The Bond

Der Märchenclub
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Chapter 34

[The Bond]

 

 

 

 

Jessica did not know where to start.

 

Three days after the bloody night of Der Märchenclub’s meeting that took away the lives of Kim Kangin and Park Jung Soo, Jessica decided to visit Donghae again in his asylum. The last time she visited him had been quite traumatic. It had been the first time she saw him, but at the same time, not him. The first time she realized that there were two Donghae in this world, one the complete opposite of the other. True, they were both embedded in one same body, but they were different, entirely different.

 

She didn’t quite know which Donghae she was actually visiting that day.

 

When Jessica unsurely pushed open the door to the asylum’s visiting chamber, Donghae was already sitting on the chair in the center of the room. Exhaustion was clearly drawn on his face. The hospital shirt clung loosely on his thin frame and he looked thinner, worse than the last time she saw him. Being almost criminally charged and having to settle in a house for the imbecile, oh, how the great heir of the Lee Empire had fallen to the lowest pit.

 

But despite the downfall, Donghae was still a perspective young man himself. It didn’t take him more than a brief glance on his visitor to notice the hesitance that shadowed Jessica’s gesture –that plagued her mind. Nonetheless, he could never blame her for that. He was sick. He nearly hurt her. She had the perfect reason to be disgusted with him, and even if Jessica chose that moment to scream her loath at him, he would understood.

 

But Jessica stood there. Silent. Motionless.

 

Donghae decided to make it easier for her.

 

“You don’t have to come here, you know? You don’t have to risk yourself. I cannot fully control my other self well. I don’t know what I, what he, can do to you again. So please, just leave,” he spoke in a rather monotonous tone –spirit had rarely visited him anyway.

 

He waited for the fading footsteps. He waited for the sound of the closed door. But none. She did not move an inch.

 

He chuckled softly. “You are a stubborn girl, Sica.”

 

Her voice, once she finally found it, was choked out with difficulty. “Y-you’ll be okay. Everything will turn out to be okay from now on. You will recover and everything will turn back to normal again.”

 

He knew that a part of her words was not directed to him –it was directed to herself. Self-assurance was what she needed, she just desperately wished to wake up from the nightmare that had ended and had only begun to haunt her. He knew that the world did not work that smoothly. But Donghae reminded himself that he owed it to Jessica. He had been kept out of Der Märchenclub affairs during his treatment in the mental asylum. He was fighting his own monster here, but he knew that there were other monsters out there. He did not want Jessica to lose the battle. If self-assurance was something she needed to guard herself, than he would ensure his best to facilitate her.

 

He offered her a warm smile. “Of course. Everything will work out well in the end.”

 

He was lying. But it was the lie that she first introduced. Hence, as part of her responsibility, she would play along with it.

 

“Yes. Everything will be okay now. The killer finally confessed. Jung Soo was really the one behind all of this. Sungmin already took care of him. And the police also already captured Jung Soo’s ally, that girl whose voice I often heard prior to the misfortunes.”

 

Donghae did not say a word. He listened attentively to her words.

 

She continued. “It was not without sacrifice though. Kangin had to die that night.”

 

Donghae took a deep breath. He had never been close to Kangin, but still… “Kangin Hyung…” he bit his lips in silence to momentarily pray for his soul. After a couple of moments passed in silence, Donghae lifted his head again and asked, “How’s everybody been doing?”

 

“The Kim… from what I’ve heard… is facing a difficult time. T-that’s predictable. Their second oldest heir has just passed away. The Choi too. Everyone, actually. It might have been over, but…but…”

 

It was not a sentimental moment. Among all things, Jessica should have been glad. Her life would return back to normal then. The killers had been handled. No more incidents; no more killings; no more nightmare…

 

But she couldn’t control herself. Perhaps it was just about time. She was always hiding herself beneath the icy mask, pretending not to care, pretending not to be afraid. But it, she was not strong. She was afraid. She had imagined that when this all ended, she would be relieved, but no. Not really. It was only that moment, after everything had ended, in front of Donghae, only in front of him, that she broke.

 

Jessica cried.

 

It was the disbelief. The after shock that she finally felt after it all ended. Memories rushed inside her head. The moment when she received the invitation to Der Märchenclub, the moment when all those accidents and deaths occurred, the moment when she lost her rationality, lost the people she had probably learned to care about, the memories that would never be fully erased out of her mind.

 

Donghae hesitantly stood up from his chair. His instinct told him to embrace Jessica, but his conscience reminded himself: what if that person is awakened again? He could not control his other self. He could not predict when he would appear. And if he chose to resurface in front of Jessica and hurt her, Donghae knew he would never be able to forgive himself.

 

But her sobs continued. Her cries were far from being elegant. Jessica had always been that composed young woman who knew how to act mature, but right at that moment, she was nothing like those. Her cries were loud, her hands clumsily tried to wipe the tears that drenched her face. Suddenly he was reminded of her much younger self, the young Jessica who had the beautiful smile, who cried when she fell off the swing...

 

The little girl he cared so much about.

 

Donghae let his instinct took over. He approached the girl and slowly pulled her whimpering body close to his embrace. He did not know what to say, so he only tightened his embrace around her body.

 

“Lie to me,” she murmured between her sobs. “Tell me it is going to be alright…”

 

He sighed. “Jessica. I can’t –”

 

“Lie to me… please.”

 

His hand slowly caressed her brown locks. He closed his eyes and whispered next to her ears. “It will be alright. Everything will be alright…”

 

Her sobs slowly subsided. And she was mildly reminded at the memories of her past, of how Donghae was one of the very few people whose words she would always believe. Even when it was lie, even when it was not as sugar sweet as she had expected it to be, Donghae’s words were ones that could always calm her senses.

 

Something warm touched her heart.

 

In the midst of the pitch black nightmare, she began to see the soft light in him.

 

 

 

 

 

Yoona could not bring her feet to enter the room.

 

Donghae’s room had a small viewing window which allowed visitors to gaze at the inside of it. She knew that Jessica was there with her brother. And upon seeing the two hugged each other, Yoona knew that she did not have the right to enter.

 

Heechul only waited behind her, stealing a glance inside Donghae’s room to find out what made Yoona suddenly hesitated, and he understood immediately. Pocketing his hands intentionally to make himself look casual (oh, he was anything but that, lately), Heechul pointed out, “You can knock.”

 

Yoona turned her back against the door to Donghae’s room and faced Heechul instead. “I can’t.”

 

“Hae would be happy to see you. You two haven’t seen each other since…since that incident, have you?”

 

Yoona glanced at Heechul’s worried eyes. She knew that Heechul meant good, but good intention was often useless when faced with insecurity.  “I still can’t,” she decided sternly as her feet carried her away from Donghae’s room. The steps she took were small, slow, almost lifeless. Heechul had to carefully watch over her back, praying that the girl would not suddenly collapse or anything. He knew that Yoona was a strong woman. Carefree most of the times, and ignorant too. But on the rarest time she decided on something, it would take a powerful might to make her change her mind.

 

They remained in silence until they reached the exit of the asylum’s building. The cool autumn breeze greeted her face as she walked to the parking lot.

 

Heechul clicked on the button of his automatic car key. His sport car’s alarm beeped and he indicated her to get in. Autumn’s wind could be too cold, he did not want her to get sick. To his relief, Yoona did not decide to do anything stupid like staying out in such weather. She nodded briefly to Heechul before she opened the door of the car and stepped in.

 

He followed her suit and the engine of the car. His hand reached out to the heater button, but he let his car remained on the same spot. He was not stepping on the gas pedal or spinning the steering wheel. Instead, he just waited for her.

 

Yoona exhaled a deep sigh. And she chose to deliver the secret first thing first in her opening speech.

 

“Donghae oppa is my blood-related brother. We have the same father.”

 

Surprise was an understatement for him. But perhaps the exhaustion from Kangin’s death had made Heechul rather passive about most of the things. Even when Heechul was su

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05/5/13: change the posters for chap 6, 9, 12, 14, 15, 18, 25, 26, 27

Comments

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yeonniestan94 #1
Coming back to reread this. For a moment i thought the story was deleted because i search for this on the jessica tag. Kekeke...
Found it finally thanks to Haesica😀😀
Macaroonssi
#2
its 2021 and I'm stil here so.....
aseulmonsta
#3
❤️
gyuhyeon #4
I'm here again for the nth times. This is my fav fanfic ever! I used to dislike sugen pairing but this fanfic brought a new light. Pinboo, could you please sign this story up for a drama please? It will be daebak really.
bwtplove
#5
Chapter 50: This chapter will always traumatized me. Imagine to encounter something like that as child..... :(
bwtplove
#6
Chapter 38: I thought Sunny x Sungmin's side story will be my fav one...but after reading Kibum's story....I guess the ranking change. I could understand the hatred he has toward his family so well. It's such an emotional story to me and the way the poor always have a big heart than the rich....you really did a great job at interpreting this.
LeiLeiLeiLeiLeiLei #7
Hi there! I actually read this fic when I was younger, and I wanna reread it but it's members only :(

I have long forgotten my old AFF account....... AHH how do I reread? hehe
shiningshawol13
#8
Hi! I don't know if you'll be able to see this comment, but yeah, just gonna share my thoughts here hahaha.

So I reread Project: Cupid and Der Marchenclub earlier this week because I've been feeling nostalgic lately and thought, hey, maybe I could reread my favorite Super Generation fanfics coz why not?

And well, I'd just like to say that your works remain to be one of my favorites. It's been years since you've published this, years since I've first read it (early 2015). I could still remember the times when I read a chapter or two in between classes back in college, struggling not to give in to the urge to read them while in class hahaha! This is the first time in a long while that I read it again but everything is still as wonderful and impactful as when I first read it.

Der Marchenclub, in particular, is my favorite Super Generation fanfic. Reading it again cemented that fact in my mind. I loveeeee the plot! In particular, I love how you utilized previously uttered lines and details, smoothly tying a to b. I love the flow of the narration, I know you must've hit some rough blocks, too, but in the end, the writing is just superb: the balance between the dialogue and narration is very nice. I love the characterizations and how utterly realistic and imperfect and humane there are (Heechul's my fave haha), though I agree that there are some characters you could've developed more (Yoona and Siwon, for instance, as you mentioned in yuor DMC blog haha). Overall though, I'd go so far as to say that your work is a masterpiece. I took my time re-reading it again, took my time to appreciate the smoothness in the flow, the humanity of the characters, the thrill of solving the mystery. Every single scene played out in my head, and I could perfectly picture Super Generation here (man, I miss them!). This story, the whole plot, it's a very good material for a TV series, that's how good it is.

It's also good in inspiring people. This fanfiction, your fanfiction - it reignited my desire to write again. These past few years I've been stuck in a slump, probably because of the combined stress from my personal and college life, plus the slightly growing distance from kpop, that I wasn't able to continue any of my stories here at all. I even find it hard to write anything because I began to doubt myself. Whenever I type something up, I ended up not finishing it or just erasing it because it feels off. I've graduated now though haha, so college's one factor off the things stressing me out, but I still didn't dare try to write again. At least, not until I read your stories again.

Der Marchenclub (and Project: Cupid!) reminded me of my love for YoonHae, for HeeSica, for SNSD and Super Junior, and most of all, my love for writing. It made me want to try writing again, mostly about YoonHae and HeeSica hahaha!

So I wanted to say thank you. Thank you for creating Der Marchenclub, thank you for creating your stories, and thank you most of all, for sharing it with us and not deleting it. A few days ago I tried searching again some of my favorite YoonHae fanfics, I can't remember their exact titles but what I know is that it's on livejournal (and soon remembered that it's written by muffinmaverick, if you know her hehe). However, I found out that she deleted her account, which means that even her stories were deleted. It suffices to say that I was utterly devastated. Fanfictions are some of my ways of coping even back then, so to find out that I could no longer read them again really pained me. I know the author must have her reasons, and she has all the right to delete her own account and works, but it still hurt. So really, thank you for keeping this precious works here in this site, thank you for sharing it with us still.

I think I'm kinda rambling at this point haha but what I want to say is that your works have inspired me again, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I'm sure there are other readers out there, too who were inspired to hone or jumpstart their craft after reading your stories. So once again, I would like to say thank you to you. I'm still not very confident, I'm still doubting my skill but well, that can be honed and what's important is that I'm trying again, right? Haha.

Anyways, I miss seeing Super Junior and SNSD together, and reading Der Marchenclub again made me very nostalgic. I'm not that active here in asianfanfics nowadays but I think there are fewer and fewer Super Generation stories now, which I admit breaks my SONELF heart a little. I think it's fitting, though, since our idols have grown more and are living their own lives now, and we're living our own. It won't stop me from writing about them, though haha! If you ever get back to writing again (and I hope you do, I miss reading your stories!), I hope you know that there will still be people who'll welcome you back, and readers who will read your works.

Once again, thank you for writing!! Thank you for bringing Der Marchenclub and your other works to light, and for sharing it with us. :) It's rough in our world right now due to the pandemic but I hope you'll stay safe!