In 1950, the newspaper had their first announcement of a worldwide famous circus, Royal Circus. Posters with fancy vintage writings, beautiful ladies dressed in costumes and exotic animals were hang around the city. The shops, slopes, street lamps everything was filled with Royal Circus. Everyone was excited about the new experience they would go through since the last time the same circus came along.

Families brought up military veterans and stereotypical parents were much more likely to stay home and spread rumors about the so called 'Freak show'. Those were exactly little Huang Tao's parents. Mr. and Mrs. Huang migrated from China to America as soon as they got married and Mrs. Huang was pregnant with Tao. Mrs. Huang worked for a TV producer who earned loads of money, but paid the less. Televisions weren't such a common product in every house at those times, that's why Mrs. Huang was not famous nor paid very well. The Huang family themselves couldn't afford a TV. They were happy to have a car and a roof above their heads. Mr. Huang on the other hand worked in a shopping center as the head of the security. He was a very respected and powerful man, but was often under attack by racist comments for being Chinese.

On this day, Mrs. Huang and little Tao were on their way home from Tao's school. Mrs. Huang stopped the old shiny black car at the kiosk on the corner of the main street and asked for the daily mail. The five year old boy was mesmerized by the fancy children running the streets with their parents. He envied them for their richer life.

Tao's eyes caught upon a poster on the nearest public slope, where he slowly recognized the words. "Royal circus. Mother, what is a circus?" the boy asked in a very curious manner, pulling on his mother's grey skirt. "It's nothing" she replied swiftly, avoiding questions that could bring danger on her bringing up. The lady took the promised daily mail in her hands and realized she left her purse in the car. "Be a good boy and wait for mommy here." Tao obeyed her request as his mother passed him the newspapers. "Do you really want to know what a circus is, boy?" the cashier from the kiosk asked, with his deep story teller's voice. He was very ugly and old. His face was wrinkly and his hair was long and white. His eyes were what caught Tao's attention. One was sky blue almost silver and the other was snow white. His teeth were yellowish and ugly. "They present gorgeous animals from all around the world, acrobatic beauties and scary monsters from your worst nightmares" the man's voice was like Tao was hearing a fairy tale from the radio. "Do you get to see strange people on the streets?" he asked, making the five year old shake his head. "Weirdoes, freaks! Like me" he grinned with his yellowish teeth. "People in this circus are not what you see everyday. It's not only about masks, costumes, animals. It's about the mistakes of mother nature!" The man's voice went deeper and scarier, but at the same time, Tao's interest and curiosity grew. "There are men small as dwarves, women tall as slopes, men strong as rocks, women flexible as snakes. Men wild as animals and a man centuries old. You'd better watch out for these freaks, they may make your dreams come true. Like mine!"

---

 

It was the right time for Tao's mother to stop these words messing uo her kuttke boys head.

"How dare you speak such nonsences to a child!" She responded harshly, grabbing a hold of Tao's tiny hand and slammed the money on the pile of papers in the cashier's window. "You should be ashamed!"

"Ma'am, you never know what the future brings you. Maybe it'll bring a centuries old man in your way to believe" the man finished with a laugh worth ten devils. Mrs. Huang pulled her son away as far as possible, towards their car.

However, Tao was lost in his own thoughts. He was staring up at his mother who was mumbling about not to believe the man. He was a child and was easy to confuse. He had a hard time understanding many things happening around him. But what if it was true what the man was saying? That circus makes dreams come true?

Tao annoyed his parents ever since then. He wanted to see the show so badly, that he begged and pleased his parents to make him a favor, that he would do anything. He really wanted those tickets, those shiny silvery tickets for the show. His father lost his temper towards his son for the first time and silenced his son's ungrateful mouth.  The boy got a session of beating up and crying a river afterwards. He did understand why he got the beating, but he didn't understand why was it so bad to want something? Tao hasn't spoken to his father since than. 

One day, weeks later, Tao and his father hit the kiosk again, hand in hand, going down the main busy street as always. It was filled with people rushing, skirts swaying, man losing their hats and newspapers, holding onto their briefcases. There was another couple at the kiosk, sorting through various kinds of neewspapers. It was a lovely blonde lady, with a very pretty face. Her lips full and bloody red from her lipstick, her eyes played a beautiful tone of blue and her features said simply gorgeous. She had wavy short hair and a fancy dress. She had her nails painted the same colour of her lipstick. She gave Tao's father a welcoming smile and looked down at Tao afterwards. She also had her daughter with herself, barely seen by the thick skirt of her mother. She wore a cute little pink dress with a pair of white gloves. Her hair was amazingly curly and golden, making her skin scream milky white. Tao uninterested looked up in the kiosk's window, to see the same old man from the day before. But there was no one like that. There was a woman sitting, her face wrinkly and old, she wore a cloth around her head like a gipsy fortuneteller and got a pipe between her lips. She wore an eye patch, what brought curiousity to Tao's mind again. He now saw the similiraty in the faces of the man and this lady. They had the exact same blue-silver eye colour of the same eye.

Tao looked around, pulling his hand away from his father's grasp. There were still some remaining pieces of the poster he was so longed to see live.

"Would you like to see the show, boy?" the lady from the kiosk asked, to oppose the man, with a hoarse witch like voice.

"He wouldn't, thank you!" Mr. Huang answered, looking at his son and back at the lady. His voice describing how rude he really was and how he could look down on people, just as people looked down on him.

"What a pity" the lady said in a more whiny tone, something blastering in her silver eye. She took a long puff of her pipe.

"It isn't a pity" the other woman, the pretty lady joined the ruscus about the famous circus show. "It was a messed upp show of ubnormality, my poor daughter had to see. It should be rated for adults only!" Further she spoke the further Tao disliked her manners. She might look pretty and kind, have a sweet British accent, but Tao wouldn't be falling for that mask. However his father seemed to disagree with Tao's thoughts. He felt a sharp jolt of affection burn through his eyes and senses. Tao stopped minding the adults and let them have their little conversation over there and found his eyes on the girl. Tiny blonde girl with sky blue eyes, pink hceeks and cherry red lips. She looked like one of those dolls Tao usually saw in the toy shops. He disliked her only by the thought about her mother, who was exactly like his father and that scared him away.

"The future shall bring mercy on you kids and it shall bring you happinendings" the lady in the kiosk said as she leaned over her piles of papers and looked down at Tao, nomming on her pipe. She had a really disturbing smile on her face, but Tao was just too focused on her words, which sounded like promises to him. The adults frowned at the lady and snatched their children away, not even minding their bought newspapers.

"Freak!" the blonde lady whispered unlikely for the lady to hear, but she laughed, ten devils worth laughter.

"Just don't be surprised when your fault will repay on someone else!"

Since then, Tao saw his father less and less. Few times he would come for him to school, but he ended up talking to Mrs. Blair, the blonde woman. 

Everything went down like a waterfall for the little boy. His years passed quickly and his life went to more messy piles than it already was. His father was having an affair with Mrs. Blair for a very long time, both hoping for her husband to cancel the divorce he offered her, because she would stay moneyless. He gave her an ultimatum, to stop seeing Mr. Huang for the sake of their only daughter. That ultimatum was soon canceled, because little Hannah, Mrs. Blair daughter was killed by a train in front of Tao's eyes. Mr. Huang accused Tao of being the fault, just because he envied her and beat him up until he lost his breath. Mrs. Huang got sick of her husband, literally. She slowly stopped regocnizing his drunk face when he arrived home, but she kept sane to protect her only son from her husband. Tao's father once promised Mrs. Blair to bring them a child, so they wouldn't have to try and cry over the past. Mr. Huang was determined to move his now fifteen years old son to Mrs. Blair's house and take him away from his mother at the same time. Mrs. Huang would never let that happen and as the argument started, Tao was already running away from home...

---

Alone in the dark night, Tao was roaming the streets. He was searching shelter at his best friend's placce Irene, but she was nowhere to be reached. Tao wasn't wearing warm clothes for the night and he haven't got any money either. It was a bad idea leaving the house at the first place, without any backup plan, but he was sick and tired of his life under the roof.

He found himself passing out on a bench in the middle of the usually vvery busy main street, which was surprisingly empty tonight. No shops were having their open signs hung out, nor clubs or bars were opened. Was it Sunday already? Tao asked himself as he hugged his upper body from the shivering cold. He brought his knees up to his chest, curling up on the bench alone. He heard the distant sounds of a loud music and trumpetes, but he wasn't sure what was the deal with this.

In a sudden moment, he heard more voices laugh and murmur about things. He found the voices familiar, but he was more interested if they would hurt him or help him. He quickly stood up from the bench, to look as normal as possible. He wanted to act a passer by, nothing strange really on an empty street. He looked up higher just to see a group of four girls coming towards him. It was Irene's group of friends that usually pushed him around and made fun of his tiny eyes. Irene stopped her trail and grabbed a hold of Tao's shoulders, mouth opened wide to speak up.

"I would ask what you're doing here, but you come in handy" she started with her usual I-don't-care attitude. It was something Tao was used to, but sometimes it would be nice, if she would just listen to him for a while. Irene was Tao's best friend and the only one from the entire city to talk to him. But she looked strange. Every girl looked very much different than Tao remembered them from school. What was going on? "You also wanted to see the circus right? We have tickets, but they ask for your age. We dressed like our mother's in their twenties" Irene said, making Tao check out the girls' dresses. They looked like club dancers, that meant like s. It was something Tao never experienced only when he saw few ladies dressed like this in his father's newpapers and calendars. "Are you in then? You look like a trash so you'd be an easy deal."

The girls led Tao a hat, an old hat from Wendy's father. He was a business man and he had a huge collections of hars at home. They all lead the way, Tao captured between Irene and Joy, holding him around the elbows. It must've looked like he was a big hustler, having all these ty ladies around himself, but he was more confused himself on this. He would get into trouble if someone would find out that he is underaged and in a circus. But he longed for it, for ten years, he only wished for this to come on day...

---

 

"I'm sorry miss, I cannot let you in" the porter spoke, crossing his muscular arms on his chest. Tao was pretty much amazed from afar. "You're not eighteen, pardon" he said and took the tickets from another visitor queing up behind the girls. Tao was surprised that the porter didn't believe their age. They looked like s, but wasn't that the adulthood of girls? 

"We are eighteen! All of us!" Irene started barking back at the man, making him even more pissed than he already was. The man looked actually kind, dispite his muscular body, but when he was pissed, his nostrils would flare and eyes would squint, shooting bullets through your soul.

"You should be thankful that I let you leave without calling the police, go!" he snorted and looked away from Irene and her friends. They made a dramatic leave, especially Irene. She threw her bloody red scarf on the ground and even stomp on it, before leaving clumsily with their high heels. They approached Tao behind the corner of the huge circus tent. Irene sighed deeply and pressed her lips in a thin line. She was actually pretty pissed and so were her three friends. Wendy, Joy and Seulgi just looked at Irene and anticipated some new plan, but she just smacked her fingers together.

"Tao, your turn, mate" she said and handed him the shiny silver ticket. "It's your only chance" she said and fixed his hat on his head, making it harder to look in his face. She took off Joy's old coat that she took from her grandmother and handed it to Tao. Tao didn't responded as his usual behavior. He was afraid to talk even to people his age. He dressed up his coat and walked to queue up.

It was soon his turn to hand in his ticket. He felt the eyes of the four girls watching him from afar and he was more nervous. It was something he has never done, something this much rebeling against everything his parents have ever taught him to. He stood in front of the muscular guy who was now puffing a cuban cigarette and exhaling the smoke in the faces of the visitors. Tao was mesmerized by the size of the man's arms. One biceps was big as Tao's head, which made him even more scared. He glanced to his right, where Irene and the others encouraged him with gestures to advance.

"Do you have a ticket?" the man asked, not dissmissing the boy right away. Tao just stood there watching the girls mutely. He turned his head as he heard the man talk to him. "I asked, do you have a ticket?" the porter asked again, leaning lower to have his eyes on the same level as Tao's were. Tao reached out, hand shaking uncontrollably with the shiny silver ticket in it. The porter took it and looked down at Tao again. His eyes more examining this time, eyes squinted, teeth biting onto the edge of the cigarette and Tao started to sweat. The porter ripped the ticket slightly, making Tao shiver, and handed it back to the boy. "Enjoy" he said in a more deeper voice, pulling the tent door aside, letting the fifteen year old, masked boy inside. Tao looked one last time at his friends, who were more happy than he showed it.

---

Tao was shocked by the amount of people sitting inside. IT was a huge number to just say out loud. Everyone critisized the Royal Circus especially their Freak Show, so why were so many people interested in this show?

"Because even the bad review is a review and people want to know the truth" a female voice startled Tao from his left side. There stood an asian woman in an American flag overall, her hair wavy and a har on her head. She smiled sweetly at the young boy and put her hands in her pockets. She was possibly two heads taller than Tao that made him tilt his head upwards to see her face. She had more sharp features than Irene and big doe eyes. She was pretty, for sure but unusual to see. "My name is Sooyoung and I'm a show girl here" she said and gently winked at the boy. Tao gulped the knot in his throat and just wondered how could she know the answer for his thoughts. "Everyone wonders the same question as you do, boy" she said recognizing the age of the boy, swearing her soul that he wasn't eighteen. "Enjoy the show" she said and gestured him to follow her. 

Tao walked behind her, mesmeriying the huge inside of the tent. It looked large outside, but inside it was enomurous. Sooyoung showed him to a seat at the middle of the rows, where could Tao see clearly and nicely, even if he was shorter than all of the others. He was seated between two couples that arrived later. They were eating popcorn from a huge pocket. Tao felt a bit awkward sitting between them, but had no other choice just to watch the show as he would really loved to...