Free Web NovelA warm tongue and lips were suddenly flicking along the side of his neck. As Yohan struggled and barely managed to wriggle free, Lee Hyunmook smacked his lips. The way he looked at Yohan—it wasn’t just hunger. There was something deeper, darker, like a bottomless craving. Yohan shrank back from that overwhelming emotion. freёwebnoѵel.com
“Why are you doing this? I really don’t taste good...”
As Lee Hyunmook stood up, staring intently at him, Yohan tensed and screamed. He bolted out the door instinctively, sobbing, but when he glanced back in a panic—Lee Hyunmook was chasing after him.
“No! Stay away!”
Even though Yohan knew it was practically impossible to outrun a top-tier Awakened, he couldn’t stop himself from running. Of course, like an idiot, he didn’t make it far before tripping over a chunk of rebar and concrete strewn across the road. His scraped palms stung, but he scrambled to get up—only to be overtaken by Lee Hyunmook, who moved faster.
Like a wolf pouncing on a sheep, Hyunmook crashed down on top of Yohan, pinning him to the ground with terrifying speed and dominance. Yohan screamed again under the weight of him. Hyunmook grabbed his wrists and flipped him over, pinning him flat with a grip that felt like it would crush bone.
“It hurts, it hurts!”
Overwhelmed by the threat, Yohan kicked and punched desperately. But to someone like Hyunmook, a regular human’s strength barely left a scratch. With wild, completely unhinged eyes, Hyunmook stared at Yohan’s scraped palm. From the torn skin, vivid red drops of blood trickled out.
“No! Don’t! I said don’t!”
As Hyunmook brought Yohan’s hand toward his mouth, Yohan fought with all his strength. But in the end, the warm lips and tongue touched his palm. A sharp sting jolted up his arm as Hyunmook licked deep into the wound and bit hard along the edge.
Emotionally drained from enduring the madman’s behavior over the past two days, Yohan finally snapped. He let Hyunmook tear into his wound and suck the blood, and burst into tears. The horror of being eaten alive overwhelmed him, and he cried like a child.
“It hurts, it really hurts...”
As Hyunmook frantically licked up his blood, he suddenly shifted targets—to the tears streaming down Yohan’s cheeks. The stinging suction on his face made Yohan scream in terror, convinced his flesh was going to be torn away. As Hyunmook feverishly licked across his face, he suddenly froze. The madness in his red-rimmed eyes began to fade, and clarity returned.
His pupils widened in horror as he realized what was happening. He spat out the flesh of Yohan’s cheek that had filled his mouth and jerked back. Then he examined Yohan’s tear-soaked face and body all over. Confirming there were no torn-off pieces, he exhaled deeply and pulled Yohan—still ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) too shaken to move—into his arms. Yohan’s limp upper body collapsed into Hyunmook’s embrace.
“I’m sorry... I’m so sorry...”
Only then did Yohan realize Hyunmook had come back to his senses. His eyes widened, and tears welled up to fill them instantly. As Yohan quietly sobbed, Hyunmook lifted him like a child and carried him away. The monsters outside had grown noticeably more aggressive.
Back in a safer shelter, Hyunmook inspected Yohan thoroughly, just in case. Aside from the puffed, bruised cheek and bleeding palm, there were no other injuries. After disinfecting the wounds and wrapping them to stop further exposure, Yohan asked through tears:
“Hic... sniff... I-is it... really that bad... to go insane...?”
Both of them knew how absurd the question was. Even Yohan, asking through a fog of fear after nearly being devoured, knew it. Still holding the feverishly warm Yohan, Hyunmook replied with a hollow voice.
“If it were something I could control... I’d love that.”
Then, after a pause filled with Yohan’s sniffling and a heavy silence, he spoke again.
“But isn’t it strange? I think maybe you...”
He trailed off and fell silent again. Yohan, emotionally drained, finally calmed down. Then he slowly began to recall what had happened earlier.
Hyunmook had been in the worst state of madness Yohan had seen yet. He licked his lips at Yohan, chased him when he fled, and drank his blood like it was delicious. At the time, Yohan had been too terrified to think clearly, but now that he looked back—besides losing a bit of blood, his body was intact. Though he had been bitten and sucked on hard, not a single chunk of flesh was missing. He absentmindedly touched his aching cheek.
Blood. Come to think of it, even in the hospital... when Hyunmook came back to his senses, he had been bleeding...
“It’s gross, huh. Want me to wipe it off?”
Misunderstanding the thought, Hyunmook rubbed at Yohan’s cheek with his sleeve to clean off the saliva—roughly, enough to make it swell even more. Yohan stared up at him dazedly, then said what he had just realized out loud.
“My blood... it brings you back, doesn’t it? So then—”
“No.”
Hyunmook cut him off in a voice colder and sharper than ever. The dark eyes looking down at Yohan held an unshakable conviction.
“Don’t you ever do that.” frёewebnoѵēl.com
“But I...”
“I may have ended up like this, but I don’t want to eat people. Got it? Just now, you... you were in real danger.”
“But, still...”
“Don’t make me worse than I already am. I’m begging you. I don’t want to turn into something even more monstrous.”
Yohan bowed his head. Offering a little blood and helping Hyunmook recover didn’t seem like such a terrible thing. But Hyunmook had a point. The madman who had lunged and bit at Yohan just moments ago had been terrifying. Yohan shook his head firmly.
“You’re not a monster, Hyunmook. You might be a little crazy, but you’re nothing like that.”
“Yohan.”
At the gentle sound of his name, Yohan lifted his head in surprise. But what followed was far from gentle.
“You must be confused because I still look human. But I’m not.”
Hyunmook’s pupils were unusually wide, distant, and unfathomable. Yohan swallowed hard, unable to grasp what lay behind them. Hyunmook gazed blankly at his frightened face for a moment before standing up.
“And I need to apologize again. I misjudged the situation. We need to leave this place—right now.”
“What? Leave?!”
Startled, Yohan jumped up too. His eyes roamed the interior—at the soft, nest-like mattress, the mountain of emergency rations, and the pile of clothing. The idea of abandoning such precious supplies made his eyes tremble. For a moment, he even forgot his fear of Hyunmook.
“Why? Can’t we just stay here?”
Hyunmook stood at the door, scanning the outside. His face was dark. Then he turned to Yohan and said:
“Every few decades, something happens here. I call it the ‘Flood.’”
“Flood...?”
Sensing that something terrible was coming, Yohan tensed up. He was afraid of what Hyunmook would say next. And his fear became reality.
“I don’t even know how to describe it... maybe an invisible disaster. When the Flood sweeps through an area, it becomes hell—compared to which this is paradise. People, objects, monsters—everything gets jumbled, twisted, turned to mush.”
To Yohan, it didn’t even feel real. Or rather, ever since he fell into this place, it had all felt like one long nightmare. And the nightmare was only getting worse.
“As the Flood approaches, the contamination worsens, the madness deepens... just like I was a while ago.”
Hyunmook smiled bitterly and came back inside. He grabbed Yohan’s backpack from the corner and rummaged through it as he muttered:
“I thought this place would be fine since the last Flood passed not long ago...”
Yohan watched him quietly as he packed only the essentials. Then he asked:
“But how do you even know that a Flood happens every few decades...?”
Hyunmook had only been here for three years. So how could he possibly know about something that happened once every few decades? A chill ran down Yohan’s spine as he nervously asked. Hyunmook, halfway through stuffing a bag of candy into the backpack, paused and stared at Yohan.
His gaze was terrifyingly emotionless. Then, slowly, he replied.
“...Obviously, I inferred it from various signs.”
“O-oh. R-right.”
Still on edge, Yohan unconsciously let out a sigh of relief. Then he pulled himself together. After hearing all that, he wasn’t about to argue about staying. He just stomped his feet in frustration.
“If we can’t take everything... can you carry one more bag? I prepared a second one, just in case!”
Afraid Hyunmook might say no, Yohan ran to the supplies and grabbed a second backpack—big and sturdy, built for hiking. Hyunmook hesitated briefly, then nodded. He stuffed it with heavy canned goods and zipped it up, then helped Yohan into a thick padded coat. Now they had two fully loaded backpacks. Even though they’d packed as much as they could, Yohan still couldn’t help stomping his feet at the thought of leaving so many supplies behind.
