T here is a banshee clawing in Daesung's ears, shrieking at him to reach forward but his arms are limp and lifeless. His tongue lolls around around his mouth, a thick mass twitching with the lies he's told, as he tries to beg for it to stopstopstop. Nobody ever listens to him anymore, not in the way they used to, and his only choice is to grab the blue ribbon weaving through his brain. That might as well be no choice at all, not for his breaths that are labored when he so much as blinks.

Energy is something that's slithered away from him long ago, along with trust and the love he used to have for his friends. But the squirming in his mind won't keep quiet, won't stop pulling apart the fibers in his being until he can't concentrate on anything else. It's all he can think of now, even the cries of his own banshee have teetered away into another world. Daesung knows it won't be long before it's back and this should be his rare chance to breathe in silence and calm.

Blue ribbons seem to disagree with him, writhing through the corners of his soul and whispering wordless things into the marrow of his bone. A pounding grows in his head, with fear that this might be the birth of another banshee, but he is still too tired to raise his fingers and brush away his dread. It would probably clump onto his fingers and he wouldn't want that, couldn't have it.

Daesung doesn't seem to want much at all anymore.

XXX

When fingers shake him awake, all Daesung can remember is a blue ribbon with words that he can't quite read. It's a deep voice that is in his ear and he is almost surprised to find Seunghyun crouching over his bedside. Words are rare for the older boy now and it's ever rarer that he rises from his position besides the spot on the wall. Rotting wood and mint tea could not keep him company forever, Daesung supposes.

"Seunghyun? Why are you here?" Daesung asks, sleep clogging his words.

"I don't know," Seunghyun says simply. "I was headed somewhere with a boy I found. Can't quite remember where, though."

"Oh," is all he can say. He wishes he had it in him to tell Seunghyun that he doesn't really care.

"New boy, I think his name is Jiyong. There's something interesting about him, you see."

A long pause stretches between them. Daesung is struggling to focus on the older boy. Haze swims at the edge of his eyes and he wants to succumb and return to his banshee dreams. Any world is better than the one he had now, any world far from the place where love could not be born.

"Must be, if you got up to-" bile cuts his words off, burning an acid path through what he was going to say. His sight blurs a little, until all he can see is the older boy's arching eyebrows and deep- dull- eyes. There's no worry in his stance even as Daesung lays choking in what might be his filth come back to haunt him.

The blue ribbon imprinted on his eyelids reminds him of so.

"Guess I'd better be off, then. It's been nice seeing you again, Daesung." Disinterest colors his voice and Daesung doubts the sincerity in his words. Seunghyun turns to leave, before throwing the other boy one last glance over his shoulder. "If you ever see Youngbae again, tell him his cottage is at the end, alright? And I'm going somewhere too far from that."

There's a finality in his voice, and Daesung is sure those are the last words he'll ever hear from Seunghyun.

That doesn't trouble him as much as it should and he just nods to a room full of dead air. Youngbae had probably forgotten about his old wood cottage by now, forgotten about him as well. It had been an eternity and a half since Daesung had seen him. Perhaps he was happy now, far away and Daesung would wish the best for him if he could.

He couldn't do much of anything either, though, and Youngbae wouldn't want the luck of a lost soul. And so Daesung just sighs and returns chasing to a blue ribbon he is sure he'll never catch.