2012. That was the year that changed the lives of four broken individuals, changed their lives in ways they could not have imagined. They thought life could not get any worse but it managed. 2012 was a year that the four remember with a foul feeling in their hearts even to this day. On their birthdays, for some reason or another, they had all ended up alone in dark alleyways. They wish they could have changed that circumstance because if they had not been in the dark alley on their respective birthdays, they would have not been kidnapped. They would not have ended up in this underground cellar, which the captives called the hellhole, “Giundeda”. Even before they were kidnapped, however, each captive’s life was falling apart, victims of circumstance and a heartless fate. Among the four, Luhan was the first to be kidnapped.

--

Luhan had suffered loneliness from the age of two weeks, forsaken by his parents and left to an orphanage. He spent eighteen miserable years stuck in that place,, a place that claimed to protect orphans. In actuality, he spent those years being bullied. They bullied him simply because he had a more feminine appearance and because he never fought back when they .

The day the orphanage kicked him out, when he was finally old enough to be considered no longer in need of the orphanage as a home, he was almost glad he would no longer need to suffer through the torments he went through all of his life. The only problem was that he was thrown onto the street with nowhere to go. It was quite difficult for him to get a job because he didn’t have a college degree. The only jobs that were hiring were ones that Luhan was not willing to do, even if the other option was homelessness and a life on the streets. The last thing that he was going to do was sell his body to a e.

Luckily, he still had money saved up from when he delivered newspapers and milk. He wished he could have kept that job but the kind ahjussi that had hired him had passed away a year ago. After the new owner took over the business, Luhan was fired, albeit for a stupid reason. Despite this, he was glad because he would never have to deal with the new owner again.

Because Luhan wouldn’t give his body to the new owner, the owner had tried to force himself on Luhan. Having been bullied all his life, Luhan had taught himself self-defence. Until that moment, he had never actually put it into practice. That man pushed Luhan to his breaking point and for a moment, Luhan even considered taking his own life.

“That is why everyone left you, you immature !”

“Your parents didn’t want you because of the ugly scars on your body.”

“You should just take your life. No one would miss you if you were gone anyways.”

When Luhan heard these comments, he showed now outward reaction. He didn’t want to be the little boy he had been when he was young, the little boy who didn’t know how to protect himself. He didn’t want to be viewed as the defenceless feminine boy he was always teased for being. He wanted to be considered a man who was able to protect himself without having to be rescued.

He changed, however, when the man went to him. This time he fought back. His fist collided with the despicable face and he heard the crack of bones indicating a broken nose.

“You lewd beast! You don’t know me so don’t say like that, especially not to my face! Who cares if I don’t have parents, I don’t! I’m fine without them. I can take care of myself without anyone by my side. I don’t even care that I could die alone right now and that no one would miss me. It would certainly be better than being harassed by a e such as you who has nothing better to do with his life than harassing young boys! If you try to go near me ever again, I will report you to the police. I will also tell them about the ography that you keep on your computers. If the police find out about that, you won’t be feeling fresh air for quite a long time,” Luhan hissed at the man holding his nose in an attempt to stem the bleeding.

“You ! You wouldn’t do that!” the man shouted defensively.

“I would.” Luhan glared at the man. “I don’t know how many more children you’ve hurt but if you try to do anything to anyone else, I will report you. I have evidence of your crimes,” he replied viciously.

“You son of a bi—“ A second punch to the man’s face knocked him unconscious before he could finish the sentence, something that would trigger more violence in the usually meek boy.

Before he ran from the scene, he stole some money from the man’s wallet. He just ran, not caring where he ended up because anywhere at all would be better than that place, or so he thought. It wasn’t safe for him because Luhan knew that sooner or later, he would lose control and attack, perhaps even kill the man. For a crime such as that, he would definitely go to prison, and he did not want that. As he ran, Luhan could feel pain welling in the bottom of his heart, a tragically familiar feeling. What the man had said was all true but Luhan wouldn’t give in this time, he wouldn’t cry over something small like that.

He was alone, had never made a single friend in his entire life. No one would miss him if he died because he had no one. His parents thought that he was ugly and gave him up.

Luhan stopped in an alleyway and began to repeatedly punch the wall. “Why does he have to be right?!” he shouted as he punched the unmoving bricks again and again. He didn’t even care that his knuckles had begun to bleed from the impacts with the bricks. Right now, all he wanted was a distraction from the emotional pain he was feeling; physical pain was the perfect distraction at the moment. This emotional damage was a difficult thing to fix as it had been there since he was little.

“Why me? Why can my life never go right?” he shouted, finally giving in to the burning at the backs of his eyes and letting tears flow. Once they started, they were out of Luhan’s control and refused to cease. Luhan just stood in the alleyway, not caring that passersby were throwing him funny looks. All he wanted to do was give up. In the end, crying exhausted him to the extent that he passed out. Before he slipped out of consciousness, four words slipped out of his mouth, “Happy birthday to me,” he muttered bitterly.

Something appeared just at the edge of his peripheral vision; someone appeared wearing a mask but Luhan didn’t notice. He had been watching the boy the whole time, waiting for the moment when his mission would begin, when he would finally be able to take Luhan. “Now I can make you mine,” the figure whispered, focussing his eyes on his prey and waiting for the time when he could begin. The clock struck 10:05 and he began to run toward the alleyway, toward the collapsed boy. He made sure that his identity was not exposed.

April 20th, 2012 at 10:05 p.m. Luhan was kidnapped.

--

He felt something poking his side and pulled himself to consciousness, eyes blinking slowly. Luhan awoke fully when he saw the blanked draped over him, a blanket he didn’t remember drawing over himself. He looked around at the unfamiliar place he had been brought to.

‘Oh my god.... Don’t tell me that the erted ahjussi kidnapped me while I was sleeping,’ Luhan thought, horrified. He pushed himself up and the blanket fell away and he fled to a corner of the room. He sat down and hugged his knees, not knowing what to do. He scanned the room more closely, wondering where exactly he was. The only furniture he found was a bookshelf with shelved books. The only other objects occupying the space were some blankets and pillows.

His gaze lingered on the door and he guessed that the door would be locked. Escape wouldn’t be so easy as to just open the door and run away. ‘Maybe if I just tried the door, I will get lucky and the kidnapper will have forgotten to lock the door’ he thought to himself, clinging to a small shard of hope. When he pushed himself to his feet, he heard the door creak open.

He immediately ran back to the corner he had come from, grabbing a blanket to cover himself with, meagre protection against whoever this kidnapper was. Luhan heard footsteps approach and he hugged himself tighter. Although his body was covered, his head still poked out over the edge. Luhan squeezed his eyes shut, scared of whatever might happen were he to open them.

The room went quiet, a little too quiet for comfort. Slowly Luhan opened his eyes but what he say made him snap them shut again. He saw a masked man before him, although this man had a different build from the ahjussi he had assaulted the day prior. His theory that the ert had kidnapped him was proven incorrect.

“Please... Let me go...” he pleaded in a whisper. “I promise I won’t tell anyone what you did if you just release me.” Luhan didn’t hear a vocal response. He only heard the sound of metal on the floor of the room. When he peeked, he saw a tray of food was set before him with a note attached. Luhan was tempted by the delicious-looking food set before him because it had been a good 24 hours since he had last eaten.

‘Don’t be tempted by the food. It is probably poisoned,’ he thought to himself. ‘No kidnappers are this nice...’ Despite this internal dialogue, he couldn’t take his eyes away from the food. He was so distracted, in fact, that he didn’t notice the receding footsteps of the masked man.

“Wait! Don’t go! Aren’t you going to tell me why I’m here?” Luhan called after the masked man. The man kept walking without looking back. Luhan tried to get to his feet again but his body was too weak. When he heard the door close, he knew he had lost the opportunity.

He hugged his knees even closer, dejectedly. That’s when he noticed something on his right arm. There were six numbers and a barcode tattooed there. It read 040210.

--

“What the hell is going on here? Why is there a barcode tattooed on my arm?” he muttered to himself, running his fingers over it softly. He had only one thought lingering in his head as he caressed the strange mark.

“Please help me...” Luhan cried out, forgetting about the note left on the tray with the food.

--

A few days later, another boy was captured in a manner very similar to the way Luhan was .His name was Huang Zitao, aged 17 years. This second victim’s captor was not the same person as Luhan’s, however.

This boy was a mystery to everyone around him. No one knew who he really was; they only knew him as the boy who never uttered a single word. He always wore a black hoodie that shielded his face from view. When someone tried to look at him directly, the glimpse they caught of the boy would send them running away in fear. Seeing his soulless eyes blankly staring back from under the hood scared everyone away.

Everyone merely considered him a ghost, his existence ignored, until that night. Tao was just walking along the dark street, the only time of day he would ever go out, as he was not fond of sunlight or the people who strolled about underneath it. He hated the looks of fear people threw him when they saw his face.

Suddenly, a crowd of people rant toward him scream a name, “DBSK!” Tao immediately ran down the first street he could in order to get out of the way of the charging crowd. He had wandered down a dark alleyway in his haste to escape. As he was walking through the alleyway to leave, he felt a stabbing pain at the back of his head.

“Ahhh!” he groaned in pain, holding his head. The injury was so painful that he fainted in the empty alleyway. The trauma brought back painful memories and flashbacks that had haunted him for years now, memories of a past he had been running from for years. All at once, these memories flooded back to him. The masked figure frowned as he looked down at the unconscious body on the ground.

“Poor baby, just wait a little longer, okay?” the figure asked, looking at his watch. The time finally struck 10:05 p.m. The masked figure rushed into the alleyway so that he could finally execute the plan he had waited to put into motion for years.

On May 2, 2012 at 10:05 p.m. Huang Zitao was kidnapped.

--

The next day, Tao awoke to something poking his arm. He stirred but did not wake.

“Are you awake,” a cute voice, probably belonging to the source of the poking, said.

Tao slapped the object that poked him relentlessly, which simply earned a loud squal. “You don’t have to resort to violence,” the familiar voice all but whined.

Suddenly Tao opened his panda eyes and stared at the person before him. The boy crawled away, scared of the round eyes staring back at him.

‘Who is he?’ Tao thought, looking down, afraid.

“Don’t be scared, I won’t hurt you,” the boy said. “My name is Luhan. I think you got kidnapped too, the same way that I did. I don’t know when you were put in this room but it was probably some time during the night. What’s your name?”

“Tao,” the panda replied softly.

"Was yesterday your birthday?" Luhan asked, and the panda looked up eyes widen while nodding his head.

"Oh god, we both got kidnapped on our birthday.." he muttered. His eyes starts wandering over to the young panda’s right arm, searching for the same tattoo that appeared on his arm. Although he found a barcode tattoo, then numbers were different. The panda’s tattoo read 650320.

“You have a barcode tattoo too,” Luhan commented softly, pointing at Tao’s arm. He looked down, following the baby-faced boy’s finger and found that he really did have a barcode on his arm.

Tao’s throat tightened in fear. He didn’t know what was going on except that this deer-faced boy, Luhan, was saying that he had been kidnapped. Why would someone go to the trouble of kidnapping him? He was invisible. Tao tilted his gaze up to look at Luhan with tears in his eyes. Luhan knew exactly what Tao wanted to ask but before he could answer, the door at the other end of the room opened.

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