The Priest (l)

[The Priest has made your Acquaintance.]

"Well aren't you gonna answer?" Hyunwoo asked with a pleasant smile on his face. Doyun eyed him warily before running his gaze over his companions.

  Sung-Jin was falling asleep on his feet and Iseul looked not much better. He too was barely holding on to stay alert at this point. The earlier disaster had taken a lot out of them and they all needed a rest if they wanted to continue moving.

 Lee Hyunwoo was a priest too. They were usually one of the only people who never judged Doyun for his past. While he wasn't religious and was not willing to follow The Lord, the green eyed man could at least respect his followers.

  He glanced at the man, who was patiently waiting for their answer with his hands in the air. 'There is no use second guessing now.' Doyun made his decision.

"We- We need a place to stay. Just for the night is enough. Seoul burned down and we had to flee. Please sir.." He ignored the way he almost begged at the end. Someone like him had no use for useless pride. Not when he needed to take care of his kids first.

 The priest looked thoughtfully at them, eyeing their weapons warily. 'We probably look threatening…' Doyun thought and motioned the kids to lower their weapons. Iseul put away her daggers with little hesitation alongside a frown while Sung-Jin simply reverse summoned Mul. 

  Ah-In was already asleep against his chest but he could see the silent spirit that followed the pre-teen around frowning at the priest wordlessly.

"Well… I guess you can stay for the night. The guest room is down the hall." Hyunwoo muttered after a few minutes, an invisible tension leaving his body once the weapons were put away.

 "Thank you father." And Doyun meant it. He couldn't thank the man enough for his kindness. He had been fully expecting to be kicked out. They had attacked the priest after all.

   Hyunwoo however just gave him a small smile.

"It's alright sir now please go rest. I think we all need it after that." He grimaced slightly.

 "Well then I shall bid you goodnight. May the lord protect you from harm." The priest bowed slightly before retreating into one of the rooms quietly.

  Doyun stared after him for a moment then quickly ushered his kids down the hall towards where Hyunwoo said the bedroom was in. "Come on, let's go rest."

Once they were inside the bedroom, Sung-Jin collapsed straight into the single big bed by the wall and fell asleep. Doyun extracted Ah-In carefully from the carrier without waking her up then gently placed her beside her brother. The two kids instantly curdled up around each other, creating a rather adorable image.

 "Mr.Doyun, something doesn't feel right." Iseul mumbled from beside him, taking the space left beside the other two. She was stubbornly trying not to fall asleep.

"Iseul please just rest tonight. We can talk in the morning." Doyun whispered, petting the fire red hair comfortingly. The 17 years old struggled to keep her eyes open.

"B-but what if-'' she yawned then was out cold without ever finishing her sentence. It seemed between her stubbornness and sleep, the sleep had won out. Smiling slightly, the elder leaned his back against the wall, well used to sleeping without bed. 

  He could feel the pair of golden eyes watching him from the edge of the room but refused to acknowledge it. Doyun would deal with it in the morning.

  For now, he needed his rest. So without focusing on the spirit that silently judged him, the green eyed man closed his eyes and was out cold within minutes.

 …

Surprisingly enough, the next morning came rather peacefully. Doyun was the first one awake from their small family of four. Quietly standing up, the man stretched. He glanced at the kids to assure himself of their continued existence. 

  Nothing much had changed from the previous night. Sung-Jin was still curled up on his sides, hands tucked in close while Ah-In ended up sprawled between him and Iseul, who slept like a corpse. It had unnerved Doyun at first, how the red head slept so still. But the gentle up and down movement of her chest calmed him enough. 

 As long as the kid still breathed, he couldn't bring himself to care about her strange sleeping habit.

 The eldest of the four gently tapped on the teenager's shoulder, waking Iseul up. She grumbled a bit and glared up at him blearily.

 "Wha'd u wan'?" The girl asked. She looked rather like a kitten than anything relatively threatening to Doyun. The man snorted a little.

"I'm going out. Watch over the two okay?" All he got in return was a nod as the girl turned away from him to sleep some more. He smiled slightly then left the room quietly.

 The moment he was out of the room, Doyun heard a humming coming from the kitchen. Warily, he slipped the knife hidden in his boots out and peeked through the open door.

  Inside the room, Lee Hyunwoo stood. He was hunched over the oven making something. 

 Doyun sighed a little in relief and put his knife away. He then slipped into the room, the floor creaking under his weight. It alerted the priest, for he turned around to give Doyun a cheerful smile.

"Good morning sir. Please have a seat, the breakfast will be out in a minute." It surprised him how welcoming Lee Hyunwoo was being to them.

"You didn't need to father." He refused lightly. There really wasn't any need for the priest to go out of his way to make them breakfast.

"Nonsense! Even if you don't need it ,the kids do." Hyunwoo placed a bowl of fried rice in front of Doyun. Who after some internal debate, started to dig in. As soon as the first spoonful landed on his tongue, Doyun made a muffled sound of happiness. He hadn't had home made food in a while. 

  Within minutes the food was all gone from his bowl and the two adults were nursing a warm cup of tea. They shared a mutual silence and Doyun could feel himself relaxing in the presence of the other.

"If I may sir, can you accompany me somewhere after our tea?" Lee Hyunwoo requested. His aquamarine eyes shone pleadingly at him.

"Uhh where are we going?" Doyun asked.

"Only the local church sir. It is almost time for my morning prayers you see." He felt any sort of resistance in him disappeared at that. Even though he felt his stomach churn with an unknown feeling of wariness, Doyun chalked it up to being relaxed around a stranger and nodded.

"Of course father." He mumbled his answer then quickly finished his tea. The sooner they get there, the sooner Doyun can come back, he concluded.

  The priest smiled at him brightly and quickly followed his lead. They were soon out of the door and walking towards the local church building down the street.

 Neither said a word on the way to the church. At the end of the street stood a tall two story white marble building. The architecture was truly impressive and unlike the crumbling, old looking buildings around it, the church looked brand new with no stone out of place.

 "Here we are. Welcome to the zion brother." Lee Hyunwoo led him through the glass doors of the church. Upon seeing the inside, Doyun couldn't help the silent gasp that left him. The priest upon seeing his expression grimaced a bit.

"Not a pretty sight isn't it?" 

All around the hall were stone statues of people, kneeling upon the ground, praying. The women all had veils draped over their heads with the men having none. All the statues in the hall were covered in moss and tiny blooming flower vines. Doyun's voice shook as he stuttered out.

"A-are they real p-people?" 

"Yeah, they are the believers of the zion. When the apocalypse hit, they were all turned into stone. Come on let's move, we need to get to the praying hall."

Hyunwoo did not wait for Doyun and maneuvered his way through the statues with practiced ease, slipping through the open birch doors.

 Inside the big hall, sat many more statues all in praying positions of some kind. In front of the hall however stood a statue of a short woman with her hands around several of the believers. Just its presence seemed to fill Doyun with a sense of ease he hadn't felt since his own mother's passing. Past her, he saw Hyunwoo kneeled on the ground with a cross pendant in his hands, praying. 

The tall man settled down in front of the statue, to pay his respects and prayed.

 'Please protect the kids from any harm that may ever befall them. I beg you with all my heart and soul. Amen.'

He opened his eyes slowly and looked up, only to be surprised by the aquamarine eyes of Hyunwoo right in front of his face.

"Done praying?" He asked. 

"Uhh yeah, can you tell me about this zion?" The green eyed man asked, standing up and moving away from the priest.

"Ah curious about the statues?" Mutely, the taller of the two nodded. Hyunwoo hummed to himself for a bit then opened his mouth to explain.

"Well they are a branch of christianity who believed in the existence of mother god Jerusalem. The woman you see there is supposedly the mortal body of the mother. They were a pretty big group internationally and they didn't pray to things like the holy cross and any other items. It's all quite ridiculous really, there is no mother god and no amount of praying to her and repenting can get you an immortal life." The man had a frown on his face and he spoke in a quite blaise tone that screamed dislike but as soon as Doyun noticed them, they disappeared. Lee Hyunwoo was cheerfully smiling as usual, speaking animatedly about the church they were in.

"If you don't follow them, why do you pray here?" Doyun asked. The look Hyunwoo gave him was strange but before the man could answer, the building shook. Sounds of explosions rang outside alongside the familiar crying of Ah-In. Within minutes, he was out of the zone and running.

  The strange feeling in his gut continued to grow when the priest didn't follow him immediately but he brushed the feeling aside once again. He had kids to protect, nothing else mattered.