[Minki’s PoV]

I stood nervously on an elevated platform, staring out over the ecstatic crowd before me thinking about just how much things had changed in the past two and a half years, since my returning from the void. The people we saw frozen in crystal in the castle came to life once the heart began to collapse – or so Miyoung, Baekho, Kwangmin, and Youngmin claim. Apparently, more people were frozen in the darkness’ crystal depths than we realized, there were more people were frozen throughout the country and along its boarders. However, as soon as the heart collapsed, they all awoken and were freed from their crystal. That was not the craziest event though.

The craziest happening since returning from the void was learning that the people had no memories of the evil mage and the fear that had once coursed through the kingdom, not one person had the memory of the dark realm consuming the light, the only ones who actually remembered were the five of us who ventured to the heart of the problem – the tear, however, that’s not all. The people had memories of my mother and father passing away, memories that were made up – that were not true. They all claimed that my father and mother had passed away from some plague. The people within the castle also have memories of watching me grow up from a parentless young child to the eighteen year old I am today, completely oblivious to the fact that I had been born in a neighboring country, that I had never once step foot into Miro until I was fifteen with the guidance of Jonghyun.

Jonghyun was another thing they didn’t remember. Though the Mage’s Tower still stood tall, overlooking the entire kingdom, protecting them, no one believed that mages existed – not one remembered Jonghyun or his family, they only thought of he and his family as myths. However, the people did believe in the ‘myth’ and ‘legends’ of the elemental books and pillars, completely oblivious to their actual existence and the fact that Jonghyun aided me in erecting them once and for all – completely oblivious to the pillars being right under their noses. Not one of my people realized these ‘myths’ and ‘legends’ about the mage’s tower, the elemental pillars, and about the mages protecting the royal family were actually true, not one of them.

It has been hard adapting to this new life these past two and a half years since it felt like the life I lived before was a lie, despite my knowing that it was actually the truth…it was actually what had happened to this land, it was actually a journey the others and I would remember for the rest of our lives. The day I woke up in the infirmary ward of the castle – after returning from the void, Youngmin later informed me – my life changed as did the twin’s, as did Baekho’s and Mi Young’s. The five of us had known a world different than the one we lived in now, one that the people around us had no memories of. We learnt of the horrors of the darkness, we learnt the beauty of the darkness as well. That connection made the five of us ever-so-closer, that secret that the five of us held pulled us closer and kept us close.

“Minki,” stated Kwangmin, pulling my attention away from my thoughts.

“Yes?” I questioned, turning my attention away from the crowd that gathered to my right hand man – well, one of the two.

“It is time for the ceremony to begin,” stated Kwangmin, smiling as his brother wrapped his arm around his waist, “The people are waiting.”

I smiled and nodded, looking towards Mi Young and Baekho – both of whom were assigned as my personal guard – who nodded towards me, clearing me to step up onto the higher platform and become visible to the crowd. I stepped into my people’s line of sight, standing before all the people I would soon be ruling over as their king.

“Welcome,” called a noble man who was in charge of the ceremony, “to Prince Minki’s official crowning ceremony, the thing that will make him Miro’s official leader from this day onward!”

The crowd roared and I smiled, well, smiled the best I could despite the emptiness I still felt in my heart.

The ceremony was beautiful and all, but I was happy to see it finally drawing to its close as the crown that my father wore and his father’s father wore, so on and so forth, was placed upon my head. As the glittering crown was placed a top my blonde hair, I caught a glimpse of someone who had my heart stopping in my chest and my whole body freezing. The face I saw had matured a bit, but still looked like he did the last time I saw him two and a half years ago.

“Jonghyun…” I whispered.

Catching the shock in my guarded expression, the twins, Mi Young, and Baekho followed my line of vision to freeze in shock as well – staring at the all too familiar figure who was standing just a couple of feet behind the large crowd, smiling proudly as he leaned against a building, dressed in the very same cloak he had on that day we passed through the tear.

I looked at the twins, Mi Young, and Baekho to see that they were just as shocked as I was – we all had thought he died. He had been sealed away in the dark realm, how was he here, back in the light realm?

Disappointment filled me as I turned to look at him again only to find that he was gone once again.

That night, after hours of celebrations, I found myself wondering into the old dungeons for the first time in two and a half years. I froze in shock as I looked at the beautiful crystals that lined the floor, walls, and ceiling - all branching off from the four elemental pillars I had brought back with the aid of Jonghyun. I wondered through the beautiful crystal paradise, smiling as I looked at how much the pillars had grown, how much stronger they had become. They looked as though they were the thing holding the realm and I knew for a fact they were the thing that was keeping the light realm from clashing with the dark again – they were the things keeping the two realms separated from each other.

I smiled as I finally made it to the room where the pillars actually resided, happily following the light as it traveled through the crystals starting from the pillars before flowing out through the rest of the crystals.

I smiled, moving towards the center of the room, moving through some of the other crystals before freezing in shock as I viewed a fifth pillar I never knew was erected. The pillar was a spiral of purpled and yellow; it looked as if the two colors were dancing with each other as the light flowed up the yellow and down the purple. I gently caressed the surface of this new pillar that was thicker and clearly stronger than the others. This pillar was the one that was actually keeping the two realms apart, it had to be.

“That’s the pillar keeping them connected but separate at the same time,” whispered an all too familiar voice that had me jumping and looking around the room.

“Jonghyun?”

I jumped as a pair of arms wrapped around my waist and a head nuzzled against the crook of my neck. I shivered as his breath caressed my neck and he whispered in my ear, “I’m back Minki…”

“Bu-But how…”

“I had to give something important up to me,” muttered Jonghyun, “I had to give up in order to come back to the light realm. I had to give something up…I had to do a ceremony of my own to prove my loyalty and my bloodline’s change to Chaos and Haos…”

“Which was?”

“Look deeply into the pillar,” whispered the male’s voice, his touch was freezing and I ignored it as I stared into the pillar, seeing the outline of an all too familiar form. I froze in shock as I stared into the crystalized form of Jonghyun’s fifteen year old self.

“B-but how?”

“I had to give up my body, my mortality in order to come back here,” whispered Jonghyun.

“And you did it, why?” I questioned, tears building up in my eyes as I looked at the living being before me.

“Because I wanted to see you,” whispered Jonghyun, “I-I would’ve been stuck in the dark realm, floating around in the abyss, my soul had been lost and had actually separated from my body during my fight with my uncle – it had begun to separate and the time I saw you off was the last couple of seconds my soul was actually connected to that shell…”

“Then…can’t you take up another shell?” I pondered, trying hard to withhold the tears that wanted to fall.

“Only the shell of a new born,” responded Jonghyun, “so, there is no use to do it now…not until you get the opportunity to be reborn as well.”

“Why did you choose this Jonghyun?”

“Because, Minki, I’d rather be here, in the light realm protecting these pillars,” stated Jonghyun, “I’d rather be here seeing to it that no one makes the same mistakes my family did…I’d rather be here, protecting you and your land, your people…I’d rather be here, watching you live the life you’ve always deserved to live and protecting you from any dangers that come your way as king.”

I looked at Jonghyun’s form in shock, “But why do you feel so real?”

“It’s a power I’ve been given,” muttered Jonghyun, “Minki, this is the final time I will be showing myself to you…”

I felt the dams break and the tears beginning to flow down my cheeks, “B-but…why?”

“I wanted to tell you to move on,” whispered Jonghyun, “I know you love me and I want you to know that I love you two, but it is impossible in this life. I just want to say that maybe, just maybe we’ll meet again in another life – one where you’re not king and one where there is no problems caused by my family…”

I looked at him with tears in my eyes, “Jonghyun, can I ask you for one final thing?”

Jonghyun smiled sadly, this was obviously hard for him too,” Sure, what?”

“Kiss me, please?”

Jonghyun smiled, leaning forward and pressing our lips together. I closed my eyes, taking in the moment, knowing from this day forward I would have to learn to live without him – learn to like someone else. However, my eyes slowly drifted open as the feeling started to fade and watched tearfully as Jonghyun smiled one last time at me as he started to fade before vanishing once and for all.

“Jonghyun, I’m sorry our lives had to end up this way…I’m sorry there was nothing I could do back then…”

XXXXX Years Later

A young male ran around a large meadow happily, the boy was roughly seven years old; his young legs took him all over the place as he happily ran and hid from his two best friends – a pair of twins. His bare feet carried him through the dense but small forest and across the wide and open meadow, to the cave he had recently discovered – his new hiding spot that not even the twins could locate.

He happily ran into the dark cave, not fearing the dark as he ran into its heart, knowing that soon, the cave would provide him with light it made itself. The young male smiled happily as the pulsing lights finally appeared, beckoning him into the cave’s depths. The young male felt the pull to the one pillar that always stunned him the most, the largest of the five and the one that sat in the center and was the only one that didn’t branch out like the others. He smiled as he ran to the purple and yellow crystal – that was a different shade than the other yellow pillar. He smiled as he ran his hand over the coarse surface of the pillars, admiring the yellow and purple crystals as they intertwined with each other, spiraling around each other in some sort of frozen dance.

The young brunette suddenly heard footsteps and spun around on his heel, noticing the shadow of another person – seeing eyes peeking at him from behind one of the various crystals in the cave.

“You’re back?” whispered the figure, peeking out at the boy that stood before him.

“You’ve seen me here before?” pondered the brunette, looking at the new comer, having never noticed him before.

“Y-Yes,” stuttered the slightly raspy voice, “I’m here most of the time…I saw you yesterday and the day before that…”

“Why didn’t I see you?” pondered the young brunette, approaching the hiding male.

“I-I didn’t want you to see me,” responded the hidden male, “I-I don’t really like others seeing me here…”

“Why?” questioned the brunette.

“The other children in my town make fun of me,” muttered the boy, “They don’t believe me when I say that I just suddenly appeared in this cave a couple of years ago. I had and still have no recollection of my memories from before I was five, I don’t know who my parents are either…we’ll I have parents now, there was a nice couple that adopted me, but I don’t remember my birth parents.”

The brunette hummed and whispered, “Can you come out so I can see you?”

The other male hesitated and whispered, “W-Why?”

“Because I want to see my new friend,” stated the brunette, a bright smile playing on his lips, “So, come on out.”

“I-I…Okay?” muttered the boy, standing up from where he was huddled up and hiding from the other, “But how am I-I a friend, we only just met.”

The brunette smiled at the other child that stood before him, the male’s jet black hair and black orbs standing out in the colorful cave. The other male’s appearance made something within the brunette react, the young child could feel his heart hammering in his chest, “I don’t know, but I just feel like you and I will get along well, but that’s beside the point. I’m Minki.”

“J-Jonghyun,” stuttered raven haired male, smiling as Minki took his hand in his own, shaking it happily – both boys shivered at the spark that coursed up their arms and through their bodies, a spark that they would later find to be rather addictive – almost as addictive as the other’s presence.

And so it ends, I hope you all enjoyed it and if you have any questions as to what happened what so ever, please ask them in the comments below and I'll do my best to answer them. Thank you all for staying with me despite my lack of updating often...and the updates you do get being rather crummy.

Thank you all for reading, really, thank you all!