First day on the job with Twice. This should be fun. Alex seems excited, but Mark is a little apprehensive. Then again, when isn't he? He's been like that ever since we were kids, taking on the responsibility of being the family's protector. Our father passed when Alex was just an infant, car accident. After that, our mother struggled with multiple jobs trying to give us a decent life. Her so-called boyfriend, John, was the worst. He would make our lives a living hell, but mum, she kept saying that he had the means to help us. To get us through the financial situation, Mark dropped out of school at 13 and worked two jobs; working at a mechanic's in the day, and organising a warehouse at night. He would come home only to sleep for 6 hours, before going to work again. We never told him what John would do to us when he came back drunk. He had enough on his plate. It wasn't until he came home one day and saw the bruises on Alex's arm that we told him everything. I'd never seen him so angry before, he was ready to kill someone. The next day he took off work, and waited for John to come home.

Now, Mark hadn't grown to the size he is now. He was tall for his age, but John still had a good 5 inches on him, and about 50lbs. I'll never forget that day. John came home, drunk, and made a beeline for Alex. Mark stood between them, unflinching, but the anger that I saw the previous day was just not there. He was calm, collected, knew exactly what he was going to do. John demanded that he moved out of the way, "or else". Mark smiled. He actually smiled a genuine smile, and to this day, I still don't know why, maybe I don't want to know. John took a swing at him, and he just leans back, deflecting the fist with one hand, and putting a well placed forearm into his elbow, snapping it like a twig. John fell to the ground screaming, saying that we were going to pay. Mark squatted down and looked him in his eyes. What he said next makes me shiver to this day. "Leave now and don't come back, or the hell I send you to will seem like heaven after I'm done with you." I know it was from a graphic novel, but the delivery, the relaxed tone of his voice, the steely look in his eyes, left us no doubt that he meant every word. John left that night, and we never heard from him again. I started working at a coffee shop, and even Alex went round mowing the grass for our neighbours. We all pitched in, we were a family again, free from fear, and that's all we could ask for. Since then, I have not seen Mark get to that state of being again, and I hope he never does. People are already intimida