HAPPY ENDING | svt ✓

⁶⁴ : necklace

jeonghan coughed, holding onto his stomach as red stained the floor with the blonde slowly feeling more and more lightheaded.

his hands reached up to the sapphire necklace sitting between his collarbones and tried yet again to tug at it, knowing full well that seungcheol was bearing the pain along with him but the necklace refused to budge.

sighing, he left the charm alone, beginning to clean himself up before he heard knocking on the bathroom door.

"jeonghan, why're you hiding in there?" a shrill voice he knew to be his aunts' entered his ears, jeonghan wincing as he washed his mouth. "a protagonist should never hide!"

he wanted to say he was tired. he wanted to stand up for himself. he wanted to break the perfect image they had forced him into.

but instead, he opened the door, a bright smile on his face. "sorry for that — i thought i was done healing people for the day."

his aunt rolled her eyes, tucking her hair behind her ears and revealing her sparkling earrings that jeonghan knew she could only afford because of him being her nephew. "did you get new earrings-"

"how dare you not wait for a reply from your elder!" jeonghan wanted to fight back. but he bit his tongue, the metallic taste of blood still lingering in his mouth. "your headmaster is downstairs."

jeonghan nodded, already predicting what the conversation would consist of as he followed her down the house that he knew was bought using his name and privilege.

"jeonghan!" the headmaster greeted, his smile revealing his canine like teeth. "good work today!"

"i only did as you requested," jeonghan said, his aunt glaring at him from behind for his response. "i trust that this makes up for the no intermingling rule?"

the headmaster chuckled, leaning back as he opened a pack of cigarettes and placed one loosely in between his lips.

"that's no way to talk to your grandfather now is it jeonghan?" with a flick of his hand, jeonghan felt his head hammering, the wound that never healed reopening. "if you weren't related to me, i wouldn't have even bothered changing the rules so you should be more thankful."

jeonghan fell onto the floor, the bandages falling off his head as the headmaster lit his cigarette effortlessly, smoke filling the room. 

his throat felt dry and his lungs felt as though they were filled with water, his aunt just watching as he crumbled before her eyes.

"i also gave you such an easy task to do. just heal people! isn't that what you're good for? but you could barely do it and it makes me wonder-" he bent forward, pulling jeonghan by the hair and forcing him to meet his eyes. "what're you and your friends hiding from us?"

"nothing," jeonghan said, his voice hoarse and strained but his face refusing to show any cracks, a skill he had been taught to achieve perfection even in times of crisis.

"is that so?" it felt as though his entire body had been set ablaze. "after all the work i've put in to ensure that you become the perfect protagonist and yet, you're hiding things from me and wearing things like this."

he snatched the necklace and dangled the gem before his eyes before crushing it, littering the ground with blue shards.

"you know that freedom doesn't last long right jeonghan?" he let go of his grip on him, the air rushing back to his lungs as his skin cooled down. "but i allowed for your request out of my love for you. so don't forget that in the end of the day-" he snuffed out the cigarette flame, eyes trained on jeonghan.