Chapter Text
The neon sign outside the motel window flickered in a sickly shade of green, casting long, distorted shadows across the peeling wallpaper of the small room.
Yeon Sieun sat on the edge of the mattress, his knees pulled tightly against his chest, his arms wrapped around his legs so hard that his knuckles had turned entirely white. He was trembling. The coldness inside him had nothing to do with the broken air conditioner rattling in the corner. It was a deep, hollow terror that had settled into his bones over the last year.
He had managed to run.
After the front door of the apartment clicked shut, signaling that Suho had finally left for the night, Sieun had tried the handle. For the first time in months, Suho had forgotten to lock it from the outside. The mistake was a miracle. Sieun hadn’t even grabbed his coat. He had simply snatched his wallet, stuffed a few crumpled bills into his pocket, and sprinted down the dark streets until his lungs burned, eventually hiding in this cheap, nameless motel. He had only enough money to rent the room for a single night.
On the bedside table, his phone buzzed violently. The screen lit up again.
[ 47 Missed Calls — My Anchor ]
[ 112 Unread Messages — My Anchor ]
Every time the phone vibrated, Sieun flinched. He couldn’t bring himself to turn it off. The sheer terror of what Suho might do if he found out the phone was dead kept his shaking hand away from the power button. So, he just watched it. He watched the name “My Anchor”—a nickname born from a time when Suho was his steady weight in a chaotic world, a time when they were happy—flash like a warning siren in the dim room.
Sieun buried his face in his knees, crying silently. The tears ran down his pale cheeks, stinging the fresh, dark bruise forming along his jawline.
They used to have the perfect relationship.
He remembered it so clearly. They were the couple everyone envied. Suho was bright, protective, and warm. He was the only person who had ever looked past Sieun’s icy exterior and loved him completely. Sieun had felt safe. For a boy who had spent his entire life being treated like a tool or a ghost by his own family, Suho’s love was a sun that kept him alive.
So how did it come to this?
The shift had been slow, almost invisible at first. It started after their first anniversary. Suho began acting... weird.
At first, Sieun truly believed it was just normal jealousy. The kind where your boyfriend gets a little quiet or tense when you talk to other people. Sieun, wanting to reassure him, would simply look at him, offer a rare, soft smile, and kiss Suho on the cheek.
“I only belong to you, Suho” Sieun would whisper, pressing his forehead against Suho’s shoulder.
And Suho would relax, melting into the embrace, pulling Sieun so close it felt like they were trying to fuse into one person. Sieun thought the jealousy would die down. He thought that as time passed, Suho would realize that Sieun had absolutely no intention of looking at anyone else.
But it didn’t die down. It grew. It morphed into something heavy and suffocating.
The first real explosion happened during their second semester. Sieun was sitting at his desk, and a male classmate had approached him to ask a simple question about an upcoming group assignment. The conversation was purely academic, completely normal. Sieun was mid-sentence when the classroom door slammed open.
Suho had walked in, his eyes completely blank, stripped of all the warmth Sieun loved. Before anyone could breathe, Suho lunged forward. His fist connected with the classmate’s face with a sickening, heavy CRACK.
The boy didn’t even have time to yell. He flew backward over a desk, his head hitting the floor so hard he passed out instantly. A pool of dark red blood began to spread from his nose.
The entire classroom froze. The chatter died instantly, replaced by a terrifying, heavy silence. The other students looked at Suho, their faces pale, utterly terrified and completely unwilling to speak. Nobody moved to help the unconscious boy. They knew who Suho was. They knew what he was capable of.
Sieun’s breath caught in his throat. Panic surged through him. He scrambled out of his seat, grabbed Suho tightly by the arm, and practically dragged him out of the room, desperate to stop a full-blown riot. He pulled Suho down the hallway and pushed open the door to a secluded, empty bathroom.
“Suho-ah, what is wrong with you” Sieun gasped, his chest heaving as he stared at his boyfriend. “He was just asking about a school project, Why would you—”
SLAP!
The sound echoed sharply against the white tiles of the bathroom.
Sieun’s head flew to the side. The force of the strike sent him stumbling against the porcelain sink, his hands gripping the edge to keep from falling. His left cheek burned with an intense, throbbing heat. The world seemed to go completely quiet, save for the ringing in his ears.
Suho stood there, his chest rising and falling heavily. For a split second, the violent rage remained in his eyes. Then, like a switch being flipped, Suho snapped back. His eyes widened in horrific realization as he looked at his own trembling hand, and then at Sieun, who was staring at the floor, completely frozen.
Sieun had never been hit like that before. Not by a bully, not by a stranger, and certainly never by the person who promised to protect him. Something inside him shattered. A profound, overwhelming terror gripped his throat, and before he could stop it, he started to cry. His tears slowly falling, his shoulders shaking slightly, his hand slowly and shakingly rising to cover his burning cheek.
“Sieun... Oh my god, Sieun, I’m sorry” Suho stammered, stepping forward, his voice suddenly sounding desperate and frantic. “I didn’t mean to. I swear I didn’t mean to. I just... I saw him looking at you, and I lost control. I’m so sorry. Please, baby, look at me”
Suho reached out, but Sieun flinched away violently, pressing his back against the sink. “Don’t touch me…” Sieun choked out through his tears. “Don’t... don’t come near me”
Sieun wiped his face, his mind screaming at him to run, to get away from this stranger. He straightened his posture and began to walk toward the bathroom door, his heart hammering against his ribs. He was leaving. He couldn’t stay in the same room with this version of Suho.
He took three steps before a sentence cut through the quiet air, making him stop dead in his tracks.
“If you walk out that door, if you break up with me... I’ll kill myself, Sieun”
The words were spoken softly, but they carried the weight of an anchor dropping into the sea.
Sieun froze, his hand hovering inches away from the door handle. He slowly turned his head, his eyes wide with horror. Suho wasn’t shouting. He was standing by the sink, his face pale, staring at Sieun with a terrifyingly hollow expression. There was no doubt in Sieun’s mind that Suho meant every single word.
The sheer manipulation of it drained all the anger from Sieun, leaving him completely numb. He didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t move. It felt like a trap had just snapped shut around his ankles.
Seeing Sieun stop, Suho’s expression softened into something sweet, almost relieved. He walked up behind Sieun slowly, like a predator approaching a cornered animal. He wrapped his strong arms around Sieun’s waist from behind, pulling Sieun’s rigid body flush against his chest.
Suho buried his face in the crook of Sieun’s neck, inhaling deeply. “I’m sorry, Jagiya” Suho whispered, his voice incredibly gentle, a stark contrast to the violence from moments ago. “I won’t ever do it again. I promise. I just love you too much. The thought of anyone else touching you, or looking at you... it drives me crazy. I can’t live in a world where you aren’t mine. You understand, right? You belong to me.”
Sieun stood entirely still, his tears drying against his skin. Love was blind. And for Sieun, Suho was the only source of warmth he had ever known in his miserable life. The thought of losing that warmth, combined with the terrifying fear of being responsible for Suho’s death, crushed his resolve.
He believed him. He chose to believe the apology because the alternative was too dark to face. Sieun slowly nodded, letting his head fall back against Suho’s shoulder.
But the promises were lies.
The abuse didn’t stop. It became a routine, a vicious, unpredictable cycle that Sieun had no control over.
Whenever Sieun spoke to a classmate, a cashier at a store, an old acquaintance on the street, or even a delivery driver. Suho’s demeanour would change. He wouldn’t say anything in public. He would simply smile, take Sieun’s hand, and lead him back to the apartment.
But the moment the front door clicked shut, the nightmare would begin.
One evening, Sieun had stopped to help an elderly man who had dropped his groceries near their building. They had spoken for less than a minute. When they got upstairs, Suho didn’t even wait for Sieun to take off his shoes. He grabbed Sieun by the hair, throwing him violently onto the living room floor.
“Who was he?” Suho demanded, his voice low and dangerous as he loomed over Sieun. “Why were you smiling at him? Do you think I’m stupid, Sieun?”
“He dropped his things, Suho! He was an old man!” Sieun cried, pressing his back against the couch, his hands up to protect his face. “Please, stop!”
Suho dropped to his knees, pinning Sieun’s wrists to the floor with a bruising grip. But as he stared down at Sieun, his expression shifted into something dark, twisted, and deeply romantic. He leaned down, pressing his lips against Sieun’s forehead, whispering praises while his hands left dark marks on Sieun’s skin.
“You look so beautiful when you’re looking at me like this” Suho whispered against his skin, his voice dripping with affection. “Only me. You don’t need anyone else, jagiya. I’m going to find that man tomorrow. I’m going to kill him for making you look away from me.”
Panic shot through Sieun’s veins. “No! Suho, please, don’t do that! I beg you, don’t hurt anyone!”
Sieun began to beg, sobbing openly, clinging to Suho’s shirt to keep him from leaving. He hated himself for begging, but the fear of what Suho would do to innocent people was too much. Suho would simply kiss him deeply—sometimes aggressive, pulling at his lips until they bled, and sometimes incredibly soft, as if he were trying to heal the very wounds he had caused.
The unpredictability was the scariest part. One second Suho would hit him, his eyes wild with fury, and the very next second, he would be on his knees, crying, begging for forgiveness, pulling Sieun into an intense, frantic make-out session on the floor. Sieun was constantly walking on eggshells, his mind entirely consumed by fear. He was terrified of the violence, but he was equally terrified of the twisted affection that followed it.
***
Back in the quiet motel room, the phone stopped buzzing. The silence that followed was incredibly heavy.
Sieun lifted his head from his knees, staring at the blank screen. A sudden, cold dread settled in his stomach. Why did he stop calling?
Before Sieun could think further, a faint sound from the hallway made his heart stop completely.
Step.
Step.
Step.
The footsteps were heavy, deliberate, and entirely familiar. They stopped right outside Room 204. His room.
Sieun’s breath hitched. He forgot how to breathe. He stared at the bottom of the wooden door, watching the shadow of two feet block the faint light from the hallway corridor.
Click.
The door handle slowly turned. Sieun’s eyes widened in sheer horror. The lock. He had locked it, but this was a cheap motel. A simple plastic card or a strong push could open it easily.
The door creaked open.
Suho stood in the doorway. He wasn’t wearing his coat, his hair was slightly damp from the light rain outside, and his eyes were completely dark. He held his phone in one hand. In the other hand, he held a small slip of paper—the receipt from the motel lobby desk. He must have threatened the clerk to get the room number.
“There you are~” Suho said softly.
His voice wasn’t angry. It was calm. A terrifying, gentle calm that made Sieun want to dig a hole into the floor and disappear.
Sieun scrambled backward on the bed until his back slammed against the wooden headboard. He grip the mattress hard, his entire body shaking violently. “H-How did you... how did you find me?”
Suho closed the door behind him, clicking the lock back into place. He walked into the room slowly, his eyes never leaving Sieun’s face. “I told you before, Sieun-ah. You can’t hide from me. We are connected. I know exactly how your mind works~”
He walked over to the edge of the bed and sat down. The mattress dipped significantly under his weight. Sieun flinched, pulling his legs closer, his eyes wide with an intense, animalistic fear.
Suho reached out a hand. Sieun compressed his eyes shut, bracing himself for a hard strike.
But the strike never came. Instead, Suho’s large, warm palm gently rested against Sieun’s bruised jawline. His thumb caressed the dark skin with unbelievable tenderness.
“Look at you” Suho whispered, his voice trembling slightly with emotion. “Look at what you made me do to you. Why did you run away, Sieun? You know how much it hurts me when you’re not home. I couldn’t breathe. I thought I was going to lose my mind.”
Sieun slowly opened his eyes, staring into the dark, obsessive depths of Suho’s gaze. “Suho... please,” Sieun whispered, his voice cracking, his head shaking in disagreement. “I can’t do this anymore. Look at us. This isn’t love. You’re hurting me. Every single day, you’re hurting me”
Suho’s thumb stopped moving. The tenderness in his eyes flickered, replaced for a fraction of a second by a cold, dangerous spark. But he kept his voice soft. “I only hurt you because you try to leave me. If you just stay by my side, if you just stop looking at other people, I would never have to raise my hand against you. I do everything for you, Sieun. Who else loves you like I do? Your parents? Your old classmates? Nobody”
He leaned forward, pressing his forehead against Sieun’s. The proximity was suffocating. Sieun could smell the familiar scent of Suho’s cologne mixed with the metallic tang of rain.
“Remember what I told you in the bathroom that day?” Suho murmured, his grip on Sieun’s jaw tightening just enough to cause a dull ache. “If you leave me... I have no reason to exist. Do you want me to die, Sieun-ah? Is that what you want?”
There was silence for a minute, ‘til Sieun spoke up.
“…No” Sieun choked out, fresh tears spilling over his eyelashes. “No…I don’t want that”
“Then come home” Suho whispered, his lips brushing against Sieun’s trembling mouth. “Come home with me. I’ll make your favorite dinner. I’ll clean the apartment. We can forget tonight ever happened. Just promise me you’ll never run again”
Sieun looked at him. He looked at the boy who had saved him from the dark, the boy who had given him a reason to smile, now turned into his personal warden. The fear of Suho hurting himself, combined with the absolute exhaustion of fighting back, completely crushed the remaining spark of rebellion inside Sieun’s chest.
He was trapped. He would always be trapped. Like a rabbit that’s trapped into the Wolf’s den.
Unfortunately, He was the Rabbit, and Suho was the Wolf.
“I…promise” Sieun whispered against Suho’s lips, his voice entirely dead, devoid of any hope.
Suho smiled. It was a bright, beautiful, and utterly terrifying smile. He leaned in, pulling Sieun into a deep, aggressive kiss, claiming the mouth that had just surrendered to him entirely. His hands moved down to wrap tightly around Sieun’s waist, locking him in an embrace that felt less like a hug and more like a permanent set of iron chains.
“Good boy~” Suho murmured into the kiss, his voice full of a dark, possessive pride. “You belong to me. Forever”
Sieun didn’t fight back anymore. His body felt entirely heavy, as if all his bones had turned to lead. When Suho broke the kiss, his hands slid down to wrap around Sieun’s waist, dragging his fragile frame off the mattress and pulling him into a tight, inescapable embrace.
“I won’t leave” Sieun whispered over and over, his voice a flat, empty drone against Suho’s shoulder. “I promise, Suho. I won’t run away again. I promise.”
“I know you won’t” Suho replied, his voice returning to that sunny, warm tone that used to make Sieun’s heart melt. Now, it just made his blood run cold.
Suho packed up Sieun’s few belongings, held his hand tightly all the way back down to the lobby, paid the terrified motel clerk for the broken night, and brought him back to their shared apartment. For the next week, the routine returned to normal—or rather, Suho’s version of normal. Suho was incredibly sweet, cooking Sieun’s favorite meals, brushing his hair, and holding him close every second they were home. But the underlying threat was always there, an invisible, choking smoke.
But a human mind can only take so much terror before it snaps.
Two weeks later, while Suho was out somewhere in the city running “errands”—errands that Sieun knew better than to ask about—the suffocating weight in the apartment became too much to bear. Sieun looked at the pristine, locked windows. He looked at the neatly arranged textbooks.
Suddenly, he couldn’t breathe.
Without thinking, without packing a single bag, Sieun grabbed his keys, unlocked the front door, and left. He didn’t go to a motel this time. He knew Suho could find him anywhere in the commercial districts. Instead, he took a subway line far across the city, walking down a path he hadn’t traveled in a long time.
He went back to his old, abandoned family apartment—the empty, dusty place where his distant father used to send him money instead of affection. It was a place Suho rarely visited because it was filled with old, lonely memories. Sieun unlocked the heavy metal door, stepped inside, and closed it behind him.
The air was thick with dust and neglect. Sheets covered the old furniture. It was cold, dark, and completely miserable.
But to Sieun, it felt like a sanctuary.
He slid down the back of the door, burying his face in his hands. He didn’t turn on the lights. He just sat in the pitch-black hallway, listening to the sound of his own shaky breathing.
Then, his pocket began to vibrate.
Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.
Sieun didn’t answer. The phone stopped, then instantly started again.
Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.
It went on for hours. Fifty times. Eighty times. A hundred times. The screen lit up the dusty darkness of the old apartment with a sickly blue glow. The name [ My Anchor ] flashed repeatedly, a relentless reminder of the chains waiting for him.
Finally, around midnight, the sheer psychological torture of the constant ringing broke Sieun’s resolve. Shaking violently, his thumb slid across the glass. He pressed the phone to his ear. He didn’t say a word.
The second the call connected, a frantic, ragged breath echoed from the speaker, followed immediately by a terrifying, distorted scream.
“WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!” Suho roared. His voice didn’t sound human. It was full of an unhinged, wild fury, the sound of a predator completely losing its mind. “SIEUN! YOU PROMISED ME! YOU SWORE TO ME IN THAT ROOM THAT YOU WOULDN’T LEAVE! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?! DO YOU WANT ME TO DIE?! DO YOU WANT ME TO END IT RIGHT NOW?!”
Sieun listened to the screaming, his eyes wide, staring blankly into the dark hallway. The words rushed over him, but for the first time, something inside him went completely numb. The blind love that had kept him trapped was entirely gone, burned away by pure, unadulterated fear. He didn’t feel sadness anymore. He just felt cold.
“…Suho” Sieun whispered, his voice incredibly quiet.
“Sieun? Baby? Is that you?!” Suho’s voice instantly shifted, cracking with a desperate, pathetic sob. “Where are you? Tell me where you are! I’m sorry, I’m so sorry I screamed, I just can’t breathe without you. Tell me where you are so I can come get you. If you don’t tell me, I’m going to—”
Before Suho could finish the sentence, before he could utter another terrifying threat, Sieun slowly pulled the phone away from his ear. With a steady, trembling thumb, he hit the red button.
Click.
The call ended. The silence of the old apartment rushed back in, heavy and thick. Sieun immediately powered the phone down completely, tossing it onto the dusty floor. He crawled into his old bedroom, curled up on the bare mattress beneath a dusty sheet, and tried to close his eyes.
Hours passed in a restless, terrifying silence. Sieun didn’t sleep. He lay awake, staring at the ceiling, every single muscle in his body tense.
Then, around 3:00 a.m., the quietness of the building shattered.
THUD
THUD
THUD
THUD
THUD
THUD
Heavy, frantic, echoing footsteps came flying up the concrete stairwell outside. They weren’t regular footsteps. They were reckless, fast, and heavy.
Sieun’s eyes snapped wide open. His heart violently hammered against his ribs like a trapped bird.
The footsteps stopped directly outside his apartment door.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
A fist slammed against the heavy metal door with enough force to make the entire frame rattle.
“SIEUN! OPEN THE DOOR!” Suho’s voice screamed from the hallway. It sounded completely raw, as if he had been screaming for hours. “I KNOW YOU’RE IN THERE! OPEN THE DOOR, SIEUN!”
Sieun scrambled off the bed, his breath catching in his throat. He ran to the corner of his bedroom, pressing his back hard against the wall, pulling his knees up to his chest. He clutched his ears with his hands, trying to block out the noise, but the old apartment walls were too thin.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
“OPEN IT! YOU CAN’T HIDE FROM ME!” Suho shrieked, kicking the door violently. CRACK. The metal lock groaned outside. “YOU BELONG TO ME, SIEUN! YOU PROMISED! OPEN THE DOOR BEFORE I BREAK IT DOWN!”
In the pitch-black bedroom, Sieun couldn’t move his body, as it was frozen, and then without noticing, he began to cry silently. Tears of absolute horror streamed down his face, his muscles tightening, making his body shaking so hard his teeth clicked together. He squeezed his eyes shut, praying to a god he didn’t believe in to make it stop, to make Suho go away, to wake up from this endless nightmare.
Through the small gap beneath his bedroom door, the light from the hallway corridor suddenly flickered as a shadow blocked it.
CRAAAACK.
With a deafening splintering sound, the old, rusted deadbolt on the main apartment door finally gave way under Suho’s immense physical strength. The heavy metal door flew open, slamming loudly against the interior wall.
The predator was inside.
Sieun held his breath, his eyes fixed on the bottom of his bedroom door.
Step...
Step...
Step...
The footsteps inside the apartment were slow now. Deliberate. Dripping wet. A strange, wet splat sound followed each step against the linoleum floor.
The bedroom door slowly creaked open.
The dim moonlight filtering through the dusty window illuminated the figure standing in the doorway. Sieun’s breath completely died in his throat.
It was Suho. But he didn’t look like the boy Sieun loved. He didn’t even look human. His jacket was torn, his knuckles were split open and dripping, and his face—his beautiful, familiar face—was heavily smeared with dark, fresh blood. It wasn’t his own blood. It looked like he had brutally beaten anyone who dared to stand in his way on his journey to find Sieun.
Suho stood in the doorway, panting heavily, his eyes completely bloodshot and wide with an unhinged, manic obsession. When his gaze finally landed on Sieun cowering in the dark corner, the violent rage on his face instantly melted away.
He offered a wide, bright, and utterly terrifying smile.
“There you are, my love~” Suho whispered, stepping into the room, leaving a bloody footprint on the floor. He dropped to his knees, crawling toward Sieun slowly, his arms reaching out. “See? I told you. You can’t run from me. We’re going home now, Sieun-ah. We’re going to be together... forever”