Chapter Text
Hoseok drummed his thumbs on the steering wheel to the beat of the music cheerfully playing through his car. The traffic he was driving through to the city made him so restless. He was heading to Seoul to help volunteer at his aunt’s foster home.
The foster home had opened up 15 years ago when Hoseok’s aunt saw some of the poor conditions of other orphanages and foster homes in the area. A lot of the people working there were leaving, all for random reasons – having too many kids of their own to take care of, school, bigger job offers, retirement. The amount of help was growing thin and Hoseok, who was incredibly passionate about taking care of kids, was happy to take a leave from his summer job at the movie theatre back home and head to his aunt’s rescue. His aunt had just expanded and bought a new building. He had just finished his freshman year of college, and was finally starting to fully enjoy his first steps to being an adult.
Hoseok grinned to himself when he finally made it to the parking lot of the building. He came to the door of the apartment style building and knocked. It was immediately opened by his aunt, smiling ear to ear.
“Hobi! Ah, how are you?” She jumped into his arms.
“Hey Aunt Boram,” Hoseok laughed, “I’m good, how about you?”
“I’m glad you’re here to help, it’s been a little hectic”.
The boy nodded sympathetically as he was lead into the house. He was immediately greeted by two kids, one looking slightly shy and intrigued, the other practically bouncing off the walls.
“Jungkook, Jimin, this is my nephew Hoseok! He’s gonna be coming over during the day to help us out!”
The boy with tousled chestnut brown hair flung himself over, leaping into Hoseok and giggling.
“Woah, hey there!” Hoseok said, stumbling to regain his balance. “What your name, again?”
“I’m Jiminnie! I just turned 7. I like birds. Do you like birds? I can draw you a picture of one! I want to be a bird when I grow up. That’s Kookie. Jeon Kookie! He’s 5.” Jimin whipped around and waved enthusiastically at Jungkook, who smiled shyly at him, then up at Hoseok. Hoseok grinned gently at him as the younger shyly hid behind his aunt’s leg.
“Wow Jimin, that’s awesome!” He leaned down and whispered exaggeratingly,
“Guess what?” Jimin’s eyes opened wide and curious; he leaned in, sparkly brown orbs burning into Hoseok’s.
“I love birds too.”
Jimin looked like he was about to melt. He jumped up and wrapped his arms around Hoseok’s neck.
“Mrs. Jung, can Hoseok stay here forever?” Hoseok’s aunt laughed warmly, eyes looking apologetically at Hoseok, who was smiling.
“Alright guys, can I show Hobi around the rest of the house?” Jimin nodded, jumping off and grabbing Jungkook’s hand, running down the hallway. Mrs. Jung’s smiled faded slightly, turning into something a bit solemn.
“Jimin’s parents were murdered 2 years ago. It was a robbery – killed everything moving to get what they wanted. Luckily, Jimin was sleeping over at his grandmother’s house… or he may have been shot too. He was meant to live with his grandmother after their deaths, but she’s fallen ill, and as she’d gotten weaker, she took all her energy to bring him here herself, saying that she knew I could take care of him. He’s the sweetest boy. Sometimes he can be a bit shy, and very self conscious, especially after the accident, but he seems to feel pretty safe around you, haha!
“Jungkook – he’s not very good at socializing, but he’s loads of fun once you get him to open up to you. His parents brought him here when he was just a baby – they were working as hard as they could, but they just weren’t able to take care of him… he was so small in thin when they brought him. It was heartbreaking watching them say goodbye, but I think their decision was true love – the most painful.”
Hoseok nodded silently, trying to process everything. While his mother was speaking, they were still walking through the building, watching teenagers laying on the couch on their phones, younger children sprinting around in fits of laughter. Even though it hurt his hear to hear the stories that were being told, it lightened him a little to know that so many of them were smiling, and just being normal kids.
It made him thankful for the fact that he’s had his own parents. He remembered going to visit his aunt as a child, and seeing all the kids there. He now regrets a little not being talking to all of them, not hearing all their stories.
“So this is the kitchen, we have breakfast at 7:30, lunch at 12:30, dinner at around 6:30. If anyone wants any snacks, they can. All those lists on the wall are everyone’s chore lists. I make them in the morning; you can help me with that! The younger kids do more physical stuff cause they have so much energy – you won’t believe how fast those dishes get done. The teenagers have a little less because they’ve got to study. If someone’s list doesn’t have everything crossed off at the end of the day, you’ve gotta help me hunt them down”, Aunt Boram smiled. Hoseok was impressed by the big lists all the kids had to get done. He saw the shorter teenager’s list, and noticed that one of the person’s list was empty.
“And this hallway here is where all the rooms are – we’re seriously packed right, now, no room is empty, so I’m glad you’re staying in the apartment across the way. We do room checks, everyone under 14 has a bedtime, so you gotta go in and check to make sure everyone sleeps when they’re supposed to.”
Hoseok noticed all the decorations tape on the doors. Boy and girl group posters, drawings, good test scores.
Hoseok noticed one door had nothing on it.
“So the bathrooms are here, if you want to go out back, just turn right there, and the living room is to the left over there. Upstairs is the attic, the kids love playing up there. It gets dusty quite quickly though, so I add that to the chore list! And… I think that’s… everything right now! If you have any questions, you can ask me or anyone else working here. I think Jin’s coming around 5:30 to help with dinner.”
“Awesome. I think I’ll just kind of look around for myself a little bit if that’s okay.” Aunt Boram nodded brightly. “Oh sure, absolutely! I’ll be out back if you need anything.”
Hoseok spent the next hour or so wandering around the house, introducing himself to everyone, having conversations with some of the older kids, getting their numbers.
As he was grinning at Jungkook, who bashfully was showing him a picture he drew, he felt like someone was staring at him. As soon as he looked up, his eyes immediately made contact with another boy.
As soon as their eyes met, the boy shot his head down. He was scrunched up in the corner, knees hugged up against his chest. It could’ve been the shadow of the room, but Hoseok swore he could see something of a bruise on his face. He swore he could see him shaking.
Hoseok didn’t know why, but his heart was racing.
Just then, his Aunt walked by, hanging a home phone on a rack.
“Aunt Boram… who is that in the corner?” Hoseok asked gently. He watched his aunt’s eyes shift slowly to the corner. He saw her sigh sadly, rubbing her forehead.
“Awh, I keep telling him to stop hiding over there…” Aunt Boram whispered to herself.
“How old is he?”
“He’s 17.”
“What’s his name?” Hoseok’s eyes bore into the corner. The boy had his head hidden in his arms, but he swore he could see him staring at him in the cracks. He looked so small.
“We don’t… we don’t know.” Hoseok snapped his head curiously at his Aunt.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I don’t know. We don’t know what his name is.”