Cha Doyun was a coward. The truth was as simple as that. He never stood up for himself, never spoke up, never tried to help others, for he was scared of another beating if he did. 

  The one time he tried to help and defend himself, he had been thrown into a cold, damp prison for eight years. So yes, Cha Doyun was a coward and he was rather ashamed to admit it.

 

 But what actually had made him, a coward, run in to save someone? It hadn't actually been an intelligent decision on his part to step in like that. 

  Maybe it had been a pity, a guilt or maybe it had been because he didn't want to run anymore. Whatever it had been, it had landed him in a rather messed up situation that's for sure. 

The dark haired man swallowed nervously. The angel was staring at him rather blankly. It scared Doyun but strangely enough, he didn't regret his decision one bit.  He had done the right thing for once and if he was to die here then-

*BEEP BEEP*

 The phone in his back pocket vibrated furiously like an alarm. Not just his phone, the rather gaunt man realized. Every single phone in the vicinity was beeping loudly.  Doyun swallowed, not willing to check out his phone in case the angel being attacked while he was distracted. 

 He stared at the white being as it watched him. Though, instead of attacking like he had thought, the angel just titled its head then turned its gaze towards the sky, with a powerful gust of wind, the holy warrior took off into the sky. 

  Something loosened in his chest and Doyun crumbled down into the ground. He greedily took big gulps of air, unable to place just when he had stopped breathing. It took him a while but once he had calmed down a little bit, he looked up towards the small black haired boy and the baby in his arms. 

 He smiled at them reassuringly in a vain attempt to calm them down. The cowardly man didn't think it'd work because his smiles tended to look more like a grimace than anything. So it surprised him when the kid ran towards and latched onto him along with his sibling.

 The kid looked to be around 10 years old ,he had short messy brown hair and a healthy tan. He was also clutching into the small chubby looking toddler and not a newborn baby like he had previously assumed , which Doyun was rather grateful for. Cha Doyun had never been good with kids so he had no idea how to handle a toddler ,much less a newborn baby.

 Hesitantly, the older man crouched down beside the boy and reached to take the toddler off of the kid's hands. A worry flashed through the kid's eyes at the offer, he clutched the baby closer to himself protectively.

"May I?" Doyun asked gently. He understood why the kid was wary of him. They were strangers after all. Though he only wanted to help for now, anything like ulterior motives would have come later, he decided.

 The boy stood there for a while then he slowly handed the toddler to him. Cha Doyun gently picked up the toddler, (a girl, he realized.) carefully, adjusting his hold so the girl sat snuggly in his embrace. 

  "Thank you," he murmured to the child, who nodded in response. 

 With their goal accomplished, they turned up towards the gatherings of angels, and the God that sat watching. The time had stopped once again, but this time at 15:07:00, as if mocking the survivors of the massacre that had happened. 

  From his throne above the world, The Lord raised a single hand. In an instant, the ground shook with strong tremors, splitting apart to make way for the river of flames that swallowed up everything in its path. 

 Doyun pulled the kids closer in perhaps a vain attempt to keep them safe. They stood there watching as the corpses that littered the streets burned away, unable to muster up anything other than the fear that threatened to overwhelm them.

 Soon enough, the so-called God placed his hand down with finality. What followed it was an earsplitting screech of what sounded like the screams of hundreds, thousands of people asking for help, accompanied by an unexplainable feeling of dread that chilled Doyun to the bone. He didn't dare move and kept the children close, waiting with a bated breath for the god to make his next move.

 Silently , the father of all watched whatever it was that he had brought down on earth with a look devoid of any emotion. Doyun saw him flick his wrist, raising what seemed like an enormous tower of swirling winds. It pierced through the heavens and disappeared into the cloud line.

 Then a toll of bells filled the world, overriding the sound of the screams of the damned. It brought forth a feeling of safety and relief that he couldn't afford to succumb to just yet. 

 As soon as the first toll of the bell, the angel blew his horn and the godly army retreated back into the golden gate. Following the sixth toll, the Lord himself followed his army and the heaven's door closed with a near silent creek.  

 By the time the bell tolled for the twelfth and last time, Doyun finally felt like he could breathe. The seven minutes of heaven had ended, along with the suffocating pressure that pressed them down. What was left behind however was a fear of what would come next and the relief of surviving the Apocalypse. 

 Dazedly, Cha Doyun thought back to the 'prophecy' that foretold the Apocalypse. 

  

 "It is the beginning of the Apocalypse. The Lord shall raise the gates of hell. Of the 8 pillars of humanity, only 3 shall be left standing." he mumbled, coming to a horrifying realization. 

God had raised and opened the gates of hell and the ominous sound had most likely come from whatever that had come out of it. In the world,there were 8 billion people, the 8 pillars. The angels had wiped out 5 of the pillars, only leaving 3 standing. 

 Five billion people had been killed, massacred and with the gates open, how were they meant to stay alive?

  It left Doyun shaking, his grip on the two kids tightened uncomfortably. The toddler in his arm whined in pain, but the boy only stared at him with a concerned frown on his lips.

 "Mister, are you okay?"   

 The question asked by a soft voice of the small kid, stopped him from spiraling further down the rabbit hole. The black haired man looked down to the boy that couldn't be older than 9, maybe 10 and immediately felt guilty. Here he was worrying and feeling self pity when he had better things to do like making sure the kids were okay. Adjusting his grip around the toddler, Doyun smiled towards the boy holding his hand.

"I'm fine, don't worry kid." he answered. The kid nodded, clearly hesitant to believe him. 'Good…' Doyun thought. He shouldn't trust someone straight away. Now that he thought about it, he couldn't keep referring to them as kids all the time. Coughing slightly to clear his throat, he introduced himself.

" I'm Cha Doyun, what's your name?" he asked.

 " I'm Kim Sung-Jin and she is my sister Ah-in" the boy- no, Sung-Jin answered him with a small bow on his part. Doyun nodded towards the kid and was about to ask him another question when he caught his reflection in the window of the office building they were standing in front of. 

 His hair was a mess of grease and sweat, his skin pale and his clothes torn in places with dried brown spots that he quite well knew was blood. In short, he looked terrible and the kids weren't much better either. In the background, he could also see the reflection of the slowly retreated eclipse, could see the blood and bodies that still stained the road where they stood. And a group of something dark on the air, heading towards them. His throat tightened at the sight and he had to bite down the tears of utter helplessness before they fell, lest he scare the kids now in his care.

 Doyun forced a bright smile( a grimace) into his face and turned to fafe Sung-Jin once again. He adjusted his grip around the sleeping Ah-in so she was nestled against his chest in what he remembered as a proper way to hold babies then took Sung-jin's hand in his, keeping one eye on the reflection of whatever the hell those creatures were.

"Let's go find somewhere safe to hide first." he told the kid.

 Kim Sung-jin  just nodded, not asking for any explanation, still likely shaken by the events that took hold just a few moments prior. It was something that Doyun took for granted because he wasn't sure just how he would explain any of this.

  They moved towards the small camping shop just across the street silently. He didn't bother asking about the kid's parents, of whom were most likely dead. 

 'They probably died protecting the kids.' Doyun deduced, otherwise he probably wouldn't have found the kids in the situation he did. No matter how shitty, any parents worth their salt would protect their child, that he was sure of. The trio entered the shop just as the black creatures from earlier flew past the street. 

  It was like luck was playing games, for Doyun was no way that lucky. He gently placed Ah-in down on the sleeping bed laid inside the display tent. Only then he noticed that his vision was swimming a bit.

"S-Sung-jin? Can you lock the door? Pull down the blinds too-" he asked, a little out of breath.

 The brown haired boy stammered a small "Y-Yes!" and locked the door behind him. Doyun on the other hand moved to pull down the blinds as well as secure the backdoor. 

  A minute or two after he was satisfied with his tasks, the elder man gave Sung-jin a dizzy smile and finally succumbed to his exhaustion.He passed out where he stood in the middle of the shop, oblivious to what awaited him back in the waking world. 

                 [Since The End Of The World]

                               [00:03:45]