Heren City Prison

It's nothing extraordinary at first look. There's a basketball court at the back. Tall walls with spikes on top of it, surrounding the buildings inside on four sides. There are three buildings. One at the front is for the staff. There are even rooms for some to stay. The two at the back are for the inmates, the toxic garbage of society.

It wasn't the best prison, Heren City is not that considerate. Sometimes, the guards hit prisoners when they're annoyed. However, they have a tolerance for the prisoners' activities as well.

Heren City Prison was miles away from the nearest neighborhood. It's beside the highway that connects the city to another, the Sariyosa City. Even if you drive past by it, you wouldn't see anything inside anyway so that prison is near being hell.

But still, it wasn't one. As long as the prisoners don't fuck with the guards, they can basically do whatever they want, of course, without freedom. It's ironic but as long as they stay inside, be good to the staff, and don't commit other heinous crimes or attempt suicide, yeah, they basically can do whatever they want.

Even if they haze a cellmate, fine, have it their way.

With this, of course, there's the old hierarchy. The strong stays at the top, law of the jungle, that's always the case. Even in the adult world, that's the case. Be the most capable of making money and you can treat anyone like shit and get away with it. Although numbers are still strong, provoking the public is not the smartest option. That's why fake smiles are a thing.

Anyway, on Thursday, a new prisoner was brought in.

"Name?"

"Teren Hark."

"It says here you don't have a surname?"

"I had one."

"Hmm... well, I don't care, fucking murderer."

A guard spat. Teren felt the spit land on his shoulder.

"You're just seventeen but you have the nerves to kill in public, huh... Stop fucking staring at me like you're emotionless, I can read that you're not crazy, you're just plain evil."

It didn't stop the guard from degrading Teren even after knowing he's just a minor. He further looked at Teren's paper and after a while, the guard pointed.

"Murderer, I know you must feel tough for killing two innocent children with your bare fists. I get it, however, that doesn't mean I'm okay with it, okay!?"

Rolling Teren's paper, the guard hit his head with a mocking voice.

"Here, there are a lot of tougher men. Some are even desperate. You don't look so manly. So... have you heard about the warning 'you shouldn't drop your soap in prison'?"

The prison guard laughed.

"Well, it's true. You'll be shaped in no time. Oh, I'm not warning you, I'm scaring you, useless murderer!"

He then slapped Teren with the paper. It's not about the little physical pain the prison guard was inflicting, it's about the feeling of control and doing whatever you want that made him do it. Of course, it's that seeing Teren disgusts him.

A murderer. Someone who took another's life. An unredeemable sin. Unless one is another evil, murderers will always strike disgust or fear on another human being when meeting up close.

"And here, it says, your birthday is on December 26. Just a little more and you're no longer a minor."

Teren has a forged birth certificate. Having control of the Handwing Gang which is the ruler of the Heren City, it's a piece of cake.

'Now that I think about it, I'm not really sure if I'm 16, 17, or 18. I forgot about my birthday, I just added the years from the time I was just 11 years old.'

Birthday parties...

Teren wanted to forget those times. Times where his family would sing him a happy birthday...

"Go and change into this."

...

After changing into his prison suit, he was brought to his cell. If by a small chance that he got his target as his cellmates then Teren would let this prison guard 'go'.

"Meet your new cellmate. His name is Teren Hark. Hark is just his second name, he doesn't have a surname."

Three prisoners stood up from their dirty beds. They looked at Teren with anticipation. Every day, just sitting around, being bored to death is common around there. They were forced to work out due to boredom that even the thinnest man before would have at least muscles there after a few months.

"Woah, he looks like a teenager."

A topless man, using his t-shirt to tie his long hair into a ponytail reacted.

"It's because he's a teenager."

The prison guard replied sternly. With a glance, there's this casual atmosphere going around. However, Teren could see how much the topless man was avoiding the prison guard's eyes.

"Oh..."

"He's seventeen." the prison guard then smiled.

"A minor!?"

The one with the most muscles and have a buzz cut reacted the most shocked.

"What? Is that fine? Shouldn't he be in jubanil prison or something?"

"It's called juvenile, idiot."

The third prisoner who had a tired face reacted with a raised eyebrow.

"Tsk! Not everyone knows that!"

"But you're a prisoner, jackass, how can you not know that!? Hahaha!" the one with the buzzcut laughed.

"Seriously, Sir Jalner, what is a minority doing here? Or are you just joking?"

The one with the tired face asked.

"No, he will soon turn eighteen anyway. No parents or any immediate relatives came to him. No friends either, he's a total loner."

"So you just placed him here because no one will complain..."

"How about you Derek, got a complaint?"

The prison guard with a squarish wrinkly face, Jalner glared at Derek, the one with the tired face.

"N-no, Sir."

Derek looked the other way around.

"Good," Jalner then opened the bars and pushed Teren inside, "He may be a quiet minor but that kid you are looking at right now killed two delinquents."

"Oh, a murderer..."

The one with the ponytail's expression changed and looked down at Teren.