Incarnadine | Prequel to "Viridescence"

36

3rd April
2015

Completely used to student life at this point, Seonghwa stares blankly at his timetable.

"What's stressing you? Is the homework too hard?" Hongjoong asks, sitting beside him in the living room of their new mansion.

They moved to their new house two months ago, and are still working on making it seem like more of a home rather than a house. "The chandeliers certainly don't help," is what Yeosang had said as his piece of advice. Of course his advice was ignored.

Seonghwa shakes his head and groans. "I'm just trying to figure out which classes I can skip for the next week and which are compulsory. The drive to the college from here is too long."

Hongjoong giggles. "You really do take college so seriously, relax! It's not like you'll have the chance to fail since you won't even be doing exams," he comforts. Seonghwa shakes his head gloomily. "If I miss too many classes then I'll gain the attention from the teachers and attention is the one thing I shouldn't get."

"Forget about college for today at least then, you've just survived another year! We should celebrate the fact that you haven't died for twenty-two years now," Hongjoong exclaims. Seonghwa's eyes widen for a second before he realises what Hongjoong is talking about.

"You mean that it's my birthday?" he laughs out of disbelief. His friend sure has a strange way of wording things. "I thought you couldn't care less about birthdays," Seonghwa scoffs. "Not true! I don't care about anyone's birthday except for yours. You're already twenty-two so-"

"Stop saying that, you make me feel old," Seonghwa rolls his eyes. 

Before the boys get to argue more, Yeosang comes rushing into the room. Seonghwa prepares himself for more teasing, but perks up at the sight of Yeosang's stressed face.

"I got a call from one of the guys in the old town, he said there's someone being super noisy in front of the old house. He said that she brought other people and said she won't leave until one of you come out. Whoever this is, I don't think she knows that we moved out," Yeosang rushes. He has no idea what this is about and senses a threat.

Puzzle pieces click in both of the other men's head and they look at each other with knowing eyes. "Why does that bitch only visit on our birthdays?" Hongjoong growls with gritted teeth.

Seonghwa's breathing only gets quicker and his anger spikes. Yeosang senses more danger in this room at this point than their old home currently and quietly leaves, suddenly deciding that exploring the wide range of rooms in this house is safer.

"Get ready. We're going back there and showing Harin that we keep our promises well," Hongjoong instructs in a low voice while standing up. Seonghwa also wordlessly joins him, fists shaking from rage.

Hongjoong drives the two back to the old SS house, deciding that if Seonghwa drives while this mad then the two of them will end up deep in a ditch.

He parks far from the house and the two boys silently shuffle through their range of weapons in the boot of the car. Seonghwa's eyes slightly water when he picks up his gun as he remembers all the times he trained Harin in shooting. He hurriedly blinks the tears back and equips himself.

He sneaks through the streets with Hongjoong and they peek their heads around the corner to observe the situation.

Seonghwa's whole world freezes when he sees her again. She looks the exact same, only this time with more tattoos coating her arms. His chest burns up in a flame. He wants to kill her right this instant.