Mi Appartieni

Chapter Three

Joshua is tightly clutching his mother's ashes to his chest as he walks through the halls of Seokmin's residence. Well, he wasn't really walking freely, he was being escorted. There were three bodyguards behind him, one on either side of him and Seokmin was in front of him.

He didn't know where he was being taken and he was too afraid to ask. Hannie. Joshua thinks, What have I gotten myself into? You were right. I should have let you come with me.

Joshua takes a deep breath. The thought of his best friend, his only family left, was enough for him to gather the courage to speak to the man who had just murdered someone in cold blood right in front of him.

He needed to know what kind of danger he was in, whether he needed to somehow send a distress signal to Seungcheol. He knew Seungcheol would send people to help him. He would do it for Joshua's sake, yes, but mainly for Jeonghan.

Joshua swallows hard, "U-Uhm, Mr. Lee?" Seokmin doesn't stop or fully look at Joshua. He does turn his head slightly though to indicate he was listening. "W-Where are you taking me?"

Seokmin pauses as he turns his head forward again, continuing to walk. "To your room." Joshua raises his eyebrows in surprise, "M-My room?" Seokmin doesn't say anything after that but a short while later they're stopping in front of a set of double doors.

Seokmin turns to Joshua, expression still stone cold, "It's late. Nearly midnight. You will spend the night here and then tomorrow at golden hour I will take you back to the field to spread your mother's ashes."

Joshua looks up at Seokmin with big eyes, becoming happy at hearing this. "After that, I will bring you back to your hotel. From there... well... we'll talk about that when the time comes." Seokmin motions for Joshua to open the doors of his room for the night. Joshua looks hesitant but after a moment he obeys.

Joshua opens the doors and lets his lips part in complete shock. Inside was quite possibly one of the most beautiful rooms he's ever seen. A large bed sat to his left up against a rustic red brick wall.

There was another set of double doors on the opposite wall that Joshua could see led to a balcony. There was an ensuite bathroom and the whole room was beautifully decorated in rustic Italian decor. The room was probably bigger than Joshua's whole apartment back in Boston.

Joshua slowly steps inside and looks around in disbelief. "Is the room satisfactory for you?" Seokmin asks. "Because if it's not I have plenty of others I can take you to-" "No, no!" Joshua says quickly as he faces Seokmin again, "This is more than enough, Mr. Lee. The room is beautiful. T-Thank you." Joshua lowers his head slightly.

He doesn't want Seokmin to think he's ungrateful in any way. He didn't want to end up like that one bodyguard. Joshua shivers at the memory of watching the bullet pierce through that man's head. He had never seen so much blood before.

Joshua keeps his eyes fixed to the floor but suddenly sees Seokmin's feet come into his line of vision. Joshua looks up and meets Seokmin's eyes again.

"Joshua." Seokmin says in a low tone, almost threatening or warning, "There's no need to be afraid of me. I'm not going to hurt you unless you give me a reason to. I hope to not see you cower in front of me again. Am I clear? Because I do not like repeating myself."

Joshua is looking up at Seokmin in disbelief. His words, although still scary and threatening, were surprisingly (slightly) sweet.

"Am I clear?" Seokmin says again with more anger in his voice. "Yes." Joshua says quickly as he nods and tries his best to relax, "Yes, Mr. Lee." Seokmin looks slightly more pleased at Joshua's subtly more relaxed body language.