Rhys, Caelan, and Jae had decided they would survive on the meat of any small mutated animals they could catch. They'd keep Caelan far from the kitchen—he was a terrible cook; Jae would skin the prey, and Rhys would hunt it.
That afternoon, Rhys prowled around the house with his rifle slung over his shoulder, listening for the slightest sound in the undergrowth. He knew a strange variant of mutant rabbit was lurking in the area, and he hoped to catch at least three before nightfall.
A subtle rustling in the bushes made him stop. He crouched slightly, holding his breath. He still couldn't make out any clear movement and couldn't risk shooting another poisonous mutant.
As he turned the corner of the house, he saw a silhouette crouching beside a bush. He frowned. It was Eun-woo.
Rhys approached silently, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw what the boy was holding: a mutant rabbit. The animal was alive and snuggled against his chest. Small branches sprouted from its skull, covered in tiny pink flowers, as if it had sprouted horns.
"Give it to me," Rhys said, holding out his hand.
Eun-woo narrowed his eyes without moving.
"Why?"
"We need it to eat."
Eun-woo looked down at the animal, which was trembling slightly beneath his fingers. Then he shook his head.
"He's alive."
Rhys snorted, not bothering to hide his impatience.
"It's a mutant. Not worth getting attached to."
"He's not a mutant, he's a rabbit." Eun-woo held the rabbit tighter, as if that would be enough to protect him from the world.
Rhys didn't know whether to worry about it. At first, Eun-woo was very scared, but since he was taken out of the Research Center, he wasn't startled by anything anymore.
"Rabbits are like that now," Rhys replied.
"Why?"
"Genetic experimentation."
Rhys lowered the rifle slightly and leaned against a tree trunk.
"When the plague broke out, it wiped out everything fertile," he continued, without looking at Eun-woo. "Plants, animals, humans… Any organism capable of reproducing was targeted. It was meant to be a population control virus, but it spun out of control. In less than a year, ecosystems collapsed. People stopped having children, and crops stopped growing."
He paused. Eun-woo said nothing.
"The labs started genetically engineering resistant species," Rhys explained quietly. "They wanted to create food sources that would survive the virus. But they failed so many times that no one could tell whether what remained was natural or a product of experiments. Some animals mutated on their own. Others escaped from testing centers. Rabbits like this one... they're hybrids. Not fully wild, not fully engineered."
Eun-woo stroked the flowering branches adorning the rabbit's head. His breathing was calm, but his eyes were full of questions.
"So they only exist because someone designed them to be eaten?"
"They exist because they survived," Rhys said, sounding a little weary. "Just like us."
The rabbit snuggled further into Eun-woo's arms, not making a single sound.
"But if we don't eat it, we don't survive," Rhys added gently.
Eun-woo pressed his lips together, as if the truth was tearing him apart.
"Maybe there's another way," he murmured.
Rhys didn't respond immediately. He just stood there, watching him.
"We're in no position to choose any other way, Eun-woo. We survive however we can."
"You act just like the Men in White…"
"Like who?"
"The ones who locked us in that cell…"
"Don't compare me to those people," Rhys said, his jaw clenched.
"I'm not comparing you," Eun-woo replied, standing up with the rabbit still in his arms. "But if you think killing is okay just because it's practical, you're on the same path."
Rhys took a step toward him.
"And what do you propose? That we take care of him? That we give him what little we have while you starve because you don't want to eat him?"
"I propose that we not lose what remains of our humanity."
"Humanity?" Rhys gave an incredulous laugh. "Humanity died with the plague. "This," he said, motioning to the forest and his rifle, "is all that remains."
"Then I don't want to be part of that."
Eun-woo turned without waiting for a reply and walked back into the house, clutching the rabbit to his chest like a fragile secret. Rhys watched him walk away, his shoulders stiff and his stride firm.
Something inside him shrank.
He wanted to call him.
Ask for forgiveness.
Tell him he didn't want to fight.
But he didn't.
Instead, he strapped his rifle to his shoulder and set off alone into the woods, searching for more rabbits.
The silence Eun-woo left behind hurt more than hunger.
***
A couple of hours later, everyone was gathered in the dining room, even Rong Ye. Unfortunately, Caelan had taken the rabbit meat and made a stew with it. Jae and Rhys barely touched the food, playing with it on their plates.
"Seriously? You're such children," Rong Ye replied as he brought a bite to his mouth.
The entire table watched him chew, put his spoon down, stare at his plate for a few seconds, and then gulp down a glass of water.
"Since you liked it so much, you can have my portion," Rhys mocked.
"Fuck you."
"Come on!" Caelan exclaimed happily. "I've improved a lot."
"I'll get a can of canned soup," Jae finally said, standing up.
"Hey! It's no big deal!" Caelan complained.
"Make that two," Rhys added.
"Make it three, unless you want me to starve," Rong Ye commented as he wiped his mouth with a napkin.
Eun-woo silently watched the chaos on the table as he carefully ate the stew; it tasted delicious. Of course, he didn't know it was rabbit meat.
"You don't have to eat it," Rhys told Eun-woo.
"He really appreciates good cooking," Caelan said proudly.
Rhys threw a crumpled napkin at him.
"Even the soil is a wonder compared to the mash they serve at the research center."
"It really tastes good," Eun-woo said as he passed his plate to Caelan for another serving.
"I told you so," Caelan mouthed to Rhys, who was laughing his head off in his seat.
When he tried to push the plate back, Eun-woo's fingers couldn't hold it. It slipped from his hands. A second later, his body wobbled and he collapsed to the floor like a puppet without strings.
His lips had turned a dark purple. His already pale skin now looked a sickly white. And his temperature was dropping rapidly, as if something had sucked the warmth out of him.
"Eun-woo!" Rhys called, holding him in his arms.
Rong Ye jumped onto the table and stood next to them, trying to inspect Eun-woo, but the binding on his hands wouldn't let him.
"Take this away from me," he ordered Caelan. "I can't go through it like this."
"Try anything and you're a dead man," Caelan said as he broke the knot.
"I told you one of those things bit him," Rhys scolded as he laid Eun-woo down on the floor.
"He's not like this because of the bite, I'm sure it's an allergic reaction to the air. He shouldn't have taken off his mask; his immune system isn't prepared for…"
Eun-woo's eyes snapped open.
He took a deep breath, as if coming back to life after being submerged in water. Then he sat up calmly, as if nothing had happened. The color gradually returned to his skin, and his lips regained their natural hue.
"I'm going to sleep," Eun-woo announced, his voice steady, as though the collapse had never happened.
Everyone watched him in silence, stunned.
No one said a word as Eun-woo walked up the stairs with a firm step, as if he hadn't just collapsed in front of them seconds ago.
When his silhouette disappeared completely, everyone turned to Rong Ye, searching for an explanation. But he didn't say anything.
"Don't tell me I'm the only one who thought that was fucking weird," Jae said, his eyes still fixed on the staircase where Eun-woo had disappeared.
Rhys crossed his arms over his chest.
"Espers aren't supposed to act like this," he finally said, his voice low.
"And what are they supposed to do?" Caelan asked, with a mixture of nervous mockery and genuine concern. "Because until now I thought they were just killing machines."
Rong Ye sat at a corner of the table. He seemed to be somewhere else.
"You know that, don't you?" Jae said, addressing him directly. "You know what Eun-woo is."
Rong Ye's silence was the only response. He didn't seem annoyed, or surprised. Just… tense. As if he were holding something back. As if he were pondering how far he could confide in them about a truth he wasn't ready to speak out loud.
Rhys noticed. He knew him well enough to know that this kind of silence wasn't empty, but strategic. Something was on his mind, and it had to do with Eun-woo.
"There's something else, isn't there?" Caelan asked.
Rong Ye did not respond immediately.
"It's the bond," Rhys added more quietly.
The air seemed to change density. Caelan sat up straighter in his chair, and Jae stopped pretending not to hear.
"How do you know that?" Rong Ye looked up slowly.
Rhys swallowed.
"Because I think… he bonded with me. Unintentionally."
The room fell silent.
Caelan looked at him as if he'd just said he could fly. Jae blinked several times, incredulous.
"What are you saying?" Jae muttered. "You're not a Guide."
"I know." Rhys clenched his jaw. "I'm not. But since we've been together, he's… changed. He calms down when I'm near. He gravitates toward contact. Sometimes he touches me, as if trying to anchor himself to something. And when I'm not there, he goes haywire. It's like his whole system crashes."
Rong Ye let out a mocking laugh.
"They might be compatible, but that doesn't mean they're bonded."
"Why not?" Jae asked, crossing his arms. "What does it take for a bond to form?"
Rong Ye hesitated.
"It's not something that happens... spontaneously," he said finally. "For an Esper to bond with a Guide, there must be a deep physical and emotional exchange. An intimate one."
"Intimate how?" Caelan asked, raising an eyebrow.
Rong Ye looked down, uncomfortably.
"Intimate in the literal sense. There has to be... a physical connection. Consensual. Complete."
The silence that followed was so dense that for a moment no one knew how to react.
Jae choked on nothing but air. Caelan smothered his words. Rhys looked away, his cheeks flushed.
"What if he bonds with someone…?" Rhys said, ignoring the weight of the stares on him. "Would he get better?"
Rong Ye looked at him seriously, this time there was no mockery in his voice.
"That's correct."
No one dared to break the silence this time. Everyone was too busy processing what they'd just heard… and wondering what it meant for Eun-woo.
And for Rhys.