Hostage {ℍ𝕐𝕌ℕ𝕊𝕌ℕ𝔾} -- DISCONTINUED

Chapter Nine

By the time they arrived at the Hwang family manor, it was already well into the morning. They hadn't run into any more trouble on the road, which Jisung did find strange; it almost seemed like the men chasing them had given up.

He was pretty sure his bullet wound had opened up again, probably bleeding through the bandages already. He'd gotten used to the pain over the duration of their long drive – they really had been in the middle of nowhere – but he was exhausted, his arm mostly numb now.

Hyunjin seemed equally as exhausted, dark rings surrounding his eyes as he pulled up into the long, sloping driveway leading up to the manor. Jisung knew where it was, obviously – they all knew where one another lived (it was hard to keep things like this a secret in their age of digital media); another sort of insurance against once another.

However, the gang leader didn't get out of the car immediately. Instead, his narrowed gaze was focused intently on the front doors of the house. Moments later, he turned to face him, a frown tugging at his lips. "Why did you come back for me?" he asked, a tinge of suspicion coating his words, but, beyond that, there was genuine confusion.

He quirked a brow at him, not having the energy to reply with one of his typical remarks. It definitely would've been easier to ditch him and run, but... "It didn't sit well with me." He shrugged, too tired to make up a lie that would be convincing enough. "For the time being, we're allies. We should act like it."

He pushed open the door, unbuckling his seatbelt gingerly, sliding out as carefully as he could. The cold morning air was refreshing after having been cramped up in that car for so long. He stumbled slightly, light-headed and dizzy – he should've guessed this would happen sooner rather than later.

The sound of a second car door closing filled the mostly-silent air, and he looked up just in time to see Hyunjin stop in front of him, still frowning, glaring at a random bush. He extended a hand towards him, though he really seemed like he'd rather be doing anything else. "I'll help you," he grumbled.

"It's fine," Jisung responded, taking a step forward. That was a mistake. He nearly toppled over, black stars dotting his vision; he hadn't lost that much blood, had he? Hyunjin reached out, seizing him before he could crumple to the ground like a ragdoll.

He flinched at the contact, discomfort crawling down his spine as he grimaced. Nonetheless, he knew he wouldn't be able to get very far in his current state without the help. "I'll call our physician so we can get you stitched up..." Hyunjin was saying something else, but it all drowned out into white noise, Jisung barely registering anything said.

His head drooped, and, before he knew it, his consciousness slipped away from him.

~#~#~#~#~#~

When Jisung awoke, he was in a room he didn't recognize; it was spacious, nearly resembling his room back home. There was a desk pushed up in the corner of the room, thick, heavy curtains drawn over the windows to block out the light filtering in, a digital clock resting on the nightstand beside his bed.

A strange sort of relief had washed over his wound, the pain nothing more than a dull ache, now, but from the fogginess of his mind he automatically assumed he'd been put on some pretty heavy painkillers.

He leaned back, blinking blearily at the ceiling, his eyes too unfocused to read the numbers displayed in red. This had to be the Hwang manor, somewhere. He closed his eyes, drug-induced fatigue washing over him.

Maybe he should go back to sleep...

Just then, the door to the room opened and in walked Hyunjin, followed by a middle-aged man dressed in a white lab coat. The word doctor drifted vaguely through is mind, but it didn't quite click.

His view was muddled, his thoughts barely making any sense at all by then. He startled as the unknown man took a step forward, lips spreading into a smile – the man in front of him blended in and out of a vision of another man, another man wearing a white coat.

He reached forward, and Jisung lashed out, pushing himself away, his eyes growing wide. "Don't touch me," he said – or perhaps shouted, everything sounded as though it were underwater right then. The man in front of him morphed into someone else, someone he recognized too well, someone that still plagued his dreams.

His words slurred together as he spoke, his heart hammering into his ribcage so intensely he felt as though it would burst out. "Get away from me, you bastard, I won't let you..." A single name flashed through his mind as he stared at the man. Kim Doyun.

Phantom pain crept up his limbs as he kept them both away from him, blinking rapidly. He was mumbling incoherently, now, memories flashing behind his lids like a never-ending montage of despair, oblivious to the world around him, now.

Panic swelled in his chest in waves, constricting his movements, his thoughts, until he was unable to so much as think without hearing echoes of past memories that held him hostage in his own mind.

Soon enough, his injured body gave way, and he fell into unwitting unconsciousness once more.

~#~#~#~#~#~

Hyunjin stared at Jisung in shock; he'd just passed out again after saying a bunch of questionable things. Most of it had been unintelligible, but there were a few words he'd caught. "What the hell was that?" he asked, turning towards Park Hajun, his gang's doctor.

He was frowning, staring at Jisung with furrowed brows. "It seems to me like a response to heavy trauma. I think he might've confused me for someone else. He is heavily drugged," he muttered, bringing a hand up to his chin as his eyebrows creased further.

Hyunjin frowned, now, too, eyes falling back onto Jisung's unconscious form. Heavy trauma? Of course, the things they were exposed to in their line of work wasn't exactly normal, and most of it was graphic, but... he didn't seem the type to be affected by things like that; most of them grew accustomed to it, desensitized. And Jisung had certainly grown desensitized to gore with the way he'd handled those kidnappers.

So what the hell had happened to him to make a guy like this have such a severe reaction?

It wasn't any of his business, really, but... something about this entire situation didn't seem right. A father would never let his own son go through an experience so horrifying it left such deep scars, would he?

It was then that he realized just how little he knew about the Han family; how concealed they were compared to all the other gangs – big and small alike – in their area. He knew nothing but the things the Han family head had shared with him.

Worry gnawed at his stomach, mingling in with the dread he already felt about leaving his mother in that house, where he couldn't protect her. He needed to figure out what had happened to him – he had to find out what the Han family was really like.

How else would he be able to deal with his mother residing with them?

A/N: :)) aaaaand here we go, set-up complete

Lots of love,

~Emilie