in a world without powers, everything works out. he doesn’t get orphaned just shy of his fifth birthday. the boys at school don’t look at him like captive mice in a cage. he gets to be the soccer player he’s always dreamed of. as far as he’s concerned, life would be fucking peachy— or in other words, they’d get what they want. who? the fucking humans, of course.
park jaehyun sinks his canines into his hatred like a rabid dog on a bone. the idea of him buckling under the globe of pressure that they’ve so carelessly balanced atop his shoulders is akin to death itself, perhaps not of the physical body, but of his essence. and perhaps one might argue that life would be better if he just let go of his blind hate and think. but that’s the thing: even if he caved now, if he complied like a well-trained purebred and killed this part of himself, he still wouldn’t get his parents back. he’d still be an orphan, still have the lived experience of being looked upon like a freak. it wouldn’t erase the fact that the very same people had so quickly thrown him in jail and took his life away from him.
it's for this reason that he despises the anomalies who try to play nice. people like sanghyun who decide, against their better judgement, to wipe the slate clean and fall in line. did they forget, so easily, all the things that humans had done to them? did they have so little respect for all that had been taken away? now here is an anomaly from their camp attempting to network, to crash the party with his brainwashed scriptures, and it takes every nerve in his body to stop himself from plucking the guy by the neck and throwing him out. so instead, he settles for second best, brushes shoulders with the anomaly accidentally on purpose while forgetting to watch his strength. the man falls and he snickers, pretends his company’s said something witty to trigger the shit-eating laugh that pours from his chest. he’s had his fun and he thinks to end it there, until he hears the pipsqueak’s voice accusing jaehyun of attacking him on purpose and demanding an apology. jaehyun stops in his tracks, turns so glacially you could hear the creak, and approaches the campaigner. “i barely touched you,” the statement falls as a threat, low and gravelly past near gritted teeth, “if you want, i can attack you. so you can compare.” and just like that, he decides that maybe, he’ll make good on his original plan after all.
ft. park jaehyun & @rnalgnant's lee sanghyun
