Chapter XX: Favor

Inside a room that was painted in garish white, a man could be seen lying on the cold, flat floor like a corpse trapped in an empty, plain room with no windows and doors. 

He was there quietly, left unconscious, while a little boy beside him repeatedly poked his cheek with his little index finger as two floating phantoms could be seen circling his body.

"Is he dead?" 

One of his phantoms had asked, making him stop. 

"No, he can't die." 

The boy answered as they heard the man groan.

It almost made him feel relief when, all of a sudden, a tall, masculine-looking man who had just been lying on the floor earlier with a prideful look in his eyes suddenly grabbed his collar, making him unable to talk as he continuously tapped his hand.

"A-ah! -"

"Get your hands off of him!"

The phantom shouted as it let out a petrifying wave of volts that made the man's body come flying in the air as it hit the wall, but instead of groaning in pain, it seemed like he had felt nothing; he even let out a barrel of laughter after looking at his reflection on the floor.

Instead of having the childlike body of Khalid, Lee Hyun has come back to his perfect manly-tall-looking figure with the body and face of a Greek god while facing the fragile-looking doll Khalid standing in front of him with an apologetic expression.

"I'm sorry about that."

He apologetically stated this while looking at Lee Hyun, who looks like a statue facing the floor.

"Now that you are awake, I have something to tell you." 

He added, but Lee Hyun suddenly burst out laughing like a freaking psycho who just lost his mind, making Khalid frown in confusion.

"HA…HAHAHA—Did I die in the end?" 

Lee Hyun looks at him with a creepy smile carved on his lips.

"No, you're not dead yet."

Khalid answered even though his mind was completely making a fool of him.

'You can't die, Lee Hyun, not yet.' 

He had thought.

Just then Lee Hyun stopped laughing like an idiot and stared at the pretty-looking kid in front of him straight in his eyes before he grabbed his crumpled collar tightly with extreme force, which led him to push the kid straight on the ground.

"What do you mean I can't die?!" 

He shouted in a voice that was full of wrath, giving the phantoms no choice but to electrify him again.

When a thunderous buzzy tone of electricity strikes upon him, Lee Hyun is supposed to be lying on the floor with severe body injuries, but his body just won't budge, and it just flows through his veins, leaving the phantoms to get intimidated by his look.

"T-this person—he's a freaking monster!" 

Two of his phantoms immediately hide behind him, where he can be seen sitting on the floor, holding Lee Hyun's grip.

"C-calm down, Lee Hyun." 

He begs.

His eyes were covered in hatred that was piercing Khalid. Even now, he only wants to know why he would enter such a grueling cycle of death just to become a substitute for someone like him; that would make it look like he was afraid of living rather than the death that people feared.

"Tssk!"

Lee Hyun sneered before he decided to let go of his grip on his collar.

"Where am I?"

His solemn tone of voice gives them the utmost shiver in their bodies. They could feel the chilly atmosphere of the Eastern Antarctic Plateau as if they were talking to a person made out of freezing ice.

"We-were in your subconscious mind, I called you here."

"I-

He stuttered at first, but then he couldn't even finish his words for how Lee Hyun always cuts him in mid-sentence, even though he could have said it straight on his face.

Seeing Lee Hyun's irritated expression makes their blood run cold.

"If you're the one who called me in here, then you must have wanted something from me, am I right?"

Even though he might seem to act abrasive, he was too smart to clock out Khalid's intention, which seemed to impress the little boy in front of him, smiling like a pure innocent kid.

"I might be fooling myself if I say that there's nothing."

Khalid's actions might be predictable and easy to read like an open book, but his words were too unpredictable for him to understand that the only way to figure out his situation is to listen to everything he has to say but instead of doing it, his prideful and caustic action makes Khalid want to punch the air.

"F*ck! Can you cut to the chase? You're wasting my time." 

Lee Hyun affirmed that the phantom created a waving electricity that almost covered the entire room; they even wished to strike it all on him, but Khalid was too nice to stop the two because he knew that Lee Hyun couldn't care less about any of the pain at all. He was like a man who was made out of 60% stone and 30% ice—a cold, blunt, and heartless person.

"You've really got a viper tongue." 

Khalid gritted his fist while hiding it behind his back; it even made him squint his eyes, because right now his arrogant behavior can make the sleeping volcano erupt in a second.

"Ah, I always get that a lot because I don't filter my words." 

He replied, which made him sigh.

"Since I will be seeing you ephemeral, it would be hard to meet you again. So, what I'm about to say is-

"Make it fast!"

As soon as Khalid's words were cut by Lee Hyun, his face suddenly became gloomy. He didn't even know that he had lost his temper and shouted back at him like a child.

"Can you just listen to me for a minute?!"

Khalid shouted at him. 

It's funny that his apologetic expression earlier has turned into a roaring lion.

"How could I be supposed to finish my word if you keep interrupting?! HA!" 

His dulcet tone completely disappeared as he was panting on his shoulder, throwing a tantrum like a child, and smiling again as if nothing had happened while facing Lee Hyun with a bedlam expression.

*Cough! *

"Ahem, so as I was saying..." 

His tone of voice has suddenly tuned down as if he were talking to the wind instead of a person.

"What?!" 

He tilted his head as he waited for his answer, but what he had said next almost turned him into a patient in an asylum. 

He was so crazy that he had lost himself.

"H-help me..." 

"Please help me save the world I failed to save, Hyun!"

Khalid stated that it made him chuckle after spacing out for a moment.

"Pfft…ha, you must be kidding me."

He covered his right eye as he looked at him with a disgusting and intimidating look on his cold, nefarious eyes; it was like the eyes of a crow that could cause harm to humans, Khalid felt goosebumps when Lee Hyun suddenly created an ear-splitting noise after he had punched the floor with a sturdy force that didn't even make his hands bleed, nor was it painful. The floor looks completely fine, without even a small crack.

"Didn't I already do you a favor?!"

He shouted in his face that he felt Khalid a little remorseful. His actions and even his words were full of hatred and sorrow, and he could feel it all.

"T-that's... I'm sorry, but I know you'll soon understand."

Khalid apologetically stated so that he wouldn't split hairs on such a matter.

Lee Hyun began to wonder. In billions of people, why did Khalid choose him to possess his body?

He even felt so sympathetic, putting his forehead on him and patting him gently on the head boldly, which made Lee Hyun freeze like a statue.

"You're a kind person, Hyun; the good deeds you've done will never end, even if you die." 

This time, he cares for him with his two little hands.

"Remember that it only ended once you stopped."

After stating that Lee Hyun then hardly slapped his hands and left Khalid with a smile, it was so warm that he could feel it surrounding his heart. His smile did not last long and immediately faded like bubbles floating in the air, making him raise one of his brows.

"Now, what?"

Even though his voice was damn serious and cold, it wasn't as scary as before.

"It's nothing…"

Khalid then replied sweetly while watching him spin his sight in the room, asking himself how he could get out of the place that Khalid had created for himself.

"Don't worry, the time is over. You can come back now." 

Khalid's dulcet tone has caught his attention, but as soon as he turns his back to look at him, Khalid is slowly fading into pieces with a luminous light surrounding him from behind that is blinding his eyes.

"L-lee Hyun!!!!" 

Khalid then shouted his name one more time before he smiled to say goodbye.

"I… thank you!!!"

His voice echoed in his ears while watching him be eaten by the lights, and before he could open his eyes, he found himself staring at the fiery ceiling that was being eaten by a fire.

"Ah, I'm back." 

Lee Hyun stated, looking at his hands as he was sitting inside the room with a charcoal-like smell stuck in the air while the furniture gradually turned into ashes, melting everything slowly like a piece of iron inside a furnace.