Soulmates - k.yc • p.jh

•xvii•

Nothing I told Sehyoon was a lie. I did think that at one point he was my soulmate. When Jun asked me why I gave him false hope, I felt awful. I didn't give him false hope, but Jun and I are supposed to have a life together now. So I wasn't sure how much of my promise I could hold up.

I ended up at Donghun's place with Wonho to talk about my findings. "So, here's my journal. It's gonna start weird because the motherfucker knocked me out for some hours." Wonho's eyes widened slightly.

"Why the hell did they get put with this monster..." Wonho sighed, starting to thumb through my journal. "Seo called them Mother (May I) and Jackass. Jun was deemed Mother because of how he took care of the kids. I never could figure out why Sehyoon had the name he had. He nicknamed me Pussy/Dickhead and I asked him if I was named after something he couldn't get and asked if he wanted me, trying to egg him on. He said 'Don't need it, that one right there works just fine,' and he pointed to Sehyoon. They started the day with cleaning everything, mopping the floors with a toothbrush?" I nodded, taking a sip of water. "Sehyoon went downstairs for half an hour to 'clean' with Mr. Seo. When asked about Sehyoon's daily routines, Jun replied with, 'You've seen my life. At least I had you to save me for a few hours,' and we continued cleaning."

Donghun, still a little slow to warm up to this plan furrowed his eyebrows. "What does that mean?" He asked me.

"Jun used to get abused by his father and uncle, remember? In every way. And I saved him for at least a few hours before he became a Deviant." Donghun nodded, passing over a bag of chips. I hadn't really eaten the past few days and I was feeling like shit.

Wonho kept reading through the journal. "When Sehyoon came upstairs, he took charge of the cleaning of the bedrooms without taking a second to breathe. I asked him what took him half an hour to clean and Jun warned me to let it go. I pressed on, asking if he was cleaning up his beer bottles or taking out the trash with condoms in it. Sehyoon told me to shut up and Jun pressed me for why I was doing this. I went to the bathroom to grab clothes for the laundry room and they had a small argument over me being weird. Jun acknowledged my standoffish behavior and Sehyoon finally spoke a part of his mind, saying 'Do you think any of this is remotely normal? You've been here for less than a week, I've been here for years. This is not your fucking normal. This is my normal. And I don't know why the fuck either of you want that so bad.' Cleaning for the rest of the day was a silent affair."

He read through us at the park, how dinner went, and then how I woke up to Jun and Sehyoon telling me we couldn't go to a hospital. "I think I'm still experiencing the concussion. I had Jun tell me what happened before I blacked out" Wonho nodded, taking a deep breath before reading on.

"Seo went to punish Sehyoon for my mouth and Jun challenged him, asking him why he was going for Sehyoon. Seo then told him to give him one of the kids. Jun hid the younger girls behind him and Byeongkwan was on his hip. Eunseo, Sehyoon's sister, followed suit and hid the boys behind her. Jun explained to me that the oldest three, him, Sehyoon, and Eunseo were offering themselves up to protect the younger ones. Jun ended up going with him instead of Sehyoon. He said it was a mess in the basement, making it even more obvious that Seo was never having Sehyoon clean downstairs. Jun gave Seo oral sex and was told that Seo might switch Sehyoon out for him." Wonho slammed the book closed and rushed off to Donghun's bathroom, vomiting everything he had in his stomach up.

I turned to Donghun and saw him in tears. "I had no idea that's what it was like in those homes for Deviants..."

I shook my head. "Stop calling them homes. They're not fucking homes." They were more or less prisons when they were run by people like Seo.

"Regardless," Wonho sniffled, wiping his mouth. "We need to be better about where we place kids and who we allow to be foster parents. The whole system needs a rewrite. But for right now, Seo's in custody. If Jun, Sehyoon, and Eunseo can come forth about the treatment in the house, we can get him locked up for good and maybe get all of the kids reinstated." I smiled softly. We were getting closer.

I texted Jun, letting him know the option in the table for them. "What does the Society feel about people leaving?" I asked lowly.

Wonho furrowed his eyebrows slightly. "I mean, I don't think there's anything wrong with that? As long as everyone's in a Civilian status and there aren't any runaway Deviants. There's a process to leave here. And I wouldn't blame you guys for leaving." I nodded, thinking to myself. "If this place didn't need major reform, I would leave with you guys. But I'll take this information back to HQ, and I'll keep in touch. Good work, Chan." On his way out the door, Wonho stopped and smiled. "If you chose to stay, you'd make an excellent Commissioner or Offical."

That was a really kind offer but fuck no. I could not stay here. Not with how much hurt there was in this place. I needed to get the ones I loved and cared about out of here and to safety. Whatever it took, it was going to happen.

That was until I got a call from Jun. "He's not thinking right," he said as soon as I picked up the phone. "He doesn't want to testify. I don't know why but he's locked himself in the bathroom to avoid talking about testifying. But we need this. He needs this." I sighed, rubbing my temples softly. What the fuck do I do now?