Waking up with a gasp is something common for him since years ago. Waking up with pain on the arm he doesn't have, even more. Waking up screaming, however, is not, but Sunggyu does it anyway. The worst part is that he recognizes the room immediately.

The Grinder's

He's halfway looking over his own body (to find that his clothes are still on) when the door opens. It's not Woohyun the one at the door, like Sunggyu would expect. But why would he, anyway? (Because, a voice replies from somewhere deep inside his mind, he promised to be your second hand.)

He looks up to find Jiae, the girl he saved, standing with a bowl on her hands from the threshold. She sighs with something he would identify as relief and worry mixing on her marred face if his senses weren't spinning around.

"Oppa! You're finally awake," her sweet voice echoes in the room, closing the door with her elbow. "How're you feeling?"

"Uh," Sunggyu blinks, taken aback by the sudden attack of empathy. Meanwhile, she comes close and sits on the edge of the bed.

"Confused?"

"More like overwhelmed." Sunggyu stares down at his lap, trying to recollect the past events of that afternoon. "The Grinder—"

"—Is dead." Jiae's voice turns sharp.

"Oh." Sunggyu pauses, unable to digest the news. "Woohyun." The name ends up slipping from his lips unconsciously, as if that could resolve anything. "Have you seen him?"

"You mean you haven't?" Her confused look meets him when he looks back up at her. "He was in the kitchen with you when that happened."

Sunggyu's muttering another oh when a loud knock interrupts them. Jiae leaves the bowl on the table next to the bed. She stands up to open the door, but Woohyun's already barging in before she reaches it.

"I heard a scream. Is he awake? Oh, you're awake!" He closes the door with a loud thud that keeps ringing on Sunggyu's ears. "Quick, we need to come up with a plan of action. I have something vague, but we have to discuss it."

"Good morning to you too."

"Morning? It's almost eight in the night. You've been sleeping since morning!" The relief on his face molts into confusion. When he jumps into a ramble of how he's called the kids back to the streets and how they need a (better) plan, Sunggyu's mind zones his voice out. He looks at the girl sitting back again with the bowl on her hands from the corner of his eyes.

"Can you stop for a second and tell me what's going on?" He interrupts the other boy. Then, he turns to the girl, "I'm not hungry, Jiae-yah, but thank you for the soup anyway."

"But you haven't eaten all day." Sunggyu shakes his head in refusal. She gives him a quick look, to later turn to Woohyun.

"Could you go check if everybody's in the living room, please? We'll join you in a moment." The voice he uses is somewhere between authority and sweetness, foreign to Sunggyu's ears.

When the girl exits the room, Woohyun closes the door back.

"She told me about the Grinder," Sunggyu mutters before silence gets too uncomfortable.

"So I'll take it as you don't remember?" Woohyun gives an odd edge of confusion to his question.

"I do remember,"—How can he not? The thought itself nauseates him—"at least most of it." He shudders. "I just don't get how did I end up here."

"You passed out and I carried you."

"Of course, because you're so strong." The mood switches once Woohyun smiles at his words. "You wouldn't be here if you could carry someone two years older than you, cripple."

"Who're you calling cripple?" The younger boy walks up to him with wide steps. "Does it hurt?"

"What do you mean?" He discovers one of his legs bandaged knee-down once he pulls the duvet off him. "Well, it didn't until I realized I was injured. What happened to it? Better yet, what happened before I passed out?"

"You cried like a wimp."

"Did not!" Sunggyu tries to defend himself, even though he's not sure. He sends a punch—too weak even for him—to the other boy once he gets close enough. Sensing his intentions, the older narrows his eyes. "And I can stand on my own, thank you very much."

"I said the same the first night without my leg." Woohyun laughs.

To prove the younger's mistake, Sunggyu plants his two feet on the floor. Ignoring the slight discomfort (and smile growing mocking on the boy's face) he tries two steps—

—To later fall right into Woohyun's unprepared arms, who loses his balance with the impact and stumbles too. They end up laughing from the floor.

"What if I tell you that we're both cripples and we're tied?" He grumbles like it's the discovery of the decade. The younger mumbles something close to a sounds good and they fall into silence.

"You say you get what happened, right?" Woohyun asks once they've managed to stand on their own feet. Sunggyu hums an affirmative. "Remember what I told you right before you collapsed on the floor like damsel in distress?"

"What damsel? Didn't you see that? I kicked him strong enough to free myself," he tries to defend himself, sending another punch. "But I think I remember. You mean the thing about Hansel and Gretel? Pretty mature of you to mention a fairy tale in a situation like that."

"No, what I was going to ask was if you knew the end of the story." Sunggyu shakes his head. His parents were too busy to tell him before they sent him to the city. "Oh well. The thing's that they end up throwing the bad witch into the stove, close the door, and get the house for themselves, if I remember well."

"Is that a metaphor?" When the other boy nods, Sunggyu blinks with sudden realization crushing his chest breathless. "Oh. What a smooth way to put it."

Woohyun nods, row of bottom teeth showing in a naughty grin. "Oh indeed."

After they stumble into the dinning room, Sunggyu and Woohyun settle at the end of the table—the one where Old Grinder used to sit. Jiae tells them she's informed the kids about the events (as she calls it) with, of course, slight modifications.

The other kids treat the oldest boys in St. Angie's like saviors after that.

Some of them are astonished with the news—just as much as Sunggyu is, really—and some others (the sharper ones; the ones smart enough to keep their own savings from the earnings of the day without the old man realizing) question what are they going to do now.

Sunggyu questions himself the same. What will they tell the sisters? They will put in charge another man, probably even worse than Grinder. Woohyun and him won't even get to see that happening, though. He doesn't think a couple of killers will get anywhere but jail.

Or the rope.

Even so, he finds himself in front of two dozens of kids, more or less, everyone looking at him—them, for Woohyun's on his side—and tries his best to think of something. They're in charge now, and by the looks of it, need to keep that despite the sisters.

"Everybody knows we have to go to service on Sundays, right? Right," he starts, not knowing where his mind is going to take him. The kids nod. "And the sisters come to takes us there, right?" He waits for them to nod again. "Then, we have five days to come up with something to stop them from getting us a new caretaker." And to save us from the rope, he adds on his mind. "If someone has an idea—whatever it is—we'll hear it."

Mumbles arise everywhere. While conversations break among different groups, the only thing Sunggyu's able to see is the confusion. Was this the right thing to do? A hand shooting up from the corner of his eyes shakes him off his thoughts, and at the same time, makes the sounds quiet down. Woohyun smiles next to him.

"I have a proposal," he says. Then, with a dramatic tone, "Within us, crippled and abused children of St. Angie's, lies a strength that no one else can boast of. We might be a limb shy—or more, in some unfortunate cases—but we've been trained to work as engineers, artisans, machinists and other makers. We can do anything, be anything."

"And how does that relate with our problem?" Sunggyu can't help but look at him, thinking back of that day when Woohyun said he'd rather lose himself that let injustices happen.

"Good Old Grinder never went with us to Service, did he?" The kids shake their hands. "We can go from there." Woohyun's eloquence is almost enough to send Sunggyu into a stumbling mess of hope, something he can't allow himself. "We just have to fool the sisters with our creation since they don't see him that often."

Woohyun, the Master of Lies and Make-believes, smiles.

Sleep becomes a privilege for the next three days.

With the inhabitants of St. Angie's divided into groups specialized in several parts of the body, everybody sets to work. Both Sunggyu and Woohyun take personal charge of supervising, along with working on parts of the automaton as well. With the experience from his past job as an artisan, Sunggyu uses porcelain to construct the Grinder's face. ("After six years of looking at the one who beat me up, I'm pretty sure I've memorized his ugly scowl," he mutters, not without certain bitterness.) Woohyun, on the other side, helps assemble the thorax after they dismount the old washing machine and use the molds abandoned in the backyard for the body. In his spare time, too, he works on the voice box.

A bunch of assemblers, engineers, crafters, and others who compose the teams that builds the Grinder II (name courtesy of Woohyun) work from the rise of the sun until late hours at night. Even so, none of them complains.

"It's because they're not being forced to," Woohyun explains once he crawls next to him on the bed.

They've moved to the main room—not Old Grinder's anymore—and replaced the mattress with a bigger one. The children helped put two new closets and a small worktable after getting hold of the Grinder's expensive costumes and selling them in the old market. What they didn't put was another bed. Sunggyu had complained about them sleeping together, but Woohyun promised with a teasing voice no to do something unless you want me to. For that, Sunggyu kicked him on his good leg.

"Well, it's not like we have other option," Sunggyu mutters to himself, turning on his side. Woohyun turns off the lamp on the nightstand. " 'Though I wouldn't prefer them to work anymore."

"Are you saying you think they're not enjoying what they do?" Some rustling of fabric later, Woohyun finally makes himself comfortable. "We were meant to do things like this, to build. I'm sure the won't mind if it's for a good cause."

Like always, Woohyun's words have a calming effect on Sunggyu. Still, it must be more than that, like the warmth close to his back—same that, without noticing, he leans towards. "If you say so."

"I say so. Now let's go to sleep because I'm beaten. Don't think too much about it, Gyu."

He's already snoring before Sunggyu has time to complain about his new nickname.

Between doubts and new pieces sponsored by no other than some of the children's past masters—who feel mildly guilty for their disgraces—Saturday comes by with an almost finished carcass of wires, porcelain, tar-based paint and metal.

Almost, because it's empty inside.

A couple of hours after lunch later, Sunggyu realizes there's another problem. One of the boys who have been helping him with the porcelain cover knocked off the table where the jaw had been drying.

"We don't have enough time to make another one." He sits down, trying to find a solution. To makes things worse, the one that comes up with the good ideas (Woohyun) is out to buy pieces.

The kid that's knocked down the jaw looks at him from where he's sitting with big, fat tears of guilt streaming from his only eye. Myungsoo, no older than ten, lost his right eye when a careless master pushed him face first under fire. The cost was the upper right side of his face, now covered under his raven bangs.

"We can fix it, right hyung?" he hiccups after apologizing for the tenth time. "There has to be s-something we can—can do."

Sunggyu gulps down, sensing the stares from other kids. "No, it's fine. It'll be fine." It won't, but he doesn't know what else to tell the kid. "We'll think of something."

"I think we need more time," little legless Nicole chirps in from her wheelchair. Other children around her nod in agreement.

Sunggyu huffs. The sisters won't notice an automaton has replaced Good Old Grinder, that's a given. However, they certainly will if instead of skin—faux skin made of porcelain, but there's no much difference with make up and paint here and there—there's a jaw of metal. They need to find a way to cover it and, at the same time, buy them more time.

Woohyun looks at them with an eyebrow raised, holding bags full of gears and cables. "Looks like something happened while I was out."

"We needed a change of plans," Sunggyu replies with an apologetic smile from his place next to the table where they have the automaton sitting.

"And how does that relate with metal-mouth over there?"

Sunggyu purses his lips, smile falling off. "I couldn't get the jaw to dry off and glue it to the carcass in time, sorry for that. Besides, Grinder II is nowhere finished. So, what do we do?"

Woohyun limps towards the table after putting the bags on a side, indecisiveness pouring from his voice. The younger boy's face becomes unreadable for a while, but a grin breaks on his lips shortly after. Sunggyu releases a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"We could," he pauses, looking around, "does someone has a handkerchief? We could pretend to be sick. We put the 'kerchief around his mouth and problem solved."

Sunggyu looks at him, skeptical. "That sound like an easy way to resolve it, but all of us?"

"No, but at least enough to let us stay. Then we'll have another whole week to come up with something better."

He doesn't know how Woohyun does it, how he manages to sound so convinced it's going to work, but his enthusiasm is contagious just as much as his smile, so Sunggyu mimics it. "Sounds like a plan."

The actual part of putting their plan into action is what makes them anxious.

Everybody has got up from their bed early, without exceptions. The children who aren't preparing sit on the stairs, looking at the team put everything in place for the automaton. Nicole, being the best when it comes to puppetry, hides behind the carcass to manipulate the movement of the jaw. Jieun, ready to move the arms in case she needs to, sits next to her on the small space.

Woohyun squishes in between the two, also. He had showed Sunggyu his invention before. From his place, the boy's voice translated as Grinder's by a small device attached to the chest. A glass tube connected to the mouth let the sounds travel with the help of two pressure bombs next to the voice box. The similarity was so much Sunggyu's skin broke into goosebumps right after he (it?) spoke the first word.

"It's very rustic," Woohyun had said with certain confidence, "but after some arrangements we can even make him breathe. You just wait and see."

Now that confidence looks too much like a façade. Sunggyu prays silently for this to work.

When the bell rings minutes later, deadly silence settles as everybody gets to their positions. Sunggyu opens the upper half of the main door, glad for Old Grinder's tendency to leave the lower one closed to receive visitors.

The sisters look at the impostor's covered face, and then at Sunggyu, who wears a mask too.

"Good morrow, Sisters, and please excuse me for receiving you like this," Woohyun starts. The sound, identical, travels through the glass and out of the automaton's mouth. "I fear today won't be the best day to accompany you. My dear children have gotten the flu, and at least twenty of them lie sick on their beds. I appear to be immune though, so I consider it would be best for them if I take personal care of my lovelies."

He's overdoing it, but then again, so used to do the old man when it came to the sisters.

"Oh my, how unfortunate to hear that," one of the eldest nuns exclaims. "Perhaps you would like some help? We can send a couple of our sisters after service to assist you."

"No!" Woohyun's abrupt reply makes Sunggyu cringe. Luckily, he gets back on the same tone as before with his next words. "I wouldn't want you to get sick, too. Those are my concerns. Besides, the ones who are not sick have been a great aid for me, especially this young fella." His mechanic head turns to Sunggyu. "It almost makes me feel like he runs the place."

With the soft pat on his shoulder—porcelain-covered metal cold against the fabric of his shirt—he grits his teeth, but puts on a polite smile for the sisters. Woohyun is taking it too far.

"It's nothing,"—he tries to show a wider smile—"but I assume you must be running late. We shouldn't delay them further." He turns to the automaton and before it's too late, adds, "right, Master?"

The sisters nod. Next to him, the machine gives a sharp nod with a screech that he hopes the nuns don't notice.

"We'll be leaving, then. I will talk to the Pastor after service to see if we can send you something for the sick kids." Just as easily as they came, they leave after pronouncing a blessing.

As he closes the door, Sunggyu swallows. He leans on it, releasing a string of deep breaths to calm himself. His period of stress-relief doesn't last long, however, because a sudden tug at his hand later he's pressed tightly against an ecstatic Woohyun.

"Did you see that? Did you?" he cries out. "We have them in our pocket. Now we can improve Grinder II. Better yet, St. Angie's belongs to us now!"

The last part of his ramble isn't directed to him—even though he's pretty much the only one being shaken with affection—but to the young children sitting on the stars, peeking from the corners. Sunggyu doesn't fight back the smile that forces on his face, equal to Woohyun's crooked one.

The boy's last words echo in his head, not without the pride and warmth carried on his voice. St. Angela's belongs to us.

wut wut fast updates are fast

i swear i make the worst chapter titles ever.

so… i think this is rather sketchy and the pace reasons why i don't write chaptered fics, but i hope you like it! i'm glad for the people who subscribed, commented and upvoted, but i'm also glad that whoever you are you're giving this a chance. thank you for reading!

also, i remembered what i wanted to say about last chapter so i edited the author notes ^^;