I owed him a debt.

            I lived to repay.

            How many times had I recited this in my head over the years? It had been a century. And every single day, I reminded myself. I had to, just in case I forgot. Or if I strayed away from where I had to be. Like right now, when I was with him, I would often push away the whole world. When he was in front of me like this...

            “What are you thinking about?” He pushed away a strand of hair from my face. I almost, almost blushed. I calmed myself and looked at him, anywhere but the eyes. I was too weak to even gaze at him. My heart was doing the strange fluttering, like it would burst anytime soon. I loved hated how he made me feel.

            “Nothing,” was my only answer and I pushed his hand away. He sighed and caught my hand.

            “Why don't you look me in the eye and tell me what you are thinking about,” He was almost whispering by the time he leaned in, so close that I held my breath and caught his stare. He rested his hands on my waist and had me inside his beautiful trap. Those eyes, those eyes, those eyes...

            “Baekhyun,” I resisted him, but he held me tighter. I could easily throw him across the room and had a fair fight, but I didn't want to. I liked his touch. I just liked playing hard to get. Baekhyun didn't seem so amused. He didn't like it when I pushed him away. But if he came too close... I might not be able to take a hold of myself. Maybe he knew and wanted that.

            “Tell me,” His touch set me on fire. And just when I wondered how much closer he could be, his lips grazed my nose. And I shivered in delight. He trailed his kisses along my nose, and stopped before getting to my lips. He'd set his limit. I did, too.

            “We can't do this,” I choked on my words. I hated being weak.

            “But I want to,” He spoke back those words that melted me down right away. He was right. We couldn't do this, but we wanted it anyway. This sinful pleasure of lust and love. But Baekhyun never kissed me on the lips. He'd kissed me elsewhere, just not the lips. I hadn't had my first yet. And even when I liked him a lot, I wasn't sure whether I should give him or him my first kiss.

            “If they find out...”

            “They won't do anything to you,” He assured me. He patted my hand and smiled. I liked it when I was the only one to see his smile. Baekhyun made me special. “They won't scar your face.” Then I turned sour even when I knew why. “Do not frown. You must not wear a frown when you're with me.”

            “Do I look that much like her?” I asked with a bitter tone. I knew it to be true. Why did I ask him, anyway? Baekhyun didn't reply. Of course. The answer is 'yes'. My face was identical to that of a dead woman. It wasn't like I wanted to be born with this face. I called it a curse, for others a gift.

            “You're... always quiet. Left me wondering,” He purred like a cat. I lifted my hand, and slowly, very slowly, his hair with utmost care. He flinched away at first, then came closer and chuckled like he enjoyed it. My voice was a low timbre when I asked him, “You wonder what I'm thinking about? Or other things?”

            “I'm curious about everything. You're a walking puzzle,” He was close to biting my neck. His sharp fangs touched the surface of my skin. I shook him off. He didn't persist and let me go. I was about to walk away from the room. My knees a trembling mess, and my heart was as loud as usual. But even then, I could hear his soft whisper from the corner of the room, as if he never said anything at all. Those three words I loved and dreaded most,

            “I love you...”

            He loved me and I liked him. But things would never work this way. I was meant for another right from the start. Didn't mean that I could stop whatever I felt. Especially when he was Baekhyun. This male with dull, pale eyes was the exception of everything.

***

            Human world was still filthy disgusting. The air was suffocating. There were trashes everywhere. It hadn't been that long since I left this world and the human had already dirtied their world with dust and ashes. Even in Winter, I could feel the effect of it.

            “Lift it up!” I frowned and yelled at the front line. There weren't many of us in this freezing season of the lake. Everything was covered by thick layer of ice. And we barely had any chance to peek inside. Not even the Sirens wanted anything to do with this place. It was truly a dead lake.

            “Mistress, where should we put this down? ” one of them yelled back while carrying the big coffin. It took four persons to delicately handle the wooden-made coffin. I sighed and walked closer, inspecting the inches of newly polished wood.

            “They just can't function without you, can they?”

            I turned around and met eyes with him. Jinki was my teacher when I was fifty years old. Actually, he found me wandering around cluelessly, too tired after looking for answers that I probably wouldn't get anyways. And he showed up. Turned my life upside down, too. Well, things only got worse since then.

            “I can't function without you, Teach,” I gave him one of my rare smile and nudged him on the arms.

            “Such a flirt,” He laughed. He looked so much better when he did. He was still young. He hadn't looked older than twenty, and he probably never would. Unless he changed his hairstyle, of course. Jinki was his right hand man. Now I wondered how he would look like. Because of technology limitation back then, no one had his picture. I could only recognize him from his paintings.

            “Put it under the tree. There,” I pointed at a spot and watched as they dragged the coffin.

            “Where is Baekhyun? He is usually with you, isn't he?” Jinki asked and looked around. He had been suspicious of us for a while, but every single time, he let us go. Maybe he knew things like this happened naturally. Or maybe he just knew how much of a tortured soul the two of us were. He knew I'd still go back somehow. No matter what.

            Because he knew, that was why...

            “Baekhyun is preparing for his own battle,” was my vague reply. It was true, though. One of the source told us that Kris, the famous Fallen-Faery had sent out a special order to catch Baekhyun. It was a wonder how we managed to hide after all these years. The demon clan was always secretive. Not many of us were left in numbers. But we survived still.

            “He would miss the fun,” Jinki smiled, and his eyes smiled, too. “Today is a historical celebration.”

            Of course it would be a historical celebration for him and the rest of the clan. For me, this was the very start of the nightmare. I clenched my eyes shut to ignore the painful sting in my eyes. And turned away so no one would see this side of me. No one must knew how I felt.

            “You can go now,” I signaled to the four carriers and waited as they packed their belongings. “Jinki, where are the shape-shifters?”

            He folded his hands together. He looked so much like my father when he smiled, I realized; the man who threw me away when I was eighteen years old. Such a sad memory it was. Both my parents didn't want me anymore. But I guess it was better now. At least they were dead and I was not. Every time I thought about them... it was just bitter and cold. I am annoyed now.

            “I did call for them half an hour ago,” Jinki said, “They should be here by now. They were in Canada a while ago. Russia shouldn't be far for them, right?”

            Then I heard strange noises from the sky. My eyes widened when I saw tails and scales. Gold and green and red. I covered my entire face before ices hit me. Then I felt the effect on my legs and arms. My clothes was torn and the bleeding on my arms were scary to look at. I almost screamed at Jinki, “Seriously?! Dragon-shifter in the human world? Are you out of your mind!!”

            There were two Dragons, seemingly couple because their tails were entangled together. I didn't know what it really meant, but I guess it was something like intimacy and safety. They landed with a hard thump, careful not to break the ice surface or both Jinki and I would fall down to the frozen water. I sure as hell wouldn't like that.

            “They're the best for this,” Jinki defended himself and covered his wound. He had scarred his eyes. “They're Water Dragons. Bestest, fastest, and most secretive. And isolated from their Clan.”

            “No sherlock,” I cursed and put my hand over my bleeding arms. The blood was starting to dry and the wound was closing in.  “Just... Get them to work so we can leave.” 

            The Dragons were starting to shift into their human forms. And even then, I recognized the slits in their narrow eyes. They were frighteningly similar to each other. They must be twins. I guess I had been staring for too long that they turned their attentions away from Jinki to me. And then, gasps. Their jaws almost dropped.

            “She... she...” The boy, who looked no older than fifteen years old pointed his finger at me accusingly. His expression was a mixture of fear and disgust. The girl said nothing but cowered behind his brother. She didn't seem like the talker type.

            “She is not Joo Ri,” Jinki laughed as if it was a joking matter. I scowled at him. Joo Ri was a name I'd come to know from tales of the Old, and books in the forbidden library. She was the beloved wife of him, the Leader of the Demon Clan, who was murdered and accused wrongly of treason. They said I had an uncanny resemblance to her. I'd never seen her face, but since everyone told me the same thing, it must be true. I looked too much like her. I was her Doppleganger.

            “But how?” was the Dragon's whisper as he dropped his hand limp to the side. He was still recovering from the shock of his life. It was as if I was a danger bestowed upon his tiny little body.

            “She is just a mirror to our Lady. She is nothing alike,” As Jinki replied, I felt a stab in my heart. It was the same pain that I felt every time. The wound was as fresh as it had been when my heart was first cut. The thing about Jinki was that he was sweet and gentle. So when he said something like that, it hurt twice as much.

            The Dragon twins eyed me. It wasn't their stare that made me feel pathetic. It was just my own insecurity.

            “Why don't you stop talking and start working?” I hissed and glared. This was the only self defense I knew. So that no one could see that I was fragile. So no one knew I was sad and I felt worthless.

            They said when you were sick, your body would voluntarily formed an immunity system to counter-attack the viruses so it wouldn't come back the second time. It would be good if hearts were like that, too. Forming barrier so no one could come in. That way, I would be numbed of the pain. Then I wouldn't feel hurt anymore. If only...

            The Dragon boy chuckled. Perhaps he had found me us amusing.

            “I see why she is so different,” He said, in-between his rough laughter, “Hey, Young Lady, quit being so grumpy. We will start working if you give us the payment we deserve!”

            I saw Jinki taking out two of the largest diamonds I had ever seen in my entire life. The Dragons' eyes shone as they watched. Dragons and their loves for anything shiny... They would have gone crazy if such obsession was a disease. Jinki threw one of the diamonds to their feet and they hurriedly caught it with greed in their eyes.

            “You can have the other one when you're done,” Jinki told them. They wouldn't run away for sure. They loved the diamond too much not to have both in their hands.

            “Step back,” The Dragon boy warned. I hesitated, but Jinki already jumped out of the way and into the tree. He sat in one of the branches and looked at me like I was crazy. The two Dragons shifted back into their real forms, as huge as two airplanes combined together. Their thorn-tailed wailed around dangerously, and almost swung me along the way, but I ran to the back just in time. That was so close.

            The bigger Dragon, the male, hit the ice surface with his tail and claws. The force created an impact that the small pieces of frost started to fly around in ever direction. I jumped higher to the nearest tree. It was actually quite a sight, seeing Dragons clawing their ways into the frozen water. It was like a picture out of the fairy tale books you read when you were a kid.

            The outer layer of the water broke, and shattered to pieces. It took exactly ten seconds for everything to fall apart and fell down in a quick motion. The ices formed different little blocks and went across different directions.

            The Dragon twins flapped their wings once, then twice, and went down the water with the speed of a bullet. I gasped in awe as I watched two silhouettes gone deeper. They were sort of dancing and swimming at the same time and it was so beautiful. Their movements were even more flawless than Sirens.

            The branch behind me shook.

            “You are absolutely sure of the location this time,” Jinki spoke softly. The tree shook again at the impact of his body weight as he jumped over to another branch next to mine. I smirked at him.

            “I can only hope, Jinki. You know me,” I found a self confidence with every words I spoke after that, “Hope is the only thing that keeps me sane.”

           A/N: The main character will be revealed shortly.