Heal me // A Jikook Trilogy //

《78》Bait

Lian planned her own downfall meticulously.
Left nothing to chance.

For the next five days, she spend every second getting ready to be taken by Suho.
She made Yoongi plant her request to see her father alone, making sure Suho got wind of it- would see his opportunity.
Like throwing out a fishing line with the bait being Lian and Suho the fish ready to bite.

Jimin taught her how to get out of restrains, no matter how hard they were bound.
Fuck, she even demanded to learn how to dislocate her thumb to get out of cuffs.
That woman was nothing if not utterly devoted to her plan.

I found myself doing as she was told too, yet I tried to make her see reason.

I told her about the docks.
My time with X-EXO.
And even though it was hard for me to talk about it, I told her every little detail I could remember from that worst week of my life when Suho had me on drugs, filling my mind with lies.
I told her how impossible it was to tell what was real and not.
How being in so much pain only made you want for it to stop- how you were ready to do literally anything.

But Lian had only listened and nodded.
No fear in her eyes.
That damn woman!

She only treated it like more knowledge to store next to all the other things she learned.

Like Hoseok telling her about what drug had what effect.
How it altered who you were.
Or how to twist and turn your body so there would only be bruises and no broken bones.

It stung to know why she asked Jin to tell her.
Hurt so damn much to be reminded of how he had to learn this knowledge the hard way for years in his abusive childhood.

Namjoon flat out refused to talk to her.

And Tae- it was a shit-show.

He was pale whenever I saw him, barely ate and his nails were bitten down to stumps.
But he didn't ask Lian to let go of her kamikaze plan.
Didn't try and convince her not to do it.

And it was killing him.

Every day more as the day drew closer.
The day she would visit a broken monster in jail only to be taken by another one.

And Lian herself... it was hard to watch.
She didn't laugh.
Didn't joke.
It was as though she was already mentally preparing herself for what was to come.

I didn't want to let her go.
Everything inside me screamed to not let her go through with it.
But it meant taking her choice away from her, and that was not something any of us would dare again.
Because Lian would not forgive us for that and we would truly lose her.

So there was nothing we could do but wait for that day to approach.

A normal rainy Monday morning.
Nothing special about it, safe for the fact that we woke with the knowledge of what would happen today.
A gluey, sticky and suffocating feeling.

It was hard to get out of bed.
Harder to get dressed and face reality.

We all met under the canopy and in my families eyes, I could tell none of us had gotten a good night sleep, if any.

Hwasa's eyes were even lined with red like she had been crying all night.
I tried to ask her what it was Lian had asked her in private, but she had shut me down hard, saying it was private and I shouldn't be noisy.
But her reaction... it had me shudder only thinking about it.
There had been panic and fear flashing in Hwasa's eyes when I asked.

And then I once again fell pray to the one quality in human nature I hated the most but was not immune to.
Ignorance.
I looked away.
Told myself it might not be anything though deep down I knew it to be a lie.