“Oh? You actually made it.”

Sunggyu had parked his car on the street and made his way down a dirty, narrow alley. He stopped in front of a rusty door, where the nurse lady from before was standing, with her arms folded. She was no longer wearing her blue scrubs, and had changed into black skinny jeans and a grey tank top.

“Where is he?” Sunggyu cut her off, obviously not willing to indulge in small talk.

The nurse opened to talk, when the door swung open, and Minwoo appeared with an aggravated expression.

“Yah, they’re still going at it—.” He paused upon seeing Sunggyu standing there. “Ah, you’re here…”

“Where’s Woohyun?” Sunggyu approached the other man with a threatening glare. He grabbed the collar of Minwoo’s jacket and shook him. “Tell me where he is you bastard—!”

“Ok, ok!” Minwoo held his hands up in surrender, as Sunggyu let him go. “We’ll take you to him right now, but…”

“But what?” Sunggyu glowered. “He better be ok. You better not have done anything to him! If you so much as touched—.”

“It’s not that!” Minwoo sighed. “Its just…well just see for yourself.” He gestured for Sunggyu and the nurse to follow him. He opened the door which led to a narrow staircase and another door. He turned the knob to reveal a dimly lit space, with next to nothing except a chair chained to the ground, with Woohyun sitting on top, and the boss standing beside him.

“At least he actually wants me! And after I get out of here, we’re definitely going to do it, and then you can just go cry in a corner kid!” Woohyun yelled.

“No way!” The boss pointed an angry finger at him. “After you’re disposed of, he’ll come back to me, and we’ll share a magical night together!”

“Oh please.” Woohyun snorted. “What makes you think he’ll go to a scrawny kid like you even if I die?”

“S-Scrawny?!” The boss exploded. “I am not scrawny!”

“See?” Minwoo sighed, turning to Sunggyu. “They’ve been going on about this since last night…apparently it has to do with who’ll get to sleep with you first or something—.”

However, Sunggyu wasn’t listening to Minwoo at all. He wasn’t even listening to Woohyun or the boss. All he could see was the bruise on Woohyun’s cheek and the cut on his lip, and his arms tied up and his feet chained to the ground. And he was angry. And hurt. He thought he had finally made some kind of impact on Woohyun’s life. That he had shown him how valuable his life was and to not do stupid, reckless things that would make others worried. To treasure his own self.

But seeing the condition Woohyun was in, it appeared that message hadn’t been received in the least. And that made Sunggyu feel disappointed most of all.

He angrily stomped towards Woohyun and the boss, who both turned upon realizing he was there.

“Sunggyu hyung!” The boss squealed like an excited fangirl.

Woohyun stared at Sunggyu quietly, but didn’t say anything. He could tell from the look in Sunggyu’s eyes and his demeanor that Sunggyu was angry and he knew it was his fault.

“Let him go Ilhoon.” Sunggyu told the boss. 

Ilhoon pouted. “But only if you promise to come back and stay with me forever—.”

“Let him go right now.” Sunggyu repeated, staring darkly ahead, with an almost vacant look in his eyes.

“Ok hyung!” Ilhoon replied in a love struck state and instantly got out a ring of keys from his back pocket and proceeded to unlock the restraints and chains from Woohyun.

“What?!” The nurse gasped. “Yah what are you doing you idiot?!”

She made a move to approach them, but Ilhoon gestured for Minwoo to restrain her.

“But…” Minwoo paused. “Boss—.”

“Stop her!” Ilhoon demanded, and then turned to Sunggyu with a sweet expression. “Did I do well hyung?”

Sunggyu ignored him and grabbed onto Woohyun’s wrist and pulled him up from the chair. He turned and started leaving dragging Woohyun harshly, as he walked.

Woohyun felt utterly guilty and horrible about his own stupidity, and let Sunggyu drag him roughly. He knew he deserved it.

“I’m not letting you leave with my ticket to freedom!” The nurse suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and was about to pounce on Sunggyu, but he merely jabbed out a fist directly into her stomach. He had on his brass knuckles, which obviously caused more of an impact, sending the nurse to the floor, coughing and wincing.

He then continued walking without an inch of remorse. Woohyun was actually scared of Sunggyu for the first time. He had never seen Sunggyu so…so cold and unfeeling. His Sunggyu was warm and kind. Not like this…this Sunggyu, Woohyun didn’t recognize. And his biggest fear was that he was the cause of it.

His throat was dry and he couldn’t even utter out a single apology as Sunggyu kept his firm grip on Woohyun’s wrist and pulled him down the narrow alley way towards his car.

He opened up the front passenger seat and practically threw Woohyun into the seat and slammed the door, before walking around to the driver’s seat. Woohyun gulped and shrunk back in his seat as Sunggyu started the car. He was so anxious that anything he said wouldn’t be enough. That it would anger Sunggyu further, so he didn’t say anything.

He merely kept his head down and twiddled with the blisters on his fingers, and the cuts on his arms.

♦♦♦

“You idiots!” The nurse growled, grabbing onto Ilhoon’s shirt collar. “How could you let him get away?! We had a deal! You promised—!” Suddenly Minwoo grabbed her and pulled her away from Ilhoon. “Let me go!” She elbowed him in the gut, still focusing her glare on the boss.

“You really think I would do that?” Ilhoon smirked, rubbing his glove clad hands together. “I haven’t forgotten our deal, after all, I still want Sunggyu hyung back.”

“But…” The nurse furrowed her brows. “Why did you let them go then…?”

 “Well, I’m sure you’ve heard about those recent gang attacks on that witch’s spells shop?”

“The one that old hag, Yu Sun is running?” The nurse asked.

“That’s the one.” Ilhoon nodded. “And that gang, is actually a recent ally of mine. The East V gang, they’re called. They managed to get their hands on some potions…”

The nurse smirked. “Ah, so you used one of those on Nam Woohyun…”

Ilhoon nodded enthusiastically. “Now, you’re catching on.”

 “But what kind of spell exactly?” The nurse questioned, folding her arms. “Because if he dies…”

“Oh it’s nothing like that.” Ilhoon tilted his head mysteriously. “Besides that loser is already damaged goods…it won’t take much to completely destroy him psychologically, which in turn will cause his entire self to…hm, how can I say this? Internally self destruct?”

The nurse eyed him skeptically, deciding whether she should believe him or not.

Suddenly the door was kicked down and a charge of SC officers swarmed the perimeter.

“Crap!” The nurse cursed and leapt up to a small window set high against the wall. She clawed her way out and escaped without looking back. After all she couldn’t get caught. Not by the SC officers. Because then he would find out the truth.

Ilhoon merely snorted, not even batting an eyelash as they handcuffed him. It wasn’t like they could keep him. The SC sector had no jurisdiction over ordinary human criminals and they had no proof of his involvement with supernatural beings. He would be released soon enough.

♦♦♦

Woohyun looked up when the car turned off, only to find they were in front of his house—the creepy mansion. He felt his stomach turn, as he nervously looked out the window.

“Get out.”

Woohyun turned to Sunggyu with wide eyes. “…W-What?”

Sunggyu, in an impatient flurry, stormed out of the car and slammed the door, moving to the other side and opening up Woohyun’s door. He grabbed Woohyun’s arm and forcefully pulled him out of the car.

“W-Why are you doing this?” Woohyun’s voice was trembling. “I-I don’t want to go in there hyung.”

Sunggyu ignored him, however and tightened his grip on Woohyun’s arm and pulled him towards the house.

“Hyung, w-why are you taking me in there?” Woohyun felt the tears welling up in his eyes. “I-I’m sorry. Please don’t hate me.”

Sunggyu kicked open the rusted paint chipped door and forced Woohyun inside. The place smelled musty and of dried blood and rotting wood.

Sunggyu grabbed some cobweb covered rope from the stained floor and pulled Woohyun to the stair case. He proceeded to tie Woohyun’s arms to the short wooden pole at the bottom of the stair case.

“What’re you doing?” Woohyun panicked. “Please don’t do this hyung.”

But Sunggyu continued, not once meeting Woohyun’s eyes.

“Please talk to me hyung. Yell at me, or beat me up. Please—.” His breathing started to shallow when Sunggyu gave the ropes one last tighten, before turning and walking away. “W-Wait. Hyung don’t leave. Y-You can’t leave me like this—.”

“Why not?!” Sunggyu exploded, turning to face Woohyun, and finally looking him straight in the eyes.

But Woohyun almost wished he didn’t.

There was too much pain and disappointment in his eyes and it made Woohyun feel like he was going to suffocate.

“Isn’t that what you want?!” Sunggyu’s voice cracked midway through his shouting, but he continued none the less. “You could have died! They could have killed you if they really wanted to! You keep doing one stupid thing after the other, without regards for your own life at all! Apparently you don’t give a about what I think!”

“N-No…” Woohyun shook his head, tears streaming down his cheeks. “D-Don’t say that…”

“Apparently you don’t care about leaving me alone in this ty world. Well that’s fine then! Just sit there and die in this craphole!” Sunggyu finished, staring at Woohyun with the most disheartened, pained expression Woohyun had ever seen. And then he turned and stormed out, clenching his fists and ignoring Woohyun’s cries.

“No! Please! D-Don’t do this hyung!” Woohyun begged. “I’m sorry! I’m such an idiot! Don’t leave me here! I-I can’t be here!” He was breathing and crying hysterically after Sunggyu slammed the rusted door, shrouding the house in darkness. He sunk to his knees, sobbing and panting. “Don’t…please d-don’t leave me hyung.” His voice was scratchy and weak, and all he could do was cry.

Everything hurt like hell, and he really felt like dying for real, but the fact that Sunggyu had left him hurt the most.