𝐅𝐢𝐯𝐞 || 𝐉𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐨 ✓

10: Payback

Meanwhile, the two men in the car had reached the hospital. It was nighttime and the old rundown hospital engulfed the surroundings in black. It definitely wasn't a nice place to be in. 

One guy stepped out of the car while the others parked the car as close to the hospital building as possible. The man opened the entrance of the hospital, wincing at the fluorescent lights. The receptionist was almost asleep, but noticed him. 

"Hello sir, how may I be of a help?" She asked sleepily. 

"I am here to visit my mother, Park Yunhwa."

"So you are Mr Lee Jaewon?" The man nodded.

"She is located on the first floor, right here. Go straight down the corridor and walk to the fifteenth room." Then she excused herself, muttering that she had to use the washroom. 

The man followed her instructions, counting the number of rooms he passed by and stopped at number 01-15. He twisted the doorknob and entered a small room.

On the bed lay the thinnest lady he'd ever seen. Dark locks spilled across her pillow, wrinkles all over her body, arms and legs reduced to bones and skin. A breathing tube was inserted in her nose, and other tubes and drips were connected to her arms, like she was an insect stuck in a spiderweb. A thick set of glasses sat by the bedside table.

"Mom." The man called softly.

"S-son? Jaewon ah?" The old woman stirred and tried to sit up but failed. 

"Yes it's me, Jaewon." The man muttered. 

The man produced a coil of rope inconspicuously from his pocket. "We're going on a little trip, Mom," he said, advancing upon the woman.

"H-huh?" The woman gasped when he started binding her arms and feet together. "S-son, what are you doing?" She didn't know what was happening. Her own son was doing this to her? It didn't make sense. She struggled but it was no match against the buff man. 

"Let's go." The man placed a tape over her mouth and carried her up. The woman screamed, muffled, as she wriggled haplessly against the ropes, chafing her delicate skin and making her wrists and ankles red. 

The man remembered the tubes connecting her to the bed. Without warning, he yanked the IV drip tube out of her hand, as well as all the other tubes. Blood seeped out of the wounds, but he didn't care. He needed her out of the hospital as soon as possible.

The remaining tube stood. The one that gave her oxygen to breathe. By now, the old lady was in so much pain she could barely think. Tears spilled out of her eyes as she muttered, "Son, son, why are you doing this to me?" 

Breathing a deep breath, he grasped the long, thin tube that gave the old woman the oxygen to breathe. 

And pulled it, disconnecting it from her. 

She cried out, eyes red rimmed and gasping for air. Her chest went up and down violently, as the man opened the door and checked the hallway. Thank god, there is no one in sight, he thought. Sprinting out of the hospital with a wheezing, dying mother in his arms, he hardly heard the woman's calls.

"Son... I love you... remember that..." 

***

After running for five minutes, Jisoo could feel the man catching up with her. Her lungs felt like they were seared with acid, and she couldn't take it any longer. It took a lot for her to bite the guy, let alone ensure he was unconscious. She hadn't eaten for so long. She felt like collapsing. It was only the momentum that carried her along, together with Jin's hand pulling her.

Any moment now. 

Jin noticed Jisoo struggling and pulled her hand. "Jisoo, just a while more, please. The guy is catching up." 

But Jisoo shook her head. "I-I can't do this. Run on your own, Jin. T-The game's over for me." Her voice was barely audible. 

With that, she dropped down to the floor, eyes closed. Jin was yanked down beside her. He glanced at the man grinning evilly, less than ten metres away from them. 

The man who could kill them because he had a knife. 

Jin felt useless. Jisoo had saved them from one guy, the other guy was far away, wincing and holding on to his crotch, the other guy coming to kill them. 

How could he protect her? Bite them too? He didn't know how in the world Jisoo could do that, but he knew he couldn't. He couldn't defend her. He couldn't even defend himself. 

It was just another wrong he had made. 

A tear left his eye.