Key was walking home from school with Taemin. Their hands were intertwined with each other and Key wore the loving expression he only had around Taemin and Jonghyun.  Usually nothing bothered him, he ignored all of the other students, but the new kid had him wondering.

                Who reacts so badly to questions? Why hadn’t Minho come back to school afterwards?

                “—Ma? Key-eomma?” He heard Taemin’s voice in the distance.

                Snapping back to reality, he whipped his head around to look at his baby. “Yes Taeminnie?”

                “Were you listening?”

                “Yes, you were talking about your math test. How did you do, baby?”

                Taemin continued talking about his math test, which he wasn’t entirely sure he did well on when Key spotted Minho.

                “Eomma, was that Minho-hyung?”

                Key nodded. “I think so… Who’s that with him?”

                Minki was being carried by his older brother, who winced in pain when the boy shifted his weight. Minho didn’t even notice his school mates until they were right in front of him. He stared at them, unsure of what to say. He decided to introduce his brother.

                “Hyung, Taemin, this is my brother. Choi Minki”

                Minki looked up at them, waving hi.

                “Aigoo, Minki-yah!” Key exclaimed, dropping Taemin’s hand in order to properly greet the seven year old. Taemin pouted, upset that his eomma was paying attention to someone other than him.

                “Minho-hyung, why didn’t you sit with us today?” Taemin looked up at Minho innocently.

                Minho didn’t respond right away, unsure of what to say. Could he have said he wanted to commit suicide? Could he tell him that he’d been saved by a Human Tofu? He lied.

                “Library,” he muttered, unsure of how to express his full sentence in Korean.

                Taemin seemed to understand, but Minho earned a glare from Key who knew that wasn’t true. Key wanted to get to the bottom of this mysterious Choi Minho. If Minho didn’t want to say it in front of Taemin, he would make sure Minho would be able to tell him in private.

                “Hey, Minho-ya, can I have your phone number? I didn’t get the assignment today.” Key stated, knowing full well that Minho didn’t have it either.

                “Yeah,” Minho replied, pulling his phone out. He gave it to Key, who just saved himself as “Almighty Key”.

                Once they exchanged numbers (Taemin had also given Minho his number), they parted ways. Upon reaching his home, Minho entered his room and felt his phone vibrate twice.

                From: Almighty Key
                               Hey! Tell me what happened! Where did you go? Did you cut class?

                Minho sighed. Why couldn’t people give him a rest?

                From: Choi Minho

                                I went home

                Hoping this was enough to satisfy Key’s curiosity, he put his phone down only to hear it vibrate again.

                From: Almighty Key

                                I don’t believe you.

                Minho did not respond. He started doing his homework, finishing all of science and math before he heard the front door open. His breath hitched, waiting for the voice to announce who it was.

                “I’m home~!”

                It was his step-mother. He sighed in relief, gathering up the strength to go to welcome her back.

                She smiled at him sadly when he hobbled down the steps and he hugged him lightly. She knew he hadn’t eaten anything last night and her eyes asked him for forgiveness.

                He immediately did forgive her. It wasn’t her fault.

                Once he had said hello, he went back to his room, secretly thrilled she was home. Now he’d eat! Even if he had his father’s leftovers, he could eat! His stomach growled to remind him it was still there and he grinned. Food, stomach! We get food!

                He noticed his phone again, and this time he had two messages

                From: Almighty Key

                                Hey! Don’t ignore me!

                Minho ignored it.

                From: Lee Jinki

                                How r u minho-gun? Did u enjoy the chicken? ^^ Stop by any time! I still have ur uniform top ^0^

                Minho would respond to this one.

                From: Choi Minho

                                Thank you, Onew-hyung. I enjoyed the chicken a lot :)

                From: Lee Jinki

                                Good ^^ Take care of urself and c u soon – Onew

                From: Choi Minho

                                Bye, hyung

                He placed his phone down, smiling again. He changed the name from “Lee Jinki” to something less formal. “#1 hyung”, became Onew’s contact name. Minho felt tears running down his face. Someone cared about him.

                The week went by relatively uneventful for Minho, and he began sitting with Jonghyun, Taemin and Key every day. He’d stopped by Onew’s flat again, refusing to eat again in his presence. Although Key tried his best to tap into Minho’s private life, Minho never spoke a word about it. The only information his “friends” had about him was that he was half-Korean and he had a little brother.

                It was on a Saturday when things went haywire for Minho. When he woke up, he was amazed to see that he had slept past his usual “morning curfew” of 7am. Scared, he changed into his work clothes and ran into the backyard, tending to the garden his father made him keep. He worked until 7:30, wondering where his father was. Although he hated his father, he was a little worried when he hadn’t shown up to check on him.

                So Minho went inside, in search of his father.

               He found him rather easily. The man was slumped over on the floor, bottles of whiskey surrounding him. Surprised, Minho stood for a moment before deciding to help his father into bed. He swung his father’s arms around his bruised shoulder and bared the man’s weight onto his body.

                It was just his luck when his father woke up. Immediately, Minho’s father gained control of his muscles, giving Minho a hard strike to his jaw. Minho dropped him.

                “How dare you touch me!” His father began, his bloodshot eyes wide with fury.

                Minho said nothing, holding his face in his hands. His father hit him again, but with much more intensity, causing Minho’s head to hit the wall behind him. Minho fell down the hard wooden stairs, his body collecting on the floor in a heap.

                “Answer me, you pompous child! You think you’re all that?” His father stood over him and grabbed Minho by the hair.

                Something inside Minho snapped and his submissive behaviour immediately changed. “I’m better than you,” he huffed, looking up.

                “What the hell did you just say to me?!” He yanked Minho up, certainly causing him pain, forcing him to look into his father’s eyes. “You’ll regret those words you son-of-a-”

                Minho took this opportunity to spit right into his father’s face.

                His father was honestly surprised, shocked, astounded that Minho would do such a thing. In his shock, he let go momentarily and Minho took advantage of this again, returning the punch his father had blown just two minutes ago.

                “I certainly am your son, ,”

                With that, he grabbed his cell phone off of the kitchen table and ran out of the house.

                He ran for half an hour down alleys he’d never even seen before. His lungs burnt with adrenaline, his heart pumped so fast that he was afraid it’d pop out of his chest.

                His phone chose that moment to buzz.  Cautiously, he opened it.

                From: #1 Hyung

                                Minho-gun ^^ how r u? I haven’t seen u in a while! Come over!

                From: Choi Minho

                                Hyung… You do me a favour?

                From: #1 Hyung

                                Sure thing ^0^. What do u need?

                From: Choi Minho

                                Pick me up?

                From: #1 Hyung

                                Where r u?

                From Choi Minho:

                                I don’t know…

                From: #1 Hyung

                                I’ll find u. don’t worry ^0~