Doubts in the Darkness

Even after losing consciousness and waking back up, he couldn’t fully process the situation. Usually, kidnapping targets someone from whom something can be gained. He didn’t have a penny to his name, and he had no family other than his grandmother.

Why me? Even as he schemed for a way out and worried for his grandmother left alone, that question remained lodged in his mind.

<It’s been a while, Mr. Dohun.>

At least, until he met Baek Seohan.

<Baek Seohan…?>

For a long time, he couldn’t gather his senses. Why was Baek Seohan in front of him after he’d been kidnapped? Why was he smiling? His mind went blank in an instant, leaving him unable to think.

Dohun only snapped out of it when Seohan slid a piece of paper in front of him.

<I bought you, Mr. Dohun.>

<What are you… talking about…>

A contract. His eyes naturally gravitated toward the document Seohan presented. His gaze trembled as he read the black ink embroidered on the white paper.

<They sold you when I offered double your debt. From now on, you just have to pay me back. Instead, as you can see… the deadline I set expired as of yesterday.>

Tap, tap. Slender fingers drummed on the deadline specified in the contract.

<Your body belongs to me now.>

Dohun had to exert an agonizing amount of effort just to perceive the situation and understand the meaning of the words Seohan spat out. His brain, which felt like it had ceased to function, struggled with the weight of it, taking a long time, but he gradually accepted the reality.

<…Why? What could you possibly be lacking? Why are you doing this to me…!>

<I told you, why did you act like that?>

<What?>

Baek Seohan met his eyes and smiled brightly. He should have been used to that stoic face breaking into a soft smile, having seen it many times before, but Dohun couldn’t shake the feeling that the man’s face was utterly foreign.

His jaw was gripped lightly. Because his body was bound with rope, Dohun’s face contorted as he found himself unable to resist even a small gesture.

<If you had asked me to pay the debt for you back then, you wouldn’t have ended up like this.>

<What kind of bullsh*t have you been talking about this whole time?>

<When someone who survived such a miserable environment stands so firm, it makes me want to break them. Don’t you agree?>

The moment he heard those words, Dohun’s struggling to escape the grip stopped abruptly. Seohan merely let a satisfied smile bloom at the face that wore its shock so plainly.

<…That’s the reason?>

Even in a situation so difficult to accept, Dohun tried to understand Seohan.

The first thing that came to mind was that b*stard of a father he had essentially cut ties with. That man was the perfect candidate for making enemies.

If Seohan had been wronged by him in the distant past and had approached him to seek revenge on his child… it wouldn’t have felt this pathetic.

<Then, the way you approached me first was also…>

<Because you seemed so interesting, Mr. Dohun. I was going to leave when I got bored… but since I’ve never met someone like you before, I wanted to have you. I’m sorry.>

It was an apology without a single grain of remorse.

A long silence followed as he sat there blankly, unable to say anything. He thought he had finally found a friend he could open up to, but it had all been his own delusion.

At one point, he had even thought that meeting Baek Seohan was a stroke of luck handed to him by the world, hoping he wouldn’t be frustrated by the misfortune that followed a brief moment of happiness…

Something burned white-hot inside his chest.

<Baek Seohan.>

<Yes. Speak your mind.>

<I will… kill you. No matter what.>

Dohun did not despair, nor did he lament his situation. The eyes staring at Seohan were filled only with hatred and loathing for the man. Facing those eyes, Seohan drew a smile on his face that bordered on ecstatic.

<Good.>

Gazing at the face that made no effort to hide its pleasure, Dohun decided he would never open his heart to ‘Baek Seohan’ again. He would only hate and loathe him, and hope for nothing but revenge.

I’ll kill him with my own hands one day. He vowed this every time he thought of that loathsome face. He firmly believed that this one resolve would never change.

From then on, Dohun began to be treated worse than a dog by Baek Seohan. When the man brought various maniacal restraints from who-knows-where to put on his body, he tried to punch him in the face, but he was pinned down by the bodyguards nearby and couldn’t move a muscle.

When he was brought before the man covered in bizarre accessories, his pride was thoroughly trampled. His body, reacting to the forcibly injected pleasure, felt disgusting. He trembled with a shame that rose to the very tip of his throat.

‘I’m going to kill him.’

He thought that over and over. If he could, he felt like he could kill him right then and there.

<How cute.>

In the end, only the awareness that he was being played with in the man’s palm grew stronger. No matter how fiercely he glared, Baek Seohan only wore a satisfied smile.

That line of thought faltered when a single, hollow voice was heard.

<Crazy.>

Dohun, who had been trying to steady his breath, immediately frowned and looked at him. That Baek Seohan said something like that?

It was a word that neither the old Baek Seohan, who had approached him warmly while eyeing his side, nor the current Baek Seohan, who had revealed his true colors, would ever utter. Moreover, he never made such a stupid expression.

Following that, the way he lightly touched his neck and made strange “Ah, ah” sounds felt beyond absurd—it was eerie. Thus, Dohun couldn’t hide his reaction.

The man, who was clearly Baek Seohan but didn’t seem like him, reflexively put strength into his feet and then jumped back in surprise. The wide eyes and the face pale as if he’d seen a ghost were a bonus. If it wasn’t his imagination, he thought he even heard a small “Eek.”

<…Get out. Right now.>

With a face turned red, what he spat out was a firm order for the guests to leave. Unable to cope with the series of incomprehensible situations, Dohun was dragged out and locked in the basement.

“Whew…”

The heat that had been forcibly built up in his body quickly subsided.

‘Was that what it meant?’

There had been no hesitation in the way he stepped on his lower body. And even the foot that moved with undisguised sexual intent afterward… recalling those horrific sensations made Dohun’s face turn cold.

Because he reflexively lowered his head, he didn’t see Baek Seohan’s face immediately after, but he could tell even with his eyes closed that the man was wearing a smile full of delight.

“…Disgusting b*stard.”

If he had made a mistake, it was once thinking of that man as a friend. The sound of him grinding his teeth leaked out clearly.

He tried to move the restraints binding his hands, feet, and neck, but there was no sign of them loosening. Only the unpleasant metallic clank filled the hollow, empty basement.

Is this the kind of place where it’s easy to go mad? It was a place with nothing but a flickering fluorescent light, a hard bed, and a small attached bathroom. His mind was already growing weary.

‘I’m getting out.’

He would get out of here by any means necessary. Closing his eyes, he repeated it to himself as if it were something he must never forget.

Before he knew it, Baek Seohan’s strange behavior had been completely erased from Dohun’s mind.

A few days passed like that.

Dohun could not adjust to the rapidly changing situation around him.

Even until the second day, he thought nothing had changed. When the man visited the basement as usual, making pathetic threats and trying to kiss him, he pretended to go along with it and bit his tongue. The problem started right after he bit the tongue.

Baek Seohan, who had been saying he needed to retrain him, began to creak like a robot that had been given the wrong command. For a moment, Dohun had to doubt his own eyes.

‘…No way.’

Baek Seohan’s eyes looked watery. As if they were filled with tears.

He called out to him several times, but the man, whose face had turned red, simply turned around and left. “Left” was a polite word; in Dohun’s eyes, it looked like he was half-running away.

Why? Why all of a sudden?

He thought he would get hit if he bit his tongue. He had done it prepared for the consequences, yet the man fled. Seeing him rush off as if he were the one being mistreated made Dohun feel strange, even though he was the victim.

When he wiped his lips with his restricted hands, a faint smear of red blood came off. He could taste the metallic scent of blood inside his mouth. It felt bizarre.

‘He’s trying to shake me.’

This must be nothing more than one of that man’s twisted tactics. It wasn’t long ago that he had been stabbed in the back by someone he’d considered a friend, only to be treated like a toy.

‘I can’t let him get to me.’

He comforted himself several times, telling himself that this, too, was an act for the man’s amusement.

But unfortunately, the confusion continued after that. First of all, while the handcuffs and shackles remained, the collar was removed. There was no apparent reason. Since he was a madman whose thoughts were a mystery, it would be strange to even try to understand him.