Jin bit his lower lip in suspense to stop it from quivering too much. His heart was intensely thrashing inside him, his stomach dreadfully churning in reversing circles as he listened to the nauseating quietness in the room. At this moment, whilst forced to listen to the breeze crooning eerily outside, his body went fully limp.
He knows, at this point, it is far from possible for him to run and escape.
He bats his lashes, terrified of that deathly matter. He was afraid.
He grabbed the sheets tight, his head screaming nothing but Hiro's name.
He was scared.
"Identify yourself."
The young man's cerulean eyes now hiding behind the bangs of his thick strands of hair deeply gazed at the petite fellow before him, suspecting whether the information they received was varnished.
It does not appoint to any sense of congruence.
Jin freed the heavy breath he had been keeping. He did not know he has been holding his breath until now. What does this person mean? I-Identify himself?
Don't they have an idea who he is already?
He gathered his thoughts in one place and pushed to settle down his mixture of confounding emotions. He calmed himself down, albeit his trembling and shuffling breath never annoyed him until now that his life is at grave stake. However, his body still could not seem to find peace from trembling too obviously.
Then why have they taken him?
Perhaps they mistook him for someone? That would explain the puzzling questions this blue-eyed man persists in asking him which he is fully clueless about.
Jin drags his lost and baffled eyes down. Somehow, every time those blue eyes meet his, he felt weak and sick inside.
He could still not find the soul to speak.
Earnestly gazing at Jin from a short distance, the anonymous man bends and leans his elbows down to his own parted knees, his judging gaze heading south.
Clear expressive eyes. Petite shoulders. Crap stamina.
His regards stopped at the sight of such a pale and slender neck before it dangerously lifted and studied the fear inside the captive's amethyst eyes once again. How?
He's seen nothing but a dose of troublesome innocence.
Why did that devil person spare you?
Fascinating. "Should I kill you?"
Jin inhales and lifts his head, wide-eyed. The man's thinned lips paired with his arcane deadpanned expression provoked a tremor inside his chest.
He clenches his fist at the sides of his thighs, disgruntled by such a cold and heartless suggestion. How . . . How could he say that when it has been obvious how frightened he is?
The man's darkened azure eyes were gawking at him as if they wanted to devour every bit of his soul, and that made Jin's whole body immovable. He does not have the will to look away.
He can't escape and his life is under the thin mercy of a dangerous man he doesn't know.
Dying without having to say his farewells to the people he loves. He parts his quivering lips. A whispered response fled his lips in desperation.
"No . . ." He must not die yet, "Please."
The blue-eyed man stared at him for a few seconds in silence before he rose from sitting at the side of the bed, seeing an intriguing hint of certainty and resilience in Jin's solid and composed gaze when a minute ago, the same eyes had looked at him with embarking wrath and fear while bathed in wistful tears.
While pacing his way back to the accent chair where he was seated, the corners of his stiff lips unconsciously lift. He felt unfamiliarity for split seconds before the fleeting emotion vanished when he faced the bed, looking at their hostage's guarded eyes from a farther distance.
His thumb fiddles with the metal ring on his forefinger as his lids squint. "Answering my questions might ensure that."
Time is running.
Jin gulped. He is not confident about what to say to this strange man, but he knows he has to play everything safe from now.
He has to do what it takes to turn this situation to his advantage—he has to.
"An answer for an answer."
Jin examines the man straight in the eyes before adding, "If . . . If I give you information, will you also answer my questions?"
He had never seen eyes so blue like his, but so dull.
Please . . . make this work.
The stranger looked at him again for a few seconds. His unusually empty eyes had never been duller before he shrugged his shoulders and tipped his head slightly to the side.
"We'll see."
A person like him is indeed heartless.
Giving his name to a stranger is breaking the stranger danger rule his mother taught him, but who knew it was this petrifying to experience in real life? You don't know what to do, what to think, who to trust.
He never felt so alone and helpless. "Sae-sang Jin." He breathes, "That's my name."
The man looks at him, stupefied, and he panicked internally.
"W-What do you want to know about me?" What answer is he exactly looking for?
The man breathes a heavy distraught sigh before shaking his head. There is a clear hint of dumbfoundedness and disbelief in his once-expressionless facade.
It was new, but nothing close to relieving.
"You can't fucking survive five minutes with my brother if you respond like that."
That's where Jin's tampering curiosity took the hint. His brother?
The man's jaw clenches and his eyes flutter close, taking a deep breath before speaking. "You won't leave the room with either your fingers or head intact."
Jin instantly hid his hands under the comforter. His fingers were tingling from the scenario he is envisioning and the hairs at the back of his neck rose from a chill.
His brother . . . he doesn't want to meet him.
"You."
The stranger points his finger directly at Jin, making Jin swallow with his trembling tail tucked between his thighs.
He . . . He sounded mad—threatening
"Publicly seen with the heir twice doesn't connect to the assumption of you not having a clue about the vault's whereabouts, no?"
Jin felt his heart sinking as his hitched breath fled his lips when the realization hit him.
Gone his focus on the danger he is currently in, the blue-eyed man's brutal brother, the tightening of his chest, and the fear that has been swallowing him up to suffocation.
For the first time, an inkling of thought sumptuously appeared in his head before he could stop it, and to his terror, he somehow uncovered the answer to the reason why he could be brought here.
This man . . . This man doesn't want him.
"Tell me, does he favor you?"
But rather . . . Hiro.
Seeing the crestfallen reaction on Jin's face, the man with cerulean eyes nods his head and shuts his eyes tightly close. Fuck.
His lips thinned as his blue eyes lock at the hostage's feet.
There's not much time left.
Jin's shoulders draw up, flinching when the man stands from his seat and paces around the room while showing signs of deep panic. Jin holds his breath again when the man stops, and his blue eyes turn to stare at him again.
"You need to leave."
The man, whom he does not know of his name, walks towards the door in a state of hurry.
"I will send someone to pick you up in twenty minutes. Don't move." It was enough to answer all his assumptions.
Finally left alone, Jin gapes at the closed door at his right, processing the sudden turn of events.
They're letting him go . . .