"Where are you taking me?" Myungsoo asks as loudly as he can over the loud bass-dropped song. He can practically feel his heart beating with the rhythm of the bass and pounding against his ears. Howon doesn't hear him though as he drags them both out of the way of all these drunk and sweaty bodies.

When they're finally outside, it's a lot more quieter and spacier compared to the inside of the house. It's also windier and colder, something Myungsoo is very grateful for. He can feel the breeze cooling down his body temperature and he wipes the sweat off his face with the sleeves of his flannel. He takes a look at Howon and he doesn't remember when he put some clothes on at all.

They're standing on the porch of the house with a swimming pool in front of it and a table and a set of chairs sitting atop of the porch. The backyard looks pleasant and well taken cared of with all these gorgeous vibrant flowers and plants and freshly mowed lawn.

"I told you I'll introduce you to my friend Sungyeol, right? Come on!" Howon reminds Myungsoo who's busy admiring the beautiful well kept garden full of blossoming flowers of different kinds. Without further ado, they end up standing in front of what seems to be a wooden shack and he's questioning why Howon even brought him. His confusion evident on his face.

"Howon, what are we doing here?" Myungsoo asks with his brows furrowed. He isn't liking where this is going especially hearing those faint noises coming from the shack. He is now sure that tonight's events are going to be really insane and unbelievable. 

What he didn't expect to see were three guys with their backs facing the both of them when Howon opens the door of the shack. He gets pulled inside of the dimly lit place and immediately feels like he's suffocating from the lack of space the shack provides. He really hates closely packed places. 

The first thing he notices were the dark stains on their clothes. The stench of the room straight up hits him like the first bite of chilli and it doesn't do any justice for the situation he's already wound up in. It smells of decaying objects of what Myungsoo notices were from the mold spreading across the corners of the ceiling where it must've been dampened by rain over the years. All these old worn-out rusty tools cluttered the floor and he can see the thick dust floating around the room, making the air heavy. He can say that the shack hasn't been used since years ago.

He's beginning to sweat again and realises that Howon still has his hands around Myungsoo's wrist and he tries to free himself from the iron grip but only to be given that smug look from that shark face of Howon's. He shivers, regretting to ever step foot into this unknown territory.

"Is he here?" Howon asks one of the guys who've finally paid attention to them.

"Oh he's here alright," the guy says with an ounce of frustration noticeable in his tone. He turns around and drops down to pick up what looked like a guy who has been badly beaten up with newly formed bruises and blood dripping down his face. He looks so distorted yet familiar even with one of his eyes swollen. His ripped sweater displayed more of his bruised skin underneath it and he's dirty from head-to-toe with dirt and dried blood mixed in. Myungsoo wants to turn away so bad but the grip on his wrist keeps him from doing so.

The injured boy is thrown on the ground with force more than needed and he winces in pain even more.

"Told him I'd pay him $100 to finish our group project all by himself by the end of this week but this little bastard told me that he'd need more than $100 for that or else he won't do it." The guy bends down in front of the injured boy who seems ready to collapse at any given moment and spits on him. He grabs a chunk of his hair and forces the boy to face him.

"Who the do you think you are? When I say that I'll pay you $100, that's all you're going to ing get. This is what happens when you try to ing bargain for more little boy. You made this situation even worse when you insulted me, calling me a ing ing ." This earned the boy another punch to the stomach.

"You're not getting away with this," the guy threateningly whispers into the boy's bloodied ears. "You'd think that just because your parents own one the largest business in this country that I wouldn't dare to lay a finger on you?" He snickers. "Sue me." The injured boy takes another hit to his face and another on his abdomen and another and another. This would come off as 1st on the list of horrifying scenes Myungsoo has seen in real life. He feels stupid, frozen in his spot as fear and fright takes over him.

"Enjoying the show?" Howon asks, bringing him back to the reason why he's even here in the first place, as they watch the bloody scene unfold in front of them. Myungsoo thinks Howon must've been struck by lightning because he has a smile on his face indicating that in fact he's the one enjoying the supposed show (freaking sadist) while Myungsoo is frozen in place, afraid of the situation laid out; that this might happen to him too. 

And after what seemed like an eternity of endless beatings and whimpers and blood spilling, the guys finally stop and leaves the boy on the cold hard dirty ground looking very lifeless. Even in the slight darkness, a clear indication of satisfaction is what Myungsoo sees on each of their faces because of the pain they had inflicted upon the boy. A sick feeling sits deeply in his stomach and for whatever reason, he's furious. 

Myungsoo takes a glance and sees the guy unmoving on the floor. Something flickers in his relentless mind and he shoves Howon off of him who rams into one of the rusted stools and ends up slamming his head on the edge of a table. That'll probably knock some sense into him.

Upon hearing the commotion, the three guys turn around just in time for Myungsoo to violently punch the guy who threatened the boy square on the jaw resulting in him to stumble backwards and fall as he's caught off guard, almost stepping on the fragile boy who's still unconscious. The other two guys were pretty slow about the unexpected situation and one of them ends up getting hit on the head with a large metal wrench Myungsoo found lying on a work bench by the door. All of them were on floor except for one.

Finally catching on to it, the last guy files out a pocket knife from his track pants and points it towards Myungsoo. At this point, he doesn't care. He grabs a stool nearby and aims it at the guy as a diversion. The guy doesn't even get a chance to take a jab at Myungsoo because he's already lurching forward with an empty bottle on hand and smashes it against the guy's head and breaking it into a million pieces. 

Normally, Myungsoo wouldn't have done what he just did but the adrenaline rush he felt was so good and he was angry and he would've regretted everything if he didn't do anything to try and save the boy from a likely death. The punches he threw felt like he won a 15km race with his heart pounding vastly quick and he was just in the moment. Well, the situation called for it.

With the three guys and Howon on the floor, not making any move at all which means Myungsoo must've taken real good hits, time is now left on his hands to get the injured boy out of here. He knows the boy is in a very bad shape and he feels sorry as he pulls the boy to a standing position and slings him on his back, giving him no time to know whether he's still breathing or not. Damn, is he really light. He has the arms of the boy around his neck as he hooks his own arms beneath his legs and carries him piggyback style. He kicks open the door with as much force and doesn't take a look back to know whether or not one of them regained consciousness. Fortunately for him, no one or more like most of the people outside are knocked out cold or too drunk to notice him. He tries to run as fast as he can away from the party with the extra weight on him. 

He runs from house to house, block to block with no sense of direction as the sound and lights of the party diminishes until he's sure that only the silence of the night filled his surrounding. All houses he passed by were still.

Even during the dead of night, a shop is still brightly illuminating with a big neon sign that says they're open 24/7 in this neighbourhood so Myungsoo slows his pace down to a walk and heads towards it. Several sets of tables and chairs were outside of the shop and Myungsoo gently lays down the boy on the nearest table. He immediately checks for his pulse and luckily enough it's still beating but slowly. 

Without any further disturbance, he finally takes a look at the condition the boy is currently in. His t-shirt is stained with a mixture of dry and wet blood and is ripped in some places. Old bruises and newly-formed ones are peeping through the holes of the t-shirt. One of his eyes is swollen and his hair is all over the place and his lips are bruised and bloodied and his cheeks as well and he's dirty from head-to-toe. Myungsoo pulls out a chair as his knees weakens at the sight of the damaged boy. 

He fishes out his phone and speed dials Sunggyu's number. It's 1:02am when he reads the time on his phone.

"Come on hyung! Pick up! Pick up! Urgh seriously?! Voicemail?!" Myungsoo groans frustratedly. 

"Hey hyung, I just want to let you know that I'm safe and I'll probably be back home in the morning since, urh, something came up and I have to take care of it. God you're probably going to be celebrating the fact that you might have all the apartment for once." He rolls his eyes. "Anyway, I'll be fine hyung so don't worry about my super precious being yeah? Ok bye!" Myungsoo sarcastically ends the voicemail and sends it.

He looks around his surroundings again just to make sure that not a threat to the both of them are close by. He checks his wallet to see if he has enough to buy some medical aids for the boy and enters the shop, grabbing whatever he needs to somehow heal the boy. He earns a look of suspicion and curiosity from the girl behind the register but he just smiles at her. When he gets back, he lays out all the things on a chair and begins to work on the boy.

On a small hand towel, he dampens it with some water to cleanse the boy of all the dirt sticking to his body. His face looks horrible as if he got stung by a bee and mowed by a lawnmower. All the scars criss-crossing his face making Myungsoo wonder if it'll make him look uglier once those scars heal. He then rips open his shirt and shoves it into the plastic bag. His ribcage is visible as if he's all skeleton and nothing else and it somewhat grosses him out. Even his hip-bones and clavicles are visible and Myungsoo is scared that he might break his bones if he puts a tad bit too much pressure when he wipes his abdomen and makes sure every inch of him is as clean as possible. He then proceeds to disinfect the cuts with some alcohol hoping that the boy did not come in contact with all that iron rust. 

Once he finishes tending to his wounds and disinfecting them, he places the same damp towel over his forehead. It finally dawned on him that the guy he's caring for is Sungyeol even with his eye swollen when he pulls back his bangs. The same untidy hair, lanky body, tall frame, distinct cheekbones except the cold eyes that appeared previously before him were gone, for now, can easily be distinguished. He doesn't know why it didn't click in his mind immediately and he feels even sicker than before as he remembers the already-bruised body during the locker room who's now gaining more and more of it.

He applies some cream over the colourful bruises on his body and momentarily wonders if the boy has a concussion or any broken bones considering he looks physically weak and obviously unable to fend himself from the bullies. He thinks that he should definitely bring him to a nearby clinic when the guy wakes up tomorrow. When he finishes applying the cream, he grabs a bandage and begins wrapping it around the body. Myungsoo is glad he's wearing a shirt underneath. He takes off his flannel and puts it on the boy as gently as possible. At least it fits him well enough.

"What do I do now?" He questions as he sinks back into his chair. He continues to look at the boy who must've fainted after taking way too many blows to count. He can see Sungyeol's chest slowly rising up and down which thankfully is a sign that he's still alive despite the beatings though Myungsoo thinks he must've gone through worse than this. He checks his pulse and it's still as normal as can be. Remembering the way Sungyeol's ribcage was awfully protruding against his skin, he goes back into the shop and buys some cup ramen and a thermos filled with hot water.

He comes back feeling very exhausted and sleepy as the lack of oxygen from all that running and sleep finally catches up to him. It's 2:30am when he checks the time on his phone again. He crosses his arms on the table finally letting the silence engulf his tired thoughts and lets his heavy eyelids close for him to come back to dreamland as he settles his head in a comfortable position to sleep on. He doesn't forget to latch his hand on the edge of Sungyeol's shirt as a weak attempt to ground him before drifting off.

A/N: Sorry if anyone was waiting for an update. Well pfft I bet no one did. Anyway, I was gone for 2? 3? months yeah I had my qualifying exams and I got 7 O's out of 9 woo~!!! So that's why this chapter kinda took a while to write plus i didn't really know how to write this one. It took me like forever to brainstorm and 4 drafts to finalize this chapter. I don't think it's that good of a chapter since I at fight scenes lol.

So my O level exams starts exactly in 1 week and I won't be writing the next chapter until I finish my exams and most likely will be finished somewhere by early Nov. So expect the next chapter by the end of this year? just wait a little longer ;u; Oh and to those who subscribed to my story, thank you so much even though it's utter crap rn. I promise it'll get better ok!! Wish me luck for my exams pls~ <3