He cowered in the corner of the room as his master walked predatorily towards him. His yellow, stained teeth showing behind the wide grin that was plastered on his face. He was holding all sorts of torturous devices, from an old fashioned whip to knives and razors. He let out a small whimper, making sure it wasn’t too loud for his master to hear.

His master cackled evilly as he dropped his weapons and his filthy hands begin to roam his body. He looked away, trying to put his mind to something happy and less scary, but to no avail. He felt his clothes being ripped off, he doesn’t even react to cover his body. To cover the body that was tainted by his masters, and scarred by the weapons. A hard blow could be felt on his head, as his master was not happy with his lack of actions.

Knowing what he had to do now, he went on his knees, as he brings his hands shakily to his master’s belt, slowly taking it off. He sees the arousal of his master and tries to look away, but he knew that if he did, he would get punished.

“Sungyeol.” His master says gently. Strange, his master was too disgusting and ugly to be the owner of such a charming voice. He ignores the call.

“Sungyeol.” He repeated. How did this master know his new name? This was only a name that was recently given to him, besides, no one knew of this name.

“Sungyeol.” His eyes fluttered open as he saw a blurry figure staring back at him with concern.

The figure let out a small breath of relief.

“Are you alright?” He asked. He blinked continuously to get his vision back in focus, realising quickly that it was his master who had woken him up from his slumber.

He sat up and nodded.

“I think you had a nightmare. Would you like a drink?” He hesitated momentarily. Yes, he wanted a drink, but he didn’t want to order his master around. He shook his head.

His master nodded. Before reaching out. He flinched. He never really flinched when his past masters would reach out. Why did he do so now?

He felt his master’s soft fingers wipe away the tears that he hadn’t known he had shed.

“Don’t cry.” His master murmured.

He saw his master hesitate slightly before quietly admitting, “When I get nightmares, I like to hug someone. If you want, you can hug me.”

He looked back in shock. What was hugging? He had never heard such word. It sounded quite delightful, however, it wasn’t quite sure.

“W-Would you like one?” His master seemed embarrassed. Why was he embarrassed? Was a hug equivalent to ? Because whenever he had initiated that activity, his master would also seem embarrassed. In that case, he didn’t want hugs. But… his master wasn’t like the others, right?

“Hug?”

His master nodded.

“Okay.” He replied. He wanted to know what it was. It wasn’t like things could get worse, right?

He saw his master shuffle towards him, awkwardly before wrapping his arms around his body.

He felt himself tense, however he soon relaxed as he realised what his master was doing. It felt nice. It felt… innocent. He had done this on many occasions to his teddy bear, but never did he think that it had a name, or it was a common action for people to do.

He felt his heart beating rapidly. He enjoyed this feeling. He felt as though he had melted in his master’s embrace.

Before he knew it, he did something very unexpected. His body shook uncontrollably, and all the tears that he had kept for 10 years flowed out. He didn’t know what happened, but he couldn’t control it.

This feeling had overwhelmed him so much that he couldn’t handle the flowing emotions.

After what had seemed to be eternity, the gently, circular rubs his master did on his back to calm him down allowed his sobs to die down and he soon pulled away.

“I’m sorry.” He mumbled, realising their position. He was usually the one comforting the masters, however, now it seemed like the other way around.

“You feel better right?” his master asked, sweeping a tug of his bangs out of his face.

He nodded, he did. He felt like a weight had been lifted from his chest.

But at the same time, he felt this new weight on his chest. One that he liked. One that made his heart flutter and beat faster. But he didn’t know what feeling it was. He didn’t know if he should be concerned. But the feeling made him feel happy, so he decided to let it be.

~

Myungsoo stared at the other who was once withering in pain and fright. He remembered what the doctor had said only an hour ago.

Broken ribs that weren’t healed properly.

Infections.

Burns.

Cuts.

Malnourished.

Why didn’t he get Sungyeol checked up sooner? The regret drowned his heart as he clenched his fist in anger and sadness.

~

~ 2 weeks  later ~

 “Woohyun refuses to allow his men to work for us any further.” Sungyyu said that morning.

“Why?”

“I promised a week. It’s been over a month.”

“But did we get enough information?”

Woohyun grinned, “More than enough.” He replied, showing papers and papers of illegal ion venues, as well as possible trafficking business. He showed pictures of men that seemed to be masterminds of this business, and other information that provided evidence and information.

Myungsoo scanned through them one by one, his smile getting wider, as he saw all the information. After a few minutes his smile dropped and he let out a sigh.

“What’s wrong?” Sunggyu asked.

“They’re still going to prison.” He mumbled, remembering the conversation they had a few weeks ago.

“Yes. But if we’re lucky, we can trial it as abuse. They have enough evidence on their body to show that they’ve gone through abuse and trauma.”

“So now we’re counting on luck?”

“It’s the law, Myungsoo. Everything about it is luck. You can be the most evil criminal in the world, but if you have luck and a great lawyer, you can get away with it. That’s how messed up the law is. We just need to count on our luck.”

Myungsoo sighed and nodded.

“How is the progress anyways? It’s been a few weeks since I’ve checked up.”

He smiled slightly, “He cried the other time.”

Woohyun looked at him shocked, “Why are you smiling? Crying is an emotion of sadness, you idiot.” He retorted.

“Shut up.” Myungsoo glared, “It was like he kept it in for so long, because I hugged him, with his permission, of course, and before we knew it, he just began to cry and cry. I guess he was overwhelmed or something.”

Sunggyu nodded, “That’s a good sign then.” He thought aloud, making Myungsoo poke his tongue out childishly at his friend.

“Well, if we’re done, I’m going to go home.”

“You’ve only just arrived.” Woohyun said.

“I want to check up on Sungyeol.” He replied, “Bye.”

Once the male had left, Woohyun scoffed, “Seems like he’s grown attached to the guy.”

“That’s what I thought too.”

“Do you think that feelings might develop?”

It was now Sunggyu’s turn to scoff, “Do you really think your friend’s expectations are that low?”

“You sound really bitter.”

He shook his head, “I don’t know.” He said running his fingers through his head, “I guess it’s just the stress.”

Woohyun nodded, “Myungsoo wouldn’t like someone like him. He likes smart, innocent people.”

Sunggyu didn’t reply.

“What about us?”

“What?”

“Do you think that feelings might develop between us?”

Sunggyu rolled his eyes, before smiling, “I don’t know, why don’t we see?” He smiled, “Lunch?”

As they walked out, they hadn’t realised a pair of eyes staring and overhearing their conversation.

After hearing that they were talking about him, Myungsoo decided to hide in the corner to hear their conversation.

So what if he grew attached to the other?

It didn’t mean that he liked the other romantically.

Besides, so what if he did? Did they really think that lowly of Sungyeol?

If they did, he wouldn’t want to work with people with that mindset.

His fist clenched in anger as he shook his head to forget about what he had overheard.

He was going to make Sungyeol a perfect human being- not that he wasn’t already, but he was going to make him happy. He was going to protect him.

He was going to make them regret judging the male so easily.

He was going to make him better than them.

After all, Sungyeol was the smartest, and most innocent person he had ever met. If he wasn’t, how could he have survived all these years?

Sungyeol deserved the best, and Myungsoo aimed to give him everything he could.

 New chapter!!

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Till next time! Stay safe!