By Zephyria A warm tongue and lips were soon licking at his nape. As he struggled and barely managed to pull away, Lee Hyun-muk licked his lips. In his gaze, there was a deep, distant craving that was difficult to dismiss as mere hunger. Yohan felt himself shrink under the overwhelming emotion.
“Why are you doing this? I’m really not tasty…”
As Lee Hyun-muk stared intently at him and rose from his seat, Yohan, tense, let out a scream. Reacting instinctively, he bolted outside, glancing back tearfully before growing desperate. Lee Hyun-muk was chasing after him.
“No! Don’t come!”
Knowing that escaping a High-level Awakener was nearly impossible, Yohan couldn’t help but run. True to form, like a fool, he didn’t get far before tripping over a piece of rebar and concrete debris scattered on the road. His scraped palm hurt, but as he tried to scramble up, Lee Hyun-muk was faster.
Lee Hyun-muk’s movement, as he lunged at Yohan, who had fallen to the ground, was swift and intimidating, like a wolf pouncing on a lamb. Pinned by Lee Hyun-muk, Yohan screamed again. Lee Hyun-muk flipped him over to lie flat on his back and gripped his wrist with bone-crushing force.
“It hurts, it hurts!”
Feeling an intense threat, Yohan kicked and hit Lee Hyun-muk, resisting desperately. However, his strength, that of a mere ordinary person, left only a minuscule impact on Lee Hyun-muk. With eyes that anyone could see were completely lost, Lee Hyun-muk stared intently at his palm. Crimson droplets, plump and red, seeped from the scraped wound.
“Aah! No, don’t! Stop it!”
As Lee Hyun-muk brought his hand closer to his mouth, Yohan resisted with all his might. But eventually, warm lips and a tongue touched his palm. A stinging sensation shot up. The tip of the tongue dug into the wound, and his teeth bit down hard on the edges.
Yohan’s emotions, already frayed by the mentally exhausting actions of the Madman who had been out of his mind for two days, reached their limit. He let Lee Hyun-muk tear at his wound and suck his blood, and Yohan burst into tears. In the end, he cried like a child, terrified of being eaten.
“It hurts, it hurts…”
Lee Hyun-muk, who had been frantically licking the blood, shifted his target to the tears streaming down his cheek. Yohan, his cheek painfully sucked, cried out, fearing his flesh would be torn away. Lee Hyun-muk, who had been licking his face frantically, paused. The crazed red glow in his eyes slowly faded, and reason returned.
As soon as he grasped the situation, Lee Hyun-muk’s pupils dilated. He spat out the cheek he had filled his mouth with and recoiled. Then, he crouched down and examined Yohan’s face and body, who was crying pitifully. After confirming there were no torn wounds, he let out a deep breath and pulled Yohan, who had no intention of getting up, closer. Yohan’s limp upper body was pulled into his embrace.
“Sorry, I’m sorry…”
Only then did Yohan realize Lee Hyun-muk had returned to his senses, and his eyes widened. Tears, as vast as his widened eyes, instantly welled up. Lee Hyun-muk, holding Yohan, who was just shedding tears, like a child, lifted him and moved them to a different spot. He could feel the gazes of the monsters, who were more violent than usual.
Back in the safety of their dwelling, Lee Hyun-muk carefully examined Yohan again, just in case. Apart from his one cheek being red and swollen from being sucked, and blood flowing from his hand, there were no other injuries. Only after he disinfected the wound and bandaged it so no more blood would be exposed did Yohan ask, crying.
“Hic, hic, you… you don’t… go mad… right?”
Of course, both Lee Hyun-muk and Yohan knew how preposterous that request was. Yohan, who had asked it, was simply speaking out of the terror of being attacked and nearly eaten by Lee Hyun-muk. Lee Hyun-muk, still holding the warm, feverish Yohan in his arms, said hollowly.
“I wish that were something I could control.”
Then, after a moment of Yohan’s sniffling and a heavy silence, he spoke again.
“But it’s strange. I think… maybe your…”
He trailed off, his muttering ceasing. Another long silence ensued. Yohan, completely drained, finally calmed down. And he slowly recalled what had just happened.
Lee Hyun-muk had clearly been suffering from the most severe madness Yohan had ever witnessed. Yet, he had licked his lips, chased him when he ran, and deliciously sucked his blood. Though he had been too terrified to realize it then, now that he thought about it, apart from losing a little blood, his body was intact. He had been bitten and sucked painfully, but no flesh was missing. Yohan blankly touched his throbbing cheek.
Blood. Come to think of it, at the hospital too, when Lee Hyun-muk returned to his senses, he had been bleeding…
“It’s dirty. Shall I wipe it for you?”
Lee Hyun-muk, misunderstanding the implication, asked if he wanted to wipe away the smeared saliva, and rubbed Yohan’s cheek painfully with his sleeve. With his cheek now even redder and more swollen from the friction, Yohan looked up at Lee Hyun-muk blankly. He then voiced the fact he had just realized.
“You return to your senses because of my blood, right? Then…”
“No.”
Lee Hyun-muk’s voice was sharp, bordering on harsh, as he cut him off decisively. In his dark eyes, looking down at Yohan, a resolute will could be seen.
“Absolutely not.”
“But…”
“Even if I’ve reached this state, I don’t want to eat people. Do you understand? A moment ago, you were… in a very dangerous situation.”
“But, but… still…”
“Don’t make me worse. Please. I don’t want to become an even more terrible monster than this.”
Yohan lowered his head powerlessly. Giving up a little blood to bring Lee Hyun-muk back to his senses had seemed like a not-so-bad option. However, Lee Hyun-muk’s words also held weight. The madman who had lunged at Yohan and bitten him earlier was truly terrifying. Yohan shook his head resolutely.
“You’re not a monster, Lee Hyun-muk. You’re a little crazy, but you’re absolutely not that.”
“Yohan-ah.”
At the gentle voice calling his name, Yohan’s head snapped up. However, the words that followed were far from gentle.
“You seem to be mistaken because I look normal on the outside, but I am not human.”
As he spoke, Lee Hyun-muk’s pupils were larger and more unfathomably dark than usual. Yohan swallowed dryly, unable to fathom what lay within them. Lee Hyun-muk stared impassively at the frightened Yohan for a moment, then rose from his seat.
“And I apologize again. I misjudged the situation. We need to leave this place as quickly as possible.”
“What? Leave here?”
Startled by Lee Hyun-muk’s pronouncement, Yohan also jumped to his feet. His gaze wandered aimlessly around the interior. His eyes trembled as they swept over the soft, nest-like mattress bed, the piles of emergency rations, and the clothing. The thought of leaving these precious items behind made him momentarily forget his fear of Lee Hyun-muk.
“Why? Can’t we just stay here?”
Lee Hyun-muk’s face was grim as he stood by the door, peering outside. He soon turned his head to look back at Yohan.
“A phenomenon occurs here about once every few decades. And I call it the ‘Flood’.”
“The Flood?”
Yohan tensed, sensing he was about to hear something serious. He feared hearing that the situation could worsen. And that fear soon became reality.
“What should I call it… a disaster unseen? When the Flood engulfs a region, that area becomes a place incomparably more horrific than it is now… People, objects, monsters, everything becomes jumbled, twisted, and mashed.”
Yohan found it difficult to believe Lee Hyun-muk’s story. No, ever since he had fallen here, he felt like he was trapped in a terrible nightmare. A nightmare that only grew worse.
“As the Flood approaches, the contamination level and madness intensify… just like I was until a moment ago.”
Lee Hyun-muk returned to the room with a bitter smile. He picked up Yohan’s backpack, which was placed in a corner, and rummaged through it, muttering.
“I thought it would be fine since this place had recently been swept by the Flood.”
Yohan watched blankly as Lee Hyun-muk quickly packed only the essentials into the backpack and asked.
“How did you know the Flood happens only once every few decades…?”
Lee Hyun-muk had been here for three years. How could he possibly know about a phenomenon that occurred only once every few decades? Yohan, his voice trembling from the ominous feeling of his earlier words, asked. Lee Hyun-muk paused, a bag of candy halfway to his mouth, and looked at Yohan. His eyes were chillingly mineral. After a moment, his answer came slowly.
“…Naturally, I deduced it from various traces.”
“Ah, I-I see.”
Yohan, who had been extremely tense, said with involuntary relief. He quickly regained his composure. In any case, he had no intention of clinging to the idea of staying here after hearing such a story. He merely stamped his foot with a touch of sadness.
“Even if we can’t take everything, can’t we get one more bag and have Lee Hyun-muk carry it? I, just in case, managed to get an extra bag!”
Fearing refusal, Yohan quickly ran and retrieved a large, sturdy hiking backpack from the piled-up supplies. Lee Hyun-muk seemed to ponder for a moment, then nodded. He stuffed heavy cans into the bag and put a padded jacket on Yohan. Thus, two bulging backpacks were completed. Even after packing as much as possible, Yohan felt it was a shame to leave so many items behind, and he was stamping his foot.