Here I Lie // ATEEZ ✔

- 9 -

It's another blind choice they have to make, as Wooyoung won't simply give them time to rest. Still soaked and suffocated, the two trapped's fates fell into the hands of their colleagues, who don't even know which way their choices will bring them. A wrong choice could mean subjecting misery to them, yet they cannot tell whether the other choice would be any better. Just like 'round one', as their captors had put it, choice two was to drown them by filling in water into the box. Choice one? They have no idea. Maybe it's better to remain in oblivion of what the other choice could have been, but if they know and they were forced to choose between two methods of torture, would they be able to?

"You know how the game works, right? So round two: pick, one or two? Redhead, it's your turn," he says cheerily in a singsong voice.

There is a silence then followed by a muffled reply, to which Wooyoung looks up to him in annoyance. As soon as his eyes land on the lower part of the redhead's face, he lets out a loud 'ah!' before snapping his fingers. He chuckles before bowing 45 degrees, but only as an act of mockery rather than respect.

"I do apologize for I have forgotten what I did to both of you." He straightens up his body. A muted scream arises from Hongjoong's throat, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down as he desperately tries to get his point across with no clear voice. Amused, Wooyoung continues talking, "Since both of you won't shut up with your questions, I just feel the need to do this. I hope you don't mind." He pouts then puts a finger to his chin, seemingly deep in thought. "I should've done this sooner; it's better like this."

They don't reply. They can't.

Blood trickles down their chins and onto their clothes and saliva drips from the corner of their mouths, but with their hands tied, they can only leave them be. It is as if they have lost the ability to feel pain because they have been exposed to agonizing pain repeatedly. Their brains fail to register the physical pain Wooyoung provided them, as if their pain threshold is nonexistent. The time between round one and round two provides a gap for Wooyoung to whisper something into San's ear, that left the latter leaving the room in a hurry. The silver-haired man appeared again in a matter of minutes, but what they had to face after he came back made them wish they were the ones who were trapped in the box instead of being hung up against the wall. They wouldn't keep quiet, and now Wooyoung had found a way to shut their mouths, literally.

He had sewn their lips together.

A normal thread, a needle and San to hold their bodies steady as he worked his hands across their lips was all he needed to make sure they won't have any words leaving their mouths again.

Jongho and Yeosang only managed to look through the bars, faces drenched with terror as Wooyoung held a hand against Hongjoong and Mingi's necks. They felt like they were bewitched as their eyes were transfixed on the gory procedure; he had used his other hand to puncture the needle with a thread through their cracked lips with ease. Hongjoong and Mingi had wanted to shout and scream, but opening their mouths would mean another rough tug on the needle, cascading blood down their chins. They were surprised that they had managed to stay conscious through the whole ordeal, clenching and unclenching their fists.

Wooyoung's face remained calm, barely showing any emotions as he sewed their lips, criss-crossing the thread to make sure their lips were sealed. It wasn't perfect work, in fact it was sloppy and dirty. When he was done he went to one corner of the room to wash his hands at the sink while grumbling how the captives are always making things hard for them. But at least his strategy worked; they haven't let out any intelligible words that could annoy him, and he loves that.

"Don't worry, you can still make a choice. Move your right leg for one and move your left for two," Wooyoung grins. "I just made it easy for you. Right," he points to his right leg, then puts up one finger, "for one, and left," he points to his own left leg next, then puts up another finger, "for two. You don't even have to open your mouths to say anything. Ah," he chuckles, "not that you can anyway."