The Devils On My Shoulder | ChanHoMin

89

felix was sat down in a meeting room by a police officer to be informed of the situation and the second he found out thay seungmin organised it, his heart sunk to his stomach. his eyes filled up with tears as realisation hit him like a truck.

"i've been running around for years... trying to search for him. i went through being blamed and suspected by the media, countless interviews and broadcasts, funds and charities to find him, i lost... the love of my life because i-i spent so much time looking for him, i celebrated his birthday by myself for three years... i've been completely broken without my best friend, unable to sleep at night because i couldn't comprehend the horrors he could be going through... only to find out that it was all a hoax?" he whispered, staring at the table.

"i'm sorry-" the officer started.

felix stood up and grabbed his jacket, leaving the meeting room and then the hospital all together. he needed to think, he couldn't face seungmin right now. part of him was devastated that seungmin would do such a thing to him, the other part of him wasn't fully convinced.

––

seungmin stared at the floor, crying softly into the pillow. he had been here for two days already and the officer had told him about felix's reaction.

guilt and shame flooded his body as he could do nothing but cry.

he needed to see chan and minho, he needed felix too, everything was so confusing and frustrating, he had no idea if he had done well, he needed chan and minho to tell him he did well. he felt hurt, unbearably hurt, like a sharp pain in his chest. he wrapped his arms around himself for security.

he missed his bear, he missed his bed, he missed chan and minho, he even missed byeol.

he didn't move when the doctor walked in, looking at the untouched food on the table and the untouched bottle of water.

"seungmin..."

he didn't reply, he kept his back to her, staying silent.

"seungmin you need to eat and drink, this has to be your last chance, or you'll need to be put on an iv."

he ignored her again, he didn't care at this point. he couldn't care less what happened to him, he hated himself for wanting to leave the house with them, he hated himself for not staying home because now he was so confused. deep down he knew chan and minho were bad people, what they did to him was inhumane but he loved them, he felt sympathy for them.

he was too addicted to them to acknowledge who they really were, he was blindly chasing their affection and their approval. he didn't want to face the type of people they were, he wanted to ignore it and bask in the love he felt for them.

the police were having a really hard time. seungmin showed obvious signs of neglect and abuse, the scars, the faded bruises, the hickeys littering his neck, the whip scars on his stomach and the burns on his arms, the malnutrition and his frail, weak body. but all three stories were matching up, seungmin was defending them as best he could and they didn't need to hear it to know that no matter what really happened, seungmin would not testify against them.

"we know he left with them because of mental health issues, doctors records show that he was on antidepressants... maybe he developed an eating disorder of some sort, that would explain why he's so skinny and small and weak."

"and the burn scars and the larger scars on his abdomen?"

"potentially self harm?"

"it's unlikely, we rarely see self harm that severe."

"just because it's 'unlikely' and 'rare' doesn't mean it's not possible... his situation is unique to statistics."

"their house has been searched, correct?"

"yes."

"what was found?"

"literally nothing, other than the room we assume was seungmin's had locks on the door. but the same room had a bed, a dvd player, clothes, hygiene products, comfort items, not what you would expect for an abduction victim."

"we're they questioned about the locks?"

"yes."

"what was their explanation?"

"they both said the same thing... so that seungmin wouldn't be found if their friends came over, so that if their guests tried to go in out of curiosity, seungmin would be kept hidden."

"right, and both the suspects and seungmin said he was regularly let out of that room, even sharing a bed with them on many occasions."

"without a testimony from seungmin, there's not enough proof to charge them..."

"so they'd just be let out?"

"yes, there's nothing else we can do, other than the physical evidence on seungmin, there is no proof of genuine abduction and captivity or abuse, and the evidence on seungmin's body can be justified in other ways, for example self harm."

"i say we monitor their interaction."

"what do you mean?"

"take them to seungmin and watch how they interact, if seungmin is defending them out of fear, that fear will be visible, if there is genuinely a romantic relationship, that was also be evident."

"that's not a bad idea... i agree on that."

"due to the lack of evidence and the lack of testimony, they're nothing more than suspects, it doesn't break any rules, they're not on trial or convicted, let's have them meet."

"i suggest not telling seungmin about it, that way we get a genuine reaction."

"i agree."

=♡=