8/7/11

Update! Sorry for the lapse of no updates! I was moving into my college dorm (I'm doing an early start program), so it was pretty hectic. Anyways, enjoy!

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            A few days later, the six reunited friends were ready for the journey that was ahead of them. Right after Chaerin, Seungri, Jiyong, and Dara arrived, Youngbae and Bom ushered them to Alfonso. He gave a summarized explanation of their newfound powers, and asked Dara to do some experiments with the blue topaz sculptures. It surprised everyone when Dara was able to wield the dispelling powers while only holding the sculpture and not wearing her necklace. Alfonso didn’t even know the reason why she was able to extract the powers out of a stone that she hasn’t ever been in contact with.

            However, since Dara had such ability, it was decided that Dara will extract the magical powers out of the jewel, blue topaz, and apply that power to all the lakes and rivers in Terra so that the water will absorb the magical energy, and shower over the entire world of Terra.

            "Are you guys ready?" Alfonso asked. The six friends nodded.

            “Wait!”

            The seven of them turned around. Alana stood there with a basket by her side. She gave the basket to Bom. "Here is the basket you used in the Rainbow Forest. I stocked all the necessities in here, and if you have any questions or requests, there are paper and pens inside for you to write on.”

            Bom thanked Alana and was about to turn away when Alana stopped her, "Can I talk to you for a second?"

            "Sure," Bom said a little confused. Alana led her farther away from the group before she spoke.

            " Bom, I'm very glad you came," she started to say. "You are one of the few people from Youngbae 's past and I know he treasures that. For the past nine years, Youngbae was a depressed boy. Everything completely changed after you arrived. Now he always has a smile on his face. Even if I'm not his real mother, I still care for him, and it makes me very happy to know that I've finally seen him smile."

            Bom listened intently as Alana gave her speech. I guess I'm not the only one that misses Earth, Bom thought. And to think Youngbae was here all this time with nobody familiar to talk to.

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            While Alana and Bom were talking, Alfonso also pulled Youngbae aside.

            “You know you should tell them about your birth mother,” Alfonso spoke quietly so that the four newcomers couldn’t hear. “They have the right to know.”

            “What? But they don’t even know me,” Youngbae was surprised at his father’s suggestion.

            Alfonso gave Youngbae a look. “These people have known you since you were a child. How could they not know you?”

            “All they know about me come from what I tell them and their instincts. They’ll think I’m a monster,” Youngbae objected. Just the thought of telling them made him panic.

            “No, they won't. You said that what they know about you comes from what you tell them and their instincts, right? Isn’t that enough?” Alfonso questioned. “All of them have strong instincts judging by how quickly each of them learned their own powers, and if you don’t tell them, they will find out themselves, especially Bom.”

            Frowning, Youngbae asked. “Why Bom?”

            “Haven’t you noticed?” Alfonso looked over at Alana and Bom. “She was the one with the fastest instincts. Right now, Chaerin, Jiyong, and Dara still think of you as a new friend, while by this time, Bom was already treating you like her own brother.

            “She is also very attentive to detail, especially with things concerning you. I’m pretty sure that she already noticed there’s something different about your eyes. Sooner or later, she’ll realize that there’s something missing in your explanation on how you ended up in Terra, and she’ll be looking for answers.”

            “I… I’m still not ready to tell them,” Youngbae looked over at Bom with a worried expression.

            “Well, you’d better tell them soon,” Alfonso looked back at Youngbae. “Or else they’ll find out by themselves.”

            “I’ll tell them,” Youngbae promised. “Just, not right now.”

                                                                                     :::::::

            Finally, they were ready to go. After saying goodbye to Alana and Alfonso, the six friends headed west toward the closest water source, the River of Paint. In order to do so, they had to pass through the Rainbow Forest.

            This time around, the forest was its usual colorfulness, with highly saturated green leaves and rays of sunlight peering through. They walked through the Rainbow Forest for the whole afternoon, stopping only for small breaks. It was their goal to cross the River of Paint before the end of the day.

            But it seemed like Chaerin’s asthma was getting in the way. Wheezing loudly, she pushed herself hard so she could catch up to everybody. Gosh, why is this forest upward-sloping? Aren’t we close to a river? She tried to quicken her pace, but the mysterious fog seemed to clog up her eye-sight and her air supply. Chaerin never told anyone about her asthma. Not even Bom. She didn’t want everybody to think she was weak and couldn’t do things other people could do. That was why she didn’t want everybody to stop for her.

            As she was falling behind, Youngbae turned to look back at her. There was a worried look on his face that sent a chill down Chaerin’s spine. Why did she have the feeling that Youngbae knew about her asthma? Of course, there could always be a chance that she could have told him about it, but why would she when she wouldn’t even tell her best friend?

            Continuing to push herself, Chaerin felt as if was being blocked by a thin web, slowly increasing its thickness with each step that she took. Finally, Chaerin couldn’t take it anymore. There was only a tiny hole of air that she was allowed to breathe through, and she didn’t want to cover it up. Stopping, Chaerin sat down on a part of the vast meadow of flowers.

            When Chaerin sat down, Youngbae looked back and stopped walking immediately. “Guys, I think we should stop. Chaerin seems to be exhausted.”

            Everybody stopped and looked back at the pale faced girl. Bom walked up to Chaerin and knelt down beside her. “What’s the matter?”

            “Nothing,” Chaerin attempted to say without wheezing. It didn’t work. Now that everybody heard her wheezing, they all surrounded Chaerin with uneasy looks. She tried to get up, but Seungri held her down. “You know, we can’t help you if we don’t know the problem. Tell us what’s wrong.”

            “I told you, nothing,” she choked out. Chaerin felt the remaining hole of air closing up even more. Coughing, she tried to make the hole bigger.

            “Seungri, you have the power of air, right?” Youngbae suddenly asked. Seungri looked confused.

            “What? Why?”

            “If that’s the case, then you are able to produce oxygen. Cover Chaerin’s mouth with your hand, and think of oxygen coming out of your hand.”

             Hesitating a little, Seungri did what he was told. Suddenly, he felt warm wind brushing the insides of his veins, all the wind concentrating in his right hand. After a while, Chaerin started to breathe normally again. Everyone sighed of relief.

            “What was that about?” Seungri asked. Chaerin looked away, not wanting to tell anybody about her asthma. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

            At those words, she grew tense but remained silent. If she told them and realized that their theory was wrong, it would be a waste.

           “I think the question is why you didn’t want to tell them,” Youngbae corrected. Looking up at him, Chaerin went over his words, ‘why didn’t you want to tell THEM.’ So he did know. But how?

            “You could have just told us that you weren’t feeling well. We would’ve stopped even if you didn’t tell us the reason,” Seungri lectured her. He was looking at her with worried eyes. “We’re your friends. We don’t care. Having asthma doesn’t make you weak; it makes you work harder than anyone else. Therefore, you are stronger than all of us. You have a stronger heart.”

            Chaerin turned to Seungri, bewildered. She unexpectedly looked directly into his eyes. They were the color of chocolate and raspberry. Feeling heat rush up to her face, Chaerin quickly focused back on the ground. Suspecting nothing, everyone decided to stop for today since the sky was already deepening its color. As everyone pulled out their sleeping bags from their backpacks, Bom and Chaerin decided to place their sleeping bags farther away from everyone else’s. Turning to Chaerin, Bom grinned.

            “What? Do I have something on my face?” Chaerin asked, uncomfortable.

            “I saw that, you know.”

            “Saw what?”

            “That blush.”

            The weight on Chaerin’s shoulders became heavier. “What blush?”

            “Don’t ignore it. It’s one step to forgetting about Jiyong. I’m proud of you.”

            “I’m not ignoring anything! What is it?”

            Bom stared at Chaerin with an I-don’t-believe-you-don’t-get-face. Then she smiled. “You like Seungri, don’t you?”

            “What do you mean? Don’t you like him?”

            “Me? Oh! Uh, I’ve gotten over him. Anyways, come on, it’s now kind of obvious after you blushed when he told you that ‘having asthma doesn’t make you weak, it makes you—‘”

            “Stronger than all of us,” Chaerin cut in. She had been thinking about that phrase. It was so familiar yet so distant, as if she had heard someone say the same thing to her, but not to her directly. It was to someone else. But even though it was not to her, she thought it was the most beautiful phrase ever. Saying that what is on the outside doesn’t matter. It’s the inside that counts. If you work hard on being something despite your challenges, you achieved the title of being like everyone else, except more determined and strong.

            Bom looked at Chaerin, grinning foolishly. Chaerin turned to her. “What?”

            “You’re really falling for him, aren’t you?”

            “Who?”

            “Seungri! Who else?!”

            “I’m not!”

            “Then what was that face for?”

            “I was just trying to remember where I heard that before.”

            “You mean before Seungri said it?”        

            “Yeah.”

            “It might have been Youngbae. None of us, except for Seungri, remembers anything Youngbae did in the past. But we do get feelings that make us think what he did was familiar.”

            “Do you think he said that to me?”

            “Well, he did kind of know about your asthma before anyone, but I don’t know if he said something like that. Besides, it’s Seungri who made that phrase up.”

            “But what if he heard that phrase from Youngbae?”

            They both thought about the possibility of Youngbae saying that. But neither of them could even imagine Youngbae saying something poetic. He was too carefree, somehow.

            “Guess not,” Bom said. “I don’t think Youngbae could even make up a poem in two hours.”

            Chaerin smiled, agreeing on what Bom said. Both of them stared at Seungri. Another question popped into their minds. They silently pondered the question until Seungri shifted his position in his sleep. Startled, Chaerinand Bom quickly went into their own sleeping bags and pretended to be asleep. There, Chaerin finally brought the question out into the open.

            “When was Seungri ever good at writing?” she asked, confused.

            “We never actually took English together, so we never knew how he did in writing,” Bom considered.

            “That’s true, but wouldn’t he show us what he wrote?”

            “He never showed us his writing or anything else that he did. We only showed him our stuff and he would help us if we had anything we didn’t understand, never vice versa.”    

            Heh, no wonder Bom likes Seungri, Chaerin thought. Even though Bom stated that she has ‘gotten over’ Seungri, Chaerin didn’t believe it. She’s a er for artistic types. But, why is she so adamant on pushing him to me?

            “Bommie?”

            “Yeah?”

            “… How come you don’t like Seungri anymore?”

            There was silence for a few minutes. Chaerin knew that Bom was trying to think up of a good answer.

            “I've… I’ve come to realize that… He’s not suited for me,” Bom tried to explain.

            “In what way?”

            “Well,” Bom shifted in her sleeping bag to face Chaerin. “I’m not sure. I feel like… I think of him as an idol. I admire many of his traits, but when it comes to being able to interact with him, I feel like he’s too…”

            “Too what?”

            “Too happy.”

            “Too happy?” Chaerin barely held in her laugh. “Kind of emo of you, Bom.”

            “No! That’s not what I meant,” Bom slapped Chaerin’s sleeping bag playfully. “I mean, it feels like I always have to live up to some sort of expectation that I made for myself in order to be with him.”

            “…Seungri may be cool, but not that cool,” Chaerin tried understanding Bom’s perspective.

            “That’s why you’re better suited for him than I am,” Bom pointed at Chaerin. “Also, besides the fact that he’s not suited for me, he’s also already taken.”

            Chaerin frowned. “I didn’t know he had a girlfriend. If that’s the case, why are you trying to set me up with him?”

            “Oh, Chaerin,” Bom shook her patronizingly. “He’s taken by you! The only girl he’s ever liked is you, you know that?”

            “Eww,” Chaerin flinched. “No, I don’t believe that. Seungri? The happy-go-lucky Seungri who makes inappropriate jokes for his lunch? How could he even have the concentration to like someone for that long?”

            Bom gave Chaerin a look. “You’re over-exaggerating, Chaerin. Don’t forget that I did like him for a while. He must have at least a few good traits in him.”

            “Oh yeah, sorry,” Chaerin apologized. As always, Bom was protecting Seungri. It didn’t make sense to Chaerin. It’s Bom that likes Seungri, not Chaerin. Why can’t Bom at least try to win over Seungri? “Bom, have you ever tried to get Seungri to like you?”

            “… Yeah,” Bomsaid tersely.

            “Yeah? And what happened?”

            Bom turned her head and looked up at the sky. “It didn’t work.”

            Why is she avoiding this question? Chaerin wondered. “How come?”

            “…Every time I tried, he was only looking at you.”

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laDy_akhee: Lol, thanks for replying to both chapters :P