Alex rubbed his arm, which had been the victim of abuse. He was in the bathroom staring at the huge almost black bruise where some random dude had hit him. His eyes almost began to water, but he blinked away the tears. I’m going to be an idol soon. I have to be stronger than this! The maknae sighed and stared at his reflection for a while before he went back into his room to find a shirt that wasn’t dirty, which was a challenge in itself.

Jihoon usually took care of everything for him, but lately he had been too busy with his boyfriend to care for Alex, who barely knew how to cook, let alone wash his own clothes. When he finally found a shirt that didn’t stink it was time for him to go to school. He hadn’t done his homework, and it wasn’t that he didn’t care about school; it was just that he didn’t have time for it even though he spent most of his day there. Even if he did have time for it, he needed help and nobody seemed to want to give it to him.

Just yesterday he had raised his hand in class and said that Venus was the 6^th planet from the sun, when people had started to laugh at him he realized how wrong he was. He had laughed at himself too, but inside he was so embarrassed that he just felt like running out of the room.  To Alex, school was boring. It was just something to go to so that he didn’t have too much free time.  School always ended just before he got the urge to ditch, which was a good thing because if he ditched he was sure he would get caught.

When he got back it was time to practice, so he went straight to the practice room.  The first person he saw when he got there was the same person who hit him! He had short dark brown hair and was wearing nerdy looking glasses with little diamonds on the sides. He also had one pant leg rolled up, and a batman shirt on. Alex was tempted to walk out of the practice room, and avoid this new person. He knew that he wouldn’t like him based on what had happened the day before.

“Hi, my name’s Alex! How are you?” he ran up to the new person, and was about to wrap his arms around him when he felt himself being pushed away, “Hey what’s wrong? Don’t you want a hug from me?” he put on his best sad face. “Why the hell would I want a hug from an annoying little like you? Get the away from me.” Alex felt a pang of sadness in his heart at being pushed away by his new hyung, so he smiled and reached out to try to hug him again, this time yelping and scurrying away when he felt himself being hit.

The flashback hit Alex like a blast of cold air, causing him to gasp and be noticed by Pant-leg (Alex thought the name fitted him, since he wouldn’t let his real name be known) Alex figured that since pant-leg already saw him he should go say hi, so he walked up to pant-leg and smiled up at him,

“How are you today hyung?” Alex glanced down to make sure that he looked innocent in the mirror quickly, but Pant-leg noticed it and left the room. Alex started to practice dancing, trying to ignore the twinge of pain in his heart.