It had been about a week since that day. You never leave your home now. Your phone had died days ago and you hadn't bothered to charge it but you were sure that there were tons of messages on it. But you didn't want to read them...not after what you saw. Ever since seeing Jiyong like that, you've had nightmare after nightmare, constantly screaming in your sleep.

Suddenly the doorbell rings. Without thinking you go and open the door. It's Youngbae. You try to shut the door but he stops it with his arm. You push and push, but once you realize it's not having any affect and that you're definitely not going to win a strength contest against Youngbae you give up and sigh.

"Wow. You look horrible." Youngbae says inspecting you.

"Thanks....?" Looking down at yourself you realize you're in a t-shirt and sweats. Both of which have stains all over.

"Look...I want to talk to you about Jiyong."

"....................I don't have anything to say."
"Well I do. So you better listen."

You look at Youngbae straight in the eyes and he looks determined. So you sigh and you both have a seat on your couch.

"So what is it that you have to tell me?" You ask keeping your distance.

"You found out right? About Jiyong? What he....what he becomes? And Seunghyun?"

Flashes of that night start to come back. You close your eyes tightly to try and send them away, but the flames from Jiyong's wings still stay in your head.

"Yeah....."

"He was always like that. Born that way. Every night at sunset, he changes. It's only on the outside though....he's still Jiyong inside. He's tried to stop it, prevent it. But nothing ever works. It was the one thing he wanted to hide from you....because he was scared you wouldn't accept him if you knew." Youngbae stops and looks at you intensely.

You play with the straps on your sweatpants to avoid his look. The last thing you want to say is that it's true. You just can't accept that. To be honest it scared you to death...and what if it wasn't just on the outside? What if there was some kind of monster living on the inside of Jiyong too? What if he snapped and just went berserk? There were just too many possibilities to risk.

"You've met Miyoung right? Seunghyun's girlfriend?"
"I-I've met her once...why?"
"She knows. She knows about Seunghyun and Jiyong. And she's fine with it. At first she was frightened, but after a while she got over it. I'm hoping you'll do the same for Jiyong. He really is a great guy and is really hurt right now."
"I....I'm sorry Youngbae. I.....I just can't."

Youngbae is silent for a long time. Then he nods and stands up. As he walks out of the room he says,

"I see."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Youngbae pulls out his phone from his shorts pocket and turned off the speaker phone.

"Did you hear all that Jiyong.....?"
"...........Yeah."

"Look man, you don't have to do this. It's fine."

"Sorry Youngbae. I just need some time....cover for me okay? Just say I'm going on vacation or something."

"Yeah sure. Just don't be too long okay......?"

"............................"

"Jiyong?"

"Yeah I know."