The Devils On My Shoulder | ChanHoMin

51

seungmin was curled up, silent tears streaming down his cheeks.

he covered his mouth and cried, he wanted to do as they said, if what chan promised was true, he had to stay. he wanted them to need him.

our sweet baby

his heart was pounding out of his chest, butterflies filled his body as he replayed those words. his heart hurt so much when he thought about it, he thought about a certain few words that he knew he was feeling.

he shook his head and covered his face, hiding it in his bear, hearing creaks over his head.

"m' so sorry felix." he whispered.

he heard footsteps getting closer, like near the door and faint voices. then the sound of the locks.

his breaths sped up, he thought about how much trust they were putting in him right now and he couldn't let them down, clinging to the hope that they would stick to their promise. he kept his mouth covered, trying to stay as quiet as possible, there was a tiny gap through the boxes and he could just about see the door open.

he forced himself quiet as several sets of footsteps started on the stairs.

his heart was pounding as he stayed curled up in that tiny space, listening as best he could.

"what do you use down here for?" the stranger asked.

"just storage, there's paperwork, books and other old stuff down here."

"and the locks on the door?"

"our friend sometimes brings a kid with him when he comes to stay and we keep it locked because the stairs aren't safe, he could fall or hurt himself, the dust isn't good for his lungs either."

they started looking around the basement, it wasn't a very thorough search but seungmin got tense when he heard footsteps near him, he tensed up significantly, clutching his bear as he focused on staying as still as a statue and as quiet as he possibly could.

it would take one word, one sound for them to find him and him to be taken away, but one thought of disappointing them and it made his heart hurt. he didn't want to disappoint them, he wanted them to be proud of him.

chan was right, who would believe him?

if he told them, they would just call him crazy, he needed to stay with chan and minho to be safe, who was going to care for seungmin like they were? he had nobody to take care of him, he couldn't let these men take him away.

he stayed there, silent and still until the footsteps went up the stairs again, when the door was pushed shut. he still didn't move, he was shaking and breathing heavily, what if someone was still down there?

they left him down there for ages and after a while he started to cry again, he was so scared that he couldn't move any more than just shaking, it was claustrophobic in that small space and he was getting hot and felt like he couldn't breathe, he nuzzled the bear as he hugged it tightly, wanting to crawl out but he was frozen.

stay there until one of us comes to get you

seungmin did as they said, really hoping one of them would come soon. he went over chan's words in his head, trying to gain as much comfort as possible from them, taking deep breaths.

"they'll come soon." he whispered to his bear.

he hugged it close and imagined felix, he shifted closer to the box and looked through the tiny gap, it was dark in the basement and he could see that the door was shut. he strained his ears, listening out for any sounds. floorboards creaking, faint voices, anything to show him that they kept their promise and they were still there.

he was getting scared that they took them away, he was scared of being locked down here with nobody to let him out, he was scaring himself again.

––

seungmin looked up, immediately looking through the gap when he heard the locks, the door swung open quite aggressively and seungmin flinched he pushed himself into the corner and hugged his knees, putting his hands over his ears.

he cried silently as he hugged his bear, blocking out the heavy footsteps coming down the stairs.

he felt the desk move, he widened his eyes and flinched harder, shaking hard in fear as he looked up, desperately hoping to see the two faces of chan and minho.

seungmin cried harder when he saw minho pulling the desk out, chan breathed out heavily and leaned down, lifting seungmin out of the gap.

seungmin clung to him immediately, shaking in fear as he clutched his bear.

"shh, you're okay."

seungmin was breathing heavily and crying as he held onto chan, he felt arms enclose around him and immediately melted into them, going weak and emotional, they kept their promise, they were still here.

"i don't want to go." seungmin cried, hugging onto chan as hard as he could.

"they're gone, the bad men are gone now it's fine, you're not going."

minho was rubbing seungmin's back while chan was letting seungmin hug onto him, of course they hated being sweet to seungmin but seungmin could've gotten them locked up for life with one action. and of course it took manipulation and gaslighting to get seungmin to stay quiet but he still did, and chan and minho were genuinely thankful and knew that because seungmin kept their cover, the least they could do was comfort him.

"we need to take him to his room, it's dusty down here."

seungmin held his bear close to his chest as he was pulled up by chan, he held onto him as chan started to carry him up the stairs, seungmin clung to him like his life depended on it, scared to let him go, his mind was irrational and all over the place, all he could focus on was staying as close to someone as possible.

chan carried seungmin to his room and put him on his bed but seungmin's grip just tightened, he shook his head fast.

"stay... please?"

chan tried to get seungmin's arms off him but he wouldn't let go.

"please, i want to stay with you both... a-as a reward... just for one night, please?"

"you want to stay in our bed?"

seungmin nodded frantically and held onto chan.

"please! i... i'll stay still and i'll be quiet, j-just don't leave me alone please, you promised i'd get a reward... please."

chan sighed and rubbed his face, neither of them wanted to share their beds, but they didn't have much of a choice. if this ever happened again and they didn't keep their promises this time, seungmin wouldn't stay quiet like he was told. seungmin was staring up at them, more tears filling his eyes.

"please!"

"okay fine!" minho snapped "just stop crying you're driving me insane."

"who do you want?" chan asked slowly, looking at seungmin's desperate face.

"both." he mumbled between sniffles.

"my room, my bed is the biggest, we just get it over with." minho sighed, rubbing his head.

chan groaned and got up, sighing as he got up to go change in his room, minho pointed at the floor in front of him.

"here."

seungmin immediately did as he was told, he couldn't mess this up, he would get a whole night close to them.

=♡=