The Devils On My Shoulder | ChanHoMin

45

there was a weird dynamic within the house now.

they had seungmin stuck to a routine, going in to feed him twice a day and taking him to the bathroom whenever he needed it, seungmin's emotions were all over the place, sometimes he was coping okay, he would occupy himself and co-operate with them, other times he just looked mentally exhausted and couldn't bring himself to say a word, other times he was overly emotional and it was very confusing.

seungmin had been very good recently when it came to being obedient and chan and minho were starting to think about putting seungmin to use, when it came to certain chores they didn't want to do they had considered making seungmin do them.

it had been another month and seungmin had completely recovered from his sickness, he went back to normal in terms of his health, and really appreciating his room, they didn't show any signs of wanting to move him back into the basement so he made the most of the room. it did bore him a lot that there wasn't much to do, he wanted to do lots of things but he didn't even bother asking because he knew they would say no.

he sat on the floor with his legs crossed, reading one of his books, now that his fever had gone he went back to getting cold easily so was now wearing chan's hoodie that was given to him and his socks as well as the blanket over his legs.

he tended to get so caught up when he read that he lost track of time, he was pulled out of his imaginary world by the sound of footsteps, he looked up at the door, sometimes they just walked past his room but it was around the time he would be fed so he watched.

he still got nervous when they came in, they may be close to tolerable sometimes but they were still extremely unpredictable. he still had his rule to never speak first and wait to see what they said so he could determine their mood.

the door opened and both men walked in as normal, chan holding a bag of food and minho holding two new water bottles.

seungmin watched, putting his book down and standing up, he sat on the edge of his bed.

chan walked over, handing him the bag and seungmin knew to take it and start to eat.

"sleep okay?"

seungmin nodded slowly, he slept very well in this room, the natural sunlight woke him up at a good time. it was nice to sit by the window, up here he could use a real bathroom because he didn't have a sink in the room, he had a real bed with a real comforter so how could he not sleep well?

"you could at least speak when you reply." minho snapped, putting the water on seungmin's nightstand.

"sorry... yes i slept good." he replied softly, taking a bite of the bread he went back to having for breakfast.

temperamental, that's how he mentally noted minho's mood, chan seemed relatively calm, but minho was on edge.

"we are going to get some things from the store today, any specific requests?" chan asked, looking at him.

this never happened, seungmin's mood immediately lifted a bit, he swallowed his mouthful and thought about it.

he knew what he wanted, but he knew they would laugh at him for it.

"take your time." minho mumbled, looking at him.

"could i get a stuffed animal?" he asked softly.

"a stuffed animal?" chan gave an amused expression.

seungmin nodded a little, he wanted something to cuddle. when he struggled at his apartment and felix was busy he could vent it all out to his stuffed animals, he didn't have many but it was comforting.

"you're so weird, out of literally anything, you want that?" minho scoffed.

seungmin nodded again, looking at him.

"please?"

"hm, we'll see. hurry up and eat."

seungmin did as he was told and finished the bread he was given, it wasn't dry and almost stale this time so he was thankful for that at least, he put the container down and picked up one of the bottles of water.

he had been thinking recently, about the amount of trust he put in them, he didn't know where his food came from, or his water, he just had to trust it, they could slip anything into it and he would have no idea. they could throw him into the basement or the closet at any time and he wouldn't have a choice, they could come in and beat him for no reason but he just trusted that they wouldn't, why did he trust them?

he had no reason to, he didn't like how it worked, he had control of his thoughts, but he didn't have any control over how his life went, he thought they were similar.

if they had full control over their thoughts, they wouldn't have done this, normal people have more humanity and compassion than that, he had seen them both angry, he had felt it too, that wasn't a normal reaction, so maybe they were similar to seungmin. they didn't have control over their thoughts, maybe they were ill, it had to be the reason. normal people don't kidnap teenagers and lock them up for no reason.

"hey." chan snapped his fingers in front of seungmin's face.

he pulled himself out of his thoughts and looked up at him.

"did you hear anything i just said?"

seungmin nodded, of course he didn't, but he didn't want chan to get mad at him.

"then what did i say?"

"u-uhh-"

"that's what i thought, pay attention."

"s-sorry."

"when we go out, we're going to tie you to the bed, usually if one of us goes out the other stays home to make sure you behave, but we both have to go out today, we can't have you doing anything dumb, understand?"

"yes."

he really didn't want to be tied to the bed, it rarely happened but when it did, it took days for the ache in his arms to go away from holding them up.

they let seungmin use the bathroom, leaving him to wash himself and brush his teeth before they gave him clean clothes and took him back to his room, seungmin climbed up on his bed, enjoying the minty taste in his mouth.

"your dvd player is here, so is your book, anything else you need before i restrain you?"

seungmin shook his head and put his hands out, to his surprise chan only took one of them, lifting it over his head and tying it to the headboard. he definitely didn't complain. he watched as minho wrapped the blanket around his feet and tucked it in so he couldn't kick the wall.

he stayed still for them so they didn't tie him up fully and waited for them to finish, they stepped back and seungmin looked up at them, his left hand above his head and his other hand resting on his stomach.

"we shouldn't be long." chan mumbled, putting one of the bottles of water closer to his reach.

seungmin nodded a little, preparing for himself the dreaded pins and needles in his arm.

=♡=