Ryun came face to face with the younger version of himself, standing and staring at him the end of the dark hallway.
Large green eyes and a lightly tanned face of freckles mirrored his own, but there's something off about this younger version of his.
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Green eyes snapped open, and he was faced with the creamy yellow ceiling of the villain's basement. The mattress feels more comfortable than it usually it, and there's a weight holding him down around his torso. Meanwhile, his ankles were lighter than usual, meaning that he's free from his chains.
"Ryun..."
The man's head turned his head towards the mentioned of his name, and he almost slammed his face into the villain who held him captive. Kaon had his arms around Ryun, hugging him as if his life depended on it.
Violet eyes sleepily blinked awake, and a sheepish smile graced his boyish face while his long silky black hair flowed down his side like a fountain. Sometimes, Ryun forgot how fucking beautiful the villain is, especially when he's not out there killing people.
"Your heart's beating so fast."
Wonderful observation.
"Did you have a nightmare?" Kaon's soft voice didn't disappear as he held Ryun tighter.
This is his chance to run, to punch the villain in the face and then run out of the bunker, into the forest, into the unknown, and yet Ryun's hand was shaking as he combed through Kaon's hair.
"Yeah. I saw... A younger version of me. He was two or three years old, back when my mom didn't have children support." Ryun admitted half of the whole story.
"Oh..." Kaon nodded, and he nuzzled his face into the man's side.
Ryun's face turned a little red, but he didn't say anything. What the hell is he doing? Didn't he want to leave? Why is he letting his captor getting comfortable around him?
Deep down, Ryun knew that whenever Kaon was being nice to him, he didn't see a villain, he saw a little boy called KJ.
And when he saw KJ, Ryun wasn't himself, he was Eden Ryun, a child who craved connection and love, and KJ was the only friend he had, and KJ was the only person beside Emiko who stood up to the bullies who sometimes picked on Eden Ryun.
Yesterday, when Kaon offered for them to "play in his room like the good old days," the villain meant literally playing. They went through his old toys and drawings, and oh how it broke it heart to learn that little ten years old KJ stored half of his birthday toys away so that he could play when little Eden Ryun when he got back.
Ryun didn't apologize for leaving him. It's not his fault that his mom had to move. Kaon didn't ask for an apology either, but he did ask Ryun to stay the night.
It's not like the man could say no. Well, he could say no and go back into the chains... He didn't know what had compelled him to stay...
Now he doesn't know if it's six in the morning or six in the afternoon, according to the clock on the wall. There's no window in Kaon's room, so he had to rely on the clock.
Green eyes moved to the crib in the corner of the bedroom. Should he ask about it?
"Why is there a crib in the corner? Did something happen?"
"That's for my sister." Kaon's muffled voice vibrated on Ryun's shoulder. He still has a shirt on, so he could save himself from the face that the villain is very clingy, and his lips would definitely do things to Ryun if the man didn't have a shirt on.
"You had a sister?" Ryun mumbled back.
"Yeah." Kaon let out a chuckle as he lifted up his head from the man's shoulder. "She never made it to term. My parents never slept in this room after that, and when I miss them, I come here."
No shit. Kaon basically made this place his bedroom.
"It was all the UE and USC's fault." Kaon's hand gripped on Ryun's hip, and the man tried his best to not let out a scream. "If it wasn't for their stupid development plan, my sister would still be here."
"W-what..?" Ryun was confused now. He knew that the United Earth ordered the demolition of the shady neighborhood that he and KJ grew up in...
The villain let out a strained chuckle, and his hand lightened his grip on Ryun.
"They sent the Cultivator and the construction crew to destroy the neighborhood. My mom and I was in town for groceries." The strain chuckled turned into withheld sobs. "They gave the people a warning, a week for everyone to move out. Move out to where, exactly? They never gave us directions on where to go. People had lives there, families and memories. When the day came, they tore down the store we were in. While people were still in there."
The guard paled. He had heard news of the United Earth sending people to the shady neighborhood to take it down, shortly after he and his mom left the place, and now he knew why his father was so insistent on them moving away.
"My mom survived, but my unborn sister didn't." Kaon's voice became monotonous, and his thumb rubbed circles into Ryun's skin. "Jacob Jue was the name of the asshole who led the team."
Jacob Jue, the Cultivator. Kaon was imprisoned in the headquarters because he killed Jacob Jue. Jacob Jue had an older sister named Jay Jue.
"My mom just so happened to be related to him." A laugh rumbled from the man hugging him, and Ryun froze in his place.
His green eyes diverted to the photo hanging above the crib.
A few days before he found himself being locked up inside the villain's basement, he watched the Red King being executed live on TV. Jay Jue, alias JJ, a rather well-known scientist working at the USC headquarters, was also sentenced to prison for life because she was proven guilty of treason.
He had met the woman twice when she visited Kaon while Ryun was still a prison guard. Both times she brought them food. Ryun should've known. He should've asked. He should've remembered who she was.
Back to the live execution, JJ escaped the prison guards holding her, only to run into the execution chamber with the Rrd King. Some say it's tragically sad that the two lovers from different sides died together under the hands of the USC, but now Ryun understood it's more than that.
The Red King, who was declared dead almost two decades ago, suddenly came back when Kaon was imprisoned. When they still had the dynamic of a guard and a prisoner, Ryun didn't believe that the Red King was the Blood Prince's "dad" since the villain also claimed that someone in the USC leadership was his biological father. The guard was proven wrong when the Red King himself showed up at the headquarters to collect his "wife and son" only to leave with an unconscious Jay Jue in his arms.
Jay Jue, Jacob Jue's long lost sister, suddenly came out of the blue and asked to see her brother, a year after the demolition of the shady neighborhood. The USC took Jay Jue in because she was the daughter of a great scientist, and she did prove her right to stay by refining the power blockers. She rose up the ranks enough to send her brother to be killed by Kaon in the first place.
Now that Ryun is in Kaon's arms, he finally understood that it's all a huge plan of revenge.
"I used to sleep on the mattress on the floor 'cause I kept sleep walking and rolling off the bed and the crib." A hint of a smile graced Kaon's lips again. "In this room, I watched mom cut open her throat." His index finger landed on Ryun's neck, running across his Adam's apple and sending shivers down the guard's spine. "I wished I could've done more to help her. It was too late when dad took her to the healer. Grandma Ella couldn't save her voice. After that mom and dad never slept here. Either they go to mom's city apartment or dad's casino. Even when they're here, they're sleeping upstairs."
From what Ryun understood, Jay Jue lost her daughter, then she tried to cut her throat open because she was suicidal, but she was saved, so she and her family created a very long plan of revenge in which Kaon would torture Jacob Jue.
"What happened to your mother?" The villain changed the topic, and his violet eyes looked up at the ceiling like Ryun does. "You haven't talked about Emiko-san yet. How is she?"
"She's dead." Ryun admitted, and he could feel tears on the edge of his eyes. "She's dead, Kaon."
The silence that fell between them was rather suffocating. At this point, Ryun was internally begging for the man next to him to say something, anything.
A gasp left his lips when the villain's hand took a hold of his chin, pulling his head to face those violet eyes.
"Welcome to the orphan club." Kaon's breath grazed Ryun's cheeks.
In a blink of an eye, their lips smashed together.