1 Prologue

The story is in third p.o.v and will stay that way unless said.

Enjoy~

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"So class, today we're presenting our speeches on mental disorders. As some of you may know, it's a little taboo to be talking about mental disorders in Korea, but students! This is a real thing that we have to talk about." The teacher droned on as Jooheon looked out the window at the far end of the class.

Many students chose the easier topics to write about. Depression, Anxiety, Bulimia, Addiction.. all that jazz.

But Jooheon wrote about something that interests him more than it should.

Stockholm Syndrome.

Why does this psychological phenomenon make an 18-year-old teenager curiouser than all the characters of alice in wonderland combined? The answer's simple.

He doesn't know.

He doesn't know why he wants to know what it takes to develop Stockholm syndrome, nor does he know why he so badly wants a better explanation of it than wikipedia.

Which he wasn't allowed to use for this speech but sh.

"Lee Jooheon" the teacher called him up.

He snapped out of his trance and grabbed his papers.

He walked to the front of the class as the teacher took his seat and got out her grading papers.

"Ready when you are Jooheon" she called out, clicking her pen and smiling an eye smile from behind her circular glasses.

"Uhm.. my speech today is about something called Stockholm syndrome. " Jooheon started, noticing students sitting up in their chairs, as they have yet to hear a speech that wasn't depression or anxiety.

"Stockholm syndrome is a condition which causes hostages to develop a psychological alliance with their captors during captivity." He said, glancing to his paper every once in a while.

"Meaning, if a person is kidnapped for long enough, they could start gaining feelings-whether it's platonic or romantic-for their kidnappers" Jooheon shuffled his feet and leaned against the white board behind him.

Jooheon was about to continue on the history of the syndrome but a hand shot up.

"Uhm.. yes?"

"Can you cure stockholm syndrome? Or are you just stuck with it?" A boy with chestnut brown hair and a soft jawline asked from the back.

"Changkyun, questions at the end." The teacher slightly scolded. "Continue."

Jooheon cleared his throat.

"I was actually about to get to that, The treatment for Stockholm syndrome is counseling by a psychiatrist. How long a person needs to be in counseling varies by case. Since a person may have experienced mental, emotional and physical abuse, it may take years of therapy for the victim to see improvement." Jooheon was shuffling his feet and staring at his papers, he felt like the class would thinks he's weird for liking such a dark subject, but so far the only thing crossing his classmates' minds is just curiosity.

Just like him.

"Stockholm Syndrome was originally developed to explain the phenomenon of hostages bonding with their captors. The name refers to a bank holdup in Stockholm, Sweden in 1973 when four people were held hostage for six days by two men."

"You may be wondering why I have such and interest in this, truth is, I don't really know...it just makes me curious."

"Is that all?" His teacher asked, Jooheon nodded and headed back to his seat as his teacher moved.

"That was a great speech thank you Jooheon." She adjusted her glasses on the bridge of her nose and called the next few students down.

The "next few students" just so happened to be his friends, Yoo Kihyun, a 19-year-old hamster look-alike, and Chae Hyungwon, a mixture of a Frog and a Turtle.

Kihyun was first, his speech was on what goes on in the mental cycle of a serial killer, cus he's that extra.

And Hyungwon was on eating disorders, which on his part, looked a t i n y bit bad.

Y'know, taking into consideration with how thin he is, but that's from exercise and good dieting. And insanely fast metabolism.

Once they both sat down it was time for the last student.

"Im Changkyun? I know you're here so don't even think about staying quiet."

"Actually, Mrs.Chou, this is a topic I find interesting. I'm not skipping out even if I want to." He smiled a small fake-ish smile and you could see the tiniest hint of a dimple.

"My speech is on the mind of a kidnapper, and how it could be any of us. Even me."

Well that's not fucking creepy.

Changkyun finished his speech and walked back to his seat.

"Well class that was really well done and I'm proud of how serious you were. It makes me happy to know the next generation of koreans are so... so aware. So aware of what's happening and knowing that it's time for a change." Mrs.Chou let a warm smile cross her face.

The bell rang.

"See you next week class!" She called out to the students filing out of her class, Jooheon being last.

"Ah! Jooheon! Before you leave I..and he's gone" her lips formed a line and she chuckled.

Mrs.Chou turned around to her work and continued grading papers to pass time.

Once it was around 8:30 she decided she should probably leave work and head home.

Her cats miss her.

Maybe.

"Mrs.Chou..." a husky voice called out into the hall. She was confused, to say the least. You know, since she WAS alone.

Or was she?

"Yes? Who's there? Mr.Park I swear to god if you jump out and fucking scare me again-"

"That's not language a teacher should be using...considering your age."

"I'm 20 thank you very much. I'm allowed to use whatever language I want. Whether it be korean or swearing."

"Awe but Mrs.Chou.." Changkyun walked out from a dark spot in the hall.

"You're no fun..." he let out a dark chuckle and hit he rover the head with bat he was hiding at the end of a row of lockers.