‘Why did this keep happening to him? Why couldn’t he ever catch a break? What would he have to do for this to finally be over? Was death really the only escape available, just like how Ryeowook had escaped when he met his untimely death at Siwon’s hands?’

Those were the thoughts that plagued Yesung’s mind as Siwon bodily threw him down to the floor. He knew that Kyuhyun had kept telling him to not be pessimistic on his outlook on life, but in this moment, as pain shot throughout his body once again, he couldn’t help but wonder yet again if living a life like this was even worth it. 

“You. Are. Mine!” Siwon bellowed, punctuating each word with a punch to Yesung’s face.

At that point, Yesung just wanted it all to end. He felt his nose break with a resounding crack. Blood flowed down from his nostrils, streaming down his cheeks. He tried to raise his hands, in a show of instinctual self-defense, but Siwon straddled him, and Siwon’s muscular thighs kept Yesung’s arms pinned down against the sides of his body. 

Even if Yesung wanted to fight back, he couldn’t. He was overpowered, and he didn’t see any way out of this altercation. 

However, some kind of divine providence must be watching over Yesung and rooting for his survival. Because as Siwon launched another flurry of punches at him, this time aimed at his torso instead (probably in the hopes that these would incapacitate Yesung even more), Yesung’s front door opened again.

“Hyung, we heard screams! What’s going on—WHAT THE HELL?!”

Eunhyuk and Donghae came running into the apartment. They had decided to visit and check up on their hyung, and they had heard shouts and thuds when they had been walking at the hallway outside. They entered Yesung’s apartment and became shocked and aghast at the sight that awaited them.

Yesung panicked even more at the arrival of his dongsaengs. Oh, God, not Eunhyuk and Donghae, too! Yesung never even wanted them involved in any of his problems with Siwon in the first place! Siwon was now at his worst—his most dangerous and violent—and Yesung would never forgive himself if his dongsaengs got hurt because of him!

“Hyuk! Hae! No! Get out of here!”

But, of course, there was no way in hell that Eunhyuk and Donghae would ever leave their hyung in such a situation. Instead of fleeing like Yesung ordered them to, they both rushed toward Siwon. Eunhyuk grabbed Siwon around his torso, and Donghae grabbed him by his shoulders, both of them using all their strength to pull this lunatic away from their hyung. However, despite there being two of Eunhyuk and Donghae, Siwon was quite strong, and his struggling was enough to loosen their hold on him. Siwon then aimed kicks at Eunhyuk’s and Donghae’s legs, causing them to fall over.

Siwon then started to pummel and kick every inch of Eunhyuk that he could reach. Donghae tried to get Siwon off his boyfriend, but Siwon just ignored Donghae’s slaps and hits as though they were nothing, continuing his attack on Eunhyuk.

“No! Siwon, leave them alone!” Yesung yelled. He tried to get up and go over to where the other three were basically in a three-way battle royale, but he was too hurt from Siwon’s attack on him, and he couldn’t even lift his body from the floor. “It’s me that you want, remember?! They have nothing to do with this! LEAVE THEM ALONE!”

However, Yesung’s attempt to protect Eunhyuk and Donghae just angered Siwon even more, and his punches and kicks got even stronger.

“Of course you would take their side!” Siwon snarled at Yesung even as he continued to hit Eunhyuk. “You always take their side over mine! And you wonder why I didn’t want you to spend time with them?! They keep trying to steal you from me! You’re mine, Ryeowook!”

“I’M NOT RYEOWOOK!”

Anger was now winning over the fear and pain in Yesung. Goddammit, not this again! He definitely wasn’t in any state to entertain Siwon’s delusions about his identity!

Eunhyuk was losing his battle against Siwon. Fearing for his boyfriend’s life, Donghae momentarily pulled away from Siwon and hurriedly looked around Yesung’s apartment, searching for anything that he could use as a weapon. His eyes landed on Yesung’s music stand that was in the corner of the living room. He quickly grabbed this and hit Siwon hard on the head with it.

Siwon’s eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he fell to the floor, unconscious.

With their attacker finally knocked out, Donghae rushed to help his boyfriend. However, Eunhyuk was able to gingerly sit up by himself, and he shook his head (which was a bad idea, as this made him dizzy) at Donghae. 

“Don’t worry about me, Hae. I’ll live. You need to help Yesung hyung.” 

The two dance teachers looked fearfully at where Yesung lay on the floor, barely conscious and with blood pooling around him. Donghae moved over to his hyung, quickly examining his injuries.

“Hyung?! Hyung?! Can you hear me, hyung?!” Donghae cried out. His hyung was practically black and blue, with red blood dripping from his many wounds.

Yesung was only able to let out a low moan of pain in response.

“Hang in there, hyung! I’m calling for help!”

Well, that got Yesung’s attention, and he used all of his remaining strength to protest. “No! T-that’s not n-necessary! No p-police! And n-n-no hospitals!”

Seriously?! If Yesung wasn’t so hurt right now, Eunhyuk might have hit him himself! Why did Yesung have to be so.. so… so allergic to help?!

“Hyung, you’re hurt! We all are! We need medical attention! And we need the police to deal with that bastard there!” Eunhyuk glared at the unconscious Siwon.

That made Yesung pause, clamping his jaw shut and stopping his protest. Well, yes, as much as he didn’t want an even bigger fuss with all the police and investigators, this was finally their chance to get Siwon arrested. So, with the greatest amount of reluctance, Yesung nodded his assent, and Donghae quickly phoned for the police as well as an ambulance. 

All too soon, in Yesung’s opinion, at least, the wailing of the police and ambulance sirens could be heard, and both the law enforcement and medical personnel flooded into Yesung’s apartment. As the three friends received first aid, they gave their statements to the police. Officer Shindong interviewed the three friends as two of his colleagues handcuffed the still unconscious Siwon and brought him out of the apartment to load in one of their police cars. The rest of the officers examined and looked for evidence in Yesung’s apartment as well as other parts of the building.

“So, Mr. Choi also attacked you two when you tried to help Mr. Kim?” Officer Shindong repeated, making sure that his notes were correct.

Eunhyuk and Donghae nodded. Well, Eunhyuk nodded as best as he could, given that a paramedic was still applying ointments to his face.

“Siwon has always been jealous of Eunhyuk and Donghae even when I was still dating him,” Yesung added.

“Mr. Kim, we finished the first aid, but we still need to take you the emergency room for proper treatment,” another medic told Yesung.

As groggy from the hits to his head as he was, Yesung still found enough strength and indignation to protest against the hospital. “No, I don’t want—!”

However, his protest was interrupted when yet another police officer came rushing back into Yesung’s apartment.

“What’s wrong?” Officer Shindong immediately asked his colleague, who looked tense and pale.

“…We found the landlord’s body in the supply closet on the ground floor,” the other officer reported solemnly.

There a moment of silence. Then, Yesung stuttered from his place on the floor, “H-His body…? But that s-sounds like he’s—he’s—”

“From the looks of it, the landlord was brutally beaten and strangled. Mr. Choi must have then hidden his body in the closet. I’m sorry, but it’s too late to help him. He’s gone…”

The pain in Yesung’s body was nullified by the cold starting from his stomach and slowly spreading—creeping—outward to his extremities. His landlord was… gone. Dead. The elderly man who had been nice to him seen he moved into the apartment building. The man who helped him by trying to secure the building when Siwon started harassing and stalking him.

Another unfortunate soul was added to the list of innocents who lost their lives because of Choi Siwon. Siwon had now murdered two people.

Worse, Yesung felt that his landlord only died because of him. Siwon killed the landlord in his attempt to get to Yesung. Yesung had brought danger to the building, and the elderly landlord lost his life because of him…

Oh God. Oh God. Oh God…

Yesung couldn’t take it anymore. His body started to shut down, his vision fading to black.

“Yesung hyung!”

“Mr. Kim!”

Eunhae, the paramedics, and the officers let out panicked and startled shouts as Yesung lost consciousness and passed out on the floor.

If there was a bright side to Yesung fainting from the pain and the horrifying experience, it was that at least his friends and the first respondents were able to bring him to the hospital without his protests. (Though knowing his hyung’s stubbornness, Eunhyuk was still somewhat surprised that Yesung didn’t suddenly gain consciousness while in the ambulance to try and avoid going to the hospital.)

When Yesung blearily blinked his eyes open again, he was in the brightly lit emergency room. A doctor and several nurses were tending to him. He also saw Eunhyuk and Donghae standing near the foot of his bed, watching him with worried expressions. Yesung’s heart clenched when he saw that Donghae had cuts and bruises on his face. Even worse, Eunhyuk had bandages around his head and was using a crutch, his left ankle in a brace. 

His friends had gotten hurt because of him. His landlord had died because of him…

Upon realizing that the patient was awake, the ER doctor explained the extent of his injuries. Yesung’s right arm was broken and had to be put in a cast. His nose had been broken, but the doctor had already reset and fixed it. His torso was also severely bruised from all the hits from Siwon, though thankfully no organs were damaged, and there was no internal bleeding. He did, however, have a mild concussion.

“Thankfully, none of your injuries were bad enough to be considered as life-threatening,” the ER doctor finished. “However, we would still like to keep you here overnight, so—”

“No!!” Yesung immediately shouted, lifting himself a bit and immediately regretting the sudden action, as the jolt brought pain to his chest and abdomen. 

“Hyung, we need to make sure that you’re alright! You need to rest and recover!” Donghae piped up.

Eunhyuk clutched Donghae’s shoulder to support himself as he threateningly waved his crutch at Yesung. “Hyung, don’t make me have to knock you out just so that you can receive the proper care!” he warned his hyung, half joking, half somewhat serious.

“I can rest just as well at home, can’t I?” Yesung said entreatingly to the ER doctor.

The ER doctor looked hesitant. He did know that some patients were able to relax better in the comfort of their own homes… “Well, I suppose that if your test results show that you’re in the all clear, an overnight admission won’t really be necessary…” he slowly started to agree.

However, they were interrupted when Officer Shindong suddenly arrived.

“Officer Shindong!” Eunhyuk and Donghae said together, somewhat surprised. After taking their statements, the officers had gone back to the police station with Siwon. It was only the paramedics who were with the three friends on their journey from Yesung’s home to the hospital.

“My shift had just ended, but I felt obligated to give you this update on the case,” Officer Shindong said, glancing at Eunhyuk and Donghae before his eyes went to Yesung. The police officer looked apologetically at the beaten man.

“W-What happened…?” Yesung asked weakly, sure that it wouldn’t be any good news, based on the officer’s expression.

“I’m sorry, but… Mr. Choi has been temporarily released on bail.”

The air left Yesung’s lungs. He felt like on the verge of another panic attack. Siwon was just set free again… And so soon…

“What?! But how?!” Donghae demanded.