Chapter 1

Jinki is a nerd. The kind of nerd who wears thick, black framed glasses and comes to school everyday without failing even once so that his attendance don't drop. He's a loner, always spending break times in the library, eating lunch all by himself in the corner of the school canteen. He's also clumsy. So clumsy that he tends to trip over nothing and he won't admit it but he has set a record in visiting the medical room the biggest number of times, which is well, uncountable. He never get to choose what he want for lunch as most of the food will be already finished since he's usually the last person in the cue. He'll just have to satisfy his rumbling stomach with the left overs. He's a typical kinda nerd, really.

Jinki doesn't mind being categorised as a nerd though. Not a least bit. He loves studying more than anything. Gaining knowledge is the purpose of every human being's life, or so he believes. He can't recall a time when he had fun with his friends (not like he had any in the first place). His world has always revolved around books.

But he's not complaining though so it doesn't matter.

Being a nerd also have benefits, he believes. Jinki's left unnoticed most of the time. The only time he gets some attention from the other students is when they want him to help them with their assignments or to borrow some money. But except for that, he's almost treated as the air. He's still not complaining. In fact he's grateful that he's not at least being bullied by them. Nerds are meant to, aren't they?

Jinki detests attention. He comes to school for learning, not to grab attraction like Jaejoong in the senior year for example. Jaejoong is kinka of the school. He's one the richest kids in school(they didn't have many) and also handsome. Jinki remembers how frivolous minded girls were drooling over Jaejoong when he dyed his hair blonde. He heard that Jaejoong's father runs some kind of business in United Kingdom. He want to smack Jaejoong, or Hero as he likes to he call himself, right in the face. Pfft... What Hero? Jinki wants to laugh. He don't even work half as hard as Jinki and he calls himself Hero. But he don't need to. Because he has something which helps him to get all the teachers to his feet. Money. Lucky him, Jinki thinks. It's not that Jinki's family is poor, although they're not exactly rich either, not even close. He just doesn't appreciate how Jaejoong is not trying at all to make good use of the money he has. Jinki knows how hard it is to make money.

He knows it because he had seen how his Dad was desperately trying to get a job when the bank in which he used to work collapsed. He's experienced it when he decided to lend a hand by working at the local village shop at the same time dealing with his studies. His mum used to work from dawn to dusk as a house maid, hardly making enough money to fill their stomach three times a day. And Eunsook, his 11 year old adorable little sister, would stay at home, making dinner for everyone, earning a small pat from Dad and a kiss on the forehead from Mum and that would be good enough to make her happy.

Thinking about Eunsook makes Jinki smile. He decides to buy her the small bracelet on the way to home, made of small colourful beads, which she's been pointing at whenever she passes by the shop since months. He's been saving up the money he gets from his part time job so he might as well buy her what she wants. His original plan was to buy himself a new pair of glasses. The current one was bought by his dad months ago. But that's okay, he can buy it some other time.

When he reaches home, he wasn't expecting what he sees. He squeezes through the crowd in front of his house and watches the scene before him in horror. His Dad's cold body is laid on the floor, blanketed in white clothes. If he wouldn't have known better Jinki would think he's asleep, his face looking as peaceful as ever. His Mum's beside the body, staring at it emotionlessly , with a hiccuping Eunsook on her lap, her eyes all wide and wet. Eunsook comes running to Jinki, as usual but this time, she's not coming to him wondering what her brother has bought her. She struggles to speak “Oppa...hic...our Dad...hic...he isn't wa..waking up”, small hands reaching to rub her cute little eyes, which are now turned red and puffy. Jinki doesn't know what to do. Should he start crying? Should he hug Eunsook and tell her everything's okay? Should he go around asking people what the hell has happened to his dad? He really doesn't know. “It was a heart attack..” He hears someone muttering. His head starts spinning all of a sudden, knees starts shaking and then the next moment, he faints.

When he opens his eyes the first face he sees is pretty familiar to him.

“Uncle Max...” (A/N: It's our Changmin yay^^) He mumbles. The face smiles down at him.

 “You okay Jinki? Feeling better?” Jinki nods and sits up.

“Mum and Eunsook...” His eyes looking around the room and quickly realises that it's not his house.

“ They're in the other room with Yoona”. Jinki nods again before accepting the tea that was offered to him.

“When did you return?” Jinki manages to ask. His hands are still trembling so he holds the cup of tea with both hands.

“As soon as we heard the news, we decided to leave. Your mother agreed to do the funeral tomorrow”, Max replies.

The Funeral.

“Oh...” Jinki lets out a shaky breath.

“You don't need to worry about anything at all Jinki. We've arranged every thing okay?”

Jinki tries to smile

“Yes Uncle, thank you”. He gets a amile in return.

“Come on, rest some more” Max pats him at the back and leaves the room sighing softly.

Uncle Max is just like Dad, Jinki thinks. Max has always been there for them. Even when Jinki's Dad lost his job, he was there, phoning everyday, asking if he could help them in any ways. Jinki's Dad flat out refused it though. He wanted to look after his family by himself. He didn't need his brother's help. Yeah, too much pride. If that pride was not in the way things could've been different, Jinki thinks. He want to cry his heart out. Yell at the world for being so ing unfair to him. But he's not going to. His dad had told him not to. So he won't.

Every thing after that happened quickly. The funeral didn't last for long. Mum refused to go back to their own house saying “I don't want to see anything that belonged to him. It hurts...”. And she's a crying mess again. Aunt Yoona was always there, holding her hands and trying to calm a weeping Eunsook at the same time. Jinki thinks it's a pity that they're not blessed with any children.

----2 weeks later----

Max finds Jinki in the study room, staring at a book. It's pretty obvious that he's not actually reading anything. “Jinki” He calls. Jinki doesn't look up. Max touches Jinki's shoulder and shakes gently “Jinki, Can I speak to you?”. Jinki startled, falls of the chair. Max chuckles slightly “As clumsy as ever aren't you?” Jinki pouts. “I wasn't expecting anyone and plus you didn't even knock”

“I did” Max defends, “You just didn't hear me”

“Oh...I was just err...thinking” Jinki, still on the floor, fumbles with his tea shirt.

“May I know what it is that you were thinking so deeply about?” Max wonders aloud.

“Nothing really. Just...stuff. What did you want to talk about Uncle?” He gets up from the floor, standing face to face with Max.

Max sighs.

“Jinki”

“Yeah”

“The thing I'm about to say, you've got to think about it carefully okay? I don't want you to make your decision hastily.”

Jinki knows what's coming next.

Max continues “I was thinking that may be...may be we could take you with us to the city”

“You're kidding right?” Jinki knows he's not.

Max looks at him in the eyes. “I'm not, Jinki. I'm dead serious about this. And I want you to think about it seriously”

“There's nothing to think about. We're not coming”

“Hey Jinki, listen. You...you're only seventeen. You're not enough old enough to take responsibility of your family on your shoulders. You do realise this don't you?”

“I do. But I would like to prove you wrong”

“Jinki!!” Max slams his fist on the table. “This” He points at Jinki. “This is exactly what your Dad did. I told him a hundred times that I will help him, lend him money, give him a job but no. He didn't listen to me and look what that lead him into. Are you going to do the same mistake like your Dad?” He boils with anger. It's a rare sight to Jinki. “Stop being so stubborn Jinki, for God's sake just... just let go of your damn pride for once. I don't know what you're trying to prove by doing this but whatever it is please don't use your mother and sister as your experimenting materials”

Jinki stiffs. What? “I..I d-didn't mean it like that” He would never think of them that way. Max eyes softens “ I know you didn't Jinki. But think about it. If your mother stays here, she'll forever be haunted by the memories of your Dad. She wouldn't be able to recover. And Yoona... She really loves Eunsook and you. I know this is greedy of me but everytime I see her with Eunsook, I see this light in her eyes, I can how much she's willing to take care of her. So I thought may be... may be we could live..”

“Alright”

“H..Huh?”

“We'll come with you.”

Max's eyes widen “Are you seriously sure about this Jinki? I thought you might want to think about...”

“No, you're right. I was just being selfish. I'll let go of my pride this time because I... I want them to be happy.”

Max hugs Jinki. “Thank you Jinki. Thank you” Jinki can feel the happiness and excitement in Max's voice. He tries to smile even though he's not entirely happy with the decision he has made. Max exits the room, shouting at Yoona to help Jinki's mother to pack her bag.

It's not like Jinki dislikes his Uncle and Aunt or anything. It's just that, he's never been to the city before. It'll a whole new experience to him. He's going to miss his school also. May be he should go and visit one last time. For what? It's not like he had any friends there. They're not even going to realise that he's gone. Jinki laughs thinking about it. He sniffs his armpits. “God I need a shower” He stumbles toward the bathroom door, hoping Max didn't notice how badly he stinks.