Something was weird about today.

Jongup woke up feeling better than he had in a long, long time.

He felt like the tragedies of yesterday were far behind him. 

He felt like everything was just a nightmare, an he had just woken up.

For some reason, Jongup felt like he could see his mother today, although he knew it just couldn’t happen.  Nevertheless, he hadn’t been this optimistic in a while.

When Jongup got up, he was happy to find that his ankle wasn’t giving him any problems. 

Suddenly he remembered that Himchan had run away yesterday. 

What was wrong with Himchan?  He could obviously see, so why did he wear that blindfold? It didn’t seem like it was just decoration, and before Himchan basically told Jongup that he was blind. 

Why did Himchan run away, and why did it seem like it had so much to do with that horrible storm? 

And Himchan knew the forest so well—did he maybe know who killed Yongguk hyung and Zelo? This scared Jongup the most.  What if Himchan had been attacked by the same man who killed his two friends? He shuddered at the thought.

Jongup was driving himself crazy not knowing the answers to the questions he had.  He reached into his backpack and pulled out a change of clothes.  The blonde boy rushed through taking a shower and quickly got changed.

The curiosity drove Jongup quickly downstairs.  Jongup pulled on his left shoe with one hand while he pulled a hoodie over his head with the other. 

Soon he was walking through the forest, on the way to see his only friend. 

“Only friend.” Jongup voiced his thoughts out loud. 

He took in a sharp breath, but refused to cry.  Focusing on the questions he had for Himchan, Jongup continued on that small path he had taken before.

Jongup passed by familiar trees and branches.  Before he knew it, he was at that clearing with beautiful flowers in it.  A smile came to his face as he sat down, back leaning against a tree like the last time he had come here. 

This time, Himchan was nowhere to be seen.  Jongup remembered that Himchan came here often, so he decided to wait for him. 

Waiting comfortably against the tree, Jongup soon felt his eyes start to close. 

---

When Jongup woke up, he was still alone.  He rubbed his tired eyes and looked around for any sign that Himchan had come.

He didn’t see the older boy anywhere.  No note, and nothing appeared like it had been disturbed.

Sighing, Jongup got up to leave. Before he could go, something in that field caught his eye.  His conversation with Himchan a long time ago replayed in his mind.

"Legend is that if you find a certain flower here, you can have a wish for each petal it has." Himchan said, crouching down by Jongup and sniffing a flower. 

Jongup looked thoughtful.  "What kind of flower?" Jongup asked.  He never believed in magic, but what could it hurt?

"Well...they say it only reveals itself when you've experienced true pain." Himchan said simply, "It's just an old legend, anyway."

Jongup snapped out of his flashback and looked back towards the flowers.

One flower was above the rest.  It looked like a rose, but it was sapphire blue.  Dew hung off the petals, making the flower look as if it was shimmering brightly.  The whole patch of flowers was beautiful, but this single blue-colored rose clearly stood out above the rest.

At first, Jongup didn’t know what to do. 

He stared at the single flower that stood out above the thousands of other ones.

"Well...they say it only reveals itself when you've experienced true pain."

Himchan’s voice rang through Jongup’s ears. 

It was true, Jongup had experienced what he considered to be true pain. 

He had suffered abuse and the loss of his friends and family. 

He had suffered intense physical pain.

He had suffered from regret, not being able to tell Daehyun and Youngjae how grateful he was to them.

He had suffered from trauma, seeing the aftermath of the murders of his new best friends, Yongguk and Zelo.

He had suffered from loss.  Not only was his mother gone, but so was Himchan.  Jongup had a strong feeling that he may never see Himchan again.  It was baseless, but Jongup believed it nevertheless.

Jongup looked at the flower again.  The flower really did stand out.  It looked magical instead of a part of nature.  Could it be that this flower was more than just an “old legend?”

Slowly he walked to the middle of the flower patch, right up to the blue rose. 

His heart beat fast as his hand closed around the stem of the beautiful flower.  He firmly plucked it out of the earth and brought it closer to his face.

Up close, the flower was even more breathtaking.  Jongup observed that it had five perfect petals.   Five petals, five wishes.

Jongup felt guilty for killing something this perfect, but then he remembered that his wishes could come true.  And that was enough to overcome the guilt. 

Jongup slowly plucked the first petal.

He took a deep breath before making his first wish.

“I wish I was back in time, before my mother died.”

~~~

Ah.  This is shorter than I wanted.  :'(