ᴀʙᴅᴜᴄᴛᴇᴅ

Chapter 25

The Stray Kids dorm was filled with a mixture of emotions. Felix was sitting with Chan as he rambled in English about the kidnappers. His eyes were blown wide as spoke with his trembling voice about Nathan and his tortures.

Chan could do nothing but hug him and comfort him in English. Felix was constantly having nightmares and couldn't go to sleep. He would always wake up screaming and begging to no one in particular. It would take almost an hour to calm him down. Chan had spent several sleepless nights taking care of Felix. Sometimes Minho and Changbin would take his place.

He was inconsolable. He would always ramble about one person and that was Hyunjin. He just couldn't fathom that his best friend was in the devilish clutches of the monster. He had seen Nathan's lecherous looks towards Hyunjin. He was frightened for his friend.

Hyunjin was one of the only people who knew how to comfort and console Felix. His absence had left a really big impact on Felix's mental health.

Han was no different from him. His panic attacks had become more constant. He would always have panic attacks when he would hear Felix screaming. Minho even bought a noise cancelling headphone for him. He had gotten even more paranoid. He would avoid everyone except the members. He had stopped using SNS too.

Minho had gotten completely quiet. He would take care of the other members but when he was alone, he would cry. He could feel Hyunjin's absence in full force. He reminisced about their memories when they both used to tease each other around like tom and jerry.

He thought of how much Hyunjin had been going through. First the false bullying scandal, the hiatus, the hate, the 2 year cyber bullying and the constant death threats. And now the kidnapping. Hyunjin had gotten completely different. His goofy side was never seen after that. His dramatic reactions stopped afterwards. But most of all, he had gotten stronger. He would ignore his own feelings for the others. He knew how to hide his own emotions from the others. He had closed others off. He would take the role of a mature and protective hyung for the other four.

Like that, Minho would always reminisce about their old memories just so that he could distract himself from feeling Hyunjin's absence.

Seungmin would sleep all day. He would just exit his room when he needed to go get some food and when he needed to use the bathroom. He stopped going out completely. He didn't want to think about anything. He was slowly spiralling down the abyss.

Changbin had gotten short-tempered. He would burst out at anyone except his members. He even yelled at a young girl trying to take his pics at the shopping mall.

Jeongin had gotten exceptionally quiet and depressed too. He felt excluded and lonely. Even though he knew the others were also tensed and tired, he just couldn't bring himself to think positively. He tried to talk to his hyungs about his paranoia and loneliness but they would just tell him to go and sleep.

Chan would always stick to Felix because of the latter's trauma. Changbin seemed too hot tempered. Minho was always taking care of Han. Seungmin wouldn't leave his room. He had no one to support him.

He would always go to Hyunjin's bed and sleep over there covered with Hyunjin's scent. He had even picked up the habit of wearing Hyunjin's clothes. He felt like his hyung was hugging him when he wore the clothes, with Hyunjin's scent hovering over him like a blanket. He couldn't bring himself to think about anything as he thought of his hyung. His favourite hyung. Hyunjin would always keep his problems aside and would hug and console him. He never had to tell him, he would just understand that he needed a hug. He knew he was being selfish but his fear of abandonment was choking him.

One day Jeongin's elder brother came to fetch him. His parents had wanted to meet him. It was already getting too suffocating at the dorms, so he accepted the offer.

He rushed to the black car of his brother. His brother drove the car. His hometown was quite far so it would take some time. They talked for a while and then silence engulfed them.

After about half an hour, they were driving through a place where buildings could not be seen. As they moved forward, his brother suddenly accelerated the car. Jeongin got confused.

"We are being followed!!"
His brother alerted him.

Jeongin's eyes widened in fear as he turned around to check. There was indeed a large black van following them. His brother broke him out of his trance.

"Call the police!! Tell them to track the phone!"

Jeongin immediately fumbled with his phone and called 911.

"They said they are coming hyung! What shall we do?!"

"Hold tight Jeongin-ah!"

His brother drove the car in maximum speed but the van was not slowing down either. It also managed to tail them around. Then a huge sound was heard. A gunshot.

Then everything went in a blur. The screeching of tires was heard. The car skidded towards a tree and it rammed into the tree.

Everything was blurry as Jeongin felt piercing pain in his hand and face. He looked at his hand to find shards of glass embedded into his skin.

He looked towards the driver seat to see his brother's head laying on the steering wheel, covered in blood and glass shards.

A drop of blood dripped down Jeongin's eyelashes as he tried to make sense of his surroundings. His vision was getting blurry in the corner of his eyes. Smoke wafted into the air from the car. His senses were getting numb with pain.

Blood...

Everywhere.

A single tear slipped down his cheek, mixed with blood. He felt hands grabbing him. He didn't have energy to defend himself. He let the hands drag him outside as he looked at his brother.

Then he saw figures in black through his blurred vision.

He slowly succumbed to the grasp of unconsciousness.