Seungri’s POV

“Mino!” I gasp, my eyes jolted open, and instinctively sat up, the memory of a bad dream haunting me.

It felt… real.

I managed to shakily move my wrists and look at my hands, trying to curl and twist my fingers, trying to desperately feel them, and I sigh in relief after being able to.

Daesung must’ve heard me since he turned away from his phone and looked at me. “Hey, you okay?” He quizzically glances at me, trying to search for any answers that might have been written all over my face, but he ends up shrugging. I simply nod. “It’s fine. Just a little nightmare, that’s all.”

He goes back to facing his phone’s screen, and I reach out for my phone as well. I opened it and started scrolling through news articles, simply skimming among the sea of paragraphs and characters, until a sentence has me scrolling up once more, trying to see if I read it right.

>I see you, Seungri.

The text flickers, and it goes back to what I assume would be the original text’s title. It read “BEAST to HIGHLIGHT: Their story”

Huh. I wonder why this story though. I immediately tapped the link, and it brought me to a website in which the group’s picture took up the entire screen, following a paragraph about their journey. I casually read through it, still wondering why this link, out of all other links, flickered.

I noticed a blurry figure to the left, and as I tried to tap out of the picture and into it back again, hoping my internet would load it, it becomes more pixelated by the second. I simply sighed, thinking my network must’ve had some hiccups. I exited the article and continue to skim through headlines and more headlines, trying to pass time.

Soft knocks were heard, and I divert my attention to the door opening, revealing two faces curiously scanning the room.

“Soohyun, Chanhyuk, it’s nice to see you two safe.” The words left my lips before I can even think about my words. The siblings looked at me, their expressions unreadable. Meanwhile, the people in the room, Daesung and TOP, simply looked at me quizzically. They looked at the siblings, and at me, then back to them, and simply shrugged. I then noticed Soohyun holding her breath, as if her breath would give something away, and sighed in relief when the older members went back to focusing on their phones.

The two bow in unision to the three of us, then proceeded to sit down at the edge of the bed. Daesung then gets up, and glances at me a few times before opening his mouth.

“Seungri, I’ll be back. Something came up, and I guess I may or may not have a schedule today. Don’t worry, the siblings and TOP will look after-“

He gets cut when he notices the older Seunghyun fixing his things as well. He looks up at Daesung, curious as to why he stopped talking, and then smiled sheepishly. “I… uh… I have someone to meet...”

I smiled at the two of them and waved them off. “It’s fine, hyungs. I’ll be fine. Good luck with whatever you two will be doing!” I did a little fist pump with my IV-drip connected arm, and they simply smile at me as they walked out the door, but not before ruffling the siblings’ hair as they walked past them.

As soon as they were gone, however, Soohyun attacks me, her little punches hitting me on my left shoulder. “Ow, ow, ow. Stop, that hurts-“

“It hurts?” She asks, incredulously. “IT HURTS?!” Her high pitched voice went even higher, her brother trying to restrain her. “DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG WE’VE BEEN WORRIED SICK ABOUT YOU?! SEUNGYOON OPPA TOLD ME YOU’RE FINE BUT LOOK AT YOU!” She motions at my entire body. “And… and… AND YOU ALMOST COULD’VE GAVE US AWAY!!!!”

“Soohyun, please, I’m fine. I just got older, and besides, Yoon’s very good at protecting us.” I sigh, raking my hair. I sat up straighter, facing her. “Look, I’m sorry for disappearing and making you two worry. I’m fine.” I opened my arms and gestured at myself. “See?”

She starts sobbing, and Chanhyuk simply sighs as he gently pulls his sister into an embrace as she cries on his chest. “Hyung, we’re sorry for doubting you. We really thought… you were done for.”

I sigh again. “I don’t get why you two would think I’m not fine when Yoon told me that he told you guys he’ll be watching over me.” Soohyun looks up, her eyes starting to swell.

She suddenly turns quiet, and the siblings look around.

I frantically looked around as well, trying to find whatever they were finding.

“Found you.”

The three of us looked up, and from the ceiling, a dark, black puddle started to form, and it spread until the ceiling was all black. It slowly trickled down to the walls, where a faint scream started to become more and more audible. The windows were closed shut and killed the lights as the black touched it. Soohyun huddled closer to her brother, and I instinctively wrapped my arms around them.

“I found you. I found you.” The garbled voices started to become louder, as it repeated the same lines over and over again.

We stayed in the middle of the room, the walls consumed by the ink-like creature. It then slowly consumed the floor, turning it into a black mess, slowly aiming for the center. Aiming at us.

Soohyun screamed, and a loud swear cut through the air.

“Mother…ER!”

Yoon appeared, his fingertips glowing, as he slid across the room trying to attack the creature, slashing and cutting with all his might, but failing miserably. The ink-like creature simply laughed in a mixture of its demonic little voices, and it started crawling on Seungyoon too.

I ran to Seungyoon trying to desperately get the creature off of him, and the door flew open.

“You ing idiots.”

Inhyeon appears, another gem in hand, and in a doctor’s uniform. She pushed her glasses up her nosebridge, and kicked the door close, while hurling herself towards the creature, now becoming this huge inky blob standing in front of me and Yoon, both too frightened to do anything.

Her gem comes in contact with the creature, and it slithers into the gem, magically disappearing from the room. Yoon and I fall on the ground, both panting, and both scared like a bunch of idiots.

Inhyeon looks back at the door, trying to see if anyone had caught on to the strange things happening in this room.

My room, to be exact.

I let go of the breath I didn’t notice I was holding in, and wobbled off back to my bed before my legs suddenly weakened. Yoon catches me in time, while Soohyun suddenly turns quiet as she stares at Chanhyuk, who simply fixated his eyes on Inhyeon.

Inhyeon looks at Yoon, who was trying to help me up back to my feet. “Aren’t you going to thank me for helping?” She smirks, and Yoon looks at her with dead eyes. “I thought we made it clear after you attacked Gikwang.”

She lifts her arms up and spun, as if to show something. Yoon’s gaze suddenly shifts.

She smiles warmer this time. “See? I’m fine. Don’t need to hate me.” Yoon nods. “No aura. No traces.”

I hesitantly tap Yoon and ask. “Gikwang? What did she do?”

This time, both of them looked down as silence met my ears. No one seemed to break the silence, so I spoke again. “What… happened?”

Chanhyuk, still hugging and Soohyun’s hair while they sat in the corner, was the first to break the silence. “Chaerin got to her. She attacked Gikwang while being under her influence.”

“So was Gikwang.” Inhyeon mused, looking back at Chanhyuk. “I felt something else while being under her powers.”

“Wait, Inhyeon, where have you been? You’ve… suddenly disappeared.” I quietly spoke.

She looked at me, and her eyes slowly dropped to the ground as she idly dragged her feet. “I had to run away. I had to run away a few times undetected, but for some reason—“

“—She kept bumping into me.” Yoon finished, looking up at her now, as he sat at the edge of the bed. “Honestly, I always see her, actually, no, almost everywhere, but 90% of the time she’s running errands for Chaerin. I simply disappear to remain undetected.” He explains.

“But that still doesn’t explain how she could’ve simply helped us escape before—“ I stopped in my own tracks and pointed at Yoon before standing up, backing slowly into a corner.

“You.” I point. Yoon looks at me quizzically before shrugging. “What?” He shoots back.

“You’re— You’re orange.” I took a sharp inhale before speaking again.

Chanhyuk suddenly gets up and clamps my mouth shut. Soohyun then looks at me, and I hear them.

“Oppa. We can read your mind. We can see it. Don’t say anything unless Kang Seungyoon and Seo Inhyeon are here.”

I nodded, and Chanhyuk lets go of my mouth.

Yoon eyes the siblings with curiosity, then shrugs.

I heard another whisper, and the voice is awfully familiar.

“Get out of there. Get your cousins and run the away.”

//a:n i am so sorry for such a short chapter

on another notes MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR lol