A week had passed and Seonghwa had made little to no progress. In this whole week he had managed to eat some bread, maybe a granola bar, and a little bit of fruit. His body felt exhausted, he hadn't energy in him. Even cleaning, which he loved doing it, was like a chore to him.
As for the strange vibe the house radiated, he surely felt something. He didn't know what but he did. Like he could hear whispering, either in the middle of the night, waking him up, or when he was relaxing. Sometimes things were dropped, open windows, leaving Seonghwa to think that he had developed amnesia. Was he doing mechanical moves and he didn't remembered them?
He didn't have a logical explanation for this, so he let it happen. After some time, it didn't bother him, he was slowly getting used to it.
Right now, he was standing on his kitchen counter, debating on whether he could eat or not. The food supplements didn't help him, if anything they made him more sick. He went and opened the fridge, and took out some things to make a sandwich. Not a fancy one but something to get him started.
Once he made it, he put it on a plate, and set it on the counter. But he didn't move. He kept staring at it, as if he was trying to make it disappear.
"cmon it's just a bite you coward" he could feel himself trembling. The bread, the cheese, were looking huge in that plate, and he couldn't bring himself to catch it.
The woman's word kept replaying in his head.
'you don't deserve to eat you worthless bitch'
'you'll eat as much as I want you to'
'you'll become ugly and fat. How much more than you already are?'
Seonghwa dropped to his knees, covering his ears with his hands, trying to block the noises. They were too many. He couldn't stand it. Tears were continually pouring down his eyes. He needed to find a way to relieve it. He needed to get his mind out of there.
He stood up, stumbling, trying to find anything sharp. He had promised himself, along with a lot of other empty promises, that he would stop this habit if his. But he didn't seem to care. Right now he wanted some relief, and that was the only thing he could give it to him.
He opened the kitchen drawer, immediately spotting the large, sharp object. He took it in his hands and looked at its shiny pointy edge, that he was about to puncture his skin with, leaving new, fresh cuts along the older, faded ones.
He was just about to cut his skin with the knife, when he heard a loud and clear voice from behind him.
"please don't do this"
~~~~
San stood there watching the fragile boy struggle. His usual cold and filled with anger eyes, were now looking at the boy with sadness and empathy.
And a demon like him shouldn't be able to feel like this right?
But he couldn't help it. He along with the rest of the sins had developed an empathy for the small boy, without even realising it.
At first, when the boy got into the house, the seven of them did what they always did. Try to scare him away. To them it was amusing when people were scared of them. A lot of people came to live into the house, but thanks to them, they managed only a day or two.
But this boy. This boy was different. San and the others could feel it. There were a lot of times that the boys had seen him shouting like a madman or when he purposedly hurted himself.
And all this, made them develop a sweet spot for him. In a way they admired him. They didn't know what the boy had been through in his life, but how he managed to bring himself together was remarkable.
Even if he fell, he always made sure to get up. It was difficult, but he didn't stop.
But San was caught in the headlights, when he saw the boy on the floor, crying uncontrollably. But the next thing he did had caught him even more of guard.
The boy had opened the kitchen drawer, and then pulled out a sharp knife, ready to slash his skin.
And he couldn't control himself of what he did next.
"please don't do this"
