Youngbae woke up with a massive dizziness wrecking his head. His eyelids slowly opened and a view of a very much foreign room greeted him. He looked around to catch any glimpse of familiar things only to see nothing in sight. He had never been in this kind of room.

The interior design of it wholly resembling a traditional Korean house. From all the woods, furniture with its arrangement and even the windows, Youngbae found himself travelling through time to the Joseon era. Everything looked so old and screamed history that he had learned during school. Although it all looked so old, the furniture in the room were still sturdy. No signs of decay. It was probably antics stuff he thought.

He was so indulged staring in admiration and wonderment at the room and its interior decoration when the realization dawned in him that he didn’t know about his current whereabouts. He fished out his phone from the back pocket of his jeans to find that the battery was out. He lifted his left wrist to see what time it was and was surprised to know that it was already half past 10 in the morning.

He thought that it was so absurd, that how could the time passed so quickly? Did that mean he just slept for like all night long? The last memory he had was the park, it was nearing night; around 6 or 7 Youngbae couldn’t remember it and he had a phone call with a dead Daesung. Plus, Haneul was also there before he felt himself flying in the air then hit the ground so hard that his precious face could still feel the sand on it.

His whole body felt so aching but undeniably lighter for some unknown reason. He let his hand reached the behind of his neck and the stiffness was felt there. He also couldn’t dismiss the slight bump behind his head, like he was hit by something. Or someone. He was pondering over the reason why and how he could fell asleep when the wooden door slid opened and Haneul entered the room with a bowl of soup and herbal tea with him. He was wearing a stylish dark pants and blue turtleneck shirt covered with a grey sweatshirt. He looked like one of the models from the Grazia Magazine or something with his fashion of the day.

“Did you sleep well? How do you feel?” He asked the very much confused Youngbae whilst setting the food up on the table. The smell of it drew a big grumbling sound from the latter’s stomach. Youngbae didn’t even realized how hungry he was. “You slept so soundly I didn’t have the heart to wake you up for dinner. You must have been tired.” Haneul said. He gave a warm smile to Youngbae in front of him who was still unable to form a right word.

“How did I fell asleep?” He asked simply out of curiosity. A very big curiosity to say. The confusion was visible on his face. Eyes searching for answer in Haneul’s. The psychic however didn’t answer him straightforwardly. Instead he took a sit on the cushion before Youngbae and put Seunghyun’s phone on the table right beside the food. The screen of it was cracked badly beyond recognition already.  

“I almost lost you yesterday, Youngbae-shii.” The words coming out from Haneul took Youngbae by surprised. From the tone of the psychic’s voice, it was not something to be taken lightly. And the way he spoke scared Youngbae, he was well aware what did the latter mean by ‘lost’. “What happened yesterday?”

No answer was given by Haneul. He motioned for Youngbae to have a look on his back at the big full-length standing mirror at the corner left of the room and Youngbae obeyed him even though more clouds of confusion surrounding his head. He turned his body, back facing the mirror and tilted his head to see through it what did the psychic meant by looking at his back. And to his utter shocking revelation Youngbae saw a big ugly black-bluish bruise on the skin of his neck. The bruise looked new and there were a few blotches of red around it. His eyes went wide seeing it, as far as he remembered it he didn’t have the bruise before.

Stupefaction nailed his body to the floor. He was unable to move his body anymore, eyes never leaving the black spots decorating his white skin. Fear crawled on his heart as he wondered wildly what was the thing that caused the bruise to form. Haneul’s sigh was heard from behind, breaking Youngbae’s thought mildly.

“This case is far much bigger than I thought it would be. The app is no longer the channel for the demon to use, but they are taking over it, entirely and it will not be easy to stop them anymore.” Youngbae broke his gaze on the mirror to Haneul behind him. Youngbae’s hands were tightly wrapped around his body like a child shivering in the coldness of winter. His mind hadn’t fully recovered from the shock until no words were able to mutter. He let Haneul did the talking.

“This app is supposed to be only a game for the youngsters in this crazy cyber-era but now, it has been possessed by something a lot darker and evil. After the call you made yesterday I have never been this certain in my entire life. It is a demon. And they are getting stronger, day by day possibly with each fear they are fed to.”

“Yesterday when you were talking using the app, that thing had probably detected my presence around you. It took it as a threat and they started to fight it. The bruise that is formed on your neck is because of that thing biting you and all of your blood, taking with it your energy and life out from your body.” Hearing the psychic’s explanation had the fear intensified tenfold in him. Youngbae could feel his heart stopped beating and his blood drained away from his body. He was starting to think that his eyeballs could just pop out any seconds from how big his eyes had become.

“Youngbae-shii, I think you need to know that the thing had been following you for weeks already. It stuck behind your back, like a shadow except that it wouldn’t be gone when you turned off the lights. When you walked around, you took it with you too. It was following you everywhere and anywhere you go.” By the time the psychic finished, Youngbae had recovered halfway from the shock. His eyes were not focused but at least his mind was still there with him. The room was not cold but Haneul saw how shaken he was.

“But you don’t have to worry anymore. After I knocked you down yesterday in time, I detached it from you entirely. No traces left behind. It will not come back again to you. You are safe now.” Haneul said with a comforting smile on his face. It was bright and mesmerizing like always but none of it could calm Youngbae down.

“Y-you were the one who hit me?!” Youngbae asked, voice literally raised but no anger laced in it. More like astonishment.

“Yes, it was me. And I apologize for that.” Haneul stated his apology though it was unnecessary in Youngbae’s opinion. Because no matter what happened, this man saved his life and Youngbae was eternally grateful for that. But now he finally knew the reason why his head was throbbing so badly.

“How did you do that? I mean, how did you get rid of it?” He asked the man, curiosity vaporizing in the air.

“Well, I can’t tell you that.” Youngbae had his eyebrows raised at the answer. “I have my own way.” He didn’t inquire more after that. His eyes once again found the bruise through the mirror, he had to suppress himself from letting out a discomfort groan looking at how big and hideous and black the bruise was. Yet strangely, when he pressed it with his fingers, he felt no pain at all.

Suddenly he remembered something. The bruise, he saw it before. It was the same one that Chanwoo had all over his body. He remembered so well how the color resembled the hundreds on the young boy’s body, tainting the boy beautiful skin. “Wait a second…” Youngbae said, garnering the psychic’s attention. “This bruise, I remember that Chanwoo has it too. He has about ten or more on his body.” The memory of yesterday morning when he visited the boy in the hospital flashed through his eyes like a film. He recognized the bruise so well. “How can that be possible?” He asked again.

“He has the same bruise like you?” Haneul asked back, Youngbae nodded his head as an answer before he continued, “He has a few of them even before he was attacked in the practice room. That was what I heard from the doctor.”

“Then it’s possibly mean that the thing has been attached to that boy for a long time already.” Haneul gave his thoughts after a few seconds of reasonable thinking. He had the detective-like posture; hand on his chin and eyes reflected deep thoughts.

“You said that the thing on human’s blood and energy, right? Does that mean it do the same things too to Chanwoo?” 

“Exactly. But they didn’t just on our blood and drain our energy and life. They fed of human’s fears. Fear is the thing that makes them become more attached to us. They are taking us like a container full of food. Whenever they are hungry, they eat us. And slowly the container will be emptied and there will be nothing left of us, except for an empty vessel.” Haneul explained, the sternness of his made Youngabe’s body staggered a bit. “After it is emptied, they will fill it with something else. They fill it with them.” Youngbae’s eyes widened at the words as his brain managed to catch on the hidden meaning behind the psychic’s words.

“You mean by fill it with them is…”

“Yes, they take control. In other words, they possess him.” Youngbae’s eyes grew bigger like a saucer, unable to believe that he heard it. He was starting to doubt his hearing but the look Haneul gave to him was more than enough to show him that it was the truth. That the situation was a lot more griever than it was.

He was starting to get really worried about the maknae. What will happen to him then? More importantly, what will happen to the people around him?

“But why him? Why it’s only Chanwoo among all of the people around?” Utter puzzlement could be detected in his voice. The bafflement that Youngbae felt was too overwhelming.

“Those thing doesn’t just take on anyone randomly. It has something to do with the person own personality. The demons, they like to play with people that has a weak mental state. Young people like children fits the description well because they have a pure mindset and innocent soul with a fragile belief. It makes youngsters as the easiest target for them to possess.” Silence engulfed the room after Haneul finished his very-much-scary-and-supernatural-like explanation. The gulp from Youngbae was loud enough to be heard. The color that he had before on his skin was gone already. He was returning pale once again.

His eyes fell on the phone lying still on the table. The flat screen was cracked heavily. Looks like he would have no choice but to buy the older a new one. “The screen, it cracks because of that thing yesterday, right?”

“Yes, after I took the thing away from you the phone went off. But although the screen cracks and broken,” Haneul reached his hand for the phone and pressed his finger to the start button. Miraculously, the phone was . “It still can be used.” Now Youngbae was gaping like a fish on the dry land. He took the phone from the psychic’s hand and checked it by himself. It was true, the screen was still functioning despite the cracks it had. He was able to touch it and the phone was functioning well like usual. It was adding to the list of another mysteries of the century.

“This is crazy.” He muttered out loudly enough for the birds outside to hear. Hands were still grabbing the phone and inspecting it like it was a meteorite from the sky or something.

“If I delete the app nothing will change. So I tried to break the phone when you were still unconscious but I can’t.” Haneul said. He received another question from the stupefied looking Youngbae afterwards asking him the reason behind it. “I think it’s because of the app itself. It protects the phone from being damaged. Which means that until we solve all these problems that is going on the phone will be out from the harm way. That is my conclusion.”

Haneul said carefully to the still visibly shaken Youngbae, it was clear enough that the event of the day was taking a quite toll on him. He hastily put down the phone on the table after Haneul mentioned of something protecting it. The latter tried to suppress a laugh from coming out but instead a smile formed on his lips. “But you don’t have to worry about it. As long as we didn’t make any call using that app, nothing bad will happen hopefully. And besides, a phone is still a phone. It’s not going to hurt you.” He said it again after he saw how afraid Youngbae was to even touch the electronic device. The latter turned a bit red, flustered by his own action.

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