“The Elders.” The words spat out of Onew’s mouth. They had a different kind of power coming from him than they did Key’s lips.

There was an almost acid sound to them. A disgust.

Onew started to stride back and forth in the small space in front of him. He nodded his head while looking at the ground. His breaths were rigid, choppy. Was this a breakdown? Was Key about to witness his friend go off the rails from this information?

“Onew, calm down.” Key whispered.

“Calm down! Key, we trusted them! We thought they could help us!”

Min-seo stood up.

“Key, what is he talking about?”

Even Onew’s father looked on and off with worried brows arching up to the ceiling as they bent towards one another. Onew realized what had slipped out of his mouth. Regret covered his face; he looked away from his mother.

“It’s nothing mom. Let it go.”

“Have you two been going against what me and your aunt said. Have you been seeing those monsters?” The words spat out like acid through her lips as well.

“They’re not monsters.” Key quickly defended, though he wasn’t exactly sure why.

The sudden outburst sure caught Onew’s attention. He snapped his eyes towards his best friend, staring at him in confusion.

“Key, did we both just listen to the same story here.”

“That happened centuries ago-“

“We don’t know what the Elders could be teaching them!”

“You heard what they said, they don’t even really know much about them.”

“And we’re supposed to believe that!”

“STOP!” Min-seo screamed.

The two boys shut down immediately. Key’s hands shook at the touch of his own anger rising above the surface.

“Why have you boys been seeing them? Why didn’t you listen to what me and your aunt demanded? You were not to engage with them in any sort of manner.”

“Well you two weren’t exactly on our top trust list.” Onew retorted, throwing his hand in the air.

“Watch your tone with your mother.” His father snapped.

“Oh, thanks dad. Thanks for being the only non-creature here, yet still having the same complex of keeping secrets. I can’t do this-“ He moved away in mid-sentence, storming towards the hallway. When he almost disappeared from everyone’s view, he made a u-turn, pointing his finger at the lot of them.

“Just tell me this,” He urged, “just tell me one more truth, you know, if it doesn’t kill you…”

There was a moment of silence between all of them.

“If Key’s mother went off with him and neither of you could find them, then how exactly is Key right here, right now? Can you tell me that at least? Where’s his mother then?”

The words came out harsher than he wanted them too. He could feel the sting hit Key’s face when the word lurched out of his mouth; ‘mother.’ Where was his mother? Key had never thought about it. Of course, the question of his parents’ existence had entered his mind once or twice in his lifetime, but perhaps it was the company of his aunt and Onew that kept him at bay from asking these questions. But now that the story had reached their ears, Onew was right. If they had found him, just where was his mother? What had happened to her? The room was silent again for another two minutes or so before Onew’s mother breathed out a heavy, lingering sigh.

“We don’t know.” She spoke. “We only found Key and that’s because of you Onew.”

“Me?”

“Yes,” she sighed again. “We continued looking for you two. The twenty-first century came into play and then I fell in love with a human. Your father. My disdain for them had withered by then, especially when I found Seo-jun. Then, seventeen years ago, Onew, you were born. I wasn’t sure how you were going to age, so, to be safe, through the old scrolls from long gone owls, Key’s aunt found a way to lock away the owl part and only let the human part flourish. But something happened none of us were prepared for. Onew, when you turned three, you kept asking to go to this forest neither of us ever told you about. But, lord and behold, it existed. We just couldn’t understand how you knew about it and because of that, we had to guess it had something to do with the owl part of you that refused to be put down.”

She swallowed hard before continuing. Like the thought of bristling trees and the smell of leaves were too much for her memory to handle.

“Neither one of us wanted to ever step foot in a forest again after the war. It was a terrifying feeling. The only time we thought of going in one was to find Key and his mother, but even then, it was haunting…haunting memories to subdue. Perhaps…perhaps that’s why it took you, Onew, for us to find him. Perhaps, we weren’t good enough.”

“You mean…The Forest.” Onew emphasized. “Where Minho and Taemin’s family-“

She nodded.

“We came over here just to visit. We weren’t really sure if your owl side was freaking out about nothing or there really was something to find out here. But when we entered the woods, we could automatically smell that Cerberi walked through that soil. We didn’t feel safe, but you kept walking, leading the way. We were curious so we just followed you, staying on the lookout for those monsters. With all the centuries that had gone by, we doubted if Cerberi could even detect let alone, understand our smell. For all they knew, we were extinct. We pulled ourselves away from the supernatural world, after all.”

“So, what happened…” Key’s voice was small again. “How did he find me?”

“There was this part of the woods, that I’m not even sure the Cerberi knew existed. It held this grand tree; thick in its roots and its bark. The width of it could fit two people at least if anyone were to dig a hole inside. He stopped in front of it. We all did. Unlike the rest of the trees in the forest, there were these beautiful glowing flowers cascading around the base of the tree. Flowers like your father used to make, flowers like you-“

“Made in the woods.” He whispered.

She nodded.
“In fact, the fact that, that tree was there and somehow the Cerberi had not discovered it, made me believe it was your mother who found a way to cloak it. Gumihos are very resourceful and powerful creatures after all. Well, Onew walked up to it and placed his small little hand on the tree. The flowers moved out of the way like they were making a path for someone. The bark glowed and began to separate….and inside…was you. Three years old, curled up in a ball, fast asleep. Onew was so happy when he saw you. Like he’d been dreaming about you, only you were real this time. It was the first word he’d ever said, ‘brother,’ and touched your hand. Your aunt was so elated to see you. She rushed up and scooped you in her arms, crying hysterically. Because you were Gumiho, you still aged like one, which was barely at all. You were still three like the time of the war, but when Onew touched you, just as an owl should, you connected with one another. Your aunt used that opportunity to also use the lock that we’d put on Onew. She made it flow through you as well, so, instead of Onew aging with you, you aged with him. Like a human.” She smiled, a tear streaking down her eye from hiding in the pink corner.

“But we think the lock got broken when Key was attacked by that monster in the woods. Instinctively, his Gumiho side went into defense mode and wanted to heal him. The healing was going to progress faster than what it actually did if your aunt hadn’t put those herbs on your wound she got from me. It helped slow the process down, so that it would be believable to the humans.”

“And because we are connected,” Onew started, “my owl side did the same. It activated….or woke up?”

She nodded.

“But my mother,” Key spoke in a low tone, “she wasn’t there?”

His voice was scratchy, he swallowed hard.

Min-seo shook her head.

Key pulled his lips in and with shaky, wobbly legs, stood up. Onew rushed over before thinking and grabbed Key’s arm, catching him right before he fell. When his legs were sturdy, Key pushed his friend’s hands away and started walking towards the hallway.

“I-I need to clean this blood off.” He mumbled.

“K-Key,” Min-seo murmured, but it was nothing but a small whisper.

They watched as Key left sight. Heard his footsteps echo down the shallow hall.

Min-seo turned to her son.

“Onew, I know this is a lot to take in right now, but-“

“A lot mom, really? You keep saying that, but I don’t think either of you actually knows how much this is to take in.” He looked at his father as well.

“You kept this from us all our lives, and what? Was going to tell us when we were matured or something, like the blow to our faces about our actual reality was going to be little? Was that your plan?”

“Onew,” she sighed, “you have to tell me what you and Key told the Cerberi. I need to know if they know something against us. Something they could tell their-“

“Elders.” He finished. “Yeah mom, thanks for the concern, but no. I doubt they know anything since you and Aunt Kim made sure of that, right?”

He turned around and stormed out before he could hear neither his father or mother say another word.

****

When Onew entered his room, he found Key opening the sliding glass doors to the bathroom, folded clothes cuffed in the elbow of his arms. Key stopped what he was doing and turned around, his fingers lingering at the edges of the glass frames. He lifted the folded clothes up slightly.

“I hope you don’t mind but I went ahead and grabbed your PJs, since I wasn’t really prepared to come over.” He sighed.

Onew tried to urge out a small smirk.

“No problem.”

Key nodded.

He leaned into the bathroom doorway, but stopped himself and looked back at Onew.

“Sorry.” He murmured.

It was a word his friend was unprepared for. Sorry? Why were these words coming out of his mouth? If anything Onew should be the one sorry, for bringing up his mom and all without thinking of him.

“Sorry? For what?”

“You know…” he shrugged. “not telling you about the attack in the woods.”

Onew chuckled.

“You shouldn’t be sorry about that. Obviously, it wasn’t your secret to tell, it was your aunt’s.”

“Yeah.” He nervously laughed back, but it only lasted a second.

“She’s going to be okay Key.”

“I know. Or…at least, I hope. She’s the only Gumiho I know.” He laughed again. Nervous, just like the one before.

“Go get dressed. I’ll get the bed ready.”

****

Ten minutes later, when Key walked back into the bathroom, dirty clothes in one hand, towel digging in his hair to dry it, in another hand; Onew laid on the bed already swirled up in the covers. He turned and looked at his best friend who stood there, water dripping from the ends of his hair, small figure in Onew’s otherwise heavy white t-shirt and jogging pants. He nodded towards a gray weaved basket that stood in the corner of his room.

“You can throw it in the dirty clothes over there.” He ushered.

Key did as commanded and before hopping into the bed to join, finished drying off his hair, letting the towel join the dirty clothes as well. He dug his body into the warm embrace of Onew’s cover and instead of laying on the opposite side like he sometimes did, made sure to scoot extra close to his best friend. The heat radiated off of Onew’s body and Key wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination or that his friend had really become a lot warmer than he usually was. His sweltering skin was so comfortable that he scooted just a little bit closer. Onew turned around so that the two of them, little scrunched up bodies curled up, were facing one another.

They stayed like this, silent, looking on through one another’s eyes for about a minute or two. It was better than saying anything at all. It was comfortable.

“Why are adults so hard to trust.” Key whispered.

He could feel the heaviness of his eyes beginning to set in; the day’s events were starting to take a toll on his body, drifting him away.

Onew barely shrugged his shoulders, just lifted one of them to show his indifference.

“I’m not sure.” He whispered back.

“No one came in the room while I was in the shower?”

“No,” his demeanor darkened, “I doubt either of my parents would do that after the way I yelled at them. It’s not like I’ve ever done that before.”

“It’s okay Onew. It’s not your fault.”

“Mm,” he grimaced, “everything would have been a lot easier if they would have told us everything a long time ago. Now, everything’s complicated and my head-“

“Hurts from all the information.” Key finished. “Yeah, mine does too.”

“I wish, if only for a second-“

“But we’re not Onew.” He interrupted. “Normal.”

His friend nodded.

“That’s why it’s just a wish.”

“I haven’t even had time to submit my application for that school you want me to go to so badly. Is that even possible with everything we have going on now?”

They both chuckled this time.

“Not even I can give you a positive answer on that one.” Onew replied.

Another soft moment of silence.

“Is it bad?” Key whispered.

Onew’s eyes were beginning to weigh down on him as well, but he heard the soft murmurs of his best friend.

“What?” He whispered back.

“That a small part of me really wants to go away. Leave, for anything, I mean. Even school.”

Onew forced his hand from its stationary position and touched the ends of Key’s hair that oddly stuck to the side of his face. He inched in a small smile though his sight was becoming blurry.

“Now who’s wishing that we were normal.” His voice echoed before drifting off to sleep. His hand dropped from Key’s face and as if he’d been asleep for hours, a soft snore ushered through his lips, vibrating from his throat.

Key’s eyes fluttered at their heaviness, but he stared at his friend anyway, taking in the subtle features of his frustrated expression. The curve of his lips as they grimaced in his sleep. The lines that embedded into his skin on his forehead. The redness that had made a home in his cheeks.

“I guess it’s me this time around.” He answered, expecting no response in return.