POISONED YOUTH: TWISTED

CHAPTER 43

"Get Donghyuck in here."

Yoonoh ended the call and lowered his phone with a heavy sigh.

The apartment was quiet enough for him to hear her.

Yeoreum's whimpers and low groans came from the bedroom, each one carrying enough pain to make his chest tighten. He stood outside the door for a moment, staring at her with a mixture of pity and anger, because deep down, he had known this would happen. He had seen the signs building for days, watched Yeoreum become weaker while Haechan continued shutting her out, and yet he still hadn't found a way to make that stubborn boy understand what his rejection was doing to both of them.

Yeoreum was in great pain, but Haechan was suffering even more.

The consequences of ignoring a soulmate bond for too long had finally caught up with him. His body had become so weak that even breathing felt like a painful task, and the longer he remained separated from Yeoreum, the harder it became for him to fight the effects. Haechan had spent days convincing himself that staying away from her would protect her, never realizing that the bond didn't care about his intentions. It only knew that the two halves were being forced apart.

Now, both of them were paying for it.

Meanwhile, Jaemin and Mark were rushing Haechan to the apartment.

It was already one in the morning, and the streets were almost completely empty as Mark drove through the darkness. The streetlights were their only source of light beneath the cold night sky, their faint glow passing over the windows one after another as the rain slowly began to fall. Dark clouds covered the sky, heavy and restless, almost as though they were reflecting the turmoil between the two soulmates.

"Faster, Mark! Fuck, I don't even know if Yeoreum passed out too!" Jaemin shouted from the passenger seat, panic making his voice sharper than usual.

"Shut up for a minute, Jaemin!" Mark snapped, gripping the steering wheel tighter. "For all we know, I'm already ignoring every speed limit there is, and I still want to make it home alive!"

Jaemin cursed under his breath but finally fell silent. His eyes dropped to the pale boy lying across his lap.

Haechan looked nothing like the person Jaemin knew. His face was almost completely drained of color, his lips had turned purple, and his skin was so cold that Jaemin kept checking his breathing just to make sure he was still alive.

The sight made anger burn through him.

He wanted to punch Haechan, shake him, beat some sense into him—hell, part of him genuinely wanted to stab him for putting himself and Yeoreum through this. But beneath all of that anger was something much worse: helplessness. Jaemin couldn't fight whatever was happening inside Haechan's head, couldn't rip him away from the thoughts that had convinced him to abandon his soulmate, and couldn't force him to see that running away from Yeoreum wasn't protecting her at all.

All he could do was hold him and hope they weren't too late.

After what felt like an eternity, the apartment building finally came into view.

Mark barely had time to stop the car before Jaemin was already getting out.

"Move."

"I was going to—"

"Just move."