Lee Soon was in the house for a short while.

Getting impatient, Seunghyun wiggled his fingers, before clenching them into a fist. If he tried, he could possibly take down the man holding him back. After all, he’d just come back from 4/5 months in action school. A few months ago yes, but even so, he could remember a few things.

He heard a door open and Lee Soon walk back through. 

He craned his head to see Daesung, but when he did, he almost screamed.

Being carried, he was limp and fragile, limbs being swayed by the wind. He couldn’t see a breath, but he had to be breathing, right?

A thin blanket was carelessly wrapped around him, covered in patches of blood.

He was being carried to the van, and little droplets of blood were falling onto the ground. Looking over at Seungri, Jiyong, Youngbae and Jae Shin’s terrified faces, expecting the worst, Seunghyun decided to act out on it. 4/5 months of training school were finally being put to good use.

The man holding him was huge, so Seunghyun couldn’t drop to the ground – he’d be pinned down and crushed. Luckily, he had a lot of power in his legs, so he slowly raised it. Then forcefully smashed it back down onto the man’s lower regions. He shouted out, dropping Seunghyun from the tight grasp.

Seunghyun, however, couldn’t stay there for long.

Hesitation could kill you.

Ignoring the expressions on his friend’s faces, he ran over, to find the van door bolted, and Lee Soon somewhere inside. Not knowing what to do next, he did the only thing he could think of.

“DAESUNG!!!” He yelled.

There was no response, not a kick on the door, nothing.

Watching the van drive away, Seunghyun dropped to his knees, tears welling up.

Meanwhile, the armed forces had only just realised the situation and were attacking all the others holding up the 4. Youngbae immediately ran over to Seunghyun, pulling him into a waist hug. “It’ll be alright, Seunghyun..” Youngbae soothed, watching the van slowly pull into action. He looked over to his right and let out a relieved smile. The car that had been kept with a driver in it was pulling up. Everyone climbed in, Seungri sitting on Youngbae’s lap as there wasn’t space for the 5, plus the driver.

“Normally, that’s against the law, but we’re making an exception.” The driver shouted while pressing his foot down on the accelerator, eager to catch up with the van ahead.

Youngbae tightened his grip around Seungri, resting his head on his back. He shuddered in thought of seeing Daesung’s limp lifeless body. They had to get him back soon. The car jerked and raced to try and catch up with the speeding van, and surely enough, it was getting closer and closer.

Letting out an exasperated sigh, Seunghyun kicked and moved impatiently in his seat. He tried not to look at Youngbae and Seungri, but instead on the van out the window. “Is it running out of gas?” He thought aloud, causing Jae Shin to squint and look at it. There was no doubt about it. The van was slowing down.

The driver followed the car until it came to a stop, and the driver of the van came out. Seunghyun and the others got out the car. His immediate reaction was to run over there, unbolt the van and save Daesung, but was stopped by Jiyong’s hand wrapping tightly around his wrist. “Don’t...” Jiyong slowly mumbled, cautious of what would happen.

Seunghyun huffed. He was about to turn around and protest when the driver of the van walked over. He was very muscular, and not someone you could easily take down in a fight. 

Jae Shin and the policeman straightened, forming a stiff expression on their faces.

Scratching the back of his head, Jae Shin thought of the simplest ways to get them to give over Daesung with no violence or force required. They were treating Daesung like an object. He decided for a simple method – talking him out of it. He’d done it before. But for this reason, he was scared.

“Listen, if you give Daesung over, there’ll be no need for any violence, and we’d all win,” He started, mentally cursing himself for mentioning the word violence. A word that could trigger the very action if he wasn’t careful.Laughing, the muscular man crossed his arms.

“That’s not my decision, it’s boss’s.” He grunted, walking to the van, unbolting the door.

Jae Shin tensed up. But then squinted at the van. Weren’t there two drivers in the front before? Now there was no one. Raising an eyebrow, he watched a car slowly gear into action.

Jumping to conclusions, he ordered the driver to get into the car. “Daesung’s in there!!” He whispered, and jerked his head to the car. Nodding, the driver whistled the attention of everyone, causing them all but Seunghyun to run over.

“Hurry up Seunghyun!!” Youngbae yelled, as Seunghyun stood there motionless, staring at the inside of the van. There was blood everywhere. He felt sick at the sight of it. Slowly being brought back into the real world, he felt a tug at his wrist, and looked up to see Jae Shin, staring at him empathetically. Seunghyun let Jae Shin pull him over, staring at the scene, into the car, which geared into action following the other.

Armed forces appeared by the muscular driver’s side, handcuffing him. The muscular man made no movement, and simply stood there, staring at the two cars.

Lee Soon’s plan was going all wrong.

Or, it could be. He looked at the car, back to Daesung, who was unconscious. Then at his hand, covered in spiky rings, which were also covered in blood. Smiling to himself, he looked at the amount of blood on the seats. “Your blood’s so beautiful...” He murmured, kissing Daesung’s nose and sitting up, pulling Daesung into his lap. It didn’t look as if he had much blood left.

Contemplating his decreasing options, he saw the car get closer.

If he left Daesung behind, they wouldn’t come for him, and his plan could still continue, but on the other hand, if he took Daesung with him, and succeeded, then he could cause more heartbreak. Daesung was almost dead, anyway. It wouldn’t take much to end it. Smiling, he asked the driver to slow down. The man driving was the one who’d been in the front seat of the van. Lee Soon always had second plans.  He couldn’t avoid the pity building up in his eyes, but he chose to ignore it.

It made him somewhat happy anyway, seeing someone more broken than him.

And Daesung was more scared than Jiyong. He screamed a lot more, and besides, Lee Soon loved it when he screamed. It was like honey for the ears. Watching his body grow slower and slower at keeping a breath, Lee Soon signalled the driver to stop. When he did, Lee Soon opened the door. The pity in his eyes made him feel a small bit of regret. This happened with everything, but they were just stupid emotions.

Wrapping a blanket around him, he pushed Daesung out the car and drove away, speeding into the motorway, out of sight.

--

Seunghyun watched the body fall to the ground. His hopes both raised and fell dramatically, knowing it to be Daesung, but the fact he was so limp and lifeless.

He couldn’t hear. He couldn’t speak. All he could do was stare.

Everyone ran over, forming a small crowd around him.

Legs automatically moving, Seunghyun’s body put on some auto-pilot mode, dragging the man over to Daesung.

Jae Shin was on the telephone to the ambulance, explaining the situation at hand, while Youngbae, Seungri and Jiyong stared at the body, not making a move in fear something bad would happen.

Ending up standing by his waist, Seunghyun’s knees caved in and he fell to the floor, tears forming as he stared at Daesung’s almost unmoving body, his shut eyes, his blood-coated skin, the thin blanket lifting up at corners, revealing bruises, hits, marks, wounds, and skin as pale as ice.

He felt himself being pushed away so Daesung could be given chest compressions; and too weak to hold himself up, he landed on the floor, bashing his side painfully. He couldn’t even let out a whimper of pain. The image of Daesung painted in his mind.

He couldn’t hear Youngbae asking him if he was alright.

He couldn’t feel the hand rubbing his shoulder, trying to help him back up.

He couldn’t see Jiyong’s face come into view.

He could, but it didn’t register in his mind.

His eyes had clouded over.

His Daesung...

Was destroyed.

He choked his heart out his mouth. His tears swam down his face. He wanted to scream, to yell, to shout out Daesung’s name and hold him in his arms and to love him and comfort him and for Daesung to get back up again, and to smile in that funny way he did, and to give him a big hug, and to smack Seunghyun playfully on the shoulder, saying “Hyunggg, I’m fine!”, and to kiss him, and to his face, and to whisper in his ear one last time...

There was nothing he wouldn’t do for Daesung to do all that.

Seunghyun smiled to himself suddenly, tears still racing down. Of course Daesung wasn’t dead. How could someone like that suddenly just collapse and... die? Daesung was too happy to die. Concluding to himself that the man in front of him was in fact not Daesung, he shut his eyes, the recent memories that they had shared coming back to him all at once, hitting him in the gut where he rolled over, face contorted in pain, weird smile banished.

Because this wasn’t an illusion. This was real life, this wasn’t a movie, Daesung was next to him about to die...

He yelled out a weak whimper, being picked up by Seungri from the behind in a loving hug. Seunghyun yelled at him to get off, but Seungri still somehow managed to keep the firm grip intact. Seungri tried his best to comfort him, and Seunghyun knew that, and Seunghyun knew Seungri hadn’t done anything wrong, but what other emotion was he meant to feel other than anger? The anger was a mix of every emotion, loss, pain, heartache... Everything.

Youngbae compressed Daesung’s chest a few more times, then moved to give him CPR. Daesung wasn’t responding, and the ambulance felt like it was taking longer than it was supposed to.

He almost couldn’t perform CPR with his choked tears, but he had to. This wasn’t something to back on. It was a life or death situation.

Daesung’s breathing patterns hadn’t changed from how it had originally been; a slow, unsteady, unnoticeable speed, but at least it hadn’t decreased or stopped.

The ambulance arrived soon after, emergency lights flashing blue, sirens crying out. Immediately, paramedics ran out and put Daesung on a stretcher, going back to chest compressions and CPR. Putting him in the ambulance, the doctors grabbed Seunghyun’s, Jiyong’s, Seungri and Youngbae’s hands and led them into the vehicle, shutting the door and telling Jae Shin to meet them there, familiar with the detective, who nodded in return, getting into the car.

---

Youngbae sat next to Seungri in the hospital, crying into his shoulder loudly, who in return cried even harder, arms around Youngbae, hands pressed into his crying eyes. Jiyong sat, tears rolling down his face, staring at the paramedics working on Daesung in shock, not able to process a single thing. Seunghyun was being talked to by a doctor, who tried to ask him questions and to calm him down, but Seunghyun didn’t listen, and kept crying into his hands, heart shattered, broken and torn in half. Looking at Daesung’s body would bring him more heartache, so he looked at the ground.

Jae Shin entered the doorway, eyes slightly pink and his hands folded in front of him. Seungri straightened. “H-How is he?” He asked, voice wavering and stuttering, anticipating the worst but hoping for the best.

“He won’t wake up. That’s all I know, anyway.” Jae Shin replied simply, sitting down, legs spread, elbows resting on his thighs, hands massaging his temples. He’d come across some extreme missing people cases, but never something as extreme as this.

Seunghyun had almost managed to block the sentence from his ears, but in the crying silence, he heard it as clear as a sunny day. “C-Coma?” He let out in a raspy voice. He felt a little more relieved than he should, as at least that’d mean Daesung hadn’t fallen into the hands of death.

“Mm..” Jae Shin confirmed, looking up. He was shaken, but not so shaken that he’d lost the ability to speak, like the others had. “He has a lot of bad wounds, luckily nothing on the head so serious he’d forget his memory or anything of the sort, but when he wakes up, he’ll be scared and frightened. Try not to touch him, he won’t like that. At least, not from experience.” He spoke evenly, keeping his head focused on the wall opposite.

The others – except for Seunghyun nodded, and silence filled the room again.

Jae Shin stood up, straightening his jacket. “I’ll leave you here, then. I need to check on the police in your property, and find out the situation of the grounds Daesung was in. I’ll call you sometime tomorrow, okay?” He asked politely, bowing his head, and turning around, not waiting for a response, walking out.

Seungri let out a frustrated moan. “It’s all my ing fault.” He uttered. He hadn’t got that conversation out his head, and he remembered Daesung’s expression. If Daesung wasn’t okay, Seungri didn’t think he could see Daesung again.

Youngbae sighed, Seungri’s hair soothingly. “No.. It’s no one’s.” He whispered, not trusting his voice to speak loud enough. No one had. Seungri grabbed onto Youngbae’s hand, caressing the smooth surface of it. Raising it up to his mouth, he kissed it gently. Rubbing the back of Youngbae’s palm with his thumb, he dropped the hand and moved to Youngbae’s cheek, kissing a spot there. Youngbae looked over, and kissed Seungri’s lips, beginning to cry again.

Noting this, Seungri looked up at Youngbae, and smiled gently; a gesture to show everything would be alright. Comfort received, Youngbae leaned into Seungri’s shoulder once again, relishing the sweet smell radiating off him. It calmed him down, and set him into a semi-deep sleep.

Eventually, Seungri fell asleep, head resting on Youngbae’s, and then so did Jiyong, head leant back against wall, hands in pockets, dreaming of alternate situations.

Seunghyun, however, wasn’t in the room at all.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE - END

A/N: dum dum duuummmmmmmm