Attraction | Ateez

Chapter 19: Drowning

That stare. That grin. That twisted look on his face. Choi San.

"Seonghwa," Hyejin's voice interrupted Seonghwa's stare. He turned and looked back at her.

"It's okay. We're okay, come on. We have to get out of here." He tugged on her arm slightly, but she drew it back quickly to herself with a look of fear on her face. "I'm not going to hurt you, Hyejin. Come on." He reached his hand out to her, but she stared down at it. Seonghwa glanced back out the window. San was gone.

"Hyejin, come on. We have to leave. Please, Hyejin, let's go." Her eyes shifted from his fingers to his face. He pleaded with his eyes, waiting for her to take his hand. She shook her head and took a step back. 

"Seonghwa, I can't. Just go. Leave before you get yourself killed."

"Hyejin, I'm not leaving without you." His voice rose.

"I-....you don't understand. He just...he needs help. Seonghwa, he needs help." 

Seonghwa furrowed his brows in confusion. "Help?" Seonghwa's eyes widened. He knew exactly what was happening. He remembered taking a Psychology class in college years ago and one of the topics they learned about was the mental states of abused individuals. Stockholm syndrome, also sometimes referred to as the Helsinki syndrome, where the victim over time becomes sympathetic towards their captor, was one of the sections Seonghwa had been particularly interested in and had done an entire essay on the topic. He knew exactly what was happening.

"No, Hyejin. He can't be helped. We can't do anything for him. We have to go Hyejin." There was a small shuffle in the room downstairs. Seonghwa glanced down the stairway and back up at Hyejin. Going downstairs no longer seemed like an option. He hurried to the window and attempted to pry it open with his fingers. White paint plastered the wood together making it unable to open. Under the window on the outside was a small piece of the wood that jutted out, making just enough room for a person to stand on, two if you were both small and careful. He looked around, trying to find something to open the window with, but there was nothing. He glanced back at Hyejin who was watching him with cautious eyes. He took a step back and kicked the window, shattering the glass and sending millions of glass shards all over the floor. 

"Oh, Hyejin, my love." A deep voice called from downstairs. There was the creaking of the floorboards before it stopped just before the door downstairs. Seonghwa held his hand out to Hyejin.

"Come on." He whispered. She stared at him for a moment with her hands pulled close to her. He almost thought that for a second, she would turn away and go to San, but she held her hand out to him and grabbed his hand. He pulled her to him.

"Careful, the glass." She put one foot through the window followed by the other. Her arms were behind her, holding on to the wood around the window. She looked down at the ground. A quick breeze blew past. She shivered and gripped the wood. Suddenly, a pair of hands grabbed her waist. 

"It's okay. Is there any way you can get down without jumping? Any part of the house that sticks out that you can stand on?" Seonghwa's voice was steady and calm, although there was the slightest hint of urgency in it. 

She leaned forward trying to see if there was anywhere she could move to. A part of the house on the left of her made an 'L' shape. There, the roof was a bit lower and wider. Apparently, that part of the house hadn't been built to have an upstairs, but it was still quite high, meaning either that the ceilings were high, or there was an attic style room above. Starting from the corner of the window, a tiny stone platform outlined the house, but it only stuck out about three inches from the house itself. She looked up. The roof of the house was still a bit high; too high for her to reach to pull herself up. 

"The roof, I can try to go to the roof. Part of the house sticks out." Hyejin answered. Another gust of wind made her shiver. The fiery ball in the sky blazed brightly in the late morning and the trees talked among each other in low whispers. 

"How far is it?" Seonghwa asked, still holding on to Hyejin. He was trying to look past her. From downstairs, San called up again. Seonghwa heard the first step creak. Seonghwa's heart raced and his hands shook. 

"A few feet. Eight feet maybe?" She said. 

"Hyejin, you're going to have to get to that roof. Can you jump?"

She shook her head. "No." 

"Okay, it's okay. I'm going to try to hold on to you as long as I can." Another step creaked. "Hyejin, we're going to have to hurry though." San let out a low laugh from the stairs. 

"Seonghwa, don't rush her," San said. Seonghwa looked back and then back at Hyejin. 

Hyejin moved to the farthest edge of the mini-roof. Seonghwa had to lean out the window to hold on to her, just missing the glass that threatened to impale him. She put her toe on the rock that stuck out, testing its' sturdiness. After a second, she went up on her toes and shimmied her way on it so that now both her feet were on the rock. She looked back at Seonghwa who gave her a reassuring nod. She turned back and pressed herself as much as she could against the house. Slowly she inched her way across the edge. Seonghwa held on to her as long as he could before he had to let go because he couldn't reach anymore. Another step creaked as San went up. 

Seonghwa climbed out of the window and stood on the mini-roof, watching Hyejin until she made it safely to the other said. She scrambled down on to the lower roof and turned back to look at Seonghwa. Just as he started to follow, a hand grabbed his shirt and pulled him back into the house. He let out a loud yell as his back was dragged across the glass that stuck out in the windowsill. He clenched his teeth as the glass cut deep into his flesh and he was dropped on to the floor. His vision blurred for a second and when it cleared, he found himself on the wooden floor of the house, looking up into the eyes of San. 

San drew his fist back and slammed it against Seonghwa's jaw, jerking his head to the side. Blood and saliva flew out of Seonghwa's mouth on the floor beside him. He struggled to see and another blow knocked his head to the other side. San crouched down on Seonghwa so that he straddled him awkwardly. Seonghwa tried to push him off, but he was too weak. San pinned Seonghwa's hands on the floor above him and looked down at him. With San's free hand, he grabbed Seonghwa's jaw, forcing him to look up at him. Seonghwa drifted in and out of consciousness. He could hear Hyejin screaming.

"Seonghwa. Mr. Park. It's been a while." San said with a sadistic smile. Seonghwa coughed. The taste of metal filled his mouth. 

"I see you were trying to take Hyejin from me." San continued. He loosened his grip on Seonghwa's face, but when his head started to roll to the side, San jerked his head back so he looked at him. 

"I don't appreciate you coming here unannounced." 

Seonghwa's eyes fluttered as he tried to stay awake. San hit him again, this time, a hard slap across the face. San shifted. A sharp pain ripped through the Seonghwa's back. He felt his shirt plastered to his skin with blood. San grabbed a handful of Seonghwa's hair and pulled his face to San's. Their faces were just centimeters apart. 

"You know, Seonghwa, you're pretty foolish, thinking you can come take Hyejin from me. So foolish. It's sad, really." San let go of Seonghwa's hair. His head hit the wood, hard. San got off of him and pulled Seonghwa up partly into a sitting position. He dragged Seonghwa into the room Hyejin was in. With one hard kick to the head, Seonghwa's vision dimmed until he felt he was drowning in a black ocean.