“What the hell is this?”

Jinri looks up from where she’s lying on her bed, doing her homework. Her stepfather is standing in the doorway, holding a little white box in his oversized hand. His face is red, which Jinri knows means he’s had more than enough to drink. That’s honestly nothing new, she thinks grimly.

She stares at him. “What?” She doesn’t know where this present attack has come from. She’s just been doing her homework quietly in her room while Jinah watches cartoons on the little television in the corner, her bubbly little laughter echoing throughout the room when the characters do something particularly ridiculous.

Her stepfather shakes the box in his hand again. “What the hell is this?” he demands.

Jinri squints to see the box a little bit better. Once she manages to see past her stepfather’s fat, sausage-like fingers, she recognizes the box. “It looks like a box of condoms,” she says disinterestedly, and she goes back to her homework.

Her stepfather hurls the box at her, hard enough that the corner cuts her forehead when it hits her.

“Ow!” she exclaims, wiping the little trickle of blood from her forehead with the back of her hands. “What the hell was that for, you prick?”

His face is too red, veins and eyes bulging. “You ing little !” he practically roars. “I thought you would’ve learned your lesson by now!”

“Mind your own ing business,” Jinri snaps, climbing off her bed. “Get out!” She tries to push him out the door but he weighs a lot more than her and refuses to budge.

His hand comes up and reigns down on her face, leaving several stinging slaps that redden her cheeks before she manages to stumble back out of his range. “I’ll not have a ing living under my roof!” He grabs her wrist and yanks her back, hard enough that her feet give out from under her and she collapses with a cry to the floor.

Somewhere in the background Jinah is screaming and crying, begging for him to stop, but Jinri barely registers the noise as her stepfather’s beefy fists come down over and over again, leaving bruises anywhere they can reach.

“Yeobo, she’s not even worth it,” Mrs. Kwang’s voice drawls from the hallway. “Once a , always a .”

Tears are stinging Jinri’s eyes, as much from hearing such cruel words from her own mother as from the bruised rib she’s positive she’s now sporting. Biting back the pain and the tears, she scoops the still-screaming Jinah into her arms and ducks under her stepfather’s arm, down the hall, down the stairs.

Her stepfather makes a wild grab for her, muttering a string of unintelligible curses, but he’s too inebriated to catch her now. Her mother screams for her to stop but Jinri doesn’t. She opens the door and runs, runs into the freezing morning. She doesn’t stop until her chest is burning and she’s positive her lungs will burst if she takes one more step.

She’s outside the play park, the one she often goes to with Jinah. It’s a Saturday morning, so the park is crowded, but even so, Jinri can’t help but sink down on a bench and bury her face in Jinah’s shoulder and cry. She cries until her shoulders are shaking and people are giving her strange looks but she just can’t stop.

Eventually the cold gets to her. It’s January by this point, there’s snow on the ground, and both she and Jinah aren’t wearing shoes or coats. Already the little girl in her arms is shivering uncontrollably. Jinri knows that they can’t stay out in the elements for much longer. Already her feet have gone completely numb; she wraps Jinah’s little socked feet in the hem of her shirt to protect them as best as she can.

Going back to the house isn’t an option. Jinri would rather die on the streets than go back to that house with her abusive stepfather and her horrible excuse for a mother.

“Where’s Yongguk-oppa?” Jinah sniffs into her shoulder, breath tickling Jinri’s neck.

Jinri looks up. She can’t exactly call Yongguk – why should she? It’s not like they’re really connected outside of the fact that they sometimes have – but she can call Himchan. She digs her phone out of her pocket and dials his number, forcing her frozen fingers to push the correct buttons.

Himchan picks up after only the second ring. “Heya, buttercup,” he greets her, and it’s obvious from the cheerful tone in his voice that’s smiling.

Jinri struggles to stop crying long enough to form coherent words. “Himchan,” she says, and her voice breaks.

He knows instantly that something is wrong. “Oh my god, Jinri, what’s wrong?” he demands, and the panic in his voice is obvious. “Are you okay? Is the baby okay? What’s going on?”

Jinri sniffles into the phone. “I’m at the play park, the one where you picked me up the first time when we first became friends,” she says. She hesitates. “I-I can’t go home, Himchan. Jinah and I…we can’t go back to that place.”

“I’ll be there in ten minutes,” Himchan promises, even though with Saturday morning traffic that’s pushing it.

Still, true to his word, Himchan’s car is pulling up in front of the play park in ten minutes. He vaults out of the car, panicked. “Jinri, what the hell happened? Where is your coat? Where are your shoes? Jesus!”

From the passenger side of the car, Yongguk gets slowly out. There is an expression on his face that Jinri can’t even begin to decipher, one of worry and fear and maybe even a little hurt? But she’s freezing and she quickly looks away. She doesn’t even know why he’s there.

“Can we just go?” she asks, unfolding her frozen body from the bench with a great deal of difficulty. “Away from here. Far away from here.”

Himchan nods grimly and leads the way to the car. There’s no car seat, so Jinri settles into the backseat with Jinah in her lap. Himchan immediately blasts the heat and Jinri can feel her body start to unthaw, a welcome relief.

They’re halfway back to Himchan’s place when he speaks up. “Do we need to stop and get some things?” he asks. “Clothes for Jinah? A sippy cup? Anything?”

Jinri forces a small nod, cuddling the baby close. “Y-yeah. I guess so. We couldn’t bring anything with us when we left.”

Himchan nods and directs the car towards the nearest baby store, parking the car out front. “I’ll take Jinah with me,” he offers. “Stay in here and keep warm, okay? I’ll get her some shoes and a coat while we’re in there.”

“Thanks,” Jinri smiles in an exhausted sort of way, relinquishing her hold on the baby at last.

Himchan gives her a reassuring little smile and then he disappears into the building, leaving the car running so Jinri is cocooned in its heat.

Yongguk turns around in his seat to look at her, for once not condescending or judgmental, only a little sad. “Who did that to you?” he asks softly, gesturing to the bruises that are starting to blossom all over her fair skin.

She sighs, but lying about it is probably only going to make things worse. “My stepfather,” she admits. “He drank a little too much and went to town on me.”

Yongguk swallows what appears to be a painful lump in his throat. “Did he…to Jinah?”

“No, he would never hit her,” Jinri assures him. “At least not until she’s a little bit older and annoys him a little bit more.” She doesn’t even try to keep the bitterness from her voice.

Yongguk looks down at his hands for a long moment, then back up. “Why didn’t you call me to come and get you?” he asks.

Jinri meets his gaze head on. “Why would I call you?” she asks honestly. “It’s not like we’re dating or anything. I’m just some to you, right?”

Yongguk doesn’t answer.

Himchan returns to the car not long after, loaded down with his purchases and Jinah, who is now sporting a new coat and warm boots. She’s clinging to him happily, as if the trauma of the morning is already long-forgotten. Jinri wishes she still had that childish ability to forget so easily, but she’s covered in scars that will never heal.

Himchan gives her his best reassuring smile over his shoulder as he starts the car again and they pull out of the parking lot. “We’ll get you guys all set up at my house,” he assures her.

“And no one will know that we’re there?” Jinri asks, letting Jinah settle against her again in the backseat.

Himchan smiles again. “No one. You’ll be safe there.” 

omg this chapter TT.TT