He didn’t want to go to school. He ing hated school. But it would at least get him out of Homoville for a few hours, so he pulled on his new ugly as school uniform and headed downstairs, making sure to stamp as loudly as he could with each footfall.

“Stop breaking my stairs, head!” Ji Yong’s voice shouted from the hallway, and in retaliation Seungri jumped down each step, putting all his weight into it.

“Don’t call him head, Ji Yong!” Seung Hyun shouted from the kitchen. “But don’t break the stairs, Seungri!”

“Jump off a cliff!” Seungri shouted back at them.

“I’ll push you off one!” Ji Yong yelled.

“Nobody’s going off any cliff!” Seung Hyun shouted back. “Ji Yong, get to work! Seungri, get some breakfast!”

Seungri reached the bottom of the stairs and saw Ji Yong over by the front door getting his shoes on. The man spotted him and glared, so Seungri gave him the middle finger, and then headed for the kitchen where Seung Hyun was sat drinking a cup of coffee.

There was a pot of it half full on the counter, so he poured himself a mug and grabbed an apple from the fridge. He sat himself down across the table from Seung Hyun and proceeded to glare at him. “Hey, Princess.”

Much to his annoyance, the man barely paid him any attention.

“Are you getting the bus, or do you want a lift?” Seung Hyun asked casually, and Seungri scoffed.

“I’m not spending any time with you when I could be somewhere else.”

He really didn’t ing get this guy or why he insisted on being nice to him. Not, Seungri supposed, that it would really matter in the end. He wasn’t going to be staying here long. What? A few months? Then he could finally get out, and hopefully he wouldn’t be dumped with no more heads like these two. He wanted to be placed in a residential home, there no one could be bothered to pay attention to what he did, so he could do as he liked.

He didn’t like this stupid ing house, or the queer s living in it. He didn’t know what the Chae Rin was thinking sending him to live with a pair of benders.

“Fair enough,” Seung Hyun said. “But don’t piss about after school, come home.”

Home. What was that supposed to mean? This wasn’t Seungri’s home, it was just another pit stop in a long list of being shifted between adults who couldn’t wait to be rid of him. He scowled. He really didn’t like this stupid . And what the is up with him being called Seung Hyun? Seungri didn’t want to share a name with some goddamn ponce.

“ you,” he said, leaving his coffee and apple and getting to his feet. “I’m going.”

He marched out of the room, knowing Seung Hyun was watching him but he didn’t care. Out in the hallway, Ji Yong was faffing about with something and Seungri groaned. He’d hoped the arsehole would have been gone by now.

Ignoring whatever look he knew would be thrown his way, Seungri went for his shoes. At least this one treated him honestly. Ji Yong didn’t pretend to be nice because he had no parents or whatever the reason Seung Hyun did it for. Not that he didn’t have parents, though. He had two parents, alive and well. Well, maybe not so much well, but alive at least. Most likely. It had been a while since he’d seem them, but he was pretty sure that they were still alive as as his social worker, he was sure Chae Rin would tell him if either had pegged it.

They didn’t matter though. them, and these two fags. He didn’t need any of them. He was fifteen, he could deal with his own , he didn’t need no ing babysitter.

“Money.”

Seungri blinked, and looked up from pulling on his shoes. Ji Yong was stood there, a few won bills in his hand outstretched to Seungri. “For the bus fair to school and back, and to buy some lunch.”

“Fagtasitc,” Seungri sniped sarcastically, snatching it from him. He quickly shoved it into his blazer pocket, just in case he changed his mind and Seungri was forced to walk all the way and go without food. He might do it; he’d already ready thrown his food in the bin once. Seungri knows the bastard is just waiting for the perfect way to get at him. But he’d be sourly disappointed; a day without food would hardly ing break him, he’d gone longer than that without eating.

This nor his of a boyfriend was going to hurt him. Seungri was too strong for that.

He pulled on his second shoe and left.

~*~

The school year had already begun over two months ago, and all the kids had fallen into their little groups and clichés. It didn’t really bother Seungri; he was used to being alone, being the odd one out. He’d spent the past seven years being passed between different hands when his current foster “parents” grew tired of him, or decided the money they received for housing him wasn’t worth the trouble of actually having to give him food every day or spare him a few words.

Seungri had always been alone; even when he was surrounded by people, so this was nothing new.

‘What do I need friends for anyway?’ Seungri thought to himself. ‘They’d just want something off me.’

Ignoring the class, many of whom were looking at him in curiosity or whispering about him with their friends, Seungri put his head down on his desk and closed his eyes. He had no intention of joining in or doing any work.

A tapping of fingers on his desk made him look up, and he was met by the bored face of a middle aged woman. “You were meant to introduce yourself,” she said, but before Seungri could tell her where she could stick her introduction, she was speaking again. “But, I really don’t care and nor do you, so don’t waste either of our time. I won’t, however, have you sleeping in my class. Do not disturb the students who wish to learn and who will actually make something of their lives.”

Then, she turned with a swish of her skirt and walked to the front of the classroom, calling for attention.

ing bossy .

Seungri put his head straight back down and closed his eyes.

This time, he was disturbed by an elbow repeatedly budging into him.

“What?” he snapped, looking at the boy next to him.

The boy looked momentarily startled by his harsh tone, but then shook it off and grinned at him as if he thought Seungri actually gave a about whatever he was going to say.

“You’ll get used to Ms Im, she’s not actually so bad once you get to know her.”

Well, if that’s it. Seungri closed his eyes again, intent on sleeping until lunch.

“I’m Im Sang Wook, Ms Im is actually my aunt. What’s your name?”

Seungri groaned out loud. Why did he have the feeling this idiot was going to keep talking? “ You is my name.”

Unfortunately, Sang Wook didn’t seem put off. “That’s not very friendly. But I guess being the new kid is stressful, so I’ll let it go. Do you want me to show you around later? It wouldn’t be any trouble.”

Already fed up of him, Seungri turned so he was facing him properly. He was lanky looking, even sat down, and had hair in need of a trim flopping down over his eyes. Seungri wrinkled his nose at the sight.

“Are you a hot girl?” He asked.

“Err… no?” Sang Wook replied, looking confused.

“That's right, you’re not,” Seungri agreed, then glared at him heatedly. “So stop talking to me.”

Dumb . How many hints does a person need to know they’re unwanted?

“Fine.” Sang Wook snapped, and he sounded like some prissy girl not allowed to wear her favourite -me mini-skirt. “I was only trying to be nice.”

Seungri snorted. Sang Wook was just one of those ing tossers who thought everyone needed to be bright and cheerful every ing minute or every ing day. Clearly he was living in La La Land.

There are two types of kids in this world; those who are wanted, and those who aren’t wanted. Seungri was the latter. Sang Wook was the former.

There were a lot of people who didn’t agree with that thinking; insisting that no child went without love, that there would always be someone, somewhere, who would love them. These people, with their optimism and faith in the goodness of humanity, were always the former kind; the people who’d had at least one loving person in their lives while growing up.

But it was stupid; it was the idiotic dreaming of people who’d never lived like the other half. Seungri had learnt from a young age that the core trait of human beings was selfishness. In the end, people would put themselves first. Sure, he could admit there were a few flukes, a few freaks of nature who would honestly care about a total stranger enough to put their own lives at risk, but these were just that; flukes. Ninety-nine percent of the human race wanted what was best for them, and just them, everyone else. They competed on who had the better paying job, who had the flashest car, who had the prettiest wife or manliest husband. So long as they had their cars and their pay checks and their causal s with the neighbour while their spouse was out at work, nothing mattered.

And it didn’t matter to Seungri either. He was as selfish as the rest of them.

But people like Sang Wook didn’t get that. They lived happily in their cloud of denial, thinking they were good people because they felt upset when then saw little crying African children on TV.

Maybe one day he’d wake up. When he’s fired and he loses his house, or his wife leaves him and takes the kids, or his mother dies. Maybe then he’d wake up. But it was a far off future.

Seungri didn’t have the patience for idiots who lived in happy little bubbles of denial.

“Prick,” he muttered, and rested his head back on the desk.

~*~

By the time lunch rolled around, very few people had tried approaching him. Apparently news of his less than welcoming personality spread fast.

He wouldn’t care usually, but this left very few seating options in the cafeteria. All the tables had students sat at them, and nobody seemed willing to invite him over. Some purposefully put bags or worksheets on the empty chair next to them when they saw him eyeing it. He grit his teeth, wanting to punch the bastards but held back. He was the outsider here; if he started a fight with the wrong person, he could end up with a gang of guys beating on him. No, it was always best to learn the social hierarchy first.

He took another look around. It seemed the only available seat was with the freaks.

“ this,” he muttered to himself, and his heel. He left the cafeteria and instead headed into the nearest empty classroom where he sat down with his tray of food, alone.

This school was a ing hole. But he’d hardly expected anything better anyway. All the kids looked like they came from middle and upper class families with perfectly washed and presented uniforms, well groomed hair with not a strand out of place and the latest model of mobile phones. If you wanted to convince some foreigner that South Korea was a bright and happy place with no poverty, this would be the place to take them. It was all so incredibly fake that it left a bad aftertaste in his mouth. These plastic brained idiots with their gold watches and perfect teeth really had no idea what was on their doorstep did they?

He finished his food quickly. He’d had enough of this place and wanted out. Leaving his empty tray where it was for someone else to clean up, he headed out onto the school grounds, rounding to the back where the teachers wouldn’t go because they couldn’t be bothered to deal with the tearaways who gathered there to smoke and piss about.

He didn’t have to have been in the school longer than a few hours to know it would be there. There was always that place, no matter what school you were in.

As predicted, at the back of the school there was a small group loitering around, talking loudly with more emotion in their voices than the rest of the student population put together, cigarettes dangling between their yellow tipped fingers. These were more Seungri’s type of people; the screw ups, the nobodies, the losers no one bothered with because they’d just end up in prison or dead anyway, so really, what was the point?

But Seungri wasn’t interested in them, not now. He headed straight for the wall, so he could climb over and be rid of this dump.

“Hey, new kid!”

Seungri paused, sat on top of the wall. He’d hoped they’d ignore him, at least for the first few days. Seemed as though luck was never on his side. He looked over to the group of failures so much like him as one, a guy older than Seungri – he looked like a third year, sauntered over to him, a lop sided grin of mockery on his face; a look just the wrong side of malicious.

“What’s a little first year just starting out his high school career doing sneaking off, hmm? Naughty, naughty.”

Seungri glowered at the tone, he didn’t like being mocked. But this was a challenge, the guy wanted to see if the ‘new kid’ he’d probably already heard of as a low life just like everyone else stood here was really what he presented himself as, not some rich kid play pretending because they thought a life like this was ‘exciting’; because they thought it was an adventure to have parents to busy shooting up on knows what drugs to care for their child. To leave the house with bruises marring your skin, and return to the stench of piss because dear old mummy and daddy were too out of it to even find the toilet, never mind use it. To be a young child all alone, crying to yourself and hoping someone will step in and rescue you, to take you away from the fear and the pain and the loneliness, but they never do because they don’t care. They don’t want to get involved. It’s far easier to just ignore the crying, underweight child with visible bruises in the shapes of hands and fists. They have their own family to worry about, they can’t possibly go through all the stress and hassle that helping someone else’s offspring would cause.

Yeah, sure, what an exciting life, Seungri thought to himself with scorn. Stupid dumb happy people. It wasn’t a game. It was reality; one Seungri knew all too well.

So he sneered at the older teen and snapped back, “I’m off to yours to your mum so hard she’ll be leaking my for days, just like I did last week.”

The third year stared at him hard, and for a moment Seungri thought he made a mistake – not really a big deal, but he’d rather avoid the beating he’d get for it. Then, the guy laughed.

“You’re welcome to the crazy . It might get her off my back for a while.” Stood at the foot of the wall, he looked up to Seungri who was still perched on top of it. “Ok Jae Hyuk,” he offered.

For a moment, Seungri hesitated, not sure of how to introduce himself. He birth name was Lee Seung Hyun, his current legal name and the one the school had was Kwon-Choi Seung Hyun, his preferred name was Seungri. As his senior, he’d be expected to give Jae Hyuk his real name, but he wasn’t even sure what his name was. What did ‘real’ mean? A name from birth, or a name changed by the courts? Was he a Lee? Or was he Kwon-Choi? What he wanted was to be neither. He wanted to just be his own person.

“Seungri,” he settled on. It was rude, and might get him a beating, but he didn’t know what other way he could answer.

Jae Hyuk eyed him for another long moment, sizing him up, deciding if he should take it as disrespect or not.

“You’re alright, kid,” the third year decided. “See you around.”

He threw something up to him, and Seungri caught it on instinct. It seemed to just be a folded piece of paper, but when Seungri looked back to Jae Hyuk to ask, he was already walking back to his gang of misfits.

Seungri slipped it into his pocket and jumped off the wall, landing in a crouch on the pavement. Leaving the school behind him, he headed off to explore the area.

~*~

When he got back to the house later that day (and that’s all it was; a house, not a home), nobody seemed to be in. He wasn’t expecting Ji Yong, he’d still be at work, but he did vaguely wonder where Seung Hyun was. Not that it really mattered; having the place to himself was far more preferable – and he could spread a little heteroual in this homo filled dump. He headed to the kitchen for a drink and popped open some beer. Looking around lazily, he spotted that he wasn’t as alone as he’d thought.

Through the large glass doors leading out into the garden, he saw Seung Hyun by the fence talking to someone in the next garden over, though he couldn’t see who from this angle.

Bored and curious, he opened the doors and stepped out, walking over to see who it was. He hadn’t spoken to any of Seung Hyun and Ji Yong’s neighbours. A few more steps and the person Seung Hyun was speaking with came into view. Suddenly, Seungri regretted not introducing himself to the neighbours sooner.

The person Seung Hyun was talking to was a woman, and a damn good looking one at that. Grinning, Seungri sped up.

“If you don’t have a boyfriend, I’d be willing to fix that. If you do have a boyfriend, I’d be willing to fix that too,” he opened with, flashing her a smile that was all teeth.

Seung Hyun sighed audibly as he turned to acknowledge his presence, and the woman looked startled for a moment, but then her expression softened and she began laughing warmly. She sent him a wink and said, “Maybe if I were fifteen years younger.”

Ignoring Seung Hyun, Seungri leaned up against the fence. “Not an issue for me, I like a woman with experience.”

“Oh, I’m sure you do,” she chuckled. “I like you already, kid. Park Bom.”

Seungri took her offered hand, giving it a light shake. “Seungri.”

“Little charmer, isn’t he?” She said to Seung Hyun, still grinning.

Seung Hyun just gave her a flat look in return.

Seungri and Bom chose to ignore this.

“So, do you have a boyfriend?” Seungri inquired, completely serious in his advances.

“Afraid so, kid,” Bom said. “But you know, Seungri, we were planning on having a barbeque party at the weekend, and we usually invite the whole street. Well, expect old Ms Seo because she is one crazy cow, not to mention she’s convinced Dae Sung – my boyfriend – is her long lost husband, who ran off and left her forty-odd years ago. Not that I can blame him, he’d probably had enough of her crazy. So, what do you say? There’ll be plenty of girls your age attending.”

Mixing with the entire street didn’t sound the least bit fun, but free food and the company of girls was enough to draw any teenage boy’s attention. It didn’t take him long to decide. “Cool, I’ll go. But I bet I’ll have you dropping that Dae Sung guy for me by the end of it.”

Bom grinned, shooting him a challenging look. “I look forward to your attempts. See you there kid.” She nodded to Seungri, pat Seung Hyun on the arm, then turned to head back into her home, turning to give them a wave before shutting the back door behind her.

“I hate Ms Seo,” Seung Hyun muttered a few seconds later, more to himself than anything, but Seungri heard him anyway. He cocked a brow and couldn’t help but wonder why, but he didn’t want to talk to the stupid poof and so headed back in himself.