1943 – Summer –

            I was startled out of my sleep on a hot summer’s night at around 1 in the morning to loud knocks on the front door. I got out of bed as the knocking woke me up more. I stood up looking through my bedroom door slit as my mom answered the door.

            “Hello?” she asked. I couldn’t see who was at the door, but it couldn’t have been good if it was this late at night. “Yes I understand please come in.” The door opened wider as two soldiers wearing the Japanese uniform entered the house. “Honey.” Mom said to dad who now stood in the living room. “We have guests.”

            “I see,” dad said. “What brings you two here tonight?”

            “You know,” one of the soldiers said with distaste. “You two have failed to pay the tax money for two months in a row. You know the government doesn’t like waiting for the payments.”

            “Yes we understand,” dad said bowing. “We’re very very sorry. We just don’t have the money at the moment to pay for the taxes. Our store is doing very poorly at the moment. But we are trying our best to raise the money.”

            “Well you aren’t trying hard enough are you?” the other soldier said. “If you truly were trying hard enough, you would’ve already paid last month’s money and this month’s as well.”

            “Is there some way we can compromise?” mom asked sitting down. “We are still willing to pay the money little by little as we get it.”

            “We let you slide for two months already,” the soldier said. “And that was being generous. Now enough is enough. Both of you stand up. Do you have any other people in this house?”

            “Us and our only son,” dad said with nervousness. “In his room. Baekhyun.”

            “Get him,” one of the soldiers ordered to the other. I saw one of the soldiers walk to my door. I backed up and sat back down in bed. What were they going to do to us? I knew we hadn’t had the money to pay taxes for a while, but having soldiers come to the house so late was starting to scare the hell out of me.

            “Baekhyun,” the soldier said as he entered the room with a loud slam of the door. “Is that you?”

            “Yes,” I said gulping. “I am Byun Baekhyun.” He grabbed me firmly on the arm.

            “Come out to the living room,” he said. He stood me up dragging me out of my bedroom to the living room. I was greeted by a pissed off soldier and two frightened people who were my parents. “Sit.” The soldier slammed me onto the floor.

            “Now watch carefully kid,” the other soldier said. “To what happens when you don’t pay your required taxes on time like your parents.” He takes out a baton walking over to my parents who are seated on the couch. He raised the baton slamming it against my dad’s face then slamming it against my mom’s face. “You get punished. And we have orders to kill.”

            I watched in horror as the soldiers kept beating my parents with their batons. Blood started to pour from the hits on their faces. My mom kept screaming in pain with each blow.

            “Stop!” I yelled getting up. I ran to them trying to stop the two soldiers. “Please!”

            “Stay back kid!” one of the soldiers yelled. He beat me with the baton sending me crashing back down on the floor with a big gash above my eye from the baton hit.

            “Please don’t hurt him!” mom yelled as she was hit again. They finally put the batons down throwing my parents onto the floor next to me.

            “Last words punk?” the soldier asked me through gritted teeth.

            “Mom,” I said crying in pain and horror and sadness. “Dad. I love you both. I’m sorry I can’t do any.” BANG! The gun goes off right in my dad’s head. I watch wide eyed as his eyes widen from the surprise bullet, then slowly blood trickles out of mouth as his head falls down on the ground with a loud thud. “No.”

            “Honey!” mom yelled through tears. BANG! She gets shot in the back of the head too. I look at my parents through teary eyes as they lay dead in a pile of their blood.

            “What are you going to do to me?” I asked the soldiers. “Kill me as well?”

            “No,” one of them said laughing. “You’re going to be taken to be given to a client of ours as a special present. A servant to him to fulfill his every wish and desire. I knew that that meant, I had heard many rumors of people being sold to others as -slaves. And I was becoming one of them.

            They picked me up off the ground taking me away from the house in a car to a love hotel.

            “Wait in here,” one of the soldiers said. He threw me down on a red velvet couch slamming the door for me to wait for the client. I slumped down on the couch crying. Why did this have to happen now? Just in a matter of minutes I had become an orphan. My parents were both still at home dead in blood, and I was being sold to somebody I didn’t even know.

            I kept seeing the horrid images of my parents being beaten and then my helpless self just watching them get shot. I couldn’t help myself, as I burst into tears again.

            “He’s in here,” I heard a voice say outside the room. “Are you sure you don’t want a girl? Why a boy?”

            “Yes that is fine with me,” another voice said back. “Thank you for business, you may leave now. He is now in my custody.” I heard footsteps walk away as the door slid open to a handsome man wearing a black suit with red accents. He smiled at me with an odd look in his eyes.

            I gulped down the fear of what would happen tonight or the nights for the rest of my life if he chose to keep me. He sat down across from me. For a while we just sat there in silence as he looked me over.

            “What’s your name?” he asked, finally breaking the long silence. “I am Kim Jaejoong.”

            “My name is Byun Baekhyun,” I said timidly. I wiped the remaining tears from my eyes.

            “Nice to meet you,” Jaejoong said. “So shall we get onto business?” I looked at him in fear as he took off his jacket getting more comfortable on the couch across from me.

            “Just so you know,” I said sacredly, “I haven’t done it with anyone before.” I closed my eyes gripping my legs trying to calm down.

            “Relax,” Jaejoong said. “I’m not going to do anything like that to you. We’re going to spend the night here then head back to your house to retrieve your things, then move you into my house okay?”

            “Okay, thank you,” I said sighing with relief. Jaejoong walked over to the bed, ing his shirt as he lied down on one side of the bed.

            “Baekhyun we’ll have to share this bed,” Jaejoong said patting the other side of the bed. “Just for tonight.” I walked over to the bed still in my pajama shorts and shirt. I lied down next to him trying to put myself to sleep, which was difficult since I was sleeping next to a 20 something year old stranger. “Stop worrying and just sleep.” He said, “I’m not going to do anything to you in your sleep.”

            I turned over finally closing my eyes to go to sleep. Going to sleep was a bad idea, because sleep only welcomed nightmares. I kept seeing my parents dying and aying again and again.

            “I’m sorry!” I yelled sitting up in bed.

            “Hey what’s wrong?” Jaejoong asked sitting up next to me. “Bad dream or something?”

            “Yes,” I said trying to shake off the scary images of my parents. “I keep seeing my parents getting beaten and shot.”

            “I’m sorry,” Jaejoong said. “Just to let you know, I’m here for you now.”

            “Thank you,” I said trying to smile. “Sorry for waking you up.” He wrapped his arm around me.

            “I’m sorry this happened to you,” Jaejoong said. He placed me back down on my pillow, his arm still wrapped around me. “Go back to sleep alright Baekhyun?”

            I looked at him in the darkness as he fell back asleep. I closed my eyes to his warm embrace of his arm still wrapped around me. 1943, summer, I was only 15 and now and orphan, off to live with a complete stranger.

            The next day I finally woke up in the bed still feeling Jaejoong’s arm wrapped around me.  

            “Good morning,” Jaejoong said. “Sleep okay? I think you did.” He looked amused as I finally woke up feeling my legs wrapped around Jaejoong’s legs. My eyes widened in surprise and alarm as I untangled our legs sitting up in bed.

            “I’m sorry,” I said blushing. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I am very sorry.”

            “It’s okay,” Jaejoong said. “You were finally sleeping so peacefully after your nightmare I didn’t want to wake you. How about we head back to your house to get your things?”

            “Sure,” I said trying to be brave, even though I was afraid that my parents’ bodies would still be there. We got out of bed heading out of the love hotel into a taxi.

            “Here we are,” Jaejoong said. “Bring all the things you want. We’ll be a while to get our things okay?”

            “Yes sir,” the taxi driver said.

            “Can you come with me?” I asked quietly. “I’m afraid of what might still be in the house.” I got out of the car as Jaejoong closed his car door. We walked up to the front door of the house as I opened the door.

            We enter the entryway on the way to the living room. Still lying on the floor were my parents. I kneeled down next to them crying. Inside my head I said a little prayer before standing back up wiping away the tears.

            “My room is this way,” I said leading Jaejoong to an open door. I the lamp getting my suitcase from the closet. “It’ll just be a minute. Have a seat.” Jaejoong sat down on my bed as I started putting clothes into the suitcase. After all my clothes were packed, I grabbed my records. “Do you have a record player at your place?”

            “Yes,” Jaejoong said smiling. “Can I see what you have?” I handed him my small stack of records for him to look at. I grabbed my favorite books putting them in the suitcase. Finally I closed the suitcase with everything packed, I grabbed my stuffed animal panda bear. “Ready to go?”

            “Yes,” I said smiling to him. “I have everything packed.”

            “Good,” Jaejoong said. “The train leaves at two for the countryside. Let’s go shall we?” We headed back outside as Jaejoong put everything in the trunk in the trunk of the taxi as we drove off to the train station.

            “You live in the countryside?” I asked him as we got our seats on the train. “I thought you would live in Seoul.”

            “Nope,” Jaejoong said. “I live in Busan, where it’s more away from the soldiers living in Seoul. But my real home is in Hiroshima. I am here in Korea only for a temporary time. We’ll be there in a few hours.”

            “Okay,” I said. “So why did you ask for a male you know?” I looked down at the panda bear on my lap. “When you could have gotten a girl one.”

            “I didn’t ask for a -servant,” Jaejoong said. “I didn’t know they would have my meet you in a love hotel, honestly. Since I’m busy with work most of the time, I needed a live-in to help around my house with chores, laundry, and cooking, and you were the one they chose to bring me. And I do feel more comfortable with guys then girls. But I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable in anyway.”

            “How old are you?” I asked him. I spent all this time with him and I didn’t know his name. “I’m only 15.”

            “I’m 28,” Jaejoong answered. “So what can you cook?”

            “I can cook a lot of things,” I said. “Lucky for you I brought my mom’s cookbook.”

            “Well each day before I head off to work, I’ll leave you some money to go shopping for food,” Jaejoong said. “I’ll be expecting good food.” He smiled at me. “I want us to be friends Baekhyun. I don’t just want you to be my house-keeper, but I want you to be my friend as well.”

            “Okay,” I said. “I will be your friend. Do you mind if I take a nap. I’m still sort of tired.”

            “Fine with me,” Jaejoong said. He took the panda bear placing it on his shoulder. “Here.” He patted the panda bear as I laid my head on it closing my eyes feeling the sleep washing over me as the peacefully clicking of the train could be heard.