm. “Oh. Okay.”

Taemin did not ask where Jonghyun had spent his past few nights and the conversation ran dry again. Jonghyun could not helping feeling relieved anyway; memories of another fevered week trapped in that house with nothing but his thoughts to torture himself with flashed through his mind.

“What are you doing today?” Jonghyun asked. He did not know what wrong with himself but he could not picture another day alone all the sudden.

“Nothing.” Taemin whispered after looking up.

“I see…” Jonghyun looked down and got to his feet. “Do you… want to hang out then?”

“Me?” Taemin blinked.

Jonghyun rolled his eyes and smiled a bit at the cute boy. “Sure, come with me if you want.” He shrugged and started walking away.

Jonghyun paused to pick up some of the food he had not eaten and shove it in his pockets for later. Light footsteps were heard from behind and he resisted the urge to turn and look.

By the time they had made it to the street Taemin had caught up. He walked beside Jonghyun and they set off at slow pace. Neither was sure where they were going. So both ended up wondered around for a good half hour before sitting down the pavement to take a break.

“Not all that much to do around here is there?” Jonghyun sighed.

Taemin shook his head in agreement and looked on at the street, not many cars passed by this way. The cracked pavement created pebbles under their foot and Taemin stooped to pick one up. Jonghyun mirrored him and flicked it into the road.

“See if you can get it farther than me.” Jonghyun pointed to the road.

By the time each of them had tossed around six rocks even Taemin was beginning to smile (even though Jonghyun was winning).

“KAI!” Someone shouted from halfway across the street.

Both heads snapped towards the angry voice to meet the eyes of a group of eight boys. 

Jonghyun jumped up glancing around nervously. The boys were young, maybe around his age but they sported visible tattoos that Jonghyun recognized as bad news.

Before Jonghyun could run off and drag Taemin behind him the boys were surrounding them.

“We need our money Kai, Jiyong isn’t happy.” One boy said.

“Should’ve kept your greedy paws off it.” Another called.

“Yeah now he’ll be after our heads.” Added a third.

“What?”Jonghyun asked.

They hardly spared him a glance. “Shut up.”

“Well where’s the money Kai?” The first asked, shoving Taemin in the chest.

The boy sprawled out on the ground and blinked up bewilderedly.

“No, this is Taemin.” Jonghyun mumbles, bending down to pick the other boy up.

They stood there for a second before beginning to laugh uproariously.

Jonghyun glanced at Taemin, who seemed frozen. “Do you know them?” He whispered in the boy’s ear.

Taemin shook his head no, his hand reached over aimlessly grazing the hand next to him. Jonghyun took the hand in his and squeezed before letting go.

“What do you take us for? All of us have seen you around enough to recognize your face!” A chubby boy smirked down at them. 

“When I say go, run away as fast as you can.” Jonghyun whispered.

Taemin stared, wide-eyed so Jonghyun nudged him and he nodded.

“No, I think we’ll take your money or your half dead body to sell off the-” The chubby one was interrupted with a kick to the stomach.

“Go!” Shouted Jonghyun.

Taemin scrambled around the boys and took off running. Shouts followed him and when he looked back he saw Jonghyun tackling one of them.  His feet flew faster and everything was half-blurred to him. Till a decrepit off- white building was in sight. His fingers slipped on the knob before he was pushing it open, up the stairs to the third green door. His knocking ended up as more of a frantic slapping of the door that caused the loose slivers of wood to find place in his hand.

“Please!” The boy gasped.

A few more slaps and the door swung open. The tall boy on the other side looked down at him through dark strands of long, wavy hair.

“What is it?” He asked.

“Help. Please help.” Taemin panted at the other boy.

“With what?” He asked, touching Taemin’s shoulder.

“Help him!” Taemin pointed.

“Key!” The boy called behind him before turning back. “You need to calm down, I don’t understand you.” He said to Taemin.

“What is it now Minho? I worked late.” Key growled from behind him.

“You work late everynight, come here!” Minho called.

The blond boy pops up from behind him ready to retort before seeing Taemin. 

“Hey Taebaby, what wrong?” Key shoved Minho aside.

“They came looking for s-someone then tried to hurt me and J-Jonghyun-hyung saved me, now he’s g-getting hurt! Please help him!” Taemin begged.

Minho rubbed his hands together and bit his lip. Key glanced back at him knowingly.

“Where at Tae?” Key asked.

Once the boy had told him in halting breaths Key disappeared into the apartment before coming back out.

“I’ll be back.” Key waved.

“Are you sure? Maybe you should call Jinki?” Minho worried in the doorway.

“Oh please, he gets enough , I can handle myself, I’ve been working out.” Key winked, flexing an arm.

Minho rolled his eyes, not believing a word of it.

“If you’re not back in a half an hour I’m calling him.” Minho insisted.

“Yeah whatever.” Key said