We Run Around With Monsters Under Our Feet [m.y+j.h]

1. BORN TO DIE

Hoseok was born to die.

Growing up in a little village came with its perks and its flaws. An advantage being that all the kids knew each other. It was quite cute really, whoever was on your street, you got to know them- forced by your parents to mingle- and everyone was more than willing to have another friend.

On the downside of this little town was that a monster lived at the bottom of the well.

For the last 100 years some form of monster lived locked in a dry well. A team of elite humans joined forces to capture this monster who was before causing destruction to the town and surrounding area, massacring innocent people and devouring them for dinner. They kept him tamed in that well and somehow made a deal with it that every year they'll feed him one human. Every year, you hope that person isn't you.

Hoseok was, unfortunately, that person.

He doesn't remember being chosen, well nobody would- he was only a couple of days old,- however through all the stories and tales, he began to have a good image in his head of what actually happened. He knows for a fact that while he was in a hospital , only just being born, he was placed into a room, a white sterile room with rows and rows of newborn babies that were just like him. All of them tucked into sheets and beds not having a clue what their fate was or an idea of the real world. A man, an area manager for the SS- also known as the Serenity Seekers- would walk up and down, a scalpel in hand, as he went through the rows scanning each child with a monotonous face. The click, click of his shoes knocking on the cold floor until, with a swipe, the man grabs a child's hand, raising the scalpel and piercing a cross into the child's arm, deep enough so the scar lasts for life.

When he turns 20 years old, the age he is no longer considered a boy- but would you even consider him a man? He will be sent off, the whole village ready to see him meet his doom. He's watched it all before, for the last 5 years. Hoseok watched men and women of the like forced down into Central Well; he can still hear their cries, their pleas, their prayers as they get pushed lower and lower, quieter and quieter go their screams.

Hoseok was told about his fate from an early age. His parents told him. Sat him down on the family sofa and discussed the world they lived in. It's wasn't as if his parents were just like "oh Hobi dear, you're going to die when you're 20! Have fun!" His own curiosity beat him, questioning almost daily what the scar on his arm meant: "mum, does this make me a superhero? Am I like Spider-Man? Can I shoot stuff out of my arm?!" So when his parents in fact said he was going to get eaten, that the stars aligned and chose him to go down, he wasn't actually that phased.- "cool! So I can meet a monster?!"- If anything it all made sense. The pitying stares he received from his friends mothers' all added up. The way he never got into trouble at school for doing the exact same thing his friends did, he was let off the hook: allowed to do what he wants because he will die for the people.

The young boy always considered himself a superhero, or like Jesus. A sense of pride that he could just in fact save his whole village to just be a bit of human jerky. It's not like he wanted to die, he just understood why he had to die. He knew that to anyone else the thought would have them fleeing the town, the country maybe even heading off to the moon, however he wasn't a coward and that cross on his wrist was there and he couldn't escape it, you can't escape fate.

As he aged and became more mature, Hoseok never forgot about his pending doom but he never seemed bothered by it. He would talk about his death like it was the most normal conversation to have at the dinner table. It was bravery and pride that spurred him on, yes he still got the sympathetic looks and he tried to ignore it- they got on his nerves to be honest; 'I'm dying for you, at least seem a bit happier that you're not doomed as soon as you turn 20.'