Soulmates - k.yc • p.jh

•xv•

I asked Wonho if I could stay assigned with Jun and Sehyoon just until everyone got acclimated with their new home. He didn't have any problem with that at all, and I promised I would be a better student from now on. We shared a laugh over the latter before I went inside with everyone else.

This foster parent was another man, which I think terrified everyone. But this time, he was married and had a wife and a baby on the way. "Welcome in guys, you can call me Daniel, this is my wife Michelle. Are you guys hungry?" This guy seemed so sweet, but I definitely couldn't trust anyone's outward appearance. No one would talk, not even the babies of the group who had some much energy to give.

I leaned forward to shake Daniel's hand. "I'm Yuchan, I'm an intern to the Rehoming Officials. They are most definitely hungry. After they sit down to eat, do you mind if we talk outside?"
Sehyoon furrowed his eyebrows at me, wondering how I came up with such ludicrous statements on the fly.

"Of course! Michelle," Daniel smiled a bit. "Do you mind making lunch?" Michelle shook her head, waving everyone into the kitchen. As we headed outside, I tried to decide how much I would tell him. "So, what do I need to know about them?" Daniel asked.

I sighed a bit. "I didn't mean to lie to you, but I'm not an intern to Rehoming Officials. My soulmate is Jun and his father overdosed on illicit drugs and died, so he ended up as a Deviant. He told me something about my best friend, Sehyoon. And since then, I've been trying to get them safe."

Daniel seemed touched. "Awe, what happened?" He asked.

"Their last foster parent, he abused them in every way. The kids were never talkative at home. Sehyoon told me that he once hit Byeongkwan so hard that he ended up causing severe mental damage. Sehyoon used to be the whipping boy, for lack of better term. He'd sacrifice himself so their foster dad would leave everyone else alone." Daniel covered his mouth slightly. "Yeah, they're all scared of you, Mr. Seo is all they've known. But it's nothing you've done, obviously. We just got here," I sighed a bit. "As far as I know, Sehyoon and Jun will be able to appeal in less than a month now. Eunseo, she's grown up as a Deviant, she's broke plenty of rules and I don't know what her future holds. Byeongkwan is a softer kid, he needs to me talked to kindly and he needs to be able to dictate his comfort levels. You have to learn his language. Sehyoon can teach you. Minhyuk and Jooheon fight with each other a lot, but they're brothers so it's expected. Marie and Aubrey are sweethearts and won't ever cause you trouble."

Daniel nodded. "I appreciate you telling me that." He smiled softly. As we were about to walk back inside, out stormed Eunseo and Sehyoon. Eunseo swung the door so hard she almost knocked me out.

"Hey," Sehyoon snapped. "Stop fucking walking away from me!"

Eunseo turned around. "You have such a problem with what I did and nothing even happened to me." She sniffled, wiping her tears. "Nothing Seo did anyway." I furrowed my eyebrows, watching this argument happen.

Sehyoon paused a bit. "What do you mean by that?" He asked.

Eunseo shrugged, ignoring his question. "Stop being mad at me for trying to do one good thing for this family for once!"

I think I knew what they were talking about. "Euni, that wasn't a good thing you had to do for the family. No one should've had to do that, but there wasn't any necessity for you to do it." I shouldn't have butt in, but I knew Sehyoon wasn't ready to deal with anymore drama for the day.

"So fucking what?" Eunseo asked. "He got hurt protecting us. I could've protected everyone too." Before we could argue, she jumped back down our throats. "Everyone swears I'm not going to amount to anything, I don't care about anything, I'm selfish, a delinquent. I was just trying to help instead of hurt for once and even that makes you mad, Sehni."

Sehyoon disagreed, walking up to her. "You're my baby sister. No one better ever put their hands on you. I'll burn this city down behind you, you know that. That wasn't what we wanted from you. We wanted you to get good grades, be a model student, be kind to the kids. We wanted you to try. You didn't have to offer yourself up to that monster, that's not what we wanted from you." Eunseo sighed, wiping her tears and rushing Sehyoon for a hug. "I'm not mad at you, kid. We got dealt a shit hand and it's affected us differently. But you just have to try more. I've been trying to get you on the right path because I'm almost out of here. I won't be here to save you. I want you to be free too and you can't do that if you're doing dumb shit." I turned to look at Daniel and he was getting emotional himself.

Later that night, we all headed to bed. There were more than two bedrooms in this house, about five. Six if you included basement living. I was sure some of the rooms were dedicated to be studies and entertainment rooms, but they turned them into bedrooms. There were four bedrooms to share between everyone. Eunseo got her own room, Aubrey and Marie had a room, Byeongkwan, Minhyuk, and Jooheon got a room, and Jun and Sehyoon would have a room to themselves when I finally went home.

"Chan?" Sehyoon asked softly, grabbing my attention. "I'm sorry, I know I'm supposed to be helpful for you."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "You're my best friend, we're supposed to be helpful for each other? You could've told me any of this and I wouldn't have thought of you any less. In fact, I find you to be so strong. You just couldn't keep going on for long." Sehyoon shrugged a bit.

"When are you leaving?" Jun asked softly, taking my hand.

I sighed a bit. "I have two more nights here, I go home the night after tomorrow." I didn't want to leave them here, but I felt much better than leaving them with Seo.

Jun nodded, looking at the bunk beds. "Share the bottom bunk with me." I nodded, smiling a bit. Sneaking around here was going to be easier. Since there was only a bunk, there was only one of two options I had and I wasn't gonna sleep on the floor.

We all got ready for bed, saying goodnight to everyone. I crawled into bed next to Jun and turned the lamp off. We were allowed to have the doors closed here, so it was safer to do what we wanted. Everything except actually have sex, I wouldn't do that to Sehyoon. But we sure could lay here and cuddle and kiss until we got sleepy. Which is exactly what we did.