The same black matter that covered him in his dream crawled up his neck onto his cheek and surrounds his left eye.
"What is this..? Am I really awake? Am I hallucinating?"
"Dohyun-Hyung!! Are you alright?!"
"Shit.."
He quickly searched the drawers of the bathroom for something that could cover his eye, finally, he found an eye bandage and rushed to cover his eye with it. Euhyeon knocked on the door.
"Dohyun-Hyung?"
Dohyun unlocks his door and takes a deep breath when opening it.
"Hey Euhyeon, something the matter?"
"I heard Hyung yell something bad in here, did you hurt yourself on accident?"
"Th-Thats-Thats right- Euhyeon I hit my eye on accident."
[I know you're smart but please in this current moment, be dumb!!]
Euhyeon eyes Dohyun up and down clearly not believing him.
"If you say so, be more careful hyung."
Euhyeon leaves, Making Dohyun let out a sigh of relief. Despite having seemed to have slept for a while he felt more tired than ever. He yawned and left the bathroom going back to his room. He was about to lay back down onto his bed when he hears an annoying old and raspy voice yell out his name.
"Dojun!!"
"Motherfucking- It's DOHYUN!!"
"Yea I said that!! Oh, just come over here!!"
"Dammit. Right when I was gonna re-"
"DOJUN!!"
"ITS DOHYUN!!"
He takes a deep breath and goes to the living room.
"Yes, Yoojin?"
"Lately, taxes and bills have been getting more and more expensive.. I won't be able to afford it so I'm gonna need you to drop out of school and get a job or two. A job that can help us pay bills and buy us the things we want, yea?"
"Hold on, you want me to drop out of school so I can work my ass off for you?"
[Even though I already do that daily.]
"It's not like you pay attention or anything about school anyways, it's not that big of a deal right?"
"Why don't you get a job instead of wasting away here dreaming of the day your wife comes back? Why don't you actually work hard to be someone Euhyeon is proud of? Someone he can actually call dad without being embarrassed?"
"…The hell are you saying?"
"Sorry, kinda just felt like being an ass today. Not saying im wrong though."
"Dojun, stop talking back and do as I say!!"
"D-o-h-y-u-n, Dohyun not Dojun, geez do I need to pay for your brain surgery too?"
"Don't make me angry now."
"Are you saying I haven't yet? Guess I've gotten rusty, just like you in bed. Maybe that's why she le-"
Dohyun feels a harsh slap across his face, he rubs his cheek as he looks at Yoojin.
"Took you long enough."
Yoojin eases up and sighs.
"I'm sorry, I just had a bad day. Will you please get a job?"
Dohyun smiles warmly.
"Absolutely not."
"What? But I said I was sorry."
"That doesn't mean bullshit, I'm not just gonna drop out of school and get a job because you asked me to. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go take a nap."
As Dohyun turns to leave he feels a hand grab his hair and pull it back, he's brought to the ground and he claws at the hand grabbing him.
"I'll ask again, will you get a job to support us?"
"You mean support you? Go to hell bastard."
He flips off Yoojin with a satisfied smile, Yoojin slams Dohyun's head into the wall a couple times and let's go of his head. Dohyun holds his head before Yoojin kicks him in the face making Dohyun fall to the ground, Yoojin kicks him in the stomach making him clutch his stomach in pain. Yoojin grabs him by his hair once again dragging him to a closet, he throws Dohyun inside closing and locking the door.
"I don't want to see your face for the rest of the week fucker!!"
"Agh, fuck… Why do I love being annoying so much?"
He struggles a bit to stand up but manages, he feels around for a light source but there doesn't seem to be one, the only thing lighting up the closet was the light from the other room. He makes do with the light and tries to find things to eat and treat his wounds with, his head bled quite a bit, he had a bloody nose and a bleeding lip. His stomach ached.
[That'll leave a bruise.]
He could only find stale cereal to eat, everything else was Yoojins stuff from when he was a teenager and some coats. He decided to use his shirt to clean up as much blood as he could, he began to get tired and dizzy and passed out on the floor.
Euhyeon hesitantly came out of his room, he wasn't oblivious to how his father treated Dohyun, he just didn't know what to do, how to talk to his dad about it, or when the right time to step in was. He was also afraid.
"Ahem.. Dad?"
"Euhyeon! I uh, I thought you went to bed already. It's 9, isn't it? You need rest to charge up that big brain of yours."
He laughs, but it doesn't sound genuine.
"Dad, where's Dohyun-hyung?"
Yoojin began to sweat and fumbled with his words.
"That- uhm, s-so you need to understand-"
[Im so tired of my dad, I know it's wrong but he's mean to hyung, and he acts different when he drinks.]
"Nevermind, can you come sleep with me tonight? I keep hearing things from my closet…"
He smiles
"Sure thing, I'll protect you no matter what!!"
He puffs out his chest and strikes a heroic pose, Euhyeon can only pretend to laugh. Yoojin pats his head and heads to his room Euhyeon falling close behind. He passes a glance at the closet Dohyun is in.
[Ill help you out soon enough hyung, just hold on.]
10 minutes
[Still not asleep.]
20 minutes
[Not asleep]
30 minutes
[Awake]
35
[Wide awake]
40
50
60616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100-
6 hours.
[I wasn't even lying to him when I said I kept hearing scratching from my closet.]
Tap tap tap..
Screeeech screech.
Every night it continuously followed a pattern.
It would first catch my attention then would do this: Scratch, tap tap. Pause. Tap scratch tap. Pause. Tap. Pause. Tap scratch. Pause. Scratch Scratch.
He was too afraid to go and open the closet door to see what it was, he would forget the sequence the moment he moved or spoke no matter how hard he tried to remember, he tried to record it on his phone but it would shut off. No one believed him when he would talk about it. He couldn't sleep well ever since it started and would usually sleep during the day because of it. Tonight was different though, after a little he felt drowsy and couldn't hear anything besides his thoughts. Had the tapping and scratching stop? No it was definitely still there. But he can't hear a single thing. He feels, relaxed.
He closes his eyes and immediately feels as though he's on a cloud, drifting through space he opens his eyes and that's exactly what's happening, he blinks and he's floating in a wooden room, he feels small. He can't talk but he can move see hear and feel. What to do?
He blinks again and it's morning.
[I feel refreshed, not tired, what happened?]
Yoojin tells Euhyeon to brush his teeth and get ready. He does so, he takes a quick shower then puts on a loose collared shirt that had a nice beige color and some black shorts. He goes out to the living room and Yoojin drags him out to his car.
"We're going out for a day full of fun!!"
"Wait but what about schoo-"
Kidnapped.
Dohyun groans as he wakes up.
[Damn my heads killing me..]
He weakly sits up turning around to face the closet door, if there was a door.
"What in satans ass…?"
The closet door had been completely destroyed, pieces of wood remaining were splintered and small, the door frame was partially damaged. Black goo dripped from the top of the door frame and from edges of remaining wood from the door. Dohyun slowly got closer to see what the liquid was, acid? But it wasn't melting or burning through the floor and wood.
"Yoojin's gonna beat my ass when he sees this. What happened while I was passed out?"
He wobbles as he stands up, using a box to help himself up. He does his best to avoid the black liquid as he leaves the closet and looks around to see if anyone's home, he checks the time and remembers.
[School, Euhyeon's probably in school right now. Then where's the old man? Wait if Euhyeon has school then I do too…. I need to get ready.]
He rushes to his bathroom and takes care of his cuts and bruises, fixes his hair and puts on a black short sleeved shirt, some jeans, and his earring. He skips eating and throws on a backpack and shoes and runs as fast as he can so he doesn't become even more late than he is now. By the time he arrives he's out of breath, his legs are tired and aching, and it's nearly lunch time. He runs his hand through his hair and lets out a deep sigh.
[What excuse should I make? That some guys jumped me on my way to school? Maybe that'll actually work.]
Noticing his face feels bare he touches his face and covers his mouth with his hand.
"Fuck, I forgot my mask at home."
[Can I make a quick run to the store? I could grab some bread and strawberry milk while I'm at it. Alright, one quick run to the store.]
He turns away from the school and uses the little energy he has left to run to a nearby store. He grabs a cream bread and strawberry milk, as well as a black mask. When he goes to pay he feels around for his wallet but can't find it.
[Im so stupid, if I forgot my mask I'd probably forget my wallet too.]
He's about to take the items back to put them back when a random guy comes up to the counter and places a couple snacks and a drink next to Dohyun's items.
"I'll be paying for all these items."
He smiles as he hands the cashier enough money to pay for him and Dohyun, says thank you and drags Dohyun out of the store with him. Upon inspection, this guy looks pretty similar to the man Dohyun saw in his dream, white hair except it was short, not long. Yellow eyes, pretty, not handsome. He wore a white shirt, grey jacket, and some black long pants, he also had a backpack.
[Is it maybe lunch time already?]
The stranger hands Dohyun his stuff with an innocent smile stuck to his face.
[He looks like a puppy.]
Dohyun bows slightly towards the stranger as a way to say thank you, he opens the packaging for his bread and takes a bite as he starts heading back to his school. He glances behind him and sees that the strangers going in the same direction he is.
[Does he go to my school? I've never seen him before though.]
The stranger seems to stare at Dohyun while eating a chocolate bar. Dohyun gets a little uncomfortable and quickens his pace but the stranger just does the same, eventually the stranger catches up and taps Dohyun on the shoulder startling him. The stranger is met with some bread to the face.
"Ah, I-"
"Moof mgom mm maht mememm." (You've got some great reflexes.)
Dohyun slowly removes the bread from the strangers face whose still smiling and looks like they're glowing despite having bread slammed into their face.
[A-angel…!]
"I- uhm…. I'm sorry.. I'll get you something to clean up.."
He reaches into his bag pulling out a couple tissues and cleans the strangers face.
"Don't worry about it, the cream from the bread is quite tasty!"
The stranger smiles, it seems innocent but not so innocent at the same time.
"Hey, do you go to *******?"
Dohyun nods as he goes to throw away the tissues.
"Really? I'm a transfer student and it's my first day there, think you could show me around while it's still lunch?"
"I guess…?"
The stranger lights up grabbing Dohyun's hands.
"Really?! You're so kind!! Thank you!"
[Kind my ass-]
They start walking.
"I'm Jung Il-Seong, and you?"
"Dohyun Bom."
"That's a nice name! How old are you?"
"18."
"Wow, so you're getting out of high school soon?"
"Yea, how old are you?"
"I'm 17! I guess I should call you Hyung?"
Dohyun nods as he continues to walk, he hears something whisper in his ear and he turns around as he covers his ear. The wind blows and a shadow hides in an alleyway, he tries to make out what it is.
"Hyung! Everything alright?"
"Yea… Yea I'm coming."
He turns back around and starts walking again, thinking about what was whispered to him.