Deep End | Hyunlix

40

Three days. Seventy-two hours. Felix hadn't heard a word from Hyunjin.

The silence gnawed at him, sharper with each passing hour. His phone, which he had checked more times than he cared to admit, remained eerily still. No missed calls. No messages. Just an unrelenting, suffocating emptiness.

Felix tried to tell himself to stop waiting. Stop checking. Stop expecting anything. He could almost hear his own voice in his head, telling him to let go. But every time he looked at the screen, his chest tightened. The emptiness felt like a physical presence, sitting on his ribs, squeezing tighter with each silent moment.

The first night, he tried to sleep, but his mind wouldn't quiet. It was restless, churned with questions. Did I  do something wrong? Did I push Hyunjin away? The second night, he barely managed to close his eyes at all, tossing and turning under the weight of the silence. After hours of trying to reason with himself, he picked up his phone again.

Felix: Hyunjin, please. Just answer me. I need to talk to you.

The message remained unread. And with it, his hope drained, leaving only the gnawing anxiety in its wake.

He felt it then something wasn't right. Felix had never been a patient man, especially when it came to things that mattered. And Hyunjin had become one of those things. Felix was far too aware of the fact that the longer the silence stretched, the more it felt like he was walking blindfolded through a maze of unanswered questions.

What was going on with Hyunjin? Was he ignoring me out of spite? Or worse, did something happen to him? The thought curled in Felix's mind, a thread of dread pulling him deeper into his own anxiety.

He couldn't shake the feeling that Hyunjin wasn't just avoiding him, he was hiding something. That thought made his stomach churn.

Felix had always trusted his instincts, a skill honed over years of working as a field agent. He knew how to track people, how to read a situation, how to follow a lead. He'd spent hours hunting down high-value targets, watching, waiting, and striking with precision. But Hyunjin wasn't just another target. Felix couldn't get a clear read on him. It wasn't just that Hyunjin was elusive. It was the way he moved, the way he disappeared. It felt like the older man was trying to erase himself from Felix's world altogether.

Felix had staked out HH Art, sitting in his car, watching the gallery's windows for any sign of Hyunjin. But nothing. No late-night visits. No hints of him lingering in the back of the building. The lights burned late into the night, but there was no one in sight.

Felix drummed his fingers against the steering wheel, his chest tight with frustration. His mind raced, spinning through all the possibilities. He had no leads, no sign of where Hyunjin had disappeared to. Every moment felt like a dead end.

He thought about running a trace. Felix had access to systems that could pinpoint someone's location in seconds. Tracking Hyunjin's phone would be easy, too easy. The temptation was there. His fingers hovered over the keyboard, fighting the impulse. If he tracked Hyunjin, he would find him, but he'd also cross a line. A line that separated his job, his duty from the man who had unwittingly carved himself into Felix's mind.

Felix closed his eyes for a moment, drawing in a deep, shaky breath. Stop. Think. Don't do this. His mind, though, was louder than his voice. But you're running out of time.

With a reluctant exhale, he gave in. His fingers flew over the screen, pulling up the secure trace application. He typed in Hyunjin's number, his heart pounding as the map loaded, the coordinates slowly blinking into focus.

It didn't take long for the screen to flicker, the dot stabilizing. Felix's stomach twisted as the location resolved.

Hyunjin wasn't at HH Art.

His heart skipped a beat. No, that wasn't it. The coordinates weren't anywhere near the gallery. It wasn't even close to any of the places Felix had expected. Instead, the location settled on a familiar area, Snake Eye territory. Felix's jaw clenched.

Hyunjin was there.

Felix's mind reeled, his thoughts spinning like a tornado. Snake Eye territory. That wasn't just a location, it was a war zone. A place Felix knew far too well. The Snake Eye Clan had its hands in everything, from smuggling to illegal gambling, from protection rackets to arms dealing. It was a criminal empire built on fear. And Hyunjin was nowhere near the safe, quiet art world that Felix had believed him to be. Hyunjin wasn't where he was supposed to be, he was somewhere dangerous. Somewhere that Felix had spent years infiltrating and hunting.

Why was Hyunjin there? Felix's thoughts whirled, battling each other. Was he meeting someone? Was he in trouble? His grip on the steering wheel tightened, knuckles going white. Felix's instincts screamed at him. There were too many unknowns. Too many variables. And he couldn't afford any more uncertainty.

Felix's mind wandered, memories surfacing without warning. The way Hyunjin had looked at him, the way their bodies had tangled up in shared vulnerability. But now, those memories felt distant, like he was remembering someone who didn't belong in the world he was racing through. Felix's heart thudded painfully, thinking back to when he had been captured. Felix's pulse quickened at the thought, his mind flashing back to the dark, cramped room he had been kept in when he was kidnapped.

The memory was vivid, searing. The damp, stale air of the room. The clinking of metal chains. The smell of blood, his own lingering in the air. It had been a different time, a different life. But the panic, the helplessness, that feeling of being swallowed up by something too big to fight, that feeling was something Felix had buried deep.

But now, it was creeping back, wrapping its cold fingers around his chest.

He hadn't thought about that time in months. He hadn't wanted to. But the truth was, no matter how much he tried to forget, the fear never truly left him. It never would. Felix had never fully recovered from the trauma. That part of his past had shaped him in ways he couldn't articulate. He had been broken then. And now, as he drove through the streets, with only a map and a pinpointed location, it felt like history was repeating itself. Hyunjin could be in danger, and Felix wasn't sure if he could save him.

Felix's breath hitched as the car slid through traffic, speeding faster, his mind caught between two worlds. One where Hyunjin was just another art-loving enigma and the other, the dangerous one, where Hyunjin's life was a threat just like Felix's had once been.

The coordinates weren't random. They never were. This wasn't just about tracking Hyunjin down. This wasn't just about confronting the older man for avoiding him.

This was bigger than that. Hyunjin had disappeared for a reason. And Felix was going to find out why.

—————
1189 words