No trigger warnings for this chapter.

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It had been three days since Youngjae’s talk with Yongguk. Three days since he’d been pushed back into the basement and left there.

Daehyun was the only one who visited and pretty much only thanks to Youngjae being annoying did he get a bathroom break. Daehyun never answered Youngjae’s questions and only gave him instant noodles to eat.

It was the most uneventful three days Youngjae had ever experienced.

The one good thing about it was that his hands were no longer bound so he could pace around, work out, punch walls and try to attack Daehyun – although that also got boring very quickly.

Three days were too much because Youngjae was left to his thoughts, replaying his conversation with Yongguk and Eunae’s death. He had plenty of time to think about all the ways all of this could have been avoided. Most important of all, he had plenty of time to flashback to all the unpleasant events of three years ago.

The first night had been the worst because he’d kept trying to fall back asleep. Each time he’d woken up in a cold sweat, some new nightmare lingering in his mind.

The second night he’d given up on sleeping. He’d only allowed it to happen once before he’d said “ it.”

The nightmares weren’t about Yongguk or his group. They were about the tiny squad of s that had taken him prisoner.

Yes, it was all part of the plan to catch both groups, but it wasn’t an act. To Youngjae they were all the same – as he’d tried to keep them, names on a record to be put behind bars. But at times when he got too deep into thinking back to it all, Youngjae admitted to himself that the other group was much worse.

And now they weren’t leaving his dreams.

He’d spent the rest of the night staring at the ceiling and trying to remember as many names ending with ‘Bin’ as he could.

Moonbin. Changbin. Seungbin. Soobin. Hyeonbin. Hongbin. Hanbin. Woobin.

Which one was his Bin? The one who had saved his life?

The third night Youngjae received a visit. It was way past midnight and Daehyun alwondered if it was Jongup, finally coming to get out his frustration on Youngjae.

He propped himself up on his elbows, squinting at the door.

The silhouette was too tall to be Jongup, which was somewhat of a relief. As the figured moved downward and got swallowed up by the darkness that Youngjae was used to, he recognized his only visitor.

Daehyun was stumbling down the stairs with a bottle of something in his hand. He gracelessly placed his on the chair, rested his elbows on his knees like before and hung his head.

Youngjae sighed, lying back on the mattress. “What the are you doing here?”

“Can’t sleep,” Daehyun mumbled.

Dim light was coming from the hallway above, poorly illuminating Daehyun’s features. He looked half-dead, his eyes were pale and graced with dark bags underneath. His bronze skin now looked ashy, the colour one’s face turns when faced with some kind of horror. But Daehyun didn’t seem terrified, just exhausted.

“And why was I bestowed the honour of being chosen as your hang-out buddy?” Youngjae asked, staring at the ceiling. He couldn’t look at Daehyun, although he wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t hate, that had settled down at least a little.

“Everyone else is asleep.”

“Yongguk probably isn’t,” Youngjae mumbled.

A silent second passed and then Daehyun burst out laughing. “Yeah... Yeah, probably. You know him so well, don’t you?”

Youngjae didn’t answer.

“Either way... I don’t wanna disturb him. He’s probably in his own world or working.”

“But you can bother me,” Youngjae said with a sigh.

“You’re not doing anything.”

“Actually—“

“That wasn’t a question.”

Youngjae huffed. “So what now? Do we just sit or do you want me to take on the role of your therapist?”

“You know what, that. You really were being nice before,” Daehyun spat and stood, but he stumbled.

Youngjae was quick to follow, stepping forward to hold the older up. He wasn’t sure what had made him do it; it certainly wasn’t compassion. Pity, maybe.

“Okay, calm down. It... It’s gonna be okay,” he said and took Daehyun to the mattress.

They sat down and Daehyun leaned his entire weight on Youngjae, resting his head on his shoulder.

“Why can’t you sleep?” Youngjae asked, trying to poke Daehyun away. He didn’t budge.

“...Changed my meds again. They seem to be doing .”

Youngjae had no idea what to say to this. It wasn’t like he could help. “How long?”

Daehyun frowned, trying to think about it. “Two weeks?”

“I’m sorry,” Youngjae mumbled.

“What’s there to be sorry about?” Daehyun sighed. He sat up on his own, for a long moment just staring at the wall. Then out of the blue he flung the bottle into the wall and it shattered with a crashing noise. It seemed to have been empty since there were only glass shards on the floor and no liquid.

Youngjae had only winced before giving Daehyun a wide-eyed look.

“What the—“

Daehyun shook his head and sat up from his previous position of holding his head in his hands. He leaned back on his elbows.

“Well, we know what’s keeping me up. What about you?” Daehyun asked as if nothing had happened.

Youngjae decided to act so as well. “Nightmares,” he said simply.

Daehyun nudged him a little as if to get him to elaborate.

“I don’t have to tell you anything,” he said sharply.

“I was just trying to help,” Daehyun mumbled.

“Well, you can’t.”

They stayed in silence.

It took a while for the fact that Daehyun’s presence wasn’t bothering him, that it was even soothing in a way to sink in. It left Youngjae rather confused. He hated Daehyun, even before when he was pretending to be befriending the group, him and Youngjae were “rivals” and couldn’t stand each other.

Yet Daehyun’s presence was soothing.

The sound of soft snores reached Youngjae’s ears and he sighed. Alone again.

For maybe an hour or so he just sat there with a passed out Daehyun by his side, thinking about what the hell the others would think when they find Daehyun sleeping in Youngjae’s current – hopefully temporary – residence.

Furthermore he was thinking about the fact that the door was open and that there were only two teenage boys guarding it. He thought hard about it and decided that it wasn’t the best time to run. There was nothing holding him back, he simply didn’t think it was a good opportunity. He knew for a fact that the security didn’t stop at the two guard dogs outside.

He stood up and slowly walked up the stairs.

As soon as he appeared at the door the two boys stood in front of him, shoulder to shoulder, blocking the path.

Youngjae raised his arms and stepped back.

“You should take him to his room,” he said.

The two boys exchanged looks.

“He’ll get in trouble if he’s found here,” Youngjae explained. “And it would be nice of you not to mention this visit to the others.”

For a second they didn’t do anything, but then one of them pushed past Youngjae down into the basement. He came back with the sleeping Daehyun in his arms. He went upstairs without uttering a word, leaving his friend to stand watch.

Youngjae looked at the boy who was left behind and made the gesture of zipping his mouth shut. The boy nodded and Youngjae returned downstairs.

* * *

The next day he was woken up by a nudge to the waist.

“Get up.” A sharp voice.

Youngjae whined, slowly opening his eyes. He couldn’t say that the sight wasn’t pretty, but it was definitely something he didn’t want to see.

It was the frowning face of one Moon Jongup.

“Will you break my ribs if I don’t?” Youngjae asked, rolling over thereby turning his to Jongup. He knew he was trying his luck with the younger, but he didn’t really care.

“I’d love to,” Jongup said, stepping forward. “But I need you to be able to walk.”

Youngjae’s eyes snapped open as Jongup grabbed his hair and dragged him to his feet. Youngjae stumbled backwards a little, throwing the younger an angry look.

“Oh yeah? We’re going somewhere?”

“Yes, actually. We’re going to visit some friends of ours,” Jongup informed and reached for Youngjae again, but he stepped away.

“As you said, I can walk,” he hissed.

Jongup glared at him, but didn’t complain further. He just motioned for Youngjae to walk ahead.

Jongup took him out the basement and up a flight of stairs to the corridor Youngjae knew well – it was where all their rooms were. Jongup stopped in front of Daehyun’s and knocked.

Youngjae half expected to see Daehyun as he had been the night before – exhausted and broken – but when he answered he seemed to be his old self, smiling brightly at the two.

“Youngjae! Come in,” he said cheerfully. “Thanks for bringing him, Uppie, how kind of you. See you later!”

Jongup just gave a sharp nod and walked away.

As Daehyun pulled him inside and closed the door, Youngjae took a moment to look at his face in the much better light of Daehyun’s room.

Traces of two week’s exhaustion were still visible under his make-up, and even though he looked much healthier, it was evident that there was an effort to make it so. His cheeks were red with a light blush, his lips were red and glossy and his face was shining with a soft highlighter.

“You look better,” Youngjae said. He stood his ground, looking around the room. He hadn’t been there in a while and he wasn’t yet sure why he was there.

Clothes were scattered on Daehyun’s bed, but otherwise the room was tidy, impersonal even. There was the bed, a desk with a laptop and a few books on it, a mirror and a closet, much smaller than the one in his apartment. Clear walls. This was because Daehyun hardly spent time there, he was usually in his own home.

Daehyun, who was fixing up some finishing touches on his make-up in front of the mirror, gave Youngjae a sorrowful look. “I’ve learned to make it so,” he said and stepped back to look at his reflection from a distance.

“Now you,” he said.

Youngjae stepped back, frowning. “...What me? We’re having a dress-up party?”

Daehyun chuckled. “Something like that.”

“Why? What’s going on?” Youngjae kept asking, backing up further. The way Daehyun was stalking him implied that his intentions were much more sinister than a dress-up party.

“I’m afraid I can’t say,” Daehyun said softly.

“Jongup said we’re going to visit some ‘friends’ of yours. What does that mean? Who are they? Why are you taking me with you?”

“Jae, I really can’t say—“

“Don’t you ‘Jae’ me! I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on!”

Daehyun stood still, going quiet for a moment. His gaze was unsteady, eyes wondering over Youngjae’s face. He seemed to be contemplating a response.

“You’re going to meet Bin,” was all Daehyun said.

It was such a vague sentence and he’d said it after too much thinking for Youngjae to believe it was true. And yet... Yongguk had said that this Bin considered him useful. It wasn’t too farfetched that he would be taken to provide with whatever it was that Bin considered useful.

“What is it that he needs me to do?” Youngjae asked after a pause.

“Youngjae, I really can’t say.”

“It has something to do with the group that’s taken me. You need my help to take them down, right? But what can I do to help? And what makes you think I’ll be willing to help?”

“I don’t know!” Daehyun snapped. “We need information, currently that’s what we’re lacking.” He froze and then sighed. He’d already said too much. Daehyun shook his head and looked back up at Youngjae. “You don’t need to be willing,” he said. “They can be persuasive and so can we.”

Youngjae huffed. “Oh, I know how scary you can be,” he said sarcastically. But the truth was that this would all be easier if he just went along.

Daehyun offered his hand and, although reluctantly, Youngjae took it.

 

After days spent in the basement Youngjae was glad to have been given an opportunity to shower.

He was standing now in front of Daehyun’s mirror, in Daehyun’s clothes, wearing Daehyun’s make-up.

Dressed up like that he didn’t look as disastrous as he felt.

And yes, he may have been pissed off by the entire situation, but Youngjae was also glad that he was given a chance to get as dressed up as Daehyun was. He wouldn’t have liked it if they took him to their ‘friends’ as a helpless hostage.

The tension of the situation was undeniable, and yet the two of them getting dressed up together made it seem like they were going on a double date, rather than some unpleasant meeting.

“Thank you for yesterday,” Daehyun said out of the blue.

Youngjae threw him a glance, but he didn’t return in. “No problem.”

They didn’t speak of the sincerity in Daehyun’s voice as he thanked Youngjae. They didn’t speak of Youngjae’s effort to keep everything hidden for Daehyun’s sake. They said nothing else on the matter.

Daehyun checked his Rolex and fixed his hair one last time. “Let’s go.”

He took him through the house, behind the kitchen and through a tiny corridor. It looked like a path to a dungeon, but Youngjae knew that they were going to the garage. Much less horrible than the basement where he resided.

The others were already waiting around one of the cars, a BMW 850 CSI.

Youngjae took note that Daehyun was more dressed up than the others, himself included. Yongguk had gone for his usual combination of a white shirt, dark jeans and his favourite black trench coat. Himchan wasn’t any less dressed up than usual, wearing a dress shirt and a jacket with an untied bowtie. Jongup hardly even tried, wearing a low-cut tank top, his usual leather jacket over it and ripped jeans. But Junhong was the one who remained the most casual, dressed in jeans, a band tee and a denim jacket.

Daehyun was the only one in a suit, while Youngjae had taken one of his dress shirts and a light jacket over that with some simple pants.

Jongup detached himself from the hood of the car where he’d been sitting and approached Youngjae. He tugged on Youngjae’s wrists, before clasping a pair of handcuffs onto them. No one else reacted to this action.

“Whose are these?” Youngjae asked.

No one responded.

“Did you find them among Jongup’s toys?” He kept going.

Jongup raised his hand, but Junhong appeared behind him and took him by the wrist.

“We have to go, hyung,” Junhong said softly. Jongup threw Youngjae a glare, yanked his hand from Junhong’s grasp and stomped towards the car.

Junhong glanced at Youngjae and gave a tiny smile. “Probably,” he said, not too loudly, as response to Youngjae’s earlier question.

“You’d know about his toys,” Youngjae teased. They both chuckled and Junhong nudged his shoulder. For that one second it was as if they were friends again.

And then it was over as Himchan took Youngjae by the shoulder and pushed him into the car. He leaned his elbow on the open door and glanced down at Youngjae, who was squirming to get comfortable.

“Try to keep yourself in check,” Himchan said.

Youngjae raised his eyebrows. “When am I not in check?”

“That’s exactly what he’s talking about,” Jongup cut in. He was sitting next to Youngjae. Perfect.

Himchan paid Jongup no mind. “One of their members recently got shot so they’re a bit pissy. We don’t need you to create a scene,” Himchan explained. “Stay quiet, if you can.”

“You’ve got it boss,” Youngjae said flatly.

Himchan slammed the door shut and went to the driver’s seat. It was the four of them in the BMW, while Yongguk and Daehyun were in Daehyun’s Tesla Model X.

No one buckled Youngjae’s seatbelt. They took off.