“Mommy, where are we?” The young boy looked up at his mother with wide, questioning eyes. His stubby fingers gripping her slender ones a little tighter than before. The two were standing in front of a big grey building just on the corner of a quiet street. 

The young woman doesn’t reply her son. Instead she lifts her free hand towards a small red button beside the large mahogany door and hastily presses it. She goes down to her knees and turns to face her son. With her vision blurred from the tears that were threatening to fall, she reluctantly lets go of her son’s hand and cups his chubby face.

“Mommy?” The boy stares at his mother in confusion. “Why are you sad?”

“I’m not sad, honey. Be a good boy from now on okay, Minhyung-ie? Don’t sleep too late and remember to brush your teeth before bed.” The woman bites her lips in attempt to stop the ugly sobs from escaping. 

The boy is even more confused. His mother only calls him Minhyung when he’s done something bad. Was he in trouble? What did he do wrong? He remembered being a good boy that day so why was his mother calling him that?

“Mommy did Minhyung-ie do something bad? Mommy please tell -“

“Stay here and don’t come after mommy okay? Stay here.” The boy is cut off by his mother releasing his face from her hands and getting up again. The boy began to panic when he sees her press the doorbell one more time before running down the short flight of steps, without taking his hand. She speeds down the sidewalk and dashes across the road.

“Mommy where are you going?!” He waddles down the steps but his short legs misses the last one, falling onto his hands and knees. But he doesn't care about the sting on his palms and the scrapes on his kneecaps. Why was his mommy leaving him? 

“Mommy!” He shouts.

The woman doesn't even turn back when she screams at him not to follow her. The child gets up and runs towards the road with tears flowing down his round cheeks. “Momm- AH!”

A car speeds past him before he could place his tiny feet on the road. He jumps back in surprise and scans the opposite street for his mother. But there was no sign of her. She was gone. She left him. She left poor little Minhyung all alone in an unfamiliar place with swollen eyes and bleeding knees.

“Mommy?”

-

Mark awakens with a start. He lets out a dreadful sigh and wipes the beads of sweat on his forehead with the back of his hand. The same dream (or should he call it a nightmare?) was haunting him in his sleep again. It has been for the past eight years, constantly reminding him how his mother left him all alone at this place. 

He rubs his face with his still-stubby hands as he forces himself to get out of bed. His eyes finally focus and he looks around the said place. NCT Children’s Society. What the ‘NCT’ stood for, he didn’t know. He didn’t even bother finding out for the past eight years anyway. 

All he knew was that although he first hated being there, he soon grew to love it like his home. In fact it was his only home now. He couldn't remember where his old one was, but he remembered living in a small, rundown apartment room with his mother. 

He remembered waking up to her small, but filled with love, breakfast meals and spending almost the entire day playing with dirty, some even broken, toys. But he was happy. Or used to be, until he was left here. He didn’t know why his mother chose to abandon him then. He thought they were happy. However Mark had buried those thoughts now, along with the memories he had before coming into the orphanage.

He was honestly old enough now to get out and find out who his real mother was and why she left him, but he couldn't be bothered about it. If she really loved him, she would've came back for him. But no. Mark had waited. He waited four agonising years by the steps of the orphanage where he scraped his knees. 

He sat there every day for four years hoping to see his mother run across the street towards him, apologising for leaving him there and then bringing him back to their home where he would play with his little blue bricks. 

But that ended four years ago, when he was eleven and he finally realised that his mother was never coming back for him. So he accepted it, albeit it being so painful, and lived his life in the orphanage as if he was born there.

Besides, living in the orphanage wasn’t so bad. Yes he was the only orphan left there and the curfew was way too early for his liking, but he had grown to love it there. The people were nice and food was always abundant. He sometimes gave Henry, his caretaker, a hand at the daycare that the orphanage ran on the second floor. 

Also Henry was like an older brother to him. After all, he was the one who found him crying on that sidewalk eight years ago.

Speaking of Henry, Mark practically leaped out of bed when he heard the familiar shuffling of feet outside his room door. He covered two of his fluffy pillows with the duvet and quickly rolled under his bed before the door creaked open, light spilling abundantly into the room.

“Mark? You up yet, bro?” Henry calls out, walking towards the bed. Mark tries not to laugh as he prepares for his daily prank on the poor caretaker. It’s funny because he’s been scaring him like that for almost three years now, yet Henry still falls into his trap every single time without fail.

Once the pair of feet stops next to his head, he waits a few seconds before reaching out to grab Henry by the ankles, receiving a rather satisfying and girly squeal from him. Mark laughs with his mouth hung open as he crawls out from under the bed. He almost falls back onto the ground in laughter when he sees Henry glued onto the wall behind him, hands clutching his chest in surprise.

“Oh my God Mark why do you keep doing that?!”

“Because you fall for it every. single. time. And also I get to see that!” Mark doubles over in laughter once more, raising his index finger towards Henry’s face, emphasising his point. 

Henry’s face is bright red and it’s contorted into an expression that can’t be explained in words. But hell, all Mark knew was that it was worth using as blackmail.

“Ugh whatever. Just hurry wash up and come down for breakfast. I made waffles.” Henry rolls his eyes and playfully shoves Mark aside before making his way out. Mark giggles into his palm once more and skips to the bathroom, ridding himself of his blue pinstripe pyjamas along the way.

So that was how Mark usually starts his day at the orphanage. He picks on Henry in the morning, showers and downs his breakfast with Henry and the other caretakers. Afterwards he would watch some lame cartoon before the daycare kids come in at 10am. 

“Why do you call them kids when you’re literally a kid yourself?” Henry would question him and he would laugh before saying that being a ‘kid’ at fifteen years old is different from the six year olds that can’t even spell ‘orange’.

He usually spends half his day playing with the kids, but sometimes he takes a self-proclaimed day off to either stay cooped up in his room playing video games or take a walk around town alone looking at clothes he couldn’t afford or finding new places he’s never been to. Though he’d be back at the orphanage by 3pm for a late lunch before waiting for his tutors to arrive.

Mark has been homeschooled at the orphanage, not wanting to go to a normal public school. He didn’t really want to be in a new environment or make new friends. They’d leave him anyway, just like his mother did. Even his old friends at the orphanage got adopted pretty quick, and they never kept in contact afterwards. Mark’s only friend was probably Henry, and only Henry.

By the time his tutoring sessions ended, it would be about 8pm and Mark’s bottom would be sore from sitting and studying for hours, only taking toilet breaks and half an hour off for dinner time. He would only have two hours left to do whatever he pleased before he had to be sent off to bed. 

“Who even sleeps as early as 10pm, honestly?” Mark would often complain, but he still abode by the rule anyways.

He’d spend the last two hours of his day depending on his mood, but most of the time he’ll either grab some supper with Henry or watch some dance videos in the computer lab. Afterwards he’d wash up and head to bed, not forgetting to brush his teeth. 

He’d wake up the following day with the same schedule, only switching things around on weekends when there are no daycare kids and his tutors don’t come in if they aren’t needed.

To an outsider, Mark’s daily life at the orphanage may seem boring and mundane but to him, it’s like a routine that he never really got bored of. It made him happy, the orphanage made him happy and he couldn’t imagine leaving this place. He didn’t know how the other orphans could bear to leave. This place was like Neverland to put it bluntly. He’d say Henry was like the Peter Pan but he thought, nah he’s too dumb.

Of course there were days where Mark wished that he wasn’t all alone, doing the same thing all day long. There were times where he’d silently cry in his bed at 2am in the morning, thinking about what he would make of his life once he turned eighteen and would have to leave the orphanage. Sometimes thoughts about his mother would slip into his mind for brief moments before he’d shake them off and force himself to sleep.

But the next morning, he’d wake up pretending that never happened and carried on with his day like usual, hiding under his bed to scare Henry to start it off.

However, on one October morning, Mark wakes up feeling different. No it wasn’t because he forgot to close his windows last night and now his feet were freezing. He felt as though something was coming. Not literally, but he thinks that his life at the orphanage was about to change.

He shrugs these feelings aside, telling himself, you’re not some shaman who can tell the future pfft please, before preparing himself for the day as per normal.

-

It was about 7pm when Mark started to feel restless. He didn’t feel like solving math equations anymore. The tingling feeling from that morning was still bothering him no matter how hard he tried to shrug it off. He excuses himself from his tutor and leaves the room, dragging his feet down the hallway towards the washroom. However he turns left at the end of the hallway instead of the right where the washroom was, a cheeky grin set on his lips.

Mark stood outside Henry’s office, preparing to barge in and scare the poor man, but he hesitates when he hears that he wasn’t alone in his office. Pressing his little ears to the brown mahogany door, he listens.

“Have you prepared everything for the new boys coming this Friday?” 

Mark recognises the voice to be Kim Heechul, the director of the orphanage. The phrase new boys peaked his interest, so he presses the side of his face further onto the door, hoping to hear more.

“Yes of course, hyung!” Mark hears Henry reply with much enthusiasm.

“Good, good. I want everything to be perfect. We haven’t had any new ones in a while. Does Lil’ Marco know about this yet?” Mark scoffs at the nickname the director often uses on him. He’s not that little anymore, please.

“No, not yet, hyung. I’ll tell him later before bed, but I’m sure he’ll be excited to make some new friends!”

“Ah alright. I hope he doesn’t get too attached though, you know how he gets.” Mark frowns a little at this. What did Heechul mean by ‘how he gets’? He didn’t cause any trouble. The last time he did something considerably bad, (Mark didn't even think what he did was bad, honestly) was when one of his best friends in the orphanage, Doyoung, was taken away from him. 

He was so upset that he filled the walls of the whole orphanage with large streaks of his colourful permanent markers as payback. It took almost a week to clean it all up, considering how huge the building was, and Mark was banned from chocolates for a month. 

But he was only nine at that time, still a young and emotional child, he would reason. He didn’t take abandonment very well, but now that he was mature enough he didn’t cause that much trouble anymore. Just the occasional little pranks on Henry of course.

But other than that, Mark was definitely excited like what Henry predicted. He hadn’t made any new friends here for almost a year now. His mood enlightens as he pulls away from the door and skips down the hallway back to his tutoring room. Things were gonna change, he knew that feeling he woke up with meant something.

-

When the long awaited Friday came around, Mark literally jumped out of bed and ran out of his room without washing up. He bumped into Henry in the hallway, effectively scaring him, but it wasn’t on purpose this time.

“Whoa whoa someone’s jumpy this morning. This is different.” You could say that Henry was pretty surprised that Mark was wide awake and not grabbing his ankles from under the bed that morning. “Excited to meet the new boys?”

“YES, ARE THEY HERE ALREADY?” Mark bounces, attempting to push past Henry to get downstairs. However Henry grabs his arm before he could do so and ruffles his light brown locks as he laughs at the little man’s adrenaline rush.

“Calm down Lil’ Marco. They won’t be here till after lunch.” Mark pouts at this. He couldn’t wait till after lunch, that was about four hours away! “Now go get clean, you stink bro. I made bacon and eggs today.”

Henry pats the boy’s cheeks before pushing him towards his bedroom door. Mark reluctantly lets himself be pushed, dragging his feet in the process. He sighs and goes to wash up, but eventually puts a smile on his face in anticipation.

-

It was 1.30pm when Mark heard the front door open and the chatter of a few people. He quickly downs the last of lunch and hastily rinses his plate in the sink. Dashing towards the front door, Mark sees the director speaking with Taeyeon, another caretaker, with four young boys by his side.

“Please bring them to their rooms while I settle the paperwork, Taeyeon-ah.” 

The young woman nods in acknowledgement as the director disappears into the hallway to his office.

“Come boys, follow me.” Taeyeon motions them towards the stairs but is surprised by Mark’s appearance in front of her. “Oh, Mark? What are -“

“It’s okay I can bring them, noona!” Mark cuts her off and gives her a sweet smile, knowing all too well that she would give way to his charms. “Their rooms are right next to mine right?”

Taeyeon just nods at the boy as if she was being hypnotised. She turns to the four boys and tells them to follow Mark as she drags herself to the kitchen for some leftover lunch.

Once she was gone, Mark gives the four confused boys a teasing smile. He holds the tallest boy by his left elbow and pulls him up the stairs to the third floor where the rooms were. Almost instantly the smaller three boys follow them like ducks.

Mark brings the four young boys to his room and closes the door behind him. The four stand in a line in front of him looking utterly confused.

“Is this our room?” The tallest boy questions as he whips his head around, scanning the room, his fluffy brown hair bouncing with his movements.

“Nah, this is my room! I’m Mark by the way, and I’ve been here for eight years!” Mark laughs as he introduces himself. 

“But aren’t you supposed to bring us to our rooms?” A timid voice comes from one of the smaller boys (who kind of resembles a little baby chick, Mark realises). “Why are we in your room?”

“Because,” Mark drags the word with mischief. “We are gonna have some fun first! Now you guys know my name, we can’t have much fun if you guys aren’t gonna talk.”

The tallest boy gives a wide, but pretty smile. Eyes sparkling, he introduces himself as Na Jaemin, the oldest of the four. Mark also finds out that he’s only two years younger than himself.

The little baby chick then whispers a Park Jisung with a tiny grin on his face, introducing himself as the youngest - five years younger than Mark. Jisung nudges the last two boys whose hands were still tightly clasped together, innocent eyes still staring up at Mark.

Mark lifts a brow as they don’t speak but continue staring up at him like he was some sort of alien.

“Uhm?”

“That’s Ren Jun and Chen Le,” Jaemin steps up to introduce the two timid boys. “They’re both Chinese so they’re practically glued at the hip. Can’t separate these two for . They understand some Korean but they can’t really speak it. They’re a year older than Jisung.”

Mark’s lips form an ‘O’ as he nods understandingly. “So where are you guys from?”

“Well, we initially came from different backgrounds,” Jaemin explains. “But we all came from The Sunshine Orphanage in Incheon. Someone told us we were moved here because there wasn’t enough space there anymore, but we know the real reason why they transferred us.”

Mark lift his brow once more as if to ask what the reason was. Jaemin giggles into his arm as his grin widens. A part of Mark got a little creeped out at that but the other part of him was curious.

“They got sick of our pranks. Chen Le here almost gave the whole house food poisoning because he dropped some slime into the buffet.”

Mark whips his head towards the small Chinese boy who looked as if he couldn’t hurt a fly. But looks could be deceiving so Mark gave a seemingly impressed look and faces the four boys.

“Well then. Since you’re passionate about pranks, I’m sure you guys would fit right in.”

Kind of rushed the ending a little but yay the first chapter is up! Thank you guys for all the subs hehe :') Hope you guys liked the first chapter. It was a little boring and draggy bc introductions and but don't worry! Donghyuck and Jeno are coming hoho :^) Comments and subs are loved!

Peace out x