"NO! Please, I didn't do anything wrong, ask them!"

The screaming woman pointed at the people who were walking by, trying their best not to stand out and to get out of sight as soon as possible. No one looked at her, knowing very well that they could - and would - be next if they tried to help her.

The three men in the threatening red-white uniform didn't even react to her screaming and dragged her away. Shortly before they were out of sight, the woman found a familiar face in the crowd, one of the two people who were just standing there, watching silently.

"YOU!" she screeched. Jongin winced. He looked at his father, who didn't even bat an eye when the woman addressed him. "You will regret what you're doing to us. Never will you get away with this!"

One of the men put his hand on and they proceeded to drag her away, until her screams weren't to be heard anymore.

Without a sign of emotion, Jongin's father turned around and went inside their house. Jongin, on the other hand, could just stand there like petrified. The other people, now that the danger was gone, turned towards him and the place where his father had disappeared. They were frowning, muttering things beneath their breaths - curses, most likely - and throwing glares. They didn't dare to do more. They never did.

Jongin slowly turned around and walked away, passing his house and going further down the street. No matter how hard he tried, he wasn't able to erase the screaming, crying woman from his mind. She had been the third this month. And, most likely, the third innocent.

Jongin knew. Just as well as the others. His father didn't do all of this out of fear. His father was the most fearless person he knew. Everyone was afraid of the Red Force, some of them tried to gain the organisation's favour by reporting when someone was behaving suspiciously. But his father was not one of them.

He did it for the money.

His father got a reward for every single person he delivered. He sold his own people. Most of the time, they were innocent and he just made up a charge. Of course, he made sure they took the people who were said to be conspiring against the Red Force first.

Trying to fight the urge to vomit, Jongin didn't notice he had reached the last few houses of his village. Behind another house, someone coughed quietly. The surprise made Jongin leave his thoughts be and concentrate on the possible threat in front of him.

"Who are you?" he asked calmly.

A guy his age stepped out of the shadows. He was not very tall and had short hair and big, serious eyes. The look in his eyes would have been enough to make a grown, armed man shiver out of fear.

Jongin let out a relieved sigh.

"It's you! What are you doing here, I thought it was too dangerous to come here today?" Excited to see his best friend, Jongin started smiling and temporarily forgot about his dark thoughts. Kyungsoo sighed and looked him in the eyes.

"Your father made sure to keep the soldiers occupied."

Jongin looked down when he remembered the events of this day. "She had a little child to take care of. I hope her neighbours will look after it. If I'm caught helping the victims a second time, he'll kill me."

At the last part, Kyungsoo inspected the other's face, furrowing his eyebrows. He stretched out a hand towards Jongin's face, who flinched. Kyungsoo let his hand sink again.

"Your mother must have seen that bruise. Doesn't she say anything when he does that?"

"Well, she's obviously more intelligent than I am and keeps shut," Jongin answered, the sarcasm quite obvious in his voice. "But enough of me, how are your siblings?"

Kyungsoo's face darkened immediately, making Jongin wonder why he left them alone if his parents had a bad day again. But apparently, there was more to it than the usual problems.

"I... I left," Kyungsoo mumbled, barely audible for his friend's ears. Now it was Kyungsoo's turn to stare down the ground, while Jongin was gawking at him.

"You left? But what about your siblings, they're not safe from them, what if your parents hurt-"

"It would be even more dangerous for them if I stayed," said Kyungsoo, interrupting Jongin. Jongin kept staring at his friend for a while, trying to figure out what the heck he was talking about.

However, before Kyungsoo was able to explain, a voice from behind interjected.

"My, my, if that isn't the brat who calls himself my son's friend." Jongin turned around, only to be met with his fathers cold, expressionless eyes.

"What are you doing here?" Jongin asked aggressively, trying to shield Kyungsoo's body with his own. "Don't you think you've disturbed enough people for today?" He felt his friend's hand on his arm, trying to calm him down. Kyungsoo was right, provoking his father was a terrible idea. But he wasn't able to erase the screaming woman from his memory, and the look in his father's eyes that had followed her had been the same he currently had, just, this time, he was looking at Kyungsoo.

Hearing his son's verbal attack, his father squinted his eyes. "You better thank me on your knees for feeding our family, boy. Don't you dare be this disrespectful towards me. And you," he continued, this time glaring at Kyungsoo, "the Red Force does not allow contact between the villages." His eyes changed back and forth between the two boys, finally resting on Jongin. "I will not allow my OWN son to break the rules!"

Jongin was fuming now. He had always been ashamed of his father's connections; he had despised every single time one of his own neighbours or friends had been sold like cattle. And he had been too frightened to protect them. What could he have done against his own father?

But seeing him attack his best friend was crossing every limit Jongin could have thought of. This was enough.

"You can't force me to be loyal to you and betray my friend when it's you who everyone in this village is afraid of because you betrayed them! Why don't you go back to ruining people's lives and leave mine alone?"

In a split second, his father had walked up to him and punched him directly in the face. The impact threw the boy to the ground. He stared at the man who had raised him, now glaring at him as if ready to kill.

As if it hadn't been enough, his father seemed to be preparing for another punch. Kyungsoo, who must've been frozen by the shock, seemed to be pulled back to reality.

"Stop it." Kyungsoo’s voice was shivering so much he wasn't even able to raise it. Jongin's father either didn't hear or just ignored him. Shortly before his fist came in contact with his son's face for a second time, the earth started to rumble.

"What the heck is this?" Jongin's father asked, his fist still raised. Jongin was panicking as well, trying to search for the cause of this. But he only saw Kyungsoo, the boy's eyes visibly darkened in a spiteful expression, fists clenched as if ready to fight. He didn't seem to be surprised or puzzled by the mini-earthquake and if this had been possible, Jongin would have suspected him to be its cause.

The older man seemed to have overcome his surprise, now staring at Kyungsoo with an even more hateful expression.

"You're one of those freaks! How dare you even think of being near my son, you monster?"

"Don't call him these words! How could Kyungsoo do this?" Jongin shouted back to his father.

He wasn't able to control his anger anymore. He had enough of watching innocent people being persecuted, enough of only being seen as the son of a traitor, everyone believing Jongin would soon follow his father's example. Jongin was sick of this life, and he was astonished when he realized how long he had been feeling like this already.

His father, however, had his eyes still fixed on the other boy.

"Let's go home, son." He motioned for Jongin to come with him in his commanding voice. "I have a new report to fill in."

It didn't take Jongin long to grasp the meaning of this. He was now shivering with disgust. "You want to sell Kyungsoo to the Red Force?"

His friend's eyes widened as he heard these words. Jongin would not let this happen.

His father, annoyed with Jongin disobeying him openly, grabbed his arm and started pulling him along. In one final motion, Jongin freed himself and made a few steps backwards.

"You will not tell me what to do anymore." Even his father seemed to be surprised at the ultimacy in his words. He stood there, completely motionless for a few seconds. Then, his face changed and, filled with rage, he stormed towards Jongin.

Before he was able to reach them, though, he disappeared. Their surroundings disappeared as well. Kyungsoo nearly disappeared, but Jongin made sure to hold onto his friend in his panic. What was happening?

After a few seconds, he found himself on the opposite side of the village in a house he frequently visited to be alone, Kyungsoo still holding onto him.

"What was that?" Jongin questioned, trying to suppress a somewhat nauseous feeling. Kyungsoo let go of his arm and looked around curiously. Then, he turned back towards his friend.

"You're special, Jongin. It seems Teleportation is your power."

"My what?" Jongin could only stare at his best friend as if he had never seen him before. What was he talking about?

"I only discovered it today as well," Kyungsoo explained. "I had hoped, well..." He looked down, the rest of his sentence nearly inaudible, "I had hoped you were not like me."

At this moment, Jongin understood where the earthquake had come from. And he understood why Kyungsoo was acting as if he had left his home forever.

"Your family found out, huh?" Jongin asked cautiously, knowing what a sensitive topic this was. His friend sighed.

"They've finally thrown me out. They've always suspected me to be a freak, but today gave them the reason to get rid of me. Even the little ones looked at me as if I wanted to eat them."

Jongin felt a sting in his heart when he heard about Kyungsoo's little siblings. His friend had always taken care of them, shielded them from most of their parent's abuse and taken all the blame whenever they had done something. Not even Jongin would have wanted to change places with him. At least his mother had been on his side, and he didn't have any siblings he needed to protect. Kyungsoo had been bruised and injured far more often than Jongin, and he had never complained about it.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Jongin muttered, not knowing how to respond. After all, he had probably just made sure to be thrown out as well, if his father wasn't already planning on selling him to the Red Force, too. He most likely was.

"What are we going to do now? I don't think you should go back, either," Kyungsoo stated carefully. Jongin nodded. He would leave his mother behind, but she had always managed to soothe his father. Maybe she would be able to bring him back to his senses when Jongin wasn't there as a constant disappointment.

"Where can we go?" Jongin muttered helplessly. "If my father hasn't already informed his friends, he will do so once he realizes I'm gone. Staying would be our death, but we don't know anyone out there."

Kyungsoo shrugged. "You already said it. We can't stay. And, if you're being honest, everywhere is better than here."

Jongin knew what he meant. "Let's go then.”

After a few attempts, he managed to teleport them into his room. If he had calculated correctly, his father was busy calling his friends together to hunt them down. Hurriedly, he packed a few of his things, sneaking something to eat in his backpack as well, then transported them to the end of the village again.

Silently, without looking back once, they left.