The flat ground beneath them crunched at every step they took.

It was like stepping on the crunchy leaves of Autumn, but instead of orange and yellow fallen leaves, it was little fragments of broken bottles, food cans and shredded woods.

Joohyun and Taeyeon were wandering and roaming in a garbage dumpster.

Some people would think it’s funny or gross to go in there but in the kingdom they lived in, dumpsters were an interesting place to explore. You could find diamonds, jewelries, furnitures, unused clothes and other useful things.

“Joohyun-ah!” Taeyeon called out enthusiastically. “Sweetie come here, look what I found for you.”

The cyborg instantly rushed toward her stepsister who was holding a pastel pink dress, printed with flowers. However, instead of smiling like she always did whenever Taeyeon discovered something for her, an ear shattering scream escaped her lips.

Panicked, Taeyeon dropped the item as she shook the latter’s shoulder.

“Sweetie, what’s with the scream? Are you okay?”

“U-Unnie, y-your... face.” Joohyun’s steel hand trembled as she spoke. 

Taeyeon frowned as she fished out the pocket mirror that she often carried with her and the same horrifying scream slipped out from her lips, only hers was louder.

Tiny dark blue blotches filled her cheeks, a few on her neck down to her collarbone and so does on the fair skin of her arms.

It only meant one thing. She got the deadly disease that had been spreading continuously in the kingdom for the past three weeks.

The Black Fever.

“Isn’t, isn’t this...?” She faltered, unable to get her mind straight. 

Joohyun who was panicked like her as well scanned Taeyeon’s body through her cyborg eye.

She hoped that it was just an ordinary disease but unfortunately, it was indeed the black fever which currently had no cure at all.

Her silence was enough to answer Taeyeon’s question.

They stayed frozen on their spot, not sure what to think and not sure what to say either.

Soon, the agonizing ice between the two of them was broke by Taeyeon who weakly fell on her knees, weeping and wailing like there was no tomorrow.

She was a mess. Eyes swollen, limbs shaking madly, head buried on her knees and hands clutching her hair as if it would stop the swelling pain that was knotting in her chest.

“Unnie...” The latter crouched d