Chapter 19: Snitch

HIKARU silently made his way towards the car, standing in front of the slide door to allow the younger members to get in first. Hanbin took various steps towards the driver's seat in the front of the car while Hikaru took his seat near the window, and soon enough, Wooseok was seated beside him in the second row of the limousine car.

"What's going on, Hikaru?" Wooseok whispered as soon as the car began to move. "Is it because of what happened inside?"

Hikaru nodded his head, already sensing the guilt pooling in the pit of his stomach.

"I didn't know his parents were dead." He replied motionlessly, leaning his head against the tinted windows. "This whole time we had parents to encourage us wherever we went while he didn't have any."

And it made his heart ache whenever he thought about it, to the point where his heart was constantly aching because the only thing he could think about ever since they came out of Junwon and Mal's house was Junwon himself.

"He only had this... Girl supporting him and showing up to events and such to make him feel as if he had someone, and all our members did was try and sabotage their relationship." Hikaru explained, trying his best to lower the volume of his voice to not attract the attention of the other members. "Now I'm not even sure if he'll have someone anymore, not after what our members said."

Wooseok nodded his head, leaning his head against the back of his car seat to rest his neck. His muscles ached after a long day of social interactions, and he wasn't even sure that was possible.

"How do we fix it?" Wooseok asked, his mind racing with thoughts.

How were they supposed to fix what the rest of the members ruined?

It was already terrible that neither of them stood up to the older members while they told lies about Junwon's false relationship with a fellow trainee.

It was already terrible that they were in Mal's home and stayed silent, unable to defend their friend while he was helplessly waiting for their help.

It was already terrible when they both knew, from the bottom of their hearts, that Junwon would never do anything to betray Mal, or ruin his relationship with her.

And it was already a hundred times more terrible when they both knew that Mal was the only person Junwon had left, after his parents' death.

Wooseok's stomach ached with the painful, guilt-inducing thoughts. He took a side glance at Hikaru, only to see him staring out of the window, his eyes lost in the green trees the car passed by.

"Do you know what it feels to be jealous of someone because you thought they have everything, and then it turns out that they didn't have everything like you thought after all? I think we know that now." Hikaru began, and despite his voice only being above a whisper, Wooseok could feel the pain that came out of his voice. "Because... Yes, he has the house, the girlfriend, and the car, I guess. But, it will never make up for the shock of him losing his parents. The feeling of him having no one by his side, except this girl... I know I can never feel it right now, and I hope to God that I never will, and neither do you."

Wooseok slowly nodded his head, pain flashing through his eyes. The idea of him losing a parent, let alone both at the same time, terrified him to the core.

"How do we fix it, Hikaru?" Wooseok asked once again, this time his voice trembling with fear and guilt. "I feel really bad. Like really, really bad."

Hikaru nodded his head in agreement, as if to silently tell him that he wasn't alone.

"I don't know," he replied, "but we'll figure it out. I know we will."

. . .

Hikaru made his way down the stairs, ignoring the sticky sensation his pyjamas gave him after a restless night in his dorm bed. His throat ached for water to remove the dry, itchy feeling that he managed to wake up with. Glancing at the clock that was hung on the wall and squinting hard, he took a mental note of the time before finally entering the kitchen.

It was around one after midnight.

His vision focused into the kitchen, and his body jumped back a step once he realized the figure sitting on the kitchen table. Despite how dark the house was, with only the moonlight seeping through the kitchen window, he could make out the silhouette of one of his group members.

Soul.

"Oh my God, you scared the living shit out of me!" Hikaru whisper-yelled, his hand resting on his chest in an attempt to calm his rapid heartbeats.

"Did I?" Soul replied in a dark, menacing tone after a few moments of Hikaru hearing only his heartbeats and his quick pants. "That's too bad."

Hikaru's fingers fumbled across the wall to reach for a lightswitch—any source of light to ease some of the tension—only for Soul's voice to interrupt him once again.

"Don't turn on the light, Hikaru." His warning tone made Hikaru freeze in his place, his fingers only inches away from the lightswitch. "Wouldn't want anyone to come down and ruin our fun, would we?"

Hikaru hesitated for a moment.

"W-What are you talking about?"

Soul got up from his seat, then grabbed the back of the wooden chair to push it further into the empty space under the table. Even through the dark, heavy atmosphere, Hikaru could sense Soul's smirk from all the way across the room.

"What exactly did you mean when you said that 'you'll find a way to fix everything that happened to Junwon' earlier when we were in the car?" Soul asked. Hikaru gulped at his semi-threatening tone and took a step back.

"It's none of your business, Soul."

"That's funny," Soul replied, letting out a light chuckle, "because last time I checked, it is exactly my business."

Hikaru furrowed his eyebrows and stepped forward, a surge of frustration running through his veins.

"You had no right to do this to Junwon." He retorted, recalling the events from the night before—or was it from the same day? He couldn't remember. "Ruin his relationship like that? That was terrible of you, and the other members. So much for being a role model for the younger members. Especially when you know that he would never cheat on Mal."

"Blah, blah, blah. Junwon had it coming. That's what he gets anyway, for being a snobby, sad example of a human being."

"He's not arrogant!" Hikaru stepped closer towards his older group member, an expression of pure exasperation mixed with anger planted on his face, which Soul could see clearly in the dim moonlight. "Don't you get it?You're the arrogant one, Soul. It's just you, always been you. This whole time, it's just been you and your obsession with being the center. You wanted him out of the way for a possibility of you being in charge, so that everyone's eyes could be on you!"

Soul's face changed into a much darker one while he took a few steps towards Hikaru, his hands turning into fists.

"You think I don't know?" Hikaru began, putting a hand over his heart. "You think I don't know that Junwon's illness is man-made? That someone sold the wrong medication to Mal on purpose so it can slowly kill him?"

Soul's smirk dropped, and so did his heart. He got closer to his younger so-called friend, his heart beating loudly between his ribs.

"You think you and the rest of the members are smarter than everyone else, Liu Zekai?"

Before Hikaru could say anything further, a powerful, frustrated punch was directed to his nose, right in the centre of his face. Pain erupted through his face, his eyes immediately watering with the sudden hit. He raised his hand to touch the place of the punch, only to meet the sight of the familiar red, metallic liquid seeping between his fingers, and soon enough, down his face.

Did Soul just hit him?

Hikaru looked up at Soul, his expression tight with frustration. Letting go of his nose, he ran towards Soul with his hands made into fists, in an attempt to hit back—to defend himself.

And when his body connected with Soul's, a sharp, metallic object stabbed itself into his body. Terrifying pain rushed through his body, bringing further tears to his eyes. Tears of betrayal, guilt, and pain.

Soul didn't hesitate to grab Hikaru's waist to stop him from hitting him further, while Hikaru let out a gasp of pain. His hand reached to the area of the pain, and just like he expected, a long, metal knife was stabbed into his stomach, just below his navel.

"Y-You..."

"I can't risk you snitching on us like that, can I, Hikaru?" Soul whispered, his mouth inches away from Hikaru's ear. Hikaru let out a gasp as Soul's fist twisted the knife inside his body, ripping his intestines apart with the movement.

"W-Why..."

"Because snitches," Soul paused dramatically in between words, letting out the knife and stabbing it in his friend's body again with all his might, eliciting a groan of pain from Hikaru, "get stitches."

Hikaru's eyes filled up with tears while his legs turned into jelly. He found himself falling to his knees a few moments later, and Soul soon followed, still holding the knife close to his victim's body and stabbing him as hard as he could. Another groan escaped Hikaru's mouth before his body hit the porcelain floor, causing pain to shoot up through the back of his head.

His vision blurred, and despite many attempts from him to stay awake, he found himself struggling for consciousness. Soul's smirk grew wider as he finally pulled out the knife, inching his face closer to Hikaru's now limp body.

Hikaru's eyes rolled back against his head, allowing him to slowly give in to the darkness, his mouth letting out incoherent words mixed with groans of pain, but it wasn't long before he lost consciousness.

"Goodbye, Hikaru." Soul whispered, placing a kiss on his friend's forehead before patting his shoulder gently, all while the smirk never leaving his face. "I would say I'll see you soon, but... I don't think I will."

One down. Two more to go.