twelve

Danny's steps were tense and uneasy as he marched down the narrow alleyways towards his broken and ugly residence.

The glowing neon headers displaying ambiguous names, just several blocks down his residence stung his eyes badly.

Yes.

Danny Cha lives just a few blocks away from the Motel Colony.

Even at noon, those motels glowed disgustingly. Although, compared to night times, not many drunkards or nauseating couples were found roaming the streets—but the scene wasn't totally vacant.

Danny closed his eyes and avoided the scantily dressed middle-aged woman passing by the opposite side.

His house could be labeled as the cheapest and ugliest building, right at the end of the Motel Colony.

At night, sometimes the shameless noises from the hotel adjacent to his residence would keep him awake all night, hampering his sick mother's sleep as well.

Danny's footsteps halted on witnessing a scene that boiled his blood—from the entrance gates.

In the small lawn in front of his residence, on the ground covered with a patch of rotten grass—struggled Danny's mother to escape from the clutches of a disoriented drunkard.

"L-Let go.. you crazy!" Danny's mother battled, trying to slap the wandering hands of the drunkard.

Danny rushed in their direction, quickly helping his mother. He pushed the babbling drunkard away with a forceful hit and embraced his crying mother in his arms.

The drunkard hit his head hard on the boundary wall and lost consciousness. From the clothes, Danny was able to conclude that the man was wealthy.

He tightly hugged his weeping mother and grounded his teeth.

Eyes brimming with intense wrath he heard his mother pitifully apologize to him in a quivering voice. "Eomma is so sorry honey. I'm so sorry. I couldn't even give you a proper life and only bring troubles." [Eomma has a similar meaning to ‘mom’ in English, and should only be used when talking to your own mother]

Danny's hands ran over his mother's back in a comforting manner as he softly replied. "Don't cry eomma. I promise, one day I will take you away from this place and we'll live peacefully there—without any trouble."

He never blamed his mother for their present predicament. While other prostitutes aborted the child they conceived during business, his mother didn't.

Danny's mother left the business, bought a house with whatever she had saved from her work and began wholeheartedly taking care of him. He didn't have the freedom that most of his schoolmates did but his mother never let him go to bed with an empty stomach—or get kicked out of the school for not paying the fees on time.

But in the later years, she was diagnosed with PID and with their economic situation, she hid it for long before collapsing one day with unbearable pain.

Since that day, Danny was given a rude awakening from his immature teenage self. He cannot afford to lose his only family and went through a rebellious period, trying to drop out from school and find jobs to support her treatment.

Luckily, his mother capably drained his rebellious thoughts and both mother and son came to a final decision. Danny will work—only after finishing his studies.

Thanks to this negotiation, eventually Danny got very good at studies and also received a scholarship after graduating school, easing his mother a lot.

Danny had also kept a secret about participating in food challenges from his mother for the last two years. The money he wins from those is collected solely for buying a studio apartment near his University. Once it reaches 4Million, he can shift with his mother.

Helping his mother up, Danny vows to himself. Soon. They'll leave this place soon and start anew somewhere.

Some place, where his mother's past will not haunt her. Where no one will recognize her and make troubles for her. And where, it'll be just two of them.

~

Inside the vast gym, Min stood motionlessly as Donghyuck ran around the whole premise, switching on the lights.

"Sunbae... I have to start today , right..?"

Donghyuck switched on the last one and turned around facing Min. "Yes."

"I have to change to my shorts, right?" Min looked down at his pair of jeans and sighed.

"Go to the shower room and change.." Donghyuck offered, grabbing his own change of clothes.

Min ran to the shower room readily and tentatively changed into a pair of comfy lime green shorts. Truthfully, Min was afraid that he had forgotten to pack some shorts but—after tossing all his underwear, he did find two shorts, one of which he was wearing now.

When Min came back from the shower room, Donghyuck had already started contorting his body into various positions.

Donghyuck was indeed a short guy but his stature was sturdy and well built. His limbs were long and flexible. Not a single crack could be heard when Donghyuck bent his body in abnormal ways.

"Ah, Min.. come, come." Donghyuck patted beside him, after seeing Min emerge from the shower rooms, Min's shirt now flailing loose at his sides.

Min approached Donghyuck as if slowly walking towards his impending adventure with sparkling eyes.

Donghyuck began with a serious expression on his face. "At first, when I joined, they made me do handstands and headstand. I think you'll have to start with them too as you're going to be a flyer as well." [A handstand is the act of supporting the body in a stable, inverted vertical position by balancing on the hands. In a basic handstand the body is held straight with arms and legs fully extended, with hands spaced approximately shoulder-width apart and the legs together. There are many variations of handstands, all of which require the performer to possess adequate balance and upper body strength. The headstand, or sometimes head stand, is a pose that is an inversion posture of standing head down]

Min understood well but he had no idea how to separate those two. Back in P.E. classes, didn't both those look alike to him?

"Want me to show you how to do those?" Donghyuck asked, rubbing his hands together.

Min excitingly agreed that made Donghyuck laugh.

Min was really too adorable.

Climbing up from his seated position, Donghyuck flipped around and did a handstand easily.

Min was so busy being shocked at the speed in which Donghyuck did a handstand that he couldn't hear anything that Donghyuck described after that.

Min wowed in his heart. Cheerleading seems so freaking amazing.