district 9 || stray kids

2

A boy dressed in a grey hoodie and trousers is sat before the doctor. He sits with his arms folded, eyes darting around warily, fuelled by fear and anxiety. The room smells like dentists' office and antiseptic.

"What is your name?"

"My name is Bang Chan."

"No. Your name is 240."

"I'm Bang Chan! Look, man, I don't know why I'm here. I don't like it and I just want to go home." He fidgets more.

"This is your home now."

"No! Bring me home!"

Chan lashes out and kicks over a metal table. A bottle crashes to the floor and shatters, staining the tiles with its clear blue contents. The doctor clucks his tongue.

Instantly, two sets of arms hold Chan down as a needle pricks his neck. A cold runs through his veins, turning his blood into molasses. Chan's eyes widen in fear, then close.

"Wipe his memory," the doctor sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose, annoyed. The two nurses in plastic uniform nod and haul Chan's body into a room.

...

A boy dressed in the white collared uniform and wrist tag is sat before the doctor.

"What is your name?"

Chan looks at the tag on his wrist. "My name is 240."

"Good boy. How old are you?"

"I am seventeen years old."

The doctor nods and orders a nurse to bring him to his room. Chan sucks in a breath when he sees it; everything that scares him: an empty space, eerie light, and a hospital bed with a space underneath it. He shudders as the nurse leaves him alone sitting on his bed.

Someone knocks his door a little while after the nurse leaves.

"Who is it?" he answers cautiously. There is no peephole in the metal door.

"Hey mate! Am I allowed in?"

A boy's voice. A boy should mean good, right? A victim, like him. Chan utters yes.

The lock of the door clicks: someone's picking their way in.

It's not just one boy. Five boys flood in, one even carrying a bottle. They settle down and sit on the floor in a circle with Chan.

"So, I'm Sehun. My number's 218, by the way. This is Felix," Sehun says, gesturing to the boy with ruffled hair holding the bottle by its neck, "this is Mingyu, this is Jisung, and this is our baby, Jeonginnie. What's your name?"

"My name is 240."

"No, what's your name?"

"Won't I get in trouble if I say it?"

"There're no cameras here, mate," Felix says, smiling a cheeky grin before taking a swig from the bottle. Jisung gives Chan a warm smile.

"I'm B-Bang Chan. My English name is Chris. Just call me Chan," he says, holding out his hand for a handshake. He shakes everyone's hands once.

"Chan," Jeongin pipes up, stirring in his position, "do you remember who you were?"

"...I think... I was... no, actually, I can't remember anything," Chan says sadly. He frowns and hangs his head.

"Not even the clothes you wore before this uniform?"

"I was wearing a grey hoodie... and trousers," Chan sighs.

"It's okay. None of us remember who we were. I don't even remember my parents," Mingyu chuckles. He takes a gulp of the drink and passes it to Sehun. "But you have to remember what you wore before you came here. Once you forget, you really lose who you are."

"It's permanently dark here?" Chan asks, to which Jeongin nods.

"How old are you, Chan?" Sehun asks. He puts the bottle down, and Chan takes it. He chugs it straight, then coughs.

"I'm s-seventeen. You guys should be around this age too, right?"

Jisung nods. "I'm fifteen. Sehun and Mingyu are seventeen too, Felix is fourteen, and Jeongin is thirteen."

Chan asks the first thing that comes to his mind. "What do we do here?"

"Oh," Felix interrupts. "we study, or they send us into the maze to tend the five petaled flowers."

"Five petaled flowers?" Chan tilts his head.

"Yea. They make us pick flowers for some reason and the thorns cut our hands. We just do it because if we don't, we don't come back from the maze," Felix says. He shudders.

"He should know," Jeongin says sadly, "he saw our friend in there, all white and bloody."

"...what was his name?" Chan asks.

"Baekhyun," Jeongin sniffs. "He was seventeen too."

A short silence ensues again. Then Chan remembers to ask for something: "...why'd you have to pick the lock?"

"The nurses lock us in our rooms. When they aren't patrolling we visit each other," Mingyu explains eagerly. Beside him, Sehun sips from the bottle and passes it back. "We steal pins from the nurses, and we gotta be careful not to let them know or find them, or else we'd be good as dead. Then when we leave, we lock each other back in."

There's a long silence. Mingyu stands up and finishes the bottle, then chucks it out the window where it lands with a crash.

"Mingyu!" Chan exclaims in fear, testing the name on his tongue. "What if they find it?"

"They won't," Mingyu scoffs. "We have robot cleaners. They just pick up and throw, pick up and throw. Brainless."

It eases Chan a little.

"It was nice meeting you, Chan," Sehun says, cracking a smile. "We have to go now. Meet you during meal time."

In a short while, just as fast as the nurse left, Chan is left alone in his room sitting on his bed again. He stares out of the window Mingyu threw the bottle out of and estimates about thirty floors.