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𝐒𝐄𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑 𝟏, 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟐
HOME.
noun. the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household.
home is such a simple word. when you think of home, you think of your parents, maybe a sibling or pet, your bed, food. for a group of young teenagers, home was deagu, south korea. a small town population 1,150 with only one stoplight. you can't even see it on a map. you pass right through it on the way to a larger city without a second thought.
there's the good side where rich kids live and swim in pools in their backyards and butlers. then there's the bad side where shattered alcohol bottles and cigarette butts litter the sidewalks and you're at risk of being jumped by gang members or broke college dropouts. the houses were small and would take a lot of time, love and care to make them look slightly decent.
the only thing keeping from these two sides from splitting into their own towns is the town square where all the stores and hangout places are. there's felix and minho's parents' restaurant called lee's that was built by their great great grandfather back when the town was founded in the early 1900s. it's one of the trademarks of their town. there's the bar called wildkard that nobody under the age of eighteen are allowed in, but everyone goes anyways. there's the town hall and library and the stores that every kid and their mother has shopped at, unless you live on the good side of town and you can get your clothes from the dior or gucci or wherever rich kids shop at. and there's the police station where somebody had been fired recently. and of course there was the highschool, that every kid in town attended. everyone in town had attended the same elementary, middle, and highschools. it definitely sucked that you had to attend the same school as a kid who's mother was the cousin of the co-creator of cheerios and acted like she was better than everyone.
other than those major drawbacks, the town did have some perks that made it slightly bearable, like the bar and lee's. and possibly the library if your initials were h.rj. but there was the elementary school park that a lot of highschool kids hung out at. and there were a few nice kids who lived on the good side of town. like the basketball coach's kid.
but the thing about this town is that everyone is lost. everyone is unhappy. but it's home. and this is the only home that these kids have ever known.
"mom?" huang renjun quietly knocked on his mother's door. he wore his school uniform, his backpack was slung over his shoulder carrying his books, and his backwards baseball cap sat on top of his dark brown hair. "mom." he called out a bit louder.
mrs. huang slowly looked up from her desk. papers littered the surface and floor. three empty coffee cups sat in front of her. she smiled wearily at her son. "renjun. are you going to school?"
