And It All Falls Down

Chapter 1

So, Hi. I'm Rey, and I'm just here with some trigger warnings for this fic. Suicide, depression, abuse, dementia, betrayal, Voices in the head, OCD, PTSD, Self-Esteem issues, Haphephobia, implied sexual abuse (minor), Drugs, Overdose, Lots of mental health issues, and eating disorders. 

Most of it should be edited. If you looked at the warnings and went, Meh I'm reading this anyway, I like you. Enjoy.

"Perfection is far from it"

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It had been a day or maybe a year. Every day they were hunting him. There was no respite from the running. He had done anything wrong, but he was mute, unable to defend himself. The world was built to be perfect and he wasn't. Dongho ran faster tripping over tree roots. The only sound was his beating heart and thudding footsteps. He was young, younger than most of the people chasing him, but he was so fearful. Tears traced rivers down Dongho's cheeks, the only clean spots on his face from the watery tracks. He paused. Air. Air. He needed air. It was the quickest of sharp breaths, but it was oxygen.

He was running again, feet entangled in leaves and vines. All this running and he couldn't call for help. He had everything they wanted. Tall, beautiful, the perfect makings of a Shining, but he was flawed. The Shinings terrified Dongho. They were rumored to be greater than human, their superiority used to control the weaker and less perfect of beings. Dongho didn't want any part of it. It wasn't that he was born this way, in fact, he was born ready to be a Shining. When he was five, there was an accident. He had fallen and cried. His father had been angry. There had been a sharp pain. And then Dongho could no longer speak. He had been cast out, running non-stop.

That was roughly twelve years ago. He was a refuge surviving off of scraps and what he could steal. Posters calling for his arrest littered the walls. He would've turned himself in if the stories of prison life hadn't haunted his ears. They wanted to catch him and use him. He'd go where the failed Shinings went. The Camp. It was a correction camp. Even if they were too flawed to be a Shining, they could still be a Crystal. Crystals were looked down upon and esteemed at the same time. Children who were good, but not good enough. They were an acceptable position in society, but were often gossiped about and harassed.

Dongho vowed to never become one of them. His best friend Jaewon had been forced into that life. As far as Dongho knew, three Shinings had a Crystal. Jaewon was among them, as was a boy who lived down the street from him; Daehyun. Minsoo was the third, however, his name was unfamiliar to Dongho. All Dongho could do was vow to never become one of them. He needn't worry. The people just wanted to capture him and use him for something else. Cobwebbed thoughts had slowed his pace. Dongho kept running. He ran harder and faster than before. Was the mob still after him? Had they calmed down? He listened for a while. They weren't coming anymore?

Dongho sat down, his aching body crying for some sort of break. His eyelids drooped. Hungry and completely defeated, he drifted off to sleep. There was nothing more he could do. With a lack of food, his body needed sleep as compensation. The dark-haired boy sleeping by the brook was an interesting sight. He was angelic looking and almost normal looking. A passerby would assume he was camping, not running for his life. No one on their walk would think he was the most wanted criminal. Dongho didn't even remember his offenses. He'd done a bunch of things to upset the Shinings and the government.

Maybe it was the time he had helped the lower sector get food from the guards. They were being stingy, he couldn't help it. Maybe it was the other time he had stolen a trunk of furs. He was cold, and the children living in the mid-sector were cold. Again, he couldn't help it. Dongho was unapologetic about taking from the richer and more fortunate to help those struggling. His society was so advanced yet primitive at the same time. Offense after offense stacked up against the mute boy who didn't care about anything but keeping his freedom. Dongho had seen what they did to rebels and heard tales of their prisons. He didn't intend to be clipped from life like that. Who gave them the power anyway?