The car ride to jail was boring, Kai was in the back seat, his hand bound by steel handcuffs that dug into his muscly arms and hurt, they were too tight for him. He was seatbelted so he couldn’t lie down and actually get comfortable enough to sleep, and the two cops in front were chatting about how expensive rentals in the city are nowadays.

Kai wanted to scoff, rentals? He had his own condo in the city, it even faced the city park.

The jail slowly came into view, a big grey building, and the prisoners were out in the field, fenced by electric wires and barb wire. They were playing basketball, and they stopped to look at he stepped out of the car.

He immediately saw the groups that they were divided into; the strong, tall prisoners with tattoos, looking all haughty on one side, and the weak outcasts on one.

The weaklings, they probably went into jail for petty stuff, they were bound to be released soon, and Kai sincerely hoped that he would be too.

The cop shoved him playfully and Kai glared at him, shrugging the offensive hand away. The other inmates who were cleaning the corridor looked at him with somewhat, pity, another rich boy falls prey to their own dangerous and illegal desires, another noble in the slums.

“Well, well.” The cop at the counter sing-songed, she was looking at animal videos and sipping on some dangerously purple grape juice.

“Shoplifting? At jewellery store? Isn’t that considered thievery already?” she asked, clucking her tongue as she read his report.

The two other cops laughed and they started telling her about him, as if they knew what he has been through and what exactly he did.

All he actually did was quietly slip a bracelet under his jacket and casually walked around the shop, waiting for the family of 5 in the shop to leave so he could leave and sound the alarm, so it would take time to figure out who sounded it.

The plan went wrong, he wandered to close to the door and the alarm just started blaring and the guards just burst in and grabbed him, and here he was. All Kyungsoo’s fault, this was his dare.

People always thought that they knew him, that he was an easy read. He pretended to be that way, always reacting extremely to small things and always expressing himself extravagantly, always smiling and joking, never a problem ever.

It was easier that way and it never failed to get him pass anything.

Except this maybe.

“He’s in cell 246, and his number is 24601. You got that kid?” The woman cop asked and Kai nodded, it didn’t matter to him.

They walked up 2 floors and went straight to the end of the corridor, to an empty cell.

“So I get my own cell, huh? Did my stepmother ask for this or something?” Kai joked, entering the cell and bouncing on the bed.

The cops shrugged and closed the bars, walking away.

Kai looked around the cell, it was pretty big for one person. It had 3 other beds, all neat and made with absolute precision and a latrine in one end.

“So this is our new roommate.” A voice chimed and Kai turned to face 3 men looking at him, their faces not amused, but not particularly upset or angry either.

The police officer opened the bars and let them in, and they went in quietly, patting the cop on the back and they sat on one bed, looking at Kai.

Kai stood up from the bed he was sitting on and stood fidgeting under their examining gazes, for once in his life he was nervous. The reality of jail had finally struck him.

Jail; he was going to eat at the same table as people who did big crimes, he was going to mingle with crooks, people who the society laughed at. He was one of the outcasts of the society now, how terrible the fate he has been given.

“I’m Kai.” He said, attempting to sum up a gruff personality all at once, to appear scary and fierce.

One of them laughed and shook his head, standing up to shake Kai’s hand. “ I’m Tao. Nice to meet you, but I wish I’ve never met anyone here.”

Kai smiled, he seemed like a nice guy, but Kai bet he was one of the petty criminals, soon to be released.

“Over here in prison, we introduce ourselves with our crimes first. So go ahead vanilla, what did you do to end up in this unlucky pit?” Another said. This man looked tame, barely 16 years old, with such long lashes, he practically was a girl. Kai didn’t think that he committed anything serious too, just look at the sight of him!

“Well, uh. I stole a bracelet. You?” Kai said.

“Rich boy steals a bracelet? Why didn’t you just ask mummy to buy one?” The long lashes man said, and laughed softly. “I killed someone a few years ago, I just got out of solitary confinement a year ago, and I’m here for another 35 years of my life. I’m Xiumin, and I’m older than you think.”

Kai held in a shocked gasp, murder? He was in the same room as a murderer? He looked at Tao, and he laughed too, and said, “Well I did drug trafficking, earned millions, and I spent them like the I am on those stupid high-end stuff, the government tracked the money, and here I am.”

A drug lord? He was sharing a cell with a drug lord?

The last one, the man who has yet to introduce himself just looked at him steadily and said, “ I’m Luhan.”

“And, what did you do previously?” Kai asked.

Luhan looked up to the other men with a mischevious twinkle in his eyes, and Kia somehow knew that he would be seeing that twinkle plenty more times, this man was an interesting person to be with.

“I did things that will make you squirm.”

Kai cringed his nose, “What?”

“I was a hooker, and the best too. I won the Best award 3 years in a row, before the police made a raid on my building and totally ruined the business.”

“Are you gay, then?”

Luhan really laughed then, he sounded like a dolphin. “That, my boy, is a secret.”

Kia chuckled and jumped when he heard a bell ring. He looked at the others and they all started to move towards the bars. An officer went from cell to cell, opening the bars and the rpisoners walked down the stairs, chatting as if this was a high school.

“Where are we going?”

“Lunch. It’s mashed potato and fish today. They’ve got kimchi too, if you like the taste of gym socks.” Tao said,suddenly interrupted by the shoving happening behind him.

 A wiry man was being held upright by two burly men, while another lifts his chin and he laughed loudly, all the while kicking the weaker man in the crotch, over and over again. He wailed, “Stop! Stop!” but he never paid heed, he just continued as if he was at the gym, doing a routine.

The kicking abruptly stopped and they dropped him on the floor, leaving him to whimper as they moved to the mess hall to eat. There were no watching guards at this hallway, so this must be the torture spot for every bully.

“Kai, don’t look at him, cmon lets just go. C’mon Kai. You can’t do anything.” Luhan tugged at his arm gently but his grip was strong. Kai tripped his way to the hall, all in the way pitying that man, who actually really looked like,

well,

his dad.