Thank you for clicking on my story!

And if you've read Gangsta's Paradise/Other World and wondering why I'm starting a new story it's because I'm not too sure what to write for them so therefore I'm taking a break from them to get my creative juices (ew) flowing and since I love Stray Kids,...here I am. And I can't believe they've finally debuted after so long.

I'm so proud of our leader Chan for being so strong and finally debuting! Also...District 9 is lit I highly recommend the song (and the entire album!!!)

Anyways, let's get on with it, shall we?

Many years ago, long before Jeongin was born, war raged and the world was in pieces. The people were divided, opposing opinions making it impossible to form peace between them. Some blamed selfishness for human nature’s error and they formed Abnegation, a faction made to serve and help others, to let go of all the wants in life and to focus on giving. Some blamed cowardice for society’s problems and they created Dauntless because they believed that the only way to fight society’s issues was to face your fears and find bravery.

Others blamed ignorance for the faults of society, therefore, they created Erudite as a way to fight the ignorance and lack of knowledge. Some people blamed the cruel nature of the human race for the issues they were facing, so they created Amity, the peaceful faction free from conflict and sadness caused by wars and instigation. Another group of people claimed that duplicity, deception and dishonesty is the key to the faults in human nature and the reason for war and evil and so they created Candor.

Jeongin’s entire family has come from Amity, his parents were born and raised in the peaceful faction as well as his grandparents and most likely his grandparents’ parents, but he’s never bothered to ask. His family had it well in Amity, they worked like everyone else and helped around the community like everyone else; all except his brother.

Three years ago Jeongin’s brother transferred factions, which was a surprise to the entire community but no one was as shocked as their parents. His brother switched to Dauntless who are more or less known for not being kind and peaceful, resulting in his family banning his name and never speaking of him again. Completely pushing him out of their lives and pretending he never existed, much to the displeasure of Jeongin who adored his brother, still does.

After the departure of his brother, his family went south. His grandfather passed away of old age but Jeongin’s father claimed it was because he couldn’t handle the shock of his traitorous grandson. Jeongin’s own father stopped eating Amity’s famous bread because it had always been his brother’s favourite, but he hadn’t been counting on the repercussions; not getting any of the peace serum anymore made him violent, angry and cruel.

Jeongin tried to ignore it at first, tried to ignore the way his father would sneer whenever he opened his mouth and the way he would yell at him for making one mistake, whether it be in the fields or at home, he tried to ignore the way his grips on his arms would leave bruises or the way he would sometimes kick him awake hard enough for his ribs to hurt for a while. It didn't take long for him to become more violent, but Jeongin worked through it- it wasn't that bad. But the last drop came when he got so drunk he could barely stand, and he slapped him right cross the face hard enough to leave a bruise on the poor boy’s cheek, he had never touched Jeongin's face before, only bruised his body, his father apologized right after, claimed he didn’t mean to hit him but Jeongin was already in tears. And call it whatever you want, Jeongin would call it a mother’s instinct, but his mother came rushing through the door like she had heard the slap all the way from the fields and when she saw her youngest son, tears running down his cheeks and clutching the left side of his face she knew what had happened; and despite the love she had for her husband, her son came first.

Jeongin’s father was banned from Amity, sent to live on the streets with the rest of the factionless and Jeongin cried, cried day and night for his father and for his hyung who have both left him. Of course, he still had his mother, but she was too busy with work to focus on him, she wasn’t neglectful, but the nurturing love she used to have seemed to have left her system, and left was the ghost of the person she used to be. Hollow and quiet; his grandma told him she wasn’t surprised when her daughter died, she told him that it had only been a matter of time before she ran out of energy to keep on living. Jeongin never really understood how his mother died, but from the way his grandma kept him away from a certain tree behind the playground, he could only guess.

He was thirteen when his brother left Amity to Join Dauntless and his grandfather died, he was thirteen and a half when his father hit him and was banned from the faction, and he was fourteen when his mother passed away. But now he’s fifteen going on sixteen and his aptitude test is tomorrow, Jeongin has no doubt about what faction he’s gonna end up joining, but he’s unsure of what his test will say because despite how much he wants to leave Amity to join his brother in Dauntless, he doesn’t know if he’s cut out for it.

He’s never been much for fighting, of course, barely anyone in Amity is, but even as children they play rough just like in any other faction, but he was always too small or too weak to join them and it often resulted in him sitting on a small swing in the tiny playground all by himself.

A smack to the head pushes him out of his thoughts and he quickly dodges another smack from his surprisingly strong grandma, “ma! Why’d you do that?” he whines while rubbing at his sore head, “if you would do your work instead of slacking off and daydreaming I wouldn’t have to,” she responds and Jeongin sulks angrily while picking up his fallen sunhat from the ground.

“How can I not daydream? The test is tomorrow and-” he’s cut off by a sharp look from his grandmother telling him to shut up, “what about the test? You already know what you’ll get, there’s no need to worry,” her voice turns softer at the end but Jeongin can tell that she’s not completely over it. While looking at her he starts to feel guilty for even thinking about leaving, how can he leave her all alone here when there’s no one left to take care of her? Not that she’s in need of any special care, she’s stronger than Jeongin himself, but even the strongest of people need someone next to them.

“Yeah, Amity it is,” he mumbles more so to himself than to her but she smiles at him kindly and reaches over to ruffle his hair, “you’re as Amity as they come, my boy,,” she says lovingly and Jeongin tries to ignore the constant thoughts in his head saying “if you’re so Amity, how come you’re planning on joining another faction?” but it’s all he can think about. All his life he’s been told that he’ll never be anything else but Amity, that he’s too kind, too pure, too...peaceful- Jeongin has come to hate that word. There will never be complete peace.

She’s bending down to dig up yet another potato when Jeongin decides that it’s time to ask the million dollar question, fully aware that she’ll either start yelling at him or fall silent, “what if I don’t pick Amity?” it’s such a simple question, so few words in such a short time, but the meaning they hold is gigantic, especially to his grandmother, and if his grandfather was here to hear his words- Jeongin can’t even imagine the scolding he’d get.

“What if you...don’t pick Amity?” she asks back carefully, brown eyes blown wide like she can’t believe what she’s hearing, Jeongin nods slowly, hesitantly. She’s looking at him like she’s trying to figure a math equation out and Jeongin hides away from her powerful gaze, he’s never been one for confrontation.

She sighs deeply and puts a hand on her hip, she’s avoiding his eyes now, Jeongin can tell because she’s looking out over the fields  as if in deep thought but ever so often she’ll sneak a glance at him, “if you don’t pick Amity then...then you’re not a Hwang anymore,” she speaks steadily, seriously, which has Jeongin holding his breath in shock and a little fear. Because that’s what happened to his brother, he was stripped of his family name, left alone with his own given name with no connection to the rest of them whatsoever; if he hasn’t changed it already- Jeongin wonders.

She goes back to work just as the words leave and it’s clear that she does her best to avoid looking at him which leaves no room for questions from Jeongin and so he’s left to ponder over her words by himself, he doesn’t know what to think of it. But one thing is made clear for him, he now understands why his brother never bothered to come back, to visit even for a second. Jeongin knows that the general rule goes ‘faction before blood’, but no one can completely forget where they come from, and his brother was never one to follow rules so strictly so he would have expected him to sneak out at least once just to see him, but seeing him would mean seeing the rest of the family- Jeongin understands now that that was something his brother just couldn’t do; couldn’t bear to meet the family that had so easily disowned him.

Jeongin often wonders about it, he was only thirteen back then but it was clear even to him that his brother didn’t feel at home in Amity, he knew without knowing the test results that he would transfer. However, he wonders why Dauntless was so bad according to his parents and grandparents, after all, Amity is the peaceful faction, the kind one, the understanding one. But there was nothing peaceful about the way they parted, the way they disowned their eldest because of his choice, or the way they forced Jeongin to forget him.For people preaching love and understanding they had very little themselves, and that infuriated Jeongin, and it continues to infuriate him even to this day.

He still has memories of his brother, still remembers how he would always help him whether it be with homework or if he couldn’t reach something up on the shelf, his brother was always there for him. And now he’s been gone for three years, how has he been? Jeongin wonders, has he been eating well? Getting enough sleep? The questions are endless.

The only way for Jeongin to meet his brother is to join him, and despite what his grandmother might say, he knows that’s what he has to do.

The following morning is a lot more hectic than the usual mornings, it’s not as bad as Jeongin remembers the day of the actual choosing ceremony to be, but it’s close. There’s a lot of tension as his class walks towards the train that's waiting for them, some girls are whispering to each other, betting on what their results will say and some boys are loudly claiming that they’ll be sorted Dauntless while others tell them to be quiet and stop speaking nonsense, it’s a very divided group and Jeongin feels out of place. Because Jeongin already knows his choice, no matter what his test says he’s the most fitted for.

When the train starts rolling most of his classmates press up against the windows to look out at the wall and the incoming city ahead of them, but Jeongin stays in the middle. It’s no secret to everyone that his brother transferred to Dauntless, and while that doesn’t bother him, what bothers him is that they know what happened to his family afterwards. Everyone’s nice enough to pretend they don’t, but Jeongin knows they know. He knew it as soon as they returned from the choosing ceremony and they gave him pitiful looks, he knew it when his friends gave him looks when he grabbed the bread in the dining hall, he knew it the minute he came to class the day after his father was thrown out- he lost a lot of friends after the whole ordeal. But they’ve never been mean to him, or purposefully ignored him, however, they’ve never tried to initiate anything with him either.

There’s a chorus of wows as the train starts to slow down and Jeongin can’t understand how they’re already there in such short time but his question is quickly answered when the doors to the train open and a swarm of black and white falls in, looking equally as surprised as Jeongin himself. He’s never met anyone from another factor before unless you count the random guards from Dauntless occasionally searching their homes for factionless.

Jeongin’s shocked over how grown up they all look, it’s most likely the sharp and pristine clothes they’re wearing which look very adult compared to Jeongin’s own yellow hoodie and green harem pants that he’s wearing. He presses closer to the pole in the middle that he’s clinging to as more Candor kids press into the train and he thinks himself safe when they all head towards the windows, however, it’s short-lived as a mop of light brown hair flies straight into him and tackles them both to the floor.

“Aw ,” the voice, surprisingly deep for someone the same age as Jeongin, says and tries to push himself up so that he’s not putting all his weight on Jeongin, “sorry man, I was racing,” he speaks as if that would explain everything but at least he helps Jeongin up so Jeongin’s not too annoyed with the bruises forming on his elbows.

“Don’t worry about it, it’s okay,” Jeongin mumbles, unused to speaking to others other than his grandmother, and certainly not anyone from another faction. When they’re both standing up on their feet again Jeongin get’s a good look at his attacker and is surprised over how young he looks, he had expected someone much bigger to be the owner of that voice.

The boy reaches forward and starts wiping imaginary dust off of Jeongin’s shoulders and Jeongin freezes up under the touch of the stranger, “it’s really not okay, you don’t have to pretend it is,” he says and Jeongin immediately recognizes one of the most prominent traits of Candor, honesty- or lack of filter. See, a normal person (normal by Jeongin’s Amity standards) would apologize and then Jeongin would say ‘it’s okay’ and then they would drop it, or, the person would offer him something like an apple from that day’s harvest or maybe even dinner with the family. But Candor, Jeongin can tell, aren’t much for holding back.

“Felix! I meant race as in let’s see whose line would make it into the train first not who out of us two you idiot!  Because if you remember, we were standing in two straight lines until you decided to run off on your own and crash into the poor guy,” someone says from behind Felix and Felix turns with a wide smile while slinging one arm over Jeongin’s shoulders, “well if I hadn’t rushed I wouldn’t have met this lovely mate now would I,” Jeongin’s brows furrow at the weird choice of word, no one uses mate, at least not in Amity. But now that he thinks about it, this Felix guy’s accent sounds a bit strange.

The train suddenly starts moving and the new guy grabs a hold of the pole as well.

“I’m sorry,” the new guy suddenly turns to Jeongin and bows a little and Jeongin can feel the red rise up on his cheeks, a stupid condition he got from his mother, “my idiot friend over here doesn’t know boundaries. Now let the poor kid go, Felix,” he practically orders but Felix only tightens his arm around Jeongin, “Jeongin has never judged me,” he says before sneaking a look at him and adding, “at least not aloud, so I think I’m gonna stay right where I am with my new friend, Seungmin,” Jeongin finds their banter quite funny if not a bit confusing, but it’s nice to listen to them. They don’t act like he’s gonna break at any second like the people from his own faction.

Felix bumps his head against Jeongin’s and chuckles when Jeongin startles at the contact, “I never got your name,” but before Jeongin even has the time to respond Seungmin cuts in, “because you never asked, ,” he sneers but Jeongin can tell that it’s all fun and games and obviously Felix can too because his only response is a sad pout.

“My name is Jeongin,” he speaks a bit shakily and quiet but they manage to hear him anyway over the roaring sound of the train passing through a tunnel and the chatter from all around them. “Jeonginie! That’s adorable,” Felix booms and Jeongin finds it a bit ridiculous how deep his voice is because it makes everything sound much more powerful than intended.

He flushes a deep red at the compliment and brings up his hands to cover his face and he hears Seungmin snort, “see, now you’ve embarrassed the fox, way to go Felix,” that manages to capture Jeongin’s attention and he peeks through his fingers, “why am I a fox?” he asks quietly and Seungmin looks at him like he just asked the most stupid question ever, “because you look like one,” so what Jeongin gets from this is that Felix has little to no filter, but Seungmin doesn’t know what a filter is.

The train makes a sudden stop and if it wasn’t for Felix ar around him and his solid grip on the pole they would both have gone flying through the cart, “we’re here,” Seungmin states just as the doors open and Felix gives him a half-hug before grabbing a hold on the back of Seungmin’s collar, “goodbye little fox, maybe we’ll see each other again,” Felix says while Seungmin only nods in his direction and he gives them a little wave back before they disappear into the crowd of black and white.

When he sees his own colours starting to exit the train he quickly follows, having no idea where they’re heading but following the crowd seems like the safest option. They walk for about three minutes before the person ahead of him stops suddenly and Jeongin almost walks right into him, he can see a line forming in front of them and assumes that they’ve arrived at the right location.

Surprisingly, since there must be at least a hundred people in front of him, it only takes about ten-fifteen minutes until he’s at the front in front of a huge building, “Full name please,” it’s a man from Erudite who asks him and Jeongin fumbles a bit, “a-uh- Hwang Jeongin,” he finally gets out and the man grabs his hand and uses some sort of scan to print a number onto his hand.

“Follow the instruction on your hand and you’ll find your way,” is all he says before he pushes Jeongin inside and makes room for the next person. Jeongin stumbles inside and quickly pushes himself up against a wall to take a good look at his hand, ‘05.15.-02.173’ is all it says and Jeongin has no idea how to decipher it but as he takes a good look around the giant room he’s entered he sees five large exits and figures that he must be meant to enter number five, what else can it mean? He wonders as he starts walking. There are people all around him from all the factions and Jeongin feels a bit overwhelmed, he’s never seen so much black clothing before, the only thing black in Amity would be their shoes, but mostly they're just brown.

He passes through the large opening and is met by a long corridor seemingly endless but he must be on the right track because the first door to his right is labelled ‘1’ so he supposes he should just keep walking. There are doors on either side of the corridor and lots of people entering left and right, Jeongin continues down until he’s at number 15 and it’s only then that he notices that the door doesn’t have a handle. Huh, how’s he supposed to open it then?

He tries to wave his hand in front of it, he’s read about automatic doors but when nothing happens he quickly stops, he doesn’t want to look like an idiot waving at a door. But just as he’s about to go back and ask someone for help a hand comes into his view, the man puts his hand under some sort of square on the side of the door that Jeongin thought was a light switch and the door opens from the middle into to two. He startles and backs into a sturdy chest which he quickly jumps away from, the man puts a hand on his shoulder and leads him inside.

When they enter the room it’s already occupied by kids from all factions, some sitting on the benches and others standing, leaning against the walls, mostly dauntless with their leather jackets. He looks back to see who it was that helped him inside but there’s no one there, he frowns, where did he go?

He isn’t given any time to ponder because the next second he’s got two arms thrown around him in a steady grip, “I told you it was him Seungmin-ah,” ah, Felix.

“You also told me you could jump from two stories up and then you broke your leg, so how was I supposed to believe you?” Jeongin can’t see them because he’s got his face buried in Felix’ chest but he’s pretty sure Seungmin’s glaring at Felix like he did on the train, that seems to be his thing.

Felix pulls away from Jeongin and Jeongin finally has room to breathe but he keeps an arm around his shoulder just like before, “what took you so long?” Seungmin asks and Jeongin glances up at him, “we saw you at the entrance at the same time as we got in but we got her like 10 minutes ago,” Jeongin tries to hide his embarrassment, of course they managed to figure out what the numbers meant and how to enter the room.

“I- I didn’t know where to go,” he says quietly and Felix tightens his grip, “don’t listen to that guy, we didn’t know either, we just followed some people and hoped for the best,” Jeongin is in that moment eternally grateful for the bluntness of Candor because this time it actually makes him feel a bit better.

Seungmin rolls his eyes but Jeongin can see that he’s also a bit amused so Jeongin figures all is good, “do you know what the rest of the numbers mean?” he asks because the ‘02’ and ‘173’ is throwing him off, Seungmin reaches forward to grab his hand and inspect it.

“No idea, but there’s nowhere else to go in here so I would say the best thing to do is to just stay put and wait until they call your name,” Jeongin nods and removes his hand from Seungmin’s grip.

Just as Felix is about to say something the door next to one of the benches open and a man dressed in black with black hair and some sort of black eye makeup steps out, “Hwang Jeongin,” he calls and Jeongin freezes, already? He just got here.

“Ah man, I guess this is goodbye then,” Felix speaks and Seungmin nods, “yeah, there’s another exit inside so we won’t see each other again until the ceremony, if at all, but it was interesting meeting you little fox,” Jeongin can’t help but notice how Seungmin called their meeting interesting and not ‘nice’ like you usually would, he’d be extremely surprised if Seungmin chooses anything other than Candor, because from what he can tell he’s as Candor as they get; but in his grandmother's words, he’s as Amity as can be, and his choice has already been made- so maybe he shouldn’t judge too quickly.

“Hwang Jeongin,” the voice repeats albeit much more annoyed than the first time, “bye,” he says hastily and Felix gives him a smile, “I’m sure we’ll see each other again, Seungmin’s just being grumpy,” and it manages to lift Jeongin’s mood and calm his nerves at least a little bit; he really hopes to meet them again.

He hastily makes his way inside the room and as soon as he’s in the door closes behind him and all he can see is the chair in front of him, here goes nothing.

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, leave a comment if you did (pls), they make my day! <3 <3

Have a nice day/night/morning/evening :)