When Kim Ji-soo opened her eyes right after her appendix surgery, it took her a few moments to comprehend what exactly had woken her up: her sheet slid down the bed.

In a haze of artificial sleep and painkillers, she tried to understand what was happening around her. The room's coldness, meanwhile, engulfed her semi uncovered body, slowly waking her up. Her skin prickled, and even small puffs of air danced on her lips, although she didn't notice them.

She frowned, discomforted by the sudden temperature drop, and confused as she found herself in pitch-black surroundings.

Too dark.

The darkness seemed so intense that it almost seemed possible to touch it like a living being with a body. It covered her wholly. The blackness was so intense, her pupils failed to adjust. Jisoo vaguely made out the edges of some cluster in the room, thanks to the faint light coming from a monitoring screen.

She turned her head to the side, expecting to find the nurse but.. She couldn't sense anyone either.

Only darkness and silence, that was all.

Too quiet.

Just the sound of the cloth sliding down the bed, which seemed to be amplified by the utter stillness around her.

Her heart began to race as she realized that something was not right at all. Her eyes nervously swept every corner of her room without finding anyone there.

Shock froze her in place at the realization that they must be beneath her if no one was in sight.

When she looked to her feet, where the sheet kept slowly sliding off the bed, her pulse shot up, firing up the machine beside her.

She couldn't move. Fear left her motionless and in a cold sweat as she continued watching the last inches of the cloth disappearing over the edge of her cot. She was left completely uncovered. Terrified and early in equal measures she lowered her head, almost glueing her chin to her chest.

The silence continued.

Her nostrils flared with each icy breath.

She could only hear the machine's drumming of an intense and rapid tattoo, in sync with her heart out of control.

Beads of icy sweat fell on her forehead as she kept her breath trapped inside her lungs, fearing she would make too much noise otherwise. Her fingers fidgeted in search of the button to call the doctor.

Something was wrong.

Something was there, under her cot.

And she was more than vulnerable with her freshly stitched-up abdomen.

She was afraid. She had never felt so scared.

Her index finger finally located the small device and she frantically pushed it, still staring at her bare, exposed feet.

She didn't dare to move them. She didn't know what might happen if she did.

When a dark hand formed from shadow and smelled of death, surged from the edge to grab her calf in a surprise attack, she was only able to yell a single, desperate scream.

The two young men looked at each other in a silent war, each trying to get the other to look away first.

Yoongi straightened his back in an attempt to take advantage of every possible inch to increase his height, his arms folded tightly. His face remained neutral, showing no trace of fear towards the black-haired boy.

Hoseok to his side, had his arms in the same position, his jaw clenched and his gaze fierce and intense. The coldness penetrated his bones but he did not allow himself to even show a shiver, and tensed his muscles as much as possible.

They analyzed each other from a few steps away, utter disapproval shining in their eyes. Neither of them seemed to be paying attention to the screams from the hospital, which seemed to be settling into the background.

If looks could kill .. Then both boys would be dead.

-I'll tell you one last time…- the man in glasses finally said. His face was numb from the freezing wind and from clenching his teeth as if his life depended on it. He was determined to forget about the scam this boy wanted to inflict upon his father, if only that fortune hunter went back to wherever he had come from.

He couldn't tolerate any more damage to his family reputation, especially by the same scheme that had ruined his childhood, his family, and in particular, his mother.

Also, being back in Seoul made him anxious. There was this feeling in his stomach that something was off, ever since he stepped from the plane. Every one of his cells screamed that he needed to get away, and of course, he was determined to listen to them.

The silver-haired man showed his pedantic half-smile again, and it made the young Jung's nerves twitch.

That boy was pushing his patience to the limit.

-Let me tell you now, clever boy…- The teasing tone in voice had evaporated alongside his cheerful expression, which turned as gloomy as the night surrounding them. -Don't put your nose where it doesn't belong,- he warned him.

Yoon had never been a patient boy. And he was clearly pissed off.

But this change in attitude was not going to intimidate the criminalist, rather, quite the contrary. It was a mockery of his benevolence and good intentions to let a crime simply slip by. Did the smaller man not understand the seriousness of the situation? Pure outrage running through his veins, he raised his index finger again.

-Don't think you're going to--
A dinging cellphone alerted Min to a new notification, which left him with his words stuck in his mouth and his hand raised in the air, making him lose all tension in a matter of seconds. The medium didn't even bother to pretend to be interested in whatever he was going to say. He was solely focused on the screen, completely ignoring him.

-Yes, whatever you think, kid. I'm busy,- he said as he put the phone back in his pocket and took a step closer to Hoseok, who was looking at him with a frown and his hand still raised. -As much as I enjoy our time together, I'll have to love you and leave you,- he drawled, sarcastically emphasizing the last part.

The dark-haired one tightened his lips into a straight line, trying to comprehend what just happened, then deflated like a balloon, defeated. Min brushed past him to finally do what he had come for, and headed into the hospital again. Meanwhile, he replied to his message -The transfer is done. I have a job to finish.

Hoseok swallowed hard.

It was done.

His father, the idiot, had done it.

-Damn…- he whispered, frustratedly closing his stinging eyes. He would blame his sore eyes on the cold wind, of course. He would no longer cry over that man's choices.

-Oh. I almost forgot. You should stop being so stubborn.- He said, stopping in his tracks. The silver-haired man turned his face to focus on the criminalist who seemed seconds away from growling at him like an animal. Min did not need to think too hard to understand. It was the root of the discomfort. The other one was still vehemently trying to hold. He ached for a simple human caress, although he had most likely forgotten how those felt. -Your mother refuses to leave this plane because of you.-He did not usually meddle in the lives of others. He wasn't sure why something inside him stirred with something similar to discomfort and concern as the bespectacled figure of the young man and he locked eyes.

Hoseok turned sharply, opening his mouth, only to see that the other boy was already briskly walking away. He wanted to say something, but his throat had gone dry, and his ability to speak was gone.

For an instant, he felt the most intense coldness, just as the medium's figure disappeared into the medical facility.

Upon entering the lobby, Yoon knew that the Penury had taken his threat seriously.

Maybe too much.

The few people in sight (both staff and people in casual clothing) were running towards emergency doors at the rear.

The fluorescent lights flickered, and in every second of darkness, shadowy figures could be seen that would normally remain invisible in the clarity of the light.
He continued on his way at a steady pace, paying no attention to the visual tricks around him or the insistent whispers and screams that could be heard.

"It doesn't matter what they do …" he thought of the supernatural display ahead of him. He had already learned to ignore all that since… Min blinked, shaking the thoughts. It was better not to think about it.

He crossed the first corridor, where the doors were slamming so violently that the glass had already shattered. Stepping on the broken glass, he headed for the stairs in the direction of the "dark pavilion" again. The walls seemed to whisper to him in languages he did not know, and the dark figures followed closely, as if he was leading a silent procession. More of them seeming to emerge from every lonely corner, joining the others.

"Simply Curious," he thought wearily. Min didn't directly look at them, but he could feel their presence. He supposed all of them were souls with unfinished business. He would not give them the pleasure of paying any attention or giving in to their need to be heard. Nothing irritated him more than the impertinence of those souls. They were like children without any sense of their environment and the situation. He hated dealing with them.

Of course, he wasn't sure that this was what they were, but his guesses were always right.

Or so he believed.

He hastened his steps and opened the door through which, minutes before, the Penury had invited him to pass.
His eyes wandered carefully over the walls from which the darkness seemed to drip, almost like tar but composed of something similar to the smoke that melted in the shadows of the floor.

"They are pretty good tricks …" he admitted to himself as he took his initial steps down the hall, where the murmurs became more and more intense.
The cold was unnaturally chilling once again, freezing everything in place. He put his hands inside the pockets of his jacket in a lazy attempt to fight the climatical madness, because he knew how truly useless it was. There was no way to escape those energies.

The medium did not need to search for long. The Penury was loudly sobbing in the same window where he first saw it.

"She" was crying, or was at least trying to give that impression. Her plaintive sounds were drenched in a curious and disturbingly realistic notion of regret. But once again, he didn't overthink about it. He supposed that the most predominant feeling among the emotions was guilt and pain, and she looked so genuinely moved by them.

"Pure bullshit …" he thought. "All this is all very elaborate, but ultimately utter bullshit" he was convinced.

-That sad act doesn't suit you, you know?- He mocked in a loud voice, to get her attention.

Miss Kang's figure ceased to spasm and was now completely still, with her face hidden in her hands like a movie on pause. As frozen as the air in that gloomy corridor. The dark and restless figures that had followed him here had also come to a halt a few meters away. The whispering died at once, and the lights steadied dim for a moment.
Time seemed to have stopped.
Yoongi frowned. Something about the whole situation didn't sit right with him, another bad feeling that, again, he tried to ignore.

-Do you see what you've done …?- he heard the Penury ask him. Again, the voice sounded distorted, like several voices at the same time that came from all corners of the room. The intermittent flickering of the lights returned.

Min looked at her with a steady expression, struggling to banish the feeling of strange deja vu that wanted to settle in his chest. Subsconciously, his hand tightly squeezed one of the holy water bottles he carried in his jacket.

-I haven't done anything, Penury. It was you. - he said.

The woman slowly lowered her hands, her face still looking strangely contorted. Like a wrinkled t-shirt.

-Oh no Min Yoong- the voices told him in unison as Kang's figure opened and closed her mouth as if she had broken her jaw. Within a matter of seconds, she was just a few inches away from his face. The shadows had moved her in an absurd speed. -You always knew, right? - Inquired this time only Kang's voice, which emerged from the woman's throat but was not in sync with her hanging jaw.
She looked like a broken doll, just like the first time, as if the spirit had been forced out. Only this time he wasn't doing anything.

-What are you talking about ..?- He inquired, lifting his head without showing any trace of intimidation.

Something was wrong. She should have recovered, but she was not.

"What the fuck is going on …" he couldn't help but wonder.

-You really don't see what's in front of your eyes, even though it is what you are looking for ..?- Thick black darkness drooled like blood from the corners of her drooping mouth. Yoon diverted his orbs, genuinely wondering if it had always been here.

"Was I … Wrong? "

At that very moment his nose caught a slightly unpleasant odor and a brief burning sensation ran through his body, becoming especially pronounced around the mark on his torso. The reminder of who he was and what happened to him.
His heart clenched in his chest and he did not feel able to continue breathing that putrid scent.

-Who do you work for …?- he murmured, diverting his eyes from the dark drops that slid down the woman's chin and slowly dripped onto his slippers.

He focused on her neck, where now he could clearly recognize his own black handprint.

-You have no idea … You really have no idea …- Kang's broken voice said then, twisting in a strange and unnatural way. Slight spasms had her jerk and jitter, as if she'd been electrified

It didn't seem like a visual trick.

He felt chilled to the bones as he remembered how real the woman's skin had felt under his touch. He began to feel disgusted by the smell, and the sensation he could feel in his palms again.

"The Penurys do not possess bodies, they cannot do that, even with the help of a poltergeist .."

-WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR …??- He screamed anxiously then, with his tough boy image totally ruined, as he clutched to the flask in his pocket.

The girl's limbs bent in hideous ways, the smell was intensifying as she kept on babbling unintelligible things. An unpleasant image that forced the medium to take a step back, finally being aware that he had been absolutely wrong: the body in front of him was not a visual trick, it was a bloody corpse.

Some lights exploded. The shadows on the walls took on the appearance of dark veins that were now stretching across the floor and ceiling. They seemed alive. The entire room looked as dead as it was alive.

-This…. It wasn't … Part of the deal … - the Penury murmured. It was clear that its words were not addressed to the medium, but to someone else.

-I was.. not ..going to die..- it pressed out before it started to decompose, along with the body that it had occupied for so long. The corpse rotted at a ridiculous speed in front of the boy's disgusted eyes.
The smell was so pungent it made Yoon's eyes water. However, he could clearly watch how just one step, away the young woman's skin was shedding, the features becoming unrecognisable, the fleshes blackening o dust … until soon there was nothing left.

He had been wrong. Fucking wrong.

-Are you … right …?- He murmured into the air, his eyes tracing the walls of latent rotten veins in search of the real cause for everything that happened.
He turned to see that the shadows had retreated as well. Perhaps they had even been absorbed by Him.

-Not thinking of showing yourself ..? - He said, louder and firmer, turning his face in all directions trying to locate Him.

The stinging sensation on his torso was starting to bother him again. But he refused to open the holy water unless absolutely needed.

-Appear at once!!- he demanded, trying not to pay attention to the smell that made his stomach turn, and brought back the buried memories he preferred to forget.

Out of the darkness between the bay window at the end of the hall and the candy dispenser next to it, a white smile began to materialize. Even his the considerable distance it was clearly visible.

A gray-haired man in simple clothing and a pleasant smile that made his eyes crinkle, calmly walked out of the gloom.

Yoongi tensed on the spot, watching the man with wide eyes and clenched jaw.

-Oh come on Yoon … -he said with a widening smile as he stopped at a still considerable distance- not thinking of coming to give your father a hug?

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