Minho's chest burned like it was on fire as his shoes hit against the debris. He scurried down onto a clear tarmac, putting as much distance between himself and the nightmare he had left behind as possible.
He panted so hard by the time he reached the tarmac but he couldn't even stop to catch a breath. Chan's distressed face flashed in his mind repeatedly, making his sanity storm with immense guilt and shame.
Of course, circumstances had brought them up until that point, but that was no excuse to leave a bleeding-out Chan to fend for himself against Renjun's savage thugs. The thought nauseated him.
However, it was panic calling the shots at that moment. It was the pure, blind terror that compelled him to run for his life without a second thought. He was trying so hard to fight his conscience of thoughts that now had him thinking he was a selfish prick, capable of sacrificing people to save himself.
The sound of a vehicle coming in his direction caught his attention and he turned towards it, jumping as high as he could and waving his hands, hoping the driver would be kind enough to stop.
And today, he was in the universe's mercies. The pickup slowed down and stopped at his feet.
"P-please, I need h-help, help me…" his voice trailed off. "Help me get out of here… please."
"Slow down kid, relax and tell me what's going on"
He didn't have the luxury to get into the specifics now. All he wanted was to get way as far as he could. The man unlocked the door and he jumped right in without a second thought.
"They forced me," he managed to say, panting. "I didn't want to, they forced me… and then…they―"
"You want me to take you to a hospital?"
Hospital? No. He had been roughed up, and of course, he was hurt. But he knew tracing him wouldn't be a problem for Jae Hyun's men or Renjun's, if they followed him. So that wasn't an option.
"No, no just drop me in town, I'll figure out what to do."
"Are you sure you don't want me to―"
The man caught Minho's bewildered stare and gave him a curt nod, looking concerned. "Okay, okay."
Looking into the rearview, he realized they were far enough from them to manoeuvre his next plan.
By the time Minho reached his crappy apartment, he was heaving and drenched in sweat. He fumbled with a bunch of keys, his hands shaking vigorously as the bundle of metal almost slipped his clumsy grip before he managed to jam the right key into the lock.
Once inside, the boy moved in a panicked burst, yanking clothes and a few essentials out of the drawers and stuffing them wildly into a duffel bag. A few clothes, some framed photos, a battered paperback he'd been reading.
He tossed it all in a bag, packing for a hasty escape, away from Jae Hyun and his goons. He needed to put as many miles between himself and this godforsaken city as humanely possible.
He zipped the duffel bag zipper hurriedly, plotting out his next move.
"Hurry up, he's losing too much blood." That was a man's voice approaching the house.
Minho pulled the bottom drawer and grabbed a screwdriver, gripping it tightly just in case he needed to defend himself.
The front door burst open, and a bunch of tough-looking men swarmed inside. One of them carried―no, more like cradled a badly hurt person, a jagged blood stain had soaked his shirt.
"Clear the table now," one of them bellowed, rushing to clear the dining set with stale food that had been left rotting.
The wounded man was hefted onto the table gently, while the others ran around grabbing every medical supply within their reach and towels, in a scramble to stop the bleeding.
Minho froze there, clutching onto the screwdriver like an idiot, too dumbstruck to do anything.
How had they traced him, were they following him the whole time? And what was he supposed to do now? Fight or run?
His brain wasn't in a position to decide that now.
That's when a figure blocked him as he treaded stealthily to the exit, and Minho's heart dropped to the floor.
Jae Hyun.
How had he found him again?
"In a hurry to go somewhere?" Jae Hyun asked mockingly, his cold, dead eyes piercing into Minho.
Minho gasped hopelessly, but that came out like a strangled panic. It was almost as if he was caught in the high beams with no chance of escape no matter how much he wanted to run.
"Easy there, pretty boy. I wouldn't do that if I were you." Jae Hyun was now just a few inches away from Minho. He sounded weirdly calm for someone who had just caught his captive trying to elope.
"We both know it won't take me time to locate sweet daddy now, don't we?
The screwdriver slipped off Minho's numb hand and into the floor, deeming his now utter helplessness. "Please…" he began, not liking how shaky and desperate he sounded. "Don't hurt him."
Jae Hyun's lips twisted into the least hint of a smirk as he grabbed Minho's arms, hauling him into the bedroom. "That's on you to decide, pretty."
He was roughly shoved into the room and Jae Hyun pulled out a phone from his pocket and began to scroll on it then turned the screen to him. A knot formed at the pit of his stomach when he saw the photos, all of them images of his dad at a café, sipping his coffee without a care in the world.
He felt a bile rise and a surge of anger overtook him. Just how easy was it for this man to reach his dad and threaten to harm him just so he could get him to bend to his will?
"You've caused me a great deal of trouble you know." There was an almost weary edge to his tone as he kept scrolling on the phone, studying it casually. "That foolish stunt you pulled back there…very unwise."
Minho's mouth ran dry as he struggled to swallow past the dread that had now lodged in his throat. "I panicked, okay?" he choked, the excuse sounding pathetic even to him. "I didn't know what else to do…"
"Yet you had no regrets leaving a wounded person in the woods, huh?" Jae Hyun shook his head slowly with a whiff of amusement quirking his lips again as he levelled a look at Minho. "Tsk tsk…very selfish."
Minho recoiled at the mention of Chan as it unleashed a sense of guilt and remorse. "I'm sorry," he choked, fighting back a sting of self-loathing. "I…I didn't mean to…"
"Sorry? Tell that to the man bleeding out on the table."
The weight of Chan's muffled cries, of Minho's selfishness settled on him heavily. Who was he anymore if he was willing to leave an injured person behind and in grave danger?
"What do you want from me?"
Jae Hyun let out a hollow chuckle. "Isn't it obvious?" he inched closer, pushing his fingers through his jet-black long hair, studying him so intensely that it felt like he was touching him. "I want you to learn."
"I'm going to give you one more shot at this―"
"What?"
Minho shivered. He had done everything this man wanted him to do, but Jae Hyun was still suggesting putting him up for another shady job again. All he could think about was being trapped, the gun smoke with bullets flying everywhere. No, he wasn't doing that again.
"We can figure out something else," he said, "I can work for you, for free if that's what will get me off those shady pickups."
"You know… you remind me so much of someone." There was a low-key sign of longing in Jae Hyun's eyes. "He was just as stubborn, same fire."
He sighed, almost as if to gather his thoughts before shooting Minho a judging look. "Made me want to crack his head, but over time…shit, I don't know."
Minho shifted uneasily, thrown off by the raw sincerity of Jae Hyun's words. This was a side that he never expected to see.
"I tried everything; he didn't care." Jae Hyun was slowly closing the distance between them. "Until I made him an offer- to drop the act and submit to me, guess what he told me?"
Minho stared blankly, too engrossed to even formulate a response.
"I'd rather pluck my hair strand by strand than submit to you." Jae Hyun chuckled, shaking his head. "Can you believe the audacity? I was so impressed that I didn't even have it in myself to get mad."
Jae Hyun reached out, tracing Minho's jawline gently. "You got the same fire. If it weren't for your old man, you'd be a raging hothead… maybe that's what drew me to you at the casino."