𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘨𝘯𝘦 || 𝘫𝘪𝘩𝘢𝘯

:: 𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗 ::

𝚜𝚒𝚗 #1 ; 𝚏𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚛 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛

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   "Did you get a high score on your test, Joshua?"

   (Test…?) He turned around to look at her. "What test?"

   "The one you had this week. Did you get a high score on your test, Joshua?"

   "I did" He lied. 

   But even that wasn't enough to shut the broken record. "What score did you get on your test?"

   "A 90"

   "Show me"

    With quivering lips, Joshua stopped washing the dishes and walked over to the red bag that laid on the floor. His hands trembled, his breath had hitched long ago, and yet he didn't dare show it. So with a poker face, Joshua tried his best to open the zipper and search for the test, whichever one it was, as long as it had a good score he could show to his mother.

   Once he found a random paper with his lie written on it, he took a deep breath and looked up at her. "Here" He said before she immediately snatched it out of his hand.

   The woman then held it up to her eye level and looked over it once, twice, three times, then turned it over to the other side and did the same. The curl in her lips had long ago faded.

   "This is not the test"

   "I...I didn't know which test you were talking about"

   "The extra credit one" She looked at him. "The one that'll bring your score up"

   "The teacher said my grade was good," Joshua gulped. "That I..didn't have to take the extra credit one"

   "So you decided not to?"

   "..."

   "Even though you knew you should've.."

   This wasn't the time to laugh hysterically but she had begun to do so. The sound made his ears thunder and his heart beat faster than he'd wanted.

   Joshua knew what would come next. He knew and yet he wished he didn't.

   Because as soon as he closed his eyes and prayed, prayed as loud as he could without her knowing, she brought a scraped wooden stick out from a nearby drawer and swung it back.

   “Let this be a lesson for you, Joshua Hong”

   SLAP

   The sound of wood meeting skin was enough to dart him out awake.
  
   Surrounded by white walls and cold air, Joshua found himself heavily breathing, as if he'd run 10 miles without stopping. Sweat was dripping and falling onto the pillow underneath his head and his hands couldn't stop trembling.

   A dream. A horrible and terrifying dream.

   Everything that involved the old hag was terrible, this he couldn't deny. But having her appear in his dreams was beyond petrifying. Nightmares such as these reminded him of her monotonous voice and dead eyes. Eyes that, unlike his, were dull and black, even if they heavily resembled his cat ones.

   "Not again…" He whispered as he covered his face with his hands.

   Joshua was scared. He had always been scared of his mom, of the times she would act like this. And as countless tears dared come out of his eyes he felt his throat clog and his vision blur.

   Joshua knew he wouldn't be able to fall asleep.

- 𝚜𝚟𝚝 -

   "Where is he?”

   “Joshua?” Jeonghan nodded. “He wasn’t feeling well so Seungcheol allowed him to stay in the dorms, with police supervision of course”

   What the hell? The mafioso frowned.  “Today’s the last day of training before tomorrow’s mission. Is he crazy?”

   Hoshi chuckled. “Well, he kind of is. You are too in fact”

   “Haha, funny”

   “To be honest though, I wouldn’t be surprised if he were,” Minghao said as he walked through the doors that lead to the field. “Before you two came here, Cheol and I made sure to do a background check on you both just to see what kind of mess we’d be getting ourselves into. Of course, the little we could find was...shocking”

   "Oh good morning Hao, I see the assassins have failed"

   "Oh good morning Yoon, I see you're still here. How devastating"

   "Ok you two, back it up" Hoshi said as he stepped in between the two. "Anyways, what were you saying Hao? About Joshua I mean"

   Jeonghan narrowed his eyes. “Just what the hell happened to him?”

   “That we are not too sure.... Even if we were, I wouldn't be spilling it around like tea" Minghao said as he sat on a nearby bench. "After all, not only is it confidential but it all revolves around his jerk of a family and the overly nice brother"

   Hoshi raised an eyebrow. "Brother?"

   "Surprising isn't it? All I can say though, is that he has to do with one of his offenses: attempted murder" Minghao frowned.

   "After all,

   He is the one Joshua sinned against"