I can’t really tell you what happened after that. I lost track of time. I lost track of myself. I’m not sure how much time went by. I wasn’t really myself anymore. Everything was the same now. Everyday went by the same way. There was never anything new. I had even stopped eating without noticing, but my energy wasn’t going down too fast. I had stopped moving. I spent my entire days and nights rolled into a ball in a corner of my house, hidden between two pieces of furniture. Months went by and I hadn’t eaten anything. My energy was going down. My eyes turned black, and then gray. And they only got paler day after day. Once they would turn white, I’d die. It would have happened if one more week had gone by.

**

[Narrator’s POV]

“So your neighbor is named Jae, right?”

“Yes, as I’ve told you earlier.”

“Thank you for your time.”

Ama left, sighing a little. Jae hadn’t shown up in… a while. A long time, actually. She knew he was free to do whatever he wanted, but… there had been something between them, right? Unless she was mistaken. Wouldn’t be the first time.

She headed towards the house her research had shown her to, knocking on the door. No response. She knocked again. No response. She sighed before she tried opening it.

Unlocked.

She stepped in, slowly and cautiously. She was quiet, listening. No sound in the house. She kept on walking until…

“Jae?”

There he was, hidden in a corner barely big enough for him. Ama went to him, slowly. She felt as if she was in the presence of an injured animal. Jaebum was injured, she had noticed that easily, but he wasn’t an animal… usually. Right now, she wasn’t too sure. He looked so… lost. She crouched next to Jaebum, frowning.

“Jae…”

No response. At least for several minutes. And then…

“Ama…” he said, his voice low and almost inaudible.

“You idiot,” she scolded him softly, clenching her teeth. “There was no need for you to give me your hand.”

“I did so to repay your kindness.”

Her laughter was a little sad.

“That’s the first time someone tells me that. Doesn’t change the fact that you’re an absolute .”

She touched his cheek, making him look into her eyes. She was worried, more than she let him see.

“Why are you letting yourself die?”

“Because all of this is too much. All of this was too much. I did horrible things. I… I got conscious of how horrible of a person I am when you gave me your hand so I could feed. It took that to let me realize that being one of my kind doesn’t mean we can judge who dies and who lives…”

“You were raised that way, weren’t you?”

He kept silent, his eyes getting paler. Speaking was using up his energy. He started closing his eyes, his body slowly shutting down into a coma to preserve the last bits of energy it had left. Ama was about to tell him to stay awake when she heard a noise behind her.

She turned.

All she had the time to see were two sharp blades slashing down in her direction.

She closed her eyes.