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give-seconds · 4 years

Text

Back To You

Summary: You and Mark are all each other have, he’s easily the most important person to you. But something happens and you both are slowly separated, so you work your hardest to be accepted into a college in Korea so you can find your way back to a home with him again.

Masterlist | Main Masterlist

Thank you to @bunny-doyounq for making me ten times more excited to write this and to @mozartwasajungkookstan for helping me edit!!

-----Prologue

“Mark,” you whine drawing out his name. “Come on, let’s do something.”

Your brother rolls his eyes, never picking them up from his book “I am doing something.”

“Yeah, now drop that something and come do something different with me,” you respond unphased by his behavior.

“I think I’m good.”

You sigh and get up from your side of the shared bedroom “Fine, I’ll just go ask dad if he wants to do anything.”

Mark doesn’t spare you a glance as you walk out of the room. Your family lives in a small house, two rooms, one bathroom, a kitchen, and a living room. But seeing as it was only the three of you, you guys never ran into a problem with the arrangement.

As soon as you leave the room, you see your dad at the kitchen table reading a book “Hey dad, want to do something?”

He smirks and sets the book down “It’s your Sunday and you want to do something?”

You shrug your shoulders and join him at the table “Well maybe I can use this as an opportunity to get ahead of Mark so he has to ask me to help him for once.”

“Should that really be your motive for learning?”

“No, but it’s a good incentive right?”

Your father’s smile falters before responding with “You’re so lucky to be able to learn, and you’re going to look at it as a way to get ahead of your brother? I thought I raised you better than this.”

You cast your eyes downwards “I’m sorry.”

He nods his head and picks up his book “It’s okay, it just saddens me to think you only think of your education as a way to get back at your brother.”

You bow your head slightly “Yes, I’m sorry it won’t happen again.”

“I will tell you the next assignment is going to be a book essay. So if you want you can go to the library to look for a book.”

You perk up at the idea of being able to go to the library “Okay, thanks!”

You get up from the table, ready to go beg Mark to go with you. When you walk back into the room, you see Mark already putting on a hoodie.

He tosses one of your own hoodies at you “Library?”

You nod your head before slipping on the hoodie and following him out the door.

“Dad I’m going with y/n to the library.”

“Okay, be safe you two. As always, don't talk to people you don’t know.”

You both nod your head, opening the door and walking out to the quiet outside. Your family lives in a solitary neighbourhood, one where no one talks to anyone. The closest you ever get to a conversation is the occasional glare from a window. As far as you and Mark know, you both are the only kids in the neighbourhood. No matter how many times you think about it, you always find it weird considering the people you have seen looked around your dad's age. But it isn’t your place to ask, you know your dad would be mad if you asked about it.

Your house is about a 15 minute walk to the library, and more often than not it’s spent in silence. You have known Mark your whole life, and seeing as he is only a year older than you he has basically known you his whole life. After he turned thirteen, he had started acting differently. He never actively tried to do things with you, he seemed less interested in you. But he always came with you to the library, and he always cared for you when your dad had his bad days.

The library is definitely your favourite place, you love how many different worlds are kept in this one building. You love that you can read about a boy and his dog one week, and about a girl finding her true love in the next week.

So when you see the building in front of you, you can’t keep the bounce out of your step. Mark holds the door open for you, and you make your way towards the young adult section. Mark follows you, but is sure to look at books on the furthest shelf.

You love the book essays your dad gave, because all you had to do was write three pages describing the book you read and what you liked or didn’t like. While Mark is just as good as you when it came to literature, your dad said he always looked forward to what you have to say.

You already know what book you want, you had seen it last time you had come to visit. After you grab the book, you turn and head to the crime section. You hear Mark sigh behind you as he sets the book he was looking at down and follows you.

“You know you aren’t supposed to be in this section, dad doesn’t like us reading these kinds of books.”

You smile sadly as you run your finger over the spines “I know Mark, I’m not stupid. I can remember to three months ago when I last tried to bring one home.”

Your father had told you that he hates these kinds of books, but you thought that it was just a personal preference. So when you had found one at the library that looked genuinely interesting about a kidnapping and brought it home, your dad freaked. He screamed at you, hitting you once across the face with the book.

“If you want to get a look into this life “ he had said shaking the book at you “then so be it. You forced me to do this, I didn’t want you to ever know about the horrors of this world.”

You had spent the next hour tied to the kitchen table, clothes and body drenched in cold water, your cheek stinging from what you could only assume was a cut. After he calmed down, your dad cut you loose and apologized. He just wanted you to understand that this wasn’t something he wanted you or Mark to read about. You just nodded your head and stumbled your way to the bedroom.

“Y/n, are you okay?” Mark asked, he had shot up from his bed as soon as he heard you turn the knob.

You nodded your head, rubbing your wrists “I’m okay, just really cold.”

Mark nodded his head and got up from the bed “Come on, let’s get you into the bath.”

You nodded your head, going to your closet to grab new clothes as Mark went to the bathroom to start the bath. Your hands shook as you reached out to grab your sweater from off a hanger, after which you turned around to grab your sleeping shorts off your bed. Your dad always took his anger out on you, even when it wasn’t your fault. So this didn’t surprise you, but it didn’t make it any easier.

You shakily made your way out of the room and quickly darted into the bathroom across the hall. Mark was sat at the edge of the tub, watching the water slowly fill up. Once you opened the door, his head snapped up to you. He smiled softly and stood up to greet you, opening his arms for a hug.

Your vision had gotten blurry with tears as you walked into the comfort of his arms. He kissed the top of your head and rubbed your back “It’s okay, it’ll be okay.”

You shakily held onto Mark, this always happened to you after your dad got mad. You don’t, however, understand why. Your dad is the good guy.

“Put it back y/n, I don’t want you to get in trouble,” Mark says, reaching to grab the book, ripping you from the memory.

You pull the book away from his grasp and put it back yourself “Calm down Mark, I just wanted to read the back. The cover is pretty.”

He snorts and rolls his eyes “What happened to not judging a book by it’s cover?”

You shrug “Dad’s words not mine.”

Mark opens his mouth to respond, but is cut off by a woman walking past the aisle, backtracking, and stopping at the end of the aisle to stare at you and Mark.

“Minhyung?”

Mark looks behind him then back at you, assuming the woman was just confused. But when she repeats the name and walks closer to you two, you can feel Mark tense up.

“What are you doing here, and who is this? Why haven’t you called someone?”

Mark smiles and gently grabs your hand “I’m sorry ma’am, but I think you’re mistaken about who I am.”

She furrows her eyebrows and repeats the name before following up with questions in another language.

“I’m sorry, we don’t speak any other languages. We should get going now, our dad is expecting us,” you can feel Mark slightly pulling on you.

“Wait,” she exclaims, pulling out her phone “wait please. Can I just-” as she’s talking she’s holding her phone to her face. She taps the bottom of the phone a few times before putting it down and smiling. There was a longing look in her eyes “I’m sorry for bothering you, you just look a lot like my friend's son.”

Mark smiles poliety before pulling you out of the aisle “That was weird.”

You look behind you to see the women standing out of the aisle, talking on the phone while staring at you two “Yeah, definitely. Did you hear what she called you?”

He lets go of your hand as you both make it to the check out station “Yeah, it was foregin sounding. Minhug? Something like that.”

You laugh at his attempt at the name “Minhug? Really?”

He rolls his eyes and smiles with you “Look I don’t know okay? I’m a Canadian kid, leave me alone.”

You’re still laughing as you leave the library, but something feels off about the woman. Why was she so admit that Mark was this ‘Minhug’ person?

“Mark?”

His response is a hum, eyes never looking away from the scenery.

“Should we tell dad what happened?”

He’s silent for a moment before responding “I don’t think we need to. Nothing bad happened, we don’t need to bother him with it.”

You nod your head, he’s right. Mark always knows what’s best, that’s probably why you’re never the one comforting him.

The next two days go by unneventifuly, you and Mark spending your days learning before your dad heads off for the evening shift. The evenings are your favourite, it’s the one time you and Mark are allowed to watch the Tv in your dad's room. Tonight, you and Mark are sitting side by side and scrolling through Netflix looking for a movie to watch.

“Come on Mark, To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before.”

He groans “Y/n I’m not watching that, it sounds so boring.”

“Come on, you don’t see people like us in the movies we’ve seen. And dad, for whatever reason, won’t tell us where mom was from. They look like us, so logically speaking we must be Korean. So let us watch it and see what being Korean is like.”

“Well you look like a frog, but that doesn’t mean you are one.”

You gasp dramatically and before you can respond, you hear the sound of car doors slamming shut “Mark, do you hear that?”

“Hear-”

Before he can finish his sentence there is a knock at the front door “VPD, open up.”

You and Mark exchange looks before you both slowly get up and make your way to the front door. You stop a few feet away and watch as Mark slowly opens the door.

“Hi, how can I help you?”

“I’m Detective Rich and this is my partner Detective Sallow. Does Matthew Qinn live here?”

Mark glances at their badges before nodding his head “Yeah, he’s at work,” there’s a pause before he opens the door wider “would you like to come in?”

You and Mark make eye contact before he tilts his head towards the closet. You nod your head in understanding and go to grab an extra chair. From the kitchen you can hear Mark awkwardly offer the guests something to drink. After shifting some things around you find the extra foldable chair, and as you make your way back you can see the two detectives sitting at the table and Mark filling two glasses of water.

“What is this about detectives, is our dad okay?” Mark asks as you set the chair down, Mark placing the cups in front of the detectives before sitting next to you.

“Mr. Qinn is your father? Were you adopted?” Detective Sallow asks.

Mark shakes his head “Our mom’s Korean.”

“Ah, and where is she now?”

“She passed away when I was one, Mark was only two then,” you say inserting yourself into the conversation.

“So you’re Mark,” Detective Rich says writing something down before turning to you “and you are?”

“I’m y/n.”

He nods his head and writes that down too, something about being logged makes you uncomfortable and you send a glance to Mark. He shifts a little in his chair and clears his throat.

“How can we help you? We aren’t really supposed to have people over this late.”

Detective Sallow leans forward “Where does your dad work?”

Mark glances nervously at you before he answers “We uh, we don't know. He doesn’t like to talk about his life outside of the house.”

The detectives look at each other, Detective Sallow continuing her questioning as Detective Rich gets his pencil ready to write more things down “What do you mean life outside the house?”

“Well exactly as it sounds, we all live here. We have our life here, and dad has his life at work,” Mark replies quietly.

“What about schooling?”

“Our dad teaches us,” you respond. You can sense Mark getting nervous, which is making your insides prickle with anxiety.

“So you guys don’t go to any public places other than the library?”

You nod your head, how did they know we go to the library?

The detective holds her eye contact with you before sighing “Could you guys come with me to the station? We need to run some tests on you Mark.”

Marks eyes widen “Me? I don’t understand, did I do something wrong?”

Detective Rich shakes his head “Not at all kid, we’re just curious about something.”

“With all due respect, I don’t know if that’s a good idea. If we’re not back by the time he is, he’ll be very mad. So if you don’t mind, me and my sister are just going to stay here.”

Detective Rich says something in French, to which Detective Sallow nods her head in agreement.

“Where is he going?” you ask once he left the room.

She offers you a small smile “We want to run a DNA test on Mark, and we have a kit in the car. We just have some questions about your dad that only these tests can answer.”

“I’m not in trouble right? Because if dad finds out you guys came by while he wasn’t here, he won’t be very happy. And I would rather stay on his good side,” Mark says.

“No sweetie, you’re not in trouble. If we’re right about this, your father is the one in trouble.”

You and Mark look at each other in shock. Your father would never do anything warranting the police to show up at the house.

“I’m sorry ma’am, you must be mistaken. Our father would never break the law, he always taught us to respect other people. He would never hurt an innocent person,” you say, defending your father from the unspoken acquisitions.

Before Detective Sallow can respond, you all hear a knock at the door before Detective Rich enters the room again. As he walks back to the table, he opens the bag to pull out some rubber gloves.

“Okay Mark, can I take a DNA test? All I do is take this,” he says, pulling out an item resembling a q-tip “and swab your cheek. Then we’re done.”

Mark glances over to Detective Sallow, who nods her head encoungly. Mark looks back to Directive Rich and slowly nods his head. You quickly stand, offering your seat next to Mark for the Detective so he can easily complete the test.

“Can you uh” you stutter looking at Detective Sallow “can you not tell our dad you were here? Like Mark said, he will get really mad if he finds out you guys were here while he was out.”

Detective Sallow smiles at you, eyes conveying a conflicted emotion “Of course sweetie,” she pauses “what does he do when he’s mad?”

You pause, caught off guard by the question. You know that telling her he has hit you can only result in more trouble, and the last thing you want is to do is cause more trouble. “Nothing too bad, he just yells.”

She nods her head, looking over to her partner who had completed the test and was putting the swab into a plastic bag. She pushes her chair back “Well, we’ll leave you guys alone now. And again, don’t worry about us telling your dad about what happened.”

You nod your head as you lead them to the door, holding it open for them. With one last nod of their heads, the detectives head out to their car.

“What do you think that was about?” you question as you close the door.

Mark stares out the window at the receding car “I don’t know, but something about it feels off.”

You nod your head in agreement, you don’t know much about law enforcement, but you do know that they are mainly for catching bad guys. And out of everyone in your family, Mark was definitely the least harmful.

“Mark?”

“Hm?”

“Can we just pretend this didn’t happen? I don’t like how it feels.”

He stares at you for a few seconds before smiling softly “Yeah, definitely. Let’s go back to find a movie yeah? I think I’m more in the mood for To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before.”

Normally, your pride would stop you from accepting his pity offer. But, for once, your pride is overpowered by the fear slowly flooding your system.

When your dad gets home, he’s slamming your bedroom door open. You and Mark jolt awake, squinting at the light flooding in from the living room.

“Why the fuck were the police here?” he screams switching on the lights.

You blink your eyes to try and adjust to the bright lights, your insides squeezing in terror “What are you talking about?”

He smiles, laughing mockingly “Don’t play dumb with me y/n. The cops were here, they were in my house and I want to know why.”

“It wasn’t anything bad, I swear.”

“Stand up.”

Your heart drops “What?”

“I said stand up.”

Your eyes drop to the floor as you strip your blankets away. You slowly stand up, forcing yourself to make eye contact with him. You can feel your hands shake, but you know you’ll seem less weak if you can just keep your eye contact.

“Why were they here?”

“It wasn’t anything bad-” you’re cut off with a sharp sting to your cheek. The force of the hit makes you lose your balance and you stumble to the side.

“Tell me the fucking truth,” he screams.

“It is, it is. I promise you they were here for a check up. Someone must have called them, they said they were worried about a gas leak,” you say, praying to any god that that was something the police did.

“Did you call them?”

“No no, it must’ve been a neighbour. I know how you feel about them dad, we would never do that to you,” you try to smile. You can feel the tears stinging in your eyes, you can feel your breath getting shorter.

“You’re lying, why the fuck were they here?” he raises his hand to hit you again, you squeeze your eyes shut.

“She’s not!” Mark exclaims “she isn’t. They said some neighbour smelled sulfur around here and that they were going to make rounds to all the houses in the neighbourhood. But then they got a call saying that they were needed somewhere else and had to leave before they could go to any other houses. They even had to cut our questioning short.”

Your dad lowers his hand. He stares at Mark before looking back to you and responding in a calm voice “If it was that easy, why didn’t you just say so?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think it was important,” you answer, voice barely above a whisper.

“Next time, don’t skip out on the details,” he says coldly before walking out, making sure to slam the door behind him.

All the breath leaves your body and your topple over, trying to get oxygen into your body.

Mark jumps out of bed and crouches next to you “Hey hey, it’s okay. It’ll be okay, just try and breathe yeah?”

You shake your head and fall into Mark, the sound of you hyperventilating being the only noise to leave your body.

“Oh come on, now isn’t the time to be stubborn. I’ll do it with you, okay?”

The next few minutes are spent in Marks arms trying to get your breath back.

After your breath is stable, Mark leans his chin on top of your head “Wanna go to bed? I’ll let you sleep on the awesome mattress with the awesome Mark.”

You attempt a laugh- which sounds more like a sob- and shakily stand up. Mark lays down closest to the wall, patting the space next to him. You lay down next to him, and he pulls the blankets over you both. You’re still crying as he pulls you close to his chest.

When you wake up, Mark is staring at you “Well good morning to you too, creep.”

He smirks, rolling his eyes “I just woke up myself, calm down.”

You look into his eyes, his eyes are safe. So you quietly ask “How do I look?”

He smiles softly, raising one hand to lightly run over the bruise that is forming on your cheek “Beautiful.”

You smile at his words, words that are definitely a lie “We have to get up, don’t we?”

Mark nods his head as he sits up “But it’s grocery day, so he’s not here right now. So let's get up and make some breakfast. I’ll try and make some eggs again.”

You clap your hands together in excitement. Mark always offers to make you eggs after a bad day or night, he knows it makes you happy to watch him crash and burn.

And so, your breakfast is a plate of perfect Mark Qinn eggs, which means they’re hideous. But hey, they’re home.

“Alright guys, I’m heading out now. If the police come back, don’t let them.” Your dad instructs as he shrugs on his coat.

You nod your head, forcing a smile “Okay, I’m really sorry that happened.”

“It’ll be okay so long as you don’t do it again.”

And with that, it is just you and Mark in the house. You can feel anxiety starting to form, but you try your best to push it away. You just want this feeling to pass, which it always does. You just wish it would pass faster.

“Hey Mark?”

He looks up from his essay, his stare being the only response.

“I know we’re supposed to be working, but this feeling won’t go away. Can we work while we watch TV? I can’t stand the silence.”

He nods his head, scooting his chair back and gathering all his materials to work in the bedroom. You know you’re supposed to be working, but your mind isn’t focusing. You walk into your dad's room, grabbing the remote and turning on the TV.

“Y/n, what are you doing?” Mark asks once he sees that you’re creating a new account.

“I want to understand why he freaked so much at the police. So I’m making a new account and me and you are going to watch a crime show,” you answer, finishing the account and pressing save.

He pauses, stunned by your defiance “Is that such a good idea after last night?”

“That’s why I want to know, why was he so freaked out? And why doesn’t he like it to such an extent?”

“You remember when you tried to bring that book back, he doesn’t like us knowing about that kind of stuff.”

You sigh and look at Mark “I was really hoping you’d join me, I don’t want to be alone. But I want to know about this too, so you can either join me or leave. If we get caught, which we won’t, I’ll take the blame.”

He shifts on his feet nervously before nodding his head “Okay, why not?”

“What about this one?” you ask leaving the selector over a series called Criminal Minds. You guys have been looking for maybe three minutes, but you’re ready to kick Mark’s picky self out of the room.

He leans forward, squinting his eyes to read the text “Seems okay.”

You roll your eyes as you click play “Glad to know it passes the Mark Qinn inspection.”

“Shut up and watch.”

You giggle at his reply and lean against the headboard as the episode starts to play.

Just as Gideon is about to confront the man on the docs, you hear a knock at the door. You look over to Mark, who shares the concerned look on your face. You both are scared that it is the detectives, from yesterday. You both slowly make your way to the door, taking the same places as yesterday.

“Mark, y/n, hello again,” Detective Sallow smiles. Next to her is Detective Rich and behind them two other cops.

Mark’s eyes scan over the new people before looking back to her “What is this about? I thought it was over from yesterday, and did you or someone tell our dad? Because he found out and was not very happy.”

“I’m sorry he found out, but we didn’t tell him that we came,” she pauses before unfolding a piece of paper and handing it to Mark “but we need you to come down to the station with us. Your dad is there.”

Your eyes widen and you rush to stand next to Mark “Why? Is he okay?”

The Detective nods her head “Yeah he’s fine, we’ll explain everything once we get there. These are officers Alsh and Thies, they’ll be watching over the house while we’re gone. Okay?”

“Um, let us grab some stuff and we’ll be back,” Mark answers before softly shutting the door.

“What should we do y/n?”

You can’t help the shocked expression that takes over your face “What do you mean what should we do, of course we have to go. He needs us, or they wouldn’t be here.”

“But won’t he be more mad once he sees us there? We’ve never been to a station before, and I’m fairly certain he won’t want us there.”

You sigh and rest your hand on the knob “Mark I’m not going to argue with you, so I’ll give you the same choices as before. Stay or come, but I’m going with or without you.”

He sighs, shaking his head. But when you open the door, he’s right behind you. You glance at him and smile before turning to the Detective “Okay, we’re ready to go.”

The twenty minute drive to the station is spent in silence on yours and Mark’s part. Mark is too busy bouncing his leg and staring out the window. You haven’t been in a car in a long time, and you have never been this far away from home before. You didn’t know your city had this many tall buildings.

When the car is parked, Detective Sallow turns around in her seat “When we go in, I want you guys to be prepared for what you’re going to hear. I have to tell you guys something, but let’s go inside to somewhere more comfortable okay?”

You both nod your head, your insides starting to squeeze. Why is no one giving us answers as to why we are here?

You and Mark get out of the car and follow the detectives into the building, each step making your mind dive deeper into theories about why you’re here. Your dad didn’t do anything, like you and Mark he was boring. He doesn’t go anywhere other than work, and if he hasn’t lost his job then he must be a good employee. So why are we-

Your thoughts are cut off as you run into Mark’s back. You mumble a sorry, shaking your head to focus your mind.

Detective Sallow was stopped in front of an office, Detective Rich is not with your group anymore. She opens the door, montiong for you both to walk in. The room is small, it only has a couch, table, and a chair opposite the couch.

“Please sit, I’ll be right back” Detective Sallow motions to the couch before closing the door behind her.

You and Mark move to the couch, Mark goes back to silently bouncing his leg. To say you are on edge is an understatement. Why isn’t she taking you to your dad? He needs you both, so why can’t you see him?

You whip your head towards the door once you hear it opening. Detective Sallow walks through the door, holding a thin blue file.

“Can we just get our dad and go? I’m not feeling very well,” you ask as she sits down in the chair opposite to the couch.

She smiles softly “Not yet, but I just have some questions.”

She opens the file and pulls out a photo “Mark do you know this woman? “

Mark glances at the photo, and shakes his head no.

“What about this man?”

Mark shakes his head again.

“This is Eu-In Lee,” she says pointing to the woman “and this is Joon-Young Lee.” She points to the man before pausing.

You and Mark stare at her before she sighs “What I need to tell you, you both have to promise me that you’ll be open to this idea okay? I know that this is hard but you have to trust me.”

You both nod your head, and you start tapping your middle finger on your thumb.

“Mark, these people are your parents.”

Your ears ring, and for a second no one says anything.

“That’s not true, I’m a Qinn,” Mark says breaking the silence.

“I know this is hard, but that’s not true. Your name is Min-hyung Lee, and you were kidnapped by Matthew Qinn when you were three. Remember the DNA tests we took? We compared them to a samples of Mr and Mrs. Lee, and they were a match.”

You shake your head “Stop this, stop this right now. I don’t know why you are trying to take my brother from me, but stop. He is Mark Qinn I am y/n Qinn, and we are siblings.”

Her dark brown eyes convey sympathy for you and Mark, you hate it.

“The Lees lost their son when he was three years old, which would make their son sixteen now. Mark, how old are you?”

“Sixteen,” he whispers, voice on the verge of cracking. You subconsciously move closer to Mark, you wanted him to know he wasn’t alone in this situation.

“I know this is hard, but you have to believe me. We have him in custody-”

“What about me?” you ask cutting her off. Your ears are still ringing and your heart is pounding in your chest. “Where do I fit into your accusations of kidnapping?”

“I’m sorry sweetie, but we don’t know. If you like, we can run a DNA test to Mr. Qinn to see if you are related to Mr. Qinn. But that doesn’t change what is going to happen, we’re going to charge him with false imprisonment. ”

“And what happens to us? We don’t have anywhere to go while you falsely accuse our father,” you ask. Your father is going to beat this, and then you can all go home and it’ll all be okay again.

“Well Min-hyung-”

“Mark, please my name is Mark.”

She nods her head once before continuing “Well Mark is going to go back to his family, and y/n it is most likely that you’ll be put into foster care until we can find a more permanent solution.”

“Excuse me? No no you- you can’t do that. You can’t separate us” Mark stutters.

You squeeze your eyes shut, this is too much. Why are they trying to do this to our family?

“I’m sorry, I don’t think there is anything I can do. But it will be okay, we have really good homes here. You both can visit each other any time, I can also instruct your social worker to place you near him so when you’re both ready to go to school you can go together.”

You feel your stomach churn and you take a deep breath to try and calm your nerves “You can’t come in here, rip our father from us, and then rip us apart.”

“I won’t do it, I won’t leave her. You can’t make me,” Mark says, pushing himself further into your side.

She nods her head in understanding “Would you be willing to meet the Lees?”

You close your eyes and lean your head over the edge of the couch, laughing humorlessly “We don’t have a choice do we?”

Detective Sallow sighs “I’ll be right back with them,” she pauses, hand on the door handle “they- they’re really nice people. You’re going to be happy there.”

And with that she leaves you two to process the fact that Mark's new family is about to walk through that door.

“Okay,” Mark stands up from the couch and spins to face you “get up. We have to go.”

You look up at Mark “And go where? Our dad is in jail, and there is an army of police officers who are waiting to stop us.”

Mark presses the balls of his hands into his eyes, sighing deeply “God I don’t know y/n. We just have to go, we have to go or we’ll be seperated. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel like losing my whole family in one day.”

You know he’s being irrational, that’s he’s acting out of fear. And some part of you wants to join him in his escape plan, join him in the delusion that you both could survive together. But you know better, so you stand up and grab his hands.

“Mark,” you look into his eyes, and he looks back at you with such desperation that it hurts. “I don’t want you to leave me, I know you know that. But think about it, we won’t make it out of this room without someone stopping us. And you know-”

You’re interrupted by Detective Sallow poking her head in before opening the door wider to reveal two people behind her. You try to let go of Mark, but he just grips your hand tighter as he drops his hands to his side.

As they file into the room, you hear the women suck in a breath and whisper something in another language to her husband. He looks at Mark before breaking into a smile and responding back in the forgin language.

“I’ll be right outside if you need anything, please take as long as you need to sort things out,” and with that, Detective Sallow shuts the door behind her.

“Hi,” the woman blurts out as soon as the door is closed “I’m Eu-In, and this is my husband Joon-Young.”

You and Mark nod your head, Mark shifts uncomfortably. There’s an awkward silence before you take a slight step forward.

“Mr. and Mrs. Lee I am so sorry that you lost your son, we really are. But please, Mark is my only family and you can’t take him from me. Please you can’t.”

“Min-Hyung, his name is Min-Hyung,” she replies, emotion lacing her voice. It’s an emotion that’s hard to place, but it definitely isn’t friendly.

“Mark, my name is Mark. And this is my sister, so please you can’t take her away from me. I’ll go with you, I’ll go willingly if you agree to take her with us.”

“Min-Hyung,” at the sound of the name, Mark flinchs beside you “we can’t take her in.”

“What, no. You can, you just don’t want to.”

“There is a lady in our building, I think she is a foster parent. Maybe you can go live there sweetie,” Eu-In says, a tight smile on her lips.

“Why can’t you just take her like you’re going to take me?” Mark asks, his grip tightening around your hand.

“Because she isn’t ours, and from what the police know she’s the kid of the monster who took you from us,” Joon-Young said. The emotion that laces his voice is easy to place, it’s disdain.

“You can’t talk to my sister like that,” Mark says, stepping forward slightly as if to protect you from the words.

The woman widens her eyes, the man's mouth falling slightly open at Marks outburst.

“Min,” the woman begins softly, eyes still slightly widened. “Matthew Qinn isn’t your father, and this girl here is not your sister.”

You see her glance at you, focusing on the bruise on your face, before addressing you “Y/n, mine and my husband's heart hurts for what you must have endured. But you and my son share no blood bond. He is Min-Hyung Lee and you are Y/n Qinn, and I am so sorry but I couldn’t take you in even if I was legally allowed to. You’re too much of a reminder.”

You take a half step back, the words are too much. First, they arrest your dad, then they try and tell you that Mark isn’t your brother, and now the lady they are saying is his mother is telling you that she doesn’t want anything to do with you. Your heart starts to beat faster, the brave face you tried to put up coming down.

“Stop, please stop this. He is all I have, and I am begging you to let me stay with him. I can’t lose him, I won’t let you take him. You can’t do that to me, not after everything we’ve been through together. Please,” you plead. You want to move forward, to get closer to her so she can see how serious you are, but you can’t.

“Mrs. Lee I know that you think I’m your son. And while I don’t know what to make about that theory yet, one thing I do know is that y/n is my family. So I’ll have to tell you now, if you want any kind of a relationship with me you are going to stop being mean to her. Even if dad, er Mr. Qinn,” he pauses as a look of hurt flashes over the Lee’s face.'' Even if he did kidnap me, she didn’t want any of it.”

After his statement, Mark takes his hand out of yours and wraps his arm around your shoulders. You can tell that what he said shook them up a bit, especially him referring to dad as dad. You almost felt bad at the hurt look that flashed through their eyes, but Mark is right. Even if your dad is this bad guy, why are you being punished for it?

Eu-In sighs and turns to her husband before saying something in the same foregin language. He looks shocked but she rushes out her next few words. He nods his head before responding in far less words than she had used. She glances over at Mark before looking back to her husband, responding a final time.

“Uh, what if we talk to the Detective and try our best to get y/n to spend the night with us before she is placed with a home? Would that make you willing to come home?”

Mark nods his head egeraly “Thank you so much Mrs. Lee.”

She offers you both a small smile before her and her husband slip out the door, closing it softly behind them.

“Mark?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m really scared.”

He pauses, eyes looking at the door “Me too y/n. Me too.”

---

Thank you for reading, I hope it was decent! I’ll try and make the chapters shorter than this so it’s easier to read. I spent all day trying to figure out how masterlists work for my entire stories that I have going, so I think it’s safe to say I am one of the least tech savvy teens out there. Anyways, have a good day/night!!!

#nct mark #nct haechan #nct imagines #NCT #mark lee x reader #haechan x reader #kpop scenarios #kpop imagines #nct scenarios #lee donghyuck #mark lee

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pisati · 5 years

Text

I did write some comments on your post, but that was an initial reaction after one read-through, and of course it was a lot to take in. I went to my guitar lesson, ate a little bit, dicked around for a bit, and read it through again. what’s on my mind is too much for character-limited replies so I figured I’d just write a post.

if you’re serious that the amount of stuff you told me is maybe 10% of all the things her parents did, then... holy shit, dude. it’s hard to imagine anyone growing up with that and not being completely brainwashed. I feel for her daughter too. hopefully once she gets her degree and gets a job she can get away from that bullshit. most people, I think, are reasonably paranoid about the possible threats that come from strangers on the internet, but that’s just extreme. the scottish mafia??? is that even a thing?? I’ve never even. heard of that, lmao. jesus.

I want to say when the internet was in its infancy, a lot of scammers saw it as an opportunity. that’s where the whole Nigerian prince thing and all that came about. first rule of the internet was not to trust anyone. no personal information, to anyone, ever. the thing is, the internet has changed drastically since then. social media has revolutionized the way everyday people use the internet, and very, very many everyday people use it. the chances you’re likely to run into a normal person just like yourself vs. a scam artist today are much, much higher than they were even a decade ago. some people don’t want to accept that things have changed. I mentioned my Brazilian friends on your post; my mom was pretty nervous at first when I told her about them. I met them just before I graduated high school, so I was 17. I actually was on Omegle (which was WAY worse than tumblr or twitter???) and I talked to a kid named Matia. he was a few years younger than me but his english was very good and he was a cool kid. we followed each other on twitter, and then his friends saw and a bunch of them followed me, asking him “quem é essa gringa matia??”-- who’s this foreign girl? they’d talk to me in english about music and ask me what it was like in the US; they were fascinated. they affectionately nicknamed me ‘gringa’; in Brazil it doesn’t have the same negative connotations as it can in Spanish-speaking countries; it literally means ‘foreginer’. I learned Portuguese inadvertently just from reading all the tweets they posted. they’d mess with me and tweet in slang and typo-ed Portuguese so I couldn’t google translate it, but when I learned enough Portuguese and read back on their old tweets, I had a good laugh because it was all stuff like “lol let’s mess with her so she can’t translate it, that’ll be so funny!” and they knew I’d get all frustrated because I didn’t know what it said, lol. like, just pure, innocent interactions between strangers on the internet. I had a ton of fun with it. and Portuguese even ended up being my best language, because I learned it not only in natural, informal contexts (rather than “hello, how are you?”), but I learned it through drunken slang and intentional typos and a whole assload of cursing, lmao.

I was nervous to tell my mom about it; I knew how she’d react. there was no way to tell her about all the jokes and conversations and how all of it was harmless. how I just knew they were real people like me (they were all around my age too). she didn’t want me to study abroad there, when I brought it up, or at least... if I did, she’d rather I’d have picked somewhere in Europe instead. I told her I’d skyped with my friend David, and once I even mailed him a package with an old shirt of mine (because I’d tweeted about how I had this IUP shirt and once I transferred I knew I wasn’t gonna wear it anymore, but I didn’t want to donate it; he said he wanted it and I was like well if you’re serious lol). I skyped another friend Guilherme once because he said he could help with an assignment I had for researching the grammar of non-native speakers of english, or something like that. she warmed up after a while. I think she realized that, hey, most normal people are also on the internet now. and there’s normal people in other countries, lol. but like. people in that generation are from a different era of information-sharing. it’s a totally different perspective. and if you’re the kind of person who worries entirely too much... well, you’ve seen what can happen.

you said it in your other post too (which, first of all, I’m really proud of you for opening up, as painful as I’m sure all this is, and second of all, I’m honored that you’re comfortable enough to share with me)... the thing about sounding ‘weak’ and ‘pathetic’. and... maybe it does feel like that. but given the circumstances? I think reacting like that is perfectly normal. I’m sure you know, but this kind of situation, all the things that happened... none of that is normal. you had a perfectly normal reaction to seriously abnormal events. it’s only natural to want to know why. when you love someone so much and think they love you too, and have your whole perception of the world turned on its head... it’s absolutely devastating. you don’t want to let it go. what else is there? you didn’t picture it vanishing so suddenly, and you feel like that’s it.

I just want you to know, I don’t see weak or pathetic. I see someone very much like myself. who genuinely cares and feels so intensely and deeply and is sometimes even afraid of being too much. a lot of people don’t understand that we have pure intentions. they don’t understand how we feel because they don’t have that depth.

anyway, I understand a little better how you feel about it. a lot of it wasn’t her fault; she pretty much had a gun to her head. or, multiple, depending how you want to look at it. she grew up with that bullshit. you said it wasn’t even the first time something like that happened to her. it’s really, really hard to defend yourself or stand up for yourself when that’s what you know. when that’s your family, who is supporting you and your daughter, and threatens to kick you out if you follow your own will. she was playing a losing game. it made me a little sad to read how hard you tried to make it work, when clearly you were being pushed away, but I understand, man. I’ve done the same thing. you want so badly to make it work, you feel like there’s always a way you can. the most devastating part of it all is realizing you can’t. and it can’t be fixed.

the thing that puzzles me, though, and please tell me if I cross a line here. I really don’t want to. I respect your feelings and I understand that your relationship with her lasted a long time; there’s so much packed into that time. I’ve told you a lot of the shitty parts of my relationship with A, and you’ve wondered why I didn’t kick him to the curb; I didn’t tell you about all the good parts there were too. I know how complicated and difficult those things can be. despite how much they hurt you, how they did it, how much more pain you were in because of what they did than anything you could ever do to them... you still care about them. a lot.

I just... I guess I’m not 100% clear on the purpose she serves in your life at this point. of course you care about her. it’s only natural to, when they’re your best friend. you know so much about them and they know so much about you and you’ve shared so many good things and you just enjoy them as a person. god, I even remember writing some sappy poem or blog post or something about how, even after everything, A could have stabbed me in the gut and I would have apologized for getting my blood on him. but he also did more damage to me than anyone ever has. I realized this past summer (that’s a story for another time) with such sudden, horrible clarity that I burst out sobbing while I was driving home on the highway; what he did was irredeemable. there was nothing he could do to fix it. I had done everything I knew how to do to even stay his friend, and I finally told myself that it was either I continue to pursue this and make myself miserable and make him miserable (because he was allowed to have feelings for whoever he wanted; me getting upset over every new one would hurt him too), or I could just. let go. finally. and that was not a decision I ever wanted to face. I put it off for so long. I told myself there could always be a way to fix it. but it always came down to him putting in the effort. he was my best friend. he knew me better than anyone. a lot of the things you said about M, I’ve said about A. I’ve never been able to be that close to anyone before; he’d seen much more of me than I was comfortable showing anyone else. I didn’t know if I’d be able to be that close to anyone else. making the decision to let go of the one person I was that close to was the hardest thing I had to do this past year, right up there with having to talk to the team from the cremation place not 15 minutes after learning my dad was dead and watching them take him away in a body bag.

anyway, I guess what I’m getting at is... you can still love her, and still care deeply about her, but also keep her in the past. this is just my conjecture, given that I don’t know anything about your relationship now, but it seems to me like trying to keep her in your life is not beneficial to either of you. I know you said you don’t keep people around based on the purpose they serve in your life, and that’s a good philosophy to have, for sure. I’m not arguing that at all. but I think there’s a lesson to take from Marie Kondo here (ha); when something has served its purpose in your life, you should understand when it’s time to let it go. thank it for all it brought to you, all it did for you, of course; there’s apparently a lot of Shinto traditional beliefs that influenced her organization philosophy that would be really interesting to read about. but anyway I don’t think it just applies to the physical clutter we all accumulate in our homes. we weigh ourselves down with all the things we keep. especially those that don’t ~spark joy~, lol. if she’s really as brisk with you as you say... do you think she would be bothered if you disappeared as well?

I know it’s never just that easy. I made that decision, and then later I learned that A had a whole clusterfuck of mental illnesses that he wasn’t even aware he had. it was bad. worse than he thought. but once he finally got into therapy and started journaling his moods, it became more obvious. he realized a lot of how he treated me came from that. when he told me, I felt just a tiny bit of my resolve crumble. how could I drop him like that, when he was clearly struggling and needed something stable? even just a good friend, who was patient and understanding, like I’ve always tried to be? I’m not the only friend he has, of course. he has plenty of people around. I don’t have to go back to trying so hard if I don’t want to, but I also felt like I couldn’t just abandon him. I realized it wasn’t entirely his fault. he still did what he did knowingly, he still knew how it hurt me, but it still wasn’t entirely his fault. I know you’ve seen that in M as well. it’s so complicated, I know.

I’m not trying to convince you of anything. maybe just trying to get you to think about it another way. you’ve got a lot of pain that you’ve buried and try your hardest not to deal with. I’ve done it too. get to it when we get to it, except we hope we never have to. but it makes healing so hard when we don’t address it and subsequently deal with it. I wonder if you think it’s possible to heal the way you hope to and also keep her in your life. I’m sure in some way it is, but I wonder how you picture that possible future. I’m still trying to work that out for myself, with my situation.

anyway, I really do appreciate you taking the time to help me understand your demons better. and... if it means anything, I don’t see you as broken. even if that’s how you feel. I mean, shit. all of that is enough to break anyone. I’ve never even been in a relationship, let alone had one that got to the marriage-talk, engagement-ring, wedding-dress, baby-name point. for someone that feels as intensely as we do, no less... I can only imagine. I see how the innocence, so to speak, was ripped from your hands. I understand how you feel changed by it. I see the darkness in you that I’ve seen in myself, but I see the light there too. you need to feel safe so that light has time to heal and grow again.

#and like sorry for talking about myself and my experiences so much LOL #just trying to use examples to illustrate my line of thinking

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