Entry 4. Apr. 13, 2014

Life.

If you asked me how’s life, I’d tell you to go off and screw yourself.

Because life.

First of all, TOP. I’m still in a shock. I mean I’ve been beat up and I’ve beaten up other people before, but seeing TOP...

In my first entry or so, I hadn’t really processed that the guy, that hot guy at school I’d fanboyed on, was TOP. What was he, a spy for the gang? To come to it, why was the gang so focused on me nowadays? They could beat up other dark-haired guys with lesser problems than the ones I have.

But whatever. I’m delirious probably. I’m in the hospital, writing this and being attended to by ty nurses possibly ten years older than me and giving me thirsty glances.

Ha. The hospital. Can you believe that.

I’m registered under Bacon’s family, although I don’t know how long we can keep it that way. When Bacon came to visit during one of the times I wasn’t sleeping the day away, he’d explained to me that him and the other ten guys from our project group had been crossing the street together on their way home when Kai turned the corner just in time to see me attack Heechul. They all ran over to watch, and later assist me when they realized it wasn’t a fair fight. The only reason the gang wasn’t beating me down below earth and beyond was because a few guys in our group who live in worse neighborhoods had jumped on the gang and helped me out some.

Some. Not entirely. I still had six or seven others clawing at me when I passed out. In my last entry two days ago I’d just been recounting what had happened. Now this is Bacon’s story, of what he told me when he came to visit.

He said that Kris had rushed in and kicked GD smack in the face. Our ‘forces’ (Bacon made it sound like a war) had charged when I was getting swallowed by the gang’s masses. I occupied at least six or seven of them (being a ghetto street kid does give you some expertise in the line of fighting), including Heechul, and the more aristocratic part of the gang had been hanging back just to get jumped by my Human Body Project team members.

Weird.

That it had to be people from school.

I barely knew some of my classmates, like Kai and Chen and Luhan, but there’s nothing like a good brawl in a dark alleyway to mark the beginnings of an inseparable bond of companionship.

Maybe we’d even learn about the human body in a “hands-on” sort of way.

We’d obviously beat them down. No one learned Wu Shu in my group like I did, but they knew some basic defense moves. Since it was the gang’s custom to stop and first demand their opponents of some information (they insisted that they would still be civilized even though they were a gang), they stopped beating me up. I was unconscious anyway and Bacon had said that the more peaceable ones, Kyungsoo-I-like-to-be-called-D.O. and Suho, had dragged me off the battlefield. A couple of the gang members were knocked out according to Bacon, but I’m pretty sure he was exaggerating.

Kris had stepped out, the obvious duizhang.

“What the hell are you doing, intervening our fight?” GD had spat, blood trickling from his mouth and hate shooting out from his eyes. Obviously in the way Bacon described the gang leader, he had been scared of him. For once I wouldn’t blame him of it.

“It’s not a fair one, wouldn’t you agree?” Kris had shot back. He had some minor bruises but proved himself pretty well in a rumble with a couple of tough thugs.

Yesung had jerked his head toward me. “What’s your relationship with him?”

Kris had searched for a word. “A friend,” he’d said finally. Then he changed his mind. “All 12 of us.”

Pretty good considering I barely knew Kai and Kyungsoo-I-like-to-be-called-D.O.

Key had smirked, but it probably didn’t look as tough when one eye was purple and swollen like someone eating a plum had spit on his face. “Panda has a gang?”

Bacon had bristled when my nickname came from that foul beast’s mouth.

Oh Bacon.

He could be so strangely overprotective sometimes.

“We’re not a gang,” Luhan said stiffly. “Friends.”

GD waved his hand dismissively. “Friends, gang, whatever. Same thing. What’s your gang name?”

Without hesitating, Kris stepped up and growled, “EXO.”

My hero.