Characters: Jongdae, OC, Chanyeol, Kyungsoo

_________

Seven years prior.

It wasn't easy living with a kid at the age of almost four, Jongdae still felt like a kid himself; just a twenty year old one. Who in the world thought it’d be a good idea to let an eighteen-year-old raise a child? He had to care for his godchild, his nephew, after his family was killed four years ago and the authorities decided just two years ago to give him custody. The second godfather was not around to be found, even after all this time. He couldn't write and read very well and still to this day he couldn't spell his nephew's name correctly. He dropped out of school while his parents were still alive, the government not very keen on helping kids with their education, when making a mint with weapon exports was more important. He had managed to snatch a barely better-paying job and was on government support due to him raising the child. He didn’t have the heart to give him away for adoption. Now everything he struggled to earn was mainly for little Hoon.

He gave up boxing long ago after he was miserably framed the year his family was murdered and he didn't want to live anymore after that. But then Hoon came in and gave him a new objective in life. He couldn't afford a good living for him though, as the government just gave him enough to pay the rent and he never knew if he'd be able to pay next month's bills and food. His work was tolerant of letting him take Hoon with him because they had a little daycare where he could leave him during his work hours.

He felt a pull on his pants while he was cooking. “Appa?” Hoon made grabby motions. Even if Jongdae was cooking he couldn’t resist hoisting him up on his hip. Balancing his nephew on one hip, he made scrambled eggs with the spatula in his other hand. Hoon rested his head on his shoulder and watched him cook.

“Everything fine, little sunset?” he nuzzled his nose into Hoon’s unkempt hair.

“Tummy hurting,” Hoon exclaimed and patted his belly. Jongdae knew it was because he wasn’t getting enough food down so he decided he would give his portion to him this evening. He really didn't want to visit the doctor again and he really did not have the money for it. Swaying the little kid from one side to the other, he his belly and hummed to ease the pain a little. “Dinner’s almost ready. You get a big portion today.”

“Yeah,” Hoon threw his hands up and knocked one of his little fists into Jongdae’s nose.

“Caution, young man,” Jongdae rubbed his nose, steadying his balance, and retrieved a plate from the cupboard before he set the child down.

Hoon was too small and thin for his age, but he was a bright child. He couldn’t remember his parents at all since he was just a few months old when the tragedy happened. Jongdae stopped correcting him long ago about calling him appa, because Hoon didn’t know that he couldn’t be his dad and Jongdae could not argue anymore with Hoon’s irrefutable argument that he wasn’t his brother but his appa, since all the other children in the daycare were picked up by their parents and not their siblings. Maybe in some sense, he was his dad.

Hoon skipped to the table beside their bed. They lived in just a one-bedroom apartment with a conjoined kitchen. It would be too small once Hoon grew up and Jongdae was aware of it. And afraid. He would have to take on more jobs to keep their heads above water by then. It wasn’t the first time he was considering the illegal sector either, more and faster money but less security. Walking over to the child, he balanced the plate with scrambled eggs, one slice of bread, few vegetables and a little bit of bacon and set them down before him. He sat down opposite of Hoon and watched him. He was about to dig in but he suddenly raised his eyes, confused, “Appa not eating?”

“Appa isn’t hungry tonight,” Jongdae smiled reassuringly at Hoon. Hoon, on the other hand, used his fingers to tear the slice of bread apart and shovelled some egg, bacon and peas on his spoon and held it towards Jongdae with shaky hands, as he proclaimed: “Appa should eat.” “Alright, alright, but you’re eating the rest, okay Hoon?” Jongdae compromised with the small child.

After he got fed by his nephew, he skimmed through a pile of documents, sorting them out to collect next month’s bills and the stuff he had to send to child support. Using a calculator, he came to the conclusion that he was barely able to pay the bills for the upcoming months and the nauseating gut feeling only got worse by the second, but now infused with stress too, apart from hunger. He was already working overtime and his boss had raised his pay a bit, but the electricity got more expensive. He might need to move into an even less expensive place if he was unlucky. Racking his brain over how to make more money, he was pulled out of his thought process when Hoon suddenly started coughing violently. “Hoon!” rushing to his side, he rubbed his back to calm the coughing and coaxed him into drinking water. “Are you alright?” The question soon answered itself though, as Hoon was anything but okay and made noises like he was going to vomit any minute now. Grabbing the child he sprinted to the bathroom. Right on time since as soon as he opened the toilet lid, the child started vomiting. Holding him up he didn't know what to do and let him cough everything up. Hoon was crying, tears welling up in his eyes. Picking his phone out of his pocket with trembling hands, he saw that the battery was down to 10 percent, but enough to make a phone call. He called the emergency line, and the woman tried to calm him down to make sense of what happened, reaffirming what she managed to understand, “You have a four-year-old there, he's vomiting and just ate, but he said earlier that his stomach is hurting?” Jongdae nodded but then remembered that she could not see him. He choked out a yes. “Sir, I’m locating your position on the map, it’s Smith Avenue right?”

“Yes, 178b, Jongdae and Hoon Kim.”

“We just sent off an ambulance coming for you, they will be there in five. I'll stay on the phone with you as you’re waiting, Mr Kim.”

“Jongdae. I'm not old enough to be called Mr yet,” he let out a teary laugh but he was already feeling better now that help was on the way. Money issues would have to wait for later.

Once the ambulance was there, Hoon was rushed into the emergency track. They gave him painkillers in the form of an intravenous catheter in the back of his hand to ease his pain and Jongdae was holding his other hand while waiting for the doctor and the results of the blood tests.

“Mr Kim, Dr Park.”

A tall man with tired features approached the duo. He held out his hand for a handshake. “How are you related to,” checking his papers, he searched for the name, “Hoon?”

“He's my nephew, I have custody over him.”

“I already wanted to say you look quite young to be a father,” he smiled gently.

“Long story.”

“Little Hoon here has a light cachexia, nothing too serious. But he's too thin for his age, not much, but still is. We’ll provide you with a detailed nutrition plan.” Jongdae remained silent and looked down to the ground.

“Mr Kim, you can stay here for the night, we will relocate Hoon into the children's ward once the bed is ready. I can only offer a couch in my bureau for you, since the hospital is pretty full with the ongoing gang war,” Dr Park's voice dropped low and the spite was evident in his voice. “ing mafia,” he added, whispering more to himself. Jongdae looked up, unsure, and started fidgeting in his seat, “You're really alright with me hogging your couch, Dr Park?”

“Chanyeol, name's Chanyeol. I'm only 25 of age, almost, so no need to be formal. I'm having the night shift today, so I will be a lot in the bureau if it isn't a problem. And I'm an emergency doctor, but more focused on my speciality as a trauma surgeon and not a paediatrician, so Hoon will be located two stories above you if that's alright.”

“Jongdae.”

“Alright, I'm coming back in a few and we're carrying Hoon to his room, he'll be sleeping till the morning, I assume, since he is under the influence of medication.”

“Hmm,” Jongdae Hoon’s hair.

“We can talk about everything else in the morning. Right now you need the sleep,” Chanyeol patted Jongdae’s shoulder.

_________

Some time later.

The couch was more comfortable than his own bed, but the anxiety was still going strong. Tossing around, he woke up and was met with the sight of a snoring Chanyeol in his swivel chair, drool collecting at the corner of his mouth. Squinting his eyes towards the clock, he saw that it was around four in the morning, which meant that he had slept a good eight to nine hours. His bladder was about to burst and he groggily stood up, stumbling towards the door.

“Awake, Jongdae?” He whirled around and saw Chanyeol stretching while his joints were voicing their protest. The doctor grimaced, “I feel like I'm 60 of age.” He smiled at Jongdae who didn't know how to react to the kindness the tall man was radiating.

“Toilet.”

“Down the hall, on the right.”

“Thank you.”

On his way to the toilet, he almost ran into two men, the smaller one of the two being supported by a taller one with ash blonde hair. He turned around and observed them, his eyes went wide when he saw them approaching Chanyeol's bureau. Before he even could react, the door was ripped open by the taller of the two, as he announced in a booming voice, “Chanyeol, the idiot of your best friend got into a brawl. Again!”

Jongdae heard something crash followed by a grunt. Suddenly, Chanyeol was standing at the door, cupping rather forcefully the smaller man's face, “You ing idiot, what did I say about picking fights with men ‘discriminating’ your height or whatever?!” His voice was dripping with amused frustration. Sounded like it wasn’t the first time this happened.

He pulled the man by his nape and towards the direction they had come from. Jongdae was amazed, the man was smiling widely with a busted lip and a gash at his arm, a piece of cloth wrapped around it to stop the bleeding. Chanyeol halted for a second, “Jongdae, I'll be in the ER if you need something, just ask the nurse where I am.” Jongdae only nodded and made eye contact with the smaller man, who was around his height. The man's smile dropped and he stared at Jongdae, crinkling his wide eyes but it was far from smiling, and with that, the trio was off around the corner. He looked menacing and Jongdae felt a shiver run down his spine, crawling under his skin.

Finishing his business, he contemplated what to do while washing his hands. Hoon would still be sleeping and he needed his sleep. Exiting the bathroom, he heard running, “Mr Kim! Mr Park asks for your assistance.” It was a nurse, seemingly distressed, “Mr Do is on a rampage and no one can hold him down at this moment.”

“I--” Jongdae stuttered. “Please, just accompany me,” she didn’t wait for an answer and pulled him by his elbow, “The security isn’t tight enough today.”

Arriving at the ER, Jongdae couldn’t believe his eyes. On one side, Dr Park and the other tall man were holding down Mr Do, as he assumed, but with obvious difficulties. The stitched wound looked like it was about to tear any second from the force it was under. He was only wearing his pants and an undershirt, his bloody dress shirt lay on the bed he was probably on before. On the other side stood two security guards and three shady characters, all of them badly bruised, even more so than the smaller man. And he had never heard someone shoot that amount and variety of insulting and abusive language in such a short amount of time.

“Dae! Thank god! You’re here! Hold him back!” Chanyeol hissed out, to which his companion threw Jongdae a look, “Are you sure he will be able to help? So tiny as he is?” the ash blonde barely dodged a flying fist from Mr Do, “, Soo! Calm down!”

“I won’t ing calm down! I’ll ing cut the bastard’s face off and feed it to my dogs! I’ll skin all three of them alive, just give me a mothering scalpel, I’ll cut their off and--” He stopped his screaming when someone circled his arm around his chest and crossed his arms behind his back, stopping every possible movement. He felt a steady, hot breath in the nape of his neck and an agitated heartbeat on his back. “Let me go,” Mr Do hissed, trying to lightly shake off his oppressor but he already felt that he wouldn’t be able to shake him off, at least not with that wound and the adrenaline rush slowly fading away. The man who had pinned him down, laid his cheek on his shoulder and looked at him, “Sir, please, think about your arm,” he murmured and rolled his head over, so that he could almost hide his face in the crook of the stranger’s neck. “You’re pretty brave, I must say,” the man said and the tension slowly started fading away, but Jongdae was still being cautious and didn’t let go, just slightly loosening his hold so that the man’s wound wouldn’t be more pressured. “Name’s Kyungsoo. Yours?”

“Jongdae,” he whispered; the fatigue from not eating finally coming over him.

“Hey boy, what’s--” his hands slipped out of the stranger’s hold, who turned around fast enough to catch him, before he could meet the ground.

_________

Later.

His head hurt and he groaned, trying to get up.

“Uncle, uncle, he’s awake.”

“Careful, young man, your dad isn’t feeling well.”

“What happened?”

“He was just tired. He needed a whole lot of sleep, you know?”

“Uh-oh.”

“Hoon?” his own voice sounded unfamiliar to him, hoarse and raspy. He still wasn’t really able to open his eyes and waved his hands towards the direction Hoon’s voice was coming from.

“Daddy! Carry me, uncle?”

“I told you to stop calling me uncle, I’m younger than your da-da is.” He heard the scratching of a chair that was pushed back and a groan, and seconds later the mattress he was laid on, dipped down with extra weight.

“Yo, hyung, awake?” the voice sounded unnerved, stressed even. Jongdae pried his eyes open and tried focusing on the owner of the voice. He was able to make out black and blonde hair. Rubbing his eyes in an attempt to regain his sight, he squinted and was met with the sight of a young man with ash-blonde hair, sitting next to him. Beside the stranger, Hoon was standing on the mattress, his arms around the stranger's neck, who was stabilising him with a hand on his back, “Now, now, young man, can we sit down now?”

Hoon’s eyes didn’t leave Jongdae’s face and he tried sitting down without actually looking where he was going. If it wasn’t for the stranger, he might have fallen down.

Crawling towards him, Hoon cupped his face with his hands. His eyes were red as if he had just cried. “Hey champ, are you alright?” Hoon’s face lit up and he gave a toothy smile, his missing front tooth even more apparent.

“Daddy is awake!”

“Come here, let me hug you,” Jongdae said spreading his arms wide for Hoon to dive in. Nuzzling at the little boy’s mop of hair, he eyed the stranger, “And you are?”

“Hoon’s new uncle, didn’t you catch it?” the man tsked and his face was devoid of emotion. “Sehun. I was tasked to keep an eye on Hoon here when he woke up.”

“But he doesn’t like strangers?”

“Apparently, I’m an exception,” Sehun grimaced.

“He’s so tall, he let me ride on his shoulders,” Hoon objected from Jongdae’s embrace.

A knock sounded from the door and in came Dr Park, his arms thrown around the other stranger’s shoulders, “I’m telling you, the match was great, why didn’t you watch it?”

“Because I had work to do, you giant dickhead,” the stranger rolled his eyes. The shirt he was wearing was way too big for him and the stitches were wrapped with bandage. Jongdae wasn’t too sure but he was pretty sure he had seen that shirt lying around in Chanyeol’s office, thrown over his swivel chair.

“Ah, Jongdae, you’re awake.” Jongdae thought it was impossible, but Chanyeol’s smile grew even wider. “Hoon?”

The boy’s head popped up from where he was lying, “Yes?”

“Sehun-ah and you should get something to eat, it’s already noon. And your dad is awake again, so you need to fulfill your promise and go eat now.” Hoon pulled an adorable pout, but he didn’t object any further and made grabby hands to the blonde man. Jongdae registered a twitch around the corner of Sehun’s mouth. “You’re old enough to walk, Hoon,” Sehun objected. “Don’t wanna,” Hoon was still pouting and it seemed like it did the trick as Sehun’s facial expression softened a bit and he scooped up the boy, who was squealing in delight from the suddenness. A few quick strides and the duo had left the room, but the other stranger was still there and regarded Jongdae with an unreadable expression.

“Don’t mind him, he’s harmless,” Chanyeol commented, taking in Jongdae’s unsure expression.

“Oh, off, Channie!” the stranger kicked Chanyeol in the calf from where he was standing and Chanyeol grimaced in serious pain. Rubbing his calf, he spoke up again, “You collapsed from malnutrition. When was the last time you had something decent to eat?”

Jongdae couldn’t come up with an answer and Chanyeol’s smile faltered a little. He threw a glance at the stranger who still hadn’t introduced himself to him, and only knew him as Mr Do. He couldn’t remember his name. “You don’t need to stay in the hospital but for the sake of it you won’t be discharged until tomorrow. Please make sure you eat enough. I’m running overtime right now, I should finally clock out before my third night shift starts and I won’t have had any decent sleep. I’ll excuse myself. See you around, Dae,” Chanyeol smiled at him as if he knew something he didn’t.

That only left him and the stranger, alone, his presence making him nervous and a tingling feeling invading his guts. He gulped and his eyes flitted to the stranger, who was pulling a chair towards the bed. “Kim Jongdae, I think I should introduce myself again. I’m Do Kyungsoo. No need to be formal, you can call me Kyungsoo. I’ll get straight to the point. I let Sehun run a background check on you, Channie doesn’t know about it but it seems he did some digging himself, otherwise, he wouldn't have asked you to hold me down.” He filled up a glass with water and handed it to Jongdae who accepted it. He was unsure of how to react to the information. “I know the backstory and how you regained custody over your nephew. I’ll cut to the chase, I know you were a boxer and I experienced your strength first-hand tonight. I also know about your family and some digging showed us that we have the same enemy.”

“Are you making me an offer I can’t refuse? Is this some kind of mafia ?” Jongdae tilted his head and took in the man’s appearance once again. Even with the oversized clothes, it was apparent the man was too buff for a small office worker, scar on the bridge of his nose and hands aside, the ink on his skin was peeking through some areas.

Kyungsoo cracked a smile; it suited him. “I own a few companies.” He didn’t exactly deny it but neither did he admit it. “I need someone I can trust for one of my clubs, as a bouncer. We would also provide the best for Hoon.”

“What makes you think you can trust me or that I can trust you?”

“You may don’t know it but I realised you’re working in one of my companies on a temporary contract and I know for sure that the temporary employment agency pays , that’s why I’m about to cut ties with them. But not without taking the people working for me under my wing. What I want to say is your work management is formidable and I heard some co-workers of yours talk about you. You need the money and you know it. Hoon needs something to eat and so do you. What happened today could happen again. I’ll leave my contact information with Chanyeol. Think about it.”

He stood up and went towards the door, but he turned around when he lay his hand on the door handle and looked at him, “You’re ambitious, Jongdae, and I’d like to help you. Without you accepting or not.” He smiled genuinely and Jongdae was at a loss for words. After he left him alone, Jongdae started digesting what the man had told him. It sounded dangerous but less dangerous than what he had in mind. Suddenly, Hoon came back in, running, bouncing on him and smiling like there was no tomorrow.

After his lunch, he took Hoon by his hand and walked towards the reception, feeling agitated. “Hello miss, I’d like to know about the cost of my treatments.”

She seemed to be okay with him setting Hoon down on the counter, “Names?”

“Hoon, with two O’s, and Jongdae Kim, Jong- D, A, E.”

She searched up the medical bills, and it turned out it would cost him months of pay to pay them. “They've already been paid.” She looked up to him and smiled.

“Paid? By who?”

“Kyungsoo Do.”