[team four] fallen men

[damagea.livejournal.com]

HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY elindar! ♥ i can't give you a whole fic yet but this is the au i'm working on.



University or studying had never appealed Jackson since he had been young. The best thing about his life was that his parents had never refused about anything he had asked for and therefore they hadn't forced him to study more, apply for University and do like most youngsters did. Instead, his passion had been fencing since forever and he had the best parents in the world for supporting him going towards his dreams, telling him to never give up, reminding him to keep his mind.

Jackson kept practicing everyday with all his energy. His coach was actually convinced he could become something big, maybe even achieve the competitor position in the Olympics if he tried enough. Jackson's parents couldn't have been more proud when they heard that and told him he shouldn't worry about school or funding, they would solve everything one way or another, and Jackson promised he wouldn't worry about that.

In a way it shouldn't have been a surprise when Jackson was finally invited for the national tournament to present Hong Kong but no-one in their family could hide the delight the news gave them. His mother hugged him tightly and his father promised they would come and see him competing on such a big arena for sure. They called all the relatives and told the neighbors, not even trying to hide the pride they had in their voice when talking about Jackson.

Some fencing friends of Jackson teased him for getting so much from his parents for free and maybe there's was a hint of jealousy in that as well but Jackson ignored such talk since he believed that was every parent's work to support their children. Perhaps there was some luck in it as well since his parents were the best ones one could ever wish for and their family had everything – nice big house, decent well-paid jobs, Jackson's fencing, relatives and friends.

When the day of the tournament finally came Jackson left early in the morning for the event place in Guangzhou since there were all the preparations he had to do there before the actual competition would start. His parents would drive with their car and follow him later in the afternoon because there was no way they would miss such a special moment of their son. When Jackson was about to step out his mother gave him one last kiss on the cheek and told him to take it easy while his father patted his shoulder in a manly way and told him one more time how proud they were.

The preparations were hard and challenging but Jackson's mind was surprisingly calm throughout the day. When the competition started and Jackson could hear all the sounds coming from the arena he tried to remember all the encouraging words his parents had once told him. He kept fiddling with his glove for another five good minutes before putting his right hand into it and making sure it was tighten properly. It would be his turn soon so after standing up he took a deep breath and started walking towards the doors leading to the arena.

“Mr. Wang?” someone behind him excused suddenly.

Jackson turned around. “Yes,” he answered politely, “I need to get to the arena. It's going to be my turn soon--”

The female event coordinator looked apologetic in her navy suit as she bowed at him. “I'm sorry, we have something very unfortunate to tell you.”

Jackson didn't get it. Was he banned from the competition after all? After all the practicing and hard work and they would tell him that he couldn't take part? Jackson couldn't even imagine the disappointment in his parents' eyes if they found out their son had been banned due to any ridiculous reasons.

“There has been an accident,” the woman continued. “A car accident.”


After that everything became black. Jackson couldn't remember properly who led him out from the event place but surely he hadn't been competing on that day, he hadn't got wounded in the battle, he hadn't even stepped on the arena. And he had no parents any longer.

They took him somewhere for the night because he couldn't sleep at home. Jackson simply couldn't go home, be surrounded by all their furniture, decorations and things, and his parents would be there no longer. They would never come back home. But he's too numb to even cry for that.

---

He hadn't forgotten how much time had gone by, he had just stopped keeping track. Jackson didn't know how long it had been since the horrible news and the funeral but he knew he was now sitting there at the real estate office in front of Mrs. Che who kept talking incoherently about some numbers and fiddling with the pile of papers which apparently had something to do with their house.

“--and that means you need to move out by the end of the week.”

Jackson raised his head and cleared his throat. “E-excuse me? What?”

Mrs. Che shot him a look which he couldn't read. Maybe it had some sympathy or some pity as she smiled sadly. “I'm regret to tell you Mr. Wang that you have no right to your family's house any longer and it belongs to us and the government as you have no income for the mortgage. Actually your income seems to be zero, at the moment.”

“But my parents had bought the house when they had been young. Of course it belongs to me,” Jackson tried but Mrs. Che shook her head.

“They had sold the house and their property two years ago,” she chirped like she had been talking to a child. “Your father had come to our office - see these papers – and sold the house in order to get the finance for his son's - you, I assume - his son's hobby.”

Jackson felt like the world was spinning in front of his eyes and he could do nothing but wish this was just a bad dream.

“You have until the end of the week,” Mrs. Che continued, “Of course we can help you to get a room for rent but you need to visit labour force bureau first so that we can get you the income--”

“No thank you,” Jackson said and stood up. He left without saying anything more because there was no use.

Just a while ago he had had parents, nice house, promising career with fencing, friends, relatives. Everything had been perfect and ready. Now his parents were gone and so was the house. His so-called friends hadn't called him even once and his coach had simply told him it would be better for everyone if he took a break with fencing. Relatives had shown up at the funeral but they had left quickly as the ceremony had been over, the only thing they had promptly asked Jackson was about the testament which he had no idea about and he didn't even care.

Everything had been perfect and ready and it was all gone now.

Jackson made a quick visit at home, just to pack the most needed belongings into his back bag. He took the money from the cookie jar where he knew his parents kept some bills for a bad day. Never had he thought that bad day would actually come. Everything had been in order.

He didn't want to touch anything else because everything looked still all the same as it had always looked like. He wanted to believe that his parents would come back home someday, find the house in the state like it had always looked like but only Jackson would be away.

Jackson turned off the lights, stepped out and didn't look over his shoulder. He couldn't stand that last glance to the previous life that had been once his.

--

After wandering around the city Jackson had directed his steps to the area which he knew had many homeless and other suspicious people. He wanted to laugh at the thought, though, because Jackson had almost quickly forgotten how he was a homeless person now too. He wasn't any better than those people he had maybe once judged for having worse luck than him. Maybe that area would offer some nice spot to sleep and he didn't have to suffer from those cold glances that all the normal and rich people gave for poor people like him. He was part of the B class citizens now and there was no way to deny that, Jackson should start getting used to that.

Jackson had never been in that area except the times he had seen it through the car window. As he kept walking through the street he caught some curious glances as he was probably new face but no-one really said anything. The area was like the gathering of forgotten souls, of the people who had given up with the normal life.

A small alley between two buildings was hardly a meter wide but that was just enough for Jackson who could curl up there. He throw his bag under his head and lay down for as comfortable position as possible. He had thought that had been a brilliant idea and he could maybe catch a few hours of sleep until he realized what he had forgotten as the first drop of rain fell on his forehead. The alley was outside so of course there was no roof or anything. He was about to stand up to find a better place to sleep when someone kicked his foot with their ankle. “Hey, you're blocking the way to our home,” someone said angrily.

Jackson got up in a flash and was met with faces of six young men, maybe around the same age as him.

“I'm sorry, I didn't realize that this was your home. I just needed to find a place to sleep because I recently lost my parents and my house. Or it wasn't my house but my family's house. And my parents didn't get lost but they died and--”

“Cut it out,” the first guy in the front muttered. He was quite tall (at least compared to Jackson), he had a dark hair and was wearing a black leather jacket over other black clothes which made him look slightly threatening. His eyes were squinted into thin lines as he looked at Jackson suspiciously.

“Aw hyung, he seems quite harmless!” the guy with a weird hair color in the back exclaimed. The leather jacket guy ignored that.

“Are you armed?” the young man next to the threatening-looking man asked. This guy looked sincere with a friendly face and funny-looking ears, and the tone of his voice was calm.

Jackson shook his head.

“Drugs?” the threatening-looking guy asked.

Jackson snorted. “Only organic tea and nowadays coffee because I can't afford organic anymore,” he wanted to joke a little bit. That was maybe the first time he had joked after his parents' death.

“Very funny,” the guy answered but bothered to smirk a little bit.

“What's your name?” the friendly man inquired.

“Jinyoung!” the threatening-looking guy hissed warningly, it was easily seen that he was some kind of a boss or a leader of the group and no-one should mess up with him or when he was around.

“I'm Jackson Wang,” Jackson said, “And I swear I only wanted to have a place to sleep. Can you help me with that?”

The group looked surprised with the question. Maybe they weren't those kind of people who passers-by would easily talk to.

“Nah, I doubt you want to stay with us,” the boss-guy said immediately.

“I'm serious. I need a place to sleep. Please help me. I'm fine with everything!”

“Look kid, this isn't charity. Go back to your parents' place and ask them to rent a mafia film for you,” the leader sighed, made a gesture with his hand and the gang started walking towards the alley.

Jackson almost started losing his nerves. “I am not a kid and a wannabe-cool-guy with a ridiculous leather jacket shouldn't boss me around when I have no home, my parents are dead and he probably isn't even older than fifteen judging from his behavior.” For the first time after he had lost everything he wasn't sad but merely angry. In which right were these guys treating him like that, like a trash?

The leader stopped and so did the others following him. The guy turned around slowly, watching Jackson with incredulous eyes probably because he wasn't sure he had just heard right. Jackson was ready to defend himself if the guy decided to attack him there.

Then all of a sudden the guy only smiled and sneered. “You just got a place. Follow us. At your own risk.”



your turn, onyu!