Pure Imagination (Solo Leveling)

Baklava

Jin Woo thought he knew fear. He's been in Dungeons, looked monsters in the eyes, had that near-death experience in the double dungeon, and has been in situations where his life could have ended at the wrong move. Jin Woo has felt its vice grip on his heart and has felt the way it weighed down his shoulders and immobilized his legs. He knows on an intimate level the feeling of the fear that is ice in the veins and freezing you at that spot.

When he saw Yuki's body collapse, his mouth and nose bleeding and looking like a red fountain, staining his neck and clothes in red he felt a new type of fear. An amplified feeling of fear that made him rush over here.

He felt the fear that makes you move. The fear that makes you sprint against time and hope that you can get to your destination before the final strike. It is the fear that blurs the surroundings, deafening cries and calls for an ambulance for 'Hunter Sung you must calm down,' and making the heartbeat in a way that makes you question if it'll explode. \

In his arms, bleeding and no longer conscious, is Yuki. His pale face and white hair soaked from the rain, and yet the water did nothing to dilute the heavy stain in his shirt. His hands are stained red and his pale neck sports a red river. For the first time in years, Jin Woo couldn't help but to think how awful the color red is when it is on Yuki's skin. When it is dark and looks almost black with only the edges to confirm that it is red, that is when the color looks terrifying on Yuki.

Jin Woo isn't sure when or even how he got to the hospital, but he knows he is yelling for Min Yujin. He can do that because he's an S Rank. He can drag Yujin away from any patient he is seeing because Sung Jin Woo, the nation's 10th S Rank and probably strongest, is here yelling his name with Yujin's baby cousin bleeding and passed out in his arms.

And Min Yujin will always answer if it involves his cousin. Rushing into the lobby he spotted a much taller and frantic look Sung Jin Woo and a bleeding and passed-out cousin. Sucking in a deep breath, he orders some nurses to grab a gurney and set up a room. It is only because Jin Woo sees him that he releases Yuki.

His arms, hoodie, and all, are soaked. Some part of him hopes it is rain, but a nurse hands him a towel to dry his hands, and diluted blood stains the white cotton. There is some blue blood, from those orcs that gave him no answers, but he is only focused on the red. He rubbed the stain, watching how it spread to individual cotton strands and spread even more.

"Oppa." A gentle hand touches his arm, and it is that form of contact that brings him back. Pulled from a dream, his surroundings clear and he can hear the crying from students brought in from the Dungeon Break, the crying of parents, children, the elderly, and the general noise of a hospital lobby. Jin Ah looks distraught and is undoubtedly traumatized. He looks at her face, her teeth clenched and eyes trying to focus only on him and not her classmates around them.

Wrapping an arm around her, he guided her towards a more secluded area, asking a nurse if they can wait in the hallway of Yuki's room. Who is a normal civilian to deny an S Rank a request.

It wasn't just them, Go Gun Hee and Woo Jin Chul arriving behind them and following afterwards. The four of them drawing attention, and Jin Woo does not doubt that a picture will show up tomorrow about Yuki in his arms.

"Oppa, I'm so scared for him." He hugged her close, too afraid to admit that he is also afraid, because that would be admitting he is afraid that Yuki will not make it. He's afraid that he will speak it into existence and then will be lost on what to do when it happens.

Go Gun Hee does not look any better. He is sitting on one of the benches, hands folded and headed between. His aged face looking exhausted and worry danced acrossed his expression. Using Go Gun Hee as an example, Jin Woo helped Jin Ah sit. His own body to tightly strung to even stay still.