He was thankful his brother was never allowed down here, this place would break a happy soul like him so easily. It was so dark here. He could barely see his hand in front of him, let alone across his cell. Some days, she would forget to turn off the lantern, and that would allow him to see his prison clearly. 

From first glance, the room didn’t look very big; there was only a tiny lamp dangling from the ceiling and a small table underneath. A broken chair stood a ways away, and she would sometimes sit there to just watch them. That was the most unnerving. But the room was actually much bigger than that; circling the small table were multiple cells, some barred, some behind glass. Each cell was different, some were furnished, and some weren’t. He was lucky. He had a couch in his. 

A lot of the men here were here a lot longer than he was; the guy next to him said he’d been there for nearly twenty years. He counted. They all told him how lucky he was; save for the fact being trapped down here, he was getting the best treatment. Not only was he allowed to go upstairs sometimes, but when down here, he was only locked in the cell. She never did anything to him. Some of the things she’d done to these people were too much for him to bear. 

When she was feeling particularly angry, she would pierce metal rings through their skin and hang them up with rope. Some of them she would cut the dolls with a knife, subsequently ripping through their skin. These cuts would never heal unless the doll was stitched, and sometimes she would feel bad and would stitch it up. Sometimes she wouldn’t. These wounds she would just stitch up their skin, and those stitchings would never be taken out. Some had permanent broken bones, some gone blind. One didn’t have an ear. 

He was always afraid she would do something similar to him, but they would reassure him she wouldn’t. She was bringing him up to entertain her daughter; she wouldn’t maim him if her daughter was attached to him. 

But then…then Hak-yeon appeared. He’d always hated his older brother, hated that he never seemed to be sympathetic when their mother had all but told him he wasn’t her real son. He hated that when he was suffering, his brother was still so happy and joking around. He hated that his brother always followed him around, embarrassing him in front of his gang members by pulling him away before fights. He hated everything about his brother. But as much as he hated his brother, he felt a wave of panic and regret when his brother showed up…all because he’d tried to pull him out of the mess he’d gotten himself into. 

It was his fault his happy, carefree brother was trapped here. He’d told the guys about Hak-yeon when he’d come back down, how Hak-yeon strangely wasn’t brought down here. He was stuck upstairs, forever entertaining her daughter. He originally thought he was lucky, not having to be brought down here and tortured, never having to see the things he saw. 

But the guys said Hak-yeon had it the worst, they would rather be down here and tortured than be where he was. Chun-pyeo, one of the dolls, had said Hak-yeon was a different doll than the rest of them. What he and the others were, they were only attached to the dolls. Hak-yeon…he was attached to more than the doll, he was attached to Saet-byul. It wasn’t just his blood on the doll, hers was there too. 

For the rest of them, they would only follow the doll, feeling the doll’s pain but never really dying. Just pain. But Hak-yeon…he would slowly lose the ability to have relationships with others, with anyone. Even him. Eventually Saet-byul would be the only one he would think of, would live for. Without her, he would become emotionless and stiff, a true doll, and the only way to end it all would be to kill him. 

He grew more desperate to see Hak-yeon after that, and was grateful the day she pulled him up to stay with the two while she was gone. Whenever he wasn’t looking, he would stare so sadly at his brother, knowing what was going to happen but unable to tell him. How could he say something like that? He watched as he and Saet-byul became closer, neither knowing what was going to happen. 

He had been hopeful when Saet-byul had punished Hak-yeon for something ridiculous, hoping it would wake his brother up and save him. He kept his brother from going out to her, keeping him in the room and hiding away. But he could see it, the unwavering loyalty he had for that girl, running out to Seoul just to find her. He couldn’t hate Saet-byul though, she was just so ignorant. She didn’t know anything. 

He might not have treated his older brother well before, but now it was his turn to take care of his brother. He would try his damndest to keep him from becoming a doll, from becoming a living vegetable. 

He will protect Hak-yeon. 

Hello!

This part was originally part of the last chapter, but decided in the end to make it as it's own chapter. I called this an interlude as it's a quick cut from the story to give a different point of view. I originally wondered if I should add the interlude at all, and decided it still had some important information. So here you go!

Hope you enjoyed the quick updates ^-^ It might be a bit until my next update, as schoolwork has been catching up to me, unfortunately...