(No surprise to me) You're classless, clever and free (1/3)

[berryboys]

Title: (No surprise to me) You're classless, clever and free
Pairing: Luhan/Minseok, Baekhyun/Jongin
Word Count: 29k
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: violence, war themes, language, smut.
Summary: In a society where beauty determines someone's class, Luhan is at the top of the chain. Those who belong to the lower class are ugly, uneducated and unworthy, and upon the new laws, they're also rebellious.
Notes: Originally written for lumination (not avalaible there anymore). Betaed by shinealightrose



It shall be unlawful for any person except
(1) those who belong to the upper class while being gene-linked (2) those who belong to the upper class despite being imported from other individuals
to create progeny under any circumstance.
Those in default shall be punished by removal of the lawbreakers and their direct gene-linked relatives.
Click here for more.

Luhan’s fingers slid over the screen to close the notification, even though he hadn’t read it very attentively. It wasn’t necessary either when he was certain about the verdict they would get. Illegal, badly organized protests couldn’t put a halt to progress, and so the law had thrived.

Laying in the backyard, he peeked over his Mobiward to look at his brother, who was distractedly playing Enigma on his own device, and realized that the notification remained unopened in the right upper corner.

“Junmyeon,” he called, with a tone that showed the beginning of a scolding. “Read the news.”

The older boy threw a curious glance towards him before following his order. Luhan smiled as Junmyeon drowned in silence for a moment, but a second later the gesture was reflecting on his face too. “Great. If they’re not responsible enough to make the right decisions themselves, someone has to take the lead.”

Luhan rolled over onto his stomach so that he was able to stare at his brother more intently, yet Junmyeon just raised a brow at him, questioning.

“I don’t see how this is going to stop them,” added Luhan immediately. After all, the lower class didn’t go through the health protocol, thus their birth rate was almost unknown. “As long as we don’t notice it, they can do whatever they want.”

His chain of reasoning may have been ridiculous, because in no time Junmyeon was drawing a mocking smirk on his lips. “Really? The last line, Luhan, means any child of theirs from now on will be executed,” he explained, pleased with the way his brother seemed to sink in his own embarrassment. Luhan had never been the smartest to interpret government announcements, but he didn’t have a problem with them once they were clarified to him. “So unless they want their springs with their heads off, they’ll obey.”

Nowadays, the upper class wasn’t allowed to have more than one biological child either. Junmyeon was, therefore, not genetically linked to him or his parents, although his mother always reminded them that if someone belonged to the upper class, they were family regardless. Sometimes it happened; a beautiful baby was born among the lower class, and of course the law dictated that it had to be withdrawn from his parents. Luhan’s parents, upon wishing he had some company besides his toys, had decided to welcome Junmyeon into their house.

However, the lower class or graireds - as they unofficially were called - wasn’t as tightly controlled as their class. At least, until that moment. When Luhan was a child, he had asked about it, a strange fear seeping through his body because if the lower class wasn’t administrated, wouldn’t they overshadow them in number and perhaps, in power? The doubt was gone as soon as his Evolution teacher explained to him that, even if graireds procreated like filthy animals, their children suffered the natural selection they deserved, dying in the early stages of life due to hereditary diseases or, later, to some pandemic. Unlike them, Luhan’s class received sanitary help if they got ill, which didn’t happen very often anyhow, and he was grateful for that. It was logical that he had an option of preservation, though, considering that his genes were worthy of spreading.

Noticing the long silence, Junmyeon whirled over the grass until he was eye to eye with Luhan, and then sweetly whispered, “Soon we will be living in a new era.”

It would be a change that would need time, yet when enough years had passed and both Junmyeon and Luhan were adults, perhaps there would barely be any graired. Old people would die, and there would be no newborns to occupy their place - and finally, justice would be the rule, not a constant fight.

If Luhan had learned something throughout the years, it was that graireds didn’t deserve attention. They weren’t pleasant to look at, and their bodies were weak and an accessible pathway for illness; they were the last link of the chain, not even useful for decoration, and that was the reason why they never raised their heads in public.

There were two ways of distinguishing the value of a citizen. In the first place, there were the compulsory clothes. While Luhan’s class could choose from a wide range of colors and wardrobe, the lower class had a duty to wear only gray clothes. This was simply an order to camouflage them with the color of the buildings or the walls within, in case they worked as servants or waiters, just so that they didn’t distract everyone else by their presence. In the second place, there was the attempt to cover their faces. Whether if they hid behind neck gaiters or maintained their heads pointing solely to the ground, they were embarrassed of their own aspects. Luhan had just seen a pair of them looking ahead without fear; they had been kids who hadn’t been educated correctly.

“You haven’t brushed your hair,” Luhan observed as soon as Junmyeon stepped into the hall, already prepared for the first Song of the Morning except for his disheveled hair. He still appeared perfect, however, as though he was born for messy hair.

Junmyeon responded by placing his hair back into the right place, and then he buttoned the navy blue uniform up his neck. “I was busy talking to Baekhyun,” he excused himself. “He keeps claiming that this isn’t the last law to be imposed this month. And that his parents will announce the new program during tonight’s dinner.”

“You’re going to see him in less than ten minutes,” Luhan complained. Baekhyun was a good friend, and also a perfect contact for Junmyeon’s future in politics. Junmyeon was a brilliant student, had a sharp sense for politics, and people adored him with no effort on his part. But for the time they have known each other, Baekhyun had been just a distraction for Junmyeon; Luhan didn’t need to ask to know why.

Nevertheless, Luhan thought as they walked through the almost empty streets, Baekhyun had never been very interested in his parents’ jobs, although he was expected to take leadership as soon as they dropped. The friendship between their families allowed them not to attend the Song of the Morning in the town square like the rest of the citizens, so they went to Baekhyun’s house instead.

The boy didn’t take these types of daily routines into much consideration, and when Luhan saw that he opened the door still in his pajamas, he couldn’t retain a snort. “I feel so important when you take the bother to change your clothes for us.”

Baekhyun, who seemed to just have woken up, flashed a cheeky smile. “I’m sexy like this.”

If Baekhyun hadn’t been the son of one of the most powerful men in the government, he wouldn’t have been able to act, talk or live how he did. He jumped over protocols all the time, gave dangerous, ridiculous opinions in front of strangers, and didn’t speak correctly when he addressed his friends. He slurred, ate his words and joked about serious topics, yet Luhan’s complaints had never had an effect on his behavior. He could tolerate it though, as long as Baekhyun didn’t bring the conduct outdoors too.

Luhan walked in as he rolled his eyes, leaving Baekhyun and Junmyeon to greet each other. Baekhyun’s house was always full of graireds - servants - to assure the maximum comfort, therefore only in the hall alone, Luhan spotted a dozen of them. He tugged at the hem of Baekhyun’s sleeve so that he would stop flirting with his brother, uncomfortable. “Song of the Morning will start in minutes.”

Baekhyun immediately led them to the living room, where a projector emitted images over a wall that was as big as Luhan’s house itself. The camera showed the town square, with a woman on the stage to guide the citizens through the Song of the Morning, people scattered around in rows that were only organized in the front - the upper class.

“I’d be still sleeping if it weren’t because you two are annoying,” Baekhyun protested once the three of them were on the couch, his head falling on Junmyeon’s shoulder.

“You do skip the retransmissions too?” Luhan asked, astonished. “Irresponsible.”

Baekhyun narrowed his eyes at him, a smirk threatening to pop up, “You know it’s the same song every day, don’t you?” he teased, brushing his cheek against Junmyeon’s arm, who all of a sudden turned nervous. “Got better things to do, like nothing.”

Luhan would have let it go, but the smile he caught on his brother’s face for a second unsettled him. “Baekhyun,” he warned, exchanging a look with him, trying to keep him from polluting Junmyeon.

His friend was about to reply when Junmyeon cut them off, two enlarged eyes fixed on the images. “What in the world…?”

Luhan cracked his neck to watch, although he was anticipating anything but what was happening in the town square. People were running around to escape, the police force among them, tackling the graireds down. The music had stopped along with the singing woman, and now a loud siren blasted through the town square, the rest of the noises dying down. The screen went completely blank and red letters came into view instead, but Luhan didn’t need to read them to know what the alert was about.

Both Junmyeon and Luhan were petrified, but Baekhyun sat up with his mouth open, eyes glassy.

“Sir?” A voice called behind them, and the three of them were caught in surprise.

Glancing back at the boy, Luhan was stupefied to find a graired standing there, an exposed face with hard features. The boy didn’t seem to care about the guests, hands behind his back and a straightened pose as he waited for Baekhyun’s attention.

“Jongin,” Baekhyun replied, immersed in his own train of thoughts. However, Luhan and Junmyeon stared at him in horror, for he knew a graired’s name, for he used it, for the graired talked to him without being given permission first. “Secure the doors and wait in my room.”

It was evident the graired hesitated for a moment, as though he didn’t want to leave the room, gaze still fixed on Baekhyun. Yet then he took in the looks Junmyeon and Luhan were sending him and turned on his heels right away.

“You should leave,” Baekhyun muttered then, stumbling off the couch. He looked agitated, torn between kicking them out or directly ignoring they were at his home. “Before it’s banned to go out. I will… I’ll call you later.”

Please, remain indoors until further announcements.

“Peasants are angry, didn’t I tell you this would happen?” Baekhyun asked, his face framed in Luhan’s Mobiward. He was smiling, perhaps too much considering the insurgence was against his father’s proposition - law, at that point.

Junmyeon took a glimpse over Luhan’s shoulder with his eyebrows softly furrowed, concern still present after the day’s events. Over all, Luhan was grateful that their parents were too busy with the insubordination to reprimand them for not attending the Song of the Morning, though passing time at home was beyond boring. Luhan had already beaten the last version of Enigma, and the tv would be covering the incident all day.

“What are they going to do now?” Junmyeon inquired, eyes fixed on the screen.

Baekhyun slipped a gumlink ( The gum that makes your teeth shine in the darkness! Choose a color and sparkle! ) into his mouth and chewed a few times with his gaze lingering on Junmyeon. He seemed to ponder what the other wanted to hear, as if Baekhyun was there to calm him down, but Luhan knew better. Throughout the years, it had been always Luhan the one in charge of that.

“The usual, I guess. Caught a pair of peasants earlier, probably will give them public punishments to remind them where they belong to.” Baekhyun shrugged nonchalantly. “Anyways, tonight’s dinner is still up. Can’t stop my parents from having their fun. Please, please, tell me you’re coming.”

They didn’t have a say in it, in any case. Not that they would ever reject an invitation to be with Baekhyun; his teeth shone because of the gum, but his personality had the light by itself. Luhan didn’t quite like it all the time, since he often crossed lines Luhan wasn’t comfortable with, and he supposed that Baekhyun had a few things to learn yet.

Luhan tapped on the screen and flashed a teasing smirk. “Goodbye, Byun.”

“No!”

Baekhyun’s whine was temporarily stifled before Luhan closed the tab of communication, which allowed him to spot the new announcement in red letters on the corner of the Mobiward.

Public punishments will take place on the town square at 7 p.m. Attendance is optional.

It happened that Baekhyun was right, as always, and they had managed to catch a dozen insurgents. Luhan and Junmyeon went to witness it, because even if they weren’t required by duty to go, it was the right thing to do. Penalties were mild because the offense hadn’t been exaggerated, therefore they got out of trouble with twenty lashes each, and there wasn’t much to watch in all honesty.

Nevertheless, the great attraction was the meeting at Baekhyun’s home, so they walked directly from the town square to his house. They crossed paths with a few guests on their way who were practically the only ones that had the right to go out after the punishments, and they decided to cling to them. They got their identities checked before even entering the neighborhood, and then again when they were about to cross the white marble doors.

“Go and eat something,” Luhan told Junmyeon as they stepped in, motioning towards the several circular tables that were full of food and the latest commercialized drinks. “I will look for Baekhyun.”

There were barely any gray uniforms among the guests, Luhan concluded, and they were all minors judging how clumsy and lost they seemed to be working as waiters. Baekhyun wasn’t there either, or at least not in that lounge, for he would have caught a glimpse of his blonde hair by then. As discreetly as he was able, Luhan scurried away through the room and towards the stairs, wishing that neither his parents nor someone from security would detect him before he could pass - in fact, there was an alarming lack of guards that night, perhaps because they were patrolling outside to keep everything in order.

Luhan headed to Baekhyun’s room through the long and dark corridors, but he halted his steps when he perceived a small figure at the end of the hallway. It wasn’t Baekhyun. And Luhan wasn’t, for that matter, the only one who was surprised to find someone else there. The stranger released a soft gasp, stopped on his tracks and pressed his back against the wall, as though he could pass as a guard despite evidence he wasn’t.

“You,” Luhan called, confused. Nevertheless, he approached without hesitation, and the boy remained in his place, not moving a finger. He wasn’t staring down, but ahead and right into Luhan’s eyes, even though the darkness didn’t allow him to discern his face. “What do you think you are doing here?”

“Got lost,” the gray boy replied back hastily. His accent awoke the alarm in Luhan’s senses, and the lie was obvious enough in his tone. He had responded too quickly, and he had been too prepared for that type of question. “Wasn’t doing anything.”

Luhan understood that a graired acted defensively for fear. Still, it wasn’t a reason to pity him or any of his kind: he was roaming around the president’s house, around his son’s bedroom to be exact, when he wasn’t even allowed to go upstairs. Maybe he wasn’t dangerous, but he deserved to be treated like he was until Luhan proved the opposite.

“First of all, you have to talk properly when you address someone like me,” Luhan continued, feet moving on their own to catch the stranger’s features. He should have lowered his head long ago, yet his presence didn’t seem to have any real effect on his conduct. “Second, I will not buy lies from someone like you. Your name.”

Luhan extracted his Mobiward, turned it on, and used it to light up the boy’s face. However, as soon as he discovered who was behind the guilty voice, he regretted it instantly. Luhan felt he was hanging off a cliff, barely preserving his life with a thin rope that was slowly wearing away. The boy wasn’t pretty, no. He was gorgeous. His skin was perfect and unmarked, and he gazed at Luhan with the most suggestive, deep eyes he had ever seen. He wasn’t just beautiful; he was unbelievable, as though someone had constructed his genome from zero, bit by bit, so that there wasn’t any mistake. It was odd to see perfection in a body that carried the oversized gray clothes.

He wondered, for a moment, if this was a bad joke.

“The real one,” Luhan added, nearly whispered, unable to raise his voice with the same resolution than before.

The stranger blinked a couple of times, slowly, in an attempt to get comfortable with the light on his face. Just then, he muttered. “Kim Minseok.”

Unlike how he had expected, his voice didn’t break in panic. All of a sudden, Luhan didn’t have the inner force to take the boy and uncover him as a danger. He just wanted to ask how it was possible, where he had come from, and why he wasn’t wearing a blue uniform or whatever he wished. How it was possible at all? He knew he wasn’t having hallucinations, and that the graired was probably much more beautiful than any upper class man he had ever met.

Luhan breathed in and out, and the oxygen seemed to clear his mind a little. “You have three seconds to disappear from my view, or you will be getting a public punishment too.”

And the punishment, this time, wouldn’t be so moderate. It wasn’t of the same importance to misbehave like a child during the Song of the Morning than it was to wander around an upper class family’s house.

Perhaps because of that, Minseok remained petrified for several seconds, staring at him as if he had spoken in another language, as though he was trying to decipher something behind his words. And although Luhan had told him his time was limited, Luhan actually didn’t detain him when he moved past him and towards the stairs, too marvelled by the shine on the boy’s eyes to react.

It wasn’t until the echo of Minseok’s steps dissolved in the silence that Luhan was able to move again. He remembered that Baekhyun’s bedroom was right there, and that maybe he wasn’t okay, for there were graireds around and they might have been criminals. Luhan shouldn’t have let Kim Minseok leave, but beauty had that power over people.

He strode past the rooms and opened Baekhyun’s door without knocking first, yet relief washed over him when he spotted his friend jumping out of his bed in alarm. Luhan laughed at his own intrusion, and explained, “There was a graired outside, Baekhyun.”

He sat on his bed again, his Mobiward going black, and a soft scowl was all the worry he displayed. “What? A graired? They’re not allowed here.”

Luhan permitted himself a roll of his eyes, since only Baekhyun could see him, and he wasn’t the most correct guy in the world either. “I did not know you were a genius.”

That night, there were a lot of questions that weren’t answered. Some of them only Luhan had known about, but others came to the light very soon. Baekhyun hadn’t wanted to go out from his bedroom, despite them having pleaded with him to attend so that they had company. He hadn’t clarified why. Noticing his friend was rarely aloof, Luhan had resigned and left him alone, not aware that the decision would bring him a torment of regret. Other questions were forbidden, like why Luhan thought that a graired was so dazzling and impossible to believe, or why he had forgiven him without a reason.

However, Luhan didn’t recall Kim Minseok until much later, not until Baekhyun had been officially missing for two months.

Junmyeon cried for a whole week.

Even though Luhan had tried to give him arguments to stop, he didn’t. It didn’t mean Luhan wasn’t desolated, but tears weren’t right to show even to their parents. Two weeks into Baekhyun’s disappearance, it was announced that the main investigation pointed to the possibility of an abduction by the graireds, which wasn’t shocking at all. Baekhyun wouldn’t have left by his own will, and whether it was due to pure force or just extortion, all the signs hinted to the kidnapping.

The Suburbs were investigated daily, besides aleatory searching within houses of the upper class. However, there was no trace of Baekhyun. Whoever who had taken him away, hadn’t bothered to demand money or justice for his release; whoever who had made Byun Baekhyun fade away like a ghost didn’t have any intention of releasing him. People didn’t talk about it, but it was almost obvious that it was a revenge: their sons for the president’s son.

Perhaps because he was aware of the reality, Junmyeon refused to leave home or to attend classes, and he barely opened his bedroom to their parents or even Luhan. He should have seen it coming, but Luhan tried to convince his parents it would go away; instead, during the second week, Junmyeon went under analysis to make sure he didn’t have depression genes. It was a sunny Sunday on which the authorities uprooted him out of his room and into the hospital, and Luhan didn’t have a second of sleep until his brother was back home, two days later. If they found wrong genes in Junmyeon that they had overlooked the first time, Luhan wouldn’t be able to fix it. He would only be allowed to say goodbye as his brother was sent back to the Suburbs.

“We have to go on,” Luhan whispered to him as soon as he had come back home, walking straight to his bed and hiding himself under the covers. Luhan simply sat next to him, hands over his frame as though they could serve any consolation. “This is what they want us to feel. Like we have lost power, like they can hurt us.”

Those words, after all, weren’t exactly what Luhan wished to tell his brother. He considered other things, like how much he feared he would lose him if he kept acting this way, but those kind of truths were so big they didn’t fit through his throat.

“They can,” Junmyeon groaned, so softly that he may have not opened his mouth at all.

“Not for long..” Though insisting wouldn’t work, Luhan just knew what he had to say, and it was as easy as reading a script. It wasn’t important that he was certain Baekhyun was already dead. “One day we will live completely safe, and we will need no guards to protect us. There will be no graireds, you will see.”

Luhan just hoped Baekhyun hadn’t died in pain.

Embryos shall be modificated, created and eliminated according to their parents’ preference to assure their viability as descendants. Parentals who don’t modify their embryo will be responsible for its possible expulsion, and therefore they shall renounce the chance of a second descendant.
Click here for more.

“Have you read the-?”

Junmyeon, bent over his desk as he studied for his Local Politics exam, didn’t allow him to finish his question. “I do not want to know a damn thing about it.”

It was always midnight when the new laws were announced, a tiny pop-up showing up on the corner of everyone’s Mobiward. Junmyeon had his facing the surface of the table, blocking any warning light. On the other hand, Luhan wanted to discuss this. It meant that the families wouldn’t have to renounce to their children anymore, for they would be born perfect in the first place, and that was a huge advantage they had been expecting for years.

“Junmyeon, you have to,” insisted Luhan.

It wasn’t a hard task to imagine what the resolution had been, however. The proposition hadn’t had a single opponent either, but when Junmyeon talked, Luhan realized that there was actually at least one. “They only approved it so that they can create a second Baekhyun.”

Junmyeon didn’t even move an inch as he spat out his thoughts, but his voice cracked at the mention of their friend. He didn’t need to do anything else to terrify Luhan. Even if Baekhyun had to be dead, it didn’t feel like he was. They didn’t have proof or a corpse, thus Luhan had never predicted his parents would ever dare to create a clone of him; the moment the new Baekhyun grew up and was a seventeen-year-old walking through the streets with his navy blue uniform, it would feel as though there were two Baekhyuns existing at the same time.

“It is not like they are going to have a second son, Luhan,” Junmyeon continued. He marked the page of his book he was reading, closed it and turned around to face his brother. He didn’t seem affected though by his own words, yet appearances weren’t the most reliable feature of Junmyeon. “He will be exactly Baekhyun, not even a single modification of his genes. If he receives the same education and grows up like Baekhyun did, he will be the same person. He will make the same jokes and will like the same things.”

Under Junmyeon’s gaze, falsely calm, Luhan fell into silence.

Baekhyun had been perfection. Not as much as Luhan and Junmyeon were, but he had been always been more intelligent. He supposed that perfection had different scales, and sometimes it was like when Junmyeon told him something that left him thinking about it straight, even days later, and other times it was like when a graired didn’t fit into their schemes.

“What if I told you,” Luhan began, and then paused in hesitation. He bit his lower lip as to retain the cascade of problems he was about to unleash. He wasn’t sure either if it was beneficial considering his brother’s instability, “that I saw a graired around Baekhyun’s bedroom that night?”

His confession transformed into physical pain on his brother’s face, which contorted first in surprise and then in pure betrayal. Luhan settled his Mobiward on the bed and sat up, tense, as Junmyeon got up and approached him with doubtful steps.

He took a few seconds before accusing him, “You did not tell the authorities that.”

In all honesty, Luhan had forgotten about it and transformed it into a hallucination. The scene in his memory though, was as clear and detailed as if he was living it right then. It made him nervous just to think about it, beauty inside gray clothes, an apparent innocence that may have sentenced Baekhyun to death.

“Because I sent the boy back to the dinner, and Baekhyun was in his room as if nothing had happened.” It wasn’t right to fool Junmyeon, but he lied anyway. Revealing that Bakhyun was upset and closed-off that night wouldn’t do him any good. He joined his hands on his lap as he stared down, avoiding being discovered through his eyes. “And I had the boy under my vigilance all the time after that.”

Just then, Junmyeon touched him. Luhan was expecting to be slapped, but the stinging on his cheek never came. Instead, he received a mild push under his chin, Junmyeon’s fingers forcing him to raise his head so that he could stare into his eyes in case he lied. The only sign of censure was his stiff jaw, for Junmyeon was aware that Luhan wouldn’t have let a conventional graired leave, less if it had resulted in Baekhyun’s disappearance.

“Who was he?” he asked, and Luhan realized Junmyeon suspected he knew more about the stranger.

Unfortunately, Luhan hadn’t been careful enough to check his credentials or to make sure he hadn’t deceived him. He merely had a name, encrypted inside his head and waiting to be released.

“Kim Minseok.”

Junmyeon didn’t lose a single second once the information was out. He hurried back to his desk to unblock his Mobiward as Luhan followed him, and all of a sudden he was entering the public database. It was a service meant for the upper class, since the graireds didn’t even have the right to own a Mobiward, and it only comprised the profiles of people from the Suburbs. It was a matter of self-protection, of course, and not an intrusion of intimacy: a graired wasn’t allowed to deny his name if he was asked for it, and they could type it into the database and find out everything about them, including if they had a criminal record or not. Luhan thought right then that his hopes were subjugated to Kim Minseok having a clean criminal record. He was just around his age, and without a past of delinquency, there wasn’t any possibility that a young man would risk his life to kill the president’s son.

Junmyeon paled as the screen went into search mode, and then he lifted the Mobiward so that Luhan could see it too.

KIM MINSEOK
…
NO PERSONS FOUND.

Luhan took a step back as he tried to block the riot of guilt he was drowning in. Whoever the stranger was, he had lied to him, regardless of Luhan’s insistence on his real name. He had protected himself even if that meant being punished, and that only could mean one thing.

When Junmyeon turned around, his eyes were soaked of a feeling Luhan didn’t recognize. However, he wasn’t disconcerted as Junmyeon’s palm found his cheek, open and hard and exactly what he deserved. Within a second, Junmyeon wasn’t the only one crying, but he was the only one with his head up.

“He was someone,” he remarked, setting all the blame on his brother. “If he were not, he would be in the database.”

In some ways, Luhan was lucky. Although Junmyeon had started refusing to talk to him, or even acknowledge him, their parents weren’t attentive enough to perceive the tension within the house. Luhan couldn’t be mad at him for being so upset either, and perhaps if he hadn’t been the one at fault, he would have reacted just like Junmyeon.

The weight of Baekhyun’s death wasn’t easy to carry. First, because his friend had been so important for Junmyeon and Luhan himself that it was inevitable not to feel okay again. Three months after the disappearance, he still heard his brother crying some nights, but he didn’t bother to give him consolation he would only reject. Second, because he wondered if there was a way out of the pain; maybe if he confessed he had been saving a secret just because he was embarrassed of his own conduct towards a graired, he would feel better. But that had serious implications he wasn’t ready to confront. Serving the president’s son on a platter would be considered betrayal, and Luhan would find himself being kicked to the Suburbs without having a trial.

The nightmares surfaced not long after, and Luhan started waking up with Junmyeon curled up by his side, as if his presence could calm him down during the nights. Luhan just saw gray clothes, masks and hoods, and under the equipment there was a boy that looked a lot like himself.

“You’re having bad dreams.” Junmyeon said to him one morning, after weeks of polite greetings and manners - only when people were there to watch them. “What are they about?”

Luhan pressed his cheek against the pillow, his brother’s face staring at him in pity. “I have to find him.”

That was not, in any way, what his dreams were about, and Junmyeon seemed to notice it wasn’t an answer. It was a declaration, one that much to Luhan’s surprise ignited a flame of hope in Junmyeon’s eyes. Then, the flame was gone as he put a hand on Luhan’s chest, fisting his pajama and pulling him closer. “What if…” he whispered, almost begged, closing his eyes. “What if he’s not…”

“Dead or alive,” Luhan continued, just to save Junmyeon from pronouncing it himself. The words still made him snap again, a gaze that looked like a mixture of reproach and fear. “I just have to bring him back.”

It didn’t matter that he had made a decision, because Luhan didn’t know how to do it. He felt disappointed when his brother didn’t hinder him, no questions about if he had planned something or what he intended to do, accepting any risk Luhan could go through. There was no response for it either, since the only clue he had was the name of a person that apparently didn’t even exist. He could only examine with excessive attention each graired that crossed his path; he retained them in the middle of the street or in shops, ordered them to remove their masks and neck gaiters, yet he found nothing. They were faces Luhan wasn’t delighted to inspect, not only because they weren’t beautiful, but because they didn’t resemble Kim Minseok.

“You.”

Luhan always did it when he was alone. He preferred to avoid the unnecessary judgment, for no one would pride themselves on talking to graireds of their own will.

The graired boy halted as Luhan’s voice called him, but he didn’t turn around. The dusk was coming and the upper class’ streets were starting to become void, except for some graireds that walked out from their late jobs, so he couldn’t fuse with the crowd. Luhan had seen him after going out to buy the last version of Enigma for Junmyeon, the game’s bag dropping from his grip as an idea defeated his common sense.

“Give me your clothes,” Luhan finished, fingers wrapping around the graired’s arm. The boy couldn’t run away from him, much less in public and when he had Luhan’s hands on him, but his façade was easy to read. Luhan didn’t have any intention of scaring him; it was just that he didn’t know how to treat him if not like an inferior.

“S-sorry?” the graired squeaked, alarmed, glancing around as to obtain some kind of help.

Luhan realized that whatever he did would force the boy to put his defenses up. There was no use in tiptoeing around the topic, since the other would still think Luhan was going to hurt him, rape him or simply torment him for a while. “It’s an order. Your clothes. I will give you my uniform in exchange.”

A flash of confusion and relief crossed his eyes, and Luhan couldn’t help but wonder how young this boy was, already working and going back home when the sun had disappeared. “Your uniform, sir?”

“Yes. I bet you always wanted to have one of these, did you not?” Luhan asked, pointing at his school blue uniform. “You can not wear it, but what about selling it? I am sure someone in the Suburbs will find it worthy. With the money you will be able to buy clothes and other things you like, what do you think?”

The loudspeakers of the town square were so powerful that the Song of the Night could be heard all around the place, beyond the limits of the city and towards the Suburbs. Luhan shouldn’t have ever known this, given that his duty was to be present at the town square when the clock hit the right time, however, the singing voices caught him out of the limits of the safe zone.

As Luhan observed himself on the reflection of a shop window, he noticed he was exactly like the boy from his nightmares. Gray clothes and a mask covering a beautiful face that didn’t belong to them, which were all he needed to hide himself away from the spotlight. He would become just another dot in a gray mass of people. Nevertheless, while he walked through the streets, he thought he would probably not come back from the Suburbs. He thought too that Junmyeon would be more than concerned about him right now, and even with all that, he wouldn’t be able to tell a word about what they had discussed.

The first thing Luhan discovered about the Suburbs was that it wasn’t a dirty place as he had supposed for years, although he had been right about the lack of law within its population. Even if they all should have been attending the Song of the Night, there were lonely graireds scattered around, women and men closing their stalls and the last purchases of the day. No one spared Luhan a single look until he approached tentatively one of the stalls, an old woman smiling up at him as he examined her, wide-eyed at the wrinkles that her smile brought up.

“You shouldn’t be here. Patrols’ll be here in five minutes.”

It wasn’t the woman who spoke to him, and when he turned around to the voice, he found a tall man, dressed in his police uniform, looking down at him. Luhan’s instinct woke within, because Baekhyun had talked to him about this type of men: corrupted workers of the upper class that helped the graireds, protected them, in exchange for several activities of questionable honor. When Luhan had asked why Baekhyun knew it, he had just laughed and said that he was aware of the sordid ways of the place he would rule one day. But those men, undercover betrayers, knew the graireds like the back of their hands, and this was both dangerous and opportune for Luhan; he didn’t think twice.

“I’m looking for Kim Minseok.”

The recognition on the man’s face was undeniable. It was inexplicable, because Kim Minseok didn’t exist, yet he narrowed his sunken eyes at him, “Minseok? Isn’t he in his shop?”

He pondered what would happen if he played that game. He had two options: pretending he knew the boy and ending without any information, or to make his ignorance clear. He had taken big steps to reach the Suburbs, therefore he wasn’t going to start taking small ones now. “I don’t know where his shop is.”

Much to his comfort, that didn’t strike as strange, and the man grinned at him with crooked teeth within a second. “Did the northern squad send you? They’ve been waiting for you for ages now.” And then, without waiting for an answer, he motioned towards the alley behind Luhan. “You’ll find him at the end of the street. Probably closing the business now.”

He was about to thank him, but then his feet were turning around and he left without a word. Luhan didn’t feel guilty at the lack of manners, because manners weren’t meant to be used on graireds. Instead, the words squad, business, ages resonated inside his head as a warning. It wasn’t that Minseok was a delinquent even though he had an invisible record; it wasn’t either that there was a squad, but two. Organizations that had graireds infiltrating into upper class homes without leaving clues behind. Some loose ends, like Luhan himself, were involuntary payoffs.

The alley was hideous, and when Luhan reached the end, he realized it wasn’t hard to spot the right shop. Most of the establishments were closed, wood planks crossed over the doors, probably to avoid the inspections that the patrols had been doing during the last months to find Baekhyun. However, there was one shop that emitted a shimmering light, like a star guiding Luhan as he sunk his hand inside his pocket and clutched at the hidden knife. He strode towards the shop and pushed the door, sensing his skin pulsing around the blade, but he didn’t pull it out.

Indoor s, the smell of metal and blood, and an overwhelming heat surrounded him, and for a moment what he had come here to do faded away from his mind.

“Hi, help you with something?” the boy behind the counter inquired, a grin blooming on his face as Luhan stared at him.

He had forgotten. After months had passed, the face of Kim Minseok had become a simple representation of imperfect beauty, as if Luhan had just thought he was gorgeous because he had been tired and the hall had been in darkness. But with the bright lights of the shop landing on Minseok’s face, he admired the perfection he was. It wasn’t weird that he had been dazzled the first time, even though Minseok hadn’t been smiling back then; now, with the his red lips stretched into a smile, Luhan was beyond charmed.

Luhan had fallen for the trap once and that had cost a precious life, and even if Minseok was the most beautiful creature, he was also a murderer. He tried to put those words deep inside him, and grasping the hem of his mask, he tugged it down to unveil his identity.

It took Minseok a few seconds to recall him, and while Luhan just stood there watching him, his lovable gesture turned into something much darker. The niceness was gone, and he didn't hold himself like he had done in Baekhyun's house; he didn't act like a graired, not tearing his gaze apart, as though being recognized by Luhan wasn't something he should be afraid of. It enraged Luhan, knowing that this boy was living his life without consequences, and not only that, but how he dared to stare into his eyes and defy him.

Minseok didn't expect, however, that Luhan would throw himself at him, an arm around his neck and his fingers wrapped around the knife. He slipped over the counter, strangled Minseok between his arms, and sunk the blade in his throat, not enough to make him bleed but enough to make his veins inflate against it.

The graired didn't move an inch, barely breathing so that a bad movement wouldn't harm him fatally. Luhan's body, chest pressed against the back of his head, was trembling, singing like a soft melody, yet he wasn't embarrassed about it. He knew he was capable of doing it, of killing this boy if he confessed to hurting Baekhyun.

"What did you do to him?" Luhan demanded, a voice that didn't sound quite like his own. His muscles pressed the boy's back more tightly, and the graired gasped in alert. "Where is he?"

He wasn't a fool, so when Minseok avoided his question, he wasn't surprised at all. On the other hand, he was taken aback by how peaceful the boy spoke. "Calm down, 'kay? I don't know what you're talking about. Put the knife down. This isn't your place, and you shouldn't be here."

That was the last thing Luhan needed to hear: advice from a graired. "I am talking about Baekhyun. I know it was you. I know it was a trap and-"

"Really?" the other interrupted him, with a laugh that came from so deep that he couldn't have faked it. "It's not my fault that you were willing to forgive a graired just because you thought he was beautiful. That's what you get for putting beauty ahead of anything else."

Even though Luhan shouldn't have loosened his grasp, he couldn't help it. The statement hit him so hard that he wasn't able to think, because he had been blaming himself for what had happened to Baekhyun; now, Kim Minseok was just confirming his nightmares.

Minseok took advantage to slide through the gap, but Luhan reacted fast and got a hold of his hair in time. The graired grunted before Luhan crushed his face against the counter, not a trace of care, and joined his hands behind his back. "Did you kill him? Tell me, did you?"

"What would change if I did?" Minseok groaned, wriggling against the wood table. "You kill our parents, children and brothers and sisters if we don't obey you. If there's someone that deserves to die, it’s all of you."

Luhan stroked Minseok's nape with the blade, a knot growing inside his throat. "I will cut you in two. Do you think I won’t?"

"I don't doubt you will," he responded, and a dry laugh resonated around the shop again. "They taught you to destroy anything you don't like. Of course you will."

It nearly made Luhan laugh too. Here he had a graired, subdued beneath his knife, yet he had the guts to give him ethical lessons. The same boy that thought Baekhyun was a good choice to make the upper class pay, regardless of what he deserved as a person.

Nevertheless, it didn't matter, because the door in front of them opened and Luhan's eyes flickered to the entrance, realizing he hadn't taken into account that this could happen. The Suburbs were on the verge of being empty, so he hadn’t supposed someone might enter the shop. Logic had never been his forte, but he hadn’t needed it before.

The other guy was much taller than both of then, and much to Luhan's dismay, he wasn’t even startled at the scene he was witnessing. Instead, he just raised his hands to show he was disarmed, and then proceeded to remove his neck gaiter slowly so that Luhan didn't panic and stab Minseok by mistake.

“What’s going on?” he questioned in a whisper, like loud noises would scare Luhan away.

“Baekhyun’s friend here,” Minseok answered before Luhan was able to say a word, his head still squashed against the counter. “Thinks he’s a superhero claiming justice for society.”

The other graired exchanged a glance with Minseok that Luhan couldn’t interpret, which left him lost again on his tracks; then the taller boy put his attention back on him. Luhan spun the knife with his fingers so that he saw the weapon, but that didn’t pull a reaction from him either.

Still with his palms raised, he said, “I’ll lead you to Baekhyun. But let him go now.”

Luhan nearly released Minseok on the spot, the spark of hope filling his chest when his friend’s name slipped from the graired’s mouth. They wouldn’t guide Luhan to a corpse, they just wouldn’t.

“Don’t you even think about it!” Minseok shouted before Luhan quieted him by planting his hand on his head. He let out a gruff at the lock, but he looked beyond determined about not giving up.

“What then? What do you propose?” his friend replied heatedly, dropping his hands in defeat. His scowl, on the contrary, erased any possibility of discussion. “We let him slit your throat and tell everyone about us, does that sounds better, fuckface?”

“Is he alive?” Luhan interrupted them, not waiting for Minseok to keep arguing with his partner.

A light of confusion struck across the stranger’s face, and despite Minseok’s attempt to hush him, he continued, “Yes. What kind of question is that?”

If it was a trap, Luhan was going to die.

He wasn’t a superhero claiming justice for society, much less if that implied he had to offer his life for others and for nothing. He cared about Baekhyun enough to search for him, to mourn for his death, but he would have been cheating himself if he didn’t accept how he wouldn’t have moved a finger if it wasn’t for Junmyeon. His brother had sown the bravery inside him, and somehow it hadn’t bloomed yet; Luhan’s desire to make up for his mistakes was what had brought him here.

And as he frisked Minseok and his friend, he couldn’t help but ponder how he would have never touched a graired this way in another situation. However, since he wasn’t going to let them murder him so easily, he tried to make sure they didn’t have weapons anywhere. Neither of them were agitated while Luhan’s hands roamed all over their bodies, but when he located three small knives inside Minseok’s boots, he obtained a wolfish smile and an arched brow that dared him to comment on it.

Luhan ordered them to walk ahead of him, but maintaining themselves apart, and then he followed them through the streets in silence. The Song of the Night had ended just minutes ago, which meant the streets would be flooded soon again, and he hurried them to walk forward.

“Jongin’s going to be so mad when we appear with this one,” Minseok said after glancing back at Luhan, even if he had explicitly demanded them to be quiet during the journey. “I’m not saving your ass this time, Chanyeol.”

The other guy responded before Luhan was able to cut them. “I’ve just saved yours.”

“You two, shut up.”

“He wasn’t going to do anything, really,” Minseok continued, disregarding Luhan’s orders. For a moment, he feared he had missed some arms hidden on Minseok’s body, because that would explain his calmness. “He doesn’t even know how to hold his own knife.”

“I said that you tw-“

“We’re here,” Chanteol interrupted again. He stopped and turned on his heels, gesturing towards the little house on his left, and Luhan felt the bile rise up from his stomach.

Minseok, arms crossed, waited for his decision with an unreadable façade, and then he added, “You wanted to go into the wolf’s den. Regretting it now?”

There was no going back anyhow, so Luhan fixed his stare on Minseok and answered, “No. You two shall go in first.”

Both graireds gazed at each other, and a second later Minseok shrugged and headed to the small house. Luhan placed himself behind them, this time with the blade outside his pocket, as Minseok hit the door’s broken lock with his fist. Luhan’s focus fell on Minseok’s deteriorated hands, probably from using them on tough works like this, but the door immediately relinquished and he tensed again. The other boys entered the house without even blinking, and Luhan realized he had to be fast in case they could prepare a trick within seconds, thus he stepped inside with his guard up.

Indoors there was a deep silence, but the place was packed with young boys; they were sitting on cushions from a couch that wasn’t there, as if they had taken the rests from a dumpster. In one corner, the kitchen was composed of a few rocks that surrounded trunks and a fire, and it had only one pot. There was another room, without a door, from which Luhan distinguished a few blankets and a pair of thin mattresses and one small boy sleeping on them.

“We have a problem,” Minseok announced, even though all the eyes were on Luhan the second he had appeared.

Luhan heard a faint exclamation coming from one of the cushions, and despite wearing a mask, the owner whispered, “Luhan?”

If it wasn’t due to his voice, he wouldn’t have identified him. He wasn’t blonde anymore, for his hair was as black as it had been when he was ten, and he was resting his back against a graired’s chest, a pair of arms around his waist in a way so intimate Luhan felt himself heating up in shame. However, he just muttered back, “Baekhyun.”

He didn’t look miserable: his shine was untouched, even more intense, but under other clothes that didn’t belong to them. He didn’t have wounds or signs of having been mistreated, forced or tortured. He was okay, he wasn’t dead, he was there in front of his eyes.

Not able to prevent himself, Luhan walked forward with a strangled noise, yet that proved to be a bad move. The boy with Baekhyun on his lap got up with a jump, pushing Baekhyun behind him, and approached Luhan with two long steps. He didn’t react in time, too shocked with the discovery of his friend, therefore he found himself with a knife under his chin. And although he raised his own and placed it in the boy’s stomach, he looked unabashed, as though he didn’t mind being stabbed as long as he got to kill Luhan too.

“Get closer and I’ll take your heart out while it’s still beating,” the graired bit out, eyes boring into Luhan’s.

One of the graireds laughed, and Luhan didn’t need to turn to know it was Minseok. His laughter was arid and humorless, and Luhan noticed he had sounded the same way in the shop.

“Jongin, it’s okay.” Baekhyun stood behind him, wide-eyed as he curled his fingers around his partner’s arm. “He means no harm. He’s a friend.”

Even as Jongin replied to him, he didn’t move his stare from Luhan’s. His lips twitched in discomfort. “There aren’t friends on the other side.”

Baekhyun’s hand stroked down his arm while he repeated, “He’s a friend.”

Luhan didn’t understand why, but the knife disappeared inside the boy’s fist and he moved away. Before him, Baekhyun smiled sadly at him, and Luhan found no words to tell him. He needed answers first, because he hadn’t expected to come across this situation: he was determined to rescue a kidnapped Baekhyun, but he couldn’t be rescued if he wasn’t a hostage in the first place.

“What are you doing here? How did you even-?” Baekhyun started, doubtful.

Before he finished his questions, Luhan was hugging his frame, almost crushing him like he was unbreakable. Baekhyun made a surprised noise, but he responded to the gesture when Luhan didn’t release him.

“I was searching for you,” Luhan grunted, not soft enough for the rest to unable to listen. “Junmyeon is… he is…”

“Don’t,” Baekhyun pleaded when he mentioned his brother, squeezing him hard between his arms.

“What an adorable scene,” Minseok commented as he let himself fall on one of the cushions. “As much as you love each other, that doesn’t make you free.”

Luhan and Baekhyun parted, and while the first had a smile playing on his lips, Baekhyun glanced at him with a trace of guilt. Soon, Luhan’s grimace went back to bitter, looking first at Minseok and then at the other boys that kept observing him. “What is he talking about?”

The guy that once had been simply the president’s son stared at him like he was the most pitiful creature in the world. “You shouldn’t have looked for me. I’m not going back with you, and y-you can’t…”

“We can’t let you go,” Jongin finished for him.

The answer felt like a punch in his guts, and despite being armed and in the presence of a supposed friend, he felt the real danger of what he was doing. “Baekhyun?”

There was a hint of panic in his voice, yet Baekhyun was only mildly concerned about it. Luhan was horrified to find out that his next words weren’t his property, that it wasn’t the first or last time he voiced them out, and that he was completely compromised to them. “A war is coming. You would try to warn your family and that would mean the end for us.”

“For us? ” Luhan repeated, a tremble travelling up from his legs. He was aware that Baekhyun was referring to the graireds, and when the realization reached him, he sensed he was going to go insane. The rage within was foreign, and so were the shouts that followed. “You are going to attack? Baekhyun! What about my parents? And yours? What about Junmyeon?! What ab-?”

He didn’t notice he had advanced and put his hand around Baekhyun’s throat until he was pressed against the dirty floor. It hadn’t been only Jongin who attacked him as soon as he had touched Baekhyun, but also two other boys that hadn’t moved before. Luhan couldn’t do anything against their effective teamwork, and when they started dragging him across the floor and towards the other bedroom, Luhan screamed in frustration.

His noises woke up the sleeping boy, but even if he had been silent, Baekhyun’s plea would have done it anyway. “Don’t tie him, Jongin, please, he’s not animal!”

The sleeping guy blinked at the scene, disoriented. “Who’s that?”

Nevertheless, everyone ignored both Baekhyun and the boy, and Luhan perceived the ropes constraining his wrists together until it hurt. On top of him, Jongin roared. “I’ll untie him if he behaves like a person again!”

Luhan, lacking oxygen because of the weight he was under, managed to catch a glimpse of how the anger flamed in Baekhyun’s face. He knew his friend’s expressions very well, thus he prepared himself for the fight. Although he and Jongin had been in an affectionate position minutes ago, both of them burst into a heated argument, talking so fast and so loud that Luhan couldn’t understand a single word.

However, he stopped complaining and asking to be released when Baekhyun came to blows with Jongin and the rest of the group had to intervene to separate them. Even though he was tied up in a house full of graireds and he had just discovered there was a war about to explode, there wasn’t anything as shocking as witnessing Baekhyun losing control.

“Baekhyun!” he called, shaking.

He didn’t know if Baekhyun was going to be punished, as he was uneducated about how graireds solved their problems. Luhan was about to shout again when a hand landed on his mouth softly, like a pliant warning that it was for his own good; he stayed silent. Luhan gazed at the owner, meeting eyes with the angelic, yet unreadable Minseok.

“No,” he whispered to him, as if it was a secret. “Jongin will blame you. Don’t get involved in their problems.”

Luhan didn’t breath. There, laying over a worn out mattress, he realized he couldn’t help but be hypnotized by the graired. It took him a few seconds to notice the fight had subdued, not because they had halted, but because the boys weren’t in the bedroom anymore. Only the sleeping boy was still there, staring at his own feet like he feared to look at Luhan and Minseok.

Slowly removing his fingers from Luhan’s mouth, Minseok continued, “Sorry, it’s just the way it is.”

“Do not pretend you are sorry,” Luhan replied right away, voice hoarse. His body stayed under the effects of fear, but he succeeded in handling it. “You cannot be anything except delighted to have captured an upper class boy.”

Minseok narrowed his eyes at him, and then merely raised a brow, as though he didn’t understand why Luhan thought that was true.

Part 2