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CHAPTERTHIRTY-FOUR

❝TIMEISCHANGING❞

Painblossomed everywhere.

He bit his bottom lip to stop himself from crying out loud in pain.

The sad thing was, he knew the other wasn’t even trying. This was nothing. He knew without a doubt that he could hit much harder.

He couldn’t remember the last time he felt this much pain, though. Probably not since his mother died, but that was more so mental and emotional, and this–this­–was all physical. He rolled over, coughing up the blood that filled his mouth. He took a deep, shallow breath; his body screamed in agony.

“Don’t make me do this, Sunggyu…” The other sighed. The redhead could hear some shuffling behind.
Sunggyu pulled himself to his knees as he clutched his side. “I didn’t make you do anything, Yongguk.” A pair of black combat boots appeared in his line of sight. He eyed the shoes for a moment before slowly looking up. Yongguk looked down on him with a frown; angered reflected in his eyes. He cracked his knuckles.

“I have half a mind to kill you on the spot,” he breathed wearily.

“Then do it and stop being a ing coward,” Sunggyu spat as he attempted to rise to his feet. Yongguk didn’t give him a chance, though, and slammed his foot down on the redhead’s back. Sunggyu gave a small, quiet gasp, but stopped himself from screaming and giving the other the satisfaction of being in pain. “You can threaten me as much as you want,” he gritted through his teeth. He wiped away the blood he felt trickling down his face. “But ing do something, ‘cause I’ve got better things than stand here with you punching and intimidating me.” He looked up again at his friend.

Yongguk tsked before raising his fist. “I’ll ask you again, then, Kim, what’s going on between you and Himchan and that boy? Don’t think I haven’t noticed your secret rendezvous with those two…”

“It has nothing to do with you.” Sunggyu stumbled to his feet. Pain shot through his body. He clutched side, briefly making note of the possible bruised or broken ribs he acquired.

“Anything to do with Himchan is my business,” Yongguk sneered.

Despite the pain, the redhead gave a mocking smirk, “Now you’re just sounding like a jealous–”

Yongguk socked Sunggyu across the face, forcing the latter to stagger backwards and crash into the wall behind. He collapsed to the ground immediately, his head slamming into the solid, white tiles. A quick flash of light filled his vision; then everything went back.

He could feel more blows dealt to his body, but it was beginning hard for him to register it all.

“What are you doing?!” A familiar voice screamed. However, Sunggyu was too far gone at the moment to put a face to the voice. He didn’t hear Yongguk’s response.

All he could feel was pain. It felt like he was dying.

Sunggyu wasn’t sure how long he laid on the floor, deep within the confines of the underground labs of the BEQP, but the only thing he could think of was his mother.

If he were to die right here, right now, would he see her? Wherever she may have ended up?

If he could…, Sunggyu could snorted at his own thought. He was pretty sure he wouldn’t end up where she was. There was a special place in hell for people like him. People who slaughtered and butchered the innocent. The ones whom were fully conscious of the wrongs they committed but did nothing to change it.

Where he’s going won’t be pretty. It won’t be paradise, and he’s perfectly fine with that. There’s too much blood on his hands, so much that he could fill oceans upon oceans with it.

He called Yongguk a coward, but if there is anyone that truly deserves that title, it was him. He was the ing coward. With each new day, someone else, someone innocent, died at his hands. With every breath he took, the realization of the atrocities he had committed came to the forefront of his mind, plaguing his thoughts and dreams. With every step he took, he felt himself get closer and closer to the edge. He wanted it all to end. This pathetic life of his wasn’t worth it, wasn’t worth anything. He didn’t deserve to live. If anyone did, it was his mother.

What would she say, if she had known of the monstrosity he had become?

“Sunggyu…” Someone called his name, halting his spiral of cataclysmic thoughts. “Stay with me, Sunggyu.” The voice sounded calm at first, but the underlying uneased tone was evident.

Through all the pain wracking through his body, he felt something lift his head and then be placed down onto something soft.

“I’m so sorry…” The voice whispered. “This is all my fault. I never wanted any of this. I wanted things to change but not like this.”

With all the strength he had left, Sunggyu opened his eyes. His vision was blurred and everything was bright. Someone was looking down at him, but his mind couldn’t register what was going on.

“I’m so sorry,” the person said repeated. He felt something wet dab against his cheeks. A wet cloth, perhaps?

Sunggyu blinked, trying to adjust to the brightness of the room he was in. “What…?” Sunggyu rasped.

“You’ve been out for a couple of hours, Sunggyu. Just a concussion–albeit a very serious one–and a few bruised ribs, but you’ll make a full recovery with a weeks’ worth of rest,” the other said, sighing. “Thank god, though. If I had gotten there any later, I’m sure Yongguk….”

The other disappeared from his sight. The redhead blinked again, his surroundings slowly becoming clear. Where was he, the infirmary? Wasn’t he just with Yongguk? What had happened? Did he pass out from all the pain? His body was still in a lot of agony.

“I had to lie to the nurse, to get you in here, I mean,” the other started up again. Sunggyu wasn’t sure where the voice was coming from, and he didn’t have the strength to turn his head. “I told them that you just came back from a small recon mission, but some enemies spotted you and your crew and you got injured in the crossfire. I’m not sure how much they believed me, though. Hopefully, this doesn’t reach any of the superiors.”

“…huh?” Sunggyu mumbled. The other was talking too fast and too loud. He couldn’t comprehend anything they were saying.

A familiar tuft of blond hair appeared in front of him, and with his vision clearing, Sunggyu was able to tell who it was: Himchan. The young man was giving the redhead a strained and exhausted smile. A cup of water was brought to his lips, and Sunggyu drank the liquid without hesitation, not realizing up until now how parched his throat was.

“What happened?” Sunggyu was finally able to ask after quenching his thirst.

“Boohyun and I were waiting for you. There was something I really needed to tell you two. The same thing I wanted to talk about the other day when Dr. Wu suddenly announced his new plan for Project K.O.T.” He moved away to sit down on the chair next to where Sunggyu was resting.

The redhead then noticed that he was, indeed, in the infirmary. It was empty, though.

“When you didn’t show up, I went searching for you. I went all the way back to the barracks only to find out that you haven’t returned since sun down. I then came back and searched the labs, and that’s when I came across Yongguk beating the out of you.”

“Unfortunately, he was just holding back. If he actually tried, I’m sure I would had been dead long before you even realize what was going on,” Sunggyu closed his eyes, sighing.

“I’ve never seen Yongguk so angry before… I mean, Yongguk isn’t the most lenient of people, and you two had never fought like this before, but what spurred this on?” He looked down clenching his fist tightly.

The young soldier reopened his eyes slowly before slightly turning to look at the blond. “It was about you,” Sunggyu answered. “He wanted to know what was going on between me and you and Boohyun…”

“What?”

“He’s suspicious. He knows something is going on. He thought the best way to get the answers out of me was if he beat it out of me–literally. You should tell your boyfriend that he needs to try harder next; I’m specifically trained to resist enemy interrogation and torture.”

“Yongguk isn’t our enemy,” Himchan defended.

“Wasn’t it you who said that Yongguk isn’t like us? Yongguk is a soldier. He puts the government and its goals before all else.”

“Yeah but–”

“Himchan, what are we doing?” Sunggyu interrupted. He was tired of this all. Tired of the sneaking around. He cared about Himchan. He was like a little brother to him, and he had grown to like Boohyun as well. They were the closets things he had to a family in this godforsaken place. “As much as I enjoy spending my time with you and Boohyun and learning about the past, it’s dangerous. Too dangerous. Someone’s going to find out what’s been going on, and Yongguk isn’t going to lie again and protect us. Someone is going to overhear one of conversations one day and take immediate action. Someone is going to get killed, Himchan.”

“I’m already dying, so wh