Changmin POV

The only sound I could hear at that moment was the sound of the chain with which they had tied me up in that little prison with a nauseous smell of mold and urine that didn't go away even though there was a very small window at the top, from where the faint light of the moon filtered through.

For four days I was in that room "meditating" on my mistakes and on who the master was.
The real owner.

"I will make you regret not accepting me. And, of course, I'll also charge you for the humiliation of Yunho." Those were his words before he locked me here.

Everything had been so fast and, above all, so unreal. I leaned against the cold stone wall and my slightly split lip still had the ferrous taste of my blood. There was no lack of punishment and no lack of words full of contempt and hatred on the part of Jaejoong.
There was also the mean move to use my family to get me out of my master's house, but at least they got their freedom back.

My prayers and accepting what he said to me were the key to freeing the only two women in my house. If only there had been Yunho...

The images of that scene appeared in my eyes, when I closed my eyelids not to think, but it was not so.

For people like me, nowhere was safe and not everyone knows that behind the faces of many people there is a viper. My family was deceived that way and taken hostage as an exchange with me.

Although Khyhyun told me not to go, I couldn't listen to him. There was no one to help me, and I didn't even know when Yunho would be back. I had to act, I had to do something.

My family came before me.

«Wait for your master. He'll know how to fix things.»

«I can't... They will be sold if I wait and that letter says so clearly...»

I hadn't learned to read it all right, but Khyhyhyun had managed to find someone to read that letter for me, that letter with perfect caligraphy but imprinted with hatred and victory.

Jaejoong had taken my family by deception and calculated everything well. He knew how to get me to bite, and he did.

The thing I hadn't really understood yet was how he knew where my family lived. Only Yunho and Khyhyun knew about it in that house, but I couldn't doubt them. Not those only people who were friends to me in that world that wasn't mine.

But if it wasn't them, who could it be?Did he investigate for himself and find out where they lived?
He hadn't even had a bit of humanity, not even in front of a sick child like my sister, putting her in such an ugly position.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a few steps behind the door. If I'm not mistaken, it should have been dinner at that time.

The steps stopped right in front of my door and some locks snapped, making the door open with a squeaking and flooding the small prison with light that almost blinded me. I was so used to the darkness that the light had become unbearable to my sight and my skin.

I couldn't even see who he was, thinking that he was again some other slave of the merchant, but he felt the blood freeze in my veins, when the person in front of me said a word.

«Do you really want to starve to death now that you're here and you've freed your family?»
His voice was contemptuous, but also amused. I knew he loved to see my condition, wrapped in that dirt and shabby. I held my face low, refusing to look at him, once he opened the door and approached me with the bowl of my dinner in his hand.

«I came especially to make you eat. I hear you don't accept anything from the other slaves, but today you will surely accept what I have here.»

I didn't said nothing, moving my face to the other side, when it came closer to my face.

«You don't even speak? I didn't think I'd cut off your tongue... Maybe I should try and check it out.»
I felt that he laid the bowl on the ground, but I did not expect that gesture from him, which caught me completely by surprise: with a violent grip on my hair, he forced me to turn my face toward his, dangerously close. A wheeze of pain left my lips, crossing the eyes of that devil's man.

«Are you serious...?» He asked contemptuously with a sarcastic smile on his lips. I would have given who knows what to make him disappear from his face, like that time when Yunho stopped him.

Yunho...

Now he wasn't there to help me. Jae didn't spare herself.
He forced me, with a firm grip on my hair, to kiss him. Even though I tried to tear myself apart and move him, he seemed motionless, like a rock in front of me on which I was pressed.
I felt the tears making their way, when his tongue violated my mouth, leading me to moan and shake, the chain that pressed against my neck with every movement I made, leading me to moan and let go of that rattle of pain that gave him a satisfied smile, when he moved away from my lips, licking his own and looking into my eyes with that glimmer of victory that leapt in those eyes.

«I see I didn't cut your tongue off then. If you can moan about the pain, then you can talk. What are you gonna do now?» He asked, pulling my hair hard. I had to bite my lip so I wouldn't let that pain slip through my lips. I didn't want to give him all that satisfaction. Not to him.

He was getting nervous, but he hadn't stopped smiling, leaving his grip in a bad way and also leaving that bowl not far from me.

«If you don't eat today and now, you can forget more meals from now on.»

He added nothing more, leaving me alone again and slamming the door behind him, locking it.

I breathed a sigh of relief, my lips burning and my head hurting. The scent of that dish that I could not see, invaded the room and my nostrils and, although I was hungry, I should not give in.

I would have preferred to die if Yunho hadn't come.

I'd rather not look at another day of light to get away from Jae's hands. I knew that if anything happened to me, Siwon would take care of my family.

I closed my eyes again, repressing the impulse to cry and praying, in my heart, that someone would come to my rescue, that Yunho would come to me and save me.

Because if before I had death in mind as an easy way of escape, now with the thought of my master and our last words said before his departure, I wanted to live and enjoy those moments of love only with him.

To love him and be by his side again.

____________________________

I did not realize that I had fallen asleep, but the sound of the door that opened and the beam of light that appeared, hurting my eyes, woke me up, making me moan with pain, when two large hands lifted me from the ground, while others freed me from my chains.

Was I free? Did Yunho come back and save me?

These were the first questions that my brain processed, as they pulled me out of that nauseously smelling room and led me out of there into the light.

«Go on and prepare it. That guy could be here any minute.» were the words he heard, still blinded by that light.

«Move! It's not like we can carry you or make you comfortable.»

A tug and another pair of arms wrapped around my sore waist, lifting me up and walking towards a room.

Slowly my eyes began to get used to the light again, so much so that I could see that they were taking me to a large bathroom, where they put me down and took me off, leaving me alone with my underwear. Every movement I made and every gesture I made was torture for my broken body. I felt really frail and weak and the frozen water they threw at me reached my bones, freezing them.

«You had to eat, you useless beast. Move the hand that feeds you away and make it so small. Who do you think's gonna want to buy you, skinny as you are?»

I would have wanted to say that I didn't want to be bought anymore, that I would have preferred to be bought only by death, if the man I belonged to hadn't arrived.

They rubbed my skin, removing all dirt, so much so that I had to bite my lip until it blew, because of the pain.

Once it was done, someone else came in through the door, wearing simple, wide, white clothes that they put on me.

«At least that's how they cover the skeleton you've become. Come on, take him to the master.»

I had not even been wiped my hair, and the man who had entered with his new head, pushed me towards the door and then towards the corridor, introducing me to the room where, he brought back to mind, the sweet memory of Yunho and his arms. The first time he saved me from the filthy hands of the man who was now sitting in front of me.

«Now you're more presentable. Even though the hollow cheeks and that split lip aren't pretty to look at. I should pay someone to make up the slaves when they have to be sold, but... I can't spend money on animals like you.»

A smile of mockery appeared on his lips when I was near him, right in front of him. The man pressed on my shoulder, forcing me to kneel in front of him, but he kept my eyes on his, like a challenge that I would never let him win.

He took my chin, approached my face and kept his gaze fixed on mine.

«Sooner or later I'm going to be able to bend that look at obedience, you little fawn.»

He let go of his grip and overlapped his legs, ordering the man behind me to get me up.

He put me back on my feet, next to the chair where Jaejoong was sitting, but he didn't leave. He stood by my side and held me back for the robe so I wouldn't run away.

«He has arrived, sir. Would you like me to have him sit down?»

This time it was a voice outside the room talking, receiving Jaejoong's consent to let that guest in. In my heart I hoped it would be Yunho, but the figure that crossed the threshold of that door left me with a strange fear in the chest, mixed with amazement: the guest was none other than Siwon.

I was afraid that he too had been captured or even sold, but I didn't see anybody by his side, nor was he ill-fated. It was how I left it and remembered it.

He walked into the room and stopped, far enough away from where I was and Jae. Our eyes crossed and he seemed really worried, scared and even upset. It was always easy to get to know Siwon's moods with those eyes of his. I moved, but the man tightened the grip more, so much so that the fabric of the robe pressed on a bruise that I had on my side, making me go back.I wanted to warn him about Jaejoong, though, but the words of that froze me.

«Welcome, my dear informant.»

Informer?
Did I hear you really well?

He kept his eye on Siwon's, looking for an answer to those words, but he diverted his, pointing them at Jaejoong, taking a few more steps.

«I'm not an accomplice. You promised Changmin's freedom once you found it, but you didn't keep your word. I'm here to request the word given.» He was serious, without any fear. The flaming eyes of rage.

«Did I say that? Let me think... All I did was ask that I had some information for his family And you did your duty, revealing to me where they lived and giving me a way to blackmail this guy to free his family. But I never said I'd give him freedom, my dear shoemaker. You people of little intellect always believe in the word given by each person.»

Jaejoong raised his hand, showing his index finger moving as a sign of denial, that mocking smile still on his lips.

«But you should NEVER believe the word of a slave trader. Especially the one who was taken a precious slave. Your friend belonged to me before he even stepped foot in that house and he has to pay for his crime. Do you know he robbed me? Such a crime can be punished by amputating the sinful hand, but it would be a shame to cut one of these beautiful hands when it could satisfy someone in a very different way.»

I felt disgust at his words, but I did not shift my gaze from Siwon who approached him furiously. He didn't tolerate those words, but he didn't have to get so close to Jaejoong.It was all quick: the two men that had initially caught me, when I first stepped in there, appeared, blocking Siwon for both arms and giving him two shots in the legs, forcing him to kneel.

«BASTARD! SNAKE!» He was furious and, as far as I knew him, I had never seen that look injected with anger. I've never seen that Siwon before.

Jaejoong's expression changed, leaving an angry expression on his face. He stood up, walking slowly towards Siwon.

I tried to get divorced again. I didn't want him to touch Siwon, to hurt him. It wasn't his fault if he revealed where my family lived, because he couldn't know what kind of person Jaejoong was. The man by my side gave me a blow, forcing me to moan and moving Siwon, who was getting more and more angry.

«What did you call me?» asked Jaejoong, very close to him, pulling a whip from under the cloak he wore.
I gleaned my eyes. He couldn't.

«What did you call me?»

«You rogue... Snake.» Siwon repeated, looking at him with mockery, although their roles were very different.

Jaejoong's laughter echoed in the room, watching Siwon who hadn't stopped looking at him with those eyes. In my heart I just hoped that Jaejoong wouldn't hurt him, but my hopes shattered when he lifted his whip and started hitting him.

Siwon didn't even groan with pain, but he squeezed his eyes with every blow he received on his shoulders and nape of his neck.

«You ugly animal! How dare you? Do I need a snake? Do I have to remind you who told me where to find his family and put him in this situation?» continued to strike him with such force, always in the same places.

My eyes saw something red staining Siwon's robe at shoulder height and a motto of fear and anger emerged from my chest.

«STOP, PLEASE!» I yelled at him, moving to go help Siwon.

Jae stopped, his hand still raised, just turning his head in my direction, that damn smile of victory on his lips.

«I see you've been talking. And since you told me, I will do it.»

He lowered his hand in which he held the whip, turning completely towards my direction.

Siwon looked at me, trembled at the whips he had received, but showed no signs of pain on his face. His eyes were full of guilt, but I reassured him with a little nodding from my lips. I didn't want him to be punished like that.

«Let him go. You have me... Let him go.»

I lowered my head, almost to prostrate myself. I had put aside my pride and my "silent battle" to stop that evil.

He laughed, clapping his hands after putting the whip back in its place.

«That's how I like you! You see there's a way to prove to the people that I didn't cut your tongue off?»

He made a gesture with his hand, a clear command to those two monsters that kept Siwon locked, lifting him off the ground with his feet that did not touch the ground, returning again to his "throne".

«Get him out of here. And don't let him in again. If he comes any closer, kill him.»

I looked Siwon in the eyes, in a silent plea not to commit any madness that he immediately welcomed, his eyes only now shining from impotence, while he was taken away like a sack by those two, who will close the door behind them, leaving me again alone with that worm.

«Leave him.»

He commanded the man who kept me stuck, who trained my grip, letting his arm breathe and move, whom I took to my side.

«May it serve as a lesson to you, slave. One false move and you already know what could happen to your family and him, now that I know where they live. So be careful which card you play from now on. Do you understand?»

In his words there was that hint of threat, mixed with the fun of getting the victory back in his hand, the way to bend me.

He gave another command to the man who lifted me up and took me out of that room, back to my cell.

I was a slave by now without freedom.

Now I was ONLY a slave.