The Answer

Hearing a loud noise outside her room, Y/N rushed to see the commotion. The new weird guy who was locked in along with Hyunsu and Seokhyun was getting beaten up by Sangwook. She had no idea what happened but one thing was for sure - this two had some history. As she was about to intervene, Hyein held her hand tightly refusing to let her go.

"But why aren't any of you stopping him!" she looked at them with eyes full of worry, "He will kill him."

And he did. As Sangwook landed a hit on Yoonjae's cheek with a hammer, she looked away. She could hear the crack and squelching sound of his head getting bashed. Pulling her arm away she ran back in her room. It brought back memories that she was trying to forget. It was coming back to her more often than usual. She wondered if her college kept her mind occupied. Wait, no. It was actually always at the back of her mind. She just...chose to ignore it.

The door of her room opened up slightly, after a while. "Y/N?" Jisu peeked inside. Y/N held her head in her hand, wishing to forget the scene she just witnessed.

"He..wasn't a nice guy," Jisu said, sitting beside her.

Y/N looked up at her teary-eyed and said, "It's one thing if a monster did this. But...it was a human Jisu. How do you expect me to be okay with that?"

"He's a criminal. And I'm not telling you to be okay with that. None of us really are, and I know it sounds harsh but it's good that we got rid of that monster."

"...Monster?" Y/N asked, as Jisu filled in with what she had seen on Sangwook's phone. Jaehoon had explained everything to the residents after the incident. Sangwook threw the man outside for the tongue monster to drink his blood. And hearing what he has done, Y/N agreed with him. Yes, it was harsh but he deserved it. He was living good life after doing these terrible things didn't he? But...then again, so were so many other people she knew.

Y/N sighed and looked down at her fiddling fingers.

"The funeral for the residents are gonna be later today," Jisu said and lied down on her bed, "All of this is...so tiring."

"Yes but.." Y/N said, remembering her mother's last words, "I guess we all have a reason to live."

[ TIME SKIP ]

Hyunsu made it back safely along with some people. Y/N was mostly surprised to see a man in wheel chair and two kids among them. Other than that, things weren't working so well. Some of the residents were afraid to live with Sangwook, Yikyung left the building with a bike and Hyunsu was sent around the building more often to look for the things required.

Y/N could see the boy slowly forgetting his fear, he was getting used to it. But he was also getting more annoyed everyday. The worst part though out of all these things was that he had to spend the entire time after that locked in a room. Everyday she brought in water and food inside but they didn't exactly talk much. What was she going to say to him? There was no way she could make things better for him.

Hyunsu walked in and emptied his bag full of materials that Eunhyuk said to bring in and left to go back inside his assigned room, ready to be locked up again. Dusik was sitting outside the room. He handed Y/N the lock and key, who was holding some food and water, again and left the area.

She walked in and kept the food and water on the ground beside him, observing Seokhyeon in the corner of the room. The man was slowly losing it. Sighing, she sat down in front of Hyunsu who had his head down like always.

"I'm just wasting my time...I know, but I don't know what else to do," she muttered. Hyunsu was silent as always.

"I guess, I'm just...feeling guilty and don't want to repeat my mistakes," she said and heard him whisper something.

"Mistakes?"

"Uh..nothing to worry about," she said and looked at his face. He was sweating and had some blood smeared on his face. She slowly put forward her hand towards his face, and he flinched. "You didn't wash your face today," she said and rubbed off the blood from his cheek using her thumb.

"Thank you," he muttered, "for..everything."

Y/N chuckled, as she saw him finally looking up at her doe-eyed, "You shouldn't be thanking me for doing the bare minimum."

"I-I can bring back something f-for you, if you..want," he said.

"You can?" she smiled at him, "Well I don't want to be a bother but..I guess I do want my family picture with me. Can you do that? D-Don't do it if it's a risk. It's beside my bed on the nightstand."

He took the chocolate bars she brought in and opened one of them to eat. She felt terrible. At this point it was pretty obvious that he wasn't a threat. But unless she had more people agreeing with her, there wasn't any option to help him out. Currently, she wasn't talking with Eunhyuk. Whatever feelings she had for him needed to be removed, especially in this world filled with monsters. Besides, she felt ashamed.

Ashamed because despite of all the decisions Eunhyuk was taking, she knew it was hard for him. It has to be. He was human and even though he barely showed any kind of emotions, she knew at some point he wouldn't be able to suppress it anymore. Ashamed because she agreed with him too.

It didn't matter how bad things were between them, she had to talk to him about it.

Getting up, she ruffled Hyunsu's hair with a smile and left the room, locking it. She barged in the control room and found Eunhyuk in front of a table with batteries scattered around. Locking the door behind her, she was ready to have a talk with him but he was the one speaking up first.

"If you're here to say Hyunsu deserves to be treated better, then it's of no use cause he's still dangerous to all of us," Eunhyuk said immediately.

She felt a pang of pain in her heart. Ofcourse, there were others who were blaming him for taking this decision and he was over this conversation with other people. She slowly walked towards him as he turned his chair to look up at her face. "Atleast...for an hour you can allow him to hang out with us," she suggested.

"You've already got that covered though, don't you?" he said, almost in an accusatory tone.

"Well someone needs to take care of him. He's a nice guy," she replied.

"He's half monster and a danger to us. That's all I need to know what to do with him."

Y/N felt terrible with every passing second. Pushing down her ego, she walked towards him and stroked his hair. He closed his eyes and faced down. She slowly moved towards him as he rested his head on her stomach.

He was tired.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Why?" he asked, still faced down.

"...for being immature," she said and sat down on his lap, his head now resting on her shoulder and hands around her waist, "and for not being supportive."

"Stop," he said and looked at her straight in the eyes, "I can't do this with you."

She teared up a bit and said, "You think I'm not scared? Why do you think I stay away from you? It was hard to come back in here you know."

"If you're scared then you should not do this," he said, "have feelings for me."

"Well, what about you?" she asked. Y/N was tired from running around being in denial. The best option for her was to confront these feelings she had for him. She knew he was scared to be close to her, but she could only hope it to be the same reason as herself.

"I told you that you can help me relieve my stress," he said.

And there it was. The answer.

She felt awful as tears streamed down her cheeks. Hiding her face on his neck, she hugged him - probably for one last time. She felt his hands wrapping around her tighter than before, bringing her closer. He breathed down her neck, placing small kisses - wishing it to be just one last time.