A/N: Some coarse language, mainly features twelve-year-old Luhan, Baekhyun, Sehun, and Kai.

Last edit: 131011

“Luhan!”

          “Yes?”

          “We dyed your hair the other day, right?”

          “You don’t remember your own son’s hair color?” a normal son from a normal family would have asked. But Luhan wasn’t a normal son and this wasn’t a normal family. So instead, he replied monotonously, “Yes.”

          “Good. Now head to school. Breakfast is on the table! Mom needs to go work now. Oh, where are my keys…”

          His mom came out of her room wearing a very low red v-neck shirt and tight skinny jeans. She had him and she was still very fit. Her hips wide, but not unpleasantly wide. Her handbag was packed, fat, and worn out but she didn’t care. His mom came up to him and kissed his cheek, and he numbly stood there, unaffected by the brisk act of affection as he packed his own backpack.

          Luhan’s mom didn’t get chosen as a Prix when it was her time and she showed no potential of being able to teach. Therefore, she was assigned as a Birther. She had Luhan with a Factory worker, who Luhan had never met. She probably didn’t even remember his name anyway. His mom then had to look after Luhan on her own because the Factory worker, who Luhan could hardly call a dad, went back to the Factory. Because boys leave their families at twelve to the Army, Birthers have another child when their other son turns eleven. It takes something around nine months to carry the baby and a few months of luxury time in case a baby wasn't formed on the first try, so in the meantime, the other son would grow up. Now that Luhan was twelve and today was the day he is sent to the Army, his mom was close to her second birth. Her belly was quite big now, and occasionally, Luhan would hear his mother moan in pain at night. Luhan would never meet his brother. He didn’t want to meet his brother.

          “Bye, mom,” Luhan said, not touching the pathetic breakfast his mom made for him. Every time his mom went out for work, he felt sick to the stomach because he was reminded of what his mom did, and it disgusted him to no end. How could he eat when he felt this way?

          “Bye, honey!”

          Luhan took his bag and left for school. Outside his house were his neighborhood friends, Sehun, Kai, and Baekhyun. Sehun’s and Kai’s uniforms were neat and their bags were shouldered on one shoulder. Baekhyun’s dress shirt was buttoned unevenly, his hair messy, and his backpack strapped on his chest instead of his back. When they heard Luhan’s door open, they turned around.

          “Yo, Lu!”

          “– han. It’s Luhan,” Luhan corrected his brown-haired idiot friend for the billionth time since ever.

          “Today’s the big day,” Baekhyun announced, ignoring the glum response from Luhan. “Army. We’re finally going to the Army. How cool is that?”

          Luhan walked down the steps of his home, opened the narrow gate and closed it behind him as he continued on without answering to Baekhyun. Sehun and Kai followed silently. Baekhyun rambled on. “We can finally see them dwelling chicks. And make more buddies at the Army. And after three years –” Baekhyun stretched his right hand out and moved it from left to right, as if wiping a window or something, in one direction. “Freedom,” he whispered.

          Kai bonked the side of Baekhyun’s head while wearing his famous grin. “You silly dreamer.”

          Baekhyun grinned too. “Aren’t you excited for it too? We can finally get out of this stinkin’ neighborhood and do some real training and get some abs.” Baekhyun tapped his stomach as he went on, “No more school! Pretty chicks as Prixes in three years. Just three. They cook for us and clean the base – can you imagine watching TV for ten hours instead of two each week? Maybe even more! No more restrictions! We can beat anybody up without being chastised. We’ll be a Top gang, I know it. It’s going to be so much fun. No more single-parenting bull. True freedom.”

          “The Army’s training will be harder than school you idiot,” Luhan said calmly, unfazed by Baekhyun’s words. “It’s not freedom. As much as you want to beat people up, people will want to beat you up. We start as rookies, not pros. The first year will be hard, not luxurious. Even if the Prix cooks and cleans for us, when we fight, we’ll get injured. Hospitals are expensive. Being the strongest isn’t a probable possibility, especially when we’re this young. It’s impossible. Top Gang? Wake up from your five-year-old dream. This ‘freedom’ you’re describing is just the way to a tighter cage, an illusion. It’s not real freedom.”

          At Luhan’s brutally truthful reasoning, the group was silent. Luhan was right no matter what. When Luhan said it like that, he made Baekhyun look like a delusional lunatic.

          Luhan sighed. He noticed how he had ruined everyone’s mood. They looked a lot more down. All he said was the truth, but maybe it was too much for them. “But,” he paused as the group faced him again, “you’re right about the fun part.”

          Baekhyun grinned and clapped Luhan’s back, who smiled a bit. “Yeah, that’s the spirit!” Baekhyun hooted.

          “Even if we do get beat up, we can always get revenge,” Kai added. “No matter how many times we fight or play dirty, we’ll never be chastised. It is freedom, kind of.”

          “Well, there is space between the bars of the cage,” said Sehun, and they all laughed.

          “We’ll be the happiest and luckiest prisoners ever,” Baekhyun sang, being his dramatic and optimistic self. “I can’t wait.”

          Happiest? Luckiest? Luhan thought in his head. No. Not the happiest or the luckiest – but perhaps the most satisfied.

          Baekhyun dashed forward and beckoned everyone over. The school’s gates were right in front of him. “Come on, guys! Last day of school, right? My place for some treats after this, before we go on the Journey!”

          Kai ran towards Baekhyun with a wide smile, “Awesome!” Luhan and Sehun walked leisurely and calmly. Luhan threw his bag over his shoulder and held onto the handles, his elbow bent. Sehun’s hands were in his pockets as he followed. Even if Sehun had a poker face, Luhan was smiling. His friends were all right in some way. Things were going to get worse from now on, and it will be a tighter cage, but as Sehun had said – the bars will have space in between, and they can always look out.