ALL BARK NO BITE | SADISTIC BEAUTY SPINOFF

Chapter 62

6 YEARS AGO

~ 72-4, Angye Housing Provisions, Suyu-dong, Gangbuk-gu, Seoul

Minho climbed off the bus, his work briefcase catching on a jutting metal bar from the side, slitting the leather canvas. Minho touched the rough, frayed fabric about 2 inches in length cut into the middle. He had bought this only a while ago... how was he going to fix that big of a gash?? he carried on still, towards his childhood home. Where the saga began. His mother had only left cryptic messages, asking him to come visit and then finally calling to croak that she needs him...

Minho wouldn't say that their relationship was the best, he knew how she was and actively avoided her for his own health but something was bothering him this time around. Regardless of how much he liked to think she didn't matter, he felt concerned whenever she was mentioned. That was his problem... caring when the person doesn't deserve to be cared about. He trudged through the muddy road, he despised this neighbourhood.

He hated the way it looked, smelled and the people here... such a sorry picture of civilisation. Children ran past him, barefoot as they chased a rooster, screaming their damn heads off. Minho wondered if Minhyuk could scrounge up a needle and thread so he could fix the gash in his briefcase... or should he take the one his father used... it was no worse for wear though it bore its own scars from overuse. Minho gulped at the thought of his father. He reached the alley of his little rundown house and stared at its rusted gates.

16 years ago, his father had stepped out of these very gates... never to be heard from again. With him, their dreary, little shack used to feel like home... like all the dark and ugly was on the outside and they were safe behind the cracking plaster and makeshift roof, Appa shielding them from harm in his own bumbling, meek and soft way. The day he left... it felt like the locale had swallowed them in... the sewage, garbage on the roadside, dirty rainwater and the dirtier men... all flooding in and covering them in filth...

Minho heard a familiar child's call from a few metres away... it was his baby, his little brother Minhyuk. Grappling with teenage with his scrawny body and cracking voice, he raced towards him with flailing arms "HYUUUUNG!!!" he yelled and Minho couldn't help but chuckle as he hugged him, the older brother senses kicking in as he checked to see if Minhyuk had grown any taller than him. Thankfully, he hadn't and Minho put an arm around his shoulder "How's school, Ninja?" he asked and Minhyuk smiled.

"I scored well in Biology... my teachers are really encouraging me to pursue the nursing line" he grabbed his arm around his neck as they hauled each other towards home "Tch" Minho made a face "I don't pay your school fees just so that you go to school to be as uncool as me" he leaned in conspiratorially "Got a cute teacher hm??" he asked and Minhyuk turned red "Hyung!!!" he groaned and Minho laughed out loud. "Also... you weren't boring in school" Minhyuk shrugged "All my friends and other people used to look up to you" he remarked.

Minho thought about this for a moment...

Did they really? His mood lifted marginally upon hearing that...

"Now they must be wondering why my brother is such a bore" Minho snorted and Minhyuk socked him in the stomach, racing ahead of him to their house, upon arriving closer to which, Minho noticed that they have company. The doormat that was only used when guests were over was lying outside their rickety door that now had a string of plastic flowers garlanded across it. "Minhyuk... are people over??" he whispered to him as he took off his shoes, noticing added pairs on their rack, including one delicate pair of white sandals.

"Shh" Minhyuk put a finger to his lips as he ushered him inside. He could hear some ongoing chatter, plates and glasses clinking as his mother spoke energetically. She seemed okay, Minho thought, having suspected she might be ill after all those phone calls. Indeed, he mostly spoke to Minhyuk from home and if his mother had something to ask, she'd ask through Minhyuk too... so her directly contacting him... Minho stepped inside the house, garnering a pregnant pause in conversation as everyone looked up at him.