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“Hanbyeon, let’s have a drink.” Doyoung called from behind the car door.
A drink. And an invitation for more. It hung in the air between them for a moment as the lawyer considered it. Dongsoo indulged him often, so he silently accepts the offer by settling next to his partner in the backseat. He could use the company tonight.
Doyoung’s house was always a little cold. Even though they lit the fire. Even though they sat directly in front of it. It was the coldest in Doyoung’s room, whenever Dongsoo turned his back to him after sex. It was brutal each time.
He liked looking at the lawyer’s back, though. It’d been engraved in his brain from nights like this. Doyoung’s eyes close involuntarily, even as he tries to blink the exhaustion away, finally falling asleep.
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Doyoung blinks awake. Everything feels slow, and his body is heavy, like he’s sinking into quicksand. And then he feels it. A touch to his stomach.
“Hanbyeon?” he tries to say, but it doesn’t quite come out.
The hand climbs up his torso, and Doyoung feels it has anything but innocent intentions. It feels unnatural, like it isn’t a hand touching him. But what else could it be? Han Dongsoo is the only other non-comatose person in this house. And he’s lying right next to Doyoung.
The hand suddenly grips his throat. Panic floods his entire system, but he’s frozen. He can’t move. Everything is spinning, and he can’t protect himself. He screams. Or, he thinks he does. He can’t tell. Did his Hanbyeon drug him before hand?
Doyoung can’t even think. He feels so betrayed. The physical pain is nothing compared to that. He’d trusted Dongsoo with his business, his life, his bed. How could he?
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Doyoung suddenly jolts awake in his dark room. He immediately sits up, taking heaves of breath while his hand goes to his throat where the force was suffocating just a few seconds ago.
Dongsoo was already awake. He was frozen in front of the bed with a glass of water in hand. “…What’s wrong?” he asks, cautious.
*You*, Doyoung wants to say. *You were strangling me.*
Dongsoo stepped closer, still hesitant. He sat on his side of the bed and offered the glass of water. Doyoung eyes it. His lawyer then takes a few sips, before offering again. And the other man finally takes it, deeming it safe.
“Did you choke me? While i was… while i was sleeping?” was the first thing Doyoung says. His voice sounds so clear, it cuts through the silence like a knife.
Dongsoo is offended at the accusation. “No.” he answers immediately.
“But i felt it.”
“I was grabbing some water. You saw me.” Dongsoo says, his voice firm. And he was right.
Doyoung didn’t feel relieved, though. He wasn’t even angry anymore, but the betrayal lingered.
He felt the lawyer’s hand on his thigh, a comforting gesture. It felt nothing like the force that was strangling him. It felt…normal. Like a hand. Human.
Then, as if to test it, Doyoung dragged Dongsoo’s hand up to his throat. The lawyer’s fingers wrapped around it firmly, but he didn’t squeeze. Nothing like the touch he felt before.
“Did you have a nightmare?” Dongsoo asks after a while, his hand remaining where the other man held it. He felt his partner’s pulse.
“No. I thought you were killing me.” his voice comes out weaker than he meant to. But it was too late to think about those things anymore. Dongsoo had already seen a lot of him. The most that anyone had seen.
“I wasn’t. I wouldn’t do it like that if i had to. I’d want you awake.” The lawyer says, calm as ever. Doyoung smiles.
“Okay.”
Dongsoo falls asleep shortly after, his back turned towards his partner again. Doyoung stared, and finally sleep claimed him when the burn in his throat stopped.