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yutafrita · 1 year

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To Pierce the White Eye- ONE

Teaser/ Preview/ One / Two / Three / Four / Fin.

Pairing: Psychic!Jaemin x Reader (She/her)

special thanks @badwithten for beta reading 🫶

Synopsis: You don’t think you can ever get used to the double life you and your adopted family lead. By day, you and your brother Mark attend Knight’s Cross College, but at night, you trade in your textbooks and index cards for holy water and a wooden stake to attend the Knight’s Cross College’s night class. Your classmates? The Mythics - beings most humans believed were things of fiction. Meanwhile, Na Jaemin is one of the last psychics left in the world and has been tasked with one thing by his family- make sure the Na prophecy gets fulfilled. However, the future can change at any moment, and you’re about to learn just how fragile the mythic world really is.

Chapter Word Count: 8.6K

Your first memory sat like a stain on the back of your mind, only cropping up in your nightmares to haunt you and remind you of the fact that you were missing entire chunks of your life.

You were five years old, standing in the snow as the building you stood by was set ablaze by blue flames. You weren’t wearing a sweater, but with the heat of the flames you didn’t find yourself shivering from the cold- you were shivering with fear. Alone, with nothing of use coming to your mind, you stared at the fire consuming the building as you sobbed angrily.

Where am I? No- who am I?

Your heart pounded, and when you turned around, that was when the nightmare and your memory cut out.

You woke up in a cold sweat. It had been so long since your abandonment that cold day in the snow and your subsequent adoption. You had hoped that one day your memories would return, but all you got was the agony of the memory of not knowing anything. The deep pit of fear slowly dissipated from your chest as you grounded yourself back in reality.

And that reality was you being late for your Biology exam.

You hadn’t slept well, and Jungwoo pointed it out as soon as he saw you.

“I had a bad dream,” you explained, speed walking with him down the science hall to make it to your Bio lecture in time.

“At least you slept at all, I had to pull an all nighter for this stupid exam,” he admitted as you begrudgingly filed into the full lecture hall.

“See- this is why you can’t leave studying until the last minute.”

“You’ve known me since the fourth grade, when have I ever not left anything to the last minute?”

“Fair. Kun and I really are the planners of the group,” you sighed, taking your seat.

“Oh, when you see your brother later by the way-,” Jungwoo got caught off by the professor silencing the hall, and your exam began shortly thereafter. You had taken up the entire class time for your exam, and even Jungwoo left before you did. While you knew most of the answers, your brain was still admittedly fried from waking up only a few hours ago. By the time you finally turned in your exam, it was 5 ‘till 7:30, and you were now late to meet Mark.

“I can’t wait to tell Dad,” he poked, ruffling your hair as you finally met him at your designated pre-night-class spot.

“It’s the first time in like fifteen years that I’m ever late. Plus, I was in an exam!” you countered. Mark was your adoptive older brother, and the occasional thorn in your side.

“Jungwoo was in the exam too and left in a timely manner,” he mocked, crossing his arms smugly.

“Ugh, whatever! Let’s just make sure the day students are out and get to class,” you then started off on your normal path. Mark launched himself up from the bench in the front entrance of Knight’s Cross College, and you began the trek through the math and science wing of the building.

“Whoever’s idea it was to build a college composed of three wings deserves a slap in the face,” Mark noted. The college’s primary building was divided into three total wings: the left hall designated to all things falling in or around Sociology, English, and the arts. The middle wing, the shortest of the grouping, primarily housed all the hospitality and business classes. The hall you and Mark walked down now was the one you had just finished an exam in: Math, science, and pre-health.

“Guess you should slap great-great-great grandpa then, Dad would be happy to help,” you joked, shoving your brother’s arm.

“Yeah, maybe then we wouldn’t have to deal with all this,” Mark then opened the door to a lecture hall to see a couple in the corner making out rather ravenously. You groaned, taking the lead as you shouted towards the couple.

“Past 7:30 PM no Day students are to be in the main building. Can you provide proof of night student status?” You bellowed as the couple jumped away from each other. Both of the girls looked away bashfully, shaking their heads in response.

“Then please follow my fellow warden as he guides you out of the building and out of the main building's gates,” you instructed, mentally going off the script given to you by your father. The girls quickly grabbed their bags and followed Mark into the hallway as he awkwardly started the trek towards the front double doors with them.

You scanned the restrooms and the last of the science hall as you started heading down now, hoping to meet Mark in the hospitality wing. As one of the two wardens, yours and Mark’s job had a clear goal - keep the day students away from the night students as much as possible unless supervised. This entailed making sure that while the large gates for the main building that housed a majority of classes were closed, you and Mark had to make sure no curious college students snuck in and saw what most other humans should not.

Knight’s Cross College was relatively close enough to your high school that you recognized a lot of your peers, and were lucky enough to also go to the same college as your two other best friends- Jungwoo and Kun. While Kun was older than you all and was working his masters at the College, you, Jungwoo and Mark were all in the same grade together.

You reached the main threshold of the building when you saw Mark again, who shut the door behind himself.

“Were they mad?”

“They seemed embarrassed more than anything. Thankfully I didn’t get any of the ‘why’ questions,” he replied, and he matched your footing as you started checking each of the classrooms again quickly. It was nearing 9:15PM, the time when the night students would begin to enter- and 15 minutes before Mark and you had one of your two designated night classes.

“What’s your go-to answer for the why questions?” he breathed out as you rushed through your room checks.

“‘The night students tend to be people of a certain status who need privacy for legal reasons,’” you recited.

“That ones good, I just say that I legally can’t say and any answers for it are in the student handbook,” Mark laughed. You continued the rest of your checks in silence, huffing a bit as you finally reached the room that housed your night class. You glanced at the night students slowly entering and looked away, not wanting to feel more like an intruder than you normally did.

“I’ll see you inside, sis,” Mark patted your shoulder and stepped into the classroom, leaving you outside and leaning against the wall. Your heart was racing, and you were trying really, really hard to get it to stop. You knew the chance was low, but there was still the small chance every night as you entered the night class that someone would rip out your throat, and your heart racing would not help your chances. After a moment of catching your breath and stilling your heart you got up from the wall and started inside the classroom, being greeted by the usual rounds of cold shoulders, not a single person turning to look at you. More than likely they could sense who it was anyways. Beyond you already knowing that they could smell the human on you, physically you stood out like a sore thumb. Some in the night class had their wings exposed if they were a faerie, the shifters had certain parts of their animal forms shown so they can let everyone know their status, and even the vampires just looked magical.

They were all magical, really, but they preferred to be called mythics.

The night students, while acknowledging that you did offer some help in terms of keeping their identities secret, never hid the fact that they found yours and Mark’s presence annoying at best. Part of your jobs as wardens was to attend at least one night class per evening.

“You’re later than usual,” your deskmate and close friend, Ten, acknowledged, his small fangs poking out as he whispered. Ten’s mother was not only on the mythic council, but a friend of your father’s, leading him to be one of the few in the night class to speak to you- it also helped that he’s known you since your adoption.

“Mark had to escort some people out,” you admitted, taking out your notebook as you spoke.

“We heard,” your other deskmate- Chaein- interjected, her pointed ears twitching. Chaein was one of the few elves left in the world, one of only three in the night class, and was one of the only other people that would speak to you since you both gravitated towards the back of the classroom.

“It pays to have ears like yours, huh,” Ten replied, holding back his giggles.

“You wish you had my hearing range, you goddamn bloodsucker,” Chaein scoffed.

“You’re not letting him off the hook for not giving you the homework answers huh,” you sighed, not even looking up at either of them.

“Not at all,” Chaein admitted, leaning back in her chair as the professor began his lecture. During the day, you had your classes pertaining to your major that you shared with some of your closest friends. At night, you had one of the night classes required of the Wardens to take- History of mythics: 1800’s to modern day as well as Modern Mythic Religion.

The mythics were everything your human peers were meant to believe were beings of pure fiction. Your father’s family was one of the only lines of humans who not only knew the truth of the mythic world, but worked closely with them, mainly in an attempt to unite the two worlds together… eventually. So in that attempt, at Knight’s Cross College, the main building from 7:30AM to 7:30PM had its gates open and the day students took their courses, and between 7:30PM to 7:30 AM is when the night students would enter. The rest of the school grounds were open at all times and ungated, although the night dorms were separated and required additional access. It was an attempt in some way, even if the night students for the most part hid away and didn’t show their true forms when out and about.

It was about a month into the semester (your second year at the university), so you were already in the later 1800s portion of the class. Your professor- a shapeshifter- had put on an exceptionally boring lecture today. For the most part, you and Ten just passed notes, sometimes looking up and actually writing down what the professor had to say.

“... and now in 1898 is when we see the Vatican attempt to establish proper, healthy relations with the oligarchy of mythics,” the Professor droned, his cat ears twitching. He glanced down at his watch, and squinted. Class ended, and after Chaein said bye to you, everyone seemed to hustle out except for you, Mark, and Ten.

“How are you guys feeling about that test next week?” Mark asked you guys as he walked over from his usual spot in the front of the class.

“There’s a test next week?”

“Yeah, he reminded us at the end of class, Ten,” you reminded, heading down from the steps and towards the exit.

“Huh, well there’s that. I’ll see you guys later- if I’m late to mastering incantations again the professor will shove a cross down my throat,” Ten waved as he quickly fled the hall, barely leaving the door open for you and Mark to follow.

“It’s your night for patrols?” Mark asked, trying to remember your schedules.

“Unfortunately.”

“Dope, I’m gonna do a bit of studying in one of the empty halls before I go back to my dorm.”

“Okay, see you later,” you waved him goodbye as he headed further down the wing. You made your way over to the Office of the President in the business hall, the key to it in your hand. After making the trek, you opened the door and lit up the office, greeted by the old family portrait he had up on the wall next to the switch and a bookcase. Your Dad, smiling brightly with a few less forehead creases, Mark, who was about twelve in the photo, and you in your pigtails hugging your brother.

Your Dad’s office served as the sort of headquarters for whoever was in charge of monitoring the gates that night. You tossed your backpack in its usual corner and opened the top shelf by his window, grabbing your warden fanny pack which held your foldable bo staff, holy water, and a silver cross. Technically, your father wanted you to have your supplies on you at all times, but with your exam that day you had forgotten to put it in your normal school backpack. None of your fellow night students had attempted anything, but it was always better to be safe than sorry.

You had started the first hour of your walk of the gate that surrounded the large main building, taking note of the fellow day students who visibly avoided you and the area. By your fourth and thankfully final hour (since at that point most of the night students were done with class), you perched yourself on the bench in the meager courtyard inside the main building's gated entrance, eating an apple you had stolen from your Dad’s office.

You checked your watch again- five past the end of your shift. You tossed the apple core in the trash and headed back into the building. It was a peaceful night, which was definitely a relief after the stress of your exam earlier. After locking the door of the office behind you, you were in the process of shoving your keys into your backpack when you heard a loud thud on the marble floor of the main entrance. Without thinking, you ran over to the person who fell, helping gather their items and trying to help them up despite whoever it was probably being much stronger than you were- albeit a little clumsy.

“Are you okay?” you asked, not looking up as you organized the items that had fallen from their hands- two notebooks, and an overly used copy of Frankenstein, sticky notes poking out between the pages. You glanced up, and saw him turning his head away and looking around at the vacant building. “No one else saw you fall.”

“Well,” he now turned to face you, “it’s still embarrassing that you saw it.” He was one of the most beautiful beings you had ever seen, and he was smiling at you as he laughed at himself. His fangs were visibly much different than Ten’s were- significantly larger and gleaming in the lights of the hall.

“No… no the marble is a bit slippery,” you sputtered out once you realized you were staring. Of course he was a vampire- they were known for being inhumanly beautiful, and whoever this was, he was definitely that. “Oh, here,” you gestured to his stuff in your hands.

“Oh, thanks! Did you finish your shift?” he asked as he took his dropped items back.

“My shift?” your brain was still stunned by his appearance, not really understanding anything.

“Watching the grounds… that is why you’re here right?” he scratched the back of his neck, exposing the Night student ID that hung off his jacket. Nakamoto Yuta. You blinked quickly, trying to process what he said.

“Oh, yeah! Yep I’m just heading back to my dorm.”

“I’ll walk you back, so long as you promise not to tell anyone I ate the 150 year old marble floor,” he smirked at you, now stepping beside you. You could only muster out a small sure.

“How were your classes?” you asked. You couldn’t remember ever speaking with him before. Although, you were sure you would remember any interaction with another vampire like Ten.

“Hm nothing crazy, although Ten did get in late to incantation class, so it was funny to see the professor yell at him for a bit,” Yuta laughed.

“You’re friends with Ten?” you asked, glad that you had some sort of mutual connection.

“Hm, you could say that. How are your day classes?”

“How do you know I’m taking day classes?”

“Lucky guess, since I heard Mark was taking some,” he admitted.

“They’re okay, only so much fun you can have in a Biology class,” you joked, feeling more comfortable as you spoke with him.

“Biology, huh? Any literature classes?”

“Hopefully! Next semester the goal is to take world literature.”

“I’m taking a human literature course now. It’s… something,” he chuckled to himself, his fangs still shining even in the moonlight.

“Are you a big reader?”

“I would say so, although I am trying to draw more. I haven’t been able to in a while.”

“Whenever I try to draw, it looks horrendous,” you admitted, thinking back to the terrible doodles you would make in class for your Dad and how he’d gush over them nonetheless.

“Hm, I think I’m better than the average person.”

The campus at this time of night was mainly lit by the dim street lamps that lead to the student dorms and the moonlight. There were a couple of students out by the quad, but none that paid the two of you any mind as you neared your building.

“What are your plans for the rest of the night, Yuta?”

“Eh, well around this time is when everyone is awake so it’ll be a mix of studying and making sure no one kills each other,” he chuckled.

“Are there a lot of butting heads in the night dorm?” While you and Mark did checks of the outside of the night dorm, neither of you had ever been inside of it.

“Depends on everyone’s hunger levels- the shape shifters are the worst when they’re hungry,” he muttered in the last part, despite no one being close enough to really hear you two.

“Don’t shifters eat normal food?”

“Yeah, but you try finding a good place to eat at 2AM here.”

“I’ll make it my mission,” you half-joked. You looked up at your dorm building, surprised by how quickly you two had arrived. “Well, this is my stop.”

“All right, well, I’ll see you tomorrow Y/N,” he waved goodbye as you started into the building, the smile you had not leaving until you made it up the stairs and to your floor.

Jaemin had stayed back in the classroom for his last class that night. He pretended to just take forever packing his notebook, but Hendery knew the true reason. The shifter didn’t bother asking Jaemin, and kept his gaze fixed on the door, watching as Yuta left quietly behind the large rush of the lecture hall.

“So now the crown prince meets the President’s daughter,” Hendery hummed, smiling as he watched you rush forward past the small classroom window.

“All seems to be going well,” Jaemin nodded. Jaemin was a psychic, and this vision of you meeting Yuta was one of many he had replayed over and over again- but these past few weeks, it had grown more clear and distinct to when he was basically able to tell the exact date of the meeting. “This is good.”

“Hmm hopefully it doesn’t rain tomorrow,” Hendery was being facetious, and Jaemin frowned. Jaemin was one of the royals of the mythic world but since he was nowhere near next in line, Hendery knew he could get away with poking his friends' buttons.

That night after you got back to your dorm, you were eating a pudding cup as Ten climbed in from your unlocked window. You stared at him in full disinterest as he paced your studio in a panic.

“Do you even understand how the government works for the mythics?” Ten pressed. You crushed your pudding cup, silently trying to rack your brain as you recalled back to lessons with your father and Mark that centered around mythics.

“I know it functions in a sort of… rotational manner?” It was embarrassing to admit you knew next to nothing about how mythics typically functioned in that matter- your lessons with your father really focused on protecting yourself and other basics of each species. Ten sighed, sitting on your bed.

“So, there are these eight families- to be honest you’ve probably met most of their heads. It’s the reason my Mom and your Dad have met so much that you and I became friends,” he shoved your arm playfully at this. “Each family represents some sort of major mythic species- two representing vampires, one for the elves- you get the picture.”

“Okay I know that. What does this have to do with me?” you were still trying to piece together Ten’s jumpy mood with his mention of the mythic government system.

“How do I say this… all of these young, rich, mythics that go here gossip. Especially when half of them have connections to royal lineage, like moi-,” he gestured to himself, “- and especially when the soon to be king of the mythics is amongst their classmates.” He let the last sentence hang, hoping you would catch his drift. You moved next to the vampire then, your eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“Huh?”

“Yuta’s family is next in line, and he’s designated as the next King, making him the heir to the throne… dummy,” he flicked your head then.

“Ow! And, shit okay. How could people even smell me on him? I barely touched him.”

“You touched him?”

“I was helping him up, he tripped and fell.”

“Dude… well, hopefully nobody figures out that it’s you. God forbid… whatever. Just, be careful, okay?” he kicked his legs off the bed then, starting back for the window.

“Is it really that big of a deal if I speak with him? I mean, you and I have been friends for years. Plus, Mark has spoken to almost everyone in the night class!” Ten sighed, opening the window and leaning over the sill, before finally turning back to you.

“You’re a human girl who spoke to the crown prince comfortably enough that you helped him up after he tripped. He didn’t shoo you away, and you didn’t run away. That was your mistake.”

*****

Much to Jaemin’s dismay, it did rain the next day. He went through his observations of you again, one eye going white as he ran through his visions.

“They’re all blurry,” Jaemin grumbled, picking at his cereal. He was too tired to cook something hearty, and Hendery was more known for eating rather than his cooking. It didn’t help that the night dorm was a complete mess from the evening prior. The night dorms were situated in the far outskirts of Knights Cross College campus, nestled on its own cobblestone pathway surrounded on three sides by a forest. Since the night class was rather rowdy after their coursework in the evening, this was a good location as it wouldn’t awaken the mortals attending Knights Cross who didn’t know of the mythics existence.

Without a word, Jaemin stood up from the small mess hall. He maneuvered back into his shared bedroom with the shifter, passing different groupings of his fellow peers as he did so. As per usual, people either ignored him outright, or sent him a small polite nod. More often than not, Jaemin didn’t try to really make friends. He was far too busy fixated on the weight his family had placed on his shoulders. It was a burden only he could bear, and making unnecessary friends would not help.

He was so excited to be your friend. Everytime he would check on your paths, you two were always good friends. While he wasn’t in love with how the prophecy was meant to end, he would be lying if he even thought about the prospect of just being your friend didn’t make him want to smile. So, him struggling to see your future path… it was worrisome.

Jaemin made sure to listen to any conversations he could as he moved through the night dorm, and they were all the same as the mess was last night: what human would dare touch the next king of the mythics?

The shifters, other vampires, and faeries were able to smell that someone helped Yuta yesterday after he tripped and fell. The marble was particularly slippery that evening, and Yuta isn’t the most graceful Vampire in the world. No one dared to ask Yuta directly, but boy did they press Johnny and Ten in an attempt to get them to spill any details they may know since they were one of the only mythics to actively interact with humans. The mythics hadn’t pieced together yet that it was you who helped Yuta, but that was the least of Jaemin’s worries now.

He snatched up the first windbreaker he could find in his closet and dashed downstairs, slipping through the front door and into the gated patio.

He frowned, looking up and letting the rain soak his face as he glared up at the sky. In all of his visions of your second encounter with the prince, this day was supposed to be clear and beautiful. Jaemin tried to force another vision of you, but… nothing happened. He groaned, moving through the patio and climbing onto the stone fence, getting soaked as he glared mindlessly at the forest.

Then, he heard it. The small squelching of boots along the mulch path that encircled the dorm's outer gates. He turned around, seeing that he was the only mythic out on the gates. Yuta was-

“Hey,” your voice cracked through Jaemin’s spiraling thoughts. He looked down, seeing your puzzled expression. You wore your bo staff (Jaemin knows you’ve been training with that since you could walk)on your hip, your small black umbrella helping keep you dry. “Do you not get sick?”

Jaemin blinked, “what?”

“It’s just… why are you sitting out here in the rain?” you asked, your eyebrows frowning in concern.

You usually never spoke to the mythics, mainly because all but a few outright ignored you, but as you stared up at Jaemin you couldn’t help but feel concerned.

“I… I can get sick,” Jaemin answered. He was surprised you could even hear him- the rain felt like tiny bullets, all ricocheting loudly against every surface it encountered. Jaemin usually can handle conversations by using his abilities to see what the other person would say, but as he tried to force his visions, nothing was working. Why weren’t they working?

In his internal panic, he didn’t notice you tie a hoodie over your head. You stretched your arm out to him, waiting patiently for him to take the umbrella.

“Yes but… this is wrong. This is wrong,” he muttered to himself.

You tilted your head, “it’s just an umbrella, I have another in my dorm.” This was a half truth- you used to have another one, but Mark borrowed it and never returned it. You watched as Jaemin’s hands trembled, his fingers brushing against yours as he took your umbrella.

“Thanks,” he whispered.

“No problem…” you let your voice hang, staring at the man on the fence expectantly.

“Jaemin. Na Jaemin.”

After a moment, you quietly stepped past the young man, not turning back as you continued to complete the checks around the night dorms. Before happening upon Jaemin, your mind was swirling with warnings from your best friend- but now, your mind was blank.

Jaemin was… strange to say the least. The strangest part, you had to admit, was how… beautiful he was. All of the mythics carried an ethereal beauty to them, but Jaemin… Something struck you about him that you couldn't quite place. He was so beautiful in fact that when you finally returned to your dorm, it was him you thought about right before going to bed.

***

“You smell like a human,” Hendery noted this as soon as Jaemin returned to the dorm. Jaemin had showered as soon as he returned to the dorm- both to wash off the rain water, but also to conceal any traces of you. He shot a look of irritation to the shifter, earning a small chuckle. “How come you were outside for so long? It’s raining elves and faeries out there.”

“You’re asking a lot of questions,” Jaemin sighed, leaning back in his seat. Psychics were one of the few mythics enrolled at Knight’s Cross that did actually need to sleep, but Jaemin was not eager to do so. Instead, he sat in the large kitchen space with Hendery, silently trying to review his mental footage of the encounter with you.

He had seen it all so clearly days ago- you encountered the vampire prince on the other side of the wall, and shared a small conversation. The skies were clear. It was perfect. It had been working so perfectly up to that point-.

“I’m sure whatever it is, it’ll fall into place,” Hendery cut off Jaemin’s thought process, earning him another glare.

“It went terrible. Her path is fucked now,” Jaemin could feel his ancestors writhing in their graves. “I can’t even conjure anything now.”

Psychic powers tended to start as soon as they could get a grip on language. He had been able to conjure specific visions of different people’s paths since he could walk, and yours was a path he had been watching for some time now.

“Who’s fucked?” The addition of a third voice made the pair's heads snap up, looking at the vampiric intruder. Ten was casually drinking fake blood from a Capri Sun pouch, looking at the shifter and psychic with intense curiosity before he set the empty bag down. Ten’s nose twitched and he fixed his gaze on Jaemin.

Human relationships in any shape was considered taboo for years in most mythic circles until a couple of hundred years ago. Humans rarely reacted well to mythics, and tended to equate their existence to that of a mosquito: a nuisance with a short lifespan. While most other classes of mythics were willing to interact with humans, the aristocrats like the ones that attended Knight’s Cross College were typically discouraged from much human interaction.

Well, most were discouraged. Ten and Johnny’s families were close with your own, hence why you grew up alongside the faerie and vampire. A majority of the aristocrats were like Jaemin’s parents: generally neutral and somewhat in favor of working towards a united world with mythics and humans. However, there were families that actively sneered at the idea- Yuta’s family being the ringleaders behind the active opposition. Jaemin has known that Yuta’s mother has had the young prince’s life planned out fully- and being in a relationship with someone that was a human was not at all there.

“Nothing that concerns you,” Jaemin was brisk, not even flinching as he felt his eyesight blow out from his left eye and immediately begin sinking into different visions and paths that Ten was about to take. One, the most grainy, was Ten simply shrugging and walking off. The second, which was the most clear, was what actually occurred- Ten leaning forward and taking a small whiff of Jaemin’s shoulder, much to his chagrin.

Ten stood up tall, his eyes wide as he whispered, “has anyone else noticed?”

“Just me,” Hendery whistled as Jaemin’s eye sight fully returned.

“Great,” Ten grumbled, pulling up a seat in between the two. “So how is she fucked?”

Jaemin stared at Ten, his left eye blowing out again as he forced himself to have other visions with the vampire. Grainy images of him frantically texting someone, going into the city with another person, and encountering a shrouded, dark figure- Jaemin couldn’t decipher it. It was all blurry. He couldn’t even see you in other people’s futures.

“You’re going into the city soon?” Jaemin asked, hoping this would clear the vision still playing and ruining his depth perception.

Ten tilted his head, taking out any remaining liquid from the capri sun, “I was thinking of going thrifting. Why? You use your powers just to watch me go shopping?”

“You use your powers just to rock climb?” teased Hendery, earning an arm punch from Ten before the two began wrestling in the kitchen. Jaemin sighed, rolling his eyes at the stupid rivalry between vampires and shifters, ignoring Ten’s cries for help as Hendery quickly pinned the vampire's arms behind his back.

You woke up in your dorm on the other side of campus mid afternoon. Being a warden afforded you a weird class schedule, so you didn’t wake up until around four in the afternoon. Brushing your teeth, you got a call from Ten and rolled your eyes.

The night prior, the only mythic you were close with had bursted into your dorm in a fury. Apparently, you caused a stir in the night dorm.

“Yes?” your voice was slurred, mouth filled with foamed toothpaste.

“Why is there a second mythic that not only has your smell but now has your umbrella?” Ten’s voice was in a high pitched whisper, as if he was hiding somewhere to call you.

“You said it was bad for me to be speaking to the heir to the mythic world- there is no way Jaemin is also an heir,” you didn’t really care about anyone’s status, but you couldn’t help but snipe at the vampire.

You rolled your eyes as you heard the vampire groan in frustration. “Yuta is off limits yeah, but Jaemin? He… he gave you the time of day. That’s just plain weird.”

At this you burst out laughing, spitting out the toothpaste into the sink. “What can I say? I’m a catch.”

“That’s why you’ve been single for years.”

“Fuck you, Ten.”

“See you in class, love ya!”

The rain had stopped once you started out towards the main building of the school. During the day, the main building which housed most of the lecture halls and offices had its gates open and free to be entered by all students. It was at night that the gate was closed in order to protect the secret of the night class. It helped that the library and mess hall were a good distance from the main building, but you and your adoptive brother had managed to catch several of your peers trying to sneak in after hours.

You had your two ‘normal’ classes with two best friends- one who was a Teacher’s Assistant, and another as a classmate. You waved goodbye to the latter friend, and Jungwoo said goodbye, reminding you that you promised you would help him with the homework later in the week.

You had started towards your Father’s office at the center of the now emptying building when a door opened, shocking you as it nearly hit you in order to block your path. Your hand had instinctually moved to your hip to grab your bo staff only to grasp at air. Shit, you left it in your Dad’s office along with all your other equipment.

“I need to talk to you,” Jaemin’s voice was low, his brows furrowed. His face looked completely frazzled, sending a cocktail of concern and curiosity down your spine.

“It was just an umbrella,” was what you replied with before you tauntingly tilted your head, “what? Is that a marriage proposal to mythics?”

Jaemin’s ears went red and he looked behind the door to check if the coast was clear before looking back at you, “ you wish. Look, I just need five minutes.”

“I don’t know if you should brag about that,” you found yourself taunting, walking into the emptied classroom Jaemin had snuck into.

The door shut, and you stared at the psychic whose whole face was now red in embarrassment. Jaemin was used to having the upper hand in every conversation- he always knew what the other person would say, tested out hundreds of responses, and knew exactly what to do.

Now, with his future seeing abilities on the fritz, he felt vulnerable before you. And that terrified him.

“I can’t see your future anymore,” Jaemin’s voice came out so weak that you strained your hearing just to catch his words. “I… I’ve been watching your paths for so long but since yesterday-.”

“Why?”

“Huh?”

“Why do you want to see my future? Have you been watching it for a long time?” This was a question Jaemin had seen numerous times, but he was drawing blanks as to what was the best reply.

His mouth went dry, and he paused before answering, “because I want to, and… yes.”

It was quiet, and you felt the hairs on the back of your neck rise. Jaemin wore a puzzled expression, seeming to be studying you as you tried to slowly move towards the door and away from the psychic. From your understanding, the smallest subset of mythics were psychics. According to your history of mythics course, a majority of psychics were systematically killed in the 1800s by the elves- which then led to what was known as the elvish war. The Na’s were one of the few psychic families left.

None of the few bits of information you knew dropped any logical reasoning behind him and the haunting dread his words made you feel.

“Well… that’s… something,” your hand slowly moved towards the door handle, and a look of surprise dawned on Jaemin.

“I’m- I’m not a stalker!” he panicked, reaching the door to stop you.

“That’s reassuring!” you forced a fake smile as you flung the door open, dashing down the hall with the psychic close on your heels.

You were far more physically inclined than an average human, but despite this, Jaemin kept close behind you, trying to shout any reassurances your way.

“Stop! Please, I can explain!” his voice bounded off the empty hallway, your feet pounding against the marble as you booked it into the Office of the President, hands fumbling to grab the key from your pocket. Much to your dismay, you dropped the keys.

You were breathing heavily, back pressed against your father’s office that housed your weapons as you glared at the psychic and the keys that sat on the floor between the two of you. He was huffing, hands on his knees as he tried to gather his words. The space you were in was the secretary and staff space that the University’s team worked from, and you glanced to the right, where your Dad’s top secretary, Taeyeon, had her desk.

Taeyeon was a mind reader, and for once, you wish you had her abilities just so you could deduce whatever the fuck was going on in this guys mind.

“What the fuck do you want?” you hissed, keeping your hands pressed flat against the office door to stop yourself from shaking.

“I… you,” Jaemin was huffing intensely, still out of breath, “your future is extremely important, and I need to make sure it happens,” he settled on, standing up straight.

Your face contorted into a bewildered expression before you simply frowned, “is this… is that some weird… is that a fucking pick up line?”

Jaemin’s skin was still red from the previous exertion of energy, and this assumption of yours was enough to snipe his complexion entirely. He began rapidly shaking his head in denial before pausing. The hairs on the back of your neck rose, and judging by Jaemin’s terrified face, he felt it too. One of his eyes went white, and you used the moment to move forward quickly and snatch the keys back, fumbling with them to open the door.

“No, there’s a-!”

“Demon,” you finished, your throat dry as you stared at the dark figure rummaging around in your Dad’s office. Your Dad’s office was typically put together- albeit his desk usually was overflowing with paper- but this was… a disaster. The papers on his desk were thrown all over the place, one of his overfilled, alphabetized bookcases were knocked over onto the ground, and the family portrait of you, your father, and Mark had a huge slash down the center.

The demon didn’t seem to notice you, its face buried in the trashcan next to your father’s desk. The cabinet that held the items necessary to banish the hell spawn was untouched but on the complete otherside of the room. You couldn’t call Mark- you were afraid of engaging with it before you were fully prepared.

“Hey!” Jaemin moved before you could stop him, and he quickly sprinted and toppled the demon. “Get your holy water!” he shouted, struggling to keep the demon under his body weight. You bolted to the cabinet, taking out the fanny pack that held your kit of defense items. You tore the holy water cap off with your teeth, rushing to Jaemin’s side as the demon thrashed and spit at the psychic.

You began reciting the bible verse as you soaked the wooden stake with holy water, and over the monstrous roar of the demon, you could hear Jaemin following along with you on the verse. As soon as you finished, you struck the demon square in its chest, and as the figure evaporated, you picked up one word, “... queen.”

You fell to your knees next to Jaemin, both of you coated in a panic sweat and breathing heavily. You couldn’t even begin to wrap your mind around the fact that there was a demon on the school grounds, let alone try to understand that the demon spoke and how it made you feel.

It felt… familiar?

“I guess paying attention in all of those demon classes paid off,” Jaemin chuckled, his voice cracking. You looked at him confused before he continued, “after the blue night, all psychic, elf, and mind readers had to go through a few demon training classes to learn how to banish demons just… in case.”

The blue night?

Jaemin tilted his head then at your blank expression, again, trying to force a vision to which none came up. “You haven’t properly learned about the night you were found, right?”

“I…” you were at a loss for words, Jaemin’s now calm features causing you even more distress.

“Oh my god what the hell happened!?” Mark’s shriek of terror and him eventually wrapping you in a bear hug threw you further for a loop.

In all of Jaemin’s visions of you, you were never quiet unless you were in a deep distress, so while you were coddled and silent as your brother cried on your shoulder, Jaemin stood up and met your Father’s gaze.

“There was a demon, sir,” Jaemin told him, forcing a vision to see how he would react. “Your daughter was able to banish it with ease and she’s fine but…” he paused, his vision becoming grainy as he saw a potentially terrible path, “you should cancel the classes for the night. The Vatican needs to reinforce the holy barrier around the school.”

He was studying Jaemin and whipped out his phone shortly afterwards, calling up several higher ups. Jaemin turned around, not flinching to see Mark looming behind him with a skeptical expression.

“She said you helped her.”

“She did most of it, your sister is extremely capable.”

“Still, thanks. Although, I still don’t get why you were here in the first place,” Mark noted, waiting for Jaemin to offer more. Jaemin glanced to see you studying him, your stake still in your hands.

“I’m gonna go to the dorm, beat the crowd,” was all Jaemin offered as he left the office, brushing past your father as he went to formally announce the cancellation of the classes tonight.

You were in a daze. If you had anything in your stomach, you probably would have thrown it up. Your Dad and Mark checked to make sure you didn’t have a fever, their hands both on your forehead as you mentally went over the details of the whole ordeal.

“... Johnny, Ten, and I,” you refocused yourself at the end of Mark’s sentence, blinking quickly.

“What about you guys?”

“We’re staying with you in your dorm to make sure you’re okay, plus if not they’ll just be bored in the night dorm,” Mark forced a laugh towards the end, likely to try and get a smile out of you. You remained with a blank expression, looking forward to see that your Dad at some point left, likely when you were out of it.

“Okay,” was all you replied with. You met the other two outside of your father’s office, noting the small crowd of night students leaving the building as they waited behind. Johnny had his faerie wings exposed, their purple hue contrasting with the relaxed sweatpants he had on.

“Ready to go?” Ten’s usual cheery voice was gone, replaced with one of concern. Johnny, as per usual, was quiet as he placed his jacket back on, concealing his wings from any potential day class students that met around the dorms at this time.

“So… what actually happened?” Ten asked, now perched in your dorm. Part of yours and Mark’s job description as wardens was to also be resident assistants, and as such, you had your own studio on the floor that housed all of the honors students. Mark, however, was on the floor above you which housed a few of the athletes- the much more difficult floor, making your studio far more appealing to the four of you.

“There was a demon in our Dad’s office,” you whispered, still uncertain. It was quiet as everyone shared silent words.

“So you just attract demons,” Johnny said it so matter of fact that his words struggled to truly register for you until Ten punched the faerie in the chest. “It was a joke… I mean… this is the second time you’re found around demons.”

“Johnny what the hell is wrong with you?” Mark frowned. You stood up, eyebrows furrowed as you glared at the faerie, everyone holding their breath.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” This response stunned Johnny, and you could see the immediate pity pass through his eyes before he glared at Mark.

“She doesn’t know?”

The three of them started arguing amongst themselves, as Jaemin’s words tore through your head, “You haven’t properly learned about the night you were found, right?”

“Give me your phone,” you extended your hand out to Ten, ignoring the three of them still yelling at each other. The vampire looked confused, but begrudgingly unlocked his phone and handed it to you. Quickly you dug through his contact list, writing out the number you needed on your own phone before you passed Ten’s phone back to him, silent as you walked out of your own dorm and into the night.

It was painfully quiet outside, and you ignored the numerous texts Mark sent your way saying you shouldn’t be outside as you dialed Jaemin’s number.

“Y/n?” Jaemin answered on the third ring, and you just walked faster towards the night dorm.

“How did you-?”

“I told you- I can’t see your future anymore. You’re the only person who I can’t see.”

“So when you check your own future and can’t even see it-.”

“It’s fair to assume who it is, at least at this point,” he grumbled in the last part before continuing, “um… why are you calling?”

“Meet me in the library.”

“At the booth?” His question made you freeze, your tongue caught in your throat. “I’ve seen your future before.”

“Yes, the booth!” You snapped, hanging up. This had to be one of the worst nights of your life- second to only the night you were found. You didn’t remember the details- clearly- but there was one bit of the night your father found and adopted you, one memory that would claw its way into your nightmares on occasion and make you wake up drenched in sweat.

In your memory, you stood in the freezing cold snow, disoriented as you usually were and trying to figure out… everything. Your five year old mind struggled to piece anything together as you stared at the red patterns on the snow beneath you, and the shadow hovering over you against the blue light.

Knight’s Cross College’s library was open 24 hours a day, but even at one in the morning if it wasn’t finals season the place was like a ghost town. The booth Jaemin was referring to was your favorite place to study. It sat on the second floor next to a wall of floor to ceiling windows. During the day it offered a warm, inviting view of the campus, a nice treat when you spent long hours studying. Yet at night, with the lit up and empty campus, it felt ominous- like a warning.

You sat in the seat across from Jaemin, staring down at your fingers as you tried to gather your thoughts. Taking a deep breath, you met his gaze, “What do you know?”

He cocked his head, narrowing eyes, “I told you I-.”

“I mean,” you raised your hand and paused, chiding yourself for losing your cool for a moment, “I mean, what do you know about my past- not my future.”

Jaemin sank back in the booth, his eyes searching the empty table as he racked his brain for not only his memories for the life you were currently in, but the one you could have had- the one where your adopted father told you the truth. He looked up, your eyes pained as you waited for him to start.

“All on one night several hundred demons all escaped the underworld and took possession of a few dozen humans, and several mythics. Because of how demons have to be exorcized, the humans were fine, psychics, mind readers, and elves lived…” he let his words hang in there, and he watched as your eyes slowly widened in understanding. The anguish in your face caused Jaemin to feel a pang in his chest, and impulsively, he reached across the table to hold your hands.

You shook your head, “How did they… exorcize them?” you needed Jaemin to say the words- what happened to all of those people, and then you could begin to piece together what you were actually dealing with.

Jaemin hesitated, but you squeezed his hands to encourage him to continue, “The leaders of the Vatican thought for some reason, it would be a good idea to gather all of the possessed mythics together under one roof. A ‘mass exorcizing’ is what they planned to do. My mother could see the future but… they wouldn’t listen. The Vatican locked themselves and the mythics into the building, when they began to perform the exercise… the mythics burst into flames. It set everything and everyone in the building on fire. Only three people survived… one of them was your father.”

“And I was just there, in the snow, surrounded by the blue flames of that building,” you filled in. “Demons… that was the last time they were spotted on the surface?”

He nodded, “not since the night you appeared.”“So you just attract demons,” Johnny’s pointed words in your head made you sick. You leaned your head on the table, still holding Jaemin’s hands.

CONTINUE? CHP. 2-> OUT NOW.

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neonacity · 1 year

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ARCANE : INIZIO | CH.7 | NCT DREAM X READER

Summary: When human deviants granted with the abilities of the legendary Arcana cards find themselves racing against devious forces, they are left to make a choice that might change the fate of the world itself: be the victims of the game, or become the masters of it themselves.

But will this war end with a crowned hero?

Or will it just create another mad villain?

*****

Note: This is the second book of Arcane. The happenings in this story is a prequel to the first installment which you can check in my Masterlist. Since the lore is highly dependent on the first book, I highly suggest you check it out first—otherwise, new readers might have a hard time understanding what is happening here. Expect lots of time jumps and flashbacks throughout the chapters.

Pairings: Dream 00’ Line + Mark x Reader

Trigger Warnings/Themes: romance, violence, torture, trauma, poly dynamics, suggestive themes, language, psychological, mystery, sci-fi. The concept of the tarot or Arcana cards will be loosely used throughout the series. Note that I am not a trained doctor so there may be some slips here and there about medical things. Again, this is a work of fiction and I am not implying any likeness between the characterization here of the boys to their real life counterparts. I also reserve the rights to all my work—I do not post anywhere else other than tumblr. Minors DNI. Please do not repost. I only publish my works in Tumblr.

Chapter Song: Before the Dawn | Evanescence

Previously > CH. 1 | CH.2 | CH.3 | CH.4 | CH.5 | CH.6

The soft, soulful notes of the grand piano teased the edges of your consciousness like the whisper of a lover.

You have no idea what time it is when you managed to open your eyes, but the first thing that registered to you as you stirred from your sleep were the beams of moonlight that pierced the darkness of your room. It took you a couple of quiet seconds to prop yourself up from your bed, eyes drifting towards the direction of the music as you tried to gather your bearings. Beside you, the glowing handle of the clock on your desk struck 2AM.

The cold feel of the floor seeped into your skin when you pulled the blankets off of you and finally swung your legs over the side of the bed. The hymn floating in between the cracks of your door was beautiful, but there was something about the way the notes danced around each other that made the deepest parts of your chest throb dully. For some reason, it stirred great sadness in you, so you didn't give it a second thought to pull on your night robe and step out into the hallway to find its source. You know exactly where to go… And in a way, who you will find at the end of it.

His back was on you the moment you stepped into the room. It was dark, with only the light of the moon peeking from the high window providing illumination to the almost empty space. It was enough for you, however, to make out his strong back contrasted by the graceful features of his profile. His lean fingers continued dancing across the piano keys and you decided to stop just on the edge of the hallway to watch him from a distance.

"Aren't you cold?"

You weren't surprised at all when he addressed you, his low voice braiding through the notes of the hymn he was playing. He still hasn't looked at you, but you still gave a slight shake of your head in answer.

"That's a very beautiful piece you are playing."

"Did I wake you up?"

"You did. And I think you did it intentionally, too."

The way the corner of his lips slightly curved into a small smile made you tighten your fingers around yourself. You wanted to reach out to him, touch his face, and pull him over to you all at once. You might as well have screamed your thoughts out loud because Mark finally turned to look at you, his gaze gentle and open.

"Come here?"

Your first instinct was to keep your ground, but the side of you that wanted him close got the best of you in a heartbeat. Stepping away from the shadows, you went straight to him, his arms already opening for you before you even settled beside him. You melted into his embrace, fingers treading through his hair as he pressed his nose against the crook of your neck. You frowned and closed your eyes at the contact, the heavy feeling that you didn't even know you've been lugging around for the past couple of days leaving your chest like smoke.

"Don't do that to me again. I thought you left me," you half whispered to keep your voice steady. You felt him sigh against your skin.

"I'm sorry… I needed some time alone."

"Do you hate me?"

Mark shook his head before letting you go just enough so he could see your face. You didn't even realize the tears brimming in your eyes until he reached out to catch them before they fell with his rough fingers.

"I could never hate you."

"But I…"

His smile fell a little as he gave a slight laugh.

"I admit the rejection hurt. I needed time to compose myself again. I wasn't really at my best when we talked so I had to distance myself a little."

"Mark, I'm sorry…"

The way his gaze probed your face now made a twisting tightness bloom in your chest again. It was the same way he had always looked at you, but now with a shade of honesty that he never had before.

"You shouldn't. You made me realize something after all."

Your throat felt tight, but you managed to speak.

"What?"

"That you love me. And that the way you also love the others doesn’t change that."

Your heart squeezed in your chest. You wanted to answer him, give him confirmation, but the way he looked at you told you that he didn’t need any of that assurance anymore. Instead, you leaned your cheek against the hand he raised to cup your face, eyes never leaving his. When he smiled at you again, you knew right then and there that the two of you will no longer be able to go back from all the pretending that provided you safety before. This was a man who had stopped himself from holding back because for the first time, he was finally standing in the same spot you’ve always been at.

For once, none of you are afraid.

“Are you back for real this time? I asked the others and they said you were gone for days. Nobody knew where you went.”

A look of recall quickly crossed his features at your question. He almost seemed a bit guilty, but you knew there was more to it than he was letting on. You could feel dread at the back of your throat, but waited for him to take his time to answer.

“I didn’t really leave because of our conversation. There was something I was trying to figure out.”

“What?”

“Who the traitor is behind all of this.”

You paused. Mark's gaze never wavered from yours and you could see the clear frustration from the set of his brows.

“Did you find out anything?”

“Not much. I could have done it easier with the help of my father but I—” he stopped, a hard look flashing in his eyes momentarily. “I know he is supportive of the Headmaster’s decision for all of us to go into hiding. He wouldn’t help me even if I beg him to. I was able to get access to some reports of the investigation that our family have been doing though. Whoever is coming after us must come from an advanced technology corporation. They—”

“It’s Cypher Institute, isn’t it?”

Mark froze in his seat, his gaze one of surprise before it morphed into confusion.

“How did you know that?”

“Jaemin and I snooped around in my father’s office while he was gone and someone called him about it. It was a coincidence. Was it the same Institute that you were able to confirm from your father’s side?”

The way Mark’s expression changed in just a matter of seconds slowly made an uncomfortable feeling bloom in your gut. It was what he said next, however, that really threw you off.

“My father is not aware about Cypher Institute.”

You frowned.

“What do you mean?”

“He had leads but none of the files I cross-checked had any mention of Cypher. And I looked at everything, I am sure of it. Whoever gave that information to your father is not from our family.”

The silence that wrapped the two of you was brief but heavy with meaning. There were so many questions that came to mind but it was Mark who managed to voice out the most pressing thing you couldn’t bring yourself to say.

“Do you know any other family that your father could be working with?”

You shook your head slightly.

“He does work with everyone. The Kim’s are one when he asked Mijeong to watch over me while I was in university, and I’m sure he also had agreements with the families of the other Masters. I’ve always thought that he shares a lot of his plans to your father though… Especially anything related to this threat. It was the Lee's who saved him from the latest ambush after all. It wouldn’t make sense for him to ask another family to look into things over your father…”

It took a while for Mark to finally say something as he processed that. Your throat felt dry, and you could almost feel your hand locked with his slowly grow cold.

“It would make sense. If he doesn’t fully trust my father.”

His words hung thick in the air. You didn’t know what to say, especially with him saying what you couldn’t put into words. There was something about Junho Lee that has always bothered you, but he is also Mark’s family and for that, you still provided the man a level of respect even from a distance. Still, you knew that one of your father’s reasons for trusting him stands on shaky ground—you just didn’t expect for the distrust to run this deep.

“Do you think… He can do that?”

Mark’s jaw tightened at the question. You could see the fight going inside of him so clearly that you almost felt bad for asking.

“He's a very ambitious man. I was still very young when I lost my mom, but I remember enough to know that he was never really the same after what happened. Still, he is the only other family that I have and…”

“And it is absolutely alright if you want to believe in him,” you gently interjected by giving his hand a gentle squeeze. Mark pursed his lips and he shifted his gaze away from you, his expression torn and pained.

Just like you, Mark’s life was greatly affected by what happened in the past. Fate dealt him bad cards, and for that you can’t really blame him for wanting to stand up for things he wants to believe in. You would do the same if you were in his place; choose to stand by your father before anything and anyone else.

It took a moment before he finally seemed to break from his thoughts. Gaze following him, he reached out for something in his pocket before finally offering his open palm to you. It was dark so it took you a moment to realize what you were looking at, but your lips were soon enough parting wordlessly as he moved to open the small blue velvet box he was holding carefully.

Lying nestled in black satin, catching the light of the moon, was a deep blue diamond ring framed with smaller clear gems on its sides. It looked ornate but well-loved, like a star that had fallen in the middle of a dark night. Your eyes widened as you stared at it, Mark’s silence in contrast to the sudden loud beating of your heart.

“What…”

“It’s my mother’s wedding ring. My father gave it to me when he told me about his plan of us getting married.”

“Mark… I…”

Your voice sounded so full of guilt, but he gently cut you off by pressing the box against your palm.

“Relax, I am not proposing to you,” he said in a tone that made you pause. “I told you that I understand where you stand now. I am not going to force you to do anything that you’re not comfortable with.”

You swallowed, but let him continue.

“But we can’t deny how dangerous it is right now. There is a traitor in our family and it could be anyone, including my father. I won’t blame you if you can’t find it in you to trust us right now, but my family can give you protection, regardless of who is the person who betrayed us. Even if it was him, I think he will spare you if we make him believe that you’re engaged to me.”

“What makes you think he will make an exception for me, Mark? If it really was him, and he was willing to sell the rest of the Masters, then he can betray anyone.”

“No. Not you.”

“Why?”

“Because I love you.”

The way you paused gave Mark the chance to really look at you, his eyes roaming your face. You were at a loss for words, and he used that as his window to continue with a gentle voice that made your chest hurt.

“My father can be ambitious and cruel, I admit that, but he knows how to honor love when he sees it. He was hit hard when he lost my mom, but I don’t think he is going to punish you and me for what happened. He will also gain nothing if he hurts you over us being engaged and making our bloodline stronger.”

“I hate to say this, but it’s the reality we’re living in right now,” he continued. “I can protect you if you choose to continue your life as a Master. It’s that or you move away and cut off all connections with us. Follow what your father has always wanted for you and live like a normal human.”

You slowly shook your head as the weight of his words fully sunk in. You’ve always known this… Everything Mark is saying right now have always been the choices given to you. Not once have you accepted them though, especially with your only other option being to exile yourself from the Family and never see any of them for the rest of your life again.

“So are you saying that we should… tell everyone that we will get married?”

Mark’s gaze dropped before he gave a slight nod.

“Yes. At least while we haven’t figured out who the real traitor is. If they see that we’re both onboard, I don’t think they’ll rush us to it. We can buy ourselves some time.”

You were quiet. Your eyes found the ring again, a testament to a different promise made years ago. After a moment, Mark reached over and closed the box before guiding your fingers to close around it.

“You don’t need to give me an answer right now, but I want you to keep it. Even if we won’t get married, you’re the only woman who I want to have it.”

Your thumb ran over the soft plush of the velvet cover. A few seconds passed before you felt him gently hold your chin to guide you to look at him again.

“I’ll do anything and everything just so we could get to the bottom of this. Whatever happens though, I want you to know…”

“That I will never ever betray you. My life is yours.”

Time seemed to have stopped, the same way your heart did. He looked at you with nothing but bare honesty laid out and you received it, unafraid this time. A cloud shifted outside, and the next moment, you two met in the middle, lips soft against each other. It was a simple kiss, but one that you knew was long overdue. When you pulled away, you whispered softly against him, only loud enough for him to hear.

“I know. I believe you.”

******* “Come in.”

You have barely raised your hand to knock when your father’s clear voice sounded from the inside of his office. The antic would have been amusing if this were any normal day, but instead you found yourself slightly hesitating before finally pushing the door open. He wasn’t looking at you when you stepped into his room, his gaze set instead on reviewing a stack of documents laid out across his table.

“Are you busy?”

It was a rhetorical question at this point, but still, the man’s lips twitched into a small smile as he finally looked at you from over the rim of his wired glasses. He looked unhurt, but the dark shadows under his eyes betrayed how his last couple of days have been.

“Even if I am, I will always have time for you, Princess.”

You didn’t want to immediately soften after that, but you couldn’t help the way your eyes shifted sideways as a reaction. Your father, of course, noticed, and chuckled as a response.

“So? Is there anything wrong?”

Your shoulders slumped a little before you answered. To be honest, you didn’t really plan for anything when you decided to see him today. All you know is that you’re glad to see him again after he had been in and out of the Academy for the past few days, especially since you haven’t really talked after your argument. The way his eyes sparkled behind his glasses now made you think that he already has an idea why you’re here, but the man kept his silence to give you the room to open it up yourself.

“I wanted to apologize… For some of the things I have said last time.”

“Apology accepted. I want to do the same, since I have realized why my decision warranted that kind of reaction.”

Immediately, it felt like a part of the heaviness in your chest lifted. You remained standing in your spot though, your gaze open as you searched his face.

“Did you change your mind? About me and Mark?”

A pause.

“No, my dear. My stand remains the same. And you?”

You didn’t hesitate to answer.

“No… I am still against it.”

He nodded, but didn’t say anything else to counter you. Your father can be as headstrong as he is, but he also knows how to draw boundaries, at least temporarily. What you said next, however, is something he definitely did not expect.

“Mark and I talked though,” you added as you tried your best to work through the lump in your throat. Ever since that night with him, you’ve sat with your thoughts to consider every angle of the situation. You still don’t have a decision, but it would be unfair to lie to your father about what has happened since.

“We… still do not have an answer right now. But we are considering things.”

It was quite hard to gauge whether he was relieved about it or not, but he gave you a slight smile after his pause of silence.

“That’s enough for me. Thank you, darling. Now, do you want to sit? I know you came here to tell me more than just that. At least try to relax a little.”

You hesitated only for a little bit before finally giving in and settling on the chair across his desk. Now that you’re closer, you could better see the lines on his face, proof that the last few days haven’t been easy on him.

“I found out who was after us. I heard it from a call… While you were gone.”

“I know.”

You shot him a guilty look.

“Are you mad?”

The question made him laugh. “Honey, I would be even more surprised if you didn’t snoop around to find out things on your own. Let me guess, did Mark come with you?”

“No. Jaemin did.”

“Mm. As expected from Mr. Na. That young man's loyalty to you is fiercer than his strongest fear.”

“Why is Cypher after us, Papa?”

You didn't know if he was taken aback by your straightforwardness or not, but the moment you asked, a shadow of emotion you couldn’t quite understand flitted over his features. It was fast, but it was enough for you to understand that he knows something more than he is letting on. At first you thought he would avoid the question, but then the light in his eyes shifted again, almost as if he was looking inward to himself.

"It's human nature to crave power. Cypher, unfortunately, is one of those willing to meddle with it."

"Do you have any idea what it is that they want from us? Even with what they have, it is impossible for them to tap into the abilities of the Arcana. Manmade resources have no chance against us."

The pause from him was loaded. The man leaned on his desk now, shoulders slightly slouched as he took off his glasses and pressed the bridge of his nose. You almost wanted to reach out to him, but he seemed on the verge of breaking at the slightest touch. A flash of uninvited memory took over you, and it was then you realized that you've seen him like this before. Once, a long time ago when you were younger…

Back when your mother died.

"I wish I knew. It's hard to go against an enemy without understanding how they could possibly hurt you, but I am sure of one thing. They're dangerous. If there's something even more powerful than greed, it's hatred, and Cypher… has both towards us. Whatever happens, we can't let them get to us. To any of you."

His words slowly sank like dull blades into your skin. There was something lurking behind his statements, a confession hidden in plain sight. You hated how you're piecing things together slowly, how you're realizing that there is possibly more to this than just going against an enemy.

"What do you mean about them hating us?" You asked softly now, your eyes set on him. Your father's gaze hardened as he continued staring at a spot in front of him. His silence was enough of an answer that you need.

"You… know these people. You know why they are doing this," you continued slowly. Your words seemed to have struck something in him, a look of pain overtaking him for a solid second before he finally reached for your hand.

“When the time comes, you will understand.”

“No, I don’t think I will. Why won’t you tell me everything?! I can help. You don’t have to carry this on your own.”

“Darling, you don’t understand. They are not like anything we have faced before. I’m doing this to protect all of you.”

You were quiet as your mind ran a million different things at the same time. You could see the cracks in him, the dawning realization shaking your core in a silent, terrifying way. There are a lot of moments in your life when you don't agree with your father, but you love the man, and he has always been the epitome of someone you can rely on ever since you were young. It doesn't matter how big the problem is, he will always come swooping down to save the day. As you look at him now across from you, shadows and light bouncing off his tired face, you felt your heart break as you realized one thing. He is afraid just as you are. Unlike you though, there was an air of resignation in him, as if he already knew the fate waiting for him.

“Then why… does it feel like you are saying goodbye.”

The way that he looked at you made something in you break. You shook your head slowly, and he cupped your face with his hand to keep yourself from trembling.

“You will understand it soon. For now, all I wish is for you to trust me. I know it might be too much to ask, but I hope you can give me this.”

You were terrified. In that moment, you felt like a little girl again, afraid to lose the only family that you have.

“Only if you promise me one thing.”

“What is it?”

“You will not die.”

He paused for a bit before finally giving you a small smile.

“You have my word.”

You weren’t entirely convinced, but you took it, at least for now. Your father may not be perfect, but as much as he is flawed, he had always tried his best to never break his promises to you. You nodded now, your eyes falling to the piles of papers in his desk.

“What are we going to do now, Papa?”

His hand on your face lowered and your gaze landed on his ring as it caught light from the lamp on his desk. It was an ornate piece made with what looked like bronze, the simple band carved with intricate-looping patterns that are reminiscent of snowflakes. It was the only piece of jewelry that he had worn for as long as you could remember, on top of his wedding band that he never took off despite the death of your mother. For some reason, the ring looked different now as it shone against his skin. It looked regal in your father’s hand, yet at the same time... lonely.

When he spoke again, his voice was melancholy.

“When the time comes, you will know exactly what you have to do.”

******* “You know the view of the sunset looks best on the other side of the rooftop, right?”

Your head only slightly turned towards the sound of the voice that broke through your thoughts. Shrugging a little to yourself, you turned your gaze once more to the burning sky, eyes not really seeing the deepening colors there. You have no idea how long you’ve been sitting in the cold, but the freezing chill clinging to your skin gave you an idea of the hours you’ve lost track of.

“I know. I didn’t really come here for the view though.”

Soft footfalls started moving towards you in answer. The next thing you felt was the warmth of a cardigan going over your shoulders as your visitor dropped to the spot next to you.

“That makes one of us. I do like the view here. Can I join?”

You raised a brow but grabbed the edges of the jacket to wrap the material tighter around you. “You’re already here. Will you leave if I ask you to?”

“Nope~”

The way you could almost hear his smirk in his voice couldn’t stop you from smiling a little. You gave a light-hearted sigh before finally turning to look at him.

“Why are you here, Haechan? Shouldn’t you be resting in your dorm? You just finished training with the others, right?”

“When I can finally have some alone time with you? You do realize how hard it is for some of us to get your time, right? Either you’re sulking on your own or you’re being hogged by my cousins—”

He wasn’t able to finish what he wanted to say as you raised your hand and knocked your fist on top of his head. Haechan jokingly flinched and massaged the spot you just hit, a smirk on his face.

“Did you just come here to harass me?”

“Did I lie? All I’m saying noona is that I’m a Lee too. What does Mark and Jeno have that I don’t have?”

You looked at him dead-panned before giving an answer.

“Height.”

The way his face dropped made your lips twitch. It was taking you everything not to dissolve into laughter with how hard he scowled at you.

“Okay, Princess, listen here. Mark-hyung is literally a centimeter taller than me. Don’t be mean.”

That was the last that you could take. Unable to help it, you finally gave in, your laughter bursting as you curled in on yourself to keep yourself from snorting. You could almost feel his frown deepening without even looking at him, the awareness of it only making you wheeze harder.

"I do know what I can do that those two dorks can't though," you heard him say quietly after he let you have your moment. When you finally gathered yourself again—cheeks pink from the cold and the laughing fit—he was looking at you softly. The sunset was kissing his skin, making him look as if he was glowing. The corners of his lips lifted as he angled his face a little to the side to watch you.

"I'm the only one who can make you laugh like that."

The way your heart jumped made you immediately forget what you thought was funny just seconds ago. Your relationship with Haechan has always been different… Mark is loyal, Jeno is secretive, Renjun is subtle, and Jaemin is passionate. Haechan has always been straightforward with what he wants, but unlike the others, his intensity can sometimes be impulsive, like an open flame ready to spark into a larger fire at any moment. It was in his nature—The Magician, as the master of chaos, is the one force in the Arcana that constantly straddles logic and madness, next to The Fool itself. He is designed to want you in a different intensity from how others feel ever since the Arcana chose him as its Master.

It's because of this that you have always tried to hold back more when it comes to him. And so when he pushes, you pull back, not because you feel any less for him, but because the idea of you two meeting in the middle has always terrified you.

That, and you know that whatever feelings Haechan has for you at the moment might not be his own, but his Arcana craving for yours.

"You make me laugh just as hard as you can make me mad," you admitted finally, allowing your walls to break down just a little in front of him. Something flickered in his eyes though his smile remained.

"You always run away from me, noona. Why?"

"You already know the answer to that."

"What I know is that you like me just as much as you like the others."

"I do. But do you feel the same about me? Or is it your Arcana telling you that you want me?"

Your question made him stop. You watched as the smile slowly bled from his face, his well-kept mask slipping for a moment. Haechan is a good master of his own emotions, but this time you knew you hit a chord.

"I can do anything for you. Destroy worlds… and build new ones if you want me to,” he said, his voice serious.

"I know. But that is not answering my question."

"Then what—"

"Will you feel the same if I am not the IL Matto, Haechan? Will you still like me if I’m just a regular human?"

The way his eyes hardened a little at the very thought of you living a life as a normal mortal admittedly made your heart break a little. You've always known this, of course… but hearing his answer now in his silence did not make it easier. When it seemed like he didn't know what to say next, you took it upon yourself to take his hand gently. He immediately wove his fingers with yours, his hold tight that it felt like he was giving you his reply through it alone. This time, it was you who smiled at him to try and give him comfort.

“I know how much you like me, but I can’t accept those feelings if you’re not even sure yourself that they’re your own. It’s unfair for me to give you an answer and take your free will from you, Haechan... I can’t do that, at least while you still can’t answer that question.”

He looked so lost and in pain that for a moment, you could see the chubby-cheeked boy who had always ran after you when you were younger. It made you want to pull him in for comfort, but you settled on giving his hand a squeeze instead.

"Hey. Don’t feel bad about it, okay? It’s fine. I like having you around, just like this. If you want to do anything for me though, then just promise me one thing."

He still seemed torn, but he managed to give an answer anyway.

"What is it?"

"Never stop making me laugh. You're right. You’re the only one who can do it."

******* Kun kept his eyes steady on the flickering flame of the candlelight in front of him. The room was quiet, but there was a different tinge of melancholy that was lingering in the air as the Headmaster sifted quietly through the papers in front of him. The ticking sound of the grandfather's clock in the room was deafening to him, like a death call waiting for its final drop. It was a reprieve when the door finally creaked open, revealing Taeyong on the other side of it. Kun waited for him to join his side, giving the man the liberty to break the suffocating silence.

"We just finished the final round of trainings, Sir. We’re gathering all the data before giving them to you."

"How are the kids?"

"They have improved a lot. They’re not at their full potential yet, but they can definitely control their abilities better now. They will be able to hold a fight… should the need arise."

"They don't have to. They only need to defend themselves,” the man said evenly. “Have you heard word from Doyoung?"

Taeyong paused before giving an answer.

"Yes. He has confirmed that it is most likely Junho Lee who is working with Cypher."

The man's hand froze ever so slightly as he moved to pick up a paper from his desk. His face was calm, but there was something about the set of his lips that made Kun and Taeyong surreptitiously exchange glances.

"I appreciate you working with the Kim's, Taeyong. He's probably watching me very closely, so I needed you to do the job."

"Do you want us to get rid of him?" Kun's voice was quiet but steady when he asked the burning question. The Headmaster shook his head, his eyes hooded by the shadows from the flickering candle.

"No. Not yet."

Kun's jaw clenched ever so slightly at the answer. His morals tell him to take the man's word with no question—follow him with blind loyalty like he has always done—but he couldn't bring himself to do it now, not when everything seems to be crumbling around him. From the way that Taeyong was holding himself beside him, shoulders stiff and face set, he knows that the other Legacy shares the same stand.

"With all due respect, Sir. I would like to understand why," he finally decided to ask after gathering enough courage to speak again. The man peered at him from behind his glasses, curious, but not seemingly surprised by his question. He didn't know if it was just a trick of the light, but he thought he saw the shadow of a smile on the other's lips before he finally moved to cross his hands together.

"You and Taeyong always had the right to ask. The pair of you just do not give yourselves the full credit you are due."

For a second, Kun felt oddly like a child being gently reprimanded by a parent. Gathering himself again, he decided to press more to get answers.

"We do not understand why you're protecting Junho. He betrayed you. He betrayed all of us."

"I am not protecting him. I am protecting the Family… From him."

The look of silent confusion from him and Taeyong was not lost on the Headmaster. The man, on the other hand, seemed set and collected as always.

"Cypher is already a formidable enemy on their own. They will wage war on us soon, there is no doubt about it. Going after Junho now will only split the Family more—and we are currently at a disadvantage of not knowing who else within our network has decided to side with him. If he finds out that we know, we'll just be pushing ourselves in a corner. The Lee's have resources, and having those used against us is the last thing we need."

"So we will just let him do whatever, then?" Taeyong asked this time.

"No. When the time comes… And you will know when—you will have to take him down. Even his own son should he decide to betray my daughter."

The way the man said that so evenly without batting an eye made Kun and Taeyong's blood run cold. The Headmaster is a kind, rational man that oftentimes, people forget how cunning and ruthless he can be in his own ways.

"For now, I want to keep him alive. After all… He might still become useful in the future."

Both men stared at him, though none decided to speak up this time. Wordlessly, he picked up a thick brown envelope from his table and offered it to the two. Kun and Taeyong looked at each other before the former took it silently from his hands.

"When that time comes, my daughter will be the first person to know what best to do with him," the Headmaster continued as he leaned back on his chair. "Just the same as she will know what to do next once things start to unfold. When the moment calls for it, give her that envelope. It will help her."

Kun's fingers tightened on the edges of the bundle he was holding. There was a heavy feeling that had started to weigh on his stomach, similar to the one he had when the man talked to him first after his quick absence.

"Are you leaving, Sir?"

A shadow of something quickly glossed over the man's expression. It was so brief, but it was enough to give Taeyong and Kun the answer they hoped they wouldn't have to hear ever.

"There are things that only I can do in this fight. So yes… I would have to leave my daughter. For a while," he said, his eyes moving from one young man to the next. Maybe it was the darkness and the shadows dancing in the room, but in that moment, the Headmaster saw in the pair two other young men who stood shoulder to shoulder in this room once, many decades ago, promising their allegiance to the Arcana. The memory made his chest constrict with a mix of emotions—pain… longing… and sadness for what was and what will never be again.

He let the memories linger for a few more seconds before finally giving the two a small smile.

"I know I have already asked for too much from the both of you, but if I can have one last request… I hope you two can put her and the Family's best interests at heart while I am away."

"Consider it my last request as IL Giudizio."

******* Your footsteps echoed softly in the hallways as you made your way back to your room. Tucked loosely by your side are a couple of hardbounds, titles you decided to sneak out of the library in this unholy hour because you were already out of reading material. It's been weeks since most of the student body have been sent back to their homes, leaving Rosewood silent and vacant. Since then, you’ve tried to take comfort in the stillness surrounding you by keeping mostly to yourself and out of everyone's way.

You have already turned the last corner to your room when your phone suddenly vibrated in your jeans pocket. By the time you managed to pull it out and check your messages, you were already at your door, one hand wrapping around the knob while you tried to open the message notification. You have barely caught Mark's name on your screen when a gasp was suddenly torn from you as someone grabbed you by the arm, the motion causing the books you were holding to tumble to the floor. Your eyes grew wide as your back made contact against the wood, your elbow grazing the cold knob of your door as you were pushed against it. Your first thought was that you were being attacked, but a different kind of shock gripped you when you realized what exactly was happening.

You didn't really need to see him to know whose lips were pressed against you the next second. Even in your confusion, your hands automatically gripped the front of his shirt as he held you close to him. He was holding you so tightly that it took you a moment to guide his face back so you could see him better. Dark eyes met yours, hooded by his windswept, messy hair as you searched his face. The warmth of his breath fanned your lips and his fingers only dug deeper on your hip bones as if he was afraid that you will push him away.

"Jeno, what—"

"I need you. Now."

Four words. That was all it took for you to pause and for your heart to stop in your chest. You held his gaze for a second longer before grabbing his hand the same time he reached out to turn the knob behind you. Wordlessy, you pulled him in, leaving nothing but the sound of your door closing in the empty hallway.

*******

A/N: This took a while because I simply could not put my thoughts into words properly. Enjoy!

Taglist:

@effulgentfireflies, @kasperneo, @lostlovesoul11, @byunniebaekhyunnie, @smolpeyy, , @dearj43, @bettyschwallocksyee, @babyksworld, @yongboksfreckles, @user103843, @lovehowdream, @glitching-wren, @jhornytrash, @coconuttiez8d, @negincho, @stopeatread, @ellatizw, @huangberryyy, @wonyofanclub,

Untaggable for some reason: @renjunsflower, @coconuttiez8d

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morningsunandnightsky · 2 years

Text

Fated to be yours | Kim Jungwoo

Cupid au

pairing: cupid!Jungwoo x reader

warnings: death, mention of bullying, bus accident, I think there's one swear word (While none of the warnings I mentioned are explicitly described, I advise you not to read this if any of them trigger you.)

word count: 6.1 k

genre: angst, fantasy, fluff

synopsis: When a tragic ending makes room for a new beginning, it only makes sense for everything to fall into place. But sometimes second chances are even harder than the first. Especially when time and fate have their own way of things.

an: I finally got done with this. It took forever and It's still far from being perfect but I thought it would only be right to give you something on my birthday. I hope you enjoy and if anyone waited for this, I'm sorry I took so long. Please let me know what you think!

This is a continuation of this [03:23 pm] timestamp. You could read this on its own, but it would make more sense if you read both.

Taglist: @gangsta-dragon, @thelilyshope, @donkey-hyuck, @doeilovr

You shift uncomfortably in your seat,

“What are you talking about?”

Voice barely audible.

Something about him makes you stay in your seat even when your senses tell you to run.

“I’m not visible to you” he says once more.

This time his tone irritates you, he isn’t even trying to make you understand.

His cold eyes also have something else in them but you can’t quite make out what that is, it seems locked away. Only visible when you search for it.

The sun makes his skin glow, so much that it almost looks see-through. Your eyes go down to his lips, they have the same shade of pink as his hair.

For a split second, you see your surroundings lose colour and everything moves in slow motion. The people sitting around you look like frozen statues, none of them even blinks. Even the vehicles outside are standing still on the road. All the noise from the busy city has completely vanished. Whilst the clouds seem to be frozen in place.

But you can still see Jungwoo, you can feel him closer to you than ever before and you hear him. You hear him so clearly even though he is not talking to you.

Before you can even process what is happening, the sudden halt of the bus takes you out of your trance. The force almost makes you fall over.

You grab onto the seat in front of you to balance yourself and you hear the voice of the bus driver shouting something out of his window. Everyone gets up to see what is going on, they start whispering to each other and you hear someone calling the emergency number.

No one else seems to have felt what you just did as if you and everyone else were in two different places.

You turn to Jungwoo, but the seat is empty.

The gush of cold air hitting the side of your face makes you look over at the door, it’s wide open but nobody else seems to notice it.

Jungwoo takes a deep breath to calm himself down.

Something definitely happened, something that was not supposed to happen.

Like a glitch almost, a spilt second where the universe was out of balance.

The look he had seen in your eyes tells him that you experienced it too.

How could you see him in the first place? Did he mess up somewhere?

He takes out the small piece of rolled-up parchment from his pocket, not noticing his watch that has stopped running.

“A step in the right direction after great hesitation.

A twist of fate, On the destined date.

The appointed hour, a blessing and curse combined,

Your journey of one, six and eight.”

No matter how much he tries to understand, none of the words make any sense to him.

But he had to be quick because time was running out, that was the one thing he was sure of.

Lost in your thoughts you don’t notice the message you had received from your friend asking you why you weren’t at work yet.

It’s only when you see the name of your boss displayed on your screen, indicating that he is calling you, that you realise how much time has passed.

Your eyes glide past the name to see what time it is.

09:45

You were supposed to start your shift almost an hour ago. And it doesn’t seem like you will be moving any time soon so you grab your bag and get off the bus.

Luckily you weren’t too far away from your stop so you get there relatively fast. And after explaining the situation, your boss didn’t go into it any further. Which you were very thankful for.

As the day goes by your thoughts drift off to Jungwoo, you keep thinking about his weird behaviour.

The more you think about it, the more you understand that he wasn’t interested in you. He didn’t even care to have a chat with you out of courtesy.

If only you hadn’t taken the bus that day, no if only you hadn’t gone up to him. No, you should’ve never invested your time in him or even let him into your head.

A deep sigh leaves your mouth.

No matter how much you try to forget it, a feeling of disappointment still settles in the pit of your stomach. He felt so different to you, you were almost sure he was like no other human being.

But of course, that wasn’t the case. He was far from what you thought of him. Maybe it was your own fault for making up this “perfect façade” about someone you didn’t even know.

And you were hoping to fall in love during the first snowfall of the year, “what a joke” you think to yourself.

Maybe love just wasn’t for you.

Snowflakes are falling softly on the ground, white and glistening, almost erasing all the troubles in the world.

Jungwoo puts his hand out to catch one, even when he knows he can’t. He looks at it while it goes straight through him. But for the first time in a while, it makes him smile.

Because a newfound hope has started to blossom in his chest.

It had been a good day; he managed to bring together two couples and even healed a broken heart. His list was getting shorter and the possibility of regaining his life seemed to come a step closer each day.

From the edge of the building, he is sitting on, he looks down the streets of the city that was once home to him. It had only been a couple of years since he left but a lot had changed.

He spots a child holding onto the hand of his father, trying to keep up with his little feet. Wrapped in a big scarf and wearing little mittens on his hands, he looked absolutely adorable. Anyone could tell how much the father adored him, by the gentle smile grazing his face whilst holding his little hand tightly.

Parental love, a love set deep in the heart but one that is very complex at the same time.

He can’t even remember a time his own parents ever looked at him like that. Because they never did, not even once. He tried so hard for them, to make them like him, to please them and to love them. Hoping he would be loved in return.

A couple walks in the opposite direction, holding hands and giggling slightly. The blush on their faces is evident even from all the way where he was sitting.

First love, the overwhelming feeling of holding someone so close to your heart for the first time, one that he recognises all too well.

Her bright eyes are still engraved in his brain, they were his favourite. Because they made his days bearable. The very last time he looked into her eyes she smiled at him. He felt happy, for once he genuinely felt happy.

He spots a group of friends enjoying the evening in a little coffee shop at the end of the road. Chatting away about their day, sharing laughs and enjoying their youth.

Friendship, a different kind of love, one that is easy to obtain and hard to let go of, one that is easier overlooked but a love destined for everyone.

The only person in the world who accepted him for who he was and who loved him because of that. He was the only person that reached out his hand to him and held it until the very end. His one and only friend, Doyoung.

At the thought of him, Jungwoo feels a sting in his chest. Something like an arrow being shot into his heart.

He takes a few deep breaths before he takes out the parchment again.

“This is the final thing you have to accomplish. If you find the right people and bring them together before your time is up, your second chance at life will be granted. You must be on time, even a minute plays a crucial role. Everything you need to know is writing on here.”

The words keep playing in his head.

One thing he did not understand is why this was delivered separately, and why this one was different to all his other cases.

The sound of the opening door takes him by surprise. He didn’t expect anyone to be here at this hour or on a day like this.

But he couldn’t care less because they wouldn’t know he was there anyway.

“A twist of fate, on the destined date.”

Something about this sentence makes him uncomfortable, it provokes worry. Because fate doesn’t have twists. It’s something that is meant to be, right?

“Oh, you’re here too...” he hears a familiar voice say.

He sees you standing by the door when he turns around and then he gets up and walks up to you.

You start walking backwards but he is faster than you and before you know it you are standing with your back against the door.

“I don’t know who you are and I don’t care who you are but if you are here to ruin things for me, spare your energy and go back to where you came from”

You scoff at his words.

“Listen here you prick, I got the memo this morning already! You don’t need to go on about that. But just because you don’t like me doesn’t mean you can treat me like this.”

“Why are you here?”

“Do I have to tell you about what I do with my life now too? Just get out of my way, I’m really not in the mood to argue”

“Can you really see me?”

“Then do you think I'm just talking to the air?" you answer, sighing heavily.

Something doesn’t add up.

You walk past him and go to sit on the other side.

Jungwoo searches for a sign but there is nothing out of the ordinary. Even though he doesn’t trust you, he somehow knows you aren’t a threat to him. Which confuses him even more.

“Could this be part of the assignment?” he thinks to himself.

All he can do now is observe the situation so he decides to sit down too.

For a while you both just sit there not saying anything, it’s strangely peaceful. Neither of you feeling anything.

“I’m sorry,” Jungwoo says.

“You are very rude, you know?”

“I know, that’s why I’m apologising”

When you turn to look at him, he is already facing you. The soft apologetic smile on his face makes your heart skip a beat.

“It’s fine...” you say trying not to give away how much he affects you.

“It’s not that I dislike you, I just thought- you were someone else”

You nod at him not really knowing what to say, hearing his words makes you feel slightly better.

As the misunderstanding is somewhat settled you slowly fall into a conversation, which goes on for hours into the night without either of you realising.

Just like the time that is ticking away.

The following days you still wait for him each morning but now he sits next to you and you spend your mornings with him before starting your day. And most evenings are spent on the rooftop, you meet practically every day but even so, there is never a dull moment between you two.

You find out that you two had lived on the same road when growing up and even crossed paths when you still were in school.

He understood your sense of humour that most people found lame. And there was always something to talk about. It just was so easy with him. Which made it even easier to fall for him.

Jungwoo felt it too, he knew something changed. It was exciting and new to him...you felt different to him.

He looks up to the publishing company in front of him. It was weird for him to be led to a specific place but he was sure he needed to be here for his next case. Not too long after entering, he finds the man he came for and he sees you sitting behind one of the many desks too.

A rush of anxiety goes through his body at the thought of it being you he has to set up with him. So, he turns around and begins to walk out. But he knows can’t let personal feelings get in the way, no matter how much he dislikes it.

He gets the little sachet filled with love and returns to the office. He looks at every move of the man after he has done what he needs to do. He can feel his heartbeat increasing with each passing minute.

He sees him walk over to the row where you are sitting at. His fists have become white from how hard he is clenching them. But the man walks pasts your chair and goes up to a woman a couple of desks further.

One thing leads to another and before you know it, he is down on his knee asking her to marry him. Jungwoo lets out the breath he was holding in this whole time.

He feels selfish for being so happy that it wasn’t you, but at the same time, he can’t contain it.

When you step out of the company that evening, you immediately spot your favourite smile across the street. Your heart does a little twirl when he tells you he has been waiting for you.

“Can I take you somewhere?” he asks

“Huh? Isn’t almost everything closed by now?”

“Do you trust me?”

You don’t even have to think about it, which confuses you. But at the same time, the question brings you peace as if it’s the most normal thing ever to trust him.

You look at him and smile, “I do”

He leads you all the way to the other side of the city. The further you get, the lesser the bustling of the evening gets. Almost as if you aren’t even in the same city anymore.

Jungwoo leads you into a park. A look of recognition settles on your face when memories from high school come floating back. It had been ages since you last visited this place and you almost forget about it.

After a while of walking in silence, Jungwoo turns to you with a huge grin on his face.

“Close your eyes, please”

You look at him with raised eyebrows and a playful smile but do as he asks. A couple of moments and warily steps later he tells you that you can look.

A surprised gasp leaves your mouth as you look around. Endless bushes full of pink roses covered with a layer of thin ice come into view.

“You like it?” you hear him ask

“Yes, they are so beautiful” you answer as you carefully trace the icy petals of the flowers.

You’re taking pictures when you look over at Jungwoo. He is standing surrounded by all the flowers. A soft smile is grazing his face and an unusual yet alluring energy is radiating off of him. You can’t take your eyes off of him so you decide to take a photo.

What you don’t notice is how Jungwoo is slowly fading away on your phone.

The pure joy on the elderly couple’s faces fills Jungwoo’s heart. Two people who had been searching for one another for more than 20 years while never giving up on their love for each other, could finally be together again. It was such an authentic form of love; one he was envious of.

Maybe if the circumstances were different, he could have experienced it too. Spending a lifetime with one person...

You enter his mind.

Your curious eyes and the way you laughed at his jokes, or how cute you looked with your huge scarf that covered most of your face. He wouldn’t mind experiencing more moments like that, he wouldn’t mind at all if it was you.

When he crosses out the elderly couple’s names, he notices he only has one more pair left. For some reason whoever, it does not make him happy.

He was a step closer to his goal each day but something felt off, it seemed too good to be true. It was almost too easy.

He puts the list away and strolls down the street, maybe he could see you again.

And not much later, as if his heart led him to you, he sees you walking down the street. He hurries to catch up but then decides to stay a couple of steps behind you.

Just as you reach the bus stop, you abruptly stop and turn around, catching him off guard. Jungwoo practically jumps in the air and you start laughing uncontrollably.

“For fuck’s sake you almost gave me a heart attack”

“That wouldn’t happen if you weren’t sneaking up on me, would it?” you ask, highly amused.

“I was not sneaking up on you. I just wanted to say hi!”

“Oh yeah of course”

“What are you doing here anyway?” you say as you pull your coat around you even tighter to keep yourself warm.

“I was just in the area, are you cold?”

“Yes, are you not? How come you are always dressed so lightly?” you ask him as you reach out to touch his cheeks.

Jungwoo takes a step backwards but you still manage to cup his cheeks. He can feel your cold hands on his face and for the first time ever someone’s touch doesn’t go through him.

He is at a loss for words, partly because he doesn’t understand and partly because it feels so foreign. It has been so long since he has physically felt anything.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” you say when you realise what you are doing.

“No, no please don’t” you hear him say before he wraps his arms around you.

“May I please hold you for a moment?”

The mood suddenly shifts into something emotional, you both can feel it but you don’t acknowledge it. You allow him to hold you, sensing he needs it.

Being in his arms felt safe, something like returning home.

After what felt like ages, Jungwoo slightly pulls back and asks you if you have warmed up a bit.

Not being able to look into his eyes, you nod while keeping your eyes on his chest.

“You look so cute” you hear him say

Now you were definitely feeling warmed up. His words made you feel butterflies all throughout your body. When you look up at him you see him looking back at you with his sweet smile.

“You look cute too,” you say to him.

He chuckles slightly and it’s the prettiest sound you’ve ever heard.

You stand there looking into each other’s eyes with hearts beating in the same rhythm.

You see Jungwoo’s eyes flicker down to your lips, and feeling a bit confident after his compliment you start to lean in.

You see Jungwoo’s smile get bigger before you close your eyes.

Before he can lean in, he suddenly hears a ticking sound. When he looks up to see where it comes from, he sees the familiar number appear above your head. All the blood disappears from his face when he realises what it means.

You were his last assignment.

He pulls away from you in shock but also disappointment. Out of everyone it had to be you.

You open your eyes when you feel him pull away and ask if everything is alright. The look on his face tells you it’s not but he doesn’t say anything.

“What’s wrong?”

“I-I think I should go,” he tells you.

It’s so clearly visible, there is only one day left.

Before you can say anything else your bus arrives and he is suddenly nowhere to be seen.

You reach for your phone to call him but you realise you never asked for his number nor that you have ever seen him use his phone.

With a heavy heart and trembling hands, he takes out his list but doesn’t unfold it. This can’t be right. It can’t be you out of everyone in this city. He wishes so desperately that he is wrong but he knows he isn’t. He saw the numbers above your head, just like he had seen them for every one of the people he had to bring together. Indicating how long he had to find the right person for them and complete his task. It was tricky at first but after the first few couples, he got the hang of it and it actually became something he looked forward to. Because the look on everyone’s faces after he sealed their love for each other, was priceless.

But not this time, every second that passes makes him want to stop. It doesn’t even matter if he can get his life back now because what was the purpose of it if you were not going to be there with him? But he has no choice, he has to if he does not want to disappear completely.

The paper feels rough on his fingers almost as if it’s digging into his skin, mocking him for even hoping something would work out for him. He knew he should never have let his guard down for you but it’s not like he could prevent it. Not with you.

But the harsh reality is staring back at him once he unfolds and reads your name. The golden letters shine under the city lights. Was this why everything seemed so easy? Because he would be backstabbed in the end? Was this the reason why only this mission was written in riddles? So, he could feel his heart crumbling down while he solved it? Was this all a cruel joke he had to pay for just because he wanted a second shot at life?

Jungwoo looks up at the sky with tears in his eyes as his hand crumbles the paper into a ball. But no matter how much pain he feels, the world just goes on. The buzzing of the city doesn’t die down nor do the stars stop sparkling in the night sky.

One more day and all of this would end.

Strolling through the streets he sees everyone setting up the last bits of decorations for valentine’s day. Everywhere he looks he sees pink and red hearts, flowers and signs. He wishes he could be here for it, to see the full effect of his hard work. The streets would be filled with people in love, falling in love and wanting to love.

You’d be too...once he completes his mission, you’d be loved by someone that you love too. You’d be happy...with someone else. You’d spend your days with that person from now on...

No matter how much he tries to prepare himself for it, he can’t accept it. How could he when he was in love with you? How could he be okay with binding you to someone else while he will disappear from your life?

The one thing that slightly calms down his wavering feelings is the fact that your partner’s name has not yet been revealed to him. While waiting does make him anxious, he feels comforted by the thought he doesn’t have to go out and find them just yet.

Then he feels it again, the same thing he felt on the bus. Everything and everyone seems to stop moving, even the snow falling down has stopped mid-air. This time whoever something happens. Golden light surrounds him and disappears into his pocket. Once reaches down he pulls out the list and the parchment, both being lit up by the light. But no matter how many times he looks and rereads them, nothing about them changes.

As he follows the beam of the light, he sees the same ticking clock that has appeared on his wrist. Four golden numbers reveal the same countdown he had seen that night with you.

The world starts moving again and everyone resumes what they were doing. Yet again, no one else seems to have experienced what he just did.

The bus stops right in front of him like it does every single day but none of it is the same. He hesitates to get on and almost turns back when he sees your face, smiling so brightly at him. He gives you a small smile back while getting on and walks towards you. Every step he takes feels heavier than the last one. The ticking of the clock becomes louder and louder in his ears.

“You’re finally here! I missed you this morning”, he hears you say. Making all the noise in his head disappear.

“Sorry, I missed the bus” he lies.

The way you are looking at him tells him that you don’t believe him but you don’t pry further.

“I want to ask you something”

Jungwoo turns his head to you and smiles. But you can see the sadness in his eyes. It’s so intense that it makes your heartache.

“What is it?”

There are a million things you want to ask him but can’t bring yourself to.

“Can I get your number maybe? I realised we never exchanged them and it would be easier if anything like this morning happens again...don’t you think?” you laugh awkwardly

He chuckles before responding, “I’m sorry but my phone broke a while ago”

“Oh! that’s totally fine...”

Maybe he doesn’t want my number, you think to yourself. The familiar disappointing feeling settles in your stomach. Maybe he doesn’t like me that much after all...

Jungwoo notices how your mood has dropped and it kills him to know it’s because of him. He didn’t lie to you, ever since the accident his phone had been broken...

There is something he has been contemplating ever since he found out you were his last mission. Everything will come to an end if he does it. Everything he has worked for all of this time will vanish and leave this world like it never existed.

He knows and yet he chooses you.

“Do you maybe want to go on a date tomorrow? It’s Valentine’s Day...” he asks a bit unsure.

With a bright smile, you look up at him and nod.

“I’d love that!” you tell him. The feeling in your stomach turns into a million butterflies.

03:00

Jungwoo pushes his sleeve back up once he sees there are only three hours left for your binding. While it’s strange your partner’s name hasn’t shown up yet, he isn’t too worried because he has dealt with similar cases.

He makes his way over to the door and grabs the handle, then hesitates. If he goes to you and the person you are meant to be with shows up, then he won’t be able to do anything but complete his mission. But if they do not show up, he’ll disappear right in front of your eyes once the timer reaches its end.

Both of the options break his heart even more.

Time passes by without him moving from his spot. Eventually, he lets go and goes back to sit down. No matter how hard he tries, he just can’t do it.

He takes out the parchment one last time.

“A step in the right direction after great hesitation.

A twist of fate, On the destined date.

The appointed hour, a blessing and curse combined,

Your journey of one, six and eight.”

The sun is setting already when he feels his wrist light up again.

02:00

You must be wondering where he is, he thinks. Your date was supposed to start half an hour ago...

“Your journey of 1-6-8...168 hours?” he quickly takes out his list to see when he brought together his first couple of this year.

Exactly one week ago.

“A step in the right direction after great hesitation...But that doesn’t seem right? I didn’t hesitate with any of the bindings...”

That’s when it hits him.

“I hesitated to get close to y/n!”

His wrist begins to hurt as the light seems to have become brighter.

01:30

You’re standing in front of the café you agreed to meet at. An hour has passed and you still see no sign of him. But you keep waiting with the bouquet of pink roses and the new phone you bought him, in your hands.

“He will be here”

01:00

“The appointed hour, a blessing and curse combined...The hour it’s all over! A blessing for y/n and a curse...for me?”

So many things rush through his brain and he feels the blood streaming through his veins. His heartbeat is almost as loud as the cars passing by him.

There is something he overlooked, something he completely disregarded in all of this.

00:30

“A twist of fate, On the destined date...” as soon as he reads out the remaining line, a sharp pain shoots through his arm. When he looks down, he sees the timer pulsating on his wrist.

He grabs the edge he is sitting on as tightly as he can so he doesn’t fall off. He turns himself around and lets himself fall down on the concrete beside him. His hands are trembling uncontrollably and his breathing is staggered. There it is, the answer he has been looking for this entire time. Written in the same golden letters as your name and the clock.

“Kim Jungwoo”

He was the one fated to be yours.

00:20

He gets up and sprints down as fast as he can, wishing with all that he has that you’re still waiting for him.

00:10

He arrives in front of the café but you aren’t there. He goes inside but you aren’t sitting at the many tables in the shop either.

His wrist feels like it’s on fire and his lungs could give in at any moment, but he keeps running with the winter air hitting his face.

00:05

The tears running down his eyes disappear into the void before they reach the ground. He feels himself go weaker by the minute. Even his skin looks almost invisible.

The bus stop is his last hope, it’s the only place he can think of and he so hopes he is right. The sounds around him start to quiet down and his surroundings become hazy.

But he sees you so clearly. Standing at the bus stop like the very first time he saw you.

“Y/n” he calls out with the last bit of energy he has left.

00:00

You turn around but there is no one. Only the occasional car passes by. The streets are as empty as you feel at the moment. For a slight second, you thought someone called your name, that he called your name. Maybe you just hoped for it...

One year later

“It’s that time of the year again everyone, love is in the air! And while this is a very happy day that we spend with a loved one, we’d like to remember the ones that no longer are with us. As they too deserve to be loved on a day like this. I’d first like to mention the devastating bus accident that happened exactly 5 years ago where a high school student named Kim Jungwoo, tragically left us after being hit by bus 32 while crossing the road. May he rest in peace and the people still mourning for him be given the strength to keep going forward. The second case we’d like to remember today...”

You wipe away the tear running down your cheek while the radio beams through the bus. You're not even paying attention to what they're saying as you look at the seat next to you that is still empty. No matter how much time passes, there doesn’t go a day by where you don’t hope that he will get on and sit next to you. Tell you he is sorry for being late and flash you that smile you love so dearly.

When you check the time on your phone, the photo you took of him is staring back at you. And a small smile appears on your face. “I’ll see you in a bit...” you whisper.

After searching for so long, you found out where he went. For a long time, you tried to forget about him but you couldn’t. So, you searched for him everywhere. You resented him but you loved him. You couldn’t just let go thus you found him eventually...

After ringing the bell you get off at the cemetery.

You make your way through the different rows of headstones while you clutch the flowers tightly to your chest.

You see a man standing at the place you were looking for. He keeps apologising for something and tears keep running down his cheeks. Eventually, you see him drop to his knees while letting out an agonizing scream.

The sound of pure heartbreak in his voice is too much for you so you start crying with him as you can’t hold yourself back.

After what seems forever you approach him and lay down the flowers in your hands.

“Are you here for Jungwoo?” he asks you with a broken voice

You slowly nod as you wipe your eyes.

“Are you a family member? Oh, I’m sorry if I’m overstepping...”

“No, I’m his best friend...”

“Doyoung?”

He looks up at you with a surprised expression on his face. “Do I know you?”

“Jungwoo told me all about you” you explain.

Doyoung looks at the headstone in front of him with a pained expression on his face.

“Did he mention how I’ve been an awful friend?”

You shake your head slightly and say, “actually he spoke very highly of you. He told me you were always there for him. And that he was glad he was able to meet a friend like you.”

The tears keep falling down his face.

“I don’t deserve to be remembered like that. Not- not after what I did to him...”

“I’m sure he thinks differently. He never once spoke badly about you. He never spoke badly about anyone, to begin with...”

“He didn’t...he loved a lot, too much sometimes.”

“So, you shouldn’t talk about yourself like this, he wouldn’t have wanted it.”

Slowly but surely, you both fall into a deep conversation about the one you held so dearly to your heart.

“Could you tell me what happened, please?” you ask unsurely

Doyoung takes a deep breath and looks down at his hands on his lap.

“He got bullied all throughout high school. There was no reason for it but they never stopped...Jungwoo never liked conflict so he would just bear all of it on his own. I tried to be there for him whenever but in senior year this new girl joined and he suddenly changed. Jungwoo caught feelings for her and that just added to everything. She was part of that group and when word got out that he liked her, the bullying became worse. There were days he would end up in the hospital but even then, it didn’t matter to him because she cared about him. But that wasn’t the case because she is the reason he isn’t here anymore.”

A fresh set of tears start to roll down his face.

“He didn’t believe she had bad intentions. I-I should have stopped it....it was valentine’s day just like today, a few days before his birthday when she asked him to come help her because she was stuck at school. I warned him not to believe her and asked him not to go...but I didn’t stop him when he insisted. He said he just wanted to check if she was safe...I don’t know what happened inside but when I went after him, he was already running out while crying...he didn’t look good; they had hurt him. Then-then...he ran across the street...I was too late...I let it happen before my eyes...”

You stroke his back in an effort to comfort him even though you barely can compose yourself.

A heavy silence, only broken with an occasional snuffle settles in.

“How did you know him?” you hear him ask after a while.

“We both took the same bus home every day so we met naturally; it was spring when I saw him for the first time. I can’t believe it’s been a year already...It feels like yesterday when I went up to him-”

Doyoung looks at you with a confused expression on his face, “What do you mean a year? Jungwoo has been gone for five years already...”

You feel as if time has stopped yet again, your hands feel clammy and your head can’t comprehend what he is telling you.

“That’s not possible...I even took this photo of him” you take out your phone again with shaky hands. But when you look down at your screen to show him, your phone falls out of your hand.

He is no longer there.

#nct angst #nct scenarios #nct fluff #nct imagines #nct #nct 127 #jungwoo scenarios #jungwoo angst #jungwoo fluff #jungwoo imagines #jungwoo x reader #kim jungwoo #nct jungwoo #nct x reader #nct fantasy au #nct fanfic #jungwoo #nct u

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lily-blue · 2 years

Text

The choices he makes

☆ characters: assassin!renjun & dragon whisperer!you ☆ genre: fantasy ☆ warnings: mention of blood and death ☆ summary: Renjun chose to stay on your island instead of going back home. Now, time comes for him to bear the consequences. ☆ words: 10,5k ☆ also: i’d like to dedicate this story to @dat-town ♥ i wish you the happiest birthday, darling! 😘🎉 ☆ a/n: this is the sequel to one of my previous posts, The choices you give. i believe this can be read on its own as well, but the story definitely makes more sense if you start with the first part. ☆ taglist: @soobin-chois

When Renjun had turned five, his father had sent him to the Ivy Tower where the little boy had started his training immediately, the chapter of his childhood coming to a rather abrupt end in blood and misery. The servants who had worked at their house while the young master had still lived there had either died or disappeared. The guards who had watched after the boy from the moment he had been born had lost their tongue. And the old maid who had been his only mother figure while growing up had been accused of practising black magic which had led to not only hers, but her entire family’s execution.

As the second son of their clan’s chief, Renjun had been pushed towards a very different path than what his brother had taken. Because while the older boy had been raised to rule and lead their army into ruthless battles for land and power, Renjun had been trained to put himself between his brother and their enemies. He had been taught how to live in the shadows and kill from there when it was necessary. He had learned to accept that his father and older brother were the only ones allowed to know his face and that they were both too busy to keep him company even when he felt particularly lonely.

Huang Renjun had grown up in the shadows without people to care for or get attached to. He had grown up without friends to talk to. Therefore, he should have been fine with not talking to anyone for days in the cave he had found a few miles from your tribe’s borders. Silence was what he had been already accustomed to. He liked silence. So why was it so damn loud all of a sudden?

The boy didn’t have to be a genius to figure out that it was all because of you, although he was fairly smart nonetheless. He was aware that before you, he hadn’t shared a single meal with anyone in over a decade and that even though the two of you had shared silence more often than not, kept the truth from each other more often than not, a part of him had enjoyed the newfound dynamic. To Renjun, your lies had been clear as day from the beginning. After all, what kind of person owned fabrics like yours when they were supposed to live on their own in the woods? Who got bruises like yours while collecting berries? It had been almost too easy to see through you. Maybe, that was why he had remained oblivious to your biggest secret until it had been too late.

The bow and arrow Renjun had found near the clearing where you had left him a month ago was in his dominant hand as soon as he registered the noise coming from the mouth of the cave, but he remained seated by the fire that he had set for his dinner. The assassin was pretty sure he knew who was his uninvited visitor and kept his weapon close exactly because of the boy who walked up to him with such ease as though they were best friends or something.

Renjun couldn’t have stood the wide grin on the guard’s face.

‘Are you even trying to be subtle about it? Your steps are louder than a freaking elephant’s,’ Renjun scoffed as he watched Yangyang took a seat on the other side of the fire before he reached out for one of the sticks the assassin was roasting his birds on. The meat already had a nice, golden brown colour, but the older boy preferred them more crispy.

‘What’s the point?’ Yangyang asked. He raised his right eyebrow in amusement and lifted one stick off the fire. The meat smelt delicious and would have most probably tasted even better if only it hadn’t burnt the taste buds off the guard’s tongue. Renjun let out a displeased sigh when the younger dropped the food with a yelp. He just knew that you would have never been so damn careless with food. ‘I’ve already knocked you out once, Huang. I’m not afraid of you.’

Even though Renjun had been taught to not let his pride or greed get the best of him in enemy territory, around this one particular guard, he had a hard time concealing his annoyance. Especially because Yangyang was not only an unapologetic prick, but a real pain in the ass as well, who used every opportunity he got to bring up the fight between you and the assassin. Obviously, Renjun felt sour about the mistakes he had made that night. He should have killed you as soon as he had set foot into the bedroom, but he hadn’t. He had let you entertain him with your words and now, he was suffering the consequences.

Renjun could recite at least four different ways to kill someone from the distance the younger sat from him. The guard really shouldn’t have underestimated him. But it would have been foolish of Renjun to give his enemy a lecture about his skills, and he wasn’t in the mood for talking too much anyway. The only reasons why he let Yangyang hang out at his new home like he freaking owned it were those crucial pieces of information he gave him in exchange for not slicing his throat.

The latter obviously wasn’t the whole truth, but it was the only part that the assassin would have ever been willing to admit out loud.

Renjun watched as Yangyang reached out for a second stick, then took one into his own hand, too, blowing some air on the meat to cool it a little.

‘What is it this time?’ He asked the guard before the first bite, his gaze settling on the barely visible furrow between his eyebrows, the glint of realisation in his orbs and that damn smile that seemed to be a default facial expression on his face. If Renjun hadn’t known better, he would have thought that Yangyang was just another young boy from the neighbourhood who had been protected from the wind all his life. He was too cheerful for a soldier. His existence didn’t sit well with the assassin.

In the back of his mind, Renjun knew that the people of your tribe grew up in a completely different environment than the one he had grown up in, but because of this very reason, it was hard for him to understand your kind. Why would you have saved him when you had known he was dangerous? Why would your sister and captain have given him another chance when you had told him they would have never done such a thing? These decisions were hard to comprehend when back on the mainland, his family would have killed him before he could have even made the call to betray them.

‘Oh! Right!’ The guard exclaimed before he placed the food on top of his pants, wiped his greasy fingers into the same, dirty textile and fished three thick books out of his bag. ‘Kun asked me to bring you these. They’re about our side of your history. A little dry if you ask me, but… captain’s order,’ he saluted as he handed the books over to Renjun.

With knitted eyebrows, the assassin took them from him with a firm nod, but didn’t waste his time flipping through them immediately. He was sure there would be plenty of time for that during the next couple of days, right after his usual workout sessions.

Munching on the slightly burnt meat while keeping his gaze on the eccentric boy in front of him, Renjun thought back at the prophecy you had shown him while he had been locked up. He didn’t remember whether those stories had mentioned anything similar or it was a mere coincidence, but he found it almost amusing how both of you had become traitors because of the other. If he had believed in such nonsense, he would have said it was written in your fate. But that sounded like something weak people would have used to justify their mistakes and the assassin had been taught to take the punishment when it was deserved.

So why was his mind suddenly filled with thoughts of you? Why did he feel sorry for you for growing attached to him when you shouldn’t have bothered to save him to begin with? Their initial plan had been to infiltrate your tribe by using your people’s compassion to their own advantage. He should have been found by someone who had taken him straight to your clan’s healer instead of… well, you, who had kept him as far from them as possible.

Renjun had no idea, but he was smiling at the memory of your sassy attitude when you had called him out on his injuries and taunted him with the nickname “good sir” like it was an insult.

‘You know, you could just ask,’ Yangyang said with a scoff, pulling the assassin out of his thoughts.

‘Ask what?’

Renjun didn’t like the smug look on the guard’s face. It made him feel as though the younger had known something that should have been obvious for him, too. Yet, it wasn’t.

Yangyang wiped his oily lips clean with the back of his hand and made himself comfortable while shifting the majority of his weight on his palms behind his back. The smile on his face grew twice as wide as it had been when he had walked into the cave which only irked Renjun more. It was as clear as day that Yangyang was having fun to his disadvantage.

‘She’s doing alright. I mean, it depends on what you consider alright, but she’s healthy and Kun seemed pretty proud of her improvement when I heard him talk with our chief about her training,’ Yangyang said, earning a low hum and a subtle nod from the assassin.

If the guard had expected the other to be more enthusiastic upon hearing from you, he didn’t show it. Instead, he took Renjun’s modest acknowledgement as a sign of encouragement and kept telling him stories about you. He told him how you didn’t seem too keen on becoming the new captain, but trained to the best of your abilities nevertheless, because you had made a deal with your sister and their captain that you would do so. Yangyang didn’t know too much detail about the matter (he actually thought that Kun was an excellent captain already), but according to the rumours amongst his team members, it had been the late chief’s wish that his daughters would lead the tribe shoulder by shoulder.

Yangyang also told the boy about the unfortunate consequences you had to suffer because of your decisions. He was convinced that a couple of people were instructed to keep a close eye on you since the night Renjun had broken into your sister’s bedroom, because he himself had already witnessed his fellow teammates’ gaze follow your steps when you had entered or left a room. Despite being borned into the most respected family of your clan, despite bearing the sacred power of dragon whisperers, this had never happened before.

It was obvious from the way he was talking about your situation that Yangyang thought Kun and your sister were too hard on you, but Renjun knew they weren’t. He had experienced way worse for way smaller sins.

When Yangyang eventually ran out of stories - or got tired of Renjun’s passive attitude -, the assassin asked the guard about the soldiers around the area and whether any of his comrades had seen a man with an ugly, angry red scar on his right cheek.

‘Once General Xu joins the troops, they are ready for war. You should make sure your people are somewhere much safer when that happens,’ Renjun advised, knowing more than anyone that the Huang’s army didn’t care about innocent lives. Even when there was an entire village between them and their targets, they didn’t hesitate to massacre every villager who dared to stand in their way. They killed them all, regardless of gender and age, within a heartbeat.

‘What about your father?’ Yangyang asked, stealing a glance at the assassin before he turned back to the strategy they had drawn in the sand.

Renjun didn’t lift his gaze from the ground. He was staring at the approximate location of the Huangs’ troops, trying to find a pattern that could have told him which phase they were in exactly. But so far, his father’s men looked like explorers as though they were still searching the area.

‘He doesn’t fight anymore,’ he said with a sigh devoid of emotions. In all honesty, Renjun couldn’t recall a time when his father had joined those quests he had sent his army for, but the generals and captains he had met during the most ruthless battles had all sung songs about his glory days. Once upon a time, he had been a good leader. Something his brother could never be until he was so keen on relying on Renjun’s skills more than on his own. ‘But my brother will come. He won’t be near the front line, but he’ll be there, somewhere among his men.’

‘How brave!’ The guard mocked, his scoff making the older to really look at him.

Renjun wasn’t sure whether it was conscious of him or not, but Yangyang was picking on the dead skin near his nails. For the first time that night, he looked unsure to meet the assassin’s gaze. Good. He seemed to be afraid of the possibility of an upcoming war as he should have been. Only dead soldiers were overconfident.

‘He was born to rule. I was born to fight,’ he said plainly. It was something he had learned to accept through the years. His brother might have enjoyed stealing his favourite mooncakes from Renjun when they had been younger, but he was their leader now. And Renjun didn’t mind fighting for him and what he believed was the best for their people.

‘Yeah, sure. You mean, to die instead of him,’ Yangyang said after another displeased scoff. The confidence that laced his words made the corner of Renjun’s mouth twitch in annoyance. He needed to clear his throat to find his voice.

‘For him.’

After his claim, the atmosphere turned heavy. The silence that embraced the two was broken only by the occasional snapping sound that came from the fire.

Renjun hated small talk. He also felt uncomfortable when he had to initiate a conversation. But before Yangyang could have stood up and left, he willed himself and gave the guard one unsolicited advice: to be careful with the foreign soldiers.

‘She was able to knock them out so easily, because they wanted her to find me. You have to tell her this. She can’t get careless,’ he said, and while there was clear doubt in the guard’s eyes, the boy’s firm nod seemed convincing enough.

You had both saved and ruined Renjun’s life with your decisions. His debt should have been considered paid off already. Still, he couldn’t not warn you of the danger at least. Because for some reason - despite his original mission -, he didn’t want you to die.

Renjun had never looked for you actively after the day your paths had parted. Still, there were days when he found himself staring at the sky after training, hoping to catch a glimpse at one of your dragons. He wasn’t ready to face you yet, but seeing them would have meant that you were doing alright which was an unexpectedly comforting thought.

Wiping the sweat off his forehead and chin, Renjun sat down in the base of a tree and took a few bigger gulps from his leather water bottle. He had always hated endurance workouts the most, but without a fair opponent, he figured that these were the most effective to keep him in shape. Maybe, he should have asked Yangyang one of these days to train with him. Then, he could have kicked his ass without raising suspicion.

Smiling at the mental image of the eccentric guard’s suffering, Renjun allowed himself two more minutes of rest. However, his plan soon went up in smoke when the softest fall breezes carried the unmistakable sound of iron hitting iron towards him through the wood. Grabbing his own weapons, the boy did what he was best at: ran into danger.

The closer he got to the source of the noise, the clearer it became that it was created by a real fight instead of a simulated one. People who were under training - even in the Ivy Tower that was the most brutal training facility on the mainland - rarely screamed because of pain. Their screams were usually ones of frustration and anger. Renjun secured his grip around his bow and climbed on the tallest tree he could find to have a clear view at the battlefield.

Once in position, the assassin closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm his heart. It was new: feeling so jittery before a fight. But it was also the first time he was about to shoot his arrows into his family’s men to…

To save people who should have meant nothing to him.

To save someone as annoying as Yangyang who, for some reason, had grown on him without either of them realising.

To save someone like you, who had been previously his target.

‘It’s her! Kill her!’ Someone shouted from the top of their lungs, pointing at the sky. At that moment, as Renjun watched you jump off from the back of your dragon, hair braided back like a warrior’s, he honestly doubted Yangyang had passed on his warnings to you. Because he refused to acknowledge the possibility that he might have done so and you were simply acting like an idiot.

Bringing your dragon to a fight without as much as a mask that could have hid your identity? What were you thinking?

Renjun’s first arrow sank into the chest of a soldier who tried to launch at you while you were busy knocking out the one in front of you. You couldn’t see it, nor did your comrades, but the assassin preferred it like this anyway. He was a silent killer, and had always been one.

With your dragon there and him eliminating your enemies one by one from the shadows, the Huang soldiers retreated not long after they realised their disadvantage. Which meant that the assassin had to leave the scene as well before you could have put two and two together. You, out of all people on this island, were familiar with the coal black fletching of his arrows. He was certain that you would have recognised them.

So he secured his bow on his back while he watched you capture one of the soldiers, then climbed down the tree without looking back. He didn’t have to stay to know, the warrior would collapse in a matter of seconds from the poison every Huang soldier carried with them to the battlefield. Those men who hadn’t been trained in the Ivy Tower were ordered to kill themselves before they could have betrayed their people because of the unbearable pain of physical and mental torture.

For a long time, Renjun had believed that the difference between them and him was that he had been accustomed to these two in all his life. They couldn’t break him anymore.

That night, Renjun made enough food for dinner for two. Yet, when Yangyang marched into his new home with more annoyance than ever before, he refused to acknowledge him or his anger.

‘What were you doing so close to our home? We told you to stay away,’ the young guard started, taking a seat on the other side of the fire like he usually did, displaying his emotions with a huff.

Renjun remembered the ultimatums he had gotten from your captain when he had found him in the woods, close to your territory. And while he still believed that one man wouldn’t have been a challenge to take down, the second chance he had offered him had been too tempting not to take.

To earn himself a way out from his solitude, a chance for an ordinary life if one pleased, there were only four silly demands to go along with. 1) He had to do whatever Yangyang told him to as he was the messenger of the tribe’s chief and the guard’s current captain. 2) He couldn’t move to another part of the island without telling them in advance. 3) He wasn’t allowed to hunt animals bigger than a rabbit. 4) Renjun had to avoid the borders of your territory so that the two of you had never crossed paths again.

It was the latter he had disregarded in the afternoon - this much was obvious -, but as serious as the consequences of his actions could have been as nonchalant he appeared to be when he shrugged. He hadn’t meant to meet you. He hadn’t met you, either. All Renjun had done was saving your people’s sorry asses. If anything, they should have been grateful.

‘Kun is angry. Now that she saw the arrows, she doesn’t stop demanding answers,’ the guard added, earning another shrug from the assassin.

Rolling his eyes, Yangyang reached out for the spoon in the bowl of soup above the fire then took a sip from the meal. It was lacking salt and other spices, but the meat’s flavour was quite prominent which saved the whole thing. He dived into it with a satisfied hum.

The two boys ate their dinner in silence. While Yangyang tried to calm himself down, Renjun was thinking about his options. He didn’t have many - at least, not as many as he would have prefered to have -, but the decisions he could have made were still heavy. Should he have turned down your tribe’s generosity or stood by you with his full chest? Hadn’t he made his choice clear already when he had killed for you a few hours prior?

With a shallow breather, the assassin shifted his gaze to the guard and said:

‘I chose your tribe today. I should be able to walk into your village freely,’ he claimed as if things had been so simple. Of course, they weren’t. But the majority of your clan lived a simple life. They believed in superstitions. They believed in their saviour.

It was Yangyang’s turn to, lacking words, answer with a pseudo-nonchalant shrug. It was as clear as day that the guard couldn’t allow or forbid the other boy anything on his own. Thus, he would have to ask for his captain’s permission first. But that was perfectly fine. Renjun wasn’t in a hurry anyway.

The two of them finished their dinner without talking much. Then, the younger left the cave with a tight lipped smile and the promise of returning with an answer soon.

In hindsight, Renjun would have chosen to stay at one of your tiny cells over sharing a room with so many noisy guys within a heartbeat. He didn’t like their obnoxious attitude, their loud as hell laughters and the pranks they pulled on each other at the end of the day. It was very unprofessional and childish. It also reminded him of a childhood he had never had, friends he had never made and a warm and caring family he had never encountered in his life.

Overwhelmed by the amount of questions the guards had asked from him during dinner on his very first day at your village, Renjun excused himself before the dessert and left the building altogether.

With a cloth wrapped around his hand so that his birthmark would have been hidden from unwanted eyes, the boy walked around the streets aimlessly, paying attention to the smallest, most trivial details in his surroundings to keep his mind busy. He didn’t want to think of his father. He didn’t want to think of anyone he had stabbed in the back when he had chosen to stay on the island, let alone those people in his father’s army whose blood was and would be on his hands because of the conflicts between his and your tribe.

Guilt appeared to be a new, lifelong companion the boy would need to learn to live with.

The assassin picked up on your subtle movements before you stepped out from the crowd, yet did nothing about his discovery until you walked beside him and fell into steps with his own, cat-like strides. You moved with such ease as if it was the most natural thing to do. As if the two of you had walked down the same paths a dozen times already.

‘Are you avoiding me?’ You asked, a pinch of hurt lacing your words as you kept your gaze stubbornly on the people ahead of you.

Renjun was excellent at reading certain situations and his surroundings. He could detect pain and greed, selfishness and amtibiton in anyone simply by looking in someone’s eyes. But he was terrible at comforting other people or confronting them for that matter. Human emotions were tiresome. Therefore, he preferred not to deal with them at all until it wasn’t necessary. Like… life-and-death type of necessary.

But he knew this tone. He knew that you wouldn’t leave without that one specific answer you were dead set on getting out of him. To Renjun’s dismay, you had expectations, hopes. He let out a resigned sigh.

‘Were you following me?’ He answered your question with another question, stealing subtle glances at your side profile after you let out an amused snicker. He couldn’t decide whether you were really upset with him, and if you had been, why.

A less rational part of the assassin’s mind was screaming at him that your attitude had to do something with the fact that you had been kept in the dark regarding his whereabouts for long weeks. After all, he had also been curious about you. It should have been only natural that the same had gone for you. The possibility that you were annoyed because unlike Renjun, you didn’t have a Yangyang who reported to you about him made the corner of his lips twitch.

‘You know, when Sicheng told me that you’ll move in with them, I thought he was messing with me. Because why would you, out of all people, turn your back on your father for them, for people like me…’

Oh. So you weren’t angry because of the lack of information about his well-being. You were mad because of what he had told you in the cell and the fact that he had stayed nevertheless. What a ridiculous thing to be upset about! Weren’t you aware that he would have died by his own family’s hands as soon as they stumbled upon your stupid prophecy? You were. So what right did you have to act like the victim?

‘Are you done sulking? Because I’m really not in the mood at the moment,’ he cut you off with a wave of his hand before you could have thrown more of your groundless accusations at him. As if he had chosen to not tell you that he was still here, living in a goddamned cave. By now, you should have been aware that it had been your sister and your captain’s decision. That it was a well-deserved consequence of your own secrets and lies.

Seeing the look of resignation on your face, the assassin knew that he was right about you. You weren’t stupid. You just needed someone to channel your frustration towards since you couldn’t fight with those above you in the hierarchy system. Especially because, according to Yangyang, you had promised them that you would behave.

You felt trapped and had no idea how to break out of your cage. Finally, a feeling Renjun was more than familiar with. A feeling he could understand.

‘Fine,’ you said when the silence became too heavy. With an elegant movement you stepped right in front of Renjun and lifted your hands so you could have shielded yourself from the impact of his firm chest. The collision, however, never came.

Renjun’s body was so close to yours, he could phantom your warm breath through those layers he wore as a disguise. Yet, he didn’t make the smallest effort to put a bit of distance between the two of you. He didn’t, because your comically wide eyes entertained him too much.

‘Where are we going?’ You asked once you regained your composure and the assassin almost couldn’t believe himself when he realised that he found your rosy cheeks adorable.

The boy raised an eyebrow in curiosity, but when you refused to offer him more than a shrug, he mimicked your movements and stepped aside.

‘I’m not sure. Somewhere more quiet,’ he claimed while he shifted his gaze from one house to another, looking for a less busy street between the tiny albeit homey, wooden buildings. He couldn’t have seen any intersections, but considering the size of your village, he doubted that your tribe had built their homes around a single street.

‘I know a place!’ You exclaimed with a determined look on your face that reminded Renjun of those weeks you had spent together at that wooden cabin where you had taken him to treat his injuries. You had applied ointment on his wounds then dressed them with the very same facial expression and funny or not, but the small furrow between your brows had also been quite similar to the one he was staring at now when you had boiled some water for your tea. It was a part of the assassin’s job to observe his targets closely, but Renjun hadn’t realised until this moment how familiar he truly was with your habits.

You didn’t wait for his reaction and Renjun didn’t bother to give you one, either. However, when you turned around and led the way, he followed you without further questions like he was your shadow. You didn’t talk much until you eventually reached a garden-like area with flowers and trees unlike any Renjun had ever seen. He couldn’t understand how a place like this could have been so abandoned when it was a piece of heaven on Earth. But then you told him that it was actually where your parents had been buried and suddenly everything made so much more sense. It was a sacred place; too precious to be visited just by anyone.

He didn’t understand why you had taken him here.

It was in the assassin’s nature to be ready to fight all day every day. Therefore, when he saw a shadow launching at you from the corner of his eyes, he grabbed his blade and threw it at his target just to miss it by two inches. Fuck. It hadn’t happened to him since he was seven.

‘Easy! It’s just Clover,’ you reprimanded him, before you walked towards the tree his blade had sunk into and pulled its point out of its trunk. ‘Try not to harm anything here. If someone sees you, we’ll be in trouble,’ you pouted, holding the weapon out to him with the small dragon on your shoulder.

The assassin shoved his blade back to its sheath and murmured a quiet “sorry” under his nose while you took a seat on the grass and tapped the empty area beside you to encourage him to do the same. The breathtaking colours of the setting Sun painted your skin in orange and pink hues and made it a tad bit harder for Renjun to act nonchalant, but he complied with your request nevertheless.

At first, you didn’t do much and Renjun felt too awkward to initiate a conversation. Thus, he settled for watching the sunset in silence, the way your fingertips massaged the thick-looking skin under Clover’s ears and the trembling leaves on the nearby trees. It was the tranquillity he couldn’t have found among the other guards, the quietness he had craved. And still, the cogs in his mind kept spinning, desperate to find the right words and speak.

‘Do you regret it? Staying,’ you inquired when the first stars appeared in the sky, making the boy look at you although you didn’t take your eyes off the crescent moon.

‘It’s not like I had any other choice,’ Renjun reminded you a bit defensively, coaxing a scoff out of you that sounded rather amused than mocking. The boy didn’t understand what was so funny in the truth, but a part of him assumed you were more entertained by the lack of his usual, straightforward yes or no than his helplessness.

He wasn’t ready to face the answer yet.

And you must have sensed that. Because instead of pushing him, you turned towards him and smiled.

‘Yangyang seems to be quite fond of you,’ you stated with such certainty, Renjun couldn’t help but wonder whether the two of you had been talking about him. Had you asked the guard about him? When? Had you been just as eager to know more about his well-being after you had discovered his arrows as he had been about yours since you had left him behind? A tiny part of him hoped so, but then he needed to reprimand himself for it. Hope was dangerous. It made people forget about rationality. ‘He trusts you.’

Renjun frowned. And frowned some more when your dragon nuzzled up against his thigh as though they were friends.

‘I didn’t ask him to,’ the boy retorted with a scoff, trying yet failing to push the small animal towards you. It didn’t really help his case that you were visibly entertained by their actions which made him wonder whether you were controlling the dragon or Clover was simply too interested in him to give up.

Renjun had to realise that he knew close to nothing about dragons and dragon whisperers. Those scholars who had taught him had never talked about that part of the history, at least not from your point of view. For him and his people, you represented something immensely evil that his ancestor had saved their clan from.

But looking at you… the boy saw nothing evil. Sure, you might have been stubborn and a tad bit annoying, but these fitted quite a lot of people around the assassin. At least, you weren’t as nosy and loud as Yangyang or as cold-hearted and merciless as his father. You were you and he couldn’t deny how okay he was with your characteristics in general. He was fine with your closeness.

‘I trust you, too,’ you whispered with your lingering gaze on his figure, forcing the assassin to look back at you with the quiet confidence in your voice. Renjun had thought all his life that power was something loud; like the ear splitting screams of a warrior or the authoritative commands of a leader. However, listening to you, he came to realise that there was power in tranquillity, too.

‘Then you’re just as naive as him,’ he said, his eyes boring deep into yours, looking for more. More answers, more surprises, more discoveries. Since when had your eyes been so pretty?

Renjun was hit by deja vu when you chose to turn your head towards the cloudless sky instead of engaging into a heated argument with him about his statement. It reminded him of those late-night conversations you had exchanged in the wooden cabin and the ones in broad daylight when both of your lies had been more visible. He remembered each and every time he had caught a glimpse at those glints in your eyes that indicated: you knew something.

He laid down on the grass in defeat and let Clover lay her head on his abdomen despite his distaste for cuddles because he felt too tired to put up a fight with the dragon right after he had lost a battle against you.

Although the stars were particularly beautiful that night, the boy closed his eyes to shut them out, his right hand slowly finding their way to the small creature. He couldn’t see, but you were smiling brightly at them both when Clover let out a satisfied noise as soon as he started to caress the soft skin under her ear and he mimicked the animal’s pleased sigh without realising.

Next time someone broke the silence, you told him why you had chosen to hide him from your people instead of carrying him to Kun. As silly as it sounded - and it did sound stupid for the assassin! -, your initial plan had been to treat his wounds and leave him in the woods to fend for himself without bleeding out. But then you had apparently noticed his birthmark and while you had needed some time to make peace with what it meant, you couldn’t have let him leave before you could have come up with a plan.

‘Oh! So you had a plan? Could have fooled me,’ the boy asked with a chuckle, earning a light punch from you with his sarcastic question.

‘Shut up!’

In return, Renjun told you why he had stayed and his reasons led you to a deep conversation about your fathers, the responsibilities you both had inherited and how much you wished Kun and Shuang had trusted you again. It turned out - a.k.a. Yangyang was more gossipy than the boy had originally thought - that the two of them had had a backup plan on the night of the attempted assassionation and this revelation still hurt you a lot. Yet, as someone who could understand your sister and captain’s side more, Renjun had no idea how to comfort you.

So he didn’t.

Renjun and you walked back to the guards’ home side by side, enjoying the peace of the once crowded streets. Back where the assassin lived, one couldn’t hear the animals so clearly from the centre of their bigger villages, but yours was so integrated into nature that Renjun almost couldn’t tell the difference between this place and the cave he had lived in for weeks. At first, with closed eyes, they sounded the same.

It was less awkward than how the assassin had pictured it; your goodbye. Still, it took longer than it should have and your hesitation to leave gave him enough time to make up his mind.

‘I don’t,’ he blurted out the moment you turned your back on him, his shoulders feeling way too heavy even without the dragon’s weight on them. He should have spoken up sooner; this was the only thought in his mind when your steps came to an abrupt halt and you looked back at him from above your shoulder. He gulped. ‘I don’t regret it.’

The smile you shot at him was the softest smile he had ever seen in his life. And it did things to his heart the boy hadn’t known he was capable of feeling.

‘Me neither,’ you admitted, pushing him closer to his limits than you knew.

The thing was, Renjun was aware how much you hated lying. He was also aware that you had lied for him numerous times already. So shouldn’t you have resented him for unintentionally putting you in that position? That would have been the rational reaction. Yet, here you were, smiling at him as if he had meant something to you and telling him how you didn’t quite regret losing your credibility over the choices you had made with him in mind.

He didn’t know what to do with this piece of information. Thus, he brushed it aside.

To Renjun, who had never been allowed to visit his mother’s grave and quite frankly, didn’t even know where she had been buried, it was beyond weird that your parents’ sacred burying place had become your usual meeting spot. But it was quiet and also lacked nosy people so he didn’t complain. After all, out of the two of you, it should have been you who felt sadder and more uncomfortable in the garden. Yet, you looked more and more at home after each night.

Once Kun - Captain Qian, he reminded himself - deemed Renjun trustworthy enough, the boy could finally join the guards during their training sessions and from then on, people started to accept him despite his roots. He still preferred to hide his birthmark with a thick cloth, but he didn’t feel burdened anymore when someone caught a glimpse at it and bombarded him with questions about his plans for freeing your clan.

Renjun didn’t have plans. He tried not to think of hurting his people or letting your people get hurt. For the first time in his life, he didn’t feel excitement at the thought of the battlefield. So his answer was always the same:

‘Captain Qian told me it’s confidential information. I can’t tell you the details.’

It wasn’t a complete lie, though. The captain’s most trusted men, the chief of your clan, you and Renjun were constantly trying to come up with a strategy that could have won you a war against the Huangs without bloodshed, but your attempts at making a plan that could have saved as many lives as possible on and outside the battlefield were futile. Renjun knew that their soldiers would have rather died fighting than to betray his family. Kun and Shuang were just wasting your time.

And considering the latest reports, his brother and General Xu’s arrival to the island, you had mere days left to evacuate your village. A single week if you had been lucky.

Renjun was on his way to the sacred garden when he realised that something was off. It was too quiet in the streets. He couldn’t hear the forest and those restless animals that always kept him on the edge, making it hard for him to fall asleep.

It was too calm. The eerie type that dressed his skin in goosebumps. Like the calm before the most ruthless storms.

The assassin wrapped his fingers around the grip of his short sword, pulled the weapon out of its scabbard and after a deeper breath, he ran towards your meeting point as fast as if his life had depended on it. He had to warn you before it was too late.

By the time the two of you made it back to the guards’ home, there were Huang soldiers in your village. And Renjun cursed under his nose because he had warned everyone over and over again during your strategy meetings. He had told Shuang and Kun that you hadn’t had more than a few days. He had asked them to take the villagers to somewhere safer, because the soldiers wouldn’t care about how their only weapons were pitchforks and shovels. They wouldn’t care about children, either. In best case scenario, their only goal was to kill you, but even then, they would murder everyone who stood in their way until you stopped breathing.

It was against the assassin’s nature to be on the defensive side, but he was good at following orders; no questions asked. Therefore, when you called for an emergency meeting and acted like a real captain - someone you were meant to be -, Renjun supported your plan and so did Kun and Shuang. If only, you had taken the responsibility sooner! But it wasn’t his place to judge. He knew that you respected Kun as a captain and that you would have never taken this title away from him willingly. But the older boy was an idealist. And right now, your people needed a warrior. They needed someone who was able to make tough decisions on the spot and be labelled as the bad guy because of them.

No one could win a war against the Huangs with a peace offering.

‘Captain Qia…’ you pursed your lips and closed your eyes for a brief second before you continued. ‘Kun, Sicheng, Dejun. I want you to take two men with you each and protect the civilians. Take them to the catacombs under the Great Temple. Women and children first,’ you gave the order that the three guards accepted with a firm nod before they exited the room and headed towards the armoury.

Renjun observed your facial expressions and your body language while you divided everyone into smaller groups with concrete tasks. There was Yangyang whose first and most important mission was to take Shuang to the catacombs. There were Kunhang and another guy whose name the assassin didn’t pay attention to who had to guard the healers during the fight. And last but not least, there was him.

‘Muddy isn’t as big as Long, but she should be able to carry an armed person on her back. I hope your balance is as good as your aim,’ you told the assassin with a hint of a smile in the corner of your mouth, earning another firm nod in exchange for your command.

The boy could tell that you were nervous, but he didn’t call you out on your bleeding lower lip and slightly trembling hands. It would have been concerning if you hadn’t acted like this as it was your first time taking full responsibility over the guards. People could and would die tonight according to where you sent them and with how many comrades. He could see it in the furrow between your brows that you were already blaming yourself for their death.

‘Will you control her? All of them?’ The question whether he should have known how to ride a dragon hung in the air, then disappeared when you nodded.

‘Most of them, yes. That’s why I need you there with me. Because the more scared they will become, the more tiring it will be to control them,’ you explained briefly on your way to the armoury. And while Renjun wanted to know more, wanted to know your limits and when to become concerned for your well-being, he brushed aside his curiosity because these didn’t matter. He could keep you alive without these pieces of information, too. Even if his speciality was to take lives instead of saving them.

Riding a dragon to battle was nothing like sitting on one in front of an experienced rider with a blindfold in front of one’s eyes. The reptile was faster, the night wind was colder, almost biting, and the sight was nothing but terrifying. Because even in the dark and from this far, the numbers of the Huang army seemed to be three or four times as big as yours. Which meant that his father wanted to make your tribe one with the ground.

‘It’s not…’ he mumbled under his nose, wondering what could have been his father’s real reason when he had sent him after you. Was the old man so afraid of dragons and one dragon whisperer that he wanted to kill an entire clan just to make sure you were no longer? If so, why had he sent him on a solo mission first instead of tearing you apart immediately? Could he have known about the prophecy? Had he failed some sort of sick test when he had chosen to stay on the island?

Renjun forced these thoughts into the back of his mind and took the first arrow into his hands. You were right, it was more difficult to aim from the back of a dragon than it was to shoot your target while sitting on a horse, but after the third failed attempt, the assassin got a hang of it and started to decrease the number of your enemies from the sky. Meanwhile, you opted for handcrafted smoke bombs and throwing stars which were both delaying weapons. They forced your opponents to dodge and retreat, handing out opportunities to your own soldiers to fight the intruders on the ground.

However, the fact that a significant part of the battlefield was already in your village left you with limited options, because as powerful of a weapon a dragon’s fire was, as dangerous it could have been if it had gotten out of control and Renjun knew you wouldn’t use it until you saw no other choice. You didn’t want to risk burning down your home with the nearby forest and all the living creatures in it. Still, the assassin would have prefered that on any day over what you did next.

A silent cry escaped the assassin’s mouth when you commanded Long to take you closer to the ground and jumped off the animal’s back. Renjun might have known that you were a capable warrior, he might have seen you training with and without the other guards. Hell, he had even trained with you once not so long ago! But neither of these put his mind at ease.

However, when the boy tried to make Muddy follow your snow white dragon downwards, she showed no interest in complying with his pleas. Which meant that he was too high to land on his feet without breaking a bone or two. And he definitely couldn’t have allowed unnecessary injuries under the current circumstances.

Lacking better options, Renjun decided to keep an eye on you from above and shot everyone in the heart who came too close to you while you slowly became one with the mass of dying and fighting soldiers. At least, until he ran out of arrows.

‘What the…’ He screamed when Muddy started to move around all of a sudden, making him miss his last target by two inches. ‘What’s wrong?’

Renjun couldn’t speak to dragons. Even when the brown creature cried in response, he didn’t understand her. Still, it took him only a couple of seconds to come to a conclusion. You were either too far or you didn’t have enough energy to control each one of your dragons.

You were getting weaker. You were in the middle of the frontline and you were either using up your energy or you got injured. Because it took only a fragment of a second for him to find you from where he was currently holding onto dear life while trying to tame a shaking animal in vain.

It wasn’t good. It was freaking terrible. What the hell had you been thinking?

When Muddy took a sharp turn to the opposite direction, Renjun knew he was out of time and options. He stole a glance at the ground beneath them and measured the concerning distance between the battlefield and himself before he let out a nasty curse (along with your name). He tore a piece of textile off his dirty attire then shoved it between his teeth to spare them from the impact of the collision.

Renjun hated your reckless ass when he lost balance and landed on his shoulder, but he was a trained assassin and he could use both of his hands just fine to fight his enemies. Therefore, when a Huang soldier launched at his still disoriented figure, he could not only ditch the lame attempt at an attack, but slice his throat with one swift motion.

The blood on his hands didn’t faze the assassin; it had never done. But he felt somewhat out of place while he was trying to find you in the mass, since this was something he had never done before. Yes, it had been his obligation to protect his brother in battles, but he always had soldiers around him so that Renjun could focus on killing their enemies. In the end of the day, the younger one was a weapon that murdered, not a shield that saved lives.

Maybe it was because you had been the first person who understood him almost perfectly, the first one who had seen something in him he couldn’t see in himself. Maybe he had just taken a liking of you with your reckless tendencies. Either way, he knew that he had to make sure you survived. He needed you to survive.

Even if the moment his gaze finally fell upon you, what he saw turned his blood ice cold.

You were held by your braids, your head yanked backwards in an unnatural angle. There was a blade against your throat and blood all over the right side of your face. Your nose was either broken or close to being broken. It didn’t matter.

The soldier who was holding you was one of his brother’s men while his brother was looking at you with disgust. His hand was in the air, ready to signal the soldier to do the dirty work on his behalf. Yet, you were smiling as though you knew that the more pissed Renjun’s brother was, the longer he kept you alive. Because the man you were facing was too proud to make it easy and painless for the likes of you.

Renjun had never been more grateful for your own pride.

The assassin took the longsword from the soldier he had just killed and kept his short one in his injured hand just in case he needed it. Then, he ran towards you and launched at the men who had your hair in his hold. You fell on your side due to the momentum, but regained your footing in a matter of seconds.

You pulled the blade out of your thigh - a wound Renjun had failed to notice before - and held it in front of yourself as some sort of shield while the assassin took down your attacker. He was fast and precise even with his aching shoulder, but obviously not fast enough to take you out of harm’s way before the rest of his brother’s guards surrounded your pathetic duo.

‘You’re making a huge mistake, brother,’ the Huang clan’s heir claimed with mockery in his voice. The snicker that left his throat was deep and full of resentment. It was obvious that he believed Renjun deserved death because of his betrayal and maybe he really did.

But he sure as hell wouldn’t make it easy for anyone to take him down.

‘Spare me from your heartfelt monologues,’ the younger Huang spat, holding onto both of his swords. He didn’t look straight into his brother’s eyes longer than a mere second. Instead, he looked around and analysed your surroundings; the number of soldiers around you two, their weapons and injuries. ‘No one wants to hear them.’

Because the moment his brother had decided that Renjun didn’t deserve to explain himself, the moment he had chosen violence instead of words, they had become real enemies. And the assassin had gone easy on his enemy only once in his life. That one occasion had turned his reality upside down and left the boy with no other option but to deny the same from his own blood.

Renjun’s gaze shifted from the Huang soldier ahead of him to you who were fighting your limits with your back to him. He could see in your body posture that it was hard for you to even stand, but he admired your willingness to not give up. He admired you.

If the boy had been sentimental, he would have said goodbye to you until he still could. But he was terrible at words, especially when it came to his messy feelings, so he didn’t. Instead, he bit back a smile, took a deeper breath and ran towards his first target. Five armed soldiers weren’t impossible to beat even with his injured shoulder.

Four, now that one was already choking on his own blood.

By the time the path got clear to where his brother was holding onto his own sword with his shaking hands and fear in his eyes, half of Renjun’s face was soaked in red. He had also thrown away his shorter sword somewhere along the way as it had become too heavy for his injured arm.

‘Will you really kill me? For what? For what, Renjun?’ He screamed, drawing the attention of those who were fighting nearby. Yet, not a single man came to his rescue as though they had realised who their leader was up against. As though they either dreaded what the assassin was capable of or realised what their leader wasn’t. ‘Will you kill your own brother for rats like her? Goddamnit! Come to your senses!’

The smile on Renjun’s face was bitter. A part of him wished things hadn’t turned out like this.

‘I’m not doing this because of her,’ he claimed and it was mostly true. Even though he didn’t want you dead (and even though everything had started with you), Renjun hadn’t made up his mind to kill his family because of you.

It was because capturing his brother and his father like how Kun wanted to do wouldn’t have made that change he now saw was necessary.

It was because all his family knew was violence.

It was because nothing was sacred to them, not even their own blood.

Renjun’s white knuckles tightened around the grip of his weapon. The only mercy he showed to his brother was the fast and neat end his blade gifted him with when he striked.

News had spread like wildfire on the battlefield. And while many of the Huang soldiers had chosen to retreat, following behind General Xu and his captains, a handful of them had decided to stay and offered their service to the new, rightful heir of their clan.

‘I’m not a leader,’ Renjun shared his concerns with you the night after the battle, his gaze not leaving the stars in the cloudless sky. He found solace in them and how they didn’t refuse to shine down on him brightly even after the sins he had committed. It was an utterly ridiculous thought, though. Your antics might have rubbed off on him or he had simply lost his mind.

‘They are willing to follow you, Renjun. What makes a good leader if not their people’s faith in them?’ You asked, your encouraging tone coaxing a snort out of him despite the gratitude he felt because of your words.

He knew about your mixed relationship with the concept of leadership. He knew how much effort you had put into avoiding it since your father had died. Therefore, to hear it from you that he had potential when you had never been able to see any in yourself meant something. Especially because it was due to your quick reaction and firm orders that only a small number of villagers had died from your tribe last night.

‘I’m not my father,’ the confession fell from the assassin’s lips as a resigned whisper, a silent cry in the night for only your ears to hear. Although the two of you had already talked about his relationship with his father, Renjun had never admitted out loud how much he had looked up at the man when he had been younger. How he still believed that he was a great soldier and an even greater leader. His methods might not have been merciful and conveyed more destruction than necessary, but the Huangs were a strong clan because of him, and his people were safe from harm.

What if Renjun had succeeded and removed his father from the top of their hierarchy system? What would have happened if the old man’s enemies had used this opportunity to destroy his legacy? Could he have stabilised their army and stopped the inner conflicts before everything had ended in blood and fire?

It was hard to tell.

‘Which makes you more qualified,’ you claimed before you tentatively reached out towards the boy and put your petite palm on the back of his hand. You squeezed it and he didn’t pull away.

He let you have your way because he would head back to the mainland as soon as his group was ready and they had already been packing for departure when the boy had decided to pay one last visit to the sacred garden of your parents’ graves. He let you be because what he and his men were planning to do was treason which meant that they would be in serious danger once they set foot on the other side of the sea. He might have never been able to let you stay this close to him again.

Although the little boy instead of Renjun, who looked up at his father, hoped that he wouldn’t have to shed more blood, the assassin, who had been trained to know no other way, was aware that the chances that his father would listen to him were slim. And if he refused to cooperate, he would need to make sure your tribe and his soldiers were safe from his rage in another way. He swallowed down the bile in his throat.

During the silence you shared, the boy stole innocent glances at you, his throat becoming dry like parchment the moment your gaze met. He could see it in your eyes. He could see that you wanted to say more. If his brief history with you could have served as any indicator, you were about to give another try to convince him that he should have taken you with him. But he refused to do that. Because if he failed, you would be needed here. You had to stay here so that you could protect your people.

Renjun wanted to cover your mouth with his palm when he caught you parting your lips again, but he was too late. So he closed his eyes and recollected all those arguments and reasons he had already given you regarding this matter.

‘The garden is beautiful in spring. When you’re too busy with leading your people and other leadery things, and can only allow yourself a little free time, come during the cherry blossom season. That’s the prettiest,’ you said, surprising him with the resignation in your voice.

Were you drowning in the same uncertainty like he was? Were you doubting that you might have ever met again like he was?

Renjun didn’t like promises, because most of them were empty, but wasn’t lying your thing from the very beginning anyway? This thought made him smile.

‘I’ll keep it in mind,’ so he swore, his eyes never leaving yours.

The boy could feel your body leaning closer to his - every inch you destroyed between the two of you made his heart beat faster in his ribcage -, but your moment was ruined when Yangyang ran up to the two of you and informed Renjun that everyone was waiting for him at the gates. He sent him back with the message that he would be there in a couple of minutes, then stood up and looked down at you.

You looked beautiful in the moonlight.

When you followed his movements abruptly and stood up as well, he let you pull him into a clumsy hug - the first hug Renjun had gotten since his father had killed that old maid who had always looked after him -, and even wrapped his arms around you in an attempt to apologise although he couldn’t have been sure whether he had indeed lied about the cherry blossoms.

His chapped lips touched the top of your head tentatively and gently before he pushed you further from his chest with his hands on your shoulders. He didn’t offer you fake smiles before he turned his back to you. He didn’t really say anything.

He simply walked out of the garden, the village and your life along with these two.

the end.

#nct scenarios #nct dream #renjun x you #renjun x reader #nct fantasy au #dragon whisperer #fantasy #ssbyme

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nctzendaydream · 1 year

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Kingdom Come by nctzendaydream

Preview/Introduction

You knew this day would come eventually. The day when you get to meet the man you're supposed to spend the rest of your life with, but you never thought it would be like this.

Your world is a world of three kingdoms: Atollis, Merissa, and Argos.

You felt your father, the King of Atollis, grip your hand tighter as he walked alongside you in the Great Hall of the Kingdom of Merissa. You are being presented to Merissa’s royal family and their courtiers as a potential match for their prince, Jeno.

You keep your gaze at your feet to ensure that you do not trip or fall on your face at such an important moment. You find yourself entering into your daydreams to escape the pressure of your current reality.

You come from the Kingdom of Atollis. A kingdom of island dwellers that relied on the ocean for its sustenance and its survival. You've always loved your island home. To you, there is nothing more comforting than the sound of the waves as they crash through the sand. You have spent your childhood among the islands of your kingdom running free. Atollis is paradise, and it will always be. You knew that you had left a large piece of your heart back home. Your kingdom is the smallest of the three kingdoms, but your powerful navy and control of the trade routes at sea made your family and your kingdom a formidable ally.

You, being the daughter of a king, always understood that your duty included possibly marrying for the sake of your people, for the sake of your kingdom, or for the sake of your family but you still felt this undeniable pit in your stomach, since you knew that your life was about to change forever.

You are currently in the Kingdom of Merissa. This peninsula is very different from your homeland. While your home is composed of small islands, this kingdom is composed of mostly flat terrain to the South. Southern Merissa has a large agricultural industry of rice and grain, while its mountains in the Northern region have valuable mines. Merissa is a powerful and wealthy nation. It is no wonder your father wants you to marry into the royal family of Merissa.

A match between these two families would be beneficial to both parties. Your marriage could mean a stronger connection to a wealthier and more powerful nation which would prevent any potential invasion from other neighboring kingdoms. While a marriage to you would mean access to trade routes at sea that the kingdom of Merissa previously had no access to. This would mean they could transport their valuable minerals and gems to the rest of the world in a much more quick and efficient manner. On paper, nothing seems to be going against this match; but you must not forget, life isn't as clean as facts on paper.

To the north of Merissa lies the third kingdom called Argos. Argos is the largest of the three Kingdoms. It spans almost the entirety of the Eastern Continent. They control almost all of the significant land trade routes which made them wealthy, powerful, and formidable.

As you looked up to meet the eye of the prince, you were shocked to see not one, but two sets of eyes looking directly at you.

Both Prince Jeno and Prince Chenle of Argos looked at you with an intensity you have never felt before. You gave a nervous smile, and the Prince Jeno bowed politely and said, “Welcome to Merissa, Your Highness”.

#nct dream #nct dream fanfic #nct dream au #nct dream fanfiction #jeno x y/n #jeno x reader #jeno fanfic #chenle x reader #chenle x y/n #chenle x you #nct fantasy au #nct royalty au #nct chenle #nct jeno #chenle fanfic

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diorcities · 2 years

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love and robots

warning: contenido maduro. basado en las crónicas lunares & alitta. nct fanfic. español. 1.3k palabras.

contenido: anterior ♡ siguiente

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ .

jaehyun se frotó los ojos con cansancio, observando el reloj anclado a la pared.

tic tac, tic tac.

sus ojos aventuraron el montón de papeles esparcidos por su escritorio. enfocar la vista le resultaba una tarea difícil, luego de pasar horas leyendo entre líneas. “¿qué estoy haciendo mal?” preguntó en un susurro. en respuesta, el silencio siendo cortado por el sonido de las manecillas del reloj. no sabía por qué conservaba ese cacharro, que solo hacía ruido sin cesar, pero cuando no había nada más que el sonido de su propia voz, era buena compañía. el joven podía pretender que aquel aparato era su mano derecha, y que el tic tac que emitía era, de hecho, comentarios astutos.

quizá se estaba volviendo loco.

río para sí cuando se dio cuenta de sus patéticos pensamientos. aquel reloj antiguo no era más que un reloj antiguo, y jaehyun no estaba más que solo en aquel laboratorio.

la cómoda superficie de su cama a escasos metros donde se encontraba se veía tentadora. había movido el mueble hace unas semanas, porque había caído en la conclusión de que se la pasaba más tiempo allí abajo que en su dormitorio, o en el comedor, o en la sala de estar; el laboratorio era su lugar favorito. con vasos de precipitación, pizarras llenas de fórmulas, telescopios y piezas. esto último había sido añadido hace unas semanas atrás. la verdad era que jaehyun no se consideraba un programador. lo suyo eran las fórmulas; ver si algo era matemáticamente posible. y si era matemáticamente posible, era posible volverlo en algo que pudiera tocarse.

pero aquello había sido hace tiempo, y tuvo que aprender a ser ambas partes. a comprobar y consolidar. algo que él mismo consideraba dificultoso si solo una persona lo realizaba. y jaehyun nunca había estado solo… hasta ahora.

aunque debía admitir que estaba cogiéndole el gusto a armar cosas. se descubría a sí mismo buscando piezas en el mercado de bajoterra, y de vez en cuando, en el vertedero comunal de nueva pekin; siempre había algo que podía sacarle provecho. ¿piezas robóticas arrojadas en el vertedero común? cosa de todos los días. a jaehyun le gustaba ir de vez en cuando cuando necesitaba piezas para un nuevo invento.

pero nunca había visto esa clase de piezas.

y debía averiguar a qué pertenecieron.

claro que, el trabajo no era sencillo. quiso recuperar todas las piezas, pero aquel vertedero tenía kilómetros a la redonda de pura chatarra. y toda la basura provenía de arriba. bajoterra era su vertedero. jaehyun pensó que aquellas piezas eran entonces algo en conjunto, con todas las piezas, pero ahora sólo tenía la mitad de ellas. saber con certitud si provenían de nueva pekin o de bajoterra era otro tema. a saber si provenían de más arriba; pensar en ello le dio escalofríos.

lo que no podía soportar era la incertidumbre de a qué máquina pertenecieron. los robots eran cosa de todos los días en bajoterra; de vez en cuando, jaehyun se topaba con ellos en las calles serpenteantes. En nueva pekin sí que era bastante comunes. cada habitante tenía un robot a su cargo; máquinas que solo saben acatar órdenes. nada del otro mundo. hacían tareas del hogar o eran usados en la seguridad del castillo. los modelos iban desde los más caseros, hasta las máquinas corporativas. jaehyun sabía que los robots eran usados para todo allá arriba. hospitales, tiendas, farmacias. incluso parte de la policía. en bajoterra, esto último no era tan raro, pero en los centros médicos aun predominaban más humanos que máquinas. algunas veces, una combinación de ambos.

se bebió de un tirón el contenido de su taza de café y se levantó en dirección a la camilla ocupada por su nueva tarea. jaehyun había intentado buscar el botón de encendido del cual estaba familiarizado con aquella máquina, pero no lo consiguió por ningún lado. dedujo, al final, que debía tener algún sensor. y tuvo razón. algo tan sofisticado como pasar su palma por la cara frontal. observó la máquina zumbar. muy imperceptible. ¿cómo algo tan exquisitamente detallado pudo haber acabado en un basurero de bajoterra?

la máquina con facciones femeninas abrió sus ojos y los fijó en la nada.

“¿desea restaurar la última sesión?”

“no,” intervino, “corre un examen de estado” ordenó, “... por favor” añadió después, “he hecho algunos arreglos, creo que ya estás” comentó, incluso cuando sabía que no iba a recibir respuesta de nadie más que de sí mismo. se estaba volviendo una costumbre.

observó a la máquina, su satisfacción creciendo a medida que los segundos en los que la máquina permanecía en silencio pasaban, hasta que... “error desconocido. ejecutando protección al sistema, desconectando...” la máquina volviendo a apagarse, junto a sus expectativas. si tan solo pudiera saber dónde se encontraba el error..., si tan solo no se desconectara como mecanismo de defensa. ¿qué podría estar protegiendo?

caviló en el cableado. a pesar de ser primera vez viendo un sistema tan sofisticado (no era como si hubiese visto muchos sistemas, de todas formas) jaehyun estaba seguro que todos debían tener la misma codificación. la misma programación. aquella máquina no podía ser tan diferente a otros modelos. podría estar configurada diferente, pero el cableado seguiría siendo el mismo. por eso notó algo inusual.

acercó lo más que pudo la lámpara e iluminó el interior del panel de cables; no había sido cosa suya. extrajo la tarjeta madre y la inspeccionó, sus facciones cambiando a medida que los cabos sueltos por fin parecían unirse. entonces, se aproximó a su escritorio y buscó en uno de los cajones. lo pensó mejor y también buscó la mini máquina de soldar. la inseguridad haciéndole vacilar. la incertidumbre de que quizá era solo una teoría. sin tener a nadie que lo alentara a seguir más que a sí mismo. “tú puedes…”

se apresuró a la camilla y le dio vuelta a la máquina. en la nuca, un pequeño sensor dejaba entrever el cableado interno. no había tornillos. ni tuercas; la tecnología de arriba era por mucho, más imperceptible que la de abajo. sin embargo, había visto una tarjeta madre similar a la que poseía la máquina. jaehyun no creía en las coincidencias, y por un momento, miles de incógnitas afloraron en su mente. los recuerdos de haber visto la tarjeta madre siendo construida, pieza por pieza, como si hubiese visto una igual, y no solo se tratara de una simple idea que se te ocurren cuando estas cavilando en tus pensamientos. jaehyun se preguntó si había sido víctima de secretos, y si solo conocía el pedazo de la historia que ella quería contarle.

cuando abrió la caja de madera que había evitado mirar en el cajón olvidado de su escritorio, estaba más que seguro. aquella tarjeta era una réplica casi exacta de la tarjeta que poseía la máquina imperturbable en la camilla. salvo por algunos detalles que la tarjeta original tenía. la tarjeta que descansaba en su mano no estaba cubierta de aquel metal plateado.

su mano vaciló cuando pasó su palma sobre el sensor en la cara frontal, por septuagésima vez en la noche. otra vez oyó el zumbido. esperó por la típica pregunta del sistema, pero solo recibió silencio. “ejecuta neo-127” dijo. hubo más silencio. y jaehyun contuvo la respiración. nunca antes había probado el prototipo. estaba seguro que no estaba terminado, porque no había continuado lo que ella había empezado. lo había prometido, pero se había encontrado incapaz de tocar aquel cajón desde el accidente. todo le parecía ofensivo. querer terminar algo que en un principio había sido una idea ajena, algo que no le pertenecía. Y luego, ¿qué? ¿dejar que se beneficien de su proyecto mientras ella no podía verlo? jaehyun se rehusaba a comerciar con su memoria. no cuando el único tributo que había recibido por parte del emperador había sido nada. jaehyun se encontraba ensimismado en algún lugar oscuro de su mente cuando oyó “comando ejecutado con satisfacción. reiniciando sistema...”

estoy trabajando en un nuevo proyecto. es mi primera fic en tumblr aaaaa. anyways, estoy pensando en subirla a wattpad o ao3 más extendida, y más desarrollada. por el momento, esto es un borrador.

masterlist

#nct imagines #nct scenarios #nct fantasy au #nct fanfic #nct fic #jaehyun scenarios #jung jaehyun #jaehyun fic #nct dream fluff #nct dream scenarios #nct dream imagines #nct 127 imagines #nct recs #nct au #nct fluff #nct 127 fluff #nct x reader #♡lar

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wehavetokiss · 2 years

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BICARA DI KOPAJA

"Capek ya, kita kerja terus tapi masih belum bisa bisa beli mobil mewah."

Fajar menolehkan kepalanya ke arah samping itu, wajah gadis disebelahnya terlihat mengerut, mata lebarnya menatap keluar jendela kopaja yang kacanya saja sudah kusam.

"Sabar saja, toh rezeki sudah ada yang atur, kamu capek?" Tanya Fajar.

Hana— gadis itu mengangguk, kepala mungilnya ia sandarkan ke kaca jendela kopaja, "Aku harap aku bisa bekerja lebih baik lagi walau capek, aku ingin kaya raya."

"Setelah kaya raya kamu mau apa?"

"Mmm..." Hana berfikir, isi kepalanya penuh dengan imajinasi yang selalu ia kembangkan sendiri.

"Aku ingin mempercantik diri, beli baju bagus dan lain-lain. Biar ga malu-maluin jadi pacar kamu, kamu aja ganteng pinter gitu, seenggaknya walau aku ga pinter-pinter amat aku cantik lah." Jelasnya panjang lebar.

"Tapi aku kan juga ga kaya." Kata Fajar dengan wajah kebingungan.

"Kamu tidak kaya tapi semua orang menghargai kamu, kamu lupa? Kamu sebentar lagi di promosikan untuk posisi editor utama. Kantor terus berterima kasih karna kamu selalu lakukan semua hal dengan baik, aku? Pekerjaan ku selalu revisi— ini bukan berarti aku iri, aku bangga karna kamu.. kamu, pacarku bisa sampai di titik ini. Aku cuma mau merasakan kalau jerih payah ku benar-benar ada hasilnya... Aku mau jadi kebanggaan juga."

Fajar tersenyum, menatap Hana disampingnya yang terus mengeluh-ngeluhkan segala hal yang terjadi di kantor mereka. Kopaja yang mereka tumpangi terjebak kemacetan ibu kota dan tidak berjalan sampai Hana selesai berbicara, gadis itu merasa lega sekaligus menyesal karna telah menceritakan isi hati dan pikirannya, ia merasa telah menyikati si pria-nya karna sedari tadi Fajar hanya menampakan ekspresi yang itu itu saja.

"Maaf—"

"Terima kasih ya."

Sontak Hana duduk tegap dan menoleh, "Tiba-tiba sekali?" Tanyanya.

Fajar itu tersenyum dengan hangat, "Saya serius, terima kasih ya?"

"Untuk apa?"

"Untuk berjuang selalu dan menjadikan saya sebagai salah satu alasan kamu untuk berjuang dan bertahan."

"Kamu tidak marah?" Tanya Hana dengan hati-hati.

"Untuk apa marah?"

Hana menunduk, "Karna ucapan ku seakan-akan aku tidak suka kamu sukses dan aku... Payah?"

"Kamu tidak payah, aku berterima kasih juga untuk jadi pengingat kamu."

"Pengingat?"

Fajar mengangguk, "Iya, pengingat, agar kamu selalu berterima kasih ke diri kamu sendiri, barang kali kamu lupa kalau diri kamu itu juga berharga."

"Kamu repot-repot ingetin aku, padahal aku saja sering lupa untuk hargai diri sendiri."

"Ya.. gapapa, biar kamu tau kalau ada saya yang hargai kamu disini, sama seperti kamu menghargai diri sendiri."

"Kamu nih ya..."

"Kamu harus selalu ingat, menghargai diri sendiri itu sepaket dengan mencintai diri sendiri."

"Iya?"

"Iya."

Hana membuang wajahnya ke arah jendela. "Kalau gitu pasti susah." Ucapnya sambil menatap ke arah macetnya ibu kota.

"Kenapa susah? Padahal saya saja bisa."

Hana kembali menoleh ke arah Fajar, "Bisa apa?"

Fajar menoleh ke arah Hana, wajah mereka saling berhadapan, mata mereka saling memandang hangat, senyuman manis terus tercipta di bibir Fajar sampai ia bersuara.

"Saya bisa mencintai segala perihalmu, semuanya mudah, mencintai sosok seperti kamu adalah hal yang mudah. Kalau kamu lupa dan merasa tidak dicintai, lihat saya saja saya dan pembicaraan kita di kopaja ini."

Fajar Gumelar.

#vintage #1950s #fanfic #tulisan #taeil soft icons #lee taeil #nct imagines #nct #nct fanfic #nct fantasy au

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neowinestainedress · 2 years

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DYNASTY ⮚ NCT | epilogue

prev⏐ chapter forty-four ⏐ masterpost

warnings: none for this chapter

genre: fantasy au, royal au, super powers au

word count: 4.086k

summary: The apparent calm that reigns in Neo City breaks into million pieces when some members of the Neos find an outsider laying unconscious in the wood. After that, everything they know stops making sense. Menace from the past come back, while they have to rule on their city knowing that the menace of Simon’s dictatorial power is closer day by day. The past they never dared to face will wash over them like impetuous waves. The present is filled with doubts, regrets and the mystery of the lost memories of the nameless girl. The future is even more uncertain.

Can you break the chain with your past even if it’s running in your bloodstream?

taglist: @saeyeoniee @shwizhies @chenlejjang @pinkyzae | if you want to be added let me know under the masterpost or with a message

The sun was shining in the sky on a beautiful morning in May. The weather was nice and nature seemed to have found its balance with birds singing, rivers flowing and flowers growing, painting the green of rainbow.

It hadn’t been easy to pull themselves together and go on with their everyday lives trying to not be eaten up with the fears they all shared, but they tried their best. Sticking together was the key to everything. No more running away at the first problem or hiding what they felt behind shields. Or at least, that was what they were trying to do. Because old habits are hard to die.

One of the new things they came up with was eating lunch all together every Sunday. It was everybody’s free day, no plans, no problems, just them, acting like common people. Sundays were their days of joy, laughs, music and happiness.

“Will you ever let us cook something?” Liv complained as she passed behind Anika, grabbing a tablecloth to head outside and place it on the table.

“I like cooking. I used to do this every day, it kind of comes natural,” Anika answered.

“Share your thrones some days,” Anastasia laughed, grabbing the bowl of bread.

“As long as you don’t let me close to the stoves, I’m fine,” Soomin said, she was sitting down, or whatever position she was in, at the head of the kitchen table, eating a slice of bread she had just stolen from Anastasia. The curly-haired girl glared at her and then shook her head, walking out to place the bowl at the centre of the table.

In the end, Soomin decided to stay, it wasn’t like she had anything better to do, anyway. Also, she needed to get her revenge and that was the only place she could at least find answers.

“I need somebody to taste it and tell me if it’s good,” Anika said taking a small portion of the food in the spoon and turning around.

Soomin jumped from the chair and shouted, “Here I am.”

“Didn’t you just say you have to stay away from the stoves?” Anastasia teased.

“To cook,” she mumbled, chewing the food. “Not to eat. It tastes amazing by the way.”

The girl smiled at the compliment and then walked toward the oven to control the other dishes she was preparing.

“Why are the men nowhere to be found when you need them?” Liv cursed walking back into the kitchen.

“You need a man?” The other three said in unison.

“Ugh, I hate you,” Liv sighed. “And yes, I needed Sungchan to fix the pergola, he’s tall and will just take less time than us,” she explained, struggling with scissors while she was trying to cut something from a tend she was holding.

Anika rolled her eyes to the sky and walked toward her. She grabbed the texture and scissors from her hand and cut it. “See, it’s that simple if you don’t freak out.”

Liv smiled at her and then spoke. “Thanks, but I still need Sungchan to put this on.”

“We never put it, though,” Anastasia noted as she casually eat something from a pot with Soomin, before Anika could notice, glare at them and pull it away from them.

“I know, but there’s the sun and it’s hot today, so Taeyong suggested putting it on.”

“Then why doesn’t he come and do it himself?” Soomin asked, shrugging.

“Soomin for Heaven’s sake,” Anika said, rolling her eyes again.

“What did I say?”

“I heard you were looking for me!” Sungchan barged into the room with a bright smile on his face, arms open and his bright eyes wandering on them.

“Yeah, I was looking for you,” Liv said, grabbing his arm and turning him toward the door. “Let’s go, strong man, help me put this on top.”

“Wait, but I want to eat something,” he lamented, trying to pull in the other directiong.

“No,” the brown-skinned girl said. “No more eating in my kitchen. Get out, come on, everybody.” And she pushed all of them out of the kitchen.

“Hey, I was laying the table,” Anastasia said, looking at her with sweet eyes.

“Fine, the only one allowed,”

“I was helping her,” Soomin said.

Anika glared at her. “You were eating, Soomin. It looks like you’re starving.”

The black-haired girl rolled her eyes but then gave up and followed Liv and Sungchan outside.

“You love us, admit it,” Anastasia chuckled while she was counting the fork she needed to bring outside.

Anika laughed as she stirred the food in the pan. “I have to admit it, yes. You are impossible to hate,” she smiled. “Also, it reminds me of home, you know. Sundays were even louder, and not only Sundays. I had five years olds running between my legs while cooking while sixteen years olds were blasting music in the living room, this is paradise.”

“Do you miss them?” Anastasia asked, placing the fork in a small basket and starting to count the knives.

The other girl lowered her head before looking back at her. “Yes, sometimes it feels like I stop breathing. It was so hard, Ana, but I raised them. I know it’s wrong and it shouldn’t be like this, but it really feels like my children were taken away from me.”

“Also, I’m scared because I have no idea how they are and how my father is treating them, you know? He doesn’t know them, at all.”

“I’m sure they learnt from you and are doing just fine,” Anastasia said, walking toward her to place a hand on her shoulder. “Maybe you could try to meet them.”

“But my father...”

“He doesn’t have to know. If you need help I can think of a plan, I’ll distract him and you’ll sneak in to see them.”

Anika laughed. “What if they don’t want to see me?”

“They want to see you. I would kill to see a sister like you again.”

Most of them were already sitting by the table but the lunch didn’t start yet, Anastasia was walking toward her seat when she glimpsed Liv, who was under the arcades sitting on the suspended chair they had bought recently. Nobody was with her and she took advantage of the situation to talk to her.

“Hey,” she greeted with a small smile on her face.

Liv raised her head and stared at her. She almost looked surprised, or maybe scared that they were together, alone.

“Hey,” she said back, waving with her hand.

“Can I talk to you?”

Liv gulped. She knew it was coming, sooner or later it had to happen, and it was already too late for what she had first expected. Still, she nodded.

“About what he said during the fight,” she whispered. “Is it true?”

Liv pressed her lips in a thin line and nodded, not able to say something more. Admitting out loud felt humiliating.

“I’m sorry,” Anastasia said and Liv’s head snapped up.

“And for what?”

“I hurt you, all these years without knowing.”

“It wasn't your fault, but mine for...falling for you," she admitted, her voice low. It was strange to say those words out loud, after all this time telling her what she felt.

“You can’t decide who you love,” Anastasia answered, sitting on the floor in front of her.

“Unfortunately,” Liv mumbled, biting the inside of her cheek.

“Why you never told me?”

“I was afraid. Afraid of losing you, afraid of being... Different.”

“Well, you should’ve told me, we would’ve had lots of interesting talks on the topic and you would’ve found out you are not the only one.”

“You...?”

Anastasia nodded, pressing her lips in a thin line.

Liv stuttered, trying to find something to say. “But I loved you. If I couldn’t have you like I pictured in my mind I at least wanted to have you by my side, I was just afraid you would’ve drifted away from me.”

“I probably couldn’t even hate you if you tore every page of my favourite book in front of my eyes,” Anastasia chuckled, making Liv laugh too.

“Remember what you always used to say to me? Soulmates are not only lovers. A soulmate knows you, probably even before you know yourself. Because they can always look a little bit further and see what’s coming for you. It’s somebody that guides you. A soulmate is that kind of person you can just lay down in silence for hours and let your souls speak,” Anastasia said, her voice soft and calming. “And I knew you were mine since we started crawling side by side. Or when we would run down the aisle with those big ass ball gown dresses we never wanted to wear and then slump to the floor trying to steady our breath while we listened to the Nanny scream our names.”

“God, we were unmanageable,” Liv laughed, a hand on her face to hide her embarrassment while she remembered what they used to do.

“We would run around the kitchen table making the cooks curse at us and I understood you were my soulmate when you would steal anything but oysters, pickles and mint chocolate.”

“If I wanted to eat toothpaste I would just wash my teeth,” she replied.

“See why I love you?”

“I know, but I really couldn’t even think of being without you, or worst, having you right there but see our relationship completely changed.”

“I just want you to know that nothing will ever change who you are for me and what we have, Liv,” she reassured the ginger. “We survived an entire childhood surrounded by men I think love won’t be the thing that will tear us apart, right?”

Liv laughed. “Fine, you have a point.”

“I always do,” she winked.

“But, what about you? Why you never said anything to me, either?”

Anastasia looked at her, and took a deep breath. “I never paid much attention, always treated my sexuality simply like something that, is there, you know? I just knew that I felt good in my skin, and being attracted by everybody, but then when Jae and I started dating I felt wrong. Almost as if I was turning my back on my true self. Again, I had other things to worry about but I couldn’t help but wonder if I was... Faking it for all that time. If I wasn’t really bisexual but some kind of impostor. I could see my future with him and as every other person faded in my mind I kept wondering if it was real. If all of my other crUshes towards women and non-binary people were just something I had built up in my mind,” she whispered. “And I didn’t want other people to know, I just kept it to myself.”

Liv nodded, she felt like that so many times. Thinking that she just wanted to be special and different without really being like that. She totally understood her feelings. “You don’t choose a gender, you simply chose a person. Your person,” she added. Probably by now Anastasia already knew, but she still wanted to make her feel valid.

Anastasia nodded and then looked at her. “Why do I have to simply choose one person? Why can’t I choose you and him to be my persons?” Sure what she felt for them was different, two different types of love and affection, but she was sure that both of them were her soulmates.

“Well, I kind of consider you my person too, and this goes beyond what I used to feel romantically,” Liv confessed.

Anastasia smiled and reached out for her to take her hand. Liv did and stood up, stretching from the uncomfortable position and smiled back.

“Promise you will never hide anything from me again?”

“I promise.”

And then they finally hugged, this time with no skeletons in their closets, nothing to hide.

“Stop staring at me like that,” Anastasia said, pushing Jaehyun lightly.

“Who said I was staring at you?”

“Ah, I’m right here?”

“Maybe I was staring at Sungchan?” He joked. “He’s really hot.”

Anastasia glared at him and he laughed.

“Okay, fine. I was staring at you, but you have to admit that Sungchan is hot.”

The girl turned to look at their friend who was busy chatting with Anika and Liv about something she couldn’t get, they were too deep in the heated conversation.

“Yes, he is.”

“See, I’m always right,” he bragged.

“Now, are you done? Can we move on from him?”

“Actually at the start, I was thirsting on you and you got mad at me?”

A gasped. “So you were thirsting?”

“No, I was looking at you with heart eyes because I’m whipped but you clearly don’t deserve me so I’ll find somebody else,” he said, turning around, pouting.

“No, no,” she cooed, lifting his head with two fingers under his chin. “I’m just not used to it. You know it still feels so strange that we’re back together. That everything is fine, for real.”

“Don’t tell me you still suspect I’m a ghost,” he sighed, raising a brow.

“Oh Lord no, I just can’t believe that after everything we’ve been through we always found each other. It’s absurd if you think about it.”

“That’s why I stare at you so much, to get back all the years I lost.”

Anastasia looked down, chewing the inside of her cheek and then reached for his hands, intertwining their fingers. “How did you do that?”

“What?” He asked, brushing his thumb on the back of her hand.

“Waited for me for so long even if you thought I was gone.”

“I didn’t do anything. My heart only beats for you, nobody else ever came close to you and what you made me feel.”

“You would’ve waited forever?” She asked in surprise, staring at his face.

“Yes,” he answered without hesitation. “Why?”

“I always thought you had been a little bit too dramatic but when I lost you, I totally understood what you went through. I knew right at the moment that my heart would’ve never beaten the same for anybody else.”

He chuckled, caressing her cheek. “Maybe we are dramatic.”

“I like us like that,” she replied, smiling big at him, “It’s not like somebody else has to stand us.”

Jaehyun nodded, then he leaned on the table and grabbed a white flower. He turned around and intertwined it in her curls.

“That’s the sappiest thing –” she tried to say but was interrupted by his lips crushing against hers.

“And you are the most beautiful being I have ever seen,” he smiled.

“They are...gross,” Soomin commented, staring at the scene in front of her eyes. “Gross but cute. I like them, they make a great match,” she added with a shrug.

“Not really into romantic stuff, uh?” Yuta asked, resting his elbow on the table, tearing his gaze from his friends and turning it on the girl next to him.

“Never had a taste of it, and probably don’t even plan to,” she replied. “And you?”

Yuta froze, he wasn’t expecting that question. He had never thought about love, probably because he had never seen it in his parents and wasn’t creative enough like his friends to go over and build his own fairytale, or maybe because he simply was convinced he couldn’t find somebody like him.

“Yeah, never looked for it,” he answered, not convinced as he played with some crumbs on the table.

“Plan on looking for it?” She asked, resting her elbow on the wood and then her cheek against her fist.

“Nah, I don’t need it,” he said. But deep down he felt like he was lying.

“On one side, I have two who can’t get a room and on the other, two who are allergic to love, why it always has to be me?” Taeil commented with a groan.

“First of all your not surrounded, we’re on the opposite side,” Yuta replied.

“And second, don’t eavesdrop on conversations.”

“You are right here, next to me!” Taeil defended, hands moving in front of him to show how close they were.

Yuta rolled his eyes. But Soomin laughed.

“You are always on everybody’s business.”

“To his defense, I heard that too,” Taeyong said.

“Oh yeah, the devil’s advocate,” Yuta threw his hands up in the air and waved them off.

Doyoung looked at them with disgust, before he turned around to go back to conversating with Kun about something they were talking about before.

“Oh my, we’re never kissing each other again if we’re going to create all this chaos,” Jaehyun exclaimed, throwing his head back.

“Why are they even mad?” Liv chimed in. “I would kiss her every two seconds if I hadn’t seen her for three years.”

“I’m mad at this man here,” Yuta pointed his finger at Taeil, “for not minding his business.

“Not my fault I’m always caught in the middle,” Taeil replied, knitting his brow.

“Not my fault you have nobody to kiss,” Jaehyun said, high-fiving Yuta.

Anika slapped a hand on her forehead, every single lunch was the same. It was incredible how they could always find something to argue about.

“Okay, everybody,” Sungchan stood up, clapping his hands once to gain their attention. “I have a big question for you.”

Liv looked at him with a furrow. “Please, don’t start another drama.”

“Are tomatoes vegetables or fruits?”

“Oh shit, here we are again,” Anika whispered as she watched the chaos unfold.

“Happy now?” Jaehyun asked, leaning back on the chair to look at his friend.

“At least they can elaborate, the other argument was dry. This one’s going to be funny,” Sungchan smirked. “Do we wanna bet?”

“Sungchan no!” Liv, Anika and Anastasia screamed, already knowing that this wasn’t going to end well.

The sun was low in the sky and painted the town golden. Fireflies were flying on the flowers and grass of the garden and firelights were lit up at the corners of the pergola. The breeze was blowing softly, making the hot heat more bearable. Instrumental music was playing from the speakers and filled the atmosphere as a nice background to their chatting.

Nobody seemed tired, even if they had spent the whole day playing around, just like they used to do when they were kids.

Jaehyun never stopped being his competitive self while playing football. Kun never stopped tricking Yuta. Maybe Taeyong stopped worrying so much, but just a little bit less, and only because Anastasia convinced him to play and let himself go. Sungchan was too tall for Doyoung’s liking, who simply spent the whole time complaining about how unfair it was that the other team had him and Johnny. Taeil gave up mid-game, saying that he was too old for that and went to sit next to Anika, who was enjoying the show. Jungwoo was way too good at dribbling and Mark wasn’t really a good striker since he kept laughing at the smallest thing and always missed the ball.

Somehow they still found the strength to argue about stupid things. Anastasia chuckled as she watched Sungchan, somehow it was always him, discussed with Doyoung and Jungwoo.

Anastasia let her head fall against Jaehyun’ shoulder and breathed in the summer air. He didn’t pay her attention, too focus on talking with Liv and Anika about something, and simply wrapped an arm around her without shifting his attention.

Her eyes wandered around and a strange sense of joy filled her heart. It all looked like a dream to her. Never in the last three years of her life, she would’ve imagined her here. To be honest, she simply couldn’t even imagine herself being alive, and yet, she was there. Alive. With her memories. Surrounded by the people she loved the most.

And in that very moment, all the others fears she had about what was about to come next, grew thinner. It didn’t matter, it really didn’t. She was breathing. She was loved. She was alive. She was happy.

When she arrived there she could only feel pain, and the road ahead seemed terrifying, uncertain and ... lonely. She had been played so much for her whole life that happiness simply didn’t feel like a sentiment that belonged to her. But she was proven wrong.

The future was uncertain, and not easy, but it wasn’t scary anymore. She wasn’t going to go back. Never hiding again. Never running away. Never sleeping in the darkness of demons she didn’t want to face. The future was in front of her and she had to look at it proudly with her head high.

She looked at all of them, her eyes studying them one by one. They were the most beautiful souls life could ever gift her, in all of their broken pieces and mistakes, they were true, every scar a piece of glass reflecting light and making them shine. Now she was sure they weren’t the kids they used to be, and only now she understood that she was happy they weren’t those kids anymore. Their past selves were hurt, used, betrayed, and shattered. But now, in front of her were standing new people, a little broken, but ready to heal and blossom.

Anastasia was sure that she didn’t want to be anywhere else now that she had found her home, her family. It was them, it had always been them. Nobody was able to take them away from her, because they were marked on her skin, on her heart, deep in her soul. They were the marks that made her who she was, not the scars Simon and their parents left on her body, not the wounds she carried with her, not the bruises on her skin. She wasn’t that. She wasn’t defined by her pain, by the man that used to haunt her in the middle of the night, by the blood that was running in her veins.

She was what she loved.

She closed her eyes, and in her mind flashed happy moments of them together. The memories were bright, golden, and made her feel safe.

Anastasia opened her eyes again, and let herself be lulled by Jaehyun’s scent. Her gaze met Taeyong’s who was looking at her with curios eyes, she smiled, and mouthed ‘I’m happy’. A sincere smile crept on the older’s face as his gaze turned sweeter than it was before. She had missed it so much, looking at Taeyong and feeling like a warm blanket was being wrapped around her on the coldest day of December, the kind of comfort only he could give.

She then reached for Jaehyun’s hand and intertwined their fingers, he briefly looked over her with a questioning gaze but at her nod, he turned around again. Six months ago she would have never imagined holding hands with her lover. She didn’t even see love in her future, both because she felt unlovable and also because she thought she would have too many things to think about, leaving no time for it. But love was right there, and it was shiny and golden. It was comfort, laughs, and gentle touches. It was something that seemed painful for so long, just to turn into the safest feeling she ever felt.

And it was nice. It was nice that she could finally breathe, that she could let her heart and mind rest.

No more fear, she had promised to herself. She was leaving the past behind, and with it all the pain, the blood, the fire and the darkness. No more looking back. No more holding onto things that weren’t there anymore. It was time to let go. It was time to jump and dive into the sun, with the heart beating loud in the chest, waiting for a future that she wasn’t going to face by herself.

And as the sun sunk further and further in the sky, the voices of her friends began to lower down, and tiredness was starting to take over everybody, she realized.

The chain with the past was broken.

And it was time to step into the future.

She wasn’t alone anymore. She wasn’t scared anymore. Because she knew she would’ve found an answer to all her questions if she had the people she loved around her.

It was time to let the darkness of the night behind and step into the daylight.

From then on, she would’ve let her light shine through her.

a/n: so this is the end (thank god). i'm sorry if this was disappointing but i had in mind to deal with some things in the sequel (that won't exist) so this is it. thanks for reading to the four people that stuck til the end! it would be nice to know what you think about it because even if i wasn't so confident about this anymore i put a lot of energy into writing it so if you want let me know your opinion.

+ it may come out a special chapter because i had started writing the sequel and there's a scene i wrote that i love too much and i wouldn't want to let it go to waste, but i need to see if it's understandable even without the sequel AND without having read this first.

#nct fanfiction #nct fantasy au #nct royal au

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imber-serein · 2 years

Text

OF LOST SOULS AND POISONED HEARTS | Pt. 4 |

Based on: The Yin Yang Masters - Dream of Eternity

Kpop Group: WayV (and some NCT members)

❄️❄️❄️

Word Count: 1351

Pt. 4 - ◊ We must protect ◊

The master knew that Kun had only wanted to help him, but in such a situation he needed all his strength. He simply could not take care of him. And this way, he could at least alert the others, so they could come and support him together. Another crack formed in the ice wall and he could see the scaled body of the demon behind it. He had hoped not to see him again so soon. The earth shook beneath his feet. The power emanating from the scaled one was immense. If it managed to break free, the damage to the world would be unimaginable. Snowflakes trickled down on him incessantly, as if they knew nothing of the impending battle. Highly concentrated, the master reached into his sleeve and pulled out three sealing papers. With them he could stop the demon. Slowly, he brought his index finger to his lips and bit into it, until a drop of blood emerged from the small wound. His allies could only be summoned by his blood. With a quick movement, he spread it on the three seal cards before tossing them into the icy air.

No sooner had they left his hand, than he was already forming a magic formula with his hands. Mumbling softly, the words came out of his mouth and combined into a soul spell that awakened his allies. "With my blood I command the souls." The power of the spell tore slabs of ice from the ground. The wind tore up the snow on the ground and enveloped the master. Glowing golden, the ice crystals above him coalesced into a magic circle as only true masters could form it. The storm subsided. The circle hovered above him and three figures descended from the beam. The first one wore light leather armour that clung tightly to his body. His hands were clenched into fists, he was ready for battle. Two long white wings shot out from his shoulder blades allowing him to glide elegantly to the ground. "Snow Guardian!" Simultaneously, a small boy appeared, his robe glowing as golden as the magic circle. His shoulder-length hair blew in the wind. He was graceful and at first glance looked almost frail. On his forehead was emblazoned a decorative scar, similar in shape to the magic spell above them. "Golden soul!" Lastly, an elegantly dressed man appeared, sitting on a long brush as he approached the ground. He had his black hair pinned up in a braid, so that it did not distract him. Everything about his clothes reminded Kun of a painter, which he was. "Mad painter!" Even as the three of them approached the ground, the ice wall shook. More and more cracks formed in the thick layer of ice. "... must protect." The master was deep in his meditation when a loud bang jolted him from his thoughts. The golden light surrounding him contrasted starkly with the icy blue of his surroundings. The three soul guards understood their task. Yangyang, the snow guardian, shot out of the circle in a flash and soared into the air with a few flaps of his wings. Hendery, the mad painter, on the other hand, concentrated his powers on his legs and hovered a few centimetres above the ground towards the ice wall. The magic within him made a golden tail appear behind him. Under less serious circumstances, it would have been a wonderful sight. But as it was, the threat of the demon overshadowed the fascinating side of the magic. The three soul guards had entrusted their lives to the master and vowed to support him especially in dangerous situations. The golden tail behind Hendery grew unceasingly. Thousands of small characters joined it and made the golden glow increase. He kept unerringly towards the ice wall, regardless of the danger that lurked behind it. In such moments, he felt no fear. Hendery felt nothing. His thoughts were only about the threat and his task to stop it. "Come to me," he called to his brush. He would get to the ice wall even faster with it. The characters followed him, tracing a ribbon of light across the snowy icy landscape.

The ice wall was already within reach. Abruptly, Hendery jumped from his brush and stopped his flight. Ice crystals rose. Holding the brush tightly in his right hand, he straightened to his full height. "Protect!" he muttered with a wave of his hand that sent the characters rushing past him. Thousands and thousands of golden characters shot across the ice and up the ice wall beneath his feet. Small characters flared up on his forehead, giving him a mystical appearance. Hendery repeatedly muttered the words "protect" to himself, while more and more signs climbed the wall and covered every spot. Like a magical barrier, they supported the ice wall in its fight against the demon behind it. Meanwhile, Yangyang flew through the icy air. His large white wings gave him enough lift to avoid the gusty winds from the cracks in the ice wall. Deftly, he approached the thick ice until he was so close that he could feel the cold on his skin. With a small touch, he let ice crystals grow. They were covered by the characters, thus supporting the stability of the magical barrier. He flew higher and higher until the master below him had become a small dot. The characters followed him tirelessly and so quickly that he could hardly keep up. More and more crystals sprouted from his fingertips and connected with the ice wall. Breathing heavily, his flight came to a halt and he settled for a moment on a small ledge. From up here, Yangyang could keep a close eye on his comrades-in-arms. Hendery was still racing across the frozen ground like a madman. Yangyang realised that his work on the wall was done right here on the wall. He pushed himself off and jumped into the depths below him. Cold air hit his face and robbed him of his breath for a few seconds. It burned his eyes. Then he opened his wings and elegantly broke the fall.

Yuta, the golden soul, sank to the ground in front of the master. Cross-legged, he remained there, waiting for his cue. The ornamental scar on his forehead flared up. It became brighter and brighter, until a ball of pure magic was released and slowly floated to the master. It was a rare gift to release so much power willing by his thoughts. It could give the master extra power at the crucial moment to decide the battle in his favor. But it came at a price. With each magic ball Yuta formed, his own power and energy diminished. Yet he felt no hatred or fear. Yuta was grateful to be able to contribute something to the safety of the world. And that although he was only a child. The master grasped the radiant orb and swallowed it in one bite. Immediately, he could feel the energy flowing through his body. Despite the cold around him, he felt a pleasant warmth. A nice side effect of the high-dose energy. It permeated every fibre of his body. His eyes lit up briefly and the same symbol as Yuta's ornamental scar glowed on his forehead. Meanwhile, the characters poured inexorably up the steep ice walls. The three soul guards had appeared in front of the master again. Speaking magical formulas, a wave of energy pulsed over them and made the air tremble. Snow was stirred up and thrown against the wall. More and more chunks of ice broke out of the wall and fell to the ground. The characters glowed brightly. Dismayed, the master looked at the wall, which was becoming more and more cracked despite the reinforcements. He could do nothing but watch as a huge serpent's head smashed through the ice wall. With a deafening scream, the snake-demon tore open its mouth, showing several rows of its venomous teeth. Lambently, it reared to its stately height and fixed its gaze on the master and his three soul guards.

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Of lost souls and poisoned hearts | Pt.4 |

Long chapter and there is finally some action. This chapter is also the introduction to Hendery, Yangyang and Yuta :)

#wayv scenarios #wayv ten #wayv kun #wayv fluff #ten nct #nct fanfic #nct wayv #wayv fanfic #nct fantasy au #nct scenarios #fanfiction #stories #fantasy story #kpop fanfic #kpop fantasy au #wayv au #nct 127 #nct yuta

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djcaracalhisshiss · 1 year

Text

renmin au drabble

wherein baby jaem went with his parents to a pizza place because he got an award from school. Jaem's parents were busy choosing what to order and jaem was too excited he kept on tugging his mum's shirt

'Can I get a cheese pizza and some milkshake please?'

'okay baby' his mum continued to give her order to the girl in the cashier

jaemin walked away from his parents and decided to look for a spare seat and while he was scanning the place his eyes caught a very cute kid sitting with his grandparents.

he slowly approached the table and immediately said hi to the boy

'my name is jaemin how about you?' he offered his hand and even showed the dino toy he was holding

the other boy hid behind his grammy

'renjun say hi to your new friend he seems nice don't be shy'

renjun was peeking and timidly looked at jaemin who was still smiling at him

'im renjun'

jaem quickly seated beside renjun and his grandparents 'let's play with my toy'

jaem's parents were puzzled as to why there was no trace of him behind them but they're not surprised that their outgoing son is already playing

'jaemin baby? come already we have our order'

jaemin's mum tried to apologize to renjun's grandparents

'it's okay your son is very cute and i'm glad he approached our grandson'

'jaem you should say bye to your friend now. we have to go already'

jaemin just pouted and bid his farewell

'bye renjun i wish we could play together again. i'll share my dino toys to you'

'okay i had fun playing with you. thank you jaemin'

renjun waved as jaemin and his parents exited the pizza place

fast forward to a teenage Jaemin on his way to his freshman orientation

he's running towards the school auditorium due to being late when he bumped into another student

'I'm so sorry'

the other student immediately said 'its okay'

jaemin wasn't able to look at the other student when he heard him saying

'are you on your way to orientation?'

'yeah i'm sorry again tho'

'it's really fine. we can go together'

the other student offered his hand and introduced himself smiling

'Im renjun btw what a nice way to meet you'

this suddenly came to my mind while i was scrolling through my fb stories let me know what are your thoughts hehe i might start posting drabbles here

#nct #nct dream #renjun #jaemin #renmin #au drabble #fanfic #nct fanfic #nct fantasy au #nct dream drabbles #renmin drabbles #nct drabbles #nct imagines #nct dream imagines

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yutafrita · 1 year

Text

To Pierce the White Eye- TEASER

Psychic!Jaemin x reader (She/her)

Preview / One / Two / Three / Four / Fin.

Genre: Fantasy, supernatural, angst, soulmates

This is an alternate timeline from my work Under the Blue Flames. This can be read independently of UBF.

General Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence and blood, swearing, mentions of deceased family

Est. Work Word Count: 40K

Summary: You don’t think you can ever get used to the double life you and your adopted family lead. By day, you and your brother Mark attend Knight’s Cross College, but at night, you trade in your textbooks and index cards for holy water and a wooden stake to attend the Knight’s Cross College’s night class. Your classmates? The Mythics - beings most humans believed were things of fiction. Meanwhile, Na Jaemin is one of the last psychics left in the world and has been tasked with one thing by his family- make sure the Na prophecy gets fulfilled. However, the future can change at any moment, and you’re about to learn just how fragile the mythic world really is.

Check out the preview HERE!

Inspired by Blue Exorcist, Vampire Knight, and The Devil’s Line.

Feel free to comment/ send me an ask if you are interested in being added to the tag list!

Tags: @nini0620

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neonacity · 1 year

Text

ARCANE : INIZIO | CH.6 | NCT DREAM X READER

But will this war end with a crowned hero?

Or will it just create another mad villain?

*****

Pairings: Dream 00’ Line + Mark x Reader

Previously > CH. 1 | CH.2 | CH.3 | CH.4 | CH.5

In the beginning, there was everything and nothing.

Quod est superius est sicut quod inferius, et quod inferius est sicut quod est superius.

That which is above is like to that which is below, and that which is below is like to that which is above.

Harmony and equilibrium is the great thread that runs through the universe, and the very same law that keeps the aether, the nether, and the mundane world coexist peacefully with each other. For billions of years since the dawn of existence, humanity prospered in between the world above and the underworld, supported by opposing life forces necessary to keep the universe from tipping over. For centuries, there was peace, until a great shift started unraveling the fabric of the three worlds.

Greed. Pride. Lust. Gluttony. Envy. Sloth. Wrath.

As human consciousness grew, so did their desire for more festered. Kingdoms were created at the expense of tearing apart lands, wars were waged for vainglory, and lives were traded in exchange for earthly pleasures. As darkness threatened to tip the great balance of the three worlds, heavenly and nether forces were forced to work together to keep the universe from losing its equilibrium. Where the three dimensions once co-existed separately before, the greater powers threaded in the greater cosmos lent parts of their forces to the mundane world to try and keep its balance.

And thus, the twenty-two Arcana powers were born.

Each heavenly and infernal force chose its human stewards, vessels who can wield the energies of aether and nether in the mortal realm. The powers were neither good nor bad, but the first Grandmasters—and their succeeding bloodline—were given a task that they will have to carry along for as long as humanity exists: keep the equilibrium in the mundane world and protect it with their lives.

The powers are divided into three classes, the same way the universe is with its three dimensions.

The First Class: The Knights. Arcana masters whose abilities can bend matter and elements to affect the physical realm.

The Second Class: The Oracles. Arcana masters who have control over the subconscious, the psychic, and the ethereal.

The Third Class: The Triad. The holders of the last three pillars of the Arcana. Alone and separated from the bloodline, they are powerless, but together with the great system, they are the only ones who can tap into the abilities of the other masters.

For decades, the bloodline grew and prospered as new masters were born every generation. While the Family's existence is kept a secret from the greater mundane world, its members prospered and made their marks known in society as its secret vanguards. Kings, Queens, Inventors, and Great Artists, the force of the secret brotherhood was threaded and felt throughout the course of humanity. Wars were won and some battles were lost, but one thing remained the same. Regardless of the battle, the Grandmasters are here to protect the balance of the universe.

And so it begins, once again.

******* "Make one wrong move and you lose your head."

You turned around, not in fear of the words that managed to break through the mundane talk over at your breakfast table, but because of the familiar voice that said it. Beside you, Renjun, Haechan, Jisung, Chenle, and Jaemin also did the same, their expressions changing as their eyes landed on the group now smiling at your lot. You gasped the same time the boys made their own expressions of surprise, some even jumping from their seats.

"Johnny-hyung!"

"Woah, Jaehyun-hyung and Yuta-hyung—"

"Taeil-oppa?”

"Hey, kids. What's up?"

The tallest of the group, a man with black hair that fell over to his eyes, gave your table a wink before reaching over to ruffle Haechan's hair. Everyone was still pretty much stunned by what was happening that Ten's amused laughter had to pierce through the ruckus to bring you all back to focus.

"I told them they can all see you later after classes but these losers had to force their way in here to make a scene. I guess the cat's out of the bag then. We have visitors."

"You're talking as if we didn't just graduate here a couple of years ago," a guy standing by his side with a playful smile nodded over to him, his eyes sparkling. "Is that what being a teacher does? You used to run around with us and do—"

"Shut the fuck up, Yuta. And I'm not a teacher here, I'm the Academy's doctor. Kun is the one who ended up with the boring job."

"I'd love to call it boring, but I think it's actually pretty cool. You saw their breakfast buffet? Do teachers also get that now?" A shorter guy with close-cropped hair motioned towards the half-finished plates on your table. Taeil gave you all a small smile seeing the still stunned look on your faces.

"You all look like you're seeing ghosts," Johnny teased as he plopped on the vacant seat next to you. With a big grin, he draped an arm over you and pulled you into a half hug that almost cut off your air supply.

"Hi, Princess. You've grown up, haven't you? You still single?"

You couldn't see anything while being smothered by the bear of a man, but you heard Haechan clearly from somewhere across the table.

"Yah, hyung!"

"Uh-huh, I think she is still single."

“Yep. Definitely still single.”

Another voice chimed in, sounding extremely amused. You were on the verge of protesting when Johnny finally let you go with a laugh. You pulled away, a little disgruntled, and came face to face with a chuckling Jaehyun across from you.

"What are you all doing here?" You finally managed to ask, your tone a little disgruntled as you tried to straighten your hair that Johnny managed to mess up. A few of the other students still lingering for breakfast threw you looks from the other tables, gawking at the newcomers. Not that you can blame them. For the general student body, this group had a reputation as the ringleaders of the Academy in their heyday.

For you and the rest though... It’s a little bit more complicated.

After all, there is just no way it is plain coincidence to have the strongest Arcana Masters back in Rosewood.

In terms of control and maturity of abilities—and unlike the current masters enrolled as students—the earlier batch of Arcana masters are at the apex of the current generation of ability holders. Their powers have matured enough to be at their full potential after years of training and practice. If this were a battle, they would be considered the war generals—and seeing who is at Rosewood at this very moment can in no way be lacking of any significant meaning.

Johnny, Master of the Justice. Arcana Number: 08. One of the most physically strong in the family, his position is at the forefront of battle, not because of his sheer prowess in fighting alone, but due to the nature of his power. Ability: Karmic Manipulation. Whatever's done to him, he can cast tenfold of it back to its wielder by mere compulsion alone.

Jaehyun, Master of the Tower. Arcana Number: 16. He stands next to Johnny in the line of fire, being the human embodiment of carnage itself. Ability: Destruction Magic. Jaehyun has the power to shift energies to destroy everything on his path, including their life force so that they are totally erased from the cycle of the universe, never to be reincarnated again.

Yuta, Master of the Hanged Man. Arcana Number: 12. Another ace of the family, Yuta is one of the few members whose power can be projected to the outside world and to himself. Ability: Gravitational Manipulation. He can control the physical laws of gravity to his advantage, allowing him to also be the only member to have the ability of flight.

Taeil, Master of the Hermit. Arcana Number: 9. Though not a physical caster, his powers are probably one of the most terrifying among the Oracle class. Ability: Nightmare Inducement. He can get in anyone's head to know their greatest fears and project them to the physical world.

Ten, Master of the Chariot. Arcana Number: 7. He rarely uses his powers because they can affect the fabric of destiny alone. Ability: Space-Time Manipulation. The lord of time himself, he can jump through different dimensions and locations at will.

"Can't an alumni visit their home school?" Johnny asked back, his tone light. You exchanged a quick glance with Jaemin and Renjun beside you.

"Aren't you supposed to get married next month, hyung?" Chenle asked politely but pointedly. It was brief, but Johnny's friendly smile slipped ever so slightly before he caught himself again. For once, he actually seemed like he didn't have any answer to shoot back.

"Masters just can't go back any time they want to… We are all meant to go somewhere to watch over things after leaving Rosewood. Aren't you working for the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, Jaehyun-hyung?" Renjun said next.

"I'm pretty sure you don't get a lot of vacations there to spend for a quick school visit," Jaemin trailed off to drive the point across.

If the group wasn't obvious earlier at least for the clueless, they certainly are now with the way they exchanged looks. Ten looks like he was on the verge of breaking when another trio caught all of your attention as they strolled towards you. Your eyes rounded in surprise when you recognized their faces.

"Taeyong-hyung," Jisung voiced out the man's name who was currently flanked by Kun and another girl whose face you know so well. What on earth has your father done this time?

"I thought we agreed to talk to all of them together?" Kun frowned at Ten who gave him an exasperated shrug.

"They never listened to rules as students, do you really think that has improved now?"

"Sorry for barging in. Are these guys bothering you?" Taeyong asked, his eyes kind as usual as he regarded all of you. It's been a couple of years since you've last seen him since he graduated, but you realized that the former Head Boy and well-known Legacy in the family has retained his kindness until now. Taeyong, like Kun, is a member of the bloodline but lacked any powers, but that hasn't stopped him from playing a pivotal role in the clan. While Kun stayed at Rosewood to defend it should something happen, Taeyong was sent to fight for it and protect it from a distance. The duty given to them is what earned the pair the title of this generation's Ace of Shield and Ace of Sword.

"Taeyong-oppa… You're also here," you trailed off before your gaze unwittingly slipped towards the girl standing by his side. She looked like she didn't want to impose her presence, but you couldn't stop yourself, not when you know her face all too well.

"And you… Mijeong?"

Her head jerked and she looked at you wide-eyed as you called out her name. Despite the strangeness of the situation, your lips slightly twitched into a knowing smile.

"You remember my name?"

"We were classmates at Advanced Psychology. And you've also been watching over me since I joined the University. I hope my father didn't force you to do it."

If she looked surprised earlier, then Mijeong definitely seemed shell-shocked now. Beside her, Taeyong raised his brow curiously before glancing at Kun who looked like he was trying his best not to smile.

"You, you've always known that I—"

"Was tasked to guard me? Yes. I wouldn't think too much about it though. You're really good, but I've also spent my whole life living with my father's schemes."

"I guess she wouldn't need too much introduction then if that is the case. Kim Mijeong, she's the master of The Strength and—" Taeyong started before he was cut off by a flash of silver darting from out of nowhere past him. The movement was too quick for all of you to notice, but the next thing you saw was the butter knife safely tucked between Mijeong's middle and forefinger. The girl raised her eyebrow before twirling the blade casually in her hand.

"Yuta… Can you please not do that?" Taeyong asked with a sigh. The boy in question smirked, his eyes set on the other Master.

"When they said La Fuerza is from the Kim clan, I didn't expect it to be the little sister. I had to check if she’s good since that family thinks they're too good for Rosewood," Yuta said, his eyes dancing. Mijeong returned the snark by staring him down.

"We have a different training as the working guards of the family. I don't think it's such a bad idea to skip the Academy too if it means we get spared from mingling with douchebags like you," she snapped back smoothly before making a show of making one last twirl of the blade in her palm before closing her fist around it. The lot of you watched, jaw slacked, as she easily folded and bent the metal in her hand like it was a piece of paper. The next second, she was flinging it back to Yuta's direction with a flick of her wrist. The now crumpled clump of metal stopped just a few inches from hitting the other in the face as he stopped it with gravity.

Chenle gave a low whistle, impressed by the show. Kun, however, looks like he was done with the exchange.

"Okay, can we just stop throwing blades at each other for a moment? It's 9AM."

"Yes, which makes it the perfect time for you guys to answer our question. I'm afraid even this isn't enough to distract us," you added before giving the newcomers a pointed look. Taeyong gave you a slightly guilty smile before touching the back of his head.

"Your father invited us for a little bit of help. We don't think we will be here for a long time though, don't worry. I think he just has a few things he wants to try."

The way you and Haechan looked at each other at the same time told you one thing. He’s not lying, but he’s definitely not telling the whole truth either. If there's one thing you all know about Taeyong, it's his talent to make the worst of things sound like a frolic in the garden.

"When you say a few things he wants to try…" Haechan asked, prodding for more.

"A few… classes specifically. And drills," Kun was the one who answered this time. Silence dropped on your table, thick and loaded with meaning. The next one who broke it was the most unexpected of all.

"Is something happening? If there is, I think we have a right to know about it," Jisung said, his voice still polite but steady. Several pairs of eyes swiveled towards him, surprised by the youngest’s comment. You could almost physically touch the lingering guilt from his older brothers before Taeyong finally sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"We want to tell you, but the Headmaster hasn't given us a lot of information either. He called us back to protect Rosewood against attacks—from who, I doubt he knows himself—and to prepare everyone. Especially you kids."

"What does that mean?" Chenle asked, confused. "All of us got calls from our families yesterday. They said we might leave the Academy temporarily."

"Not until you finish your training," Jaehyun said as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Training? With who?" Jaemin replied.

"With us." Johnny answered as he finally picked himself up from his seat. You and the others froze, not expecting his answer. Nobody needed to say anything for all of you to piece together what’s happening.

The seniors are not only here to protect the Academy, but to prepare all of you for a bigger war.

"We're officially making an announcement later but since you're all here…" Kun started, looking at each of you. "The rest of the student body will be sent back to their homes today. Regular classes are indefinitely postponed to make way for drills which will start tomorrow."

"All Knights class will be divided into groups and will be trained under Johnny, Jaehyun, Yuta, and Mijeong. The Oracles will be assigned to Taeil and Ten. Taeyong and I will be moderating everything."

"And the Triads?" You asked, causing Kun to stop. He looked unsure of what to tell you, but you didn't waver, keeping your eyes steady on him for an answer.

"I think you need to talk to your father first..."

Your hands balled into fists under the table. You haven't talked to the man again again since your confrontation at his office, but the fact that he didn't include you in any of his plans does not mean anything good. You kept silent now, however, knowing that you should be more careful of your actions.

"You can all go back to the dormitories now. We'll just call you again once everything is ready. I suggest you just… relax today," Taeyong said before looking at the other newcomers to signal them to leave. You all watched quietly as the group picked themselves up and bid you their goodbyes.

Renjun was the first one to talk once everyone was out of the door.

"What's going to happen now…?" He asked quietly. Haechan dropped again to his seat, looking as worried as the rest of you.

"Training under those beasts? We're going to die. That's what's going to happen. We're going to fucking die."

******* "Get up. We need to go."

Jaemin opened his eyes and gave you an unbothered glance the moment you locked the door behind you. He looked unsurprised by your sudden barging in, a look of mild curiosity tracing his features as you started pacing in his room. He remained unmoving from his spot on the bed even as you finally turned to him, gnawing at nail on your thumb.

"What exactly are we up to today?" He asked mildly, raising his brows at you in question. You paused, not knowing how to best phrase the answer.

"We're ransacking my father's office."

The silence that followed was almost painful. You winced, expecting the worst reaction.

"You've absolutely gone mad, noona."

Your shoulders slumped at his reply. He is right. You've reached the point of being batshit crazy this time, but you're also desperate, and time is not necessarily on your side.

"Look, I need to do something. There is no way Papa will tell us anything so we need to find our own answers. This is the only time that we have. I checked. He left the Academy again so his office is free," you paused before finally staring at him. "Will you help me?"

It took him a bit to answer. The truth is, when it comes to things like this, he is the only other person you could trust to have your back. Mark is too straight-laced to try and do something like this—that and the fact that he still refuses to talk to you—and Jeno... Jeno would be another good option too if only he hasn’t been avoiding you as well. The rest, you didn’t want to drag into trouble in case you get busted. You didn't realize that you've been holding your breath until Jaemin finally sighed and started picking himself up from his bed.

"They say I'm the devil, but you're actually more dangerous. Don’t play innocent, you already know my answer when it comes to you," he said as he straightened his clothes. You tried your best to hold back your grin from showing.

"You can say no, you know," you quipped as you both headed to the door. He easily opened it and motioned for you to lead the way.

"When I can ask for a payment for this favor? I don't think so. Lead the way, love. We have some sleuthing to do."

******* "So, what exactly are we looking for?" Jaemin asked as he went through the stacks of books in your father's shelves. The room was dim with only one small fluorescent lamp that you decided to open and you squinted in the dark as you flipped through the folders on his desk.

"I don't know… Anything that can give us a clue. He told me that the Kims alerted him about people trying to pass through the barriers of Rosewood a couple of months ago. I don't believe he hasn’t been working on getting any leads since he found out about it."

At your words, Jaemin froze on his spot and slowly turned to look at you. You returned his gaze knowingly as you closed another folder and placed it back to its pile.

"People? You mean—"

"Humans… Mundanes who aren't part of the bloodline," you muttered grimly. This is the first time you've shared the information to any of them since your talk with your father. You figured this is the best time to give him an idea, given everything that has happened in just a span of a few days.

"But how—" he paused, his face strained. "Is this what this is all about then? Whatever it is that we are preparing for, it's against the humans?"

"Not just any group of humans, I guess. Someone powerful, or else they wouldn't have much influence to pull something as big as this. That's what we need to find out. Whoever wants to steal the Arcana powers."

"So this isn't really a fight but a hunt. That's why our parents are asking us to leave and why Jaehyun-hyung and the others are going to be training us. We're running away and being taught to defend ourselves."

You didn't immediately answer, though the look on your face was enough of a confirmation for him. The truth is, you still do not want to follow the path your father is drawing up for everyone. Escaping is the most logical course of action, but it can also start a cycle that none of you might be able to break. If you run now, you'll be looking at your backs and living in fear forever.

"Is that why he is also marrying you off to Mark-hyung?"

His question was not surprising, but it still definitely made you pause. Ever since your father told you about the arrangement, you haven't really talked to anyone about it, Mark included. After your talk, you are convinced he was trying to stay away from you as much as he can—and for that, you couldn't really blame him.

"It was a discussion between him and Mark's father. None of us said yes to it," you said, shifting your eyes away from him and continuing to sift through the other files on your father's desk. Jaemin was quiet, but you could feel his stare heavily on your skin.

"I think you know what his answer will be given the choice. The question is, do you want to marry him?"

This time, you felt your heart clench.

"I don't want to marry anyone for convenience."

Jaemin's loaded pause was so palpable you almost wanted to escape him.

"You love him. You can fool anyone, but not me. You've always loved him."

"If you're so good about reading me, then you should also know the reason why I can't be with him," you said as you finally met his gaze steadily. The light from the lamp threw shadows over the curves of his face from where he stood, but it was the look in his eyes that spoke the words none of you wanted to speak out.

You didn't know when it happened, but as you grew up, both Jaemin and you somehow came upon a silent agreement never to talk about things like this. It wasn't needed, because you both know where you stand in each other's lives. It was a silent dance, one that both of you were content in doing for as long as it could work. He never rocked that boat, but as you looked at him now, you were also gripped by the sudden fear of that world slowly being tipped over.

"It is the right choice…" he said slowly, almost as if he was forcing the words out of his lips. "If the humans are after us, that means there is a traitor in the family. The Masters will be vulnerable, especially you and your father. Mark-hyung's family… You can either be a part of them, or have them as your number one enemy."

"Do you want me to marry him, Jaemin?"

This time it was him who stopped. His expression didn't falter, though you noticed the way his jaw slightly ticked as if he was trying to control himself.

"If my family can give you the same protection that his can, then believe me, I would have whisked you away by now and married you on the spot."

You took a slow breath in at his answer.

"You can’t say that. You know that I— "

"Love me just as much as you do him, Jeno, Renjun, and Haechan? I've personally never had any problem with that. I think you know that by now. I want you. I don't care whatever else comes with that."

To say that you weren't ready for this conversation was understating it. Jaemin had always been safe, that one person you knew would always have your back without really losing sight of what should and shouldn't be done. Right now though, he is making you look at things that you aren’t ready for yet.

You were so lost in your thoughts that you didn't notice him crossing the distance to where you were seated. The next thing you felt was warmth touching your cold cheeks as he ever so gently tipped your face to look at him. The way he held you and the look in his eyes almost made you want to fold into yourself.

"Tell me what's on your mind… You're hurting…" he whispered as he started gently running his hand over the corner of your eye.

"I wish you didn't know me so much."

He smiled.

"IL Matto or not, you can't run away from me when it comes to that, love."

It took you a moment to answer again. After a few more heartbeats, you finally stood up and walked towards the center of the room, as if putting distance between the two of you would somehow lessen the impact of your words.

"I don't think I will be living long enough to marry anyone, Jaemin," you started, voice low enough only for him to hear. His eyes slowly widened and you avoided his gaze to not see the realization there.

"It hasn't been part of my plan. Ever. I don’t want to stay here for a long time. How can you live in fear knowing that you can turn mad one day and just lose everything? It's terrifying."

"You're not going to—"

"I will. In time," you cut him off before he could even finish. "Papa knows it and I know you do, too. I can feel it. It will happen one way or another. It’s the curse of IL Matto."

He was quiet. For the first time, he actually let his emotions run free as he stared at you. You could see the gears working in his head and you gave him a small smile as you watched him piece things together.

"You want to fight," he said lowly. “You’re going to go against your father’s plans.”

"Yes. Somebody had to stand up to him. I don’t want to run. I want to try to fix things while I still can.”

He was about to say something again when a sudden beeping rang through the room. You both turned to the phone on your father's desk, it's red light beeping from the incoming call. You were still both frozen on your spots when the ringing finally stopped and the system switched to voice mail.

"Sir, we're done trying to process the specimen that we got from the night you were attacked. The men were using unknown technology that was unlabeled but we traced some of the scraps we got from the site and made a successful match. We have a name now."

Both you and Jaemin stared at each other, faces pale. Your heart was beating so loud against your chest that you thought you wouldn't hear the unknown man's next words.

"It's Cypher Institute."

******* "I'm surprised that you're actually the one who showed up today. I thought you were making sure to keep things under the radar."

The lilting, almost amused voice of the woman felt like thin ice needles slowly sinking into his skin. The private room's lighting was dim, but even the lack of proper illumination didn't tarnish the deep red lips that now tilted into a mirthless smile across from him. Everything about her looked cold, almost to the point of artificial perfection, and that's coming from a man who is also known for icyness himself.

"A show of faith to this unlikely partnership, if I must say. I didn't want you to think I might stab you on the back," he answered back just as smoothly, his expression never-changing. The woman's smile widened, showing perfect white teeth.

"Now, now. I think you don’t have too much faith on us. Why would I think that, after all that you've done for us…?"

"Junho Lee."

The mention of his name almost made him flinch. As one of the most prominent members of the Arcana bloodline, he does have an ability of sensing energies of others. This woman might be powerless—a regular human—but what she has is something more sinister than any of the ancient powers above and below.

Unadulterated greed.

And madness.

"I want to personally have your word about our arrangement," he said stiffly, his cold gaze unwavering on her. She merely turned her head a little to the side in mild interest.

"Mm… Is this the one about your son? Feel free to be specific. The consequences of your betrayal run deep after all."

Her use of words finally shook his facade. His fists closed in response, an action she did not miss from the way her eyes lit up with amusement. When Junho Lee signed up to this agreement, he knew he was permanently damaging his sacred ties to the Family. Playing with fire was part of the game, but he did not expect to be against the Devil herself.

"I need your word that my son will be unharmed once all of this is over and done. I don't care whatever else you do, but Mark stays safe."

"Of course. Is that all?"

He paused. The woman’s expression didn’t change but something about the way she looked at him told him that she was probing for... more. Junho knew this time will come when he will be asked to make a choice, but that didn’t make the process any easier now that he is finally at the crossroads.

When he decided to sell his soul to Cypher, he only had one goal. To make the man who was behind the death of his wife suffer. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. IL Giudizio allowed his own wife to go mad and wreak havoc on others, resulting on the death of a whole generation of Masters. He was the reason why his family was ruined and why Mark's mother was ripped away from him. The man deserves to suffer, his family included, and yet… he couldn't bring himself to betray his daughter to the Institute. While he has no trace of care for the current IL Matto, he knew—from the way his son looks at her—that she is one he is willing to burn the world for; the same way he is doing now for his own lost love.

Mark already lost his mother. He can't bear to rip the last woman he loves from him too. For that, he is willing to spare some souls.

"Yes. Just him. You can do whatever it is that you want with the other Masters."

"Ah… how cruel. To think that your family used to be the number one trusted clan of the whole bloodline itself. Who would have thought that you would be the one to send them to the slaughterhouse yourself."

"I am loyal to no one and nothing but power."

The woman paused, her smile frozen in her lips. Her vision was one of the most terrifyingly beautiful things he's ever seen, her eyes piercing… still probing.

"One last question then," she said slowly, deliberately. His facade never changed despite the cold starting to gnaw at him from the insides.

"Who is IL Matto?"

"I do not know. IL Giudizio considers me as his closest confidante and trusted ally, but not enough for him to betray the last member of the Triad even to me. If you want to look for the last Master, you'll have to torture it out of his own lips."

He delivered his answer so smoothly and so effortlessly that he could have fooled anyone with his lie. But this woman is evil incarnate herself, and for that he had to work harder. It felt like having a stare off with a beast waiting for its prey to blink and show any weakness. He didn't waver though until finally, she smiled at him once more.

"I see. If that's the case, then you have our promise. Your son will be spared. But only if you deliver your end of the bargain. Time is running out and I am growing bored."

"Bring IL Giudizio to Cypher."

Junho took that as a cue for him to finally stand up and leave. Straightening his coat, he gave her a look that could rival her ice.

"One of my men will give you a call once everything is ready. Tell IL Mondo... I send my regards."

Miyoung’s smile sharpened at the edges as she followed the man's retreating back until it disappeared out of the room. Her soft voice lingered in the air, an echo of the closing of the door.

"Let the games begin."

CHAPTER 7

*******

A/N: So... It’s been two months. Are there people who even still remember this story? Lol. Anyway, I’m just dropping this here real quick before I semi-disappear again. This feels rushed and and is shorter than usual, but I’m glad I was still able to finish a chapter. Enjoy!

Untaggable for some reason: @renjunsflower, @coconuttiez8d

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justawriter68 · 1 year

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Moving some of my stuff on here from Twitter just in case~ haha! But please enjoy After hours

🖤Yuta Centric

🖤Utopia/ Dystopia

🖤Solar Punk

🖤Found Family

🖤Blood/ Violence

🖤Mentions of Human Experimentation

#kpop #nctzen #nct #nct fantasy au #fanfic #read on ao3 #nct yuta

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lily-blue · 2 years

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The choices you give

☆ characters: assassin!renjun & dragon whisperer!you ☆ genre: fantasy ☆ warnings: mention of blood ☆ summary: You and Renjun were born into enemy tribes, but Destiny has a different scenario in store for the two of you. Before either of you realise, it has already set the inevitable in motion. ☆ words: 11,4k ☆ also: i’d like to dedicate this story to my other half, @dat-town ♥ happy name day, darling!

Your muscles were screaming for a break and your skin was sticky from sweat and blood, but you were willing to push yourself just a tad bit more like you always did since your sister had stepped into the leadership role of your tribe. Shuang was an amazing chief. Some said that one day, she would be an even better one than your father had been because she wasn’t just strong-willed, but kind-hearted as well, looking after each one of your people with sincerity and equality. She had been born for this, you agreed with everyone who claimed so. But this didn’t change the fact that she wasn’t as good or gifted in fights as you were. And so, you felt some sort of sense of responsibility to protect her from all harm.

While Shuang had inherited your father’s calm nature and excellent people skills, you were a copy of your mother. You were persistent, loyal to the death, reckless on some days and better at communicating with your beloved dragons than with your own blood. Needless to say, you still got along with everyone in the tribe, you were a peaceful community, after all, but most people confused you. Their mouths said different things than their body language even during the most trivial conflicts, when the truth couldn’t have cost their lives. You couldn’t imagine losing your credibility over a badly seasoned chicken soup, but for some reason, your closest friend lied to her mother about the woman’s awful cooking from day one. You simply chose not to eat anything that she put on the table when you visited.

Something damp bumped into your stomach and pushed you a few centimetres backwards, but because of your quick reflexes, you managed to grab onto one or two rough scales and kept your balance. Long’s playful attempt at gaining your attention was definitely successful. The snow white, five metres tall reptile’s needy and clingy nature never failed to make you roll your eyes, but as always, it warmed your heart under the surface, too. He was your first and dearest friend, someone who shared your birthday with you, therefore, he was there for you during every step of your life. He was your everything, but also the biggest pain in the ass when you craved some alone time. Not that you had ever tried too hard to push him away.

‘Okay, buddy. Where did you leave Muddy?’ You asked with your hands still on the dragon’s head, eyes boring deep into the reptile’s ice blue orbs. Your tone might have been light, but your gaze that shifted from the animal to the cloudless sky failed to hide your worries. The copper-coloured dragon should have been right behind Long and her absence raised your guards higher. You couldn’t help but expect the enemy from behind every brush and thicker trunk. ‘One more round and we need to meet Captain Qian,’ you enlightened Long with a small pat on the bridge of his nose and the hot air that hit you when he exhaled in excitement made you frown. As if the weather hadn’t been unbearable already. You couldn’t wait to get back home and take a cold shower.

But first, you had a stray dragon to find and an eventless afternoon shift to make a report on. Or so you thought until Muddy crashed into the ground a few metres from you and Long, left wing visibly injured.

‘Muddy!’ You screamed as you rushed towards the animal and getting down on your knees, you checked her bloody wounds. She had been shot with multiple arrows, the feather on their fletching painted gold and ivy green. They were the representative colours of one of the most ruthless clans on the mainland; the Huangs.

Alarmed by their presence so close to your territories, you looked at Long and let your power create a strong connection between the two of you, a connection that allowed you to give him commands he had no other option but to follow. You needed him to warn Captain Qian while you lured the intruders further from your home and the copper-coloured dragon who might have accidentally led them towards the two of you. You couldn’t let him stick by your side this time. No matter how much safer you would have felt if he had stayed.

Once Long was out of sight, you broke the arrowheads off their shafts and removed each one of them with a few swift movements so that Muddy’s body could start healing. Then, you leaned your forehead against hers and asked her to stay safe and wait for the others. Because while you were aware that you couldn’t have fought more than a small group of soldiers on your own, you had no intention to do so in the first place. You were a good fighter not just due to your strength and inherited power, but also because of the strategies you were able to come up with in an emergency. You would be fine until you didn’t lose your cool.

With a longsword secured to your back and two daggers on your belt, you quickly covered your sweaty skin with mud and jogged inside the woods.

The armed soldiers weren’t as close as you had predicted them to be - you needed to walk in the direction from where Muddy had come for a while to hear their hushed words -, but the fact that they had crossed the sea unnerved you. Even more, when listening to them, you realised that they were looking for something or someone.

Your fingertips grazed along the leather grip of your weapon as you hid in the shadows. You didn’t like the eagerness in their movements and the hunger in their eyes before they splitted into two and three-member teams. You gulped down the bile that climbed another inch higher in your throat and chose to follow the one that headed towards the direction of your people. It didn’t fit the plan you had initially intended to execute, but it was what you had to work with. And the moment your gaze settled on the unmoving body under the blueberry bush that was only a couple of steps from the invaders, you were relieved that you had made these choices. Two against one sounded almost unfair to your enemies.

Your movements were smooth and quiet, but only until you got to your position across from the body. Then, you made sure to break a branch or two under your feet to trick them into believing that you had no intention to distract them from finding their prey and that you were only a foolish girl who was in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

‘That way! Someone’s there,’ one of them claimed and you leaned against the trunk of the tree that you were using as your temporary hideout, listening to their footsteps and waiting for the storm after the calm.

They came after you from two directions, but even this way, you had the advantage of your smaller albeit faster figure and the knowledge about the woods. Just like you, who had been on the mostly eventless afternoon patrol duty, they didn’t wear their full armour, either, which was unbelievably careless of them. Because despite the peaceful nature of your tribe, you didn’t hesitate to injure them here and there before knocking them out. Their wounds obviously weren’t severe enough to kill, but they still had to be found to not bleed out before they regained their consciousness.

The cut on your upper arm was pulsing, however, you decided not to wrap it into a shred of textile without washing off the mud and your sweat first. Instead, you arranged the bodies so that their position wouldn’t lead any of their comrades closer to your home and went to check the body that belonged to those boots you had caught a glimpse at earlier.

The boy under the blueberry bush was alive, but his heartbeats were slow and his skin was as pale as death. He was dressed in all black, but the material of his clothes was the same - or at least, something very similar to - what the soldiers were wearing and that alone should have been enough for you to leave him behind. He might have meant danger with a capital letter D. But you had never been one who turned her back on someone in need without a good reason and in your opinion, mere assumptions weren’t justifiable. So you pondered over your options and with a displeased groan, you lifted his body off the ground and carried him to a safe place on your back. On your way to the wooden cabin that your father had built for you and Shuang when you had been younger and where you had spent numerous nights with him while you had been on a hunt together, you couldn’t not think of how much more convenient it would have been if Long had tagged along. He could have taken the boy’s weight off your shoulders quite literally.

Time wasn’t on your side, but being the little sister of the tribe’s chief had its advantages. You might have been another soldier in your small group of guards, you might have had superiors to report to, but not even Captain Qian could lock you up for the night due to your reckless actions despite disappearing from the face of the Earth for two hours after Muddy had been attacked. At least, not without risking to anger Shuang. Therefore, even though you had left your position without his permission and risked your life without waiting for them to arrive, he had let you off the hook because you had managed to lure the soldiers away from the tribe and come back with only a few minor injuries. He had let you walk out of his tent after a half-hearted scolding and a reminder: you belonged to a team. In his opinion (and in many others’), you should have long forgotten about your solo missions. That part of your life should have ended the day your father had died. So why couldn’t you have let go of your freedom like how your sister had given up on hers?

This question followed you everywhere. It followed you back to the woods after a tense and quiet dinner with your sister. And it lingered around you when you fixed the fire that you had set for the injured boy right after you had treated his wounds, not long before you had gone back to where you had left Muddy. You hated how conflicted it made you feel when you had made it clear numerous times that you preferred watching over your people from the shadows. You didn’t wish to be a part of a fixed team or lead your guards when Captain Qian was already doing an excellent job at it. Even if that meant that your friend, Kun, didn’t really exist to you anymore.

You noticed the change in his breathing before he gave a weak attempt at sitting up, but you didn’t show any sign of your awareness. You kept staring at the flames and the orange-gold hue that they casted on your skin.

‘What did you do to my arrows?’ was the first thing he asked, his voice hoarse like how one’s voice usually was when they didn’t use their vocal chords for long hours. The unmistaken grumpiness that laced the stranger’s question pushed the corners of your mouth upwards. He sounded like someone who was rough around the edges, but you were aware that assuming anything regarding his personality so early into your acquaintance would have been careless of you. You needed to be on alert until you figured him out.

‘Shouldn’t you make me believe that you’re a harmless folk? Why would you ask me about your weapons before asking about how you got here and where we are exactly?’ You retorted and raised one of your slim eyebrows as you turned your head and looked at him from above your shoulder. His coal black locks stuck out in different directions, undermining the ice cold stare he was giving to your upper arm before your eyes met. You wondered whether he could make out the outline of your bondage under your brown tunic or if it was a mere coincidence. For some reason, you thought that it wasn’t the latter. Still, you pointed towards the corner on your left side without breaking eye contact. ‘There.’

He seemed sceptical whether he should have turned his head first or waited for you to do so, but in the end, he gave in and let out a relieved sigh. His arrows were different from the ones you had removed from Muddy’s body - their fletching was black like a starless night and their shaft was painted the same colour as well -, but maybe, this was the reason why he was so glad that you hadn’t thrown them into the flames. Maybe, they were special to him despite their plain appearance. And your curiosity urged you to ask more, to get to know him more.

Instead, you remained silent and watched him as he pushed himself into a standing position and lost his balance after the first wobbly step. You had seen the bruises on his ankle, but you were no medic. Therefore, it surprised you when he flinched because of the pain.

You wanted to help him. However, it was quite obvious that he preferred doing things on his own so you didn’t push. You turned back towards the flames and chose to focus on the noises he made while giving him some sort of privacy because honestly, his clumsy movements and blind determination were too amusing to not smile. And you doubted that he would have taken it the good way if he had caught you laughing at his pain.

‘Shouldn’t you hide them better if you think I’m dangerous?’ The question reached you after a quiet yelp, indicating that the boy either snatched his beloved weapons or had to grab onto something else to not fall on his face.

You muffled the sound of your snort with your lower arm before you hardened your facial expressions and turned towards the boy. He was leaning against the wall, taking the weight off his right leg while he was most probably also resting before the short journey back to the bed.

‘Oh, so silly of me! Should have known I had no chance against a guy with a fractured wrist, a swollen ankle and a deep cut on his lower abdomen. Please, spare me, good sir,’ you let out a small chuckle as the mockery fell from your lips. You might not have known about his leg injury before he had regained his consciousness and tried to stand up, nor you had checked his entire body for wounds, but you had been undoubtedly right about his condition. Whoever he was, he was no match for you.

The boy was eyeing you as though he couldn’t have decided whether you were a sane person or just a girl who was too alone in the woods to not lose her mind along the way, but you didn’t waste your energy on useless corrections. You believed that if anyone, he had been the one who owed you a couple of answers starting with where he came from, what he had been doing so close to your home and why those soldiers were looking for him. Was he a deserter? A criminal? A traitor of their clan? Was he someone you could trust? What was his name?

You hated being ogled at, you hated when someone gave you too much attention while being vulnerable so you spared him from the same fate. Clearly, you still focused on the faint sound of his footsteps and kept your guards high, but you busied yourself with other things such as rearranging the pile of wood sticks you had collected for the night and boiling a can of water for tea.

You smiled when the boy’s body crash landed on the bed with a big tud and yet, his stomach chose to betray his demeanour, declaring how hungry he truly was a heartbeat after the quiet settled. You didn’t need to turn towards him to know that he was frowning and as absurd as it sounded, you could almost picture the furrow between his brows with your eyes shut close.

‘There’s food on that table,’ you informed him while you pointed at the wooden object with a stick of firewood. Admittedly, it was totally unnecessary for you to have it in your hand, but its weight felt nice now that your blades weren’t tucked into your belt. It gave you some sort of fake sense of safety as if it could have protected you in case you had made the wrong decisions and had underestimated your opponent. If the boy had decided to shoot you with an arrow, you would have been defenceless with and without your stick.

You could feel your muscles tense during the following silence, but that only meant that you weren’t acting careless so you didn’t mind the constant presence of worry. Up until you could keep it in control, this made you not only a good, but an excellent fighter.

Even so, uncomfortable silence was uncomfortable silence and you preferred it to be gone as soon as possible. Therefore, you turned towards the boy and raised one of your brows upon seeing his unmoving body. He showed little to no willingness to eat the food you had brought for him for a starving and weakened human.

‘What now? If I wanted to poison you, I wouldn’t have treated your wounds in the first place, would I have?’ You asked, pseudo-confusion reflecting in your dark orbs as your gaze shifted to the bread and the marinated fish, then back to him. You had been taught from a very young age that food was more valuable than any gold and gemstone. You would have never played with it just so you could use it against your enemies when they least expected it. Poisons were for the cowards and the ones without dignity.

‘Where are the others?’ He asked back instead of answering your rhetorical question and one look at his stern face was enough for you to figure out that he was analysing you the same way you did to him. He might have done so since the second he had woken up or maybe, just maybe, since a tad bit longer.

‘We’re the only ones here,’ you admitted, trying to brush aside the boy’s suspicion. Not to mention that it was absolutely true. Although your father had built this safe haven for both you and Shuang, your sister had never been as fond of the forest as you were. She couldn’t have even made herself confront you when you had locked yourself up in here after your father’s death. She had sent Kun after you and a letter in which she had reminded you that life didn’t stop for anyone. So it was safe to say that you were the only one who used this place and without your constant companions, you were utterly alone with a person no one in your tribe knew about.

‘So you carried me here on your own,’ he stated and while the statement itself made you feel as though he couldn’t believe a word you say, his tone remained neutral as if he had been willing to accept your unexpected strength and stamina in case you presented the facts in the right way. But did you really want to do that? Wouldn’t it have been stupid of you to actively prove him how capable you were just because the opposite hurt your pride?

Your little staring contest started without you realising it and while you were a competitive person by nature, the possibility of you being manipulated into it irked you to hell. Therefore, when he tilted his head in the direction of the food, you forced yourself to lose and stood up from the ground with an annoyed eye roll and a resigned sigh.

You walked to the table and wrapped the stuff you had stolen from your dinner table into a piece of fabric. Then, you decreased the distance between your bodies and placed the bread and the cold fish on the bed, unwrapped it once again and stuffed a handful of both into your mouth. They didn’t taste as good as they had done when they had been freshly made, but they were still good. Which meant that the only thing the boy had a valid reason to worry about was his growing hunger and him choking on a stray fish bone if he wasn’t careful enough.

Like a wild animal, his movements were slower and smaller while you were close, however, as soon as you walked back to the boiling water and set yourself on finishing making some tea, he jumped on the food just like how you had predicted. It was an instinctive reaction, you knew it had nothing to do with flavours and preferences, but you smiled at the thought of how your cook would have been delighted to see someone eat so well.

‘Who did that to you?’ You asked when he finally slowed down and started to enjoy the taste of the food, too, instead of just devouring his late night dinner.

Although he heard your question, he didn’t speak up immediately. He kept his eyes on you as if he could have figured you out if he had burnt a big enough hole between your eyebrows, but much to his dislike you were almost as good at keeping your cool as he was. He needed to offer you something, anything if he had wanted to get some information in return.

‘Soldiers,’ he gave you a curt answer and if not for the calming tea that did wonders to your nerves, you would have rolled your eyes because seriously, should you have been thankful for something so obvious? The cut on his lower abdomen had been clearly caused by a longer blade and people around the area didn’t carry these kinds of weapons with them just for fun. And while it was true that you were hiding him from the rest of the guards, if anyone from your team had come across him before you, Captain Qian would have known about him. Then, the boy would have had his dinner in one of your small cells, ankles adorned with two nice chains despite his injury. Knowing all these, he couldn’t have possibly thought that you would be satisfied with how much he had shared.

‘Why wou—’

‘You live here? In the middle of nowhere?’ He cut off your question with his own, munching on a slice of bread now that the fish was gone. You poured some tea in an empty cup for him, but didn’t make the tiniest effort to serve him out of the kindness of your heart. If he wanted it, he had to work for it or ask for it in a friendlier manner. Yours was a power game that you didn’t intend to lose.

‘It’s somewhere to me,’ you stated which he accepted with a low hum, seemingly unwilling to make it any easier for you to keep up the conversation. You figured that it might have been because the more you two spoke, the higher chance it had that one of you got to know something you shouldn’t have known about. Thus, you spent the rest of the night mostly in silence, sipping on green tea while exchanging a few words here and there that were either lies or half-truths on both of your sides. You had a feeling that he was aware of this, too, that he knew your bandage was hiding something else than a nasty scratch from a dry branch, but since he didn’t call you out on your nonsense, you kept your mouth shut whenever he said something equally as ridiculous. It was clear that he didn’t trust you, but it was fine. Because it would have been stupid and naive of him after what had happened to him in the woods. And you would have been the last person on this island who put their trust in stupid and naive people.

It took two weeks for the boy’s ankle to get better and a couple of more weeks for his wrist to be able to hold a bow, but the more freely he could move around the house, the less grumpy he became for which you were grateful under the nonchalant facade. Mostly, because it was hard to balance your duties as a guard, a sister and a supervisor without acting too suspicious. If it hadn’t been enough that Captain Qian was asking cross-questions from you whenever you were away from the tribe for more than a few hours, the injured boy did the same before each one of your shared meals, keeping you on edge as though, out of the two of you, you were the suspected criminal. His humour was dry and his subtle smiles sent a shiver down your spine, but he was still easier to handle than Long whose clinginess got exponentially worse day by day. Unlike Muddy who seemed to be rather happy about the sudden free time she got, the white dragon took your absence badly. By the end of the fifth week, you had to use your power on him almost daily to keep him safe, which left you with drier and paler skin, a decreased appetite and a pair of hollow eyes despite your best effort to stay strong. The more your commands went against a dragon’s will, the more drained it left you, one of the last dragon whisperers.

Coming back to the wooden cabin after a long and uneventful night of patrolling around the southern borders, a quick and cold shower, a way too long meeting with your captain and a quiet but nice breakfast with Shuang, you longed for nothing else but a well deserved nap in the bed across from the boy’s, but his day had only started and you had run out of excuses approximately two or three days ago. Why were you always tired when you were supposed to be an ordinary girl who lived in the woods on her own after her parents’ death? Because your lies were slowly but surely eating you in whole. You should have never hid him from captain Qian and your sister. You should have taken him to them as soon as you had knocked out the soldiers who had been after him. What had you been thinking?

But then, he might have never told you his - hopefully - real name like how he had done so after the first week: Renjun. Then, he might have never shown you the side of him that could have come off as suspicious under any other circumstances: his utmost curiosity about your people. Then, you might have never caught a glimpse at the unique birthmark on the back of his hand that you had initially mistaken for dirt.

At the end of the day, this was how things had always been meant to be.

‘How can you be so sure they’re good people if you don’t know them?’ Renjun asked you when you made yourself comfortable in front of him, on the edge of his bed, and started your daily routine: cleaning the slowly healing cut on his lower abdomen then dressing it into a sanitised bandage. Even though he had never seen you washing the fabric in boiling water, he had never asked you where you had cleaned them for which you were grateful. You honestly doubted that you would have been capable of coming up with a believable answer for this or that you could have suddenly started to wash them in front of him, in a pot held above the small fireplace that kept the wooden cabin warm at night.

You kept your eyes on Renjun’s chiselled body and shrugged like you usually did when you didn’t know what to say about the tribe. For some reason, he was eager to find them, but you were reluctant to allow him to be anywhere near your family. For now, you tried to make him believe that you didn’t know where they lived exactly and that they had to be peaceful folks. Otherwise, the girl you claimed to be wouldn’t have been still alive, would she have?

‘A hunch?’ You mused under your nose as another attempt to dodge his further interrogation. You preferred him thinking that you were naive over him getting to know the truth. Because even though you had your reasons - good reasons - you couldn’t afford to lose his trust before you could have earned it in the first place.

The unamused scoff that filled the air turned your lips upwards. Meanwhile, you applied a generous amount of disinfectant on Renjun’s fair skin around the injured area and blew on it gently to cool down the burning feeling like how your mother had done to Shuang, Kun and you when you had been younger. She hadn’t been a medic, but her kisses had been better than any painkillers. Your father had used to call it the power of a mother’s love while the ever so sceptical, teenager Kun had claimed that it was only in your head.

‘Because that’s so reliable,’ Renjun retorted with a roll of his eyes. Obviously, due to your attention on his cut, you couldn’t see the latter, but his tone alone was enough for you to give in to the urge and look him in the eyes. His chocolate irises had a pinch of silver to them and it never failed to amaze you how easily he could change his gaze from soft and warm to sharp and cold whenever he wished to appear intimidating.

‘You know that it’s because of that hunch that you’re still alive. Or should I remind you?’ You asked playfully, although his reaction was anything but friendly. The way he sucked in a breath, he sounded almost upset with you which was utterly ridiculous. Therefore, you came up with a slightly different theory: he was trying to hide his boiling anger because he once again couldn’t get anything useful out of you. It sounded just as strange to be honest, but a bit more reasonable nevertheless in case your first assumption had been correct and Renjun was indeed your enemy.

Wasn’t it time that you finally stopped coming back to the same assumption when you had already decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, though? These two things didn’t fit well together and only made your head hurt.

‘Exactly my point,’ he said, voice so quiet it was hardly above a whisper.

You pressed your lips together to remain silent even though Renjun’s unusual reaction piqued your curiosity. You wanted to know, you needed to know what he meant by his words, but you couldn’t act on your eagerness because of two very well grounded reasons.

1) Based on your personal experience, he would have shut down as soon as he noticed that he had told you more than he had intended to and despite your tiredness, you actually liked these hours with him. You liked when Renjun wasn’t overly guarded and let you take a quick glance behind his grumpy walls, might it have happened intentionally or unintentionally. 2) The birthmark on the back of his hand was something you had seen on many paintings and drawings before. And while this in itself didn’t mean that you could trust him with your life and the future of your people, the way your parents and teachers had raised you made it hard not to be doubtful of your own doubts and instincts.

With your determination to not push him too much and Renjun’s unwillingness to speak, you finished changing his bandage in silence, listening to the lively songbirds of the forest and the erratic beating of your own heart.

‘As good as new,’ you let out a quiet sigh as you patted Renjun’s left side where you secured the yellowish textile. His wound wasn’t sensitive anymore, nor did it start to bleed because of the smallest movements the boy made. It was only a matter of days - maybe another week or two, but not a moment more - and he would deem it healed just to get rid of your constant nagging. ‘Want some berries?’

You didn’t wait for his answer. You simply picked up the used bandage and the ceramic bowl in which you had mixed the disinfectant cream the previous day, stood up and walked to the desk where you had placed your belongings.

You held back your breath when you felt a body appear behind your back. He moved too fast for your liking. He shouldn’t have been able to move this fast and without any sort of sound as the planks of the floor were old and a few of them creaked under the lightest weight.

‘Berries that you were collecting for five hours? Would be a fool not to, wouldn’t I?’ Renjun asked, the suspicion in his voice loud and clear. Still, you ignored it along with the shiver his warm breath sent down your spine. He was invading your personal space on purpose to come off as more threatening and you hated how you preferred to use this technique as well when a new recruitment was added to your team. Was he trying to earn your respect, too? Or was he giving out his last warning?

‘I don’t have a clock here,’ you pulled his attention to the fact almost too nonchalantly while you fished a wooden chest out of your bag and opened it slowly.

A puff of hot air hit your neck before the boy leaned even closer to you and sneaked one of his hands between your torso and upper arm, stealing a couple of berries from your chest.

‘Just a hunch,’ he threw your own words back at you within a heartbeat. And you had to close your eyes to not roll them in annoyance when he eventually pulled away and took a few steps back. You didn’t have any right to be upset with him just because you two were playing the same game and he was as good of a player as you were, if not better.

Accepting your temporary defeat, you took a shallow breath, turned around and looked at the boy who was observing you from his bed with his back resting against the wall. You were relieved to see that he had his tunic back on unlike when you had left his side and that he was munching on the fruits even though he couldn’t have been sure that you hadn’t poisoned them during those long hours you had been away.

‘I had to look for new bushes. They were further than I expected them to be,’ the lie fell from your lips bitterly despite the friendly smile that adorned your face. Actually, you had no idea where these berries were from. You had found them on your dining table during your breakfast with Shuang and shoved them into your bag before you had left the tribe.

‘You should take me with you next time,’ he offered, not taking his eyes off you and as if you had been possessed by something beyond imagination, you found yourself nodding.

The promise “one day” was on the tip of your tongue, but you bit it back harshly. You would have hated to break something as valuable as a promise, therefore you saw no use in speaking your fuzzy mind carelessly. Even if this moment was one of those rare ones when he looked at you with warmth in his chocolate-silver eyes.

You noticed that he had one less arrow in his quiver when you sat on his bed to share the rest of the fruits with him in silence. And he noticed the angry red bruise in the base of your neck, hidden under your locks, when you turned towards him with your upper body and placed the chest between the two of you. Neither of you said a word about these discoveries.

In the end, you never got the chance to take Renjun to collect berries with you even though you had asked your cook and those women who apparently supplied her where they usually found them. Because a week after your unsaid promise, you found a note atop of his pillow that said he owed you with his life and that also advised you multiple times to stay near your wooden cabin because the tribe was closer than either of you had thought. It said that the forest wouldn’t be safe for a while and the certainty in the grammar he used squeezed your insides.

He knew where your people lived. He knew and deemed them dangerous. You might not have known what this meant exactly, but deep down a voice in your mind assured you that it was nothing good. You had to find Captain Qian and your sister.

Since you had to be as fast as possible, but you also couldn’t gain too much attention, you used your power to call for Long and flew to the borders of your home on his back, begging like a madwoman that you had to talk to the captain immediately.

You didn’t appreciate the history lesson - the reminder of who Renjun really was if you were right about his birthmark - and the scolding you got from Kun, but you took both without putting up a fight along with the punishment he claimed you deserved because you didn’t have much time and you needed his help to make sure your sister was safe. If anything had happened to Shuang that night, it would be the consequence of your actions and dealing with another family member’s death was something you knew your heart couldn’t have handled, not when your grief would come with an overwhelming amount of guilt as well.

You must have fidgeted with the hem of your tunic or chewed on your cheeks from the inside like you had frequently done when you had been younger, because the next thing your mind registered was Captain Qian patting your shoulder in a clumsy albeit affectionate manner.

‘Calm down, kiddo,’ he said so quietly as if your unstable state had been some sort of secret that he had to protect at all cost.

‘You…’ you mumbled, the word heavy on your tongue. It wasn’t that you didn’t like it when he let you see his softer side, but that he did it rarely and under very tough circumstances. By now a fracture of your mind associated his smiles with tragedies. It was more than unnerving. ‘You haven’t called me kiddo since…’ since your father had died; that was what you were unable to put into words. Your wounds were still painful even though it had happened a bit more than a year ago. Time flew fast, but healed the heart at a much slower pace.

Seeing the distress in your eyes, Kun shook his head slowly to tell you that you didn’t have to finish your sentence, then took his hand off your shoulder in spite of remaining close. This time, he gave you the perfect amount of intimacy to soothe your jittery nerves.

‘First, we need a plan,’ he claimed, firm like the leader he was for many of you. And you nodded without hesitation because you were confident in his capabilities. If he was still angry with you, if he blamed you for anything, he didn’t show any sign of it. He had always been excellent at prioritising his duties accordingly and this time it was no question that Shuang’s safety came first and your punishment second. ‘We can talk about sentimentalities after we caught him.’

Kun then cleared his throat and called for a smaller group of guards that he trusted the most because you both needed two more people each during your own part of the operation. While he would do everything in his power to protect Shuang with Dejun and Kunhang, you swore on your life that you would stop Renjun and take him to the cells with Sicheng and Yangyang.

You left the border in two groups an hour before sunset, heart filled with worry but also with a newfound determination to make things right. You were a warrior first and everything else second. You should have never forgotten about your responsibilities. Never.

The plan wasn’t a complicated one. To avoid suspicion, Shuang had dinner with your cook’s daughter instead of you in case Renjun was already close and watching her, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. You had all collectively agreed that the most ideal time for him to approach your sister would have been when she went to bed and was all alone in her room, sound asleep. Therefore, as soon as they finished their meal, you would take over your sister’s place while she was supposed to take a bath and get in bed with a dagger in your hand and the two guards waiting for your signal on the other side of Shuang’s bathroom’s door.

It truly wasn’t a complicated plan. What made it difficult to follow were the memories you had with the boy; the vivid image you had of his soft, chocolate-silver eyes that he had always kept on you when he had assumed that you had been already asleep, the subtle smiles ha had given you when he had thought you hadn’t been paying attention to him and the smallest things he had done for you, hiding his kindness behind his grumpy comments. You held back your breath when you noticed the familiar feeling of a body standing behind you. The blade in Renjun’s hand felt ice cold even before its edge could have truly touched your neck.

‘Slicing her throat in her sleep? That’s the kind of person you are?’ You spoke up before you could have realised how it wasn’t a part of your not so complicated plan.

The dagger stopped abruptly, right in front of your Adam’s apple. When you took a breath, it cut your skin and you hissed despite the barely there scar it left you with. Laying with your back to the boy, you told yourself that you were more surprised than scared. You told yourself that you weren’t afraid of him even if he was your enemy. He had said it himself, he owed you with his life. He wouldn’t have taken yours so easily.

Behind you, Renjun’s eyes grew wide, but his grip on the blade remained firm and despite your previous conclusion, he didn’t pull it away from your neck. He kept it in place, freezing you in your spot, too, as your brain refused to throw useful suggestions at you. Where was the strategist in you when you were in desperate need of some brain power?

‘You aren’t supposed to be here. What are you doi… Where is the dragon whisperer?’ Renjun asked coldly and based on your position, the tone he chose to use should have scared you. However, you couldn’t have cared less about the boy’s annoyance, because in that moment it hit you: it wasn’t your sister he really wanted. His target was you from the beginning.

You closed your eyes to shut out your surroundings and think. According to everything he had done (or you could have assumed, he had done) since he had left the wooden cabin, Renjun was an assassin - or a stray murderer which might have been even worse in a way - who was set on killing your tribe’s last dragon whisperer. That person was you just like how it was you who had treated his injuries and saved him from those soldiers. At this point, it would have been stupid of you to assume that he had been in real danger back then, but his wounds had been real, so you quickly brushed aside that thought before it could have pushed your mind to overdrive. What you had to decide now was whether his words still had credibility for you or you should have avoided him getting to know your real identity at all cost. Was he that coldhearted to offer you a painless death as a compensation for taking care of him or he would have given up on his mission? It was hard to tell.

‘What makes you so sure that Shuang is the one you want?’ You asked before he could have gotten bored of your silence. It wasn’t that you were suddenly comfortable with the thought of him knowing the truth, but you also wanted to avoid any situation in which he went after your sister because of something he thought was right, but wasn’t.

‘She’s the chief,’ he reasoned and you had to give it to him that it did sound logical from an outsider’s point of view. Still, it didn’t change the fact that unlike Shuang, you weren’t a born leader. You couldn’t even picture yourself as the captain of the guards. How could you have led an entire tribe?

Luckily, your father had known you like one knew the back of their hands and he had left you with only a small part of those responsibilities he had once had. And for that, you would be forever grateful for him. (And most probably, your people, too.)

‘An amazing one!’ You claimed with confidence, injuring yourself a bit more with the sudden movement neither of you had seen coming. Involuntarily, you hissed at the sharp pain caused by the second cut and alarmed the boy without being aware of the effect that your reaction had on him.

Renjun took a deep breath and pulled the blade away from you, not getting rid of the weapon entirely.

‘Look, I don’t care what you think,’ he started with a grunt, clearly displeased with the fact that his target was seemingly nowhere to be found while you were simultaneously wasting his time with your stubbornness. Sure, he had had a guess that you had been lying to him at the wooden cabin just as frequently as he had lied to you, but he had hoped that even if you had known the tribe he had been sent to find, you were an insignificant part of it. He didn’t like your unexpected involvement in his business. ‘She’s dangerous and I was sent here to get rid of her. You can’t stop me,’ he claimed and he sounded so determined that for a second, you believed that there was no way you could have changed his mind.

But you had to. You had to because Kun would make sure to make his life miserable if he had laid a hand on either of you, and because the captain’s anger was still the better option. Even in your peaceful community, an attempted murder against your family meant execution.

You heard it in his silence before he even moved: Renjun’s attempt to knock you out with the pommel of his blade. Hence, you willed your limbs to react faster and rolled on your stomach then on your side, landing with your bare feet on the cold floor.

It was the second time you saw him in his all black outfit with his arrows on his back. It was also the first when looking into his chocolate-silver eyes, you were a hundred percent sure he wasn’t the victim. The revelation made you feel uneasy in your skin.

‘You came for the wrong sister, Renjun,’ you stated with a firm voice and clear determination in your eyes. You could have called for the boys who were still waiting for your sign to help you take the intruder down, and a rational part of you scolded you for hesitating, but if the mark on the back of his hand was really what you thought it was, you had to believe in the good in him. The person you thought he was couldn’t be a monster.

‘Because what leaves your mouth is always the truth,’ the boy retorted bitterly and the almost hurt in his voice would have been amusing if you two had still been in the woods. There, he had always made extra effort to look cold and unbothered. This fragment of emotion was so unexpected, so unusual compared to what you were used to that you wouldn’t have been surprised if it had come to surface unintentionally. Was his carefully designed mask finally cracking right in front of your eyes?

‘Says the assassin who wanted to kill my sister all this time,’ you spat back with a scoff that earned an ugly frown from Renjun who was looking at you with something indescribable in his eyes. He looked at you, right at you, and it felt as though you had been standing in front of him bare both physically and mentally. For a passing moment, you felt vulnerable because of him and you wanted to hate him for it, but you couldn’t. You hated that you couldn’t when at that moment, he wasn’t the same boy you had shared silence with or who had let you get away with all your lies even when they were obvious. He was your enemy, you knew that he was someone you either killed or let him kill you, and yet, you still couldn’t do it.

You contemplated what options you had left, what kind of reasoning could have changed his mind and when he didn’t make another attempt to attack you despite your stalling, you took a deeper breath and decided to show him all your cards. So you stole a glance at his hand and did the stupidest thing anyone could have done in your shoes solely because a part of you thought that he was more than a murderer. That he was exactly what your people needed to be released from centuries of self-isolation in fear of other bigger and more aggressive tribes. That he could have been your freedom if only you had given him a chance.

‘It’s me. Not Shuang. It’s me,’ you blurted out, voice unsure at first, but firmer the more you said. It was the first time you had ever told this secret to an outsider - mostly, because up until now you had never had a chance to get close to any of them regardless of your mother’s claim that not all of them were savages -, and you definitely hadn’t been expecting a reaction like the one you got.

Renjun was laughing. He was laughing at you and it was both forced and sarcastic; a melody that you had never heard before. It made you feel picked on and scolded for something you had never done to begin with. You wished he would have taken you seriously instead and just attacked you so that you could have punched him in the face.

‘Please! As if I would believe you,’ he kept belittling you and it was your nth chance that night to call for backup, but you didn’t. Not just because of the faith you both shared according to your shamans, but because he hurt your pride and an admittedly childish part of you wanted to prove a point.

So you called for the small dragon who had been born last summer and had gotten the name Clover because of her green scales and cheerful personality. You called for her in spite of how literally any other creature could have been more useful in a fight because you didn’t want to put the boy in real danger. And she flew to you through the window as though she had eyes only for you and Renjun’s existence had been irrelevant to her until you asked her to look at him.

‘No! No, it’s not you,’ the boy said as he held onto his blade a little firmer. You tried to take a step closer to him to calm him, but it managed to do the opposite. He shook his head and took a few steps backwards to distance himself from you. ‘It’s not you!’

But it was you and you had just given him the evidence he couldn’t have denied.

The change in his demeanour was visible. If you had wanted to, you could have pinpointed the exact moment when he accepted the truth and decided to act on it even though it meant that he had a new target, a target who wasn’t a faceless threat to his own clan, but someone he knew and had shared numerous meals with throughout the past few weeks.

When he launched at you, you dodged his attack with grace and stole one of his blades from his belt while you got behind his back so smoothly, he wouldn’t have been surprised if your powers had allowed you to fly. They didn’t, though, but you didn’t have time to discuss your limits with him as he was quick to swing his dagger in your direction, scratching your upper arm with its sharp point. The sight of your blood painting his weapon crimson didn’t faze him the way it did to you, but you collected yourself quickly and widened the distance between your bodies to escape from his next attack.

Renjun movements were fast and precise, unlike anyone’s you had ever fought against. It was impressive in a way and you would have asked him to train with you without thinking twice if he hadn’t been trying to kill you. You had to focus more and analyse his combinations more thoroughly to find his blinde spot or a weaker area. Be damned his healed ankle that showed no sign of imbalance and his wrist that…

He pinned you against the wall before you could have processed what had just happened, but instead of slicing your throat, he kept you still with one arm pushed against your collarbone and a knee against your thigh. You could inhale his anger through your lips when he breathed down your chin, eyes as cold as needle ice and just as piercing.

‘Why did you save me?’ He shouted at you as his hand on your collarbone attempted to push you closer to the wall even though it wasn’t possible. He was mad, but his frustration was clearly more prominent that made you wonder whether it was really you he was angry with. ��You knew I was lying, you had to. Are you crazy?’

You winced when he lifted his weapon above your head, but commanded Clover not to move, because you believed in Renjun’s eyes and body language more than in his dedication to his mission. Also, you had the boys barely ten metres from you, on the other side of the door on your left.

‘You were a refreshing company,’ you gave him one reason from those three you could have shouted back into his face at that moment. Though, your voice was calm and almost playful due to that small smile that adorned your face while you were staring at him.

The furrow between Renjun’s eyebrows gave away his confusion and you used this rare and fragile moment to signal your fellow guards because while a part of you hoped that he would put down his blade on his own, another part of you told you that even if he had done so, you might have ran out of time. You couldn’t have been sure whether the guys would have indeed waited for your signal until you deemed the moment ready or would have joined your fight uninvited just because your safety was more important than your pride or good mood.

Surprisingly, it was the younger boy who knocked the assassin out with the pommel of his sword while you were still pinned against the wall and Sicheng who carried his unconscious body out of the room with Clover, Yangyang and you following behind.

Deep in thoughts, you couldn’t tear your gaze away from the slowly forming, angry red bump on Renjun’s head. You knew that it would hurt like hell once he woke up.

You needed to promise Shuang and Kun that you would take your training to become the next captain of the guards seriously and that you would also stop testing the boundaries and rather start living with each one of them in your mind, but in exchange, they let you be the one who was there when Renjun woke up despite your childhood friend’s clear displeasure. Since you knew that sooner or later, you had to live up to your family’s legacy, you thought that it was a good enough deal for you. Some alone time with Renjun was good enough for you.

Even if in the first fifteen minutes or so, he punished you with his silence and refused to meet your eyes.

‘What? Waiting for me to start a conversation?’ He mocked you when instead of getting to the part where you told him the date of his execution, you sighed and decided to sit down in the base of that wall that was facing his cell. Searching for a retort, you mirrored his position and pulled up your legs so that you could rest your chin on your knee caps.

‘How is your head?’ The question fell from your lips without malice while your gaze bored deep in his chocolate-silver eyes, looking for any sign of pain. He just scoffed at your actions and closed them to pull another invisible wall between the two of you.

You didn’t blame him. Obviously, both of you had a very good reason to feel betrayed by the other, but it was still him who had failed his mission and ended up being locked up by his enemies because of you, while his reaction had saved your life. You couldn’t have helped but wondered whether he considered his debt paid or he would have still refused to hurt you if you had opened the bars and freed him from his chains.

You weren’t stupid. Hence, you didn’t give it a try just to prove something that might not have been there. A friendship? An undecipherable, mutual understanding? You weren’t sure.

You looked down at your hands and let your legs down, laying them on the dirty floor so that they wouldn’t have gotten sore from the previous position.

‘Fine,’ you gave in. You had enough of the silence. You wouldn’t let him act as though you did something wrong when it was clear that he would have used you the moment he had realised where you came from. He couldn’t be angry because you hadn’t trusted him when he had done the same and worse. ‘I came to tell you the options you have. You either leave and never come back or stay with us, but in case you choose the latter, you can’t go back to your father,’ your statement knew no objections, mostly because you had to give up a piece of your own freedom to let him have these options to begin with. He was lucky that he hadn’t hurt you in Shuang’s room because if he had caused you more harm than the accidental cuts on your throat, he would have been a dead man. Your sister and Kun might have had a weak spot for you, but they weren’t that weak to please you. They had to think of the safety of your people, too.

‘Oh, so now you know about my father, too,’ Renjun scoffed, clearly annoyed with the fact that you knew more about his family than what he had told you or what, for that matter, he knew about yours. You tried to stand your guard against the shame that was slowly washing over you, but your neck felt hot and soon your cheeks were crimson, too. ‘Then you must be delusional if you think I will turn my back on him for people like you.’

Admittedly, you were a bit more hopeful than you would have liked to admit, but you weren’t delusional. And to prove to him that you had him figured out - well, you obviously didn’t, but you would have preferred him to think so -, you accepted his answer with as much grace as you could muster and fished a smaller book out of the hidden pocket of your tunic.

It was a journal as old as time from the era when your people had first come to this island, casted out by those who had lived on the mainland solely because they had refused to exploit the power of dragons with the magic that had been running through their veins. Your mother had been a descendant of one of those dragon whisperers who had survived the massacre of the Huang clan; a ruthless bloodshed they still called The Cleansing as though they had made a huge favour for the later generations. In reality, they had attempted to destroy everything and everyone they couldn’t have controlled.

You opened the book at the prophecy of Regression and slid it inside the cell through the bars so that Renjun could take it from you, but he didn’t. So you waited, and waited a bit more. You waited until he finally reached out for the worn object and looked at the drawings and messily written paragraphs that told him a story about a young man from the outside world who would help your tribe to break free from the endless solitude. The sketches might not have been drawn by the most talented artists, but the main features of your saviour matched with the assassin’s. His eyes were cold but warm. His hands were deadly, but gentle. And he also had that bruise-like birthmark on the back of his right hand that every description talked about.

The journal wrote about many segments of the saviour and that was how you could claim with confidence that you knew who Renjun’s father was even with your limited knowledge about the clans who lived on the mainland. He had to be a descendant of the chief who had ordered The Cleansing and according to the previous captain’s reports - therefore, according to Captain Qian himself -, he was the second son of the Huang clan’s leader. The one who lived to serve and did all these from the shadows. Obviously, only a few were alive who knew what he looked like, but the possibility that you had come to the correct conclusion with Kun was high and so you decided to acknowledge it as the truth for now.

‘It’s not the only book we have with this prediction. We also have a few art pieces here and there in the village that portray the moment our people are finally free,’ you told him quietly albeit firmly. Seeing the recognition in his eyes, you didn’t voice out the obvious: that once his father or his older brother set foot in your home with their army, they would see every sculpture and painting, every journal and poem. Without words, he understood that neither of them would let him betray them even if he hadn’t planned to do so. Renjun’s existence would turn into a high risk in their plans - whatever those plans contained - and they would choose to get rid of him like how their ancestors had gotten rid of dragons and dragon whispers altogether when they had failed to force them into submission. Like how they wanted him to kill Shuang because of her rumoured powers that you possessed.

You stayed until Renjun scanned the light brown pages from the first one to the very last and then, you stayed for a little more in hope of an answer that he didn’t give you. He looked ahead, at the wall above your head like a conflicted soul frozen in amber and you swore, for a second, you could catch a glimpse at his inner turmoil. But that was all he offered you from behind his walls.

When Sicheng walked inside the building with the assassin’s food and a reminder that you had promised to see Captain Qian before dining with your sister, you stood up from the floor with a resigned sigh and asked the guard to call for you as soon as Renjun made up his mind. You also told him to not let Yangyang stay with him alone, because the youngest addition to your team had seemed rather pleased with himself after he had knocked Renjun out and you didn’t want to risk a fight between the two. Sicheng just nodded and you walked out the door.

After you left, his thoughts were slowly driving Renjun crazy, but he masked his emotions well. No one noticed a thing from the battle that he fought against himself under the surface, only the consequences. The silence that inevitably became his answer when he wasn’t ready to speak his mind.

How was he supposed to put it into words that he didn’t want to die when he had been trained from the moment he could have run to give his life for his blood? He wasn’t a coward nor was he a traitor. Yet, your book and his will to survive told a different story and it was all too much.

Renjun didn’t remember when he had fallen asleep, but he woke up with a blindfold in front of his eyes and ropes around his wrists and ankles. He also felt disoriented and light, the foreign feeling of riding a dragon making him sick in the stomach although he didn’t know he was in the air. All he knew was that a pair of hands were keeping him still by his torso and that long, silky locks were tickling his neck.

‘I walked into your village on my own. I know where to find it,’ he groaned, finding your attempt at confusing his sense of direction with a piece of fabric ridiculous. But this time, you didn’t spare him a snarky remark and stayed silent even when Long reached the field that was close enough to the shore from where Renjun could find his way back home, but far enough to mean any harm.

You jumped off from the dragon’s back and pulled the displeased assassin with you, biting back an amused chuckle when he lost his balance and fell on his butt. You didn’t spell it out for him that the blindfold was protecting Long and not your tribe. You also didn’t tell him that you should have left him on his own in the woods instead of bringing him as close to the mainland as you could allow yourself without getting in serious trouble.

Instead, you helped him stand up and fondled his cheek with your fingertips, sad that he was so adamant to not choose your side.

‘Please, don’t come back, Renjun. They will… we will kill you if you do, no matter how big of an army stands behind your back,’ you gave him a piece of advice before you walked away from him and jumped back on Long’s back.

With your warmth being gone, he could hear the unmistakable sound of a pair of enormous wings. He felt the wind on his skin. Yet, Renjun didn’t move. He didn’t shout after you to come back for him, to take him with you or to take off his blindfold at least. He was angry, frustrated and maybe a little lost, but he didn’t show any of these emotions. Instead, he willed himself with a shallow sigh and started to walk in a random direction to find anything sharp or pointy that could have helped him cut off his ropes.

In the back of his mind, a voice told him that if you had spoken the truth, he was a dead man with and without you. It mocked him that he was stupid if he had believed for a moment that he truly had those two choices that you had offered him in his cell. Because what he could have chosen from were these: he either accepted his so-called faith and helped you free your people or embraced his new way of living: ironically, the same kind of solitude your tribe was forced to live in.

➼ next chapter

#nct scenarios #nct dream #renjun x you #renjun x reader #nct fantasy au #dragon whisperer #fantasy #ssbyme

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herwonderland7 · 2 years

Text

CHAPTER 1 ― THROUGH THE ROYAL PAINTING

SUMMARY ― Aera didn’t know that she would be going to a business-date and she definitely didn’t know what’s about to come.

CHARACTERS ― Gae Riana Aera, Maximillien Monet

GENRE ― fantasy, nct!prince, nct!royalty, nct!as!vampires, nct!as!wolves

WARNINGS/AUTHOR’S NOTE ― Slight Violence at The End.

WORDS ― 2068

“Can’t you do something, Aera? The kids are terrified.”

“..I don’t know, mother. You can’t control dreams, and I have told them to pray before going to sleep. Wish for something good.”

“...Do you think this is a sign..?”

“A sign of what..? Mother, do you believe in such things?”

“Why not?”

It has been going on for nearly weeks now.

The kids in the orphanage had trouble sleeping at night – at first Aera thought it was just the kids having trouble adjusting themselves since they just renovated the house.

But it seems the same dreams kept happening for almost a month now.

One of the kids that Aera was quite close to, named Eve, who was skilled at drawings. Aera discovered this whenever they had drawing sessions.

Her drawings were so good that Aera had asked for permission and her signature if she could put them in the art museum which the little girl agreed, in exchange that Aera has to take little Eve and the other kids to the art museum which Aera had no problem with.

One of the weeks, Eve approached Aera with a portrait and this specific portrait made Aera gasp in horror which she tried not to.

“....Is this one of y-your drawings, E-evie? I– I should say it’s–

“This is the monster from our dreams, Mum. The other kids saw him too.”

Yes, the kids call her ‘Mum’, since Aera didn’t mind – she treated all them as her own children. Her own mother had to warn Aera to not play favourites since the kids could notice.

Describing the monster Eve drew, Aera thinks that the monster is actually an elf, a dark elf – since it had wings. It had horns that were faced downwards, its eye sockets and its eyeballs were shown.

All Aera could describe is, the portrait is very dark just like the elf itself and the way he dresses with dark cloth covering appropriate places.

Not to mention it is carrying a stick and there were even gears in some places on its body – oh plus its fingernails were quite long.

It wasn’t just that, Eve showed another two drawings. Unlike the one that scared her, those two made Aera confused.

“I believe these are my angels,” Eve showed a drawing, “This one showed only in my dream though.”

The painting depicts a scene where there were five figures who looked like they were fighting the Dark Elf. But strangely, the faces of the figures were blurry.

But Eve drew what they were wearing specifically. Some of them were wearing different colored extravagant suits - there were white, golds, blacks, reds and one of them was wearing a white Greek dress with gold accessories on her body.

Aera turned towards Eve confusedly, “..Their faces are blurred..?”

Eve quietly showed Aera a different drawing, “..That’s because they appeared in my dreams that way.”

Aera took the second drawing, at the time looking at Eve sheepishly – knowing that Eve is a direct kid. Her eyes now focused on the painting that Eve just gave her and Aera swore she could feel the chills on her back.

‘They look like the children in Wonderland.’

The drawing was very specific, everything was shown from head to toe and the scenery was shown very clearly, it looked like they were in an open land. There were four people who looked like they were attacking the Dark Elf.

One shows a golden haired boy with a sword, a young girl had pink sparkles all around her and she is in the air, a dark brunette boy who had his bow and arrow pointing towards the dark elf and a young girl with bright orange hair on a horse going in the opposite direction.

A finger then pointed towards the girl in the air.

“She looks exactly like you in my dreams, Mum.”

Aera could only look at Eve, who was somehow staring at the painting.

Aera’s nap was awakened by the car being stopped abruptly which caused her to slightly jolt to the front and a loud honk was heard from the front.

She looked in front to see Max honking the car, to see a pedestrian on his phone. “How can he use his phone while being on the road?” Max muttered, sighing frustratingly.

Aera peeked her head slightly, turning towards Max. “..Well, he probably had a text or a call.. And a new type of phone has just been released.” Aera shrugged, seeing the man turning towards her.

She could see his cheeks turned slightly pink as soon as he made eye contact with her, which caused Aera to grin.

Aera could say that she and Max were quite close, they have been working together for nearly a year now – with Max being her personal driver and an assistant to the art museum.

Aera gets to learn that Max is really calm, he can be quite protective – this is shown whenever Aera had a business meeting with partners that were mostly men. Not to mention that he is a gentleman too.

Out of nowhere, Aera’s phone rang out of nowhere and she didn’t hesitate to answer since she saw her mother’s name.

“Yes, I am on my way with Max……. What?.. Mother!” Aera yelled out nowhere which caused Max to look at the rear-view mirror, to already see Aera closing his eyes in annoyance.

“You know what, if it satisfies you, I will attend the date. And after that, please don’t set me up anymore. Thank you, and goodbye. See you at home.” Aera ended the call abruptly, before hiding her face in her hands.

‘Date?’ Max‘s face visibly showed concern, for a few reasons and one of them would be knowing how pissed Aera would be. He gets to know that Aera somehow didn’t want to be set up with any men. It was as if she really didn’t want to be with anyone at all, and he wondered why.

A loud breathing was heard at the back. “Mother is setting me up with the businessman that I am meeting with, in the museum.”

Max looked towards the rear-view mirror. “..That’s tricky.”

“It’s messed up!” Aera exclaimed before leaning back towards the seat, before turning towards the rear-view mirror to meet his eye contact. “Well, whatever. I’m just going to go and probably destroy his expectations.”

Aera commented before turning towards the car window, sighing. Her thoughts somehow lead towards the man in the other universe.

‘I wonder how he is.’

“Are you sure about this, Aera? I can accompany you in,” Max already sounded worried and he looks like one too – he kept on looking in the museum, trying to see the guy who Aera would be going on a date with.

It’s easy to see since everyone was wearing casually except for him and Aera for now. Max was wearing a white dress shirt and black formal pants while Aera was wearing a long grey dress jacket with a tight black dress on the inside.

“It’s okay, Max. I’m already troubling you by asking you to drive me here.” Aera smiled slightly, at the same time tightening the grip on her small bag.

“Nothing troubles me whenever you ask me for help, Aera. I’m here to assist you, remember?” The tall man smiled slightly, and Aera can’t help but chuckle slightly at the same time agreeing to her words.

“I’ll go now then. You can go home after this.”

“But–

“No, buts! Go, go!” Aera waved him off although he had more to say, but of course Aera didn’t let him finish – that is because she didn’t want to waste his time.

She knew he had his own private time, which was his free time.

Aera could only wave at him, after seeing him standing by the car before going into the museum. As usual, the museum is filled with people everyday.

Aera feels grateful, and she feels lucky. Strangely, today was filled with couples which didn't bother Aera but truthfully, she missed him.

She missed Jaehyun.

She wished she could return to Wonderland soon, but it seems a year could be too early for them.

‘Maybe next year, I hope.’

As Aera was walking around to get a call from this certain someone, her eyes naturally fell towards her surroundings when something or someone caught her eye.

She stood frozen in the middle of the crowd.

‘Jaehyun’. She saw Jaehyun, she met eyes with him. The way he dressed up looks like is attending a funeral since he was wearing a full black suit.

He is literally standing directly across from her. ‘It can’t be.’

Just as Aera was squinting her eyes to get a good focus, he started to walk away which caused Aera to be on her feet.

She stood where was at, to find him gone as she looked around – not caring the flustered people who were walking passed her.

Aera saw him again, this time he was at the other side of the exhibit, which Aera quickly followed to. The way she had gone was not a fan favourite, less people went into the royal theme exhibit, the royal paintings.

As soon as Aera turned to a corner, she was met by a tightening grip on her neck at the same time she was being slammed onto the walls that caught her off-guard.

Aera swore her vision blurred for a second but as soon as it focused, her eyes went wide after seeing Jaehyun right in-front of her. Him literally gripping tightly onto her neck right now.

“Yoo–

‘Your majesty, wake up! This isn’t King Jaehyun!’ A child-like voice said in her mind clearly and Aera was starting to get frightened. At the same time, there was a creepy smile coming from this Jaehyun.

‘Your majesty, the creature corrupts all your goodness as soon as it feels your negative emotions. Stay positive, your majesty!’ The child-like voice was heard once again, causing Aera to shake off the fear – pushing him off her and then meeting the creature’s eye contact.

Aera witnessed the creature transforming into its true form, her eyes widening twice watching it.

“You’re that creature in that drawing!” Aera literally points her finger towards it and surprisingly her arms dodge the pointy stick.

It began to attack her by trying to stab her but again, Aera’s body magically did all the work by dodging it until she could feel a sensation on her arm – then seeing a visible cut and blood trickling onto her grey jacket.

Aera wanted to just punch his face, which she did and strangely she moved two times faster than her normal speed. ‘What… There’s no way..’ Aera decided to do something that she never had done before on earth, which was unleashing her Scarlet Witch power.

‘Your majesty, we can’t use powers on earth!... Hang on, your majesty! I’m trying to find a way!’

“Aww man,” Aera muttered under her breath, at the same time trying to find ways to escape. She saw the windows and she tried to open them but it didn’t budge. ‘I’m screwed.’

“You can’t escape, Queen Aera.”

Aera felt a tight grip on her hair, causing her to yell in pain as he dragged her away before slamming her onto the walls, then feeling herself choked up as it lifted her up.

“...What..” Aera could only gripped tightly onto its dark hands, trying her very best to push his hard arms away to the side – Aera could feel her vision getting blurry.

‘Your majesty, on a count of three, the creature would be thrown to the side with the help of my assistant! Please run and stick out your hand to the painting opposite of you!’ The child-like voice was heard, this time sounding rushed.

‘One… Two.. Three!’

At a count of three, Aera suddenly was dropped to the floor.

‘Your majesty, run!’ Now a deep voice was heard in her head which caused Aera to force herself to stand up even though she literally felt her leg becoming jelly but she had no choice.

She forced herself and ran to the opposite of her, to see a painting that was glossing.

Aera could feel time turned into slow motion, with her hand sticking out towards the painting – seeing a ball of light literally shining towards her. Aera turned towards where the creature was at.

Instead, a dagger was slowly flying straight towards her.

Time went back to its normal pace when Aera went through the painting, as well as the dagger itself — the smile on the Dark Elf creeping knowing what was going to happen.

these are what the extravagant suits looks like, honestly i'm very inspired by star crossed myth

if you are curious, this is how the creature looks like.

this is what Aera was wearing for the business-date.

𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞 ⤄ 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 (𝐜.𝟐)

her wonderland : for infinity [the 3rd adventure]

#nct royal #nct royal au #nct prince au #nct au #nct scenarios #nct imagines #nct prince #nct fantasy au #jung jaehyun x reader #jung jaehyun scenarios #jung jaehyun au #nct 127 jaehyun #nct 127 jaehyun au #latest update !

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