Blind Date!!!

Flashback 4

(A/N Go stream NCT 2020 Resonance now) 

Twelve year old Renjun locked his door. Everyday was the same when he got home from school. Don't annoy dad. That's what Renjun always told himself.

The young boy typed an equation into his calculator and huffed. "I'm never going to finish this!" But alas Renjun had to. He couldn't ask for help, he was too scared of his father and didn't have any way to contact his few friends from school.

Instead the boy worked until dinner. 

Dinner. Renjun made the dinner in his household. Half the time his father didn't come out of his study to eat, drinking his life away while his son suffered on his behalf. Tonight Renjun was making a salad. 

As the boy chopped the carrots into smaller pieces he listened to his father's drunken shouts from the other room. Of course Renjun's days weren't complete without the drunk yelling at stupid plays in sports games. 

The brunette shook his head and finished dicing a tomato, dumping it into the bowl with the carrots and lettuce. After fixing the other vegetables and tossing the salad in a bottled vinaigrette from the fridge he pulled a loaf of bread from the pantry and buttered himself a slice. Without bothering to call his dad, Renjun took a plate of his meal and sat at the kitchen island, bored out of his mind.

Renjun chewed thoughtfully, attempting to guess how much trouble he'd get in if he ate a dessert. Ah. Renjun laughed. He'll never know.

After he cleaned the dishes, Renjun pushed a chair up against the cabinet so he could reach the shelf with the cookie jar on it. As much as his father liked beer, he had a hankering for snickerdoodles every once and a while. 

Renjun grabbed one, and then grabbed two more. "Why not? Not like he notices anything I do." Renjun muttered bitterly.

As the tween set the jar back in the shelf, he slipped on his long pant leg and fell down, smacking his chin on the countertop. "Ow!" Renjun shrieked, blood pouring from his split lip.

"Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow!" The brunette began panicking, contemplating whether to clean his mess before his father rushed out or patch up his continuously bleeding mouth. Renjun winced as he saw a tooth on the ground. "God I'm going to be in so much trouble."

"What's going on in there?" 

Renjun felt a surge of alarm pulse through his body. In ten seconds he would most likely be beat and locked in his room for days. Hurriedly he tried to wipe up the bloody mess with his hands but failed when his father stormed into the room.

"What the hell did you do?" He growled at his crying son. "It'll cost a fortune to stitch up your face. Were you stealing? Get over here you little nuisance!"

"No!" Renjun cried, running around the counter opposite of his father. "Don't touch me! Mom would have cared for me and made sure I was okay before worrying about the cost!" Renjun felt blood in his tongue. "I wish you had  died in that plane instead of her!"

"Now you've done it you filthy little snake boy. Get back here!" The twelve year old boy swerved around the drunken man, trying to get away but was grabbed by his shirt collar.

"Get your hands off of me!" Renjun choked out, lashing out violently, his childlike innocence evaporated in a matter of seconds as he clawed at the beer stained hands around his neck. Tears filled his eyes as his father carried him to the basement and threw him down the last couple steps.

"I hope your meal was good cause that's the last one you're having for a long time." And with that the door slammed. Renjun began crying as he heard the lock click. This was not the first nor the last time the brunette would be stuck in the cellar but definitely the one in which he was the most pained.