Cerberus Hearts
I didn’t remember how or when I passed out.
Why the fuck my arms was trying to leave my body.
“Let go, you crazy bitch!”
“I should be the one saying that, you psychopath!”
Shouting.
Ah. They are still fighting.
My shoulder screamed. My hip burned. My spine felt like someone had decided to measure how far it could bend.
I forced my eyes open.
The world came into focus upside down.
On my left side, Cha Eun-ha had both hands wrapped around my wrist, heel dug into the ground, body leaning back as she pulled.
On my right, Yeonhwa had both arms wrapped around my ankle, shadows coiling up her calves, also leaning back as she pulled in the opposite direction.
Tug-of-war.
No. They were literally trying to rip me in half.
“Oh, he’s awake,” Yeonhwa said lightly, not letting go.
“Then stop stretching him!” Eun-ha snapped. “His ligaments aren’t rubber!”
“You started it!” Yeonhwa yelled back. “You grabbed him first!”
“I’m putting him back where he belongs!”
“In your basement?”
“In my guild!”
“In my bed.”
They both yanked harder at the same time.
Something in my lower back made a sound that I was pretty sure human bodies weren’t meant to make.
“Sto—hngh—” I tried to yell, but the breath got squeezed out of me.
They ignored me.
Of course they did.
“You burned his clothes off in the middle of the street,” Yeonhwa spat. “You don’t get to say the word ‘belongs’.”
“You are the reason he got hurt back then,” Eun-ha shot back. “Don’t pretend you’re innocent.”
“I fed him.”
“I paid him.”
“You overworked him.”
“You used him.”
If they kept going, I was going to be split like a wishbone at a very dysfunctional Thanksgiving.
The volume went up again. The tension on my arm and leg followed suit.
Pain blurred the edges of my vision.
“Hey, Stop!” I managed through clenched teeth. “Hey. Hey!”
“Shut up for a second, Si-woo,” Eun-ha snapped. “I’m busy rescuing you.”
“From me?” Yeonhwa scoffed. “He chose me first. You stole him from me!”
“You brainwashed him!”
“You broke him!”
They pulled again.
The kind of pull people used when they were sure the object in the middle wouldn’t break.
Except, in this case, the object had joints and organs and a strong desire not to explode.
They weren’t looking at me. They weren’t listening to me.
They were only seeing each other.
And that was the problem.
I tried to twist. The motion sent a jolt of agony up my spine. Useless.
Screaming clearly wasn’t working.
Words wouldn't work.
Begging would be pathetic.
They were too far gone.
I needed to scare them.
Threaten them.
So, I bit my tongue.
Hard.
Pain detonated in my mouth. Sharp, immediate, different from the tearing in my limbs.
Blood flooded over my teeth, hot and metallic. It filled my mouth faster than I expected.
I opened it and let it spill out.
The red splashed across my chin and dripped down my neck, soaking into the front of my shirt.
Both of them froze.
“Si-woo?” Eun-ha’s voice broke in the middle.
I coughed on purpose. A spray of red hit the snow between us.
Yeonhwa’s grip slackened a fraction.
she asked, eyes fixed on the blood. “What… what are you doing?”
I forced a grin.
Blood stained my teeth, my lips. It hurt to move my tongue, to talk, but fear needed a shape.
“Keep pulling,” I said, the words thick and sloppy. “If you’re going to split me, I’ll make it easier. I’ll chew through the rest myself.”
The sentence came out half-garbled. That helped.
They both went sheet white.
Eun-ha dropped my arm like it had turned into a live grenade and lunged across the snow, grabbing my face with both hands, forcing my jaw open.
“Open. Wider,” she ordered, eyes wide. “Let me see.”
I obliged, because she was going to force it anyway.
She saw the ragged, bloody mess of my tongue and swore under her breath in a way that did not fit her Guild Master image.
“You idiot,” she hissed. “You insane—why would you—”
“Because you’re about to kill me,” I said, or tried to. It came out more like, “Be’ause y’re abou’ tuh kill me,” but the intent was clear.
Yeonhwa still had my ankle, but her fingers were no longer pulling. They were trembling.
“I wasn’t…” she started, then stopped, swallowing hard. “…We weren’t going to kill you.”
"You bit through half of it," she breathed. "Why would you—"
"No. You were about to rip me in half," I said, each word thick and painful. "Fighting over which one of you loves me more."
Yeonhwa still hadn't fully let go of my leg. Her fingers trembled against my skin.
"We weren't going to—" she started.
“You,” I cut in— “An’ when y’finally tore me apar’, you’d jus’ fight over who keeps which pieces. Maybe Eun-ha gets the torso. Maybe you get the legs. Very roman’ic.”
They didn’t look.
They looked at me.
At the blood on me.
At the very real possibility that, if I got serious about biting, I could actually take enough of my own tongue off to make things complicated.
Not fatal. I knew that. I’d tried worse in worse worlds.
I tried biting my tongue once again.
“Stop it,” Eun-ha said. “Stop hurting yourself.”
“Then stop pulling,” I said. “You are hurting me!”
She dug into her coat one-handed, not letting go of my face with the other.
Of course she had a potion.
Like she knew she would bleed me if needed.
She popped the cork with her thumb in one practised motion and shoved the vial into my mouth before I could argue.
The liquid was cool and sharp and minty. Numbness spread through my tongue and down my throat.
She pulled the empty vial out and wiped my chin roughly with her sleeve, smearing the blood around more than cleaning it.
“Don’t you ever do that again,” she said, voice low and shaking. “Do you understand? Not for her. Not for me. Not for anyone.”
“‘Hen ‘op,” I said.
“…What?”
I swallowed. The numbness made it feel like someone else’s mouth.
“Then stop,” I repeated, clearer this time. “Stop treating me like a rope.”
Yeonhwa hadn’t moved. She was staring at my face like she was memorising every drop of red.
Her eyes tracked the smear on Eun-ha’s sleeve. The stain on the snow. Back to me.
Finally, she let go of my ankle.
Her hands curled into fists on her knees instead.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you,” Yeonhwa said quietly.
“You meant to win,” I said. “Outcome’s the same, just different flavour.”
Her lips pressed together.
"Every time I wake up, it's worse."
Eun-ha's hand hovered near my face, like she wanted to touch me but was afraid she'd break something else.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
Yeonhwa didn't say anything. She just looked at me with those hollow eyes that had seen too much darkness and decided to live in it.
For a moment, the only sound was the wind howling outside and my own ragged breathing.
Then Yeonhwa stood.
"Fine," she said. "Truce."
Eun-ha's head snapped toward her.
"What?"
"Truce," Yeonhwa repeated. "We can't keep doing this. Not if we want him alive."
Eun-ha stared at her like she'd just suggested world peace.
"You think I trust you?" Eun-ha asked.
"If we keep doing this, we’ll tear him apart," Yeonhwa said. "Then there’s nothing left for anyone"
Eun-ha looked down at me, at the blood still staining my shirt, at the way my shoulder hung at an angle it shouldn't.
"…Fine," she said at last. "But if you try anything—"
Her jaw tightened.
"You'll kill me," Yeonhwa finished. "I know. The feeling's mutual."
They stared at each other over me.
The air between them sizzled with all the things they didn’t say.
I lay there and let my tongue heal, wondering when exactly my life had turned into a three-player death game where I was the prize and also the terrain.
“Help me up,” I said finally.
Two pairs of hands moved at the same time.
They both froze.
Then, very slowly, as if some unspoken rule had been negotiated, Eun-ha took my left side and Yeonhwa took my right.
They lifted me together.
Awkward. Careful. Like they were afraid I’d shatter if they pulled too hard.
I supposed that was progress.
We didn’t die that day.
Which, in this place, counted as a win.
A few days blurred together after that. Hard to tell how many. The light outside didn’t help; the sky was always grey, always leaking snow, always the same dead horizon.
Inside the bunker, it was cramped and tense and strangely quiet whenever they weren’t hissing at each other under their breath.
The only thing that changed was the way they handled me.
They no longer pulled.
They hovered.
They moved around me in tight circles, always one step too close, always a hand on my sleeve or shoulder or wrist.
If I went to piss behind a collapsed wall, one of them stood at the entrance like a guard dog and the other watched from ten paces away, pretending she was looking elsewhere.
When I woke up, I woke up in the middle.
Every time.
Like now.
I opened my eyes to find an arm pinning my chest on the left and something cold pressed against my back on the right.
Eun-ha, curled into my side, her face buried in my shoulder. Her arm thrown over my ribs in a way that said “mine” more eloquently than any speech.
On the other side, Yeonhwa was wrapped around my back like a shadow with a pulse. One of her legs was thrown over my thighs under the blanket of salvaged coats. Her hand had found mine in the night and hadn't let go.
They were both awake.
They were both glaring at each other across my body.
“This side is too close,” Yeonhwa said without moving her head.
“He’s shivering,” Eun-ha replied. “I’m keeping him warm.”
“You’re breathing on his neck.”
“You’re crushing his lungs.”
I stared up at the cracked ceiling.
“Good morning to me,” I said.
“You woke up,” Eun-ha murmured, finally shifting enough to look at my face. Relief flickered, quickly smothered. “Any pain? Numbness?”
“Just existential,” I said. “Physically, I think I’m still in one piece.”
“For now,” Yeonhwa added.
I did not find that encouraging.
“You two look like you haven’t slept,” I said.
They didn’t deny it.
“What, did you take shifts watching the hostage?” I asked. “Very efficient.”
“If you disappear while I’m asleep,” Eun-ha said, “I’ll kill her.”
“If you disappear while I’m asleep,” Yeonhwa said calmly, “I’ll kill her and then follow you.”
They said it like they were discussing laundry schedules.
Pitiful.
Broken.
Obsessed.
Somewhere under the irritation and fear and bone-deep exhaustion, I felt a flicker of something like pity.
They were monsters, yes.
But they were also… like this.
“No personal space,” I sighed. "So this is my life now."
“It’s better than being alone in this place,” Yeonhwa said.
"Then why aren’t we leaving this place already?" I asked
No replies.
Probably they think it’s safer being here with only one other woman—me—than me with the rest of the world.
“I haven’t actually seen ‘this place’ properly,” I said. “Every time I open my eyes, I’m in the middle of a cuddle pile with built-in death threats.”
“You’re not missing much,” Eun-ha said. “White. Ruins. Things that want to eat you.”
“Yeah,” I said, “That describes my current situation.”
The floor vibrated.
All three of us went still.
A low, distant rumble rolled through the bunker. Dust sifted from the cracked ceiling. Then came the sound that every hunter recognised instantly.
A roar.
Deep. Echoing. Too many throats at once.
Closer than it had been the night before.
“Neighbors?” I asked.
“Monsters,” Eun-ha said, already pushing herself up, mana stirring around her fingers.
“The fight yesterday drew them in,” Yeonhwa said. Shadows pooled around her, thickening. “They’ve been circling.”
“Of course,” I said. “Nothing says ‘come eat us’ like two S-ranks throwing a tantrum in the snow.”
Another roar. This time followed by a chorus of answering howls.
“They’re closer,” Yeonhwa said.
“Good,” Eun-ha said. “I need something I’m allowed to kill without him bleeding over it.”
She stood, pulling me up with her.
Out of habit, both hands went to me again—Eun-ha gripping my left wrist, Yeonhwa my right.
I stared pointedly at our joined arms.
“You do realise,” I said, “that going is going to make our fight very difficult.”
“Shut up and walk,” Eun-ha said.
“You let go, I run,” Yeonhwa said darkly.
“I’m not letting go,” Eun-ha snapped.
They glared at each other.
The roars came again, closer, scraping along the edge of the bunker.
I sighed.
Great, the neighbors are here to complain about the noise.
