“Jesus Christ, Baekhyun. I’m tired of this!” Chanyeol booms over his petite husband, who is now hunched in the corner of their small kitchen. This outburst of Chanyeol’s came out of nowhere. Chanyeol had been watching television in the living room and Baekhyun was silently doing dishes in the kitchen after dinner. One moment everything is calm and peaceful, the next, Chanyeol is yelling and angrily shaking his fists at Baekhyun, who dives even lower to the ground to protect himself from the younger man.

           “Yeol! Stop it!” He cries from the ground. It’s as though Chanyeol cannot hear him. He continues to rage towards his husband. He squats down and becomes eye level with Baekhyun.

           “I am just so angry, Baekhyun. I don’t think you understand.”

           “Yeol! Stop! Please! You’re really starting to scare me.” Baekhyun is now sobbing uncontrollably on the floor. He hates when Chanyeol gets like this, even though Chanyeol can’t control it. Most of these outbursts last for less than half an hour, but the bad ones can go for hours and hours. Baekhyun is afraid that this is going to be a bad one. Whenever they happen, it always brings Baekhyun to tears and the worst part for him is that his husband never remembers any of it.

           “Why? Why should I?” He knocks Baekhyun’s hands away from his face, revealing his red, puffy eyes and the rivers of tears flowing down his delicate face. For a moment, Chanyeol’s mind thinks about how Beautiful Baekhyun is. Chanyeol shakes his head and shakes away any happy thoughts. Every happy thought gets shoved into the dark part of his mind, not to be seen anytime soon. Chanyeol regains focus on his original goal, and begins to think about how everything he sees is red. He is that angry. He’s shaking with rage, and he has not the slightest clue why.

           “Baby…” Baekhyun whimpers. He’s shaking, afraid, scared. Chanyeol is blocking him out, no thought of the love he has for the man runs through his mind. He stands up straight and poises himself over Baekhyun and begins to raise his arm, flinging it forward and slamming his fist into the side of Baekhyun’s head. The pain rings throughout his head and quickly spreads through the rest of his body, causing the non-physical pain to radiate directly to his heart.

           Chanyeol isn’t satisfied quite yet. He walks back to the stove and Baekhyun glances up and for a moment thinks that this is over, but quickly realizes how wrong he truly is. Chanyeol is now walking back towards him once more, this time carrying a frying pan in his right hand, playing with it like a toy.

           The second Baekhyun’s eyes lock onto the pan, he tries to crawl away beneath Chanyeol’s long legs, but is caught in the midst of his escape. Chanyeol grabs him by his collar, forcing his elder to stand, looking him directly in the eye.

           “Why are you running from me, Baekkie? Do you not love me anymore?” Chanyeol sticks out his bottom lip, forming a pout, which only lasts a split second before an evil grin flashes across his face. Baekhyun does not recognize this man, he doesn’t want to believe that this is his husband. Without any warning, Chanyeol raises his right hand and with his full strength, hits Baekhyun with the pan, causing the delicate man to fall to the floor, completely unconscious.

           Chanyeol opens his eyes, feeling as though he’s just woken up. He thinks that he had just heard a loud noise, but takes a look around him, investigating his surroundings. He glances straight ahead and sees the refrigerator right in front of him. Maybe I’m sleep walking again. He thinks to himself. He takes a step forward and steps on something that isn’t the floor, causing the clumsy giant to stumble, landing against the fridge, his face pressed against the ice cold freezer door.

           “Baek!” He shouts, finally coming to his senses. He gently shakes Baekhyun who is unresponsive on the ground, sprawled out like he just got hit by a car. Chanyeol becomes frantic. He digs in his pocket, searching for his cellphone so he can call the police and an ambulance. He finally gets it out of his pocket and with shaky hands, he dials the emergency number, requesting for help immediately.

           When they arrive, the EMTs explain to Chanyeol that Baekhyun has suffered a major concussion, maybe even more and that he’ll have to be in the hospital for a few days.

           “He’s going to be transported to a nearby hospital for testing, just to make sure that he’ll be okay.” The male EMT explains.

           “Can I go with? Please?!”

           “I’m afraid not,” An officer stops Chanyeol and silently dismisses the man, “We have some questions for you.”

           “Fine, then can I go with my husband?” He pouts, crossing his arms in frustration.

           “We’ll have to see about that. Firstly, tell me everything that happened this evening.”

           “All I can remember is that Baekhyun made dinner, spaghetti, to be specific. I remember that I went into the living room to relax and watch some TV and Baekhyun offered to do the dishes since work was kind of stressful. After that, I don’t remember anything, so I guess I fell asleep, but I must have slept walked into the kitchen and I tripped over him, and he was unconscious on the ground.” Chanyeol says with frustration leaking into his voice, he honestly can’t remember anything.

           “So you have no idea how your husband ended up unconscious underneath your feet with a pan next to his head?” The officer eyes Chanyeol up and down, suspiciously.

           “No, sir.” Chanyeol responds, being fully honest with the officer, but knows that he doesn’t believe him. Another officer briskly walks in the room and heads straight to the other officer that had been interrogating Chanyeol. In a low voice, inaudible, he whispers something into his ear.

           “Park Chanyeol, you’re under arrest.” He says grimly.

           “For what?!” Chanyeol shrieks.

           “Domestic violence.”

           Tears quickly fill Chanyeol’s eyes and the other officer walks over to him, harshly grabs each of his wrists and cuffs them together. The final click of the metal, locking his hands behind his back sends Chanyeol over the edge, he feels the emptiness and pain filling his heart and he begins to sob uncontrollably.

           “You need to tell us everything, Baekhyun.” An officer tells him.

           “Don’t lie or leave anything out just to protect Chanyeol either. We’re here to help you.” The officer next to him says.

           Baekhyun slowly opens his eyes, wishing they would just leave him alone and that Chanyeol would just get here already. He looks at the officers in front of him, they’re both about six feet tall and rather skinny. Neither of them have their guns on them, which relaxes Baekhyun, but only slightly. He sighs deeply before finally speaking.

           “First of all, what the hell happened to me? Why am I here?”

           “Well, that’s partially why we’re here asking you. Nobody really knows. Chanyeol didn’t provide any information, so tell us what you know.”

           He squeezes his eyes shut, wanting to forget everything that happened. How long ago was it? He had no clue to even what day it is. All of the vivid images pop into his mind. He doesn’t want to remember. He doesn’t want to tell them because he knows that they’ll find Chanyeol and lock him up forever.

           “Well?” The officer says, getting slightly impatient with Baekhyun.

           “Promise me that he’ll be safe and nothing will happen to him.” He says with his eyes still closed. When he doesn’t get an immediate response he opens his eyes to look at the men.

           “Chanyeol will be fine.”

           “Give me your word.” He demands.

           “You have my word.” The officer coolly responds.

            Baekhyun squeezes his eyes shut once again, unable to believe that he’s about to spill the secret that he’s been keeping about the love of his life. He’s upset and conflicted if this is really the right thing to do. He wishes that everybody would just disappear and that Chanyeol was with him, cuddling him, and protecting him.

           “Chanyeol...” he starts, still not convinced. He could lie, but what’s the use? If he lies he could go to jail and leave Chanyeol all by himself.

           “Yes?”

           “Chanyeol has multiple personality disorder with mild amnesia that follows.” He hisses through gritted teeth. “That being said, when he gets into his ‘mood’ or ‘alter personality’ or whatever the hell it’s called, he lashes out and occasionally hits me, but for the most part he just does a lot of yelling. It’s never been this bad before. He doesn’t know either, I just don’t have the heart to tell him.” Baekhyun chokes. He’s now sobbing in his hospital bed. He can’t believe he just said everything. In thirty seconds, he spilled the information that took years for him to acquire.  He sees the officer take down the notes extremely fast, without looking up at Baekhyun, the officers both nod and begin to head out of the door.

           “Wait!” Baekhyun yells, grabbing their attention. “Where’s my husband?”

           “He’s already in jail, Baekhyun.”

           Without another word, he sinks down in his bed, unsure of what to think or feel. He wants to curl into a ball and cry, but the IV in his arm won’t allow that. He feels broken and disappointed in himself, as though he let Chanyeol down. He feels like he didn’t do his job of protecting his husband properly.         

           Baekhyun hastily reaches to the table on his left and grabs the hospital phone. He dials the number that he memorized as a child. The phone begins to ring and suddenly Baekhyun becomes nervous.

First ring, nothing.

           Second ring, no answer.

           Baekhyun realizes that this is a bad idea and reaches back over the bed to hang up the phone when a voice picks up on the other line. He quickly moves it to his ear to hear what is being said.

           “Hello?” A familiar voice rings out on the other end. Baekhyun’s throat drops to his stomach.

           “Dad,” he pauses. “It’s Baekhyun, I need your help.”