"Mama? Where is Papa? Did he go back to that world you warned me about? Why were his eyes red when he gave you that bruise? Why did he lock us away in this place? Mama, can we change it all over again?"

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

Kim Jong In was pacing back and forth across the cramped, limited-spaced grey room, his rotten and torn excerise sneakers were scrapping against the dusty decreprit concrete flooring. His deep, narrow eyes corrugated, and his bottom lip was beginning to turn dark shades of maroon due to his teeth digging into the soft skin. Jong Dae hasn't returned for a lengthy amount of hours, and Jong In was desperate to see his brother's gentle face again.

"Jong In?"

Jong In turned to the door as his feet scuffled along towards the eastward wall window, causing his elbow to sidesweep a broken down wooden wardrobe. He saw his younger sibling, Oh Se Hun dressed in a pair of dark-colored ripped jeans, ripped and stained combat boots, and a sweatjacket covering a white t-shirt, cautiously roaming through the slim doorway, stacks of ignored boxes, and proceeding to strut himself to his older brother. Se Hun patted off dust from his knees that collected from the unkempt, filthy room, and stood tall.

"Yi Fan wants your help, Jong In-ssi," Se Hun's voice left traces of fear at the last words, panicked at the thought of Jong In growing angry. Half-closing his eyes and half-stepping sideways as Jong In began to trudge towards the doorway, Se Hun noticed that the window's latch wasn't sealed. Curiously, he lifted his right foot upwards, and stepped.

"What are you doing Se Hun?! Let's go already!" Jong In spit to the frozen boy diagonal of himself. "I have things to do, so I can't wait around."

Se Hun scrambled backwards as quick as he could in his tattered boots, knocking over a few minor boxes, and causing dust to fly everywhere. Se Hun coughed into his clothed-elbow, and ran to catch up to his brother, who was already closing the hallway door.

"W-wait! -cough- Jong In-ssi, -cough- wait!" Se Hun cried out, sputtering at the dust rising and falling against his already dirty body. The dust blew into his left eye, and Se Hun immediately stomped his heels down, skidding to a stop. He brought his hand over his eye, and coughed above his elbow, gasping for clean air.

When the dust finally settled and departed from tormenting his left eye, Se Hun saw that the hallway door was closed. That meant he had to take the long way to the second floor staircase instead, and that his brother had left him in the nasty, infirmity-based attic. Se Hun slowly gathered himself some strength, and pulled himself up against a broken bookshelf. He grimaced when he realized how long it would take him to find the staircase, and climb down them.

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

"Where have you been Se Hun?!"

Se Hun glanced upwards at the loud cry of his half, Chinese brother, Huang Zi Tao. Se Hun nibbled at his bottom lip, trying hard to make up an excuse for his long absence. He found a reasonable one, but sheepishly muttered another about having to use the restroom, but spiders scared him. The uproar of laughter caused a shade of red to gather on the young man's face, but he decided to ignore it. He walked to the fridge across the rectangular kitchen table that was nearly the size of himself if he were to lay down by it, and grabbed himself a small can of water. Jong Dae had taken all the bottles away so he could make the kitchen less packed with useless items. But that was yesterday, and he hasn't come back yet.

"Se Hun, where's Yi Xing?"

Se Hun turned to see Byun Baek Hyun parallel to the fridge. His clothing was less torn and jagged, since he was the clean type. His jeans had a few holes, scratches, and stains, and his shirt was fairly new compared to Se Hun's. Baek Hyun didn't wear shoes inside, and kept them under a floorboard with napkins wrapped around them. Se Hun was secretly jealous that his brother could be so neat, but he wasn't frustrated enough to ruin his cleanliness.

"I thought Yi Xing-ssi was with Huang Zi-ssi? I guess he'd be with Joon Myun-ssi...," Se Hun stared at his older brother in deep thought, anxiously nipping his lip. "Or he could be in a bathroom."

"Thanks Hunnie," Baek Hyun said as he ruffled his younger brother's frizzy brown hair. He leaned close to Se Hun as if hugging him, and whispered so only the two of them could hear. "There's some chocolate under my sixth floorboard."

Se Hun became delighted when he heard the word "chocolate" leave his brother's mouth. It's been twelve years since he had bitten into a bar of it, and to know his brother mentioned it to him seemed to lift heavy feelings and sift away. He nodded to his brother, and his heels a little too quickly, and stumbled passed the table to the long corridor where the bedrooms were.

Se Hun found the curtain-covered doorway with a crumbled up piece of brown paper with messy Hangul written across it. The symbols read, "Byun Baek Hyun" and Se Hun smiled heartily as he walked through the filthy black curtain. He saw the slim room covered with books everywhere; on the floor, matress, door rims, and any other random place. He trotted over to the sixth floorboard that he kept his shoes in, and knelt down. Eagerly he began to take out the hard nails brown with rust, setting them to the side as he peeled up the cracking oak floorboard. Se Hun was met with the strong smell of what seemed like a dead animal, and he immediately coughed, covering his vulnerable nose.

Through the corner of his eye he saw a slight shine of plastic wrap, and he dove his hand into the blackness. His fingers latched onto it, and pulled it out. Se Hun dropped the board and gazed at the object in his hands. The word Hershey was cut off midway, so Se Hun only saw Hers. Suddenly, Se Hun frowned. He missed his Mama, who mysteriously vanished one night, leaving himself and his eleven other brothers alone, locked away in this tower.

"Papa..." Se Hun thought in his mind as he opened the wrapper and bit into the chocolate.

"Se Hun?! What are you doing?!"

Se Hun jerked his body backwards, dropping the choclate and driving his palm into a rusty nail on the floor. He whimpered loudly, pulling his hand to his chest. To his dismay, Se Hun saw Jong In standing against the dirty black curtain. Does this flith not bother him? Se Hun curiously thought as he stared at his older brother, who was now walking closer.

"What is that?" Jong In pointed to the wrapper laying distorted by Se Hun's lower thigh, and wrinkled his eyebrows together. "Are you eating something?"

Se Hun clamped his mouth shut, and slowly shook his head. Jong In bent over and grabbed Se Hun by the chin, squeezing the skin tightly.

"Don't you dare lie to me you brat," Jong In spat in a hushed voice. "Now tell me, what is that and what's in your mouth."

SeHun felt the nail stabbing in his hand and gulped, feeling a tear run down his irritated left eye. He tried to move his head, but Jong In kept a tight grip on his chin. He tried to move his right hand, but it hurt his left hand to barely twitch.

"Are you crying Se Hun?" Jong In hollered in disgust, releasing Se Hun and brushing his hand off on his knee. Se Hun was shaking with terror, and his left hand was pulsing. The faint taste of chocolate lingered on his tongue, and made the scene somewhat less frightening. But still. Se Hun was palpitating on the musty oak flooring, in front of his older brother.

"How pathetic," Jong In hissed, snatching the wrapper; The chocolate falling beside Se Hun, and into a small hole in the wood. Jong In clenched the candy wrapped in his palm, and drew in a deep breath.

"Jong-"

Se Hun's apology was cut short by a sudden strike to the face by Jong In's right hand. He could hear the angry stomping of Jong In walking away, the shuffling of the rough curtain, and his left eye released another salty tear. All he wanted was the love from his troubled older brother...