A figure sat in the corner of a bare room, cloaked in shadows. In one hand, he tightly grasped a photo, his other hand gently the smiling face in the photo. Bringing the photo closer to his face he gently kissed it and smiled.

“You’re so beautiful. We’re perfect together”

“You got another letter”

“That’s the fifth one this week. Is it like the others?”

“Yeah. Same black envelope and handwriting. Yoseob, I’m getting worried, are you sure you don’t want to go to the police?”

Yoseob took the letter from his Junhyung and shook his head at his manager’s paranoia.

“It’s just a fan letter from an overenthusiastic fan. It’s not like I haven’t gotten any before.” Yoseob reasoned. All singers have some fans that were slightly more fanatical in the way they showed their affection, and Yoseob was no different. His mind drifted back to his fan meeting two weeks ago, thinking of the screaming fans reaching out towards him, trying to grab for him as he walked past. He had a faint recollection of one particular fan, a male with sharp eyes and a strong jaw line. Although his face was a mere blur in Yoseob's memory, the younger singer could not forget the feeling of the man's hands tracing up and down his arm. He shuddered as he remembered how the rough texture of the fan's callused hands had grazed his own skin, and the unbelievable coldness that had simultaneously burned him and sent chills running through his body. 

“But from the photos they sent you it doesn’t look like any normal fan.” Junhyung argued. Yoseob had received four identical envelopes over the last four days, each containing similar harmless messages professing their love to the idol. But what scared the manager were the photos that came with the letter. They were all photos of Yoseob during private practices, or meeting with friends, which led the manager to suspect that Yoseob had a stalker.

Yoseob opened the envelope to find a familiar piece of white paper but when he unfolded the paper, dead rose petals spilled out, landing all over the young idol. Brushing the petals away Yoseob read the neat cursive handwriting. There was only one line of words written.

You belong to me. The others are all disgusting. They don’t deserve you.

 The message was unlike the other letters he had been sent this week, as while those had seemed border-line obsessive in their tone, this one was possessive. And it scared Yoseob. But not wanting to exacerbate the stress his manager was already under, Yoseob silently tucked the letter away into his pocket and redirected the conversation.

“How’s Kikwang?”

Junhyung looked up from reading Yoseob’s schedule for the day and sighed softly.

“The reviews for his movie came out last night.” Yoseob nodded in understanding. Even when they were both trainees he knew Kikwang would be too sensitive and wouldn’t be able to handle the criticisms which were all too frequent in this industry.  

“Would I be able to go see him today?” Yoseob asked his manager in hopes his schedule would allow him to go comfort his best friend.

Junhyung shook his head in reply.

“Not today Seob, you have schedules till late.”

Yoseob nodded glumly and reminded himself to call Kikwang if he had a break. He sympathized with his friend, some of the comments about entertainers were extremely harsh but over the last two years Yoseob had learnt to ignore the opinions of anti-fans and focus on his career. But Kikwang had barely debuted one year and was feeling the intense pressure of the impossible task of trying to please everyone.

Yoseob’s thoughts were interrupted by the vibration of his phone.

 “Hello?” There was no reply but Yoseob could hear quiet panting on the other end.

“Who is this?” Yoseob asked again.

“Do you not recognize my number?” an unfamiliar voice spoke. Confusion flashed across Yoseob’s face.

“I don’t k−”

“It’s okay my darling. We’ll meet again very soon.” The stranger replied before hanging up, leaving Yoseob baffled but slightly afraid. But there was no time to agonize over it as Junhyung gestured for them to get going for his photo shoot.

Yoseob hated walking down the dark hallways of his apartment building alone, especially when he was exhausted from a recording. he wanted was crawl into bed for a few hours of precious sleep before Junhyung came to pick him. But when he approached his apartment door, he saw a large bouquet of dark red, almost burgundy roses with a small note card.

For our second anniversary

-DJ

Yoseob was confused. He didn’t know a DJ nor did he know what the person meant by “our anniversary”. He figured it had been delivered to the wrong address. Still, he didn’t want such beautiful flowers to shrivel overnight, so he decided, in the meantime, to take them inside.

After filling a tall bottle with water, the young idol gently peeled away the layers of tightly wrapped tissue paper at the stem of the roses, but stopped when his hand touched something wet and sticky. He gasped as he saw his hand covered with a red substance and upon closer inspection he saw that the each stem was covered in the same substance. Though Yoseob prayed that the liquid was just paint, perhaps somebody’s idea of a sick joke, the distinctive coppery smell that wafted from the roses told him otherwise.

Dropping the roses onto the kitchen bench in shock, the singer hastily wiped his hands on a towel, before backing away from the kitchen into his room.

It’s a mistake, the roses weren’t for me, it’s all a big mistake.

Yoseob stared out from the windows of the practice room as he leaned against the wall, trying to catch his breath. It was a starless night and the dim street lamps did little to illuminate the roads. He mentally noted to call Junhyung to pick him up later before resuming his practice.

Yoseob swayed fluidly to the rhythm of the music, his body moved as if it was entity all on its own. He was fully concentrated on his dance and blissfully unaware of his surroundings, the music allowing him no room to dwell on other thoughts, which he was grateful for as he was still shaken from the incident with the bouquet.

But he was wrenched out of his ignorance when his arm was roughly pulled and he came face to face with a masked man, much taller and broader than himself. Yoseob’s mind went blank, he wanted to scream and run but his throat had seized up and his body was frozen.

“Missed me my darling?” Yoseob’s eyes widened, it was the voice from the phone call.

“Le-let go of me” Yoseob finally managed to get over his shock. He attempted to sound threatening but he was overcome with fear and stuttered instead. Using a sudden burst of strength he tugged his arm from the grip of the masked man and turned to run but before he could even take a step he felt arms around his body and a hand holding a cloth coming up to his face, smothering him.  Yoseob’s vision began to get fuzzy and his struggles became weaker and weaker until he surrendered himself to the inviting darkness.

The young singer woke up to find himself tied to a rickety chair in an unfamiliar room. There was no furniture or carpet covering the bare wooden floor, and there were no windows, only a dim light hanging in the center of the room. The walls were bare, apart from several photos that were haphazardly taped onto the wall. When Yoseob focused on the pictures, he gasped in shock. Apart from six photos, they were the same photos that had been sent to him. Upon closer inspection of the six, Yoseob felt his blood run cold. They were photos of him sleeping in his bed.

“Ah you’re awake” a voice, who Yoseob recognized as his kidnapper, said from behind him. He walked in front of Yoseob which gave the singer an opportunity to clearly see the man who captured him.

He was tall and well-built as Yoseob had seen earlier. He was an attractive young man with a tanned complexion, sharp eyes and an angular jaw line. Although his appearance made him look intimidating, what scared Yoseob the most was the almost maniacal look on his face, a look he immediately realized was familiar but he couldn't remember from where. 

“Who are you? Why did you kidnap me?” Yoseob demanded, forcing himself to look the man in the eyes.

“Do you not recognize me? I’m your lover, Doojoon. We’ve been together for two years now.”

Yoseob stared incredulously at the stranger, unsure whether he was mocking him or not. He didn’t know a “Doojoon”, no matter how hard he thought about the name, it was unfamiliar to him.

“I’ve never met you.”

“What do you mean? Two weeks ago we went out together remember? You told me how thankful you were to have me believe and support you, and how you wanted to be together forever. You told me you loved me.” Doojoon spoke as if Yoseob was the foolish one.

When Yoseob gave him no response, Doojoon leaned closer to caress his face, smoothing the idol’s soft brown hair.

“Did you like my gifts? It took me a long time to gather that collection of photographs. And the bouquet, I’m not one for self-harm but for you, it was worth it.” Doojoon whispered against Yoseob’s ear, gesturing to a long cut down his harm. “Wasn’t it romantic, the roses soaked in my blood?”

Yoseob shrank away from him at the mention of the frightening memory.

“I’m sorry to keep you tied up like this but you don’t understand. They’ve manipulated you.  They’ve made you afraid of me. I had to take you away, away from all those vile and disgusting people who are trying to tarnish your purity.”

Yoseob turned his face away from his captor and continued to remain silent. Inside, his heart thumped. He knew this man was mental, that he could hurt him. He wanted to cry, to run, he was petrified of Doojoon.

“Like that repulsive Kikwang, whenever he drapes himself all over you and touches you in places that are reserved for me, I want to stab him, to slit his throat, to kill him.”

At the mention of his best friend’s name, Yoseob’s head snapped up. Doojoon’s face was contorted in a scowl but when he realized Yoseob was staring at him, his face softened back into a smile.

Doojoon placed both hands onto Yoseob’s shoulders and bent over till their faces were only a centimeter apart.

“I love you Yoseob, and I’ll do anything for us to be together.”  His face showed so much pain and anguish that for a second Yoseob almost pitied him, but then he became angry when remembered how crazy Doojoon was and how he had threatened the life of his best friend. Without thinking, Yoseob spat in Doojoon’s face.

“Stop living in a dream and come back to reality. I don’t love you, I hate you. You and your fantasies disgust me” Yoseob snarled.

Slap

Yoseob felt a sharp sting, as Doojoon’s palm connected with his cheek.

“I hate to have to hurt you darling, but you were misbehaving.” Yoseob didn’t heed Doojoon’s warning and began to squirm and kick in an attempt to free himself. Doojoon sighed as he saw the stubborn singer struggling, and walked behind him to pick up something before returning to his captive.

Yoseob watched Doojoon approach him with a piece of black cloth, his eyes widened in fear. He attempted to escape the ropes but he wasn’t strong enough.

“You can’t keep me here!” Yoseob attempted to mask his fear but his terror was betrayed by the slight tremor in his voice. “Junhyung will realize I’m gone and the police will catch you and lock you up where you belong.”

“That’s why I’m taking you some place where no one where ever be able to take you away from me.” When Yoseob continued to struggle and kick, Doojoon sighed. “You’ll hurt my feelings if you keep trying to run away.” Doojoon said with a fake frown, as if he was placating a baby, “I didn’t want to do this because you have such enchanting eyes, but you leave me no choice. It’ll just be temporary. I’ll take it off when it’s all over.” Walking behind Yoseob, Doojoon reached over and placed the black cloth over his face and tied it tightly. Yoseob’s world went black. However Yoseob found some comfort in not being able to see the mad looks on Doojoon’s face. 

That was until he felt something wet trickling down his body and the intense smell of Gasoline flooded his senses. Yoseob’s face contorted in horror as he realized what Doojoon was about to do. The ropes around his body loosened and fell slack as he was hauled out of the chair and into Doojoon’s chest with Doojoon’s arm around his waist.

“Can’t you feel how well you fit into my arms? We were meant to be together” Doojoon whispered softly. Yoseob could only shake his head vigorously in reply as he continued to thrash blindly in hopes of getting away.  He went rigid when he heard a small click, followed by a thump in the corner. There was silence, and then Yoseob heard crackling and hissing, the sounds of destruction.

“No, please don’t do this, stop, please” Yoseob pleaded with Doojoon, desperation clinging onto his words as he struggled and tried to get away. But it was to no avail as Doojoon only tightened his arm, holding Yoseob even closer against his own body, with the other hand caressing the back of his head in comfort.

“It’ll be okay. It may hurt at first but it’s all worth it. This way no one can separate us and we can stay together forever, just like you said.”

Yoseob’s heart thudded, he could feel the ever-growing warmth of the flames radiating from the edges of the room.  It was getting closer. He was exhausted from fighting, and a sense of hopelessness overwhelmed him, making him collapse against Doojoon. Tears spilled out from his eyes, soaking the blindfold, he didn’t know what was more frightening, the idea of dying or dying in the arms of a maniac who claimed to love him.

He would never see his family and friends again. Yoseob hoped his burned body would never be found. He knew the trauma it would cause his mother and sister. And in that moment he regretted every insensitive word he had said to his mother. He regretted not being able to tell her he loved her, or that he was thankful for her love. And now he will never get the opportunity to.

He silently apologized to Junhyung, for all the times he didn’t listen to him, for all the times he was demanding, and all the times he had insulted the man and took out his frustrations on him.

He thought of Kikwang. Who would protect his best friend from the hurtful words and actions of anti-fans? In his head, Yoseob apologized to Kikwang for leaving him so early.

 He thought about his loyal fans that waited eagerly for any piece of news concerning him, and couldn’t help but feel sorry to them too. 

Yoseob was so young, he wasn’t ready to die, but it was too late. He could already sense the flames at the soles of his shoes.

Doojoon watched the tears soak through the blind fold and stream down Yoseob’s face. He leaned down and his face gently, before placing a tender kiss upon Yoseob’s lips.

“You know, you really look beautiful under the light of the fire.”

That was the last thing Yoseob heard before he felt the pain.

Two weeks ago – at Yang Yoseob’s fan meeting

“Before I finish today, I just want to tell all my fans how grateful I am that you stuck by me over the last two years. I know it’s not been easy but I want to thank each and every one of you for believing in me and supporting me. I hope we can stay together forever. I love you.”

A/N: Hoped you enjoyed my attempt at crazy!Doojoon :) The flashback at the end may be a bit unclear so if you have questions just ask. Comments are appreciated. 

3/16/2014 - edited ^^