I didn’t get much sleep that night either. My mind kept bouncing from Hongbin, to Ravi, to Hakyeon. The police officers had helped me move back into Hakyeon’s apartment and they stationed themselves in the living room. I only muttered a thanks to them as I went to lock myself in my room for the night. The sun had risen a lot faster than I was anticipating it too. I was anticipating Hakyeon to arrive soon with Officer Shim so there was no point in hiding in my room any longer.

The officers greeted me with smiles but all I could bring myself to do was bow politely and make some breakfast for all of us. I made a little extra just in case Hakyeon and Officer Shim had not eaten and would be hungry when they arrive.

“Have you heard from Hakyeon, Inhye-ssi?” One of the officers asked me. I shook my head. “That’s funny. They should be here by now.”

“I’ll call him.” I said, wiping my hands before heading back into my room for my phone.

The phone rang until almost a fourth ring before someone answered.

“Hakyeon?” I questioned, seeing as the phone was picked up wordlessly. “Hakyeon, where are you? You said you’d be here in the morning.”

“Inhye-ssi? Inhye-ssi, where are you?” I heard one of the officers call from the living room. “Inhye-ssi, come quick!”

“Hakyeon, are you okay? What’s going on? Why aren’t you answering me?” I asked as I rushed out of my room to come face to face with the two officers holding up a bloody officer Shim.

“Do you see now, noona? See what you’ve made me do?” My heart dropped when I heard Hongbin’s voice on the other end.

“Hongbin, where is Hakyeon? Don’t hurt him, Hongbin.” I said, as calmly as I could.

The officers were trying their best to get answers out of Officer Shim, but he had used most of his energy getting himself here. I could hear something about Hongbin’s apartment and Hakyeon was there.

“Bin-ah, answer me. Are you at your apartment? I left you a letter! I left it by our picture.” I told him.

“I got your letter. I love you too, noona.” Hongbin’s voice sounded sincere for a second but it quickly changed. “I’m going to make it so we can be together.”

“Hongbin, no! Please don’t do anything. I’ll come over to the apartment. I’ll be there in ten minutes. Can you wait ten minutes for me to get there?” I started to panic. Had he already done something to Hakyeon?

One of the officers quickly put his shoes on and helped me put my shoes on as I was still waiting for Hongbin to answer me. The other officer was going to call for backup and get Officer Shim to a hospital. It was all my fault that he was all beat up. I just prayed Hakyeon was okay too.

“Inhye, don’t come here!” I heard Hakyeon say into the phone. I heard a grunt from him soon after.

“That’s not what I told you to say.” Hongbin scolded him. “We’ll be waiting for you alone, noona.”

Hongbin hung up on me and I stared at my phone in disbelief. Why was Hakyeon stupid enough to go to Hongbin’s apartment? Or did Hongbin find Hakyeon and Officer Shim and take Hakyeon back to his apartment? So many possible scenarios ran through my head as we sped to Hongbin’s apartment. I hadn’t noticed the tears that were streaming down my cheeks.

When we pulled up to the apartment building, I sprinted out of the car and headed up the stairs. I wasn’t going to wait for the elevator and I had more than enough adrenaline in me at the moment to get to Hongbin’s floor breathlessly. With shaky hands I pushed in the passcode and opened the door.

What I saw brought fresh tears to my eyes. Hakyeon was sprawled on the living room floor covered in, what I assumed to be, his own blood. He could barely life his head up to see me standing in the doorway. I wanted to just rush to his side and find all of his wounds but I knew I had to deal with Hongbin first.

“Bin, I’m here. I came alone.” I announced, looking around for Hongbin.

He walked out of the kitchen wearing an apron and drying off a knife with a towel. He smiled at me brightly, like nothing out of the ordinary was going on.

“Welcome home, noona. I’ve got breakfast. I hope you’re hungry.” He motioned for me to follow him into the kitchen.

I took a deep breath and followed his gesture. Sure enough he had the table set for two with a stack of pancakes in the center. I watched Hongbin as I sat down. He placed the knife and apron on the counter before joining me. I didn’t like that he was moving so slowly and calmly. Hakyeon was bleeding in the living room. Who knows how long before he could possibly bleed himself to death if his injuries were that serious because they sure looked to be.

“Go ahead. Eat.” Hongbin placed two pancakes on my plate for me before placing some on his own.

I really had no appetite, obviously one because I just ate and two this whole situation was making me so sick to stomach I felt like the food I had eaten would come back onto the pancakes. I tried my best though to force them down, only to keep Hongbin happy.

“Now, how about we get down to business.” Hongbin took my hand in his and lead me over to where Hakyeon was laying.

I bit my lip and held my breath as I looked down at him. Hakyeon’s face was all swollen and bloody and there were a few cuts on his arm. The rest of the blood on him must have, thankfully, been Officer Shim’s. I tried my best to hold back the tears in my eyes. I needed to keep it together so I could get all three of us out of this apartment alive.

“Bin-ah, I want you to be one hundred percent honest with me right now. Did Hakyeon come here on his own free will?” I clenched my fists at my sides.

“Yes, after I called him.” Hongbin said. “I tricked him into coming here by saying you were still here with me. He and the officer were not too far from Hakyeon’s apartment before they came this way.”

I closed my eyes and thought of how I wanted to word my next question. “How come officer Shim was all beaten and bruised and why is Hakyeon bleeding on the floor here? Did you do all this alone?”

Hongbin smirked and let out a slight chuckle. “You’re a lot smarter than I ever gave you credit for, Inhye. No I did not do this alone.”

“Then who…?” I looked around and saw someone start to walk out of Hongbin’s room. I could barely utter the person’s name once I recognized the blonde hair and slim frame. “H-hyukkie?”

“Hi there, noona.” Sanghyuk smiled brightly. I stared at him in disbelief as he made his way next to Hongbin. “Sorry we are meeting again in these circumstances.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Sanghyuk and I go way back. Childhood friends, you see.” Hongbin said nonchalantly. “But that’s not what’s important. You’re more worried about Hakyeon.” Hongbin placed his foot on Hakyeon’s chest and slowly began to put pressure on him, causing Hakyeon to start coughing and crying out in pain.

“HONGBIN STOP IT!” I dropped down to my knees and tried to push Hongbin’s foot away.

“Noona, I don’t understand.” Hongbin lifted his foot up a little bit. “How can you say you love me and then act like this towards him? Do you honestly think he loves you like he says he does? Do you honestly believe just moving out of the apartment made him realize his feelings for you?” He lowered his foot again, this time Hakyeon coughed up a little blood.

“Hongbin, stop this nonsense. I’ll do whatever you want me to do, just stop hurting Hakyeon and let him go.” I looked up at Hongbin and grabbed his hand with both of mine. “We can run away together before the cops come. We can go to America or France or wherever you want to go, just the two of us. Or three of us if Sanghyuk can get in trouble too. Just stop hurting Hakyeon. He’s done nothing wrong.”

Hongbin got down on his knees and caressed my cheek. “Kim Inhye, you really keep me guessing. How can you be so bright one moment and then so foolish the next?” He looked down at Hakyeon before looking back at me. “Hakyeon has done all kinds of wrong. The only that Cha Hakyeon has done right was to upset you enough to move out and come running to me. He should have given up on you then and we wouldn’t be here like this right now.”

“Hakyeon would never give up on me, whether he loved me or not. You and Sanghyuk are supposedly childhood friends so you should understand the bond that Hakyeon and I have.” I could feel my tears threating to fall again so I looked up at the ceiling and tried to blink them away. “Hongbin, if this is the real you I can’t love you.”

Hongbin started to laugh and he pulled his hand away from me. His laugh was starting to scare me and I could see Sanghyuk was wide eyed as well. I had made a mistake by saying that and I probably just pushed Hongbin past the point of no return. He looked up and I saw a cold, dark look in his eyes that I didn’t think was human like. It was my turn to get hurt.

Sanghyuk looked fidgety, as if he wasn’t really sure what to do. He put his hand out as if he was going to pat Hongbin on the shoulder, but he retracted before any contact was made. He locked eyes with me. His look was sympathetic, as if he didn’t know things could and or would go this far. That look told me he didn’t know anything about Ravi’s sister.

Hongbin got to his feet and walked over to me. He harshly grabbed me by the chin and pulled me to my feet. I winced at the slight pain and tried to steady my breathing as Hongbin brought our faces inches apart.

“I’m willing to forget you said that, noona. Just take it back and say you love me.”

I knew I’d get hurt somehow if I told Hongbin I wasn’t going to take back what I said, but I wasn’t going to take it back. “No. I don’t love you, Hongbin.”

Hongbin glared at me and threw me to the ground. I was now on the floor next to Hakyeon. He tried his best to reach out to me but I shook my head and put his hand back down at his side. Sanghyuk quickly got in between Hongbin and me before he could cause me any harm.

“Hyung, if you hurt Inhye noona, you’re going to be upset with yourself. Calm down.” He held his hands out in front of him and made a soothing motion towards Hongbin. “Go calm yourself down. I’ll watch them.”

Hongbin looked skeptic about leaving me and Hakyeon with Sanghyuk but he decided to listen to him anyways. He glanced at me one last time before going into his room and closing the door. Seconds later, we could hear him screaming and throwing things against the wall. I found myself grabbing Hakyeon’s hand and squeezing it tightly.

“It-its okay, Inhye.” He forced out. His voice was wheezy and barely audible.

“Cha Hakyeon, why did you come here? You’re such an idiot.” He opened his mouth to try and speak again but I stopped him. “Tell me after we get out of here and you get to a hospital.”

“I’m so sorry, noona.” Sanghyuk got down on the ground next to me and his head hung low. “I didn’t touch Hakyeon hyung. I took care of the police officer downstairs. Hongbin hyung was the one that hurt Hakyeon. I didn’t know he was like this, noona. I thought I was just helping out two of my friends settle a dispute over a girl. I didn’t know it was this serious.” It looked like Sanghyuk was about to cry.

I let go of Hakyeon’s hand and pulled Sanghyuk into a hug. “Don’t beat yourself up too much, Sanghyukkie. You feel for Hongbin’s charm like I did.” I rubbed his back soothingly. “You have to help us get out of here.”

“How?” Sanghyuk looked back at Hongbin’s door and we both listened carefully. We could hear him mumbling to himself, but it sounded like the worst of his temper tantrum was over.

“Go downstairs and get the police. You know the passcode right? Go down fast and bring them up. I’ll stall the best I can.”

“Noona, what are you going to do?” I got to my feet and look at both Sanghyuk and Hakyeon before looking at Hongbin’s bedroom door. “Noona, no.”

“Go now, Sanghyuk. Or maybe go once I get into his room. You have to get the police up here and get Hakyeon to safety.”

“Inhye-yah…” Hakyeon called out.

I knelt down next to him and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “It’s for our safety, oppa. Hongbin won’t hurt me if I say I love him and make him believe that I do.”

A/N: Hello readers, I hope you guys are enjoying the story. Just letting you know there's only a few more chapters left before it's done. I feel it will be only about two more chapters and I'm writing them out pretty quickly. Let me know in the comments if you want me to post them as soon as they're done or drag it out a bit and post the last few chapters over a span of a few days. Anyways thank you for reading and subscribing!