BOUND BY OBSESSION|| L.HS X S.JY

F I V E

CHAPTER FIVE: CAGED IN FEAR

'AURTHOR'

The days passed in a blur for Jaeyun. He was trapped in an endless cycle of fear and confusion. Heeseung barely spoke to him, but when he did, his words were laced with a dangerous calm that left Jaeyun feeling like he was walking on a thin line between life and death.

It was suffocating.

Heeseung would come into the room, stare at Jaeyun with those cold, calculating eyes, and then leave, as if he enjoyed watching Jaeyun’s anxiety build. He’d sometimes trail his fingers along Jaeyun’s arm, just to see him flinch, a sick smile tugging at the corner of his lips when Jaeyun recoiled in fear. But Heeseung didn’t hurt him physically—not yet.

It was worse because Jaeyun didn’t know when or if it would happen. Every touch, every look, every moment in Heeseung’s presence was a waiting game. And in that waiting, Jaeyun’s mind would spiral into terror.

Heeseung wasn’t kind. He was cold, detached, and yet… obsessed. The way he watched Jaeyun—constantly, as though he was a possession, an object Heeseung wanted to keep but didn’t quite know how to handle. Heeseung’s obsession was suffocating, and Jaeyun could feel it creeping closer every day, choking him bit by bit.

Sunoo, the bodyguard, was no comfort either. He was always nearby, watching Jaeyun with the same calculating eyes, but his gaze was more practical, as if Jaeyun were a potential problem he needed to solve rather than a threat. Sunoo never interacted with him beyond the occasional warning to stay out of trouble, but the presence of yet another silent observer was just as unsettling.

One evening, Heeseung entered the room with a different kind of intensity. His movements were slower, more deliberate, like a predator circling its prey. He leaned against the wall, his eyes fixed on Jaeyun, who sat on the bed, heart hammering in his chest.

“He doesn’t scare you, does he?”

Jaeyun blinked, confused by the question. “Who?”

Heeseung smiled, a cold, hollow thing. “Sunghoon.”

The mention of Sunghoon’s name sent a chill down Jaeyun’s spine. He hadn’t seen the man since overhearing that conversation between him and Heeseung, but the memory of Sunghoon’s voice, dripping with venom, still haunted him. There was something off about that man, something dangerous.

“I-I don’t know him,” Jaeyun stammered, trying to keep his voice steady.

Heeseung pushed off the wall and approached Jaeyun, sitting down on the edge of the bed, far too close for comfort. Jaeyun’s instincts screamed at him to move away, but he was frozen in place as Heeseung leaned in, his breath ghosting over Jaeyun’s skin.

“You should be scared,” Heeseung murmured, his voice low, almost a whisper. “Sunghoon’s not like me.”

Jaeyun swallowed hard, his pulse racing. “What… what do you mean?”

Heeseung chuckled, and it sent a shiver down Jaeyun’s spine. “He doesn’t care about rules. He doesn’t care about boundaries.” He paused, his eyes darkening. “He’d kill you without thinking twice if it suited him.”

Jaeyun’s breath hitched. The fear that had been steadily building inside him since his kidnapping flared into full-blown panic. Heeseung, as terrifying as he was, at least seemed to have some twisted interest in keeping Jaeyun alive. But Sunghoon? Sunghoon was a different kind of monster.

“You belong to me now,” Heeseung continued, his voice tightening. “And I’ll make sure he never touches you.”

There was something possessive, almost unhinged, in Heeseung’s words, and it took everything Jaeyun had not to recoil. The weight of Heeseung’s obsession pressed down on him like a vice, suffocating him.

Jaeyun’s mouth was dry, and his voice came out in a whisper. “Why… why are you doing this?”

Heeseung’s eyes flashed with something dark, something Jaeyun couldn’t quite place. “Why?” Heeseung repeated, almost as if the question itself was foreign to him. “Because I can.”

He reached out, and Jaeyun flinched as Heeseung’s hand gently brushed against his cheek. The touch wasn’t violent, but it was suffocating in its intimacy, as though Heeseung was claiming him without saying a word.

“You’re mine, Jaeyun,” Heeseung murmured, his voice soft but filled with dangerous intent. “Don’t ever forget that.”

Jaeyun’s entire body tensed, his breath caught in his throat. There was no escape from this. Heeseung’s obsession was growing more intense by the day, and with Sunghoon lurking in the shadows, Jaeyun had no idea how to navigate the twisted game he had been dragged into.

Heeseung finally pulled away, standing up and looking down at Jaeyun with a satisfied smirk. “Get some sleep,” he said, as though everything he had just said was perfectly normal. “You’re going to need your strength.”

Jaeyun stared at Heeseung, feeling as though his mind was unraveling. “For what?” he asked, his voice barely audible.

Heeseung didn’t answer. He simply walked to the door, leaving Jaeyun alone in the stifling room once again. The click of the lock echoed in the silence, and Jaeyun was left sitting on the bed, trying to piece together the fragments of his sanity.

His heart was still pounding, his mind racing with thoughts of escape, of Sunghoon, of Heeseung’s possessive, suffocating obsession. He knew now, without a doubt, that he was caught in a web of power, control, and danger. And he had no idea how to survive it.

As Jaeyun lay down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling, his thoughts drifted back to Sunghoon. Heeseung’s warning about him echoed in his mind. Was Sunghoon really as dangerous as Heeseung claimed? Or was there something more to this rivalry between the cousins that Jaeyun didn’t yet understand?

And what about Sunoo? He had seen the way Sunoo watched Heeseung, the subtle tension in his posture whenever Heeseung was near. Was Sunoo loyal to Heeseung, or did he have his own agenda?

The questions piled up, suffocating Jaeyun with their weight, but there were no answers. Not yet.

All he knew was that he was trapped, and the people around him—Heeseung, Sunghoon, Sunoo—were playing a game far beyond his comprehension. He was nothing more than a pawn, caught in the middle of their twisted world, and the more time he spent in Heeseung’s grip, the more he feared he would never escape.

Jaeyun closed his eyes, trying to calm his racing heart. But no matter how hard he tried, sleep wouldn’t come.

All he could think about was Heeseung’s whispered words, the possessive look in his eyes.

“You're mine, jaeyun"

And Jaeyun knew, with a growing sense of dread, that Heeseung meant every word.