The Art of Getting By
CHAPTER NINE

❛ The Undying Eta Carinae. ❜

12:58 PM
September 2021
HYOSAN HIGH SCHOOL

DURING THE YEAR of eighteen-eighty-four, the Universe birthed a star named Eta Carinae. The second brightest star in the midnight darkness of Space. It is one of the most illuminating planetoid in the Milky Way, it released an energy that was almost identical to that of a supernova- one that is most famous for enduring a titanic blast . . . even after, it still, stayed put in the asthenosphere.

It survived the Great Eruption. Became a mystery. Always leaving the astronomers assuming that it's surviving- still alive. Thus, it resulted the Eta Carinae with the name: the star that will not die.

Moon Eun-Byeol found herself being in relation to the heavenly body. Eta Carinae was almost something that she looked up to, both physically and mentally. When the sky displayed its finest, dark palette of colours, Eun-Byeol spent most of her nights gazing upwards, her eyes on the stars, desperately trying to pick out the Eta Carinae, not knowing that the Eta Carinae was no longer available to be seen from Earth.

She wanted to know how the Eta Carinae powered through an explosion that tore it to pieces. Eun-Byeol wanted to know how it still remained . . . how it was still rooted within its place in Space.

Many articles online had rudimentary information about Moon Eun-Byeol, information that was disclosed to everyone.

During the year of two-thousand-and-four, Jeong Areum, who was a South Korean idol, gave birth to Moon Eun-Byeol. The first child of both Jeong Areum and Moon Ji-Hun, sister to Moon Hae-Bom.

The deity of music, Thalia, favoured Eun-Byeol, for her vocals were soothingly rich. Her harmonious singing touched upon people's souls and caused them to dance, even when they weren't wilful to do so. The impact of Eun-Byeol's singing, was exactly how Jeong Areum wanted to people to react when they listened to her music. But, for Eun-Byeol, regardless of what she sung, it always caused a smile to grace the audience's features. There's videos uploaded on video viewing platforms, of any performance that Eun-Byeol had done in the past.

Key word: the past.

During year of two-thousand-and-seventeen, both the Moon family and the Universe lost Jeong Areum. People wondered why Moon Eun-Byeol never performed publicly anymore, only showcasing her talent to either her school or at home. They wondered why Moon Eun-Byeol created a barrier between the public and herself.

Moon Eun-Byeol survived her own Great Eruption. Became a mystery. Always leaving the public assuming that she's surviving- still alive, as Moon Eun-Byeol labelled her situation. The public was left with only the information written online, not knowing who she truly was. To them, she's JA's daughter. To her, she named herself: the star that will not die.

Just like the Eta Carinae.

Feeling a damp, cottony material, upon the surface of her sullied forehead, presumably a handkerchief drenched in lukewarm water, Eun-Byeol stirred, though, she stayed embedded within the mattress. Beside her, a tensed voice waned in . . . and . . . out . . . and . . . in . . . out . . . in . . . through her ears. She puckered her forehead, her eyebrows almost over lapping one another from her bothersome thoughts, and the excruciating sensation on the back of her head.

". . . Do you realise how unfair all of this is to me?" It was Jang Wu-Jin, "- I . . . I can't stop thinking, about how, all of this is my fault."

His arm paused, his arm hovering above her face as the remainder of the water from the hanker-chief fell in minuscule droplets upon Eun-Byeol's tainted complexion. Jang Wu-Jin had to arch his back slightly, closing the gap between them tinily as he examined the expression upon Eun-Byeol's face, how it scrunched up briefly, as though she were reacting to his words. As if his heart were sprinting through a rocky and hilly mountain, Wu-Jin felt like his pulse fluctuated on a graph.

Then it settled disappointingly, when Eun-Byeol continued to sleep through her slumber.

Jang Wu-Jin continued to dab the hanker-chief across her tarnished forehead. He had been scrubbing, delicately, at her face for a few minutes, and every single blemish had been cleaned away. Still, he never placed the hanker-chief away, for, his mind created excuses, believing that there were still some smudges of dirt on Eun-Byeol's face. He then moved his hand onto her dirt speckled cheeks. Jang Wu-Jin could depict every single one, as though he were a stargazer and her skin the starry sky.

Swiping the sleeve of his shirt across his cheeks, Wu-Jin then let the side of his hand wipe at the trails that his tears created upon his skin, "why did you have to call me. You could have called the police. Anyone else. Why did you call me?"

Boom, ba-boom-

The sound of a hand knocking against the infirmary's door caused his shoulders to freeze, his body almost jerking upwards from it. It was almost as though it pulled him away from his thoughts, and away from the drowsy feeling of uneasiness. There was a feathery shade of rosé upon Jang Wu-Jin's cheeks, over the deep realisation that he'd been cleaning her face for a ridiculous amount of time.

Everything else was undetectable, as Moon Eun-Byeol tried to focus only on her breathing, so that she could doze off again. That was not possible, for, after several tries of trying to fall into dreamland she made the decision to force her eyelids to open. Not immediately, though, it was as though her eyelashes were coated in cement, they were heavy, and demanding to lift up. The mellow yellow walls of the infirmary met her misty vision, her shoulders grew heavier over that fact, it meant that she was still on the grounds of Hyosan High School.

Swallowing gingerly, she inhaled sharply, and tried to gather all of her strengths to rest against the board behind the bed. Eun-Byeol so desperately and yearned to leave.

"You mustn't do that."

Moon Eun-Byeol tore her eyes away from her cerulean blue quilt and onto the figure that loomed over her, blinking harshly to let the pixelation in her vision to dissipate away. A hammering sensation grew within her skull as her sight consisted of Moon Ji-hun who brought the blanket higher up her torso, covering the majority of her forearms.

"Thank you," murmuring under her breath, she awkwardly pulled her eyes away from Ji-hun, who seated himself on top of the mattress, his back against the board that was on the other side of her. Subtly, Eun-Byeol shifted herself away from him, her legs practically hanging off the side of the rigid bed.

Ji-hun played with the silver straps of his wristwatch, his feet tapping lightly against the tiled flooring, a sheepish and haste chuckle tumbled from his lips, "are you okay? The police are here, so you won't have to worry about Leeseonsaengnim anymore."

At that, a faint frown carved itself across her wan face, her pulse collapsing greatly, goosebumps arose on the surface of her arms, even though the quilt blanketed her skin. "I'm okay, and, that's good." Eun-Byeol responded in a sharp tone, her top lip curled gently and twitched indefinitely, as she tried to contain the multiplying tears within her eyes.

"Are you sure you're okay? Let me see."

Pulling her wrist away, a sarky tone soaked her voice. "What are you doing?"

Laughing uneasily whilst bringing an index finger to the back of his head to scratch it, "I wanted to check your wounds-" Ji-hun began.

"Why?"

"Because I care and I am concerned for your well-being-"

Grinding her teeth together, "- why do you care so much now?"

Ji-hun's sham smile wavered and drooped slightly, causing his eyes to appear broadened, no longer in the shapes of two crescent-moons. He released an airy laugh, one that only increased the lung-tightening tension in the air, "of course I care, you're my daughter. Why do you . . . why do you ask that?"

"Right. Okay." Eun-Byeol's chin was aquiver, as she lifted it up tinily, vines had entrapped her heart, its thorns had gashed the tissues, each segment was filled with anguish. "What about Hae-Bom, she's your daughter too. Do you know where she is?"

It was not part of the norm for Eun-Byeol to speak to Ji-hun in such a tone, one that could saw and penetrate through the sturdiest of walls. Quite frankly, she had had enough, her skull felt as though it were being crumpled effortlessly by a cricket bat, her emotions were enhanced. Everything from within could not be entrapped within its cage anymore. Eun-Byeol had feared the day she'd release everything from within, but within this moment, her fears were non-existent.

". . . I," Ji-hun retreated with his eyes enlarging, pupils flooding with remorse.

"- Did you even know I was at school? Did you even listen to me when I told you yesterday during lunch, that I was to spend the evening at school to practise for the music show?" Pulling her trembling bottom lip beneath her top teeth, digging it deeply into the surface of it, it drew a minuscule amount of merlot red blood, tasting some copper on her tongue. "Hm?" Eun-Byeol trapped a breath within her throat, "why aren't you answering me?"

Ji-hun's senses were now polluted by woe, his mouth parted to try and utter a word, "I couldn't concentrate on your words because I needed to get to a staff meeting," he explained in a noiseless tone, his words heightening due to a weep that he lodged down his throat, he didn't even to let a tear loose from his eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm-"

"Staff meeting? What does that have to do with me? Do you care about-"

He already knew what she was going to say. "The level of caring for my occupation and for you and Hae-Bom are entirely different. Like how you care for your guitar and matters outside of music differently. It doesn't mean I care about you or Hae-Bom any less. You're older now, you're seventeen, you should realise that."

Eun-Byeol's eyes were painted with a more wistful emotion over Ji-hun's words,"I'm seventeen now," trapping a breath sharply, the tears glistened dolefully on her pupils as she picked at the skin around her nails, "but frankly, I don't feel seventeen . . . I feel as though I'm still stuck at five," her chin then trailed towards the quilt before her, her voice falling into a quietened range, "but if you cared more deeply you'd know."

Ji-hun's courage had dissipated, Eun-Byeol's words gnawed at his mind and cemented itself onto it. "I do care, like I said-"

"Then why am I here? . . ." Bringing her dismal eyes away from the ground, a jab could be felt inside her chest, "why . . ." A surge of vexations seared through her veins, thrusting her hands out from under her quilt, her hand slammed onto the surface of the side table. It teetered as she did so, causing a rumbling sound to resound around the vast room. The back of her cheeks were being dug down upon by her teeth, her tongue tasted the saltiness of her steamy tears as they travelled down her paled cheeks. "Why am I here, waiting to get to the hospital? I called you and you didn't pick up."

"I was at-"

"Don't. You were drinking again, weren't you?"

Moon Ji-hun couldn't let his eyes linger on her expression, for it felt as though his chest were being drowned in a sea full of torment, he pressed a hand towards the aching area of his rib cage, as though it could suppress everything. He didn't want to fool Eun-Byeol, so he answered in a hoarse tone, "I was."

Scoffing, Moon Eun-Byeol's chin pointed towards the ceiling as she let the cold air from the windows, on the opposite side of the room, decrease the burning temperatures on her cheeks. "That wasn't the first time I called you and you didn't pick up. I let every single time pass, because it wasn't a big deal. I kept thinking you would pick up the next time, and I always hoped that I wouldn't have to call you during a situation like this."

"I promise I won't-"

"- I'm tired of your empty promises," curling her fingers into balled up fists, her nails created an imprint within the surface of her palms. Eun-Byeol began to realise that the excruciating sensation on the back of her head had long faded since her body located a far more cavernous agony within her heart. "You promised me something when I was five, you said you'd take me to Lotte World when I passed grade three of guitar."

"I was going to-"

"- But you didn't. Those promises got bigger and you never kept them." She finalised. "It's all too ironic don't you think," Eun-Byeol added as she tried her hardest not to let her whimpers break through her sentence, "you say that I'm older now and that I'd realise. But you're too busy running away and avoiding Hae-Bom and I." Pausing, she then gathered her thoughts and nodded to herself, "you're right, as you say, I'm seventeen now, but Hae-Bom is still five. She doesn't realise any of this." Eun-Byeol watched as Ji-hun let his paled scarlet eyes land on her, the slight tremor on his shoulders was visible, "so please, please don't repeat the things you did to me, to her."

Ji-hun couldn't answer, so instead his tear filled gaze drifted elsewhere.

"Without Omma, she solely relies on you. She'll need you even more when I'll be going to University, which is so soon." Her eyelids flittered shut and opened over the fact that Ji-hun made his way towards the door. "What, are you uncomfortable now that I mentioned Omma? You always go on as normal with your days . . . You always go on as though, she never existed-"

Lifting his burning gaze away from the floor, he finally settled it into Eun-Byeol's darkened eyes, his expression was severely sincere, and much more grey with solemnity. "- You make it as though you're the only one grieving, which you're not. So please, don't criticise my way of mourning."

Once again, Moon Eun-Byeol found herself locking her eyes onto her father's back. It wasn't as though Ji-hun deliberately turned his back at her words. He turned around once again, because, he was yearning to find a secluded place so that his tears could uncover themselves and move freely. Ji-hun had always revealed the emotions: fear, great devastation and very rarely let anyone perceive the act of crying.

But Moon Ji-hun seriously and significantly swore to himself to never let his daughter witness his weeping.

It felt as though, the nakedness of his tears were symbols of his feebleness, he did not want to reveal to his daughter that he was faint-hearted. It would prove her point: that he constantly fled from his own troubles. From his responsibilities. But, after the conversation, Moon Ji-hun learned that he had failed in doing so, for Eun-Byeol expressively divulged her knowledge about Moon Ji-hun's cowardice, by pointing it out within her pin-pricking phrases- and at that, Ji-hun still refused to let his tears be known.

If he let his tears fall freely, Moon Ji-hun believed that it would only create evidence for how spineless he was. He believed that it would only prove his cowardice. It would make everything that felt surreal . . . feel real.

"- Help . . ."

Moon Ji-hun's shoes stopped tapping against the sage green floor. He halted within his tracks at the sound of a strained voice from behind him, his frame frozen before the exit.

"Nurse Kang? . . ." He heard Eun-Byeol leave the creaky bed and approach slowly behind him, but at a distance that was more than arms reach.

Jolting backwards, startled, Moon Eun-Byeol's pulse raced at the sound of the nurse doubling over with groans emitting from her lips, her back levelling downwards as she clutched her wrist close to her chest.

As though Eun-Byeol were entrapped within her own dingy hurricane, a profound level of guilt wrapped around her body at the sight of Nurse Kang. She had been so deathly enraged over Moon Ji-hun, that she didn't comprehend the presence of Nurse Kang- and now, as her watchful eyes lingered on Nurse Kang's body, both sides of her primrose pink lips dragged downwards, causing her expression to appear distraught.

"Are you hurt anywhere?" Moon Ji-hun asked the nurse.

Ji-hun had neared the nurse, as he tried disregarding the ongoing affliction from the previous conflict he had with Eun-Byeol, as her words had stained his mind and it twirled in his head eternally.

But Moon Ji-hun recalled Park Sun-Hwa's words: defy, defy, defy.

He needed to turn his words into action, to prove Shakespeare, the world's most phenomenal play wright, and his quote about 'words are not deeds,' wrong. Flicking his blazer behind his back, causing the tail of his blazer to swoop upwards, he crouched beside her.

"Did you get hurt during the process?" Ji-hun repeated, "it's okay, the ambulance will be here again if you so need it, is it okay to aid you in any way?" He extended his palm and ambled forwards, until his shoes glued to his spot at the sound of . . . squelching?

Moon Ji-hun lowered his gaze, and found the nurse's exposed wrist, since her sleeves were rolled up to her elbows. The sight planted uncertainty upon his mind, at that he felt the need to regurgitate. But he held back, even when a bitter taste laced his tongue, which caused him to swallow thickly. He strode forwards in front of Moon Eun-Byeol.

Instead of answering the two, a monstrous groan emitted from Nurse Kang's lips as she arose to her shoeless feet. At this, Moon Eun-Byeol was silenced, her bafflement cloaked her entirety as her attention remained on the abnormal movements that the nurse made. With her fingertips growing numb from terror, Eun-Byeol could sense a quivering within the nurse's breathing, which caused her eyebrows to furrow.

Opening her mouth to prepose an idea, Eun-Byeol's words were instantly taken away when her pupils expanded, her attention landing on- "Nurse Kang . . . Your, your wrist." Sniffling, with her voice hoarse from raising it earlier on, she flickered her enlarged eyes from one side of the nurse's wrist to the other.

It was a wild sight indeed, and it caused the very pit of Eun-Byeol's stomach to swivel nauseatingly. The complexion of the nurse's skin was raw, dark chilli, maroon red. It sloshed around in the centre, as though it were half liquid, or a live, miniature creature was moving around beneath her flesh. Royal purply, cobalt blue veins were visible across the surface of the nurse's wrist. As Nurse Kang teetered on her feet. It was as though Nurse Kang were on a rocky wooden boat, with the rippled ocean beneath her.

The commotion attracted a pair of puckish students, in which Moon Ji-hun recognised them indefinitely, for the skittish pair often neglected their studies.

"Oh boy, what's wrong with her?" Chang-Hoon taunted as his eyes followed Son Myeong-Hwan's hands that clutched on to his phone, ready to record the most poisonous memory of their lives.

"Probably drunk out of her mind." As the device captured the sight, Myeong-Hwan let his thumb press the digital button on his phone to start recording, and still continued to, when Moon Ji-hun waltzed in front of the camera lenses and cleared his throat. "Oh Moonseonsaengnim! Hello," unfazed, as though the interaction never occurred, Myeong-Hwan stepped towards the side, the nurse in the white lab coat was under the limelight once more as he continued to let his phone document the 'humorous' observation.

The student in a cobalt blue Adidas jacket, added on, "is she serious? She's gonna get fired."

Chang-Hoon disregarded the fact that Moon Ji-hun was stood right next to Moon Eun-Byeol, and let his tongue run along the inner corners of his repellent lips, his left palm raised to indicate his foul greetings. Eun-Byeol elevated her chin at this, her eyes roatating greatly as she turned her back on the loathsome student, which only caused him to chuckle repulsively at the response he received. Though, it only lasted for three seconds for Ji-hun found his feet beside the door and before the boy.

"And you'll be expelled." Overlapping his arms on top of each other, a grave exhale left Ji-hun's lips as his dark pupils drilled onto the faces of his insipid students. Moon Ji-hun's emotions were alight, over the notion of Chang-Hoon treating his daughter inappropriately. Puckering his forehead, a fathomless frown found itself upon Moon Ji-hun's exasperated expression, "give me the phone and you can collect it after school. After this, you'll be excused kindly, but if you continue to stay here, I'll be speaking with your parents about how you've been skipping classes."

"We haven't skipped that many-"

"Come on," a childish whine fell from Myeong-Hwan's lips, and let his pointer finger motion towards the unusual nurse, "she's barefoot, anyone would've taken out their phone to film her-"

Moon Eun-Byeol's expression crumpled at this, her lips upturned in revulsion, "fucking weirdo," she mumbled, before wiping the bottom of her nose briefly with the back of her sleeve, as it was running tinily from her wrathful tears from beforehand.

"Moonseonsaengnim it's amusing."

"Give me your phone, or my words will be turned into reality. I will not hesitate to inform your parents about-"

Myeong-Hwan cut Ji-hun off again, "just one sec-"

With her mind occupied with the atypical motions that the nurse was displaying, Moon Eun-Byeol found it useless to converse with the troublesome pair by the door. Instead, she found herself nearing the nurse. "Nurse Kang . . . are you sure you're-" Upon the sound of Eun-Byeol's voice, the nurse straightened her spine and arched it in a warped manner. Moon Eun-Byeol let her narrowed eyes track all over the nurse's frame, then back on to nurse's wrists.

"It's okay you don't have to speak if it hurts." Reaching over the Nurse Kang's disorganised desk, Moon Eun-Byeol unraveled the soft roll of sterile dressings and tore it at a suitable length. "I'm going to put this over your wound okay?" Nibbling on the inside of her lip, an unhealthy habit that she had picked up during her difficulties, Moon Eun-Byeol cautiously leant forwards, her fingers aquiver as they moved towards Nurse Kang's wrist to tie the gauze around it. . .

She frowned. Nurse Kang's skin felt: arctic cold.

"Your hands are so cold," the situation was all too familiar, and Moon Eun-Byeol despised it.

Eun-Byeol's ears rang as the sound of substance squelching with another substance could be heard from within the tight spacing of the nurse's veins, and it was visible upon the colossal wound that engraved itself upon Nurse Kang's wirst. The sound only increased, as the veins revealed themselves along the surface of the nurse's skin. They grew all over her neck and arms, like freshly tattoo illustrated tattoos, its ink growing vibrant by the minute. What was peculiar, was that the veins were not the usual, typical sea-foam green-blue, they were midnight black, the colour of Space's asthenosphere.

Moon Eun-Byeol's pulse plunged downwards, and steeply, creating a numbness to spread throughout her delicate senses. Dragging her eyes upwards, slowly, with her vision forming into hazy dots, Eun-Byeol could make out the patterns that Nurse Kang's eyes created: two blood red moons- just like Hyun-Joo's. Both pupils were hazy, like white clouds, as the red didn't quite stain the entirety of her pupils.

She'll be fine. She'll be fine like Hyun-Joo-

It was not normal, for a human's complexion to form a patchy and garnet red scar from out of the blue, and as Eun-Byeol wondered her befuddled and terror-struck eyes all over the nurse's features, it seemed that the wounds imprinted upon her skin was not caused by an injury- but something else. Moon Eun-Byeol couldn't narrate this, but the blotches of salmon-pink and burgundy red on the nurse's skin, was caused by the pressure of her veins carrying something . . . venomous.

The two blood red moon eyes found a seat upon Moon Eun-Byeol's features, and Eun-Byeol could feel her pulse thumping against her eardrums. It was as though the nurse had lakes full of blood within her eyes, as a palette of rouge and cardinal seeped throughout the entirety of her pupils.

Being too dumbfounded, Eun-Byeol had her dampened palms clasped around the small metal stand behind her, her back pressed against the side of it, and it teetered from the weight of her. Pure horror soiled Eun-Byeol's expression, her jaw was kept open impermanently, and her skin continued to decline in colour.

Noises almost grew inaudible, as a beastly snarl tore through Nurse Kang's dry throat. One that was ghastly and none would be surprised if the contents of her stomach followed right after, for the inhuman noise was done with such a force. The gust of a snarl caused the gentle flyaways, that framed Eun-Byeol's forehead, to fan away from her face. With the contents on top of the metal stand clattering onto the tiled floor, Eun-Byeol's palms tried to find stability on it, only for her torso to tumble backwards-

"Don't speak. Just follow me." Moon Ji-hun had clipped his fingers on the very end of Eun-Byeol's cottony, emerald green cardigan sleeve, preventing her from toppling over, and creating a messy melody from the orchestra of medical instruments falling to the ground.

"Let go."

Tilting his head backwards and pinching the bridge of his noise, the fat under his eyes pulsated tinily at his daughter's antics. But a part of him was burdened with the feeling of déjà vu. For, Jeong Areum and Moon Eun-Byeol never thought of their own self-respect, and didn't care if their hands would be tainted from helping others, they both disregarded their own health for the sake of others. He witnessed as Moon Eun-Byeol forcibly closed her eyes, presumably from the gash on the back of her head, but she gingerly opened them again, as she tried to dive forwards to help Nurse Kang to a bed.

"You can't be straining yourself, you're not well yourself. I'll take care of Nurse Kang. You can wait for the ambulance at the entrance, it would be wise to leave Nurse Kang be-" He continued to keep his grip on the very end of Eun-Byeol's sleeve.

They were halfway out of the door, and at that, Moon Eun-Byeol snatched her wrist back by thrusting it downwards and towards herself, her sleeve slipping from Ji-hun's grasp. Eun-Byeol reluctantly and slowly, spun around on her heel, still heedful of Nurse Kang and her behaviour. "We can't just leave her without someone-" She recalled the complexion, and bizarre features that engraved Nurse Kang's face, "she's clearly not well."

"Nurse Kang is a nurse. Hence, the name. I'm more than sure that she can look after herself more than anyone," cautiously, he slung his arm around her shoulders, keeping Eun-Byeol in front of him, her body half-way out of the doorway, his body blocking most of the door way so that she could not turn back.

A flurry of adrenaline began to maneuver into his body, for, his being grew sensitive to the situation, and he ached to have them leave the infirmary. Everything combined wreaked of peril, and the very last thing Moon Ji-hun wanted, was for his daughter to be in anguish due to his own faults. He would blame himself, his heart demolished by super-stellar blackholes, and shun everything around him, as he did for five years.

He did not want that same exact throe for another five years.

Speculating Ji-hun through merely narrowed eyes, "not all nurses can look after themselves. Not all doctors can cure themselves. Sometimes they all need someone to care for them." Her steps were hesitant, as her instincts beckoned her to aid the nurse. It was as though Jeong Areum never left, for her persona glimmered through Moon Eun-Byeol's actions, they were both selfless, yet it often caused them to be extremely stubborn.

"We're leaving. And that's final." Moon Ji-hun ignored that fact, and began to lock his palms around her wrist once more. If his words could not make Eun-Byeol shift her perspective of him, he needed to prove that he cared.

Moon Eun-Byeol retaliated and rotated her wrist under his grip repetitively, the fabric of her cottony cardigan rubbed at her skin, causing it to enhance in heat, it was almost flaming warm and the surface of her pinkish skin tinted ruby red. Every muscle within her, yearned to await for the ambulance with Nurse Kang. "No- Let go," she tried lifting his individual fingers from her arm, and even though his hand was not freakishly strong, she could not remove his palm. "She could get worse- She needs someone to-"

"- And she could affect you."

"No she-"

The adrenaline managed to spread throughout his being in a whizz, Ji-hun's festering impatience could be seen upon his expression, as his words barged out from his lips, "I won't have you ending up like your Omma."

They were already half-way down the corridor.

The illuminating lights from the hallways scorched at Eun-Byeol's senses briefly, all due to the fact that, her eyes were just getting familiar with the infirmary's mellow mustard yellow lights. Her pupils decreased in size, trying to protect her eyes from the harshness of her surroundings. There was a rattling within her ears, as though her pulse was hammering against her eardrums. A fuzzy recollection of her mother's pallid and blotchy, maroon-stained skin melted into Eun-Byeol's present mind. It wasn't clear, but it was clearer than the memories of her mother when she was alive, and Moon Eun-Byeol felt her chest being struck at that piece of information that left Ji-hun's lips, as though a colossal chainsaw drove itself, slowly, into it.

The walls began to close in as the reality of their situation became more saturated.

Moon Eun-Byeol began to stop trying to removing her arm away from Ji-hun's grip, not struggling to return to the infirmary. For, even though her head was unwilling, her feet hurriedly followed Moon Ji-hun. She craned her neck around to peer over her shoulder, but Ji-hun tugged at her arm, not wanting her memories to be sullied from whatever she may see-

A shriek sawed through the once serene hallways.

It was inevitable, and Eun-Byeol's puzzled eyes met the distant sight. Crimson sprinkled the window opposite to the infirmary, its pane tainted from the blood of Chang-Hoon. His spine jabbed against the surface of the window, as a set of human teeth crushed the tendons of his face, the fat of his cheeks incinerating within the digestive system of a creature that was far from humane, far from human. Almost black, mahogany red blood, oozed and sprayed down Chang-Hoon's torso, and onto the floor that was polished by the students only a day ago.

A student beside the commotion reacted with a fleeting bawl, before everyone else bolted away, their shrill screams ricocheting along the hallways.

All that Moon Eun-Byeol could witness, was the back view of Hyosan High School's nurse, and for a moment, she was immensely perplexed . . . However, she felt as though she took the emotion of being puzzled for granted. As, she began to wish that she remained confused, and was never exposed to what stood a couple of yards before her. It was horrific. Revolting. Scarring- Moon Eun-Byeol found herself being entrapped within a waking nightmare, her shoes moving at an uncontrollable rate, students clamored beside her, their speed fanning at her skin, causing her to feel cool, yet her forehead began to build up with sweat, making her shiver as she sprinted.

Yet Eun-Byeol's eyes focused behind her, and glued upon the remains of Nurse Kang, and as the nurse's teeth clawed at yet another student's face, it answered all of Moon Eun-Byeol's questions about Nurse Kang's abnormalities.

Nurse Kang- Moon Eun-Byeol wanted to reach out, but her limbs were paralysed from the impact of her reality, and her chest grew hollow as she thought of Hyun-Joo.

Moon Ji-hun led them up the staircase, his voice booming into her ear, causing her to jolt as though she were being woken up, temporarily, from her deathly nightmare. "LISTEN TO ME NOW." Landing on the floor to his classroom, there were an odd few students within the untainted hallways, either getting ready to go towards the lunch hall, or to their classrooms. Moon Ji-hun had no time to converse with them, for, he had to inform Moon Eun-Byeol about his hasty plan. Courage was meandering its way back into his system, though, this time he thought nothing of courage, and only did what his instincts told him. He continued, "YOU'RE GOING TO STAY IN THE CLASSROOM. DON'T LEAVE UNTIL I GET BACK, OKAY?"

"WHAT?"

This has to be the most ridiculous idea I have ever heard- Moon Eun-Byeol struggled against his grasp once more, and made a terrible attempt to be free from his hands, her arm still beneath his fingers. With a hastening breath, her steamy tears glittered under the cruelly bright lights. Her ears weren't thumping from the sound of her pulse, but they grew touchy to the roaring downstairs, and rang from the words that left Moon Ji-hun's mouth.

"I'M GOING TO GET PARKSEONSAENGNIM AND HELP."

"BUT- SO- WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO IN THE CLASSROOM? I CAN'T JUST LET EVERYTHING GO TO SHIT WHILST BEING COOPED UP IN A CLASSROOM."

"- DON'T WORRY ABOUT ANYTHING. YOU STAY IN THE CLASSROOM, AND NO MATTER WHAT, DO NOT LEAVE. DO YOU HEAR ME?" Even though Ji-hun had been down that very hall-way for the majority of his life, his eyes frantically searched for the plastic plaque labelled: Class 2-5. It was as though he were looking at a page from the vivid children's book: Where's Wally? A book he used to look through with Moon Hae-Bom every night. "There we go," he murmured under a wavering breath, as his eyes finally located the desired sign. But before he could reach for the wooden door, both sides of his lips sagged into a frown when Eun-Byeol didn't respond immediately. "Moon Eun-Byeol?"

A light and feathery weight shot up Moon Eun-Byeol's arm when she managed to slip her arm free from Moon Ji-hun's demanding grasp, her back facing her classroom's door. The space between her eyebrows grew to be nonexistent as they knitted together, the rim of her eyes were rigid and blazed with fury and bafflement, "so you're just going to leave me in here? You're going to leave me, when everything's so weird downstairs. You're not going to get help are you? You're just going to runaway, aren't you?" To be frank, Moon Eun-Byeol had no energy to consider Ji-hun's perspective, and all she could do, was wallow in her own emotions.

Squatting tinily to reach Eun-Byeol's height, he gently squeezed at her fore-arms, his lips teetering as he tried his greatest to pull both sides of them into a warm smile. Moon Ji-hun knew that she needed something warm, for everything felt all too cold during those moments. "This time, I'll be leaving for the benefit of not only the both of us, but for the rest of the school. I know you may not see that I care," his tone drooped slightly, "but I truly do, it may take more than one conversation for you to see that, and that's okay," his mouth finally mastered a somewhat convincing smile, "I'll talk to you after, alright?"

She heard the door slide open behind her.

"Moonseonsaengnim? Eun-Byeol?" I-sak's voice seemed faraway, even though she was only half a foot behind them.

"It's Moon Eun-Byeol?" Na-yeon called out, her tone insensitive, as, Eun-Byeol and Ji-hun pulled her away from the snarky gossip she tried to share with Hyo-Ryung and Ji-Min.

I-sak wrapped both her arms around Moon Eun-Byeol's shoulders, her chin resting on one side as she brought the older girl into her torso, her glossed, cotton candy pink lips, morphed into a relieved grin. "I'm so glad you're here, I was so worried. They all said you and Wu-Jin would join us at Cheong-san's Fried Chicken. But when you didn't arrive I knew something was up. I'm so sorry something like that happened to you, I should've called you. Are you okay? It must've been so scary!" A beat. Then her face fell, realisation seeping into her joyed expression, "wait . . . did the ambulance not arrive? Aren't you meant to be on the way to the hospital?"

Moon Ji-hun kept his eyes trained on his daughter, his palms flat against the surface of the slidable door. "Don't leave the classroom, okay?" Removing Eun-Byeol's belongings from his shoulders, he dropped the baggage in front of her feet.

". . . No," at that, a tumble of protests emitted from Moon Eun-Byeol's paled lips. The door curtained closed, causing the two to be separated by a slab of wood. "I can't stay here-" Everything was surreal, and she wanted to wake up from whatever her world her mind had created. But her chest ached. Why does this dream feel so real? "You can't go-" She stormed away from I-sak's warm embrace and slammed her palms against the door, her hands slapping it repeatedly.

"Eun-Byeol you're scaring me, what's going on?" I-sak only inched closer towards Eun-Byeol, with one arm wrapped around her shoulders once more, her other hand grasping onto Eun-Byeol's fore-arm in a solacing manner.

On the other side, of the pane of glass, that was fitted in the centre of the door, Moon Eun-Byeol could see Moon Ji-hun fishing for the collection of keys within his inner blazer pocket, and removed Class 2-5's key away from the ring that kept all of the keys together. He fitted the classroom's key into the lock, and clicked it shut, but he didn't remove it, for he knew his other students would find safety within the classroom.

"I'll be back, and that's a promise I am keeping."

Moon Eun-Byeol could still see the traces of his misty breath against the glass windows, and she stared at it with the whites around her pecan brown eyes increased, her palms still moving to the right, as if it would make the door unbolt.

The Eta Carinae survived one Great Eruption. However, was it possible for it to survive another?

Moon Eun-Byeol had survived her own Great Eruption. Became a mystery. Always leaving the public assuming that she's surviving- still alive, as Moon Eun-Byeol labelled her situation. As of currently, she was still alive, and she beat her chest with the middle of her palm at this. For, it felt like a burden. Especially when Moon Ji-hun dived into the depths of chaos that was brewing downstairs. Moon Eun-Byeol wasn't one to let her hope be demolished by her own doubts, but there was a slither of a chance that Moon Ji-hun would not make it back.

Moon Eun-Byeol needed the luck of the Eta Carinae once more. She wanted to survive her second Great Eruption of twenty-twenty-one.

The public was left with only the information written online, not knowing who she truly was. To them, she's JA's daughter. To her, she named herself: the star that will not die.

Just like the Eta Carinae.

DEAR ALL,

No way?! AN UPDATE?! I literally take forever
to update AND I'M SO SORRY FOR THAT T-T
But I hope this made up for it- THE EPIDEMIC
HAS OFFICIALLY BEGUN IN HYOSAN HIGH
SCHOOL- It was EXTREMELY fun to write this
chapter because it was full of conflict, and then
horror, there was just so much to write about
and I love writing about that.

I'm sorry if some topics were hard hitting, but I have
stated disclaimers in the information section, so it's
not my fault, I did give you a heads up! The argument
between Ji-hun and Eun-Byeol was slightly inspired by
the argument that Na Hee-do had with her mother
in 25 21! A lot of the scenes I write are either made
from my mind, or references to other kdramas! I just
love showing these into my books because, not only
does it give me inspiration, but overall comfort,
especially if it is a fluff scene.

Not Jang Wu-Jin wiping at Eun-Byeol's face as a silly
excuse to look after her and see her up close-
Jang Wu-Jin you silly boy-

On that note, what ship names do you guys think
would suit Wu-Jin and Eun-Byeol?- I know, right
now they're best friends and it's kind of early to
talk about them being together. But seriously, I
think it's kinda obvious so >~<

It's really up to you over the next few chapters
if you forgive Moon Ji-hun. In my opinion, I'm
not quite sure, we haven't heard of his p.o.v
very much yet.

And I love writing about the connections with
characters and my OCs, like it was so comforting
to write about I-sak hugging Eun-Byeol, almost as
though she were hugging me ^~^

I hope this was good! Have a good life, I don't know
but yeah! Love you all, thank you for reading and don't
forget to vote and comment <3

ALSO DID YOU GUYS HEAR?!? ALL OF US ARE DEAD
IS GETTING A SEASON TWO. LET'S GOOOOOOOO

WITH LOVE, SYLVIA