The last thing Eun-Hyuk remembered before he appeared in the school was his body being crushed by rubble as the Green Home Apartment building collapsed around him. The snapping of his shattering bones and his screams were drowned out by the roaring crashes of debris falling and the music blaring in his ears from Eun-Yu's headphones. The blood that had been pouring from his nose was nothing compared to the sight of the broken, bloody heap of his crushed body.
When the dust settled, the building completely totalled, the fog began to lightly drift over the destroyed apartment building, seeping through the cracks between the debris covering him. He couldn't feel the feather light snowflakes that landed onto his exposed, broken hand just yet. Normally brown eyes opened as voids of inky black, not really seeing the carnage surrounding him.
Eun-Yu smiled down at him, brushing some dirt and gravel from his face with icy fingers. His glasses were broken but he could see her just fine anyway. Snowflakes clung to her dark hair and eyelashes, she didn't look like it bothered her though. How was she here? It wasn't safe for her.
'Go,' he tried to say, only to choke on his words, throat dry and filling up with dust as he tried to speak. The swirling wall of fog was oppressive and claustrophobic but he barely registered it. Too focused on the smiling teenage girl above him.
"Don't be stupid, moron," she chastised. "You're the one that's dying but you're worried about me? Idiot."
Eun-Hyuk's heavy black eyes wanted to close but he refused. He didn't want to look away from his sister, afraid she'd disappear. He wasn't dying, the fact that he was even still conscious proved that. Just like Hyun-Su all those weeks ago, he'd been saved by the golden hour. There was no way the Eun-Yu in front of him was real, she was too clean in comparison to the destruction around them. So, he had to assume that she was a hallucination. Part of him didn't care in that moment, he wanted to spend a little bit longer with his sister before he was dragged back into reality. But the more alert part of his brain was screaming. He knew she would try to tempt him, manipulate him into giving in to the curse. He couldn't let that happen, he refused to be a monster.
"N...ot—" a cough tore up his raw throat. "Real."
The fake Eun-Yu grinned, black eyes that mirrored his own shone with malice, "Of course I'm not real. What makes you think Eun-Yu loves you enough to even care that you didn't come back? That you abandoned her."
An argument sat poised on his tongue like a a venomous snake, the med student was torn between lashing out at the monster wearing his sister's face and vehemently ignoring it. It would not benefit him in any way to give it the attention it was after, there was only one way that could end and it was a fate he wouldn't allow himself to succumb to.
"Just give in," it said. "It'll all be okay."
Over the years he had been accused of being many things— heartless, apathetic, cold— and a few of those things accusations were valid. He was cold and logical, he made the difficult decisions without letting his own pesky feelings interfere. But, unknown to most people, he cared. He cared a lot. That was why he took it upon himself to step up to lead the group at the beginning, he couldn't let any of them die. Above all, he cared about Eun-Yu. Even if he had a hard time showing it, he just hoped she knew how much he loved her. Her reluctance to let him go back for Hyun-Su told him that maybe she did feel the same. She would be furious that he lied to her but in his heart he knew that she loved him, that's why his lie would hurt her even more.
He stayed behind to keep her safe. He wasn't going to just give in.
No, never in a million years. He knew he wouldn't have the will to fight the monster inside him forever, but he would fight all the way to the bitter end. Eun-Yu would kill him twice if he let himself die like this.
Every nerve in his pulverised body screamed bloody murder, fighting through the pain, Eun-Hyuk managed to prop himself up to lean his ruined back against a fallen slab of concrete. His body sagged against the rough surface, finding some far away comfort in being upright, less vulnerable somehow. The demonic Eun-Yu watched him with amused malice, twirling a strand of black hair around it's finger.
"Why are you fighting this?" It asked. "Just let me help you. All this pain can go away— you can have anything you want! You want to see Eun-Yu again, don't you? You want to protect her?"
The monster's monkey paw wishes were meaningless to Eun-Hyuk, they couldn't be taken at face value. He forced his head to twitch from side to side, agony burning down his neck and spine. "Go away," he croaked.
The fog was thickening around them, pulsing with a powerful, dark energy. Whispering nipped in his ears, too muffled and distorted for him to truly understand.
God, he felt so cold.
The monster continued to watch him, snickering at Eun-Hyuk's failed attempts to pick himself up off the floor. Broken body refusing to cooperate, his pain inducing movements ceased. He let his head fall back onto the slab behind him with a soft thud. Behind dirty cracked glasses, black eyes filled with defeated tears.
The whispering raised in volume, a sinister voice ringing inside his head. It wanted him.
As the fog enveloped him, he looked to the fake Eun-Yu for the last time, allowing himself to believe she was real for just a second before he let the fog take him. He'd meet his sister again, he swore it.
Eun-Hyuk stared back at Hyun-Su through his, miraculously intact, glasses in shock. The last time he'd seen Hyun-Su was when he was walking out into the snow to his death. Guilt bit at his chest for failing to stop him from going, not that he'd tried very hard admittedly. It wasn't his choice. It would be hypocritical of him, since he also stayed behind. "Hyun-Su," he breathed, straightening up from his hiding spot.
Hyun-Su and Eun-Hyuk both stared at each other, neither knowing what to do. Surviving with someone for weeks creates a certain kind of bond but they were hardly close enough to hug. And neither were particularly good with expressing their feelings. Eun-Hyuk settled for a nod, hoping his eyes could convey everything his words couldn't. The regret, the relief of seeing him alive and in one piece.
Claudette wasn't the best at reading people, in fact it was something she actively struggled with, but even she could see the two were having some kind of moment. She quietly looked between the two, letting them communicate silently.
"Have you seen any of the others?" Eun-Hyuk finally asked. If Hyun-Su was also here then maybe the others (Eun-Yu) were there as well. He didn't let his disappointment show when Hyun-Su shook his head in response.
"Have you seen the clown?"
He had. It didn't exactly take a genius to figure out that he shouldn't let the clown see him. Eun-Hyuk nodded, "Yeah, I've been watching him," he said. The crafty young man made a good spy when it was necessary, the clown hadn't even noticed when he had been right behind him. His attention turned to the small woman beside Hyun-Su with that familiar cold and analytical stare that the younger had been subjected to several times in the past. "Who are you?"
Claudette shrunk under his scrutiny, like she was trying to hide in her own shadow, "Uh— I'm Claudette..." she stammered.
"Do you know whats going on?" He asked.
"We really don't have time for this," she said, looking from side to side down the hall with a flustered look. "We— um, we should get back to fixing the generators."
"How can we trust you if you wont tell us anything?" Eun-Hyuk demanded. "Just tell us where we are."
Seeing Claudette's distraught state, tears welling up in her eyes, an unexpected wave of protectiveness filled Hyun-Su.
"I trust her."
His words were left to hang in the air, both young men locked in a stare down. It wasn't an aggressive exchange, simply Eun-Hyuk sussing him out and Hyun-Su trying not to let his resolve crumble under his gaze. The younger had definitely grown tougher over the past few weeks but that didn't mean he enjoyed confrontation in any way. Knowing this, Eun-Hyuk turned to Claudette once again.
"You'll tell us everything when we're out of here?" he asked her.
She nodded, "You'll know everything we know, I swear."
Her voice, nervous as it was, didn't waver, her eyes holding his with a sincerity that he couldn't help but believe as truth. Still slightly reluctant, Eun-Hyuk returned the nod. If Hyun-Su was willing to vouch for her and trusted her, then he was willing to wait for his answers. "Alright then," he agreed, climbing over the desk so he was standing on their side. But not before reaching down to grab something. "I managed to steal this from his bag when his back was turned."
Hyun-Su squinted and craned his neck to see what he was holding, cocking his head to the side, looking like a curious owl. In Eun-Hyuk's hand was a small glass bottle filled with pink gas. Determination burned in his cold brown eyes.
"I have a plan," he said. "Are you with me?"
There had been a time when Hyun-Su had been completely drained of his will to live. Locking himself in his apartment, those four walls protecting him from the outside world— but not from his hurting mind. Dark days that only got darker the closer he became to ending it. It wasn't actually that long ago, only a month or so, but to him it felt like a lifetime. In a way, the curse is what saved him.
The irony was, in no way, lost on him, of course.
He wasn't sure exactly when he realised he didn't want to die anymore, but if he had to specify he supposed the process started when he saved Su-Young and Young-Su after their father fell from the 12th floor. Perhaps fighting to save others was what gave him back his will to save himself.
That will to save himself and others shone bright inside of him as he narrowed his eyes in determination. "Let's get out of here," he agreed with Eun-Hyuk.