Minhyuk Park

Life was going just fucking great!

I got a machete and learned how to hack into the government.

So fucking exciting.

On the bright side, my face felt like it was cracking in two laughing at San's wanna be ninja skills.

"All right everyone, form a circle," our teacher shouted above everyone talking. Silence ensued as her cold voice reminded us of where we were.

People slowly moved into a circle, not wanting to know what she had in store for us.

"Brynn and Jacob." Her manicured nails pointed to a skinny brunette girl with a crossbow and an older boy with a spear. The girl's eyes widened with fear as she slowly moved into the center of the circle, her legs quivering. The boy looked at his opponent with pity, rolling up sleeves to reveal numerous tattoos. I must admit that I was surprised about the tattoos since they're generally looked down upon by people of our social standing.

"Begin."

The boy was the first to move, stepping towards the Brynn slowly as if to wait out the inevitable outcome. The girl seemed to be struggling with her crossbow, likely with no prior knowledge. Not that I had any on that subject. As soon as my Father realized I wasn't going to better than my cousin at archery, he took me out of the classes.

"Go!" Clearly, Mrs. Manicure was impatient.

Jacob paused for a moment before lunging at Brynn who seemed to have given up on her crossbow, dropping it onto the ground. She clenched her fist around one of the arrows, stepping to the side to avoid his spear. With a quickness no one expected, she charged.

Drip,

Drip,

Drop.

Dark red slowly oozed out of Jacob's side as Brynn pulled the arrow out. He collapsed, howling in pain as her shaking hand grasped the arrow, preparing to strike again.

"Stop."

Brynn froze, eyes widening in horror. I looked between them, a small girl with dark circles under her eyes and a much larger boy on the ground, crying like a baby.

Why are we learning to fight in a school that's supposed to put us on the right track?

It's not like any of us will end up physically fighting anyone in the real world. That's what bodyguards are for.

For a brief moment, I considered what it would be like being my brother's bodyguard before getting rid of the absurd thought. Minseok could beat me in any fight and my father knew it.

"GET UP YOU BITCH!" I tensed, even knowing that it wasn't directed at me. The group of boys Jacob stood next to earlier snarled at him. The teacher turned towards them with an icy glare, silencing them.

"Nice job, very creative," The woman smiled, applauding the girl. "Don't worry, we'll show you the typical way to use a crossbow."

She turned towards Jacob,

"Pathetic. You underestimated your enemy and then you paid the price," she sighed. "Bandages are in the back cabinet, but don't get used to them."

He nodded and walked over to the cabinet, head down as he passed the jeering group of boys. The woman muttered something about being disappointed in him before moving on.

"Minhyuk and Keith."

I felt my stomach drop to the floor. For once I was worried about the fight. The opponent she chose for me was a big brute, with muscles worthy of gawking.

"Your gay ass killed my cousin." he snarled. I froze. Shit. I glanced around the room to see if anyone had heard, before looking at the sword in his hand. Who the fuck chooses a sword? Recalling the short time I took lessons in longsword, I realized he wasn't even gripping it correctly.

"How funny would it be to beat the son of Jaehwa Park with a weapon I'm not even trained in?" Great. Someone here knows my father and his weird obsession with winning.

"Start." I could hear the excitement in her voice.

Keith was the first to move, covering the distance between us in a few steps. He started stabbing at random with his sword as I tried to make room, swinging the machete. It was nothing like the foil I was used to having in my grasp. By pure luck, the fucker nicked my arm. As the blood started to flow I relaxed a little blonde lady would probably call it off now.

Right?

"Keep going."

Fear crept up on me and on pure instinct, I swung.

"FUCK!"

Blood splattered from his thigh where my blade was buried.

"Stop."

I hesitantly pulled out my weapon, wincing at the nick on my arm. I began making my way to the cabinet, without a second glance. You moron.

WHACK.

The blunt part of the sword connected with my head and I crumpled to the ground. My head throbbed as I heard other students screaming.

Suddenly, Keith growled and dropped his sword, falling to his knees next to me. A dart was sticking out of his arm and his skin was starting to bubble and melt off.

"She said stop," snarled Becky her face filled with fury. Beside her, Steph held her knives, prepared to stab someone. Santiago stood nervously behind them, his hands in fists, nunchucks forgotten on the ground.

The girls dragged me out of the circle as San ran over to the cupboard and grabbed things at random. Becky started to dig through the small pile that he brought over, muttering.

"Seriously? Cold medicine?" Becky snapped, holding up a small bottle in Santiago's face.

"I p-panicked and grabbed everything." She sighed and slipped the bottle into her pocket.

"We could give him stitches." Steph pulled her hair back into a ponytail. I stared at my arm, watching the blood drip.

We heard a small cry, turning to see another fight had begun. Simultaneously, Steph and Becky turned back and started bickering over stitches. At first, Steph was for stitches and Becky was against it. Then Becky was for stitches and Steph was against it.

"Um." Santiago sat down next to me, warmth radiating off of him. "I'm really sorry I didn't help you."

My face flushed, at his words.

"It's fi-"

"I JUST SAID THAT!" Steph shouted at Becky, gesturing to the needle.

"How about you just ask the goddamn patient?" I interjected, mildly annoyed.

"Oh, sorry Park." Becky's shoulders relaxed slightly.

"No stitches, it's not that fucking deep."

"Sounds good," Steph answered, looking relieved. As she started bandaging my arm, she grumbled about how she should have taken that first aid class, while Becky wrapped my head. What the fuck? My head isn't bleeding. Nevertheless, I let her continue.

"Park probably has a concussion," She quietly murmured, only then did I realize how close her chest was to my face. I turned my face to the side, finding something else to focus on.

"Here's some Ibuprofen, but I don't know if that will help," San muttered from behind me. I really want a hug. Becky took it with a slight smile.

"I'll take it." I snapped, frustrated that I was feeling so helpless.

I swallowed the pill and closed my eyes, sleepy already.

"Class dismissed."

San half dragged, half carried me out of the room. His hand was on my waist as I stumbled out.

"Do you-?" My hands began shaking, Does he know?

Your gay ass killed my cousin.

gay.

GAY.

My stomach was folding in on itself as I recounted Keith's words.

{

𝒟𝑒𝒶𝓇 𝑀𝓇. 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝑀𝓇𝓈. 𝒫𝒶𝓇𝓀.

𝒲𝑒 𝓇𝑒𝑔𝓇𝑒𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝒾𝓃𝒻𝑜𝓇𝓂 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓈𝑜𝓃, 𝑀𝒾𝓃𝒽𝓎𝓊𝓀 𝒫𝒶𝓇𝓀 𝒽𝒶𝓈 𝒷𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝒾𝓃𝓋𝑜𝓁𝓋𝑒𝒹 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝒶𝓃𝑜𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝑜𝒻 𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓈𝓉𝓊𝒹𝑒𝓃𝓉𝓈 𝒾𝓃 𝒶𝓃 𝒾𝓃𝒶𝓅𝓅𝓇𝑜𝓅𝓇𝒾𝒶𝓉𝑒 𝓂𝒶𝓃𝓃𝑒𝓇...

}

"How could we have been so cursed?" My mother's eyes were smeared with makeup as she held the letter.

"WITH A BOY! What is wrong with you?!" Father grew angry, hand raised.

{

"Did you hear? Nick and Min Hyuk..."

"Disgusting!"

"How else would he have become Student Council Vice President?"

}

SLAP

"You are no son of mine." His cold voice came from above as I lay on the floor. I turned my head as the kicking began, Minseok was watching through the doorway.

"Hyun-"

"You have no place in this household. Get out." My father all but threw me outside into the rain.

"Fuck off." I interrupted, turning away. Santiago stiffened, clearly I had struck a nerve.

When we got outside San gently dropped me in front of our tree, hands resting just a moment too long.

"We'll go get some food," Steph muttered and then walked off with Santiago, eyeing Becky.

We sat in silence waiting for them to return.

"..." she was fidgeting with the hem of her shirt.

A short while later they returned each with two bowls of mush, Steph's side covered in blood.

"Not mine."

"Some asshole tried to take our food when they ran out at the counter," San explained, taking a seat next to me.

As we all sat down to eat our food we came to a silent agreement.

We would do whatever we had to to survive.

Regardless of how fucked up everything is.

We had to.