"you are my greatest masterpiece."

about the au.

this is a canon compliant au set one year after the canon events in strangers from hell.

the story follows the perspective of yoon jongwoo in a canon-compliant alternate universe where seo moonjo survives jongwoo's attempted murder and goes into hiding after escaping eden goshiwon. jongwoo experiences a series of devastating losses and gradually begins to lose his sanity. his only objective becomes finding moonjo, after spotting him in a crowd, uncertain whether it was a hallucination or reality.

this story contains the following: spoilers from strangers from hell (2019), spoilers from hell is other people (2018), dead dove: do not eat.

links:

about the author

characters

spotify playlist (recommended while reading)

warning.

THIS STORY WILL INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING TRIGGERS: emotional abuse, psychological torture, hyperrealistic portrayal of self harm, schizophrenic episodes, and sexual assault; cannibalism, codependent relationships, unsafe sexual relationships, heavy substance abuse, murder, childhood sexual assault, ptsd, suicide, extremely toxic relationships & more. read at your own discretion.

this is a fictitious piece of work, and not meant to be taken as canon. any correlation to real life events, people, and settings is entirely coincidental.

anyway, boring formalities aside— hi. my name is [excessively long censored beep]. or you can call me lune. i'm 21 years old, i use he/him or any neopronouns, and i've been a fan of yim siwan for... an abhorrently long time. when i'm not busy torturing yoon jongwoo or working at my depressing 8 to 5 office job, my hobbies include drawing, listening to music, or indulging in a nice bloody mary.

originally, this work was meant to be a one-off vent fic because i'd frankly been going through a lot as of late, but i rewatched strangers from hell fairly recently and a lightbulb went off in my head. thus, inspired by my pretty cool friend @gravemutt, the beginnings of my au started to trickle into my mind.

jongwoo began to become somewhat of a self-insert character as he developed, and i'm sorry to say that the objects of his suffering are going to be no less gruesome than the events in the show. however, please fear not about me; i will be free from the trenches soon...

moving on! i will try to be consistent in my posting and not let a giant cockroach come from the ground and eat me before i finish this.

here's my cat torra for your troubles. happy reading... masterlist can be found here

yoon jongwoo — main character.

age 27 — 12/01/1994 — 167cm ; 56kg

pronouns: he/they ; bisexual

occupation: writer

favorite objects: notebook, moonjo's bracelet

hobbies: writing, reading, drinking, partying, drugs, sleeping with old men as a distraction

objective: find seo moonjo.

after the events at eden goshiwon, jongwoo was released from the hospital. the trial that followed did not prosecute him and instead deemed that the murders he committed were in self-defense, and he was diagnosed with complex ptsd, severe paranoia, and schizoaffective bipolar disorder.

jieun ultimately decided to end things with him, due to the trauma that she suffered at eden, the fear she held of jongwoo's mental instability, and the admission that she was involved heavily in an emotional affair with the late jaeho. they mutually agreed to go no-contact despite jongwoo's poor reaction to her feelings.

in the year that has passed, jongwoo's mother fell ill and passed away. jongwoo and his younger brother had a falling out due to this, and jongwoo became a recluse. he began to heavily abuse drugs and alcohol, moving in and out of shared houses and couch-surfing just to dull the pain he felt.

he is constantly reminded of the sight of moonjo watching him be wheeled away in the ambulance. the vision plagues him at night, and all he ever thinks about is finding moonjo again. he quickly grows obsessed, yet paranoid at every corner that moonjo is going to find him first and kill him. he's not sure yet of his own goals after he finds moonjo. his fantasies quickly go from the thought of killing him as revenge to just wanting to be in his presence.

seo moonjo — main character.

age 35 — 11/06/1986 — 189cm ; 72kg

pronouns: he/she/it (occasionally) ; gay

occupation: retired dentist

favorite object: jongwoo's boxcutter

hobbies: reading, listening to classical music, murder

objective: protect yoon jongwoo.

following jongwoo’s hospitalization, moonjo goes into hiding. he hides out in a downtown apartment, careful to not let his presence be known by the other residents, using his funds from his career as a dentist to take care of his living expenses. he uses this vantage point to follow jongwoo around, keeping watch over him like some sort of twisted guardian angel.

he doesn’t like the downfall that jongwoo has had, but out of fear of being exposed as still alive and thus putting jongwoo further in danger, he makes it his mission to keep him safe until the day that he can convince jongwoo to join him in their future as murderers.

his successful stockholm syndrome tactics on jongwoo make him feel gratified, and he relies on jongwoo’s erraticism to satiate his desire for the taste of human meat. he carefully plots out each murder of every man that jongwoo sleeps with, causing jongwoo to fall deeper into desperation as he leaves a trail of bodies in his wake. his deep obsession with jongwoo grows deeper every day, and he begins to dream of the moment that he will be reunited with the object of his affection; his greatest masterpiece.