A Single Word - Chapter Eleven
Title: A Single Word - Chapter Eleven
Pairing: JongKey/Keyhyun.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Angst, bullying, mentions of abuse.
Summary: The night a strange new person enters his life, everything changes for Key.
Word Count: 2,751
Notes: Yay. An update! So, there's a lot in this chapter. Dun dun dun. The next chapter's going to be pretty intense, so I hope you guys look forward to it! And I hope this chapter didn't disappoint anyone.
Spots For: hurryupthecakes, ezri_sun, ryotanfan29, and nurmee ^.^
01| 02| 03| 04| 05| 06| 07| 08| 09| 10
Looking at the time on his phone, Key sighed softly and straightened in his chair. Just another minute until class started, and that much closer until it was over. He happened to notice the blonde haired kid, Taemin, out in the hallway. Frowning, he wondered what he was doing out there when he would be late for class. He was looking around, as if for someone. Then his eyes moved toward the classroom. Their gazes met for a moment before Taemin looked away and swept his gaze over the rest of the room. Not seeing whatever he was looking for, he turned and walked away.
Blinking and shaking his head, Key looked back at his desk and moved his hand over his paper to continue doodling in the margins until the teacher came in and called for everyone's attention. Despite the curiosity, he managed to focus on the lesson pretty easily.
After class ended was when he first realized something was wrong. He looked up upon hearing his name and saw a male teacher walking into the room. The man headed over to him as he was gathering his things to leave.
"Hey, I was wondering if your mother came to get Jonghyun earlier. Did he have a doctor's appointment today or something?"
Key stared at him for a long moment in confusion. "I…I don't think so."
The teacher's expression faltered and grew a little more serious. "Well, he wasn't in class."
"I'll call her to make sure," Key responded hurriedly, not wanting Jonghyun to get in trouble, but also worried. He grabbed his bag and quickly headed out the door, already pulling his cell phone out.
His mother's voice came onto the phone quickly after it started ringing. "Key? What's up?"
"Did you come by and get Jonghyun today?" he could already feel his stomach sinking as he heard the usual noises from the salon coming through the line.
"No…Key, what happened? Is Jonghyun not there with you?"
"I don't know. The teacher said he wasn't in his last class. I'll look around the school and see if I can find him."
"I'm calling your father. After you check the school, come straight home, okay?"
Hanging up his phone, Key felt anxiety clutching tightly at his chest. Turning, he headed back. First, he checked all the bathrooms, thinking that was a likely place to hide. Next he tried the classrooms, getting several weird looks from clubs that were already starting their meetings. It was just when he was heading outside to look around the grounds and athletic areas that a familiar person came running up to him.
"Key…"
"I don't have time for this right now, Minho."
"No, it's not that. It's about Jonghyun."
Eyes widening, Key rounded on him. "What? Did you see him?"
The way Minho suddenly looked really uncomfortable made Key's heart jump with fear. "Well, you see. I might have said something that upset him, but I didn't mean it that way…"
"What?" Key's voice was harsh, almost shrill with worry. He pressed his palm against his forehead and took a deep breath. "What did you say to him?"
"I just told him you were probably going to get kicked off the dancing team because you have to babysit him all the time. I didn't think…"
"No, you didn't think!" Key was fuming by now, his breathing harsh and uneven. "You have no idea what you did. You don't know what he's been through."
"Yeah? You’re right. I don't! No one ever tells me anything," Minho retorted, getting heated himself now.
"He was abused, you idiot,” Key lashed out before really thinking. But as much as he was angry and disappointed with Minho right now, he still trusted him, and everything else just came gushing out. “They found him locked up in a house, and no one knows how long he was kept away from the world because he won't talk about it. You should have seen him," tears of frustration and sympathy slid in trails out of the corners of his eyes. "The night when my father brought him home, I honestly thought he was an animal. There was blood caked all over his clothes, his hair was a raggedy mess and he was practically skin and bones. And his eyes, you can see everything in them."
By now, Minho had been shocked into complete silence, his body rigid as he listened. When Key's words died down and he sighed in agitation, Minho chewed on his lip roughly. "I didn't know…I thought he was just some weird kid."
"Anyone could see that he's not normal, that it's not just some character flaw, but no. The only person you've been paying any attention to is yourself. You're a selfish idiot. I don't even want to look at you right now."
Taking a shuddering breath, Key started walking again, not really sure where to check next.
"I don't think he's at the school. He was walking in that direction," Minho called out, and Key looked back to see him pointing towards the main road. Key felt his gut clench even tighter, but he didn't feel like yelling at Minho anymore, so instead he just ran off in that direction. He could only hope that Jonghyun had decided to go home.
Upon arriving at his house, Key searched all around it in vain. His father called just as he was fretting over what to do next. When Key told him he couldn't find him, he told him they would send people out to look for him and that it was best for Key to stay home and wait. Tugging at his hair, Key tried to glare a hole through his desk as he fiddled with his phone. This was all his fault. He wasn't paying enough attention. He could have prevented this from happening, but no, he'd been immature and stupid.
As he paced restlessly around his room, his phone rang again and he nearly broke it with the enthusiasm he used to open it. "Yes?"
"Key, it's Onew. I wanted you to know that we're out looking for him too. Everything's going to be okay."
That ‘we’ rang out in his head, but he brushed it off because he knew that the more people were looking, the more likely it would be for someone to spot him. "Okay, let me know if you find anything, okay?"
"Of course. Where are you?"
"Home. They told me to stay here and wait in case he comes back."
"Oh," there was a long pause before Onew added in a softer voice, "I'm sorry Key. Try not to pull your hair out okay?"
Frowning softly, Key dropped his hand that had been tugging on his hair and nodded, despite the fact that Onew couldn't see. "Thanks," he said softly, feeling the frustration close to overwhelming him.
***"I got you something yesterday," the man's hands shook as he set the DVDs down on the table. Jonghyun looked at them without moving from his bed, scooted as far back into the corner as he could get. "Get over here!" he barked, making Jonghyun flinch and quickly get up. He shuffled over to the table and looked down at the educational DVDs. "Education's important. Make sure you watch them while I'm gone."
Then he turned and grabbed his jacket before heading out the door, locking it behind him. It was a special lock. Jonghyun couldn't just open it from the inside. It needed a key. Turning back to his bed, Jonghyun pulled out the necklace he'd gotten as a gift several years ago. It was one of the only things he'd managed to take with him when they left his old home. Closing his eyes, he tried to block it out, clutching the necklace tightly in his hand.
With a long sigh, Jonghyun turned back to the table and grabbed the DVDs. He'd never been too fond of school or learning, but here he had to do it. Since coming to this house, the times he hadn't studied or didn't study well enough only ended painfully. At first it hadn't been so bad, but as time went by, everything got worse. Everything.
By the age of fourteen, Jonghyun couldn't imagine things being any worse than they were. He'd slowly gotten used to not eating very much, or getting a good night's sleep. It didn't really make it much easier though, and forcing himself to not only stay awake through a DVD, but to actually learn from it, was incredibly difficult. Sometimes he messed up, sometimes the worse thing that could happen, did.
He didn't realize he'd fallen asleep until a slap in the face woke him up. After the initial shock, he mentally cursed himself for sitting down again. There were a lot of times he would stand or put himself into an uncomfortable position just so he wouldn't fall asleep, but he slipped up sometimes. Stumbling out of the chair, Jonghyun pressed a hand to his cheek.
"Didn't I tell you not to sleep through your work? Education is important. Even if our lives are over, you still need to learn. I hope you saw enough of it to pass your test," he added with a leer that forced Jonghyun to stifle a whimper. "Here, eat."
Jonghyun took the box, thrusted toward him, back to his bed, sitting crossed legged with his back to the wall. His face still stung, but he was actually relieved it had only been one hit. He was relieved he hadn't gotten it worse then, but he knew if he failed his test he would.
The man was always talking about his old students, about how they were idiots and how Jonghyun should be better than them. Sitting in that same chair, the man eventually fell asleep himself. Jonghyun stared at him, stared at the pocket where the key to the door was. He'd tried before, to steal the key and get away, but he'd never succeeded, and the results had been painful. In fact, the first time he tried to escape led to the first time he was beat so bad he couldn't move after. He could remember, like through a foggy screen, how the man had to take care of him after, how pathetic he had been. How much 'trouble he had caused'.
Reaching under his pillow, Jonghyun clutched at his necklace. He never wore it because he was afraid the man would take it away from him. He couldn't lose it, not after how long it had been with him, how long it had given him hope. Letting go of it, Jonghyun sat the empty food box at the side of his bed, his stomach not completely full, but good enough. Lying down, Jonghyun tried to sleep as much as he could.
The first hope he had of getting out in years came one morning when he heard noises from outside. The man had been gone for a while already. Jonghyun went to the door and pressed his ear against it. The windows had long since been shut and boarded up. There was no way to see outside, just like there was no way to get out there. There were voices, unfamiliar ones. He could hear a woman. At first he only listened, feeling the deep yearning to go out, to see people that he'd only seen on the television for years.
Suddenly, an odd sort of panic ripped through him. What if this was his only chance? What if after this, he never got the chance to feel real light on his skin, to talk to someone, to regain a life? A foreign sound ripped through his throat, and he realized after a second he was yelling. Pulling at the door to make it shake and screaming at the top of his lungs, Jonghyun tried to get them to hear him somehow. After a minute or so he stopped to listen again. It had gone silent. He felt tears springing to his eyes and he slowly sank to the ground, forehead pressed to the door. "Help," he choked out. "Help me!" he screamed again, over and over. It went on for what felt like forever. Eventually he gave up, throat sore and too scared to keep going when he knew that man would return soon. Slinking back to his bed, Jonghyun burrowed under the covers and wished himself away to another place.
In his mind, he was free, running around outside. In his mind, he met an old friend, or his father came back home and took him away from the mean woman and her boyfriend. In his mind, his mother's kind smile and soft voice soothed him to sleep.
The door slamming, and the quick rattle of keys woke Jonghyun up. He barely had time to sit up before the man turned, his eyes wildly searching out Jonghyun's form in what probably seemed like dim light to him. Jonghyun felt fear clutch at his stomach and he moved quickly, trying to crawl under his bed, but the man had found him too quick. Jonghyun felt his head being tugged back roughly as the man found a fistful of hair, dragging him out to the middle of the floor. Jonghyun cried out, only getting hit in the face for doing so.
"What the hell did you think you were doing today? Were you trying to get me caught? Do you want me to go to jail? Huh!?"
Tears leaked out of the corner of Jonghyun's eyes and he shook his head quickly. "Sorry. I'm sorry," he whimpered, reaching up to try and dislodge the man's fingers from his hair.
"Who said you could talk?" the man retorted before dropping him to the floor and swiftly kicking him in the side. Jonghyun gasped and curled in on himself. "You've ruined everything. My life is all messed up because of you, and this is how you repay me? That woman's going to be suspicious now. If you ever make so much as another noise, I'm going to kill you too. Got it?"
Jonghyun nodded quickly and bit his lip to try and stifle the sobs, but it didn't seem to be enough as the man's shoe pressed against his forehead, pushing it back so they were looking at each other. Jonghyun hated the man's eyes. There was something so scary in them, so wild and off balance, like he didn't really know what was going on.
"Look at me when I ask you a question, boy. Do you got it?" he yelled out the last part.
"Yes," he choked out, closing his eyes when the man shoved his head back against the floor roughly before moving his foot away. The way his neck popped was nothing in comparison to the explosion of stars in his vision, or the way the back of his head pulsed with pain. But as he lay down later, he realized his neck was going to hold onto the tension and pain a lot longer than anything else.
The days after that got worse than they'd ever been. The man was stressed and angry, and Jonghyun would get a swift punch to the gut or slap in the face when the man got home. The worst part was when he drank though. Jonghyun knew it would be bad when he came home with a pack of soju bottles. He barely managed to crawl back to his bed that night. Some days he thought it would be best to just give up hope, but as his hand shakily slid under his pillow, he just couldn't let go. ***
Looking up at the house he’d been held captive in for so long was strange. Jonghyun almost felt like it couldn’t be the same place. The only times he’d seen it from the outside were the first day he was brought there, years ago, and the night he was brought out. Although, that night he honestly hadn’t been all that conscious by the time he was out the door. Frowning as he stared through the trees lining the road opposite of the house, Jonghyun felt his body tense as his mind fought back the fear. He had something to do, and he couldn’t stop now.
Pushing past the thin, outstretched branches of the tree, Jonghyun crossed the street, feet stepping firmly onto the property that he’d been confined to for a little over six years.
Chapter Twelve
Pairing: JongKey/Keyhyun.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Angst, bullying, mentions of abuse.
Summary: The night a strange new person enters his life, everything changes for Key.
Word Count: 2,751
Notes: Yay. An update! So, there's a lot in this chapter. Dun dun dun. The next chapter's going to be pretty intense, so I hope you guys look forward to it! And I hope this chapter didn't disappoint anyone.
Spots For: hurryupthecakes, ezri_sun, ryotanfan29, and nurmee ^.^
01| 02| 03| 04| 05| 06| 07| 08| 09| 10
Looking at the time on his phone, Key sighed softly and straightened in his chair. Just another minute until class started, and that much closer until it was over. He happened to notice the blonde haired kid, Taemin, out in the hallway. Frowning, he wondered what he was doing out there when he would be late for class. He was looking around, as if for someone. Then his eyes moved toward the classroom. Their gazes met for a moment before Taemin looked away and swept his gaze over the rest of the room. Not seeing whatever he was looking for, he turned and walked away.
Blinking and shaking his head, Key looked back at his desk and moved his hand over his paper to continue doodling in the margins until the teacher came in and called for everyone's attention. Despite the curiosity, he managed to focus on the lesson pretty easily.
After class ended was when he first realized something was wrong. He looked up upon hearing his name and saw a male teacher walking into the room. The man headed over to him as he was gathering his things to leave.
"Hey, I was wondering if your mother came to get Jonghyun earlier. Did he have a doctor's appointment today or something?"
Key stared at him for a long moment in confusion. "I…I don't think so."
The teacher's expression faltered and grew a little more serious. "Well, he wasn't in class."
"I'll call her to make sure," Key responded hurriedly, not wanting Jonghyun to get in trouble, but also worried. He grabbed his bag and quickly headed out the door, already pulling his cell phone out.
His mother's voice came onto the phone quickly after it started ringing. "Key? What's up?"
"Did you come by and get Jonghyun today?" he could already feel his stomach sinking as he heard the usual noises from the salon coming through the line.
"No…Key, what happened? Is Jonghyun not there with you?"
"I don't know. The teacher said he wasn't in his last class. I'll look around the school and see if I can find him."
"I'm calling your father. After you check the school, come straight home, okay?"
Hanging up his phone, Key felt anxiety clutching tightly at his chest. Turning, he headed back. First, he checked all the bathrooms, thinking that was a likely place to hide. Next he tried the classrooms, getting several weird looks from clubs that were already starting their meetings. It was just when he was heading outside to look around the grounds and athletic areas that a familiar person came running up to him.
"Key…"
"I don't have time for this right now, Minho."
"No, it's not that. It's about Jonghyun."
Eyes widening, Key rounded on him. "What? Did you see him?"
The way Minho suddenly looked really uncomfortable made Key's heart jump with fear. "Well, you see. I might have said something that upset him, but I didn't mean it that way…"
"What?" Key's voice was harsh, almost shrill with worry. He pressed his palm against his forehead and took a deep breath. "What did you say to him?"
"I just told him you were probably going to get kicked off the dancing team because you have to babysit him all the time. I didn't think…"
"No, you didn't think!" Key was fuming by now, his breathing harsh and uneven. "You have no idea what you did. You don't know what he's been through."
"Yeah? You’re right. I don't! No one ever tells me anything," Minho retorted, getting heated himself now.
"He was abused, you idiot,” Key lashed out before really thinking. But as much as he was angry and disappointed with Minho right now, he still trusted him, and everything else just came gushing out. “They found him locked up in a house, and no one knows how long he was kept away from the world because he won't talk about it. You should have seen him," tears of frustration and sympathy slid in trails out of the corners of his eyes. "The night when my father brought him home, I honestly thought he was an animal. There was blood caked all over his clothes, his hair was a raggedy mess and he was practically skin and bones. And his eyes, you can see everything in them."
By now, Minho had been shocked into complete silence, his body rigid as he listened. When Key's words died down and he sighed in agitation, Minho chewed on his lip roughly. "I didn't know…I thought he was just some weird kid."
"Anyone could see that he's not normal, that it's not just some character flaw, but no. The only person you've been paying any attention to is yourself. You're a selfish idiot. I don't even want to look at you right now."
Taking a shuddering breath, Key started walking again, not really sure where to check next.
"I don't think he's at the school. He was walking in that direction," Minho called out, and Key looked back to see him pointing towards the main road. Key felt his gut clench even tighter, but he didn't feel like yelling at Minho anymore, so instead he just ran off in that direction. He could only hope that Jonghyun had decided to go home.
Upon arriving at his house, Key searched all around it in vain. His father called just as he was fretting over what to do next. When Key told him he couldn't find him, he told him they would send people out to look for him and that it was best for Key to stay home and wait. Tugging at his hair, Key tried to glare a hole through his desk as he fiddled with his phone. This was all his fault. He wasn't paying enough attention. He could have prevented this from happening, but no, he'd been immature and stupid.
As he paced restlessly around his room, his phone rang again and he nearly broke it with the enthusiasm he used to open it. "Yes?"
"Key, it's Onew. I wanted you to know that we're out looking for him too. Everything's going to be okay."
That ‘we’ rang out in his head, but he brushed it off because he knew that the more people were looking, the more likely it would be for someone to spot him. "Okay, let me know if you find anything, okay?"
"Of course. Where are you?"
"Home. They told me to stay here and wait in case he comes back."
"Oh," there was a long pause before Onew added in a softer voice, "I'm sorry Key. Try not to pull your hair out okay?"
Frowning softly, Key dropped his hand that had been tugging on his hair and nodded, despite the fact that Onew couldn't see. "Thanks," he said softly, feeling the frustration close to overwhelming him.
***"I got you something yesterday," the man's hands shook as he set the DVDs down on the table. Jonghyun looked at them without moving from his bed, scooted as far back into the corner as he could get. "Get over here!" he barked, making Jonghyun flinch and quickly get up. He shuffled over to the table and looked down at the educational DVDs. "Education's important. Make sure you watch them while I'm gone."
Then he turned and grabbed his jacket before heading out the door, locking it behind him. It was a special lock. Jonghyun couldn't just open it from the inside. It needed a key. Turning back to his bed, Jonghyun pulled out the necklace he'd gotten as a gift several years ago. It was one of the only things he'd managed to take with him when they left his old home. Closing his eyes, he tried to block it out, clutching the necklace tightly in his hand.
With a long sigh, Jonghyun turned back to the table and grabbed the DVDs. He'd never been too fond of school or learning, but here he had to do it. Since coming to this house, the times he hadn't studied or didn't study well enough only ended painfully. At first it hadn't been so bad, but as time went by, everything got worse. Everything.
By the age of fourteen, Jonghyun couldn't imagine things being any worse than they were. He'd slowly gotten used to not eating very much, or getting a good night's sleep. It didn't really make it much easier though, and forcing himself to not only stay awake through a DVD, but to actually learn from it, was incredibly difficult. Sometimes he messed up, sometimes the worse thing that could happen, did.
He didn't realize he'd fallen asleep until a slap in the face woke him up. After the initial shock, he mentally cursed himself for sitting down again. There were a lot of times he would stand or put himself into an uncomfortable position just so he wouldn't fall asleep, but he slipped up sometimes. Stumbling out of the chair, Jonghyun pressed a hand to his cheek.
"Didn't I tell you not to sleep through your work? Education is important. Even if our lives are over, you still need to learn. I hope you saw enough of it to pass your test," he added with a leer that forced Jonghyun to stifle a whimper. "Here, eat."
Jonghyun took the box, thrusted toward him, back to his bed, sitting crossed legged with his back to the wall. His face still stung, but he was actually relieved it had only been one hit. He was relieved he hadn't gotten it worse then, but he knew if he failed his test he would.
The man was always talking about his old students, about how they were idiots and how Jonghyun should be better than them. Sitting in that same chair, the man eventually fell asleep himself. Jonghyun stared at him, stared at the pocket where the key to the door was. He'd tried before, to steal the key and get away, but he'd never succeeded, and the results had been painful. In fact, the first time he tried to escape led to the first time he was beat so bad he couldn't move after. He could remember, like through a foggy screen, how the man had to take care of him after, how pathetic he had been. How much 'trouble he had caused'.
Reaching under his pillow, Jonghyun clutched at his necklace. He never wore it because he was afraid the man would take it away from him. He couldn't lose it, not after how long it had been with him, how long it had given him hope. Letting go of it, Jonghyun sat the empty food box at the side of his bed, his stomach not completely full, but good enough. Lying down, Jonghyun tried to sleep as much as he could.
The first hope he had of getting out in years came one morning when he heard noises from outside. The man had been gone for a while already. Jonghyun went to the door and pressed his ear against it. The windows had long since been shut and boarded up. There was no way to see outside, just like there was no way to get out there. There were voices, unfamiliar ones. He could hear a woman. At first he only listened, feeling the deep yearning to go out, to see people that he'd only seen on the television for years.
Suddenly, an odd sort of panic ripped through him. What if this was his only chance? What if after this, he never got the chance to feel real light on his skin, to talk to someone, to regain a life? A foreign sound ripped through his throat, and he realized after a second he was yelling. Pulling at the door to make it shake and screaming at the top of his lungs, Jonghyun tried to get them to hear him somehow. After a minute or so he stopped to listen again. It had gone silent. He felt tears springing to his eyes and he slowly sank to the ground, forehead pressed to the door. "Help," he choked out. "Help me!" he screamed again, over and over. It went on for what felt like forever. Eventually he gave up, throat sore and too scared to keep going when he knew that man would return soon. Slinking back to his bed, Jonghyun burrowed under the covers and wished himself away to another place.
In his mind, he was free, running around outside. In his mind, he met an old friend, or his father came back home and took him away from the mean woman and her boyfriend. In his mind, his mother's kind smile and soft voice soothed him to sleep.
The door slamming, and the quick rattle of keys woke Jonghyun up. He barely had time to sit up before the man turned, his eyes wildly searching out Jonghyun's form in what probably seemed like dim light to him. Jonghyun felt fear clutch at his stomach and he moved quickly, trying to crawl under his bed, but the man had found him too quick. Jonghyun felt his head being tugged back roughly as the man found a fistful of hair, dragging him out to the middle of the floor. Jonghyun cried out, only getting hit in the face for doing so.
"What the hell did you think you were doing today? Were you trying to get me caught? Do you want me to go to jail? Huh!?"
Tears leaked out of the corner of Jonghyun's eyes and he shook his head quickly. "Sorry. I'm sorry," he whimpered, reaching up to try and dislodge the man's fingers from his hair.
"Who said you could talk?" the man retorted before dropping him to the floor and swiftly kicking him in the side. Jonghyun gasped and curled in on himself. "You've ruined everything. My life is all messed up because of you, and this is how you repay me? That woman's going to be suspicious now. If you ever make so much as another noise, I'm going to kill you too. Got it?"
Jonghyun nodded quickly and bit his lip to try and stifle the sobs, but it didn't seem to be enough as the man's shoe pressed against his forehead, pushing it back so they were looking at each other. Jonghyun hated the man's eyes. There was something so scary in them, so wild and off balance, like he didn't really know what was going on.
"Look at me when I ask you a question, boy. Do you got it?" he yelled out the last part.
"Yes," he choked out, closing his eyes when the man shoved his head back against the floor roughly before moving his foot away. The way his neck popped was nothing in comparison to the explosion of stars in his vision, or the way the back of his head pulsed with pain. But as he lay down later, he realized his neck was going to hold onto the tension and pain a lot longer than anything else.
The days after that got worse than they'd ever been. The man was stressed and angry, and Jonghyun would get a swift punch to the gut or slap in the face when the man got home. The worst part was when he drank though. Jonghyun knew it would be bad when he came home with a pack of soju bottles. He barely managed to crawl back to his bed that night. Some days he thought it would be best to just give up hope, but as his hand shakily slid under his pillow, he just couldn't let go. ***
Looking up at the house he’d been held captive in for so long was strange. Jonghyun almost felt like it couldn’t be the same place. The only times he’d seen it from the outside were the first day he was brought there, years ago, and the night he was brought out. Although, that night he honestly hadn’t been all that conscious by the time he was out the door. Frowning as he stared through the trees lining the road opposite of the house, Jonghyun felt his body tense as his mind fought back the fear. He had something to do, and he couldn’t stop now.
Pushing past the thin, outstretched branches of the tree, Jonghyun crossed the street, feet stepping firmly onto the property that he’d been confined to for a little over six years.
Chapter Twelve