Drippin' ✘ Skz

viii. - the machine

hyunjin

I've always been a pretty peaceful and go-with-the-flow person. Especially when Chan makes an executive decision that there was no changing once he made up his mind...but this. This was major. He didn't seem to care about our protesting though..but no one ever did.

I remember when I was alive and I would voice my opinion as a kid but would always get shot down. I remember the day that I decided to just follow the 'system' that everyone told me to follow along to, I was at the end of my sophomore year in high school and one of my colleagues was telling our group of 'friends' that he wanted to pull a heist on the big jewelry store across the school.

They all went along with him but I refused to be a part of it, afraid of disappointing my mother whom already had a lot on her plate with my terminally sick father and brother.

He pressed me until he threw me up against a wall and punched me in the nose, claiming he'd kill me if I didn't since I already knew his plan.

I went home with a bloody nose, a commitment to a robbery that I didn't want to be a part of, and my sense of dignity.

Three weeks later, everyone was in study period while our group of four ran across the street. I don't remember much of that part. A loose brick being tossed. Glass being shattered. A siren going off. Pockets becoming full of glittering jewels. My shoes becoming torn up from running across hot pavement. An emerald falling from the necklace I was holding. Crying myself to sleeping that night. The police showing up the next day. Being thrown into a juvenile prison.

I was there for five months. When I returned home, my father and brother were dead. My mother was in pieces.

I ran away. I lived on the streets for three and a half months by myself. Shivering at night with no blanket, sweating during the day with no water. I had to become a newsie to earn five cents a week, barely enough for a full meal.

I cried every night. I wanted to go home.

One day, after counting my one-hundredth finished paper-route, I walked down the dark, non-lit streets as I searched for a safe place to sleep for a few hours.

I remember how badly my feet hurt and how they dragged across the sidewalk. My shoes were breaking, the soles almost completely torn off the bottoms while I had lost the dingy laces a long time ago. My hair greasy with the long weeks of no personal hygiene except for the river in the middle of the woods I was afraid to enter.

I remember thinking with my most sincerest thoughts that I wanted to die.

I thought the whole world would benefit from it.

It's funny when you wish for something so badly and then it becomes true and you deny even wishing for it.

I remember my head cracking on the sidewalk and I was knocked out. I woke up and I had new shoes on, new clothes on, and I was actually clean. My hair was soft, not greasy anymore. But it was impossible.

I was in an alleyway. I noticed a dark red, dried spot about the size of a baseball on the sidewalk, I touched the back of my head.

What happened to me? I had thought, Is this a dream?

But no, it was not. I found out that next day as I delivered papers that I couldn't go into the sun from a new allergy that caused boisterous sores on my skin so I had to stay underneath a shaded area.

I found out that I could work all day without getting tired, my feet never hurt anymore and my hands never cramped from holding papers for too long.

It was just the littlest bit of progress but it made me happy. I felt happy for the first time in almost nine months.

I remember when I stumbled upon Chan. He was walking down the sidewalk with his cap pulled down so far that I couldn't see his eyes. He handed me a whole dollar worth of quarters and I almost fainted but he told me,'I want you to meet me exactly here at 9pm.'

And the deal was set. If he had just given me ten cents, I would've agreed.

That night, I noticed his eyes before anything else. Bright red. Almost like a blood. He handed me a mirror. My eyes were just a bit more of a maroon color than his. I almost dropped the mirror. That's when he explained.

I joined the Stray Kids five minutes after. I became a part of The District.

Ever since I had found out what I was, I felt this void in my soul. I was no longer happy. I had come to the realization that I couldn't see my dad and brother in Heaven. I couldn't die. I wouldn't be able to see them again. I wouldn't be able to apologize.

I became emotionless, I agreed with everything The District said. Woojin used to call me a machine. A robot.

But he was right, I was just a machine, set to follow the system that everyone was a part of..there was no stopping that.

*~*~*

I can't fathom how I feel when I suddenly see Somi standing in front of me, Woojin behind me from the main warehouse room, Chan has a glowing grin on his face while his dimples implode on his cheeks.

Is he insane? Maybe getting sick somehow..?

I wanted to check his temperature even if us vampires couldn't get sick.

I glance in between Somi and Chan and then look at Woojin like 'can you believe this?' before I feel my mouth gape open,"How..did this happen?"

"My plan worked," Chan says, a prideful glint in his eyes.

"The one that Jeongin ruined?" I notice Jeongin cower down when I mention his name, a painful cringe clear on his face.

"We've gotten that all settled, Hyunjin, turns out that Jeongin's slip-up worked in our favor."

Always like him and Minho to baby him..

"Say hello to Somi," he continues while he starts gripping her shoulders from behind, her body tensing up, not from the sudden skinship, but the sudden cold.

I nod and she gives me an uneasy smile,"Hi, Somi.." Woojin and I chime in together.

I suddenly feel my face fall and Woojin continued my thoughts for me,"Does..does Seungmin know-?"

"Doesn't matter. I'm the leader. I can bring her here if I want to."

I roll my eyes.

Won't stop him from sucking her dry.

"Seungmin doesn't listen to anybody but himself..you know that, Chan."

"He'll listen to me."

He sounds so sure of himself but I could hear a tinge of fear in his voice before we suddenly heard a heavy door open and we all heard Seungmin yelling,"Will you guys turn off the lights when you-?!"

He walks into the room and he stares at Somi for a good minute before he starts laughing.

*~*~*

somi

I can't tell you how many times I had heard that laugh in my dreams. It was always how they ended when he was in them. I would feel like I was being sliced all over and then everything would go black as that laugh echoed in my skull.

I didn't want to see him. He was the one I was wanting to avoid the most, just his way of standing there, with his hands on his hips and his feet turned to me like he was about to leap, made me want to hide.

His lowly laugh started turning into sarcastic titters before he looks up and says with a straight face,"You're all dead."