A "Damsel" In Distress

SIDE STORY : YOO JONGHYUK'S MEMORIES

SIDE STORY : YOO JONGHYUK'S MEMORIES 

The place Yoo Jonghyuk had lived when he was a child was a small village. It was located at the plains abundance with vitality and plants. The neighbors were also kind and always helped each other out. However, they did not expect such a phenomenon to happen. 

At the age of 5, Yoo Jonghyuk could clearly remember how their small village was engulfed in the black aura. 

He was with her pregnant mother at that time when cracks appeared on the ground. It then spread to encircled the whole village, not leaving even one of the houses. 

The residents of the village were filled with confusion at the sudden turn of events. They started to hug each other, cried in fear, and ran to save their pitiful lives. 

Yoo Jonghyuk at that time watched all of those happening through his small eyes. When he saw the cracks were now striding towards them, Yoo Jonghyuk decided to push his pregnant mother away from him. 

He did not push her to save his life, rather it was to save his mother and his unborn sibling. It was fortunate that they were standing at the border of the village. When the cracks completely surrounded the village, it started to shake. His mother was safe from it, as she desperately watched the small figure of his son being dragged along underground.

Yoo Jonghyuk saw this as he smiled at his mother to console her. He also mouthed his wish for them. “Live for me and my younger sibling. I promise to find you.”

The whole village was submerged underground.

The plains abundance in vitality and plants started to release a cold temperature. Until something white started to fall down from the sky and filled the ground. However, every time a snowflake landed on the previous location of the village, it always turned black. 

Time passes by. The place was now called by the people as the Underground of Desolation.

Yoo Jonghyuk made himself familiar with the new environment. At first, it was hard for a lone kid to live underground, considering how panicked the people along him were, that could affect his child mentality.

Fortunately, there was a good grandma who chose to take care of him. She gave him food, shelter, and a warmth that was hard to come by in that place. She was also the one who teach the young Yoo Jonghyuk how to cook food for himself

However, as time passed by, the food in their storage was gradually depleting. The people were now madly stealing someone's property, and even resorted to violence.

Yoo Jonghyuk was 9 years old at that time, when the grandma who always took care of him was killed by other people. It was also the first time he felt hatred was blooming inside his heart, as he mournfully held the body of the grandma who took care of him. 

Madness took over his rationality as he grabbed a knife from the kitchen. Yoo Jonghyuk scanned his surroundings and located the faces he saw while he was hiding in the cabinet– the place where the grandma hid him so he wouldn't be harmed. 

It was also at that moment where Yoo Jonghyuk learned how to take a person's life.

After he killed those people, he came back to his wits. He screamed when he saw his bloodied hand holding a knife and a dead body under him. But, an unknown message suddenly floated in the air. 

[The skill 'Reasoning' has been activated.]

It made him calm down and think rationally. Yoo Jonghyuk went back to the grandma's house to give the grandma a proper burial. 

He was now alone. 

Time passes by. 

Yoo Jonghyuk learned how to live.

He learned how to survive.

He learned how to kill those who people get in his way. 

The number of the people underground started to diminish. Until he became the only sole survivor underground at the age of 13.

Through those years living alone, Yoo Jonghyuk tried to end his life but always failed. That's because an unknown and indistinct voice always resurfaces in his mind. 

[“Let's meet again, Yoo Jonghyuk.”]

He doesn't know who that person was, but because of that voice… Yoo Jonghyuk lived. Until at the age of 17, a strange occurrence appeared. 

The silent underground suddenly rumbled and he heard cracks forming at the wall. Yoo Jonghyuk followed the source of it and there, he found a young man– closer to his age scanning the underground. 

Yoo Jonghyuk felt his heart beating madly inside his chest. Like he'd been longing to see that very face of the stranger for a long time. 

He couldn't describe what this feeling was. 

He then saw the stranger look at him and their eyes met. He was snapped to reality when that happened and rushed towards the young man to attack him.

As he was about to stab the young man, the latter suddenly hugged him. It caught him off guard and stopped the hand holding the bone knife from hurting him. 

Yoo Jonghyuk was filled with confusion as to why he did that, or why he felt a warmth surged in his heart when the stranger hugged him? 

Then he felt his shoulder was soaked by a warm liquid and realized the young man was crying. When he asked the young man his first question, he did not answer. So he asked again as he hesitatingly patted the young man's back to comfort him. ‛Why I am doing this?’

“Seriously, why the hell are you crying?”

“I also don't know.” 

When Yoo Jonghyuk heard the young man's voice, he felt his heart welled up. The voice was so familiar. It seems he already heard that voice from somewhere, but he couldn't remember where. 

Then he learned the name of the stranger was Kim Dokja. 

‘Kim Dokja.’

‘His name is Kim Dokja.’

He keeps repeating the name in his mind and familiarizing himself with it. “I am Yoo Jonghyuk.” he said as he introduced himself.

“Then Yoo Jonghyuk, wanna come with me? Let's get out of this underground.” Kim Dokja proposed to him. Yoo Jonghyuk trembled when he heard Kim Dokja call his name. Like a broken shard repairing itself, the pieces in his mind become whole. 

[“Let's meet again, Yoo Jonghyuk.”]

[“Then Yoo Jonghyuk...”]

[“Yoo Jonghyuk.”]

At that moment, he realized the young man in front of him was the person who kept him alive. He might not have proof, but his heart was so sure about it. 

‘It's him...’

“Let's leave now.” He heard Kim Dokja say that. 

As they walked, they talked about nonsensical things, and sometimes bicker or insult each other. He also seemed to see a light shining brightly at the entrance as Kim Dokja turned his body facing him, the light reflected on his back. Kim Dokja brightly smiled. “Yoo Jonghyuk... Please take good care of me from now on.”

‘...my salvation.’