Vendetta

Chapter 10

The sight creak of the door sounded much too loud as Jeongin pushed open the front door and returned home. All of his siblings, with the exception of Minho, were huddled around the TV, too caught up in their game to have noticed he was there. While Jeongin was relieved that they hadn't heard him come in, he still felt more than a little hurt that they hadn't questioned his absence. Yet again, temporarily missing siblings was practically a lifestyle for them.

    It didn't take Jeongin very long to realize that the house had changed. The brown leather couch everyone was piled on was covered with mold, stuffing pouring out of the back through a large claw mark that raked itself from the top of the couch to the floor. The hardwood floors were unevenly raised throughout the house and the beige walls were covered with years of the same built up dust and grime that covered every surface of the house. Also, the indescribable stench of something rotting mixed with sweat and body odor lingered heavily in the air.

    Despite trying to find a reason, he couldn't explain why he had viewed this house as nothing short of luxury for his entire life. In reality, it was a home straight out of a horror film, growing more disgusting as he went further in. Only the bedrooms were fairly normal, and even then, spiders still claimed every other surface as their own and there was enough dust built up to promptly kill an asthmatic.

    Jeongin wondered if his siblings saw the house for what it truly was and if he had been the only one living in blissful ignorance, or if everyone had known as little as he did. Seeing the true world outside the bubble he had been confined to had opened his eyes in more ways than one. Not only could he finally realize that the conditions he had been raised in were far from normal or acceptable, but that whatever arrangement Chan had set up couldn't be considered family.

    It was rage that kept him going, motivating him to sneak into areas that he never would have just a day prior. It wasn't rage for himself, but rage for his siblings and the pain and forced ignorance they were unknowingly subjected to. They couldn't mourn what they didn't know existed, so Jeongin would do it for them. While he couldn't carry the pain like Minho did, he could take advantage of Chan's trust to expose him. His plan for what to do after that was unclear, but anywhere else was better than this poor excuse for a home.

    Jeongin's hand rested on the doorknob to Chan's room, his heart hammering against his ribcage even though he knew Chan wasn't lurking behind the door, ready to pop out at any moment. There was a slight click as Jeongin opened the door and closed it behind him. He was in forbidden territory, but for once he didn't feel shame. All he felt was triumph against Chan, knowing that he would no longer be controlled so easily.

    Chan's room was the same size as Jeongin's and was minimally decorated. He had two band posters, but other than that, the walls lay bare. As for furniture, Chan's bed was centered against the back wall with a lamp on one side and a nightstand on the other. Straight out from the door was a drawer stacked with dirty clothes, a cloudy mirror above it. Last of all, pushed in the far corner of the room was a video recorder mounted on a tripod, the black void at the ened seeming to watch him.

    The lamp caught Jeongin's attention first. As he approached it, he reached his hand up into the lampshade to cast a better light on the pieces of paper lining the stand. A soft, orange glow illuminated the yellowing papers. From what Jeongin could make of them, they appeared to be newspaper clippings. Chan liked to read the newspaper on occasion, but always hid them from view whenever someone else tried to read one.

    Each newspaper clipping consisted of a blown-up black and white photo of a child, a heading above them typing in large, blocky letters. 'Missing: Yang Jeongin.' Jeongin's breath caught in his throat as he looked at the toddler in the photo. The toddler had the same smile and fox-like features, his hair covering his eyebrows in a long bowl cut. As he continued to read through the clippings, they all said similar things. 'Missing: Kim Seungmin.' The list only went on.