FLASHBACK:

There was a deafening crash, a horrifying sound of something slamming down on top of their car. The family of 3 jumped in absolute shock in their seats. Mr No lost control of the car during his surprised state, causing the car to swerve violently left and right on the slippery muddy road. Finally, the car crashed straight into a big tree at the side of the road, completely smashing up the front of the car.

Minwoo, who had sat buckled up in the back seat throughout the whole ordeal, was hugging his knees tightly and crying out in fear, his seat belt still intact. He had a small trickle of blood running down the side of his head where he had hit the window when the car threw him side to side. The 3 year old slowly lifted his head, his teary eyes first found the back view of his parents in the front seat still dazed from the crash, before travelling up to see the huge dent in the roof of the car, the metal badly crushed. The relentless rain still pelted down audibly on the roof. All of the windows have been smashed, glass shards cutting into the young boy’s arms.

When Mr and Mrs No had finally somewhat regained their composure, they slowly and painfully turned around, scared to see their son bleeding and scared, trembling in the back seat. 

“Minwoo-ah…! Are you okay? Are you hurt?” Minwoo’s umma asked in almost a whisper.

The small boy only responded with terrified sobs. Mr No was trying to unbuckle his seat belt.

“Hold on, Minwoo-ah….We’ll get you out….Don’t be scared, ne? Be a good boy…” Mrs No kept reassuring her son in a hushed tone, however her own voice shaky. Minwoo on the other hand was starting to calm down a little, and tried to reach out to his umma with trembling arms.

All of a sudden, there was a deafening roar which once again shocked all 3 of them, followed by a loud thud; the impact of something hitting the driver’s side of the car. All 3 pairs of eyes snapped to the source of the sound only to see a horrifying creature with claws raised high and slamming them back down on the car, its red eyes the colour of glowing blood and it roared.

The young boy screamed out in pure terror at the sight of the monster. The couple also seemed to have lost their wits at that point in time.With every hit, the beast seemed to be getting closer to smashing off the door to the driver’s seat. Mrs No was crying out hysterically, however she managed to free herself from her seat belt and open the car door on her side. Her husband was using his powers to shoot firebolts at the monster, which retreated a little but soon began to attack the car more violently.

“Anae, take Minwoo and get out of here now! Run as far as you can!”

“B-But…...Yeobo….!”

“I said go now! I can’t hold back the Hengeyokai much longer… And promise me whatever you do don’t come back for me…..” Mr No commanded, feeling tears slowly sting his eyes.
Mrs No looked longingly at her husband, tears streaming down her cheeks. Minwoo, though in his petrified state, could still tell the tension and grief between his parents. A particularly loud thud interrupted his train of thought as he saw the beast nearly successful in ripping out the car door. Minwoo saw the acceptance of fate in his appa’s eyes.

“Go!”

The next moments went by in a blur. The small boy could hear the car door beside him being yanked open, could feel his umma’s warm arms quickly bundling him up tightly and running into the inky blackness of the forest. He also recalled how cold he was despite being wrapped up in a coat, how the raindrops felt more like hail hitting against his skin. But what he remembered clearly the most was the shriek followed by an explosion of bright orange flames from where the car was which ignited the forest temporarily.

“NO!” He heard his umma cry out in distress as she continued stumbling over tree roots, trying to get through the thick lush and dark forest. He couldn’t see anything as Minwoo had his face buried in her shoulder, too afraid to look up. He shut his eyes tightly, but still a tear managed to escape the corner of his eye. He wasn’t stupid; he knew from his umma’s cry and the explosion, that something must’ve happened to his appa. Feeling his umma panting but still pushing on and sprinting as fast as she could, he tightened his hug around her.

Then, as if their worst nightmare came true, a roar came from right behind them, followed by something slamming straight into Mrs No’s back, causing her to be thrown forward and drop Minwoo from her grasp. Mrs No, who had been thrown on the muddy ground, turned around to see the Hengyokai an all fours, growling at her, jaws wide open and its bloodshot eyes. Minwoo on the other hand had landed harshly on the ground some distance away, arms scratched and clothes all muddy and soaked. Though the heavy rain reduced his visibility, he could still see his umma on the ground, crying her heart out while facing the same monster he had seen earlier.

His umma, keeping her eyes on the snarling Hengeyokai, called out, “Minwoo-ah! Run! Promise umma you’ll run as fast as you can! Go! Now!” she cried, while still looking straight at the creature who took her husband away.

Minwoo, who had been too paralysed with pure horror to even register what his umma said, watched his wide eyes as the thing began to slowly advance towards his umma.

“U-Umma!” He cried out, a fresh wave of tears streaming down his face, only to mix with the heavy raindrops. The young boy felt his whole body grow numb and a cry escaped his pale lips as he Hengeyokai pounced on his umma. The sound of her scream of pain was the most horrifying thing he had ever heard.

Scrambling to his feet, he tried to flee, but then stopped short, when he realised he was standing merely a few feet away from the edge of a deep, dark ravine. His chocolate brown eyes stared down into the seeming bottomless pit before he spun around to see his umma now laying lifeless on the ground, completely unmoving. The Hengeyokai had now shifted its attention to the small trembling boy. Step by step, the beast approached Minwoo, eyes focused on its target, letting out animalistic growls. The 3 year old, began whimpering and backing away. That was until his small hands felt himself right at the edge of the ravine, meaning he could not back away further or he would fall in. The beast seemed to notice this and took the opportunity and quickened its pace towards the poor quivering  Minwoo. The young boy didn’t know what else to do, and the next thing he knew, he felt an excruciating pain shoot through his body, as if something was being out of him. His screams echoed throughout the forest as he felt himself growing weak and the forest starting to turn blacker in his vision.

Suddenly, the pain stopped, and the beast was no longer pinning him down. He could hear a few other voices shouting. He strained to get up to find the source of the voices, but was weaker than he thought and lost his footing, slipped and felt himself falling off the edge into the ravine. He screamed in terror of the feeling of free falling before he felt arms wrap around his waist and pull him upwards. Minwoo gasped and panted while looking down, seeing himself dangling above the hell hole below him. A warm voice rang in his ear.

“Gotcha! Are you okay kid…?”

Minwoo wanted to respond, but he was in too much in a shocked state. The rain, combined with the images he saw, with the experience he felt was too much to handle. All he managed to get out were small frightened whimpers as his saviour slowly lowered back to safe ground.

“It’s okay….Everything’s going to be okay…” the soft warm voice rang out again.
As soon as they got back on the ground a few other voices were heard, but to Minwoo they sounded so distant.

“Yah! Is the kid okay?”

“I think so. I’m not sure if the Hengeyokai got to him. Have you killed it?”

“Ne. But the lady’s already gone…”

It was then the memory of the Hengyokai attacking his umma clicked in his head. Shaking terribly, he slowly lifted his head to see his umma still laying on the ground, who didn’t move an inch from her previous position. But now Minwoo could see blood pooling around her, mixing with the rain that fell. The young boy’s mouth gaped open, he wanted to scream and cry but not a word escaped his pale lips. 

Still in the arms of the person who saved him, he whimpered and shivered, everything too overwhelming. He could feel the person tighten his grip around him.

“Hey kid! Are you alright?! Yah! Hyung! Get help!” that warm voice rose into panicked shouting. Rain continued to beat down all around him.

That was all he heard until his vision went blissfully black.

-END OF FLASHBACK-

“The next thing I knew, I woke up in a hospital with my Halmeoni crying by my side, and i could overhear the doctors talking about my appa and umma’s death…” Minwoo trailed off, his voice fell to a barely audible whisper and buried his face into the crisp white pillow. He didn’t want to face his friends and hyungs, and also in attempt to stop the tears from flowing down his face.

The others in the room, especially the twins, were deeply shocked at the revelation of his past story. Hyorin now felt quite guilty for pushing Minwoo to reveal something he did not want to remember.

“So….that’s why you never came after that party….” Youngmin said quietly, finding this a lot to take in. The boy in the bed slowly nodded, letting a little sniffle escape his lips. It was then Hyunseong shifted towards the distraught boy, sitting down beside him and rubbed his shoulder soothingly.

“Minwoo...W-We’re all very sorry to hear what you’ve been through. I personally will never be able to fully understand how you feel unless I go through all that. But we want you to know that we’re all here for you; we never judge you by your past. I’m glad you chose to share this with us, and now we’re going to protect you to make sure no Hengeyokai ever get anywhere near you again. So please don’t be scared, ne?”

The others all nodded in agreement. Kwangmin however seemed to be deep in thought. Nonetheless, Minwoo was touched by everyone’s understanding and compassion, and nodded slowly with a slight smile. Donghyun, who had just finished applying the water spell on his dongsaeng’s wounds, couldn’t help but gazed at that sweet smile but at the same time broken puppy brown eyes. Everything now drew him to protect the youngest even more, even if he had to overcome his own fear. He reached out and ruffled Minwoo’s hair.

“The medicine will take its effect soon. I’ll stay here with Minwoo for tonight. The rest of you should go straight back to your dorm rooms, and be very very careful on your way back. It’s already past 10. Hyorin, make sure they get back safely and watch out for yourself too.”

Hyorin gave a nod towards her brother and said goodnight to Minwoo before ushering everyone out of the infirmary. She had to literally pull Youngmin from the bed as he was still blabbering away with worry about Minwoo. This made Jeongmin laugh before the white doors closed behind them.

Once Donghyun and Minwoo were alone in the room, the elder tucked in the sheets and made sure he was warm and comfortable.

“Gomawo hyung…” he heard a sleepy voice mutter.

The prefect smiled. Just how cute can this boy get?! He sat there watching Minwoo fighting against the medicine to stay awake but eventually giving in to sleep, eyes fluttering close, breathing coming in soft snores.

After watching the smaller boy resting peacefully for awhile more, Donghyun laid down on the bed next to Minwoo’s after turning out some of the lights. He couldn’t sleep however, still tossing and turning, and occasionally glancing over at the boy in the bed next to him. His thoughts were crowded with grief and flashbacks on how he couldn’t save his dongsaeng from being so severely injured. Minwoo reminded him way too much of someone he used to care about so dearly, someone he used to fool around with and could entrust almost anything to. 

After this incident, he was once again reminded on how he shouldn’t take important people in his life for granted, especially those he swore to protect. Unable to stand lying in the bed anymore, he quietly got up and made his way to one of the big windows of the infirmary. Moonlight was spilling into the room, giving it a soft white glow despite all the lights being turned off.

Donghyun always loved spending nights when he wasn’t able to fall asleep to just gaze out of the window, and stare out beyond the academy walls. It was quite a view, with the lake sparkling under the moonlight, the train track bridge spanning across it. It gave him a sort of serenity. His gaze then turned to the forest which surrounded the lake, dark yet giving off a green that made it somewhere between mysterious and soothing. The full moon was suspended above the forest in the night sky

He loved that forest. That was where he and Yunho would exchange deep secrets, or train in private. Always fooling around and climbing trees, hiding their spells in marked out tree logs, and then sitting by the river and having lunch. But that was all just memories, all left behind in his childhood.

Sighing, he decided to try to get some sleep, considering he still had normal duties and lessons in the morning.. The prefect retreated back to his bed, pulling the covers over himself.
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The moon hung peacefully in the sky, seemingly observing the entire view below it. Everything was perfectly still, even the water in the lake, only making tiny ripples now and then. Then somewhere, in the middle of the dimly-lighted forest, a tree branch moved, followed by another next to it, but with more and more force. Something was pushing through the thick lush trees. The motion got faster and more intense, with a great rustling noise before a figure leapt out of the forest into the night sky, so high that it seemed to cross the moon, blocking out some of the light before landing into the forest and disappearing amongst the shadows once more.

The scene was now no longer peaceful, a light wind started to blow, causing the water in the lake to stir, the trees now rustling and leaves falling off their branches. The glow of the moon seemed to glare, as if angry that the peace has been disturbed.

And in the middle of the shadowed trees, a pair of red eyes glowed before turning away and vanishing.

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finally done with chapter 9 :D comments are welcomed! 

Ppyong!~