Woohyun opened his eyes, to a brightly lit room. It was odd he thought, since he didn’t remember going to bed, yet there he was lying on his bed—but wait. That wasn’t possible. He didn’t have a bed and this was definitely not Sunggyu’s bed. The room was so bright, that his vision was effected making everything faded around the edges like an old painting.

Everything was so…soft. Sheer white curtains hanging off the large white wooden bed posts swayed as a soft breeze passed.

“Huh…?” He tilted his head left and right. For some reason he couldn’t get up but he didn’t really notice it or seem to mind it.

Especially when the door opened and Sunggyu walked in wearing nothing but a pair of dark grey sweat pants that hung loosely around his hips. Woohyun’s eyes widened as Sunggyu silently moved towards the bed, droplets of water dripping from his damp hair down the side of his face.

Woohyun’s gulped, his mind becoming hazy when Sunggyu crawled on top of him, the mattress sinking in as he moved closer.

“Hyung…?” Woohyun managed in a weak voice. Sunggyu didn’t say anything however, and placed his hand on the side of Woohyun’s neck, rubbing it gently. Woohyun couldn’t help but lean into his hand, humming softly in approval. But then Sunggyu’s fingers slid down his neck, running over his collarbones, and then trailed down his chest.

Woohyun bit his lip, staring into Sunggyu’s eyes. But for some reason he couldn’t get a grasp of Sunggyu’s expression and he couldn’t feel Sunggyu’s eyes on him—his warmth. It wasn’t how Sunggyu would usually touch him—gently while gazing into his eyes with so much affection and love.

“Gyu…hyung?” He murmured. “What…?” Sunggyu’s fingers were suddenly feeling a lot rougher and not like Sunggyu’s at all. He felt fingernails grinding down his abdomen making him yelp.

“Hyung…” He struggled only to finally realize his hands were chained above his head. “Hyung! Hyung…s-stop, don’t.” He whimpered helplessly, writhing around when he heard the sound of a whip hit the floor. He opened his eyes. He didn’t even realize he had them closed.

It was dark. Sunggyu was gone.

He was in some kind of dim room, arms chained above his head to the wall and legs separately bound by chains attached to the floor. Across the room, he could faintly make out a large bed, covered in a deep red bedspread.

He gritted his teeth in anger upon seeing that person standing in front of him.

“Ilhoon…” He muttered. “You little .”

Ilhoon smirked, gesturing for the muscled man standing behind him to take a step back. Woohyun gulped, eyeing the large bearded man cautiously. He guessed that was the person who was touching him.

“W-What…?” He almost felt sick to his stomach. “W-Why—?”

“What a .” Ilhoon snorted. “You’re ok with anyone as long as you can imagine its Sunggyu hyung?”

Woohyun swallowed down a lump in his throat, forcing himself not to cry. He knew that’s exactly what Ilhoon wanted.

“This is the second time you’ve chained me up like this…” He smirked. “Damn you must really want me—?”

Ilhoon cracked the whip in his hand to the floor. “Shut the hell up. I don’t have time for your . If he doesn’t come in an hour I’m killing you.”

Woohyun narrowed his eyes. “When are you gonna let Sunggyu hyung go? When are you gonna realize he doesn’t—.”

Ilhoon walked right up to him, grabbing roughly on Woohyun’s hair.

“You stupid did you not hear?” His voice was dark, and gravelly. Woohyun pursed his lips. There was something different about Ilhoon. His eyes that were usually large and dark were grey and empty and his skin was pale, almost deathly. “I said an hour or you’re dead.”

Then he shoved Woohyun’s head back into the wall and dusted his hands off. “Stay with him.” He ordered the bulky man and stomped off. Woohyun eyed the huge man, a part of him wondering where Minwoo, Ilhoon’s loyal lackey was.

A part of him wanted to struggle and kick something or someone. But he knew that was useless at this point. So he closed his eyes, took a deep breath and thought of the one thing in his life that made everything worthwhile.

He thought of Sunggyu.

What would Sunggyu do in this situation, he asked himself.

Something he had learned from Sunggyu is that there were other options besides violence or crying and giving up. To Woohyun, Sunggyu was always using his brain, he was always thinking up the best and most sensible situation.

Woohyun knew he wasn’t as smart as Sunggyu but that didn’t mean he couldn’t try. Sunggyu believed in him. And this time, just this once, he wanted to believe in himself.

♦♦♦

Sunggyu was two seconds away from a mental breakdown. He had no idea what just happened and he felt sick to his stomach at the realization that he had let something bad happen to Woohyun right in front of him.

All he could think about was how Woohyun has already been through so much (some of it because of him) and he didn’t know how much more Woohyun would be able to handle. He feared it would come to the point where it would be too much for Woohyun. Sunggyu mentally cursed himself under his breath as he picked up the flashlight and used it to see the area he was standing in.

Bad thoughts ran through his head—feelings of guilt. He should’ve protected Woohyun better, should have held on to him tighter, made sure he was ok, been more aware of surrounding danger. There were so many things he told himself he should’ve done but didn’t. His head was spinning uncontrollably, and all he could do was blame himself and he couldn’t even think clearly anymore to find a solution.

He knelt down, clutching his head in a state of despair.

It was over. He let Woohyun get taken away right in front of him.

He had failed.

“I couldn’t even protect him…in the end, I couldn’t even do anything for him…”

Suddenly there was a slight breeze, rustling the leaves underneath him, blowing his bangs softly out of his eyes. He looked up, just as a chill brushed the back of his neck. He shivered and immediately clamped a hand over his neck, looking around, startled.

“…W-What?”

The cool feeling was almost wrapping around him, until he could see it take form—a faint glowing pale blue light that shimmered as it swirled into the faint outline of a body, floating in front of him.

Sunggyu blinked, then rubbed his eyes unsure of what exactly he was looking at. Then he remembered what Seungchul and Woohyun had said about there being spirits haunting the forest. He gasped, and scrambled to his feet to make an escape, but a strong wind immediately blew him back to the ground.

“Crap…” He muttered, fearing this ghost…or well whatever it was would try to take over his soul or something like that. That was what Seungchul had said, as he had recalled—something about taking over the souls of weak humans. “Right…that’s it!” He reminded himself. “Just don’t be weak…don’t be a weak person…even though you totally screwed up everything and lost Woohyun and really this whole thing is your fault because of Ilhoon….Woohyun wouldn’t even have to be involved with any of this if it wasn’t for your stupid gang past and…” He almost choked on his own ramblings. “Wow I…really …”

Suddenly a cold sting touched his cheek and he winced immediately backing away to see that the floating, glowing figure was right in front of him.

He cleared his throat. “W-What do you want? I’m not afraid of you—!”

The figure conjured up a glittering pale pink cluster and formed what looked like a mini constellation in the shape of a heart.

Sunggyu narrowed his eyes in confusion. “A…heart?”

The floating spirit seemed to become excited by that and then formed another shape with the pink star cluster—an arrow pointing ahead up the mountain.

“…That…are you saying to go that way?” Sunggyu questioned. “But…what was the heart…? Could it be…you’re trying to tell me where Woohyun is?”

The figure waved the stars around in a swirl, that Sunggyu guessed was a yes.

Sunggyu wasn’t sure if he could trust the spirit however, and a part of him thought it might be some sort of plot to lure him and then capture his soul. But then he realized if the spirit wanted his soul, it could easily take it right then and there, why lure him somewhere else to take it?

Now that he was finally thinking clearly, he realized Ilhoon probably took Woohyun—something he almost wanted to slap himself for not thinking about earlier. He also remembered about Woohyun having a tracking device on him that Mi Seon had put on him.

He immediately called up Sungjong, thankful that he managed to get a signal.

Sungjong answered after a few seconds.

“Hello? Sunggyu hyung? Are you ok—?”

“Woohyun has a tracking device on him, doesn’t he?”

There was a pause. “Uh…yeah, because he gets into trouble a lot but—.”

“Great, do you know how to track its signal?”

“Yeah ok I’ll do it right now!” Sungjong replied, and Sunggyu could hear some clacking of a computer keyboard. “Hyung, don’t tell me something happened to him again?”

Sunggyu stared up at the spirit who merely floated beside him, the light from the moon causing the figure to emit an ethereal glow.

“I’ll find him…I’ll protect him this time.”

♦♦♦

“You’re not going to order anything?” Mr. Kim grunted, as the waitress took his order of one black coffee.

Sungyeol glared at him across the table in the large café.

“You should be grateful Myungsoo is even wasting his time with the likes of you—.”

Myungsoo placed a hand over Sungyeol’s forearm, causing the other man to turn to him. Myungsoo nodded with a soft smile.

Then he turned to his father. “We’re fine.”

Mr. Kim snorted, drumming his fingers on the table. “Listen up, its come to this point…you’re the only one I can trust now—.”

“Oh isn’t that ironic?” Sungyeol piped up. “After all you’ve done you think—?”

“Stay out of this .” Mr. Kim hissed.

“Don’t call him that.” Myungsoo told his father, expression deathly serious, though Sungyeol could see his hands shaking under the table. “Fine. So everyone you because they found out you were in a relationship with a vampire. I mean really can you blame them after how you brainwashed them all into thinking vampires are savage beasts that should all go to hell?”

Mr. Kim clicked his tongue. “The point is…they’ve gone on a full on hunt to find her. They’ve declared her a deathly threat to the organization…those bastards just deciding things on their own…”

“So basically…” Myungsoo frowned. “You have no power over the organization anymore.”

“I wouldn’t be here if that weren’t the case would I?” Mr. Kim sneered.

“Shouldn’t you be a little more respectful if you want our help?” Sungyeol interjected.

Mr. Kim scowled at Sungyeol, before turning to Myungsoo again. “Listen…you know how the hunt works…they’ve deployed numbers on all sides…its only a matter of time before they find her.”

Myungsoo narrowed his eyes. “So? What does that have to do with me?”

“I…I know where she is. I need to protect her, but I need backup.”

“I-Its not my problem.” Myungsoo’s voice was trembling now, and Sungyeol eyed him worriedly.

“Myungsoo…?” He placed a hand over Myungsoo’s.

“Right…” Mr. Kim nodded. “Its not. But…I’m sure you wouldn’t want an innocent creature to suddenly be cruelly killed. You can pretend all you want, but you think I haven’t noticed the type of person you are? You were never a killer—you were never a true hunter.”

Myungsoo averted his eyes.

Sungyeol glared at Mr. Kim. “Yah that’s—.”

“Its ok Sungyeol.” Myungsoo cut him off. “I…I know that. I don’t…think it’s a bad thing.” He turned to Sungyeol. “Isn’t it a good thing to be told something like that? That I’m not a person who would willingly want to hurt others?”

Sungyeol swallowed down a lump in his throat and nodded, rubbing Myungsoo’s shoulder. “It is. It’s the best compliment.”

Myungsoo smiled a little and nodded. Then he turned to face his father again, taking a deep breath. “Fine, I’ll help. But its not for your sake.”

“Great,” Mr. Kim folded his hands on the table. “Firstly, have you ever heard of Ecto wood…?”

♦♦♦

Woohyun tried to take a deep breath to calm himself enough to form a rational thought as to how to get out of the chains binding him and escape.

Ilhoon had left him alone in the dark room with the bulky bodyguard from earlier. Woohyun didn’t know why but the rather sinister vibe coming from the muscular man made it hard to breathe.

He was scared. Why was he scared?

He had faced much scarier things in much worse conditions. No, that wasn’t necessarily true. Nothing was scarier than another human being…nothing else except maybe one’s own mind.

And Woohyun knew very well of the dark, lonely, hellish place his mind had always been. But the question was…how was he to overcome that? How was he supposed to overcome his own mind—or rather what he had always known and thought?

He eyed the guard, shifting his arm as much as he could which was barely an inch with the chains so tightly strapped around his wrist.

He cleared his throat, and the man suddenly turned to him with an animated expression.

“Ok! He’s finally gone!” The man whispered, excitably and proceeded to unlock the chains bounding Woohyun.

Woohyun’s eyes widened. “Huh? W-Wait what’re you—?”

“Shh! He’ll be back soon, keep your voice down.” The man warned, and then smiled a friendly smile at Woohyun.

Woohyun didn’t return the smile however, remaining suspicious.

“Why…why’re you helping me?”

The man chuckled. “Ah…I guess you don’t remember me?”

“…Remember you?”

“I’m Kenneth.”

“Ken…est?” Woohyun blinked. The man giggled some more.

“Kenneth. Well I don’t blame you for not remembering, but you saved me…or well my shop. I own a little candy shop on 5^th street…an ogre was trying to steal money out of the cash register, and that time I had a broken arm so I couldn’t do much to defend myself.” Kenneth rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “To be honest I don’t really believe in violence. I’m a very passive person. But you…you just sprung into action. I was so amazed that there was this little guy going all out on this creature ten times his size. We did meet but it was brief….you told me about your job as an SC officer and that the ogre wasn’t bad, he was just confused and frustrated that his home had been destroyed by humans cutting down the forests.”

Woohyun stared at him wide eyed. “I…I said that?”

“It was really heart-warming that…even though that ogre was so scary and big and was destroying things, somehow you managed to see the good in it, you managed to look past all that. To me…that’s the sign of a truly warm person.”

Woohyun rubbed the back of his neck, shyly. He didn’t even know what to say at the sudden flood of compliments, from this complete stranger.

“Ah anyways, a few days ago, I heard these guys…I think they were in a gang, talking near my shop. They were mentioning you, and all I knew was your name and that you worked for some soft of supernatural police department isn’t it? It sounded like you were in trouble and well…if I could do something to help you after what you did for me, then darn right I’d do it!”

Kenneth loosened the chains around his ankles, setting him free. “Ok, but…how am I supposed to trust you? What did you do to me while I was…while I was unconscious? Y-You know when…”

“Ah! Sorry Ilhoon forced me to disturb your nap.” Kenneth grabbed what looked like a cat toy—a plastic stick with a feather and some plastic balls at the end. “I didn’t touch you though! It was this thing…I think its for pets?”

Woohyun rubbed his wrists, and stretched his legs. “F-For real?”

“Yeah….I felt really bad.” Kenneth pouted. “You were sleeping so peacefully. It looked like you were having a nice dream.”

Woohyun couldn’t help a small smile. “It was…pretty nice in the beginning.”

“What was it about?” Kenneth’s eyes sparkled, like he was so excited to hear about it. “Was it about your lover?”

Woohyun blushed. “W-What? Why would you think—?”

“Sunggyu-sshi? Is that your special person’s name?” Kenneth beamed. “You said his name in your sleep.”

Woohyun smiled bashfully and looked down. But then he thought of Sunggyu. He would probably be worried, maybe he was even searching in the dark somewhere for him right at that moment. No, Woohyun was sure Sunggyu would’ve thought of some smarter plan. It was Sunggyu after all. But now, Woohyun realized, it was his turn. His turn to make Sunggyu not worry anymore—to take care of himself, and to fix things.

“Ah! Ilhoon….where is he?”

“He’s downstairs right now…if we can find a way to somehow—.”

“Ok, I’ll go from the window.” Woohyun decided, already opening it up.

“W-What?” Kenneth gasped, hurrying towards him. “B-But Woohyun-sshi, this is the second floor and this house is on quite a steep hill—.”

“Kenneth-sshi,” Woohyun grinned, one foot on the window panel. “Don’t worry about it, I’ve done this kind of thing before.”

Before Kenneth could protest anymore, Woohyun was already out the window. For a moment he was flying, the cool night air surging through his clothes, singing his skin.

Luckily he landed in a feathery bush, blooming with little pink flowers. He stumbled a bit as he stood up in the grass, ruffling the leaves out of his hair.

He studied the area, and they were certainly at the highest peak of the hill in the forest. If he had fallen it would’ve been game over.

Sunggyu flashed into his memory, as if to pull him from standing near the edge into safety, instantly comforting him,

Woohyun shook his head, as to not think of such things. This wasn’t the time. He would be ok. He would survive this.

For Sunggyu, he would be ok. For himself, he would be ok.

First of all, he had to find some way to get to Ilhoon. He realized he shouldn’t have jumped so quickly and actually concocted some sort of plan with Kenneth.

“So much for using your head…”

♦♦♦

“Are you sure this is the way?” Sunggyu sighed, following after the pale blue spirit. The spirit formed an arrow with its sparkly pink cluster, pointing in the direction they were walking. “Yeah, yeah I get it.” Sunggyu waved it off. He was still in the midst of forming some sort of plan of what he would do when he saw Ilhoon. Rescuing Woohyun was first priority for him, and then after that, he would talk to Ilhoon. Perhaps, he could convince him to—.

Suddenly there was a tap on his shoulder and he whipped around instantly on reflex, ready to use the flashlight in his hand as a weapon.

“I see you haven’t gotten rusty since leaving the gang.” Hyunsik smiled.

Sunggyu breathed a sigh of relief, and noticed Seungchul standing behind him.

“How…how’d you guys find me?”

Hyunsik gestured to the flashlight in Sunggyu’s hand.

“Hm?” He looked around. “Where’s that friend of yours? Woo…Wooyoung-sshi?”

“Woohyun…” Sunggyu sighed. “He…”

“He already screwed everything up?” Seungchul snorted. “You little dirtbags are—.”

“H-He didn’t screw anything up!” Sunggyu interrupted, determination flaming in his eyes. “He…didn’t do anything wrong, ok? I’m the one who should’ve…” He paused, suddenly remembering about the spirit and turned around. But there was nothing there. “…Where?”

“What’s wrong?” Hyunsik asked.

“No its just…there was a…I mean didn’t you guys see it?” Sunggyu blinked in disbelief, hurrying to search behind a nearby tree in case the spirit was hiding or something.

“See what?”

Sunggyu sighed, rubbing the back of his head. “N-Nevermind.” He turned to the other two men. “Look, Hyunsik-ah…I’m pretty sure Ilhoon kidnapped Woohyun again. I—.”

“I know that you want me to talk to him but…” Hyunsik averted his eyes. “I…I don’t even know what to tell him. I haven’t seen him in years…he probably hasn’t forgiven me for leaving the gang.”

“Obviously.” Sunggyu sighed. “Why do you think he started acting out more than usual after you left? He’s just getting worse and worse. You’re the one who’s known him the longest, you’re the only one who can bring him back…you know that don’t you?”

Hyunsik swallowed down a lump in his throat. “I…I’ll try.”

♦♦♦

Sunggyu, Hyunsik and Seungchul finally reached the top of the mountains, and the log cabin was in sight.

“He’s in there?” Hyunsik whispered, nudging Sunggyu.

“Yeah, Woohyun’s probably in there—.”

“No I mean Ilhoon.” Hyunsik smiled slightly.

Sunggyu cleared his throat. “O-Oh yeah…him too.”

Hyunsik chuckled. “I’ve never seen you like this…who would’ve thought you’d get so attached to someone and a guy at that—.”

“Can you hens cluck about this later?” Seungchul interrupted. “We’re kind of in the middle of something.”

Sunggyu sent him an annoyed look and then scanned the area around the house from the trees they stood behind.

“He’s different…”

“Isn’t that how it is for all people who’re in love?” Hyunsik teased.

“Shut up.” Sunggyu muttered, ignoring the tips of his ears that were turning pink. “Ok so first we’ll…” He paused when he noticed something sparkling in the bush right beside the side of the house, pressed closely to the wooden paneling. “Wait…what’s that?”

♦♦♦

Woohyun was pretty sure he heard some rustling and the slight clinking of what sounded like a gun or some sort of artillery.

“Someone’s there…” He glanced to his right—the direction of where the sound was coming from. But then he heard someone approaching from behind. He didn’t turn around fast enough and a hand was clamped over his mouth from behind as he was tackled onto the ground behind the bush.

He struggled violently until he heard the person above him shushing him—a voice he would recognize anywhere.

“Its me.”

Woohyun stopped instantly, his palms pressed into the soft dirt, relaxing almost immediately. He breathed in the scent of the man above him and there was no doubt who it was.

He sighed in relief into Sunggyu’s warm palm. “Gyu—.”

“Shh.” Sunggyu hushed him.

They stayed completely silent, holding their breaths until the nearby rustling took form into a figure, carrying some sort of weapon in the dark. He didn’t notice them behind the bushes and dashed to the other side of the house.

Sunggyu breathed a sigh of relief and it felt hot on Woohyun’s ear. Sunggyu waited a few seconds, before rolling off Woohyun, landing beside him in the grass. He didn’t want to risk sitting up and being spotted in case there were more men shadowing the perimeter.

Woohyun instantly turned to him. “Hyung!” He whispered, wide eyed. “How’d you find—?”

Sunggyu instantly clamped a hand over either of Woohyun’s cheeks, and pulled him in, kissing him until Woohyun wasn’t sure how to breathe.

“You…you’re ok…thank God.” Sunggyu breathed, his thumbs Woohyun’s cheek bones carefully.

Woohyun’s lips were still slightly jutted, and his eyebrows furrowed.

“O-Of course I would be.” He pouted. “What’d you think? I can handle myself very well, I’m not the best SC officer in the world for nothing.”

At first Sunggyu was taken off guard, but then he chuckled softly. “Yeah…my brave, strong Woohyun-ah.”

Woohyun, bit his lip, smiling shyly.

“So what happened?”

“Uh well…Ilhoon’s in there.” Woohyun gestured with a tilt of his chin in the direction of the house beside them. “Actually there’s this guy….Kenneth. He was posing as the guard, but I guess I helped him with his store in the past and he was really grateful so he helped me.”

“What?” Sunggyu blinked.

“Yeah…he untied me. He’s still inside I’m guessing. But he’s on our side.” Woohyun pursed his lips. “I don’t think Ilhoon knows I escaped yet.”

“Ok.” Sunggyu nodded. “Hyunsik and Seungchul-sshi are here. They’re waiting across the way there behind the trees.”

Woohyun peered from around the bush for a moment. “So what’s the plan?”

“I was thinking Hyunsik should walk in alone…I-I mean it sounds dangerous but I’m pretty sure Ilhoon won’t do anything to him.”

“No, but hyung….there’s something different about Ilhoon.” Woohyun explained. “I think something happened to him. His eyes were grey and his skin was pale—he looked possessed. And the way he was acting—.”

“Wait,” Sunggyu clutched onto his arm. “Could it be…a ghost? Didn’t you guys say spirits look to take over the souls of weak people?”

“You think Ilhoon’s weak?”

“Right now…he’s in a state of desperation and he’s filled with so much hate and bitterness, don’t you think that’s weakness?”

Woohyun nodded. “You could be right but…”

“So how do we get rid of the spirit?” Sunggyu asked.

“Well…” Woohyun narrowed his eyes in thought. “It has to be exorcised from his body.”

“Is that…similar to your demon, when you exorcised her?”

Woohyun sighed. “Sort of. But it’s a little more complicated since its inside his body. I…I can’t do it because I don’t have my book or seals and even then I’m not a professional—.”

“Wait a professional? So that means….”

“There’s other ways…I’ve heard of.” Woohyun leaned on his elbows. “Stuff about true love and things like that…but it sounds like a myth doesn’t it?”

Sunggyu raised an eyebrow. “Oh? What’s this? Nam Woohyun is saying true love is a myth?”

Woohyun frowned. “I’m not saying that but—.”

“True love it is.” Sunggyu decided, before Woohyun could finish.

“What? But hyung no that’s not—.”

“So what do we have to do to him? Like a kiss or something?”

“As if it’d be that easy.” Woohyun rolled his eyes. “The person he loves can try to convince him to come back, sort of like reaching inside to find his soul again and encourage him to fight off the spirit, but really that’s very unlikely that it’ll work—.”

“Ok.” Sunggyu decided, pulling his phone out of his pocket. “This is what we’ll do…”

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Finally this long gangster arc is coming to an end its dragged on long enough. Then we'll move onto the final arc ahaha why is this story not ending sorry OTL