(19^th December 2004)

Jaesoon sat in front of the two graves and sighed as he set the bouquet of flowers down. He would turn fifteen that day, sixteen in Korean years. He was already prepared to spend yet another lonely birthday, but it wasn’t like he actually cared a lot about celebrating birthdays.

That morning, he’d woken up to being shouted at by his father – again. It was almost a routine for Jaesoon to be shouted at every morning. His father would always be drunk in the dead of the night and start hitting or shouting at Jaesoon the moment he got back home. Jaesoon didn’t even know why he continued staying in that hellhole, but he knew that he would get out as soon as he could.

At the age of fifteen, Jaesoon had committed more than fifty known robberies. He had nobody he could call a friend, because who would want to befriend a robber? He spent the past nine years surviving on his own, learning how to cook by experimentation. He improved his Korean by listening to other people talk and by reading. He had also taken up photography as a pastime and would hum random tunes to himself every now and then. It really showed that he had a flair for the arts; just as so many had praised him for all those years back. It was just that his talents, sadly, were wasted.

Jaesoon sighed and got up, bowing once to the gravestones again. “Umma, Hyuksoon, I’ll be going now. I’ll return on your birthdays, alright? I’m running low on money again,” Jaesoon said, running a hand through his hair tiredly. He didn’t like his way of life, but there was no point in changing it so he just let it be.

A breeze blew past Jaesoon and he smiled lightly. “I’ll see you guys again then.”

With that, Jaesoon left the cemetery and got onto the motorbike he’d stolen some time back, driving to the next town in search for a store to rob. There were endless possibilities, really, and Jaesoon really felt like he should start taking more money so that he would be able to afford his own apartment. He saved a small percentage of what he stole every time and had a healthy amount of money, but he needed a little more to get an apartment.

On the way to the next town, Jaesoon began to think. I’m sixteen in Korea now, so I should be able to get my driver’s license shouldn’t I? But they need me to take tests and give all my personal info and I can’t risk being caught. So… what do I do?

Jaesoon spent an hour thinking about this particular question as he rode around town and tried to see any shops worth robbing. He eventually settled on robbing one of the restaurants nearby and sat on his motorbike patiently, waiting for the restaurant to close. He had a pin in his pocket to pick the locks of both the door and the register and he knew that he didn’t need to turn on any lights to pick the lock of the cash register, so he wouldn’t ever be caught.

He also happened to carry a pocket knife with him for safety reasons, but so far, he’d never had to use it before because he was always gone by the time anyone could even notice him. His stealth came with eased practice, so Jaesoon rarely feared being caught. It was almost impossible for anyone to catch him, in fact, thus earning him a place in the underworld.

As the night passed on and Jaesoon continued to ponder about the idea of getting a proper license so that he could buy a car, the restaurant lights were turned off and the employees walked out of the restaurant. Ten minutes later, Jaesoon was sure that they were gone and walked towards the restaurant calmly. It was midnight and people needed to work the next day, so there weren’t really that many people roaming the streets. Jaesoon took his time picking the door lock and entered the restaurant once the door was unlocked.

“I wonder how much I can take this time.”

-------------------

Jaesoon looked in his backpack and smiled to himself. He’d gotten quite a bit of money from the restaurant. It was one of those high class restaurants where one plate of food cost at least 20000 won. Jaesoon would know since he’d dined there before, just once.

His profits for the night would total to five million won. He could have taken everything, but he didn’t want to. Jaesoon rarely took all the money in the cash registers because that way, the authorities would still say that ‘he was desperate’ and they would look into the matter, but not too seriously.

Just as Jaesoon was locking the restaurant again, he heard the scuffle of shoes against the pavement and he looked up, making eye contact with a man who looked rather familiar. Jaesoon soon realised that it was another robber and he, apparently, was in this guy’s territory. He straightened up and looked the guy in the eye, smirking and showing off his backpack.

“Jiho,” Jaesoon acknowledged with a nod.

“Jaesoon. And it’s Zico to you,” Zico said, returning the greeting with a curt nod of his own.

“What brings you here?” Jaesoon questioned, already knowing the answer because he’d been warned off that part of that town before. It wasn’t Zico the other time though, but one of the guys who worked with Zico, Park Kyung.

“Why are you here? Kyung told you not to come didn’t he?” Zico questioned. Jaesoon shrugged and looked at his nails, feeling a little bored with the exchange between him and the other. Zico narrowed his eyes, not liking the lack of respect from Jaesoon. He knew that Jaesoon was rather infamous. Some liked to call him the Phantom Thief, but Zico couldn’t care less.

“Give me that money and leave.”

Jaesoon laughed a humourless laugh. “Come on, Zico. My birthday just ended. Can’t you give this to me as a present?” Jaesoon asked. Zico raised a questioning brow and Jaesoon nodded. “It’s the truth though. What do you think about it?”

Zico pretended to think. “No.”

Within a second, Zico was pulling his knife out but Jaesoon was faster. He had already been gripping onto his knife tightly the moment he spotted Zico and realised who he was. Jaesoon lunged towards Zico and stabbed Zico in the gut, dragging the knife across the guy’s abdomen and creating a long wound across it. Zico didn’t even have the time to say anything before he passed out.

“He’ll be dead in less than a half hour. Well this knife is gross,” Jaesoon murmured, grimacing at his bloodied pocket knife. He swore that he could see Zico’s guts spilling out, but he had seen worse. Spitting at Zico’s unmoving body, Jaesoon got back onto his motorbike and started back to his own town, the bloodied knife wrapped in a piece of cloth ripped off from Jaesoon’s own shirt.

Fifteen years and one day old teen kills another teen? That’d make a good headline, wouldn’t it? Hah. But too bad for them, they’ll never know that it was me.

After Jaesoon showered and kept the money in his safe, which was triple locked, he plopped down onto his old, creaky bed and looked up at the ceiling.

“Driver’s license… That’s right. I can make a new birth cert, IC, and everything. I know the person for it, too. Ahn Chilhyun, better known as Kangta.”

-------------------

The next morning, Jaesoon was once again awoken by drunken shouting. He received a random slap to the cheek and he cracked an eye open, already desensitised to pain by now. Nine years would be enough to make anyone immune to pain, both physical and emotional. Jaesoon was no exception to this, but he would prefer not waking up that way.

If Jaesoon had a choice, he would’ve moved out ages ago. But he wasn’t exactly legal and if he moved in with any relatives, they would report him to the police. They didn’t exactly like him, or rather, they hated his father. It was because of his father that they didn’t like Jaesoon, though. It had been that way since his umma passed on.

Now that Jaesoon was sixteen and legal, at least in Korea, he would move out as soon as possible. With that thought in mind, Jaesoon shoved his father away and headed off to wash up. He brushed his teeth and combed his unruly hair before heading back to his room, seeing that the man had passed out on his floor. He had half a mind to just throw him out of the window – they only lived on the fourth floor, anyway. But then he remembered his promise to his umma and changed his mind.

He threw his father onto the couch and took his valuables, as well as his birth cert, with him, already taking his phone out and dialling the number he had saved on his phone. It took a few rings since it was only slightly past seven in the morning, but Kangta picked up with a disgruntled “Yeoboseyo?”

“Kangta, it’s Jaesoon. Can you do something for me?” Jaesoon asked, having maintained cordial relationships with the important figures in the underworld. It’s a pity Zico wasn’t one of those important figures.

“What do you need?” Kangta asked knowingly.

“Birth cert, IC, and perhaps a driver’s license if possible. If you can’t get the license for me, I can take the actual tests on my own. Is that alright?” Jaesoon asked, already getting on his motorbike and driving to Kangta’s usual meet up location downtown.

“Yeah. Drop by my place in twenty.”

Jaesoon raised a brow. Kangta didn’t usually get people to head over to his apartment. He figured that there was nothing wrong with going to the elder male’s apartment whatsoever and changed routes.

Jaesoon knocked on Kangta’s door in exactly twenty minutes, and the door was opened to reveal a properly dressed Kangta, looking ready to get out to work. Kangta was one of those people who worked underground as a forger, but his actual job was that of a policeman. It helped to have good relations with him because he would usual warn others if the police were searching for anyone.

“Punctual as usual, Jaesoon. Take a seat and breakfast will be ready in a bit.”

Jaesoon nodded, not bothering to plaster a fake smile onto his face. He never saw the purpose in doing something as meaningless as that, especially when the people he was around were all the same as him – emotionless.

“So why do you need a new birth cert and IC? Surely the great Yong Jaesoon isn’t about to run off to another country?” Kangta asked, setting a plate of toast and two cups of coffee down on the table. Jaesoon snorted, because that was basically impossible. He didn’t run away from his problems, which was exactly why he was still staying with his father in the first place.

“I figured that it would be easier to get legal stuff done, instead of having to be so evasive about everything. I wanted to get a car and rent an apartment, and I can’t do that with a shady background now can I?” Jaesoon pointed out. Kangta shrugged and nodded. The elder of the two stood up to get a stack of forms and passed Jaesoon a pen to fill the form in with.

“I’ll need all that, so write it while having breakfast. I heard Zico was killed last night,” Kangta said nonchalantly while sipping on his coffee. Jaesoon was about to start filling the forms in when Kangta suddenly brought up the abrupt murder of Zico. He paused for a fraction of a second before writing the first words on the form.

“He was annoying me. I stole money from a restaurant fair and square, even if it was in his territory. I don’t care because it was my ing birthday yesterday and I wanted that money,” Jaesoon replied, his grip on the pen tightening with every word that was said.

“Happy birthday, then. And good job too, because I didn’t quite like Zico. I think that you might have Kyung on your heels now, though,” Kangta said. Jaesoon turned to look at Kangta incredulously.

“I committed my first murder against someone supposedly more experienced, and I’m supposed to worry about Park Kyung? Funny, hyung. Real funny,” Jaesoon said sarcastically. He filled in most of the blanks on the form but there was just one line he left out.

‘Name: ___________’

Jaesoon thought long and hard about it and snapped his fingers abruptly.

“Yong Junhyung. That’s right. I’ll be Yong Junhyung from now on.”

Kangta smiled at Jaesoon – or rather, at Junhyung.

“Alright then. Junhyung it is.”

Ok, so here's the part about Junhyung's first murder being when he was 15. Quite literally, too.

He changed his name and blahblahblah...

I don't have much for this A/N either, but I can't believe that I double updated XD This bonus is for hitting 10000 views~! Next bonus... maybe when we hit 10 upvotes for this thing? :)

Kyung, in this chapter, was referring to Park Kyung from Block B, not Kyungsoo from EXO. I hope that's cleared up~

Get this fic upvoted for another bonus alright? Annyeong~! ^^