Minhyuk

//Flashback - 10 years ago (Minhyuk)

"No! Stop abusing me. You did the same thing to mom 'till you killed her but you blamed me. It's all your fault! You're indeed a monster!" I shouted, and now crying and begging to my stepfather to stop torturing me.

My stepfather kneeled down, dropped the knife he was holding to cut my wrist, shocked to see me, a ten-year-old boy, calling him a monster and tried to stop him from abusing his son. But there's no way. My father stood up and dragged me to my bedroom.

"Don't you dare talk to me about your mom. Not my fault I killed her. Not my fault she died! She's too dumb for 'protecting' you. So you should pay the price for her death! Don't blame me when you're the reason she died." he pushed me hard, making me fell to the floor the closed the door and locked me inside my room

I couldn't believe he just called my mom dumb! No. I was. I should've just listen to everything he told me to do but I refused to because I knew what he wanted me to do were wrong! So I fought him back then that's when he started to abuse me but mom protected me from him. I knew it was probably my fault but HE KILLED MOM!

Just thinking about her made me realised a tear dropped to the floor. I cried. I didn't know what else should I do. I didn't think I had a reason to live anymore. So, I just cried my eyes out.

"Mom, if you were here, you probably knew what to do. Help me", I said helplessly while I laid on the floor, just crying and hoping that all these problems would just be gone.

I sat up, wiping my tears from crying as I saw my backpack next to my bed. Then I thought of an idea. Escaping the house. That's all I could think because I didn't want to stay here anymore. I just wanted FREEDOM from this place.

I got up and packed everything I needed and decided to escape through the window in my bedroom. Luckily, the window wasn't lock so I could open and escaped. I jumped and landed on the ground. It hurt a bit since I jumped from the second floor and it was kind of high. Without hesitation, I dashed out from the area and went somewhere else.

It was after raining but the weather felt nice. So right now I just needed a place to stay for a while. It's probably dangerous for me to wander around here at midnight so I went down the street and tried to find some sort of shleter.

Before I could find one, I knew I was probably in danger when I hear some conversations between some people. So I hid somewhere.

"Where should we bury this, hyung?", ???1 asked, panicked.

"Why don't we just throw it here then cover with something so it will not be too suspicious?" ???2 suggested with a cold tone.

"Relax, Dongwoo. But honestly speaking, I would say I agree with Minjae." ???3 said, probably the oldest or leader because he sounded more mature than the other two.

"But hyung why should we throw him here? I thought bury him somewhere would be the best idea?" ???1 asked, still panicking.

"Well, this is..." ???3 looked around, checking if there's no one then continued, "this is Yoo's territory. Just like what they did to us 2 weeks ago, we should do the same thing, too. They threw a dead body in our territory earlier so I think revenge could be something good."

"I thought we shouldn't go to their territory and vice versa?" ???1 asked curiously.

"Well, you see. They broke the promise first. So that means the promise was broken. So we can enter their territory too." ???3 reassured ???1.

"Oh ok. I understand now. So we just-"

A crack sound interrupted their conversation.

Well, it was actually...me.

"Be ready guys. It might be them." ???3 told the two and they nodded.

"You can come out now" ???3 said with a strict voice now.

I slowly stepped out from where I was hiding but hesitated now. I thought for a second before continued another step.

"Wait. A kid?" ???1 confused.

"Wha- Wait. Who are you?" ???3 asked.

When I was about to answer, I immediately interrupted by someone.

"Since when you were there? Tell me which part did you hear when you were there." ???2 asked me. He looked like the quiet and intelligent one.

"Since you guys started discussing where you should bury that thing..." I pointed at the dead body, "Which I assume a dead body?"

"Shoot. What are we going to do now, hyungs?" ???1 asked to the both of them.

"Throw that first." ???3 pointed at the dead body and ordered ???1 to throw the dead body in a pile of rubbish. "Done, hyung!" ???1 informed while cleaning himself.

"What are you doing here at nig-" ???3 was cut off by ???2.

"IN the middle of the night." ???2 corrected ???3 and basically emphasised the 'in'.

"Ya whatever."

"I-I ran away from my house." I stuttered because I was still scared. Scared of my stepfather, scared of these guys with a dead body, scared of knowing that from now on, I would live and be alone without mom.

"Are you scared of us?" ???1 asked with a concerned smile.

"Y-yeah" I just nodded.

"Don't be. We're good guys. About the dead body-", before ???1 could finish his sentence, ???2 covered his mouth.

"Don't spill anything yet." ???2 whispered but he could be heard.

"I guess you should go back home. But I think your home will not be the best choice from now since you ran away from that place so I guess would you come with us? Go home with us? I mean stay in our house for a moment." ???3 offered me.

But I didn't say anything since they're strangers and why would I go with them? They might kidnapped me or probably kill me.

"Don't worry. As I said earlier, we're not bad guys." ???1 tried to reassure me.

"How can I know you're not bad guys that might kidnapped me or kill me?" I asked them but they stayed silent.

After a few seconds, ???1 broke the silence.

"Do I look like a bad guy?" ???1 pouted "And do bad guys eat lollipops?" he pointed at ???2 who was eating lollipop since they came here. ???2 just stared blankly at ???1 who was now lowered his head because I think he was probably scared of ???2.

???1 continued, "Also, do bad guys look so daddy like Jooyoung hyung?"

???3, whom I assume now was Jooyoung hyung, nodded and felt proud (I could tell by his expressions now) but as soon as he realised that ???1 just indirectly called him 'daddy', instead of receiving compliments, ???1 received a smack from Jooyoung hyung.

"What the f did you say earlier? D-daddy?" Jooyoung hyung glared at ???1.

"I-I'm sorry hyung." ???1 looked down.

"Enough talking. Let's just get the hell out of here before Yoo's chicks find us" ???2 told us all and we straightaway went to their car.

In the car...

"Well, why don't we introduce ourselves?" Jooyoung hyung said and the other two nodded.

"Hi! My name is Dongwoo! You can call me anything. Well, you can call us hyungs since we're older." ???1 introduced himself with a bright smile.

"I think he knows that. We're obviously older than him so you don't need to inform him." ???2 said coldly.

"Anyway!" Dongwoo hyung ignored ???2, "Nice to meet you!" then he gave me a very bright welcoming smile.

I nodded and smiled a bit. He's nice but I was still unsure about them. What if they wanted to kidnap me? Or what if they wanted to kill me? But all of my thoughts were cut off when one of them continued introducing themselves.

"I'm Minjae." ???2 said coldly before he gave me a slight welcoming smile.

"Last but not least, I'm Jooyoung. I'm the oldest among us three but there are more of us so I'm not really the oldest. Anyway, what's your name?" Jooyoung hyung asked me.

"I-I'm Minhyuk. Seo Minhyuk. I-I'm ten years old." I stuttered because I was scared and nervous.

"Hey, kid. Don't be scared. We're just going to bring you home and you can stay there with us. You're fine with it, right?" Jooyoung hyung told me to calm myself.

I slightly nodded but then I saw both Jooyoung hyung and Dongwoo hyung smiled and Minjae hyung nodded to reassure me. Then, I smiled to them to reassure them, too.

Finally, after a few minutes, we reached their home. It was so large that might fit more than 15 people staying in the house. Just then, they told me something.

"Well, for your information Minhyuk, it's not just us staying here. There are more of us just like what I told you earlier in the car. About 13 of us but don't worry. They are not going to harm you because they're good guys like us too, ok? So, welcome to the gang I guess?" Jooyoung hyung told me.

//End of Flashback - Present (10 years later)

All of a sudden, it flashed into my mind again. There, I was spacing out for a few minutes, still trying to forget those times, those moments when they 'saved' me. I was back to reality when my colleague, also my best friend, Dylan, snapped his fingers in front of me.

"Dude, what now? Dreaming about marrying a supermodel, is it? You know what. Lately, you've been dreaming a lot. About what? I have no idea. Don't tell me you want to get fired by our manager. What's wrong? If you're not feeling well, you can tell me and I can tell the others about it. I can ask anyone who can cover up for you. You're lucky because our manager isn't here and no customers coming here or ordered something, too. You know what again, you should-" Dylan started to nag again as usual.

"Stop nagging like my grandma." I told him while covered his mouth.

"Hyuk, this is for your own good. You know we both need money. YOU need money for your college fees and all so please-" he continued again.

"Ya..ya.. I know that, grandma. You don't need to tell me. Just focus on work ya?" I reassure him sarcastically.

"Yea whatever..." Dylan rolled his eyes and we both got back to work.

Dylan Park had always been there for me, with me. Even though sometimes he would nag like a grandma, but he would always give me some useful advices so I wouldn't do something stupid.

Dylan was a half Korean and half American. His father was a Korean and his mother was an American but he would always be mistaken as a foreigner because honestly, he looked like and American who's fluent in Korean.

We've been like brothers ever since high school till now, studying in the same college, taking the same course. Even though we're like brothers, but we didn't call ourselves hyung or something. We dropped the honorifics so we just talked casually to each other.

//Time Skip (Afterwork)

"Oii. What are you planning to do this break?" Dylan asked while packing his bag ready to go back home.

"Do what?" I asked and went out the café.

Dylan zipped his bag and chased me, "Wait!" he locked the door then walked next to me, "I mean this semester break. Are you planning to go somewhere?"

"Yes. I want to go back home and sleep" I said, not really answering to his question, "Bye." I waved at him and ran away.

"Yah! Seo Minhyuk! Could you please stop running away?! I'm tired. I know you've been working out lately but you don't need to- aish.. this boy." Dylan complained but eventually he started running as well to chase me.