off to the races (4/?)
off to the races (4/?)
~ 3817 w, r, (krystal/kai) l part i. part ii. part iii.
If this was their idea of torture, then she has to give them credit.
■ fanmix/soundtrack (tracks added)
■ probs will be really exok action packed next chapter
■ i'm now posting this on aff too, so go subscribe if you'd like
Krystal wakes up in fright.
Her blurred vision adjusts to several things when her eyes first flutter open - the velvet curtains with blinding sunlight seeping through, a cup of coffee and freshly made too (judging by the strong aroma) and a vision of her road kill glory in the wall sized mirrors; reflecting back every details of ghostly form - including the big strip of band aid around her throbbing head.
This definitely isn’t a hangover - that, Krystal can tell.
The room’s so dark and dreary that this might as well be the set of an overdone horror movie set. For her sake, she hopes that’s the case.
Getting up isn’t an option, she begins to realize when the slightest movement of the body sends her into a stomach turning nausea. No indication of the location either and moving more than an inch isn’t doable when a pair of handcuff is chaining her to the head board, a mark is sure to be left when she finds her way out of here.
These scenarios don’t bother Krystal much; she’s been here many times before - just maybe in worst conditions and less furniture. Krystal knows that now is the time to play it cool, sit still and wait for some cliché intimidation game to start but she can’t when she’s at a disadvantage point - her memory is not fully intact, there are bits and pieces missing from last night’s event and as hard as she tries to recall, it’s all just an endless black hole of painful nothing.
There must be some kind of trick to get the cuff off, there always is. That’s the least of her concern, for now she needs to come up with an escape plan before some psycho enters the room with a torture device. Groaning a little, Krystal tucks her knees under and places her ear against the wall but of course, it’s all soundproof. Any idiot could be laughing right on the other side and she wouldn’t have a clue. The windows are easily accessible but in her condition, she won’t be able to climb down anything more than two stories high. Judging by the fancy nature of this place, Krystal doubts she’s going to have a fun time getting herself out of here.
“I still think she’s useful.”
“I don’t.”
“That’s cause you’re a dumbass.”
“Hyung, why do you bully me?!”
Well, now at least she knows her life is in the hands of a bunch of idiots.
Rolling her eyes, Krystal slides back down on the mattress and reaches out for the black coffee on the night stand, who knows maybe it will freshens her up enough for her brain to return back to her the power of recalls. The conversation has less logic than five years old does, Krystal thinks, coming somewhere around the back of those mirrors, likely that those do double as doors after all.
Taking a long satisfying sip of the caffeine induced liquid, she waits for them to come to her.
Amateurs as they are, their pocket money doesn’t say that about them, if anything you’d think they’re the CIA with all these flashy technologies. Waste of cash, if you’d ask her, she’s not going to stay prisoner for long.
Soon enough, the mirrors, little by little, disappear into the ceiling at a painfully slow speed that makes her want to laugh at their childish attempt of a grand entrance. They might as well invest in Power Rangers suits, they’re silly enough as it is, a little costuming wouldn’t hurt.
“Really?” Krystal asks more to herself than anyone, furrowing her brows at the scene the boys have created across the room.
At least they’re entertaining, Krystal thinks, staring down at Sehun who’s been tackled to the floor by another member of the gang, Baekhyun if she’s not mistaken.
Humiliating is an understatement, the shorter one would agree with that crimson blush invading his whole face as he helps himself up and begin to dust himself off. “Shut up! We have to be careful, we don’t know what kind of weird poison dart you’ve got on you after you so shamelessly made out with our Kai.”
She cocks her head, smirking. “Not shameless, if he liked it.”
Sehun, miraculously uninjured after having that cow fall on him, sits down on the red velvet chair a few metres away from the end of the bed. “You hit your head when you shift gear, not to mention that handy trick with the gas tank you pulled made it worse.”
“That would explain why I don’t remember much of anything that happened after.” Krystal mumbles, reaching up to touch her forehead with carefulness.
“Serves you right,” Baekhyun scowls, crossing his arms, “Slut”
“Baekhyun,” she chides, feigning a gasp, “Very inappropriate!”
He blinks then, “Oh my god, you remember my name! Sehun, she knows who I am!”
Sehun takes a deep breath, not paying any attention to the overexcited brunette who’s rushed to the feet of her bed like a worshipper. He says with the same old monotone, “It’s unbelievable how you manage to rush back to your headquarter to retrieve a sample of the poison but I supposed you don’t remember any of that?”
Slapping Baekhyun’s eager hand away from her arm and sends him a small glare to remove him from her personal space before turning back to Sehun, shaking her head at his question. “How long have I been out, exactly?”
“Well,” he begins and glances at the clock on the wall, “In ten minutes that would make it exactly nine teen hours.”
“Oh great!” Krystal exclaims, yanking at the cuff to no success, “I’ve had my beauty sleep, had my fun, time to go home, now let me go.”
Looking amused, Sehun straightens and makes his way back to the direction of the vast empty space the mirrors has left along with its earlier disappearance. “Baekhyun, I can see that you want to stay here until Kai gets back.”
At this, Baekhyun nods with enthusiasm. It’s come to her attention that those puppy eyes haven’t looked away from her once, it’s enough to makes her cringe.
“So…” He drags on awkwardly as soon as soon as Sehun is out of sight, locking the two of them in.
Watching her with a silly grin plastered on his face, Baekhyun rest his arms on the duvet followed by his head, says with an explosion of joy, “You look so cute when you just wake up.”
If this was their idea of torture, then she has to give them credit.
-
“Hunhun is a bit of a tight ass but so is Kai to be honest.” Baekhyun is a blabber, likes to swing his legs back and forth as he spits nonsense, “I’m the most fun in this fancy mansion, well jail for you, but you can still have fun with me?”
Krystal groans. “Again, my question was if you can get the cuffs off.”
“Right, about that…” He hesitates, giving her a toothy grin, “I would but if I did, I’m scared of what boss would do to me…”
“Who’s your boss?” She asks, knowing her mask of carelessness is fully in place.
Pulling the blanket up to his knees, he replies, “D.O.”
“Who’s D.O.?”
“I can tell you about him but he’s not really that interesting. Do you wanna play knots and crosses?”
“No,” Krystal stays sternly, trying hard to maintain her friendly smile, “Tell me about D.O., it will help us kill some time.”
“I guess,” The chipper boy says, proceeding to open a packet of strawberry flavoured Pockys he pulled out of what looks to be his school bag, “He’s kind of a mean old man, his brows always pulled together and he doesn’t laugh at anything unless it’s cat memes, those are really weird -“
“He’s the oldest then?” She cuts him short, blinking innocently.
“Not really…”
Flabbergasted, she pauses then asks more questions, “Then what determines who the leader is -“
The wardrobe door bursts open with an intentional ‘bang’ and Krystal knows this conversation is over before it even really began. “What is this, Narnia?”
“Shut up.”
With a shrug, Baekhyun bounces off the bed. “Told you he was mean.”
“When I said shut up, Baekhyun,” the grouch lets out an exaggerated sigh and steps out of the
closet, silent landing on his two feet, “I also mean you.”
Pouting, the happier of the pair turns around to offer her one last sympathetic look before disappearing into the closet. She watches the so called leader of the ‘dumb and dumber’ crew with more concentration than he deserves from her, a smirk slipping through when he sits as far away from the bed she was held hostage to as he possibly could.
“Stop making the eyes at him.”
Another voice rang through - deep with a soft edge. He’s too obvious, Krystal wish he’d know that by now.
“Jealous much?”
Giving her a sharp look, D.O. gets up on his feet and marches over, taking her by complete surprise with his hand bunching up the front of her shirt. “I told you to shut up.”
“Let her go.” Jongin drawls lazily, appearing on her bedside in a matter of seconds. “Like we agree, I’ll handle this myself.”
Not looking entirely convinced, the fire burning in his orbs dissipates enough for the boy to back away. Releasing a small breath she didn’t know she had been holding, Krystal recoils back into her position of back pressed tight against the woodened bedhead. If she wasn’t in fear before, she was now - though all three of them know, she’d rather die than admit it. D.O. leaves them with one last look of threat, circling around the bed like he’d be ready to pounce at any minute before punching numbers into the security system and ducks out the room when the mirror leaves a gap just big enough for his slip body to fit through.
Krystal looks over to Jongin, dark brown hair shielding his even browner eyes as his head falls to meet the flicker of light waiting for the cigarette between his lips. He takes a long drag, walking over to the window and pulls up the thick curtains, the sunlight beaming through at a blinding force, hitting her migraine at all the right spots.
“Here” He says, stuffing the fag in her mouth. “This will be the last you’ll be getting in a while.”
She inhales all the poison like it’s her saviour, a satisfying surge of nicotine calming down her system. “Baekhyun told me what happened. You all must be so proud of yourself for tricking me into coming to your lair."
“You can say that.”
Krystal kicks her boots off with a grunt, asks, “How long are you planning on keeping me here?”
Jongin avoids looking at her, stands with his back to her and stares out the window. “We haven’t decided.”
“They’re going to come for me, but you boys must have known that when you planned this all up.”
He nods. “But considering that they don’t have the slightest idea of your whereabouts, I say you shouldn’t have high hopes.”
“I could always escape,” Krystal points out, stretching her sore arms, “I did last time. Who knows? Maybe I can pull it off again.”
“Doubt it.”
She makes an involuntarily, horrified laugh. “You’re not going to kill me, you still need me to get all your stocks back.”
That makes him laugh.
The Jongin now, is not the one she knew. They’ve got too little history for her to ever recite his heart, mind and soul but he was a boy back then, knows only of his own world; read books the corner and play basketball with himself. He wasn’t mean then but wasn’t kind either. Jongin was a person of his own, there was so much isolation and there still is. Then it dawns on her that he really might kill her. There’s no chance of recovering their losses, they might have figured it out by now that her life in their hands, is nothing.
“Are you…” She swallows, reaching out for his cold, dead eyes, “Going to kill me?”
He pauses as if to consider for a moment then, “No, so get up.”
-
“We’re not killing her.”
No one looks happy to hear this piece of news - with the exception of Baekhyun.
“Why not?!” Suho yells, slamming his palms on the table. “We lied about you dying but it could have happened!”
“But it didn’t.”
As expected, Kyungsoo has plenty to say about his decision. “That doesn’t matter, Suho hyung is right -“
“But it didn’t!” And as expected, Baekhyun is overjoyed with his decision. “Can we please keep her? Please, pretty please!”
“What the fuck are you, five?” Kyungsoo says in uncontrolled anger, looking ready to pop a cap in Baekhyun’s head. “Give me a reason why I shouldn’t walk in there and choke that little bitch with my two hands right now.”
“Because,” Sehun’s voice of strikes down the cloud of murderous thoughts, “She could get us back everything they stole. If we keep her here, they’re bound to break and cave.” He shoots him a knowing look, a small commending nod and asks to be assisted, “That’s what you were going for - weren’t you, Jongin?”
“Yes,” he replies with a sigh, throwing his jacket over the back of an empty chair, “Sehun and I didn’t trick her here for revenge. We wanted her as our hostage.”
“So that’s what you were going for! ”Chanyeol grins, the sneaky sort when something clicks. “But why didn’t you tell us anything?”
He shrugs. “We figured, you would have all wanted in.”
“Especially Baekhyun hyung” Sehun adds.
“Hey!” Baekhyun complains, barely able to sit still in his chair. “I would have controlled myself!”
Suho stares at Sehun quizzically then him. “Where is she now?”
“In my other room,” says Jongin, regrettably.
-
They’re separated by a single door, off set white and polished knob.
Jongin ignores it at first and goes about his business; flick through some dusty books he never got to the ending of, study a little for upcoming tests, watch movies he’s already seen. The room is quiet like it’s always been, except now the silence is nothing of peace to him.
It’s when the sun goes down that Krystal walks in without resistance, the door swinging shut behind her fearless entrance and with every step she took, the more annoying the creaking of the floor got.
“I’m bored,” She whispers like a demand, her fingers curling around the back of the single sofa. “And hungry.”
“Go make yourself something then.” He says, flipping to a new page of his book.
A long pause, then, “I don’t know where the kitchen is.”
“Downstairs; opposite the lounge room.”
“Let’s eat out.” Krystal suggests; her every syllables tickling his neck. “It’ll be fun.”
He shifts slightly in his seat; if her goal was to cause discomfort then she’s succeeded. “That’s not going to happen.”
“Why not?”
“In case you make a break for it.”
Leaning in even closer so her nose is brushing his ear, she says in a low voice, “I’ll be a good girl, I swear.”
Jongin snaps his book shut. “What are you trying to do?”
“What?” She laughs, full and dirty. “Is this too hard for you to take, Jongin?”
He looks up at Krystal, his eyes hard as they glide across her features. The cut under her
cheekbone is healing nicely and by next week, there won’t be any sign that it was there in the first place. Her dark hair’s jarring against her porcelain skin, strands all knotted and jumbled up and still, she’d easily pass as attractive in any man’s eyes. It irritates him that no matter how ugly her insides is, she remains an alluring skin deep beauty.
“If you want to annoy someone, Baekhyun’s two doors down.”
Suffice to say, she doesn’t leave him alone so he goes first.
-
“We’re better off killing her.” Suho suggests, bounces the ball and passes it to him.
“I want our stocks back,” Jong In tells him like it is, aiming for the hoop “She’s going to be a pain in the ass to deal with but I don’t want to deal with the rest of her bodyguards after we dump her body in the Hans river.”
“She’s a dead weight; we’re just wasting our time and energy if we keep her around.” Suho lets out a long sigh, wiping off the sweat on his face with the back of his hand. “I swear they’re going to come for us before we even get the chance to torture any information out of her.”
Swivelling his head around, he gives the older boy a sceptical look. “You’re all talk, no action, hyung. You wouldn’t dare touch a strand of her hair.”
“If I have to, I will.” Suho argues, slightly offended by his accusation. “I should be the one saying that to you, not the other way around anyway.”
Throwing the ball through the hoop, he realizes Suho has already made a head start down the court. Jong In hurries his step until he’s well ahead, then begin to pace himself backwards, says, “You look too much into things.”
“I don’t look, I heard.” Suho points out in that smartass attitude he’s learnt to put up with. “That whole thing with you two hooking up and now, sharing the same living quarter - makes me nervous.”
Jonging brushes off, catching the ball with ease. “We all make mistakes sometimes.”
“I don’t think that it was a mistake.” The dark haired boy mumbles loud enough for him to hear. “I think you liked it and she liked it too.”
“She’s pretty,” he says truthfully, shrugging, “That’s about it.”
“And got a super hot body.”
Jong In makes a move and secures the ball to himself. “And got a super hot, body, admit it.”
He shakes his head, dodging Suho’s attempt to steal it back into his own possession. “And got a super hot body, now can you stop giving me the look?”
“What look?”
“That look”
“What look is that look?”
Elbowing him on the side, Jong In shoots and scoffs as he watches him squirm. “Not that look, for sure.”
-
The boys go out drinking for the night and stick him with babysitting duty
Probably the best decision - Chanyeol’s reckless, Kyungsoo’s short tempered, Sehun’s unresponsive, Baekhyun’s an idiot and Suho’s still planning out which car to take when dumping her body in the Hans river.
The cigarette burns too quickly, the drinks drain even quicker and Jongin mourns over the half full ash tray. With a sigh, Jongin rises gingerly and gingerly picks his navy jumper off the floor, pulling it over his head. He’s spent most of the last three hours locked in his room, watching chipped paints on his side of the door like if he stares hard enough, it will move.
He guesses he’s living by the saying, “Keep your friends close, your enemy closer” because it can’t get any closer than this when she’s living in his other room. Theirs is joint too; Krystal could barge in and out whenever she pleases. He can’t have that. Maybe it’s time to get a lock.
She catches his unexpectedly, tiny crack in the door and equally tiny ‘Psst’ like someone is listening in on them.
His eyebrow arches minutely, a gesture that reveals much more of his interest that it should. “What?”
Krystal frowns, vaguely offended by his tone but moves in anyway. “Give me some pills; I’d die of a headache before you boys can even get to your knives or whatever.”
He snorts, lying back in his chair and points to the drawers. “Third one down, take two and don’t even think of mixing it with alcohol.”
She crosses her arm, hip resting against the door frame and sounds icy yet amused, “I’m the guest. Don’t you even have the courtesy to get it for me?”
“You’re the guest,” he agrees, “You’re my guest, you’re living in my room so have some respect and get it yourself.
Krystal levels him with a dark glare, mouth tight, and saunters off to get her fix. “What’s with these pink capsules anyway?”
“Ask Suho hyung, he’s the one who got them.”
“How do I know these aren’t poisonous?” She asks, sounding vaguely disgusted as she holds them up for further observations.
“If he wanted to, you’d be a rotting corpse by now.” His assurance is twisted but that’s all he has to give her, “He’s wanted you dead since the last time we caught you.”
She fills herself a glass of water, gulping down the capsules. There’s surprisingly sincerity in her consolidating words to him, “I wasn’t going to kill you; well, I wasn’t trying to anyway.”
“I know” escapes him before he could swallow it down with the rest of his whiskey.
Maybe he believes her, maybe he doesn’t - Jongin doesn’t really know himself. His response is immediate, flies out of his mouth without the sensibility to gobble it down. It was an instinct but at least, it was honesty from him to her in a lying game.
He leans his elbow on the arm of the chair, angles his head to the side to watch her go about in that bathrobe, his bathrobe. It was an odd sight, her without those studded boots and smudged liners - the simpleness of the situation is forever a reminder to him, that she like him too, is human.
Then comes the smirk, loving the attention he’s giving her, Krystal sways her hips as stalks over to where he sits. “I did like kissing you though.” Her coffee orbs is a swirl of gold when she forces his gaze to stay on her only. She brushes her thumb on his bottom lip in a teasing act he’s determined to turn down, “I think you liked kissing me too.” She whispers, her voice like honey, “Didn’t you?”
Jongin stays where he is for a long, drugging moment - his face inches, her hand stroking his cheek from her, his mind holding onto its last bit of control.
Finally, he smiles and she loses hers. “If you’re trying to seduce your way out of here, you’d have to do better than that, Soojung.”
Touching a hand to hers, he rips it away from his warm flesh then straightens and strides away without so much as a backward glance.
He thinks she might be wearing a mask but her face is bare.
-
They ambush her in the middle of the night, when she’s too deep in sleep to fight them off.
“I don’t care what bull crap Kai’s been spewing, I want answers and I want them, NOW!”
~ 3817 w, r, (krystal/kai) l part i. part ii. part iii.
If this was their idea of torture, then she has to give them credit.
■ fanmix/soundtrack (tracks added)
■ probs will be really exok action packed next chapter
■ i'm now posting this on aff too, so go subscribe if you'd like
Krystal wakes up in fright.
Her blurred vision adjusts to several things when her eyes first flutter open - the velvet curtains with blinding sunlight seeping through, a cup of coffee and freshly made too (judging by the strong aroma) and a vision of her road kill glory in the wall sized mirrors; reflecting back every details of ghostly form - including the big strip of band aid around her throbbing head.
This definitely isn’t a hangover - that, Krystal can tell.
The room’s so dark and dreary that this might as well be the set of an overdone horror movie set. For her sake, she hopes that’s the case.
Getting up isn’t an option, she begins to realize when the slightest movement of the body sends her into a stomach turning nausea. No indication of the location either and moving more than an inch isn’t doable when a pair of handcuff is chaining her to the head board, a mark is sure to be left when she finds her way out of here.
These scenarios don’t bother Krystal much; she’s been here many times before - just maybe in worst conditions and less furniture. Krystal knows that now is the time to play it cool, sit still and wait for some cliché intimidation game to start but she can’t when she’s at a disadvantage point - her memory is not fully intact, there are bits and pieces missing from last night’s event and as hard as she tries to recall, it’s all just an endless black hole of painful nothing.
There must be some kind of trick to get the cuff off, there always is. That’s the least of her concern, for now she needs to come up with an escape plan before some psycho enters the room with a torture device. Groaning a little, Krystal tucks her knees under and places her ear against the wall but of course, it’s all soundproof. Any idiot could be laughing right on the other side and she wouldn’t have a clue. The windows are easily accessible but in her condition, she won’t be able to climb down anything more than two stories high. Judging by the fancy nature of this place, Krystal doubts she’s going to have a fun time getting herself out of here.
“I still think she’s useful.”
“I don’t.”
“That’s cause you’re a dumbass.”
“Hyung, why do you bully me?!”
Well, now at least she knows her life is in the hands of a bunch of idiots.
Rolling her eyes, Krystal slides back down on the mattress and reaches out for the black coffee on the night stand, who knows maybe it will freshens her up enough for her brain to return back to her the power of recalls. The conversation has less logic than five years old does, Krystal thinks, coming somewhere around the back of those mirrors, likely that those do double as doors after all.
Taking a long satisfying sip of the caffeine induced liquid, she waits for them to come to her.
Amateurs as they are, their pocket money doesn’t say that about them, if anything you’d think they’re the CIA with all these flashy technologies. Waste of cash, if you’d ask her, she’s not going to stay prisoner for long.
Soon enough, the mirrors, little by little, disappear into the ceiling at a painfully slow speed that makes her want to laugh at their childish attempt of a grand entrance. They might as well invest in Power Rangers suits, they’re silly enough as it is, a little costuming wouldn’t hurt.
“Really?” Krystal asks more to herself than anyone, furrowing her brows at the scene the boys have created across the room.
At least they’re entertaining, Krystal thinks, staring down at Sehun who’s been tackled to the floor by another member of the gang, Baekhyun if she’s not mistaken.
Humiliating is an understatement, the shorter one would agree with that crimson blush invading his whole face as he helps himself up and begin to dust himself off. “Shut up! We have to be careful, we don’t know what kind of weird poison dart you’ve got on you after you so shamelessly made out with our Kai.”
She cocks her head, smirking. “Not shameless, if he liked it.”
Sehun, miraculously uninjured after having that cow fall on him, sits down on the red velvet chair a few metres away from the end of the bed. “You hit your head when you shift gear, not to mention that handy trick with the gas tank you pulled made it worse.”
“That would explain why I don’t remember much of anything that happened after.” Krystal mumbles, reaching up to touch her forehead with carefulness.
“Serves you right,” Baekhyun scowls, crossing his arms, “Slut”
“Baekhyun,” she chides, feigning a gasp, “Very inappropriate!”
He blinks then, “Oh my god, you remember my name! Sehun, she knows who I am!”
Sehun takes a deep breath, not paying any attention to the overexcited brunette who’s rushed to the feet of her bed like a worshipper. He says with the same old monotone, “It’s unbelievable how you manage to rush back to your headquarter to retrieve a sample of the poison but I supposed you don’t remember any of that?”
Slapping Baekhyun’s eager hand away from her arm and sends him a small glare to remove him from her personal space before turning back to Sehun, shaking her head at his question. “How long have I been out, exactly?”
“Well,” he begins and glances at the clock on the wall, “In ten minutes that would make it exactly nine teen hours.”
“Oh great!” Krystal exclaims, yanking at the cuff to no success, “I’ve had my beauty sleep, had my fun, time to go home, now let me go.”
Looking amused, Sehun straightens and makes his way back to the direction of the vast empty space the mirrors has left along with its earlier disappearance. “Baekhyun, I can see that you want to stay here until Kai gets back.”
At this, Baekhyun nods with enthusiasm. It’s come to her attention that those puppy eyes haven’t looked away from her once, it’s enough to makes her cringe.
“So…” He drags on awkwardly as soon as soon as Sehun is out of sight, locking the two of them in.
Watching her with a silly grin plastered on his face, Baekhyun rest his arms on the duvet followed by his head, says with an explosion of joy, “You look so cute when you just wake up.”
If this was their idea of torture, then she has to give them credit.
-
“Hunhun is a bit of a tight ass but so is Kai to be honest.” Baekhyun is a blabber, likes to swing his legs back and forth as he spits nonsense, “I’m the most fun in this fancy mansion, well jail for you, but you can still have fun with me?”
Krystal groans. “Again, my question was if you can get the cuffs off.”
“Right, about that…” He hesitates, giving her a toothy grin, “I would but if I did, I’m scared of what boss would do to me…”
“Who’s your boss?” She asks, knowing her mask of carelessness is fully in place.
Pulling the blanket up to his knees, he replies, “D.O.”
“Who’s D.O.?”
“I can tell you about him but he’s not really that interesting. Do you wanna play knots and crosses?”
“No,” Krystal stays sternly, trying hard to maintain her friendly smile, “Tell me about D.O., it will help us kill some time.”
“I guess,” The chipper boy says, proceeding to open a packet of strawberry flavoured Pockys he pulled out of what looks to be his school bag, “He’s kind of a mean old man, his brows always pulled together and he doesn’t laugh at anything unless it’s cat memes, those are really weird -“
“He’s the oldest then?” She cuts him short, blinking innocently.
“Not really…”
Flabbergasted, she pauses then asks more questions, “Then what determines who the leader is -“
The wardrobe door bursts open with an intentional ‘bang’ and Krystal knows this conversation is over before it even really began. “What is this, Narnia?”
“Shut up.”
With a shrug, Baekhyun bounces off the bed. “Told you he was mean.”
“When I said shut up, Baekhyun,” the grouch lets out an exaggerated sigh and steps out of the
closet, silent landing on his two feet, “I also mean you.”
Pouting, the happier of the pair turns around to offer her one last sympathetic look before disappearing into the closet. She watches the so called leader of the ‘dumb and dumber’ crew with more concentration than he deserves from her, a smirk slipping through when he sits as far away from the bed she was held hostage to as he possibly could.
“Stop making the eyes at him.”
Another voice rang through - deep with a soft edge. He’s too obvious, Krystal wish he’d know that by now.
“Jealous much?”
Giving her a sharp look, D.O. gets up on his feet and marches over, taking her by complete surprise with his hand bunching up the front of her shirt. “I told you to shut up.”
“Let her go.” Jongin drawls lazily, appearing on her bedside in a matter of seconds. “Like we agree, I’ll handle this myself.”
Not looking entirely convinced, the fire burning in his orbs dissipates enough for the boy to back away. Releasing a small breath she didn’t know she had been holding, Krystal recoils back into her position of back pressed tight against the woodened bedhead. If she wasn’t in fear before, she was now - though all three of them know, she’d rather die than admit it. D.O. leaves them with one last look of threat, circling around the bed like he’d be ready to pounce at any minute before punching numbers into the security system and ducks out the room when the mirror leaves a gap just big enough for his slip body to fit through.
Krystal looks over to Jongin, dark brown hair shielding his even browner eyes as his head falls to meet the flicker of light waiting for the cigarette between his lips. He takes a long drag, walking over to the window and pulls up the thick curtains, the sunlight beaming through at a blinding force, hitting her migraine at all the right spots.
“Here” He says, stuffing the fag in her mouth. “This will be the last you’ll be getting in a while.”
She inhales all the poison like it’s her saviour, a satisfying surge of nicotine calming down her system. “Baekhyun told me what happened. You all must be so proud of yourself for tricking me into coming to your lair."
“You can say that.”
Krystal kicks her boots off with a grunt, asks, “How long are you planning on keeping me here?”
Jongin avoids looking at her, stands with his back to her and stares out the window. “We haven’t decided.”
“They’re going to come for me, but you boys must have known that when you planned this all up.”
He nods. “But considering that they don’t have the slightest idea of your whereabouts, I say you shouldn’t have high hopes.”
“I could always escape,” Krystal points out, stretching her sore arms, “I did last time. Who knows? Maybe I can pull it off again.”
“Doubt it.”
She makes an involuntarily, horrified laugh. “You’re not going to kill me, you still need me to get all your stocks back.”
That makes him laugh.
The Jongin now, is not the one she knew. They’ve got too little history for her to ever recite his heart, mind and soul but he was a boy back then, knows only of his own world; read books the corner and play basketball with himself. He wasn’t mean then but wasn’t kind either. Jongin was a person of his own, there was so much isolation and there still is. Then it dawns on her that he really might kill her. There’s no chance of recovering their losses, they might have figured it out by now that her life in their hands, is nothing.
“Are you…” She swallows, reaching out for his cold, dead eyes, “Going to kill me?”
He pauses as if to consider for a moment then, “No, so get up.”
-
“We’re not killing her.”
No one looks happy to hear this piece of news - with the exception of Baekhyun.
“Why not?!” Suho yells, slamming his palms on the table. “We lied about you dying but it could have happened!”
“But it didn’t.”
As expected, Kyungsoo has plenty to say about his decision. “That doesn’t matter, Suho hyung is right -“
“But it didn’t!” And as expected, Baekhyun is overjoyed with his decision. “Can we please keep her? Please, pretty please!”
“What the fuck are you, five?” Kyungsoo says in uncontrolled anger, looking ready to pop a cap in Baekhyun’s head. “Give me a reason why I shouldn’t walk in there and choke that little bitch with my two hands right now.”
“Because,” Sehun’s voice of strikes down the cloud of murderous thoughts, “She could get us back everything they stole. If we keep her here, they’re bound to break and cave.” He shoots him a knowing look, a small commending nod and asks to be assisted, “That’s what you were going for - weren’t you, Jongin?”
“Yes,” he replies with a sigh, throwing his jacket over the back of an empty chair, “Sehun and I didn’t trick her here for revenge. We wanted her as our hostage.”
“So that’s what you were going for! ”Chanyeol grins, the sneaky sort when something clicks. “But why didn’t you tell us anything?”
He shrugs. “We figured, you would have all wanted in.”
“Especially Baekhyun hyung” Sehun adds.
“Hey!” Baekhyun complains, barely able to sit still in his chair. “I would have controlled myself!”
Suho stares at Sehun quizzically then him. “Where is she now?”
“In my other room,” says Jongin, regrettably.
-
They’re separated by a single door, off set white and polished knob.
Jongin ignores it at first and goes about his business; flick through some dusty books he never got to the ending of, study a little for upcoming tests, watch movies he’s already seen. The room is quiet like it’s always been, except now the silence is nothing of peace to him.
It’s when the sun goes down that Krystal walks in without resistance, the door swinging shut behind her fearless entrance and with every step she took, the more annoying the creaking of the floor got.
“I’m bored,” She whispers like a demand, her fingers curling around the back of the single sofa. “And hungry.”
“Go make yourself something then.” He says, flipping to a new page of his book.
A long pause, then, “I don’t know where the kitchen is.”
“Downstairs; opposite the lounge room.”
“Let’s eat out.” Krystal suggests; her every syllables tickling his neck. “It’ll be fun.”
He shifts slightly in his seat; if her goal was to cause discomfort then she’s succeeded. “That’s not going to happen.”
“Why not?”
“In case you make a break for it.”
Leaning in even closer so her nose is brushing his ear, she says in a low voice, “I’ll be a good girl, I swear.”
Jongin snaps his book shut. “What are you trying to do?”
“What?” She laughs, full and dirty. “Is this too hard for you to take, Jongin?”
He looks up at Krystal, his eyes hard as they glide across her features. The cut under her
cheekbone is healing nicely and by next week, there won’t be any sign that it was there in the first place. Her dark hair’s jarring against her porcelain skin, strands all knotted and jumbled up and still, she’d easily pass as attractive in any man’s eyes. It irritates him that no matter how ugly her insides is, she remains an alluring skin deep beauty.
“If you want to annoy someone, Baekhyun’s two doors down.”
Suffice to say, she doesn’t leave him alone so he goes first.
-
“We’re better off killing her.” Suho suggests, bounces the ball and passes it to him.
“I want our stocks back,” Jong In tells him like it is, aiming for the hoop “She’s going to be a pain in the ass to deal with but I don’t want to deal with the rest of her bodyguards after we dump her body in the Hans river.”
“She’s a dead weight; we’re just wasting our time and energy if we keep her around.” Suho lets out a long sigh, wiping off the sweat on his face with the back of his hand. “I swear they’re going to come for us before we even get the chance to torture any information out of her.”
Swivelling his head around, he gives the older boy a sceptical look. “You’re all talk, no action, hyung. You wouldn’t dare touch a strand of her hair.”
“If I have to, I will.” Suho argues, slightly offended by his accusation. “I should be the one saying that to you, not the other way around anyway.”
Throwing the ball through the hoop, he realizes Suho has already made a head start down the court. Jong In hurries his step until he’s well ahead, then begin to pace himself backwards, says, “You look too much into things.”
“I don’t look, I heard.” Suho points out in that smartass attitude he’s learnt to put up with. “That whole thing with you two hooking up and now, sharing the same living quarter - makes me nervous.”
Jonging brushes off, catching the ball with ease. “We all make mistakes sometimes.”
“I don’t think that it was a mistake.” The dark haired boy mumbles loud enough for him to hear. “I think you liked it and she liked it too.”
“She’s pretty,” he says truthfully, shrugging, “That’s about it.”
“And got a super hot body.”
Jong In makes a move and secures the ball to himself. “And got a super hot, body, admit it.”
He shakes his head, dodging Suho’s attempt to steal it back into his own possession. “And got a super hot body, now can you stop giving me the look?”
“What look?”
“That look”
“What look is that look?”
Elbowing him on the side, Jong In shoots and scoffs as he watches him squirm. “Not that look, for sure.”
-
The boys go out drinking for the night and stick him with babysitting duty
Probably the best decision - Chanyeol’s reckless, Kyungsoo’s short tempered, Sehun’s unresponsive, Baekhyun’s an idiot and Suho’s still planning out which car to take when dumping her body in the Hans river.
The cigarette burns too quickly, the drinks drain even quicker and Jongin mourns over the half full ash tray. With a sigh, Jongin rises gingerly and gingerly picks his navy jumper off the floor, pulling it over his head. He’s spent most of the last three hours locked in his room, watching chipped paints on his side of the door like if he stares hard enough, it will move.
He guesses he’s living by the saying, “Keep your friends close, your enemy closer” because it can’t get any closer than this when she’s living in his other room. Theirs is joint too; Krystal could barge in and out whenever she pleases. He can’t have that. Maybe it’s time to get a lock.
She catches his unexpectedly, tiny crack in the door and equally tiny ‘Psst’ like someone is listening in on them.
His eyebrow arches minutely, a gesture that reveals much more of his interest that it should. “What?”
Krystal frowns, vaguely offended by his tone but moves in anyway. “Give me some pills; I’d die of a headache before you boys can even get to your knives or whatever.”
He snorts, lying back in his chair and points to the drawers. “Third one down, take two and don’t even think of mixing it with alcohol.”
She crosses her arm, hip resting against the door frame and sounds icy yet amused, “I’m the guest. Don’t you even have the courtesy to get it for me?”
“You’re the guest,” he agrees, “You’re my guest, you’re living in my room so have some respect and get it yourself.
Krystal levels him with a dark glare, mouth tight, and saunters off to get her fix. “What’s with these pink capsules anyway?”
“Ask Suho hyung, he’s the one who got them.”
“How do I know these aren’t poisonous?” She asks, sounding vaguely disgusted as she holds them up for further observations.
“If he wanted to, you’d be a rotting corpse by now.” His assurance is twisted but that’s all he has to give her, “He’s wanted you dead since the last time we caught you.”
She fills herself a glass of water, gulping down the capsules. There’s surprisingly sincerity in her consolidating words to him, “I wasn’t going to kill you; well, I wasn’t trying to anyway.”
“I know” escapes him before he could swallow it down with the rest of his whiskey.
Maybe he believes her, maybe he doesn’t - Jongin doesn’t really know himself. His response is immediate, flies out of his mouth without the sensibility to gobble it down. It was an instinct but at least, it was honesty from him to her in a lying game.
He leans his elbow on the arm of the chair, angles his head to the side to watch her go about in that bathrobe, his bathrobe. It was an odd sight, her without those studded boots and smudged liners - the simpleness of the situation is forever a reminder to him, that she like him too, is human.
Then comes the smirk, loving the attention he’s giving her, Krystal sways her hips as stalks over to where he sits. “I did like kissing you though.” Her coffee orbs is a swirl of gold when she forces his gaze to stay on her only. She brushes her thumb on his bottom lip in a teasing act he’s determined to turn down, “I think you liked kissing me too.” She whispers, her voice like honey, “Didn’t you?”
Jongin stays where he is for a long, drugging moment - his face inches, her hand stroking his cheek from her, his mind holding onto its last bit of control.
Finally, he smiles and she loses hers. “If you’re trying to seduce your way out of here, you’d have to do better than that, Soojung.”
Touching a hand to hers, he rips it away from his warm flesh then straightens and strides away without so much as a backward glance.
He thinks she might be wearing a mask but her face is bare.
-
They ambush her in the middle of the night, when she’s too deep in sleep to fight them off.
“I don’t care what bull crap Kai’s been spewing, I want answers and I want them, NOW!”