46 — SAVE ME

nothing is able to stop him.

—

the road feels further at night.

eunsang wasn't sure if he was going on the right way, all he knows for sure is that aijewon street is located close to xigma, and he regularly passes by the road when he felt like walking to school. he ventures through the quiet neighborhood, his ears were only able to capture the rapid sound of his breathing. I know the place is here somewhere, aijewon, it's right on the tip of my tongue. 100 meters.. 50 meters...

it's here.

eunsang turns to his left, a tint of hope rushes into his veins once he saw the building. there it is. he can't believe the place he passes by everyday, the place junho passes by everyday, turns out to be the place in which he's kept in custody. he looks up to the fairly tall building merely 5 floors tall that looked too modest to be addressed as a modern workplace. the lights of the upper floors were still on, which made eunsang wonder why in the world were there still people working in this late hour. he was about to go in without hesitation when suddenly he felt his arm getting grabbed by an anonymous person, pulling him over to the side.

he yanks his arm, trying to get away. "what are you—"

he catches the sight of the man who held unto him, and immediately in that moment he successfully backed away. he looks at the familiar man standing upon him. daniel..?

his eyes immediately spark in anger. "you knew. you knew about her and you're not even doing anything—"

"hey, look kid. chill." daniel mutters bitterly. "before you make any other false assumptions, please just stop talking. i'm here to save that petty friend of yours, why aren't you cooperating?"

eunsang growls. "well, if you did have the intentions of saving him, you could've done it earlier. you knew the culprit! you know her personally, at least!"

"well the thing is, i didn't." daniel replies shortly, his hand still gripping on eunsang's arm. "seulgi noona's my half-sister, my dad adopted her and, oh god— that snake, never thought she was sugarcoating herself the whole time!"

eunsang looks at him quizzically. "so you didn't know your sister works here?"

"i knew about it, what i didn't know is that she's passionate about her work. the last time when one of you got captured, she was the one who reported it to me— ah, whatever." he pushes eunsang away. "leave. now. let me handle this, we don't want them to catch a single sight of you."

"what are you going to do?"

"save the lightning kid, what else? these documents are worth gold." daniel answers.

"why are you doing it this late at night?"

"because seulgi noona always works at night, that's when she exposes the real side of her." daniel was starting to get annoyed by eunsang's curiosity. "i'll handle this! you'll see your best friend by the morning. but now please just get back home because i bet your hyungs aren't going to be excited by the fact you're here with me this late."

eunsang fights off daniel. "but i wanna come too!"

"are you crazy?! no, you're not taking another step into that building, i forbid you."

"but—"

daniel pushes off eunsang to the side aggressively, causing him to lose his balance and fall down to the ground. eunsang winces in pain and was ready to fight off daniel right on spot, but he stopped himself from doing so because he realizes the reason why daniel pushed him in the first place. a woman comes out from the building, the woman who was with miss kang in eunsang's visions, bringing a big, plastic bag of trash out to the garbage bin. her eyes widen once she catches the sight of daniel, and eunsang was sure that she was not delighted. she clears her throat. "mr kang. i'm guessing you're here to meet your sister?"

eunsang eavesdrops their conversation from afar, secretly hoping his red blazing hair isn't noticeable enough for her to turn her eyes to.

daniel raises an eyebrow. "who are you?"

"ah, i haven't introduced myself, haven't i?" she bows. "i'm mrs song, miss kang's new assistant."

"assistant? isn't seulgi-noona the assistant researcher?"

"she has been promoted to the lead researcher position a while ago, and i was chosen to be her assistant." she says with a tint of pride in her voice.

"ah, so she got rid of the last one.." daniel mumbles. "so that's why she reported it to me.."

"anyway, daniel-ssi. do you have any reasons to be here?" she asks politely. "are you here to beg for forgiveness?"

"oh god, no. who do you think i am, a saint?" he sneers. "i heard about the little fella that you psychopaths are experimenting on, that guy that looked like he came out of a manga? yeah, him."

the woman gulps. "how did you know?"

"i have my ways."

"well it shall be our doom, because you're one to retrieve information real fast." she sighs. "please, do come with me. i'll let miss kang explain it to you."

daniel nods and let the woman guide his way. he mentions something first before he started walking. "mrs song."

she turns to him. "hm?"

"remember what happened to the last researcher when he was discovered to be doing something he's not supposed to?" he says coolly. "he got fired. are you sure you're ready to face the consequences if this gets exposed?"

the woman pauses for a while before shaking her head. "miss kang is a relative of yours. she won't get fired."

"oh, i know she won't. but what about you?" daniel drops the bomb in an instant.

mrs song looks disgruntled. "thank you for your concern daniel-ssi, but i think i'm able to take care of myself and my career without your help."

daniel sighs at her stupidity. he glances towards eunsang's way, gesturing him to leave before proceeds to enter the building with the woman.

eunsang shakes his head. there's no way he's going to let this slide, especially when he's positive that junho's in there somewhere. somehow a part of him wasn't able to fully trust daniel yet. a minute after their departure, he catches up with them by quietly slipping into the building. it wasn't hard for him to find daniel because for some reason him and the woman were walking so terribly slow. he eventually finds a safe spot for him to watch without getting noticed.

daniel sits on a sofa in what seems to be a waiting room. the woman excuses herself as she goes to inform miss kang about daniel's surprise appearance.

miss kang comes up from the stairs that leads to the basement, fixing her hair and her white lab coat. her expressions falter at the sight of the daniel, as if she wasn't excited to see him either. "brother."

"adopted sister." daniel replies back stiffly.

"ouch," she takes a seat across him. "betrayer."

"i think i'm supposed to be the one who says that to you, don't you think?" a small smirk compels the latter's face. "you seem to be enjoying this, noona. for a second i thought your love for me was genuine."

"it is. though you've been a total asshole the whole time, i still put my concerns on you, brother." she leans closer to him. "dad still cares about you too. you're just the sensitive one who lives life out of hatred and neglect towards us."

"i don't want to be associated with blood-wrenching psychopaths, if that's what you're thinking."

she smirks. "you're always overreacting."

"if you weren't interested of siding up with me in the first place, why bother?" daniel asks bitterly. "don't pretend that you don't know."

she gazes at him. "it's the yohan case, isn't it?"

"you were the one who reported his case to me. you said you wanted to help the poor kid."

"well, he did seemingly look like a clueless little puppy~"

"was it just so you could take over the last researcher's position?" he immediately gets to the point. "there was no reason for you to let yohan go. you did it so you could get the last researcher fired, didn't you? you made him take all the blame?"

she smiles. "i reminded him countless times, he just didn't listen."

daniel sighs. "you are unbelievable."

"hey! at least you're able to perform that little heroic act of yours. that day, you bursted into this building looking all scary and furious, bringing all the documents you could gather just so you can save that one hopeless kid." she laughs. "you're here to do the same, right? those fancy, legalized papers you're holding look important. are you seriously planning to sue your own sister?"

he spreads the sheets on the table, making her see for herself. "you know the procedure. return him back, and i won't have your name blacklisted. this is how i express my affection, at least be grateful about it."

she skims the terms and conditions briefly before clicking her tongue. "i won't be returning him any sooner, then."

daniel quirks an eyebrow. "why?"

"bold of you to assume that he's here by force," she says, tapping at the requirement she's referring to. "he's here by his own will, we're not forcing him into anything."

he scoffs. "that's ridiculous."

"what? it's true! i can prove it to you. mrs song?"

the woman immediately heads towards her. "yes?"

"bring the patient in. brother mine seems to be doubting his.. credibility."

"yes, miss." she makes her way towards the basement immediately after she's been told what to do.

daniel shakes his head. "if you're doing this to delay the procedure, please don't. it's 3am in the morning and i had enough dealing with your bullshit."

"you're here to steal my beloved patient, i'm here to make sure you don't." she smiles cunningly. her eyes brighten once she sees the new figure approaching. "there you are, my champion."

daniel turns around. eunsang tilts his head to get a better look. both of their mouths drop open.

cha junho heads towards them with a polished look and an eery smile on his face. no burns, no scratches, no guns pointed at his head — it was only him.

-

bingewatched strangers from hell (aka the ocn drama with our favorite pd-nim dongwook-ssi as the main antagonist) and it certainly sparked quite a lot of ideas 🙃🤭 stan talent, stan psychopath lee dongwook lololol

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