Little Lee Taemin would always walk home with his big brother after school. He would always refuse to hold his hand (he was a big kid, all grown up) and he always walked as confidently as any four-year-old could. He always took great care to make sure he buttoned all his shirt buttons and always combed his hair and brushed his teeth in the morning. Little Lee Taemin always made sure he was always, always doing the right thing and trying his very hardest to never, ever get in trouble. He was certain that if he was good and if he always listened, then he would have a great life and be happy with his family and never have to stop eating candy.

So you can imagine his surprise when they ree afternoon, he and Jinki hand in hand just this once, and find their house surrounded by yellow tape and lots of strangers. Jinki was talking to one of the strangers, but Taemin wasn’t listening. He’d wandered up to the tape and stood on his tiptoes to try and see what was going on. Weird carts were pulling two weird black bags out of the front door, and the dog wouldn’t stop barking. That was odd. His parents always came to get the dog if she barked because they thought Coco was too loud.

He turned around. Jinki was crying. Why? Big brothers aren’t supposed to be sad. Taemin ran over, hands ready to pat his arms and hug him because sometimes his parents would whisper into his ear and tell him he needed to look out for Jinki, too, and not just the other way around. Jinki grabbed him up tight and Taemin wiggled to get away. Not here, people are looking. I’m a grown-up. But Jinki wouldn’t let go, and just this once, Taemin decided it was okay. He didn’t know what was going on, but he started crying, too.

***

“We’ll see each other again soon, okay, Taeminnie?” Jinki said shakily, hugging Taemin a little too hard. It was hard for him to understand why he and his big brother couldn’t be together anymore. All the weird strangers said that no one wanted two little boys to take care of. Taemin always told them that they wouldn’t have to - he was big, and Jinki was extra-big. They would laugh, and Taemin would always think he solved the problem. He never had.

When the time came to be pulled away from Jinki, he was oddly resigned to it. All the grown-ups were surprised when he told them that he just wanted to go instead of seeing his big brother again. He thought maybe the less he saw him before he had to leave, the less sad he would be. As they put him in the car and drove off. Taemin waved goodbye to the equally as resigned face of his big brother and wished that maybe he’d held his hand a few more afternoons.

***

Two years later, Lee Taemin, still little, but not as little, decided that he didn’t have a family anymore. These people that strangers called his ‘temporary mom and dad’ were nice, but they weren’t his. His mom and dad would sing him songs before he went to bed and make sure to shut the closet door but leave his bedroom door open with the light on in the hallway because they knew that even the biggest boys can get scared. These ones left the closet door open, the bedroom door shut, and turned off all the lights. He’d stopped asking them to sing songs for him because it just wasn’t the same. He knew they were trying really hard to love him, but Taemin only wanted his real mom, his real dad, and his big brother.

Six-year-old Lee Taemin ran away from home that night, with a little more success than people his age usually have with escape plans.

***

Taemin wished he knew the way home, wished he could ask someone which way to go, but he knew he would be in so much trouble. It had only been a couple chilly hours on his own when he realized he forgot to bring food with him. So, cold and hungry, he started looking in trash cans. His parents always told him he was so smart, and he thought he’d just had another brilliant idea when he found a whole bunch of fish (in a bag so it didn’t even get dirty or anything), cooked and everything, and ate until he could hardly move.

He remembered one time his mom came back from dinner with some of her “work-friends” and she got really sick. Mom said she ate some bad chicken, she thought, and it took her a day or two before she could do all her regular mom stuff again. She said it was called food poisoning, and that it felt terrible, like she didn’t want to get up at all.

An hour or so after his feast, little Taemin didn’t feel so well. He decided he was going to lay down for a bit, but it wasn’t long before he was in the corner of his little niche on the street, losing his lunch into the trash can he’d claimed it from. Afterward, he laid down, holding his poor, sad little stomach as it grumbled and groaned in anger at what he had tried to put in it.

He must have fallen asleep at some point, because it was dark the next time he opened his eyes. Someone was standing over him. Another stranger, but this one didn’t seem like he wanted to take him to his ‘temporary parents’. Taemin realized his head was in the stranger’s lap and his hair was being pushed back from his forehead.

“Don’t worry, little one. You’ll be okay.” That was all he heard before he fell asleep again, this time knowing he would be safe.

I know I update in short segments - it's because I'm a slow writer with not a lot of ambition, and I try to give a little often than a lot...never, because if it feels like I'm never going to finish something...I won't. I'll just stop. So here's a little, rather than nothing.