Wonsik groaned as consciousness returned to him, and he was vaguely aware of straps tightened over his body, pinning him to some kind of bed. One stretched across his chest, another over his belly, and a third on his ankles. He instinctively moved his hands to free himself of the uncomfortable restraints, but found that his wrists also had straps around them. When he heard the clinking of small chains as he pulled on the bonds, he finally cracked open his eyes.

Above him, he saw rectangular ceiling lights slowly passing over him, and that was when he realized there were people pushing the bed. Even though his head was throbbing like crazy, he lifted it slightly to look at the two strangers, and recognized them as nurses for they wore light blue scrubs. A particularly painful throb shot through his cranium, and he winced as he let his head fall back onto the small pillow. 

He took a moment to slowly recall what happened before he was rendered unconscious.

I was back in the game room, on the first floor, he remembered first. 

Then, I made it out to the ground maze when I heard someone call out to me.

Who was it...?

His eyes shot back open when the name finally came to him.

Jonghyun! Jonghyun was there!

In an instant, everything else came rushing back to him. Their scuffle with Chanyeol in the stairway, running through the maze on the third floor, and making it into the vents. 

Then, we ran into Sehun, and...

The image of Jonghyun lying helpless as Chanyeol choked the life out of him, blood streaming from his mouth to pool on the floor, flashed before his eyes.

Oh God, no.... Jonghyun!

Is he okay?! What happened after Sehun captured me?

God, please let him be okay! Please...

He was pulled out of his worries when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the white wall on his left gave way to transparency. He lolled his head to the side, and looked through the floor-to-ceiling window out of curiosity.

As his drowsy eyes struggled to focus, he was able to make out four dark grey spherical objects lying in the middle of the room. A couple of them were the size of footballs, while the other pair were about as large as basketballs. His vision cleared as he focused more, and realized there were numbers etched into the metal objects. The smaller ones were labelled 10, and the larger ones 20. He also noticed that all of them had loops attached at the top, almost like handles.

Suddenly, there was a blur of black as a figure fell hard onto the floor, falling next to the grey objects with a loud thud that was muffled by the glass. Wonsik's gaze focused on the pale hand holding onto the handle of another object that was a little larger than the basketball-sized ones, and was labelled 30. Then, his focus shifted to the person's back as he struggled to push himself off the floor, and onto his knees. When he saw black wings come into view, Wonsik's heart clenched painfully, and he suddenly wasn't feeling drowsy anymore.

Finally, the man's head came into view, coming up to rest on top of the hand still holding onto the heavy object. 

Jaehwan...

It's Jaehwan!

Jaehwan was panting heavily, eyes squeezed shut in both pain and exhaustion as sweat dripped down his beautiful face. Seeing the birdman's distressed expression, Wonsik lurched against his restraints. The nurses halted in surprise, before moving quickly to hold him down by his arms and legs.

Wonsik didn't care that the leather straps were digging into his skin, he didn't care about the burning friction on his wrists. He could only see Jaehwan, his Jaehwan, his beloved boyfriend whom he hasn't seen for days in this hellhole; until one of the nurses blocked his view, holding a syringe full of clear liquid and fitted with a needle. 

His eyes widened at the sight of it, and with an adrenaline powered yank accompanied by the sound of leather snapping, his left arm was free. Luckily, at that moment the needle was nearing his arm, and the nurse paused in shock at the musician's strength. So, all he had to do was reach up a couple inches to grab the nurse's wrist, and without hesitation, he pulled it over his abdomen to redirect the needle into the second nurse's forearm.

The other man screamed, and pulled away from Wonsik's right side. He only managed to remove the needle from his arm before slumping to the floor, fast asleep. Wonsik let go of the first nurse, and swiftly brought his fist up to collide with his chin, sending him reeling back to collide with the window. While the man scrambled to recover, Wonsik made use of his free hand to unstrap the other. Although, it was difficult, because the strap stretched across his chest was also holding down his upper arm. He had to use all of his strength just to reach his other hand, and could even feel the strap begin to cut off circulation.

Just when he got his other hand free, the nurse was back on his feet, and tried to hold down both of Wonsik's arms.

"Let go of me!" Wonsik grunted angrily as he struggled, "You ing !"

He wriggled one of his arms out of the nurse's grip, and landed a second punch on his cheek. The blow caused him to loosen his hold on Wonsik's other arm, and the musician had no trouble jerking it away. Out of sheer desperation and panic, Wonsik grabbed both sides of the man's head, and yanked it down to collide with his own.

Even though it effectively stunned the nurse, it also didn't help with Wonsik's own headache. His face scrunched up as he groaned at the intense throbbing in his forehead, but the pain was immediately forgotten when he heard a thud against the window.

Wonsik opened his eyes, and saw Jaehwan with his hands pressed against the glass, a worried look plastered on his face. The musician quickly, and clumsily, undid the straps across his chest, followed by the other two across his belly and ankles. 

The instant he was completely rid of his restraints, Wonsik scrambled off of the stretcher, and placed his own hands against the glass where Jaehwan's were. He rested his forehead against the cool, smooth surface as he gazed into his lover's eyes, which were b with tears.

"Are you okay?" Wonsik asked, even though he was sure the other could not hear him. But it seemed he could read his lips just fine, for Jaehwan nodded with a side smile tugging at his lips.

'Are you?' Jaehwan mouthed, and Wonsik nodded his head in return. The older grinned at that, showing his perfect teeth briefly, before his head snapped to a person in a white coat approaching him from behind. 

The middle-aged doctor was pointing at the objects on the floor, and seemed to be telling him something. To which, Jaehwan shook his head in obvious refusal. Frowning, the doctor turned around, and gave a curt nod to the two suits standing on the opposite side of the room. Both the men instantly withdrew black batons from their sleeves, and began to approach the birdman with cold expressions.

Wonsik's eyes widened in alarm, "What are they doing?"

Jaehwan turned back to Wonsik with wet cheeks, 'I love you.'

"Jaehwan, what are you doing?!" Wonsik slapped his hand on the glass anxiously, watching the men in black coming closer. "Get away from them! Run-"

The closest suit extended his arm, and the baton came into contact with Jaehwan's side. Immediately, Jaehwan let out a silent cry as his body convulsed, and he collapsed to the floor, face contorted with pain.

"Oh my God, Jaehwan!" Wonsik shouted, crouching down to remain as close to his boyfriend as possible. The other suit copied the actions of the first, and Jaehwan's body spasmed as the stun baton poked him in the back.

"Stop it!" Wonsik screamed at the suits, but they couldn't hear him. "You're hurting him! Stop!"

They continued to shock Jaehwan repeatedly, and Wonsik pounded on the glass that separated him from his lover. He began to sob as he watched Jaehwan cry out over and over again, writhing on the floor in misery. Wonsik cried at his inability to help the person he loved the most in this world.

"J-Jaehwan...." Wonsik whispered, voice broken.

Like he heard him, Jaehwan opened his eyes to meet his gaze, and Wonsik's heart shattered when he tried to smile again. It wasn't a smile out of joy or happiness; it was meant to reassure the younger, to let him know that he was okay. But, the simple gesture didn't reassure Wonsi