Demons

Guts

Her nails dug into her palms, already bruising from clenching her fists too much for almost half an hour. Sweat trickled down the side of her face and her lips quivered as her eyes stared menacingly into Tao’s, hoping that this time it’ll work.

But two minutes had already passed, and his powers weren’t transferring to her.

With an exasperated sigh, Hyerin threw her hands in the air out of defeat.

“ this,” she snapped, leaning back against a tree.

The others who were watching groaned and rolled their eyes while Tao folded his arms and glared at her.

“You’re giving up just like that?” he scoffed, raising a brow.

“We’ve been doing this for almost an hour! Nothing’s happening!” She squatted down the ground and ran a hand through her short hair. “I’m sick of it. I’m done.”

“You can’t say that once we’re finally out there trying to save the city,” Xiumin remarked.

Hyerin shrugged. “I just can’t seem to do it. I don’t think I’m determined enough to do it again.”

“Maybe you’re trying too hard,” Kyungsoo mumbled, busy polishing his robot arm in the corner. “Just relax, you’re too tense.”

“That’s not it. I wasn’t relaxed at all when Blue was about to kill me. But my powers worked.”

Chen rubbed his chin. “Maybe you need more of those chemicals to reactivate your powe-”

“I ain’t taking none of that again,” she cut off.

Suho sat next to her. “You said you’re not determined enough?”

Hyerin nodded. “Mhm.”

“Then let’s do something to get you determined.”

“What?”

Suho shrugged casually. “Maybe spar with someone, I don’t know.”

“I’ll do it!” Chanyeol exclaimed, waving his hands in the air. “Maybe use my power on you, too, if that helps.”

“Woah, woah, hold on there, bud,” Kyungsoo said warningly. “The deal was to spar, not use your power. That is dangerous.”

“I don’t think it’s a bad idea,” Hyerin said, getting up. “I mean it’ll get me worked up, right?”

Kyungsoo glared at her. “Have you forgotten the fact that his power is fire? What if you fail to dodge and you get a burn? We don’t have enough stuff to treat-”

“I’ll be fine.”

“No, you’ll be-”

“I said I’ll be fine,” she interrupted firmly, “so don’t worry.”

Kyungsoo pressed his lips together before retreating back to his seat and sighing.

Suho nudged her playfully. “Overprotective boyfriend strikes again.”

She rolled her eyes, blushing despite herself. “He never trusts me.”

“I can hear you both,” he called out from his corner.

“Okay!” Tao clapped his hands together. “Let’s start the sparring now, shall we?”

“Yeah.” At once, Hyerin stepped in the middle of their ‘arena’ and positioned herself in the proper stance. “Ready, Yeol-”

The girl was not able to finish her sentence when a fireball flying towards her direction cut her off. She dodged it just in time and it hit the tree behind her, while Suho crawled away to safety.

Her eyes widened as she stared at the fire slowly building up the trunk of the tree. “,” she mumbled under her breath before another one flung towards her.

The second was a close call, just a couple of inches away from her face. This made her nervous, yet surprisingly determined and calculative.

She ran to her left and swerved to her right once Chanyeol threw another fireball her way. He seemed caught off guard for a second by the sudden switch in stance, and Hyerin took this opportunity to jump on him. They fell clumsily, with Chanyeol lying face down on the ground and Hyerin twisting his arm behind his back.

He cried out in pain and his arms blazed with fire, making Hyerin release her grip. Chanyeol stood up and Hyerin fell on her back, crawling away from Chanyeol who was about to send another ball of fire towards her way.

To her surprise, Chanyeol didn’t do anything to harm her directly. Instead, he sent fireballs to the tree to her left, then the other to the one on the right. Hyerin’s eyebrows furrowed, puzzled as to what Chanyeol was trying to do, until she realized a little too late.

A huge burning branch fell on her right, startling her. Another collapsed on her left, completely trapping her in the middle while Chanyeol made his way towards her.

At this rate, she was trapped. Her eyes made its way to Kyungsoo who was observing from afar with crossed arms and calculative eyes.

He raised an eyebrow as if asking what she was going to next.

Hyerin gritted her teeth and turned her attention back to Chanyeol, who was slowly walking towards her with his blazing arms and expressionless face. She had to do this, and she had to it fast.

For a split second, she shut her eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them again, now with a new kind of determination. She was sweating like crazy and the fire was close to burning her skin, yet she ignored everything around her and focused on Chanyeol and his eyes. Her hands found its way to the tree behind her and she clawed anxiously on them as she tried and tried and tried to get something out of him. And she finally did.

She felt that familiar warm sensation again, spreading within her body a different kind of heat. Her eyes watered and reddened and her body shook from the sudden energy taking over her. She felt her eyes blinking uncontrollably until it rolled back, her body twitching even more. This continued on for a couple of seconds before she returned back to normal, the fire surrounding her completely extinguished.

Meanwhile, Chanyeol stood there with a dumbstruck look on his face. He hesitantly lifted his hands up to his face, scrutinizing them as if they were foreign.

“W-What,” he stuttered, looking back up to squint at the smoke surrounding all of them. “What the hell happened?”

“Are your powers gone, by any chance?” Tao asked, walking up to him.

“Yeah,” Chanyeol mumbled, “it is.”

Without any kind of warning, a fireball was thrown their way. They barely dodged it when another was thrown. Then another. And then another.  

“Stop!” Chanyeol exclaimed, hiding behind a tree. “I give up! I give up!”

Finally, the fireballs stopped. Suho stepped out of his safety zone and quickly extinguished the fire. Sehun, who was watching silently in the corner, sent away the smoke with his power.

Once the air had finally cleared, they saw Hyerin laughing to herself, surrounded with burnt branches and black fingertips.

Chanyeol gave her an accusatory finger. “You almost got us killed!”

Hyerin rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. You didn’t consider that when you were the one relentlessly attacking me.” She summoned a fireball and it floated above her palm. She played with it and threw it up in the air like a tennis ball. “This is awesome. Who knew having the power of fire was so much fun?”

“Yah!” Chanyeol shouted. “Give my powers back!”

Hyerin stood up and walked towards them. She shrugged. “I don’t know how.”

“Wait, what!?”

“But does it return to the original holder of the power?” Xiumin asked.

“Eventually, I think. It stays with me around five to seven minutes minutes. Maybe if I train more it’ll stay with me longer?”

“I’m pretty sure. For now, good job. That was really impressive, Rin,” Suho said, giving her a small smile and a pat in the back.

 Hyerin grinned proudly as the others praised her newfound power. Meanwhile at the corner, Kyungsoo folded his arms and refused to join the crowd. She noticed this, rolled her eyes, and made her way towards him.

“What now?” she demanded, smirking playfully at the boy.

Kyungsoo continued to stare at her with a blank look. “You need to train more if you plan on using that power of yours in the battlefield.”

“Can you lighten up? I’m finally adapting to my powers and here you are being all critical about it.” She frowned at him and matched his folded arms. “You’re never happy with anything.”

Kyungsoo stared at her long and hard before sighing wearily. “It’s not that,” he said, the sternness of his eyes softening a bit. “I just want you to be in control of your power, not your power in control of you.”

“I know that,” She tucked a strand behind her ear, “I just wanted you to be proud of me.”

Kyungsoo gave her a small smile as he pulled her to his chest, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and whispering to her hair, “I am proud of you, Rin. I think you’re amazing. You know that.”

“Yeah,” she mumbled into his neck as she wrapped her arms around his waist. “I just wanted to hear you say it.”

“I’m saying it right now, aren’t I?”

Hyerin rested her chin on his chest to glare up at him while he looked down at her amusingly. “And I still had to call you out for you to actually say anything? You never take the initiative, you stubborn .”

Kyungsoo chuckled at that. “That’s just the way I am!”

“Well then you ,” she laughed, pushing him away. He was just about to grab her again when Kris came running into their training area.

“Playtime’s over, guys. Minho just reported from Gangnam that Xinths are attacking citizens again and breaking into homes.” He rushed over to one of the boxes of supplies and got himself a rifle. “It’s along Cheongdam-dong. We should get going if we want to see these folks alive. Who’s coming with?”

A few hands raised up including Kyungsoo’s. Hyerin gave him a brief, worried side-glance before turning away, but the boy did not fail to catch it.

“What?” he asked.

Hyerin shook her head. “Nothing. Just-” she sighed, “Just be careful, okay?”

Kyungsoo grinned. “I will. You know I will. What makes today so different from the other days we go out there to help?”

“Well this time I won’t be there with you. It’s different when I can actually see you.”

He raised a brow. “Hyerin, you’ve been excluded from all outside missions for almost a week now. What’s really the reason?”

“I don’t know! Nothing!” She folded her arms and looked away from him, cheeks flushing. “Is it so bad that I just want you to be careful? I’m just trying to be a good…a good…teammate.”

“You just want me to be careful.”

“I just want you to be careful,” she affirmed.

“Trying to be a good teammate,” he repeated, eyeing her with amusement.

“Trying to be a good teammate,” she nodded, still not looking at him.

Kyungsoo chuckled and bent down to give her a peck on the cheek. Hyerin’s eyes widened and turned to face him, but before she could even say anything he was already off.

She cupped her warm cheeks, wanting to kill herself for being so awkward and embarrassing. Trying to be a good teammate? What the kinda lame answer was that?

“Wow, Rin. Never knew you could act so cute like that.”

Hyerin whipped around to see Kai walking towards her, baseball cap on and hands inside his pockets with his trademark lopsided grin.

Hyerin blushed even more at that. “I-It’s not that, I just-”

“Oh, shush. I know, I know. You probably said something dumb to him and now you’re moping around because of it. Been there, done that,” he said, chuckling after. He gestured towards one of the tents. “Come on. Let’s kill time while waiting for the others to come back.”

And so they walked into the tent – Agent M’s research tent to be specific, only he was taking a break and wasn’t there – and sat themselves comfortably in the portable chairs. Hyerin idly flipped through the paperwork while Kai took off his cap and played with it.

“So,” he started, tossing his hat up in the air and catching it with one hand, “how are you and D.O?”

“Uh, fine, I guess,” she said, pretending to be engrossed in one of the texts. She wasn’t used to talking about their relationship just yet. “Just your usual thing, you know?”

“What do you mean ‘usual thing’? You guys are probably the most unusual couple ever,” he snorted, barely catching his hat before tossing it up in the air again. “You and Kyungsoo. Heh, who would’ve thought?”

Hyerin put down the book and sat back against her seat. “You think it’s weird?”

He shrugged. “A little bit but I don’t mind it. It’s definitely better than Baek-” He caught himself before he could continue, “Uh, sorry.”

Hyerin gave her a stern but forgiving look. “You’re still not over that?”

“I mean, we’re cool now but…that doesn’t mean I’d completely forget what he did to you.”

The corner of twitched upward. “Hm. Me too,” she mumbled. “But he had his reasons.”

“All to protect you,” he nodded, agreeing. “Damn, girl. Look at you and your heartbreaker status!”

Hyerin laughed and he smiled, looking down on the floor reminiscently. “I was one of them too, you know.”

Hyerin stopped laughing and gave him a cautious look.

His smile grew into a wide grin as if he were amused. “I was…I was ing crazy, man, you saw me walk out on all of you. Jesus, I must’ve looked like Satan himself.”

“But that wasn’t you. That wasn’t your fault.”

“Oh, but it was. TOP may have controlled me but he needed something to work with. With all that crap about you and Baekhyun, I was just so vulnerable. He got me wrapped around his finger that easily, I was the perfect pawn.”

Hyerin brought her legs up to her chest as she continued to listen to the boy.

“I guess there was just no use. I kept it all to myself. You know, how I felt about you.” He ran a hand through his hair and leaned back. “I just watched you from afar, not knowing exactly what to do with all these…feelings. Then Baekhyun stepped into the scene and I guess that made me angry.”

He chuckled and shook his head. “But anyway, all that’s over and done with. Losing my powers and disappearing suddenly made me think about other things, like getting back on my feet. Especially now that Jiyong is just getting stronger.”

He fumbled with his fingers and looked up at Hyerin. “Aren’t you going to say anything?”

“I admire you a lot,” she said suddenly. “You’ve gone through so much and became so mature since the last time I spoke to you like this. You handled everything like a real adult.”

Kai laughed. “Silly girl. Why don’t you take a good look at yourself?” He smiled and affectionately patted her head. “You’ve come a long way too, you know.”

Hyerin rolled her eyes. “Don’t be deceived. I’m still a brat.”

“Oh, you are,” he said, his fingers sliding through the strands of her hair. “Only now you’re not so transparent anymore. It’s getting harder and harder to read you.”

 

The day went on with the two of them just talking, and this was when Hyerin realized that Jongin had changed. There was something about him that was never there the first time she met the boy, a sense of maturity that didn’t come with age but experiences. She also realized that Jongin still had feelings for her, and he said that although it was only a little bit it was still there. He said he understood what she and Kyungsoo had and that there was no reason for her to worry about him. So she didn’t.

Nighttime came upon them and they were still talking, with Hyeseul and Hyeji joining them after while Agent M and Zero stood guard in their temporary HQ. The night was quiet until the rest came back in a panic.

All four of them in the tent straightened in their seats as they heard the boys shouting outside.

“What was that?” Hyeseul asked, the hem of her shirt.

“I don’t know,” Kai mumbled distractedly as he stood up, “but we better check it out.”

They stepped outside only to see Minho and Jonghyun helping Suho into a chair. He was shirtless and his back was bleeding heavily.

“Oh my god,” Hyerin cried, rushing over to Suho. “What happened!?”

“We were cornered by Xinths. They were so many of them and we couldn’t hold them off, but then Kyungsoo came and finished them off. B-But,” Jonghyun’s whole body was shaking, obviously having a difficult time talking, “b-but I don’t know what happened, he-”

“I did it.”

Hyerin looked up to see Kyungsoo and a couple of others walk into the camp.

“…What?” she asked, straightening up.

“I did it,” Kyungsoo repeated, his body shaking. He was a bloody mess and his eyes were watery and disoriented, like he was trying to contain something in him that he could barely control. “I did it, I hurt him.”

“B-But,” she stuttered, getting anxious with all the panic that was surrounding her. “But why?”

“I don’t know!” he exclaimed, suddenly walking away with balled fists. “I don’t know, I’m a ing mess!”

“D.O!” Sehun called after him worriedly.

“,” Chanyeol cursed, running a hand through his tired face.

“What happened to him!?” Hyerin questioned, confused as ever. “Why did he hurt Suho?”

“Hyerin, he-”

“No,” Suho, who was being treated by Agent M, called from behind her. “No, he didn’t hurt me. It wasn’t intentional, it wasn’t” – he winced at the pain – “it wasn’t like that.”

She whipped around to face him with a troubled expression. “Then what?”

Suho looked down on his feet, trembling slightly from the pain in his back. “He was killing Xinths left and right and it really helped us a lot. It was like the usual, you know. But there was just so much. Much more of them than normal and Kyungsoo just started to get so into it,” he said while Hyeji cleaned the wounds on his arms. “By the time it was over he was breathing heavily, but it wasn’t just the tired kind. It looked like he was fuming. I asked him what was wrong and I saw his eyes and they were…they were mad. Like insane. The next thing I know he was picking me up by the collar with his robot arm. The others weren’t there when it happened. He threw me across the street and I landed on debris, huge chunks of them. Before I even knew it I was bleeding like crazy.”

The others could only stare at Suho in horror, not knowing what to say. It was Agent M who broke the tense silence.

“It was the arm,” he said sadly. “I warned him before the operation, you know. About the setbacks. The bionic limb can execute independence if his cognitive activity does not control it properly. That arm could control him if he's not careful enough,” he muttered seriously, “and apparently he was not.”

“Then it wasn’t his fault,” Lay mumbled. “It was just…it was just an accident.”

Agent M nodded. “Right,” he whispered before gesturing towards Lay. “Now help me with Suho’s injuries before it gets infected. I can’t stop the bleeding anymore.”

Hyerin bit her lip and looked to where Kyungsoo disappeared. Without a second thought, she ran away from the camp and started on the woods to the main road. She could hear the others trying to make her come back, but all that was ignored as she was determined to go to Kyungsoo and see if he was alright.

It took no longer than five minutes to get to the main road. Hyerin was careful not to step out into the open and settled on the muddy grounds of the woods, eagerly searching for the boy and constantly peeking at the buildings from afar.

She couldn’t possibly imagine how the boy must be feeling at this moment. For a while, she didn’t know what she would say once he was there in front of her, but she had an obligation as his comrade and as a person who cared sincerely about him to assure him that it was alright. That there was nothing to be guilty about, that it was not his fault at all.

She walked probably about a mile before she reached the more urban part of town and away from the rural areas of the city. She hid carefully and was light on her steps, all the while searching for Kyungsoo. She was starting to worry about his whereabouts when finally she found him sitting on the stairs at the back of an apartment where all the trash and graffiti were. He had his feet dangling in between the railings, his human arm cradling the metal one. With a sigh, she made her way up the rusty stairs.

“Kyungsoo?” she called out quietly.

The boy jumped and crawled away from her as if she had the plague.

“Hyerin? What the hell are you doing here?”

“I was worried about you,” she said. “You ran away so fast, I didn’t know where you were going.”

“What are you doing? Leave. Leave now.”

“But I just got here.”

“I don’t care. Leave, Hyerin. It’s not safe.”

She scoffed. “Do you really think I care about that right now? I’m worried about-”

“No, Hyerin,” he said sternly. “I’m not safe.”

Hyerin’s mouth closed as she stared at the boy carefully inching back against the railing. He was so determined to get away from her that even when he was already as far away from her as he could possibly get, he was still looking around for an escape.

“I’m not afraid of you,” she mumbled, taking a step forward.

“It’s not even about that anymore, Hyerin. I-I’m hurting people without even knowing it and that’s more than a little frightening,” he said, bowing his head. “Please just go. I don’t know what I might-”

“No. I believe in you. I believe that you can control that thing. It’s just that earlier, you were probably too overwhelmed or something. It happens.”

“But it can’t happen again,” he growled. “This isn’t something that you just pass up, Hyerin. This is dangerous. I’m dangerous. I don’t even” – he sighed out of frustration – “I don’t even know how I never thought about this when we started getting into this…thing we have.”

Her eyebrows furrowed. “What?”

Kyungsoo glanced at her for a second before looking away.

Her cheeks started to redden. “What, so our relationship is just a ‘thing’ now?”

When he didn’t answer she stepped closer to him. “How dare you put it in such a light manner. Do you honestly know how much I care about you? Worry about you?” she questioned through gritted teeth, getting down on her knees to be at the same level as him. “This ‘thing’ is what pushed me into chasing after you, what pushed me to stand before you at this very moment to tell you right in your face that you’re not just anyone to me. And that’s why I’m here. To assure you that not even that stupid deadly arm can stop us.”

She leaned closer to push away his fringe from his forehead. “Say something.”

His eyes were solemn when they landed on her. “You’re so stubborn.”

“If I wasn’t then this relationship won’t last very long,” she said, the corner of twitching up. “You and your habit of pushing me away all the time.”

“I’m sorry,” he sighed, taking her hand and squeezing it tightly. “We’re always in some kind of difficult predicament. I want you close to me but at the same time I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“You won’t hurt me.”

“With this stupid robot arm that has a mind of its own? I can’t guarantee you that.”

Hyerin leaned forward, captured his face in her hands, and kissed him. Surprisingly, he kissed her back, his hand slowly making its way to the back of her head and grasping her short hair in his fist. Her arms strung around his neck and all she could think of was how much she wanted to protect him; this beautiful conflicted boy who cared about her just as much as she did about him.

She pulled away and stared him straight in his dazed eyes. “Kyungsoo, I-”

The window beside them shattered, showering them with bits and pieces of glass. Before they could even understand what was going on, a hand made its way around Hyerin’s waist and started pulling her inside the window.

Kyungsoo grabbed her arm, but just when he was about to get up, someone from the other side of the railing locked him down in place and wrapped his arms around his neck. Kyungsoo looked up and saw that it was TOP.

“You-”

He wasn’t given a chance to speak when TOP forced him to lock eyes with him. Suddenly everything was spinning endlessly.

His body went limp and he felt helpless when finally he could hear the other agents’ shouts from below. Everything was still spinning when he extended his arms in front of him to get Hyerin, only to grasp nothing.

His world was spiraling and spiraling, yet even amidst all the chaos around him there was no Hyerin. He tried to get up but failed, clawed his hands on his neck but there was no hand choking him down. Sweat trickled down his face as he tried to open his eyes wider, that maybe he was just not seeing things clearly, but no matter how much he tried she was still not there.

Kyungsoo collapsed on the floor, feeling the weight of a thousand boulders in his chest, and that was the moment he realized that Hyerin was gone, taken away right out of his hands.

---

a/n:

yes, hyerin was kidnapped.

sighs. i know i know i know i'm a jerk for not updating. but i have my reasons and i guess i'm a bit of an too but here you go guys! an update! a not so merry one, but things are somewhat looking up aren't they??

anyway before i forget!! here's a fic by lovethecrazy that's set in the world of Guts! it sounds really good so go check it out right here. note that if you want to make fanfics/fanart/fanmixes/fanvideos based on Guts you can do so as long as you credit me and tell me so i can also post it here! ^^

also, here's a pinterest made by yours truly based on guts and all things related to it and if you want me to add a couple stuff in it give me a link to the image and i will! 

aaaaand here's a playlist i made for your reading pleasure. if you want me to make another one (especially if you want it based on your otp or something) then tell me here and i'll make it!

love you guys so much. thanks for being super patient!

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Comments

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idk----
#1
thank you for the story!
multifandomized #2
miss your works author-nim :((
shonwanigop
#3
💙🥰
Pxnellyxq #4
Chapter 50: but i want kai to be happy with her ?
Pxnellyxq #5
Chapter 36: Holy a screenshot of OG AFF
multifandomized #6
Chapter 71: I AM STILL WAITING FOR AN UPDATE,,, GOD KNOWS HOW LONG WE HAVE BEEN WAITING,,,,, i didnt know u also put your story here, since the last time i read this, it was on wpad,,,,, anyWAYS PLEASE COMEBACK ㅠㅠ
Thosemine01 #7
This is soo good
blackstardust
#8
Chapter 34: Hey, i have been following this story for so long as i can remember. And then i also remember trying to look for this story but was unable to find it. This week i just clicked the link to this story that i bookmarked years ago and i am so surprised that i found it again. I love love love this!!! Thank you for writing this!
DobuOnew
#9
Chapter 69: AHHHHH MY HEART!!!! I can't handle this .
DobuOnew
#10
Chapter 56: Ah man! The ending of this chapter! I really ... ugh. It always makes me cringe and feel shocked, powerless and desolated all at the same time. It's frustrating really, but it gives this story originality and life! I mean, damn never was I expecting this turn of events in the first place. And, every single time, I just feel so damn sorry for that little squishy!!!!