Joohyun was more terrified than the first time she had been to the hospital.

She would need to see her little sister because she had promised to take her home once she’s discharged. She hadn’t seen her for almost three weeks because she avoided seeing her since the incident. Since she hurt Yerim.

The only thing she had the courage to do was to answer Yerim’s messages because that was the only way she could make sure that her little sister was doing okay. Consequently, they had kept in contact only through messages. Joohyun didn’t have the heart to let Yerim down but she wasn’t ready to face her. Instead of visiting her in the hospital, she texted her and always found an excuse, so that she wouldn’t need to see her. Her doctors kept Joohyun updated anyway.

Luckily, Yerim wasn’t in a critical condition anymore. Even though the doctors had no idea what might have caused the accident because Joohyun merely told them that she slipped on the icy street in front of their house and fell to the ground, unconscious. She couldn’t tell them what happened. How could she? They would have put her in jail or even worse, a madhouse. Who would believe that she possessed a power that allowed her to create ice and snow and bolt someone in the heart with her explosions? They would have outright humiliated her or called her names. Joohyun herself couldn’t believe it at first either.

However, knowing that Yerim was well again didn’t make things easier. In fact, it made everything even more difficult. The thought of having to see Yerim face-to-face was too much for Joohyun to bear. She had tried to prepare herself for every scenario but she had no idea what to expect.

Small wonder Joohyun was on the edge when Yoongi decided to interrogate her about a possible near-death experience she might have had in the past on the exact same day she was supposed to meet Yerim.

“What does it have to do with anything?” Joohyun huffed in disbelief, not knowing why it was so important for Yoongi to know so much about her past. Joohyun trusted him, at least she trusted him more than before but that didn’t mean that she was willing to share everything about herself. Especially not something so hurtful.

“Because you may have got your power when you were dead for a certain time and it may have remained when you came back to life. It’s not uncommon but extremely rare for someone to possess a power after they’ve been through a near-death experience.” Yoongi shared with her everything he had managed to find out about the topic since the gathering with the other Guardians.

“So do you say that it has happened before?” She raised an eyebrow in question, something unpleasant already settling in her stomach. Her heart was beating a bit too rapidly and she wasn’t sure if it was a good thing. Being the odd little human who was suddenly struck by this weird power was a role he hated but the possibility of others living like her also scared her. How many of them were living ordinary lives while having extraordinary powers? Who were them? Where were the others?

“Well…” The Guardian scrunched his nose, apparently uncomfortable to answer her question.

“Yoongi…” Joohyun said, her full attention lounged at the boy in front of her. Her impatient tone was her first warning. The next would be raising her voice at him.

“It happened only once.” He admitted, the icy blue of his eyes turning a shade darker after his confession.

Joohyun gulped. She sensed that something was fishy because Min Yoongi would never be hesitant to answer her questions if it wasn’t something he really didn’t want her to hear.

“What happened?”

There was a minute of silence that covered them like a gentle blanket on a winter night. Even though they were both creatures who were capable of manipulating ice and snow, Joohyun never liked the cold tension that fell upon them when they were arguing or merely hiding their real emotions in case the other would get hurt. It was the kind of cold that she didn’t prefer; stern, unbreakable and suffocating. She never liked neither winter, nor anything that was associated with it but she had to accept her fate and make peace with the fact that she was chained to winter no matter how much she disliked the thought.

“He died.” Yoongi finally broke the silence, his voice deep and raspy.

Joohyun would lie if she said that she didn’t expect such an answer. However, the thought still made her blood run cold. No matter how many times she hurt himself and sadistically liked being hurt, she didn’t want to die. Dying and being hurt were two sides of the same coin. Yet, one was reversible while the other was irreversible.

Or maybe not. Death can be tricked too.

“What exactly happened to him?” She persisted, not willing to move until she got the answer she wanted. Despite Yoongi’s apparent frown, he didn’t back away.

“His name was Myungjun but he was known as Daylight within us.” He started but paused right away to let out an agitated sigh. Whoever this Myungjun was, he must have meant a lot to Yoongi because his voice was uncharacteristically gentle when he talked about him. “He was a human being just like anyone of us before we got our powers. He was a firefighter but his bravery costed him his life. Once, he was so badly injured that he was sent to emergency immediately, yet he died while they were trying to resuscitate him. He was dead for around three minutes and while he was unconscious, he was chosen by the Man in the Moon as a new Guardian.”

“He was supposed to be a Guardian immediately?” Joohyun casted him a questioning glance because she couldn’t put the pieces back together.

“Yes.” Yoongi nodded with a half-smile. “He was a really gentle soul, always trying to save others and sacrificing his life but no one could save him from such a fate. Besides him, only Joonmyun and Hayoung were Guardians right after their death, Mark, Kibum and I, we had a period of probation before we were chosen one.”

“What was the reason for that?”

“Would you have trusted me with the responsibilities of being a Guardian right away?” He asked seriously without a hint of mockery in his voice. “The Man in the Moon has his own reasons to choose someone as a Guardian right away or merely guide them through the initial challenges of their powers. I didn’t know what to do with my powers either and my lack of knowledge slowly turned into pranks and jokes as I discovered what I could really do. I wouldn’t have been a good example for anyone. That’s why I stayed as Nightlight and questioned the Man in the Moon why I was created and why I couldn’t get to know anything about my past.”

“If you were Nightlight and Myungjun was Daylight, you must have had a special bond, right?”

“We can say so.” The Guardian of Fun smiled at the choice of Joohyun’s words. Then, as if he was suddenly being remembered of the past, his features became solemn and unreadable again.

“Myungjun was able to create or merely make flowers bloom and radiate sunshine and warmth. I was the one who was supposed to help him how to control his power but I didn’t know anything about his abilities. Luckily, he believed in me and it turned out that the will-power and mental strength you need to create heat is the same one you need to create cold, so things were looking up for a while. He was still a human but he couldn’t go back to the fire brigade because he wouldn’t have been able to explain why he was in one piece and why he didn’t have any burnt bruises, so he was studying to be a teacher until one day his own power consumed him.” He gulped as the memory of the said Guardian hit him hard and though he looked like an ice prince, Joohyun could see the remorse and pain in his light-blue eyes.

Yoongi told her about how he became a Guardian, about the fight with Pitch but never did he mention anything about a human who had opposite powers and had a similar reason she might have gotten hers. Though now that he told her that his own power consumed Myungjun, she was starting to understand why he didn’t want to tell her about Daylight.

“Go on!” Joohyun bobbed her head, gesturing him to finish the story. It could be seen that Yoongi was in conflict but the girl’s persistence prompted him to continue.

“Just as you are able to hurt yourself or others when you can’t control your power, he could do too. It was the first and the last time he let go of control and it cost his life. He burnt himself to ashes and because he wasn’t an immortal Guardian and had his own human body with his beating heart, he died on the spot.” He visibly flinched as he recalled the memory that still stung him at his heart. As an immortal, he was used to seeing people die while he didn’t change at all and didn’t age at all. However, mostly they were people whom he didn’t know well or whom he didn’t have a special relationship with.

On the contrary, Myugjun was his first pupil and his complete opposite. For so long, he waited for a mate because he felt alone and abandoned. People couldn’t see him, people didn’t believe in him. He was Jack Frost (or at that time Nightlight was more well-known), an immortal creature who could control snow and ice but had no one to share his accomplishments with. No one had a power similar to his, thus they didn’t understand him. He was goofy and loved causing trouble while messing around in towns and triggering snow fights. But he had no one until that year’s spring when he was chosen as a Guardian and found friends (to be precise, a family) in Bunnymund, Santa Claus, Tooth and Sandman. Before them, he only had Myungjun.

Myungjun was the perfect role-model, small wonder he was a Guardian right after his near-death experience. As opposed to Joohyun’s case, Myungjun knew he was a Guardian because he had talked with the Man in the Moon and he told him about his powers and responsibilities. If he wanted to protest, he wouldn’t show it. Myungjun was the epitome of joy; always smiling, giggling or chattering nonsense. He was the human embodiment of happiness, the way his lips curled into a smile resembled the sunrise itself. He was so full of love; he was always willing to give rather than take away. The world couldn’t have asked for a better Guardian. He brought joy and light into humans’ lives; not only with his power but with his smile too.

Truth to be