I whirl around, preparing to punch the lights out of whoever just interrupted our romantic moment. 

A weak-looking purple dog is crouching in the grass behind us, standing on its hind legs. Its malevolent sneer looks really familiar...

“Wait a minute,” I gasp. “You’re that Kado from last time (refer back to Chapter 20)! The one that we didn’t catch and was saying all those weird stuff about us! Kris, let’s run our usual-,” 

“I’m not here to fight you,” the dog snickers. “I’m here to check on you two’s progress. I see Kris Wu here is learning a few… new tricks.”

“Who told you to check up on us?" I demand. "And what do you mean, he’s learning new tricks?” I look back at Kris. “What is this thing talking about?”

“I- I don’t know,” Kris mutters, scuffing his feet. "That thing's lying."

“Oh, poor Hana, you have no idea, do you?” the dog whimpers in mock-sympathy. “You’re going to find out sooner or later, so I might as well just spill the beans about your little boyfriend now-,”

“Shut up!” Kris yells, and lunges at the beast, who merely levitates into the air, cackling.

"Stay on your guard," I tell Kris in a low voice. “There’s no way we can reach it in the air so-,”

Kris closes his eyes and almost instantly rises up off the ground, traveling higher and higher until he is face-to-face with the dog.

15 feet in the air. 

My jaw drops. How in the world is Kris staying suspended in the air?! It’s possible to focus your chi into the soles of your feet and jump up to otherwise-impossible heights, but only with the support of other objects. And never as high as 15 feet. However, Kris is literally lifting himself up like that without any support whatsoever.

Is that even humanely possible?

The previously scoffing Kado now wears a look of surprised unease. “Now you see what I mean, Hana Kim?" he titters nervously. "Aren’t you suspicious about how Kris Wu gained the immense power required for levitation?”

“That’s enough,” Kris says in an aloof, detached voice that I have never heard him use before. Curling his fingers into his right palm, he takes a deep breath and exhales slowly in one, two, three measures. The dog apparently recognizes what he is doing and gasps. 

“You can’t possibly be using that technique,” it yelps. “How do you even know how to perform it. Er, well, it’s time for me to go and report back-,” And right as Kris swings his right hand back and pushes it forward in a punch, the Kado disappears in a flash of red light.

Without warning I feel an enormous tremor shake the ground. The reverbration of several Boom!s echo through my ears. Losing my balance, I am knocked to the grass, wincing as I fall on my wrist.

“Kris, what’s going on?” I scream, attempting to see past the thick smoke that covers the area around me. “Are you okay?! KRIS!”

As suddenly as everything started it all stops.

The chaos that filled the air is now replaced by a still, almost unsettling silence.

Coughing, I slowly stand up, faintly asking, “What in the world was that-,”

And that’s when I fully open my eyes and witness the destruction in front of me.

Nearly all the trees in the forest have been uprooted and blasted to pieces. Deformed branches, thick chunks of tree bark, and torn leaves alike scatter the previously clear knoll. The grass is charred to a blackened crisp. When I look to my right I gawk at the sludgy liquid that sits where the beautiful, icy lake that we skated on was. 

Standing in the middle of it all is Kris, his body heaving with ragged breaths.

“Kris. Did you… did you do this?” I breathe, slowly bringing a hand up to my mouth.

Unbelievable. Kris doesn’t have enough chi to cause this. And even if he did, he wouldn’t be able to cause what happened here. These ruins are permeated by… some kind of evil energy. It reeks of Kado. Not Kris. Kris has good chi. Kris is good-

His next few words shake my entire world.

“Of course. I’ve been practicing.” He gives me a crooked grin. “Impressed?”

“No!” I gasp. “I'm not impressed at all! What the hell is this, Kris?! Why did you have to use so much force? How did you get all this chi? And why does this chi feel so wrong? This is absurd!”

“Don’t tell me you’re jealous, Hana,” Kris chuckles smoothly, his windswept golden-blonde hair ruffling in the stray zephyr that blows through. “You should be congratulating me on advancing my abilities.”

“I won’t congratulate you,” I whisper. “I don’t know what you’re doing, but… it’s sick. You’re sick.”

Something flashes through Kris’s eyes and the next thing I know I am pinned up against a tree, Kris’s forearm pressing down on my windpipe. “What- let go-,” I choke, but he brushes aside my words and glares at me.

“Don’t you dare say that,” Kris snarls, a dark, enraged expression on his face. He looks terrifying; nothing like the best friend and fellow Fighter that I know. His eyes remind me of deep, dank pits of wrath and madness, devoid of any pity or compassion. I freeze, trapped in a fear-induced paralysis.

“I will become the strongest Fighter, Hana, using whatever methods I need to,” he continues vitrolically, “and I don't give a damn if you approve of it or not. So don't say those things or you'll regret it.”

He abruptly steps away from me, causing me collapse to the ground. I desperately gasp for breath, rubbing my aching neck.

Kris is already walking away from me, from the forest which he so brutally mutilated, from everything we could have possibly had together today. It's hard to believe that only 15 minutes ago we were leisurely skating in each others' arms, laughing without a care in the world.

“K-Kris,” I rasp, my voice hoarse from the pressure placed on my throat. “W-Why?”

He pauses and slowly rotates back around on his foot. When he sees me sprawled on the dirt, tears flowing freely down my face, Kris’s eyes widen and he rushes over to my side.

“Hana,” he murmurs, my hair, “I’m so, so sorry. No, wait, I didn’t mean to do this to you-,”

I slap his hand away from my head. “Don’t touch me.” I hiss. “Are you bipolar? One moment you’re attacking me and the next moment you’re comforting me? To be honest, I'm not even sure if you're Kris Wu or not. I... I don't know you anymore.”

And I stand up and leave him. 

A/N: this was a really long chapter. and wow I would just like to apologize once more for Kris's behavior. 

Comments and upvotes are appreciated! :)