What if...? || Markhyuck

-82-

[october/november 2021]

[minhyung]

"But was he alive?" Steven asked when I told him the situation at Izzy's birthday party about the guy in the restroom. He didn't seem very surprised or scared. Hence, I came to the conclusion that he's a good informant for me on the subject. Steven has a much better insight into Donghyuck's dark side. I experienced it only in extreme situations, when something disturbed brunet or led him to the edge of the abyss (literally or figuratively). Then he would just drop the mask he put on for social use and a little bit for our relationship. This Donghyuck scared me, although I knew he wouldn't hurt me.

"I think so, I don't know, I was afraid to check," I admitted truthfully. I still got goosebumps thinking about it. But he was definitely alive, I didn't consider any other option. Anyway, I checked news this morning. I couldn't find anything about death in the club.

"There was this guy in lower basement..." Steven began hesitantly, as if hadn't yet decided whether or not he wanted to tell me this piece of past. Finally, however, he sighed heavily and shook head in resignation. "He liked these younger guys. From what I heard, often forced them to extremely brutal and sexual activities... So if the woods didn't kill them, it was just such stupid perverts that ended their lives - literally or by suicide" Steven winced at the memory. But I didn't understand something. I think he was the boss there, if memory serves me right.

"Did you allow it?" I asked indignantly. It made me shudder to think that such things were going on there, even though in our world now, evil lurked everywhere. I guess it was just that Donghyuck was part of that company and a prisoner of the underground, where the density of degenerates per square meter was disturbingly unnatural.

"None of my business" Steven washed hands very quickly. Of course, if someone couldn't defend themselves against rape, then they couldn't defend themselves against death in the forest either. A wonderful cause and effect relationship. The weaklings sifted out even faster, Steven had less to do afterwards.

"What does this have to do with Hyuck?" I thought with obvious concern. Steven just shook head in denial before answering. He probably wanted to spare me the wait for declaration that my boyfriend has more than one trauma in this category.

"He really liked Hyuck, which is why he just watched him at first, probably. Thought it was an easy target because Donghyuck wasn't doing anything that would indicate that you have to be careful around him" man shrugged as if wasn't surprised at the asshole. "You see, Donghyuck never used force. He could but he didn't use it." Steven spread hands helplessly to the side, as if he wanted it to be completely different.  As if he wished it were otherwise. "Hyuck avoided body contact. No one knows how he survived woods. I don't know either. No one saw him killing but somehow all people died there," Steven laughed, taking out a pack of cigarettes. He glanced inside. I guess that meant we were moving from the basement to the surface soon.

"And what about this guy?" I asked because I felt Steven was about to run away from main topic into the world of his own memories. The underworld theme is something he never got a chance to work through because of the seal of secrecy that hung over it. He was visibly relieved when Donghyuck managed to take the burden of silence off him. Even so, he was still reluctant to talk about the old days. Hyuck the same. As if the experiences of the underground were such a traumatic issue that the very thought of those times blocked them, took away words, erased memory, suspended in a void.

"He was the only exception. Everyone saw him die," he said, hiding cigarettes. But he did pick up a pen. This topic excited and unnerved him. I, on the other hand, sat quietly in Donghyuck's chair, taking advantage of his absence today. He was doing something in the field, but I didn't even know what. "From time to time we organized fights in the ring. In short, they often fought to death there." Steven shrugged as if it was nothing out of the ordinary. And there was me on the other side -  with each such story more and more wondering how my boyfriend survived in this jungle full of degenerates and murderers. "Donghyuck would rather try to make someone unconscious, never kill. He only really got aggressive when someone touched him without permission. At other times he was always as docile as a lamb." man smiled to himself. I didn't enjoy anything about this story. "I don't really know what happened then because it was a fight where I thought Donghyuck wouldn't survive this time and he acted like he didn't want to go on living himself..." Steven suddenly hit a very dark tone, like a vivid memory this really made him very sad. I didn't know how to feel about this either. The Donghyuck I know gets as much out of life as he can with a smile on face and never gives up. I felt like I was listening to someone else's life story. Some stranger to me. "He was barely standing and literally dripping blood. But Fin then said something to him, I don't know what, because it was always loud and I was watching from the side..." my friend frowned, thinking deeply about something. Finally, he sighed heavily and shook head in denial. A pack of cigarettes appeared in hand again. "Donghyuck broke his neck. That was the first and last time I personally saw him killing someone" Steven announced and got up, immediately heading for the exit. My next questions, if I had any, would not have reached him by now.