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where are you.

Edited 2024-09-25 03:32 (UTC)

[Sang-Wook is a predictable guy. He keeps to himself in almost all aspects of the manor: the parties, the breakfast banquets, the strange seedy underbellies... Much like his life in Korea, his life in (supposedly, allegedly) mystical England is not much different. Only, he's not killing people. He's not getting his hands dirty in the ways he used to. Green Home had put him on the path to be better, try harder, maybe be a little more human. It's just — too bad everything fell apart in the end.

Sang-Wook tries very, very hard not to think about it for long. It's been his tried and true way to not fall into a pit of despair, the way he'd done with his home and family, and the foster system that had haphazardly moved him around after.

Anyway. He minds his own business, mostly.

But when familiar faces come along, it's impossible to stay in one's lane. He's outside with the very last remains of a cigarette burning between his fingertips (he un-quit) when he swears his eye catches someone he knows. He turns slightly, wanders further inward in the garden area, matching quiet footfalls.

He just wants to see. Maybe he's going crazy, or maybe the manor is just tricking him.

But he has quite literally nothing to lose in making sure. In his opinion.]

stop arguing with me.

Edited 2024-10-14 19:34 (UTC)

she's here.

[ he doesn't explain who he means, or why he's texting at all. there is only one person he would say this about. ]

so

( the fact that she actually has to wait until they're not physically next to each other to have this conversation is, in its own way, pretty telling. )

am i your dom now? jw

so i herd u were talking abt the arcade

( honestly, hao barely waits for hyunsu to pick up the phone before he immediately starts yapping — )

Hi. Are you in your room? It's kind of dumb if you are since I'm in my room and we live in the same fucking house but it's also kind of hot knowing that you're so close to me right now but also, like, not.

( he takes a breath, a hand idly grazing over his stomach beneath his shirt. )

Are you touching yourself yet?

[The gift comes wrapped meticulously in paper that, while not strictly holiday-themed is nevertheless very appropriate, considering who it’s from. The gift is inside, nestled in pale blue tissue paper:

An assortment of candied fruit, nuts and chocolates from the faire, for those of his friends who actually eat. For those who don’t, this portion of the gift is replaced with a simple calendar.

A jar of tea courtesy of Sol & Scroll, because everyone needs more relaxing sleep around here.

For Hyunsu, a star-patterned blanket.

The note, on thick, cream-colored card stock, is in a somewhat wobbly, but earnest hand:]

Hyunsu -

The last place I was, before this, had the worst winter weather I've ever felt. Granted, it was my first winter, but still. Now, whenever I buy gifts, I first think about if someone can be kept warm, above anything else.

I thought it was a good idea, until you decide what you really want. Let me know when you do, okay? :)

Merry Christmas.
-Koby

woud u still like me if i was a worm

8:54 AM
HAOYES added you to a GROUP CHAT.

did you know there's a noraebang here now?

[ it's not a traditional greeting in any sense, but eunhyuk's taken a long look at the calendar and realised just what day is coming up. that's why he's left a small plate of savory cakes and — with a dash of humor — a chocolate coin where he's sure hyunsu will find it. in neat script he writes; ]

happy new year.

ur sleeping over 2nite (not a questtion)

[It's not strictly just a text -- it comes accompanied with a soft mental nudge like a tap on the shoulder, like a hand on Hyunsu's arm, light, unobtrusive, just feeling out where he is, how he is.]

Are you all right? Since the thaw? I haven't seen you since

[Since Hyunsu had told him Hao was dead.]

( it's with a sharp inhale that hao realizes he's alive again — except it's dirt that he's choking on, not air. fuck. he's gonna suffocate. panicked, his heartbeat pounds loudly in his ears, a constant reminder: you're alive. you're alive. you're alive. another memory strikes, of trying to breathe in but his lungs feel stiff and hard, and he's hungry and confused and all he can think about is hyunsu. hyunsu, or a blurry, distorted version of him, pushing him away, apologizing for it. falling to a tiled floor but feeling nothing besides the dire grip of hunger clawing at his insides — what his insides used to be before the rot set in, festering outwards from the bite mark on his chest, right over his heart. well, where his heart used to be.

oh. his heart. the zombie in the hallway had tried to take it by force with its teeth, and the memory of just — wanting hyunsu's haunts him. wanting to taste it. wanting to hold it. wanting to shove it into his own chest and feel the way it beats. you already have it, echoes faintly in his ears and it just doesn't make sense, hao just needs to breathe so he can actually think and —

there's an even stronger urgency now to act, desperate as he starts to kick and claw up at the soft earth caging him in. hao digs and digs and digs and — finally breaks the surface at last, pushing himself up and out of the grave by his arms alone, unable to find purchase to stand, and all he can do once he's on his hands and knees on the grass is cough out dirt and try to catch his fucking breath, starting to hyperventilate as everything catches up to him, flopping down into his back and squeezing his eyes closed, trying to ignore the hot sting of tears that slip from beneath his lids anyway.

he doesn't realize it yet, but there's no fancy funereal garb on his body, no elegant casket. so many people had died during the outbreak that the balfours simply couldn't keep up with that many well-planned funerals, darlings. so, into the hole he went, and out of the hole he comes in the same blood-soaked hoodie and jeans, deep, dark blood caked into his pink hair at the crown of his head where the bat had —

but he's healed now, that fatal, gory blow to the head nearly gone without a trace since everyone in the manor's regained their powers, his skull reforming, skin reconnecting. hao still feels the phantom pain of — something in his chest, though, weighing him down as he tries so desperately to catch his breath. )

[ With absolutely no warning, thanks to Eunhyuk: ]

ATTENTION!

This Is The Curse Of Bloody Mary! You Must Forward This Message To Ten People, Or She Will Come And Find You And Kill You! She Knows Where You Live. She Will Hang Your Corpse For Everyone To See And Laugh At You. She Will Find You!

THIS IS NOT A JOKE!!!!!!!!!!!

[ Following this exchange: ]

Your friend tells me you are, in his words, "not yourself."

Hello, Hyunsu! I'm sorry I haven't contacted you recently, what with everything that's been happening.

How have you been doing?

@kpyr7.8

sometime around when Hyunsu shows up ♥

TEXT | un: @kpyr7.8

text; @kpyr7.8 (backdated to eunyu arrival)

text — un: EUNYU