Sunlight peered through the kitchen window, lighting up Kikwang’s face like a star. His hair shone bright against the dark granite galaxy of a kitchen floor. With a groan, he picked up his weary body from the floor and stood up slowly, instantly aware of the dull throbbing in his head. Kikwang grabbed the kitchen counter to steady himself. He didn’t look over at the hospital bed; it was too early in the morning to deal with his demons. Pulling himself slowly to the bathroom, he seemed superhumanly aware of his surroundings: the lights in the apartment seemed brighter than usual, his fingertips were tingly, and his sense of smell was simply too powerful, he almost couldn’t stomach it. However, it was like his hearing was being muffled. He could hear his own soft footfalls pretty clearly, but the apartment was quiet. Too quiet…?
Kikwang ran over to his mother’s bedside. He quickly and efficiently checked all her vitals, felt her forehead and made sure that she was still breathing. When her breathing was assured, Kikwang’s own breathing began to slow. He picked up her hand and held it in his own, wondering what she was dreaming about. Were her dreams as bright and vivid as she was when she was well? Or were they dark and scary like her disease? A tear slipped out before he could stop it, falling on his mother’s arm. Wiping it hastily, he hurried away before his mother woke up. But before he could leave; he heard the most beautiful voice in the world. It was soft and breathy with low intonations, familiar and warm and his mother’s.
“Kikwang? Is that you baby?”

Star, star, star.

Dongwoon was getting really tired of his crappy living situation. The whole sleeping-in-a-park, living-off-the-generosity-of-strangers, freezing-at-two-in-the-winter-mornings thing was starting to get real old. But, he thought with a wry laugh, how well could you live with a 20,000 won daily income? He could barely feed himself, let alone pay for an apartment. He picked up his belongings and crawled out from under his bright slide. The playground was unusually crowded for a Saturday morning, with little kids pumping furiously on the swings and running around on the grass. He walked slowly through the park, walking casually by the bench from the evening before, wondering idly if that strange, bright boy thought of him. Wait. Why did it matter what that jackass thought of him?
Dongwoon hurried to the bus station where he had been working for a week, cleaning graffiti off the walls. Halfway there, he remembered that he had left behind his parents’ photo. He began to sprint back to the park, cursing his horrible memory, depressing stamina and crappy life in general. As soon as he arrived, he noticed a stark contrast from the morning. For one, the playground was empty. Empty as in ghost town, tumbleweed empty. Empty of kids, that is. Second, instead of snot-nosed little kids pushing one another on the swings, there was a gang of boys sitting nonchalantly as they smoked and passed around a bottle of soju. Dongwoon recognized the boys: they had approached him not long after his father had been recruited, and asked to join their gang: the Shadow gang. Dongwoon walked casually to the gang and stopped when he realized that they were passing around more than just soju: the gang’s leader, JiHoon, was also holding his family’s picture in his dirty hands. Dongwoon walked up to them, awkwardly aware of the five-against-one disadvantage that he had. He tried to remember any possible fighting techniques that he could possibly use in this sort of situation. Right hook? Left underhand…? Was that even a move? As he approached them, the younger boys stiffened, prepared to fight. But JiHoon had an easy, almost creepy attitude about him: he smiled at Dongwoon and beckoned him closer, inviting him into their inner circle. JiHoon held up the faded photo and laughed mockingly.
“Hey, runt. Looking for this?” he teased mercilessly. With an offending sigh, JiHoon stood up, still waving the photograph like a personal flag. Dongwoon nodded meekly, not wanting to risk a fight. In unison, the Shadows stood up and formed a circle around Dongwoon, not allowing him to leave and forcing him closer to JiHoon.
“Yah…did you think about that offer we made?” JiHoon asked curtly. Dongwoon shuddered inwardly; outside, he kept his face calm and strong.
“You think,” Dongwoon chuckled humorlessly, “that I would want to join your cute little tea party?” He turned around and faced the young Shadows who stared at him with shock and hints of awe.
“That’s sweet…but no thanks,” Dongwoon smirked and reached up for his photo. JiHoon laughed derisively as he waved the small photo tauntingly out of reach.
“I just thought that you might need a family,” JiHoon noted. “Since you seem like you don’t have this one anymore.” He tore the picture in half and threw it on the ground, spitting on it.
Dongwoon flew at JiHoon, barely aware of the arms that immediately held him back, barely aware of the order that JiHoon gave out:
“Make him wish he was dead.”

Star, star, star.
 

Sorry for the slow update...OTL This is actually only part 1 of Chapter 3...part 2 should be up in about a week or so. Sorry again. /le creys about le lost subscribers.

I will update quickly for the next few chapters because...I feel bad, lol. Stay safe and please continue supporting Star, star, star.

PS: For readers that want sneak peeks for the next chapters, please follow me on perfectionincarnate.tumblr.com. All sneak peeks will be under #star star star and #sneak peek. If you like this feature, please tell me in my ask box so that I can update(both the story and teasers). Otherwise I get lazy and...lazy authors don't like updating lol...

Thank you to Judy and Jenny

-Tina