“Undress him.”

“What–” Chanyeol lifted his head up, struggling hard to get out of the tight locks.

One man quickly removed the shirt Chanyeol was wearing, throwing it as he left the poor guy shirtless. The man held Chanyeol’s arms tightly once more.

“You can never win against me, Chanyeol,” Park Jooyeol took a suitcase his bodyguard was bringing, opening it to take out a long leather belt. “Do you remember you were afraid of belts when you were a child?”

Chanyeol didn’t answer, looking at him in anticipation.

“You told me you were afraid of belts after you saw a horse getting hit by it,” he got up, walking in front of his son. “I remember you said ‘Appa, why did horses get hit? They shouldn’t get hit’,” he twisted the end of the belt on his palm. “Do you want to know how the horse feels when he gets hit?”

“You can’t–” before Chanyeol could finish his sentence, Park Jooyeol swung the belt to hit his left side. Chanyeol groaned loudly, feeling his bare body numb in a second. His arms clenched in reflex.

Chanyeol got his head down, seeing his abdomen redden. That looked so bad. He lifted his head up only to see his father’s furious face. “I won’t stop–”

“You won’t stop what?!” another swing hit Chanyeol’s body, making the son scream louder. “I will stop doing this to you if you do as you’re told, Park Chanyeol! Can you ing hear me?!”

Chanyeol’s arms got weaker, the two men who were holding him released him. The young guy’s body fell on the floor. Park Jooyeol walked to him to step his foot on his shoulder before moving to his temple, causing Chanyeol to grunt in lots of pain. The texture of his shoe was rough that it got his cheek hurt.

“Look, you’re just a small guy who can only kiss my shoe,” the CEO hit his side with the belt again, Chanyeol flinched.

Chanyeol tried his best to move his arms to stop him but too bad, he got more hits in return. The guy could only scream in pain, getting sore in every spot of his body. Sweats started gathering around as his vision went blurry. He couldn’t move any parts of his body now.

“I’ll just end you now,” his father kicked his shoulder, making the son lay on his back.

The CEO then sat on his chest, grabbing Chanyeol’s neck with both hands. Chanyeol’s vein went harder as he couldn’t take another breath. His father’s face in his eyes went blur as he could hear his own gagging sound. He tried to stop him by grabbing his father’s wrists but it didn’t really affect him more as his strength was nothing compared to his father’s.

Once Chanyeol’s face started reddening and his mouth was half open to gasp for air, Park Jooyeol let go of his hands. Chanyeol quickly took a long breath to fill his empty lung, coughing as his lung was suffocated.

His father got up, looking disgusted, “I saw myself on your ing face, I’ll kill you in a better way one day, just so you wait,” Park Jooyeol took steps backwards, his bodyguards quickly handed him a towel. The CEO wiped his sweats with the towel, eyes never leaving his son’s.

“Next time, don’t ever try to mess with me if you still want to meet your mother,” Park Jooyeol fixed his collar and his hair, lifting his chin up to make him look arrogant. The three then walked out of the apartment, leaving the poor Park on the floor.

Chanyeol felt like he was about to get his stomach empty but he couldn’t. His inside was hurt, his bare body was worse. With the last strength he got, he crawled to the front table, grabbing his phone to call whoever was on his contact. The contact turned out to be his girlfriend.

“Hello?” the melodic voice on the line accepted the call after a while.

“J-Joohyun, p-please–” Chanyeol tried so hard to speak with his sore throat. It felt like there were many needles sticking in it. His voice was hard to be heard.

“Chanyeol?”

“I-I need you–”

“What happened?! Where are you now?!” he could hear the panicked breath through the phone.

“C-come over to my apart-apartment, n-now, p-please,” he let out a loud cough.

“Yes, yes, I’ll be right there! Please hang in there!” Joohyun ended the call, Chanyeol fell on the floor again. He tried to breathe normally even though it was so hard.

Joohyun arrived less than ten minutes. Bringing a box of first aid—thanks to her instinct—and a towel, she rushed in, only to be shocked by the sight of her boyfriend lying on the floor.

“Oh my God!” Joohyun ran to him, grabbing the sofa pillow for his head to be placed. She put her fingers on his pulse, heart beating faster when she found out that Chanyeol was still alive. “Please be strong, I’ll take care of you.”

“Joohyun–”

“Please don’t say anything,” Joohyun interrupted, grabbing the towel to gently wipe the sweats all over his body. Her eyes went sad when she noticed the red scars all over his bare body. It was shocking to see her boyfriend in such a condition, making her eyes wet. Not wanting to let the guy know, she swept it off quickly.

Joohyun got up, going to his fridge to get some ice cubes. She then got back, placing the cubes on a plastic she bought in the first aid box. “It’ll hurt but you’ll feel better later,” she carefully placed the plastic on Chanyeol’s abdomen, causing the guy to groan in pain.

After finishing with his scars, Joohyun helped her boyfriend to take some gulps of warm water. Chanyeol coughed when the water hit his throat, Joohyun immediately stopped and placed the glass on the table. She helped him to sit properly, massaging his shoulder gently.

“Do you feel a bit better?”

Chanyeol only nodded in response, he still couldn’t get all his strength to say a word.

“What’s going on?” Joohyun’s frown was obviously written on her face, staring into Chanyeol’s orbs deeply. “Is this about your father again?”

Chanyeol nodded weakly. “He strangled me,” his voice sounded weak, it was like his pitch was totally broken. “He wanted to kill me.”

Joohyun let out a long sigh, grabbing a shirt that was left lying on the floor, “will he ever stop–” she handed him the shirt, helping him to wear it.

“I don’t know,” Chanyeol shook his head, turning his head to the girl. “What were you doing when I called you?”

“I was doing my homework,” Joohyun glanced at the bag she also carried when she went there. “I brought my laptop here.”

“I’m sorry for disturbing you.”

“No, it’s okay,” Joohyun shot a reassuring smile, holding her boyfriend’s hand tightly. “I’ll stay here overnight, you don’t have to be scared anymore.”

—

Chanyeol was sitting on the couch, being wrapped by a blanket while his eyes were staring blankly at the television. Joohyun was in the kitchen, saying that she would cook warm soup for him. His puppy Toben was sleeping next to him, the owner had his hand on its head to pet him. During the mess, Toben was sleeping and Chanyeol was glad knowing that. Imagining Toben seeing him an hour ago was never what Chanyeol ever thought.

Chanyeol yawned and turned the TV off once the reality show he was watching ended, glancing at Joohyun’s laptop on the table. He stared at the screen that was showing an opened e-mail from W. S.: Hello from Home! I missed being here, oh God. People still recognized me! Can you believe they thought that my name was Wandy?

Chanyeol saw the attachment files and opened them. The photos were about the girl he and Joohyun met in the airport, Chanyeol was sure it was her friend, Seungwan. He then read the previous mail from the same sender: So, I’ve talked with him about the car certificates your uncle and your father had. The one your uncle had doesn’t look real at all, it’s edited, the number wasn’t even valid. The signatures weren’t real. I can make sure that this is a murder case, not just a single-car crash. Your parents were killed. I’l