A Hidden Kindness

 

Only Wanting

Prelude Story 2

 

R-Star PRISM

 

Part 1

 

Authors Ramblings:

So here’s the second prelude to the role-play between myself and Create The Sound on Gaia online and this one is a whole lot darker than the previous but will hopefully feature some fluffiness.

 

Soundy hope you enjoy and tell me if I get anything wrong!

 

Oh please note that there will be some foul language in this, mainly revolving around the character of Gary, my lovely street guard but giving you the heads up in advance.

 

And as usual: “Underline” speaking English, “Normal” speaking Korean

 

Part I

 

The snow was beginning to fall heavily again and slowly Jial sighed as he glanced out of the window. It was a long walk back to the apartment that he lived in and this weather would only make things harder. There was next to no chance that he could stay overnight in the hospital either, the last time he had tried to do such things...gently he shook his head, dismissing the thoughts from his head as he really didn’t want to be thinking about such things right now. He cast his dark eyes back to the bed and sighed, staring at the young man who was apparently sleeping peacefully. The dark hair had been cut back recently to stop it getting any longer and Jial had to admit that the preferred not seeing as many IV wires in the other. It made the teen just look like he was sleeping and not in a coma like he had been for the past few years. Gently the elder brother reached out, placing his hand on the others in order to gently the soft skin, “I’m going to have to go now Tae,” he said gently, keeping his voice low out of habit, “I’m sorry I didn’t visit you for so long but I didn’t quite make my money last month so had to work the extra. I promise that I’ll be back to see you soon though.”

 

Visiting was nearly over for the day and even though it pained him, Jial knew that he had to walk out of the door and head back. If he didn’t then there would be people who would inform his boss and that would only cause him more problems. Though with the way the weather was currently he might just get some leeway. He hadn’t actually seen the watchers or the collects since the start of the heavy snow earlier in the week, the only one he had actually seen was the order giver who had turned up to tell him to visit his brother but had no other information. Jial hadn’t questioned it and had virtually left only a few moments afterwards to make the walk to the hospital.

 

Gently he rose, placing a kiss on the boy’s forehead and tucked him in making sure to place the rather battered looking Tigger toy next to his left hand side as that was the way that Tae always hugged his cuddly toys. “I’ll see you later Donseng, have good dreams until you wake.”

 

One more kiss was placed onto the boy’s forehead, Jial pausing briefly to see if there would be any form of reaction but as per usual he was disappointed when nothing happened. With a sad smile, the nineteen year old turned and left the room, tugging his extremely thin jacket a little closer to try and hide his thinness and ducking out before any of the medical staff could clock onto him. He knew that they only wanted to update him on everything but Jial no longer had the right to know such things and each time they would ask him about anything he had to tell them to direct it to his ‘uncle’, aka Dai Suk aka his pimp who controlled his life. Sometimes it was easier just not knowing what was going on with his brother’s medical care, all he knew was that he was still working to pay the fees off and until the day that something physically happened to Tae then he would continue to work until the debt was paid off.

 

Though there was part of him that knew he would never fully pay back everything, Dai liked him too much the sick bastard.

 

Managing to escape with relative ease, Jial headed out into the street and shivered in the sudden cold and wished, not for the first time, that he had just a little bit more luck in life. Though he paused, glancing up at the big tall building to the window he knew to be Tae’s and steeled himself as he always did. “I won’t give up on you Tae, not now, not ever.” Nodding to himself Jial started the long trek back to the apartment, unaware that his luck was about to slowly start changing.

 

~~~

 

“Bradley what the hell are you doing?” Jongki asked, having been in the process of shifting a final set of boxes up the stairs and had returned to the main living room to find the elder standing in the doorway making a strange movement with his hands.

 

“Trying to count,” Bradley said, a little huffily as he had just lost count for the eighth time in a row and wasn’t a happy bunny about it, “It would be easier if everyone kept still.”

 

Jongki sighed, “They’re in the living room Bradley, not on a bus trip. We haven’t lost anyone.”

 

“Then why are there only nine of us?” Mama Bear asked, deadly seriously and recounting once again.

 

The leader frowned, and began his own visual check of the living room’s occupants. Bradley was standing next to him still trying to count, Jin was in the process of trying to set up the next Xbox Kinnect system with the help of Kyo, Sang was in the process of harassing Sunwoo or was it the other way around it was next to impossible to tell with those two sometimes, Kyung was attempting to get Saki off the table as the girl had set one of her doll’s play sets up so that he could set the table for tea and Jae was curled up on the sofa with a blanket and a pillow since he had gotten sick of being kicked out of bed whilst boxes and bags were moved in.

 

“Kiyeol,” both elders worked out at the same moment, speaking in unison as they realised that the sixteen year old maknae wasn’t anywhere in sight. Normally they would have laughed at such a thing but right now they both felt the familiar pang of worry. Without having to speak, the pair split Bradley heading upstairs to check the bedrooms for the youngster and Jongki heading to the garden where he blond had been found the last time he had done a mini disappearing act. However he barely needed to stick his head out of the back door to see that the snow hadn’t be disturbed but just for the sake of his own nerves he called out to the youngster, hoping that he would reply. There was no reply.

 

Closing the door, the Leader returned to the stairwell quickly, hoping that Bradley would be able to tell him that he had found the other but felt his heart drop when he saw Mama Bear clicking through his contact’s list. “Please don’t tell me-” he started, glancing towards the front door but finding his progression halted by Bradley who sensibly grabbed hold of his shirt, pressing the phone against his ear.

 

A chirpy song came from behind them and quickly the pair ran into the kitchen despite the fact that Jongki had been in there not a moment before. There was no sign of the maknae anyway, excluding his mobile which was situated on the breakfast bar. Jongki moved to grab it whilst Bradley stopped the call from his end. It wasn’t hard to navigate through Kiyeol’s phone and a curse spilled passed the Leader’s lips within a few seconds, “Damn it! Why must they do this?”

 

“Oh no, not again,” Bradley shook his head and sighed, hating Kiyeol’s family more than ever but opting to not focus on that. Suddenly his eyes widened, “Oh hell,”

 

“What?”

 

“He doesn’t know his way around here yet does he?” Bradley stated, hoping that Jongki would get the point, “You guys only arrived two days ago, if he’s done a runner he could be anywhere.”

 

Jongki blanched, “Aww double hell,” he shook his head, “I’ll get out and see if I can find him.”

 

“Erm no,” Bradley said, glaring at the Leader, “We’ll go and see if we can find him. He’s my son remember and I don’t care if you’re the Leader or not, I am not having you both out there by yourselves,” he shook his head at the inevitable argument, “Plus you don’t even know your way around here yet so I’m not playing safe house and then coming to find you.”

 

Kyung slowly stuck his head around the corner, having heard slightly raised voices between, “What’s wrong?”

 

“Kiyeol’s done a runner on us,” Jongki said, dropping the argument with Mama Bear because he knew that he wouldn’t win, plus if Kiyeol had somehow gotten out of the campus area then they would need the car and Bradley’s was far better for driving in the snow than his, “Me and Bradley are going to go and find him. You lot stay here and call us if he comes back on his own.”

 

“Hey no fair!” Jin appeared around the corner, “We can help you to look.”

 

Bradley glared but strangely it was Kyung who cut in, “Jin, you and the others would get lost trying to find him and then we would be in a worse situation than before. If you want to help then you can help me to keep the others here and not have them going off running.”

 

Jin looked a bit surprised, though not half as much as the two eldest but he relented, “Okay, but it would still be quicker for all of us to go searching for him.”

 

Jongki shook his head, “We know but we can’t run the risk. He can’t have gone far though, so we should be all right.”

 

Slowly the pair nodded, neither one overly happy but Jin wasn’t about to overrule Kyung since he had gone into ‘big brother’ mode and they would have to put up with the others complaints enough as was. Heading quickly to the cloak room, Bradley and Jongki pulled on their winter gear and after a couple more firmly spoken orders to the boys and Saki -  though a whole lot more gently than any of the others got naturally – headed out into the snow to search for Kiyeol.

 

“He can’t have gone far,” Jongki said, shivering despite the layers he had on and groaning when Bradley shoved a snow hat on his head, “He wouldn’t be so silly. Would he?”

 

“We’re dealing with an upset Ducky,” Bradley said slowly, “he could be capable of anything. Especially if his blasted mother’s been speaking to him...”

 

Jongki sighed, glancing around the street and cursing the fact that it was starting to get dark early, “Why can’t you just adopt him properly? It would make life a whole lot easier.”

 

Bradley smiled gently but didn’t respond, now was not the time to muse over what ifs and other such situations. They had to try and find Kiyeol and bring him back home before he froze or caught a horrendous cold.

 

~~~

 

A clock chimed off to the side and Kiyeol raised his head, blinking as he hadn’t quite realised the time and let out a sigh. He should really start heading back now or else the others would start to worry about him. If they hadn’t already started of course. Standing up, the sixteen year old pulled on his jacket which really wasn’t that appropriate for the weather but it was all that he had been able to grab in his mad dash attempt to get out of their home so that the others wouldn’t have to see his tears. Quickly and quietly he left, making sure to leave a tip and stepped out onto the snow covered street. The wind bit harshly at his skin and blew his hair across into his eyes but he chose to ignore it for now. All he had to was head down the street, turn left and then head down...

 

Suddenly a thought struck him, he had caught the bus to get to this little shopping district which wasn’t right cause he could walk to his favourite coffee shop from the dorms virtually blindfolded.

 

Then realisation struck Kiyeol, he didn’t live in the dorms with the others anymore, he lived in a house on the company campus. He took a good look around and felt the panic already beginning to build up inside his heart. He didn’t know these streets, he hadn’t paid attention to the bus he had just gotten on to get here so he had no idea which one he needed to get back, he didn’t even know the address of the H/UN campus and other than the change in his pocket he hadn’t brought his wallet with him because he normally didn’t need it.

 

“Oh please no,” he murmured to himself, digging panicked in his pockets to see where his phone was before remembering that he had left it on the breakfast counter. Panic ran through his system, almost making him run wildly down the street but he just about stopped himself from doing that. He had to be calm; he could work this out and get back on his own. He wasn’t a little kid anymore. All he had to do was find a bus stop with a map and just get back on the bus to get where he needed to be. Worst case scenario he could always hail a taxi cab and borrow whatever money from the others when he got back.

 

But unfortunately Kiyeol wasn’t calm and collected, not in the slightest. Being the maknae of the group was easy for the youngster because he was shy, clingy and could get scared by the silliest of things without even trying. He didn’t have to act cute, he just was cute and despite having had a massive confidence boost over the last year things had taken a fair bit of a tumble after briefly moving back in with his family. He was no where as near as bad as he had been when he had first been introduced to his wonderful hyung’s but the change was easy to see.

 

Staring around the unfamiliar streets, Kiyeol shivered and tried to blink back the sting of tears. He wasn’t going to cry, he could do this, he just had to be strong. On an impulse decision he headed right, thinking that the street would lead him closer to the centre of the shopping district and to the bus and taxi ranks because going right seemed brighter to him at the time. What he should have done was crossed over the road and headed straight from there but Kiyeol wasn’t to know that. It was nearly half an hour later that he realised that maybe going this way had not been too bright an idea as he found himself surrounded by factory like buildings with limited lighting and a faint feeling of danger that made Kiyeol want to run more desperately than he had ever done before.

 

He turned around to head back, only to find a group of five or so punks surrounding him. They were tall, broad and wore clothes that were dark, torn and splattered with stuff that the maknae just didn’t want to know about. The one in front of him had twisted tattoo’s showing on his arms and several ugly looking facial piercing, “Well, what have we here?” he ground out, grabbing hold of Kiyeol before he had a chance to run and all the maknae felt was a huge increase in his already unstable fear.