Darkness. All you could see was complete darkness. Your ears rang and your head started to slowly pound as your headache rose to the surface of your consciousness. You blinked your eyes as you tried to make your blurry vision focus on your surroundings. But, getting your bearings straight was harder than it had ever been before. Slowly the darkness slipped away from your vison the longer that you blinked and focused and you could see the subtle glow of a candle lighting the room. You stretched out to sit up when the searing pain from your ribs erupted through your whole body and left you hissing on the floor. You clutched your side and willed for the pain to go away as quickly as possible. You slowed your breathing and tried to assess how hurt you were.

Your arms were covered in road rash and you could feel the subtle sting of the raw, exposed flesh just beneath the pain of your very broken ribs. You tried to push back the tears from your eyes that were ready to edge over your eyes, hoping that you could find a way out of wherever you were. If you cried now then the tears wouldn’t stop, and you had to be stronger than that. You held your breath and squeezed the tears away while you silently as possible scanned the room that you were lying in.

There were old desks stacked in the back of the room and a podium at the front with a chalkboard. Seeing it instantly brought the stale smell of mold and chalk dust to your nostrils. You flinched and tried to see if Shownu was anywhere in sight. Your eyes went over every surface and corner of the room and you saw no sign of him.

A small glimmer of hope rose up to your chest and you mentally counted to three to mentally prepare yourself before you tried your best to stand up. You pushed off the ground with your arms and tried your best to use as much of your leg strength as you could so you wouldn’t have to use your upper body strength and cause the searing pain to rupture through your body again. But, as quick as your determination to move came it dissolved and you fell to your knees. It felt like a thousand knives were lodged into your chest and stomach.

“You shouldn’t do that!”

You heard the familiar voice call to you from a dark corner in the room. You slowly looked over your shoulder from where the voice came from but still found nothing there. You could hear the movement of a desk sliding on the floor and footsteps nearing you. And as if it were a nightmare Shownu appeared from the darkness and walked into the fait light.

Your eyes dropped to the floor and it took all that you had in you to not sob. How? How could such a thing happen to you? Why me?! You silently screamed

“I shouldn’t have been so rough with you earlier… now your pretty skin is all damaged” He said looking over your scuffed arms

How in the hell could he be so calm? And why was he acting as if this were a normal situation. Shownu smiled at you apologetically and you wanted to vomit.

“Shownu… where are we?” you asked him

“Don’t worry!” he started with a smile so wide that it seemed like his skin would crack “Wonho won’t be bothering you anymore. He can’t find us here!”

A chill ran over your body and you could feel the cold sweats start to overwhelm your body. Shownu believed that you were being harassed by Hoseok and not by him. He in his twisted ing mind thought that he was the hero.

“Shownu, I think I need to go to a hospital. I’m really in pain!” you said clutching your side and showing him the best hurt face that you could display

Shownu looked you over as if he was really contemplating it and then smiled at you “I can’t do that”

“What- what do you mean?” you asked him feigning ignorance

“Y/n….What if he tries to take you away from me again!” he said completely in a trance with panic written all over his face as if he was mentally picturing you being with him.

Shownu started to breathe heavily and shake his head. He was in a full blown panic and you knew that you had just set off a trigger within him. Shownu started to let tears fall from his eyes and he beat the side of his head with his fist.

It was terrifying to see him start to fall apart in front of you, and you knew that there was only one way that you could make him stop. If you were going to survive and get to a hospital you would have to play along with his game.

“That who would take me away?” you asked with a serious face feigning ignorance

Shownu stopped beating his head and looked up at you with his tears still streaming down his face. His eyes were bewildered and all you could see was emptiness. Shownu wasn’t himself anymore. He fell down to his knees by your side and looked at you as if he were teetering on the edge.

“Won-… Wonho” he whispered softly

You smiled at him and shook your head “You’re not making sense silly! Who’s Wonho?” you laughed

Shownu stopped crying and looked down at the floor as if he were trying to calculate things in his mind. He looked up at you multiple times and you could tell that he was at war with his mind and what he wanted to believe. He just needed one last push.

“Babe, please take me to the hospital so that we can go home!” you asked sweetly

Shownu looked at you with complete seriousness for what felt like an eternity and then he let out a soft sigh with a sweet smile. He walked closer to you and looked over your face as if he was still in disbelief and looking for a trace of difference. You cocked your head and looked him in the eyes with a pout

“But first I need something from you!” you said sweetly

“What do you need?” he asked confused

Instead of saying anything you smiled and pointed to your lips. Shownu followed your finger and let his eyes rest on your lips with wide eyes. A small smile crept onto his face and a blush rose to his cheeks.

You mentally screamed and cheered thinking that you had finally convinced him. It was a step towards your goal of getting free. Now all you had to do was kiss him.

Shownu slowly leaned forward and pressed a delicate and soft kiss to your lips. Your eyes were open the entire time and you watched as his slowly shut. You were disgusted that this was how far that you had to take things and tears sprang to your eyes.

I’m sorry Hoseok

Shownu pulled away from you and with a soft smile and half-moon eyes he rose to his feet.

“Okay, we can go” he finally gave you the answer that you wanted to hear. “But it’s gonna hurt really bad.” He said as if he was sad about it

“I’ll be okay, let’s just get going.” You smiled at him “The sooner that we go, the sooner that we can go home and eat and sleep” you ran your hand over his arm.

Shownu smiled and looked down at where you had touched him. He reached forward for your hands and he bent forward and placed them on his shoulders.

“Okay, the easiest way for me to do this is probably for me to carry you over my shoulder” he suggested

You nodded your head and tried your best to rise up to your knees and hang onto Shownu so he could pick you up. Slowly you inched towards him and he eventually wrapped his arms around your legs and stood to his full height. The pressure on your ribs was close to unbearable and you felt like you would either vomit or feint from the pain. But neither of them came.

Shownu quickly made his way out of the room and entered a dark hallway. You had no idea how he knew where he was going in the darkness, but you knew that this place was somewhere that he had to know like the back of his hand to be able to navigate through to be able to walk in the dark. The thought alone made you feel uneasy.

You made your way out of the building and you could see that the building looked like an old abandoned school and you could see Shownu’s car sitting by itself in the dark parking lot. He slowly approached the passenger door and unlocked it. He opened the door as wide as possible and squatted down so he could as easily as possible put you in the seat. You fell from his arms and the impact of the seat made your ribs twist and collide in ways that feel completely unnatural.

You screamed at the jerking movement and Shownu immediately panicked seeing and hearing your pain.

“I’m sorry! I’m so so sorry! I didn’t mean to!” you pleaded as he held out his hands as if he were trying to fix the pain.

“I’m-I’m okay” you said in the least convincing voice

Shownu nodded his head and slowly shut the door for you. As soon as it was shut he sprinted to the other side of the car and jumped into the passenger seat faster than you thought possible. He revved the car to start and he quickly made his way out of the parking lot and onto the road.

In passing you had noticed quite a few roads that looked familiar and you smiled to yourself knowing that you were at least still In Seoul. Shownu sped down the highways and roads and you silently prayed that a police officer would pull you over. That’d at least solve one of your problems.

Faster and faster the roads passed by and when you looked out the window you could see the signs for the hospital pointing drivers in the right direction and you were becoming ecstatic. You didn’t fear for your life because you knew that Shownu, as long as he believed that you were in love with him, wouldn’t hurt you.

But as soon as the happiness came it left. Shownu passed by every single sign and exit that he needed to take and continued to drive down the highway. You looked over at him and gave him a fake smile, pretending like you were completely okay.

“Shownu, honey you missed the exit!” you playfully chided him, hoping that he couldn’t hear the shakiness in your voice

“There’s one thing that we have to do before we go to the hospital!” he said with a smile in his voice as he kept his eyes on the road.

“Okay” you said quietly

What the could be so important that he would drive you away from the hospital now? Your mind wandered as you began to worry about what exactly Shownu had planned. He wasn’t going to try to do anything was he? WAS HE? No….no. He’s not that insane. Was he taking you back to your apartment? You looked outside the window to see where you were and you felt defeated, you were on the complete opposite side of town.

Suddenly you felt a hand resting on top of your own as you held your aching side.

“I know it hurts but…. Please, we have to do this” he begged

You could hear how sorry he sounded in his voice for putting you in pain, but the excitement that lingered in his tone told you that whatever he was going to do was probably sickening and outweighed the cost of your pain.

Minutes went by and you could feel the energy and breathe leaving your body. Your eyes became heavy and you gasped for air. You felt like you were dying. And you knew that you would die here at the sake of Shownu.

How did he become like this? He knew you for one week before he was absolutely insane. It wasn’t enough time for someone to fall in love was it? Had he always been psychotic or did you cause this to happen to him? How could someone do this to someone who they claimed that they loved?!

You let a single tear fall from your eye and sniffled. But Shownu didn’t even pay you any mind. He was too busy thinking about whatever was on his mind.

He pulled off of the main road and into a neighborhood of small simple houses. He parked in between two and quickly parked and ran inside. You didn’t bother questioning what he was doing until he came back outside only moments later with a rolling office chair.

You groaned and wanted to scream. If he moved you again just to get you in that house you would die. You could feel it in your bones and in your heart. You didn’t have much life left in you.

Shownu opened the car door and pulled the office chair close to the side of the door with a wide smile.

“Come on, I want to show you our new house!” he exclaimed with excitement

You nearly scoffed and laughed in his face. He wanted to show you a house when you here sitting here in the most excruciating pain. Maybe you should laugh. Maybe he would finish what he started and you wouldn’t be in pain anymore.

But instead you nodded your head and let a tear fall down your cheek.

Shownu wrapped an arm around your back and slid his hand underneath your knees and picked you up bridal style to sit you down in the chair. You didn’t yelp, grunt or make any sort of indication of your lost will to live. You didn’t care anymore. You just wanted for the screaming inside of you to stop.

He pushed the chair across the pav