[CONTENTID1]

I fell sick and still otw to recovery. But still, I can't resist not writing this story. ^^ Excuse me for the another late update.

THIS IS QUITE A LONG CHAP.

The locals are helping them packing up for the journey return home. After almost 2 months staying in tents around the excavation site, finally they are heading home again. The four-wheel drive car is ready to take him and the rest of the students out from the village. Before he leaves, he has his chance to meet somebody worthy of his studies for the last time.

The man in questioned is wearing a grey Kurta shirt, as grey as his hairless head. His face shows how long he has lived, etched with thousands wrinkles of the time he has breathed. He looks up only when his daughter taps him on the shoulder, signaling her father of the visitor.

“Apa khabar, Pak Sufian?” (How are you doing, Mr. Sufian?)

Haneul politely greets the old man of 93 years old in Indonesian. He has been learning the language even before he starts working as a lecturer. The old man has been his most trustful resources of what Haneul is seeking for; the answers to everything after such a long time he’s trying to find it. He takes a sit before him cross-legged on the bamboo mat. He watches as the man smiles at him widely, nodding his head as his greeting.

“Maafkan saya mengganggu. Saya di sini ingin mengambil barang yang bapak ingin berikan kepada saya.” (Excuse me for interrupting you. I’m here to take the thing you said you wanted to give me.)

Haneul explains to him and then the man signals for her daughter to grab something from his room. They wait for her to come out. As she does, she hands Haneul what it seems to be an old journal, the book bones is made of a few thick strings holding the yellow-colored sheets together. Haneul could see how in the hand of a rough person, the book won’t last longer. He keeps it in his mind to take a good care of it. He slips through the pages, the number of it is on rival to a thick encyclopedia. But at least the answers is in it.

He bows to the man and takes his hand for a shake. Haneul is thankful for what he has taught him. He mutters a thank you and Sufian smiles. His crooked lined teeth showing. Haneul can’t help but to think of how he will miss staying here, miss the man and every peaceful things in the village. Sadly he doesn’t belong here. He has to go back to Korea for his job isn’t finished yet.

As he makes his way to the wooden door, he is stopped by Sufian’s words;

“Saat gelap mendekat, kita membawa cahaya. Namun ketika kegelapan ada di dalam diri kita, bahkan cahaya tidak bisa mencapai. Kecuali harapan untuk menjangkau cahaya.”

(When the dark approaches, we bring in the light. Yet when the darkness is inside of us, even the light could not reached. Except, for a hope to reach out the light.)

Haneul watches the man said those words to him, as he smiles encouragingly to him. Haneul can’t help but to return it, knowing how kind Sufian is. He bids him and his family farewell with a heavy heart. But he must go on, he has lives to be saved. He returns to the car with the students waiting for him.

The drive towards the town only takes 30 minutes. Right when he has arrived at the airport, the clock of his phone reads 0600 and the sky is turning a hue of light blue over the horizon. Haneul let the other staff coming along with him to take care of the tickets and flight schedule while he walks towards the resting area. After months living without any gadgets nor phone reception, he finally receives lots of emails from his inbox. Many from few of his acquaintances. He opens up one that intrigues him for weeks. As he reads it, he quickly fishes out his phone from the pocket and calls a number.

Haneul feels sorry for disturbing him this early in the morning but he doesn’t have much time left. “Hello? Kim Jinhwan-shii?”

The next day that comes, Chanwoo wakes up in a daze. He had another strange dream yet again. It’s the same one everyday without any sign of stopping. He tries to understand it but the more he decodes the dream, the more puzzled he gets. In his dream, he is in a countless darkness and Donghyuk is there, crying and apologizing to him. Chanwoo doesn’t know if it’s a sign or just a bad dream. Although he strongly hopes it’s the latter.

And then he is reminded of last night. Thinking about it gets his face blushing profusely red. He remembers Hanbin; his touches, voice and the kiss. Oh God, how heated the kiss they have shared last night. The way Hanbin’s lips on his, his hot breath mingling with Chanwoo, their syncing lips moving together and the way their tongues dancing. The last thought gets him bashful. He lifts the blanket to cover his red face, although there is nobody in the room to see him. Hanbin is up early for his morning hike, Chanwoo knows because the leader often does his exercise in every Wednesday morning.

Kicking the blanket away, Chanwoo sits up on the bed. His mind taking him to Hanbin. How embarrassing the whole experience is. It’s his first kiss ever and the fact he does it—quite hotly, with the leader is something out of his mind. Well, although he’s not against it; Chanwoo does admit he has a feeling for the leader since a long time ago and it is mutual. The constant eye contacts from Hanbin, his deeply caring demeanor to Chanwoo every time and the last night kisses prove it.

He giggles like a mad high school girl. He can’t think of anything else other than him. Then a thought invades him, how is he going to confront Hanbin after this? For sure he’ll be a mess in front of him and being a target of teasing isn’t Chanwoo’s cup of tea. So he decides not to talk to Hanbin. In fact, he will try to avoid the leader to prevent another second-handed embarrassment. Although the idea might be futile since they are in the same group—and same dorm too, but Chanwoo has his ways. He could spend his day or maybe even night at the dance studio or in Bobby’s recording studio, pretending to help the rapper with his songs; usually it’s Donghyuk but since he’s in the hospital, Chanwoo can fill in the space for a while.

Or he could just fully stay at Donghyuk’s ward room. Yes, that seems like a really brilliant plan. When Hanbin comes to visit, he will return back to the dorm and vice versa. It’s simple! So he wakes up from his bed, takes a shower and get ready to go to the hospital. He needs to leave before the leader comes back home…..

“Are you sure about this?” Hanbin anxiously asks Jinhwan, the mat hyung nods his head as he’s wearing the exact same expression as the leader; fear. Jinhwan slides his phone on the table surface to show him the messages Haneul has sent this early morning. Hanbin takes it, studying the email attentively.

“He called me around 8:30 this morning. I was quite shocked to see an international call but I knew it was him.” Jinhwan said to Hanbin. June who is sitting next to the oldest only stays silence as he keeps eyeing their surroundings. There isn’t much people in the hospital cafeteria but they need to watch out for any paparazzi lurking around the places. The last thing any of them wanted is a trouble with their faces on each pages of websites.

Hanbin clicks his tongue in frustration. His face stoic with jaw clenching. He hands in the phone back to Jinhwan. As he leans his back to the chair, Hanbin’s gears are working out two times faster. After reading the messages from Haneul talking about an Indonesian man with the same ability as Chanwoo and the aftermath of the exact ability to the man, it gets him far more worried and afraid. But that is the least of his worries. It’s the thing the psychic said about Donghyuk that gnawed on his inside.

He sighs heavily with both hands running wild onto his messy blonde hair. His eyes casted on the certain quiet Goo Junhwe by Jinhwan’s right. Since Hanbin came to see the two until now, he has been so quiet. “June-ah, you’re okay?” Hanbin asks him, watching the second maknae letting a sigh out from his mouth. His face shows confusion.

“I think so. I’m still absorbing all these things.” He said frowning with both shoulders slouched. An attitude they all know when he’s too tired yet forced to think at the same time. Well, what can they say? The kid has just found out today that his two best friends will soon be a meal to a demon; Jinhwan is the one breaking the story to him.

“But seriously hyung, if what Haneul-shii said about Donghyukkie is true; that whatever is possessing Donghyuk is a demon and it wants him and Chanwoo so badly, we should make sure they won’t meet each other at all shouldn’t we?” June’s words get both Jinhwan and Hanbin’s attention on him. “What do you mean?” Jinhwan asks.

“Well, just think about it; if it really wants both of them, then we have to separate them to avoid anything out of control. At least, one of them are safe.” June said again, eyeing both s.

Hanbin nods his head to his words. “June is right. It’s best if they won’t be close to each other. Not until we get that thing out of Donghyukkie.”

“But how exactly are we going to convince Chanwoo not to visit Donghyuk? He’ll get suspicious and I don’t even know how to break this news to him. He’ll freak out!” Jinhwan voices his concern, agitating at the idea of a frightened maknae. “Remember what Mino hyung and Seungyoon hyung said about Chanwoo’s soul attracting those things to him? They even told us not to tell maknae yet because he will flip for sure.”

“I know it’s not a good time yet for him to know.” Hanbin intercepts, talking about the soul thingy. “But it’s probably the best for him to know what dangers await him. It’s about Chanwoo; his life. He has the right to know.”

Jinhwan and June face Hanbin with the outmost focus they can muster. Jinhwan’s face screams worries and doubt while June keeps frowning. “Hyung, and by the mean of the danger is you mean he should know about the demon chasing him?”

Hanbin nods his head at June’s question. “And he should know the reason why Donghyukkie is disturbed in the first place as well.” At that, Jinhwan opens his eyes wide as he throws a baffled look to the leader.

“Are you serious? You’re going to tell Chanwoo that Donghyuk has feelings for him?” Jinhwan waits for Hanbin to react, only for the leader to put his head down. Face solemn in sadness. Jinhwan is taken aback by the decision Hanbin is opting to while June is surprised.

“W—Wait, Donghyukkie likes Chanwoo? Uri Chanu?!” His face written thousands of confusion with June’s mouth opening up so wide. When he sees the nod from Jinhwan, he rests his back over the chair. “Heol.” Is the only thing coming out from his mouth.

“That is why the thing is interested with Donghyuk.” Jinhwan pipes in. “Donghyuk is in quite a dilemma nowadays.”

Jinhwan’s choice of word gets a snort out of Hanbin. “I won’t say it’s a dilemma. More like a ‘big distress and discomfort’.”

June’s interest is pricked upon. “What do you guys mean? Did Chanwoo reject him?” Jinhwan laughs. “Reject? That dummy didn’t even get a chance to confess.”

June continues to frown. “Why not? If I were him, I would just tell Chanwoo. It’s not a big deal.” He huffs out ignorantly, making Jinhwan and Hanbin gagging up.

“Stop it, June. You can’t even ing sit still in the same room with Bobby hyung. Stop spewing bull.” Hanbin’s words turn the vocalist quiet. He fumbles with words. “T—That is different! I don’t think like that about Bobby hyung!” Jinhwan is enjoying the baffled June.

“So why he didn’t confess?” But June still won’t let the topic die down. Jinhwan can see Hanbin fidgeting awkwardly in his seat.

“Because he got some rival.” June side glanced Jinhwan as the older said it. The mention of rival sparks more of his interest. “Whoa, who is it?” June is excited, face beaming with mischievous grin. Just when he lands his attention to Hanbin, the leader breaks it to him.

“Me.” And June’s grin dies down, dead with his mind power.

Chanwoo prefers for himself to go alone but of course, the others won’t allow it. He’s such a naïve. In the end, Yunhyuk drives both him and Yunhyeong to the hospital. As they make their ways through the main entrance, Yunhyeong’s