Beautiful.

Woohyun’s mouth was held ajar as he stared at the landscape before him. Sure, he saw quite a few beautiful scenes on the train ride here, from the crystalline waves of a lake that, according to Sunggyu, held secret depths of kelpies to the fiery red canopies and fresh harvest of Autumn, but the shining expanse in front of him easily dwarfed those views.

Everything was covered in a layer of fresh snow, but snowflakes still fell persistently from the air. Woohyun caught one on his hand, and, in the split second before it melted, he saw a pattern that looked more intricate than any snowflake, whether in real or photo form, he had ever paused to notice at home. Frost covered the trunks of trees that appeared lifeless, save for their ability to stand sturdy under inches of icicles and snow and the occasional woodland animal that scurried across the branches. They weren’t quite squirrels. Icicles arranged themselves on trees, reflecting the sun in a way that made them look almost like christmas lights.

Above the trees, the tops of a crystalline castle poked out, featuring geometric architecture that formed itself primarily in hexagons. Remembering the term “ice princess,” Woohyun supposed that was where they were going.

The snow on the ground sparkled in the sunlight, pristine, untouched until they walked over it. Woohyun stuffed his gloved hands in his pockets, feeling so flawed and out of place in the face of beauty and snowy perfection. Looking behind him, he saw the tracks quickly refilling with snow until they matched the rest of the landscape. Magic, he supposed, to keep everything pristine.

It wasn’t too cold, though Woohyun supposed that the many layers of clothing Sunggyu had forced him to don helped. His eyes were pretty much the only thing that wasn’t covered in warm wool. Sunggyu had said that he was being meticulous because a sick partner would slow him down, but Woohyun preferred thinking that he cared for his partner too much to let him go cold.

The fairies flitted along ahead of them, their wings surprisingly unaffected by the frigid temperatures. Soon enough, they found themselves at the wooden door to the castle, which Woohyun found wasn’t actually made of any sort of crystal, but rather stone that had been covered with a layer of ice. Sunggyu reached up and knocked, and the doors swung open to a rather tall female fairy with long, brown hair and huge doe eyes. She was wearing a fur-lined, light blue cloak with a belt around the center and brown snow boots.

“Men are not allowed,” she said, her deadpan voice completely contradicting her gentle, innocent face. She started swinging the door closed when another fairy popped out and stopped her.

“Don’t be mean, Tzuyu!” the new fairy had curly brown hair that was tied up in two high buns. For some reason, she reminded Woohyun of a chipmunk when she smiled. She turned to the men, “Well, normally, she’s right, but you must have travelled far to get here, so come in and energize before you head on your way?”

“Why thank you, miss...”

“Nayeon.”

“Miss Nayeon!” Mark said cheerily as he strut into the castle, stopping to shake the snow off of his boots on the carpet by the entrance. The rest of them thanked the nice fairy and, trying to ignore Tzuyu’s glare, made their way inside as well.

Eventually, Nayeon brought them to what seemed like a living room, but the living room of a millionaire or something. It came complete with three corner couches, a TV, several gaming tables, and plants and decor in every corner. There were three fairies their, one lounging in a couch and watching TV and the other two playing a dramatic game of air hockey.

The one on the couch looked up first. She long, brown hair that was a shade lighter than both Nayeon’s and Tzuyu’s and thin bangs. “Nayeonnie, did you bring any food? I’m staaarving,” she complained. “Oh. Uh. Hello,” she said to the men who had walked in.

“It’s dinner time. No snacking! I came to get you guys so we could all go eat. Don’t mind them, they’ll be gone soon.”

The two shorter girls playing air hockey finally stopped as the one with black hair with highlights in a side ponytail scored a point. As she celebrated, the redhead turned around to see their guests.

“Hi!” She said cheerily, “I’m Dahyun. This is Chaeyoung and Momo.” She gestured at the girl she was playing against and then the girl on the couch.

The boys introduced themselves, but they didn’t make much conversation before Nayeon escorted them to the dining hall. Woohyun looked over at Sunggyu to see his partner tapping his foot impatiently, reminding him that there was actually something they were supposed to accomplish here. It was easy to forget about work when it felt like Christmas Eve.

There were already several other girls sitting at the dinner table, one fairy with a sparkling white and blue gown cascading down her sides and all around her and an ice tiara sitting at the head of the table. She raised an eyebrow as the men entered, but said nothing until everyone was seated.

“Awfully welcoming today, huh, Nayeon?” the woman at the table - a princess, perhaps? - asked as Nayeon took the seat next to her.

“Oh be nice, Jihyo, remember what happened last time we turned travellers away?”

Jihyo made a face, but said nothing in response. “Welcome, guests. I hope you find your dinner satisfying.”

“Actually,” Sunggyu said, “I am a gatekeeper, and I’ve come to see about closing the gate that has been errantly left open in your world.” As he spoke, the rest of the fairies filed into the room, a light chatter erupting as they dug into their dinners cheerily.

“Interesting. Well, I know quite a few folks who might be rather opposed to that. I hope there’s something you plan on offering in return?”

Sunggyu raised an eyebrow, though Woohyun suspected that his surprise was feigned. “I suppose the safety of your universe isn’t enough?”

A chorus of giggles erupted in the room, all of them so harmonious that Woohyun almost heard a bit if a tune out of the ensemble. The song faded, and Woohyun was almost disappointed, even though the jeers were clearly directed at himself and his compatriot.

“Try again, sweetheart,” Jihyo prompted. “But I suppose you are correct. The fate of the universe does lie in our hands, doesn’t it? We’ll make it easy for you. If you can find something that will satisfy one of my eight subjects - or myself, if you’d like a challenge - I will grant you access to the portal.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Woohyun whispered to Sunggyu, “I’ve played dating sims before. Spend three days with one person and then you’ll max out your bond with them and - “

“You have until tonight at nine.”

Woohyun blinked, “Well, that’s four hours away. That can’t be right. These things always come in threes. Maybe…”

Sunggyu rolled his eyes, ignoring Woohyun, who was now looking at his hands under the table and counting something or another as he muttered to himself. “I don’t suppose you’d want him?”

Jihyo wrinkled her nose in disgust. “What would I possibly want to do with a fully-grown human man?”

Sunggyu sighed. “Well, it was worth a try.”

Woohyun abandoned his mathematics and struck up conversation with the fairies near him, learning much about the mischief they went up to around fairyland. Apparently, that day, they turned a boat into a hippopotamus. It certainly didn’t sound very safe, but, he had to admit, very entertaining.

After dinner, he and Sunggyu made a small rendezvous in a corner of the hallway. “Alright, if there’s anything I know about fairies, it’s going to be impossible to get them something they want by the end of the night. And then they’re going to say that we’ve accrued debt to them because we ate their food and the like. I say we get out there and go look for the portal ourselves.”

Woohyun blinked, “Find the portal? This place is gigantic. Please tell me you have some sort of like, sensor or something to figure out where it is.”

Sunggyu shook his head. “Not a sensor, but if I do some meditation I should be able to find it eventually, and a lot faster than it would take to look for it on foot.”

“Alright. You do your zen master yoga thing. I’m gonna go inside and flirt up some ladies,” Woohyun said with a wink.

“Do whatever you want,” Sunggyu said. “The queen said we can use that room if we want to me alone. I need to concentrate while meditating, so if you must go inside, just try be quiet, if that’s a word in your vocabulary.”

Woohyun nodded, and the two of them went their separate ways. Something in his gut reminded him of the grisly fates of those who split up during horror movies, but he pushed those thoughts aside, figuring that if he were to be in a specific genre of work, it was likely a fantastic dramedy.

He went back into the gaming room, where a few of the fairies had taken up playing on a console. A projector displayed the game they were playing on a slab of smooth ice, and it seemed to be some sort of fighting game.

He opened his mouth, but no words came out. Wondering if it would be awkward to greet them from so far away, he stepped forward, and then immediately froze.

Thankfully, he summoned all of his will to step back outside into the hallway before any of the fairies could notice and wiped his palms on his pants. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes as his heart calmed.

He had forgotten how hard it was without someone else to say hello for him.