Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Jeong-Soon isn't sure what he'd been expecting, but it certainly hadn't been Gregory Gan's corpse. He knows he should feel lighter---relieved, even---but the overwhelming grip of grief crashes over him, heart pesante in his chest as his jellied knees buckle. He's not dead. He can't be dead. No no no no no---
"Jeong-Soon! What are you doing here?" Aimee's twin brother stares at him through gleaming copper eyes. He's not wearing his glasses today---probably has contacts in. A patch of red blossoms over his right cheek, but he seems unfazed, his mannerisms easy and light. Jeong-Soon's known Archer for a while through Aimee. Association by proxy. He wouldn't exactly call them friends, but Archer seems to disagree, judging by the way he greets Jeong-Soon with open arms.
"Hey, Archer." Jeong-Soon's gaze travels to the three boys flanking him, all looking decidedly dishevelled but much less bloody than the body on the ground. His head pounds, reminding him that it's not just any body, it's Gregory Gan. "Hey, Sam. Hey, Colt. Hey, Jude." The boys nod back at him in response.
The wire around his neck is gone, but he still can't breathe.
"What are you doing here, dude?" Archer repeats. Jeong-Soon doesn't reply, eyes firmly fixed on Gregory's motionless form. His face is pressed to the tarmac, hands stretched out across the ground. Jeong-Soon can't tell whether he's breathing or not.
Splayed across the dirty floor, no fire left in his limbs, Gregory looks like an abandoned doll, a flawed product left on the shelves of an old toy store to rot. Blood pools beneath his prone figure, shockingly scarlet against the midnight stubble of the ground. Jeong-Soon unconsciously bites his lower lip, praying for mercy, praying for hope, praying for a sign that Gregory's still alive.
Jeong-Soon notices Archer's sharp stare zeroing in on his focus, a scowl slowly spreading over his face. "Why do you keep staring at that dickhead?"
"I---" Jeong-Soon snaps back to reality, face flushing crimson. He shakes his head rapidly. "I---wasn't staring---what happened?" His head spins like a twisted merry-go-round, stomach churning.
Archer's steely eyes narrow. "Aimee mentioned he was harrassing you guys, so we taught him a lesson."
I don't think murder counts as teaching someone a lesson! "Did you---" Jeong-Soon can't find the words. "You didn't kill him, right?" Something inside him tugs at his chest, desperate to kneel down next to Gregory and check for a pulse, but he doesn't quite dare to do it. Not in front of Archer, who's watching him like a hawk.
