Twenty Years Ago - Before the Gates 

“I cannot do this anymore. How did we end up with two abnormal kids?” Doyun’s mother complained to her husband. They were in the corner, on the other side of the wall by the living area. A four-year-old Doyun sat on the couch, holding a stuffed bunny that was missing an arm. And a ten-year-old Daeshim was in the kitchen, cooking food for his younger brother. 

“We can try for another.” The father replied, not knowing what to say. He wasn’t home all the time since he worked; his wife was a stay-at-home mother. Lately, his wife has been saying she wants to start working or doing something so she doesn't have to stay home with the kids. The husband didn’t know what to do because they couldn't afford to have someone watch the children.  

“And what if that child ends up messed up like them!” They were not whispering, which led the conversation to flow into the living area. Doyun paid it no mind, though, since his eyes were glued to the screen. “The last therapist we sent them to killed themselves!” 

“Honey, that cannot be true. The kids are only ten and four; what damage can they do?” The husband laughed off his wife's words. 

“Damage?” The wife scoffed. “Daeshim has no emotions and doesn’t understand right from wrong. And Doyun is a psychopath in the making. You are not home most of the time to see it, but there is something wrong with them.” 

The husband sighed, “Honey.” 

Doyun started plucking the strings off the stuffed bunny’s other arm; it was already coming loose from the other times he pulled the strings. He watched the slasher movie playing before him while ignoring his parents' voices. He could barely understand the whole conversation, but he picked up on a few words. Still, it did not concern him because when a bunny popped on the screen, Doyun’s eyes lit up. 

The movie had a flashback to the slasher’s childhood. The slasher used to kill and mutilate animals before moving to humans. When Doyun saw the bunny, he thought of the neighbors who owned a few bunnies. ‘I want one.’ He thought. Doyun always wanted a pet, but his mother told him no. So, he could only think of his brother getting him one. 

He jumped off the couch and ran, with his short legs, to his brother in the kitchen. Latching onto his brother’s legs with his free arm, Doyun glanced up, “Hyung, I want a bunny.” 

Daeshim set down the knife he was using to cut some veggies and peered down at his brother with a straight, clear face. “You want a bunny?” His voice sounded monotone. Doyun brightly smiled, nodding his head in almost a bobblehead way. 

Daeshim stared for a few seconds before wiping his hands on the apron he wore. “Okay.” Doyun let his brother go, cheering that he would get a bunny soon. Untying the apron, Daeshim set it aside and put the stove on low before leaving the house. Doyun returned to the movie, waiting for his brother’s return with excitement as his legs swung in the air. 

His brother did not take long to return, and when he did, he held a limp bunny in his arms. Doyun almost squealed when he took the bunny from his brother. “Thank you, Hyung!” The bunny did not move while the head lay limply in a weird position. It was dead with a broken neck. Doyun did not find the dead bunny weird, as he was excited to have one. Or maybe the bunny's death did not register with him because he was so young. Either way, he was so excited that he wanted to show his parents. 

He left his stuffed bunny on the couch while he held onto the dead bunny, running to his parents with clear excitement. When he stopped in front of them, he held up the limp bunny and said, “Mommy, daddy, I have a bunny!” 

They turned towards him, and when the mother saw the dead bunny in Doyun’s hands, she freaked. “What the hell!” She slapped the bunny out of her son’s hand. The dead bunny hit the ground with a thud. She grabbed Doyun, almost pulling him, “Where did you get that! Go wash your hands right now.” 

Doyun looked at the bunny with tears gathering in his eyes. His lips wobbled while he silently cried, “Mommy, Hyung got me a bunny. I want a bunny. Mommy, please.” 

“No. Go wash your hands.” Then she turned to her husband, “Do you see what I mean? Can you please dispose of the bunny?” 

Hearing those words, Doyun started wailing. He ran to the bunny and dropped to the floor, covering the body with his. “No, mommy!” Daeshim entered the area when he heard his brother wailing. He was holding a knife as he asked, “What happened?” 

“They want to take my bunny.” Doyun cried. 

“The bunny is dead!” The mother shouted, picking up Doyun, who started struggling in her arms. 

“Mother, Doyun wanted a bunny,” Daeshim explained. 

“Do you think something dead can be a pet? And I have said before, no pets are allowed in this house.” The mother looked at her husband, “Do something about this.” She took the reluctant and wailing Doyun to the bathroom to bathe him instead. 

Daeshim glanced at his father, who was scratching his head. “Go back to the kitchen, I got this.” His father said as he went to pick up the bunny’s dead body. 

“You two are wrong.” Daeshim left behind before returning to the kitchen. The father didn’t know what to say and sighed, ‘Maybe I should pick up more shifts.’ 

After that day, dead bunnies kept popping up in the parents’ bed, freaking out the mother to the point of her spending more hours outside of home. 

Bzz! Bzz! 

Doyun finally woke up, feeling that something kept vibrating on the side of his face. He opened his eyes, rubbing his eyes as he didn’t know when he fell into a deep sleep. But the one thing he hated was that every time he slept, it was either the same nightmare or memories from when he was young. Does this mean Hyung will send me new flowers? Every time he would dream about old memories, new flowers would appear at his doorstep. He knew they were from his older brother, because who else knew how much he loved flowers besides him? I wonder where Hyung is and how he is doing? He continued to think, forgetting about his vibrating phone. 

After it started vibrating again, Doyun finally cleared his thoughts and picked up his phone. He looked and saw that it was Hana calling him. He answered, “Hello?” 

“Are you okay? I have been calling you for thirty minutes now!” Hana replied. 

“I am sorry, I was in a deep sleep. Did something happen?” Doyun asked. He picked up his remote and turned the TV back on. He had his TV on a sleep timer so he wouldn’t keep it on all night by accident. The TV turned on the news. A reporter spoke about how a dungeon break happened at Lyfin District and how a Lycan went on the loose, killing more than 20 people before hunters Im and Choi dealt with it. 

“Fuck, did I sleep through all of this?” Doyun spoke out loud, forgetting he was on the phone. When a dungeon break happens, even if you are not in the area, alerts will be sent out to your phones. The alerts can bypass the phone’s silence or vibration and emit a siren-like sound. And not only that, he recognized the area was where his guild had a training Gate they purchased long ago. “Did our Gate have a dungeon break?” It should be impossible because last time they checked, wasn’t the Gate a level two? 

“Yes. We need you to come in to help with damage control. People are blaming us for not keeping track of the Gate’s mana. They are even trying to say that civilians died because of us. And the Hunter Association is trying to use this as an example of why we need to go back to putting heavy restrictions on hunters and keeping them monitored, since they ‘cannot do their jobs’ in his words.” 

Doyun rubbed his temples. It seemed that everything was a mess at the moment. But, they shouldn’t be blamed for a dungeon break. They monitor their Gates every single day. Yesterday, the Gate still showed that it was only a level two, which is why Changmin chose it for training the newbies. And speaking of Changmin, wasn’t that the Gate he went to? 

“Okay, I will get dressed and be there soon. But, can you tell me, how is Hunter Sa?” Doyun stood up, stretching his sore body before walking to his room to change into his work clothes. 

“He is fine. He only sustained minimal injuries. They still took him to the hospital with the other hunters he was training.” 

“Shit, which hospital?” Doyun set his phone down and put it on speaker as he quickly started to change.  He hoped it was not the hospital he was thinking of. 

“Where else? Golden Edge Hospital. That is the only hospital with the S-class Healer Myo Jin-Ho.” Hana answered with the words Doyun knew he would dread. 

“Hunter Sa did not go without a fight, did he?” Doyun sighed. 

“Hunter Im had to come over and knock him out.”

Doyun rubbed his temples more; he could feel a headache coming on. Myo Jin-Ho is the worst person for Changmin to see. Jin-Ho is his ex, the one who gave him irreversible trauma. Doyun did like Jin-Ho, though; he felt that they were kindred spirits, but he couldn’t show that too much since his best friend would rather die than be anywhere near his ex. 

“I will be there soon.” He hung up the phone. He needed to quickly deal with the public so he could go to the hospital. He knew, once Changmin woke up again, there was going to be another problem. 

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

Unknown Location 

A person entered a makeshift lab/experimental room. They walked to one of the tables that almost resembled a morgue table and set down the Lycan's burnt body. One of the people, in a lab coat, came over and hooked the Lycan’s burnt body to the table and put a weird helmet on its head. The helmet had wires connected to it and to another helmet on a person who was strapped to the other table. The person’s body was bruised, while their clothes were nothing but torn, dirty rags. The person held a dazed look with dried, torn lips; they lay still, but the chest was slowly moving, indicating that they were alive. The person did not look a day over ten. 

“Can the Lycan still work with it burnt like this?” The scientist, who hooked up the Lycan, asked Kwon Jiyun. 

“The body is still intact, so yes,” Jiyun answered. Jiyun sat in a chair, looking at the data screens in front of her. She was next door, with a vast mirror in front of her, showing everything happening in the lab room. Other scientists were present, moving around her as they read through other files. When the scientist, who hooked the Lycan, returned to the room, Jiyun finally pushed down on a certain button. 

The hooked helmets started to grow as the child, on the other side, lifted their body. The child’s eyes opened wide as they let out a heart-wrenching scream. The scream lasted for a few minutes before the child’s body, which writhed in pain, finally went limp. The child’s hands grew into furry claws before the fur and claws fell out, and the hands deflated, growing into a corpse. The rotting hand started moving to the arms and legs before taking over the child’s body and face. The child turned into a mummified corpse. 

Jiyun clicked her tongue with annoyance, “Another failure.” 

“This is the fifth failure. What should we do?” One scientist asked. 

“Where did you find this child?” Jiyun asked another scientist. 

“They were found in the slums.” 

“I told you that I need a child who has been exposed to the Gates’ mana. Why do you keep giving me these kids?” Jiyun slammed her hand on the table. The other scientist started to tremble as they moved back a few steps. 

“It is harder to get kids exposed to Gates since the new regulations. We can only get the ones from the slums since no one cares about them disappearing.” 

Jiyun stood up, walking towards one of the cowering scientists. She bent down, almost whispering, “Then, you need to do better.” She swiftly struck, sticking her hand into the scientist’s chest and pulling out their heart. The body hit the ground as Jiyun held onto the slowly beating heart that started to die. She squeezed it before tossing it towards another, who let out a scream as they hit against a table. “If there is another screw-up, I will collect all your hearts and send them as lovely gifts to your family.” 

She walked out of the room, leaving the others shaking in fear. 

The husbands will appear in the next chapter.