Violence Warning - This chapter contains violence, nothing too horrible but just so you have just a fair warning.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Jin, no! After all we've been through these last few days? Don't do this!"
Jin looked at her, eyes emotionless. "I'm sorry, Seongmin. But I have to do this. And there's nothing anyone can do to stop me."
"Please, I'm begging you!"
Jin ignored her, throwing the small projectile in his hand towards Seongmin. The bright blue plus four card landed on the top of Seongmin's pile, and she looked toward the ceiling in despair.
"Why are you so good at Uno?" Seongmin cried out, Jin smirking and trying to hold back a snort, Hoseok dying of laughter beside the two of them.
The last few days had gone in much the same way, with Seongmin and her two roommates playing card and board games, as well as Mario Kart, with all games generally ending with Seongmin getting destroyed. The only thing she'd been able to beat Jin in so far was hide and seek, and they had only played that after Hoseok had tagged her in a fit of boredom and sent her racing through the house after him. He'd ended up in a closet, and then he'd begun counting to ten, the game progressing from there with Jin happily joining in, laughing all the while.
Jin had begun making a house of cards as Seongmin wallowed in her despair, smirking all the while at her. "I can't stop," he said. "No way."
"Ugh," Seongmin groaned, as she looked up at him again, Hoseok still laughing. "I vote we play hide and seek again."
Jin laughed and was about to reply when the doorbell rang, sweet, low chimes echoing through the room for a moment.
The boys stopped laughing, a confused look coming over Jin's face. "Who could that be?"
Hoseok, on the other hand, was smiling widely, eagerly running to the door to answer it. Jin sighed, smiling softly.
"He does this a lot. He'll just randomly invite a friend over without letting anyone else know," Jin explained. "He loves people so much, he can't get enough human contact."
Seongmin laughed. "I had a friend like that once. It was always funny to see her interact with people who hated physical contact."
Jin chuckled at this as well, and they both turned to see Hoseok leading a tall, blonde haired man into the room, laughing as he did so. Seongmin perked up at the sight of him, recognizing him instantly.
"Namjoon?"
Namjoon's eyes widened a bit and his dimples appeared in a grin when he caught sight of her. "Seongmin! Hey! What are you doing here?"
"Roommate situation," Seongmin began, before she was cut off by a confused Jin.
"Wait, you two know each other?"
"Yes," the other three said in unison, drawing laughter from all of them. Seongmin continued, "Namjoon and I met in a coffee shop a couple weeks ago. Hoseok was the waiter, that's how I knew him before I came here."
"Ah," Jin stated, eyebrows raised. "Well, nice to know mutual friends exist."
Namjoon chuckled, "I guess so. Anyway, Seongmin, you room here now? When did this happen?"
"A couple nights ago," she said. "Apparently I'm the target of a gang. I've been caught by them before, but... someone rescued me."
Seongmin wasn't sure if she should state that it was a superhero that had saved her, more than a bit paranoid about bringing that topic up after the talk with Chihun had gone wrong.
Namjoon looked like someone had smacked him between the eyes. "Are you okay? I'd heard from a friend that a gang was wandering the area by my house but... I never suspected they'd come after someone I know. Did they hurt you?"
Seongmin had a flash of the gun against her head, Song's threatening whisper as he trailed it down her neck, his masked lips against her ear. She shuddered internally, not wanting to think about what his intentions were.
"No, just spooked me." She shot Namjoon a reassuring smile, wanting him to know she was fine, "Anyway, I got Jin and Hoseok here looking after me now." Seongmin said it with a chuckle, though the thought of sweet Hoseok or shy Seokjin facing off against any one of those three made a shadow cross her face.
Namjoon nodded, a small smile returning to his face, clearing Seongmin's dark thoughts away. "Well, I'm glad you're okay, at least."
Seongmin grinned. "I guess okay could sum it up, but I prefer to say I'm better off for being able to interact with a hero."
Namjoon turned to Hoseok, pointing at Seongmin. "Her. I like her."
Everyone laughed at that, even though Jin's face was flushed with color for some reason. He merely let out a small chuckle, but he was smiling, so Seongmin guessed he was okay.
The three spent the rest of the day hanging out, first inducting Namjoon into their Uno cult and then later curling up on the couch to watch an assortment of Marvel movies and comedy shows. By the time night fell, Seongmin's sides hurt from laughter, and as she went up to bed, all three of the boys shared her big, happy smile.
Namjoon had decided to stay the night, not realizing it had gotten dark out and not wanting to risk an attack by going out after nightfall. He flashed Seongmin a goofy grin as he ducked inside the room he was sharing with Hoseok, making her chuckle lightly. She could hear Hoseok laughing inside the room, only serving to increase her amusement. Jin also gave her one last glance, sending a shy smile her way before heading into his own room.
Seongmin slipped inside her own doorway as well, smiling softly at the warmth she felt in the moments after.
...
Two hours later, the night found Seongmin still awake, staring up restlessly at the ceiling. She felt an unusual anxiety clawing at her chest, realizing after some thought that despite the friendly atmosphere of the house, she hadn't been outside in almost a week, and she was dying to get a breath of fresh air.
So after almost another hour, she couldn't help it anymore, and changing out of her pajamas and into jeans, a long sleeved oversized T-shirt gifted to her by Hoseok, and an equally oversized pink sweater (courtesy of Jin), she slipped on her grey sneakers and snuck out of her room.
Careful not to make a sound as she snuck past Hoseok's room, she winced at a creaking floorboard at the edge of the staircase. After waiting a moment to make sure no one was awake, she stealthily crept down the wooden stairs, across the floor to the front door, and after carefully unlocking the door, stepped outside into the chilly autumn air.
The cold was like getting struck by freezing lightning after being inside so long without it, an old enemy returning and wrapping Seongmin in its icy grip, seeping straight through her clothes. Strands of silver mist floated through the air like ghosts, eerily illuminated in patches of yellow light when they drifted under the street lamps. Seongmin was surprised to remember that Halloween was in two days, and smiled at the thought, remembering days of being a child and dressing up, running along the street with her parents in tow, laughing at her antics.
An owl hooting in a tree standing in the yard snapped her back to the present, and she shook her head to clear her thoughts. Just a quick walk, she promised herself. Just down the street and back. Enough to clear my head and breathe for a moment, nothing more.
Seongmin hadn't gotten two houses down the road, however, when the sounds of footsteps approaching from ahead made the hair on her neck stand on end and a needle of icy fear pierce her heart. She looked around frantically, diving behind a pair of trash bins on the side on the road.
The footsteps were getting closer. Had it been another time of day, Seongmin wouldn't have been nearly as afraid, but there were very few types of people she could think of that would be wandering a deserted neighborhood street at one in the morning, and a certain colorful trio happened to be very high on that list.
Her heart was pounding, and she crouched lower behind the bins. Please no, please, I'm begging you, no, she thought frantically. She dared to risk a glance around the bin, and with wide eyes, all she saw was a big, bulky silhouette moving slowly towards her. Her breath was shallow, but despite the alarm bells ringing in her mind, she couldn't make herself look away.
After a few more agonizing seconds, the person stepped out of the mist, moving under a streetlight just feet away from the trash bins. A tall, muscular man, with tousled brown hair and chocolate brown eyes, trained on the sidewalk.
Chihun.
Seongmin let out a huge breath of relief, not even bothering to question what on earth he was doing here of all places at such an early hour of the morning. She carefully slipped around the bins, trying not to startle him, but he didn't even seem to notice her, not even when she got up close to him.
"Chi! How have you been? I'm sorry, I meant to call you, but..." She trailed off. He wasn't paying her any attention, moving down the street at a snail's pace, not looking up from the sidewalk. "Chihun? Hey, Chi, you okay?"
No response. He was starting to worry her now, his eyes just looked so... vacant. So empty, as if he was there but his mind wasn't. Seongmin was beginning to panic now, and she raised her voice, suddenly not caring if she woke up the people in the house next to her.
"Chihun! Hey, look at me! What's wrong with you?" Not thinking, she reached out and slapped him across the face, not entirely gently but not enough to leave a mark.
That was her fatal mistake.
Chihun suddenly looked like his soul had come back to his body, his eyes becoming clearer for a moment, and for a split second Seongmin was relieved beyond belief. Then he locked eyes with her, and an almost murderous look crossed his face like a demonic shadow.
Seongmin stepped back in shock. This wasn't her friend. Something was horribly wrong with him, and he was looking at her with a fierce rage that made her heart skip several beats. He suddenly lunged at her, and before he could move more than a few centimeters, she bolted away.
She began shouting, not caring who heard her, just begging that someone woke up and came to help her. Her heart was beating out of her chest, her feet pounding against the sidewalk, fear gripping her in icy talons colder than the October air.
Unfortunately, Chihun was extremely fast, and she had barely gotten four houses down the road when he caught her by the back of the hoodie. He yanked her backwards, and she lost her balance, suddenly finding herself pressed facefirst to a tree growing on the side of the street. She cried out, both in pain and desperation for someone to hear her, and received a sharp slap across the face by Chihun.
Seongmin stopped shouting, whimpering instead as Chihun pinned her roughly to the bark of the tree. She stayed like that for a few moments, realising a minute later that there was blood running down her face from where Chihun's hand had connected with her lip, as well as terrified tears rushing like waterfalls down her smooth skin.
She didn't know how long she stood there, probably only a minute but a minute which felt like several days. She heard the revving of an engine a little further down the street, getting louder by the second, and for a split second thought someone might be here who could help, but her eyes widened and she began to shriek again, struggling to get away despite the possibility of getting hit again when they got closer.
The man behind the wheel was the last person she wanted to see, a flash of silver confirming her worst fear. Song screeched to a stop on the side of the street as Chihun roughly shoved Seongmin's face against the tree, making her see stars. Through a haze of pain, she saw a flash of red as Kim rushed out of the car, and barely even registered that Chihun had released her before she felt a rope slipped around her, tying her firmly in place. By the time she'd regained her senses, she was almost completely immobile, minus her ability to squiggle around like an earthworm.
She felt a gag slipped into her mouth just as she began to scream again, and what happened next all happened so fast that she didn't really register it until after. A familiar voice cried out in what sounded like a mix of anguish and rage, a man's figure came rushing towards her, shouting her name, and a crack sounded through the air as Chihun lashed out. Hoseok flew through the air, hit his face on the sidewalk with another sharp crack, and was crumpled on the ground, nose bleeding and nearly unconscious before Seongmin realized what had happened, and she let out a muffled shriek before she was shoved into the back seat of the car next to a familiar black haired man.
Through the back windows, ignoring the shouts of victory from Kim in the front while Song told him to shut up, Seongmin pressed her face against the glass to see Hoseok still crumpled up on the sidewalk, clutching his face and side while Namjoon rushed over, grabbing him and appearing to shout something in obvious panic. Chihun had darted into the shadows at some point during this, but Seongmin didn't even care, tears running down her face at the sight of her friend in pain like this. Hoseok gestured at the car, a clear shout for Namjoon to go help her, but it was too late. Just as Namjoon seemed to understand, Song stepped on the gas hard, making Seongmin slip backwards and hit her already bleeding head on the glass of the back window. Namjoon's eyes widened and he began to race after the car, but he was no match for it, and it had turned the corner before he could even reach the end of the sidewalk.
Seongmin was seeing stars again from the second hit to the head, blood from a cut on her forehead running down her face, and this time began to slip into panicked unconsciousness. Her only thoughts were on poor Hoseok, the always smiling boy who had wanted nothing more than to make her smile too. She felt a stab of pure regret in her chest at the thought of him bleeding and in clear pain because of a stupid decision she had made.
As she slipped into tear filled, pain induced unconsciousness, her last thought was one message of fear and regret.
What have I done?
.....
... I'm sorry
HOSEOK WILL BE OKAY I SWEAR
I needed plot development but I still feel bad every time I reread this chapter...
Anyway I didn't intentionally post this two days before Halloween when this story takes place, but you know, convenient timing I guess 😂
*spooky sounds*
I hope you did enjoy this chapter despite the big ouch at the end (oof), thank you all so much for reading! As always, I will see you in the next chapter. Bye bye!
~ MineCat57 🌺