It was actually early in the morning, Leeteuk said he had some work to do and left, “I’ll look in to this ‘Yunho’ you mentioned. Do you happen to catch his last name?” Leeteuk quietly left after the glare directed his way, “Ok. I’ll let you know if I find something.”

The apartment returned to its usual quiet state, without the flurry of movements of others, or the sound of people talking, void even of the sound of footsteps. Donghae washed the empty mugs and set the dishes back in its place.

He took off his t-shirt, tossing it on the bed. ‘Should exercise today’, he thought as he got into position to do some exercises. No exercise is ever complete without push-ups and that’s when he stopped, “Ack”, he grimaced holding his wrist. “I forgot I got this last night.”

The bandage that Kyuhyun had wrapped was wet and turned slightly brown, his sweat trickling down his forehead dropping on the injured palm. He stood up, frowning again as his bones protested in pain, and headed to the bathroom, unfurling the bandage on the way. The gash on his palm wasn’t deep, but it was still dark red, throbbing ever so slightly.

He stood in front of the mirror and held his palms under the gushing water. ‘Doesn’t hurt that bad’, he thought. He rubbed his palms slowly and splashed water on his face, maybe he should take a shower. He took off his remaining clothes and stood under the shower. The warm water easing off the built up tension in his bones. He didn’t hurry up, just stood under the shower, ruminating his thoughts as the water fell on his body.

He patted himself with the towel when he noticed faint red mark on his chest right above his heart. He got closer to the mirror, staring at his reflection and then down at his chest, his fingers running over the scabbed mark. He looked up in the mirror again, blinking his eyes in confusion, “What was that?” he said as he wiped his chest again with the towel, “I swear I saw something”. The place his fingers touched throbbed in pain, making him hold his breath. When he looked down at his chest, he saw the faint mark again. The pain flared up and the mark got pronounced, making Donghae cry out.

He rushed out after getting dressed to the documents that Leeteuk had brought a couple of days ago, flipping the pages restlessly as his breath turned labored with the pain increasing. He flung open the old book, and it opened to the page of the seal of death, a drawing of a red thread and foreign words sprawled across. Donghae creased his brows in concentration, when suddenly the flashes of visions hit him out of nowhere. He saw an amulet being dangled in front of his face, with someone on top of his body; the amulet glowing bright as blood dripped off it and pain seizing his entire body.

He collapsed on the ground, a voice echoing in his ear, “Absorb the essence of the seal of death and poof you are an Immortal.”

A knock on the door distracted him. He realized he was sitting on the floor, and the ache in his chest was slowly dulling into a light throb, his ears still buzzing. He walked to the door with heavy steps, rubbing his chest, feeling lethargic. He opened the door only to be hit with a cold gust of wind rushing in. Seeing no one in front of him, Donghae peeked out, still finding nothing, except that it was freezing cold. He turned around and was startled when dark gusts of wind swirled in circles in the middle of his apartment, the form of a person standing amidst it, he backed out of his apartment.

“Hyung what are you doing outside”, he heard Kyuhyun’s voice from behind. “Siwon already left, guess with who?" Kyuhyun chuckled as Donghae heard him coming closer. He wanted to turn to Kyuhyun and stop him from getting close, but his eyes were glued to the spirit, its face seeming like a distant memory he can’t recall.

“Hyung?” Kyuhyun called Donghae again to no response from the latter. “What are you looking at?” he peered over Donghae’s shoulder into the apartment, seeing nothing strange. Concerned, he lightly tapped Donghae on his shoulder, “Donghae hyung – “.

Before Kyuhyun could complete his sentence, Donghae saw the spirit shrouded in darkness rush past him and hit his friend. Donghae turned around and saw Kyuhyun being flung across the passage, then being lifted in mid-air.

“How dare this imbecile interrupt me again”, Donghae heard the spirit speak. Donghae ran to Kyuhyun as the spirit pushed Kyuhyun in the direction of the window. Kyuhyun yelped in panic, not being able to see the spirit and being suspended in air, when his back collided heavily against the window. The window broke upon impact with Kyuhyun falling down. Donghae immediately held onto Kyuhyun’s leg, “Help! Hyung, don’t let go”, Kyuhyun cried desperately. Donghae pulled Kyuhyun up with all his might.

Donghae fell on top of Kyuhyun, the younger clung onto him, patting his back with trembling hands.

“You are alright. Hyung won’t let anything happen to you”, Donghae said as he slowly got up.

Kyuhyun’s brows creased in confusion when Donghae said that. “What just happened?” he asked Donghae. “The spirit, it tried to throw you down the building.” Kyuhyun held back from revealing that it was actually Donghae who dashed past him in s