You and Infinite rushed through the front doors of the hospital.

You went to the front desk. “Detective Jung Myunseok called me here. Where do I go?”

 “Ahh yes.” The receptionist nodded. “4^th floor. When you reach it, turn to your right and to the morgue. There will be a pair of doors, just go through them and to your right. The detective will be in one of the rooms.”

You nodded; your throat had gone dry. Infinite silently followed you; even their footsteps couldn’t be heard.

You followed the receptionist’s instructions and were in front of another door. A plaque beside it said, ‘Unidentified Carcasses’ Two police officers were standing in front of the door.

“Lee Haerin?” one of them asked. The other one eyed Infinite.

He and his partner were tall and bulky. Their belts were filled with police weapons and gadgets.

You nodded. They moved aside and opened the door. You were about to go in.

Infinite was going to follow, but the police blocked their way.

“They’re with me.” You said, looking back when you didn’t feel their presence behind you.

You heard the police move, and Infinite was in. You went in the room and looked at it properly. There wasn’t much in it, but what was, scared you. There was a single stretcher there, and you could see the outline of a body from underneath the white cloth that was covering it. The room was empty, except for the stretcher and white walls.

Detective Myunseok was sitting on a chair, flipping through his notes. He looked up as you guys stood side by side in the depressing room.

“Haerin-ssi.” He stood up and took your hand. “Nice to see you again. You are well?”

“Yes.” Your voice was hoarse.

He nodded at Infinite. “Boys.”

They nodded back, the detective had interviewed each of them a couple of days ago as well.

“Lee Haerin, we need you tell us if this is,” he gestured at the stretcher. “Is Lee Howon’s body. From what you and these boys have told us, he was stabbed near the left side of his chest, near his heart. We have done a thorough check on this body, and that description matches this body. We just need you to confirm it.”

L stepped up. He wasn’t sure you should look at a dead body. I mean, who would want to look at a dead body? Moreover, the dead body of your brother? Who was stabbed right in front of you? “Does she have to be the one to identify the body? Can’t one of us?” he pointed at himself and the others.

“When a person dies, their body changes. Someone who you have known for a long time can look totally different when they die. Rigor mortis is one reason why bodies look different. Rigor mortis a chemical change in the muscles after death. The body also becomes stiff. It results in several changes of the body of the deceased. That being said, Haerin has known Lee Howon the longest, and is his sister. She is the only one that can identify this body.” The detective informed.

L inwardly sighed. *Annnnd she won’t sleep for even more months now.*

You shakily took a step forward. Half of you wanted it to be Hoya. You wanted to know his body would be safe and that you could bury it. You’d be able to visit his grave whenever you wanted to. You would be able to feel his presence at the grave and change the flowers every week.

The other half (the bigger half) wanted the body you were approaching, to be someone else’s. You didn’t want this body to be Hoya’s. You wanted the knife that had killed him to have missed his heart and wanted him to be out there somewhere. Alive. Unharmed. Healthy. And he would come to Heejung’s house one day, with a big smile on his face and take you back home. Your real home. And then everything would turn back to normal.

But as you got closer to the stretcher, the more you doubted that that would happen. You took deep, shaky breaths and kept the tears in your eyes, in your eyes.

You reached the stretcher in what felt like hours. Your hand slowly made its way to the top of the white cloth. It slowly clutched the cloth and peeled it down. You stared at the brown hair you had been looking at your whole life. You forced your eyes to stay at the brown hair that could be anyone’s. *Lots of people have brown hair. Lots. Loads. Lots of people have this shade. Lots of people have straight, fluffy hair as well. This body could be one of those lots of people.*

Finally, the cloth reached the neck, and you felt your hand letting go of it.

You forced your eyes to look at the face.

That face.

It was hardly recognizable. His face was pale and it seemed wider. There was no smile on his face. His face was serious and his lips were chapped. His cheeks had gone in and his face muscles seemed to have changed.

He didn’t look like the Lee Howon you knew.

But you knew it was Lee Howon. Your older brother. Lying here where a dead body belonged. Covered in a white sheet and soon to be buried deep under the ground where you would never see this face again.

You screamed. You screamed so loud that you didn’t see, hear, or notice the panicked looks, the shouts, the sobs, and the hands that dragged you out of the room.

All you could hear was your screaming and “OPPA! OPPA! NOO!! OPPA! HOWON OPPAAA!!!!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You woke up to the sound of silence. But you kept your eyes closed, not wanting to open them and face reality.

After God-knows-how-long, you slowly opened your eyes and adjusted them to the light. You were in a hospital room, on a hospital bed, with a wet cloth on your head.

You saw L, Sunggyu, Sungyeol, and Sungjong sitting on chairs beside you. Two vacant chairs were also there.

Sungjong was the first to notice you were awake, “Haerin, are you feeling okay?”

You felt yourself nod.

“Are you sure?” Sunggyu asked.

“Yeah.” Your throat was dry.

“Here.” Sungyeol picked up a glass of water, “Drink this.”

You sat up and took the glass, muttering a thanks to which he nodded.

L quietly watched you.

A nurse came in. “Lee Haerin?”

“Yes?”

“Are you alright now?” she asked.

“Yes.” You croaked. “I’m fine.”

“That’s good.” She nodded. “I just need you to sign here and you can leave, we have to prepare the room for the next patient.” She walked to your bed and held out her clipboard.

You nodded and took the pen hanging from the clipboard. You signed a very messy signature that was supposed to look like yours.

She thanked you and left. You got out of the bed quietly, putting the empty glass on the sidetable.

“Where are Dongwoo and Woohyun oppa?”  You asked.

“Right here.” Woohyun answered from the doorway, beside him, Dongwoo was holding a brown, paper bag.

“Are you okay?” Dongwoo asked, he seemed paler than usual.

You nodded, “Fine. What time is it?”

“9:13.” Sungyeol answered, looking at the clock in the room.

Your eyes widened. “9:13?! I have to go!” you hurried and took your sweater from the chair that L had been sitting on.

All six of them shook their heads. “Nope.”

“Yes! I told Se Hun I’d be back before dark.” You zipped it up.

“You’re staying with us for the night. Sunggyu hyung already called your step brother and told him. We’re not letting you leave this late, like that.” L said, referring to your mental state.

You froze and Hoya’s lifeless face flashed into your mind. Your hands fell from the zipper and to your sides.

“Haerin?” Woohyun asked worriedly.

Your face remained lifeless.

You let yourself be taken to L’s car and buckled in. You didn’t say or do anything. You were like a zombie.

You were like that for the whole night. You and the rest of Infinite stayed at L’s house. He didn’t have any parents and lived on his own. You were put on L’s bed and the rest of them placed themselves on the floor, watching you for any sign of emotion.

You didn’t respond to their ‘goodnights’ or ‘are you okays’. You didn’t seem to hear the world or notice what was going on. You were in a paralyzed state.

They gave up on trying to get you to talk or do something. Dongwoo had brought you a muffin from the hospital, but you didn’t even look at it.

When all the lights turned off and your head hit the pillow, your tears did too.

For that whole night, you had nightmares about Hoya’s dead face, him being buried under the ground, and a replay of the day he died. Over and over and over again.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello~!

A sad chapter.... I'm gonna have nightmares about Hoay's lifeless face and different morgues D:

I didn't know anything about dead bodies and morgues, so I used some sites:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080522114548AArzjOJ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigor_mortis

Hehe~~

And I saw some images...... scary.. disturbing... haunting images

KAY BYEEE~!