Blood Bound (ENHYPEN) [Jayhoon | Sunghoon Centric]

Chapter 5

Jay pulls the bathroom door close behind him with a soft click, fingers lingering over the metal for a brief moment. He snatches a hand towel and walks across the room drying his hands with unhurried but deliberate movements, and yanks the bedroom door open. In the dimly lit corridor stands Heeseung, holding up a few grocery bags. He gives Jay a faint smile.

"I went to his room but nobody was there, so I assumed... yeah,"

Jay steps aside to let him in. Heeseung places the grocery bags on the table and sags tiredly by the foot of Jay's bed. Jay closes the door and chucks the towel in the laundry basket to join him, bracing his weight on his forearms on his thighs and lacing his fingers, copying him.

They are still wearing their high school reunion clothes, rumpled and at different stages of undress.

"You went grocery shopping looking like that?"

Heeseung's hands have stubborn remnants of crusted blood, a few apparent smudges on his shirt collar and above his brow left by his own fingers. His hair looks a little scruffy like he's run his knuckles through them several times.

"No, Jake did," he says, running his fingers through them once again. A nervous tick he rarely shows only when he's agitated. He goes quiet like he's lost in his thoughts for a while, until, "He's right, you know?" he looks at the bathroom door and back at Jay. "This is a mistake."

"..."

"You already knew that, but you did it anyway."

Jay fiddles with the ring on his index finger, staring at the plush carpet beneath their feet. The delectable scent of blood is still prominent, air heavy with the promise of something forbiddingly sweet. It has left its imprint over the entire left wing of the mansion, just as badly as it has imprinted in their bones.

"What are we going to do about him? We can't keep him here locked up forever."

Jay opens his mouthꟷ

"Jay, please," Heeseung sighs in exasperation. Jay immediately closes his mouth. "He has no idea who we are, let alone who he was and what he did. He's not our Sunghoon. You can't hold him culpable for what his past life did, you know that don't you?"

"I'm not a child hyung, you know why I had to do it."

"Holding someone captive, forcing them to resurface their memories to take them against their will is too cruel, no matter how you look at it."

"What do you think I should have done?" Jay quips harshly but softens the next second with an exhale. "It's only a matter of time before he's going to rememberꟷif he hasn't already. If I didn't get him somebody else would have. We are not the only ones he defied to protect Sooha."

Heeseung flinches like he was slapped.

"Stop it." He quickly tears his eyes away from Jay's to avoid the picture of Sunghoon, forced to his knees, begging not to hurt herꟷSunghoon now, dangling by Jay's grip, still begging not to hurt her. Sunghoon's misery, Jay's anger coupled with his own bitterness that surges in response all at once leaves him reeling. "Is thatꟷ? Are you sure he was talking aboutꟷ" he croaks, suddenly dry-mouthed.

"I'm not completely sure," Jay sighs, straightening up. "But who else could it be if not her? He has no one in the orphanage, but that's beside the point. He recognized me, he wasn't seeing me for the first time. The look on his face..." Jay trails, glaring at the walls absentmindedly. "It made me snap."

Heeseung blinks out of his reverie. "Wait, did you say orphanage? He lived in an orphanage all this time? How long have you known?"

"A while. Nearly a month. I was out hunting beyond woods, leagues away from Anyang." Jay huffs at the memory. "He literally tumbled at my feet with scraped knee caps, can you believe it? If I wanted I could have killed him then. Or the next four times I caught him zoning outꟷno regard for surroundings and so fucking clueless. He makes such an easy prey."