| What Remains Of Yang Jeongin | STRAY KIDS

|SEVEN|

Chapter 7

My dad only ever had one fear and that was demons. But I don't think he was scared of the entity itself, but the ones inside his head.

Growing up, I think my dad was the person I hated the most. Chan and he always butted heads and as time passed, it became more and more irritating. One thing my family all had in common was our unrelenting stubbornness, and those two had to be the most stubborn bulls in the barn. My dad insisted that Hyunjin and I didn't need the stories, that they weren't what god would have wanted, but Chan said "Fuck the lord. I know my family and they deserve to know the true stories of their relatives and what their fate will be, Changbin." I think that was the first time my dad got so angry he left and came back two days later reeking of soju. I try not to think about it too much. I was five.

My dad was an alcoholic priest. He wasn't raised Catholic, none of us were. It just kind of happened. When my dad went off to college, he said he had an "awakening", and believed strongly that if Hyunjin and I were to believe in the world, the family curse would not claim me. But the curse was not the work of the lord. It had a mind of its own and would claim all of us one day. Three years after Hyunjin's death, I finally blew up in his face. I told him that the curse was too true and that if the lord was real than our family would still be alive and mom would have never left. That was the first time my dad had gotten so angry at me and hit me as a result. Three days later, our bags were packed and we were on the road.

As time passed, dad acted as if something was following them. My dad only ever had one fear and that was demons. But I don't think he was scared of the entity itself, but the ones inside his head.

That was when the alcohol came in.

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So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen in temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:18

In this town, Seo Changbin was a man of absolute wonders. He breathed the Lord and had the hands of Jesus. Seo Changbin was a preacher, a famous one at that, and it wasn't uncommon for people to show their gratitude to him. Love was something he preached often, about how men and women should learn to love themselves for who they really were, that the Lord wanted to love and have his people prosper. The Lord did not want for his children to discriminate against one another. Changbin, in many ways, had respect from everyone in the community, and that was because he was daring enough to preach of gay rights, the disgusting stereotypes against people of different races, and the inequality between any and all genders. Changbin was a preacher in the modern world, and he had everyone's utmost respect.

Changbin practically held the world in his very palms. Young adult males approached him with flushed cheeks and quiet thank yous for protecting them when they felt like they were nothing, and young girls who had faced ridicule over and over again came to him when they needed advice or someone willing to step in and stop a situation they're too scared to expose to the police. Everyone respected Changbin, worshipping the very ground he stepped on, and as nice as it was to get a free meal or a discount every now and then, the man was insistent that the community focus on the Lord themself then on him. "The Lord appreciates your kindness, but he would love for you to turn your face to him," He would say before giving whoever a generous tip and walking away with no doubt another visitor to his next sermon.