"Lunch time!" V crowed from behind the basement door before flinging it open. I sat up on my bed, curious about what food he'd be bringing. Bowls of rice and pork covered in soy sauce sat on top of the metal tray I had come to know so well, and the sunlight illuminated them like a halo.
He set up lunch on the table and sat directly across from me. As we began eating, he cleared his throat. I glanced up.
"So, today, I want to tell you about my life as a human, so maybe you can connect with me more," he started, shoving a clump of rice into his mouth with his chopsticks.
I nodded warily. "Okay..." I agreed. I was slightly suspicious, but then again, I was curious about his life. What had caused for him to turn out this way? I knew virtually nothing about him except for his delusions, and I wanted to know the reasons behind them.
"Where should I start..." he mused, cocking his head to the side as he stared at the ceiling. His eyes were lit by the lights, casting an innocent shine onto his dark irises. "Where do you want to start from?"
"Everything." The word was uttered before I could even think about it. V raised an eyebrow and chuckled. He just knew that he had me in the palm of his hand, didn't he? It gave him satisfaction and pleasure. I bit my lip in embarrassment, and he took a slow breath before speaking.
"My human caretakers were quite rich, actually," he said. "I had a younger human sister and brother. Don't ask me how they were or their names, though, because I simply do not remember."
Oh.
V furrowed his brow, as if he were confused. "Come to think of it, I was made fun of all the time in school," he said. "They beat me because I was different. I still have the scars."
He pulled up the side of his shirt to reveal his stomach. It was covered in dark, criss-crossing lines. I gaped. That had to hurt.
"Third grade. Park Chanyeol and his friends pushed me onto broken glass and kicked me until I was unconscious."
"His name...?" How did he remember his name but not his own siblings? I was too afraid to word the whole question, though, as I didn't know if it would set him off. He was a living time-bomb, after all.
V grinned his rectangle grin. "I remember all of my victims' names," he whispered lowly. My stomach dropped. Oh my God. He'd killed his elementary school bullies, and he was celebrating that. I was to horrified to have a proper response, so he continued.
"Anyways," he sighed, "my human parents sent me to years and years of endless therapy. You'd think that I'd look upon that memory and scowl, but, actually, it was fate. I realized who I was in therapy."
"...What?"
"A therapist once said that I was alien to everyone else," he explained, smiling softly. "I discovered my true self and calling that day."
I had long stopped eating. My appetite was gone. Delving into his past explained so much, but it also hurt. Those schoolyard bullies had no idea that they were creating a killer, and they didn't even know that they were setting up their own deaths. I felt both disgusted and terrible.
"My parents realized that therapy wasn't working," V continued, "so they gave up on me. I was a lost cause to them. Suddenly, they remembered that I had younger siblings who weren't 'ruined.' I became the ghost of the family, so to speak."
"I'm... I'm sorry," I whispered quietly. "I'm sorry you had to suffer so much."
V waved it off casually, shrugging and chuckling. "I'm the one laughing now, aren't I?" he chuckled. "It's all good... Shall we continue? So, one day, I read The Little Prince. You know that book, don't you? It was very interesting, and I decided to try its idea out. I thought that maybe killing my human form would send me back home."
"Oh my God," I murmured, staring at my rice with numbness. "You... You tried killing yourself?"
"My parents stopped me," he replied. "I then realized that the time to go home would come eventually, so I decided to fulfill my mission here. One of my brethren would send for me when it's completed, I'm sure of it. Either way, they sent me to the mental hospital, which was, again, a fated occurrence. There, I met another of my kind, and he told me the way to experiment. Everything you see now, it's all thanks to him. When I left the hospital last year, I drew up plans for a house and asked for it for my sixteenth birthday, and now..."
"Now we are here," I finished glumly.
V beamed. "And now, we are here."
I looked up, at his smiling face. What child deserved to be mistreated to the point of literal insanity? Despite what he had done to me, it wasn't his fault. V didn't deserve any of what he had been put through.
I stood up abruptly and walked over to his side of the table. His eyes followed me with curiosity. I bent down and wrapped him in my arms, leaning my head on his. He was warm, and he felt warmer against my body. When I pulled away, he stared at me, dumbfounded.
"I'm sorry for everything," I murmured, staring straight into his eyes.
A few moments of dead silence, and I was suddenly afraid of him striking me. There was a butter knife within his reach, after all. His unpredictability was terrifying, and it took all of my will to remain on my knees and not running away and taking cover.
V flipped a small notebook from his pocket and pulled out a pen. As I stared, dumbfounded, he scribbled something down quickly.
"Subject... is capable... of empathy..."
