Seven | Book 1 (An EXO fiction)

2.

~Chapter 2: Honey, I'm Home~

*2 Days Prior*

The day after that was just another average day in the 3rd ring. I was wandering around after having come back from another drop off. Coke of some sort for the bum who lives outside of the hair salon. He always manages to buy the largest amount of drugs but never manages to leave his spot outside of the salon or change his clothes. I don't know where he's getting the money.

It might have been around noon and since that vile woman was still going to be gone for another day I decided to give myself the rest of the day off to relax. Also since she was gone, it meant that we were on our own for food until she got back. Luckily we had some frozen meats and a few...decent enough to eat vegetables lying around, so I could make some kind of dinner with what we had. If she had left some money we could have just ordered delivery, but of course, we don't get that luxury.

As expected almost none of the kids were inside when I returned nor was there food money, and I could only hope they were hanging out with their friends and not getting in to trouble. It was early in the day, but I figured if I made the food now they could warm it up later as they all came home. I set out the meat to thaw, and turned on the stove under a pot of water and chicken broth. I went to work slicing up some carrots for what I decided would be chicken soup.

Taking care of all of these younger boys wasn't my responsibility. In fact, Momma actually hated it when I took it upon myself to help one of the boys, but that doesn't mean I was going to leave them to fucking starve and get killed while she sat on her ass.

Lost in my irritated thoughts I accidently cut in to my thumb with the blunt knife. I hurriedly pull the bleeding extremity away from the food and rinse it off in the sink. It bled way worse than it actually felt, but I could almost definitely see a bit of bone. Little rivers of red washed down the drain.

After wrapping a paper towel around it I went to work searching for some kind of bandage. I knew that we had them more or less lying around all over to place due to the amount of injuries that occurred around here. As soon as I found the cabinet that held the box of plain bandages, the door to the kitchen swung open, banging into the wall rather loudly; I was greeted by none other than my best friend.

"Honey, I'm home!" He called out with a wide catlike grin. His arms were spread open as if gesturing for me to run in to them for a hug. I looked at him briefly and scoffed before returning to taking down my Band-Aid box.

"Tao why are you here right now?" I asked him monotonously. I was happy to see him, but his sudden presence could have led to trouble had I not been here alone. This wasn't the first time he'd just busted in like he lives here, which he doesn't, and the last time he snuck in through the front door instead of the upstairs window he nearly got caught.

"Wow, nice to see you too." He muttered while situating himself on the counter next to the food. "And for your information, Joshua told me that she wasn't here, so I decided to pay my second favorite person a visit." He surveyed the kitchen in silence while I sit the box down next to the sink.

"And who exactly is your favorite person?" I asked, humoring him since I already knew his answer.

"Um, me of course." He said as if it's obvious. As expected. King Tao is the self-declared best thing to happen to the 3rd ring.

"Shocker..." I whispered to myself as I turned my back to him so that I could use the sink again. I heard him jump off the counter, he landed on his feet, and then closed the distance between us to look over my shoulder. His torso and pelvis making contact with my behind and back.