~Chapter 5 – Be Stronger~

            "You're not doing this." Wonho's eyes are sharp and disapproving as he looks at Kihyun from over the blueprints in his hands. The beginnings of the machine's base core engine sits behind the shelves of tools covered by a cloth while Wonho puts the blueprints back down to tinker with a welding torch and some other metal knick knacks. Kihyun is impressed Wonho has managed to get everything together and set up so quickly by the time he got back.

            "Well it's not as if anyone else is going to do it for us," Kihyun mutters. He busies himself by checking the bag Gas Mask handed to him before he left to avoid Wonho's gaze. There's weapons in it. Bullets for the guns they have stowed away with I.M and two knives.

            Wonho still doesn't drop the subject, "That doesn't exactly make it any more right."

            "Nothing about this is right." Kihyun says.

            The edge to Kihyun's voice makes Wonho hesitate to continue but he has to put his thoughts out there because this is blood that they're spilling. Blood that doesn't entirely belong to them. "It's Hyungwon's father."

            Kihyun's fingers still around the bag's drawstrings. There's a tense pause but Kihyun eventually lifts his head to look at Wonho. "…You can't call a monster like that a father. He beat Hyungwon. Until Hyungwon, our friend, his son, was purple and blue without remorse. He tried to kill Hyungwon at some point. That's not a father."

            "What if Hyungwon is the one who wants the revenge?" Wonho knows that's a toss in the dark if anything.

            Kihyun knows too. "Hyungwon won't. He's too kind for that."

            "And you're not? Suddenly you're not kind any more? You've turned a new leaf and are suddenly the next avenger? You're going to be killing a human being, Kihyun."

            "And he's killed more than ten times the amount that I'm about to do," Kihyun snaps back fiercely, "Monsters don't become human. They can have very well made costumes but that's all there is to it, a costume."

            Wonho sees it in the way Kihyun stands before him, stance tense and ready to bolt, fists gripped deathly tight, there's nothing to convince Kihyun out of it. Wonho looks at him pleadingly. "Don't do this."

            "Someone has to and the choice here is between our friends and that ." Kihyun slings the bag in his hand around his shoulder as he heads for the door without looking back, "I'm going to choose our friends every time with no regrets. I know you'd do the same."

            Wonho can't rebuke because Kihyun is right.

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            Kihyun learns what dead weight really means.

            A human body is heavy.

            It drags behind him like a sack of mortal sins. The rope of the bag he uses to pull burns his hands and turns them an angry red. The rope cuts off some of the circulation to his fingers and Kihyun thinks he can't really feel seven out of the ten fingers he has anymore. The rope digs into his shoulder and settles into a tiresome ache that reaches into his bones. But Kihyun struggles forward nonetheless. Step by step he drags his feet to his destination in hell with nothing but gritted teeth and the taste of blood in the back of his throat.

            Kihyun learns that death is burdensome.

            The only sounds that echo back at him through these seemingly abandoned halls is the drag and pull of fabric against concrete. A ringing of satisfied hums enters Kihyun's awareness when he finally gets close enough to Gas Mask's stairwell. There's another sick twist in his stomach as he's reminded of how far he's fallen. He uses his disgust as a means of strength and tosses the dead weight forward as if it was a sacrificial offering.

            Kihyun pushes back his hood and stares at Gas Mask expectantly. There's a lull of silence as the hums stop and Gas Mask only stares back at Kihyun.

            "I've brought you what you wanted," Kihyun says, "The delphiniums, give them to me like you promised us."

            Gas Mask tilts his head to take a glance at the bag. For a moment Kihyun thinks he's going to get up to check it but then Gas Mask scoffs before turning back to him. "Don't forget the other half of the deal as well. I expect a delivery of those elixirs before you all run off to your death."

            "It'll be done," Kihyun spits bitterly, "The delphiniums. Now."

            Gas Mask doesn't respond for a moment and right before Kihyun opens his mouth to start spitting out insults, Gas Mask raises his arm and points to a vague direction. Kihyun turns his head to follow the movement but then his vision goes black. A bag gets shoved over his head and he can't take it off.

            He tries to struggle. He swings his arms in a wide arc hoping to hit something solid. He'll be damned if he dies here like this, betrayed by this they've been forced to negotiate with for the lives of their friends, but then someone roughly grabs his arms and pins them to his back.

            A voice finally speaks up, low and threatening, beside Kihyun's ear, "Stop struggling unless you want to lose these arms of yours. We'll lead you to the delphiniums."

            Without much choice, Kihyun stands still and allows for himself to be guided along. There's only muffled foot steps and the occasional drip drop of a leaky pipe that filter through to his ears as he walks. Before long the grip on his arms loosen and there's one last final push to his back that makes him stumble forward.

            Kihyun rips the