(Author’s POV)(Four years ago)

 “Ilhoon, I think you should follow somebody else home today.”
“Sujung-ah,” Ilhoon whined, “Why don’t you ever want me to take you home?”
 “It’s just better that way,” she said, looking down.
“How is it better?! You’re alone all the time!”

 Sujung turned around, walking out of the school. For a moment, Ilhoon stood there, watching her bitterly, but not long after he had already run to her side.

 “Why can’t I just come with you home? Only for today?” he asked, linking arms with her.
 “It’s complicated…” she murmured, still walking straight forward.
“Then you can come with me!” Ilhoon cheered, starting to drag her in another direction, but she flinched and got herself out of his grip.
 “Fine then, but I will still follow you home.”

Being the stubborn type as he was, he walked with her the whole way to her house, even if it was in the complete different direction from his own. But he did not care if he had to walk a long way for her. He liked her, and he wanted her to like him too.
 

 “You should probably turn around and go home now,” Sujung said, only a few houses from where she lived.
 “Why can’t I just follow you to your house, it’s right there,” Ilhoon argued, pointing at her house.
 “Exactly. It’s right there. Why can’t you just go home since it is right there?” Sujung argued back.
 “Let me at least watch while you go,” he pleaded, but Sujung did not say anything and walked away.

 As he continued his journey to his own house, he kept thinking there was something different. Usually, she would always argue on him following her home, but usually, she would let him follow her the whole way. But today, she did not, and there was a car in the driveway, which he had never seen there before. Never once since he started following her home.

-

 “Do you have any plans on Friday?” Ilhoon asked, watching as Sujung took her books out of her locker.
 “Why are you asking?” she asked as she took out the last two books.
“You know the Christmas prom is coming up right?” She froze slightly, nodding carefully as she closed the locker.

 “I was thinking, maybe you wanted to go with me,” Ilhoon said, his eyes sparkling with hope.
 “I’m sorry, but... I- I don’t think I should go…” Sujung kept her gaze down to the floor.
 “Why not? It’ll be fun!” Ilhoon wanted her to come with him so bad and he could not understand why she kept saying no to everything he asked.

 “I-it’s complicated… You s-should go with someone else.” With that, she walked away. Ilhoon wanted to follow her, but there was no use in doing so. She was already stuttering, and he knew she felt uncomfortable when she stuttered. He had noticed that much about her.

-

 “Yah, Sujungie,” Ilhoon leaned against Sujung’s desk while they were waiting for class to start, “If I ever asked you out, would you say yes?” She tensed the moment she heard his words. 
 “I…” She clenched her fists slightly, looking down at her clean and empty desk. “I would probably say no…”

 Ilhoon felt as if everything around him stopped. The time and the people and the noises simply stopped for a moment.
 “You would say n-no…?” Slowly, he looked down at her. He wasn’t sure whether to be shocked, angry or disappointed, and as a result, he ended up being all of them. “Why would you say no? I’ve done so much for you. What did I do wrong?! How can you still not like me after all I did for you?!”

 “Ilhoon, it’s not that I don’t like you-“
“Then what!? What’s your problem!?” he shouted, his fingers tightening around the edges on her desk, knuckles turning white. The rest of the students in the classroom stopped talking to each other and moved their attention to the two of them.

 “If you like me, why are you saying no?!”
Sujung hesitated. “I can’t tell you.”

 Things were completely silent for a moment, then Ilhoon burst out in laughter. Not a sane-sounding laughter. He sounded as if he was losing his mind or something.
 “You don’t trust me, do you?” he asked, still laughing.
“I really do, it’s just complicated-“
 “How come everything is so complicated to you? I can’t even go near your house because it’s too complicated!

 You know what? Just forget it!” The tone in his voice changed, he was now sounding mad again. More like furious to be honest. “You should just forget all the hard work I put in trying to make you feel comfortable! Don’t you dare think I put years of effort just for this, because it will all turn around! You are just a worthless, ungrateful brat, and I’ll make you pay for it!”

 In only seconds, Ilhoon had gathered his things and left the room, right under the nose of their teacher, who entered rather dumbfounded, not knowing why the atmosphere was so tense. All Sujung could do, was sit by her desk, hands folded in her lap, and keep her head down. She could feel everybody’s eyes burning into her, because they too knew what she was. She was everything nobody wanted, and it had just been proven out loud in front of everybody.

---(Sungjae’s POV)(Normal Time)

 “Oppa, I can’t find that hand-cream you were talking about,” Sungmi called from the bathroom.
 “It’s a white bottle,” I told her, continuing to prepare the ramen.
“But all the bottles are white! How do you expect me to find it?!” she whined.
 “It says ‘hand-cream’ on the bottle.”
“Oppa… I can’t read.”

 I stopped what I was doing for a moment. Of course she could not read, what was I thinking?! She had been locked up since the age of five, how on earth was I expecting her to be able to read?!

 Turning down the heat on the stove, I hurried to the bathroom. Sungmi stood dumbfounded in front of the sink, looking up inside the cabinet over it.
 “I’m sorry,” I said, finding the cream and taking it out of the cabinet, “I should have known better…”
 “Aish, Oppa stop saying you’re sorry. That’s all you’ve said since I came here,” Sungmi commented.
 “That’s because I am sorry.”

 Sungmi was different from Sujung. I thought it was going to be real hard taking care of her, considering what kind of place she had been in through all that time, but she was rather easy to handle. She did not see and hear things that were not there, and she was not shy, neither did she hate herself to the core. Although, she did fear the dark, and she was covered in bruises from head to toe. A doctor had come and checked her up, and luckily she had no broken bones. She just needed to take it easy and rest. She was also going through therapy because of trauma.

 More than anything, I hoped she would become familiar with her new life as soon as possible. I wanted her to go to school and hang out with friends in the afternoon like other kids did.  But because of the trauma she had gone through, I knew it would not be that easy for her to be completely normal.

 She had these sudden reactions to certain things and she was easily scared. The sound by a door slamming could be enough to bring her to tears, and if anyone were to raise their voice slightly at her, she would immediately beg for forgiveness and say she was sorry and that it would never happen again.

I sat on the couch, watching TV with Sungmi. We sat there for a long time, until she stood up.
 “Where are you going?” I asked, worried something might be wrong.
 “I’m just thirsty, so I’ll go have some water,” she said, giving me a smile.

 “I can get it for you, just sit down,” I insisted, ready to stand up.
 “I can drink water by myself, Oppa. Don’t worry,” she said, walking off. I was only worried she would exhaust herself as she was weak.

 A moment later, I heard glass crash against the ground. Immediately, I stood up and rushed to the kitchen, finding her on her knees.
 “Sungmi!” I gasped, crouching down beside of her. “Are you okay? You’re not hurt anywhere?”
 “I- I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to do that!” she cried, tears spilling and body shaking violently.

 “Sungmi, what are you talking about? You crushed a glass, it’s nothing to worry about!” I told her, not really knowing how to calm her. I tried putting my hand against her arm, hoping it would comfort her, but it somehow only made it worse.

 “PLEASE!!” she screamed, backing away from me. “I said I was sorry! It won’t happen again! Please don’t do anything to me!”
 “What’s going on?!” Eomma suddenly stood in the door-opening, looking down at us with panicked eyes.

 “She lost her glass and suddenly became like this,” I answered, looking helplessly up at her.
 “Well, don’t just sit about! Do something to comfort her!” Eomma yelled before walking away again. But what she did not realise was; she only made things worse. Sungmi was staring to shake even more and cry even harder.

 “Sungmi, listen to me,” I started, taking her hands in my own, holding them tightly as she tried to take them away. “It’s not bad to drop a glass to the floor. Oppa will not be mad at you for doing that, okay?” She started to calm down slightly. “We have more of those in the cabinet, and they were quite ugly to be honest, so don’t worry.”

 “S-Sungjae?” she asked, voice trembling.
“Yes?” I answered, seeing her eyes through her hair. Without another word, she came closer to me once again, hugging me. I hugged her back tightly, trying to make her feel as secure as possible.

 “I’m sorry,” she said, this time in a low voice as she had calmed down more.
 “Don’t be. It’s okay,” I comforted, running my fingers through her black hair.
 “It’s just- Every time I did anything to cause trouble, they would punish me. I guess I’m still not used to live without that…” she confessed, sniffling slightly.

 “What did they do to you?” I asked carefully. I figured it would be easier to let it go if she opened up about it. Also, of course I felt curious.
 

 “It always depended on how much I provoked them,” she started, “If the guards had a good day, they would usually let me go pretty easily, but if not, they would hit me and kick me, even use different tools such as pipes and chains. Some days, they would get so mad they even tied me up by my wrists. Other days, they would hurt me even for fun. They never had a good reason, they just said they needed to take some tests…

 You know Sujung Eonni? They always went a lot rougher on her than me… I never understood why they gave her a harder time than they did to me during all those years. Maybe it was because she’s older than me, I don’t know, but once, they took her with them and said they had to do some tests, and they burned her with water and almost drowned her. I’ve never seen anyone there with such horrible burn-marks as she had at that time…

 I’ll try and get used to this life quickly, Oppa. I promise I won’t break down and scare you again. I feel bad about it so I’m sorry…”

 “Please don’t say you’re sorry!” I begged, hugging her even tighter.
 “Oppa… why are you crying?” she asked me, looking up.
“Because you went through such horrible things for nine years, and I could have prevented it from happening!” I told her. My tears had kept falling since she started telling me what they did to her.

 If I was stronger when I was little, I could have prevented them from taking her away, and then she would never have to go through such bad happenings. I felt as if it was my responsibility to make sure she was alright.

   --

 (Sujung’s POV)

 “Kim Sujung, you are being released now.” I looked up, eyes wide. I was laying on the floor when the guard came in. The past two days I had been so tired. After finally meeting Minhyuk again, it felt as if he took all my energy with him when he left the room. I wanted him to take my body with him, not just my spirit. I missed him too much.

 “Can I really go?” I asked, sitting up on my knees.
“Yes,” he replied, “There is a man waiting for you outside.”

 As weak as I was, I had to be half dragged out the room and down the hall, until I was inside the entrance hall. The man standing by the counter was Changhyuk, writing something on a paper. Lee Changhyuk.

 I wanted to scream in happiness and run to him and hug him, but I was too weak. I was totally exhausted.
 “Here she is,” the guard holding me said, dragging Changhyuk’s attention. “If she’s hard to handle you can always send her back here. She’s been misbehaving lately.” The guard let go of me, and just before I hit the floor, Changhyuk was already there, taking me in his arms, groaning in annoyance at the guards’ behaviour.

 “Long time no see,” he sighed, smiling an apologetic smile at me. “I’ll take you home now, so don’t worry.” He took me in his arms, carrying me outside. The whole way to his car, I kept holding onto him, as if he would disappear if I let go, or as if the moment I let go, someone would take me back inside that place.

 “Sujung-ah, you have to let go of my shirt,” Changhyuk said carefully as he had finished pulling the seatbelt over me. But I didn’t let go. “I know you’re scared, but I am going to stay with you and everything is going to be fine, trust me. We’ll stop by the hospital and then go home-“
 “We really have to go to the hospital?” I looked up at him with fear in my eyes. The last thing I wanted was to go to the hospital. That’s where all this begun after all.

 “We do,” he said, forcing a smile.
“D-don’t leave me there,” I pleaded, tears falling. I was so scared for being abandoned after all of this. I needed to be at the most secure place possible, which was Changhyuk at this moment. If he left me to stay there, everything would just repeat itself.

 “I won’t even let you out of my sight. I promise.” He held his fingers carefully over mine, looking me in the eyes with the most promising look I had ever seen on him. I hesitated at first, but eventually let go of him. I trusted him, and if letting go for only a minute would save me, I would do it. I was desperate to leave this prison.

 “I don’t have to stay at the hospital, right…? I don’t want to be at any kinds of hospitals right now…” I said honestly.
 “Don’t worry, Sujung. I promise to take you with me after we’ve been there, okay? Minhyuk would kill me if I told you to stay there,” he chuckled. I felt I was becoming excited by only hearing his name. It was my favourite name of all, Minhyuk. Lee Minhyuk.

-

 At the hospital, I was told to rest and sleep for the next few days, but when Changhyuk had put me to bed inside of Minhyuk’s room, after helping me change into some cleaner clothes, I could not sleep at all. Even as much as I had longed to be in that room, in that bed, I was restless. My body hurt so bad, one of the nurses said she had never seen so many bruises on a body before, and all I really wanted was for Minhyuk to be beside me.

 Fighting my way out of bed, I took small, careful steps out the hall and down the stairs.
 “Sujung, what are you doing out of bed?” Changhyuk asked, hurrying over to where I was standing, aware of the fact that my body was really weak and that I could pass out at any time if I used too much strength.

 “I can’t sleep… I don’t want to be alone!” I said, groaning in pain as I tried to take another step forward.
 “You are having a fever. You need to rest,” Changhyuk said, making his point clear. “Come, I’ll follow you back upstairs.”

 He laid an arm around my shoulder, starting to lead me the other way up the stairs, but I refused, struggling against him, managing to fall to the ground in the short process.

 “I’m telling you you’re too weak! Listen to me and come with me upstairs-“
“I don’t want to be alone! Can’t I at least stay here with you?” I pleaded, tears falling.
 “Fine,” he sighed, helping me back up, “But promise me that you will stay still and try to sleep!” I nodded, following with him to the couch. Sitting down, I leaned against him, instantly feeling tired somehow. Maybe I could not sleep before because I felt insecure being alone? At least now I was tired, so I let my eyelids close together.

   (Minhyuk’s POV)

 “Hyung, is that you?” I called out as I entered the house, seeing there laid two pair of shoes in the hall; one male pair, which I was almost certain was Changhyuk’s, and another smaller pair of really well used shoes. Could he be having his girlfriend over…? But I could recall her as very girly, she would at least have worn a clean pair.

 “Yeah, it’s me!” Changhyuk called back, “How are preparations for the exam going?”
 “Not so good,” I sighed. I couldn’t focus on studying at all. The whole year, I had hardly done any homework and my grades had dropped. It was quite frustrating, considering how it was my senior year.

 Before entering the living room, I grabbed a glass of water, and as I entered, I saw something that made me stop in shock. I even dropped the glass to the floor, making it break. In the couch laid Kim Sujung, resting against Changhyuk’s arm. As the loud sound of the glass hitting the floor echoed through the room, her eyes quickly shot open, a terrified expression on her face.

 “I’ll give you two some privacy,” Chanhyuk said, standing up and walking away.

 It felt as if my mind was completely blank. Seeing her sit there was somehow a shock to me. I could not describe the feeling I felt. Sujung stood up from the couch, making her way to me quickly, despite the pieces of glass covering the floor. She took her arms around my waist, holding herself tightly against me.

 “Minhyuk-ah…” came her shaky, muffled voice. Not before hearing that, I was able to react to the situation. “I’ve missed you, Minhyuk-ah… Don’t ever let me live such a long time… without seeing you… Please…” Her words brought tears to my eyes, and I hugged her back even tighter.
 “I promise I won’t,” I told her, pressing my lips against the top of her head.

We stood like that, both of us crying, holding onto each other and breathing in each other’s scent, but the heavenly feeling of having her back in my arms had to be broken when I suddenly remembered that she was standing on glass. I picked her up in my arms and carried her back to the couch.

 “I searched the whole country to find you,” I said, her hair as I kept holding her in my arms. “Every single day, I’ve looked for you. I couldn’t sleep at night, and I couldn’t do my homework, and I didn’t even go to school a lot-“
 “Why are you telling me this?” she whispered, cutting me off. “I never wanted you to get into such a horrible condition just because of me…”

 “I’m telling you this because I want you to know how much you mean to me. I don’t want you to feel bad for how I’ve been or feel guilty. I want you to know that I need you. I can’t live without you. I can’t live without the person I love.” She cupped my face gently with her soft hands, looking at me for a moment. Then she leaned close, pressing her lips firmly against mine.

 “I’m here now, aren’t I?” she said as she pulled away, “Please don’t worry and rest a little…”
 “I cannot rest when I know your health isn’t stable,” I told her, sighing.
“As long as I’m not at that place I’ll be alright, I promise. Just rest a little. I don’t want to be the reason behind your exhaustion…” She looked down, hiding her beautiful brown eyes from me.

 “Sujung, you’re not-“
“But I am! Don’t you think I noticed how tired you were before they took me away?” she questioned, still not looking at me. “Although you acted as if you were completely happy taking care of me at the hospital, you were so tired. You never rested. It made me feel like such a burden, so please don’t be like that again because I hate that feeling more than anything.” I noticed now that she was crying. She had tightened her fists tightly around her hoodie, trying not to break completely.

 “I promise to rest when I find a way to help you out of everything that hurts you. I will continue to protect you even if you don’t like the way I do it, and I’m not going to discuss this any further with you,” I told her. I felt how my voice suddenly seemed rather cold, and I hated myself for sounding like that, but I really could not help it.

 “You shouldn’t be like this!” she stated, voice cracking as she pulled her arms around me, attaching herself to my chest.
 “I’ll take care of you first, then myself. You’re too precious to me. I have to know that you’re fine before myself,” I told her, my voice softer this time.

 “What are you doing?” she asked after a while.
“What?” I questioned, furrowing my brows.
 “That sound you’re making… It’s annoying,” she told me.
“What are you talking about?” I questioned once again.
 She looked up at me. “You really can’t hear it?”

I looked her in the eyes for a moment, seeing the disappointment within them, then shook my head no, because I could not hear anything. Her eyes went back to face downwards, and I instantly felt my heart sting. Quickly, I wrapped my arms around her, wanting her to feel as secure as possible.

 “What kind of sound is it?” I asked, keeping my voice down.
“It sounds like something creaking,” she whispered back.
 “It’s okay,” I told her, “I’m with you now, you don’t have to be scared. I won’t let anything or anyone hurt you.”
 “But what if they come back for me? What if someone tries to take me back to that place? What if Appa finds out-“
 “No one is going to take you back there, I promise! Sungjae told me his parents are suing that hospital and I gave your father a beating a few months back.”

 “You… beat him?!” she asked, looking up at me with wide eyes.
“Yeah… He wouldn’t tell me where you were and I was so desperate to find you.” I told her, smiling slightly. “I don’t think he dares to hurt you in any ways if he finds out that you’re with me.”

 “Kitty, would you like a bath?” I asked after some time had passed. She nodded slightly. “I figured you might want it after all of this…”

 I quickly cleaned up all the pieces of glass on the floor, before helping her up to the bathroom. As I made the bath and helped her undress, it did not seem like she had anything against me coming inside the room with her. Although, I did make sure not to watch her intensely in case she would feel uncomfortable.

 Honestly speaking, I was not sure where to look. No matter where on her body, she was covered in bruised and wounds. However, I decided not to comment on it before she sat comfortably inside the bathtub. As she sat there, I helped her scrub herself clean, but wherever I touched her, she would hiss in pain. It made my heart sting, knowing that she was so terribly hurt.

 “Sujung-ah, what even happened to your wrists?” I asked her. The spot on the whole of her that was coloured in the darkest most horrible shade of blue, were her wrists. Thick lines, forming a ring, was covering both of her wrists. “You know you can tell me anything that happened in there,” I told her as she hesitated, biting her bottom lip slightly.

 “I made them angry, and they hung me up in a room by my wrists…” she said, looking down. I could feel anger boil inside of me, hearing what they had done. “It happened just a last week, that’s why it’s still so blue.”
 “How long did they keep you there?” I asked, furrowing my brows.
“I don’t really know… around 48 hours I think,” she confessed.

 “God, I’m glad you’re out of there,” I sighed, mostly to myself.
“That’s nothing compared to other things they did to me…” she said, keeping her voice down.
 “Well, you’re safe now, so don’t worry,” I told her, smiling gently.

 When I had finished washing her hair and helped her into new and clean clothes, I took her with me downstairs to get something to eat. I did not take my time to make a wonderful and big meal for her, instead I simply gave her some ramen. Which she did not mind at all. She ate up rather quickly, instantly complimenting on how good it tasted. I guess a simple bowl of ramen doesn’t hurt anyone after being locked inside for a year with god knows what kind of food.

 Next, I took her to my bedroom. Even if she didn’t plan on sleeping, I just wanted to have her cuddled up in my arms, overwhelming her with love and trust.

“Minhyuk-ah,” she quietly called out, lying beside me, resting her head against my chest.
“Yes sweetie?”
 “I love you.” I felt a smile form on my mouth as I held her slightly closer. I was scared that if I happened to hold her too close, she might be in pain.
 “I love you too,” I told her, lightly kissing the top of her head. “Nothing will ever come between us again, I promise you.”

*Author's note*

Hello everybody~~ I'm back :D

SUJUNG'S BACK TOO! I SAVED HER! 

I have revalved Ilhoon and Sujung's past! I don't know if anyone of you could imagine their relationship to be like that... But I hope you all understand him a lot better now :D 

So... I don't have anything special to tell you this time cx School's finished in one and a half week! *Sobbing in happiness* 

 So just tell me what your thoughts are in the comment section ^^ Doesn't even have to be about the chappie cx

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