Onew felt like his head was in the clouds. His eyes were closed and the whirlpool around him made for a comfortable massaging, literal waterbed. It’s been a while since he could loosen up all his muscles and it felt really good, like all his troubles melted away into the water. His closed eyes blinked open once to look at the wall clock before he closed them lazily again. ‘Just a few more minutes…’

As he was falling asleep, slipping down a little more into the tub into a more comfortable position, he found he slid in too far, jolting himself out of his sleepiness as moving hot water molded around his head. His hands felt the bottom of the tub and pushed against it to lift himself out of the water, but it wasn’t working! Alarmed now, he felt along the sides of the tub to touch the rim and pull himself up that way. He still couldn’t!

Then he realized something. The weight on top of his head was not that of the water. There was too much pressure there to be just water. His mind swam like a confused fish from the surprise and depleting oxygen. He couldn’t see anything with his eyes under the white churning, foamy liquid. It didn’t help that his temple was being pelted by a constant stream by the water jets situated on the sides of the tubs. His hands climbed upwards along his body to reach the top of his head frantically and grasped onto whatever was preventing his safety. He pulled and pushed, scratched and punched at it to no avail. It was a good few minutes he had been underwater now, and he could no longer hold his breath as he used up energy to thrash. His mouth opened to gasp in air but was flooded with bitter water.

Jinki used great effort to firmly grip the cylindrical appendage that held him down and then pulled forward with all his might and his upper body. As the pressure let up, the boy shot his head upwards out of the water and took a gasp of steamy air and more water. More water because, at the same time as he shot out of the water, something big fell into the large whirpool, sending a splash of water into the air.

Jinki scooted backwards, dislodging his legs from under something hard that fell on him, hit the wall of the tub and pulled himself out and over the rim of it and onto the wet tiled floor with a hard thud. He gasped for more oxygen, only to cough it out along with the water in his lungs.

He grit his teeth and grunted as his back and limbs were pained from the hard fall, and Jinki rubbed furiously at his red eyes, trying to see clearer as he blinked at the stinginess he felt. The oldest SHINee member didn’t have much time to recover as he was kicked in the gut with enough force to make him slide across the slippery tiles to hit the wall head first.

He coughed out more water and squeezed his eyes shut as one hand held his abdomen and the other rubbed the bump forming on the back of his head. He could hear water slosh over the side of the tub and hit the floor as someone got out of the whirlpool. Through his severely blurred vision, he saw feminine legs in front of his face. He shook his head to try and dispel the dizziness and could now make out another pair of black soaked pants in the background next to the tub.

Before he could clear his head enough to do anything, his instincts kicked in and he blindly rolled to the side, hitting a stainless steel rack and knocking its decorative bath contents all over him. It was better than staying in his previous spot though and being cut down by a machete-like knife.

Although his eyes were an angry, irritated red, he could now see clear enough to make out the features of his attackers.

“So this is Onew huh?” Said a man holding a bat who looked a little older than Jinki. He had stubble on his chin but well-groomed hair. The woman with the knife was a light brown haired female with a pixie haircut. She looked maybe Onew’s age or a little older. “Man, he really must be the weakest one.” They had heard Gyou say that Onew didn’t fight or attack while the massacre had occurred.

As water droplets fell from Onew’s soaked hair to add to the already flooded floor, he looked at first confusedly at the pair.

“Ugh! I’m soaked through!” The man complained as he emptied his pockets of soggy money bills, old candy wrappers, and…

Lee Jinki’s eyes widened as a ripped in half and slightly wadded wet piece of paper with a picture of a chicken dish in the corner of it fell with an horribly loud (to him) plop to the floor. He stared at it for a whole two seconds before his red, demon-like eyes turned to glare at the man.

---------

THEA's Corner <3

Another short chapter. Sorry. But I want to move this story along. More like, I'm procrastinating....but now I really really have to go study for a quiz tomorrow. So much to do, so little time. See ya!

Posted: 30 Jan. 2011
Word Count: 863