Title: Asunder [II. Vehement]
Author: RichelleBrinkley
AN: Vehement was a oneshot I started a long time ago, and I've only just now fixed it up and decided to include it as a chapter of Asunder.
This is dark, and has horror-esque elements to it. Probably don't read this if you're sensitive to that sort of thing and whatnot. Vehement has catapulted the rating of this story from K+ to M.
Just a reminder that chapters of this story are not necessarily interrelated, and that ratings, genre, warnings and characters for this particular chapter are as listed below.
Rating: Strong T to M
Genre: Romance, horror, drama
Warnings: How do I put this? Ryang + Yusin + Yuri and her switchblade = Well, horror. Nothing particularly violent or graphic though (ish). But probably sensitive content.
Characters: Ryang, Yusin, Yuri
Disclaimer: I do not own Faeries' Landing, it is the property of You Hyun.
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II. Vehement
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"I have a job for the two of you. A girl I need disposing of."
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There comes a point in time, when finally; finally he cannot take her continued obsession with him anymore, and she simply cannot accept the fact that he doesn't want her back—not ever.
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They come face-to-face two weeks before his eighteenth birthday, in an abandoned warehouse she has her two lackeys kidnap and drag him to.
Ryang is as furious as ever, vehemently refusing her advances for the umpteenth time, and her cold heart cracks just a little bit more at his harsh words.
She implores him, asks and demands it of him—can he not just take her back, give her one more chance?
The answer she gets is hard grey eyes fixed on hers in a disparaging glare, and the sound of her own blood pumping furiously louder and louder in her ears.
She has him hands bound behind his back, shouldered by Koichi and Tsuyoshi. They stand stock still on either of his sides, ready to grab him in case he decides to run.
Yuri herself stands directly in front of Ryang, the same height due to her dangerously-high platform boots. In the pocket of her skirt she can feel the heavy weight of her switchblade, the metal cool against her thigh through the material of her dress.
Oh, and there is someone else too. The whimpering, scruffy brunette of a girl who had actually thought she could stand a chance against Yuri.
Her hands tied behind her back, there is a sickening crack of the girl's kneecaps as she is forced to kneel on the cold concrete of the floor. It is a sound Yuri would relish if she had been less angry.
She reaches into her pocket. Metal doesn't betray you, but people do.
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She has every intention of harming Yusin, of driving the switchblade through her to the hilt. But she doesn't. Ryang—as always—knows how to draw her attention.
"Yuri, if you hurt her in any way, you can kiss your chances of ever getting back together with me goodbye." Yuri turns slowly, the switchblade still dangling almost lazily from one hand, the other ensnaring Yusin's wrist in a white-knuckled grasp.
She does consider it, for a brief second. For the most fleeting of moments, she imagines what it would be like for Ryang to forgive and forget everything, to give her another chance.
But he can't and he won't, and she knows this.
She smiles, a twisted upturn of her lips. Ryang visibly blanches.
"I guess it's alright then. Because Ryang; I never had any chance of getting back together with you."
"Yuri–!"
The blade flicks out in an expert swipe, slicing soundlessly through the air.
Ryang yells. Yuri laughs. Yusin cries out in pain and horror.
"Relax, Ryang, it's only a scratch." Yuri can hear the sounds of the smaller girl sobbing hysterically on the ground.
She turns to Koichi.
"Take her away."
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Yuri lets him go.
Ryang doesn't understand it, can't for the life of him begin to wonder why she would show him any mercy, but she does.
They've been through this before, the two of them. It is an almost age-old dance, one of barely-concealed vehemence and the overwhelming desire for one to get the better of the other.
She waves the switchblade in front of his eyes and it is tantalising, a mesmerising blur of silver and bloodstained red. Ryang's stomach drops and he cannot help but let out a gasp when she reaches both arms behind him, almost hugging him from the front, and the blade disappears behind his back. For a second he thinks she is going to stab him, to twist the blade through his ribs from behind, but he feels nothing but the sawing motion of his rope-bound hands being cut free. How Yuri does it with her eyes never leaving his both frightens and amazes him; not once does he feel the cool metal threaten to pierce his skin.
They are close, the two of them. Close enough that Ryang could count her eyelashes if he wanted to, close enough for him to feel the warmth of her breath against his cheek. Close enough for her to kiss him, if she so felt the desire.
She doesn't.
Ryang releases the breath he had been holding and he gazes at her, eyes trying in vain to read the unreadable.
His hands are now free, and she drops her precious blade to the ground. It falls with an anticlimactic clatter, and Ryang is quick to kick it away. Yuri hisses in anger, but does not say a word.
Ryang's heart is pounding in his chest, a staccato rhythm that does not ease, even with the disappearance of the blade.
There are so many things he needs to know, needs to do. He hasn't a clue where Yusin is, and no idea how badly Yuri has hurt her. Her back had been to him when Yuri had been brandishing that accursed blade.
He really needs to find Yusin.
"Where is she, Yuri? Where's Yu–" She cuts him off with a finger to his lips, and Ryang watches as she abruptly pulls back, stalking away from him with a loud clacking of her boots. His eyes scan the dim warehouse for an escape route, but it is too large and he does not know his way.
Then he realises what Yuri is doing.
In mere seconds she is in front of him again, retrieved blade pressed harshly into his bottom lip, and Ryang feels the skin break and a trickle of blood make its way down his chin.
"Here's how it's going to work. I'm going to give you one more chance; either take me back—and mean it—or I'm going to get Tsuyoshi to drag you back to my place and you can watch your little girlfriend get murdered." It is an ultimatum.
"Your choice, Ryang."
He doesn't, won't give in that easily.
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Somehow, he escapes. He kisses Yuri, kisses her hard enough to surprise her, to draw her attention elsewhere for a split second—it is enough for him to knock her blade from her fingers and start running.
Somehow, he makes it out safely, finds a phone box and calls the cops to Yuri's house, before hailing a cab there himself. It's risky, but he needs to see if Yusin is okay.
It is a dire mistake, and years later he is still kicking himself for underestimating her.
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She supposes this was the way things were meant to be—the animosity and the hate. Ryang would never have come back to her, even if she had given him the world.
Her boots crunch on the gravel of the road, and Koichi nods silently to her and jerks his head to the boot of the car he has pulled round.
"Is she still awake?" He nods. "Open it for me, Koichi."
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"Don't worry, I'll get you back to Ryang," The blade flicks open and she slices it through a lock of the girl's hair.
"…Little by little."
Yusin screams.
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He moves addresses, but she always finds him. The mail never fails to come, month after month, after month.
On that one day, two weeks before his eighteenth birthday, Ryang really wishes he hadn't run.
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AN: The next update should be in a fortnight or less. Thanks for reading.
Much love,
RichelleBrinkley xx
