Later Never Comes | Lee Eun-Hyuk|

Trust

How come, in the space of barely one week, Ae-Cha had faced death multiple times? It was getting to the stage where she wasn't even surprised anymore.

Her hand was slipping away from her bat and the only thing that was going through her head was the possibility that she could survive the fall and end up as a mangled, bloody monster that was too deformed to completely heal back to normal. As that thought flowed through her mind, Ae-Cha slowly closed her eyes, preparing to meet her fate.

Suddenly, she felt a hand grabbing her wrist. Her eyes shot open as she looked up to see Hyun-Su pulling her up. Her entire body almost completely relaxed as she felt him pulling her up, but then she remembered that she was still dangling by a thread. So she waited until she could comfortably stand on the fire escape before relaxing.

Hyun-Su wrapped his arm around her waist and looked at her. "Are you okay?" He asked. He held her closer and she winced in pain, the two of them looked at her waist and noticed blood dripping from her shirt. That was when Ae-Cha remembered when she fell off the edge, a jagged piece of metal from the rail pierced her side whilst she was busy keeping herself upright.

She stared down at her blood stained shirt before glancing at Hyun-Su, "I think we need to go back now." She said softly, although her body could heal faster than usual, that didn't stop her from bleeding out and feeling the unbearable pain of being stabbed in the side.

Hyun-Su nodded and tried to help her down the stairs of the fire escape. However, when they turned to walk down the second set of metal stairs, Hyun-Su pressed on her wound a little bit too hard. She winced and gripped his wrist tightly. He thought she was just grabbing it out of pain, until he felt her grip getting tighter and tighter. Hyun-Su groaned in pain and looked at Ae-Cha questioningly, he understood the moment he saw her eyes. Her cold, piercing, black void of eyes. The pain was causing the monster in her to surface.

"Let me go." Her voice was soft and quiet, but it made him nervous. He tried to ignore it because he knew she needed help and that, if the roles were reversed, she would do the same thing.

The journey to the lobby continued as he ignored the monster's demand to let her go. Hyun-Su continued to do his best to ignore her, but it was getting harder.

"Don't touch me!" The monster hissed, Hyun-Su muttered a small apology before pressing down on her injury. Ae-Cha cried out in pain as her eyes returned to normal. Her body slumped forward as they stumbled down the stairs.

"Thank you," she muttered. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Hyun-Su could hear her breath becoming heavier the closer they got to the lobby. When they reached the window just outside the lobby, he turned to look at her.

"Do you need a break?" He asked, resting her against the metal banister. She looked at him and took a deep breath.

"It hurts." She whined. "I know it does, I know. But we need to get you back to the lobby to check why you haven't healed yet." He said softly, helping her back up.

They slowly moved towards the window and climbed in. They could only reach the door that led to the lobby before Ae-Cha whimpered in pain once again.

"Wait, just–" Ae-Cha pushed out of his grip and rested against the wall. "I need a minute." She sighed and groaned in pain.

Hyun-Su frowned, he could see the colour leaving her skin from all the blood loss. He started to wonder how deep the wound was since she hadn't fully healed yet. "We have to get that checked out." He said before reaching out for the bottom of her shirt. "Can I see it?–"

"No!" She snapped and looked at him, the darkness consuming her eyes once more. "Don't even get near it!" The monster groaned. Hyun-Su refused and quickly raised her shirt slightly and saw the reason she hadn't healed.