Min Yoongi had never felt so annoyed all his life. Even though he was more than 300 years old, he still couldn’t handle girls. Despite his surprising age and life experience, they had always been inexplicable creatures in his eyes.

Of course, Hayoung was an exception as she was a Guardian and didn’t even act like other females. She was always so bubbly, cheerful and childish but when it came to business – which was collecting teeth for her –, she could be quite serious. Also, she was able to control her feelings and didn’t have frequent mood swings unlike Bae Joohyun who was either sparkling like the fireworks on the 4th of July or burning like ashes and slowly turning into dust. Sometimes she gave him a wide, heart-warming smile which triggered pleasant chills running down his spine while other times she was quick to lose her temper and started yelling at him after any minor disagreement. For Yoongi, she was the definition of mystery.

If her temper wasn’t enough, her approach to learning from someone as skilled and experienced as Jack Frost himself was definitely making him question his life choices. Truth to be told, Joohyun was a terrible student. Despite doing everything within his power to teach her properly, she didn’t obey as he had expected from someone with an uncontrollable gift. He even took her to the abandoned warehouse where he used to practice when he was slowly learning about his own skills but she didn’t seem to care about his efforts.

It wasn’t until she froze her own room that she carefully started following his instructions.

It happened five days after they had met. She was in her flat – that one that she shared with her little sister because after their parents had died in a car accident, she became her sister’s guardian and rented a flat for two. They had money to pay the bills because their parents were fairly wealthy and they inherited quite a generous amount yet they had to move away because of Joohyun’s university studies. Thus, after moving to Seoul, the tiny yet cosy flat was the one they called home.

Yoongi knew this story well because Joohyun shared bits and bobs about her life. For example, when he asked where she was going to sleep after the incident with her little sister, she told him about their flat right away. It was quite an important question as she didn’t want to interact with others but still insisted on going back to their accommodation. Yoongi didn’t really care because he rarely even slept at all – the cons of living as a Guardian –, yet he couldn’t forget about the fact that Joohyun was a human being. Or at least, that’s what the Guardians assumed, though none of them knew how to comprehend the existence of the girl. What was she? How could she have such similar powers to Yoongi’s? Why wasn’t she a Guardian like them?

Whatever the case might have been, after their encounter, Yoongi felt as if it was his duty to keep a close eye on Joohyun. That’s why he secretly checked night after night if everything was okay with her. He used the fire escape to get to the window of her bedroom and to peek a bit. He persuaded himself that it was just him being his cautious self but he couldn’t deny that soft feelings had taken hold of him every time he saw the sleeping figure of Joohyun.

However, on the fifth night, he noticed that the girl was quietly struggling. She was grabbing her quilt stiffly while she did nothing except tossing and turning. It could be seen that she was having a nightmare.

Let her be. She needs to deal with it on her own. Yoongi inwardly convinced himself that it would be best if he didn’t interfere with her nightmares. After all, he wasn’t even supposed to be there. How would Joohyun feel, knowing that he was watching her sleep every single night like a crazy stalker?

Yoongi didn’t move an inch until the girl suddenly pushed herself up and screamed.

Her terrified voice broke the reassuring silence of the night. If it wasn’t enough of a surprise, the moment she woke up, she defensively held her hands up in front of her face and literally froze the room. Probably it was because of the terrifying nightmare she had or the feelings that had taken hold of her. Anxiety and rage were the biggest enemies of Joohyun; Yoongi learned that she was most vulnerable when she felt like she felt out of control. That’s when her power turned against her and she used it for destroying rather than creating.

 Joohyun did the same this time as well. With the overflowing emotions rushing through her, her body turned into a defensive mode. To fight the lingering moments of her nightmare, she created dozens of icicles without her knowing what was happening and soon found herself surrounded by the them. There was nothing else around her besides cold, lifeless and stern ice.

That was when Yoongi decided to take actions. He couldn’t watch her suffer even more, let alone hurt herself in the process. Fortunately (or not), he didn’t even have to bother to break the window because Joohyun had already cracked the glass when she had her outburst.

“Hey!” He cleared his throat to make sure that the girl would notice him while he was climbing in through the window. Joohyun immediately looked up and her eyes remained wide open. Terror filled those little black holes and darkness replaced the burning sparks he had usually seen in her orbs.

“Alright, we need to go!” He continued as softly and patiently as possible. There was no need to use his usual distant and cold manners when she was already terrified and couldn’t even move because of the sight of blood on her hands. She had probably cut herself somewhere along the way as bruises and injuries were likely to happen when her power was out of control. Yoongi could see the sheer fear in her eyes as the realization his her hard; if it wasn’t someone else he hurt with her careless movements, it was her own self.

“What have I done? How could I do it?” Joohyun mumbled, still staring at her bloody hands like he was possessed by the crimson-red bruise on her temple. Yoongi’s heart churned in worry but he tried his best not to show any sign of empathy.

Instead, he grabbed her waist and pulled her up. He took her shaken up state into consideration, that’s why he tried his best to be uncharacteristically gentle with her. One thing that helped was the fact that Joohyun didn’t even protest. She accepted his assistance for the first time since they met.

Encouraged by the thought, Yoongi didn’t let her trembling hands go until they reached the abandoned warehouse.

When they arrived at the dusty and quite old warehouse, it was hard to see anything as it was past midnight and the broken windows only let the dazzling moonlight into the interior of the building. Without any source of light, it would have been difficult to calm her down, so Yoongi decided to turn on the lights in the room.

“Okay. Now, look at me!” He turned to the trembling Joohyun whose eyes were scanning the new place. He patted her shoulder to draw her attention but to no avail. The girl was unable to meet his eyes, so he had to cup her chin, forcing her to face him. His attempt to be gentle wasn’t meet with Joohyun’s approval. In fact, the girl swiftly pushed him away and took a step back.

When she finally shifted her attention to him, her eyes were shining with pearl-white teardrops which were constantly streaming down her face. Her whole body was trembling just like a leaf falling from the tree; slowly and vaguely. Yoongi noticed the shakiness of her hands by her side, even though she tried to hide her fear by clenching her fists. As she was struggling to conceal how helpless she felt, she wasn’t anything like that mysteriously beautiful and balefully firm ice sculpture that she used to be. She was broken.

“It’s all okay, Joohyun…” Yoongi started softly, careful not to raise his voice. Yet, he was bold enough to take a step closer to her but as expected the more he tried to reach out for her, the more she pushed him away.

She doesn’t trust me. I can tell, just by looking at her. She’s afraid of me… but more importantly, she’s afraid of herself.

After a few fruitful attempts, his common sense warned him that it would be best if he stopped and let her make her move first. He shouldn’t have been so hard on her seeing how vulnerable and fragile she was.

“What is wrong with me? Why can’t I control my power? And why I even have this power? I don’t want it, I can only hurt people with it.” She exclaimed furiously, her hands still in fists like she was ready to fight. “Please, help me stop it. Please, just lock me in or I don’t know…” Joohyun turned to the Guardian, her eyes full of tears. Even her voice changed, it suddenly went from helpless crying to painful pleading. Her tears were continuously streaming down her face when she walked up to Yoongi and came to a halt right in front of him. It was hard for him not to move and wipe the tears away but he managed to stay still. He didn’t want to get emotional, he insisted that words should be enough.

“I won’t lock you in because that wouldn’t help at all.” He shook his head, trying for the right words to say. He had never trained anyone who shared the same power. He had no idea to how to teach Joohyun to control her power because he never had anyone who was supposed to learn from him.

Nonetheless, seeing the hopeful expression on Joohyun’s face, he wanted to try his best. He may not have been the best mentor for her but he wanted to try.

“I was thinking about a solution ever since you first told me how you can’t control your power. I thought that wearing gloves would be a silly idea because you need to learn how to deal with it, not how to hide it. But maybe we should give it a try.” He reasoned patiently, clenching his jaw as he was pondering for a thought.

Thankfully, Yoongi could see a slight sparkle in her eyes that encouraged him to walk to only desk in the room. He opened the drawer where he had already put a pair of gloves the day Joohyun appeared – just in case things would get totally out of control – and took it out.

“You really think that a pair of gloves can change anything?” Joohyun raised an almost mocking eyebrow at her while tears wouldn’t stop.

Yoongi shrugged off her doubt and passed the gloves to her. At first, she reluctantly bit her lower lip, examining the material carefully as if it could sear her bare skin. However, after a few seconds, she was brave enough to take and try them on. He raised one of his eyebrows in question when she reached out her hand and pointed at a window. Fortunately, nothing happened.

Saying that he wasn’t surprised would be an understatement but he suppressed his smirk when he realized that his idea actually worked. On the other hand, Joohyun looked relieved for a moment and even her shoulders loosened.

However, after a minute or so, she burst out into tears again.

“Gosh, how could it be so simple? If I knew that a pair of damn gloves would help, I could prevent all the accidents and Yerim wouldn’t be in the hospital right now. Oh God…” She sobbed loudly, not bothering to wipe the tears away. They were flowing like a river in a heart-wrenchingly slow pace and soon covered her whole face.