Jinyoung couldn't help but sit uncomfortably in the front seat of the SUV while Hoshi drove as fast as he could towards the Tuan family mansion. The man that had been with him when he found Jinyoung and Jackson was repeatedly checking Jackson over silently to find some way that he could keep the boy alive and breathing.
"Is he gonna be okay?" Jinyoung asked, biting his nails as he looked back again.
"From what I can tell, yes. He wasn't poisoned, my best guess at this point is that it was some sort of sleeping drug," the boy replied, looking at him with a sigh. He sat back and crossed his arms over his chest, looking at Jinyoung.
"I believe he'll be fine but I can't tell you for sure whether or not he'll be fine in an hour or not without a professional opinion."
"Professional?!" Jinyoung barked, making Hoshi flinch for a moment before he finally turned to the street that led up to Mark's mansion. "You mean that I've been letting you look at my Jackson and you don't even know what you're doing?!"
"Jinyoung, calm down," Hoshi ordered, "This is Lee Chan or Dino as me and my friends call him, he's four years younger than Bambam and me, he's going into medical school in America soon so he knows a lot more than the two of us."
Jinyoung looked back at Dino, suspicion crawling in his eyes. Dino was more muscular than he was but that was no reason for him to start trusting him with the love of his life.
Mark ran to the car with an older man at his side as the car pulled up to the gate, throwing open the wrought iron bars and opening the car door to get Jackson. Jinyoung slid out of the car and hurried with Mark and Dino and the doctor into the house.
Dino was right. It was simply a sleeping drug that he had ingested through a drink. Jinyoung was still worried and he was convinced that whoever had given it to him had been manipulated by Mr. Wang, leading Jinyoung to think that the person it was must've been one of their friends considering that Jackson's dad only wanted him dead.
"Jinyoung," Jaebum breathed heavily, having run up the hill from where the bus stopped about a mile down the road, "Why did Mark text me and not the group chat?"
"Because," Jinyoung replied, looking up at Jaebum, Mark, and Hoshi, "Hoshi texted Mark not to tell anyone but you."
The four looked at the doctor as he left and bowed at him in thanks, Jinyoung standing to run into the room Jackson was in.
"Ah!" Mark grabbed his wrist and pulled him back, staring him down, "Jackson's going to be asleep for a while so you need to come with us and tell us exactly what the hell is going on and everything that you know."
Jinyoung opened his mouth to protest and then groaned slightly, turning and blowing a kiss towards Jackson's open bedroom before reluctantly walking with his three friends down the stairs to the living room.
Mark's father was sitting there, sipping his tea and reading the report in his hands when the four walked in, sitting two to a couch. He set the paper aside and leaned forwards, waiting for Jinyoung to begin.
"We...we had just said goodbye to Hoshi and I set Jackson in the car. He looked like he'd been tired since we got to the cafe so I figured it would be best if...if I drove," Jinyoung started, playing with the end of the sleeve of his jacket.
"I helped Jackson into the car and was going around the back of the car to put his jacket in the backseat when a man grabbed me. He..he was bigger than I was and he was stronger and I struggled and I was so...I was so scared that I'd never see him again," his voice turned into a whimper and he pushed the palms of his hands onto his eyes.
Jaebum rubbed his back comfortingly as Jinyoung took in a deep breath through his nose and wiped his eyes for a moment, apologizing to his friends and Mark's father before continuing.
"Jackson was running towards us but he looked like he was drunk and then...there was a thud and the man turned around, showing me Jackson passed out on the ground--" he cut himself off and took in a shaky breath.
Mark's father nodded and replied, "No doubt one of Mr. Wang's servants, I'm sure. Did he say anything?"
Jinyoung looked at Hoshi and the younger turned to Mr. Tuan. "From what I heard, one of the youngest three of their group of friends is being manipulated as well. Youngjae, Bambam, and Yugyeom, but the man didn't say anything about which one."
"Why?" Mark asked, confusion clouding his features. If the man was speaking freely to Jinyoung because he believed that Jackson was taken care of, he had no reason to not sell out the member that was being manipulated.
"I..I uh...I hit him with a dented bin lid," Hoshi replied with a light laugh.
"It was dented after you hit the guy," Dino spoke, walking in with a tray of drinks at his command.
"Not true," Hoshi muttered, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting. Dino rolled his eyes and set the tray down, passing them out before looking for somewhere to sit, squeezing into the couch with Mark and Hoshi.
Jinyoung tapped the hot tea in his hands nervously, biting his lip as the only thing that he was thinking was that someone actually almost succeeded in killing Jackson.
Paranoia was beginning to set in, mixing with anxiety into an unhealthy smoothie that he wished he could throw up.
Everyone could see that Jinyoung was uncomfortable at the moment and they were sitting in a way that they knew what was coming.
Denying the inevitable seemed to be the best option at the moment.
"Can I go back to Jackson please?" Jinyoung finally broke the silence with a soft whimper.
Mr. Tuan nodded, murmuring "Of course" and watching as Jaebum quickly took the tea away from him for the younger to stand quickly.
Jinyoung ran from the room and up the stairs, remembering step-for-step the way to Jackson's room. He burst through the door and only then did he allow himself to breathe.
He closed the door behind him and kicked off his shoes, peeling off his shirt and lying on the bed. He curled closer into Jackson and pulled the blonde boy's arm around his waist.
"Please wake up soon baby," he murmured, "I don't want to do this alone."
He felt weak, drained, and closed his eyes as he snuggled in with Jackson. He started to think, this time leaving the paranoia downstairs, going stale along with the tea in the forgotten porcelain cup.
They had been children when they first met, Jinyoung having been stronger than Jackson at the time. Mr. Wang had hired him to take care of the blonde-boy but in a way that he could still inform him of Jackson's developments.
If he wanted to know about Jackson's movements so badly, how could he not want Jackson as a son? How could he just brush the boy off like nothing more than a long-forgotten poem burned to the ashes of time?
What bastard gives up on his child?
Jinyoung turned over and looked at the flawless face of the boy that he loved. He knew that he'd loved Jackson for years, many many years, but he could never pin a name to it until they got older. He basically grew up with Jackson's personality developing with his own.
Thinking further, he couldn't help but see that some of Jackson's anger issues came from his father. Whether it was genetic or something that was passed on by the environment that he was brutally tortured through was something that was yet to be seen. However, it would be a logical assumption that the anger came from a burning desire to impress his father, to gain even a shred of his attention.
It's one thing to abandon your child but it's quite another to abandon them and then continue to be one of the biggest influences in that child's life.
That's torturous.
(Dear God, I'm lacking inspiration... I'm sorry, this was pretty bad, you deserve better)
