| Poison | 🔞 |

Chapter 11

Another week had passed since the two settled in back at home together, all seemed to be going well, or so they thought. Seonghwa was recovering pretty well, his wound no longer hurt that bad unless direct pressure was added onto it. Hongjoong, well, that was different. While he seemed to be showing progress, that was a facade he put on for Seonghwa so he didn't worry.

The treatment he was receiving was helping, but not to the extent that he wanted to. Hongjoong understood that things like this would take months, possibly years to recover from, but he was becoming increasingly impatient with the slow progress of it all. As much as he tried to hide it from his lover, Hongjoong felt himself slipping again, and he didn't know what was going to happen once he let himself slip.

One morning, Hongjoong had slept in Seonghwa's bed the night before, so he'd awoken engulfed by the arms of his lover holding him from behind. Hongjoong rubbed his eyes gently before he looked to the clock beside the bed on the nightstand. He noticed it was only 5:45 in the morning, but instead of trying to fall back asleep, he decided he would take a bath instead. 

Quietly and carefully, he managed to snake his way out of his lover's arms without waking him. All Seonghwa did was groan slightly and roll over onto his other side. Hongjoong made his way into the bathroom, he pushed the door to shut it, hearing the soft click as the door latched shut. Hongjoong made his way over to the sink, kneeling down to the cabinet as he opened it, then pulled out an orange bottle of his medication. He shut the cabinet before he stood up straight, uncapping the bottle.

Hongjoong hesitated for a moment as he stared at the bottle full of pills, invasive thoughts beginning to eat away at him. Finally, he just quickly dumped two pills into his hand, tossing them into his mouth and swallowing them without any water. Hongjoong threw the pills back under the sink, then leaned on the edge of the counter as he sighed out. 

Hongjoong stared at himself in the mirror for a while, except the person looking back at him seemed foreign, like he wasn't staring at his own reflection, instead, he was staring in the eyes of someone else. He suddenly reared back a fist like he was going to punch the mirror, but he stopped himself. He began to shake slightly and breathe a bit hard.

"Fuck me..." Hongjoong whispered to himself as he pushed off the counter. "Keep it together, Hongjoong. You'll make it through this."

The red-haired male then made his way over to the large clawfoot bathtub, thinking the bath would make him feel better as he waited for the medication to take effect. He stripped off the loose t-shirt, tossing it to the floor, then stripped off the pajama pants and boxers he was wearing. Hongjoong leaned down to turn on the faucet of the tub, turning the knob to warm as he felt the water.

Once the water was filled up enough in the tub, he shut off the water, then slowly lowered himself down into the tub. He sighed out and closed his eyes as he leaned back against the headrest.

Hongjoong hadn't been in there long when he all of a sudden got dragged into one of his episodes again. He was back at the alley with San Choi, he could feel every blow collide into him like he was there all over again. Then he began seeing blood, lots of blood. He saw himself facing a single mirror in total darkness, facing his own reflection. The man he saw in the mirror had a deranged, wicked smile upon his face, blood dripping from his hands and face. Then suddenly, the mirror shattered into a million pieces. Gallons and gallons of thick, crimson liquid began rushing at him like a break in a dam. No matter how hard he tried to fight against it, he was overtaken by all of it, engulfed by the powerful flood of blood. The taste of copper in his mouth as the flood forced down his throat and up his nose as he desperately tried to gasp for air.

That's when Hongjoong suddenly snapped back to reality, he woke up coughing up water and gasping for breath. He then realized he was laying on the tile floor, Seonghwa was above him, it seemed the blonde-haired male had performed CPR to bring him back. There were tears in Seonghwa's eyes as he cupped his hands on Hongjoong's cheeks as he continued to cough.