You Make Me | Lee Eunhyuk

27, awake

"Stop yelling. I want to sleep," she said, opening her eyes.

With half-opened eyes, she looked at the scene in front of her. A young boy was being held up in this car with some weird black appendage and he was bleeding profusely.

The boy looked over at her with wide eyes as she struggled. "Jiwon!" he yelled.

"Me?" she said questionably, pointing at herself.

She looked at the person whose arm was holding the boy, to see a disheveled middle-aged man.

She stayed sitting as she spoke, "Don't you think you should fight someone your own age, old man?"

She got up at a lazy pace and ripped the arm away from the boy's neck before making him sit down. "No more noise, you two. I have a headache," she said, going back to sleep.

She didn't notice the devastation on the boy's face as she embraced her empty sleep.

"You two look horrible," Jiwon overheard.

Her eyes opened again slowly, this time they were in a shopping mall, she assumed. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

"Ugh, I feel like a narcoleptic," she groaned, standing up and looking around.

"Nice to have you joining us, Jiwon," said the old man. "Sorry, the plan's gone a bit odd, but feel free to get some clothes to change into."

"So a shopping spree wasn't your plan?" said the young boy. "Why are we here then?"

"I'd like to know that too," Jiwon asked casually.

"I'm liberating you two. It's better than being rats in a lab, right?"

"We'll see," Jiwon answered. "Did you have to wake me up though?"

The old man nodded. "You're no use to me if you become a full monster, so yes."

He turned to the boy and began talking to him as Jiwon walked away to a women's store nearby.

She looked through the clothes but couldn't tell what to get. What kind of clothes did she like to wear? She couldn't remember. She looked at one of the mirrors in the store to see she had black sweatpants and a t-shirt on, which didn't really provide much input. She decided to dress nicely, picking out some black dress pants and a black blouse. Then she walked over to the mall's bathroom to wipe her face and comb her hair. She smiled, now she looked good.

But why did she have dust and blood all over her face anyway, where was she before this?

She didn't really understand the situation. It felt like she was being held hostage but she really didn't have any qualms about it, so maybe that's why she was allowed to wander. But she really could've just run off at any time. The boy with her definitely did not want to be here though.

"What's next on our agenda?" Jiwon said, walking back towards the two, seeing a frantic woman run away from them.

"Uh, stay safe, Miss!" She waved.

"We're going to meet other people like us," the old man said, putting his hands on Hyunsoo's now clothed shoulders. "We're going to Baemsom."

Jiwon nodded, not knowing what that meant or what Baemsom was. Maybe she was always a good-with-the flow girl.

The three found a working car and decided to head off on their trip. The old man, whose name is apparently Uimyeong, and the boy, Hyunsoo, sat in the front while Jiwon sat in the back. The whole ride she could feel eyes on her as she looked at the empty streets, and she looked over to see it was Hyunsoo.

"Do you need something?" she questioned, a bit annoyed.

"Do you not remember who I am?" Hyunsoo asked with a concerned look on his face.

Jiwon deadpanned at him. "Am I supposed to?"

Hyunsoo looked at Uimyeong for answers.

"I found her in her monster form lying next to some guy. I think she had resisted the monsterization but she was trying to form a cocoon, so I grabbed her before she could. I don't exactly know what's wrong with her but if I had let her become a cocoon I think she would have turned into a regular monster." Uimyeong explained. "Guess we're going to have to wait and see."

Hyunsoo nodded. Hopefully, she'd remember. She had a lot more she cared about than he did; it would probably hurt her more that she forgot them.

Jiwon sat quietly with her legs propped up as Uimyeong drove into a gate and alarm bells started ringing.

"Old man, it's quite a shame," Jiwon thought as soldiers began to shoot at the car.

Uimyeong began mumbling to himself until he swerved off the road and caused the car to flip over and break out into flames. Jiwon got up almost as quickly as the car stopped moving and wiped the blood pooling near her mouth.

"Glad I wore black, it hides the blood," she said calmly, getting up and walking towards Hyunsoo.

As his eyes opened, she held out her hand to him.

"Get up," she said, as he grabbed her hand and got up.

He seemed stunned at the scenario and walked towards an injured soldier as Jiwon stood still with her arms crossed.

"Stay away! Stay away, you monster! Why are you doing this to us?" the soldier yelled at the two. "Just kill me!"

Jiwon watched on as Hyunsoo mercifully killed the soldier and screamed in anguish. She walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"More soldiers will be here soon. Do you have a plan? Because I don't" Jiwon questioned, looking over to Uimyeong still lying down bleeding.

Eun, bleeding and disheveled, finally arrives with the tenants at Green Home Apartments again after being taken away by the military, desperately looking for signs of her brother.

She combs through the rubble looking for anything. And then she spots it, his broken glasses. She tries her hardest to not cry but the tears come out anyway.

"How could you both leave me alone like this?" she screamed, to Eunhyuk and Jiwon, as if they'd be able to hear.

All she could picture was the day before Jiwon died, she saw her and Eunhyuk walking in the halls hand in hand with grins on their faces. She missed Eunhyuk nagging her all the time, and Jiwon would swoop in to cool the tension. She missed the both of them looking out for her because now they'd left her alone.

Just as she wiped her eyes, something metallic glinted into her eye. Curiously, she moved rubble aside to see Jiwon's broken jingum. Her eyebrows furrowed; she was sure that Jiwon had her weapon when she died.

"How could this be here?"