“Can’t sleep?”
“I probably slept too much earlier. You must be tired too — don’t worry about me, just sleep.”
I said that and sat up, and Baek Hyunwoo answered “Hyung can’t sleep either” as he turned the mood light back on. Being battery-operated, even at its brightest it only managed to illuminate the area around the bed.
Still, it was enough to make out each other’s faces, so it wasn’t uncomfortable. No — actually, this was just right.
Bathed in a soft amber glow, Baek Hyunwoo’s face was beautiful, as always. Even in sunlight I’d often muttered that the world was unfair, but right now I couldn’t even bring myself to mutter that much.
His face in shadow looked like a work painted with exquisite care in oil — someone’s masterpiece. The mood light reflected in his black irises was a fragment of sunlight, and the dimples that carved deep every time he smiled were small wells that held shadow. If one day Baek Hyunwoo suddenly confessed that he wasn’t human and was actually an angel or a fairy, I felt like I could just accept it with “I figured as much.”
“Is there something you want to say?”
“……No.”
No matter how many times I thought about it, Baek Hyunwoo should have been an actor or a model, not working at a company. Whether it was a drama or a photoshoot, he’d have become a top star in an instant with just a handful of projects.
Rummble……
Not that there was any point in regretting that now, with the world having ended.
“The way hyung sees it, it looks like our youngest has something he wants to say.”
“……I was just thinking you’re incredibly handsome. Or, no — pretty?”
“Thank you for the compliment.”
He’d surely been hearing that his entire life, from the day he was born until now — yet Baek Hyunwoo answered with a soft, delighted smile, as if it had made him genuinely happy.
I’m glad I was born a man. If I’d been a woman, I might have fallen completely under the spell of that face and gone chasing after him asking to date, family or not. Maybe even insisting that what did it matter if we weren’t blood-related.
Too extreme an analogy? Anyway, Baek Hyunwoo is beautiful to that degree. I said pretty, but honestly that’s not quite right. Not at all right. How can someone with that height and that build be more beautiful than most celebrities?
“Our Sihyeon is pretty too.”
For the record, I don’t particularly like being called pretty. The word “beauty” suits Baek Hyunwoo well, but in my case it was usually just a roundabout way of saying I look like a girl.
Naturally, Baek Hyunwoo knew that too. And yet every single time he’d come back with what can I do, it’s just the truth — so instead of protesting, I just shot him a look.
Shhhhh——
“It’s really coming down hard.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you think the other hyungs are alright?”
At that, Baek Hyunwoo smiled faintly. Whenever I worried about Baek Beomho and Baek Yitae, he always got that look on his face — like he was watching a rabbit fret over a tiger — and now was no different.
“They’ll handle themselves fine, you know that.”
“Still…… neither of them is the type to look after themselves properly.”
No matter how sturdy they were, to the point of never even having caught a cold — all illnesses have a way of showing up when you least expect them, don’t they? As I lay there imagining the two of them soaked through with rain and suffering in bed, Baek Hyunwoo smoothed back my hair and soothed me with a quiet “They’ll be fine.”
After that we kept talking about this and that for a while, but the rain showed no sign of stopping. A hole must have opened up in the sky, I thought, and found myself clutching the blanket for no particular reason. The sound of raindrops lashing against the window kept reaching my ears — sounding uncannily like someone knocking — and I couldn’t settle my nerves.
Tap.
……No, someone actually was knocking. And it seemed I wasn’t the only one who heard it. Baek Hyunwoo stood up without hesitation and turned toward the window, and I shot my hand out and grabbed his clothes.
“Don’t go.”
“I should at least check.”
“No…… No, don’t go.”
Even sounds from the corridor had me scared — and now he wanted to go check a sound coming from outside the window? This wasn’t the first or second floor, this was the third floor. Whatever it was, it was not ordinary. Going outside alone was one thing, but what kind of nerve did someone need to just act like that? On top of that, in situations like this, the curious ones were always the first to die or get hurt.
“It’s probably nothing.”
“How would you know that, hyung?”
I snapped back, keeping my voice low but irritable, and Baek Hyunwoo smiled with a troubled look. He moved his lips as if unsure what to say — but all the while the same sound kept coming from the window’s direction.
Tap, tap……
The irregular intervals made my nerves even more frayed. If I loosened my grip even a little, I was sure he’d take the chance to head for the window — so I clenched my jaw and pulled Baek Hyunwoo closer. And that was the moment.
Scrrrrch——
Damn it — I barely swallowed the curse that almost flew out of my mouth. A harsh, grating sound rang out, like something sharp dragging across the glass — and then lightning flashed, throwing a grotesque shadow right in front of our eyes as if to make a point.
It was a shape eerily similar to what I’d seen through the corridor earlier. I couldn’t even make a sound — I just grabbed frantically at Baek Hyunwoo’s sleeve, and he stared quietly at the window for a moment before whispering in my ear.
“It might be a tree branch.”
“……Talk sense, hyung. This is the third floor.”
“I’ll just take a quick peek, yeah?”
“Hyung, please.”
CRACK——!
My plea was swallowed by a deafening crack of thunder — but Baek Hyunwoo, as if he had no choice, nodded and gently rubbed my back.
“I won’t go.”
“Come lie down with me.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, I’m not fine, so lie down.”
Did he expect me to trust him when he was still eyeing the window with that look of concern? If I did, I’d be an idiot.
“I don’t think I can hold back……”
“That’s exactly why I’m telling you to come here. Is your curiosity really what matters right now?”
“Hmm, that’s not what I meant.”
“Then what did you mean? Don’t make me say more. Lie down, now.”
I said it firmly and patted the spot beside me. Baek Hyunwoo rubbed the back of his neck and said “If I lie down too it’ll be too cramped,” but that wasn’t particularly important, and frankly wasn’t my problem.
“Now.”
Only after I kept pressing did he take off his shoes and climb onto the bed. He tried to perch on the outer edge, so I pulled him inward myself and got him lying down, then pulled the blanket over him too. Worried he might slip out while I dozed off even for a moment, I settled in using his arm as a pillow — and from above my head came the faint sound of a smile.
“Still, tell me if it’s too cramped.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
I warned him that even if I was uncomfortable and couldn’t sleep, I’d keep this up — and Baek Hyunwoo laughed like he’d received an unexpected gift and pulled me into a sudden tight embrace.
“Ugh……!”
“Shh, be quiet. The thing outside will hear.”
He just said it was probably nothing!
I glared at him, and hyung pressed his cheek against mine with a perfectly innocent expression — and eventually opened his mouth and bit into my cheek too. It hurt enough to bring tears to my eyes, but I couldn’t scream or get angry, and could only jab my elbow into his stomach.
The rain finally let up after two more full days. The sky was cloudless, as if nothing had ever happened, but the air was noticeably cold. It must have been autumn rain after all.
“Not cold?”
“This much is fine.”
The thick hoodie I’d put on was just right. I dodged hyung’s hands trying to wrap a scarf around me too and stepped outside the building. My gaze naturally went first to the side of the hospital where our room had been.
“……”
Marks like pickaxe strikes were scored clearly across the white walls in several places. I still didn’t know what it was that had been tapping at the window two nights ago in the early hours — but if we’d opened the curtains or the window then……. I didn’t even want to imagine it.
“Let’s go this way.”
“Oh — yeah.”
I was shuddering with goosebumps when Baek Hyunwoo came over and gently took my hand. What on earth had that been? A real monster? Or a mutated zombie? I decided I’d rather never know, and turned my head away.
Against the deep blue sky — collapsed buildings, messily tangled webs, and cocoons of unknown contents, all impossibly out of place. They’d even increased in number since before the rain, which only deepened the feeling that whatever that thing was, it was connected to the cocoons somehow.
……It wasn’t born from one of those, was it?
“What are you staring at like that? The cocoons?”
“Yeah, I was wondering what might be inside them……”
At my words, Baek Hyunwoo stopped walking and fixed his gaze on the nearest cocoon. Unlike the others clinging to walls, this one was attached to a streetlight — close enough to reach with just a small stretch.
“Should we open it?”
He said it pointing at the cocoon with a face as breezy as if he were talking about a delivery package that had just arrived. I reflexively started to nod — then quickly shook my head.
“What if something jumps out?”
“Hmm…… I don’t think there’s anything alive in it.”
I wavered between fear and unease and ultimately chose unease. Right — I don’t know what’s in there, but it has to be better than not knowing at all. I hesitated, then nodded — and Baek Hyunwoo ruffled my head once and moved toward the cocoon. I’d been ready to say let’s just leave it if he showed even a flicker of hesitation or reluctance — but he didn’t take even a steadying breath, and with a jackknife that I had no idea he’d been carrying, he sliced the cocoon open in one clean motion.
