(BACKSTORY)

(39) JONGDAE I

WARNING: violence, blood & implied

It was something he had no control over. Something he’d felt immense regret about for many years to come, and to this day, he hasn’t been able to forgive himself about it. The feeling of a fear so powerful that it leaves you immobile. When you can’t do anything but stare, because something like this is completely out of your power. Nothing could be done. It was best to just wait.

The most vivid memory he had was streaked with the blood of those he called his ‘family’.

It starts off one day after school. Seemingly normal, Jongdae was heading home from a late day of playing in the park with his friends. He whistled as he walked, eyeing out the setting sun that painted the sky orange and blended into more of a pink the more it seemed to touch the ground. He’d picked up a stick on the way and began to rake it over the grooves of the fences, continuing to let it clang against the metal poles until someone had rudely pushed past him.

The person was much larger than him in size and only spared him a tiny disgusted glance before continuing to walk off. Jongdae didn’t know what the hell went up his but continued to walk nonetheless once he saw the man take a sharp right into one of the apartment complexes. When Jongdae turned the same corner, he walked past tall shrubs lined outside of the building before he disappeared all together. He could only assume that the man was in a rush to be home.

When he continued to drag his stick against the fences, he’d reached the place where the man had suddenly disappeared, except he hadn’t. Instead, Jongdae’s wrist had been grabbed and was harshly yanked up as he was forced to look the man in the eye.

“Who the hell said you could use that stick to mark up my property?” The main hissed. His breath was clouded with smoke and the bitter scent of alcohol.

Looking behind him was a three story building of apartments tightly clustered together. “Doesn’t look like it. You can’t own the entire building, old man!”

Jongdae might’ve been a kid, but he was smart and had an especially sharp tongue.

“What did you say?” The man’s fist enclosed around Jongdae’s hand even tighter. “Look here you ing brat-”

“What? Do you need hearing aids too?”

Jongdae used the stick in his other hand to whack the man as hard as he could. He’d been released while whipping the end against the man’s temple, leaving a red mark almost as angry as the vein beginning to surface on his forehead.

He took a few quick steps before turning to look at the man that was furiously trying to grab him. “My dad’s a doctor if you need a check up! But he doesn’t accept bad customers like you, so don’t even think about it!”

With that, Chen stuck his tongue out and blew a raspberry enough to see spit fly. The man hadn’t been happy to be talked down by a kid like him and immediately tried to run after him. He was hot on Jongdae’s trail and even as the both of them ran through numerous amounts of passerbyers that were jogging or walking their pets.

It was then that the man realized doing this would only get him into trouble. He’d given Jongdae a sharp glare before stalking back in the other direction.

Jongdae went home with a light heart, oblivious to how the man would turn around to watch him go.

Later that night, Jongdae had been in his room, messing around with some colored paper and folding it into all kinds of shapes until he got bored. Eventually, he would mindlessly continue, to fold until his fingers began to hurt. He looks at his clock that reads past his bedtime and lets out a sigh.

That’s when he hears the sound of a loud crash, which he registers as glass breaking. Dropping everything he had, he ran out of his room and into his parents room where he found his younger sister, brother, mother and father. They all had the same expression on their faces- faces that read confusion and fear. There’s the sound of banging again coming up the stairs, and immediately, his mother picks up the house phone and hisses a low, “hide!” As his father searches one of the drawers for a weapon.

His siblings bunch up together in the closet while Jongdae slips himself under the bed frame.

He doesn’t know what’s going on, but he’s scared. He keeps his eyes on the feet of his parents, watching as his dad makes his way to the door.

“Can I help you?” Jongdae heard his father say, his voice a bit more deep and gruff than he remembered it to be.

“Your kid marked up my fence, but being the nice guy I am, I won’t press charges.”

Jongdae pictured his parents both rolling their eyes at how stupid the man sounded right about now.

“How do you know that it was my child?” Jongdae’s mother retaliates. “Please leave. It’s too late to be committing crimes. And to a woman with children too, unbelievable...”

“Bring him here and I’ll prove it to you.”

“Does it look like I can read minds?” Jongdae’s father barks, his tone angry as his words became very sarcastic. “I’m a doctor not a lie detector.”

“Look here-”

“No, you’ve done enough to my house and you need to leave.”

Jongdae hears the twist of the doorknob as his father began to shut the door. The shouts between the three became mashed together and Jongdae couldn’t tell what was happening anymore. From what he could hear, the man was putting up a fight, but so was his father as he tried to shut the door.

There was another loud noise coming from where the commotion was happening but just as the loud thumping on wood got louder, so did the man’s constant yells for his father to open the door.

From under the bed, Jongdae can see the familiar feet his his parents with their matching disney socks. His family had all gotten them as a gift from one of their relatives and Chen shuffled his toes around in his own piglet socks anxiously to hear the okay for him to come out. They’d gone back towards where the living room was, so he wasn’t able to see them for a while. But after a few minutes, the feet returned.

He saw his mother’s feet wearing Winnie the Pooh and then his father come in next as he wore Eeyore painted on his socks.

And then, another unfamiliar pair of feet step out from the corner, and there’s a loud whack.

His father stumbles but steadies himself before he lets out a loud shout, running forward, but it’s brought to a halt when he hears a sharp swish, followed by gurgling. His mother lets out a scream, and right then and there, he see’s his father’s lifeless body drop to the floor with a thud.

His eyes find Jongdae’s from underneath the bed, lips frantically trying to speak, but only more splats of blood shoot out. A pool of crimson liquid spills out from the cut on his neck and slowly makes it’s way towards Jongdae, soaking into his sweatshirt and pants. Jongdae is so frozen cold, that it almost burns when he feels it touch his skin. Then, he stops twitching all together.

He shivers when he hears his mother’s protesting cries. The bed above him creaks when he comes back to his senses, and there’s more shrieks and sobbing. A deep voice hushes her, speaking dirty words with ripping cloth, screaming along with lewd laughter, slapping and choking, but Jongdae does not know what it is.

He can only listen as his eyes continue to become more and more useless.

This continues for a few more minutes until he hears his mother let out a sharp gasp, followed by disgusting crunching and splatter. When Jongdae looks up at the bed, it’s soaked and stained red. It drips past the comforter and onto his body, but he’s so afraid that he won’t move. He refuses to. Not until he knows that he’s safe.

Then, there’s the sound of crying and shushing. Jongdae’s eyes dart to the closet and he gulps, silently praying to himself that the man would not notice. His hope, however, is shattered when the bed creaks again, and the man makes his way to the closet, yanking it open.

For this, he clenches his eyes closed, tears already flowing out of his eyes at the heartbreaking sounds of his younger brother and sister screaming and crying until there’s nothing all together. He keeps them closed a little bit longer before he peeks one eye open, and right past his father’s corpse are the lifeless bodies of a young boy and girl.

He nearly lets out a whimper, but brings his hand up to his mouth and presses down so hard that his arms shake.

As if for the fun of it, the man bends over and stabs his family members repeatedly before a phone chimes. The man curses, answers it, and leaves immediately. What’s left is blood that coats the entire floor with Jongdae covered in all of it.

He must have been there for hours, because before he knew it, the blood on his face had dried. He’s completely stiff, but sooner or later, the sound of sirens have him somewhat relieved.

Investigators are there first, walking around the room carefully, and there’s lots of talk. There’s about three of them inside searching, and Jongdae guesses that there’s a few more in the hall as well from the amount of talking.

It ends with a bright light being shined onto his face.

--

It’s been a couple of years since it happened. Jongdae doesn’t really know for sure.

Who would keep track of time after witnessing the most brutal bloodbath of the century? News called it that, anyways. The reporters that flooded the orphanage were always greedy for more information, too. He got bored before he even realized it and just left.

That was a year ago. Now, Jongdae’s been finding himself following around a troop of nasty hooligans much like himself. He’d never make his presence known, rather wanting to keep in the shadows instead of show himself.

They were rude, loud and most of all, extremely unsupervised. There were no adults in sight and even after following them to their little hideout had Jongdae figured they were all alone like him, except having one another.

One day, he’d actually gotten sloppy and accidentally kicked over a can that was sitting out on the front porch. The tin can clanked against the dirt and made even more noise as it rolled over the little rocks and twigs on the ground. Jongdae had to hide from the particularly small boy that came out to check where the sound came from. He was terrified of how dark the boy’s eyes looked and hid behind the large tree until he had gone back inside.

By now, he’d learned all of their names. The eldest was the boy with the chubby cheeks was Xiumin. He acted like one of the younger kids but especially did his best to keep the peace around the place, if he wasn’t the one to try and sneak in a snide comment here and there. He was mostly the one that would sit on the side and provide his help when necessary. Other than that, it would be left to the other, much smaller child.

Smaller in comparison, he was the third eldest. He hated anything that had to do with irresponsibility, but even then, they were a bunch of kids off on their own. There was only so much he could do. Suho didn’t approve of swearing and had a knack for trying to play the hero even when the fights looked like blood would be shed.

Next was the second, more serious boy. Towering above everyone, the seemingly permanent scowl that was drawn on his face never went away unless he was the one causing havoc. Kris had that feel of leadership in him, but never bothered to do anything unless Suho couldn’t keep things under control. Then he’d step in and set everyone straight, most of the time. There was one boy that sometimes wouldn’t even stand down to his threatening personality.

Byun Baekhyun. It was easy to remember because Kris would say the boy’s full name with an angry yell almost everyday. Snarky, with a hint of mischief, Jongdae knew they would get along well. If not, he’d probably end up laughing himself to death while trying.

Then there was the quietest one of the group. Lay never really said anything unless spoken to and was completely satisfied as he stood off to the side. He could be distracted by anything that was everything and became immersed in some of the weirdest things if the others hadn’t snapped him out of it fast enough.

And last, but not least (unless you counted height) was Kyungsoo. He was the only one that always listened to Suho, yet would always be the one to almost break his own fist on Baekhyun’s face. If unpredictable had a picture definition, Kyungsoo’s face would be right next to the word, his doe eyes innocent one second and ready to strike the next.

Jongdae couldn’t wait to meet them in person one day, but for now, he settled for being in the shadows and just waiting for the perfect opportunity.

--

“Who the did this?”

Baekhyun dumped the contents of his bag over the floor and looked up at the other boys who watched everything fall out. Instead of finding the delicious pudding cups and savory cheesy bread he’d taken from their run, he’d been met with dirt and a lot of bugs. It clumped amongst the packages and to his dismay, some of the bugs had actually gotten into them as well.

“Not me.” Kyungsoo said boredly, not really sparing Baekhyun a second look as he ate his own bug free food.

“You know, I’m getting tired of your Kyungsoo.”

The so said boy merely rolled his eyes before glancing up to find Suho rubbing his sore temples.

“All you two do is argue with one another. Don’t you ever get tired of it?”

“Of course.” Baekhyun scoffs, “But he always does it first.”

“Says you.” Kyungsoo spits back, though not literally this time.

Suho banned Kyungsoo from spitting on Baekhyun after they had caused a big scene back in the city, almost blowing their cover completely anymore than a bunch of unsupervised kids would. It was obvious when looking at their group of six kids that they were alone and indeed different from other snot nosed brats of the same age group.

If they were, they wouldn’t be able to steal so much and have so many successful runs as kids.

“Whatever, but if you pull this again, I swear I will ing-” Baekhyun feels a particularly cold chill coming from Suho as the boy glared at him. “I’ll punch you. Got it?”

He stalks off, not bothering to help the others unpack the food they’d taken from their run. Kyungsoo had stood up to head into the kitchen to help Xiumin clean up. He hadn’t stopped there though. He ended up walking past Baekhyun as he muttered under his breath, quiet enough so that the others wouldn’t hear him.

“And you’re supposed to be older than me… Yeah, right.”

That didn’t stop the two of them from getting into a fight bad enough to end up with multiple scratches and missing patches of hair from both sides.

Those were the little things that seemed to go wrong for the group. Their fights grew worse as weeks went on and it didn’t help that these unpredictable mishaps keep happening to them.

It was the first time they’d actually had to pull out during a run before they’d gotten in trouble. After doing so many runs, the three eldest deemed it safer to steal undetected than to cause a big scene. This meant it was easier to steal during the dead of night rather than during the day when people actually worked and were paying attention to them.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary at first. They’d gone in with empty bags and began to grab whatever they deemed necessary. Halfway through packing his own bag, Kyungsoo noticed a dark shadow pass by one of the aisles. He’d immediately gone to tell Suho that he thought he saw something and after being teased by Baekhyun for being paranoid, he’d shut up completely.

That was mistake number one. It’d only been two minutes later when sudden alarms had scared the living daylights out of the boys. In times of panic like this, they were to all meet up in a designated spot before leaving together. Baekhyun was the first to half drag the first person he’d seen towards the entrance they’d taken inside.

Mistake number two. Being too concerned because Kyungsoo was the one that was trying to pry his fingers off his own, he wasn’t looking where he was going. He’d found himself running into an invisible wall while the exit was wide open for them to leave, even showing a view of outside as the alarms continued to sound.

Kyungsoo got a kick out of seeing Baekhyun flop to the ground in pain, but would’ve enjoyed it more if he hadn’t been pulled down with him.

“What are you two doing?” Kris hissed, watching them begin to try and fight one another while still being on the floor. “Get up!”

“Saran wrap…” Lay muttered, pulling away easily at the clear wrapping that caused Baekhyun to fall.

They’d all managed to get home safe that night, but not without being confused by what exactly had happened.

Suho racked his brain for anything that would have made