Chapter 8:

Slight Breeze

Cyn awoke with a start. Her chest beat rapidly as the light before her eyes flashed red. Crimson inferno swirled and dripped in her vision, silently massacring the film on her eyes. It dripped. Slowly it became darker, and darker, switching hues in between sharp pains scratching at her insides. Her heart thumped loudly and jumped then ceased for a moment. Cyn opened her eyes, blinded by the bright light streaming into the living room window, she stumbled and fell, crashing into the glass coffee table lined with black engraved with Korean dragons, printed in gold. She groaned as she tried to push herself up only succeeding in slipping on the shards of glass, cutting through her skin. A slight breeze blew from the window. The floor lightly vibrated as a sliding door opened politely with very little sound. Not a second passed before the light footsteps became stomps in a fast pace. Cyn know Hwoarang was here.

"Cyn! Cyn, oh damn. What the fuck happened to you?"

"S-sorry! I'm so.. sorry!" Hwoarang grasped her firmly by the arm and helped her to the couch. She looked at the floor, ashamed at what she had done in spite of her paranoia. Hwoarang looked at her bare arms and face, which were cut by the glass, and dusted the rest of the glass from her shirt and pants.

"Eh...." Hwoarang checked over the small wounds before standing back up again, "I'll be right back. Don't move." With that he left the room, the slight ruffle of his training pants, was the only sound left. Cyn ran a hand through her half golden red, half black hair before looking at her hands, trying not to concentrate on the pain that Devil Jin left in the back of her head. The door opened once more.

"Hold out your arms." Cyn nodded at his request and did what she was told. The usually hotheaded Korean was calm and peaceful while pulling the small pieces of Korean glass from her arms and face and applying ointment and bandage. He paused shortly after he finished and sighed. "You were tossing last night. I went to wake you up but.... Something stopped me. Your nightmare stopped me. I saw it." Cyn's eyes grew wide.

"Y-you saw my nightmare?!"

"Only a fragment. But it was still as fragment I wish I would have not experienced." Hwoarang looked away, down at the Korean table that was now shattered. "We are all like that table, shattered and broken, until we make up our minds to stop what's killing us inside. Only we can stop it. Cyn, I don't know what is going on with you or your life, but it's best that you stand up and fight this alone."

"A-a... alone..." Cyn's heart began to hurt at the mere sound of the word.

"When we think we fight alone, often times we find that the courage to fight alone, is the hope of other people. The hope that they can help somehow." Hwoarang looked longingly at the porcelain frame that held a picture of his master. Cyn took a deep breath as if she had been holding it the whole time.

"Hwoarang I'm sorry about-"

"Don't be," He sighed heavily. "What I told you yesterday was only half truth full lie. I can't stand to look at his picture anymore. It hurts more than my heart, it hurts my soul." Cyn rubbed her eyes and scratched at the bandaging on the back of her head. She stood up and stretched, as if nothing happened, then stared at her hands for a moment before slipping on her shoes and stuffing her hands in their pockets. "W-Where are you going?"

"Out."

"Eh... And you complain about Jin and his one word sentences."

"......"

"Are you coming back?"

"I.... Don't know."

"I figured as much." Hwoarang stood as well, then took a key from the side table near the door and handed it to her, "Take it. Come back when you need to, I might not be here. Come and go as you wish. I'm not stopping you." Cyn looked at the small silver key, then nodded as she took it and put it away in her pocket. "Cyn."

"Hm?"

"What ever truth you find out.... Don't let it consume you and change who you are, even if it is who you are that you find out." Hwoarang looked at the door behind her. "Don't become like me." He bowed his head.

"For you. For your honor. I won't. I won't become you or anyone else, brother." She turned on her heel and opened the door, giving a slight wave before closing it behind her. Hwoarang sighed once more and glanced at the porcelain framed picture again.

".... Master... Did you hear that? She called me brother. Thank you. Thank you for a family, the one I never had without you. Thank you Master Baek." He smiled sadly before drawing the blinds closed and leaving the room. The shards of glass shimmered in the darkness, some coated in blood, others in secret tears beyond human imagination. The black lacquered Korean wood sat silently, forgotten and left in splinters. The cool breeze shifted the blinds and light poured through, sending a clear golden light to softly shine on the reflecting glass, still somewhat hidden in the darkness.