Nine year-old Sanghyuk giggled at something his mother said as they walked down the street. Jisung had asked for chicken for dinner, but they didn’t have a couple of ingredients for the chicken-based dish that their mother wanted to make. So their mother went out to the store, Sanghyuk accompanying her because he thought that she needed someone to carry the bags. Their father stayed home, keeping an eye on Jisung.

Everything was fine until a villain showed up.

Sanghyuk was so excited, he was going to get to see a hero fight up-close. His mother wasn’t nearly as happy as she dragged him into cover. Sanghyuk pouted as his mother covered him with her body, trying to give him an extra layer of protection. He didn’t think he needed it, the hero would be there soon to save them after all. If they did need any more protection, then he could just use his fire, right?

The hero was soon on the scene and Sanghyuk grinned brightly when he realized that it was one of the top ten. The top ten were some of the greatest heroes in the world! Sanghyuk had never thought he’d get to see one in person, never mind seeing one fight. He whispered all of this excitedly to his mother who breathed a sigh of relief. With a top ten hero there, she knew her son would be alright.

The fight started and soon the whole street was a disaster zone.

Sanghyuk didn’t know when exactly his hiding place exploded, all he remembered was his mother hugging him one moment and the next he was laying in the street. Everything he remembered after that……it was just pictures, short moments that haunted his dreams for years afterwards. Every time, he woke up in a cold sweat and just had to make sure that those he cared about were still alive. That they were still in one piece. Then he’d sit up the rest of the night, mind replaying the images over and over until morning came.

The sky above him had been blue, not a cloud in sight.

His mother lay beside him, her eyes still open as blood pooled around her.

The ‘hero’ mid-punch as the villain tried to dodge.

Other heroes showing up, trying to help the victims of the whole thing.

The ‘hero’ standing over the defeated villain while reporters took pictures.

Being loaded onto a stretcher while the ‘hero’ focused on talking to the news.

Sanghyuk’s last thought before he passed out was that this man was no hero.

--

“Dad?” Sanghyuk asked when he opened his eyes.

“Oh, god,” his father gasped, rushing to his son’s side, “Sanghyuk, you’re ok.”

“Dad?” Sanghyuk asked again, looking around, “where…..where are we?”

“We’re at the hospital, Hyukkie,” his father replied, trying his best not to cry and failing, “you…..you were hurt really badly. They……they said they…..” his father broke down crying and Sanghyuk tried to piece together everything.

“Mom,” he finally said, “where…..where is she?”

Honestly, Sanghyuk already knew the answer. But he just……he wanted his father to tell him that he was wrong. That his mother was alright. But his father didn’t tell him that, he just cried harder. Sanghyuk felt sick. He let out a small sob and then he was crying just as hard as his father.

“He did this,” Sanghyuk cried, “that……that fake hero killed her!”

“Sanghyuk,” his father instantly sobered at that, “please……please don’t say that.”

“Say what?” Sanghyuk asked, his father’s sudden change scaring him, “what……what’s going on, dad?”

“Your mother,” his father sighed and suddenly he looked so tired, “she wasn’t the only one who died. You….you’re only one of three victims who left that street alive. One died while the doctors tried to save them, so……really you’re only one of two survivors.”

“Only one of two?” Sanghyuk breathed, eyes wide with horror.

The street had been full of people. People coming home from work. Mothers running out to get some missing ingredients for dinner. Children his age and younger laughing with their friends before heading home. Now all of them……they were dead.

“Sanghyuk,” his father lowered his voice, “you and I know that the hero is really to blame. So does the other survivor. But that guy……he was offered some kind of deal, something to keep his mouth shut about everything. He took it.”

“What?” Sanghyuk hissed, his anger spiking, “why would he do that?”

“Because he had no choice,” his father sighed, “and neither do we.”

Sanghyuk fell silent, staring at his father in horror.

“They made me an offer I couldn’t turn down,” his father explained, begged really, “they said…….they said that if I didn’t take it, if I didn’t keep you quiet about the truth……they……they would make sure you wouldn’t say anything at all. They threatened to kill you, Sanghyuk. You and Jisung. Please understand, I had no choice. I already lost your mother, I refuse to lose you and your brother as well.”

“I get it,” Sanghyuk said after a long moment of silence, “I get it, dad.”

Sanghyuk did get it. His father didn’t have any other option. He was forced to let his wife’s killer walk free because he couldn’t lose his boys as well. That didn’t make Sanghyuk any less angry, it just shifted his hate and anger away from his father. Did all heroes operate like this? Did they all threaten people into keeping silent about their failures? About their crimes?

Suddenly, Sanghyuk didn’t want to be a hero. If this was how the heroes did things, he’d much rather become a villain. But not just any kind of villain. He decided in that moment that he would be the villain to bring the fake heroes to their knees. He would take this rotten hero system and burn it to ash. And in its place he’d leave something better.

--

“Nice work, kid,” the sleazy crime boss grinned at Sanghyuk, tossing him his payment, “very nice work indeed.”

“Thanks,” Sanghyuk replied, grabbing the money and turning to leave.

“Before you go,” the boss called, “I have another job I wanna talk to you about.”

“Go ahead then,” Sanghyuk said, turning back around to face his current employer.

“I’ve been having some issues down at the docks,” the boss explained, “Some new ers are trying to cut into my turf. Take care of it for me, would ya? I’ll pay you twice as much.”

“I’ll deal with them tomorrow,” Sanghyuk replied before actually leaving this time.

He really didn’t like working for criminals, but everyone had to start somewhere. And it wasn’t like he was going to be able to find allies working alongside the law-abiding citizens. No, the criminals were the only ones who would even try to see things his way. Given, their dislike of heroes came from a much different place then his, but beggars can’t be choosers. Plus if anyone him, a lot less people would be concerned about the charred corpse of a villain then that of a good person.

“I’m home,” Sanghyuk sighed hours later when he entered his apartment.

Like always, no one answered back and Sanghyuk took a moment to regret moving out of his family’s home. He missed his father’s cooking and Jisung’s laughter. But living on his own was necessary for his goals. What he was doing left him coming and going at odd hours, something he knew that his family would notice right away if they still lived together. If they knew what he was doing, they would try to stop him and Sanghyuk…..he couldn’t stop. Not until he’d achieved his dream.

So, Sanghyuk applied for a college far enough away from home that no one could justify him staying there. He moved out, secretly changed most of his classes to online courses so he could do the work when it fit his schedule, and everything was perfect. Except for those days where he missed his family. Those days were always hard. Sanghyuk sighed as he hung up his coat, making a silent promise with himself to call his brother later and arrange a visit for the weekend.

“You’re home late,” Jisung’s voice startled Sanghyuk so much that he actually flamed up.

“Jisung?” Sanghyuk gasped, “what-what are you doing here?”

“I thought I’d check in with you,” Jisung replied, watching Sanghyuk carefully, “so I called you last night and got no answer. I thought that was weird because you have classes in the morning so you should be in, but then I thought ‘oh, he must just be studying and turned off his phone, I’ll just try again later.’ So I did, and I still didn’t get an answer.”

“So you came to check on me,” Sanghyuk sighed, mind trying to think up excuses. Anything to cover up the truth.

“And you weren’t even here,” Jisung nodded, “so I thought I’d stick around and see when exactly you came back from……..whatever it is you’re doing.” Jisung paused, giving Sanghyuk a hard look before saying anything else, “I looked around, Sanghyuk.” Don’t even try to lie to me.

“If you looked around,” Sanghyuk said after a moment, “then you already know what I was doing.”

The brothers fell silent, just watching each other and waiting for someone to do something.

“Why?” Jisung finally asked.

“You need to be more specific,” Sanghyuk said, taking a seat at his kitchen table and gesturing for his brother to sit across from him, “why am I doing this? Why am I working with criminals?”

“The second one,” Jisung said, “I……I already know the answer to the first.” Mom.

“Where else am I going to fine people who’ll listen to me?” the older Han asked the younger, “you know as well as I do how much society loves heroes. Everyone already thought I was odd for not being interested in them, what do you think they’d do if they learned I hated them? That I wanted to change the system?”

“But aren’t you just as bad as them?” Jisung challenged, “You’re helping criminals! People who’ll hurt the innocent!”

“Nothing I’ve done has led to innocent people getting hurt,” Sanghyuk huffed, “I’ve made sure of that. All I do is burn people.”

“Burn them?” Jisung asked, eyes wide, “you…..kill people?”

“Only bad people,” Sanghyuk shrugged, a small voice in the back of his head reminding him that he shouldn’t be saying something like that so casually. But Sanghyuk had been killing people since he turned seventeen, just before he moved out. He was twenty one now and killing……..he’d learned not to think twice about it.

After all, it wasn’t like he was killing good people.

“But you still kill them!” Jisung snapped, “good or bad…….aren’t they still people?”

“Is the guy who killed mom a person?” Sanghyuk countered, glaring darkly at the table, “what about all the other fakes who kill innocent people and never think twice about it? Who ruin lives and families without a second thought?”

The two fell silent after that. Eventually, Sanghyuk got up and went to bed and Jisung left for school. Jisung was silent the whole day, his classmates sending him worried looks. He thought about what Sanghyuk was doing, what he wanted to do. Was it really that bad? The system was corrupt and broken, he’d be a fool not to see that. But killing people, even bad people…….was it right?

Jisung……he didn’t really remember his mother. He’d only been four when she was killed, so most of his memories were fuzzy but her smile……that was something he remembered clear as day. Her voice when she said his name, when she called him her little squirrel, echoed in his dreams often. He also remembered the last time he saw her, leaving the house with Sanghyuk because they needed something for dinner. Jisung didn’t talk about it, but sometimes……sometimes he blamed himself for what happened.

She’s only been out because of him. He’d wanted chicken for dinner and she was going to make it for him because she was a great mother. When he realized that his mother wasn’t coming back…….he hadn’t touched chicken since. The very sight of the meat had made him sick for several years after her death. What made him feel worse was seeing the effect losing her had on his father and brother. After her death, his father always looked so sad. Even when he smiled, he still looked sad.

And Sanghyuk……..

Sanghyuk was angry with the world after that. His big brother used to laugh and smile, used to joke around and play with him. But when their mother died…….all of that stopped. Sanghyuk stopped laughing, stopped smiling, and he didn’t play with Jisung anymore. He’d overheard their father on the phone once, telling the other person that it felt like he’d lost his wife and son that day. Jisung agreed, it really did feel like they’d buried Sanghyuk when they buried mother.

And now…….now Sanghyuk was killing people. His kind, wonderful, and sweet big brother that he’d always looked up to was on a path that would see him kill a lot of people. He went over the conversation he’d had with Sanghyuk again, still desperately trying to find an answer somewhere in those words.

Jisung’s answer didn’t come until a couple of days later when one of his classmates died. The news claimed that it was the villain’s fault, that the hero who’d shown up had done all they could to protect the group of hostages. But Jisung knew the truth, his classmate had died because the hero was a fake. The store had been leveled, everyone inside crushed under the weight of the roof. That villain wasn’t strong enough to do something like that, but the hero was. The hero had the perfect power to do something like that.

Jisung left school that day in a rush, running right to his brother’s apartment.

“Jisung?” Sanghyuk asked, looking over the younger Han worriedly, “are you alright? What happened?”

“I want to help you,” Jisung said, “with what you’re doing. The….the fake heroes need to be stopped. They……they killed mom and they killed Jimin and they’ve killed tons of other people and…..and they need to be stopped!”

He was crying by the end of his speech. All he could think about was his mother and his classmate. The girl from his class, Jimin……..he’d known her for years. He could remember playing with her when he was little, going over to her house for her eighth birthday party. He’d helped her put up lost dog posters when her dog ran away and gone with Sanghyuk to return the animal when they found it at the beach a few days later. She was always smiling and she wanted to be a doctor. She had her whole life ahead of her and now…….

Now she was dead just like his mother.

“Hey,” Sanghyuk said, hugging his baby brother tightly, “hey, it’s ok. Jisung, it’s going to be ok. I’ll fix it, I promise. I’ll make it better.”

Jisung nodded through his tears, trusting that Sanghyuk would make good on his promise to make things better.