He didn’t expect to see the man again so soon.

 

But truth be told, he was quite glad to see him. After all, the man with the azure blue eyes was the only reason he was still alive.

 

He clutched at the gaping wound on his shoulder, caused by the bullet shot by the Lumos… who was lying on the ground. Dead.

 

And the person who had killed him was the man right next to him, who had immediately dragged him to hide behind a wall.

 

Hyukjae had been on his usual rounds to the empty supermarket, salvaging whatever he could from the almost barren store. Just as he was about to leave the store, he was caught by surprise. The lumos were making a surprise round, and he could hear the men with their bloodthirsty hounds before they even turned the corner.

 

He had hidden behind the tinted glass wall, hoping that they would just pass by him. When he thought they had passed, he had leapt from his hiding position, only to come face to face with one of the Lumos, pointing its gun right at his face.

And then, the man had come to his rescue again. The shot was fired, but the man pulled him away, the bullet grazing his shoulder.

 

And all of a sudden, the Lumos was dead, lying on the ground.

 

The man next to him had shot the other Lumos dead.

 

Hyukjae almost couldn’t believe it. The man had killed his own kind… to save him.

 

 

With no further signs of any Lumos nearby, the man heaves a sigh of relief and Hyukjae lets out a tiny breath of his own.

 

Yet another close shave…

 

He feels the man placing his arms on his, steadying him. He hadn’t even realised that he was shaking so badly. He feels the other pulling him up, still holding him in a firm grip.

 

And he loses consciousness.

 

-

 

Hyukjae opens his eyes and immediately shoots up from the bed.

 

A bed…?

 

Where am I?

 

He tries to stand up, only to wince and fall back onto the bed when he feels the sharp pain in his bandaged shoulder.
 

“You seem to be getting into trouble quite often.” He looks up and he sees the man entering the room with a glass of water.

 

He gratefully takes it, gulping the water down greedily.

 

When he puts the glass down, he sees the man staring at him with a gaze so strong that he feels a heat rising up his cheeks.

 

“Well, if you haven’t noticed, I am running from your kind…” Hyukjae utters and almost feels a pinch of guilt when he sees the downcast expression of the man.

 

“Yeah,” the man utters, rubbing his hands against his neck awkwardly. “You are.”

 

“Who are you?” Hyukjae asks, and he is taken aback by the eyes that look into his.

 

Those eyes that are so full of confusion… The gaze that is so broken.

 

“This is my hideout. Where I come to escape from my duties.”

 

“How long have you been doing this? You’re new, right?”

 

Donghae looks up at that, seemingly surprised by Hyukjae’s knowledge.

 

“Well yeah. I was forced to be a soldier a month ago. I had refused for the longest time, but recently, they’ve been in need of more soldiers. I had no choice.” Hyukjae nods at that, biting his lips while he thinks.

 

“Why did you save me?”

 

There is a long pause.

 

“I… I don’t know. I had never killed anyone, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. In the past, when the other soldiers killed a human, I would just let them. But when I saw you, I just couldn’t let them kill you…”

 

Hyukjae looks up at him in shock.

 

“And besides, when I carried you here just now, I felt no pain.” Hyukjae raises his eyebrows at that. Being a human who once lived in the light, coming into direct contact with any Lumos would cause extreme pain. The Lumos feared the light after all. That was the reason why they wanted to completely destroy Earth - to take away the light.

 

Hyukjae nods again, unable to utter another word. The whole situation was absurd.

 

“I know I’m not supposed to do this. I’ll only get myself killed.”

 

“But, I don’t know anymore…”

 

Hyukjae only stares as the man massages the sides of his temple, groaning in frustration.

 

“Stay here for now.” Hyukjae looks up to see the man leaving the room.

 

“Wait,” Hyukjae calls out, and the man waits for him to speak.

 

“Who are you?”

 

The door closes and Hyukjae hears the footsteps fading away.

 

“My name is Donghae.”

 

 

Hyukjae wakes up in the middle of the night, beads of sweat trickling down his forehead and his hands shaking furiously. He had dreamt of them again.

 

It was always the dream of his parents and sister getting killed by the Lumos and how he watched as he hid in the cupboard.

 

I’m a coward.

 

“Hey.” He jumps at the voice, turning to see Donghae standing by the door. “I heard you screaming… Are you okay?”

 

Hyukjae only looks down at his shaking hands and he screams when he sees blood on them.

 

Donghae immediately rushes over, holding the man who is thrashing wildly in his arms.

 

“Calm down!” Donghae attempts to grab at the hands.

 

“Blood!” Hyukjae gasps, clawing away at his own arms. “There’s blood.” Hyukjae mumbles and Donghae frowns.

 

“There’s nothing, you’re hallucinating.”

 

Hyukjae stops at that, looking down at his hands again. There is nothing but a few cuts he had gotten from the encounter with the Lumos earlier.

 

“I’m a murderer.” Hyukjae mumbles, staring helplessly at the man in front of him, whose grip on him doesn’t slacken.

 

I will never be able to wash their blood off me.

 

“It was two years ago,” Hyukjae begins. “When the first of the Lumos started coming.”

 

One by one, all the lights had went out.

 

I remember walking home from school, eating my favourite snacks from the roadside stall. Then everyone started screaming.

 

I ran.

 

I ran home, and my parents and sister were crying. The lumos were coming, and they were right outside my house.

 

My parents pushed me into the tiny cupboard and closed the door. They didn’t even have a chance to hide. And then they came.

 

I watched everything happening from the small gap between the door. Hidden safely behind the cupboard.

 

But they died.

 

And I watched them die.

 

I basically murdered them. The lumos had followed me home and I did nothing but to watch them get killed.

 

I’m a murderer.

 

 

Donghae looks at the man in front of him who has tears streaming down his face, and who had subconsciously gripped onto his shirt.

 

“You are not a murderer.” Donghae utters, placing his hands above the other’s to calm him down.

 

“It wasn’t your fault. If anything, it’s mine.”

 

Hyukjae looks up curiously, his cheeks red from crying.

 

“I mean, it’s my kind who killed you after all.” Donghae mumbles, his eyes shifting away nervously.

 

“I have to avenge them.” The hold on his hands is strangely soothing. Donghae nods.

 

“And how are you going to do that?”

 

“I have to find the light.”

 

“We’re all looking for that last light source. I have to get to it first before the Lumos gets to it and destroys it once and for all. If that happens, it will truly be the end of the world.”

 

“I’ll help you.” The man says without hesitation.

 

“You?”

 

“Yes, me. Why?” Hyukjae feels a blush creeping up his cheek when the man places his hand on his cheek, so that he can turn Hyukjae’s face towards him.

 

Donghae stares at him, and the both of them don’t speak for a while, merely staring.

 

“I haven’t gotten your name, by the way.” Donghae breaks the silence.

 

Hyukjae looks up, feeling himself strangely drawn to the blue eyes. He had never seen them before even among the other Lumos soldiers.

 

“Hyukjae.” Hyukjae utters, clearing his throat. Donghae nods, feeling a strange prickling sensation rising up his face as he stares at the wounded man in front of him.

 

How strange, he muses.

 

Hyukjae finds himself questioning the whole situation as well. A lumos who had offered to help him, sitting right beside him, nursing his wound.

 

Who are you, Donghae?

 

“Why would you do that? Isn’t that what your kind has been trying to destroy for the longest time?”

 

“I’ve let this carry on for too long,” Donghae murmurs, tearing his gaze away from Hyukjae’s. “Now it’s time to bring this all to a stop.”