Prologue

It was a clear sunny day and the air smelled like honeysuckles and burnt grass to five year old Oh Sehun. He flared his nostrils up at the sky as he patiently waited for someone; Huang Zitao.

"Your friend is here," A familiar voice called out to him.

Sehun turned his head towards the back porch screened door. He could only see the outlining of a skinny figure. Out came Sehun's mother with two coffee mugs filled with tea in both hands. Mrs. Huang followed from behind, and in her arms was Zitao. A wide smile spread across Oh Sehun's face.

"Tao-sshi!" Sehun reached his arms out to Tao as Mrs. Huang sat him down next to him. He shoved his favorite stuffed bear in Tao's face. "Today's exchange Tuesday. What did you bring for me?"

Tao pulled out a box of leggos. He couldn't help but smile like a dork. "I brought you my leggos today," he said. They exchanged toys. Tao stared at Sehun's stuffed bear with worry. It was a bit dingy. One of the bear's eyes were coming off and its right arm was halfway torn. "Isn't this your favorite stuffed animal? Don't you need it to sleep at night?"

"Yes, but you're my best friend and I trust you with it. It's only for one day," Sehun said.

"Ah, you're right. I'll give it back to you tomorrow, then."

"Exactly," Sehun struggled with the leggo box. The top cover was a bit difficult to get open, but he managed to open it without Tao's help. He poured all four hundred pieces onto the ground. "Let's build something with these!"

The two best friends did this everyday. Mrs. Huang would always bring her son over to play with Sehun as she made conversation with his mother. Sehun and Tao were best friends because their mothers were best friends. Their mothers worked together in the same company and in the same section of the building.

"Have you ever been anywhere else besides your house and school, like into the city, for example?" Tao had asked Sehun one day. It was kind of hard to understand almost every single word that came out of his mouth. He always mispronounced words without a care and stuttered. Sehun clearly knew Chinese was Tao's first language; however; he knew Tao slacked in class, too. The two walked along the white backyard fence, hand in hand.

"No. My mom doesn't take me with her to places. I'm either stuck at home or stuck at school," Sehun answered. He traced a finger over the fence's wooden pattern. "She says its dangerous out there in the city."

"My mom says the same thing," Tao said while slightly nodding his head. "I wonder what it's like in the city."

"I'm sure it's as pretty as--" a loud noise from above cut Sehun off.

The two young boys looked up at the sky with glistening eyes and dropped jaws as three helicopters and two jets flew above their heads. Sehun had only seen pictures of aircrafts. He never imagined seeing one in person or even better, right above his head.

"Whoa, it's real this time!" He stated, but these aircrafts looked a bit different from the pictures.

"Y-yeah," Tao couldn't help but stutter. "It's amazing."

Sehun had a tight grip on Tao's hand. He squeezed a bit harder, but there was no response from the other. Tao was too fascinated by what he was seeing.

Mrs. Huang peeked up at the sky before setting down her half full coffee mug. "Oh, I guess I should head back now," she said. There was a tiny hint of nervousness and fear in her voice.

"Don't worry. We'll be fine," Mrs. Oh said, voice completely calm. It was like she already knew what Mrs. Huang was thinking. "Nothing is going to happen."

"I hope so..." Mrs. Huang glanced over at her son. The boys were laughing about something. Hearing their laughter made her stomach turn. Seeing them laugh made her heart ache. "It was nice talking to you." 

"Sure. I'll see you at work."

"It's time to go Zitao," Mrs. Huang called out to her son. Sehun and Tao walked over to their mothers, side by side and hand in hand. Sehun didn't want to let go.

"We barely played, mommy," Tao complained. He stared at her with puppy eyes. Lips pouting.

"Why don't you give your friend a kiss goodbye?" His mother suggested.

"Ew. That's gross. I don't want cooties."

"Only girls have cooties," She said even though that wasn't true at all. Cooties weren't real but no matter how many times she tried to explain to him, he would shake his head in disbelief. 

"And I'm not a girl," Sehun reminded him. Sehun looked nothing like a girl. He only had long eyelashes and people used to say his eyelashes made him pretty, but that didn't mean they thought he looked like a girl. He didn't like the word pretty. He wanted to be called cute or adorable not pretty. Pretty was a girly word, he thought.

Tao turned towards Sehun and shook his head. "Only people who are in love kiss," he said, which wasn't all true. 

Sehun rolled his eyes. He leaned towards Tao only to place a soft, wet kiss on his cheek. "You're my friend. Can I not love you...as a friend?" 

Tao could feel his body stiffen and his cheeks getting hot. His lips parted like he had something to say, but nothing came out. 

"Alright. We should get going," Mrs. Huang said, taking Tao by his skinny, fragile wrist. "I'll talk to you later, Minhee." She began to pull on his arm, but he could barely move. It was too much of a struggle that she eventually had to carry him out. 

"Stop by tomorrow and come play with me, Tao!" Sehun shouted out to him while waving goodbye. "And don't forget to bring back my stuffed bear tomorrow."

There was a tomorrow, but Tao never stopped by to play. Sehun waited in his backyard all afternoon and Tao never showed up. Sehun waited the next day and the next day and the day after that, but he still never saw Tao's pale, chubby face. Sehun didn't see him at school either. He decided to wait for two weeks straight. There were no signs of Tao showing up. What was the point of waiting? Sehun wanted to know. Waiting only made him impatient and even more upset with himself. 

"It's all my fault, isn't it?" He asked his mother at the dinner table one night. "It's because I kissed him on the cheek, isn't it?"     

His mother didn't say a word. It was quiet between the two. The only sound that could be heard at the dinner table was the sound of her chewing. She barely looked up from her plate. She wasn't going to answer that question. She didn't want to answer that question. Tears started to form in Sehun's eyes. He tried blinking them away, but they ended up falling into his bowl of rice. 

"Why don't I see Tao at school any--" 

Mrs. Oh slammed her chopsticks down onto the table. "Shut your mouth! If I hear his name come out of your mouth one more time, I swear--" she snapped. "Don't you ever mention his name in this house, do you hear me? Don't you speak of his mother either." 

Sehun wanted to ask why but couldn't get a single word out of his mouth. Hearing his mother yell and seeing her snap at him made him want to cry even harder. This was her first time snapping at him. Something was causing her to behave this way towards him; her yelling and her silent treatments. Sehun started to bawl at his eyes. Drool kept dripping from his mouth and snot kept running down his nose. She didn't feel sorry for him at all. 

"Now, look at what you're doing. You're wasting the last batch of rice. Good ing job. Great, Sehun." She stood up from her seat. She wasn't about to apologize. She cared more about the food than his feelings. "Clean up your face." 

Sehun started wailing. 

"Rinse these plates and bowls off and put them in the dishwasher," she commanded him. She slid her empty plate across the table. "And quit crying. You look ugly."

That word ugly. Sehun didn't like that word. He disliked the word 'pretty', but he hated the word 'ugly'. Ugly was a harsh and strong word. That word could easily pierce through someone's body and paralyze them. It could stay glued to that person's mind and stay there for all their life. He hated that word. He hated the way it sounded and the way it was spelled and how it was easily said. His mother said it like it was easy for her to say. She said it like she meant it. It hurt. It hurt a lot.
  

X

A few months went by and things just kept getting worse for Oh Sehun. His mother didn't celebrate his sixth birthday. She stopped taking him to school and didn't let him step out of the house anymore. She would lock him in his room for almost the whole day. She stopped cooking dinner for him and the only few things they had in the house to eat were precooked salty ramen, yogurt and peanuts. Sehun didn't even like ramen. He would end up starving himself most nights. There were days where his mother would come home crying. She would avoid him and never talk to him. She stayed inside her room for hours. Sehun would hear her loud sobs or would hear things being thrown across the room. Something had happened and she wasn't going to tell him. Something was wrong, and Sehun had no idea what was going on and what was wrong with her.

There was one day where his mother came home and immediately started throwing up. It worried Sehun to bits. He wondered if she was sick. 

"Are you okay?" He had asked her. It took her a while to answer. She wouldn't stop puking inside the toilet bowl.

"I'm pregnant," she simply said. And Sehun walked out of the bathroom, screaming and crying. Now he felt like throwing up. He never thought of his mother getting pregnant with another child. Not after the death of his father three years ago. It wasn't fair. It wasn't right. 

Sehun opened the screened door to his backyard. He saw that the grass was no longer green but brown. He also saw that the white fence surrounding the yard was losing its color. There were no birds chirping or hiding in the trees. The sky looked dark and gloomy. It looked like it was just about to rain. The sun was covered in what Sehun thought were clouds. There was a strange scent in the air. It smelled like ashes, lifeless and cold, under Sehun's nose. He flared his tiny nostrils up at the sky as he impatiently waited for someone who wasn't coming back; Huang Zitao. 

Sehun's throat began to itch. It got irritated the most when he tried to swallow. Tears filled his eyes and the tears started to fall down his cheeks. He buried his face into the palms of his hands. He only wanted to hear the sound of Tao's voice. He wanted to hold and squeeze Tao's hand until he squeezed back. He wanted Tao to hug him and comfort him. He had no one. His only friend had left him and his mother was no longer the mother he knew to grow and love. He wanted things to go back to the way they were before, but he was all alone now. 

A few helicopters and jets flew over Sehun's head as he continued to bury his face into his hands and cry. After the jets and helicopters passed, the neighborhood was in complete silence. However, the silence didn't last for long. A loud, booming sound followed shortly after. It sounded like a bomb had just gone off. Everything happened a bit too fast. A bright, white light flashed before Sehun's eyes. Then, the sky flashed a bright red and orange. He could feel some sort of heat blow towards his face and the ground below his feet vibrate. He lost the feelings in his legs and collapsed to the ground in shock, not sure as to what just happened. 

"Sehun! Sehun!" He heard the sound of his mother's voice, screaming for his name. "Are you okay? Please, tell me you're okay."

Sehun's vision was a complete blur. It was hard to see, yet he could still see the look of worry in her eyes, panic on her face and tears on her cheeks. Sehun didn't realize he was smiling. This was the first time in a long time his mother was showing some sort of sign that she cared. 

"Get up! We're not safe here," she said, trying to drag Sehun off the ground. "We're under attack!"

"With who?" Sehun tried to say, ears ringing. 

"China."

A bright, white light flashed before their eyes a second time. The ground began to shake again and smoke filled the air. The sound of what seemed like a bomb going off, a lot stronger and louder, rang through their ears. Sehun couldn't tell what was going on behind his backyard's white fence, but he could tell it was getting closer.

A/N: Hello! Thanks for reading the prologue. I hope you enjoyed it. Chapter 1 is on its way. Feel free to upvote, comment, and subscribe if you want. Those motivate me to keep on writing. Thank you and happy reading~