Seungho opened his eyes to a painful migrane. He sat up slowly and noticed it was already dark out. The door was left open and it was dark in the halls. As he brushed the cover off him he noticed something strange. 

His cuts and wound were no longer hurting and with the guidance made by the moonlight, he could see that the side of his pants had been cut and torn open. On the nightstand was a bowl, he reached over and grabbed it. Inside were the shards of glasses which belonged to the tubes. 

"You're up?" 

Seungho turned toward the sound of the voice, he noticed Jenissi. The man begin making his way in and sat beside Seungho on the bed. "I took the glasses out of your thigh, you got lucky. You heal fast." Jenissi said in a soft and low voice. Almost so low, that the soft howling of the wind from outside could be heard over his voice. 

"What do you mean?" 

Jenissi sighed, "The wound you got from Kyungsoo's attack as well, is fully heal for some reason. The cuts on your leg seemed to be healing so fast that it begin closing in on the glass pieces. Lucky we noticed it and removed it." 

"What are you, a doctor?" Seungho asked, suddenly curious. 

"Nah, just a street kid who used to always had to look after his own wounds." 

Seungho had nothing to add to that. Thus, Jenissi continued. 

"I heard from Zelo, Hyori attacked you guys."

Seungho didn't want to hear her name. All he could think about was blowing her head off, if only Kyungsoo hadn't stop him back then. "You can forgive her right?" Jenissi asked, making Seungho squinted a little at his question. 

"Forgive her?"

"Everyone here says you're the leader. They say whatever you want, wish, like, or don't like then they're all in with you. But if you can forgive her, I'm sure she'll be able to come back." 

"And do what? Succeed in killing someone here?"

"That's not what I meant. Don't twist my meaning-"

"She's not coming back." Seungho bluntly stated, which made Jenissi empty and angry inside. 

"What do you know? Of course she's coming back, I'm sure what happened was an accident-"

Seungho eyed him, "What do I know? What do I not know? She's a part of WWIV, a human hunting organization-"

"Enough! Just because she accidentally ran into you and Zelo, it does not make her a part of a human hunting organization or whatever. You're the one who we should we careful of, you admit to being a part of that!" Jenissi stood up to his feet, Kyungsoo and Yongguk were standing by the door after hearing Jenissi's voice. 

"That's why I'm trying to change." Seungho said quietly, Jenissi grew quiet. He didn't mean to explode in front of the man who ran the group that saved him, but he couldn't handle what he thought was accusations toward Hyori. 

"Sorry." Jenissi said and left the room, he stopped by the door to catch Kyungsoo and Yongguk's eyes. Then excused himself with a patheic look and headed downstairs. 

"Seungho?" Kyungsoo called out to Seungho, who sat quietly in the dark. 

"Are you hungry, Seungho?" Yongguk asked. 

Seungho was mentally exhausted. "I'm....I'm tired." 

"Rest some more, don't worry about out here." Yongguk reassured him. Yongguk moved away from the door and waited for Kyungsoo who grabbed a hold of the knob. Without a word Kyungsoo slowly shut it. Seungho dropped his forehead into one palm, sweat formed around his temple and his bare nape. 

The purple liquid that had made it into his system begin circulating his veins, causing massive headaches. He felt as if his skull had begin to crack open on its own, Seungho shut his eyes tightly and covered one side of his head. 

After some time of painful shots rushing through his whole body, it began to fade. Seungho let out a deep breath, as if he has been holding his breath for the longest time. Seungho shivered as he felt the pumping of his blood around his arms and legs. 

He tried to stable himself and stood up slowly, trying not to fall over. Seungho was coming downstairs when he noticed the rest had gathered around the living room. Jun Gyu and Zelo ran over to help him down the stairs. 

Yongguk who sat between Jenissi and CL stood up from the couch, "Why aren't you resting?" 

Seungho looked into the eyes of the tough man, "I want to stand watch." 

"Seungho, you can barely stand-" Jun Gyu started but Seungho shut him with a raise of his right hand. 

This time with a firm and more stern voice, he repeated, "I'll stand watch, everyone get your sleep. Tomorrow will be a hard day, you'll need all the strenght you can gather."

"What's tomorrow?" CL asked standing next to Yongguk. 

"You'll find out later." Seungho said, then he motioned for them to go upstairs. 

"You guys go so sleep first, I'll stay with Seung-" Yongguk started but Seungho turned down his statement. 

"No, I'll watch alone." 

"But like Jun Gyu said, you can barely stand, what happen if you fainted?" Yongguk asked with a worried voice. 

"Then stop wasting my energy and do as I say." 

Yongguk heaved a sigh through his nostril. Then he met Zelo's eyes, the young latter nodded and pulled onto Jun Gyu's sleeve. "Then, Jun Gyu and I'll be leaving first." 

"W-what?" Jun Gyu turned away and saw Zelo heading up the stairs, "Ah, Zelo wait for me!" He ran after the latter, Yoo Jung hooked arms with CL, then looked to Kyungsoo once before leaving. As they headed up the stairs CL gave Yongguk a short smile before they disappeared onto the second floor. 

"Wake me and I'll take the last shift, don't overwork yourself." Yongguk said then patted Seungho's shoulder, before looking over to Kyungsoo and Jenissi. "Let's go together." Jenissi let out a upset sigh as he begin up the stairs, followed by Yongguk. 

Kyungsoo was left alone to face Seungho, "I put my trust in you Seungho. From now on, I'll always be on your side, no matter what choices you make." Seungho's eyes watered a little at that, he was taken aback by the sudden words. "I don't blame you for anything, don't worry and let's stay together like this. Let's grow old together, let become uncles and grandpas to each other's children." Kyungsoo smiled before he headed upstairs. 

Seungho stood alone and the last thing he heard was Kyungsoo shutting the door. A world where we'll be together and become uncles and grandpas.... If that's what you desire, I'll make it work for you. But I cannot be there with you, to become an uncle of your children. Our time together, have been shorten when she got away. I'm sorry.... 

Hyori stopped the truck in front of a large dark building. It stood 10 stories off the ground and at least two under ground and covered 600,000 square foot and 13 acres. However it was located on a land of thirty acres wide. It was midnight out, the breeze had begun to pick up. She grabbed the bags and as she got out, Woobin pulled her out and pushed her against the truck, a hand under her chin. "Hyori?" He asked in a surprised voice before she slapped his arm away. 

"What do you mean 'Hyori'? Shouldn't you have looked before attacking me?" She asked angrily as she tossed the heavy bag over to him. He caught it was a flinch, then from behind Sergeant Cha greeted her. 

"Welcome back, I see you brought some items back. But that kid isn't with you." 

She sighed and pushed her hair back, "Aren't you the slightest curious as to how your best soldier has been?" The man smushed his lips together and dropped both hands on her shoulders, shaking her a bit. 

"Sure, how have you been?" 

Hyori brushed him off, "Not so good." 

"Why?" Woobin asked, earning a scrowl from her. 

"102294, by now he's probably dead." She said as she looked directly into Sergeant Cha's eyes. 

"Dead? What do you mean dead?" He asked. 

"I.... Kind of hit him with the truck." She admit nervously, the older man took a step back and heaved a heavy sigh. 

"You know the leader wants him the most."

"I didn't mean to, he took the risk and sacrificed himself for his friend-!" He stopped her immediately. 

"His friend? There are others with him?"

"Yeah.... Like," she held up her fingers to count, "seven others."

"You know where they are right?" He asked her in a hurried voice, she nodded. "Then, tomorrow lead Woobin there." 

Woobin smirked a little as Sergeant Cha walked away, excited to passed the news to their leader. He looked over to Hyori, worried ran across her face. "This is going to be fun, we'll get to work together again, Hyori." 

Seungho ran a hand across his stomach; suddenly feeling the tightening of his guts. He pushed his way out the front door and fell onto the grasses on his knees and one hand. The clutching traveled to the area around his heart, he could feel it skipped a few beats. 

Then the groaning as wayfarers slammed their rotten body against the gate could be heard. Seungho placed both hands near his heart and pulled on his shirt. His body begin to heat up once more and he found himself covered in sweat. The breeze beat against his sweat, drying him in no time. 

Before the sun rose, Seungho opened his eyes slowly. Breathing in the smell of dewed grasses. He stood up and brushed himself, then he looked toward the gate.  The number of dead wayfarers seemed to have triple as he became unconcious for the past few hours. 

Some time later Kyungso was the first to find Seungho coming in through the gate, with one of their sharpen log, covered in blood. Not his.

Kyungsoo was about to ask why was he outside, behind the gate but decided to let it go. After all, he had promise himself that he would not jump to conclusion. Seungho shut the gate as he held onto the log with one hand. 

"Good morning, Seungho." Kyungsoo said as Seungho approached him. 

"Oh." Seungho shortly answered, then he sat at the bench and looked at the other sharpened logs. Kyungsoo sat on the edge where there was still room. 

"Did you switch places with Yongguk at all this morning?" 

Seungho didn't reply. Kyungsoo knew he must have taken the whole shift, he always do most nights. Seeing how focused Seungho was on the woods, it reminded Kyungsoo of the past. "Remember that one time when we went camping? Just you, me, Yesung, Mark, and Xero?" Kyungsoo asked, seeing how Seungho had slowed down before focusing again, he knew Seungho was thinking of the same scenes. "And remember on the first night Yesung told us a ghost story? But then you didn't believe in ghosts back then." Kyungsoo turned toward Seungho, you didn't believe in a lot of things. "And when you got bit by the poisonous snake, you didn't believe you can die by such a creature. Remember, you wouldn't go to the hospital?" 

"Why are you bringing that up?" Seungho asked, uncomfortable at that memory. 

"It was the first time you begin beliving in all these weird stuff, that brings back funny memories. When the doctor lied that you'll have baby snakes inside of you if you didn't get the poi-" Seungho shoved Kyungsoo a bit. 

"If you're just going to talk about non-sense, get on out of here and gather the others." Seungho demanded in a calm yet angry tone. Kyungsoo chuckled seeing Seungho's flustered actions. 

"Why gather them?" Kyungsoo asked. 

Seungho lift up a sharp log, "We're going out to practice." 

Kyungsoo looked at the log, then to Seungho's fixed eyes on the sharp end. 

That look. Why do you look so cold, Seungho?

End of Chapter 28.