~~

When the train pulled into the station, Mark exhaled quietly in relief, shifting in his seat to nudge the head currently resting on his shoulder. A few indiscernible mumbles were all he received in response, however, prompting him to reach his other arm around to give the sleeping dryad a good shake.

“Youngjae, we’re here,” Mark squeezed Youngjae arm, voice low but insistent. And finally, Youngjae began to stir, eyes scrunching up first before slowly prying themselves open.

“Huh?” Youngjae blinked a few times, head finally leaving Mark’s shoulder as he squinted around at his surroundings, clearly disoriented.

“We’ve arrived at the Northern Forest. Or, just outside of it,” Mark amended, pushing himself to his feet. All around them, passengers were already gathering their things in preparation to disembark, and it was now that Youngjae finally regained his bearings.

“Oh!” Youngjae immediately jerked up in seat, muscles tensing and lip curling in distaste as his eyes darted around the interior of the train. Mark had to suppress a laugh - while Youngjae had worn a similar expression from when they first stepped into the vehicle, it hadn’t taken him long at all to forget his disgust and fall asleep.

“It’s okay, we’re getting off now,” Mark managed to hold himself back from teasing the tree nymph, pulling him to his feet instead. “We made it just fine.”

~~

Once the train station was out of sight, Youngjae visibly relaxed, a smile making its way back onto his face as he inhaled deeply, relishing in the smell and taste of the familiar air. Mark had the slightest urge to again, but held back again as he, too, was enjoying the untainted atmosphere much more.

The Northern Woods spanned a good hundred miles upwards, and even further running east and west. And given its fiercely protective population of dryads, it flourished like no other. It was one of the most biodiverse ecosystems to exist so closely to civilization, a true miracle given the destruction that usually came with urbanization.

“Is there anyone in particular you wanted to visit this time?” Mark asked, step quickening to keep up with Youngjae, who’d assumed his true form. One would never expect a tree to move fast, and Youngjae’s figure was essentially a human representation of one, but back on soft soil and surrounded by the lush landscape, Youngjae all but glided along. Vine and branch-like appendages extended outwards from his body to skim across the earth, easily navigating their pathless route.

“We're going to see Sandeul! There was a forest fire a couple weeks ago, right on the edge of his territory, so he’s been working on clearing out the debris to help jump start the regrowth.”

Youngjae craned his neck to look back at Mark, eyes twinkling, “I was thinking you could help us make short work of the cleanup portion.”

“Ahh, so that’s why you were adamant about me coming with you this time, huh?” Mark arched an eyebrow, but couldn’t keep the smile off his face. Youngjae’s good moods were always infectious, he wouldn’t be able to sulk in his presence even if he tried.

“Come on!”

Bright, musical laughter surrounded them as Youngjae picked up his pace, practically flying through the foliage. Mark was flying too now, quite literally, finally taking on his original form as a sudden rush of wind, making Youngjae giggle as his leaves rustled from the movement.

It was freedom, in the purest sense. Even as the last echoes of Youngjae’s laugh escaped from the edges of Mark’s reach, the potent energy of life and unbidden joy continued to course through him, pulling him along gleefully.

Many immortals, as ironic as it was, simply forgot how to live after a while, boredom hollowing them out as the absence of death slowly stripped them of their sense of purpose.

Mark had felt that way, too, not all that long ago.

But not anymore, not now.

~~

Jinyoung disliked many things. He disliked unnecessary small talk, he disliked uncultured pricks, and he disliked all things unhygienic.

But by god were human teenagers in a class of their own. At this moment, Jinyoung wasn’t sure he could abhor anything more.

“Have a nice day…” Jinyoung’s voice was completely monotone, expression blank as he finished bagging up the purchase, not even bothering to hand the bag over to the rambunctious teens that stood in front of the checkout. He slid it forwards instead, fighting back a grimace as they finally turned to walk out of the bookstore, one of the boys nearly knocking over a temporary display with his excessive gesturing, his friends guffawing at the hilarious story he was telling.

“...and don’t ever come back again,” Jinyoung muttered under his breath, stepping away from the register to clean up the mess they’d left behind. Granted, everything still looked nice and tidy, but Jinyoung knew there were at least a dozen books now out of place. He had watched, in fact, his irritation mounting with each passing second, as the careless brats had slowly wrought their destruction on his impeccably organized system with their aimless trek through the shelves.

Jinyoung was a very particular person. His few friends often called him high maintenance, and even if Jinyoung scoffed outwardly in response, he knew it to be true. He remained unbothered by this, however - he could afford to do things his way.

Still, Jinyoung hadn't survived this long by being wholly lacking in tact. His reputation of being a hard to please, sensitive stickler was only preceded by his record of being a charming gentleman that could sweep anyone off their feet.

Humans were easily enamored of him, naturally, but he also had more than a few magicfolk admirers.

The current success of this little bookshop was a prime illustration of his capabilities. Located in a narrow alley just on the edge of the busiest part of town, the creaky, dusty establishment had been on the verge of bankruptcy when Jinyoung first happened upon it. At the time, it more resembled an abandoned warehouse than a sustainable source of income.

While Jinyoung himself appreciated the antiquity of the volumes held within, the unappealing setup of it all was enough to turn him away, not to mention casual customers who were simply looking for a bedtime read while being significantly less well versed in high literature.

The only reason Jinyoung originally set foot in the place was due to a very specific work he’d been searching for, which he indeed found within. That text no longer held any significance, however, not since he’d presented it as an anniversary gift to a particular mage.

He knew now it had been an utter waste of effort and money.

At least he did get something else worthwhile out of the experience. Expecting to simply pick up his purchase and depart, he’d been surprised to run into an old friend at the cash register. Hyunwoo, a werewolf who used to be a part of the friend group Jinyoung liked to go clubbing with, and who just so happened to be the son-in-law of the owner of the bookstore.

They’d fallen out of touch a few years back, neither expecting to reconnect in this dingy old store of all places. As it turned out, Hyunwoo had gotten married during that time, and to a human, of all people.

Unions between magicfolk and humans weren’t necessarily rare, but were still exceedingly uncommon. Such relationships always came with a whole host of challenges, and Jinyoung hadn’t ever pegged Hyunwoo as the type to take on such hassles.

Polite small talk to catch up quickly turned to deeper reminiscing, and upon hearing that the bookstore would be forced to shut down rather soon, Jinyoung’s first reaction was of excitement - he was an avid book collector, after all, and with closures always came the inevitable sweeping discounts. The possibility of buying out the store’s entire collection at a fraction of the original cost was incredibly tantalizing.

But on second thought, coupled with a surge of guilt that his first instinct was to take advantage of the situation while Hyunwoo was speaking with such a forlorn look on his face, Jinyoung came to a different decision, one that resulted in him becoming one of the new co-owners of the establishment.

“You look like you just tasted some of your own cooking,” Hyunwoo joked as he sidled up to Jinyoung in front of the bookshelf, eyes scanning the spines of the books critically.

“Oh shut up, that was one time. My cooking is fantastic, thank you very much,” Jinyoung growled, plucking two books off shelf a bit more aggressively than necessary.

“Sure,” Hyunwoo laughed, watching on in amusement as Jinyoung stalked towards the other end of the store, undoubtedly to put the two books back where they belonged. “You know, you really don’t have to work, we have enough people on shift. You’ve done more than enough remodeling this whole place from ground up, not to mention all our new customers are thanks to your advertising. You’re a co-owner, Jinyoung, not a sales associate.”

“It’s not like I have much else to do anyways, it’s fine,” Jinyoung waved off the comments dismissively. “Besides, what advertising? I just told a couple of my friends about it, they’re the ones who helped spread the word.”

“Jinyoung, your friends just so happen to be some of the most connected and influential people in this entire city,” Hyunwoo shook his head, almost exasperated, but his eyes were fond. “Honestly, you’ve done so much for us already. We’ve had more sales in the past couple of months than probably the last three years combined.”

At this, Jinyoung softened, a small smile lighting his lips as he slid one of the books back into place.

“It’s really nothing. I’ve enjoyed this, mostly, and you know how hard it can be for us magicfolk to find new and interesting things to stave off boredom. This has been fun.”

Hyunwoo was silent for a few seconds as he watched Jinyoung proceed down the aisle, thumb trailing along the book spines. His silence was normal; the man had never been one for many words to begin with, and Jinyoung had simply thought the conversation to be over, when a light touch landed on his shoulder.

“Are you sure you’re not…” Hyunwoo paused, squeezing Jinyoung’s shoulder gently, “...just trying to make yourself unnecessarily busy? I know you love books, but I also know how much you hate dealing with most customers.”

Jinyoung tensed, turning a sharp eye on Hyunwoo at the implication.

“What are you trying to say?”

Hyunwoo sighed, letting his hand slip from Jinyoung’s shoulder.

“I’m not trying to make any judgments, it’s just… the time you started hanging out here much more was right after you broke up with Jaebum.”

Now it was Jinyoung’s turn to be silent. He knew what Hyunwoo was implying, and he felt a surge of irritation. Partially at Hyunwoo, for bringing it up so blatantly, but moreso at himself. To say the timing was mere coincidence would be laughable, but to admit he was so affected by the event would be equally mortifying. Jinyoung didn’t need the concern of his friends, and he was supposed to care about his current relationship status even less.

But his recent bouts of irrationality, be it how he reacted to Yugyeom, or how he had to stoop to looking for distractions, was telling of his true state of mind. He was hurt, he was affected, which was all embarrassing enough, since Jaebum, by contrast, was probably unconcernedly sipping wine in his penthouse at the moment, glad he no longer had to put an act now that he had what he wanted.

No, Jaebum probably had no need to even be glad; Jinyoung had most likely slipped his mind as soon as he slammed the door shut on his way out that night. Which made it downright humiliating if he needed any additional consolation.

Jinyoung struggled for a few seconds to come up with the right words to say, to defend his tattered pride, but in the end, gave up with a sigh. Hyunwoo wouldn’t buy it, not at this point, he knew him better than that. His only hope was for Hyunwoo to drop the matter.

“I’m fine. It’s in the past now, anyways. You know I can take care of myself.”

“Of course I know that. I’m not worried about your health. Well, as a friend I’ll always be concerned about your well-being, but I know you’ve been handling it fine so that’s not what I’m worried about.”

Jinyoung raised an eyebrow, clearly disbelieving, which Hyunwoo took as his cue to continue.

“Ending a relationship is almost never smooth sailing, that’s normal. I know you can take care of yourself, Jinyoung, and nothing’s ever indicated to me otherwise. It’s just… how do I say this.”

Hyunwoo now bore a rare expression of frustration, running a hand through his hair agitatedly as he chose his next words carefully.

“Both you and Jaebum are so prideful. And I can’t help but wonder, are things the way they should be right now? I know you were genuinely in love with him, and Jaebum… I would’ve bet everything that he was just as deeply in love with you. You two were incredible together. I don’t know what happened that night, neither you nor Jaebum will speak of it, but was it really that earth shattering? I can’t make judgements, because I don’t know, but it all feels so wrong to me. Are you sure it wasn’t some sort of misunderstanding?”

“It wasn’t a misunderstanding,” Jinyoung said flatly, hurt flashing across his eyes for the briefest of moments. “I appreciate the concern, I really do. But I’m really over it.”

“I just really think you two should try talking again. Not to get back together, but just to have a conversation.” Hyunwoo was being uncharacteristically persistent, and Jinyoung could feel his own frustration beginning to rise. “You two haven’t conversed at all since then, right? It’s hard to communicate rationally in the heat of the moment, I really think there’s a chance that-”

“It’s not going to happen, alright?” Jinyoung finally snapped, voice raised. Hyunwoo flinched but remained unangered by his harsh tone, appearing only disappointed and uncertain.

Jinyoung forced himself to take a deep breath, attempting to steady his rattled composure. A few customers were glancing their way curiously, and more attention was the last thing he needed.

“Things are fine the way they way they are now,” Jinyoung finally said with a soft exhale, pushing away from the bookshelf. He was resigned, exhausted of this subject, face drawn with a defeat so uncharacteristic it almost made Hyunwoo want to take his words back.

“It’s the way things have always been. That’s all.”

~~

“First off, no combination of anything here is poisonous, I run a very safe establishment, thank you very much. Second, the only thing that’s remotely close to poison is probably the bleach used for cleaning the bathrooms, and I guarantee Jaebum is more likely to put all his cats up for adoption than accidently drink something you’ve spiked with bleach.”

Jackson slapped his dishrag down on the countertop slightly harder than necessary, just for emphasis, before turning to look at the pixie sulking on the barstool in front of him.

Despite having left in such a sour mood, Bambam couldn’t help but wander back to Moonshine as soon as he knew Jackson would be up - the bar coffee shop was still technically closed, and wouldn’t be open yet for a while, but this wouldn’t the first time he was let in (albeit reluctantly) by the owner for an off-menu drink and some sound, yet arguably unsolicited advice.

“So how about you think about actual solutions that don’t involve murdering an unmurderable mage?” Jackson didn’t completely understand why Bambam was so intent on pinning all the blame on Jaebum (okay, so maybe he understood a little ), but all in all this was getting rather ridiculous.

“He's not invincible,” Bambam mumbled, running a finger along the rim of his wineglass. “Definitely not unmurderable.”

Jackson rolled his eyes.

“He’s about as close to unmurdable as any of us can be. He didn’t survive several millennia while living such a high profile life only to be offed so easily by some pixie.”

“I’m not just some pixie!” Bambam protested indignantly, but deflated as Jackson sent him a withering stare. “Okay, so maybe murder isn’t exactly a viable option, but you can let me dream about it, alright?”

Jackson just shook his head, exasperated as he leaned forwards with his elbows placed on the countertop.

“Look, Bam, I’m being serious here. I think you’re being pretty unfair to Yugyeom about Jaebum. Everyone knows, except you apparently, that their relationship is more like family than master and servant.”

“Then why is Jinyoung-hyung so pissed at Yugyeom? He won’t even talk to him anymore!” Bambam leapt up from his seat, slamming a palm of the counter, features twisted in anger. “Sure, they argue all the time and like to push each other’s buttons, but you know how close they used to be! Even before Jinyoung-hyung started dating that manipulative mage!”

Jackson gave Bambam a warning look, but the pixie plowed on regardless.

“Jinyoung-hyung likes to hold grudges, you know that. But he never takes thing this far. Yugyeom would never do anything deserving of that of his own free will!”

“Are you so sure about that?”

A third voice swept into the room, along with a breezy gust that tousled Bambam’s perfectly placed hair. A figure materialized out of thin air, landing lightly as he strode forward, garments billowing.

“Mark!” Jackson looked relieved to see the sylph, breaking out into a grin at the arrival of an additional voice of reason. Bambam didn’t quite share his sentiments, however, growling lowly in his throat as he attempted to smooth his hair.

“What do you mean by that?” Bambam demanded, but less forcefully than before. It was harder to argue against Mark, with how composed he always was, not to mention the calming presence he managed to bring wherever he went.

“I don’t mean anything in particular,” Mark plucked up Bambam’s wine glass, handing it to Jackson to wash and put away. Jackson immediately complied, happily relieving his position to the air spirit. “Just the meaning of the question at face value. Can you really be sure? Whether it’s something Yugyeom did, or if Jinyoung has another reason for acting this way. Do you know anything specific about what happened?”

And to that, Bambam had nothing to say, stilling as he dropped his gaze.

He didn’t know. He had no idea what happened that night, and that was what made everything so much worse. Yugyeom wouldn’t say a single thing, and it wasn’t like he was about to ask Jaebum. The fact of the matter was no one knew what transpired, besides those who were directly involved - not Mark, not Jackson, and clearly not Bambam, so everything was at most pure speculation.

Mark’s reminder of this seemed to drain all the animosity from Bambam, his eyes clouding over with doubt.

“Bam, you should really just talk to Yugyeom. Ask him what happened, and have an open, honest conversation.” Jackson advised from his place at the sink, and Mark nodded in agreement. “I know you’ve tried already, multiple times, but you’ve always run away first too, haven’t you? You need to give him a fair chance.”

“I...I know,” Bambam slumped back onto the stool, restless fingers now coming up to dance on the edges of the counter. “I know, I do, but I guess I’m just…” he trailed off into silence.

“You’re scared, in case you’re wrong and Yugyeom did do something unforgivable, right?” Jackson walked back over while drying the glass, sighing when Bambam gave an almost imperceptible nod. “But you don’t know for sure. It could be something else entirely. If this is torturing you that much, you should find out the truth, and go from there, don’t you think? It’d be unfair to Yugyeom otherwise.”

“Yeah, yeah, okay.” Bambam finally agreed, but it was half-hearted, and there was no saying whether he’d change his mind later. Jackson looked like he wanted to say more, but the pixie had already pushed himself to his feet, sighing deeply. “I’ll try. Thanks, Jackson-hyung, for listening.”

His gaze flickered up to Mark, and he gave him a small smile as well.

“You too, Mark-hyung. I appreciate it, really. I… I guess I’ll be heading out now.”

With that, Bambam slowly shuffled out of the bar, hands stuffed in his pockets, head lowered.

“Fae. They never really grow up, do they?” Jackson commented as the front door closed with a clink and a click, and Mark nodded in agreement.

“I’m sure they’ll figure it out,” Mark walked around the bar to join Jackson behind the counter, leaning against the table as he watched Jackson busy himself in readying the daytime menu. The pastries were already ready to go - Jackson had a baker that stopped in early morning since he couldn’t bake to save his life - so all that remained was restocking ingredients for the beverages.

“I sure hope so. It’s weird, not having everyone getting along. I don’t like it.” Jackson’s lip curled, as if it physically made him sick, and Mark had to hold back a laugh.

“It’ll work out, eventually,” Mark reiterated, stating it firmly as if it was an indisputable fact, managing to pull a genuine smile from Jackson as well.

“Okay, I'll hold you to that then, so you can be responsible if things go wrong,” Jackson wiggled his eyebrows playfully, and Mark couldn’t help but laugh aloud at his ridiculous expression.

“Okay, enough about that. We need to finish setting up, half an hour left before open.”Jackson wiped his hands on his pants as he stepped away from espresso machine, gesturing towards the stacked tables lined along the walls.

While Moonshine was closed for an absurdly short amount of time between night and day hours, stacking the tables and chairs remained a necessity to clean the floors properly on a daily basis. The brownies Jackson hired to scrub the place down always took care of the stacking bit, but putting everything back into place was all on him.

Mark didn’t need the prompting, however, already moving towards the first pair of tables to firmly grasp the edge of the one on top. Jackson was on the other side in an instant, the table lifting easily between the two of them and flipping upright with one easy motion.

They made quick work of the rest, Jackson beginning to hum cheerily about halfway through. Frankly, they were both strong enough to handle single tables on their own, but these were familiar actions, and efficiency didn’t suffer nearly enough to consider discarding this habitual teamwork.

“Ah!” Jackson suddenly broke tune just as they reached the last set of tables, though the rest of his body gave no pause as they finished the job. “There was something I actually wanted to ask you about.”

“Yeah?” Mark rolled his shoulders as he stepped away from the table they just set down, striding to the stacked chairs in the corner as Jackson hip-checked the table into its place.

“You didn’t have any plans this upcoming weekend, right? I was thinking about taking a day off on Sunday - we’re closed Sunday night anyways, and taking just the day off once wouldn’t really hurt business. I was thinking we could go catch a movie or something? It’s been awhile since I saw anything in theaters.”

Mark paused in his step. He couldn’t see Jackson’s expression, not with his back towards him, but could tell even at this distance that the shapeshifter was holding his breath.

“Just the two of us?” Mark’s inquiry was soft, light, and by all interpretations casual. But there was still a weight to his words, one that only emphasized the sudden standstill.

A sharp exhale, sending the smallest of ripples through the air, then -

“Yeah.”

Mark smiled, walking forwards once again.

“Sure. It’s a date, then.”

~~

Jaebum felt a chill creep up his spine, an inexplicable knot of unease settle in his stomach.

His eyes fluttered shut as his fingers skimmed further down the stiff, cold corpse. They pressed gently, probingly, but gave him frustratingly little. Every so often, heatless sparks would fly from his fingertips, but they fizzled out as abruptly as they came.

He could feel the humans’ eyes on him, their hopes adding to the tense energy in the air. Sungjin’s nerves were particularly palpable - as police chief, he held more responsibility, after all.

He could feel Yugyeom behind him as the warm, solid presence he always was. Earthy, grounded, attentive - and just the slightest bit anxious.

He could feel the drained, burnt out cores of the corpses that lined the walls of the morgue, ashy and faint, but still telling of the life that used to inhabit them.

But from this body, he felt nothing.

A/N: So. A year later, I post the second chapter. OTL
I promise, promise yearly updates were not and are not my intention. I... think??? I have the plot semi-figured out now, at least more so than when I word vomited the first chapter. I can't promise quick updates, but I can promise I will try my best to keep the momentum going??
Please do leave me a comment if you enjoyed, frankly the comments are the only reason why I finally managed to finish this second chapter, so thank you <3