kensho

-

Seo Moon Jo.

A monster that wants to be seen.

You are, aren't you? So, so, so desperate to be seen by someone else. That's what you had done with the other boy, didn't you? You tried to make it so that he could see you. So he could view the vast void that you hold inside of you and be able to hold and handle it completely. You wanted them to have their own void in them too, one to match yours. A friend in your darkness, right? But you couldn't. You failed. So you tried again.

The only problem is, for you to have a companion whose soul is just as stained as yours is.

Well, you have to stain it yourself, don't you?

And that's exactly why he was so special.

Yoon Jong Woo

He was already stained the way you were. He had the ink; you just had to spread it.

You just had to give him the chance.

And boy, did he outshine himself. He was perfect, but he wasn't yours.

yet.

-

Jongwoo was still in the hospital and had been for about a month. The investigation of the Eden Residence had been officially closed. Junghwa had come to tell him personally.

She sat down at the edge of this hospital bed and looked at him as if she was trying to analyze his reactions as she told him

"You don't have to worry anymore. They've closed the goshiwon case. It's over "

He didn't know what he could've said to that besides what he did say;

"Thank God,"

He knew that the detective was suspicious of him. The way her eyes had opened a bit wider when she recognized the sound of the clinking. When she recognized that the charms were teeth. She couldn't be completely certain that it was Jongwoo, but every time she came to visit him, she had more questions that he conveniently didn't have answers for. There was nothing that she could prove. Moonjo had made sure of that.

-

The sun splashes across the small newly healed scars Jongwoo has on his face. He was finally able to leave the hospital. With Eden gone, he had nowhere to stay peremenatly, but he figured he could stay in a hotel till he situated himself. First, he had to find a hotel for his tight budget.

After finding a trashy hole in the wall about half an hour away from the hospital, he began walking. He didn't want to waste any of his money on getting a taxi when the walk wasn't terribly long. He had not been on a walk in a while, anyway. He'd been locked up in the hospital, trying to cover his tracks from Eden for way too long. He needed to stretch his legs, smell the roses, and all that. And he was enjoying it until his phone began to ring.

Jieun.

She was calling him. They had talked a few times, just polite civil small talk. Definitely not the talks of a long-term couple who had, technically, gone through a traumatic experience. They didn't break up, but they were practically strangers the whole time he was in the hospital. She had left the hospital two weeks earlier than he did. She hasn't spoken a word to him since.

And now she was calling him. He stopped his walk and answered the phone.

"Hello," he answered.

"Ah Jongwoo," she said. "I heard that you were leaving the hospital today. Is that true?". She asked politely. It was obvious she knew the answer but was asking out of courtesy.