Motives.

A night had passed, with morning arriving. Jinwoo could stand on his own two feet. He was all healed up and the old man was skeptical. The rate at which he healed was quite frankly bizarre.

"This is interesting. I have never seen such a body quite like yours, even in my time in the army." The old man commented upon removing his bandages. This made Jinwoo panic momentarily as he answered quickly but nervously.

"Oh! T-This? This is nothing, you should have seen me when I was younger. One would swear I was some kind of a freak." He completed his sentence with a nervous laugh but the old man would stare at him right in his singular eye with a dead-ass serious facial expression that brought forth sweat from the forehead of Jinwoo but this tense atmosphere was soon broken by the chuckle of the old man.

"I do admire the younger generation, it must be nice being so full of youth." The elderly man commented but Jinwoo knew he had to change the topic before it could go any further.

"Where is the kid?" Jinwoo would ask, feigning interest as this was an effective conversation changer but the reluctance of the old man to reply to this particular question would not garner much suspicion from Jinwoo.

"Rest up, Young One. You have much to do tomorrow." He instructed as he got up to his feet and left the room but what got Jinwoo thinking was the eerie grin plastered across his face upon uttering these words. This threw his thoughts into disarray but the face of both Dohyun and A-Yeong soon made their way into his head.

"I bet they are crying their eyes out thinking I am dead. Hahaha! I am sure that gorilla regrets hitting me in the nuts all these years..." He thought to himself with a satisfied smile.

"Huh? Is it raining? Of course not, what a stupid thing to say." He whispered, as what he thought to be rain was in fact tears. He was grateful that he was given the chance to spend more time with everyone.

"I-I am so sorry guys." He now muttered, barely audible due to his muffled voice, sobbing uncontrollably with the old man seen behind the door, eavesdropping on Jinwoo during his vulnerable moment with a hint of sadness dancing around in his eyes.

"Poor child." The man thought, before walking away soon after.

A few minutes had passed and Jinwoo would hear what he guessed was the front door close. Living here for so long, he began to notice a pattern. Despite his long slumber, it seemed this pattern had continued.

"Should I do it?" He thought to himself as he slowly got up to his feet, looking eagerly like a criminal about to raid a home, he would sneak out of his room. He felt bad snooping around and knew if the old man caught him doing this, it would become extremely awkward.

Tiptoeing, for he did not know if he was alone in the house, but upon leaving his room. Jinwoo would look puzzled. What he deemed to be the sitting room was littered with empty boxes, garbage bags, and the furniture was cut up with the wool hanging out. This was not a place inhabited by anyone.

Soon, his gaze would notice the dusty floor and it was clear this place had not been cleaned for well over a few months. But looking back, he would notice he had inadvertently left footmarks forming a trail from the couple of steps he had taken from his room.

He was still trying to wrap his head around how his room was so different from the dump before him begging the question, just where was he? And if this was not a place habitable, why was there a kid here previously? Allowing his thoughts to try and piece together the puzzle before him but just then, he noticed the foot imprints left behind by the old man as well.

Trailing it from the front door, his eyes moved slowly till he saw what seemed like the beginning of it but this couldn't be right.

"Why does it stop there?" He muttered, he noticed it ended at the base of a wall, but there was no door or entry into another room but he did not have enough time to process this. The front door's knob would twist and twist. He made his way back to his room quickly, jumping into his bed.

"SH*T! THE FOOTPRINTS!" He thought out loud but the door had already swung open and with it, Jinwoo pretended to be at sleep hoping the man would not notice his footprints.

He could hear footsteps walking around as if inspecting the area and within seconds, his door would open with Jinwoo sneaking a peak before sealing his eye shut. The old man had a serious expression and would stand there for a couple of seconds before closing the door. Jinwoo was not sure he had left till he heard the rhythm he had grown so familiar with over his stay here and that was the thumping sound caused by the feet of the man outside the door.

"That was close!" Jinwoo thought as he had cast an illusion just in time to hide and cover his tracks but he was certain something was definitely going on here and this fact alone did not sit well with him.

In an abandoned underground dungeon-like prison, Jin-Hyuk and Chaewon would be seen bound by chains with runic markings scripted on it, tightly on a metal chair with their mouths gagged. They had been placed in different cells to completely cut off communication, be it their muffled screams or Morse code by tapping their feet. One thing was clear, they were at the mercy of Hayoon.

"Wake up!" Hayoon would bark like a drill sergeant. She was in the cell in which Jin-Hyuk was held but he could not talk nor resist but despite all this, there was no hint of fear in his eyes and Hayoon expected nothing less.

"Right, you cannot talk." She responded to her voice as she took out the cloth that gagged Jin-Hyuk, she expected him to scream for help but there he sat, not uttering a word but the grin plastered across his face sent shivers down the spine of Hayoon.

"You are a creepy guy." She commented, aligning a chair right in front of him. She knew he must have questions but there he sat with that creepy ass grin but his parted lips soon let out these words.

"You do not need to waste your breath. Neither I nor Chaewon would divulge any information. You might as well kill us right here and now." Jin-Hyuk said in a stern tone.

"Woah! Tune down the suicidal vibe, man. I just want to talk." Hayoon would reply with a cringing at what he had just said but Jin-Hyuk remained indifferent.

"Why did you target me? I think I deserve to know this much, don't you think?" Hayoon asked with an exhausted sigh accompanying the completion of the sentence but she got no response.

"What if I could offer you protection in exchange for information?" Hayoon would further try to persuade him but the hysterical laugher from Jin-Hyuk was not only sudden but almost threw her off her chair. Before she could scold him, however, the hoarse-voiced man spoke at last.

"Let me ask you, can you protect yourself from death? As long as you are housed in that lump of flesh, you will decay. But here you are, promising to protect me from something I do not fear." Jin-Hyuk mocked her. Hayoon was tired of his theatrics, this was no movie audition.

Taking out a pill, she forcefully shoved it into the mouth of Jin-Hyuk.

"That is a truth serum or should I say, pill. Now...….. Let's try this again. Why did you come after me?" Hayoon would ask and despite Jin-Hyuk's attempt to resist for the first few seconds, it proved futile.

"W-we were to use you as bait to draw out Byung." Jin-Hyuk would reply, with his brows furrowing.

"Byung? Why?" Hayoon would ask but she was surprised that Jin-Hyuk could resist as much as he did but it was pointless. The more one resists, a migraine so powerful would rock their brain till they eventually gave up the information.

"B-Byung possessed 'it', the key to open the gates of Abbadon." Jin-Hyuk would reply, biting down on his lower lips till blood dripped from its soft flesh.

"The gates of Abbadon? What is that?" Hayoon asked, getting more absorbed in the information Jin-Hyuk was spilling forth. They were finally getting to the juicy bit but once again, Jin-Hyuk attempted to resist.

"Hey! Answer me!" She would shout but was horrified seeing him choking but on what?

"Hold up!" She shouted, rushing to him to force his mouth open in a bid to try and save him from choking on whatever it was he was choking on but she saw he had bitten his tongue clean off. There was little that could be done but whatever it was, Hayoon was stricken with a fear she had not known existed within her.

"Why the hell did he….." She would mutter to herself with her bloodied hand still down his throat in her futile attempt to stop him from choking to death. Jin-Hyuk had taken his own life.