Suzy wanted to avoid his touch but as she was trapped by the handcuffs in the confinements of her bed, her efforts proved to be futile. Brian reached out for her face and crawled towards her, making their bodies closer to each other. With one hand on her chin and the other at the back of her neck, he forced her to look at him.

“Did you enjoy our last kiss?”

“Shut up,” she glared at him.

“Shhhh,” he hushed. “Don’t worry. I’d be giving you more, until every time you look at Mark, you would be reminded of nothing but my lust for you.”

She was about to utter a protest, but as she opened , Brian took it as a signal to not just seal their lips, but to also explore her wet cavern. As Brian started bruising , the handcuffs clanked more, with Suzy trying hard to struggle free from them. However, Brian then held both of her arms and pressed his lower body against hers to prevent her from using her limbs. With his whole weight on her, Suzy could only shut her eyes and pray in her head as Brian’s lips left hers and started travelling towards her jaw, and then to her neck.

She could feel not just his lips on her skin, but also his tongue on it, and every movement he did is making Suzy disgusted. She shut her eyes, in order not to take in that the man in front of her carried the same face with the man he adored. She bit her lower lip hard in order to muffle her sobs that threatened to release with her tears. But then Brian suddenly stopped moving, and just stared onto her face as he ordered,

“Open your eyes.”

She shook her head hardly and shut her eyes tighter but then, she felt a hand tightening on as Brian whispered sternly,

“I told you to open your eyes now.”

As she felt air being cut out of her system, Suzy’s thoughts started to get messed up. The thought of dying right then and there crossed her mind, but then, she  realized that she need to stay alive in order to save both her and Mark. Thus, with the small courage she has left, she opened her eyes to see him staring right down at her. She then slowly felt warm tears streaming down the sides of her face then to her bed and for a split second, she thought that his eyes softened at the sight of her crying.

“Stop it,” she begged with a broken voice. “Stop it, please.”

“Tss,” he hissed as he removed his hands from her neck. “I guess I have to save some of you for more fun next time.”

Then he grabbed her jaw with force, making her open wide in pain and then Suzy felt a pill land at the back of . He then closed both and her nose, blocking airway so that she would be forced to take down the medicine he gave. Left with no choice, she swallowed, and upon doing so, Brian took back his hands, making her gasp for air. In a span of seconds, she could feel her world slowly becoming a lot fizzier.

Seeing her eyes get lidded in drowsiness, Brian took it as a cue that the strong drugs were beginning to take effect. Before she was knocked out of consciousness, he then leaned in towards her but now, instead of aiming for her lips, he went for her ears, her lobe before whispering,

“You’d regret associating with us, Bae Suzy.”

Suzy’s head was heavy even after a long bath. She had also taken the long route towards the hospital with a good twenty-minute walk in order to clear her mind, but then, her thoughts were still clouded with fear of Brian. She wasn’t sure with herself if she could still see Mark and act like nothing happened. But then, her feet still took her in front of his room. With a deep sigh, she closed her eyes and opened the door slowly. As she took herself inside the room, she opened her eyes slowly and her sight was charmed with Mark’s smile. Her gaze then softened and her lips also curved into a small beam as she sees him waiting for her in enthusiasm. There was a different aura around Mark, she had inferred, which she could use to differentiate him with Brian. It was an aura that was bright but safe.

She took a seat beside him on his bed. It was hard for her not to be reminded of the events of last night, but the smile that Mark still carried was sincere, and that alone made her feel at ease. Even if they did carry the same face, Suzy knew that the man in front of her was not her fear, but the ones who cast all her fears away.

She mirrored his smile but then she noticed how his gaze on her slowly softened. She hadn’t uttered any single word yet and it was a surprise for her that it was Mark that initiated a conversation. He grabbed his notebook and wrote with a crayon,

            You look sleepless.

“I was trying to save both of us,” she replied with the truth but concealed the story behind it. Avoiding the conversation to go deeper into her condition, she asked, “If everything was alright, and you are dismissed from the hospital, where’d you go?”

He slanted his head to the side, as if trying to decipher her question. His forehead creased a little but then he proceeded on writing on a blank page,

            I’d probably live alone.

That’s right. Everyone in his foster family’s dead, she thought sadly. But then she tried to smile and asked, “Don’t you have any plans?”

A smile played on his lips as he wrote in reply,

            I would want to go to college.

“Which course would you take?” Suzy’s voice had already become cheerful as her curiosity spiked up at his answer. It was her turn to tilt her head to the side as she smiled and glanced at the wall before asking, “Perhaps, something related to arts?”

A soft chuckle escaped his lips this time as he replied,

            Most probably. Or maybe I would want to teach.

“Art and teaching.... art teacher?” Suzy asked again, her eyes widening in glee as her imagina