Sorry Zelo, you think to yourself. Daehyun will kill you soon enough. You give him the sharpest and angriest glare you can muster and walk away. You can’t help but turn back to see his expression, sad, upset and lonely. You use up all your willpower to turn your back on him, and to start walking.

‘Those ashes,’ he yells. ‘Throw them in the fire.’ You stop walking. What? You almost turn back to face him but, you catch yourself in time. Throw the ashes in the fire? You start running, your heart pounding against your ribcage so hard that it hurts. This could be the answer. This could be the answer to finding revenge for your friends.

Step, rustle. You stop running and turn around to see Zelo right behind you, clutching something in his hand. His face is beet red and he looks as if the couple hundreds of metre you ran were kilometres. ‘Use this lighter to light up the world.’ He winks, turns back and starts walking to his camp.

You clutch the lighter in your hand, clicking it. Fwoosh! A bright orange flame emits from the end. You make a small pile of twigs on the ground and light them up. Soon enough, a small bonfire was burning before your feet, your hand slowly reaching in your left pocket for the ashes. You take them out, your hands shaking.

What if they didn’t work? What if they were used for nothing? What if Zelo was a stranger who betrayed you? You shakily open the lid, and slightly tilt the bottle. Slowly, one by one, ashes fall into the flames. Every time one fell in, the fire grew bigger.

When the bottle was empty, the flames had doubled in size and had changed to a blue colour. You stand beside the flames in suspense. What was going to happen next? Fear grips your heart. What if you lost something precious, the key to seeking revenge for your best friend?

You turn around sharply as you hear pecking sounds behind you. Your jaw simply drops. A tiny, miniature golden bird chirped at the base of the fire, not even giving a single thought that it was running in the middle of flames. Your body seems to move on its own, as if your fate had led to this very moment. You pick up the bird in your hands and hold it up.

It chirps happily, pecking softly in at your palm. Only one word crosses your mind, splitting into more and more rays of hope. Phoenix. This bird is a phoenix. If this powerful bird could heal people quickly, then you can’t even imagine how it could be deadly.

Tiny flames erupt from its miniscule feathers, but it doesn’t singe your skin. For some reason, you feel so proud of yourself, you feel like you have achieved something. ‘Good job,’ says an icy voice that felt so familiar. ‘Now hand over the bird, or your hard work will be done in vain.’

It was Daehyun; the wretched man who most certainly ruined at least a part of your life. He stood there smirking at you, his cold eyes seem to laser beam into your own.

Daehyun is back. He wants the bird, the phoenix. Do you give it to him? 

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