The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance

vi.

Minhyuk shrugged, looking down at the bedsheet. Even though the bed was at least a queen, he was hunched up in the top corner of it, and despite freeing his wrist, he'd only seemed to collapse in on himself further. "They have a guy."

"A guy? Gu, outside? The old guy?"

Minhyuk shook his head before shrugging. "They have another guy. He's got a gun, and he hangs around to make sure nothing's going wrong. Like if one of the people coming in does something they're not supposed to, or if one of the kids try getting out."

"Did you try getting out?" Hyunwoo asked softly.

Minhyuk bobbed his head forward. His bangs were too long now, and they fell in front of his eyes, hiding them from Hyunwoo. "Once, the second day. Someone was...here...and once I got the chance, I ran for the door and got outside." He gave a small chuckle. "Buck naked. I should have been ashamed, but I wasn't, that was the last thing I was thinking about." His grin faded. "I wanted...to find Hyungwon, but...I didn't know where they were keeping him. So I told myself I'd come back and get him out, I just...I had to get out first." He wiped at one of his eyes, shaking his head. "But then the guy came, a-and he beat me so bad, I just laid in the bathtub for a full day, couldn't even move after I washed off the blood." Minhyuk tried for another smile, but his eyes fell short of it. "They beat you if you're not...you know, cooperative...so, so I..."

He sniffled and rubbed at his nose, looking away, shame painting his face with burning cheeks. "I just didn't want to get hit anymore."

"That's okay," Hyunwoo said in a soft voice. "You protected yourself. That was all you could do. You have nothing to be ashamed of. Whatever you've done – whatever's been done to you, that's not your fault, Minhyuk."

Minhyuk's soft chuckle told Hyunwoo that he disagreed, but he didn't argue about it. Instead, he turned to look at Hyunwoo. "If you can only take one of us tonight, can you get Hyungwon out? This whole thing is my fault, and he...It was like Kihyun said, he told me to stay away from Hendy because he was bad news, but-" He wiped at his nose again before scrunching it up and sniffling again. "-we were just so hungry, me and Hyungwon, and Hendy said..." A pause. "He said he knew a way we could get money, and I- I asked him if it involved drugs because we didn't want any part of that, and he said it didn't, that it would be fine, and..."

He broke off, setting his face down in his palms. "And I said okay, and Hyungwon said he'd go if I went, because...because he trusts me, and I...and so, it's my fault that he's here too. I was dumb so I deserve what I got but Hyungwon shouldn't've gotten caught up in this."

"Nobody deserves to be treated this way," Hyunwoo corrected firmly. "It doesn't matter what you did or said, nothing would have made this okay. Do you understand that, Minhyuk?"

He shrugged but went back to his point. "So, can you take Hyungwon with you?" he asked, looking up.

"Do you know where he's at?" Hyunwoo asked, and Minhyuk nodded.

"He's in room twelve, I think."

"When did you see him last?"

Minhyuk shrugged, looking up at the ceiling. "It's hard to keep track of days, but...maybe five – six? – days ago...They gathered all of us up in a room so..." He swallowed, his face paling. "So they – there were a couple of them – could pick which ones they wanted, and..." There was a slight pause before he shut his eyes and cried out. "And they picked him and not me and I felt, I felt so guilty, and he looked...so scared, and he asked me to help him, but I didn't know- I didn't know how, I tried to make them pick me instead but they pushed me out of the way."

He rocked his body back and forth, hitting the headboard with each beat, but Hyunwoo knew that to touch him would be to frighten him. "They dragged me back to my room but the others kids and Hyungwon had to stay, had to stay with all of those horrible awful people and-" Minhyuk squeezed his eyes shut even harder, a pained whine coming out of his throat. The rocking slowed to a stop after a minute as he put the thoughts out of his mind, and when Minhyuk swallowed and looked over at Hyunwoo, he seemed slightly calmer but still noticeably distressed. "They called him twelve and they called me seven, so I think...I think that's his room. Twelve. Because I'm seven."