XI- Kim by Kyun

I was completely shocked, I couldn't believe it. My father... Why? We are so poor, we do not have any property even in the lower city the people discriminate and shame us for our poor condition. But we still have one thing or two, which is our dignity. That was the only thing left to us, even our life does not belong to us. We work for the upper class, we pay taxes to help them develop their luxurious city, we are registered in a database controlled by the upper class who regulate the population rate in the lower city, I quote, "to not lose money unnecessarily". And now, a Kim contacted me to tell me that my father gave his dignity to his family to improve our miserable life.

"What's your purpose in telling me that? My dad is not the first person your family has used for their experiments. So why?."

"I'm not like my family."

"That's your answer?"

"Listen to me for now, tomorrow I will tell you everything."

"I will," I said before hanging up.

I looked at my dad who was lying on our new couch and I remembered his words "soon we will be able to move to a better place in the center of the lower city". He looked very happy and proud of him. For the first time in my life, I see my dad proud of himself. This simple thought makes me cry like a baby. Lihan and my father did not understand this sudden change of humor. A few minutes ago I was angry at my dad for spending too much money and now I was crying as though he was dying in my arms.

"Why did you accept? Why did you sell your body to this family? Are we that miserable, uh! ANSWER!" I yelled to my father.

"Kyun calm down. You can't talk to grandpa like that, he is your father !" Said Lihan trying to calm me down.

"Yes, we are. I can't work in the mine anymore because of my health condition and you will soon graduate. We have no money to pay the college fees and I can't destroy my child's dream. I can't doom my child to end up like me, a low life who never succeeds in anything throughout his life. I can't." He said his face turned to the ground.

I was angry, angry at myself for having this kind of dream, my dad who chose to sacrifice himself to help me fulfill this nonsense, the society, the so-called God who never helped us to get through this kind of situation. I was angry at Kim, this unfair system, and its cruel rules.

But what can I do?

"Uh Lihan, what can I do?"

He looked at me, tears rolling down his cheeks, his fist tight to suppress an imminent sob. After a few minutes, he takes my hand and looks me in the eyes.

"Don't stop your dad. Let him do that for you. Go to school and stop tiring yourself in the mine. You're capable, you can change this situation, not now but if you keep studying one day you'll be the one who changes this world. You're not like all these people who live in the lower city, you have faith you do not indulge in your current situation because you know a change is gonna come. I don't know what to do, I'm lost and can't answer your question but I believe in you. If your dad and I have to sell ourselves to help you, we will. So please don't be ashamed of us." He tells me with a broken smile.

This is unfair.

The next day Lihan disappeared again, my dad left the house for his new job at 5 am leaving me in our dipped house, yet somehow upgraded with my dad's new purchases, with two new books he asked me to study. The first one is about the geopolitics of ancient civilizations and the second one taught me to speak French, the most difficult language to learn nowadays.

My dad is not stupid if he had the opportunity to go to school he would have succeeded. But he was born in a poor family, his parents died when he was 15, he fell in love with my mother at 18 years old, and they had me at 20. He is not old but his life condition weakened him. I don't even understand why they accept him as a guinea pig. This situation is very odd, this call from jiHyuk, my bad health condition that is deteriorating yet he is selected as a guinea pig for the biggest family of scientists in the world, and Lihan's speech last night. I thought he was selling himself to survive so why does he ask me to accept his sacrifice?

I could not focus on my book. I had to understand this situation. Something's wrong and oddly it started to scare me. Therefore I took my phone and dial Kim's number. After two rings he picks up.

"You must have time to answer that quickly," I said with a faint smile.

I'm somehow happy to talk to him.

"Kyun, you told me you will stop your dad. Why did he come to hear today?"

"We are in a bad situation. My dad lost his job because of his inability to work in the mine. Sadly, that's the only thing he could do to feed me and pay my school fees. He has no diplomas so his social score is very low, he had no choice but to register as a potential guinea pig for your family company. I can't blame him nor stop him. He is not at fault but you are. How is it that he passed your test?" I asked in a serious tone.

"Your dad is not the one my family is looking for but you are. Your mom's name is Shou Saya, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"Do you know your ancestor's story?"

"I'm not a seer. My mom started to predict the future at 9 and she knew when she was going to die at 25. I'm 17 and there is no sign of this gift in me, nothing."

"You still have until 20 years old to develop it, that's why my family is still looking for you. I was able to steal and change your dad's result before they find out that you're his son. As you know, they have your mom's body, unfortunately, they couldn't use her blood to create their so-called "thrive pills" because she died from blood cancer."

They have my mom's body because we were too poor to give her a real burial but we did not want her to be thrown in the mass grave. That's why we agreed to give her body to science thinking she could be useful to society. One could not imagine her blood could have been used to manufacture a drug.

"What are you talking about? What are those pills for?"

"They want to spread your ability across the upper city to win the party and keep their first place among the 5 big families. Hence, these pills will contain a drip of your family blood and confer the ability to see the future for 10 minutes."

"How do you figure this out?"

"Do you know about the Wei family scandal?"

"Yes, who doesn't?"

"When she died my family took her corpse to examine her. My dad found out she was pureblood, a Shou, so he started to pay attention to her blood. That's how the first pills were created. The first samples were too concentrated and immediately killed the guinea pigs. The situation was such that the authorities began to restrict my dad's project. Then he promised to compensate all the families who lost their relatives during this bloody experiment creating the middle class. A few months after the beginning of that, the Wei family lost their last son Wei Lihan born dead with his mother. Filled with despair and sorrow the Wei father paid an astronomical amount of money to my dad to resurrect his son. My dad accepted because he was running out of blood. With the help of the old fool, he resurrects Wei Lihan. And to be able to use this endless blood factory, my dad made the Wei father sign a contract where it was stipulated that he had the right to dispose of the child's blood without coercion."

I was shocked, Lihan was used by the Kim family with the approval of his father. That explains all the shot bruises he had on his arm when I found his body back then. As I told him my mom's story, he knew about me and didn't want to disclose anything about his past life to protect me.

"You want to help me?" I asked with curiosity.

"I want to protect this world. My dad's experiment is way too dangerous and will lead us to unavoidable chaos."

"Keep protecting my dad's data. I need time. I still have to graduate from high school and then college."

"I can pay for the school expenses you have..."

"No, I can't accept your offer because that's my dad's only wish. I need five years to have enough social points to work in one of the best companies. I will not hide from your father, on the contrary, I want to fight head to head against him and change this world for a better one filled with neos* educated to maintain a real meritocracy."

Jihyuk began to laugh after my last statement, he stopped after a minute or two and said.

"I'll be waiting for you Kyun."

Then he hangs up. I was so embarrassed, my cheeks were red and warm and I couldn't stop thinking about what he just said. It felt like it hides another meaning.