Vendetta

Chapter 2

"What did I do to deserve this?"
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    Night had fallen on the Bang household, thrusting the normally loud and eventful household into complete silence. Around midnight, the door to the younger sibling's room creaked open, casting a yellow glow from the hallway over the four sleeping bodies. The light illuminated the room more than the small but mighty night light that Jisung insisted on keeping on at all times. It was a wonder no one stirred at the added light.

    The room shook the slightest bit as the intruder made their way over to one of the bunkbeds, careful not to disturb the others who were still sleeping peacefully. They stuck their head over the side of the top bunk and gently rubbed the occupant's back in an attempt to gently pull him from sleep. The intruder ignored the agony that riddled their body, biting the inside of their cheek to prevent themself from crying out in pain at the slightest of movements.

    "Wake up, birthday boy," Minho whispered, gently ruffling Jeongin's hair as he slowly sat up, trying to figure out what was going on. "Sorry for waking you up, but I forgot to help you with your routine earlier. Are you feeling okay?"

    "I feel wonderful," Jeongin answered honestly, thinking back to the delicious cake he had earlier. As Minho spoke, he was acutely aware of the fact that every word sounded more like a grimace, barely concealed pain lurking behind every word. "I could ask the same question to you. Did you forget your cane again?"

    Minho smiled sheepishly as Jeongin climbed down from the top bunk to sit in the yellow light from the hall. "I guess I got so caught up in helping Chan that I left it at the kitchen table. I can still walk without it so it's fine."

    Jeongin raised an eyebrow as he lifted up his shirt, letting Minho inspect the damage. An ugly raised pink scar ran from the bottom of his breast bone to the top of his belly button, jagged and unpredictable in direction. Neither of them could remember how he got it, but if left untreated for long periods of time, it caused Jeongin immense amounts of pain. Only Minho and Chan had access to the medicine cabinet, so they would both take turns helping out.

    "Are you sure you're okay without it?" Jeongin questioned as Minho extended a bandaged arm to grab the scar care supplies he had left by the nightstand by the door. Jeongin hissed as the cold oil touched his bare skin, Minho unfazed by the reaction.

    "I'm sure," Minho replied, grabbing Jeongin's arm with his free hand to prevent him from squirming away. "It's harder to walk without it and I'm slow as hell, but I don't need it all the time. What are you trying to get at?"

    There was a long pause between the two of them as Seungmin grunted and rolled over in his bottom bunk, Minho continuing to apply the oil all the while. When Seungmin had gone still and they decided that the path was clear, Jeongin opened his mouth but was once again cut off by a cheerful humming coming from down the hall. At the sound, Minho went rigid, his arm suspended in midair before he realized he had stopped and went back to work.

    Through the open door, Jeongin could see Chan walking past, humming to himself as he walked to his private room on the far end of the hall. As Chan walked by, he paused midtune and poked his head into their room, confused as to what was going on. Jeongin waved joyfully at Chan and pointed to his scar for a wordless explanation. Chan accepted it without further question, seemingly not caring that Minho hadn't acknowledged his presence.

    "Sleep well, guys," Chan whispered, giving Jeongin a dimpled smile before continuing down the hall. His humming restarted, creating a joyful melody that he appeared to be making up on the spot without any flaws. Jeongin clung to every note, committing them to memory before the humming faded away behind the sound of a closing door.

    "To answer your question," Jeongin began, pretending as if Chan had never interrupted their conversation. "My point is that I want to help you and Chan with the project. I don't get why Changbin and Hyunjin are forced to help on occasion, but when I want to help I'm 'too young.' It's obvious that the word is hard on you, and I want to help lift that burden!"

Minho's expression worked itself from a grimace to a tight smile as he handed Jeongin the last of his scar care routine to apply himself. "Listen. I...a-appreciate you wanting to help, but I don't think you're cut out for it. There's...there's a lot of heavy lifting involved and there's a high risk of...injury."

Once he was finished applying the last bit of lotion, he closed the cap on the bottle and held it close. "I don't care. The work already mangled your leg. I want to be an extra set of hands so that you're not always in pain anymore."

Minho's features contorted into a frightening display of rage as he leaned closer to Jeongin and lowered his voice to the point where he could barely hear it. "Chan and I have already said no so fucking drop it already!" Jeongin flinched at the angry words hissing through Minho's teeth, wondering why he was so mad about it. The older took a moment to compose himself before continuing in a much calmer tone of voice. "I don't mind doing the hard work by myself if it means you guys can live a better life. Don't worry about me."

Those words didn't change anything for Jeongin, but instead helped firmly plant himself in his desire to help. He saw the kind of agony Minho was in from the tiresome work and the permanent woulds it had left behind. Even if it went unnoticed by his other siblings, it wouldn't go unnoticed by him.

Now that he was finally finished with his routine, Jeongin tossed the bottle at Minho with the hopes that he would catch it. Even in the glow from both the night light and the hallway light, Minho clasped his hands together too soon, the bottle hitting the nightstand with a loud crack.

Jisung sat bolt upright at the noise, startling when he saw two people sitting on the floor, bathed in the glow of the hallway light. He pulled himself under the covers, his trembling outline still clearly visible underneath the thin sheets. Muffled sobs followed by pitiful sniffles escaped from beneath the covers, poor Jisung scared out of his mind by the two figures that were unrecognizable to him.

    "Sungie, it's okay. It's just Jeongin and I," Minho soothed, slowly lifting the covers and revealing Jisung's terrified face. Minho kept the sheets wrapped around Jisung's shoulders like a cape, gently rubbing his back through it. "That noise was just me missing a bottle thrown at me. My ability to catch things was shot years ago."

    Jeongin climbed onto Jisung's bottom bunk and pulled him into a tight embrace, feeling his trembling body beneath his. He often forgot that Minho's eyes weren't what they had been. Though the proof was in plain sight, he often disregarded it as what made Minho...well, Minho. Peering over Jisung's shoulder, he could barely see the older's left eye through the curtain of black hair he normally covered it with.

Beneath the curtain, Minho's entire eye had been consumed by the milky whites of his eye. Through the filmy lense that covered it, Jeongin could see a faint outline of what had once been a brown iris and the black of his pupil as well as the red bloodshot veins that connected to it. According to Minho, he was completely blind in that eye. His eye had been that way for a year or two now and while Jeongin couldn't remember how it had happened, he remembered vividly how Minho had covered it with a makeshift eyepatch and rarely left his room for almost half a year.

    Gradually, Jisung was beginning to calm down, his body trembling significantly less compared to just a few minutes ago. Giving Jisung a warm smile, Minho encouraged him to lay down, softly singing to him until the sniffles died down and were replaced by the slow breathing of sleep. Somehow, Jeongin's two other roommates had slept through the ordeal, not even so much as turning over.

    "I think it's time for you to go back to sleep as well," Minho suggested as Jeongin climbed back to the top bunk. Minho gently kissed Jeongin on the forehead before making his way to the door. "Good night, Innie."

    All Jeongin could do was watch Minho hobble out of the room, his entire body lurching as he struggled to drag his mangled leg behind him. For the rest of the night, he wondered if there was anything he could have done to prevent Minho from receiving the severe injury. But most importantly: why hadn't Chan tried to stop it from happening in the first place?