“Well, hello there. Welcome to my territory,” he spoke directly to Minho as if only Minho could hear.

You are the only one that heard it.

Minho turned in the man’s direction, putting himself at a better distance between Taemin and the unknown monster.

  “Minho . . .” Taemin stared at the guy in confusion, “Who is that?”

Minho took a step closer, stopping when the man held a hand up with such a fake friendly smile.

  “I see you guys are kind of far from Namwon,” he specifically looked at Minho, stepping from the bush.

His short hair was deep auburn, possibly almost a dark red, bangs swept across his forehead neatly. The waterline to his eyes rimmed with black and Minho swore he could see a claw scar on his lower left cheek. He was well built, dressed all in black and looking as if he could rip the clothes easily.

Minho took a specific look at his hands covered in leather gloves with the tips cut off. The important part was the sign on the dorsum of his hand. It looked like a line had split in two, the top lines curling inward to a circle in it. It even looked like it had a tail. It was odd how Minho thought he’d seen it before.

Think about it.

Minho’s eyes sharpened as he realized the voice inside his head matched the man before him and clenched his fists. This wasn’t a human whatsoever.

  “Oh, yeah,” Taemin replace his startled expression with a smile, putting down the bag and crawling out of the tent, not even noticing Minho’s stiff body being a shield, “We were just coming out here for a week, what about you?”

The man gave Taemin a crooked smile, eyes flickering from Minho to Taemin’s, “I come out here very often. It’s like a home to me. Can I ask your names?”

  “Ah, Taemin,” he waved a little, “And this is Minho.”

Taemin, Minho internally warned, shutting up would be appropriate.

Let the kid go on.

  “I’m Joon,” the guy replied with a half bow, “I just came across and thought I should see if you two were stranded and in any trouble.”

  “We’re fine, thank you,” Minho curtly spit between his teeth, halfway turning to Taemin, “We’re in no need of anything.”

  “Minho,” Taemin hissed, “Don’t be so mean.”

If only Taemin could see underneath this Joon guy’s façade—not really a façade, he was actually making himself obvious—then he could tell this guy could just straight out be a murderer.

 Minho inched a little closer to Taemin, “Pack up.”

  “Minho—”

  “There’s no reason to pack up,” Joon nonchalantly said, stepping further from the bush and leaning on the tree Minho had the previous night, “The weather is clear, there’s no life-threatening animal for miles, and it’s quite a nice view from here. I’ve never really come up this mountain to see. It’s a nice scene.”

Taemin nodded, walking forward towards the edge of the area to look far out, “Yeah, it is.”

Minho’s didn’t relax and he didn’t plan on lifting his anxiety any soon. Joon was going to do something and he didn’t even have to think about it to know it wasn’t a friendly gesture.

  “Tell me, Taemin,” Joon went on as if they were already pals, “How long have you known Minho?”

Minho looked at Joon with a death glare.

This is why I like strangers. You’re fun to toy with, Minho.

Joon knew more than just a random person walking up to a stranger and beginning casual conversation with them. Joon was already whirling through their memories and slowly learning each detail about Minho and Taemin.

Taemin scratched his head, thoroughly thinking about it, “About six years . . . Yeah, that’s about accurate.”

  “You two seem pretty close.”

Minho wanted to object to Taemin speaking, but his mind couldn’t process the action. His voice wouldn’t speak up; his jaw wouldn’t move.

He was being impaired.

Minho could only stand still with a clenched jaw.

  “Yep. I know basically everything about him.”

  “Do you, now?”

Minho was slowly going insane. He couldn’t speak, he could barely move, and he couldn’t put the barriers up around his mind. He should’ve been more cautious, he should’ve done something.

His breathing was flaring and Taemin looked at him with confusion.

  “Have you two met before?” Taemin asked.

Joon leaned off the tree and slowly walked forward, his eyes meeting Minho’s briefly before passing the frozen man and standing next to Taemin while looking at the scene, “No, not really. But I think there’s something I know a little more than you do when it comes to him.”

I swear to god, Minho growled, shut the hell up.

Joon peeked back at him for a moment with a smirk with a following wink.

  “. . . Oh?”

If he told Taemin the truth, he wouldn’t believe it. No matter how deep of an explanation he’d give, Taemin wouldn’t believe it. Please don’t.

Even though Minho was trained to suppress his inner form by a human, he didn’t know how he could suppress himself with another creature. Why was there special ways for everything?

Joon peered at Taemin’s appearance with a friendly smile on his face, eyes growing big, “You know, you’re very attractive, Taemin-ssi,” he changed the subject.

Minho watched as a slight blush crept upon his boyfriend’s cheeks. Fire was erupting inside of him and he just wanted to burst out on Joon.

  “T-thanks . . .”

One of Joon’s gloved hands pressed to Taemin’s left cheek, inspecting all around his neck, “Do you not have any scars or marks?”

So you haven’t marked him as your own or shown yourself to him on accident? You’re quite the interesting character, Minho.

  “Why would I have scars?” Taemin questioned, his brows furrowed as he seemed to think about it hard.

  “Why else wouldn’t you?” Joon feigned innocence, removing his hand and simply pointing at Minho, “It’s what he does.”

Joon had to have let his guard down purposely. Minho was moving quite quickly, growling, “Shut up.”

This was too overwhelming. He couldn’t lie his way out of this; whether Taemin believed it or not. The fire in his stomach was rising and he had no control over it.

He wished he was taught to keep his cool against someone like him.

When Taemin saw Minho striding forward, he stepped back from Joon, so much confusion plastered all over him, “Minho?”

Minho grabbed Joon’s shoulder and spun him, gripping on the collar of his black shirt. The man was fearless and an ever-growing cocky smile painted his lips with a slight rumble of laughter coming from his throat.

  “Minho?”

Minho’s eyes shifted to Taemin, softening as he realized Taemin wasn’t fond of the fierceness of his actions, “Don’t worry.”

  “He should worry, you ,” Joon growled, pretending to be angry, “You’ve left him in the dark for six years. Don’t you think that’s selfish? Untrustworthy?”

You’re lots of fun.

  “You ,” Minho deeply growled, shaking him in his clutch, “Stop playing around!”

  “Minho, why are you so angry?” Taemin’s voice was still laced in bewilder, still not understanding.

Everything was going absolutely wrong. At one point, Joon was just faking friendliness, and now he was trying to get Minho to spill the truth. How could something so unexpected escalate so quickly in only five minutes?!

  “I’ve met him,” Minho lied, “He was born a liar.”

Joon shoved away from Minho, a fake glare on his face, “I’ve never met you in my life.”

So fun.

  “If you never met me, then how would you know if I haven’t been telling him something?”

This guy wasn’t afraid to expose himself . . . was he?

How about . . . Joon smiled, we make this even more interesting?

  “Don’t you dare,” Minho growled.

He wasn’t listening, paralyzing Minho once more as he casually walked behind Taemin, “Let’s have some fun, Taemin-ssi.”

  “What?” Taemin yelled exasperated.

Joon used his left arm as a barrier around Taemin’s body, pressing a finger from his right hand to the younger’s temple, a mischievous glint in his eyes as he let Minho’s body free.

  “What are you doing?!” Taemin screamed, pushing around to get out of his grip, “You feel like ing metal!”

Minho pressed forward to the point he was forced to stop as Joon pressed harder to his temple.

  “Tsk, tsk, tsk, I don’t want it to be that easy, Minho,” Joon sighed, “If I let you waltz up here with the strength like yours, you’d easily win. That’s not fun.”

Minho watched as Taemin struggled against the iron grip, staring at Minho with determined eyes, “What the hell, Minho? Who the hell is this?”

  “All you need to know is that my name is Joon, I’m an Intellude, and he isn’t who you think he is,” Joon shrugged with his mouth next to Taemin’s ear, “Believe me.”

You should hear inside his head, Minho. It’s damn hilarious. Every single thought is all over the place. Poor boy.

  “Get out of there,” Minho threatened.

  “What’s an Intel-something and what the hell are you . . . Get off!” Taemin complained, “I don’t even know you!”

  “And you don’t know him,” Joon relented, “Come on, Minho, enlighten the kid.”

What does he do? If he doesn’t do it, most likely, Joon might kill Taemin and it’ll be all his fault. If he exposes himself, Taemin would run from him and regret everything.

His heart grew heavy, but was burning as the fire arose inside him, slowly progressing to his last nerve of humanity.

  “I’ll kill him,” Joon confirmed, “Just to make this more interesting.”

  “Stop saying that,” Minho shouted, “Shut up.”

Joon didn’t let up at all, raising his brows in victory, “You’re on the verge of slipping, Minho. Just do it. Show him what you really are.”

Taemin stared at him, hope in his eyes that Minho would get him away from Joon’s arm. Minho debated. Him saving Taemin would mean him giving up on their relationship. Him letting Taemin die would be a big sin and betrayal.

A life without Taemin living would be like imprisonment. The extinction of his existence would drive Minho to the point he’d go crazy without him. He’d go insane just knowing he was the one to kill him. If only Minho was the one to pack everything up, they wouldn’t have run into Joon. If Minho decided to go camping next week, this crisis would be averted. But it was here and there was no other choice.

He would rather live as a sin rather than doing a sinful deed.

  “Minho,” Taemin begged, but suddenly brought his attention to Joon, “How would you even kill—”

Taemin stopped midsentence, eyes widening and mouth wide open.

I like scaring people in their heads.

  “I’m an Intellude. You know, a specific cross between intellectual and deluding-entity? We take on human form only. You should get it,” Joon explained as if answering a question, “It’s what I do—and I do as I please.

  “Now, Minho,” Joon breathed, “Make this a fair game and come out to play.”

Taemin’s lip trembled as he slowly understood what was happened, “Do something, Minho.”

Minho fought himself at that point.

Hearing Taemin begging with such a small voice flared the white fire within him, and he could feel the heat now expanding and seeping to free from his skin.

Think of a tree and be its healing roots. . . Seunghyun.

His hand twitched and he clenched them into fists, taking slow steps forward as Joon pressed his finger harder to Taemin’s temple.

He could feel heat waves coming off his body, resulting in feeling his shirt deteriorate to ash, electricity running through every inch of him, his wings growing out of his back, and heard his heartbeat quicken, heard his beasty growl internally.

Think of a tree and be its healing roots. . . Seunghyun, help.

Joon smiled and Taemin cried out, squeezing his eyes shut and his body slightly crumpling from an internal pain Joon caused.

Minho snapped his jaw and growled loudly, warning Joon to let go.

Think of a dying tree and be its burning roots. . .

  “One more thing and you’re free,” Joon announced, gripping Taemin tighter as he tried falling to his knees, “Open your eyes, Taemin-ssi.”

Fun.

Fun.

Fun.

As Taemin slowly opened his eyes, a loud and wild gasp escaping his lips, and Minho’s vision went white.

Everything around him was white besides the trees in a gray shade and Taemin and Joon in black.

He could see the smirk on Joon’s face and Taemin’s fear, shrinking back into Joon’s body.

Minho wanted to calm down, he wanted to return, but his inner monster was too powerful to let him scamper away so easily.

Seunghyun hadn’t taught him this part.

Minho slowly looked down at his black body, seeing patterns of white glowing on his skin. He hadn’t seen his form for so long that he didn’t know what he looked like.

  “M-Min . . . You . . .” Taemin’s voice trembled, ignoring Joon’s finger still at his head, “Y-You . . .”

Minho tried to speak words, and he could, but they came out as a breath. He was having a hard time to reassure Taemin that he wouldn’t harm him. No way in hell could he.

  “That’s right, Taemin,” Joon whispered, Minho able to hear it, “Your boyfriend’s a monster and he never told you. Minho’s proof of a living Daegrent and he never even told you. Scared, aren’t you?”

Minho growled viciously at Joon’s voice, “Let. Him. Go.”

Joon took a second, and Minho watched as the black figure backed up, throwing Taemin to a nearby tree and freezing him there, “I’ll tell you what, you kill me, Taemin should live. If I live, I get to kill him. I haven’t killed a human in so long that I’m in dire need of it. How ‘bout it?”

Minho’s eyes averted to Taemin, seeing his black figure in a stiff lock with his back against the tree, his white facial features in utter shock and fear.

  “I’m not wagering his life,” Minho growled, taking steps forward without hesitation, “But I’m willing to take yours if it means him living.”

Joon, pulled down his gloves to make sure they stayed on, standing straight and walking towards Minho, “Fair enough.”

Minho growled and brought up indestructible barriers outside of his mind, blocking off any reception of Joon’s force. He shot forward, fists meeting with Joon’s in a petty fistfight, only starting out the battle as weak.

Joon responded just as fueled as Minho, the smirk never faltering each time Minho’s mouth snapped close to his face. It pissed Minho off, to say the least.

Minho guided his right black wing to shove off Joon from him, his eyes burning with intensity as he tried to glare at Joon so hard that maybe he could burn his shoulder.

Joon chuckled, making an apparent blink, resulting in Minho’s left shoulder given a rough push without a hand used.

  “You know,” Joon chuckled, “Intelludes usually win every fight. But I’ve never fought a Daegrent, so it may be interesting.”

Minho growled as he repeated ‘interesting’ again, his keen eyes focusing on Joon’s shoulder and successfully starting a white fire on his skin.

Joon jumped in shock and tried patting it down, only making it grow bigger. Joon growled, glaring at Minho and leaving it alone, hopefully realizing that dimming the fire was futile.

Joon grew furious, his mind attacks hitting Minho every time he initiated it, frustrating Minho to his core.

With his heartbeat in his ears, he flapped both of his wings in front of him to stop Joon from continuing for just a moment so he could take a swing at his face.

Joon’s face took a sharp right turn, stumbling a bit before wiping his hand over his mouth, his eyes narrowed in threat, “Fine.”

Joon stared in silence, slowly stepping forward and avoiding each of Minho’s fists, lowering Minho’s ability to burn him with white fire.

Minho could feel the barriers he put up burn down; it was painful, a spot on his forehead was pulsing in pain and giving him a headache, but he couldn’t stop now. Not when Taemin’s life was on the line.

He wanted to look at Taemin to see if he was alright, but he was afraid that Joon would let up on his ability, burning Taemin on accident.

This was so hard.

He could feel the walls burn halfway through when he let his wings rapidly flap, bringing him from the ground and shaking in the air.

Don’t forget how to fly, he told himself, not now.

He spread his black wings as far as they could stretch, stunning Joon.

It was a lucky moment, like Joon didn’t know if he could fly—but creatures don’t have wings to not use them.

Minho swooped down and let a now-flaming fist collide with Joon’s body; Minho wasn’t sure where, but he felt the impact.

It seemed too easy, but Joon ended up on his back, coughing up liquid white to Minho’s vision. He watched as white fire encircled his stomach and the flames on his shoulder growing.

Minho lowered himself to his feet and relaxed his wings, shaking as he was trying to steady his vision and see color again; calm down so that if he looked at Taemin, he wouldn’t harm him in any way.

Joon groaned out, squeezing one eye shut and the other set on Minho as he held his stomach hesitantly and lifting himself up.

  “That’s all you . . . you can do?” Joon spat with a grimace, taking a step forward, “That’s all you got? Who the hell taught you? A ing human?”

Minho huffed, his stamina pretty low because he never worked as a monster before. If only his human stamina converted over he would’ve done so much more . . .

  “I’ll kill him,” Joon’s voice sharply cut through Minho’s ears, “I refuse to lose to a new kid, like you. You’re so weak that I feel so degraded. I’ll kill him. I’ll kill him and then you and I will go at it again so—”

Minho’s eyes widened as Joon’s face contorted and his voice cut off.

Joon slowly looked down to his stomach where flames had encircled.

Inside the circle was a white arrow.

The stun to Minho had his pulse in his eyes, shaking everything, slowly turning all the black and white shades back to the colors of earth.

He breathed hard, watching the white flames on Joon, but at the same time, the white arrow that pierced Joon.

He looked at Taemin, but he held no bow; he was slumped on the ground with his mouth open, backing to the tree in horror.

Joon fell to the ground without another sound and Minho didn’t pay attention to anything but Taemin. He slowly treaded forward, a hand hesitantly reaching out for Taemin, seeing the marks on his body still present.

  “T-Tae,” Minho whispered, his brows pulling up and together sadly, eyes filling with water, “T-Tae, it’s me, I swear.”

Taemin’s eyes widened, a scream escaping his lips as he cringed back for the tree.

Minho stopped.

  “Taemin, seriously, it’s me!” Minho cried, the hurt in his heart aching badly, wishing he hadn’t done any of this, “Taemin, please!”

Taemin cowered and whispered, “Stop it. Don’t . . .”

  “Taemin,” Minho’s voice faltered, taking a shaky step, “Taemin, don’t be like this. I-I’m still me. Remember everything!”

Taemin shook his head, his body shaking violently in the depth of his anxiety of the whole situation.

The stranger was dead. Minho was a monster.

And the past meant nothing, now.

  “Tae—”

  “Hold him!” a gruff voice commanded from behind, “That one’s alive and there’s an innocent there! The chains—get the chains! He’s flaming!”

Minho didn’t avert his gaze to see the intruders of the situation. He kept his depressing gaze on Taemin, silently pleading for the younger to stop this.

Chains whipped around his wrists and bare torso, forcefully pulling him back. Minho refused submission and stood his ground the best he could. His feet slid back a bit and he tried stepping forward—Taemin cringing with a shriek.

  “I said hold him!” the demanding voice scolded, “If you let the human die, there will be blood on your hands!”

Minho growled on instinct, whipping his head around, “I’m not going to kill him!” he protested involuntarily.

Minho paused, eyes widening to see men in uniforms—as if they were going to war—holding chains that lead up to his body and he realized those chains were around him.

  “No!” Minho protested, fighting against all their strength, “This isn’t what it looks like!”

A man, possibly in his fifties, slowly strode up in an ugly green clad a good distance away from him, his hands clasped behind his back, and his eyes staring into Minho’s unforgivably.

He looked strict and Minho could feel the nerves coming off of the other men holding Minho in the chains and the others examining Joon’s body. This guy was some sort of dictating leader; he already knew it.

  “Let me go,” Minho growled.

  “Let you go?” The man raised his brows without amusement, “Why would we let you run wild? You’ve been doing that for a long time and now it’s time to be concealed before you hurt someone. Wouldn’t you think that’s reasonable?”

  “I haven’t hurt anyone,” Minho’s voice turned pleading, “You don’t know what just happened. Please.”

The man took a look at Taemin shriveled against the tree in a fearful state, “Then what’s wrong with this lad? If you weren’t going to hurt him, why would he be scared?”

  “I frightened him, that I did,” Minho admitted, his thoughts caught in twists and knots as he tried putting two and two together, “But he was put in danger—”

  “You.”

  “Not me!” Minho shouted.

  “SangJung,” another gruff voice, sounding the same age as the guy near him called, “This guy’s an Intellude. He’s dead.”

  “Him!” Minho shouted, “He’s the reason! Please!” Minho looked at Taemin again, “Taemin, please! Don’t give up on me, now!”

This was terribly wrong—this was all going down so quickly.

Who were these people?

Who was this SangJung guy?

How did they know this stuff?

The old man called SangJung looked away from Minho without a word, slowly stepping towards Taemin and kneeling in front of him, a hand patting Taemin’s knee, “Son, are you alright?”

Taemin hid his face with his hands, slowly shaking his head the best he could as a sob finally managed to come through.

  “That’s all I need,” the man confirmed, patting Taemin’s knee again before turning towards his men again, “Boys, help him. Kapsoo, I think you’re better at consoling. You might want to do that with the boy as we leave.”

Minho realized what the man was saying, fighting against his restraints in protest, “N-No! You can’t—I don’t even know who you are! Taemin, stop this, please! I swear I wouldn’t ever hurt him!”

  “The boy’s unstable,” SangJung growled, “That’s all we need as proof that you aren’t meant to be here, period. Even if he was alright, we’d still take you in.”

Minho grew weary, trying irrevocably to heat himself back up to fight as a monster again as he saw his marks faded away to get out of this situation, take Taemin, and get them out of there.

But his weariness was forbidding his change.

  “Taemin,” Minho breathed, watching the men flood around him to assure he was okay, “Tae . . .”

The chains were burning against his skin and he hissed, faltering back to relieve some of it.

He was forced to move along with the men, and further away from Taemin.

  “Taemin!” he shouted, trying hard to fight back against the burn, but still slid back, “Taemin, you promised me! Taemin, please, look at me!”

There was an opening between the crowd of men, Taemin’s hands lowering and his face revealed in the opening, watching Minho being whisked away.

  “Taemin,” he whispered, his eyes big and tears escaping rapidly.

Taemin’s hand slowly reached forward, trembling as he watched Minho being taken away, slightly getting up from his cower, trying to move forward.

Minho’s eyes lit up in hope.

An old man walked up to Taemin, taking the outstretched hand and blocking his view of Minho.

Minho shouted out in despair as he was being forced away faster.

But no one was listening.

----Note~----

No one hit me. Seriously.

I forgot to mention 2Min kind of... don't see each other at this point.

But I won't explain that. I'll leave you to angst. c:

So there's chapter four for you. c:

And here's Joon's mark if you couldn't picture it (sorry for the lighting). I kind of left it vague, anyway. It took a lot of thinking to come up with. This sign wasn't originally going to be it. I made a different one before, but I thought it'd suit Minho better so... yeah.

I'm sorry to people who like Joon; I was actually talking to EkkoRayne this one time and it dealt with Joon, and I couldn't get him and his It's War appearance out of my head, so I put him in. xD

So, the progression now picks up just a bit and BOOM, we are on our way to unraveling how the title Escape to Redemption came to be.

I'll see you next Saturday. c:

I'm a little hesitant with continuing updating because I haven't been writing often. This week isn't the best and my plan outs aren't coming to be. asdfghjgfdasfghj. Whatever.

And if you'd like to see a Jongkey, Ontae, and Onho focus, I have a random updating schedule with Protecting Steel Hearts.

Thank you to any views, subs, and comments. Love. <3

~FlaMinhoe

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