Super Junior AU; Various Pairings; Love/War
Title: Love/War (7/?)
Fandom: Super Junior AU (Mafia)
Pairings: Siwon/Hankyung/Heechul (Hankyung/Heechul), Kyuhyun/Zhou Mi, Kibum/Donghae, Yehsung/Ryeowook, Kangin/Eeteuk, Tablo/Eunhyuk
Pairings in Chapter: Hankyung/Heechul, beginnings of Siwon/Hankyung/Heechul
Word Count: 3,385
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The Kim family and the Choi family are the two oldest families in Seoul: where other families have been born, grown, and then fell apart, they remain strong. Unfortunately, they are mortal enemies, and where one lives alongside the law, the other is beyond any control. It's up to the new generation of members to destroy the violence between them - even if it means destroying one family in the process.
A/N: Lol you guys, I've been on Chapter 16 for the past week or something. Fail :|
I love back-stories :D
Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7
Siwon’s room was on the floor below the one that Hankyung and Heechul shared - it was light blue, with a dark blue satin bed cover and dark blue heavy curtains, dark wood furniture and silver highlights. It was one of Sungmin’s creations - shortly after he joined the family he had taken it upon himself to modernise and update the house. It had kept him busy, he’d claimed. Siwon looked around it, eyebrows raised. “This is a nice room,” he said.
Heechul glanced around also. “Not really,” he said with a shrug, and then a smirk. “Mine is nicer.”
“We’ve arranged with Siwon for him to live with his family some days of the week,” explained Eeteuk. He no longer seemed reluctant about Siwon. In fact, he was smiling at Siwon like he always smiled at the newest additions - like he wanted nothing more than to take them under his wing and teach them everything he knew. “He still has responsibilities at home, as he is helping to train his younger brother as the new head of the Han family.”
“I don’t think it will take up too much of my time,” said Siwon, almost apologetically. “He’s already got most of the basics.”
“So you’ll be spending more time here!” said Heechul, hitting Siwon on the shoulder. “Great, I can make you do all of my paperwork!”
“We’re starting him on paperwork,” said Kangin absently, as he pulled one of Siwon’s suitcases into the room. Siwon immediately jumped forward to help.
Of course they would be starting Siwon on paperwork, Hankyung reflected as he watched him help pull a small holdall in. As people, they wanted to trust others, but as family, they had to be incredibly cautious. There were plenty who wanted to pull them down, to destroy them, and to do so would bring anarchy to Seoul. Hankyung had a very definite idea that it was only the Kim family who was cooperating with the politicians and the police of the city, and that without them, either the Choi family or the rebellion groups would reign with terror.
He smiled a little - sometimes he really did think that he watched too many dramatic television programmes with Heechul.
“We have to go,” he said quietly, laying a hand on Heechul’s arm. “Eun said he had some money for us.”
“I’ve told you,” said Heechul, wrenching his arm away. “I’m never going back to Eun’s. I fucking hate him!”
“Heechul-” began Eeteuk placating, but Hankyung, after looking at Heechul for a few minutes, simply took Heechul by the arm and started pulling him in the direction of the door. While Heechul protested and snarled and tried to plant his feet into the ground, Hankyung just didn’t react and kept going, and his strength won out - they could still hear Heechul screaming about how he was the heir to this fucking family, you bastard, so let go of my arm right this fucking second- from halfway down the corridor. Siwon stifled a laugh and quickly went to the door.
“Hey,” he shouted after the retreating figures. “You’ll be at dinner tonight, won’t you?”
“Yeah!” shouted Hankyung.
“Stop fucking laughing at me,” shrieked Heechul, with a hand gesture that seemed to suggest that he was rather annoyed at Siwon. Siwon just laughed again.
Kangin and Eeteuk exchanged glances behind him.
***
If anyone thought that it was weird that there was a new addition to the table in the informal room that the members of the family who weren’t out on business or dining in the formal room with other people ate in, no one showed it. Eeteuk had announced that Siwon would be joining the family the day after it had been decided and now, two days after that, everyone was simply excited to know what kind of a person the newcomer was like. It was, Hankyung felt, rather similar to how a class of elementary children reacted when they heard that there was to be a new addition to the class. Heechul hadn’t helped the situation by giving out different information to different people - Ryeowook was convinced that Siwon was, judging by what Heechul had heard of him, really the devil in human form, he was so evil, while Donghae had been told that Siwon was, in fact, as threatening as a hurt puppy and that there was really no place for him in the family.
When Siwon actually came into the room, having been led there by Kangin, everyone looked up at him, stared, and then Sungmin said, “Hot.” And that was that, settled.
“That’s the entirety of your opinion of him?” asked Shindong, amused as Siwon blushed and slipped into the seat next to Hankyung, looking like he wished that he’d been already sitting before anyone else had come in for dinner.
Sungmin shrugged. “If he’s joined, then I know that he’s okay, really, despite what Heechul’s been saying about him. So all that is left is the physical judgements.”
“What has Heechul-hyung been saying about me?” asked Siwon nervously.
“You don’t want to know,” said Shindong, reassuringly.
“Really,” said Heechul, leaning forward on the other side of Hankyung to smirk at Siwon. “You don’t want to know.”
Siwon looked rather like he was going to faint.
Luckily, before he could, or before Heechul could do anything that would make the situation worse, Henry said something in English that no one could understand, and then huffed out a breath of exasperation. “Ge-” he began in Chinese, but Siwon silently reached over and handed him the plate of fish. Henry took it, staring in shock - everyone, in fact, was staring at Siwon.
“You speak English?” asked Donghae, practically spitting his mouthful of rice everywhere in his surprise.
“In a manner of speaking,” said Siwon sheepishly. “I thought that learning it would be good for when I took over the family, but I guess now…” he trailed off, frowning a little.
Henry said something to him, a wide grin over his face, and if Hankyung gets this funny feeling when he’s speaking Chinese, it’s nothing like the blow to the chest that he feels whenever he hears Henry speaking English, and it’s always harder when it’s like this, when he’s trying to have a conversation as compared to when he simply speaks it through habit. It reminds Hankyung of those years when he didn’t really know Henry, the half-brother who lived in Canada most of his life: Henry, the boy that Hankyung doesn’t understand half of the time, but not through anything other than a language barrier that shouldn’t exist. Henry struggles onwards with Korean, tries his best in Chinese, and then can’t be understood in English, and Hankyung wants to help, but Korean is hard enough for him, English is just impossible.
Siwon answered cautiously, and then Henry grinned and resumed eating. “I would have thought you’d want to have a conversation,” said Hankyung to him in Chinese.
Henry shrugged, grinning. “He’s not very fluent,” he said.
“It’s true,” said Siwon in Chinese. “I’m not.”
Henry’s eyes flicked back to him, growing wide and shocked. “You speak Chinese too!” he said.
“Is there anything you can’t do?” asked Donghae.
“I can’t make pottery,” said Siwon, face deadpan, as Heechul cracked up next to Hankyung and Sungmin choked on the mouthful of water he had been in the process of drinking.
Around two seconds later, Kibum came into the room, pulling his tie from around his neck and muttering something about being sorry for being late. Donghae, who had been laughing, suddenly knocked an empty glass over and went very quiet, very quickly. Siwon watched as Heechul shoot a look to the door, and then he invited Kibum to sit next to him, glancing at Donghae out of the corner of his eye. Kibum took the seat, stifling a yawn.
“Long day?” asked Heechul, smirking.
“You wouldn’t believe it if I told you, hyung,” said Kibum, and then seemed to focus on Siwon. “Is this the new one?” he asked, reaching over to help himself to salad. Siwon had been so caught up in watching Donghae’s attempt to disappear into the floor that he didn’t realise to begin with that Kibum was talking about him.
“Hello,” he said, nodding his head as an imitation of the best bow that he could manage while sitting down. “I’m - Han Siwon.”
“Kibum,” said Kibum, nodding his head to him, and Siwon noticed him also shoot Donghae a look out of the corner of his eye. He sighed when he noticed that Donghae was doing his best to remain invisible, and turned back to his meal. Siwon felt rather confused.
“What’s wrong-” he began asking Hankyung, but Hankyung just shook his head frantically, and motioned for him to continue eating. Siwon did so, frowning, but keeping his mouth shut as conversation continued around him. Eventually, Donghae seemed to recover, and was pulled into a conversation with Sungmin, loud and boisterous, though he continued to avoid looking at Kibum, and Kibum avoided speaking to him.
By the time Eunhyuk came in, grinning, when the meal was nearly over, Donghae had recovered enough to shout happily at him. “Eunhyuk! You’re late!”
“Sorry,” said Eunhyuk, though he didn’t look it, as his smile didn’t decrease in size at all. “I was taking a walk and lost track of time.”
“Where did you go?” asked Donghae eagerly.
“Oh, just around,” said Eunhyuk with a shrug, still grinning. “I just needed some fresh air.”
***
When Shindong came in through the front door one day in March five years earlier, holding tightly onto the hand of a scruffy-looking teenage boy not much younger than him, in all honesty Eeteuk thought that he had gone quite nuts. Shindong had only been with the family for two years, but had already proven his worth, and Eeteuk had never thought that he had shown a tendency to bring home strange boys before. “Shindong,” he said patiently from the top of the staircase, looking down as Shindong tried to encourage the boy to come further into the building. “Where did you find that child?”
Shindong stopped what he was doing and glanced up at him. “I bought him,” he called.
Eeteuk raised an eyebrow. “You bought him,” he repeated.
“Yeah,” said Shindong.
Shindong’s story went like this: he had been walking back from meeting one of his school friends who had become a police officer who worked in the neutral center of the city when he had passed the auction hall. Remembering that today was supposedly one of the days that the ailing Lee family auctioned off some of their heirlooms and possessions to pay the debts that they had racked up over the years, Shindong had gone inside.
At this point in the recounting of his story, Eeteuk had frowned at him. “Shindong,” he said. “I thought we’d agreed that we were going to have nothing to do with the Lee family anymore. Now we probably look exactly like the Choi family, like vultures over a carcass.”
“I was just going to take a look,” said Shindong with a shrug. “Just to see what they had. But you’re right, the place was crawling with members of the Choi family, it’s a good job I know how to blend in.”
The auction had been almost finished when Shindong had entered - all had been sold apart from one item, the boy that was currently shivering where he sat on the sofa next to Shindong. He was just being brought on the stage when Shindong realised what was happening.
“They were auctioning off their family members?” asked Eeteuk, incredulous.
“That’s what it looked like,” said Shindong. “It’s no wonder the room was full of Choi members, they’re always looking for new servants for their place. Honestly, it was like they were braying for blood or something in there, hyung. It was disgusting.”
Shindong, seeing that the ‘item’ was nothing more than a teenage boy not much younger than himself, immediately joined in the bidding for him. After a couple of minutes, it had ended up with just Shindong and another man that he didn’t know, someone he assumed had come from the Choi family. Shindong, in a desperate last ditch attempt, had named a sum that had caused a ripple of amusement and shock to run throughout the room - the other man had shook his head, frowning, and so Shindong had won possession of the boy.
“I ended up spending my next three pay-checks,” he said sadly. “But I think it was worth it.”
“I’ll repay you,” said Eeteuk. “I can’t believe this! Auctioning off their own family members to raise money! It’s inhumane!”
He stood up and slammed out of the room; there was a crashing outside - Shindong rather thought that he had kicked a chair - and then the sounds of him talking on his mobile phone to Kangin. “Yeah,” he said. “That’s what I said. Just get over there and see what’s happening. Inform the police.”
Shindong turned to look at the boy sat beside him on the sofa, and frowned a little. He wasn’t small, particularly - with his legs folded in, he was taller than Shindong had first thought, hunched in on himself on the stage. He was, however, as thin up close as he had first appeared, and Shindong could see his collarbone pressing through the worn-away material of his t-shirt. Whether that was through natural genetics or simple lack of food, Shindong didn’t know.
He nudged him with his elbow; the boy flinched away and hunched forward to grip his knees with white knuckles, shivering a little. “Hey,” said Shindong quietly. “What’s your name?”
The boy looked at him with angry eyes, a little wet. “What?” he asked. “You bought me when you didn’t even know my name?”
“Well, I wasn’t going to wait around and see if it was a name that I liked,” said Shindong. “I was kind of in a hurry to stop you from going to the Choi family, you see. With us, you’re free to go.”
“Free - to go?” the boy repeated, looking a little unsure.
Shindong shrugged. “We don’t have servants here,” he said. “And particularly not slaves. I only bought you to stop another person going somewhere that they didn’t want to be.”
The boy didn’t speak, just looked at the floor, and then Eeteuk came back into the room. “Kangin’s taking Heechul and going to see if he can find anything,” he said. “We’ll probably just have to report it to the police, but if it had the backing of the Choi family, then that will just be pointless.”
Shindong didn’t answer, because it didn’t need a reply. Eeteuk hunkered down on his knees in front of the boy and smiled winningly at him. “What’s your name?” he asked gently. Shindong knew enough about Eeteuk to know that that, if nothing else, would get the desired result from the boy.
The boy glanced up and blinked a little. “Lee Hyukjae,” he said softly.
“Lee?” Eeteuk looked meaningfully at Shindong, and Shindong understood. If Hyukjae’s last name was Lee, then that meant that he wasn’t just a two-bit worker that the Lee family could have gotten rid of easily (in any other way) without anyone noticing. It meant that he was in the family through relation and blood, and the fact that he was sitting here right now either showed that he wasn’t as important as Shindong and Eeteuk were taking him to be on the basis of his name - or the Lee family was in more trouble than it had initially let on.
There was a whisper from Hyukjae, barely more than a breath. Eeteuk leaned in a little closer to hear. “What?” he asked kindly.
“Where are my cousins?” Hyukjae repeated, voice hoarse - he sounded like he was on the verge of tears, and Shindong didn’t blame him one bit.
“I don’t know, Hyukjae,” said Eeteuk softly. “Do you remember who bought them?”
“I wasn’t allowed to see,” said Hyukjae, and he was crying now, sobbing. “They had us in a little room at the side and then they just came and dragged Sungmin away, and then came back for Donghae a short while later. And then it was just me.”
“Was there anyone else with you?” asked Eeteuk. “Anyone else who was going to be - sold.”
“I don’t know,” said Hyukjae. “There might have been, in another room, but it was only us in that one. They told us - that we were going to help the family.”
Eeteuk gathered the crying boy into his arms and held him as he sobbed, looking with narrowed eyes over his head at Shindong. No one was to know that the auction that the Lee family held that day was to become a common thing, even after their demise three months later. Nowadays, the Kim family are still trying to fight back against the growing slave trade that is being facilitated by auction rooms across Seoul - backed with man power from the Choi family, who are the ones who pump the most money into it by their apparent never ending need for a new workforce.
They never found where Hyukjae’s cousins were taken. Despite everything that Shindong did to help Hyukjae find them, the trail ended so early on that there was no point in continuing, and eventually, Hyukjae just gave up. When the family that he had once belonged to fell from its power, he changed his name to Eunhyuk and swore his allegiance to the Kim family, and was welcomed with open arms. He had been living there since they had first acquired him, and they saw no reason to not accept him. And so, Eunhyuk was happy; apart from the days when he turned to laugh at something with the cousins he had grown up with, and found them missing.
***
“Hey,” said Donghae, frowning as Eunhyuk sat down next to him and his shirt collar fell open, revealing a small bruise on his collarbone. “Did you fall down or something?”
Eunhyuk glanced down at where Donghae was pointing, and shrugged nonchalantly, although a faint red spread over his nose. “I banged it on the showerhead this morning,” he said.
“You’re going to kill yourself one day,” said Kangin musingly. “Through sheer clumsy.”
“So long as you put something a lot more interesting on my death certificate, I wouldn’t mind,” said Eunhyuk, shrugging again and grinning.
“I wonder what would be a good way to die,” said Kibum with an incredulous laugh. “I imagine dying in a shoot out would be a pretty fun way. It would look good on the certificate, at any rate.”
“Dead because he couldn’t shoot fast enough,” said Heechul. “No, still lame.”
“Well,” said Kibum. “How would you like to die?”
“I don’t want to die,” said Heechul. “In fact, I’m never going to die.”
“Kill me now,” said Hankyung hoarsely.
There was an outburst of laughter that Siwon joined in with, although he had noticed again that at Kibum’s voice, Donghae had retreated into a world of his own, hands clenched in his lap and eyes turned to the floor. He could see Eunhyuk desperately trying to ignore it, and could hear that Sungmin’s laughter was forced.
“What’s happening with Kibum and Donghae?” he asked later, when he was following Heechul back up to his bedroom - he needed a guide to find his way around the house, or at least, he would for the first few days.
Heechul pulled his bedroom door open for him, before turning to look at him carefully. “What do you mean?” he asked.
“Donghae goes really weird whenever Kibum speaks,” said Siwon. “I was just wondering why.”
“You’re quick, I’ll give you that,” said Heechul, and then he sighed. “It’s a long story, and I’d rather not get into it tonight.”
“Oh,” said Siwon, rather disappointed.
“Besides,” said Heechul, his expression slipping into a smirk that had Siwon’s heart racing as he tapped him on the hip. “You have to have been here a lot longer before you start finding out about our hard, tragic pasts, you see.”
“Oh,” repeated Siwon, now feeling rather confused, as Heechul sauntered off down the corridor, waving an arm casually.
Fandom: Super Junior AU (Mafia)
Pairings: Siwon/Hankyung/Heechul (Hankyung/Heechul), Kyuhyun/Zhou Mi, Kibum/Donghae, Yehsung/Ryeowook, Kangin/Eeteuk, Tablo/Eunhyuk
Pairings in Chapter: Hankyung/Heechul, beginnings of Siwon/Hankyung/Heechul
Word Count: 3,385
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The Kim family and the Choi family are the two oldest families in Seoul: where other families have been born, grown, and then fell apart, they remain strong. Unfortunately, they are mortal enemies, and where one lives alongside the law, the other is beyond any control. It's up to the new generation of members to destroy the violence between them - even if it means destroying one family in the process.
A/N: Lol you guys, I've been on Chapter 16 for the past week or something. Fail :|
I love back-stories :D
Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7
Siwon’s room was on the floor below the one that Hankyung and Heechul shared - it was light blue, with a dark blue satin bed cover and dark blue heavy curtains, dark wood furniture and silver highlights. It was one of Sungmin’s creations - shortly after he joined the family he had taken it upon himself to modernise and update the house. It had kept him busy, he’d claimed. Siwon looked around it, eyebrows raised. “This is a nice room,” he said.
Heechul glanced around also. “Not really,” he said with a shrug, and then a smirk. “Mine is nicer.”
“We’ve arranged with Siwon for him to live with his family some days of the week,” explained Eeteuk. He no longer seemed reluctant about Siwon. In fact, he was smiling at Siwon like he always smiled at the newest additions - like he wanted nothing more than to take them under his wing and teach them everything he knew. “He still has responsibilities at home, as he is helping to train his younger brother as the new head of the Han family.”
“I don’t think it will take up too much of my time,” said Siwon, almost apologetically. “He’s already got most of the basics.”
“So you’ll be spending more time here!” said Heechul, hitting Siwon on the shoulder. “Great, I can make you do all of my paperwork!”
“We’re starting him on paperwork,” said Kangin absently, as he pulled one of Siwon’s suitcases into the room. Siwon immediately jumped forward to help.
Of course they would be starting Siwon on paperwork, Hankyung reflected as he watched him help pull a small holdall in. As people, they wanted to trust others, but as family, they had to be incredibly cautious. There were plenty who wanted to pull them down, to destroy them, and to do so would bring anarchy to Seoul. Hankyung had a very definite idea that it was only the Kim family who was cooperating with the politicians and the police of the city, and that without them, either the Choi family or the rebellion groups would reign with terror.
He smiled a little - sometimes he really did think that he watched too many dramatic television programmes with Heechul.
“We have to go,” he said quietly, laying a hand on Heechul’s arm. “Eun said he had some money for us.”
“I’ve told you,” said Heechul, wrenching his arm away. “I’m never going back to Eun’s. I fucking hate him!”
“Heechul-” began Eeteuk placating, but Hankyung, after looking at Heechul for a few minutes, simply took Heechul by the arm and started pulling him in the direction of the door. While Heechul protested and snarled and tried to plant his feet into the ground, Hankyung just didn’t react and kept going, and his strength won out - they could still hear Heechul screaming about how he was the heir to this fucking family, you bastard, so let go of my arm right this fucking second- from halfway down the corridor. Siwon stifled a laugh and quickly went to the door.
“Hey,” he shouted after the retreating figures. “You’ll be at dinner tonight, won’t you?”
“Yeah!” shouted Hankyung.
“Stop fucking laughing at me,” shrieked Heechul, with a hand gesture that seemed to suggest that he was rather annoyed at Siwon. Siwon just laughed again.
Kangin and Eeteuk exchanged glances behind him.
***
If anyone thought that it was weird that there was a new addition to the table in the informal room that the members of the family who weren’t out on business or dining in the formal room with other people ate in, no one showed it. Eeteuk had announced that Siwon would be joining the family the day after it had been decided and now, two days after that, everyone was simply excited to know what kind of a person the newcomer was like. It was, Hankyung felt, rather similar to how a class of elementary children reacted when they heard that there was to be a new addition to the class. Heechul hadn’t helped the situation by giving out different information to different people - Ryeowook was convinced that Siwon was, judging by what Heechul had heard of him, really the devil in human form, he was so evil, while Donghae had been told that Siwon was, in fact, as threatening as a hurt puppy and that there was really no place for him in the family.
When Siwon actually came into the room, having been led there by Kangin, everyone looked up at him, stared, and then Sungmin said, “Hot.” And that was that, settled.
“That’s the entirety of your opinion of him?” asked Shindong, amused as Siwon blushed and slipped into the seat next to Hankyung, looking like he wished that he’d been already sitting before anyone else had come in for dinner.
Sungmin shrugged. “If he’s joined, then I know that he’s okay, really, despite what Heechul’s been saying about him. So all that is left is the physical judgements.”
“What has Heechul-hyung been saying about me?” asked Siwon nervously.
“You don’t want to know,” said Shindong, reassuringly.
“Really,” said Heechul, leaning forward on the other side of Hankyung to smirk at Siwon. “You don’t want to know.”
Siwon looked rather like he was going to faint.
Luckily, before he could, or before Heechul could do anything that would make the situation worse, Henry said something in English that no one could understand, and then huffed out a breath of exasperation. “Ge-” he began in Chinese, but Siwon silently reached over and handed him the plate of fish. Henry took it, staring in shock - everyone, in fact, was staring at Siwon.
“You speak English?” asked Donghae, practically spitting his mouthful of rice everywhere in his surprise.
“In a manner of speaking,” said Siwon sheepishly. “I thought that learning it would be good for when I took over the family, but I guess now…” he trailed off, frowning a little.
Henry said something to him, a wide grin over his face, and if Hankyung gets this funny feeling when he’s speaking Chinese, it’s nothing like the blow to the chest that he feels whenever he hears Henry speaking English, and it’s always harder when it’s like this, when he’s trying to have a conversation as compared to when he simply speaks it through habit. It reminds Hankyung of those years when he didn’t really know Henry, the half-brother who lived in Canada most of his life: Henry, the boy that Hankyung doesn’t understand half of the time, but not through anything other than a language barrier that shouldn’t exist. Henry struggles onwards with Korean, tries his best in Chinese, and then can’t be understood in English, and Hankyung wants to help, but Korean is hard enough for him, English is just impossible.
Siwon answered cautiously, and then Henry grinned and resumed eating. “I would have thought you’d want to have a conversation,” said Hankyung to him in Chinese.
Henry shrugged, grinning. “He’s not very fluent,” he said.
“It’s true,” said Siwon in Chinese. “I’m not.”
Henry’s eyes flicked back to him, growing wide and shocked. “You speak Chinese too!” he said.
“Is there anything you can’t do?” asked Donghae.
“I can’t make pottery,” said Siwon, face deadpan, as Heechul cracked up next to Hankyung and Sungmin choked on the mouthful of water he had been in the process of drinking.
Around two seconds later, Kibum came into the room, pulling his tie from around his neck and muttering something about being sorry for being late. Donghae, who had been laughing, suddenly knocked an empty glass over and went very quiet, very quickly. Siwon watched as Heechul shoot a look to the door, and then he invited Kibum to sit next to him, glancing at Donghae out of the corner of his eye. Kibum took the seat, stifling a yawn.
“Long day?” asked Heechul, smirking.
“You wouldn’t believe it if I told you, hyung,” said Kibum, and then seemed to focus on Siwon. “Is this the new one?” he asked, reaching over to help himself to salad. Siwon had been so caught up in watching Donghae’s attempt to disappear into the floor that he didn’t realise to begin with that Kibum was talking about him.
“Hello,” he said, nodding his head as an imitation of the best bow that he could manage while sitting down. “I’m - Han Siwon.”
“Kibum,” said Kibum, nodding his head to him, and Siwon noticed him also shoot Donghae a look out of the corner of his eye. He sighed when he noticed that Donghae was doing his best to remain invisible, and turned back to his meal. Siwon felt rather confused.
“What’s wrong-” he began asking Hankyung, but Hankyung just shook his head frantically, and motioned for him to continue eating. Siwon did so, frowning, but keeping his mouth shut as conversation continued around him. Eventually, Donghae seemed to recover, and was pulled into a conversation with Sungmin, loud and boisterous, though he continued to avoid looking at Kibum, and Kibum avoided speaking to him.
By the time Eunhyuk came in, grinning, when the meal was nearly over, Donghae had recovered enough to shout happily at him. “Eunhyuk! You’re late!”
“Sorry,” said Eunhyuk, though he didn’t look it, as his smile didn’t decrease in size at all. “I was taking a walk and lost track of time.”
“Where did you go?” asked Donghae eagerly.
“Oh, just around,” said Eunhyuk with a shrug, still grinning. “I just needed some fresh air.”
***
When Shindong came in through the front door one day in March five years earlier, holding tightly onto the hand of a scruffy-looking teenage boy not much younger than him, in all honesty Eeteuk thought that he had gone quite nuts. Shindong had only been with the family for two years, but had already proven his worth, and Eeteuk had never thought that he had shown a tendency to bring home strange boys before. “Shindong,” he said patiently from the top of the staircase, looking down as Shindong tried to encourage the boy to come further into the building. “Where did you find that child?”
Shindong stopped what he was doing and glanced up at him. “I bought him,” he called.
Eeteuk raised an eyebrow. “You bought him,” he repeated.
“Yeah,” said Shindong.
Shindong’s story went like this: he had been walking back from meeting one of his school friends who had become a police officer who worked in the neutral center of the city when he had passed the auction hall. Remembering that today was supposedly one of the days that the ailing Lee family auctioned off some of their heirlooms and possessions to pay the debts that they had racked up over the years, Shindong had gone inside.
At this point in the recounting of his story, Eeteuk had frowned at him. “Shindong,” he said. “I thought we’d agreed that we were going to have nothing to do with the Lee family anymore. Now we probably look exactly like the Choi family, like vultures over a carcass.”
“I was just going to take a look,” said Shindong with a shrug. “Just to see what they had. But you’re right, the place was crawling with members of the Choi family, it’s a good job I know how to blend in.”
The auction had been almost finished when Shindong had entered - all had been sold apart from one item, the boy that was currently shivering where he sat on the sofa next to Shindong. He was just being brought on the stage when Shindong realised what was happening.
“They were auctioning off their family members?” asked Eeteuk, incredulous.
“That’s what it looked like,” said Shindong. “It’s no wonder the room was full of Choi members, they’re always looking for new servants for their place. Honestly, it was like they were braying for blood or something in there, hyung. It was disgusting.”
Shindong, seeing that the ‘item’ was nothing more than a teenage boy not much younger than himself, immediately joined in the bidding for him. After a couple of minutes, it had ended up with just Shindong and another man that he didn’t know, someone he assumed had come from the Choi family. Shindong, in a desperate last ditch attempt, had named a sum that had caused a ripple of amusement and shock to run throughout the room - the other man had shook his head, frowning, and so Shindong had won possession of the boy.
“I ended up spending my next three pay-checks,” he said sadly. “But I think it was worth it.”
“I’ll repay you,” said Eeteuk. “I can’t believe this! Auctioning off their own family members to raise money! It’s inhumane!”
He stood up and slammed out of the room; there was a crashing outside - Shindong rather thought that he had kicked a chair - and then the sounds of him talking on his mobile phone to Kangin. “Yeah,” he said. “That’s what I said. Just get over there and see what’s happening. Inform the police.”
Shindong turned to look at the boy sat beside him on the sofa, and frowned a little. He wasn’t small, particularly - with his legs folded in, he was taller than Shindong had first thought, hunched in on himself on the stage. He was, however, as thin up close as he had first appeared, and Shindong could see his collarbone pressing through the worn-away material of his t-shirt. Whether that was through natural genetics or simple lack of food, Shindong didn’t know.
He nudged him with his elbow; the boy flinched away and hunched forward to grip his knees with white knuckles, shivering a little. “Hey,” said Shindong quietly. “What’s your name?”
The boy looked at him with angry eyes, a little wet. “What?” he asked. “You bought me when you didn’t even know my name?”
“Well, I wasn’t going to wait around and see if it was a name that I liked,” said Shindong. “I was kind of in a hurry to stop you from going to the Choi family, you see. With us, you’re free to go.”
“Free - to go?” the boy repeated, looking a little unsure.
Shindong shrugged. “We don’t have servants here,” he said. “And particularly not slaves. I only bought you to stop another person going somewhere that they didn’t want to be.”
The boy didn’t speak, just looked at the floor, and then Eeteuk came back into the room. “Kangin’s taking Heechul and going to see if he can find anything,” he said. “We’ll probably just have to report it to the police, but if it had the backing of the Choi family, then that will just be pointless.”
Shindong didn’t answer, because it didn’t need a reply. Eeteuk hunkered down on his knees in front of the boy and smiled winningly at him. “What’s your name?” he asked gently. Shindong knew enough about Eeteuk to know that that, if nothing else, would get the desired result from the boy.
The boy glanced up and blinked a little. “Lee Hyukjae,” he said softly.
“Lee?” Eeteuk looked meaningfully at Shindong, and Shindong understood. If Hyukjae’s last name was Lee, then that meant that he wasn’t just a two-bit worker that the Lee family could have gotten rid of easily (in any other way) without anyone noticing. It meant that he was in the family through relation and blood, and the fact that he was sitting here right now either showed that he wasn’t as important as Shindong and Eeteuk were taking him to be on the basis of his name - or the Lee family was in more trouble than it had initially let on.
There was a whisper from Hyukjae, barely more than a breath. Eeteuk leaned in a little closer to hear. “What?” he asked kindly.
“Where are my cousins?” Hyukjae repeated, voice hoarse - he sounded like he was on the verge of tears, and Shindong didn’t blame him one bit.
“I don’t know, Hyukjae,” said Eeteuk softly. “Do you remember who bought them?”
“I wasn’t allowed to see,” said Hyukjae, and he was crying now, sobbing. “They had us in a little room at the side and then they just came and dragged Sungmin away, and then came back for Donghae a short while later. And then it was just me.”
“Was there anyone else with you?” asked Eeteuk. “Anyone else who was going to be - sold.”
“I don’t know,” said Hyukjae. “There might have been, in another room, but it was only us in that one. They told us - that we were going to help the family.”
Eeteuk gathered the crying boy into his arms and held him as he sobbed, looking with narrowed eyes over his head at Shindong. No one was to know that the auction that the Lee family held that day was to become a common thing, even after their demise three months later. Nowadays, the Kim family are still trying to fight back against the growing slave trade that is being facilitated by auction rooms across Seoul - backed with man power from the Choi family, who are the ones who pump the most money into it by their apparent never ending need for a new workforce.
They never found where Hyukjae’s cousins were taken. Despite everything that Shindong did to help Hyukjae find them, the trail ended so early on that there was no point in continuing, and eventually, Hyukjae just gave up. When the family that he had once belonged to fell from its power, he changed his name to Eunhyuk and swore his allegiance to the Kim family, and was welcomed with open arms. He had been living there since they had first acquired him, and they saw no reason to not accept him. And so, Eunhyuk was happy; apart from the days when he turned to laugh at something with the cousins he had grown up with, and found them missing.
***
“Hey,” said Donghae, frowning as Eunhyuk sat down next to him and his shirt collar fell open, revealing a small bruise on his collarbone. “Did you fall down or something?”
Eunhyuk glanced down at where Donghae was pointing, and shrugged nonchalantly, although a faint red spread over his nose. “I banged it on the showerhead this morning,” he said.
“You’re going to kill yourself one day,” said Kangin musingly. “Through sheer clumsy.”
“So long as you put something a lot more interesting on my death certificate, I wouldn’t mind,” said Eunhyuk, shrugging again and grinning.
“I wonder what would be a good way to die,” said Kibum with an incredulous laugh. “I imagine dying in a shoot out would be a pretty fun way. It would look good on the certificate, at any rate.”
“Dead because he couldn’t shoot fast enough,” said Heechul. “No, still lame.”
“Well,” said Kibum. “How would you like to die?”
“I don’t want to die,” said Heechul. “In fact, I’m never going to die.”
“Kill me now,” said Hankyung hoarsely.
There was an outburst of laughter that Siwon joined in with, although he had noticed again that at Kibum’s voice, Donghae had retreated into a world of his own, hands clenched in his lap and eyes turned to the floor. He could see Eunhyuk desperately trying to ignore it, and could hear that Sungmin’s laughter was forced.
“What’s happening with Kibum and Donghae?” he asked later, when he was following Heechul back up to his bedroom - he needed a guide to find his way around the house, or at least, he would for the first few days.
Heechul pulled his bedroom door open for him, before turning to look at him carefully. “What do you mean?” he asked.
“Donghae goes really weird whenever Kibum speaks,” said Siwon. “I was just wondering why.”
“You’re quick, I’ll give you that,” said Heechul, and then he sighed. “It’s a long story, and I’d rather not get into it tonight.”
“Oh,” said Siwon, rather disappointed.
“Besides,” said Heechul, his expression slipping into a smirk that had Siwon’s heart racing as he tapped him on the hip. “You have to have been here a lot longer before you start finding out about our hard, tragic pasts, you see.”
“Oh,” repeated Siwon, now feeling rather confused, as Heechul sauntered off down the corridor, waving an arm casually.