| Through The Glass | MINCHAN/BANGINHO

|CHAPTER ONE|

Chan's eyes were sore beyond belief. Like so sore they were practically releasing tears by themselves at the pure idea of them staying open. His professor's voice was fading in and out, Chan only picking up on particular words and phrases that linked together to make a bunch of nothingness. His skin still felt cold from the freezing porcelain of his bath tub despite the multiple layers of clothes he wore. The cold spots lingered like bruises, reminding him of the uncomfortable bed he had last night and the little to no sleep he received from it.

It took almost everything in him to not walk out of class and to the near by bridge and end it all. What had been the point? He was failing his classes, his foster parents hadn't spoken to him in two years, he was about to lose his apartment, and his boss was on the verge of firing him. There was no one here that would keep him, someone to hold him and tell him it was going to be okay. Chan knew deep down that he had to learn to do it himself, to become independent and rely on himself.

But it had been exhausting. He had done it for the past year after his friend BamBam became an idol and moved on with his life. Chan didn't hold that against him, they were best friends, but sometimes, Chan wished BamBam dragged him a long for the ride instead of leaving him in the dust in the middle of an alley with the moon barely peaking over the top edges of the buildings. But life wasn't fair. And Chan had to make the best of what he had, even if the closest thing he had to a friend was the reflection in the mirror.

Chan sat through the rest of the lesson, the rest of his work shift, and the rest of his 2 hour busk at the street corner. But it seemed to all pass by like a blinding blur, white and dark flashes racing by his vision as he walked down the street. He should have been freaked out, worried if he was hallucinating but even Chan's mind seemed to be clouded with a foggy like haze. Everything seemed disoriented and almost unrealistic, light neon mint lights joining with the white and black.

He didn't know what was going on, his very own body feeling like it was bubbling and disappearing into thin air from the legs up. His head span, legs no longer succumbing to his thoughts and nerves and stopping right in the middle of the street. A flash of white and a numbing slam to his stomach that felt more like pressure than pain appeared before Chan's body completely gave out. His limbs fell to the ground, hip slamming against the concrete before his head and with a final, muffled scream and honk, Chan blacked out.

The moon barely hung in the sky, creating an illuminating light to shine on his damp face. Minho's eyes were sore, sorer than they had been in weeks. His legs dangled over the cliff side, observing the dry waste land just over the borders of the city. It went on for miles and miles, a completely different contrast to the neon, lively city he had been forced to live in. Minho had heard stories of the land beyond the perfect utopia his capital was made out to be. It was deadly, the people living in the toxic wasteland being made out to be insane and killing machines.

But those had only been stories, and Minho began to wonder just how true they had been. Minho had been higher up in the system of this perfect utopia, his parents close friends with some of the council members, ultimately forcing Minho to be friends with one of their sons. Felix hadn't been a bad kid, in fact he made Minho not hate his life pretty often, but sometimes, Minho just wished he could leave the walls and escape into the waste land where no one could find him. It sounded like a damn dream.

But due to his placement, he heard and saw things average commoners weren't supposed to know. He saw the blue prints, the chips the council had been making to keep better track of the community. He even saw the little implements they would install but never mention that controlled the nerves in their heads and bodies. This wasn't the perfect utopia the council made it out to be, it was broken and corrupted, a system Minho wished he and Felix didn't have to be a part of. Minho wished he could live in a reality where people could co exist without feeling as though they have to control every being.