The air pressed heavier as Haneul's trembling shoulders slowly steadied, his head lifting at an agonizing pace, strands of disheveled hair sliding away from his face like thin curtains revealing a monument not yet fully carved.
His eyes glistened beneath the wavering glow, reflecting no outrage, no fear, but a sorrow so dense it swallowed every flicker of life around him.
His lips parted slightly, not for breath, but as though the weight inside had grown unbearable to contain.
The muscles in his jaw twitched, as if his very bones trembled under some unseen force that neither Seojun nor Hyeonjae fully understood.
Hyeonjae's brows pulled inward, his smirk faltering for the first time, uncertainty clawing at the edges of his mind. His voice crept out, laced with hesitation that rarely visited his tongue. "What is this…?" he murmured, his gaze flickering toward Seojun with a flicker of doubt, as though seeking explanation. "Seojun, why— just what are you sensing earlier? All I can say is that he looked like a man no greater than any of us right now."
Seojun, standing firmly beneath the warped chandelier, kept his eyes pinned to Haneul. His earlier casual demeanor had evaporated into something far more rigid. The faintest chill danced along his spine, creeping up the back of his neck like invisible threads tightening with each passing second.
And yet, a faint grin slowly curved upon his face, not one born of amusement, but of a grim understanding that slithered through him.
"Fascinating, isn't it?" Seojun spoke quietly, his voice thick, steady, every syllable soaked in a weight that pulled the room down around them. "Even you haven't seen it, have you, Hyeonjae? Beneath that misery, there's a far hunger clawing inside him. It's been sitting there all along… waiting for him to break the door for him to release."
Haneul's breathing slowed, the rise and fall of his chest now eerily calm.
His fingers spread wider, pressing against the sides of his head as though cradling something precious and dangerous, his lips curling faintly into a fragile, unsettling smile.
His gaze, once so full of helplessness, lifted directly to Seojun's as though finally acknowledging him for the first time, eyes faintly gleaming under the dim light.
Hyeonjae's throat tightened. For all his mastery of terror, for all the twisted power he carried within these rotting walls, something unspoken in Haneul's expression unsettled him.
The familiar rhythm of dominance had shifted without his permission. "Seojun…" he said again, his voice thinner now. "What is he? What's inside him?"
Seojun inhaled deeply, as though savoring the heaviness suspended in the room. His words came out in a whisper, but each syllable landed like iron: "He's been burying it for years. Or maybe he's just hiding it intentionally. That power. But beneath all that..." Seojun's eyes narrowed ever so slightly, "is something neither of us fully understands. And it's stirring inside of him like a whirlpool. But instead of water, let's say it's a murderous intent, and it's longing for blood."
Haneul let out a single, low exhale, one that trembled on its way out of his throat, his smile widening, not with joy, but as if surrendering to the very force beginning to rise within him.
His hands slid down from his head, fingers brushing against his cheeks like an artist preparing a canvas for ruin.
Seojun's smirk grew ever so slightly, yet his voice remained heavy, as though addressing something far beneath Haneul's skin rather than the man himself. "Why don't you show us now? Since you've been holding it back for far too long."
Hyeonjae took a single step backward, his fingers curling involuntarily, pulse quickening beneath his skin. For the first time in many years, the balance of control inside this rotting place no longer belonged to him.
Hyeonjae's head snapped toward Seojun, his eyes narrowing as they scanned the man's face with growing agitation.
For a brief heartbeat, there was hesitation, not fear, but an unsettled recognition flickering behind his eyes, as though glimpsing the edge of a precipice he hadn't known existed.
The corners of his lips twitched, and soon, an uneven grin stretched across his face, exposing clenched teeth that ground against one another audibly, the strain behind his jaw growing visible as his muscles rippled beneath the skin.
His breathing thickened, the rhythm broken, words scratching their way up his throat. "You knew… didn't you, Park Seojun?" His voice cracked into a breathless laugh that held no amusement.
His grin widened, a grotesque display that barely contained the wild current thrashing inside him. "You've seen it too... the power, hiding beneath my skin like some wretched little beast waiting for the right moment to be unleashed."
He shifted his stance, his hands flexing at his sides, fingers curling as though restraining an impulse far uglier than violence. The tension within him coiled tighter, his chest rising and falling in heavy waves as the air grew hotter, dense with the weight of something ready to fracture.
"Fight us, then!" Hyeonjae spat through his teeth, voice rising with a feverish edge as his eyes darted between Seojun and the man crouched before them. "Show us all you've got, Shin Haneul! Drop that pitiful mask and let it out! I want to see what's been rotting inside you all these years. Don't hold back for my sake."
His words hung like venom, each syllable striking against the silence as though daring the storm to finally break. His grin twitched again, jaw tightening further, veins pulsing across his temples as his body trembled, not from weakness, but from the exhilaration of looming ruin.
Seojun remained still, watching carefully, his eyes never once leaving Haneul's rising form.
The faintest gleam of something cold, almost satisfied, passed across his expression as he whispered under his breath, just loud enough for both men to hear.
"He's already starting."
At that, Haneul's breath deepened once more, and the faint, brittle smile clinging to his lips started to peel wider as his eyes remained locked downward, a terrible serenity pooling behind his expression.
Haneul's shoulders quivered as his breath staggered through clenched teeth. His head hung low, eyes locked on the stained floorboards beneath him, as though the weight of despair had finally broken his spine.
His hands slowly crept upward, covering his face, fingers spreading as though trying to conceal the collapse unraveling behind them. His voice cracked into the air, trembling, soaked in desperation, his words spilling like broken fragments of a man lost to hopelessness.
"Please… I beg you…" His voice strained between faint sobs, each syllable punctuated by shallow, hitching breaths. "Let us go… spare him… spare my brother… I'll do anything… just… just let him live…"
His knees weakened as though ready to buckle again under the enormity of grief, but something beneath that display pulsed, strange and discordant.
The sobs continued, but there was a faint rasp tucked inside the sound, almost as if his breath shivered with something unspeakably different beneath the sorrow.
Seojun's gaze remained fastened on him, unblinking, his chest rising ever so slightly, sensing the disturbance more vividly with each word.
The air around them shifted. Even the flickering light overhead seemed reluctant to move, as though the very room held its breath, waiting.
Then, behind the trembling hands that pressed into his tear-streaked face, something else surfaced, the faint curl of his lips pulling unnaturally wide, revealing teeth bared not in sorrow but in something far more unsettling. "I just can't keep up a sad face. This is too... good." A grin. One too large for the moment, creeping wider with every passing second, splitting the fragile mask of grief that still dripped from his voice. "I just can't keep my cool. You're such a joke. A clown in my story."
The contrast twisted the air itself, his voice begged, his body trembled, but behind the shield of his palms, the grin devoured the remnants of his sanity.
The wet trails of his tears mixed with the upward pull of his lips, an unnatural union of grief and ecstasy that made even the shadows seem to inch away.
Hyeonjae's eyes gleamed, his breath caught in a shallow, exhilarated intake as he took a half step forward, almost reverent. "There you are…" he whispered, voice stretching into a rasp that trembled with eagerness. "You've always been right there… hiding in plain sight."
Seojun's expression tightened, his brow furrowing, the grin that once lingered on his face dissolving into a grim, watchful stillness as he murmured, almost to himself, "Prepare, it's waking."
Haneul's fingers twitched where they pressed against his face, his shoulders now rising and falling with uneven, jagged rhythm, not from sorrow, but from something beginning to stir beneath the thin fabric of his flesh.
Without warning, Seojun vanished. No sound, no signal, as though the air itself swallowed him whole. A sudden vacuum pressed against the room's walls as if existence had briefly hiccupped. Before even a breath could fill the gap, he reappeared, standing directly in front of Haneul, mere inches from the trembling hands still shielding that monstrous grin beneath.
The shift in distance was so abrupt that even Hyeonjae flinched, his widening eyes betraying his astonishment as his mouth hung slightly agape, teeth gritted but unable to conceal the flicker of dread crawling beneath his skin.
The grin he wore moments ago trembled for a brief instant, teeth grinding against one another as he muttered under his breath, "Incredible…"
Seojun's arm lashed out in a blur, his palm snapping upward with a force that sent the surrounding air rippling as though struck by invisible waves.
His fingers dug into the top of Haneul's head, forcing it backward, revealing the face beneath, no longer hidden by trembling hands. The mask of grief had dissolved completely now.
His grin was vast and unnatural, stretching as though it sought to split his jaw apart. His eyes, once filled with sorrow, now glimmered with a haunting mixture of glee and madness. They glistened unnaturally, as though something far older had awakened behind them.
Seojun's voice growled low, his breath brushing against Haneul's face. "Enough of you hiding. Show yourself. I can't hold it anymore. I can feel my body heating up, waiting for your show."
But Haneul, even beneath Seojun's tightening grip, did not resist. His body jerked with spasms that looked like sobs but rang with laughter twisting at the edges.
His fingers, still trembling moments ago, now rose and clasped Seojun's wrist, not to remove it, but as though savoring the contact, his grip tightening like a snake coiling around its prey.
The grin only widened, his teeth now visible beneath his stretched lips, breath exhaling like steam against the chilled air.
"You want to fight this?" Haneul whispered with a voice that quivered with strange joy. "You want to pull it out? The skill. The skill I don't dare to use, especially in front of... my brother..."
Without hesitation, Seojun yanked him upward by the head, his feet dragging off the floor momentarily, but Haneul's body twisted unnaturally mid-air, contorting as his feet slammed back to the ground with impossible flexibility, his body spinning free of Seojun's grasp like a disjointed marionette breaking its strings.
Seojun's eyes narrowed sharply, tracking every fraction of movement, his hand sweeping outward, unleashing a violent gust that tore across the floorboards, dust exploding outward like shrapnel. The force struck Haneul full across the chest, sending him skidding backward across the rotten wooden planks.
His boots dug trenches into the floor as he slid, but when he came to a stop, he simply stood there, head tilted, chest heaving with laughter that now dripped with something unrecognizable.
The tremors of battle began humming through the air, electric and thick, as though even the walls recoiled in anticipation.
Seojun flexed his hands, his voice dropping into a growl. "You were never supposed to carry this thing, Haneul. It doesn't belong to you. I, who was stronger than a weakling like you, must have it instead. I, Park Seojun, will take your skill today."
And Haneul, his voice laced with venomous amusement, whispered back, "Sure. If you want it so bad, try it. Try and steal it."
Seojun's brow furrowed as his breath slowed, his chest rising in steady rhythm, but his gaze never wavered from the creature grinning before him.
His eyes flicked for only a moment toward Hyeonjae, who remained frozen, lips parted slightly as if trying to comprehend the scene unraveling before him.
The very air thickened, a weight pressing down that seemed to pull every breath deeper into the lungs, suffocating but not yet crushing.
Haneul's body twitched again, his head rolling at an unnatural angle as though joints bent beneath flesh no longer bound to human limitation.
His fingers flexed outward, spreading wide as his spine arched, vertebrae creaking under unseen tension.
The grin remained, but beneath it, something old stirred, coiling like smoke trapped beneath skin.
"You feel it now, don't you?" Haneul rasped, voice no longer his own, vibrating with an unnatural resonance that layered beneath his words like faint echoes crawling up from somewhere distant. "The thing you fear most, it's here… and it's beneath my skin."
Seojun's foot slid forward, careful, steady, grounding his weight as his fingers curled into fists, knuckles tightening until they creaked beneath the pressure.
His voice remained cold but steady, his tone void of panic. "You don't understand what you're inviting, Shin Haneul. That thing inside you… It's not your ally. You are the shell. A vessel waiting to be devoured when it finishes feeding."
Haneul's laughter burst out again, jerking his shoulders upward with convulsing spasms that mimicked sobs but bled into sinister amusement. His head tilted slowly, eyes wide and wild, reflecting the faint light like glass marbles spinning without focus. "Then come, Seojun. If you believe you can peel it out of me, take it. Please. Let's see if your strength is enough to rip open the pit."
Without further warning, Haneul lunged forward.
It was not a sprint, it was a sudden, violent lurch as though his entire mass had been hurled forward by invisible strings pulled taut from behind. His feet barely seemed to touch the ground as he flew toward Seojun in a blur of motion, both arms swinging outward, fingers clawed, seeking to tear through flesh like paper.
Seojun's body shifted sideways, almost gliding across the floor with unnatural grace, his movement swift but calculated. His palm slammed against Haneul's shoulder as he twisted, sending him spinning sideways, but Haneul landed on all fours like a beast regaining footing, his head snapping back toward Seojun with that same distorted grin.
The tension climbed higher, like the air before a storm.
"I can feel you hesitating," Haneul hissed, breathless but laughing. "Are you afraid of breaking me? Or afraid of waking what's deeper? I'm not sure what the talk about waking is about, but for now, I'll play along, alright?"
Seojun's expression hardened further. His next move was fluid, both hands thrust forward, palms out, a surge of violent force erupting outward in a controlled blast that struck Haneul full in the chest.
The ground beneath his feet cracked as Haneul was thrown back, his spine slamming against the far wall with a hollow, splintering crunch that sent dust showering from the ceiling.
But even as his body hung there for a moment, pinned against the cracked wood, the grin didn't vanish. Instead, his head lolled forward, his hair falling over his brow, and behind the strands his eyes gleamed like wet obsidian.
"You're trembling, Park Seojun…" Haneul whispered. "You can feel it now… The thing beneath my ribs, it's calling to you, is it? Are you sure it's waking? I don't think I'm feeling anything though."
Seojun's jaw tightened. His breathing grew slower, heavier, but his voice remained composed, his arms lowering back to his sides as though bracing for what was still to come.
"You've gone too far, Shin Haneul," Seojun growled, his voice low and deep now, almost like a distant roll of thunder. "I won't let it hatch inside you. Unless it's me!"
The final word hung thickly in the air, hatched, as though even Seojun feared what that implied.
Hyeonjae, still rooted where he stood, could no longer suppress his wide-eyed fascination, his lips curling again into a breathless, broken laugh. "Oh… this is beautiful… What beautiful scene it is."
And the air tightened again. The room itself seemed to pulse.
The real storm was just about to begin.