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There’s a rumble, and Mingi almost loses his footing again - the rubble underneath isn’t going to hold out much longer.
The drawbridge sways and crackles with another resounding snap, and Mingi watches as a plank falls into the depths of the pit.
Neither he or Yeosang have to say it for the other to know — Thanatos had awakened. The god of death personified is a master at his craft - dangerous like a sleeping dragon - once awakened, the unleashing of his powers knew no bounds.
“Go,” Yeosang says sternly, and Mingi can’t even look away. “You have to go.”
Mingi looks behind Yeosang, and there’s another wave coming - Yeosang spreads his arms wide, shielding Mingi from whatever was being hurled at them.
“Go! Go ahead! I can’t hold this off any longer, Mingi,” There’s desperation in Yeosang’s voice as he wards off yet another wave of cobble and stone, hurled towards their direction - and Mingi can’t stand there any longer.
“I’ll meet you at the top,” Mingi yells down, and Yeosang only stares — giving a brief nod before the debris slashes against the back of his arms, searing against his skin. Mingi winces every time though Yeosang’s skin always repairs and closes up right before his eyes without fail.
There’s something in Mingi’s garden, and he should be panicking.
Something starts tapping on his door in rapid succession, and if this was what the saying about death being at your doorstep meant, Mingi was sure he was living through it right now.
To the naked eye, his cabin is quiet and quaint - an unassuming cottage on the edge of the forest. But to the knowing, it’s barred with layers upon layers of magic that is almost impermeable.
The tapping gets quicker, louder, until Mingi can’t possibly write off the possibility of it being an attention-seeking garden gnome anymore.
Mingi fiddles with the latch of the door, he doesn’t even need to push it open - a gust of wind outside violently blows the door ajar, and lo and behold, there is a hooded figure standing outside his door. Mingi doesn’t know what he should be feeling right now.
“There’s no time! The gates will close by dawn.”
“Who are you?”
The hooded figure pulls down his hood, and Mingi opens his mouth - only to find himself unable to utter a single sound. A man of thin stature stood before him - porcelain skin and brooding eyes, dark hair framing his face - if it wasn’t for the stray strand of hair sitting atop his head that was clearly mussed from pulling his hood down softening his entire demeanour, Mingi would have ran.
“I’m Yeosang, and we’re going to the Underworld. I apologise for turning up suddenly, but the gates opened early this month unexpectedly. So we have to hurry.”
Mingi’s throat dries. “Is this a joke?” Mingi asks, trying to sound as calm as possible.
Yeosang’s jaw stiffens. “No. This is my job, sir,”
“Your job? What kind of sick joke is this?” There are a dozen alarm bells going off in Mingi’s mind right now, and he suddenly wishes he wasn’t the son of a minor deity who didn’t inherit any skills from his father to fight off con artists like the man in front of him.
“There will be a price to pay for forfeiting.”
“I did not agree to this!”
Yeosang reaches into a pouch tied around his small waist, procuring a sheet that looks like a receipt.
“Assistance request for SONG MINGI. You’re Song Mingi, aren’t you? Or am I mistaken?”
Mingi’s throat dries - he’s no stranger to falling victim to dumb pranks made by his fellow demigods, but this was something he had never experienced before.
Mingi clenches his fists. “I forfeit! I forfeit this request.”
Yeosang narrows his eyes at Mingi. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the person who put in this request signed a contract. You’re bound to this agreement unless you are rejected at the gate.”
Fear settles in Mingi’s chest. It’s not as if he’s never heard of the unfathomable consequences of forfeiting a pact or agreement. The Council will hear about this. He doesn’t know who went through the trouble to sign a contract on his behalf, to send him away like this.
Mingi grits his teeth, unfurling his fists that he didn’t realise were clenched by his side. “Show me the way, then.”
He will get back at whoever it is who did this.
The journey is hell. Which Mingi supposes, is fitting for where they were apparently headed towards right now.
The way he’s following this mysterious man who just whisked him away on what felt like a high-speed car chase is beyond him.
“Where are we going?” Mingi barely manages to wheeze out.
“To the entrance,” Yeosang says easily, fixating his gaze ahead of them, not looking back once. His breaths don’t sound as ragged as Mingi’s - and Mingi’s frustration grows by the second.
“I don’t know who pulled this prank on me, but you need to get me out of there,”
“You won’t be able to get out of there if you don’t even know what you’re there for in the first place. People don’t just go through the trouble of descending to the Underworld for no reason. If the entrance opens, it means that the guardians have accepted you and you have a real reason for being there. If they don’t, then you can terminate this request. Fair and square.”
“But I wasn’t the one who made the request!”
Yeosang sighs, exasperated over having had to explain this countless times to Mingi that day.
“I know. I will try my best to help you get out, and I promise to accompany you all the way through.”
Skeptical, Mingi looks at Yeosang, who had turned back to look at him. Mingi can’t decipher the look on Yeosang’s face - but his eyes don’t seem to carry any trace of malice. If the gates of the Underworld really opened up to Mingi, and he had no choice but to figure out his true reason for being there - he didn’t want it to be in the company of someone who he’d have to constantly keep his guard up around.
“How can you be so sure?”
Yeosang looks like wants to scoff, but holds back against it. “I would be a terrible mercenary if I didn’t.”
Mingi’s eyes widen. “So this is what you do for a living,”
“I would say so. Fully qualified. You don’t have to trust me. But let me do my job and stay with you until the end of it, and I will leave you alone after we’re done.”
Mingi looks away. So we’re both bound by an agreement, except mine was signed on behalf of me. This journey is proving itself to be a lot more treacherous than he’d anticipated.
The Underworld is like an echo chamber beneath the surface of the world, completely sealed off from the rest of the world.
“There are things you have to look out for while we’re down here.”
“Like what?”
“A lot of unknown things. It’s hard to explain everything in one go, for we have just stepped foot in here - but the more we see, the more you will understand.”
Mingi stops in his tracks.
“Why are you protecting me?”
“Because it’s my job,” Yeosang says matter of factly - coming out from anyone else’s mouth, it might have sounded cold.
“Is there a reason why you chose this job?” Mingi kicks a particularly stubborn piece of loose gravel out of his way, pacing his steps so he doesn’t tire himself out.
Yeosang stiffens next to him.
“I didn’t choose it.”
Mingi pauses. He doesn’t know what to make of this answer. Many people out there had the luxury of choice, unlike him, whose fate was resigned to his identity and lineage. “Really?”
“I was orphaned as a child. I was apprenticed to this line of work early on.” And when he doesn’t say more, Mingi doesn’t ask.
A twinge of guilt snakes itself into Mingi’s chest. Yeosang had never once pried into his life, or questioned anything about him. He’d done just as he said - walk alongside Mingi and lead him through the paths of the Underworld.
Mingi doesn’t know if it has even been a day yet since the entire ordeal - time seemed to slip through the gaps of his fingers here. So the only thing he could focus on was the sound of their footsteps - he’d become accustomed to the sound Yeosang’s shoes made when they made contact with the ground.
Besides the fact that someone hired a complete stranger, who could be a mysterious entity in disguise, to take him to the Underworld - Mingi had no real reason to interrogate Yeosang’s intentions when he was probably just doing his job for the pay.
And before Mingi can stop himself, he blurts out an apology.
“Sorry.”
Yeosang looks up, as if surprised over Mingi’s sudden apology - then waves off his previous apprehension.
“It's not a big deal. I should apologise too, for starting us off on the wrong foot. I should have given you more time to process this."
Yeosang sticks out a hand, and Mingi grasps it - as if they were meeting again for the first time. A clean slate.
“Let me introduce myself again. I’m Yeosang. And I promise to protect you until we make it out of here.”
Mingi feels the weight of the promise on his shoulders. “I’m Mingi. And… I don’t have much to offer,” Mingi admits, sheepishly.
Yeosang laughs, soft, and it’s a sound that’s a little too bright against the backdrop of the desolate place they were in.
“You are more than what you can offer, Mingi.” Yeosang looks like he wants to place his hand on Mingi’s shoulder in reassurance, retracting halfway and settling for patting Mingi’s arm instead.
Mingi clamours to the end of where the path led, onto a dilapidated surface - not looking back once.
He trusts in Yeosang’s ability to materialise in front of him at any given time - but for a split second, the doubt in his mind reminds him that Yeosang is still somewhere at the edge of the drawbridge, fending off the obstacles Mingi couldn’t dodge past himself.
He feels guilty - responsible, even, for putting Yeosang in such a position.
But he needs to keep going.
Mingi had never encountered a labyrinth in all his years of training - this was something far beyond what a demigod could train for.
Every demigod has heard of the horrors of labyrinths. He’s heard tales of demigods who never made it out of one, succumbing to the darkness of the labyrinth. Without a strategy, demigods could stay inside until the obstacles of the labyrinth ate at them endlessly, without knowing eons have passed while they were in it. Time was tricky within the labyrinth.
“This is clearly designed to weed out the weak,” Mingi says, voicing out his thoughts. If he isn't careful - he’d be the one getting wound up within the intricacies of the labyrinth for the rest of his life.
He glances at Yeosang - who has a glint in his eye.
“I have just the solution for this.”
It’s only then that Mingi notices the scythe sheathed in Yeosang’s belt when Yeosang reaches down to adjust it.
With the scythe secured tightly against him, Yeosang reaches out a hand towards Mingi, palm up.
“Hold my hand.”
Mingi stares down at Yeosang’s outstretched hand, a scar drawing down the centre of his palm. There are scars fresh and old, light marks from when he had pressed his palms against the jagged stone walls in attempt to navigate their way through the passages of the Underworld without light.
If this really had been some kind of prank, then Yeosang had truly gone above and beyond to play his part. But Yeosang had just been as determined to lead him through every obstacle they had encountered so far — with the resolve of a fighter, not the cunningness of a deceitful man.
The gates of the Underworld had opened upon their arrival, and as Yeosang had said — the gates don’t open for any passerby, but for people who truly had a reason to be there.
But Mingi has no idea what he’s meant to find here. So unless he figures out, he has no way out. The thought of breaching the agreement with Yeosang briefly crosses his mind - but he fears the consequences. He hasn’t felt a sense of defeat and helplessness so strong since he learned of his fate of being the son of a forgotten deity, being resigned to the fate of being a powerless demigod who can never step foot into normal society, who belonged neither here nor there.
Yeosang’s hand speaks of experience, of many journeys Mingi himself could probably never fathom going through.
So he grips Yeosang’s hand.
Yeosang nods, giving Mingi’s hand a squeeze. Thank you for trusting me.
There’s a shadow cast by the giant hedge overhead, and Yeosang leads them underneath it.
“Hold on tight.”
There’s a flash of something, a low, guttural sound - and then Mingi feels himself warped within the shadows, sucked within an endless vortex - he can’t see anything, much less Yeosang - and then he realises Yeosang isn’t even holding his hand anymore.
“Yeosang!” Mingi tries to yell out, but to no avail - his voice dies in his throat, and he loses it to the darkness. There’s rustling and the sound of a million voices overlapping each other - Mingi doesn’t even have time to figure out what he’s hearing, because every second that passes by he feels like he’s being sucked further into the void- until time stills, and it’s like no time has passed at all.
The air around him releases like a vacuum, depressurising in a way that makes him lurch forward.
He coughs, hunching over the ground, where dust and debris and grit line the path in front of him.
“Relax,” Mingi hears a voice next to him say, and he can’t even begin to describe the relief that floods his chest when he hears Yeosang next to him.
Yeosang looks ghastly. It’s the only way Mingi can describe the way Yeosang looks right now - cheeks hollow, as if what they’d just been through had just sucked all the life out of him.
“Yeosang,” Mingi finds Yeosang in a heap next to him, and there’s no doubt that Yeosang just did something that had sucked the life out of him.
“I’m alright,” Yeosang gets up slowly, crouching over his knees. To Mingi, Yeosang didn’t sound quite alright - but he trusts in Yeosang’s abilities. Otherwise, he would not be down here, accompanying Mingi through his journey.
“Congratulations on making it past your first obstacle, Mingi,” Yeosang brushes the dirt off his knees - and when he turns back to look at Mingi, there’s a sincere smile on his face.
“My first obstacle?”
Yeosang nods. “The labyrinth usually presents itself as the first challenge to travelers of the Underworld.”
“And there will be more?” Mingi questions.
“There will be.” Seeing the way Mingi blanches, Yeosang is quick to reassure. “But I will protect you to the best of my ability.”
“What if you hurt yourself?” Mingi looks at Yeosang, still brushing dust off his arms. He would hate to be the cause of Yeosang putting himself in danger, though it was technically his job.
Yeosang’s eyes soften. “It’s my job, Mingi.”
“But still, you’re a person just like me. You shouldn’t be throwing yourself to a pack of wolves even if it meant saving me.”
Yeosang laughs. “I appreciate your concern, Mingi. I do take care of myself. There aren’t any wolves down here.“ He reaches forward to squeeze Mingi’s hand. Seeing the way colour returns to Yeosang’s cheeks, Mingi can only nod.
Time doesn’t move in the Underworld.
As a construct essential for the functioning of society, Mingi finds that in a place like the Underworld, nobody needed to know the pace at which things happened.
“How much time has passed?” Mingi says out loud to Yeosang one day, when they’re taking refuge under a hideout that Yeosang claims will shield them from danger.
“It wouldn’t help to keep ruminating over it,” Yeosang says, sharpening the blade of his scythe on the edge of a rock.
“It feels like it’s only been days since the labyrinth — we can’t just stay here until I figure out why I need to be here, can we?”
Yeosang twists the ring on his finger, a shiny orb of a gem. It seems to reflect non-existent light, casting a gentle glow over the roof of their hideout. “That’s not how the Underworld works, Mingi. It finds ways to throw obstacles at you no matter how much you try to avoid them.”
“I’ve accompanied many like you down here before. Many people don’t even discover what they’re truly here for until they get a few obstacles thrown at them,” Yeosang adjusts the ring so the shards of light reflect onto his cheekbones.
“So you’re saying I might be stuck here forever trying to figure out why exactly am I here, just because someone decided to hire you to take me to hell?” Mingi half-jokes.
“You know yourself best, Mingi. And you will realise your reason for being here soon. It won’t be long. But you will find out for yourself.”
“How can you be so sure that I’ll find my purpose so soon?”
“Because I know a good soul when I see one,” Yeosang says. “The entrance of the Underworld only opens for those with a purpose.”
When Mingi wakes up, he feels as if no time has passed at all - or perhaps it has, and a few decades have gone by for all he knows.
Mingi sits up, and pain shoots through his waist - Yeosang twists around at the sound of Mingi stirring. Judging from the state of Yeosang’s hair, still in all its wavy glory - Yeosang must not have slept a wink. Though some of his hair was still matted against his forehead, it was as if he’d just been to the salon, instead of fighting whatever they’d just overcome on their way to this safe haven.
A pang of guilt hits Mingi square in the chest. “I should have gotten up to take watch so you could sleep.”
Yeosang shakes his head. He must have caught the way Mingi winced when he got up, because he procures a small jar from his belt.
“Have you injured yourself?”
“No, I’m fine,” Mingi insists, but when he sits forward, he feels another knot in his waist - he grimaces.
“Come here, let me have a look,” Yeosang reaches out, beckoning Mingi over. Mingi can only oblige, with nowhere else to duck within their little shelter.
He moves across to where Yeosang is sitting, perched atop a particularly large piece of limestone.
Without thinking, Mingi lifts his shirt so that it exposes his midriff - so Yeosang can take a look. He feels Yeosang tense next to him. Yet Yeosang doesn’t show any signs of discomfort - he treads two careful fingers down the side of his waist, feeling the very knot that had caused Mingi to wake up in pain.
“Ah, there it is,” Yeosang feels the knot underneath his fingers. “Some ointment would help loosen it.”
Mingi nods - and before he can say anything, Yeosang reaches into the small tub, gently spreading the ointment across the span of Mingi’s torso. It’s cooling, faintly citrus-scented - yet all Mingi feels is the heat from Yeosang’s fingertips seeping into his skin.
“Why are you taking care of me?” Mingi says, and he hope it doesn’t come across as rude - because he genuinely wonders why Yeosang is putting in so much effort to heal him - when it wasn’t even technically part of the job description.
Yeosang doesn’t say anything, only reapplying a fresh layer of ointment on Mingi’s skin.
Because it’s my job, Mingi can already hear him say.
“Everyone needs to be taken care of, even in the Underworld - isn’t that so?”
Mingi wades through the rocks, and not a single thought goes through his mind except Yeosang, Yeosang Yeosang. He’s probably stuck back there somewhere.
Mingi tries not to let that stop him - he already hears Yeosang’s voice at the back of his mind, asking him why he’s pausing -
He keeps running.
“What’s this?” Mingi reaches behind to find a particularly large piece of glass, hidden between the crevice of two rocks.
“What are you looking at?” Yeosang says, squinting at the pool of broken shards surrounding it. “Don’t touch those, you might hurt yourself again touching such fine shards of glass. I don’t have any healing gauze with me right now.”
“No, look, it’s not like the other pieces, the texture is different,” Mingi emphasises, running his finger along the swirling patterns atop the surface of the glass, glistening with something akin to a soap bubble, reds and greens and blues.
“I can’t see whatever it is you’re seeing, Mingi,” Yeosang tries to explain as calmly as possible. “Walk me through what you’re seeing?” Yeosang has been through many situations where the people he accompanied could see things he didn’t.
“Just, swirly patterns. It’s swirling pretty quickly now,” Mingi says, and Yeosang’s eyes widen, though he tries not to look visibly concerned for Mingi’s sake. It’s only the second obstacle, and it’s already one Yeosang can’t accompany him through physically. Many people received physical challenges, things they had to get through physically - it was rare that people got mental obstacles within a few days of entering the Underworld.
“That’s a wishing shard, Mingi. Only you can communicate with it. It’ll ask you a series of questions. Try to answer to the best of your ability. It will stop asking you once it’s satisfied with your answers.”
Momentary worry flashes across Mingi’s features.
“And I just have to answer?” Mingi says, voice even.
“Yes,” Yeosang tries to answer as confidently as possible. “You just need to answer them. I can’t interfere, but any moment you feel like you’re in physical danger, I’ll be on standby.”
“And… is there a good chance that this will put me in physical danger?”
Yeosang shakes his head. “It’s usually unheard of, but just in case.”
Mingi nods. “I’ll be okay,”
“You’ll be okay.”
And then it happens - Yeosang can’t see what’s happening to the shard of glass Mingi is holding, only that Mingi looks like he’s been hit by an invisible force, entering a trance.
“Song Mingi,” The voice echoes throughout the cave, and Yeosang never gets used to hearing this voice - inhuman, somewhere far away and unreachable.
“I see you’ve brought a little friend,”
“I have,” Mingi says confidently, yet Yeosang hears the slight tremble in his voice.
“How are things in Arcadia, hmm?”
“Just fine,” Yeosang notes the way Mingi’s voice strains at that.
“Are you sure? Don’t be afraid of telling me, little one. Are you here because you’re dissatisfied with life there?”
“I’m perfectly fine with the way things are.” Good, Yeosang thinks. If Mingi plays his cards right, he’ll leave this conversation unscathed. But usually, the shard had other ideas.
The voice hums contemplatively. Yeosang can almost imagine a person behind the voice, twisting the rings on their finger calculatingly.
“I would be, if I were you.”
Mingi’s expression turns cold in an instant, like someone had just drenched him in a bucket of ice.
“You don’t know anything about me.” Be careful, Mingi.
The voice laughs, condescending. “Oh, I do.”
“So. How are things with your family?”
“Wooyoung is fine. We get along very well.”
The voice scoffs. Yeosang has to bite down a shiver - he’s rarely ever heard such indignance coming from the shard before.
“Your blood family don’t know you’re here, in the Underworld. They probably don’t care to know either. Hasn’t that been true all your life?”
Yeosang thinks he hears something shatter - a brightness explodes within their enclosure, and Mingi collapses, crumbling before Yeoesang’s feet.
Yeosang is there to pick up the pieces.
Mingi stands at the edge of the river, and Yeosang joins him.
Mingi speaks first. “Back there, I felt some unusually strong emotions that weren’t my own.”
Yeosang lets a moment of silence pass, waiting for Mingi to continue. But when he doesn’t, he toes the edge of the water with his shoes, saying: “Sorry. It was probably my own emotions interfering with yours. Your conversation reminded me of myself. My own situation.”
Mingi parts his mouth, not knowing what to say.
“Sometimes, it happens. When there are more than two people in the same vicinity, their emotions tend to bounce off of each other - I try not to let it happen, but sometimes I can’t help it,” Yeosang tries explaining. He’s ashamed of letting his own flurry of emotions affect Mingi or whatever he had been going through - a lack of professionalism. “Sorry.”
Much to Yeosang’s relief, Mingi doesn’t look angry - he only shakes his head, looking at Yeosang with an understanding that Yeosang has never been met with before whenever he told others about his emotional leakages.
“I would like to share something with you, if you don’t mind.”
Mingi nods. “Of course I don’t mind.”
Taking that as a cue, Yeosang simply places his hand atop Mingi’s, which had been hanging limply by his side. He squeezes once - hoping his energy will transfer over, so Mingi will see and experience everything he feels.
“Close your eyes.”
“Yeosang-ah, this is your new home.”
The warden pushes ajar the door to his room. It’s bright. Almost a little too bright. It’s like a hospital ward, without the wires and tubes and weird machines you can find in the mortal world.
“How do I sleep in here?” Yeosang questions, and the warden only smiles at him.
“My dear, you’ll have to learn to live with it.”
Then the door shuts behind him.
Yeosang knows he’s been separated from the rest of the kids at the orphanage. When night comes, he’s the only one who’s forced to keep the lights on. He knows because he looks out the window, and he sees the lights from across the building start flickering shut as midnight draws near.
“You won’t be a monster anymore”, The warden whispered to him before she left him alone in his room. Like she had just done him a favour.
That’s what he is to most people.
Sometimes, he sneaks out of the building, behind him where shadows covered every inch of the woods. He stands there, still, until he squeezes his eyes and he feels his limbs grow and extend, until his skin is covered by a layer of softness. Until he feels his nail beds cracking from the pressure of claws extending from them, and he lets out a howl, the freest he’s ever felt.
He travels to places only the shadows can bring him, and he seeks solace within the darkness until the sun rises.
Yeosang is sixteen when he leaves the orphanage.
He pays one last look at the building he’s spent the majority of his childhood growing up in. He finds he doesn’t feel a thing.
“You’re not really a social worker, are you?” Yeosang had asked the man in front of him, who’d introduced himself as a worker from the Council. The man had walked in with a gentle knock on his door, eyes obscured by a peculiar-looking fedora. Yeosang had thought he looked funny.
The man smiles softly, eyes knowing, like he’d been waiting for Yeosang to discover along.
“You’re right. As a fellow hellhound, I promise there’s more to life than being cooped up here. My name is Minho.”
Yeosang had gaped at him then - he’d never met anyone else like him. The man’s open admission to his identity startled Yeosang, yet it became something that he’d yearned for.
“You have many talents, Yeosang. More than others would like you to believe.”
It’s also Minho who introduces him to Kibum.
“Come, I have someone I want you to meet.”
Kibum is flamboyant. He wears a coat adorned with feathers, like a free bird. He shows Yeosang his wide range of nail polish. "So I can paint my claws," He'd explained.
He’s everything Yeosang couldn’t be back at the orphanage. Kibum sees Yeosang look longingly at the myriad of colours on his coat - then presents Yeosang with his own.
One day, Kibum brings him on a trip - except there’s a vampire. A creature of the night, just like himself.
“Yeosang, you can shadow travel, right?”
When Yeosang nods, Kibum takes the man's hand and places it in Yeosang’s own.
He’s frail, looking like he’s in desperate need of help - eyes devoid of life, skin pale and gaunt.
“I want you to help him.”
Yeosang’s eyes widen when he realises the implication of Kibum’s words. Kibum gives him a reassuring nod.
“Hold on tight,” Yeosang whispers to the man next to him, squeezing his trembling hand.
Yeosang shuts his eyes and breathes in - he thinks of the woods behind the orphanage, of the welcoming darkness that enveloped him in an embrace whenever he sought solace within its arms.
He breathes out, and steps into the shadows.
Mingi’s eyes snap open, and when his vision clears, the first thing he does is search for Yeosang’s hand again.
“Thank you for trusting me with that.”
Yeosang pretends this doesn’t affect him as much as it does.
“It was the least I could do, after what happened back there.”
Mingi frowns. “I hope you didn’t feel obligated to share that with me just because you just happened to have witnessed my… outburst.”
“I wanted you to know. It was about time.”
“Does everyone who you accompany know about this?”
“No,” Yeosang shakes his head. “Because I usually prefer for others to reserve their judgement.”
Mingi understands.
In a desolate place like the Underworld, Yeosang’s presence is a constant that grounds Mingi.
“Where are we?” Mingi asks, not for the first time since he’s stepped foot into the Underworld. It’s mostly rhetorical - for he knows Yeosang doesn’t know everything down here, because the Underworld moulded and altered its obstacles according to the traveler. But to have someone like Yeosang respond to him and reassure him put him at ease.
There’s a body of water not far from where they have trekked - almost like a tundra. Mingi supposes that the Underworld reinvents landscapes from the world above and turns them into something more grim. It looked like a pool of water leading into something larger like a river.
A canoe lies at the edge of the water, along with an oar - just big enough for two.
“It seems like we have to cross it,” Yeosang gestures in front of them.
“To where, though?”
Yeosang doesn’t answer, for he is unsure too - only leading Mingi to where the canoe is, stepping in first.
“We’ll know when we make it across. You know how it is down here,” Yeosang says, and Mingi can only agree.
When they both settle into the canoe, Yeosang raises the oar, pushing through the water with its paddles - only for the canoe not to budge.
After multiple attempts, the canoe remains in place, unmoving.
“It’s not letting me paddle,” Yeosang tries to keep his voice as even as possible. “You might have to try, Mingi.”
Mingi tries not to let his panic show - after all, the Underworld had opened its gates to him, not Yeosang - after all, it would be reasonable that there were some things that required him to take the reins.
“I’ll try,” Mingi says, taking Yeosang’s place.
When Mingi dips the paddle into the water, something is wrong.
An ominous force thrashes about in the water, rocking the canoe - it doesn’t even allow Mingi to stabilise the canoe, let alone push through it.
“Mingi, I think it might be me,” Yeosang says, the first hint of anything akin to panic seeping into his voice for the first time since they had descended into the Underworld.
“What?” Mingi turns to look at Yeosang through the water splashing up, caused by the violent rocking of the canoe - he had never once seen Yeosang like this before.
The realisation hits Mingi a beat later. “Only one person might be allowed to make it across the river.”
“No,” Yeosang immediately objects, eyes glossed over with a complicated look.
“But you might get hurt,” Mingi says - the canoe continues to shake, and he feels nauseous.
“I won’t let you go alone.”
“But what if something happens to you along the way?” Mingi says, urgent. “Only one person is supposed to make it across. The river is physically rejecting your presence. You have to stay behind,” Mingi pleads.
“Then I will do my best to protect you. It doesn’t matter if we’re going against what it wants, we’ll fight back against it,” Yeosang says, firm. Hearing the tone of finality in his voice, Mingi knows he has no choice but to go forward.
“Try your best to keep going, Mingi, I’ll watch your back,” Yeosang says, springing into action, gripping his sheath with one hand.
Mingi barely pushes them forward - and as if on cue, like they had awakened something - the canoe topples over as the water continues thrashing about, at an even more violent pace than before - sending them both into the water.
Startled, Mingi makes out the hinges of the canoe, grabbing onto its side - he just manages to haul himself up, hanging onto the edge of the canoe, until he realises - Yeosang is gone.
“Yeosang!” Mingi yells, spluttering - he can barely see, let alone wonder if Yeosang had heard him over the roaring of the raging waters.
Mingi looks around desperately, yelling for Yeosang’s name - until he sees a figure washed up on a nearby rock. Mingi climbs into the canoe with what little strength he had left, paddling to where the figure was.
Mingi’s heart drops to the pit of his stomach when he approaches.
He doesn’t know whether to feel relief that it was Yeosang that had washed up on a rock - there’s a large gash across Yeosang’s cheek, and the front of his shirt had been slashed open, blood oozing out of his chest.
Mingi stumbles out of the canoe, dropping to his knees beside Yeosang. “Oh my god,” Mingi places a hand to Yeosang’s cheek - it’s still warm, somehow, but all the colour had drained from it.
Yeosang barely cracks open an eyelid, and seeing the way he is curled up in the most foetal position, Mingi’s heart aches.
“Yeosang,” Mingi almost cries, helplessly - he hates that there’s nothing he can do to heal Yeosang, or help him at all - he can only sit there and watch his friend bleed away, the rocks underneath him turning crimson.
Yeosang reaches up to hold Mingi’s wrist, still on his cheek. “Leave me here. Go ahead. I’ll be putting you in even more danger if I come along.” Mingi doesn’t miss the guilt in Yeosang’s voice.
Mingi looks at Yeosang, frail and weak - which weren’t words that Mingi ever thought he’d ever use to describe Yeosang with, but here they were. There’s no way he’d leave Yeosang alone here, stranded, no matter how much Yeosang insisted.
“No,” Mingi shakes his head. “You’re out of your mind for thinking I’d leave you alone like this.”
Yeosang blinks blearily at him. “I can… self-heal.” It’s almost comical, the way Yeosang says this as blood continues gushing out of his wound, his eyelids threatening to flutter shut any second. Mingi figures this was probably too much for his body to handle - whatever that had just hurt Yeosang left a cut too deep for his body to repair itself immediately.
“Just stay with me,” Mingi pleads. “Please. For my sake,” He adds.
Yeosang doesn’t protest against that, only letting Mingi lift him up, placing him as gently as possible into the canoe so as to not hurt him further.
“Why are you protecting me?” Yeosang mumbles. Mingi reaches over, wiping a trail of blood away that had been trickling down the side of his temple.
Mingi feels a ball of emotion catch in his throat seeing the way Yeosang wraps around himself. He looks so impossibly small - unlike the person who had shielded Mingi from every danger so far. He shrugs off his jacket, albeit drenched. It’s the only thing he has.
Because you’ve grown to become someone I care about. Because I’m afraid of what the world would become without someone like you in it.
Carefully draping it over Yeosang’s shivering form, Mingi doesn’t answer - he closes Yeosang’s eyes, then presses a kiss against Yeosang’s forehead, gentle and light.
The fog clears, and Mingi can almost make out a drawbridge in the distance.
Mingi makes it to the other end alone, and for a few, precious seconds, he’s able to catch his breath.
When he looks back, he sees that the drawbridge has already collapsed halfway - if he hadn’t been so confident in Yeosang’s shadow-travelling abilities, he would be sick to his stomach with worry. Not that he isn’t already.
And just as he’s about to jump back down and risk his life trying to find Yeosang’s whereabouts, he sees a familiar shadow emerge from the stone next to him.
Yeosang appears, as if he hadn’t almost died a few hours ago - wound all sealed up, back to defending Mingi. He brushes the debris off his arms - there are a few scratches here and there from wading through the tumultuous scene behind them, but he looks otherwise normal. Mingi steps forward, enveloping Yeosang in a hug. Yeosang letting his guard down was not a common occurrence - but he lets himself relax into Mingi’s arms for a split second, wrapping his arms around Mingi’s shoulders just as tightly.
“Where are we supposed to go now?” Yeosang asks, muffled against Mingi’s shoulder - and for the first time, Mingi knows. He points at the summit, barely visible from where they were - again, hidden in the fog. It’s the only thing they can see so far, so it’s the obvious choice is to move forward. He shares a look with Yeosang - who seems to have the same idea.
Yeosang nods, reaching down to entangle their hands together.
“Let’s do it.”
“Yeosang, I need your help,” Wooyoung sits across Yeosang, and Yeosang can see him jiggling his knee from under the table. He must be nervous. Yeosang reaches across to pat his hand. It wasn’t often that Wooyoung asked him for any favours - so when he did, it must have been something of utmost importance to him.
“Relax, Wooyoung.” Wooyoung stops jiggling his knee once he feels Yeosang’s hand on his own, taking it as a cue to stop. He bites down on his lip.
“Remember the time you accompanied me to lay my uncle’s soul at rest in the Underworld?”
“Of course.”
“You said… the Underworld only opens for those who truly have a purpose, right? Do you think… do you think you could do it again? For one of my friends?” Wooyoung looks at Yeosang with hesitance.
Yeosang levels him with a stare. “Why do I get the feeling that your friend doesn’t know what you’re planning?”
If it were anyone else, Yeosang knows they would have looked back at him with a sheepish grin at this point, for seeing through them. But because it’s Wooyoung - he doesn’t break away from Yeosang’s gaze.
“He doesn’t,” Wooyoung admits. “But he’s… been feeling down for a while. Feeling lost.”
Yeosang looks at him. “You think a trip to the Underworld would change that?”
“That’s the point, Yeosang. The Underworld only opens itself to people who have a purpose for being there. If it opens for Mingi, doesn’t that mean he has a reason to be there? Maybe he can rediscover his roots and find the meaning of life, or something. Find his parents - he’s been talking about that for a while. I don’t know.”
“His parents?”
“His father is a minor deity who services the Underworld sometimes. His mother is a mortal, but ever since she was widowed…” Wooyoung trails off, a faraway look in his eyes. “She’s left us. Her soul is probably wandering somewhere down there.”
Oh. Yeosang didn’t know what to say to that.
“Journeying through the Underworld is no easy feat, Wooyoung. You know that. You’ve been through it yourself.”
“I know,” Wooyoung insists. “But I know Mingi. He’d be able to persevere through, if there's something for him to find there.”
After all, it was Wooyoung who knew his friend best - Wooyoung wouldn’t have come to ask for Yeosang’s help if hadn’t been so driven by the desire to help his friend.
“If you insist.”
Mingi doesn’t expect to see grass-covered plains when he opens his eyes.
He also doesn’t expect to encounter Wooyoung in Yeosang’s memories.
It takes a while for Mingi to adjust to the light - it’s piercing, and he hasn’t seen something so bright in a while - a moment passes before he realises they’re not in the Underworld anymore.
“Yeosang, are we…” Mingi glances next to him, and Yeosang’s still holding his hand. Yeosang must be unaware that he’d unintentionally transferred his memories to Mingi - because he’s still blinking around at their surroundings, disoriented. Mingi’s chest constricts at the sight before him.
“I… we’ve left,” Yeosang says, confusion written clearly on his features. He turns around to look at Mingi.
“Mingi, have you…” It’s clear that Yeosang is trying to not let slip of the fact that he knew of Mingi’s past, lest he unintentionally unravels his entire conversation with Wooyoung. “Have you found your purpose yet?”
“I don’t know,” Mingi says - because he really doesn’t. He doesn’t know how they’ve escaped the Underworld - if his reason was really to find his parents, he hasn’t found them yet. Before he realises, a tear rolls down his face. Perhaps he’s tired. He’s exhausted. He feels empty from not having a purpose in this world - and he hasn’t even found it even after he’s left the Underworld. He’s frustrated with the world that he’s come back to, one where Yeosang needs to stow his identity away within the shadows because of the frowns cast in his direction.
“The Underworld wouldn’t have let you out if you hadn’t found your purpose, Mingi. The Underworld knew it was time to let you back out.” Yeosang reaches forward to wipe the tear from his cheeks comfortingly.
That breaks the dam in Mingi’s chest - he falls into Yeosang’s arms, crying into his shoulder.
“I’ll be by your side, Mingi. You’ll always have me.”
An unexpected twist of fate lands Mingi in Yeosang’s house.
Or not quite unexpected, really, after Yeosang had shared his memories with him back in the Underworld.
“Just follow the directions!” Yeosang says, stuffing a map into Mingi’s hands. Mingi has never been good at map reading. Which is why Wooyoung had always been the one reading maps during camps, when they had to trek through the darkest of forests.
“I’ll try my best,” Mingi looks at Yeosang, who’s currently stuffing an extra snack into his carrier bag, alongside a canteen of water. He doesn’t even know if that’s edible. Yeosang seems to read his thoughts.
“They’re edible. Nothing bad has happened since the eggs,”
“And by bad you mean the kitchen blowing up,” Mingi eyes the package Yeosang has just stuffed into his bag wearily.
Yeosang ignores his comment. “You’ll be okay out there? Don’t startle the kid. Tell him who you are, and how you can help him. Try and get him to warm up to you - but it will probably take a few visits.”
Mingi nods when Yeosang lifts his head up to look at him.
“Got it,” Mingi says, brushing a stray strand of hair away from Yeosang’s forehead. It’s grown long enough to frame his face prettily. Yeosang must have caught Mingi’s gaze lingering a little long on his own lips, in the most conspicuous way possible - because he sighs, getting up properly to meet Mingi halfway.
In that moment, Mingi doesn’t dream of a better life. He can’t be mad at the world anymore, when it has given him a reason to love so deeply, and have it be reciprocated between suspicious-looking eggs and promises to journey through the paths of life together. The hard corners in Mingi's life have softened around the edges.
Yeosang draws away first, before Mingi has the opportunity to lean in to chase his lips again - placing his fingers on Mingi’s lips. “No more until you come back in one piece.”
Mingi almost pouts, until he realises it would be extremely out of character for him.
“Okay. I’ll ask Wooyoung to send you the report on the orphanage that I visited the other day. Then you can arrange your trip to the Underworld.”
“Thank you, Mingi.” Yeosang squeezes Mingi’s cheek just to see the grimace on Mingi’s face. He looks down at his watch. “Now, off you go, you’re going to be late, ” Yeosang turns Mingi’s shoulders around, facing the door, practically shooing him out. Mingi laughs - it’s almost reminiscent of their first meeting. It turns out that Yeosang is a stickler for punctuality even when the opening of the Underworld's gates was no longer of concern.
It’s chilly when he opens the door - but Mingi thinks he can make do with the colourful coat draped across his shoulders. He feels hopeful, and ready to take on the day. When Yeosang smiles at him, bright and beautiful, Mingi thinks he can brave every obstacle in his path.
And the first obstacle of the day is the cold. So Mingi braves that with confidence, and steps out into the world.