Chapter Text
It's strange. One moment she was in her room, crying, feeling the blood and tears mix on her face. Emotions overwhelmed her, a whirlwind of sadness and despair. She felt herself fading and her muscles began to weaken. Everything around her seemed to shrink, the walls of her room closing in on her, until finally everything turned dark. The entire world faded into absolute twilight.
But suddenly, a blinding light flooded her eyes, as if a spotlight had been turned on abruptly in the midst of the darkness. It was an intense, brilliant, almost painful light. The air seemed to fill her lungs with renewed force, her muscles began to tingle with a vitality she felt she had forgotten. She leaned against what she assumed was a wall to avoid falling, her body trembling with the effort to stay upright.
A sharp ringing filled her ears, a constant insistence that forced her back to reality. She blinked repeatedly, trying to adjust to the bright light surrounding her. Her eyes struggled to focus, her mind attempting to process the new situation.
Then, she heard a voice. It seemed distant and at the same time so close, and there was something in it that resonated deeply within her, something that made her want to listen more attentively. The voice had a warm tone, a softness that filled her with a strange sense of familiarity and comfort.
Her head shot up, her eyes wide open, her whole body becoming alert. She straightened up completely, no longer leaning against the wall that had been supporting her. Her heart pounded strongly, adrenaline flooding her system.
"Are you okay?" the voice asked again, softly and low, but filled with genuine concern.
She recognized the voice before seeing the person's face. It was a voice she knew well. It didn’t take her long to find the source of that voice.
Hyun-su was a few meters away from her, looking at her with a worried expression in his eyes, those cute eyes only he had. There was something in his gaze that reassured her, something that told her everything would be alright.
"Hyun-su," she whispered, her voice trembling with a mix of emotion and relief.
It must be another memory or an imagination, she thought, one similar to the one she had with her brother. She was so sad and terrified and just wanted to feel safe; she assumed that’s why her first hallucination was of Eun-hyuk, who had protected and cared for her since she was a child. And now it was Hyung-soo, who had done the same since they met.
Without thinking twice, she ran towards him with desperate urgency, her footsteps echoing in the silence around her. She didn’t realize what she was doing until she felt his warm body against hers, his presence so real and tangible it almost hurt. His arms wrapped around her with a firmness that made her feel safe for the first time in a long time.
They both fell to the ground, she on her knees and he sitting. A sharp pain shot through her body as she hit the floor, she guessed it must have hurt him too, maybe even more, but she ignored it, it wasn’t real. Besides, the pain was insignificant compared to the wave of relief she felt.
"Hyun-su..." she whispered with a trembling voice, barely a thread of sound escaping her lips.
Her arms tightened more around his body, her embrace warm and comforting, as if she feared that if she let go, he would vanish into thin air. She buried her face in his neck, smelling the familiar scent, the essence she had come to associate with safety and protection. Her body trembled with the intensity of her emotions, an uncontrollable torrent of relief tears running down her cheeks.
"Hyun-su, you're here," she sobbed, clinging to him with all her strength.
The fear that he would disappear like a dream consumed her. Every heartbeat echoed with a mix of relief and terror, a duality that reflected the fragility of her situation.
The contact with his skin, the solidity of his body, the warmth of his breath on her neck, everything was so real, so vivid, that for a moment, she allowed a spark of hope to blossom in her heart. Her fingers dug into his back, as if that way she could anchor him to reality, as if her touch could keep him there, with her.
The tears continued to flow, each carrying a fragment of her pain, her fear, her despair.
"Don't go," she murmured, her voice breaking under the weight of her feelings.
He didn’t respond with words. His mind was caught in a whirlwind of emotions and memories, his hands trembling as he tightened his arms around her, clinging to that fragile connection. His head rested on her shoulder, feeling the warmth of her skin and the frantic beat of her heart against his. His eyes stung with the pressure of unshed tears, but he refused to let them fall.
How long had it been since someone had hugged him like this?
The memory of that forgotten affection was fading into the mists of the past. He had forgotten the warmth of an embrace, the deep and comforting touch, the sense of belonging and safety that such a simple act provoked.
Although he didn’t know the girl who was hugging him, although their faces were strange on the surface, there was something about her, something in her desperate embrace, that resonated deeply within him.
He clung to her with the same desperation with which she clung to him, his fingers digging into the fabric of her clothes, his grip almost painful in its intensity. His body trembled slightly, not only from the physical effort but from the flood of emotions that assailed him. The contact, that simple yet powerful human connection, shook him to his core.
He felt his own emotions bubbling to the surface, a mix of relief and fear, hope and pain. There was something in her, in her fragility and strength, that awakened a protective instinct within him.
The weight of his desperation, his loneliness, lightened slightly with each second spent in that embrace. The tears he had held back for so long threatened to spill, but he clung to his control.
After a few minutes, she pulled away slightly from the embrace, just enough to look him in the eyes, but she didn’t move far. Her hands remained on his, her fingers intertwined, desperate to maintain that connection, to feel that he was with her. Her eyes, filled with unshed tears, looked at him with a mix of fear and determination, seeking in him the strength she needed to move forward.
"I’m so scared, don’t leave me, I’m not ready, I don’t want to forget how I feel, I don’t want to forget what it was like to laugh or cry or even fear, I don’t want to," she murmured desperately, her voice breaking with each word. "I want to remember everything in detail, I want to be with you, help you with the monsters, and make Eun-hyuk recover his feelings," the words came out in a rush, each one loaded with desperation.
He looked at her, bewildered, trying to understand the meaning behind her words. Who was Eun-hyuk? What did she mean by the monsters? Everything in his mind was wrapped in a fog of confusion and concern. Though he didn’t fully understand what she was saying, the intensity of her emotions and the pain in her eyes were undeniable.
"Calm down," he murmured softly, trying to soothe her. "I’m here. I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I promise I won’t leave you."
His words were supposed to reassure her.
He had never been good at comforting people, but he thought he had found the right words, those that could help her relax and find some peace. However, what happened was the opposite. The expression on her face changed abruptly, her gaze shifting from a mix of desperation and fear to one of absolute terror. Her eyes widened, filled with a renewed desperation.
"What?" was all the dark-haired girl could utter, her voice trembling with disbelief. "What do you mean you don’t know what I’m talking about?"
Her hands, which moments before had been intertwined with his in a gesture of desperation and hope, now released him abruptly. She took a step back, as if she had been struck by an invisible blow that made her stagger. The confusion on her face was palpable, as if the world she thought she knew was crumbling before her eyes.
He tried to approach again, extending a hand in a gesture of reconciliation and comfort, but she backed away further, her breathing rapid and erratic. The intensity of her emotions was overwhelming, a mix of fear, confusion, and a despair so deep it seemed to consume her from within.
"I don’t understand, what’s happening?" he murmured, more to himself than to her, his voice filled with a helplessness that made him feel small and lost. Every word she had said echoed in his mind, a confusing echo he couldn’t decipher.
She closed her eyes, squeezing them tightly as if trying to push away a nightmare. Her body visibly trembled, and he could see the tears welling up in her lashes, about to spill. The pain on her face was almost tangible, a manifestation of an internal struggle he couldn’t fully comprehend.
"It can’t be..." she murmured, her voice barely a whisper, laden with a pain that seemed to tear at her soul. "This can’t be happening... you... you should know... you should remember... Eun-hyuk remembered when he was with me, he knew..."
Her words were abruptly silenced as she stood up quickly and headed towards the building’s railing. Her gaze was frantically darting around, desperately searching for answers in the chaos that engulfed her. Every corner of her mind was flooded with questions and confusion. She was on the roof of Green Home, that was clear, but nothing else seemed to make sense.
It was daytime, and the buildings and houses around her appeared completely normal when they should have been almost completely destroyed. There were cars on the streets where, according to her memories, there should have been monsters and destruction. Life was going on as usual, people walked happily on the sidewalks, oblivious to the horror she remembered so clearly.
Suddenly, she felt a hand touch her shoulder and turned sharply, her heart racing with surprise. Hyun-su was there, looking at her with concern, though his appearance was different from what she remembered. His hair was longer, and his face, though tired, didn’t show the marks of suffering she had seen last time.
"What’s the date?" she asked, her voice trembling as she tried to grasp the reality around her.
Hyun-su looked at her even more confused but answered calmly.
"August 15."
She felt the ground beneath her feet becoming unstable, her mind spinning in a whirlwind of emotions.
It couldn’t be, it couldn’t be happening. She needed more answers, she needed to understand.
"What year?" she added quickly, her voice barely recognizable, broken by fear and desperation.
"2020," Hyun-su replied.
August 15, 2020. The day everything had begun.
Her legs felt weak, as if they might fail her at any moment. Her mind tried to process the information, to find logic amid the chaos.
Her whole being trembled at the realization that she had traveled through time, returned to a moment before the horror had begun. But why? How?