“Ah…” Sehun whines. “Ah, .” He covers his face and shakes his head. He can’t feel this way, he just can’t. He knows that’ll just lead to a whole world of hurt and he doesn’t know why he does this to himself. Why can’t he just fall for Tao? Why did it have to be the demon he accidentally summoned? He internally curses himself and will for eternity as he turns around he fishes for his keys. He pushes the door open and sighs, stuffing them back into his pockets. “ing feelings,” He mutters. His heart drops and he stops when he sees his father standing a few feet away; staring at him with anger burning in his eyes. “F-father, hello.”

When his father takes a step closer, he flinches. “No more, Sehun!” He hisses. “I will not stand here while my only son runs around being a damn ! Kissing men, dressing he’s possessed by the damn devil!”

“D-dad, I-”

“Shut it!” He snaps, his face turning beet red. “I saw you out there with that man and I won’t stand for it.”

“D-dad, Kai isn’t-” Sehun doesn’t get a chance to finish before he’s forced back by a hard slap to his face. He lets out a painful cry when he’s roughly grabbed by the hair and pulled. “Dad, w-wait!” His eyes widen when he’s forced to the floor and painfully dragged down the hall.

“I’ve had enough! You need to think and pray, Sehun! Pray until these disgusting thoughts of kissing and touching other men are gone from your sinful thoughts!”

“D-dad, please! Not the closet!” He shrinks, kicking. But his father’s grip is too strong; his parent easily stronger than him, not to mention several inches taller. “I-I can’t!”

“You can! You’ll pray until you purge your dirty thoughts!” He snarls. He slams his son head against the wall before he practically rips the closet door open. Tears well in his eyes as he received several more hard, harsh slaps across his face. He brings his hands up to catch himself when he’s thrown by his hair into the dark, small room. He quickly turns to the doorway and tries to grab at it. He stops when his father stops him with a firm hand on his face; his grip tightening and threatening to leave more bruises on his pale skin. He grimaces when fingernails dig into his cheeks and his father leans close. “Pray,” He threatens, his voice dangerous. He tosses Sehun back inside, crying out when his back and head makes impact with the wall. All light vanishes when the closet door is slammed shut and the sound of the lock engages

“Dad?!” Sehun calls out, pounding on the door. “Dad, I’m sorry! I-I'm sorry, I’m sorry!” He pauses and quickly backs up, grabbing his phone from his pocket. “Come on,” He chokes out. He gasps as he clicks the power button. Dead. “No, no no!” He tosses it to the floor and that's really when panic begins to set in. “Mom?!” He shouts and once against hits the door with his fists. “Mom, p-please! Please, let me out!” He pauses when he hears footsteps, pressing his ear to listen better. When he hears the soft steps of his mother, he continues. “Mom! Mom!” 

The footsteps stop outside the door. “Sehun…”

“Mom?” Sehun’s voice is shaky. “Please, please let me out! I-I-I can’t, I can’t stand the darkness, okay? I’m scared!”

“If what I suspect is true,” She murmurs. “And you truly are...gay…”

“You-you know I can’t stand the dark! I-I can’t stand closed spaces- please!”

“Answer me.”

Sehun sniffs. “W-what?”

“Are you...are you truly gay? Is that man your...lover?”

“Lover?” Sehun shakes his head. “N-no! No, he’s not!”

“...So it’s true,” She sniffs as well. “I’m sorry, son. M-maybe when you cleanse your...your mind, then you can come out.”

The punk stares at the door, barely lit up by the light from under it. He slowly steps away. “M-mom, you’re...you’re not letting me out?”

“I’m sorry. This is...your punishment.”

“Don’t go!” He screams when she begins to walk away. “Please, don’t go!” He knows what’s going to happen. He’s going to scream, cry, wail and bang on this damn door. He’s going to ask for forgiveness but never for being gay. He’ll do this for hours and hours until he’ll tire himself out and curl up; waking up in his bed. Perhaps his mother carried him there. But this time feels different. Somehow, he doesn’t feel like his mother will be there for him. She doesn’t love him. Not anymore.

With these thoughts, Sehun begins to feel hot and a bit dizzy. He feels sick, anxious. His head hurts from sobbing so hard, his throat from screaming. He places his hands on the door to try and steady himself. This hasn’t ever happened before. He blinks a few times as his vision begins to dim. “He…” He begins to breathe heavily. “Help,” he pants. He feels himself weakening at a quick rate, the room around him, from what he can see, begins to spin. His head feels light but it hurts. It really hurts; like a train hit him. He tries to focus and to calm down. But he can’t, no matter what he does. He thinks about Kai and how he’ll be home in a few hours. But that doesn’t help. Nothing seems to. His face pulses and stings with pain from where he had been his; his backaches. Sehun’s eyes slowly begin to close, he can feel himself sway and fall back. He tries to grab onto something but the coat he aims for slips through his fingers. The punk falls to the floor with a loud thud, everything going black.

Sehun has a splitting headache when he wakes up. His eyes hurt from the blinding white light as he tries to slowly open them. He lets out a soft groan, covering them with his hands. But he stops to look at them; glaring at the strange things attached to him. “W-wha…”

“Sehun?!”

Sehun squints over at the figure beside him. A hospital? Why the hell would he be here? “What...what?” When his vision finally focuses, he recognizes the person as Kai. His eyes are filled with what seems like worry. Golden, glowing, angry and concerned. “Where am I? W-what happened?”

“What happened?” Kai stands up straight and frowns. “I found you unconscious in a ing closet with your face bruised to hell.”

“Oh,” Sehun lets out a shaky breath. “Am I at least still pretty?”

“This is not a joking matter!” Kai practically roars. That’s when Sehun really notices it. The angrier he gets, the more his eyes seem to glow. “Sehun, when I came home from my walk hours go, I looked for you! You weren’t anywhere! I found your stupid little black book of numbers and called BOTH of your friends! I thought maybe they knew where you were,” He begins to rant. “NONE of them have seen you, of course!” The demon begins to pace. “I teleported all around the city for you, or most of it! But that’s when I thought of your ing father and that damn closet!”

“Closet…” He rubs his head. “I...I remember now.”

Kai throws his arms up. “Great! So tell me why I found you in such a state!”

Sehun looks at the demon in surprise, furrowing his brow. “Why are you so angry?”

“Why am I so…” He growls. “Forget it! Tell me, now!”

“Okay, okay! Just promise me you won’t punch someone,” He blinks a few times and shakes his head. “After we uh...separated, I went inside and my...my dad was waiting for me. He just snapped at me a-and…”

Kai sits down, his eyes slowly turn back to black. “He dragged you...to that closet.”

Sehun swallows hard. “I...I tried to call out for me mom,” He whispers. “But she told me I needed to be punished.” His chest tightens. “Kai,” His lower lip quivers. “Kai, I think my mom knew.”

“Knew what?”

“I think she knew...I think she knew what my dad does,” He says softly, afraid if he speaks any louder, he’s embarrassed himself. But his throat begins to hurt as he can feel the tears begin. “She knew he’d beat me, put me in...in that closet.” He takes a deep breath and tries to compose himself. “I passed out.”

“You passed out?”

Sehun slowly nods. “I’ve never passed out before b-but this time I just freaked the out.”

Kai glowers darkly. “Understandably, considering.”

“I…” He looks at his hands and at the equipment attached to them. “I want to leave.”

“I tried!” The demon says irritably. “But that stupid human told me you had to wake up and be cleared first! I told her I could take care of you!”

Sehun smiles a bit and leans back. “Just let them do their jobs.” He stares at the ceiling and at the unbearable white. He swallows hard. “You were right.”

Kai sighs. “About what?”

“About feeling safe,” He whispers. “I don’t.”

The demon stares at him with an unreadable expression on his face. He slowly stands and nods. “Sehun, I called your friends. They’ll...be here soon.”

“What?” Sehun quickly looks up. “W-where are you going?”

“I need to do something. You’ll be fine,” He says before disappearing out the door. Sehun stares in confusion, unsure what just happened. Barely a minute passes before two panicked boys rush through the door, nearly knocking the poor nurse over on their way in. The punk raises his brows and glances at the clock. It’s nearly four in the afternoon. How long had he been sleeping?

“Oh my god!” Baekhyun gasps as the two rushes to his side. “Your face is all bruised!”

“And your lip is busted! What the ?!” Luhan practically shrieks.

“Let me guess,” Sehun sighs. “Kai told you?”

“He told us you were in the hospital! When we didn’t see you at school, we thought you were just sleeping off a hangover or something,” Baekhyun says. “Kai just called us like ten minutes ago.”

Sehun scoffs. “And you got here so fast?”

“Chanyeol teleported us,” Luhan explains. “How the hell did this happen? No, don’t tell me!”

“It was your goddamn father, wasn’t it?!” Baekhyun fumes. “I WILL kill him! I’ll put my neck around his throat and-”

“Stop,” Sehun puts a hand up. “Yeah, my dad did this but...no one is killing him, okay?”

“But-”

“No,” The punk groans. “I just wanna get discharged and, I don’t know, eat.”

“Okay,” Luhan sighs. “I’ll go get your nurse.” He gives Sehun a kiss on the cheek before leaving. 

“Where’s Kai?” Baekhyun asks, taking a seat.

“I don’t know,” Sehun shrugs. “He said he had to go do something.”

“You’re oddly okay with someone who just woke up in a hospital,” His friend points out. “Are...you okay?”

Sehun looks at his hands and begins to fiddle with the blankets. “No,” he whispers. “But I can pretend, right?”

“Hun,” Baekhyun says softly. He’s careful when he gets on the bed, wrapping an arm around his punk friend. “You need to get help, okay?”

Sehun shakes his head. “I’m turning eighteen this year, okay? As soon as I do, I’ll move out; you know, we have THE plan.”

Baekhyun grins. “The plan. Luhan, you, and I all moving out of our parents and getting an apartment,`” he sighs. “I can’t wait.” Sehun hums happily in response. “You know, those boys got released yesterday.”

“Yeah?”

“Yep,” he chuckles. “I almost feel bad for them.”

“One of them’s mute…” Sehun whispers.

Baekhyun goes quiet. “What?”

“Kai made one of the mute.”

“...Nice.”

“That’s not nice, Baek! He’s gonna have a harder life now,” he points out. “He….he’ll have to learn how to sign and live with this.”

“I...didn’t think about that.”

“I’m kind of happy he beat the out of them but I didn’t want him to permanently cripple the bastard.”

Baekhyun hums. “You don’t think that’s kinda hot?”

Sehun raises his brows and looks at him. “Excuse me?”

“You don’t find it A LITTLE hot that Kai did that for you?”

“N-no,” He lies.

“Because if Chanyeol did that for me, I’d be all over him like a moth to a flame.”

“You’re already all over him.”

Baekhyun shrugs as he hops off as soon as the nurse approaches. She gives him a kid, sympathetic smile. “How’re you feeling, Sehun?”

“I have a headache and I'm pissed off,” He responds.

“Well, I’m sorry to hear that,” She says. “You passed out from-”

“Extreme stress and anxiety, right?”

“Yes,” the nurse nods. “Just about. I recommend you steer clear from anything that could possibly result in your returning here. Stress really isn’t good for your health.”

“Neither are small, dark closets.”

She looks up from her clipboard. “W-what?”

Sehun smiles tightly. “Nothing,” He says, watching as she begins to disconnect the equipment from him. 

“Well, you’re all good to go. All you really needed was some much-needed sleep,” She sets a bag down. “Here are your clothes. Have a good day.”

“Thanks,” He mutters as she leaves. He swings his feet over the bed and rubs his face. He sniffs and looks around, stopping when he sees his phone nearby. “He charged my phone?”

“I guess so,” Baekhyun shrugs. Sehun slowly takes it, waiting for it to turn on. He groans when several text messages pop up. Drunken ones from his two best friends and one or two from Tao, hoping he made it home alright. He closes his eyes as he thinks about everything that happened last night. But he looks up when Luhan returns, handing him a bottle of water. 

“Hey uh...can I spend an hour or two at your place, Lu?”

“Sure!” The pink-haired boy nods. “My parents are gone for the week, so I have the place to myself.”

“Thanks,” he whispers. He takes a deep breath after he downs the water, thinking about everything. His father, his mother. The way she hurt him cry and scream for help and yet she did nothing. He grabs onto Baekhyun’s arm and grips it tightly as they walk out. How helpless and hopeless he felt in there as the darkness began to strangle him. That familiar, cold darkness. He forces a smile as they reach the front desk. He thinks about the way his head his the cold wood of the closet as he passed out. He signs his name on the discharge sheet and nods when the man sitting at the desk wishes him a nice day. He mutters a thank you before quickly heading out of the hospital doors. He really, really hates hospitals.

Luhan and Baekhyun do their best to cheer Sehun up and to help him forget everything that had happened. As the punk lays on Luhan’s bed, resting his back, he laughs as his idiot friends entertain him. They read their drunk texts from last night, even all the embarrassing ones. 

“Hey face,” Baekhyun reads off. “This is to my ex, by the way.” That makes both Luhan and Sehun almost snort out their drinks. “You’re nothing but a cheating limp noodle that compensates for a small by throwing around footballs and ing the whole cheerleading team.”

“You didn’t!” Luhan gasps. When Baekhyun shows the message, the two bursts out with more laughter. “Noo! What’d he say?”

“I have no idea,” Baekhyun admits. “When I read it in the morning, I blocked him and deleted his number.”

“Noo!” Luhan whines. “Now I’ll never know! Why do you do this, Baek? Do you hate me?!”

“Don’t be so dramatic, your highness,” He gives a pointed look. “I will not be the subject of your dumb gossip.”

Sehun keeps smiling, even after his phone rings and he stands up to go answer it in peace. “I don’t gossip that much!”

“Oh really?”

The punk shakes his head and chuckles as he steps out onto Luhan’s balcony. He lets out a sigh before he answers it. “Hello?”

“Hello. Is this Oh Sehun?”

“Uh...yeah, that’s me.”

“Mr. Oh, My name is Officer Kim. We received a call from your residence and…” The officer from the other side sighs. “Your father is in the hospital.”