GENE 14

Jongdae fell asleep after he’d cried in Suho’s arms once again. They were waiting for their parents to come in the garden, their usual place when Jongdae once again whimpered in his sleep. “Please… stop… don’t hurt me…” was all he said again and again. They were all quite scared when he didn’t seems to wake up even when Suho had constantly shaking him up. He tried to sooth the younger boy but fail until a man, slightly older than them took Jongdae in his arms, hugging him tightly. The rest just sit and watched as they didn’t know who the man are and Jongdae had seems to relax in his embrace. Soon, Jongdae open his eyes and saw the man and again, the bubbly Jongdae into a sobbing mess.

“It’s okay Jongdae… I’m here, we are here Jongdae… no one’s gonna hurt my baby brother.” The man said. “Hyung… it’s… its hurt… don’t leave me please…” Again, the rest stay silent until a woman took Jongdae in her arms where they assume that is his mother. “Mama’s here. No one’s gonna leave you alright?” The woman sooth his son, rub his back in comfort. When Jongdae had calm down, Luhan brought them to somewhere more private but the first man stays with them. They eyed him as they didn’t know who he is and the stranger could feel the now 12 boys as Luhan had came back, burning holes on his body. He smiles sweetly towards the 12 and introduced himself.

“I’m sorry for not introducing myself first. My name is Kim Jongsuk and I’m Jongdae’s older brother. “They nodded at the new guy and later introduce themselves. “Has he been like that before?” Jongsuk asked when he learnt that Baekhyun is his brother’s roommate. “Just yesterday he’s like that. He’d whimpered and sometimes I heard him cried in his sleep but it just a few minutes then he would go back to sleep. When I asked him if he’s okay he said everything’s fine so I didn’t asked more. Afraid if I’m disturbing his privacy.” The older nodded and sigh when Suho asked him what’s wrong with Jongdae. “He kept on begging don’t hurt him last night. Then he asked me to stay with him.” Suho said, worries written all over his face. “I wanted to tell you guys but I don’t think it’s my place to tell. We’ll wait for him and you can ask him later if he want to talk.” As if on cue, Jongdae walked back to the garden with his parents in his side. Mr and Mrs Kim asked Baekhyun how is he doing and then they introduced themselves to Jongdae’s parents since they only met Baekhyun before. When Mr and Mrs Kim saw the worry written all over their son’s friends, they asked the latter whether he want to tell or not. “I want… but I can’t.” He said while his head is still on his brother’s shoulder. The older than volunteered to talk.

“Jongdae… he’s adopted. After giving birth to me, the doctor said that mama can’t bear another child as it will only risk her life and the baby more but when I turned 7, I was lonely and alone as they went to work. Well, I was the only child back then so we thought of adopting a boy to be my brother. We went to an adoption centre and the old lady there, Mrs Lee gladly welcoming us. Mama and dad and told me to find the one that caught my interest while they talked with Mrs Lee but none of them did. So I wander around the house and find a little boy sitting alone buy the window. I approached him but he ran away and went straight to Mrs Lee. Mama and dad were furious as they thought I did something towards the little boy but I kept on saying ‘I did nothing I promise!’”. The family chuckles upon hearing the old story then Jongsuk continue. “I told mama that the boy would be a great baby brother. When dad told Mrs Lee, the old lady was frightened and we almost fail in adopting the boy. After a few weeks, we came again and told Mrs Lee about the boy. We asked her why does she’s like overly possessive over the boy but the she burst out crying. Her old son, Youngmin and took over to tell us about the boy. Turn out the boy was traumatized with adopted parents because his first and last time being adopted, he was by his adopt brother and the said parents let him do those nasty things to him. He was just 3 years old and the incident happen only about 2 months before we came. Oh only if we came earlier than that, he would not have gone into something horrible like that. Mama cried when she see the boy. He was pale, smaller than he supposed to be in his age. He kept to himself and refused to talk. Mrs Lee had done everything to make him talk and eat but he refused. Youngmin said the boy would cry every single night in his sleep. I made my mind and insist on helping him. Dad signed the contract even though the boy refused to go with us at first but after a fe