ALL BARK NO BITE | SADISTIC BEAUTY SPINOFF

Chapter 54

Even as his body was in classrooms, head facing the wall, eyes glued to the board, his thoughts were coloured with a new shade. Something he hadn't seen before and he was turning to despise him. Why was he making him feel this way, all because of his face, ember eyes, ashen hair, his undeniably beautiful body, the deep voice he contorted with care to let out mellow whispers... he had to stop following him around otherwise-

Some people from class walked by, shuffling to get to the next lecture and Minho shook himself out of the daze. He collected his books back up, and looked at the library clock, 10 minutes left before class... he gathered himself, suppressing that feeling... the one he shouldn't be feeling... especially for another... A shiver ran through his spine and his hand instinctively reached up, clutching the back of his neck... the same spot he had touched not too long ago. It couldn't be...

That bruise... that mark be had stared at in the mirror for too long...

The presence was unbearable...

So was the slight burn of it...

A small ring on his body... a gift...

From the one who was haunting him... What do you want from me?

Why would you mark a nobody like me?

****

PRESENT DAY

~ 107-2, Sunshine Residences, Jangwi 3(sam)-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul

Minho stared at the blank screen and took off his glasses, covered his eyes with a hand and massaging his temples. Where were the thoughts... the colours and the countless ideas... only a few weeks back he was determined to write again, having some framework in his mind as to what he wanted to bring to life. The world was like sunlight he wished to soak up. Wherever he looked, he found inspiration.

That's why he left Hanguk University

To pursue this newfound streak...

A new will to write.

But it seemed to be fading out as he spent more and more time on his draft... The threat of the looming deadline was there but he just felt... numb. The kind of numb that didn't let him look around and observe and flick his wrist across pages as he scraped a bottomless part of his heart for a story. He was growing more... hopeless... more upset at himself. Every word was in the wrong place and every phrase felt weak. It's like he was losing his power to create...

He searched inside, only coming up with criticism... self-hatred, a dark pessimism that only awaited failure and... the need to hurt himself. Minho closed the draft, unthinkingly opening his mailbox instead. There was nothing much aside from spam... some updates from the newsletters he subscribed to ages ago. He scrolled down all the junk and stopped midway, finding the email Cha Wookyung had sent not too long ago from the company e-mail id.

He opened it and clutched the sofa cushion. It was early morning and Eunyeong was still asleep when he had slipped out of her bed, curling up on the pull-out couch to attempt writing albeit unsuccessfully. His mind in a knot, he had somehow circled back to that same, damned thought. He scrolled down their conversation over mail... eyes running over his words repeatedly. He thought he had locked them out...

All his little feelings for him... but it was starting to look like they never left in the first place...

He put his finger on the monitor, pressing those words, wanting them to come alive and clothe him in warmth and security. To tell him he can write... he can live... he can love... Minho jabbed the screen repeatedly, trying to hold it all in till his ribs hurt. Come and hold me! he screamed at Wookyung inside his head. You wanted to change my life so change it! Minho's face crumpled into. Just then Eunyeong emerged from the bedroom in her little shorts and camisole.