Dandelions ⭒ Jaywon

8. another sleepless night

Jungwon being the polite boy he is, told him he could take a turn into an alley across the street and he'd reach it by the end of that road.

"I'm sorry, sir, I don't understand?" the man said. "If it's not inconvenient for you, could you just walk me to the alley?"

Jungwon tensed up. He was supposed to be home to Jay in a few minutes. But it's just a minute's walk, it's okay. He'd head straight home after.

"Sure," he replied, beginning to cross the street in silence with the stranger to the alley.

The alley was dark, surprisingly; the street lamp there had fused, he assumed.

"Now from here, you can just take a—" Jungwon began, soon to be cut off by the man pushing him into the darkness. He hit the floor with a thud and winced in pain.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," the man sneered, "Are you hurt?"

"What the hell—" Jungwon muttered as he tried to get up, but failed, as the man pounced on him, pinning his body to the floor.

"Let me go!" He screamed, but his words were muffled by that man's hand, clamped over his mouth.

"Hmm... I think you'd look better tied up, baby," the same man said. Somehow, it was like a switch flipped. He looked so harmless when Jungwon had led him across the street, now suddenly, Jungwon was threatened by him; his breath hitched, his heart slammed so hard against his chest that he began feeling faint and his throat was parched.

Memories flooded his brain as the man's hand moved from over his mouth to the side of his face, tracing it seductively, making Jungwon squirm and kick. He couldn't face this again. Jungwon didn't know what to do, but his eyes landed on a shard of glass — probably from a broken beer bottle — just a few inches from his free hand.

The man began tugging at Jungwon's shirt while saying, "it's hot in here, isn't it?" with the largest shit-eating grin on his face. He brought his lips extremely close to Jungwon's ear and whispered, "Is poor baby scared? Don't worry, I'll take care of you." A chill ran down Jungwon's spine, making each of his vertebrae buzz.

Jungwon knew what was next. Either he could just give up and let himself be violated, or he could use that piece of glass to kill this man— shut up Jungwon, you're not a murderer.

But you're a fucking law student and you can make enough arguments to defend yourself in court even if you do kill him—

SHUT UP JUNGWON!

Jungwon's body fell limp as tears sprang to his eyes and threatened to spill out. Inwardly he sighed and thought, I never should've gone out. Jay was right. But he'd get into the same shit I'm in, so I'm glad I went, and not him.

Dalhyun's voice played in his head, "Never trust strangers, Wonie."

Then Jay's: "It's not safe out there, Jungwon."

God, why am I so bad at listening to people?

His eyes flickered open when he felt cold air against the skin of his stomach. Hell no. The man was trying to fucking undress him.

Memories sucked him into the whirlpool of trauma. He couldn't let himself get sexually assaulted, not again.

Blindly, he reached for the glass and thrust it upwards, right onto the man's face, cutting through his cheek.

"Ah, what the fuck!" the man yelped, stumbling backwards, letting Jungwon's arms go for a minute. Jungwon used the opportunity to throw punches at the man's face while sobbing, getting his hands bloody from the cut he had made on the guy's cheek.