Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Minho wakes with a start. The fire in his side is burning his intestines from the inside out. He claws at it, feeling whatever it is wrapped around his torso, covering the wound. He hears hushed voices before he sees faces, Wonyoung with another girl, one Minho doesn't recognize. Her hair is a mess, choppy bangs pointing every which way over her forehead.

Minho doesn't speak. He can't. Wonyoung grabs the hand moving at his side, holding him still. The new girl grabs his other hand, her fingers far rougher than Wonyoung's, like they're scarred and calloused. Minho pants, trying to rip away from her. It doesn't matter that Wonyoung doesn't seem frightened. He can't trust anybody.

To his surprise, he hears Wonyoung's voice over the rush in his ears. She leans towards the girl. "Let go." He feel's Wonyoung's knee pin down the hand the girl had been holding. He tries to squirm but she just angles her knee to push down harder. So hard, it hurts. She grabs the hand the girl releases. "Just fix the bandages."

He feels the girl's rough hands against the skin of his stomach. The bandages are far thicker than the ones he'd felt before. He didn't even realize they were bandages. The girl fixes them, flattens them, replaces the edges Minho had ripped at.

Slowly, he feels his heart slow. He gasps for air and Wonyoung eases off his pinned hand. When they both back away out of view, he can still feel their eyes on him. His voice is dry and rough when he asks, "Can I sit up?"

Wonyoung audibly sighs. "Carefully."

"No, I'm going to run away." Minho says sarcastically. The new girl lets out a laugh and then a pained curse. Minho can only assume Wonyoung hit her or something similar.

His body burns, stings as he moves. A hand rests on his side, but it does little to relieve the pain. His eyes squeeze shut, the pain becoming too much. He lies back down with a curse.

He doesn't register the creaking of the floor or even how Wonyoung crouches beside him. Not until her hands cup his face. Minho's eyes open again as Wonyoung examines him. She lets out an exasperated sound. "You passed out as soon as we got here. You fell face first in the dirt."

"Oh. Great. I didn't break my nose, did I?" He asks, already knowing the answer. His face feels just fine. Wonyoung doesn't need to answer him. She gently turns his head to the side, clearning his cheek with a damp washcloth conjured from nowhere. Minho's eyes land on the girl standing in the corner. She watches him and Wonyoung with a vague expression of worry, like she genuinely cares. "And who are you?"

He asks with a hint of irritation in his tone. She doesn't take lightly to it. She scoffs and puts her hands on her hips. "Uh, the reason you're alive. You're welcome."

Minho gives Wonyoung a look out of the corner of his eye. There's a slight smile on her face from the girl's response. She finally explains. "That's Lily-unnie. She lives here with her dog. She found me dragging you and decided to help us out."

A drop of water from Wonyoung's cloth cuts through the grime on Minho's face. He clears his throat, looking back at Lily. "Um, thanks."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm feeling the gratitude." She replies sarcastically. Minho stifles the smile that tries to spread across his face. She may have saved him, but the cannibals on level 9 saved Wonyoung. They can't trust her or her sense of humor.

Again, Minho looks back at Wonyoung. His voice drops to a murmur. "Where did you get the water?"

She responds at the same volume. "We're on level 10. It's all wheat, trees, and lakes."

"Wheat?"

Wonyoung brings a hand down to the thick bandages on Minho's side, sending the sting back up his spine. "These are made from dried wheat, woven together by Lily." Minho tries to crane his neck to see, but Wonyoung brings him back to rest against the floor. "You already failed at sitting, just stay still. You can see it later."

Letting out a ragged sigh, Minho slowly relaxes. "I'm assuming I.N is okay?" He's sure the boy is, Wonyoung wouldn't be doting over him if I.N was hurt.

However, Lily cuts in. "The little dude is taking a nap. I told him to after playing with Dee."

"Dee?"

"My dog!" Lily smiles, turns suddenly to the wide staircase. "I'll go check on them."

Both Minho and Wonyoung are silent when she leaves. After a few seconds, Wonyoung goes back to cleaning the dirt from Minho's cheeks. "Sorry we didn't clean you up earlier, we didn't want to wake you. Why did you wake up anyway?"

"I don't know." He answers a little too quickly. When he sleeps, closes his eyes, he still sees red. He sees Seungmin, broken. The cracked wood, the soaked concrete. Blood everywhere it's not supposed to be. It makes his stomach turn. He feels the burn up in his throat, his mouth watering. He forces it down.

Wonyoung takes notice of it all. "Breathe, don't throw up. Can I go get you a can of memory rations? Will you be okay on your own for a minute?"

Minho wants to say no, but he nods his head anyway. Wonyoung takes less than a minute, yet by the time she comes back, there are already tears in Minho's eyes. He tries to fight them back, but he can't. They slip out of the corners of his eyes, streaking through the dirt lingering on his face, mixing with the oils in his hair. Wonyoung crouches beside him, wiping away the tears like she's consoling a child.

He's back with Chan, in the frontrooms, crying for some reason he doesn't even remember. Chan's mother holds him tightly, wiping away the tears that fall. She dabs a tissue under his nose, runs a hand through his hair. She treats him like he's her own. It's warm, comfortable.

Wonyoung's arms wrap around his waist, supporting him as he sits up. She props him up against a hay bale, silently digging the pocket knife from nowhere into the edge of the memory rations can. Minho watches silently. He feels helpless. He should be able to feed himself despite the nauseous feeling and shaky arms. He shouldn't have to rely on Wonyoung.

She doesn't even seem bothered by it. She brings a spoonful to his mouth and even as he hesitates, she just watches him with a soft expression. When he lets her put the spoon in his mouth, he waits for the memories to hit, waits for the urge to drown in the rations to overcome him. But it doesn't. Wonyoung looks just as confused as he feels. She gives him another spoonfull. Still nothing.

Minho searches his memories himself, everything related to food like the first time he tried the memory rations. The memory with his grandmother was the only good one. Maybe it's only good memories the rations bring up. He has none for it to focus on.

When the can is empty, Wonyoung tosses it aside. "Do you want to lie down again or stay sitting up for a while?"

"I want to see the level." He answers. He doesn't want to sit around like an idiot and do nothing, especially if the level is dangerous.

Wonyoung gives a sigh but gives into him. "Okay, but when I tell you it's time to come back, you come back. None of that bullshit that had Felix out of bed for far too long back at the base."

Frowning, Minho forces a nod. He had nearly forgotten about that, forgotten about how Namjoon wanted him and the other guys gone from the base. Now that Seungmin's dead, what are the odds Namjoon will even let them leave alive? There's no chance. Minho killed one of the kids that shouldn't have even been with him in the first place. Namjoon won't let him just leave.

Wonyoung helps him to his feet as he finally gets a chance to look around the room. It's some kind of dusty top level of a barn, hay bales stacked high and farming tools hanging on racks on the walls. "Is level 10 a barn?"

"I thought you knew about the backrooms."

"The memorable levels. Not a barn." Minho hunches over, the pain in his side searing its way up his spine.

Wonyoung holds him just a little tighter as they near the stairs. "The level has barns on it. The barn itself isn't the level."

"And Lily isn't some sort of entity?"

"No." Wonyoung lets out a huff, clearly struggling to continue holding him up. Her arm slips away from his body. "In the level 10 entry I've seen, there were journal entries found outside a house with two dead bodies. According to Lily, those were from her. Everything checks out. The journals talked about the writer's parents unconscious on the ground. The writer ran off with their dog. Lily has her dog and found her parents dead."

Minho stares at her, leaning against the railing. "And you're not at all concerned the journals lied, Lily lied, and she might have killed her parents?"

To that, Wonyoung smacks the back of his head. "Not everybody is a killer—" She chokes and shuts her mouth. Her cheeks turn pink and she looks at the ground. Minho feels his blood starting to simmer.

"Like me?" He finishes for her. "Were you going to say 'not everybody is a killer like you'? I don't kill for no reason, Wonyoung—"

"You wanted to kill the base in level 9!"

"They wanted to kill you! Us! I.N!" Minho yells at her. The muscles around his wound sieze up, burning, stinging, like a staff piercing through him. "Did you think I wanted to slaughter a group of unicorns!?"

Wonyoung scoffs, a look of disbelief on her face. "Do not put words in my mouth. I know they weren't good people, but our priority was getting out of there."

"My priority is keeping us safe, and because we didn't kill them, look what happened." Minho gestures to his side, how blood is starting to seep through Lily's woven-wheat bandages. "If we had just killed them, this wouldn't have happened."

"We? We? You would've had to kill them! My arm is still very much broken! I.N is seven! Neither of us would've been able to help even if we did have to kill everyone in that house!" Wonyoung's composure finally breaks. She yells, borderline screams at him. The faint sound of Lily's voice from the floor below them stops.

Wonyoung doesn't even offer help, just starts down the stairs without him.

Minho lets out a shaky sigh of both irritation and pain. His hand goes over his wound again, this time feeling the stickiness that starts to drip. As much as it pains him, and as much as he hates to trust a stranger, if Lily bandaged him once, he needs her to do it again.

He takes the stairs painstakingly slow. He leans heavily on the railing leaving bloodied handprints as he struggles. I.N is the first to spot him. He tugs on Lily's sleeve, pointing. Lily sees Minho on the stairs and immediately rushes to his aid. Wonyoung is already nowhere to be seen.

Lily helps him to the couch where I.N sits. Minho plops down on the sofa, the motion making him see stars. The little boy wraps his arms around Minho's neck. With his eyes closed, Minho can still hear how Lily mutters a small "Hey, little dude, I need space to help him." I.N backs away and Minho sucks in a breath.

He feels Lily's hands on his wound. The ripping of whatever adhesive was used against his skin, the burn of fresh air hitting the raw meat. Minho cries. He's lived through being beaten up by a bloodthirsty child, he's lived through fighting a Follower of Jerry, even lived through getting his pinky cut off. But what finally has him in tears is a shitty gunshot wound to the side.

A tiny hand brushes against his face, wiping the tears away. Something wet and cold is pressed against his side and through the burn, he feels relief. A slight feeling that has him clinging on, wanting more. He doesn't know when it ends. He doesn't know if he fully passes out. He just knows that when he comes to, the small hands are gone and there's a weight on his leg. He blinks open his eyes, seeing the Border Collie resting its head on his thigh. He can't help but huff out a laugh.

Beside him, Lily reaches over to scratch behind the dog's ears. "This is Dee. She gets protective of injured people."

Minho doesn't look at the dog. He stares at Lily. Tired, doe eyes. Messy, choppy hair. An accent like Chan's. "Are you Australian?"

"Korean-Australian." Lily looks at him. "But I've been in the backrooms for years, too many to count. No-clipped during a picnic, can you believe that?" Lily laughs like it's funny, normal even.

She's the only one laughing. Minho looks around, the empty barn void of furniture other than a single bed and the couch they're on. "Where'd I.N go?"

"He's outside with Wonyoungie. Which I wanted to ask you about. What was that fighting earlier? I.N seemed spooked. Do you two usually fight like that or was it just… I don't know, couple stuff?"

Minho stiffens. "Couple stuff?"

They stare at each other. Lily stutters. "A-Aren't you two…?"

"No. No!" Minho sits up a bit, flinching when it sends pain up his side again. "Shit. No, we're not a couple."

"Oh…" She hesitates. "Sorry, I assumed I.N was your son and you and Wonyoung were together."

Minho chokes on air. "No!" He waves a hand out in front of him. His slight choke alerts Dee who barks once before Lily rubs her head to calm her. Minho covers his face with a hand. "I.N is not my son."

"He doesn't belong to you?"

"As far as I know, he no-clipped into the backrooms without any parents. He and Wonyoung were in an undocumented base on level 1, and that's where I met them."

"Ah, I know the base. That's where I met Wonyoungie."

Silence. "What?" Minho lowers his hand, looking at Lily. "I thought… I thought you just lived here."

"I haven't always been in this level," Lily says openly. She begins scratching Dee behind her ear. "In my entries of my journey, I talk about being in level 1 for some time. I just never wrote about Namjoon-oppa's base. He asked me not to."

Minho frowns. "So why did you leave?" Maybe she was forced out for doing something wrong and that's why she's never been back. Maybe she and Minho are in similar boats.

"My parents and I left because the level just wasn't good for Dee. She needs space to run, so Namjoon-oppa told us how to get here." Her expression becomes solemn. "We should've just stayed on level 1. We thought this level was closer to the frontrooms than others. For a while, we wandered around thinking we'd actually escaped. But then we realized it was exactly what Namjoon-oppa directed us too. When we finally tried to settle in a barn, my parents tried to cook. It smelled fine, normal when I woke up, but my mum and dad were dead on the ground. I was only there a while longer before I started getting lightheaded myself. I took Dee and we ran, and I haven't tried cooking the wheat since."

This time, Minho doesn't know how to respond. She ended on good terms with Namjoon, and she's faced incredible loss, losing both her parents at the same time from the same reason. Minho can't even begin to understand how that feels. He just nods his head in response.

Lily harshly wipes away a stubborn tear. Her voice wavers even after she clears her throat. "But none of that is important now. What's important is making sure you and the others who have just entered the level are safe and healthy."

A heavy silence washed over both of them. "Others?" Minho asks in a huff.

"Five men. Blanche-unnie helped them get here herself, if my dream was accurate. That means they're more than likely safe."

Minho nods, sitting up further, ignoring the burn in his side and the way Dee lifts her head from his lap. "Do you know who they are? Or where they are?"

Shaking her head, Lily tries to gently push him to sit back again. "I don't know. Wonyoungie as going to look for them."

Ignoring her attempt to get him to sit back, Minho tries to stand. "I can go with—" His attempt is cut short by a gasp, stars in his vision, a burn straight through his intenstines. He collapses back onto the couch with a groan. "Oh, fuck."

Hands are back on his bloodied side as Dee jumps up to the sofa on his other side. Her head rests in his lap again as Lily curses and checks the bandages. "You're not going anywhere, Minho-ssi."

Her hands press down harder as the warm red threatens to gush out again. Minho clenches his teeth. "Shit, it's fine, Lily! Your hand hurts more than actually moving!" He pushes himself towards Dee to get away.

Lily's hand moves away finally, no blood in sight. The burning lingers for just a few seconds longer. Minho slumps back, hand coming over his eyes as the stars blink in and out. Dee licks his cheek, putting her head on his chest. Lily tries to push her off, but the weight is warm and welcoming so Minho runs his fingers through Dee's fur. He scratches behind her ears as Lily sighs.

He let's his brain go fuzzy as Lily's voice comes calmly. "Okay, fine. Just rest a bit without moving."

10

Wonyoung lets out a huff as she leans against the barn wall. It's moments like this that she's glad the level is forever stuck in an overcast state. Winds blow occasionally, making any kind of heat cower in fear.

The last thing she wants to do is look for the other guys. That or face Minho. Both sound terrible. Sure, she understood Minho's point of view, why he would've wanted to kill the base in level 9, but at the same time, it just wouldn't have been wise. Then there's him being overly cautious. She understands paranoia, most wanderers experience it, but if she's comfortable around Lily, Minho should understand Lily is trustworthy. Wonyoung wouldn't have let her guard down otherwise. She trusts Minho the most out of all the other guys, but what is it worth if he doesn't trust her?

He killed Seungmin, he felt the guilt. Despite however many times she assured him he wasn't to blame, that it was the level's fault Seungmin died, he still thinks it's his fault. He wouldn't leave level 9 without her because I.N wanted to find her. He wanted to get the pocket, but he still asked her before trying. Sure, the other guys have been trustworthy — Han got them to level 5 with the Homely Hotel and Changbin was the one to help fix up I.N — but none of them even compare to Minho.

Not even Felix or Chan. Felix is sweet, but every time Chan is near, Wonyoung feels uneasy. Of course, she cares about Felix, but she feels as if she's obligated to take care of him. He was the one under her care the longest at Namjoon's base, so of course, every time he gets injued, she finds herself doting over him again. As for Chan… he seems too focused on Minho and Felix to give two shits about anyone else. And when he does seem to care for others, it's like he does it only because Minho would want him too. He's not noble. He's two-faced.

Wonyoung runs her good hand over her injured arm. It's still in the makeshift sling given to her by Steve. It still hurts like hell. Lily tried to help her like Steve had, but with Lily having been homeschooled in the frontrooms and spending years in the backrooms, she doesn't know anything about medical stuff. Everything she knows, Wonyoung taught her at Namjoon's base.

"Wonyoung-ssi, can you take Lily to get cleaned up?" Namjoon asks her, nudging Lily closer like she's a child. She looks to be around the same age as Wonyoung.

Lily smiles, a little shy. "Hi!" She just seems happy to be here in the lights where it's safe.

Nodding to Namjoon, Wonyoung looks at Lily with a smile. "Hi." She tries to ignore the way the girl's hair is a matted mess, pointing every which way. How dirt is smeared on her face. How the dog on the leash she holds slobbers on the conrete. Wonyoung can't help but grimace. "Come with me. Leave the dog outside the tent." She waves a dismissive hand at the dog.

Lily's smile seems to fade as she looks for a place to tie the leash. Namjoon offers to watch the animal and Lily hands the leash to him. Wonyoung leads her into the infirmary tent, to the chair she moves to the sink.

"You're very pretty." Lily tells her. "How old are you?"

"I'm 19." She doesn't respond to the compliment.

Lily smiles. "Then I'm your Unnie! I'm not completely sure how old I am, but I'm older than 19!"

"We're not that close." Wonyoung replies sortly, getting Lily to sit in the chair, tilting her head back into the sink. "I'm going to wash your hair."

"Okay!" Lily doesn't even seem bothered by her coldness. They're left in silence, the only noise being the rushing water. After a few minutes, Lily talks again. "How long have you been here?"

"I don't know. Lost track of time." For some reason, the thought makes her sad. She used to be so specific. Six days. Two weeks. A month. She'd stopped counting.

"Me too." Lily's somber tone matches hers. "My mum, dad, and I have been here for years now. We kept track of time with an analog watch that had numbers for the date. But it eventually stopped working. But we entered this level years ago, at least. I had been around 14."

Wonyoung pauses. "14?"

Lily nods the best she can with the hands in her hair. "2016."

"You still look 14."

"Time is weird here, you know that. You said you're 19? You look younger too." Lily stares at her like she's a goddess.

Wonyoung shakes her hair over her shoulders. "You don't look too bad either, you know. For someone whose spent so long in this level."

"Thanks? I think?" Lily laughs softly and Wonyoung can't help but smile as well.

Continuing to pick at the knots in Lily's hair, Wonyoung hums softly. "How did you get to be such a mess anyway? No hairbrush in that picnic basket of yours?"

"No…" Lily mutters. "Besides, it's hard to brush your hair when you're running fo your life every few minutes."

"I guess that's true." Even trying her hardest, the matted sections won't come out. She gives up. "Would you mind me cutting your hair?"

"Not at all. It'll be easier to manage being shorter anyway."

In just a few short minutes, Wonyoung has the matted bits picked out, scissors held tight in her hand. Most are near the bottom of the hair, fortunately. Wonyoung cuts off chunk after chunk, getting the knotted parts out before starting to even everything out. She was going to school for medicine, not cosmetology. Still, when it comes to cutting Lily's bangs, they come out only slightly choppy. And Lily seems happy with them.

Lily is a talker. That's not very difficult to figure out. Every second, the quiet air is filled with her rambles. And slowly, Wonyoung warms up to it. She's often left alone in the infirmary, making sure everything is in order, just in case an emergency arises. She's not used to having company like this. She cleans off Lily's face with a washcloth before handing her the dirty mirror so she can see herself.

"The hair looks so good!" She says with an enthusiastic smile.

Wonyoung scoffs. "You don't have to lie. I know it's choppy. I tried my best."

"I like the rugged look! It makes me look tough!" Lily laughs and hands the mirror back.

Still, Wonyoung hesitates. She takes the mirror back with shaky hands, a genuine smile starting to spread across her face. "I'm glad you like it, then… unnie."

"Noona!" I.N's voice comes excitedly, forcing Wonyoung to blink past her burning memories. He has dirt coating hs clothes and cheeks, hands held out in front of him like he's holding something precious. When he gets close enough, he holds the worm in his hands higher, like he's showing Wonyoung a trophy. "Look!"

Wonyoung nods like her parents used to do for her when they were uninterested. Then she pushes off the wall and crouches down to his level, forcing herself to entertain. "Did you find that? Wow, that's a nice worm!"

I.N giggles and a star is born somewhere in the real world. He hands her the worm, watches as she brings it back to the dirt and lets it squirm away. His smile doesn't falter. "There were two on the grass!" He runs off like he's going to prove it. Wonyoung can't help but follow.

They go around to the back of the barn. One worm would be fine, but two means a third nearby. A third means an entire group. A group means unlevel and dangerous ground. I.N brings her to a small hole in the ground, hundreds on hundreds of worms squirming around in the dirt. And as they watch as the other worm on the grass moves back into the hole with the others, more soil falling in with it. The hole grows bigger with every second.

"Innie, go back inside and tell Lily-unnie, okay?"

"Okay!"

He runs off and Wonyoung drags her good hand down her face. She has to calm herself. The hole is growing, but it's nowhere near dangerously large right now. Lily will see it before it grows too big and she'll be able to get Minho out before anything bad happens. Wonyoung just has to focus on finding the other guys. That's the whole reason she was outside anyway, waiting for a reason to send I.N back in without her so she can rush off.

Wonyoung walks for so long, she's sure that if she was in the frontrooms, the sun would've set already. She's purposely crumbled the wheat she's passed, making a trail to go back. But she's been walking so long, that when her trail comes to an end at the start, there's nothing but a giant hole left behind. Worms crawl in and out, dragging more dirt down. The barn barely peeks out. There's no barking, so she supposes they all got out in time. But there's no trail leading away from the area. It's just a hole.

She looks around, a gust of wind blowing stray hairs away from her face in a manner that's far too peaceful. Her heart starts to beat faster, harder. There's nothing but wheat on the horizon. When the air stills, everything else does too. There's no movement to indicate anyone anywhere. All she can do is keep walking.

Seconds. Minutes. Hours. Time passes as she walks. The only thing she finds is a shed with an almond water bottle inside. But her feet hurt so much. Fog starts to roll in. A light rain begins. The shed is all she has. And it's probably more than what Lily, Minho, and I.N have. More than what Dee has.

Wonyoung hides from the rain, even as it cools her burning skin. It makes it hard to breathe. She crouches on the floor of the shed, splintering wood under her knees.

The tears come like a child being scolded. She thought being alone in level 9 was hard, but she was just worried about Minho and I.N. Now, she's worried about Lily and Dee too. It's raining, there's heavy fog, and the barn they'd been in has been conquered by the only entity of the level.

All she can do it lean against the wall. It beats crying while walking though the rain, unsure where tears end and fresh water begins. She doesn't know when she falls asleep to the pitter-patter of soft rain.

"So, if I get cut like this, I wrap it like this?" Lily demonstrates her understanding, asking Wonyoung for confimation.

"Yes! Perfect!" Wonyoung is about to keep explaining when Dee begins to bark. She's the first to react, grabbing the nearest pillow and bringing it to Dee, watching her jump and start playing with it. She smiles as Dee barks happily.

Then, Lily's parents come in, announcing their departure.

It was planned for days. Dee isn't happy here, cooped up in a tent all day or tied on the outskirts of the colony. She needs open space that won't get her lost if she goes too far. Namjoon gave the family instructions on how to navigate towards level 10. But of course, that means Lily is leaving.

They hug. Wonyoung hugs Lily. She feels the other nurses in the infirmary staring. She never hugs anyone unprompted. When they pull away and Lily leaves, Wonyoung can't help it. Tears sting her eyes and she cries right there in front of everyone. Snot drips from her nose, she's pretty sure she's drooling as well. But the best friend she's ever made here is leaving, and odds are they'll never see each other again. That's how things work in the backrooms. You usually only see a specific wanderer once in your life. One of you is bound to die before you can meet again.

Wonyoung wakes up slowly. The rain has stopped and the fog has cleared. But the shed is still empty. The field is still blank. The tears of panic still cloud her vision. She takes the almond water and starts walking again.

Even when the bottle is empty, there's nothing. More walking, more tears. Wind blows. Her knees shake. A light drizzle starts again, and this time she's without shelter. For once, she collapses to her knees, crying. Gasping for air, eyes unable to stay focused on one thing. There's nothing to focus on.

It's a different kind of isolation. It's not sitting alone, studying in the library with people walking past. It's being in her room, door locked from the outside as she's forced to read books that look like gibberish. Her phone rings in the kitchen, life so close yet so far.

She lets herself get soaked. When the rain stops, she stays there in the mud. She doesn't want to give up, but the weight, the faint hope, it's crushing her chest. This level is thought to be endless. She should've never left when the worms were so close.

10

Minho stares at the clouds, humming Clouds Rolling. Inside the small shed, the other guys mill about, sorting out resources. Lily orders them around like they belong in the military, and they let her. She lets Felix take a break. The boy comes to lay beside Minho.

"Hyung." His voice comes out soft. "Do you think Wonyoungie is okay?"

"Calling her 'Wonyoungie' makes her sound cute and sweet." Minho frowns. She's the complete opposite of that, rough and sometimes outright mean. She just happens to have a pretty face. She'll be just fine on her own. "She can suvive."

When Felix is quiet for a moment, Minho huffs out a sigh. "Fine, I'm worried. She was supposed to find you guys, but we found you first, and now she's missing, and the last conversation we had turned into a fight." He admits quickly, like it pains him to talk about it. "The level is safe, according to her and Lily, but it's still easy to get lost. And it hurts to be alone."

"There's nothing for miles. And it's rained several times." Felix's voice sounds just as regretful as Minho's. "You two fought?"

"We found a base of cannibals. And I wanted to kill them to stop them from ever eating anyone else. She thought that was wrong."

Minho stops there but Felix stares at him, reading into it. "There's more. If there wasn't, Wonyoung-ssi would've killed them with you."

Silence. Minho wants to fight back. Wonyoung wouldn't have. She's too soft. But that's not true and he knows it. She would've killed them all in a heartbeat. "Fine, okay. She broke her arm. It would've been just me killing six people."

"Without a weapon?"

"A pocket knife."

"You're insane." Felix finishes bluntly. "They would've killed you in an instant. You're strong, but six people, alone, with only a pocket knife? You would've had to been in a position like in the Followers of Jerry base. And that was terrifying."

"I could've done it." Minho stubbornly claims.

"No, hyung. You couldn't have." Felix leaves at that, standing from the slick mud. Minho raises his head for just long enough to watch him walk away. Then he lets it fall back onto the bed of dried wheat.

The clouds continue to fly by like nothing is wrong. It starts to leave a heavy pit in Minho's stomach. What if they never find Wonyoung? What if they have to leave the level without her? What if she's here forever, looking, waiting for them all because Minho was to stubborn to admit he was wrong?

But even then, while he was wrong, he wasn't. Wonyoung shouldn't have tried to call him a killer when he's done nothing but attempt to protect her and the others. It all stems back to him. If Wonyoung truly believed that Seungmin's death was the fault of the level and not Minho, then that wouldn't even be evidence of him being a cold-hearted killer. But that has to be why she still sees him as one.

He's evil. Minho is evil and Wonyoung knows it. She doesn't blame level 4.4 for killing Seungmin, she blames Minho. It's all his fault, all of it. Seungmin, level 5, getting separated. It's his fault that she's alone now.

Minho sits up past the sting in his side. It's been cleaned out with almond water, Changbin has patched it up better than Lily could, and it already feels better than it did before. Yet it still burns as he stumbles to his feet. In only seconds, Lily is by his side, holding him up. "Are you crazy? What are you doing?"

He winces when her arm brushes the wound. "I need to find Wonyoung."

"You dumbass." Lily forces him to sit again. "You're not going anywhere. Lie back down, now."

"But she's alone," Minho says, voice raw. This is worse than her being missing in level 9, and that level was dangerous. This one is safe. "How the hell is she supposed to find us?"

Lily stares at him with a frown, like she's been thinking the same thing. "We just have to hope she does. It's easy to survive, so—"

"But how do we know she has food? Or almond water? What if she can't even find any shelter? What if she got wet in the rain and she gets sick and she's all alone—"

"We don't know." Lily cuts off his rambling, grabbing his arms tightly.

The clouds keep rolling. Minho drops onto his back again, closing his eyes to stop the stinging tears. Not only is it his fault, but he's completely useless in fixing it.

"It's okay. She'll find us."

Minho wakes to the crunch of dried wheat by his ear. He opens his eyes to see Hyunjin staring down at him. He startles, a dull ache ringing up his side. Hyunjin just takes a small step back. "I was just checking on you. Everyone else is asleep."

Nodding, Minho rubs his eyes as he sits up slowly. His voice comes out raw with sleep. "Why aren't you with them?"

"Couldn't sleep." Hyunjin sits beside him like they're old friends. "I was going to go on a walk."

At that, Minho perks up. "A walk? Can I go with you?"

"Hyung—"

"Don't call me that."

"Minho-ssi." Hyunjin corrects himself. "You're still injured. The others would kill me for dragging you along."

"I feel fine." Minho stands as if that proves anything. He stumbles back a step, the ache in his side making its way up to pound in his head. But he forces his expression to stay stoic. He can't just lay here while Wonyoung is wandering around hopelessly. Not when he's the reason they're here.

"Minho-ssi, you can't. How are you supposed to get better if you won't even rest?"

"Wonyoung-ssi broke her arm. She should be here resting too, but she's out there without anyone watching her." His motive slips out before he can think about it. He tries to elaborate more. "If we can make a long enough trail, she can find it and it'll guide her here."

"This level is nearly infinite. And even if she did find it, what are the odds she'll even trust it to follow it? It could be left by anybody."

Minho stares with a frown. He's right. Wonyoung wouldn't just trust any trail she comes across. But what if she's so hopeless that she does? "What if the trail is her last hope?"

Hyunjin's face falls into a soft frown. "She wouldn't lose hope this fast, would she?"

"It's rained twice since we left and found you guys. She's been alone this whole time. What if she's lost all sanity?"

To that, Hyunjin doesn't have an answer. He just reaches an arm out, offering to help Minho stay upright as they walk. For once, Minho doesn't refuse the help. Not when his vision is already blurring in and out.

Within what's likely only a few hours of walking — longer than planned, according to Hyunjin — Minho is actively begging to sit for a minute. His face is pale and he can't bite down the sounds he cries out as Hyunjin's arms and hands come dangerously close to the wound. It's not bleeding, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. The second he's back on the ground, he's laying back, staring at the sky.

Hyunjin leans over him. "Are you okay?"

"Do I look okay?"

Hyunjin laughs. "You're fine."

As Hyunjin sits beside him, Minho rolls his eyes. Despite the overcast weather, Minho covers his eyes with a hand. The light seems too bright, the wind too loud, everything too much. Despite his side being patched up, he's nowhere near better. He can't even imagine how Wonyoung's arm must feel right now.

By the time he uncovers his eyes again, it's like there's an entirely new set of clouds above him. Not only that, but the sky looks darker. He speaks hesitantly. "Is it finally becoming night?"

For a moment, Hyunjin doesn't respond. When he finally does, his voice is quiet, timid, scared. "It's not supposed to. There's no night in this level."

It's impossible. "So level 10 is always day?"

"It's supposed to be." Then there's a crack of thunder. "There's only supposed to be light showers."

"Well, there's a lot of things happening that aren't supposed to be."

Lightning hits just a few steps away. Hyunjin scrambles to his feet. Minho jumps, the sharp sting back in his skin. It's not supposed to be storming. It's not supposed to be night. Hyunjin's hands are hard against him as he drags him away from the smoking wheat. He's barely onto his feet before they're running back the way they came.

The rain starts pouring. Hyunjin slips and it's Minho holding him up despite how his vision blurs with both rain and tears. When Minho falls as well, they both lay there in the mud. The rain continues to pour, but no more lighting hits, no more thunder roars.

Minho winces. He's not bleeding, but it feels like he should be. His head pounds, the world spins, not even Hyunjin's hands on his shoulders can push away the black at the edge of his vision. And when it hits, all the memory rations and almond water pour from his stomach. He chokes and Hyunjin jumps back as the pink and white mix with the brown soil.

"Hyung—"

"Don't." Minho barely manages to choke out. More spews out. Hyunjin's hand finds his wound and makes it worse. It's not until Hyunjin takes a full step away, until the rain is starting to subside, that Minho is fully able to catch his breath. He holds a hand out to Hyunjin. Hesitantly, Hyunjin helps him to his feet.

"Do you want me to carry you on my back?"

"No."

Days of the new day/night cycle pass. Changbin had a ball scolding him and Hyunjin for leaving the group, especially when Hyunjin told of how Minho nearly passed out. That led to them keeping Minho inside the shed, leaving him seated in the back, Dee with him at every given moment.

Days since they've seen Wonyoung. Days since he's gotten stitches in his side. Moving doesn't make the world spin anymore. He takes his chances.

Minho leaves the shed during one of the new anomalous nights.

The nights have gotten darker, no moon, no stars, just inky darkness. He's barely able to see the hand in front of him when he goes out. But he makes a path of torn up wheat and grass, both to lead himself back and to help Wonyoung find them. Dee is a good sport about being woken up. She sniffs around, stays by his side when he needs to sit down, runs only when she catches a whiff of something familiar. Usually, she just comes back with a worm in her mouth. Sometimes dried grass, sometimes just dirt.

When the non-existent sun lights the world back up, Wonyoung is still nowhere to be found. Minho swears he starts hallucinating. Figures in the corners of his vision, voices in the distance. So he starts the long trek back to the shed. Dee pants at his ankles, the noise odd among the faint voices in the back of his mind.

Minho stops when he sees a distinct figure ahead of him. A familiar figure. But it's not Wonyoung. And the figure is gone the second he blinks. Then another hallucination, the same figure on the other side of his vision. The same person he's been so motivated to find after realizing the legitimacy of the backrooms. Jackson disappears again in the blink of an eye. His voice haunts inside Minho's brain. He's not real. He's not there.

Another hallucination, a stronger auditory one. Wonyoung's terrified voice. It sounds so real, it has Minho looking around, startling Dee. But over the hills, Wonyoung isn't near. She must be dead. It's her ghost calling out to him, haunting him for not looking sooner. "Minho-ssi!"

Dee barks. Minho continues to look as the world seems to spin with him. Jackson gone, Wonyoung nowhere. Still, voices remain. Wonyoung's cries louder than the rest. "Minho!"

Minho can hear her tears falling. In her last moments, she was terrified, looking. The voice is hoarse, like she's been yelling for decades, screaming for centuries. It can't be a hallucination. It can't be.

"Oppa!"

It can't be her. Wonyoung doesn't call him that. It's not real.

Dee's barking grows louder, like she senses Minho's growing distress. She only makes it worse. Minho crouches beside her, gently scratching behind her ears to calm her. She's silent for only a few seconds when Minho starts to hear rapid footsteps, crunching against dry wheat. He doesn't get the chance to look up before he's slammed into the ground.

A singular arm is wrapped around him, the other pinned between their two bodies. He feels the hot tears against the skin of his neck before Wonyoung's sobs meet his ears.

For a long moment, he doesn't say anything. One hand wraps around her back as his other stops Dee from jumping in. He listens to her cry, tries to remember everything he learned from Chan's mother taking care of her own crying kids. He rubs a hand up and down Wonyoung's back. When Dee backs off, laying beside them, Minho runs his free hand through Wonyoung's hair, struggling to calm her and get her to breathe. After what feels like forever, he mutters, "Is your arm okay?"

"I don't care, shut up." Her good arm seems to tighten around him.

He obeys her without question. Days isolated, starving, thirsty, terrified. When she finally pulls away, just enough to look at him, her tears continue to fall. "I was so scared. Night fell and I thought something bad was going to happen." The tears pick up. "I was starting to think you left me behind."

On instinct, Minho sits up, ignoring the ache in his side and the way Wonyoung jumps back to avoid their heads hitting each other. "We would never leave you behind." The words come easy, simply.

Wonyoung stares at him before clearly trying to rationalize what he says. "Who else would help you around the backrooms, right?"

Minho frowns. She was never just a guide. Maybe at one point, he would've been fine leaving her and figuring things out on his own. But now, he looks at her, her tears, the way she looks back at him. "You're my friend, Wonyoung. I'm not going to abandon you."

She continues to stare. "I called you "Oppa" because I was desperate, Minho-ssi."

"I don't mind."

There's mixed feelings when they make their way back to the shed. Lily gives Wonyoung a hug before straight slapping Minho. "Are you crazy? Leaving while we're asleep and taking Dee?"

"Would you have rather me gone alone?" He's met with another slap and Wonyoung dragging Lily away. He can't even be mad. He took her dog the same way he took Seungmin and I.N from the base in level 1. And that didn't end well at all.

Lily isn't a slapper. She's just upset.

Minho walks over to where Chan and Felix are sitting in the corner, entertaining I.N while Hyunjin and Changbin try to figure out where to go from here. Their plan is to get back to level 1, but nothing in the backrooms is linear. It'll take several other levels in order to get to level 1.

Sitting beside Chan, Minho feels himself finally relaxing. Everyone is okay, Wonyoung is safe, his side is healing. Things actually seem okay. He finds himself falling asleep. Chan notices and pulls him in. He falls asleep almost in an instant.

He's woken up by panicked yelling. Chan has him up and running outside before things can even register in his mind. When he finally gets his eyes opened, they're running around the back of the shed that's falling into a giant hole.

He hears Lily yelling, "These fucking worms!"

Changbin shouting. "Get to level 11!"

I.N crying. Hyunjin assuring him. "It's okay! You're okay!"

Minho feels the water under his feet before the splashing reaches his ears. He immediately panics, Chan's arms coming around his waist to keep him moving away from the growing hole. Dee's barking becomes more distant, Lily running in the opposite direction. Chan's voice is more sympathetic than the others' yelling. "This is the most reliable way to leave the level."

He covers Minho's mouth and plunges them under the water.