MARKHYUCK - Alexithymia

07.

The boy felt his hand bleeding from the newly broken glass, the cut in his hand deep. He winced from the pain and began getting to work.

Donghyuck's eyes opened immediately upon hearing the glass break, he got up and woke Taeil to help him.

He and Taeil crept down to the basement, he heard hushed whispers and panicked cries.

Donghyuck decided to grab a knife just in case if someone was trying to hurt Mark,

"So, are we just going to barge in there?" Taeil whispered to Donghyuck, looking around to see if anyone else was there.

"Yes, how else would we do it? Politely knock and ask for permission?" He scoffed, and opened the door where he saw Renjun in the basement,

"Renjun," Donghyuck started, Renjun jumped and looked at his friend. "Are you hurting Mark?" Haechan asked, holding his knife up to Renjun's direction.

"No, I was trying to help him out. Now come over here and help me," Renjun said, still struggling to get Mark out of the chains.

Mark looked up at Donghyuck, who had a determined face as he was looking for the key or maybe even an axe to get him out of the chains.

"What the hell are you guys doing?" A voice asked, which made Donghyuck freeze with fear. It was Taeyong.

Donghyuck turned around and looked at Taeyong. "I.." Donghyuck began,

Taeyong looked at the glass on the floor and picked some up, putting it against Taeil's neck. "Do you want him to die?" Taeyong asked, venom lacing in his voice.

Donghyuck gulped nervously, "No.. no of course not!" he said,

"Then hurt Mark." Taeyong said, taking the pressure off of Taeil's neck, the latter immediately grabbed his neck and took his hand back down, seeing blood. Renjun rushed over to Taeil, taking off his shirt to try and help the blood stop.

Donghyuck looked at Taeyong, then looked at Mark. He couldn't hurt Mark, but it was either to hurt him, or get Taeil killed.

Taeyong held the glass out further, and Donghyuck grabbed it, and slowly began to walk over to Mark.

"Mark.. please understand." Donghyuck said, beginning to cry. Mark nodded his head and closed his eyes, "Do whatever you need to." Mark said, looking at Donghyuck who was shaking.

Donghyuck placed the glass on Mark's cheek, and ran it down his face, all the way to his jawline, watching as the blood trailed down his face.

Mark opened his eyes and winced, his cheek stung. Donghyuck got up from his crouching position and looked at Taeyong,

"Was that good enough?" He said, throwing the glass on the ground.

"For now," Taeyong said, turning around to walk out of the basement.

Donghyuck felt terrible for what he just did to Mark, he swore Mark was the last person he'd ever hurt, but there Mark was, crying because of the pain Donghyuck put him in.

Donghyuck tried to drown out the sound of Mark's cries, but it didn't work. This made Donghyuck run to Ten's room,

Donghyuck barged into the room, out of breath and obviously having been crying, Ten jumped out of bed immediately, seeing the younger in such a state. "What's wrong?!" Ten said, panic evident in his voice.

"Get your supplies, please follow me." Donghyuck said, and Ten immediately followed suit and ran to his office where he kept his medicine, cotton balls and bandages.

Ten and Donghyuck nearly sprinted to the basement, where they saw Mark's face bleeding, and Renjun's shirt nearly soaked in Taeil's blood.

Ten gasped at the sight, immediately pulling out the medicine and cotton balls, and began cleaning their cuts, and putting bandages on Taeil's neck.

Ten couldn't put bandages on Mark's face, because if he did, Taeyong would be furious. Mark understood the situation and tried to keep positive, but it was hard.

Donghyuck that night went to the forest he used to go to all the time, and brought a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. Donghyuck sat on the log he had passed out on, and began lighting his cigarette.

He needed to sort out his emotions, and he needed to get rid of them, quickly.

"Hyunjae, you have a mission I need you to accomplish." Sangyeon said, Hyunjae eagerly nodded,

"What is it?"

"I need you to follow this guy, and I need you to try and get some information on him." Sangyeon said, holding out a picture of Donghyuck to the latter. Hyunjae grabbed the picture and began examining his features, trying to get every part of him memorized in his head.

"He usually goes to the forest around this time," Sangyeon said, looking up at Hyunjae who was still focused on the picture.

"And you want me to go to a forest at 11:00pm?" Hyunjae said, looking up and meeting Sangyeon's eyes.

"That's exactly what I want you to do, now hurry. He won't be there forever." Sangyeon said, Hyunjae quickly left Sangyeon's office and put on his shoes and a hoodie, he waved the boys goodbye and went on his way.

The forest was around a 6 minute walk from their base, so it wasn't hard to find the forest. What was hard was to find the exact spot the boy was in.

Hyunjae walked mindlessly around the forest for a while until he smelt cigarette smoke, Hyunjae followed the smell and eventually found Donghyuck, sitting on a log, deep in thought.

Hyunjae tried to sneak to him, but he stepped on a leaf which immediately alerted the boy. Donghyuck whipped his head around, looking the boy up and down.

Donghyuck was too numb to care about anybody else, so he turned around and took another hit.

Hyunjae sat down beside the boy, "Can you pass one?" He said, Donghyuck turned his head to face Hyunjae,

"I don't know you," Donghyuck said, before throwing the cigarette on the floor and stomping the light out. Hyunjae was surprised about how cold the boy sounded,

The picture he saw of him was him smiling, engaging in a conversation with his friends, but he was completely different. He didn't have emotion, it seemed, he didn't even smile back at Hyunjae.

"What's your name?" Hyunjae pushed, trying to get information out of the boy.

"None of your business," He answered, starting to get annoyed. "What the fuck do you want?" He asked, harshly looking at Hyunjae.

"I don't want anything," Hyunjae said, putting his hands in the air in defense, "I was just wandering around the forest and happened to find you."

Donghyuck nodded his head and inhaled deeply, "Smell that?" He asked, Hyunjae inhaled too, but didn't smell anything.

"No?"

"It's the smell of your bullshit." Donghyuck said, getting up and walking away from Hyunjae.

This was gonna be fun.