((a/n *screams*))

“You look frustrated,” Seulgi said as she came back into their room from the shower. She sat on her bed and started carefully drying her hair. They needed to be mindful about their appearances with their debut stage just a few days away, and Seulgi couldn’t afford to treat her hair poorly, especially as it was already damaged from the repeated dye jobs.

Irene was laying on her own bed, on top of the sheets, staring up at the ceiling. She turned her gaze to Seulgi. How was she supposed to respond? What could she say? Remember that ‘dream’ you had with Amber in it? Well that really happened and I haven’t heard from her since.

She knew Seulgi was waiting on a response, and she didn’t mean to ignore the poor girl, but their flight through the Hedge kept replaying itself in her mind. Hearing Seulgi recall the adventure to Wendy and Joy the other morning had been odd: Seulgi had downplayed Irene’s involvement, almost to the point where Irene thought she was going to be excluded entirely. Was Seulgi embarrassed that she had dreamt of Irene? Was it because she had been in the room?

“Irene, Amber, and Krystal were all there,” Seulgi began, staring fixedly at Wendy. Joy glanced at Irene, watching her expression. Wendy held Seulgi’s gaze, and nodded, encouraging her to continue.

“But they didn’t really show up until later,” she said thoughtfully. “It started off how it always does, I was in a forest, and there was music-”

Irene interrupted her suddenly. “‘How it always does?’ Seul, is this a recurring dream?” Hadn’t Amber and Krystal mentioned seeing Seulgi in the Hedge before?

Seulgi blushed. “Sort of. Usually I’m by myself,” she added hastily.

“Go on,” urged Wendy, rapt with attention.

Seulgi briefly wondered at the strange looks they were all giving her. It was like they were watching the season finale of some tv drama. It was just a dream, right? Still, she composed herself and obliged. “So you, and Amber and Krystal show up, right?” She indicated Irene with a nod. “And suddenly we’re running through the woods, and there’s a fire. It’s getting really close and Amber’s hurt,” she continued, her words picking up speed. “And everyone’s shouting to ‘get in the water’! So we dive into this creek, and suddenly it’s just me and- uh, it’s just me in my room, at home,” she finished suddenly. Having Irene on top of her in bed wasn’t an image she needed to share with the others, even if the circumstances had been perfectly innocent.

Had Wendy and Joy not heard the details from Irene already, they would have dismissed this as some sort of stress dream, with the fire acting as some metaphorical representation of their impending debut. Or something like that. But after Seulgi had finished telling the story, they sat in mutual silence, each with their own thoughts.

Irene kept going over every detail from her own memory of the incident, every word, trying to piece this strange puzzle together. Krystal had said they were being followed? Something like “I don’t think he’s following us anymore”? Was that it? Who had Krystal and Amber seen?

And of course Amber’s reckless leap off the cliff after setting everything in the near vicinity on fire.

Amber, you’re on fire!

Irene sat up so suddenly she saw spots in her vision. Seulgi froze.

“Wha-”

“SEULGI!” Irene shouted. She scrambled off her bed and grabbed Seulgi by the shoulders. “Tell me again about… about your dream!” she commanded.

“Ah- what? My dream? Why?” Seulgi asked, thoroughly caught off guard. Irene was leaning down into her face, piercing her with that intense gaze, and it was making it difficult for her to regain her footing.

“Your dream, Seul. The one with Amber and me.”

Seulgi colored slightly and looked away. “I don’t remember much,” she began to lie, not really sure which part Irene wanted to hear, but not all that willing to confess how familiar they had been with each other. What was it with everyone and her dream? They had all been so serious about it before, and now Irene was practically shaking her to get more details.

“Don’t lie,” Irene accused. She knew they hadn’t actually been in Seulgi’s Dreamscape. They had been in the Hedge, so she knew Seulgi should remember it as clearly as any event here in the mortal world. “Tell me about the part where we were running, and the cliff. You said Amber was on fire,” she prompted.

Seulgi wondered at the intensity with which Irene was grilling her. This seemed really important to her for some reason, but she couldn’t fathom why.

“Tell me exactly what you saw.”

Seulgi squinted up at Irene. “The cliff? Oh, I guess there was a cliff… how did you know?” Had she mentioned Amber being on fire?

Irene paled. “Y-you said so, when you were telling us all about it before.” Thank god Seulgi was so easygoing; even such a laughably transparent lie seemed to satisfy her. It was so like Seulgi to trust Irene wherever they encountered each other: in dreams, in the dorm, on the dancefloor, Irene felt bad taking advantage of Seulgi like this, but she needed answers.

She needed to know if Seulgi could see Amber’s Seeming.

Seulgi frowned slightly in thought. “Well? We were running, and there was a cliff, and we all climbed down except for Amber. She like, just jumped off of it. It was really scary actually. She was on fire and had her arms out like this,” Seulgi explained, spreading her arms out wide and flapping them. “But then she just kept running and no one seemed to care. You know how dreams are.”

Irene was giving her a rather serious look, and Seulgi couldn’t help but feel like she was taking this dream thing way too seriously. “Hey, are you okay?” Seulgi asked, wrapping her towel around her shoulders and giving Irene her full attention. “It’s just a dream, you know.”

Irene gave her a half-hearted smile and sat back on her bed. Maybe it was an effect of the Hedge. Mortals went there so infrequently, maybe it wasn’t common knowledge how the Fae-touched space affected them. Maybe mortals could see Seemings there?

Seulgi got up and sat next to her. “You seem really shaken up by this. Do you… think it means something?” Now that she thought about it, she wasn’t really sure what kinds of things Irene believed in. Was she religious? Spiritual? Did she take this as some kind of dark omen? Was she into that sort of thing?

Irene made a concerted effort to compose herself. The stress of their impending debut and not knowing where Krystal and Amber were was really starting to take its toll on her, but she was their leader, after all. She needed to keep it together. If Seulgi was one of them, Irene needed to know, for the best interests of the group.

“Seulgi, look at me,” she instructed. She turned so that she was facing Seulgi on the bed.

Seulgi colored, and faced her obediently, though she was unable to meet the older girl’s gaze.

Irene smirked faintly. This was no time for shyness. She made Seulgi look at her with a finger under the girl’s chin. “Look at me,” she repeated. “Tell me what you see.”

Irene didn’t dare drop her Masque, hoping that the way her Seeming characteristically leaked through would be enough for Seulgi to pick up on. If this was heading where she expected and Seulgi could really see it, she didn’t want to accidentally enthrall her.

But it was far, far too late for that.

Seulgi could feel her face burning. What was Irene up to all of a sudden? It felt like time slowed down as she finally raised her eyes to meet Irene’s, completely helpless against the older girl’s piercing gaze. Irene’s long, straight hair framed the edges of her face, all perfectly angled lines and planes. She was torn between watching her dark eyes and her lips, parted slightly in a small frown.

The way the younger girl’s eyes swept over Irene’s face made her feel unexpectedly vulnerable. This was a far more dangerous game they were starting to play than just trying to test if Seulgi was one of them. The way Seulgi kept looking at her made her feel like she was the one being put under some sort of spell, and Irene leaned towards her, drinking in that attention.

Seulgi wasn’t sure what kind of answer Irene was looking for, but she was finding it increasingly difficult to form any kind of response with the way she was suffocating under Irene’s gaze. And maybe it was her exhaustion, or the strange dreams, or the even stranger conversations they’ve been having, but she felt her inhibitions falling away, and the desire to indulge in this new, fevered fantasy rise.

She remembered the way Irene’s hand had felt so real in hers in that dream, a feeling she had been craving ever since that night. Every accidental touch since then, every posed photoshoot, every spontaneous hug, had left her thinking about it. And the way Irene was so interested in her dream made it even more difficult to concentrate on anything else, bringing that memory up to the surface again and again. It had felt real. It felt like this, Seulgi wondered, as she reached up and brushed Irene’s hair away from her face, tracing along her cheek with the tips of her fingers.

Irene exhaled softly. There was something electrifying about the delicate way Seulgi’s fingers drew along the outline of her face. She was close enough now to see the glittering reflection of her Seeming in Seulgi’s eyes, and she hoped that she was wrong. She hoped that Seulgi couldn’t see it, that Seulgi wasn’t staring at her like this because she was enchanted by her nature, because Irene had never in her life felt more beautiful than she did in that gaze.

She wanted so desperately for that look of ardent admiration to be real.

Seulgi in a breath suddenly and retract her hand. Irene straightened and swallowed hard.

“What… uh, what was the question?” Seulgi asked in a strangled voice.

+++

Amber looked up when she heard the door unseal itself and open. A small, familiar girl sauntered in and looked around. The room was well-furnished, with a bed, a table, chairs, and windows letting in bright sunlight high up on the walls. A gilded cage.

“Yeri?” Amber asked, quirking an eyebrow. She ran through the possible reasons why young girl might be here, but if they wanted her to talk to Yeri, she supposed she’d find out why soon enough.

Yeri gave her that half-smile she usually wore, always ready to please and be pleased. “Not bad. This is a better place than where I thought they’d put you,” she remarked.

Amber blinked at her. There was much that unnerved her about that statement. “You… didn’t know I was here?” Yeri, the Court Oracle, hadn’t been able to predict where she was being held?

“You’d be impressed with the level of security they have here in the Haven,” was all Yeri said in response. “If I hadn’t known they’d be detaining you beforehand, I wouldn’t have even been able to find you.”

Amber shuddered. Conversations with Yeri usually left her with a crawling feeling on her skin. She liked the girl, but the way she always just said whatever came to mind left an unsettled impression. Someone with her abilities should have a little more delicacy when speaking to others. “So where am I?” Amber asked, rubbing her arms, trying to get rid of the goosebumps.

“Oh, we’re still in the Haven, but it’s actually really close to the Great Hall. Like I said, much better than where I thought you’d be.”

There, she said it again. Had Yeri 'seen' them putting her in the dungeon, or had she simply assumed that they would? Amber pinched the bridge of her nose, trying not to get caught up in the paradoxes of Yeri’s Seeming. “Why are you here? Are you going to interrogate me?”

Yeri walked over and helped herself to a seat at Amber’s table. Amber came and joined her after a moment.

“Sort of,” the child said. “Not because anyone asked me to, but because I have some questions of my own.”

Amber raised her eyebrow again. “How did you even get them to let you in here?” Amber was being held in isolation, not allowed to speak even to her guards for fear of them finding out what she knew.

“Friends in high places,” Yeri said simply. Amber was hardly surprised. Despite her ways, people seemed drawn to her, and she had many acquaintances in and outside of the SM Court. But Amber still had to wonder, how many of those people could Yeri consider her true friends, and not just people hoping to exploit her influence and power?

“Uh huh,” Amber said skeptically.

Yeri ignored her.

Still, Yeri was the first person she had spoken to in days - days? It was hard to tell how much time was passing in the Hedge - so she wasn’t too eager to drive the girl off. “Okay, so what do you want to know, then?”

Yeri crossed her legs and folded her arms across her chest. “Tell me about the Red Velvet girls.”

Amber’s expression darkened. “What about them?” After that night in the forest, she was feeling rather protective of the group.

Yeri uncrossed her legs and scooted her chair closer. “I’m going to be added to their group within the year. I need to know what you know.”

“What? You?” Amber was shocked. “Is the King putting you on their team?” Yeri’s position as a Courtier had made Amber assume that Yeri would never be debuted, even though the girl went through all the training routines the rest of them at the company had done.

“No one knows it yet,” Yeri said pointedly.

Of course. “A self-prophecy?” Amber asked simply.

“Sort of,” Yeri replied cryptically. Amber knew the nature of soothsaying was tricky: the more one pried into it, the more a Sight unraveled and the less useful it became.

“Fine, what do you want to know first?” There was a lot.

“I need to know who’s targeting them.”