Give & Take

Broken Limits

If Baekho thought he had seen the worst of it, he wasn't prepared for the next moment he opened his eyes back into the nightmare. It felt like days had passed since he had been stuck here and still, he couldn't wake up from it. A shrill scream jolted him from his very brief sleep as if time just zipped past and he was awake again. He rubbed his eyes and gasped when he couldn't see Minhyun on his bed anymore. He pushed himself up from his kneeling position and rushed out from the room. He had found out that he just walked through walls and doors too and couldn't interact with most of the objects too. He gasped when he saw Minhyun clinging onto his mother and trying to stop her from doing something. He headed down and approached them, eyes widening when he saw a bloodied knife that they were both trying to battle out of each other's hold. There was a thin red line across her neck and Baekho could only suspect that she had tried to cut herself as Minhyun was trying to take the knife from her while yelling at her to stop. Their fingers bled but unlike Minhyun's, she wasn't healing.

"Why? Why do you have to be the one who could heal? Why couldn't your father heal? Then he wouldn't have died and left us alone. Why did he have to care about all those savages and die?"

"Please, mother. Don't do this. I'll do better. Please."

"You can never do better! You can never replace your father. You can never be him."

Minhyun gasped and let go, holding onto his mother and healing her instead. She dropped the knife and hugged him as well.

"Why, Minhyun, my son. Why do I have to be like this. All I wanted was just to love you."

Minhyun shut his eyes and didn't say a word. What could he say.

~~~

"I'll be home soon!"

Minhyun followed the cheerful kid out from his home to find his friend. He watched as the child hopped around excitedly while looking along the nature. He wondered if his experience in living by the outskirts was what had helped him survive in the forest. Now that he thought about it, how long had it been since Baekho started living in the forest? He had never mentioned of a home to go back to either. The child Dongho ran up to the neighbour's house and knocked on the door, humming as he bounced on his two feet and waited. The door opened and a young boy about his age or maybe older poked his head out too.

"Aron, Aron, let's play together!"

"Ah. Dongho, I'm sorry. My mum says I can't play with you anymore."

"Eh... But why? Even Jason from three doors away can't play with me either. Have I done something wrong?"

"N-no! She says that you...you will make me sick so I can't play with you."

"B-but I promise I won't! As long as we don't touch, my mother says I can play."

"I'm sorry, Dongho. Maybe when we grow older, we can play together."

The child pouted. "You promise?"

"I promise."

Dongho smiled a tiny bit and waved before sulking as he turned around. Minhyun wanted to pat him and tell that it's okay and that he would stay with him no matter what but he knew the other couldn't hear him either. The child sighed and continued walking along the street, kicking small pebbles as they bounced off the road.

"Why can't anyone play with me? I promised not to touch them or hug them," the child spoke to himself as he stared down at the ground. Minhyun felt bad for the other. "This is not fair! Ugh." The child sat down by the roadside and picked up a stick, poking at the shrubs. Minhyun squatted beside him and looked around at his lush surroundings. It still felt so unnatural to think that things used to look like this. He wondered if the black plague was what chased Baekho away from his home and how most of the people ended up in the slums.