Areum had never been happier in her life. She had been sleeping (more like passed out from all the beating, but you get what I'm saying) in the tiny cell she was living in when she heard sounds outside. She immediately woke up, and sat up straight, alert.

The door slowly opened, making the creaking sound it always did, and a beautiful purple-haired man entered.
"Felix" Areum sighed happily, seeing her boyfriend come and sit beside her.
"Ari, what have they done to you?" He asked, a worried expression on his pretty face as he gently examined her cuts and bruises.
"Nothing much. I could handle it all. Did you find Hyunjin? Do you know about Stray Kids?" She asked, desperate to know his answer.

"Areum. Wake up Areum." She heard a loud voice echo in the room.

The room started to crumble and break as Felix started to fade away.

She looked at Felix, feeling tears falling down her face as she looked at him fade away. "D-don't go" she whispered, desperately holding onto his hand.

"You need to survive Ari." Felix weakly smiled as he faded away completely.

Areum cried as he left.

She looked down at her hands and noticed that the fingers were missing. She was fading away too.

~°~

"Good morning sleeping beauty! What were you dreaming about. You seemed pretty happy!" The Madman laughed, looking at her annoyed face.

Areum was confused. She didn't know why Madman was back. The last time he came was the day he choked her. Why was he here now?

"Why the hell are you back?" She growled.

"Still as feisty as ever I see." He chuckled, stroking the deep cut on her cheek with his hand. Areum struggled with her hands tied behind as she desperately tried to swat his hands away.

"Answer the fucking question." She spat.

"Are you hungry? It must have been 3 weeks since you last had food." He spoke, a wicked look entering his eyes.

"Not hungry? You still need to eat, anyway. We can't have you starving to death now can we?" He innocently said.

"I don't want to eat." Areum growled, already knowing that no matter what her answer was, he would only do what he liked.

"Yeah right." He lifted Areum by her face and pinned her to the wall as he literally stuffed food down her throat, not caring about her condition or seeing how she was choking. Her breathing was cut off, and she was just seconds away from death when he let go of her face and wickedly smiled as she fell to the ground.

He got down to her level and grabbed her face was once more, slapping her across both sides of her face multiple times and cackled.

He grabbed her throat and threw her onto the ground. He jumped on top of her fragile body and kneeled down, dangerously close to her face and whispered, "This is why I've been keeping you alive."

He undid his pants and stripped all the clothes off of Areum as he started doing unimaginable things to her.

~°~

Felix had not slept since the night all of Stray Kids went out for dinner.
He had been sleepless, noticing the loss of information. No one but Chan was alowed to go through any of the journals yet, and Chan was not telling anyone anything about what he was finding in them.

Areum was not there with him, and who knew whether she was dead or alive? Who knew the kinds of stuff they'd be doing to her if she was alive? Felix needed to know.

Did she remember him often? Did she think he had forgotten about her? Was she happy wherever she was? Had she really chosen to run away or was the secret message she left behind actually true? Did she betray them all? Questions and memories of her haunted him night after night.

2 years ago...

Felix had spent a year in Seoul after he had left Australia. But everything was still hard. People bullied him in the school hallways for messing up his pronunciations.
It was one such day when he was going back home from school when three of the school's biggest bullies blocked his way. Two of them were standing in front of him, and one was standing behind.

"You bumped into me today, didn't you Yongbok?" The biggest one asked.
"I-I'm sorry" Felix stuttered, moving one step back when the big ol meanie standing behind grabbed onto his shoulders and went,"Sorry won't cut it this time you piece of shit"

The only bully who hadn't spoken till now  came towards Felix and curled his hand into a fist to punch him. The meanie raised his hand and Felix closed his eyes as he waited for the impact that never came. He cautiously opened his eyes to see a girl, holding the bully's fist in her palm.
"Real mature, don't you think? Picking on people much smaller than you. Pick on someone your own size you filthy asshole." She spoke, and twisted the bully's fist in her hand, making the big bad boy twist back in pain as his two cronies ran away. He tore his hand away from the girl and ran away like a coward.

The girl then turned towards Felix, who looked at everything with awe, and asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Thanyou for helping me." He politely replied before he realized, that was the new girl at school. The one who everyone avoided. He wondered why.

"Why does everyone avoid you?" He asked, before she could leave.
"You don't need to know." She replied, narrowing her eyes at him.
"Is it because you hang around with that girl Yura?" He questioned holding onto her hand so she couldn't leave.
She looked down at where he was holding her hand before she said, "as I told you before, you don't need to know."
"Would you like to tell me over a cup of coffee? As a thankyou for helping me?" Felix asked hopefully.

She narrowed her eyes at him before she snapped, "No" and left, leaving a very much in love Felix.

He fell for Areum the first time they met.

Back to the present

Felix got up in Areum's bed and stared at the ceiling as he spoke, "I never did get to thank you for helping me out that day."

~°~

Hi my lovelies

how are all of you doing? I finally updated after a lifetime, and I have settled into my new house and life.
Cora