Wretches & Kings

Hyun Ae sprinted down the broad hallway, dodging out of people's ways as she hurried to the infirmary. Her eyes searched over the heads in the room, finding the top of corn silk hair far off. She hurried over, finding him in the middle of sewing up a young man's torn open leg.

“There's more coming in,” Hyun Ae reported, putting her hands on her hips as she tried to catch her breathe.

“How many?” the medic asked, never taking his eyes off the wound.

“Over twenty.”

Daesung muttered under his breathe. “Alright...give Taeyang the okay-go. We'll make room.”

Hyun Ae nodded and sprinted off the way she'd come. At some point in the chaos, she'd become the messenger between the check-in room and the infirmary. Her chest was aching, but she'd taken an extra dose of pain killers to help subdue the pressure.

“Daesung says their ready whenever you bring them,” she told Taeyang.

Taeyang acknowledged her with a nod. “You can take this group,” he said, motioning to a cluster of wide-eyed individuals standing by the door.

Hyun Ae nodded and turned to them with a smile. “Come with me,” she said, keeping her voice light.

They all ducked their heads and followed after her silently, trembling amongst the banging and shouting that made Hyun Ae's ears ring. “Its usually not this crazy,” she offered. “It'll quiet down soon, don't worry.”

When they reached an infirmary, Hyun Ae instructed them each to an open table for examination. Two girls—Hyun Ae suspected them as sisters—who refused to leave each other and Hyun Ae assured them that was perfectly fine. She closed the curtains around each of the stations, leaving them to calm down and relax. She took a quick breather herself, gathering

“I'm going to need you to do some exams,” said Daesung as he came to stand beside her. “We're overworked already. You're perfectly capable of doing it.” She'd been by his side long enough, absorbed everything faster than than he could have expected. Medicine and the nurturing of others was like breathing to her, second nature. Stress didn't get to her; she put everyone else before her own worries. She could take care of herself in the circumstances he was asking.

“We're not used to this sort of surplus,” Hyun Ae pointed out. “We'll be fine. And I'll do whatever you tell me.”

Daesung nodded, writing something down. “Take stations nine, twelve, five, and fifteen first. How's the sternum holding up?”

“Its doing alright.”

“If you need to rest, do it.”

“I will,” she said and turned to leave.

“Hyun Ae.” She looked over her shoulder. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes, why?”

“You've been distant.”

Hyun Ae attempted to keep the guilty reaction under control and shrugged. “Its been busy.” Then, she quickly fled.

She didn't think Daesung would have time to notice she'd been avoiding him. The problem was she didn't really know why she was avoiding him at all. The refusal was to believe it was an involuntarily action involving Seungri's remarks about Daesung and her's “thing”. Of course, what other excuse was there? The protective barrier had sprang up again without her knowledge at the very thought of Daesung having that thought embedded in his brain.

It was embedded into hers as well, like a cancer that left her guts twisted with discomfort.

She entered station five where a teenage girl sat, still quaking and looking at Hyun Ae with the expression of a trapped rabbit. Hyun Ae offered a kind smile and sat down at a chair across from her. “Everything's okay. My name's Hyun Ae, and yours...” The girl simply shook her head. “Its okay. You can trust me.”

She shook her head again and, hesitantly, opened her mouth. Hyun Ae's eyes widened, stomach plummeted. A stub of blackened muscle was embedded in her mouth, a now-dead specimen of what once was a tongue. Hyun Ae's eyes slowly rose from it, to the face that shown with worry and shame.

“I'm sorry,” said Hyun Ae and cleared her throat. “I'm going to have to do a quick exam...”

The girl nodded and things continued. The whole time Hyun Ae could hardly look her in the face. There were scars and burns, the usual portraits of abuse along her back, legs, and arms. Malnourishment and overgrown scar tissue were the worst of it—Hyun Ae thanked whatever could be above them inwardly that it was nothing worse.

“Alright,” sighed Hyun Ae and gave a fleeting smile. “I'll take you to Mi Hee and she'll take you to your new quarters.”

The tongueless girl slowly followed after Hyun Ae to the heart-shaped woman standing beside one of the other medics. She turned when Hyun Ae said something and smiled down at the girl before offering her hand and leading her away.

Hyun Ae watched them before attending her other duties. The last one, a man older than Hyun Ae, had a freshly broken arm that needed resetting, but apart from that, they were identical in cases. All of them the same—scarred, scared, malnourished, and mentally scathed. A twisting expression of pity in Hyun Ae's gut made her hurry to the an abandoned corner of the infirmary as soon as she was done.

Cold water sprayed across her face and over her neck. Hyun Ae rubbed her eyes and attempted to even the inhales and exhales. She looked into the cracked and tarnished mirror, a disfigured and warped reflection of herself staring back. It was inward look at herself, the unhealed, untrusting.

Everything around her was reopening wounds, dripping with panic and relentless guilt. Those people were lucky, but there still were so many...so many to be freed. So many still being tortured like she had. Killed like it was a game. Many would die in shackles, never knowing freedom.

Hyun Ae slid to the floor and covered her damp face in calloused hands. She would not go back there; she would not let them take her back no matter why they wanted her or how they would do it. The cold, hard steel of the chains at her ankles and wrists seemed to bite at her skin again. The whips, the brands, the shovel handles...

Pains and aches and cuts and bruises. Sliced and burned. Slapped and kicked. Shouts of authority and screams of the hopeless. It all came back in one giant wave, leaving the girl to weep on the stone floor.

Time dragged. The floor seemed to pitch and sway as Hyun Ae's cheek lay pressed to the cold floor. A muffled voice filled her ears, along with other discombobulated sounds and motions filling her brain with pointless garble. Hands lifted her to a sitting position, arms around her shoulders, hugging her to a warm body when her own trembled with a chill.

“Hyun Ae,” spoke G-Dragon, pushing the frail, short hairs back from her face with a free hand. “Come on, Hyun; talk to me.”

Her dark eyes were open, but unseeing. She did not look at him, only the wall of curtain opposite, dead weight against his body. G-Dragon studied her, sadness creeping to the depths of his youthful features as she remained inattentive to his presence. He held her until Daesung returned with a syringe in hand.

Without a word, the medic took one of her pale, scarred arms and the needle slid into the skin. Within seconds, Hyun Ae's back arched and she sucked in a lungful of air, her eyes finally focusing and blinking again. She fell back against the wall, into G-Dragon's supportive arm, and looked between the two men. “W...wh...” It was a challenge to get her tongue to work.

“You went into shock,” said Daesung, hands on the sides of her face to check her pupils. “Your mental state shorted out for a second.” His hands slid down to the pulse in her neck. Satisfied, he stood. “Rest is all you need now. GD,” the leader looked up at him and at the questioning look on the medic's face, nodded, “thank you.”

Hyun Ae's body was shaking, tingling. Sounds were so loud, lights too bright. She closed her eyes and felt her body lift into G-Dragon's arms. Despite his own slight build, there was no strain in the way he carried her away. Hyun Ae leaned a pounding head against his shoulder and closed her eyes, too numb to care about the position she was in at that moment.

Before GD even made it to her room, she'd already dropped off into an sleep of endless blankness, not even nightmares plagued her.