4 Chapter 4: The Darkness

"JAE-SUNG, WATCH OUT!!!"

Tsukiko had screamed at the top of her voice, trying to get Jae-sung to notice that the thing next to his feet was trying to attack him. Jae-sung whipped his head in Tsukiko's direction and widened his eyes, clearly surprised to see Tsukiko. This, however, didn't last long as he also turned his head to where the thing had been just in time to see that it had come hurling straight at him. His eyes turned cold, and he dodged the thing's attack and it instead with a thump, landed on the ground right in front of Jae-sung. Tsukiko heaved a sigh of relief and sprinted towards Jae-sung. Seeing her, he also approached her. They both stood in front of each other, and Tsukiko was the first to speak. "Are you okay?", she said looking worried. Jae-sung was a bit surprised by this action. They barely knew each other yet she seemed to care so much. Nodding his head, he replied, "Yeah, I am. Thanks for the assist". Tsukiko smiled after hearing this and asked another question "No problem, but do you know what that was?". Jae-sung paused, staring at Tsukiko. He had this look in his eyes, like he was trying to decide something. Having understood his gaze, Tsukiko was about to tell him not to worry about it and that it only mattered that he wasn't hurt, but before she could, Jae-sung parted his lips and spoke. "That was a monster from The Darkness". Hearing this Tsukiko sucked in a sharp breath. "The Darkness?? How could it have come all the way from there, I thought nothing could come out once it went in". 

The Darkness was exactly as its name implied, an infinitely dark world, void any light and filled with monsters, beasts and demons of unknown origin. It is often said that those were unfortunate to have come in contact with this world never come back and those who do, end up mad for the rest of their lives. The Darkness had claimed of many magic users and regular folk, so many that all the powerful magic practitioners gathered to discuss what should become of it before they decided to place a very strong enchantment at its border which allowed none to enter, and none to leave. This gathering was the very one that Tsukiko's parents were supposed to attend before they were kidnapped thus leaving a very deep psychological impression on Tsukiko. 

Tsukiko was still in shock over the fact that something could actually be able to leave The Darkness when Jae-sung turned his body, now facing her. "I'm not sure either. I had received an anonymous message on my phone telling me to come to this exact location, and when I did, the monster was there as well". Both Jae-sung and Tsukiko didn't understand what was going on and were both in deep thought for a while before Tsukiko suggested something. "Maybe we should tell the school about it?". Before Jae-sung could give his opinion on her suggestion, a 'ding' sound was heard. Jae-sung pulled his phone out of his pocket and frowned slightly once he saw the contents of the notification. Feeling curious, Tsukiko tried to peek at his phone screen and once she had managed to do, she saw that it was a text message that read 'If the both of you tell anyone what you have just experienced, there will be dire consequences'. At the same time another messaged popped up on the screen. It said 'Tsukiko Kurosawa, your brother Hirano Kurosawa will die if you utter a word and Kim Jae-sung your younger sister Kim Ha-Eun will die if you utter a word as well'. The message was immediately deleted once it was read by the pair and couldn't be retrieved. Tsukiko was petrified and couldn't move for a very long time until she felt someone tapping her shoulder. It was Jae-sung. Slowly, she turned to face him, still having this look of sheer terror. Before she looked at him, she wondered for a brief second, "How did Jae-sung feel about this". After all, anybody would be angry if someone threatened to kill their family, so she wondered how he would feel. Finally, setting eyes on his face, she felt scared again. Not because she thought about her brother being killed, but because of the look on Jae-sung's face. He was smirking, though it didn't reach his eyes. Those to black eyes that were also so clear were now muddied and extremely blocked with hatred. Tsukiko couldn't handle it and unconsciously took a step back. One couldn't blame her for doing so. Looking at him was like looking at a demon. 

With Tsukiko's step back, it seemed Jae-sung had a moment of epiphany and the hatred in his eyes had diminished. He stayed still for a while before turning his head to meet Tsukiko's eyes. For certain reasons, Jae-sung would get like this at times and it had always managed to scare away those around him, and he never liked that. He especially didn't like the look in their eyes. It was a look of terror, fear and all sorts of negative emotions which is why he didn't have many people he was close with and for a while, he was fine with it. That was until he met Tsukiko. He would always remember the first time they met. The she looked at him with confused shock was so funny and even a little cute. It was then that he felt, for the first time in ages, that he wanted to be someone's friend. He truly wanted to be her friend, the only thing that kept putting him back was the fact that he had always managed to chase away everyone, sometimes without doing anything, so he always maintained his calm around her. But with the threat to kill his little sister, who was an extremely important person to him, his calm demeanour crumbled down into dust.

So now, he tried to look at her face even though he really didn't want to and when he did, he was astonished. She was scared, yes, but it seemed there was a look of worry in her eyes. "Tsukiko is....worried about..me?", he thought. It was almost as if he couldn't comprehend such a thing and was even about to tell himself that he probably saw wrong when Tsukiko asked, in a small voice "Are you okay?". Those words were enough for him to conclude that he wasn't jumping into conclusions, and he didn't see wrong, she really was just worried about him. For a moment, he couldn't speak until finally he replied, "Thank you". Tsukiko didn't understand why he was thanking her, but she didn't mind, as long as he was okay. She managed to squeeze out a smile before it slowly faded. Tsukiko hadn't forgotten about what the anonymous message said and was still very much shaken, so she asked Jae-sung, "What should we do?". Jae-sung looked at the spot where the monster was lying unconscious after hitting the ground, before looking at Tsukiko.

"We need a plan"