Chapter Text
Sucheon had followed Siyoung to the sitting room his grandfather had overtaken with the sharpened edge of a guillotine hanging over his neck. Heart thudding furiously in his chest pumping adrenaline and fear into every pore of his being. He’d double checked, triple checked quadruple checked and quintuple checked his make up; ensuring there was no hint of delicate pink flowers or cute little sparrows to be seen. He had no idea what he would tell his grandfather; Siyoung would have reported his soulmate along with his seeming loss. He did get hit first. His grandfather would not be pleased.
His fear of this encounter alone was enough to dull any good sentiments Jiwoo might have been sending his way. He shook with it as he mentally prepared himself for the pain to come, hoping that his grandfather wouldn’t find this so abhorrent a failure as to use his ability on him. Siyoung knocked on the doors, announced them and waltzed in at the beckoning of Dusik Kang, an old man with sour face and a purposefully loose grip on his power. The density alone gave the room an oppressive air without him strictly activating their gravity manipulation.
Siyoung somehow felt comfortable sitting himself on the long sofa Dusik and his assistants had taken over. Sucheon remained standing as his grandfather shot to his feet, fury all over his face, hand raised before he’d even come within arms length of him. The assistants and Siyoung averted their eyes as his boney palm struck Sucheon’s face with a defining crack. His brain rocked with the force of it and he stumbled back. Dusik followed, not allowing him a second to recover.
He was herded back by vicious strike after strike, collapsing under the onslaught and not daring to try and protect himself. The sharp toe of his grandfather’s loafer dug into his gut, enhanced by their gravity and he shot back into the wall. Wordlessly, Sucheon was beat until his breath came in shallow gasps, blood oozed down his cheeks and every bone in his body felt fractured and ready to shatter.
“On your knees,” he snapped, dragging Sucheon up by his hair, “I told you to take them down but you lost to some random trash nobody’s heard of!”
Sucheon dug deep to respond around the ball of terror frozen tears in his throat; he had to speak when spoken to.
“I… I let down my guard, but he’s not stronger than me.” Dusik backhands him and releases his hair, forcing Sucheon to support himself. Of which he barely manages to hold his body upright without full body shakes wracking his form. He suppresses the tremors to mere quivers and silently begs he holds out. He’d only be beaten more for the display of weakness.
“Shut up, you still lost! You’re a disgrace to Baekdu,” he yelled, “if your whore mother wasn’t a failure like you she would have given us a better heir. I’d replace you in a second if you had a brother, be glad that infertile gold digger died the useless bitch’s death she deserved. Our group should never be defeated. Win at all costs, do you understand? Even if it’s your soulmate’s life, they’re not worth the reputation of our Baekdu.”
He bowed his head to blink back burning hot tears. He wasn’t sure whose fear was his own and which was Jiwoo’s, both were sharp and made his heart shake. Panic buzzed between them, crawling up his throat and paralysing his vocal cords. Gravity bared down upon him, squeezing him into the floor in a bastardised grovelling bow.
“Are you ignoring your elder Soochun! Answer me, do you understand?”
“Yes…” he squeezed out of airless lungs “I will.”
The pressure abated and along with it a sliver of relief as his mind recognised the final throws of his Grandfather’s temper.
“Good, now to deal with this soulmate business. Who is it?” He growled. Dread.
It was his.
“Nobody.”
“Nobody! A nobody is your soulmate? You’re going to taint the line of Baekdu leadership with some unaffiliated brat?” Gravity crushed him in from above; he shook from the strain of holding himself upright. If he faltered there was more than this pain to come. He looks into his grandfather’s eyes, terrified and knowing it’s written all over his face from the glinting of cruel glee in Dusik’s.
“No! No, I didn’t find my soulmate,” The flesh around his eyes twitches and Sucheon has a second brace himself before Dusik is in his space and snatching at him. He viciously buries the reflex to flinch, to scoot back, get to his feet and bolt. Wrong answer.
“First you’re ignoring me and now you’re lying to me!” Dusik is yelling tugging his head left and right by his hair as he checks his face and neck. “Show me the mark Soochun!”
“I don’t have a mark. I didn’t find them. I’m not lying.”
His grandfather throws him away by the back of his head, making his neck snap back.
“So Siyoung was lying then, I’m supposed to believe the man I sent to watch you has lied to me?”
“I don’t know them.” He said, it technically wasn’t a lie. He’d really only met Jiwoo twice. Dusik eyed him with fury shrouded suspicion then clicked his fingers twice, getting the attention of his assistants.
“Strip him.”
Sucheon’s heart jumped in to his throat; a vile feeling he’d never experienced curdling his insides.
“I’m telling the truth I don’t know who they are.” He plead, though it was more like dry croaking.
“Now!”
The assistants jumped up, blanked faced and approached. Sucheon almost made the mistake of backing away when large hands reached for him but caught himself with just a flinch as they neared. One held him down whilst the other roughly stripped him bare, nobody thought for a second to wipe his skin of the blood that may have been concealing a mark let alone considered the possibility of make up. Siyoung doesn’t speak despite knowing exactly where his mark is. A far away part of him was objectively thankful for the damage his grandfather unthinkingly inflicted upon him. The rest of him, after an initial flash of violation when his shirt was ripped open, was statically numb to the proceedings.
The assistant’s pulled and posed him until Dusik was frustrated but satisfied the information was false, then dropped him like he was hot when they were waved off and pinned his furious gaze on Siyoung.
“Get out.” He snapped but Sucheon knew the dismissal was for him. He snatched up his clothes and started to tug on his pants when Dusik rounded on him and backhanded him again, forcing him to the floor once more. “Ignoring me again! Did I tell you to get dressed? Get the fuck out!”
Sucheon scrambled to his feet, tugging his pants up along the way and fled with the rest of his clothes in hand. The door fwipping shut behind him, the perfect fit of them blocking out all sound from within, left him distantly relieved that that was likely the only time his grandfather would deign to see him. He wondered away to his room otherwise thinking and feeling nothing.