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"Dude I knew you could do it." Jisuk patted Jiwoo on the back, congratulating him.
"Hah...it was nothing really."
Sure, it had been a tough recovery period but Jiwoo was on the other side of it at least.
After 'the incident' with Amyeong and Dran he thought he would never be able to fully move his arms again, let alone use his awakened powers. But now, thanks to Kartein and Doctor Delein's help, Jiwoo could now use force control without pain and was on the way to becoming just as strong, or even stronger than he was before it happened.
"The recovery you made was no joke Jiwoo. It's incredible that you can already use your awakened power for that long. Seriously, well done,"
The two teenagers were currently in the Shinhwa training room. Jisuk had offered to train with Jiwoo today to help him gain back control of him powers more quickly when Jiwoo was still in hospital, and he had clearly kept his word. Kayden had probably asked him to keep an eye on Jiwoo after the accident. Why else would he spend his free time essentially babysitting Jiwoo?
Today, Jiwoo finally lasted 6 seconds while using his power as fast as he could, which was a personal record after what had happened.
"Thanks Jisuk. You're the reason that I made it this far."
"Nonsense, if you didn't work hard yourself you never would have made it to this point."
"Well still, thank you."
Jisuk chuckled, throwing an arm around Jiwoo's shoulder. "No problem, I had nothing else to do anyways."
They fell into a comfortable silence. That is, until Jisuk asked his next question.
"Hey Jiwoo?"
Jiwoo turned his head. "Yeah?"
The white-haired teen seemed to contemplate what he was about to say.
"Look you don't have to tell me, but how did you get injured so badly? Jiyoung told me that you were tortured..? I think I'd just prefer to hear it from you, cause its really difficult to get injured that badly but there's obviously no way thats the truth right? Still, you don't need to answer or anything if you don't want to."
Jisuk had a solemn expression on his face while saying this. Jiwoo had rarely seen such a serious look from him. He knew it was only time until someone other than Kayden asked him for the details about what happened. He wasn't sure he was ready to talk through the things that were done to him a second time to anyone else. Reliving those memories, those emotions was so difficult. He was coping by acting like it hadn't happened, because every time he thought back on that experience, anxiety would spread throughout his chest and his heart rate would quicken.
But...looking into Jisuk's eyes, the eyes of the friend who had been so loyal and suporting of him. The eyes that had shown such worry when he was injured. The eyes that were currently looking at him with patience. He knew that Jisuk had the right to know.
"Well...Jiyoung was telling the truth. I was tortured."
Jisuk sucked in a breath
"Ah no no no it probably wasn't as bad as you're thinking!" Jiwoo tried to backtrack after seeing his reaction. He shouldn't make it seem like a bigger deal than it is, and he did not want to appear weak to Jisuk. It was his weakness that allowed him to be kidnapped in the first place.
"Really, it will sound worse than it actually was i promi-"
"Jiwoo. Just tell me what happened. And please, for both of our sakes, don't sugarcoat it." His voice was had a low register, and his face was suspiciously blank.
" Yeah, okay." Jiwoo looked up at him. "These two awakened ones kidnapped me when i was going out to buy cat food. They..." Jiwoo closed his eyes as he recounted the day. "They took me to this warehouse. And one of them, I remember he had green hair, he told me to tell him where Kayden was. When I refused...he... he didn't like it. I can't remember how much time passed during it. All I know is how he broke the bones in my arms one by one, and then the muscles and ligaments and everything." He could feel his eyes starting to water and he hated it. Why couldn't he even pretend to be strong? Why was he so weak?
"Shit..." Jisuk sounded upset. Of course he managed to annoy Jisuk as well. He was such a screw-up.
"It was my own fault really, I know I was weak. I deserved it really, I need to be stronger to be worthy of having Kayden as a mentor." He tried to keep his voice steady as he spoke these words.
Jisuk snapped his head to look up at Jiwoo. "Stop. Shit, of course you didn't deserve it! Why the fuck would you think you deserved that? Has someone been telling you this shit?" His eyes turned dark "I'll kill them"
"No, nobody told me that, don't worry,"
"Then what got it into your head that you deserved to be tortured? You're the best person I know. It's the bastards that did that to you who deserve to be tortured."
"..."
"Jiwoo. Look at me. Now."
The boy opened his eyes hesitantly, to see a pair of angry grey ones looking into his own.
"It is not your fault. Okay? You were never weak. They targeted a teenage boy who had only recently discovered he was awakened. You're really strong anyways, let alone with the fact that you're new to all of this. They are to blame not you. Remember that."
Jiwoo felt tears run down his face as he processed what Jisuk had said.
"But...I have to be stronger. If I had been stronger I could have avoided being kidnapped and avoided making you all worry and have to help me."
Jisuk's expression turned sad, and he drew in a breath.
"We wanted to help you, hell we still do. It wasn't some sort of obligation. I could call any of our friends or anyone who helped you right now and they would say the same thing."
"B-but I thought you guys just helped me cause of Kayden. I p-presumed he told you guys to look after me while he was away finding Kartein." He was struggling not to sob mid-sentence. It turned out what he thought was true was all a lie, and Jiwoo didn't know how to deal with it.
"Of course not. We care about you, and we are your friends. Of course we would always want to help you."
A sob escaped without his permission, and then the gates flew open. Jiwoo shook as sobs racked his body
"C'mere," Jisuk said with his arms open standing in front of him. He wrapped his arms around Jiwoo while he sobbed. "You're an idiot, or course we care about you."
"Okay, I believe you. I care about you guys too."
"Its okay, we know."