Kai soon learned the routine, and he picked it up real quick.

They woke up at the crack of dawn and were sent to public showers, where Luhan took the opportunity to show everyone why exactly he won Best Hooker award for 2 years straight.

After the showers, they were given a fresh pair of jail clothes and they went down to the mess hall for breakfast, usually watery coddled eggs and tinned baked beans with a glass of milk and an orange. Very elementary school.

Then, they were given duties according to the duty roster, and for this week, Kai got prison clean-up. That means he had to mop the floors, wipe the windows and pull out the weeds in the small and tiny courtyard next to the matron’s room.

Tao and Luhan got off with loading, they had to take supplies from the pick-up bay and put the supplies in the mess hall’s pantry, all the while handcuffed to each other and chained with a metal ball to the leg.

Xiumin was given the mess hall duty, he had to prepare the food and serve it, then wash up the dishes after that. This duty was only given once a month, but you had to do it for 4 days straight, without fail, or you will be asked to do that for another 2 weeks. It balls according to Xiumin, prisoners ate like dogs and the food was gross.

Kai felt lucky then, his task wasn’t hard but he felt bothered, the duty was always looked over by some cop who thought that he was so much better than the lot of them, but in a way, all the prisoners were just people who messed up and were just trying to make up for their mistake, so why so harsh on them?

He never met the man who got bullied ever again, and when he asked Tao, Tao just shook his head slowly and said, “Kai, there are some things in prison that you just don’t talk about, kid. Here is one of them.”

“Yeah, but what happened to him?”

“He probably died, internal bleeding or a haemorrhage or something. Things happen, and you  just got to let it go.”

Kai never spoke of the incident after that. He even managed to make some new friends while on duty, Chen and Lay.

Apparently, they were both part of some yakuza gang chain, even when they were both not Japs.

“The Japanese need connections everywhere, so we were that for them. A wire, a cable for their missions.”

Chen was serving 20 years in jail for kidnapping; he had kidnapped a young girl who was the daughter of the Japanese’s enemy. He was caught when the police noticed the sign in the apartment of the ransom video, a shop that led the police to the place. The rest of the gang fled, but he was stuck because he had to chuck all the evidence out so the police couldn’t find out about their gang operations.

“A sacrificial lamb, that’s what  I was to them. Never get involved with the gang stuff, okay kid? You look like a nice person, from a good family, so don’t mess your life up.”

Kai nodded slowly, not saying anything.

Lay was in jail for illegal gambling, he ran a gambling 4-number store and was caught when the police did a drug bust in his shop and found out that the shop had drugs, and gambling activities. He used to be close buddies to Xiumin, until he got caught and after that, Xiumin broke all contact with him to make him  look less suspicious.

“Who knew that we’d have a reunion in prison? 1 year after I got in prison, he got in. So much for trying to avoid trouble.” Lay chuckled reminiscing of his past as they all scrubbed the windows clean.

The matron watched them with a steely glare, as if glaring at people would make them work faster. Kai moved on to another window and from there, he could see the pick-up bay where Luhan and Tao were. Most of the stronger looking inmates were put on duty there, the supplies were heavy and it was bothersome to have scrawny people lift the boxes, because they couldn’t.

Kai waved at them, in a vain attempt to socialise, but the matron barked at him to continue work.

Jail was pretty much horrible, and the day got even worse when he was told that his stepmother scheduled a visit with him today. The witch was coming, and he wasn’t in the mood for her.

She waited in the designated room, her ankles locked together, a sign of annoyance. Her crisp Proenza outfit looked out of place in the dim, grey wall of the room, and she looked impeccable and completely undisturbed, even when about to face her naughty, unruly, rebellious stepson.

Her face didn’t even twitch when she saw him, she just looked up from her manicured nails and placed her hands on her lap, waiting for him to sit.

“I’m sorry ma-“

“This is the last-“

They both stopped talking, and Kai grew red when she cocked her eyebrow and laughed softly, “So my cold hearted stepson finally apologises.” She clapped her hand theatrically and gave him a smug smile.

“Like father like son, Kai. Who would’ve thought?” she said.

Kai closed his eyes, pressing his lips close together in a thin line, like a little boy who wanted to stop crying, as if doing so might stop the memories from rushing back.

His father wasn’t a good one, he was what you might call an absent father or, a weekend father. He never tried to make it for any of Kai’s birthdays, and when he did show up once, he was stoned to the bones and was walking back home with an . Kai remembered the judging glances from the other mothers, and the shocked faces on his friends’ faces.  He lost all his friends that day, and the mothers told them to stay away from Kai like he was a vermin with diseases.

His father was the leader of a mob, and that was why they were rich. The mob was owned by his great-great grandfather, and they were a monarchy who ruled a law firm, a business that was a façade to the money laundering that they did.

They pretended to uphold justice and defend the citizens, but all the while they were the criminals; that was how sick their logic was. Kai was revolted when his stepmother finally told him that.

His stepmother got married to his father as an alliance of two mob groups. No love was ever there between them, and Kai was always a reminder that he didn’t love her, all the time. She never hated Kai for that, she was just cold to him, she didn’t want to get too attached to another woman’s son, another couple’s love product.

When his father was finally caught, his stepmother cried; she had lost her husband to drugs and mafia busts, but she finally earned her freedom, her escape as the lowly wife of a mafia dude.

She never bothered to visit him in prison, but Kai really tested her patience throughout the time he was there. He was still in prison for all they know, he was sentenced to a life in prison without parole, for being responsible for ordering the deaths of 6 people.

“Ma, I’m sorry. Look, I’ll make it up to you when I get out of this place. Just pay the bail, and I swear I’ll make it up to you. I didn’t even steal the stupid bracelet; it was only a bit of fun.”

She shook her head slowly, as if she didn’t want to ruin her perfect chignon, and smiled coquettishly. “I do believe, that your time in prison will teach you the lesson my words could never seem to teach you. And besides, you always talked of wanting to visit your father in prison, and now you have the chance. He is, in this exact same prison right now, isn’t he? So have fun, Kai. You finally got what you wanted, what was it that you told me the other day, you wanted some thrill? Well, I sure hope it’s thrilling to have murderers as friends.”

She stood up as if to walk away, but Kai grabbed her hand and sat her back down.

“No contact!” The guard shouted, and Kai glared at him.

“Please, ma. Please. Pay the bail, I’ll be a good kid to you. I swear on my mother’s good name.”

His stepmother’s smile suddenly disappeared, and she shot him a look of pure venom. “Do not talk of your mother. You know better than to talk of her. I’ll come back in a week’s time, and I’ll tell you what I’m going to do then. Meanwhile, I told your school that you’re off on a French language and Film Production enrichment camp in Cannes, so don’t tell anyone else.”

“Kyungsoo knows the truth.” Kai said.

“Kyungsoo has been sent an email from our lawyer, he should know what to do.”

She walked out of the room and her bodyguard followed, carrying her lightweight bag for her as she sashayed out of the prison.

Kai was doomed for another 2 weeks.