"Minji," five-year-old Daesung whimpered as he hugged his twin sister tightly, trying to block out all of the yelling that was coming from his parents' bedroom, "they're fighting again!"

Minji hugged Daesung back, kissing her brother on the forehead, frightened by the fighting that they could hear but still needing to protect her younger twin. "They'll stop soon. They always do."

"Why does daddy let mommy treat him like that?" Daesung whimpered once more, tearing up.

"Because dad is strong and not like mom." Minji soothed gently. "Dad wouldn't hurt mom like mom hurts him, Daesung."

Daesung nestled into Minji's side, trying to block out the sounds of the shouting but it was so hard when it was coming from the bedroom right next to theirs – and the problem with that was that if they left their room and their mother came out and found them, she would hurt them, too.

Daesung was glad that his slightly older twin was there with him because it was always so frightening when their parents fought with each other – or their mother yelled and hit their father around while their father just stayed quiet and tried not to bite back.

The twins' mother, Jessica Jung, was abusive to not only them, but their father as well. The twins had been taken to the hospital more times than could be counted due to serious injuries but no matter how often the child protection agency got involved, their mother had always talked her way out of trouble - but no one ever got involved for the twins' father, leaving him to suffer alone.

Their father, Kim Kibum - though the strong one out of the four - had battled depression for a long time because of his girlfriend and had come extremely close to suicide while the twins were only babies. Thankfully, he had thought of what would happen to his children if left alone with their psycho mother and had put down the gun, willing to allow himself to suffer through hell if it meant that he could protect his precious babies.

But just because Kibum had battled depression didn't mean that he was over it. No. His depression was quite serious – and because of this, Jessica only made everything so much harder for him.

Today, once the fighting had stopped and Jessica left the house in anger, the twins could hear Kibum in his room crying, and all they could do was wish that their father would get better soon – every time Jongin cried, terror would run through the twins' bodies at memories of what their father would do to himself once Jessica had left the house.

"Daddy is crying, again, Minji…" Daesung whispered, tearing up himself - both of the twins were very close to their father and couldn't bear the thought of anything ever happening to him.

"I know…" Minji tightened her hold on Daesung tightly, not quite knowing how to comfort Daesung – Daesung would get so scared at times like these that he almost couldn't be comforted. "It's going to be okay."

"What if… what if daddy cuts himself again, Minji?" Daesung's voice sounded panicked at this.

Daesung must have remembered the time that he had stumbled into Kibum's room after his father had a fight with Jessica. He had found Kibum on the floor unconscious with blood everywhere, seeping from his wrists – a bloody knife laying just metres from Kibum's unconscious body.

Minji frowned and took Daesung's hand, standing up – she knew that Daesung had a point. "Let's go see dad, Daesung."

Daesung nodded and tiptoed out of the room with Minji to the bedroom right beside theirs. They pushed the door open and found Kibum sitting on the bed, crying into his hands as his body shook violently.

"Daddy?" Daesung whimpered before dropping Minji's hand and hurrying to his father, reaching up and making grabby hands, wanting to be picked up. "Daddy, don't cry!"

Kibum looked up with a tear-stained face and red, puffy eyes before smiling weakly at his children. He reached down and pulled Daesung onto his lap and hugged him tightly while gesturing for Minji to approach as well.

"It's okay, kids." Minji whispered, hugging them both tightly, but his shaking, cracked voice didn't do much to soothe either twin. "It's okay…"

"Did daddy cut himself again…?" Daesung whimpered, burying his face in Kibum's chest, afraid of the answer.

Kibum frowned and shook his head, tightening his hold on his beloved child. "No, Daesung. I can't risk leaving my two precious people alone with her now, can I?"

Minji wrapped her small arms around Kibum's neck and hugged him, nuzzling in close.

Kibum chuckled a little before ruffling the twins' hair gently. He wiped his tears away before placing the twins on the ground and standing up.

"Come on." Kibum said playfully, grabbing the twins' hands and pulling them out of the bedroom. "Who wants ice cream?"

Both of the twins cheered loudly, pulling their hands out of Kibum's grip and running to the kitchen, waiting impatiently for their bowl of ice cream that had just been promised.

-LINEBREAK-

It was two years later on the twins' seventh birthday when things went from horrible to borderline fatal. Kibum had been forced to leave the house because of an emergency at work, leaving Daesung and Minji alone with Jessica while he left to go and see what the 'emergency' was.

The twins had been playing in their room quietly, trying not to invoke their mother's wrath on them when the door slammed open and Jessica charged in at them with rope in her hands. The twins screamed and cried as Jessica tied them up, and though they struggled desperately, they were unable to get away from their psychotic mother.

Jessica dragged them out to the car, and what could've been minutes, hours, or even seconds later, the twins soon found themselves out in a clearing in a forest, lying before their mother on the ground. They shivered in absolute terror at the mere thought of the situation – Kibum wasn't there to protect them this time, and that meant that Jessica could do anything to them…

"I've had enough of you two little ing heads!" Jessica screamed at her children, brandishing a knife that she had pulled out of her coat pocket. "I hate you both! I wish you were never born! I never wanted you bastards! You should never have been born in the first place!"

Jessica lunged forward, swinging the knife down towards the two twins at her mercy, and she only sneered when the knife made the first contact.

Daesung screamed out in pain as the knife struck him in various places, but what hurt the most was seeing the way that Minji had jumped in front of the knife to try and protect her brother. Daesung's screams were nothing compared to Minji's - the child had just had her left eye slashed out by the knife, and even that didn't stop Jessica from her rampage.

-LINEBREAK-

Over at Kibum's workplace, he sighed as his co-worker sheepishly explained that it was a false alarm and that he could return home. Before he could even get out of the door, his phone beeped with a newly-received message.

When Kibum saw that it was from Jessica, he felt his temper rising from its previously calm state. He was tempted to delete the message without even viewing it, seeing as it was probably full of abuse just like every other text message Jessica would send him, but something in him just couldn't hit the delete button.

Kibum opened the message but after several seconds of viewing it, Kibum dropped the phone, his face twisting in horror. As his co-worker saw that something was seriously wrong with Kibum, she grabbed the phone.

It only took one look at what was in the message before the woman dialled the police.

There, on the screen of the phone, was a picture of two young children – twins – cut up and bleeding, looking like they were in agony.