Sweetheart (Minsung)

38. Lies

Everything hurts. Everything aches. He has to put all his strength into just wrenching his eyes open. The room is dark and cold, the floor being no exception. Jisung groaned as he sat up. It felt like he had just been hit by a truck and then unceremoniously dumped on the floor.

He looked around as his senses slowly started coming back to him. It was very dark, the only light being a small window above him that casted a shadow nearby. Ahead, old, wooden steps led to a door where a sliver of a warm glow poked through underneath.

It smelled musty. The air was stale, and there was a slight scent of mold. Nothing looked unstained in this place. Nothing smelled hygenic either. As if it had been made years ago and never cleaned, or even entered.

Jisung looked down, seeing the chain that had been wrapped around both wrists multiple times, tying them together. He followed the rusty metal, seeing it attached to the wall with about a meter of give. He was sitting on a dirty, stained blanket in the corner of the small room.

The rest of the room was empty except for a few cardboard boxes and cockroaches and mice scuttling around and making him flinch. The boy always hated animals like that. Ones that could easily crawl up your body.

He screamed when a rodent crawled over his foot, or at least he tried to. All that came out was a small, pained squeak. His throat hurt and he was dehydrated. Who knows how long he's been knocked out. It could be minutes, hours, days even weeks. 

Tears came to his eyes at the thought of having already been locked in here for ages. How long could he endure it? The silence was deafening, and he had to sing songs in his head to keep from going insane.

The time seemed to stretch on forever. A second felt like a minute, a minute like an hour, an hour like a day. He had no indication of how much time had passed of him just sitting, curled up in the corner. He soon grew hungry, the sounds of his stomach now filling the silent room.

Jisung leaned his head against the wall and let the tears fall. He stared at the ceiling, trying to count all the cracks, mold and spiders on it that eventually got lost in the swamp of darkness. Every time he did, he tried again to look even further into it, giving up when the fear took over his mind.

That was probably the worst part for him. Not being able to see the other corner of the room, no matter how much his eyes adjusted. Who knows what could be lurking there.

Was this all a part of Eun's torturous plan? To break him mentally until he was nothing? Was he going to rebuild him, as if he hadn't been the one to make him like this? Or was it just to let him wither away and die. Maybe it was just to let him drown in his own fear.

A creak from nearby made his head snap up and eyes widen, soon squinting from the sudden light. He hid his face in his knees as footsteps neared him.

"Look at me." Eun's voice boomed from above, a sudden contrast to the silence he had been stuck in. It hurt his ears, making them throb with the difference. When Jisung didn't look up, his hair was harshly grabbed and pulled back, forcing him to look.

"Open your mouth." Dazed, the younger did as told and water was poured down his aching throat. The relief was indescribable, his sandpaper throat finally being hydrated. His never-ending thirst finally being fulfilled.

Before he knew it, there was no more. The bottle done. Some dribbled down his chin, a large portion having tipped on his shirt. He wiped his chin with his hand and licked it, chasing that indescribable feeling to no avail.

Across from him, Eun sat down. He placed a small bowl of rice on the floor. Jisung eyed it suspiciously, but he picked it up anyway. The boy ate it in a few bites, not caring if it was poisoned or not. He would rather die from that than die from hunger, thirst or his own fear or insanity.

He placed the bowl back on the floor when he'd emptied it and stared at his ex.

"Hope you're having fun." Eun spoke up after a quiet couple moments. Jisung was taken aback, he couldn't tell from his tone his intentions, but the simple phrase was enough for him to get angry at him again.

"Why?" He muttered quietly. "Why are you doing this?" Eun laughed in his face, throwing his head back as if the boy had said something hilarious. He turned back to him.

"Because I love you."

Jisung definitely wasn't expecting that answer. He was thinking something more on the lines of hate or revenge. But not love. The elder must've seen his confusion because he explained further.

"You left me when I have been nothing but the best boyfriend to you. I intend to keep you down here until you learn your lesson and I kill the guy you've been living with. I'll probably burn down the factory while I'm at it too."

He looked at him with horror. How could someone who supposedly loved him do this? And the thought of Minho lying dead, covered in blood made him want to throw up the small amount of food he'd eaten. Could he give in? Relent to the person he hated most in the world?

Eun laughed again at the mental battle he was having with himself and stood up, ready to walk away and leave the younger alone again.

"Wait!" Jisung called out, voice croaky again. The elder had a smirk and cocked an eyebrow.

"How long have I been here?" The boy dreaded the answer, but at the same time every fiber in his being wanted to know.

"I dragged you here two and half days ago. You woke up two days ago." It felt like everything shattered again. He has been without Minho for that long? All the endless hours he felt like he spent down here were only two days?

Eun cackled again and left, closing the door and drenching the room in black again. Jisung laid down, trying to get somewhat comfortable as he let the tears slide down his cheeks. He didn't know exactly why he was crying, there were so many reasons battling in his head.

The one that made the most sense, the one that stuck out the most, the one he couldn't stop thinking about came to the front of the raging storm.

Minho.