Almost immediately, Jeongguk jumped off sidewards with a little fearful sound, looking at the person that just scared him, still being on the ground, leaning away in fear with wide eyes.

What he saw was a rather... young man, maybe in his mid 20's or more. He was met with an incredibly straight nose and sharp, darkened eyes, piercing right through the invader with an unsettling aura. Jeongguk gulped.

"I asked you something. What are you doing here?" The dark-blonde haired questioned. He was wearing a simple white shirt with a dark-violet jacket, a black necktie messily attached to it, matching his simple black trousers.

Ignoring his elegant look, the boy was getting filled up more and more with fear. He stayed silent, panting quietly in front of him. Words seemed to have lost his mind, trying to grasp the situation. Who was he? Why was he living in the woods? Next to a murderer? What was their connection?

However, it seemed to enrage the standing one more, as he started frowning, getting pissed.

"ARE YOU DEAF?!" He shouted out louder with his raspier voice and stomped to the boy, and before Jeongguk could react, his hair got grabbed and lifted up painfully, him letting out a hurtful sound, pinching his eyes close. Perhaps, while his mind was a confused, scared mess, he would have had his usual confidence if he didn't just meet a two-meters giant guy with a bloody chainsaw in his hand that scared the shit out of him.

"I-I-I'm s-sorry-" Jeongguk whispered in fright, eyes bravely meeting the ones that looked like they could kill him right there on the spot. "I just- I- just b-before I-"

As he was blabbering some incoherent words, trying to grasp a normal sentence in his disarrayed mind, suddenly, he felt the grip on his hair loosen, making him fall backwards, back to his bottom again. Momentarily, he silenced, looking up, body visibly trembling.

The look on the stranger's face seemed to have softened. "Oh my. Aren't you freezing?" he stated, posture looking way calmer, even if out of the blue. Puzzlement was placed on the younger's face as he furrowed them, still looking hesitant. Didn't he just... shout at him five seconds ago? What??

Still dumbfounded by the situation, the man in the violet suit appeared to possess much more patience and composition than before. "You must be hungry, too. You didn't eat anything in a while, did you?" he whispered. His steps were not stomping anymore, yet gently taking small tracks over to the boy again.

Then, he took the hand of the confused guy into his and pulled him up, not harshly or severely, yet mildly and softly. Jeongguk was now on his feet again, and then, it seemed to hit him.

"MURDERER!!" he shouted, and the other was taken aback, blinking in surprise. "What?" he asked, letting go of his hand slowly, tilting his head. He noticed that he was slightly taller than the one that resembled him of a helpless puppy, at least in that very situation.

"M-murderer- t-there's a guy- a big guy!! And- a-a chainsaw, and w-woman- I- h-heard!! H-he— in the w-woods-" he shuddered with his voice extremely, anxiety and memories of what he experienced rose anew. He knew he- he knew they needed to do something, anything.

Yet to his misfortune, the stranger reacted differently than he thought he would. Instead of giving a surprised, also terrified expression, he- just didn't change at all. In fact, he frowned.

"Murderer... here? No way. I live here since I can remember. And these woods aren't that large. I should have heard it if there was a woman screaming." he explained, completely composed. "How long have you been out there, anyways? You seem rather... helpless. Can I help you?" he said softly.

Due to the way he did, with his tone being slightly amused, Jeongguk was feeling like what he just saw- was a joke. As if he was... hallucinating.

He didn't know how or why, but because of how relaxed the other seemed, his aura having great effects on him, he suddenly was questioning everything he has experienced in those past 10 minutes. And then- he started losing his mind, frustrated.

"Awh. Don't worry, hallucinations aren't something bad. They might just express your deepest fears! And that's okay." he hummed, placed his hand on the forehead of the other, staring at it. "Mmm. You don't seem too feverish, but maybe it's the cold that got you like that."

"There's ... n-no murderer?" Was the only, mere sentence Jeongguk gave in as he was staring on the ground, his last common sense that was sure of what happened was still fighting against the elder. Yet it was slowly being killed, one by one due to the latter, who only hummed in agreement. "No murderer nearby. You don't have to be afraid."

And then, Jeongguk decided to give in some more, and sigh deeply with closed eyes. No murderer. just Hallucinations. I'm just really hungry and frustrated. I'm fine.

"Now, don't you want to eat something and take a warm bath while you're at it?" He suggested, friendlily wrapping an arm around the black-haired boy's shoulder, now leading him to his stairs as he walked next to him, staring.

Somehow, Jeongguk completely forgot about how impulsive he was at first. He decided to not question his aggressive behavior at all anymore, but forget about it.

"That- that's too much of a trouble-" he said, clearly hesitant whether he should accept a warm-hearted offer like that. "No, it's okay. It's all fine. You need it." he cut him off quickly, walking up the stairs with him and to a certain door.

Jeongguk realized it could have just been pity for the boy that was starving to this point he thought a murderer was chasing him. Yeah, made sense.

"W-what's your name?" Jeongguk wanted to know as the other opened the door to a bathroom. "Felix, call me Felix. What about you?" the stranger said, after he quickly organized spare clothes. Jeongguk nodded. Felix it was.

"I'm Jeongguk" he said quickly, and Felix smiled in acknowledgement.

"I just wanted to take a bath myself, which is why the water is prepared. Just thought I'd let you know" the guy called Felix chuckled, and Jeongguk nodded again. "I-it's fine, actually I feel bad for ruining your bath.." he mumbled. Felix chuckled anew. the younger noted how deep is voice was.

"It's fine. Nothing tragic. There are towels and spare clothes right next to the sink. I will prepare some food for you, okay? Then we can talk about your situation more." he said friendlily. Jeongguk looked at him for a while, and smiled. "Thanks so much" he said, and Felix only nodded before he left, saying he should call him if he needs something.

Closing, as well as locking the door behind him, the boy sighed in relief, and firstly checked out the bathroom.

Until now, he wasn't paying attention to the bath tub. Instead, he focused on stripping his clothes off slowly and neatly folding them onto the counter, right next to the towels. He was also thinking about how to thank the stranger later for taking care of him this well.

When he was naked, he finally walked up to the tub filled with water, and then, he froze.

The water was red.

Dark red.

It reminded him of the blood he saw.

He screamed.

After a while, Felix seemed to have ran up to the door, knocking aggressively and panting. "Is something wrong?!" he called firmly, sounding worried. Meanwhile Jeongguk has stepped away from the tub in fear, panting hard. "There's- s-something red-" he panted out breathlessly.

"......"

"Oh. That's my bathe ball. Flavored in a cherry rose blossom." the voice from the other side of the wall stated.

Jeongguk stood there, staring at the water dumbfounded. "I-it's... red because of the bathe ball?"

"I'm sorry if this comes off as rude, but could it be you live somewhere ... uhm... strongly in the country side? Maybe you just didn't know about these." the voice said, and Jeongguk turned bright red from embarrassment. He was a city boy actually, and that he didn't think of such common as this, made him flustered.

"I... I'm sorry, I- jus--"

"It's okay. I'm gonna go down and make the food, yeah? Don't worry and take your time!" Felix said cheerfully, sounding more relaxed now that he knew Jeongguk was fine.

"Yeah- uh- sorry again-" he whispered, but Felix was already on his way downstairs to the kitchen. Jeongguk sighed. He truly wasn't feeling well, and on top of it, he was embarrassing himself in front of Felix. But, could you really blame him for reacting like that? He didn't know anymore.

What he knew was that he wanted to get into that tub to relax as quick as possible, so he did. He walked up to the tub, raised his foot, and slowly stepped inside.

His foot was met with an embracement of entrancing source of warmth, his cold feet feeling nothing but pleasure. He sighed out in relief, and stepped in more, until he was sitting in the water whose color was red like a cherry.

Suddenly, being covered with this exciting sensation of heat, everything felt so relaxing to the point it was making his mind dizzy. Muscles and skin were finally relaxing. He was absolutely loving it. Thus, he closed his eyes and threw his head back gently, letting out a soft sound. This was exactly what he needed at this very moment.

After a while, he fluttered his eyes open again, and decided to let his eyes roam around a little, including a sight of the water. Something about it was still.. intriguing about it.

He raised up his hand from it, palm facing up, and noticed a... darker shade of red mixing with a lighter one. He sniffed on it. Somehow, it smelt nice and odd at the same time. As if two different mixtures were meeting each other, yet he wasn't talking about the cherry and the rose. Something.. different. Cherry, rose, and something... more.

But for that, he didn't really want to question it. He simply put his hand back down, closing his eyes, and enjoyed the rest of his tranquilizing bath, not forgetting to wash himself. After 15 minutes, he decided it was time to stand up, and so he did, drying himself up and changing into the spare clothes that Felix prepared for him.

His spare clothes, including his own underwear, consisted of a (way too oversized for him) white, long sleeved shirt, and some casual long black pants. He put them on, and then decided to leave the bathroom as it is, remembering that Felix still wanted to take a bath afterwards.

He left, and then took the stairs down to the living room. Carefully, he was looking around, trying to find the kitchen, for which he didn't need to search long, as it was right next to the cozy fireplace. a wooden table with four dark seats, partly made out of leather, on each side.

Then, instead of a door, next to the table there was an archway, which lead to a same-styled as the living room kitchen, with woodened walls, furniture and yellow lights matching Felix's Theme. It was kind of mysterious, but at the same time, inviting.

At the table, there was a plate with various cooked vegetables on it, and some saviory, pure chicken broth in a mug, as well as simple bread pieces on the plate. Attached, there was a small note. He sat down and took it to read it.

Didn't know what you exactly liked so I just made what I like.
I'll be back soon.
Don't look around my house.

-Felix :)

Jeongguk stared at the note some more, and then smiled to himself. Felix was such a nice guy, he thought as he took a fork which was laying next to the plate, and dug into food.

While he was eating and chewing the, honestly not-bad made food, he started recalling the last half an hour in his mind in silence, also wondering about why Felix was living here. Who was he, anyways? Does he live alone?

Despite his strong sense of friendliness, there was still something odd. Since Felix wasn't around him right now, it seemed as if his mind was regathering his lost common sense from before.

Shivers started to run down his spine, chews became slower. No. These weren't hallucinations. He- he heard the screams. He knew it. He was sure of it. It's why he stepped into that forest anyways. He saw that big guy, as well as the chainsaw. He heard him chase him, which is why he hid here. The question was, why did he let Felix manipulate his mind so much?

Jeongguk didn't have any mental problems- at least he never had any problems or visions like this before. He was always perfectly fine. Why should it now, of all cases and out of sudden, be a hallucination? it did not make sense to him, not at all.

But more importantly, how did Felix not hear anything? Anything at all? It confused him.

That way of thinking started to hit the bundles of nerves inside him, forcing him to stop eating. Again, he wasn't feeling well. The conscious thought of that murderer outside was not letting him finish the dish, and instead, he stood up, and did exactly what Felix forbid him to.

Look around the house.

"Felix???" he called out, now walking around. His tracks were fast, rushed- he felt the need of being productive and do something. Something that would assure him that they're fine. At least temporarily, so he won't have to be afraid that this guy will stumble inside the house and hurt them.

He walked some more around the living room, and recognized something below the stairs that led up to the first floor. It were stairs that led down. A basement?

Hesitantly, he walked towards these stairs, and started taking the first steps down. That guy was following me, he recalled.

Step. He wasn't that far away.

Step. He should have been pretty
close.

Step. How did he not notice this house? It's huge.

Step. Too huge to overlook.

Step.

Jeongguk started sweating.

Then, he ended up in front of a metallic door. His heart was pounding loud, too loud. He looked back. No one there. Felix wasn't there. He looked back to the front.

After a deep, very quick sigh was taken, his hand was placed on the door knob. The attempt of opening the door actually worked. It opened. And when he looked down, he frowned.

Another pair of stairs. But this time, it led to pure darkness, to nowhere. He saw nothing. Nothing at all, but he smelled something. Something foul. A sickening scent. A scent that made him want to close that door instantly.

Before he did that, he decided he will look back one more time. so he did.

Felix.

Felix was there. Right behind him. Jeongguk widened his eyes. His breath hitched, and silence between the two occurred.

"I-I— I'm sorry," he whispered dryly and instantly. His voice was rushed. Why was he suddenly afraid? Was it the dead look in Felix's eyes? His sudden darkened aura? The lack of hints of sympathy in his face?
"I just w-wondered w-where you-"

As Felix slowly raised his hand and placed his hand on Jeongguk's chest, He could speak no more. His weight was pushed backwards, eyes widening.

Jeongguk was falling, falling and falling, into the darkness.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Thank you so so much ShiroyashaS for creating the header!! I love you uwu 💜💜💜!

And omg TY SM guys for the positive feedback I received last chapter! You're so sweet!! 💜💜 It truly boosted up my confidence, which is why I was able to update quicker. I hope you liked this chapter!💜

Do you have any theories so far? Perhaps about the "big guy"? If so, let me hear them!

Ty sm! Please stay tuned!

~ Mira 🐰