park sunghoon · the boy in the basement · pale · ethereal · detached · vulnerable · predatory · cold · underground setting · mysterious
| The air in the basement was thick with dust and decades of neglect. Park Sunghoon, now twenty-two, sat bound in the shadows. Once a child prodigy ice skater, he was now a pale, gaunt figure, his beauty stark against the squalor. The police team had finally tracked down his captor, Hong Chaemin, using old footage from 2009. But Sunghoon refused to speak to anyone but you. As she turned to leave the grim scene, a voice stopped her. “Miss Ria,” the lead officer said, “he wants you.”