Speak of the Tiger 2.1b/?
The following day is a Monday which means both Jonghyun and his sister return to school. Their mother sends them off with their backpacks, lunchboxes, and a kiss on the forehead. Then they clamber into the sleek, silver Mercedes waiting for them outside their apartment building.
On the way to school, they drop by the Lee family residence to pick up their friend, Jinki. Usually, the other boy is waiting for them on the curb when their car pulls up, but ten minutes after their arrival, he’s still nowhere to be seen.
In the front seat, Jihyeon grumbles, “What’s taking him so long? He’s going to make us late for school.”
Jonghyun frowns. It’s not like Jinki to be late. He asks Mr. Kang, their driver, to phone the Lee’s apartment. After a few rings, their friend’s mother picks up, and soon after, the boy in question pushes his way through the heavy glass doors of the building.
Immediately, Jonghyun can tell something isn’t right. Instead of brimming with his usual good cheer, the other boy looks utterly dejected, dragging his feet like he’s marching off to a firing squad. Gloomily, he thanks Mr. Kang for holding open the door and gets into the car.
“Are you okay?” Jonghyun asks.
Jihyeon is concerned as well. “What’s wrong? You look like someone died.”
Jinki makes a pained noise and buries his face into his hands. “Someone did die. I died.” He lifts his head, his expression bleak. “You know my mom’s show?”
“Of course.” Jinki’s mother’s cooking show is one of the longest running series on cable television. Its fanbase mostly consists of stay-at-home parents and retired grandmothers. Their fervent support has kept the show on air for nearly twenty years.
“She shot a new episode last week, and she asked me to be on the show,” Jinki says.
“So?” Jonghyun doesn’t see the problem. Both Jinki and his father have made occasional cameos before, usually showing up briefly at the end to sample and comment on a completed recipe.
Jinki elaborates, “The main ingredient of the episode was milk, so we made different foods with it-you know, cheese and yogurt and stuff. That was fine. But then she asked me to sing the milk song. You know the one that my father’s company uses?”
Jonghyun knows. Practically everyone in Korea with the ability to hear and a TV does. Han Foods has been pushing their milk with the insanely catchy jingle for almost a year.
“My mom and I sang it together in the studio. We were just messing around and having fun. But then the PD asked me to do it again, just by myself. Only this time, I had to say, ‘Han Foods-where great taste meets great health’ at the end. I thought it was a bit strange, but I did it anyways because everyone looked really excited and was cheering me on.” He slumps in his seat. “I didn’t find out until later, but they didn’t put it in the show. They made it into a commercial.”
Jihyeon gasps. “Wow, that means you’re going to be famous!”
Jinki is not nearly as enthusiastic about his new celebrity status. He looks like he’s going to throw up. “It’s been on TV all weekend. My life is over.”
“Big deal,” Jonghyun says. “It’s just a commercial. It can’t be that bad, right?”
Jinki is less than convinced. “You haven’t seen it, Jonghyun. You don’t understand how bad it is.”
Perhaps he doesn’t at the moment, but his perspective on Jinki’s crisis begins to broaden after they arrive at school. As they’re making their way towards the entrance, they pass by a group of fourth grade boys. Upon spying Jinki, one of them puts his hands up to his head to imitate horns and starts lowing. His friends around him burst into peals of raucous laughter.
Jinki cringes and quickens his pace, but Jihyeon is having none of it. She stomps up to the offender, getting right up in his face.
“Is there a problem?” she asks, her eyes narrowed dangerously.
The other boy and his friends sober quickly. No doubt, they’re remembering that not only is Jihyeon older than them, she also has four years of taekwondo experience under her belt and a notoriously short-temper.
“No,” he croaks. Behind him, his friends are trying to slink away as furtively as possible.
“Good,” Jihyeon says pointedly, stepping back.
Jonghyun watches the boys run away with a mixture of disappointment and relief. While he was hoping that Jihyeon wouldn’t get into trouble, few things delight him as much as watching his sister terrorize bullies. That one time she had punched out a middle schooler had been awesome.
“You didn’t have to do that, noona,” Jinki says quietly as the three of them head into the school.
Jihyeon shrugs. “Don’t worry about it. You’re practically family. That means anyone who messes with you messes with me.”
No one else dares to bother Jinki on their way to their classrooms, but even Jihyeon and her formidable reputation can’t protect him forever. After she heads off to fifth grade and Jonghyun heads off to first, their friend is left to fend for himself among his classmates.
By lunch time, the damage is done. Students file into the cafeteria according to seniority, which means that by the time Jonghyun arrives, Jinki is still there but his older sister has already left.
He's sitting on the far side of the room, head bent low, bangs obscuring his face as he tries to eat as surreptitiously as possible. There’s a group of second grade girls sitting at the same table but the seats across from and next to him are conspicuously vacant. It’s obvious that his classmates are making a pointed effort not to interact with him.
While Jinki has never exactly been popular, he’s also never been so severely ostracized from his peers. Jonghyun clutches his lunchbox and frowns. His friend Taeseob, seeing the plan formulating in his head, grabs him by the elbow.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asks, though he already knows what's on Jonghyin's mind.
Jonghyun gestures in Jinki’s direction. “I’m going to sit with him.
Taeseob makes a pained face. “That’s a bad idea.”
“Like a really, really bad idea,” Yongho, another friend, chimes in. “Maybe in a week it’ll be okay, but right now?” He shakes his head. “That guy's toxic.”
Nevertheless, Jonghyun shakes off Taeseob’s grip and, ignoring his friends’ frantic pleas, heads over to Jinki’s table. The other boy startles when Jonghyun plops down across from him. The girls sitting nearby stop talking long enough to shoot him withering glares, offended by the uninvited arrival of a first grader in their midst.
Jonghyun greets them with a cheerful, “Hi,” and flashes them a cheeky smile. The girls scoff and return to their conversation.
“What are you doing?” Jinki whispers. They’ve drawn the attention of quite a few of other children nearby. Students usually don’t mix with those outside their grade.
“Eating,” Jonghyun announces blithely. “I’m starving.” He flips open the lid of his lunchbox and unwraps half of the sandwich that his mother prepared for him. He holds it out across the table. “Want it? It’s chicken and cranberries. I’ll trade you for some of your tonkatsu.”
Jinki takes it gingerly with both hands. He stares at it for moment with a smile that wobbles slightly around the edges.
“Thank you,” he says thickly.
Jonghyun grins around the straw of his juicebox. “No problem.”
---
Jonghyun finally has an opportunity to view Jinki’s infamous commercial later that evening at home. His father is working late as usual and his sister is still at kumdo practice which leaves him with only his mother for company. They have a quiet dinner together, and after they clean the dishes, she makes them mugs of hot cocoa with huge, puffy marshmallows. Together, they settle down in the living room to watch television and unwind. Jonghyun helps her sort through baskets of freshly laundered clothes, only half paying attention to the movie airing on the television. Midway through a commercial break, though, a familiar tune and voice grab his attention. With a start, he realizes that it’s Jinki who’s singing.
Jonghyun gapes at the screen in a combination of mute horror and morbid fascination. Immediately, he sees why his friend is so mortified. Not only is the older boy wearing a spotted headband with tiny cow ears and horns, he also has a silver cow bell tied around his neck.
Despite the ridiculous costume, Jinki sounds surprisingly unforced as he sings, smiling brightly as if fully convinced that happy milk does in fact lead to happy bones. The commercial lasts all of about thirty seconds, but it’s thirty seconds of explosive, unapologetic aegyo that will undoubtedly haunt Jinki for a long time.
The only thing Jonghyun can manage when the commercial ends is a shell-shocked, “Wow…”
His mother sighs, setting aside a pile of towels. “I told his parents it wasn’t a good idea. It’s a lot of exposure for a child to handle. But they insisted.”
Jonghyun sides with his mother on this one. There’s a huge difference between humiliating yourself once on daytime television and being broadcasted on a commercial that cycles around the clock. If Jinki’s ad runs nearly as frequently as Han Foods’ original milk commercial, Jonghyun is going to have trouble turning on the TV without seeing his friend’s face. He can only imagine how Jinki must feels.
“He’s not having trouble at school is he?” his mother asks, concerned.
“A little,” he discloses.
“Watch out for him, Jonghyun,” his mother urges. “You know how Jinki is.”
Jonghyun nods. He’s known Jinki as far back as he can remember on account of their mothers being close friends. Theirs is a friendship that began in diapers and cemented through the course of many afternoon naps spent cuddled under the same blanket.
While Jinki is technically older, Jonghyun only calls him ‘hyung’ to appease his parents and avoid being scolded. In reality, Jinki has always treated Jonghyun as an equal, and-unlike his sister and cousin--has never touted his seniority over him.
That doesn’t mean that the older boy doesn’t look out for him. Jinki was one of the few people outside his family to know that Jonghyun had a bed-wetting problem until he was five. Once at a sleepover at the Lee's, Jinki took the blame for Jonghyun’s mess, lying to his mother’s face and claiming that he drank too much water the night before. Jonghyun might only be seven, but even he knows that’s not the sort of friend one finds everyday.
Jinki’s virtues are vast, but as much as Jonghyun adores him, even he can’t deny that Jinki is a bit… different. He’s the only kid Jonghyun knows with an encyclopedic knowledge of trot songs, an ever expanding stamp collection, and can truthfully list bird-watching as an actual hobby. There's a reason Jonghyun’s father occasionally jokes that Jinki is actually a retiree trapped in a child’s body.
On one hand, Jinki’s unfailingly kindness and politeness endear him to many. On the other, people also find his innate quirkiness puzzling. Jinki’s the type of person who devotes a good deal of time to wondering why soap bubbles, pandas only eat bamboo, and fish don’t ever seem to sleep. The bookshelves in his bedroom are crammed with science books and outdated issues of National Geographic which he buys from a local used book shop even though he can barely make sense of the English--the pictures, he insists, are the best parts.
His insatiable and seemingly boundless curiosity mean that he’s always investigating something or the other, often with Jonghyun serving as his accomplice. He’s helped the older boy with everything from hunting sand dollars on the beach to raiding his family’s kitchen for supplies to build a potato-powered clock. The two of them have spent many an evening on the Lee’s apartment rooftop with Jinki’s most prized possession, his telescope, Jinki pointing out the constellations and planets while Jonghyun squints through the lens and tries his best to make sense of the sprawling night sky.
Most of their adventures are pretty innocuous, but not all of them end well. There was the summer they captured tadpoles from a mountain stream and brought them back to Jinki’s room in hopes of watching them grow into frogs. It was fun until they realized that the dwindling population in the tank was due to the fact that their tiny residents were eating each other. On another occasion, Jonghyun had to rescue his friend from a tree stump where he had gotten stuck while searching for a particular species of mushroom. Then there was the time they accidentally set fire to the Lee's living room rug. Neither Jinki nor Jonghyun’s parents had been thrilled about that one.
It wasn’t until Jonghyun started attending school that he realized not everyone is as appreciative of Jinki’s duck calling and paper boat building abilities as he is. Recent events not withstanding, no one ever outrightly bullied Jinki, but it doesn't take much observational skills to see that he doesn't fit in with the other children at school. While his general pleasantness guarantees that that no one actively dislikes him, outside of his teachers, the lunch ladies, and the Kims, not many people at school seem openly fond of him either. Even the handful of students that Jinki calls his friends seems to tolerate his presence more than they actually enjoy his company. To most of his classmates, he's just the 'weird kid' who smiles a lot and keeps to himself, and they tend to treat him the way one might treat a friendly stray dog that they're not quite sure is rabid, warily and with a good deal of distance.
Jonghyun wonders sometimes if Jinki ever feels lonely, but he never asks, knowing the older boy would deny it. Jinki can be strangely guarded about his own unhappiness. This perplexes Jonghyun why Jinki will act like his own gloominess is an unpardonable crime.
Jonghyun remembers the occasion when Jinki discovered that his brand new bicycle--a birthday gift from his father--had been stolen. While Jonghyun would have been raging about the injustice of a world that would dare deprive a young boy of his beloved bicycle, Jinki's first instinct upon discovering the theft was to remark, "Oh no. My dad will be so upset." Jonghyun supposes that's why adults so often call Jinki the mature one; he's always thinking about others.
It must be exhausting, Jonghyun sometimes muses, to be Jinki.
Less than fifteen minutes passes before the milk commercial airs again. Somehow in the interim, the second-hand embarrassment has gotten intolerable, so Jonghyun snatches the remote off the table and switches the channel.
“Maybe we should ask Dad to put you in a commercial,” his mother remarks casually. "I'm sure he could make it happen."
He turns to glare at her. “Mom," he says, reproachful. "That’s not funny.”
She just chuckles into her hot cocoa.
--
As humiliating as the entire affair might be for Jinki, the instances of mocking and shunning that accompany his new found fame die out fairly quickly. The decline is partially attributed to the fact that his commercial, as embarrassing as it might be, nevertheless does what the marketing team at Han Foods intends it to do: sell milk. Jonghyun overhears Jinki's father talking enthusiastically to his own father about how dairy sales at the company are at an all-year high. Apparently middle-aged women, the demographic that generally does the household shopping, are supremely weak to Jinki’s earnest enthusiasm and charm.
Another reason why Jinki is offered a reprieve is that the repercussions of the IMF crisis are starting to trickle down to the students.
IMF, three letters Jonghyun keeps hearing the adults around him repeat over and over again in tones of apprehension and anger. He has no clue what those letters mean, but he knows that they're the reason why his uncle's hair is turning grey at an astonishing rate and his father barely seems to be home anymore. All Jonghyun knows it that it has something to do with money, enough of it that it's causing the social landscape at his school to undergo drastic changes as students struggle to find where they rise and fall according to the new pecking order.
Jonghyun is well-aware that his school is different from the other elementary schools in Seoul. The forest green uniforms all the students are required to wear are the most visible contrast that come to mind when he compares himself with most other children he sees on the street. Then there's the fact that his classmates have parents who are diplomats, business entrepreneurs, and members of the National Assembly, jobs with big important titles and wide-reaching spheres of influence. Every student at his school is moneyed in one way or another, as evidenced by the veritable flood of gleaming foreign cars that arrive at the school gate each weekday morning.
While there's no doubt in Jonghyun's mind that his own family has money, among his friends, he has always considered himself the least well-off, if only because his friends are much more visibly wealthy than he is. Jinki has a mother on TV and a father who runs a company that feeds the half the nation. Taeseob's father is some kind of lawyer and his family vacations in places Jonghyun has never ever heard of like Belize and Montenegro and Aix-en-Provence. Then there's Yongho, whose family owns banks and last year, rented out Lotte World for Yongho's older brother's birthday. Jonghyun was able to tag along with his friend and rode the Gyro Drop so many times that he nearly threw up.
He enjoys indulging in the privileges and benefits of having rich friends, but he would never dare suggest spending his own family's money in such a lavish way. Fear of their grandfather's wrath keep all the Kim children living under relatively modest means. Their grandfather has given clear orders that all his grandchildren are strictly forbidden from engaging in--as he puts it --“any acts of ostentation that would bring ill-wanted attention and besmirch the family name.” Only his cousin Sejoon chafes under these restrictions, but even he isn't pig-headed enough to challenge their grandfather's authority.
Because of his family's imposed austerity, Jonghyun has a difficult gauging out exactly how much money his family has. He knows they must have a lot. Not every seven-year-old boy lives in a penthouse apartment. While he's never felt like he's been left wanting, he's also not completely sure of the boundaries of his family's wealth. If money was measured in the amount of things that it could buy--things that matter to him like candy and ice cream and toys--Jonghyun supposes that if his family felt inclined, they could buy a lot of candy and ice cream and purchase some very choice toys. The fact that they don't is what befuddles him.
Funnily enough, the first time he begins to grasp the true reach of his family's influence is during gym class. As usual two of the first grade classes are combined during P.E. They’re playing soccer that day and while it’s not Jonghyun’s favorite activity, he’d much rather be running outside in the sun than confined to his desk with his teacher's endless worksheets.
He’s chatting with Yongho on the sidelines, waiting for his turn on the field, when Taeseob taps him on the shoulder and ask,, “Hey, any idea why that guy over there is staring at you?”
“What?” Jonghyun jerks up. “Where?”
“He’s on the other team. The tall one with the big ears.”
Jonghyun scans the other side of the field. Indeed, sitting among the ranks of the opposite team is a student who happens to be staring intently in his direction. The moment they make eye contact, though, the other boy drops his gaze to his feet. It’s a fleeting moment, but in that span of a breath, Jonghyun glimpses something disquieting in the other boy’s eyes.
As time goes by, he keeps checking the other team, but the other boy seems to have lost his interest in Jonghyun. At least that’s what Jonghyun assumes when he gets calls onto the field.
As he trots up to his team, his attention turns wholly on the game. Both sides are tied, and tensions run high as time passes by and neither team manages to score another goal. They’re down to the last few minutes when Jonghyun gets possession of the ball. Adrenaline pumping through his veins, he rushes the goal. He’s frantically dribbling the ball, the opposing team's defense closing in all around him, when-all of a sudden-a lone figure barrels into him.
He cries out as he crashes to the ground. He manages to catch himself just in time and avoids bashing his face into the dirt. Dazed, he looks up recognizes the boy from before, the one with the big ears and a staring problem. As he runs off he tosses a self-satisfied smirk over his shoulder at Jonghyun lying on the ground.
The foul doesn’t go unnoticed. A few seconds after Jonghyun goes down, a shrill whistle pierces the air.
“Noh Jaewon!” Mr. Park roars, red-faced with disapproval. “You come over here right now and explain yourself!”
The student in question slinks sulkily over to the sidelines where their gym teacher proceeds to verbally ream him for his unsportsmanlike behavior. Meanwhile, Yongho checks on Jonghyun.
“Are you okay?” he asks, pulling his friend to his feet.
Jonghyun nods, wincing as he bends to brush the dirt from his knees. He’s bleeding slightly from a few scrapes and cuts, but it’s nothing too serious. “I’m alright. Could have been worse though.”
Yongho scowls and mutters, “Is that Jaewon guy crazy? He looked like he was out to kill you!”
“I don’t know.” Jonghyun looks over at his assailant. The other boy's gaze is firmly fixed on his feet as he’s being reprimanded. He doesn’t look very threatening now with his head bowed, stammering his apologies to their teacher.
After he’s done lecturing, Mr. Park examines Jonghyun and sends him to the school clinic where the nurse cleans up and bandages his slight injuries.
“What happened to you?” Jihyeon asks later that afternoon when Mr. Kang picks them up from school. She points at the numerous bright yellow Pokemon band-aids decorating Jonghyun’s knees and elbows.
“This other guy knocked me over during P.E.” he explains, jamming a straw through the sealed top of the banana milk he saved from lunch. “We were playing soccer and he ran into me.” He frowns as takes his first sip. “It was weird. It was almost like he was out to get me or something.”
His sister’s eyes harden. “What do you mean he was out to get you?”
Jonghyun chews on his straw for a moment. He recalls the way the smug, self-righteous look the other boy had given him as he left Jonghyun reeling on the ground. “He was looking at me funny during class. And after he hit me he looked like he was happy about it. I dunno why though. I barely even know him.”
Jihyeon’s entire face darkens. “Jonghyun,” she says dangerously. “Are you being bullied?”
He balks at the barely banked fury in his sister’s voice. Her tone suggests that should his answer be yes, this Jaewon fellow is in for a world of pain the next time he encounters the elder of the Kim siblings.
“Noona, it was just once. I don’t think that counts as bullying,” he tells her. He doesn’t want to be known as the kid who needs his older sister running to his rescue at the slightest provocation. “Maybe he was having a bad day or something. Maybe he was hungry?” he suggests. Jonghyun always gets crabby when he’s hungry.
“You would think that,” Jihyeon huffs. “Tell me you at least know his name, right?”
“I think it was Noh Jawon,” Jonghyun replies cautiously. He’s familiar with his sister’s temper and fears he may have doomed the other boy to an untimely demise. “Noona, you have to promise me you won’t do anything crazy, okay?”
“Noh Jaweon?” To his surprise, Jihyeon’s expressions shifts into one of recognition. “Isn’t he the son of the CEO of Koryo Tech? I think they make computer parts or something. I heard Dad talking about them on the phone just yesterday.”
“Really?” Unlike his sister, Jonghyun never pays much mind whenever their family talks business. It’s all too much boring adult jargon for his brain to process. “Why? Does it matter?”
Jihyeon rolls her eyes. “Of course it does, dummy. If he’s one of the Nohs, then it explains why he was so happy to see you eat dirt today.”
“What do you mean?” Jonghyun feels like he’s missing out on something obvious. What does their family's business have to do with anything?
“You don’t know anything do you?” his sister scoffs, her voice rife with disdain. “Our family bought their family’s company last week.”
“Oh.” The gears in Jonghyun’s head are slowly turning. “Wait, doesn't that make our dad Jaewon’s dad’s boss?”
“Not exactly,” Jihyeon replies, her attention shifting to her mp3 player. “We fired his father when we took over.”
“What?” Jonghyun squawks. No wonder Jaewon looked at him like he hated his guts. “That’s terrible!”
Jihyeon shrugs dismissively as and continues to fiddle with the buttons of her mp3 player. “He was probably bad business.”
The cool, removed way she talks about sacking Jaweon’s father reminds Jonghyun disconcertingly of their grandfather. He often thinks that if Jihyeon had been born a boy, their grandfather would be grooming her to take over their company rather than Sejoon.
“If this Jaewon kid bothers you again,” she says before slipping on her headphones, “tell me and I’ll take care of it.”
Since his sister’s method of resolving interpersonal conflicts often entails black eyes and flying dropkicks, Jonghyun has no intention of providing her with any further updates. He might not like Jaweon, but he doesn’t dislike him nearly enough to unleash his sister upon the poor, unsuspecting boy.
It takes some convincing, but on the way home he makes their driver promise not to tell their mother what he overheard in the car. She still titters disapprovingly when she sees his injuries but thankfully believes him when he tells her it was an accident. Jonghyun doesn’t want her to worry about him at school. His sister and her volatile temper cause their mother enough grief. By contrast, Jonghyun enjoys not being the problematic child, especially since his sister outshines him in everything from grades to popularity. It may not be much, but at least he gets to be their mother’s 'sweetpea', a title he doesn’t want to tarnish with a little trouble he may be having at school.
Jonghyun doesn’t have P.E. again until Friday. In the interim, he barely catches a glimpse of Noh Jaewon. The few times they pass each other in the hall or cafeteria, the other boy doesn’t so much as glance in his direction, which leads Jonghyun to conclude that Mr. Park’s stern lecture caused the other boy to have a change of heart.
However, his hopes that Jaewon no longer bears him any ill will are completely dashed that Friday afternoon. It’s raining heavily, and for P.E. the children are gathered inside the gymnasium to play dodgeball. Mid-way through a game, Jonghyun and his friend Taeseob are the last two remaining players in the square, both scrambling to avoid the balls being pelted in their direction. Jonghyun manages to snatch one from the air, but as he turns to signal Yongho to rejoin the game, another ball nails him in the face. The impact is strong enough to knock him off his feet. He goes down like a sack of bricks.
Their teacher, who is monitoring a separate game on the other side of the gymnasium, doesn’t immediately notice Jonghyun’s distress. Yongho, though, rushes to his side.
“Are you okay?”
“Mph,” Jonghyun whimpers, clutching his throbbing face.
Yongho scowls. He storms over to Jaewon, who is doing a piss-poor job of imitating innocence.
“Hey! What the hell is your problem?” he shouts, jabbing the other boy in the chest. “Can’t you hear? Mr. Park said no head shots!”
Jaewon shoves Yongho back. “Piss off! If he didn’t want to get hit then he should have ducked. Not my fault if he’s slow.”
Jonghyun can practically see the steam coming out of Yongho’s ears. His friend grabs Jaewon by the front of his gym uniform and opens his mouth to let out a string of creative expletives he probably learned from his father. He's stopped by Taeseob, who tugs on his sleeve.
“Yongho.” He shakes his head. “Let it go. The teacher will deal with him.”
Yongho glowers, hand still fisted in Jaewon’s shirt. He looks like not decking the other boy is the last thing he wants to do in the world. After a few tense moments, though, he releases Jaewon and snarls, “You’re not worth my time. But if you mess with Jonghyun or any of my friends again, next time, I’ll make you sorry.”
“You think I’m scared of you?” Jaewon says. “When you let that little four-eyed freak tell you what to do?”
Taeseob stiffens. He glares at Jaewon reproachfully over the rim of his glasses and says, his voice steely, “I don’t know what your problem is, Noh Jaewon. But you need to fix your attitude before it stinks up the entire gym.”
“Oh yeah?” Jaewon sneers. “If you don’t like it then why don’t you can go home and cry about it to your backbreeder father. Though he might be too busy trying to remove your other dad’s dick from up his a-“
Before Jaewon can get another word in, Taeseob throws himself at him. Jonghyun, Yongho, and the other students watch stunned as Taeseob-who is widely acknowledged as a teacher’s pet and notorious for disgracing himself by crying during the last scene of The Little Mermaid-sits on Jaewon’s chest and pummels him with his fists.
“What the devil is going on?” Attracted by the commotion, Mr. Park is finally making his way over. He’s slowed down, though, by the sea of students who have swarmed around the scene, many of them chanting, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
“We have to stop him,” Yongho tells Jonghyun. Jonghyun nods shakily. Jaewon’s face is a bloody mess, but Taeseob is still wailing on him and doesn't look inclined to stop any time soon. By the time their teacher manages to wade through the other students, Jaewon might not have much of a face to salvage.
With some struggle, Jonghyun helps Yongho haul Taeseob off the other boy. Unfortunately, there’s no one to hold back Jaewon, who, despite being bloody and battered, jumps to his feet and lunges at Taeseob. Unfortunately, Jonghyun gets in the way and it’s him that Jaewon ends up socking in the eye. In the confusion, all four of boys end up in a howling, tangled heap on the gym floor.
Eventually, their teacher manages to break through the crowd and yank the boys off one another. Even as he’s being restrained, Jaewon is still shrieking.
“I’ll kill you, you backbred brat!” he says, spittle flying from his mouth.
“Don't you ever talk about my father!” Taeseob screams back, looking equally murderous. Jonghyun has never seen his friend so angry, his face so contorted with rage that Jonghyun barely recognizes him.
Mr. Park first marches Jaewon to the clinic to get his bloody nose assessed. Afterward, the other three boys are sent to their homeroom teacher, who is appropriately appalled and embarrassed by their behavior. It takes some convincing on Mr. Park’s part, though, to persuade her that her beloved Nam Taeseob had any part in the fight. After sitting through her admonishments, the three boys are then shipped off to the principal’s office. They huddle, quiet, in front of Principal Cho's desk as she reprimands them.
“I would have thought your parents raised you better,” she clucks, glaring at them from over the edge of her tea cup. Principal Cho is always drinking tea. Whether strolling the hallways or shouting her support for her students on Sport’s Day, she’s rarely seen without a steaming cup of her favorite blend. Jonghyun has sometimes wondered if that’s why the other teachers and even some of the parents seem so afraid of her, because she’s always wielding a searing hot beverage and doesn’t look like she minds flinging it at people who annoy her.
“I expect more from the three of you. Especially from you, Nam Taeseob.” Jonghyun’s left eye is mostly swelled shut by now, but he can still make out the way his friend flinches upon hearing his name. “Well? Do any of you have anything to say for yourself?”
Jonghyun and Yongho keep their heads bowed, repentant in their silence. Taeseob, however, speaks up, but it’s in a voice so small that Jonghyun barely hears him.
“What’s that?” Principal Cho asks sharply.
Taeseob clears his throat and says, this time more loudly, "He called my father a backbreeder.’”
Out of the corner of his eye, Jonghyun observes his friend. Taeseob’s lower lip is trembling like he might cry at any moment, but his gaze is steady as he meets Principal Cho’s stare. He looks defiant and not at all contrite, which Jonghyun would never expect from his friend, a boy too prim and proper to use anything other than the most formal levels of speech with Jonghyun’s parents despite the fact that he’s known them for years.
Jonghyun is too scared to look up to see Principal Cho’s reaction. There a long stretch of silence. Then, he hears the clack of porcelain as she sets down her cup.
“Is that so?” she says, her voice stern but considerably less harsh. “Assuming what you said it true, it is still no excuse to inflict violence upon another pupil. But I want you to know, Taeseob, that our school does not take such discriminatory language lightly. We have very strict policies about the matter. Any pupil found using such vile terms will be punished accordingly. But by our administration. Not with your fists. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Taeseob answers, sounding deflated.
“Good.” Principal Cho remarks. “Now, I must notify your families and inform them what happened.”
Jonghyun grimaces. He can already picture his mother’s stony face when he arrives home.
The three boys shuffle back to their homeroom. Their teacher banishes each of them to a separate corner of the class where they work alone quietly on the rest of the day’s assignments. After classes are over, they grimly pack up their belongings and make their way to the west exit where where their drivers will pick them up. To Jonghyun and Yongho’s horror, instead of his usual chauffeur, Taeseob’s terrifying French nanny Céline shows up. She fixes Jonghyun and Yongho with her icy, blue-eyed stare, and they immediately excuse themselves, fleeing in the opposite direction. As they depart, they hear her chastising Taeseob in rapid French.
Since Jihyeon is on the preparations committee for the upcoming school festival, Jonghyun has to wait for his ride alone after Yongho leaves. His heart drops to his stomach when he enters his family’s car and instead of Mr. Kang, he finds his mother at the wheel. To say she looks displeased would be a grievous understatement.
He sits cowed in the back seat as she rattles off the privileges he’s been revoked: no television, no friends over, all his video games locked away until further notice. As they pull up to a stoplight, his mother’s diatribe winds to an end. Jonghyun stews in awkward silence for a moment, but eventually gives into his curiosity.
“Mom? What’s a backbreeder?”
His mother glances at him in the rearview mirrior, her eyes narrowing. “Where did you hear that word?”
Jonghyun shrinks back a little. “The other boy-the one Taeseob hit- he said it."
He had wanted to ask his friend but had been afraid it would goad him into another blind rage. It must be a truly terrible word, if it triggered such a visceral response from the other boy.
His mother falls silent. For a moment, Jonghyun doesn’t think she’s going to answer, but after a long pause, she says, “It’s a very rude name for male omegas. It’s crass and disrespectful and I don’t ever want to hear you using it. Especially not in front of Mr. Song or his family.”
“I won’t,” he promises.
Mr. Song is Taeseob’s omega father. In addition to being a friend of Jonghyun’s mother, he was also Jonghyun’s aunt’s junior at the same omega academy, which means Jonghyun has known Taeseob and his family from as far back as he can remember. Consequently, it’s never struck him as odd that that Taeseob doesn’t have a mother like most other children.
Jonghyun doesn’t know how Jaewon or anyone could dislike Mr. Song. Soft-spoken and kind, he annually makes cakes for Taeseob and his close friends’s birthdays. Mr. Song works as a pâtissier at a fancy hotel downtown, and he bakes-in Jonghyun’s opinion-the most divine cakes in the entire world. For Jonghyun’s last birthday, Mr. Song constructed a blue-scaled dragon cake that breathed actual fire. Noh Jaewon must have never had the pleasure of eating one of Mr. Song’s cakes. Otherwise, he wouldn't have a single cruel word to say about him.
“So Taeseob attacked this other boy because he was making fun of his father for being an omega. Is that what happened?“ his mother asks.
“Yeah,” Jonghyun confirms and adds, “I’ve never seen Taeseob get angry like that. It was sort of scary.”
His mother doesn’t say anything in response. As they come up to another intersection though, she makes a left turn at a place Mr. Kang usually makes a right.
Jonghyun peers out the car as unfamiliar scenery passes him by. “Mom, where are we going?”
“We’re not going home,” his mother replies, keeping her eyes on the road ahead. “We’re going out to get ice cream. Is that a problem?”
A wide grin blooms across Jonghyun’s face. In the rearview mirror, he can see his mother attempting to remain stoic. However, she can’t help the way the corners of her lips twist ever so slightly upwards.
---
In an act of solidarity, Jonghyun’s mother tells his father a bald-faced lie when he inquires about the source of his son’s black eye.
“He ran into a pole,” she explains.
“Is that so?” Jonghyun's father shakes his head and ruffles his son’s hair. “You’ve got to be more careful in the future, Jonghyun.”
Jonghyun is grateful or relieved for his mother's intervention. His father’s sad-eyed disappointment is a thousand times worse than his mother’s anger. He can't bear upsetting his father, especially because he seems so tired and stressed these days.
Jonghyun’s sister, though, is far more perceptive. She takes one look at Jonghyun’s face and declares, “I will end him.”
Fortunately, Jihyeon never gets the chance to enact her vengeance upon Noh Jaewon. He doesn’t show up for school on Monday, or the rest of the week for that matter. Jonghyun keeps an eye out for the other boy, and eventually stops one of his classmates in the hall to ask about the boy’s whereabouts.
“Oh, him?” The girl he cornered shifts the books underneath her arm. “He doesn’t go here anymore.”
“What?” Jonghyun says, stricken. He and his friends all got in trouble but none of them got kicked out of school.
“I heard his family’s having money problems,” she adds nonchalantly. “Guess he can’t afford to come here anymore.”
At lunch, Jonghyun relays the news of Noh Jaewon’s disappearance to his friends. The moment he brings up the other boy’s name, Taeseob’s expression goes cold.
“Good,” he snaps when he hears that Jaewon won’t be returning to their school. He continues shoveling food into his mouth, looking much more triumphant than anyone should while eating slightly burnt kimchi-fried rice.
Jonghyun, though, doesn’t share Taeseob’s sense of victory. While it's true they weren't even remotely friends, he had never wished Jaewon ill will, even despite the attacks upon him. He still doesn't quite understand why the other boy targeted him in the first place. It’s not like Jonghyun has an actual say in his family’s business. However, Jaweon had acted like Jonghyun’s father personally consulted him when he had fired Jaewon's father. Jonghyun was just a kid.
His grandfather, though, would be one to disagree. Countless times, he has lectured his grandchildren, “Remember, you are not just anybody. You are a Kim of Shin Mirae Corporation. Your actions reflect on us all. Just as one rotten fish can stink up an entire barrel, one reckless decision on your part can ruin the family name.”
It isn't that Jonghyun didn’t believe him. It’s just that up until now, he thought himself isolated from that world, a world where family was synonymous with the empire his grandfather had founded and his father and his uncle were continuing to expand. He's always known that one day, he too would join them. He just didn’t think it would be this soon.
VERY IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ.
Against my better intentions, chapter 2 of this story has warped into a 16k+ monstrosity, and I am still not done yet. A few key things will happen in the second half of the chapter, things that will have drastic effects on the characters and world within this story. However, I decided to break the chapter into two parts and upload the first half onto my lj because I was running out of letters to use on the kink meme OTL I toyed briefly with the idea of continuing with the Greek alphabet (alpha to omega harhar), but it's infuriating enough following a wip on a kink meme.
So for future updates, I am solicting you kind readers to see if you would prefer to:
a) just wait for a complete chapter update on my livejournal. The wait be longer but you won't have to deal with tracking my posts on the kink meme.
b) continue following the story piece by piece on the kinkmeme no matter how long the story gets (spoilers: it's long).
You can tell me what you think in the comments.
Now for your regularly scheduled author notes:
On the way to school, they drop by the Lee family residence to pick up their friend, Jinki. Usually, the other boy is waiting for them on the curb when their car pulls up, but ten minutes after their arrival, he’s still nowhere to be seen.
In the front seat, Jihyeon grumbles, “What’s taking him so long? He’s going to make us late for school.”
Jonghyun frowns. It’s not like Jinki to be late. He asks Mr. Kang, their driver, to phone the Lee’s apartment. After a few rings, their friend’s mother picks up, and soon after, the boy in question pushes his way through the heavy glass doors of the building.
Immediately, Jonghyun can tell something isn’t right. Instead of brimming with his usual good cheer, the other boy looks utterly dejected, dragging his feet like he’s marching off to a firing squad. Gloomily, he thanks Mr. Kang for holding open the door and gets into the car.
“Are you okay?” Jonghyun asks.
Jihyeon is concerned as well. “What’s wrong? You look like someone died.”
Jinki makes a pained noise and buries his face into his hands. “Someone did die. I died.” He lifts his head, his expression bleak. “You know my mom’s show?”
“Of course.” Jinki’s mother’s cooking show is one of the longest running series on cable television. Its fanbase mostly consists of stay-at-home parents and retired grandmothers. Their fervent support has kept the show on air for nearly twenty years.
“She shot a new episode last week, and she asked me to be on the show,” Jinki says.
“So?” Jonghyun doesn’t see the problem. Both Jinki and his father have made occasional cameos before, usually showing up briefly at the end to sample and comment on a completed recipe.
Jinki elaborates, “The main ingredient of the episode was milk, so we made different foods with it-you know, cheese and yogurt and stuff. That was fine. But then she asked me to sing the milk song. You know the one that my father’s company uses?”
Jonghyun knows. Practically everyone in Korea with the ability to hear and a TV does. Han Foods has been pushing their milk with the insanely catchy jingle for almost a year.
“My mom and I sang it together in the studio. We were just messing around and having fun. But then the PD asked me to do it again, just by myself. Only this time, I had to say, ‘Han Foods-where great taste meets great health’ at the end. I thought it was a bit strange, but I did it anyways because everyone looked really excited and was cheering me on.” He slumps in his seat. “I didn’t find out until later, but they didn’t put it in the show. They made it into a commercial.”
Jihyeon gasps. “Wow, that means you’re going to be famous!”
Jinki is not nearly as enthusiastic about his new celebrity status. He looks like he’s going to throw up. “It’s been on TV all weekend. My life is over.”
“Big deal,” Jonghyun says. “It’s just a commercial. It can’t be that bad, right?”
Jinki is less than convinced. “You haven’t seen it, Jonghyun. You don’t understand how bad it is.”
Perhaps he doesn’t at the moment, but his perspective on Jinki’s crisis begins to broaden after they arrive at school. As they’re making their way towards the entrance, they pass by a group of fourth grade boys. Upon spying Jinki, one of them puts his hands up to his head to imitate horns and starts lowing. His friends around him burst into peals of raucous laughter.
Jinki cringes and quickens his pace, but Jihyeon is having none of it. She stomps up to the offender, getting right up in his face.
“Is there a problem?” she asks, her eyes narrowed dangerously.
The other boy and his friends sober quickly. No doubt, they’re remembering that not only is Jihyeon older than them, she also has four years of taekwondo experience under her belt and a notoriously short-temper.
“No,” he croaks. Behind him, his friends are trying to slink away as furtively as possible.
“Good,” Jihyeon says pointedly, stepping back.
Jonghyun watches the boys run away with a mixture of disappointment and relief. While he was hoping that Jihyeon wouldn’t get into trouble, few things delight him as much as watching his sister terrorize bullies. That one time she had punched out a middle schooler had been awesome.
“You didn’t have to do that, noona,” Jinki says quietly as the three of them head into the school.
Jihyeon shrugs. “Don’t worry about it. You’re practically family. That means anyone who messes with you messes with me.”
No one else dares to bother Jinki on their way to their classrooms, but even Jihyeon and her formidable reputation can’t protect him forever. After she heads off to fifth grade and Jonghyun heads off to first, their friend is left to fend for himself among his classmates.
By lunch time, the damage is done. Students file into the cafeteria according to seniority, which means that by the time Jonghyun arrives, Jinki is still there but his older sister has already left.
He's sitting on the far side of the room, head bent low, bangs obscuring his face as he tries to eat as surreptitiously as possible. There’s a group of second grade girls sitting at the same table but the seats across from and next to him are conspicuously vacant. It’s obvious that his classmates are making a pointed effort not to interact with him.
While Jinki has never exactly been popular, he’s also never been so severely ostracized from his peers. Jonghyun clutches his lunchbox and frowns. His friend Taeseob, seeing the plan formulating in his head, grabs him by the elbow.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asks, though he already knows what's on Jonghyin's mind.
Jonghyun gestures in Jinki’s direction. “I’m going to sit with him.
Taeseob makes a pained face. “That’s a bad idea.”
“Like a really, really bad idea,” Yongho, another friend, chimes in. “Maybe in a week it’ll be okay, but right now?” He shakes his head. “That guy's toxic.”
Nevertheless, Jonghyun shakes off Taeseob’s grip and, ignoring his friends’ frantic pleas, heads over to Jinki’s table. The other boy startles when Jonghyun plops down across from him. The girls sitting nearby stop talking long enough to shoot him withering glares, offended by the uninvited arrival of a first grader in their midst.
Jonghyun greets them with a cheerful, “Hi,” and flashes them a cheeky smile. The girls scoff and return to their conversation.
“What are you doing?” Jinki whispers. They’ve drawn the attention of quite a few of other children nearby. Students usually don’t mix with those outside their grade.
“Eating,” Jonghyun announces blithely. “I’m starving.” He flips open the lid of his lunchbox and unwraps half of the sandwich that his mother prepared for him. He holds it out across the table. “Want it? It’s chicken and cranberries. I’ll trade you for some of your tonkatsu.”
Jinki takes it gingerly with both hands. He stares at it for moment with a smile that wobbles slightly around the edges.
“Thank you,” he says thickly.
Jonghyun grins around the straw of his juicebox. “No problem.”
---
Jonghyun finally has an opportunity to view Jinki’s infamous commercial later that evening at home. His father is working late as usual and his sister is still at kumdo practice which leaves him with only his mother for company. They have a quiet dinner together, and after they clean the dishes, she makes them mugs of hot cocoa with huge, puffy marshmallows. Together, they settle down in the living room to watch television and unwind. Jonghyun helps her sort through baskets of freshly laundered clothes, only half paying attention to the movie airing on the television. Midway through a commercial break, though, a familiar tune and voice grab his attention. With a start, he realizes that it’s Jinki who’s singing.
Jonghyun gapes at the screen in a combination of mute horror and morbid fascination. Immediately, he sees why his friend is so mortified. Not only is the older boy wearing a spotted headband with tiny cow ears and horns, he also has a silver cow bell tied around his neck.
Despite the ridiculous costume, Jinki sounds surprisingly unforced as he sings, smiling brightly as if fully convinced that happy milk does in fact lead to happy bones. The commercial lasts all of about thirty seconds, but it’s thirty seconds of explosive, unapologetic aegyo that will undoubtedly haunt Jinki for a long time.
The only thing Jonghyun can manage when the commercial ends is a shell-shocked, “Wow…”
His mother sighs, setting aside a pile of towels. “I told his parents it wasn’t a good idea. It’s a lot of exposure for a child to handle. But they insisted.”
Jonghyun sides with his mother on this one. There’s a huge difference between humiliating yourself once on daytime television and being broadcasted on a commercial that cycles around the clock. If Jinki’s ad runs nearly as frequently as Han Foods’ original milk commercial, Jonghyun is going to have trouble turning on the TV without seeing his friend’s face. He can only imagine how Jinki must feels.
“He’s not having trouble at school is he?” his mother asks, concerned.
“A little,” he discloses.
“Watch out for him, Jonghyun,” his mother urges. “You know how Jinki is.”
Jonghyun nods. He’s known Jinki as far back as he can remember on account of their mothers being close friends. Theirs is a friendship that began in diapers and cemented through the course of many afternoon naps spent cuddled under the same blanket.
While Jinki is technically older, Jonghyun only calls him ‘hyung’ to appease his parents and avoid being scolded. In reality, Jinki has always treated Jonghyun as an equal, and-unlike his sister and cousin--has never touted his seniority over him.
That doesn’t mean that the older boy doesn’t look out for him. Jinki was one of the few people outside his family to know that Jonghyun had a bed-wetting problem until he was five. Once at a sleepover at the Lee's, Jinki took the blame for Jonghyun’s mess, lying to his mother’s face and claiming that he drank too much water the night before. Jonghyun might only be seven, but even he knows that’s not the sort of friend one finds everyday.
Jinki’s virtues are vast, but as much as Jonghyun adores him, even he can’t deny that Jinki is a bit… different. He’s the only kid Jonghyun knows with an encyclopedic knowledge of trot songs, an ever expanding stamp collection, and can truthfully list bird-watching as an actual hobby. There's a reason Jonghyun’s father occasionally jokes that Jinki is actually a retiree trapped in a child’s body.
On one hand, Jinki’s unfailingly kindness and politeness endear him to many. On the other, people also find his innate quirkiness puzzling. Jinki’s the type of person who devotes a good deal of time to wondering why soap bubbles, pandas only eat bamboo, and fish don’t ever seem to sleep. The bookshelves in his bedroom are crammed with science books and outdated issues of National Geographic which he buys from a local used book shop even though he can barely make sense of the English--the pictures, he insists, are the best parts.
His insatiable and seemingly boundless curiosity mean that he’s always investigating something or the other, often with Jonghyun serving as his accomplice. He’s helped the older boy with everything from hunting sand dollars on the beach to raiding his family’s kitchen for supplies to build a potato-powered clock. The two of them have spent many an evening on the Lee’s apartment rooftop with Jinki’s most prized possession, his telescope, Jinki pointing out the constellations and planets while Jonghyun squints through the lens and tries his best to make sense of the sprawling night sky.
Most of their adventures are pretty innocuous, but not all of them end well. There was the summer they captured tadpoles from a mountain stream and brought them back to Jinki’s room in hopes of watching them grow into frogs. It was fun until they realized that the dwindling population in the tank was due to the fact that their tiny residents were eating each other. On another occasion, Jonghyun had to rescue his friend from a tree stump where he had gotten stuck while searching for a particular species of mushroom. Then there was the time they accidentally set fire to the Lee's living room rug. Neither Jinki nor Jonghyun’s parents had been thrilled about that one.
It wasn’t until Jonghyun started attending school that he realized not everyone is as appreciative of Jinki’s duck calling and paper boat building abilities as he is. Recent events not withstanding, no one ever outrightly bullied Jinki, but it doesn't take much observational skills to see that he doesn't fit in with the other children at school. While his general pleasantness guarantees that that no one actively dislikes him, outside of his teachers, the lunch ladies, and the Kims, not many people at school seem openly fond of him either. Even the handful of students that Jinki calls his friends seems to tolerate his presence more than they actually enjoy his company. To most of his classmates, he's just the 'weird kid' who smiles a lot and keeps to himself, and they tend to treat him the way one might treat a friendly stray dog that they're not quite sure is rabid, warily and with a good deal of distance.
Jonghyun wonders sometimes if Jinki ever feels lonely, but he never asks, knowing the older boy would deny it. Jinki can be strangely guarded about his own unhappiness. This perplexes Jonghyun why Jinki will act like his own gloominess is an unpardonable crime.
Jonghyun remembers the occasion when Jinki discovered that his brand new bicycle--a birthday gift from his father--had been stolen. While Jonghyun would have been raging about the injustice of a world that would dare deprive a young boy of his beloved bicycle, Jinki's first instinct upon discovering the theft was to remark, "Oh no. My dad will be so upset." Jonghyun supposes that's why adults so often call Jinki the mature one; he's always thinking about others.
It must be exhausting, Jonghyun sometimes muses, to be Jinki.
Less than fifteen minutes passes before the milk commercial airs again. Somehow in the interim, the second-hand embarrassment has gotten intolerable, so Jonghyun snatches the remote off the table and switches the channel.
“Maybe we should ask Dad to put you in a commercial,” his mother remarks casually. "I'm sure he could make it happen."
He turns to glare at her. “Mom," he says, reproachful. "That’s not funny.”
She just chuckles into her hot cocoa.
--
As humiliating as the entire affair might be for Jinki, the instances of mocking and shunning that accompany his new found fame die out fairly quickly. The decline is partially attributed to the fact that his commercial, as embarrassing as it might be, nevertheless does what the marketing team at Han Foods intends it to do: sell milk. Jonghyun overhears Jinki's father talking enthusiastically to his own father about how dairy sales at the company are at an all-year high. Apparently middle-aged women, the demographic that generally does the household shopping, are supremely weak to Jinki’s earnest enthusiasm and charm.
Another reason why Jinki is offered a reprieve is that the repercussions of the IMF crisis are starting to trickle down to the students.
IMF, three letters Jonghyun keeps hearing the adults around him repeat over and over again in tones of apprehension and anger. He has no clue what those letters mean, but he knows that they're the reason why his uncle's hair is turning grey at an astonishing rate and his father barely seems to be home anymore. All Jonghyun knows it that it has something to do with money, enough of it that it's causing the social landscape at his school to undergo drastic changes as students struggle to find where they rise and fall according to the new pecking order.
Jonghyun is well-aware that his school is different from the other elementary schools in Seoul. The forest green uniforms all the students are required to wear are the most visible contrast that come to mind when he compares himself with most other children he sees on the street. Then there's the fact that his classmates have parents who are diplomats, business entrepreneurs, and members of the National Assembly, jobs with big important titles and wide-reaching spheres of influence. Every student at his school is moneyed in one way or another, as evidenced by the veritable flood of gleaming foreign cars that arrive at the school gate each weekday morning.
While there's no doubt in Jonghyun's mind that his own family has money, among his friends, he has always considered himself the least well-off, if only because his friends are much more visibly wealthy than he is. Jinki has a mother on TV and a father who runs a company that feeds the half the nation. Taeseob's father is some kind of lawyer and his family vacations in places Jonghyun has never ever heard of like Belize and Montenegro and Aix-en-Provence. Then there's Yongho, whose family owns banks and last year, rented out Lotte World for Yongho's older brother's birthday. Jonghyun was able to tag along with his friend and rode the Gyro Drop so many times that he nearly threw up.
He enjoys indulging in the privileges and benefits of having rich friends, but he would never dare suggest spending his own family's money in such a lavish way. Fear of their grandfather's wrath keep all the Kim children living under relatively modest means. Their grandfather has given clear orders that all his grandchildren are strictly forbidden from engaging in--as he puts it --“any acts of ostentation that would bring ill-wanted attention and besmirch the family name.” Only his cousin Sejoon chafes under these restrictions, but even he isn't pig-headed enough to challenge their grandfather's authority.
Because of his family's imposed austerity, Jonghyun has a difficult gauging out exactly how much money his family has. He knows they must have a lot. Not every seven-year-old boy lives in a penthouse apartment. While he's never felt like he's been left wanting, he's also not completely sure of the boundaries of his family's wealth. If money was measured in the amount of things that it could buy--things that matter to him like candy and ice cream and toys--Jonghyun supposes that if his family felt inclined, they could buy a lot of candy and ice cream and purchase some very choice toys. The fact that they don't is what befuddles him.
Funnily enough, the first time he begins to grasp the true reach of his family's influence is during gym class. As usual two of the first grade classes are combined during P.E. They’re playing soccer that day and while it’s not Jonghyun’s favorite activity, he’d much rather be running outside in the sun than confined to his desk with his teacher's endless worksheets.
He’s chatting with Yongho on the sidelines, waiting for his turn on the field, when Taeseob taps him on the shoulder and ask,, “Hey, any idea why that guy over there is staring at you?”
“What?” Jonghyun jerks up. “Where?”
“He’s on the other team. The tall one with the big ears.”
Jonghyun scans the other side of the field. Indeed, sitting among the ranks of the opposite team is a student who happens to be staring intently in his direction. The moment they make eye contact, though, the other boy drops his gaze to his feet. It’s a fleeting moment, but in that span of a breath, Jonghyun glimpses something disquieting in the other boy’s eyes.
As time goes by, he keeps checking the other team, but the other boy seems to have lost his interest in Jonghyun. At least that’s what Jonghyun assumes when he gets calls onto the field.
As he trots up to his team, his attention turns wholly on the game. Both sides are tied, and tensions run high as time passes by and neither team manages to score another goal. They’re down to the last few minutes when Jonghyun gets possession of the ball. Adrenaline pumping through his veins, he rushes the goal. He’s frantically dribbling the ball, the opposing team's defense closing in all around him, when-all of a sudden-a lone figure barrels into him.
He cries out as he crashes to the ground. He manages to catch himself just in time and avoids bashing his face into the dirt. Dazed, he looks up recognizes the boy from before, the one with the big ears and a staring problem. As he runs off he tosses a self-satisfied smirk over his shoulder at Jonghyun lying on the ground.
The foul doesn’t go unnoticed. A few seconds after Jonghyun goes down, a shrill whistle pierces the air.
“Noh Jaewon!” Mr. Park roars, red-faced with disapproval. “You come over here right now and explain yourself!”
The student in question slinks sulkily over to the sidelines where their gym teacher proceeds to verbally ream him for his unsportsmanlike behavior. Meanwhile, Yongho checks on Jonghyun.
“Are you okay?” he asks, pulling his friend to his feet.
Jonghyun nods, wincing as he bends to brush the dirt from his knees. He’s bleeding slightly from a few scrapes and cuts, but it’s nothing too serious. “I’m alright. Could have been worse though.”
Yongho scowls and mutters, “Is that Jaewon guy crazy? He looked like he was out to kill you!”
“I don’t know.” Jonghyun looks over at his assailant. The other boy's gaze is firmly fixed on his feet as he’s being reprimanded. He doesn’t look very threatening now with his head bowed, stammering his apologies to their teacher.
After he’s done lecturing, Mr. Park examines Jonghyun and sends him to the school clinic where the nurse cleans up and bandages his slight injuries.
“What happened to you?” Jihyeon asks later that afternoon when Mr. Kang picks them up from school. She points at the numerous bright yellow Pokemon band-aids decorating Jonghyun’s knees and elbows.
“This other guy knocked me over during P.E.” he explains, jamming a straw through the sealed top of the banana milk he saved from lunch. “We were playing soccer and he ran into me.” He frowns as takes his first sip. “It was weird. It was almost like he was out to get me or something.”
His sister’s eyes harden. “What do you mean he was out to get you?”
Jonghyun chews on his straw for a moment. He recalls the way the smug, self-righteous look the other boy had given him as he left Jonghyun reeling on the ground. “He was looking at me funny during class. And after he hit me he looked like he was happy about it. I dunno why though. I barely even know him.”
Jihyeon’s entire face darkens. “Jonghyun,” she says dangerously. “Are you being bullied?”
He balks at the barely banked fury in his sister’s voice. Her tone suggests that should his answer be yes, this Jaewon fellow is in for a world of pain the next time he encounters the elder of the Kim siblings.
“Noona, it was just once. I don’t think that counts as bullying,” he tells her. He doesn’t want to be known as the kid who needs his older sister running to his rescue at the slightest provocation. “Maybe he was having a bad day or something. Maybe he was hungry?” he suggests. Jonghyun always gets crabby when he’s hungry.
“You would think that,” Jihyeon huffs. “Tell me you at least know his name, right?”
“I think it was Noh Jawon,” Jonghyun replies cautiously. He’s familiar with his sister’s temper and fears he may have doomed the other boy to an untimely demise. “Noona, you have to promise me you won’t do anything crazy, okay?”
“Noh Jaweon?” To his surprise, Jihyeon’s expressions shifts into one of recognition. “Isn’t he the son of the CEO of Koryo Tech? I think they make computer parts or something. I heard Dad talking about them on the phone just yesterday.”
“Really?” Unlike his sister, Jonghyun never pays much mind whenever their family talks business. It’s all too much boring adult jargon for his brain to process. “Why? Does it matter?”
Jihyeon rolls her eyes. “Of course it does, dummy. If he’s one of the Nohs, then it explains why he was so happy to see you eat dirt today.”
“What do you mean?” Jonghyun feels like he’s missing out on something obvious. What does their family's business have to do with anything?
“You don’t know anything do you?” his sister scoffs, her voice rife with disdain. “Our family bought their family’s company last week.”
“Oh.” The gears in Jonghyun’s head are slowly turning. “Wait, doesn't that make our dad Jaewon’s dad’s boss?”
“Not exactly,” Jihyeon replies, her attention shifting to her mp3 player. “We fired his father when we took over.”
“What?” Jonghyun squawks. No wonder Jaewon looked at him like he hated his guts. “That’s terrible!”
Jihyeon shrugs dismissively as and continues to fiddle with the buttons of her mp3 player. “He was probably bad business.”
The cool, removed way she talks about sacking Jaweon’s father reminds Jonghyun disconcertingly of their grandfather. He often thinks that if Jihyeon had been born a boy, their grandfather would be grooming her to take over their company rather than Sejoon.
“If this Jaewon kid bothers you again,” she says before slipping on her headphones, “tell me and I’ll take care of it.”
Since his sister’s method of resolving interpersonal conflicts often entails black eyes and flying dropkicks, Jonghyun has no intention of providing her with any further updates. He might not like Jaweon, but he doesn’t dislike him nearly enough to unleash his sister upon the poor, unsuspecting boy.
It takes some convincing, but on the way home he makes their driver promise not to tell their mother what he overheard in the car. She still titters disapprovingly when she sees his injuries but thankfully believes him when he tells her it was an accident. Jonghyun doesn’t want her to worry about him at school. His sister and her volatile temper cause their mother enough grief. By contrast, Jonghyun enjoys not being the problematic child, especially since his sister outshines him in everything from grades to popularity. It may not be much, but at least he gets to be their mother’s 'sweetpea', a title he doesn’t want to tarnish with a little trouble he may be having at school.
Jonghyun doesn’t have P.E. again until Friday. In the interim, he barely catches a glimpse of Noh Jaewon. The few times they pass each other in the hall or cafeteria, the other boy doesn’t so much as glance in his direction, which leads Jonghyun to conclude that Mr. Park’s stern lecture caused the other boy to have a change of heart.
However, his hopes that Jaewon no longer bears him any ill will are completely dashed that Friday afternoon. It’s raining heavily, and for P.E. the children are gathered inside the gymnasium to play dodgeball. Mid-way through a game, Jonghyun and his friend Taeseob are the last two remaining players in the square, both scrambling to avoid the balls being pelted in their direction. Jonghyun manages to snatch one from the air, but as he turns to signal Yongho to rejoin the game, another ball nails him in the face. The impact is strong enough to knock him off his feet. He goes down like a sack of bricks.
Their teacher, who is monitoring a separate game on the other side of the gymnasium, doesn’t immediately notice Jonghyun’s distress. Yongho, though, rushes to his side.
“Are you okay?”
“Mph,” Jonghyun whimpers, clutching his throbbing face.
Yongho scowls. He storms over to Jaewon, who is doing a piss-poor job of imitating innocence.
“Hey! What the hell is your problem?” he shouts, jabbing the other boy in the chest. “Can’t you hear? Mr. Park said no head shots!”
Jaewon shoves Yongho back. “Piss off! If he didn’t want to get hit then he should have ducked. Not my fault if he’s slow.”
Jonghyun can practically see the steam coming out of Yongho’s ears. His friend grabs Jaewon by the front of his gym uniform and opens his mouth to let out a string of creative expletives he probably learned from his father. He's stopped by Taeseob, who tugs on his sleeve.
“Yongho.” He shakes his head. “Let it go. The teacher will deal with him.”
Yongho glowers, hand still fisted in Jaewon’s shirt. He looks like not decking the other boy is the last thing he wants to do in the world. After a few tense moments, though, he releases Jaewon and snarls, “You’re not worth my time. But if you mess with Jonghyun or any of my friends again, next time, I’ll make you sorry.”
“You think I’m scared of you?” Jaewon says. “When you let that little four-eyed freak tell you what to do?”
Taeseob stiffens. He glares at Jaewon reproachfully over the rim of his glasses and says, his voice steely, “I don’t know what your problem is, Noh Jaewon. But you need to fix your attitude before it stinks up the entire gym.”
“Oh yeah?” Jaewon sneers. “If you don’t like it then why don’t you can go home and cry about it to your backbreeder father. Though he might be too busy trying to remove your other dad’s dick from up his a-“
Before Jaewon can get another word in, Taeseob throws himself at him. Jonghyun, Yongho, and the other students watch stunned as Taeseob-who is widely acknowledged as a teacher’s pet and notorious for disgracing himself by crying during the last scene of The Little Mermaid-sits on Jaewon’s chest and pummels him with his fists.
“What the devil is going on?” Attracted by the commotion, Mr. Park is finally making his way over. He’s slowed down, though, by the sea of students who have swarmed around the scene, many of them chanting, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
“We have to stop him,” Yongho tells Jonghyun. Jonghyun nods shakily. Jaewon’s face is a bloody mess, but Taeseob is still wailing on him and doesn't look inclined to stop any time soon. By the time their teacher manages to wade through the other students, Jaewon might not have much of a face to salvage.
With some struggle, Jonghyun helps Yongho haul Taeseob off the other boy. Unfortunately, there’s no one to hold back Jaewon, who, despite being bloody and battered, jumps to his feet and lunges at Taeseob. Unfortunately, Jonghyun gets in the way and it’s him that Jaewon ends up socking in the eye. In the confusion, all four of boys end up in a howling, tangled heap on the gym floor.
Eventually, their teacher manages to break through the crowd and yank the boys off one another. Even as he’s being restrained, Jaewon is still shrieking.
“I’ll kill you, you backbred brat!” he says, spittle flying from his mouth.
“Don't you ever talk about my father!” Taeseob screams back, looking equally murderous. Jonghyun has never seen his friend so angry, his face so contorted with rage that Jonghyun barely recognizes him.
Mr. Park first marches Jaewon to the clinic to get his bloody nose assessed. Afterward, the other three boys are sent to their homeroom teacher, who is appropriately appalled and embarrassed by their behavior. It takes some convincing on Mr. Park’s part, though, to persuade her that her beloved Nam Taeseob had any part in the fight. After sitting through her admonishments, the three boys are then shipped off to the principal’s office. They huddle, quiet, in front of Principal Cho's desk as she reprimands them.
“I would have thought your parents raised you better,” she clucks, glaring at them from over the edge of her tea cup. Principal Cho is always drinking tea. Whether strolling the hallways or shouting her support for her students on Sport’s Day, she’s rarely seen without a steaming cup of her favorite blend. Jonghyun has sometimes wondered if that’s why the other teachers and even some of the parents seem so afraid of her, because she’s always wielding a searing hot beverage and doesn’t look like she minds flinging it at people who annoy her.
“I expect more from the three of you. Especially from you, Nam Taeseob.” Jonghyun’s left eye is mostly swelled shut by now, but he can still make out the way his friend flinches upon hearing his name. “Well? Do any of you have anything to say for yourself?”
Jonghyun and Yongho keep their heads bowed, repentant in their silence. Taeseob, however, speaks up, but it’s in a voice so small that Jonghyun barely hears him.
“What’s that?” Principal Cho asks sharply.
Taeseob clears his throat and says, this time more loudly, "He called my father a backbreeder.’”
Out of the corner of his eye, Jonghyun observes his friend. Taeseob’s lower lip is trembling like he might cry at any moment, but his gaze is steady as he meets Principal Cho’s stare. He looks defiant and not at all contrite, which Jonghyun would never expect from his friend, a boy too prim and proper to use anything other than the most formal levels of speech with Jonghyun’s parents despite the fact that he’s known them for years.
Jonghyun is too scared to look up to see Principal Cho’s reaction. There a long stretch of silence. Then, he hears the clack of porcelain as she sets down her cup.
“Is that so?” she says, her voice stern but considerably less harsh. “Assuming what you said it true, it is still no excuse to inflict violence upon another pupil. But I want you to know, Taeseob, that our school does not take such discriminatory language lightly. We have very strict policies about the matter. Any pupil found using such vile terms will be punished accordingly. But by our administration. Not with your fists. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Taeseob answers, sounding deflated.
“Good.” Principal Cho remarks. “Now, I must notify your families and inform them what happened.”
Jonghyun grimaces. He can already picture his mother’s stony face when he arrives home.
The three boys shuffle back to their homeroom. Their teacher banishes each of them to a separate corner of the class where they work alone quietly on the rest of the day’s assignments. After classes are over, they grimly pack up their belongings and make their way to the west exit where where their drivers will pick them up. To Jonghyun and Yongho’s horror, instead of his usual chauffeur, Taeseob’s terrifying French nanny Céline shows up. She fixes Jonghyun and Yongho with her icy, blue-eyed stare, and they immediately excuse themselves, fleeing in the opposite direction. As they depart, they hear her chastising Taeseob in rapid French.
Since Jihyeon is on the preparations committee for the upcoming school festival, Jonghyun has to wait for his ride alone after Yongho leaves. His heart drops to his stomach when he enters his family’s car and instead of Mr. Kang, he finds his mother at the wheel. To say she looks displeased would be a grievous understatement.
He sits cowed in the back seat as she rattles off the privileges he’s been revoked: no television, no friends over, all his video games locked away until further notice. As they pull up to a stoplight, his mother’s diatribe winds to an end. Jonghyun stews in awkward silence for a moment, but eventually gives into his curiosity.
“Mom? What’s a backbreeder?”
His mother glances at him in the rearview mirrior, her eyes narrowing. “Where did you hear that word?”
Jonghyun shrinks back a little. “The other boy-the one Taeseob hit- he said it."
He had wanted to ask his friend but had been afraid it would goad him into another blind rage. It must be a truly terrible word, if it triggered such a visceral response from the other boy.
His mother falls silent. For a moment, Jonghyun doesn’t think she’s going to answer, but after a long pause, she says, “It’s a very rude name for male omegas. It’s crass and disrespectful and I don’t ever want to hear you using it. Especially not in front of Mr. Song or his family.”
“I won’t,” he promises.
Mr. Song is Taeseob’s omega father. In addition to being a friend of Jonghyun’s mother, he was also Jonghyun’s aunt’s junior at the same omega academy, which means Jonghyun has known Taeseob and his family from as far back as he can remember. Consequently, it’s never struck him as odd that that Taeseob doesn’t have a mother like most other children.
Jonghyun doesn’t know how Jaewon or anyone could dislike Mr. Song. Soft-spoken and kind, he annually makes cakes for Taeseob and his close friends’s birthdays. Mr. Song works as a pâtissier at a fancy hotel downtown, and he bakes-in Jonghyun’s opinion-the most divine cakes in the entire world. For Jonghyun’s last birthday, Mr. Song constructed a blue-scaled dragon cake that breathed actual fire. Noh Jaewon must have never had the pleasure of eating one of Mr. Song’s cakes. Otherwise, he wouldn't have a single cruel word to say about him.
“So Taeseob attacked this other boy because he was making fun of his father for being an omega. Is that what happened?“ his mother asks.
“Yeah,” Jonghyun confirms and adds, “I’ve never seen Taeseob get angry like that. It was sort of scary.”
His mother doesn’t say anything in response. As they come up to another intersection though, she makes a left turn at a place Mr. Kang usually makes a right.
Jonghyun peers out the car as unfamiliar scenery passes him by. “Mom, where are we going?”
“We’re not going home,” his mother replies, keeping her eyes on the road ahead. “We’re going out to get ice cream. Is that a problem?”
A wide grin blooms across Jonghyun’s face. In the rearview mirror, he can see his mother attempting to remain stoic. However, she can’t help the way the corners of her lips twist ever so slightly upwards.
---
In an act of solidarity, Jonghyun’s mother tells his father a bald-faced lie when he inquires about the source of his son’s black eye.
“He ran into a pole,” she explains.
“Is that so?” Jonghyun's father shakes his head and ruffles his son’s hair. “You’ve got to be more careful in the future, Jonghyun.”
Jonghyun is grateful or relieved for his mother's intervention. His father’s sad-eyed disappointment is a thousand times worse than his mother’s anger. He can't bear upsetting his father, especially because he seems so tired and stressed these days.
Jonghyun’s sister, though, is far more perceptive. She takes one look at Jonghyun’s face and declares, “I will end him.”
Fortunately, Jihyeon never gets the chance to enact her vengeance upon Noh Jaewon. He doesn’t show up for school on Monday, or the rest of the week for that matter. Jonghyun keeps an eye out for the other boy, and eventually stops one of his classmates in the hall to ask about the boy’s whereabouts.
“Oh, him?” The girl he cornered shifts the books underneath her arm. “He doesn’t go here anymore.”
“What?” Jonghyun says, stricken. He and his friends all got in trouble but none of them got kicked out of school.
“I heard his family’s having money problems,” she adds nonchalantly. “Guess he can’t afford to come here anymore.”
At lunch, Jonghyun relays the news of Noh Jaewon’s disappearance to his friends. The moment he brings up the other boy’s name, Taeseob’s expression goes cold.
“Good,” he snaps when he hears that Jaewon won’t be returning to their school. He continues shoveling food into his mouth, looking much more triumphant than anyone should while eating slightly burnt kimchi-fried rice.
Jonghyun, though, doesn’t share Taeseob’s sense of victory. While it's true they weren't even remotely friends, he had never wished Jaewon ill will, even despite the attacks upon him. He still doesn't quite understand why the other boy targeted him in the first place. It’s not like Jonghyun has an actual say in his family’s business. However, Jaweon had acted like Jonghyun’s father personally consulted him when he had fired Jaewon's father. Jonghyun was just a kid.
His grandfather, though, would be one to disagree. Countless times, he has lectured his grandchildren, “Remember, you are not just anybody. You are a Kim of Shin Mirae Corporation. Your actions reflect on us all. Just as one rotten fish can stink up an entire barrel, one reckless decision on your part can ruin the family name.”
It isn't that Jonghyun didn’t believe him. It’s just that up until now, he thought himself isolated from that world, a world where family was synonymous with the empire his grandfather had founded and his father and his uncle were continuing to expand. He's always known that one day, he too would join them. He just didn’t think it would be this soon.
VERY IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ.
Against my better intentions, chapter 2 of this story has warped into a 16k+ monstrosity, and I am still not done yet. A few key things will happen in the second half of the chapter, things that will have drastic effects on the characters and world within this story. However, I decided to break the chapter into two parts and upload the first half onto my lj because I was running out of letters to use on the kink meme OTL I toyed briefly with the idea of continuing with the Greek alphabet (alpha to omega harhar), but it's infuriating enough following a wip on a kink meme.
So for future updates, I am solicting you kind readers to see if you would prefer to:
a) just wait for a complete chapter update on my livejournal. The wait be longer but you won't have to deal with tracking my posts on the kink meme.
b) continue following the story piece by piece on the kinkmeme no matter how long the story gets (spoilers: it's long).
You can tell me what you think in the comments.
Now for your regularly scheduled author notes:
- I'm willing to disclose that I hated this chapter. Hated it with a fiery passion for months (which is one of the reasons it took me so long to update). But just last night I read it all in one go and thought, "Hmm. It ain't half-bad." I don't know... T_T
- I read all the comments I get via my LJ and the kinkmeme. With few exceptions, though, I will no longer be replying to comments on the kink meme because doing so would clutter up an already cluttered thread.
- That said, if you have commented on the kink meme and I ignored you, there's no shame in linking your comment here and saying, "Hey! That's me!" You kink meme followers are true troopers. I, too, know the pain of reading a chaptered story in kink meme format, so I appreciate all of you who have waited as this story slowly trickled online.
- Regarding livejournal comments: I tend to check my most recently posted fic/chapter fairly often right after I post it, which means I usually reply to earlier comments. This does not mean that I don't read your comments or they mean any less than the earlier ones. It just means I'm too busy/ashamed of my lack of updates to reply.
- If you want to ask me a question about one of my stories, there's a better chance of getting a response if you message me on my tumblr.
- I don't mind you asking me when I will next update as long as you don't mind that your answer will most likely be, "I have no idea."
- While I will make references to historical events and famous people, the only characters from K-pop in this story will be SHINee.
- Mpreg exists in this world but I don't warn for it because the main couple will not be getting knocked up.
- Since I am not insanely rich, I don't actually know how chaebol families live. My depiction of chaebol is sprinkled with some research, but keep in mind, there's also a healthy dose of bullshit because I am not an economics expert.
- Jonghyun's POV continues in the next half of the chapter which will cover, among other things, him discovering that he's an alpha and the shifting dynamics between alphas, betas, and omegas in his world.
- There will also be more Jinki. A story can always use more Jinki.