4. Soulless Creatures

Hyunseung

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The door shut close.

“…I have had enough of this!” he cried. He bolted for the door, reaching his hand out to escape from this place –

Suddenly there was a voice from the corner of the room, a calm, melodious voice –

“Don’t run… you might break another one of my dolls…”

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Hyunseung skidded to a halt. He tried his best not to belt out another yell upon hearing the voice that came out of nowhere in the dark room.

Now as pale as a ghost, Hyunseung turned around – panting – eyes wide and feeling very panicked.

He felt even more disrupt when he saw the source of the voice.

It was Yoseob. When did he come in here?

Yoseob stood at the far corner of the room, blank, emotionless eyes were staring right at him and they seemed to burn holes in Hyunseung. He had his head tiled to the side a bit, on his hand he clutched another one of those dolls –

- He was holding the doll that Hyunseung broke.

And right now, he has seen so much – too much – that he can’t seem to register anything. So right now, his mind was too downright panicked and blurry to even think about what he was saying or what he was about to say.

“W-what…?” he asked bluntly, shakily. He raised his hands awkwardly, not knowing where to place it where it would feel awkward or uncomfortable with Yoseob staring at him.

“Don’t run… you already broke one of my dolls…” Yoseob repeated solemnly, voice monotone, hand the hair of the broken doll.

“Your…dolls…?” He asked, just as blunt as before. He slowly looked around the room, looking at all of the dolls.

They were all…his?

So this was…his room?

 “You mean…this is all yours?”

“The world is cruel. They only destroy those who do not deserve to be gone from this world…all of those innocent people…” Yoseob continued, completely ignoring Hyunseung’s questions. His head was now looking down instead of Hyunseung. He was talking to himself…or rather talking to the doll.

“Do you deserve it?” he asked the doll, his fair hands going down to the face of the doll. Hyunseung could only watch, afraid to interfere. “Would I…deserve…it? Did I…?” Yoseob said faintly, but enough for Hyunseung to hear.

Yoseob’s head suddenly looked back up to Hyunseung, only now his eyes weren’t expressionless, it wasn’t blank. Now it had intensified. He was looking at Hyunseung seriously, a cold spark in his eyes.

“Why are you here?”

Hyunseung almost choked on his own words. “I…I well…I-I… you see – I’m sorry… I –“ he stuttered, unable to answer properly under Yoseob’s intensifying gaze. But then again, even without Yoseob there, he still wouldn’t be able to answer.

“I’m sorry, I was walking…and…and well – I got curious and…” he managed, hands going up to try and loosen the collar of his shirt which to him had somehow gotten tighter.

“Oh…? You don’t…dislike…these things?” Yoseob said, monotone voice coming back, his gaze returning to those cold yet innocent ones. “I don’t know why I have these things…but…I don’t dislike them either…” he said. Hyunseung noticed his fingers went to trace the cracks on the doll he was holding.

“H-Hey…I’m sorry…about your doll…” Hyunseung cautiously said. “It was an accident…I bumped into it and…”

“Some say dolls like these are creepy…scary…” Yoseob said, standing up, holding the doll by its arm, letting it fall limp on his side. He walked across the room, Hyunseung following him with his gaze. He stopped walking, tilting his head slightly towards Hyunseung. “…You don’t think that?” he asked glumly.

“Well…at first…but now…” he trailed off, not really sure on what to say. His experience with those dolls a few minutes ago had frightened the hell out of him, but now that he felt less…hectic... he started to notice the beauty in the dolls, those little details that even made him admire them. Hyunseung didn’t know why…but he felt tired all of a sudden.

Yoseob nodded upon hearing his statement, turning his head away from him. Hyunseung hesitated at first, but now he found himself curious once more as he slowly went to where Yoseob was. He found himself looking at a doll which Yoseob has his eyes at.

The doll had dark violet hair – almost black – that was straight and curved a bit on the ends. The doll had full bangs and wore a black corset with roses on it. It had a small rose hat adorned on its head.

“I like this one” Yoseob said. He reached out his hand to tuck a few strands of hair behind the ear of the doll. “She looks so…peaceful”

“It’s strange to me…that they can look so calm… Like there are no problems in the world…even though they are surrounded by nightmares and the cruelty of this world. Everyday…” he muttered. Hyunseung wasn’t sure if Yoseob was talking to him or to himself.

“E-eh…well… maybe that’s why she’s so happy, because she’s found a solution to her problems…” Hyunseung said. It felt strange to him, talking about something non-living as if it was alive. As if it had a soul. As if it had a life. He would normally want to say that he found it stupid, but strangely, it wasn’t. Now that he and Yoseob were talking about it, strangely, it didn’t feel silly at all, just…out of the ordinary.

“Impossible.” Hyunseung blinked at Yoseob’s blunt reply.

“There are always problems in this world. Even if you find a solution or not, another dilemma’s bound to surface again. But some problems really don’t have a solutio