Seokjin realized the moment his enemy mentioned the Hell's ring that this would turn so ugly. He left Hoseok without any explanation because all he could think was about the children.
He knew that place was basically hell, just like its name and the fact that Seokjin was used to find comfort from that place was an awful truth.
Everything backfired to him, his old enemy demanded revenge from him. He remembered he once took the fight too far and beat his opponent with a purpose to humiliate them and now it backfired.
The children were so unlucky, to be adopted by him and accepted the payback like this; heck, they were innocent and Seokjin dragged them into this mess by offering a family comfort.
He didn't hesitate to drop his bags and got into the Hell's ring when the people in the underground screamed to him to get inside.
There were like eight or maybe ten people when he arrived in the underground area in district eight, the district where dirty people lived.
Street fight, whores, criminals, every little thing that happened in here was illegal. The crime alley was the only alley that led to this place and Seokjin didn't even flinch when the first punch landed on his stomach.
He recognized three of eight people in this place, the underground area in district eight was divided into five areas and this one's ring is abandoned months ago.
The original rule is to put their best and fight until one of them faint or scream they give up, but this time was different. This time there's no audience or a joker screaming the final bet for both sides.
This time was a solo for Seokjin, those people want to beat him to death while his children were watching from the side bench.
His face was not their target since they wanted to scream 'a beauty' to mock him, several of them took some photos while the rest aimed his guts, it hurt, hurt like hell.
The cries from Taehyung and Jungkook just made it worse, he didn't want them to see; at least not when the bad people kicked him and punched him like this. Striking him like he wasn't a human, he didn't have any chance to have full contact combat, no tricks or techniques but pure torture.
"Appa!!" Jungkook screamed with tears drenched his chubby cheeks while the bad guys laughed their ass off when Seokjin fell to the hard ground once again.
"Get up sweety!"
"Face us with your pretty fucked up face!"
"Do we need to sing you a lullaby first?"
"Oh, daddy can't get up alone? Need a hand?"
"No, please stop!" Taehyung punched the man who held him down on the bench, their eyes focused on Seokjin who coughed on the ground. Both of the children flinched when the hybrid screamed from inside the ring when one of the bad guys stepped on his hand and put more pressure when Seokjin tried to pull his hand away.
He didn't think about fighting back, not after the people there said that they might harm the children if he tries to do something stupid like talking back. He just listened and accepted with a little hope that the children would forget all of these memories when everything finished later.
His mind wandered to another place while those people kept using him as a punching bag, he didn't think people realize how hard it was to discover the person he was before depression or even try to remember his own personality.
He had depression since early childhood, he didn't even know if he has his own personality anymore after he lost everything to the fire. He didn't have time to be a person before depression and it was so scary having no idea who he is.
Until he met the children and he became a survivor instead of a victim.
Sometimes it meant smoking a cigarette in the hope that he would get cancer and die or walking in a drunken state after a long night in the club without looking because he didn't care if he gets hit by the car.
Sometimes it meant having sex with a stranger, hoping to forget every nightmare that haunting him even when he was wide awake. Or not sleeping and not eating in the hopes that the exhaustion would kill him by the end of the day.
Sometimes it meant being cruel or leaving your brother behind and the people he loved because if they leave he would have less reason to keep living, it was as simple as that before.
It could be partying with random people in the hope that his liver would fail and he would die or putting himself in dangerous and potentially painful situations like playing in the hell's ring and found comfort from the chaos before he found the real salvation.
Being suicidal didn't necessarily mean trying to die and Seokjin found nothing wrong with that before. A lot of times, it meant not putting any efforts into a living, everything was fucked up for him and he thought it was okay.
Not even 'in hope' that he dies, but just simply that he didn't care if it happens.
Until he met Taehyung and Jungkook and suddenly he cared about breakfast and the laundry, he watched the forecast, thinking about bringing the raincoats for his children.
They were that important for him, they changed his life entirely.
He just wanted to lay down in his room, with a hole inside him that he didn't know how to fill up and he didn't want to do anything even the things he usually likes, he just spent the day kinda waiting for it to end before.
It was horrible because he felt so empty and guilty for that at the same time, but Taehyung and Jungkook pulled him from the depth of the ocean of depression and led him back; telling him that 'Morning sky is so pretty!'.
They brought him back to life.
"How about we add some fun?"
Seokjin's attention snapped back into reality when he heard Taehyung and Jungkook's cries turned into high pitched screams. His eyes caught the sight of his children, their horrified faces when the bad guys dragged them closer to the ring.
He opened his eyes wide and used his elbows to get up, seeing some man grabbed Jungkook's bunny ears and Taehyung's hair, they dragged them up from the bench.
He growled and kicked the man that about to kick his face even before the man could laugh, he dashed toward the kids who froze when they saw how fast their father was encountering the bad guys' attack.
"Don't you dare to hurt a single hair of them!" Seokjin screamed with blood dripping down from the corner of his lips and his elbows, some nasty bruises on his face made both of the kids winced. Two men held his hand and kicked the back of his knees; forcing him to kneel in front of them.
"Appa," Jungkook whined, his eyes brimmed with tears, his small hands grabbed the bigger hand of the bad guy that gripped his ears tightly to the point it hurt. Taehyung growled pathetically, useless and weak in front of those adults and whimpered when he saw those people forced his father to kneel like that, the loud noise of the older hybrid's knees hitting the hard ground echoed.
"You better keep your words sweet, Jinnie," one of them said, "who knows what will happen to the children if you trigger something in us."
Seokjin bit his lips, maybe people would think he was stupid for not taking this to police but he knew better, these criminals would know if he contacts the police and the children might face their end in the auction or hybrid trafficking if he does that.
Offering himself to this torture was the best decision, half of this bastards' head was stupid after all and all they wanted was killing him. He somehow hoped Hoseok would go to Yoongi and his friend would be contacting Namjoon, he just needed time; a little bit more until his family come to save them; at least his children.
These bad guys won't notice that Namjoon might come if Seokjin was already here, offering himself to get killed by their own hands.
Taehyung struggled to get free, he even bit the man who gripped hair, digging his fangs to his thigh until he tasted blood and then he clawed the man who had Jungkook.
Seokjin saw how the man was about to kick his kids so he did the next move fast, he needed to cause a ruckus, a distraction. The people heard something was torn from him and the next thing they saw was a pair of dark blue wings soared to the high dark ceiling of the Hell's ring, they gasped together even the children.
Seokjin let his wings out to distract the bad guys' attention from his sons, then he dashed to the kids after he got a chance to slip away from the bad guy's grip and hugged them; keeping them safe inside his bloody arms. His wings were technically useless, he couldn't run because he was out of number and his wings couldn't move much because of the broken and the dislocated bones.
He knew his wings were permanently broken but it could at least protect the children when he wrapped three of them with his large blue wings. The bad guys beat him together, unfortunately, he could still feel the pain despite the fact that his wings were broken. He didn't let the children mesmerized by his wings too long, he pulled them closer to him and hid them inside his blue wings.