√ 𝐸𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡 // 𝐻𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑔 𝐻𝑦𝑢𝑛𝑗𝑖𝑛

thirty four.

tw // mentions and innuendo towards torture //

Nari's p.o.v.

     A horrible ache in her head woke her.

     Nari attempted to lift her head, only to stop in pain, moaning as harsh heat spiked through her skull, the back of her neck still sticky with blood. She would have moved her limbs, but they were tied to the chair she was currently sitting on.

     Her knees jerked up reflexively, wanting to escape from their bonds. Breathing heavily through her nose, Nari attempted to remove the duct tape slapped across her mouth, licking the inside edges to soften the glue.

     One corner came unstuck after a few tries, and she rubbed her cheek on her shirt, revealing one half of her mouth. Nari gulped in deep breaths, quickly observing her surroundings.

     The chair she was sitting in was positioned in the middle of a very clean room, simply made up with red walls and a concrete floor. A singular covered lightbulb swung above her head, making her dizzy after watching it for a second too long. She couldn't see a door, which meant that it must have been on a wall behind her somewhere.

     What really caught her eye was a small metal table set against one wall, far from her limited reach. On it laid many different tools: tweezers, needles, pliers, scissors, thin knives, scalpels.

     Her stomach rolled, and Nari felt as though she was about to throw up, holding back a sob as she imagined what those horrible items were for. The idea... no, she couldn't even think about it.

     A sudden noise pricked her ear. It sounded like faint yelling, the voices of a boy and a man intertwining. After a few minutes of the argument, or whatever it was, man's voice ceased, and the boy's rose to a wail, a scream so full of panic, pain, that Nari wanted to scratch her ears out. That poor soul, whoever it could be -

     Nari's eyes widened, her horror beyond what she had ever thought possible. "Jeongin!" she shrieked, convulsing in the chair as she tried to get loose. The agonizing sounds only got louder, until she wasn't sure if a boy or a girl was screaming.

     "Fuck!" she screeched, tears pouring down her face as she strained her limbs against her restraints. "Jeongin, no!"

     The girl was bawling, jerking in her chair, trying to cry louder than the boy so she wouldn't have to listen to him.

     "No!" she cried as her body gave out on itself, trembling from the amount of energy she had just spent, and weak from her injury.

     After what seemed like an eternity, the screams died down to just sobbing. Nari let out her own cry of relief for him, hiccuping as she quieted down.

     The closed door behind her opened without warning, and Nari didn't struggle, but froze, afraid to even raise her eyes. A light pair of footsteps stopped in front of her, and a hand grabbed her chin, forcing her gaze up.

     A girl was holding her face, her sharp beauty taking Nari aback. Who was this girl? Would this be her torturer? The girl seemed to read the thoughts in her eyes.

     She tsked, letting go of Nari and smirking, as though being responsible for causing Nari's pain was much too unimportant a task for her. "I'm not here to hurt you. He's coming later."

     Nari bit her lip, swearing that she would not cry in front of this girl. If she stayed strong, she could make her leader proud, knowing that she had toughed it out even until the end.

     The girl pulled a chair from behind Nari's field of vision and sat demurely, crossing her legs as she stared at the imprisoned girl.

     "Lee Nari," the girl drawled out, startling said girl. "Both parents dead, brother missing, and lives with her uncle. Well, lived. Now she lives with the young gang, Stray Kids. As their... what? Pet? Maid? Slave?"