It was a short journey, since the circus was a walking distance away from the palace. We pulled up at the palace’s entrance, Jaesuk telling one of the bodyguards to help him park the car as he led us into our palace. I continued to look at the white porcelain floor of the palace as we walked towards our father’s throne. Zelo and I looked at each other before bowing in unison to our father sitting in his golden throne before us.

"We are sorry father!"

We both gulped, slowly looking at our father who sat in his royal chair with a soft smile. I blinked, was he amused? He was supposed to be angry at us for sneaking out. Zelo nudged me after a long moment of the intense and deadly silence, asking me to speak up to our father. I took a deep breath, kneeling down before my father and started to speak.

"Father I-"

"You don’t need to say anything Daehyun, I heard it all from Jaesuk," The king interrupted him, standing up before his two young sons. He his lips, smiling softly at us, waiting anxiously for him to continue.

"Why didn’t you tell me you two wanted to go to the circus?" Zelo and I gave each other a questioning look before lifting an eyebrow at our amused father.

"W-what?" we both answered, wondering why our father was suddenly laughing loudly at us.

"My two sons, I am sorry I had forbidden you two to go the last time they came. I was a bit too stressed out with the number of rebels we had and I couldn’t risk you two going off to a huge event like that." The king smiled, pulling us on our feet before hugging the two of us tightly.

"I could take you two there tomorrow again, they are here for another 4 days. You two are getting older, and that means I am getting older…well," The king sighed, smiling at Jaesuk who chuckled at him.

"Jaesuk, you really scared them didn’t you? Now, two of you go to your rooms. It is already late, you both need to sleep." We both obeyed his orders, getting our hair ruffled by our father before leaving quickly to our rooms. Zelo gave me a small smile when we reached the doors of our respective rooms which were just side by side.

"Now now, you two," Jaesuk smiled at us, "Don’t sneak out again. I know you two want to go outside but your father is really concerned about your safety. Behave you two."

He chuckled at us when we nodded and saluted at him playfully. He petted our heads and told us to have a good night’s sleep with a soft ‘you two sneaky boys’ before bowing at us and leaving us alone.

"Thanks for bringing me to the circus hyung," Zelo thanked and hugged me before yawning and rubbing his eyes cutely at me like a little child. I grinned at my younger brother, ruffling his hair.

"Well, I promised you I bring you there for your birthday present. You know keep my promises well, Zelo" He nodded at me.

"Now go to sleep, see you next morning."

"Yes hyung! Good night Daehyun hyung"

"Haha, good night Zelo." I watched as Zelo went in his room, giving him a small smile before he waved at me and closed his door. My hand grabbed hold of the door knob and I opened the door to my room with a sigh.

I lay in my bed, staring blanking at the ceiling. I tried to sleep, twisting and turning in my comfy bed yet I couldn’t close my eyes and drift off to sleep. I ended up thinking about that beautiful man in the cage, his cute face and pretty eyes gazing at me as I was dragged away by the ringmaster. I couldn’t help but smiled to myself, I wanted to see more of that adorable Youngjae. I stayed up the whole night thinking about him, hoping that I would get a chance of sneaking out of the palace and to see Youngjae tomorrow night. I felt a need to see him again, like I must see him the next day. I bit my lips and wrapped my arms tightly around my pillow.

"Youngjae… w-why do I keep thinking about you?"

"Jaesuk" The king called. "Tomorrow, I have to leave. Please take care of the kids"

Jaesuk nodded, smiling at him. “Yes, your majesty.”

"Thank you Jaesuk, don’t worry about them sneaking out. I don’t think they would sneak out again, they are always very obedient."

"Yes your majesty, I think they wouldn’t too."

~~~

"You little prick!" Youngjae whimpered as pain stung his legs when the ringmaster whipped him. The two bodyguards outside tent looked to the ground, looking solemnly as they heard Youngjae’s pitiful cries of help and whimpers of pain. They closed their eyes, they felt so useless-they couldn’t do anything to help the poor boy getting whipped and abused by the ringmaster.

"You should not talk to strangers again, you are not suppose to be helping anyone to do their work. You are supposed to sit in your cage and keep quiet!" the ringmaster whipped the wall next to Youngjae, while he quivered and trembled with fear.

"B-but…H-Himchan hyung needed some help with his clothes and I was outside after bathing s-so I thought I-I could, h-he didn’t mind and w-was h-ha-happy I c-came-"

"Shut up." Youngjae obliged, biting his lips as the ringmaster moved closer to him. The ringmaster watched the man before him trembling, liking how he was afraid of him.

"Himchan hyung let you? " The ringmaster laughed. "My son let you touch him? Oh gosh, you are making up excuses now aren’t you? Don’t use my only son as an excuse you hear me?"

Youngjae nodded quickly as the ringmaster harshly held both of his hands. He chained his hands together, smirking at him as he leaned close to his ear.

"You better behave Youngjae…" The ringmaster spoke, Youngjae jolting a little when he noticed the ringmaster’s large hand caressing his thigh. He kept his head down, closing his eyes as he felt another hand caressing his cheek before he was shoved to the cage, his back slamming on the metal cage. He didn’t like the ringmaster touching him, he always felt disgusted and uncomfortable when the ringmaster touched him.

"You wouldn’t want to spend a night with me, would you?" the ringmaster smirked when youngjae shook his head, giving him a particular hard squeeze on his left thigh. "Or, you actually would want to?"

He shoved Youngjae inside the cage and locked the door, slamming his hand on the cage before leaving Youngjae all alone inside the tent. He smiled at the guards outside the tent, looking around to see if his son was around.

"Look out for Youngjae, make sure he stays there.  And have you seen my son anywhere?"

"No sir" the ringmaster sighed and went off, not aware his son was hiding behind the tent. The guards gasped at the pretty blond man smiling at them, the ringmaster’s son was here. Himchan slowly walked towards the guards, waving at them before he covered their mouths with his hands.

"Hey, please do not scream! I feel bad for Youngjae, it’s my fault he’s getting hurt. I have to get in-"

"Nope, you’re not allowed here! Youngjae would get punish if he was caught talking to you….which he did-"

"Fine!" Himchan scoffed, pouting at the shorter guard before whispering to him. "Please tell him I am sorry and I actually liked having him around to help me."

The guards stared at him in disbelief as Himchan raised an eyebrow at them.

"What?" He scanned his clothes, wondering why the guards were looking so shocked. "Do I look weird to you-"

"You don’t hate him?" the shorter guard spoke, blinking at Himchan who chuckled at him.

"Why would I? I like Youngjae! He is always the one who wants to help me! Youngjae could be my younger brother; he’s so cute and kind." Himchan gave them his pretty boyish smile before waving his hand at them. The shorter guard slowly waved back with a small smile, watching as the man walked away from them.

Himchan sighed furrowing his eyebrows as he walked back into his tent. He sat alone, biting his lips as he looked at the mirror, seeing a guy staring back at him. He looked sad, his smile was upside down and eyes just merely blinking back at him. Himchan thought back about the time Youngjae helped him, he was the one who told the guards to allow him to help him. He smiled a little; realizing Youngjae was always so shy and bowing to him while he helped him with his suit.

Youngjae was so nice and gave him sincere compliments, the way his eyes shone when he told him he looked handsome in the suite with his small smile made it hard to doubt him. He felt like petting the younger sometimes, Youngjae would be too cute and innocent for Himchan to handle. He couldn’t help but to feel he needed to protect him at times like this. Himchan shook his head, he knew well about the laws of his country. An outcast is an outcast, Mato wasn’t supposed to give in to them, but Youngjae was so different from an outcast. He was respectful and followed instructions obediently. Youngjae was too different from the normal outcasts he heard of, being ugly and rude as such, yet he still didn’t understand why.

"Why is my father so cruel to him?"

~~~

"Daehyun, Zelo, I am off to visit your aunt who needs my help. I won’t be back until tomorrow so please behave and stay well while I am gone." Daehyun waved slowly at his father, watching him getting into his silver car and smiled brightly at him as he watched the car drove off. Zelo held his brother’s right hand, looking  at his father through the car’s window grinning at them. He returned the smile, waving happily at the car.

As soon as the car left the palace gates, Daehyun rushed off to his room with Zelo following behind. The younger brother stared at his older brother taking out an old fashioned brown hat and a black coat from his closet, wondering why his brother took his clothes out for.

"Hyung? Where are-"

"The circus," I replied, putting on his coat and hat before looking at my younger brother.

"Why hyung? We shouldn’t be going outside! I mean, I know Jaesuk hyung and the guards are supposedly having a meeting now-"

"That’s why we need to leave now, they just started their meeting."

"But hyung!" I turned behind, he was quivering under my glare. I sighed, shaking my head to try to contain my anger and smiled weakly at my brother.

"I..I…" I couldn’t speak and sat down in my bed, frustrated with myself. How am i supposed to tell Zelo I wanted to go to the circus to see Youngjae again? That I kept thinking of him and kept worrying about him being inside the cage, was he still getting abused and hurt by the ringmaster, like how he was at the show, having tomatoes being thrown at him?

"It’s just that…I-I w-want to…."

"Hyung?"

"I-I just need to talk to Youngjae again, Zelo. Please…"I looked up, surprised to see my younger brother all ready with a cap and a green army jacket.

"Okay hyung, I am coming with too!"

"But-"

"I want to help Youngjae… I want to talk to him again hyung…" I smiled at him and nodded.

I will get to see Youngjae tonight.

It was not so hard to sneak past the guards, they were the younger ones who were busy talking to each rather than doing their job-the more experienced and older ones were having a meeting on Youngjae. We were able to sneak past them and ran off , running off towards the circus.

I saw the crowds of people gathered at the circus, being captivated by the performances being set up for them and looked around, making sure Zelo was right behind me. I smiled at him, before going further into the circus. I saw the familiar yellow tent and went past it, looking around for the guards that were supposed to be looking after Youngjae.

I spotted Youngjae’s blue tent, smiling softly when i noticed that there were no guards standing outside the tent. I looked at Zelo and gestured to the tent. My brother nodded, giving off an uncertain look to me before giving me a small grin.

~~~

"Let’s go hyung." We both hurried over to the tent with small and light footsteps, carefully looking around us again before going inside the tent. I went in and I stopped. I stood still, staring at the beautiful man that I kept thinking about inside his metal cage, all huddled up in the corner. With his small hands unconsciously touching the red marks along his leg as he stared at the cold hard metal floor. Long red marks. I blinked, why didn’t I notice them before? I couldn’t speak; what could I say that would make those long ugly marks disappear from his flawless skin?

"Y-Youngjae?" I whispered his name, watching him slowly looking up from the ground to see whoever was calling him.

"D-Daehyun?" Youngjae’s eyes widened when he saw me and folded his legs quickly, trying to hide them from me. His hands were trembling as he placed his hand on his thigh, gripping his pants tightly. He looked at me sadly, shaking his head as he looked away from me. I slowly kneeled down, watching Youngjae closely as he kept his eyes away from me.

"Y-You.." I heard his soft whisper. "Y-You shouldn’t be here D-Daehyun.."

"Why not?"

"Zelo," I turned around, almost forgetting about my brother who was behind me. Youngjae gasped, moving himself towards us and gripped tightly onto the metal pillars. He stared at us sadly, as if begging us not to hurt him.

"Y-You t-two can’t be here! Please leave!"

"Youngjae, I-"

"Y-You don’t understand, I c-can’t speak to you, please leave me alone-"

"I won’t," I spoke with a firm tone and Youngjae paused, staring deeply into my eyes as if searching for something.

"I won’t leave you Youngjae, I j-just want to see your pretty and flawless face again."

"S-Stop it!" Youngjae said loudly, his lips quivering as his eyes turned watery. "D-Don’t say that! Y-You are lying! I-I am ugly!"

"I am not lying, please listen to me."

"Y-You are! T-They said I look so ugly and-"

"Youngjae, you’re not-"

"No, please stop lying to me. Don’t joke with me… I-" I fitted my hand through the metal cage and instinctively reached out for his cute cheek, gazing deeply into his black doe eyes. I held his cheek, my thumb gently the smooth skin as I gazed deeply into his pretty doe eyes. I smiled, watching him staring at me while his cheeks were slowly turning pink and his hands planted on the floor. He looked so confused, so lost yet so adorable and pretty, boring into me with his wide black doe eyes.

"I am not joking, I am serious." I could feel Zelo agreeing with me, smiling softly at Youngjae.

"B-but…" I leaned in closer to the cage, whispering to him as softly as possible yet loud enough for him to hear.

"To me, you are beautiful Youngjae."

Note:

Hello, an update^^

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Oh,Himchan is introduced^^

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