8/15/11

Long chapter for you guys:) I'm too tired to proofread this one, so let me know if there are any mistakes!

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            “You know, you can always freeze the river and cross it when it is solid,” Dara said to the group. Everybody turned to her and stared, amazed at her discovery. They had been sitting there for half an hour. After Dara cast the dispelling charm on the river, they realized that there was no way to cross it. The river was too wide, and the trees were not tall enough to become a bridge.

            Why hadn’t I thought of that? Bom asked herself. And I am the one with the freezing ability.

            The group of friends approached the river. Bom raised her hand so it would face the river. Feeling her body become cold, ice came out of her hand and shot itself toward the river, causing a big splash. A moment later, the water froze in the position of the splash, creating a big cylindrical ice sculpture. Afterwards, the whole river turned into a solid. Now safe to walk on, the six walked in a single file line across the wide river. When everybody reached the other end of the river, Youngbae released his own ability to create fire and melted the ice until the River of Paint was back to normal again.

            Everybody paused and looked back at the River of Paint. It was flowing with its beautiful mixture of colors as if nothing had happened. Turning to face the direction they were going, the group found themselves staring at a town of mansions. Every single house took up half a mile and the people living there were dressed in fancy European-styled suits and gowns.

“Jiyong, this is your long lost home,” Dara joked.

Staring at the rich-looking village before them, the six teenagers hesitantly walked toward one of the houses that had a sign on it.

            “Inn,” Youngbae translated. “Maybe we should go in to see if there are any rooms left.”

            “But where’s the closest water source around here?” Seungri asked.

            “There’s a lake about five miles west from here,” Youngbae replied.

            “Then shouldn’t we go a little further west before we decide on a place to stay?” Chaerin wondered.

            “I don’t think so. According to Alfonso, every village around here only has one inn,” Youngbae answered.

            “Okay then. Why don’t we go in here and see if there are any rooms left for us first?” Bom suggested.

            As they walked toward the inn, all of them noticed that the villagers were staring at them.

            “Maybe we should try to wear something that normal people in this town wears. We really stand out right now,” Dara surveyed.

            “Alright, but first, we should get room,” Youngbae said as he counted how many people were with him. “Let’s hope they have rooms of three.”

            Everybody climbed up the stairs and stopped in front of the door to the inn. After Youngbae went through, the rest awkwardly approached the piece of wood and slid through one by one. When everyone had gone through the door, they crowded around the front desk.

            “May I help you?” a blonde-haired man asked in a bored voice.

            “We would like two room of three, please,” Youngbae answered.

            “How long will you be staying here?” the man asked as he checked his book.

            “A maximum of two days.”

            “What if you’re going to stay here for a shorter time?”

            “Then you can keep the change.”

            The clerk looked at Youngbae squarely in the eye. It seemed like he concluded that Youngbae will not be dangerous. Taking a deep breath, the cashier said in the same bored voice, “Very well, then. Come with me.”

            The clerk led the six through the hallway, up the stairs, and into another hallway until he stopped at a door.

“There aren’t many guests who request a room of three,” the clerk explained. He took out a card, slid it into the middle of the door, and pulled it out after a clicking sound. Then, he went through the door with the six following right behind them. Inside the room, there were three four poster beds. Each one had different color sheets: pink, peach, and cream. The wallpaper was plain white with gold moldings on the top and the bottom. There were also two couches on the far left corner of the room. In addition, there was on the left side.

“This room will be for the ladies, and the gentleman, please follow me to your room. The room will be the same exact style, except the bed sheets are blue, cyan, and sea green,” the blonde-haired clerk recited.

            “Wait, what about the key to the room?” Chaerin asked.

            The clerk looked at Chaerin as if she had a frog in . He cleared his throat. “As with all inns, motels, and hotels in Terra, the door to the room will only let in its residents and the resident’s guests. Anyone who is not invited, except for the maids, will not be allowed to go through.”

            “Oh,” Chaerin looked uncomfortable, not sure what to do. “I, uh, I’ve never traveled before. Thank you for explaining to me.”

            The clerk lifted his nose in the air and walked out of the door. While the boys followed the clerk out, the girls picked their beds. They all decided that Dara should have the pink, Chaerin the peach, and Bom the cream. All the girls just sat in their bed and looked around. There was an awkward silence.

            Dara was the first one to break it. “Chaerin, I’m not sure how you feel on the inside, but I’d like to thank you for being so nice to me, even considering my relationship with Jiyong.”

            Not meeting Dara’s eyes, Chaerin replied. “Uh, no problem. I mean, I have no reason to be mad at you. I wasn’t dating him or anything. And you won him fair and square.”

            Dara considered Chaerin’s statement. “I still wonder why he took such an interest in me.”

            “He might have been attracted to your uniqueness and cool personality,” Bom suggested.

            “Maybe, but I never thought that I stood out that much,” Dara said, looking troubled. “Maybe he just wanted to play around with me.”

            “Don’t worry about that, Dara. I don’t think Jiyong’s that type of guy,” Chaerin told her. I know he’s popular with the girls, but he would never do anything to hurt them, at least not on purpose.”

            “Chaerin’s right,” agreed Bom. “You don’t have to worry about him cheating on you or anything of that sort. He’s just not that type of person.”

            Dara smiled. “I guess you two are right. He was never really aggressive, or I wouldn’t have liked him.”

            Chaerin scooted towards Dara’s bed, and Bom, reading Chaerin’s mind, moved to Chaerin’s bed to get closer to Dara.

            “So, how far did you go with him?” Chaerin asked nosily.

            Dara looked puzzled. “What do you mean?”

            “Did you guys kiss yet, or did you guys start holding hands?” Chaerin reworded.

            “Yeah, we held hands,” Dara replied. “That type of thing is hard to avoid.”

            “Then, did you guys kiss?” Bom asked.

            Hesitantly, Dara answered. “Well, yeah.”

            “Really? What was it like?” Chaerin became interested.

            “Well, like a kiss, I guess,” Dara replied.

            Chaerin sighed and leaned back on her bed. “Aww, I wish I can be kissed by a prince.”

            Bom laughed at Chaerin’s childishness. “But Chaerin, don’t you already have a prince?”

            “What pri—“ Chaerin realized what Bom was eluding to. She gave pouted at her. “Dara, Bom always wants to pair me up with Seungri.”

            “Oh,” Dara said, not really knowing what to say. Then, she smirked. “You know, I can’t say I’m completely against that fact.”

            Chaerin’s mouth dropped open. She looked at Dara’s teasing expression. “Not you too?!”

            Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

            “Who is it?” Bom asked.

            “Bom, it’s time to go to Lake Copenhagen,” someone’s muffled voice spoke through the door.

            Lake Copenhagen? Bom wondered. Oh! The next water source! Of course!

            “What about shopping for new clothes?” Dara asked.

            “We’ll do that on the way there,” the muffled voice answered. The three girls stood up and walked toward and through the door. Outside, they found the three boys waiting for them.

            “Ready?” Seungri asked. They nodded as Bom re-adjusted the basket that Alana gave her, and all of them started walking down the hallway, the stairs, the other hallway, and out the front door.

                :::::::::

            “Are we there yet?” Chaerin asked impatiently.

            “Almost, we’ll be there in thirty minutes,” Youngbae replied.

            Bom stared at Youngbae. For some reason, she had an uneasy feeling about him, as if he was hiding something from the group. This feeling reminds me of when we were in the Rainbow Forest, when he suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

            She didn’t know why she felt this way, but Bom knew that if Youngbae was being honest, they would have reached the lake two hours ago. The group had been walking for three hours, and everyone was tired and sweaty.

            At last, the six reached the lake, but they realized that they weren’t the only ones there. Waiting for them to come were three nasty looking ogres with clubs the length of three grown men and the width of a redwood tree. Bom quickly looked up at the sky to see if the sun was still shining, but the sun was already replaced by the moon, and rain started to pour down.

            Walking to Youngbae, Bom whispered. “How will we go back to the inn tonight?”

            “We won’t, we’ll go back tomorrow,” he replied tersely, not taking his eyes off the ogres. They were twelve feet tall, and the six friends barely reached up to the ogres’ bottom halves.

            “Bom, you have the sculpture, right?” Youngbae whispered. Bom nodded. “Then try to go past the ogres while we distract them.”

            “But, why do I have to go?”

            “Because you’re the weakest.”

            “That’d better have been sarcasm I heard in your voice, or you’ll be sorry.”

            Just then, the ogres decided to make the first move. The one in the middle with the mahogany vest swung his club violently at the six of them, but they were all too fast for him. The group scattered and ran off in different directions. Luckily, the three ogres decided to make the boys their targets. Bom quickly ran toward the lake with Chaerin and Dara trailing behind her. As she reached the lake, Bom knelt down and took out the sculpture from her basket. When she did that, an ogre turned around, noticing the shimmering blue piece of art, and quickly knocked it out of her hands with a swing of his club.

            The sculpture flew through the air and landed on the grayish green grass not far from Dara. She hurried toward the sculpture, picked it up, and ran toward the lake, already beginning to cast the dispelling charm. Unfortunately, she didn’t realize that the ogre with a worn-out green vest was catching up to her.

            “Dara, look out!” Bom shouted. Dara looked up and saw the ogre towering over her, ready to pick her up with his giant and filthy yellow-green hands. Suddenly, lightning electrocuted the green vested ogre, and the ogre slowly fell down on the grass, causing an earthquake-like thud and passing out.

            Jiyong put down his hand and ran to stand next to Dara as she continued casting the dispelling charm on the lake. He looked over at Bom and Chaerin, shouting. “Don’t worry, I’ll protect Dara! Take care of the other ogres!”

            Bom and Chaerin nodded, taking a second to relax. Jiyong’s face slowly changed from determined to frightened, and they took the hint to look up. The ogre with a blue vest was raising his club and getting ready to crush them. Chaerin raised her hand and shot out water, but the force was not strong enough, and her attack barely disturbed the ogre.

            After realizing Chaerin’s attack didn’t work, Bom immediately raised her hand and froze the ogre’s arm, preventing the club from swinging down on them. Bom was about to trap the ogre’s legs with ice when scarlet flame wrapped around the ogre’s body. Chaerin quickly took Bom’s arm and dragged her away as the ogre crashed onto the ground.

            Suddenly, the ogres disappeared. Bom and Chaerin heaved a sigh of relief. Looking up, they saw Youngbae dropping to the ground. Everyone rushed over to him.

            As Bom reached to where Youngbae was, she realized that his knee was badly injured. He was covered in sweat and seemed to have trouble breathing.

            “What happened?” Bom panicked. She was suddenly covered in cold sweat.

            “Youngbae was attacked by the ogre that was chasing us,” Seungri replied solemnly. “I think he also went overboard with the fire attacks. His body temperature is way too high to be normal.”

            Youngbae started to get up, but fell back down as soon as he started using his knee. Bom winced at the sight while the other two girls turned away. She immediately took off his necklace and put her own necklace on him. Right when Bom’s necklace touched his neck, Youngbae started shivering, as if a bucket of ice splashed onto him.

            Taking her necklace off Youngbae, she took his necklace, put it on herself to balance out her own body temperature, and returned his necklace to him. After seeing him breathe normally, Bom sighed and put her own necklace back on. One problem solved. Now for the knee.

She moved toward the leg and took out a first-aid kit from the basket. Suddenly, she realized that she never learned how to dress a wound.

            “Umm, does anyone know how to clean a wound?” Bom asked hopefully. Unluckily, everybody shook their heads. So Bom turned back to the kit, hoping for instructions. Since there were none, she decided to try it out on her own. Taking out some cotton balls and a bottle of cleaning alcohol, Bom poured the cleaning alcohol onto a cotton ball and began wiping the blood off Youngbae’s knee. As she continued, Bom noticed that Youngbae was wincing.

            “Sorry,” Bom whispered gently. After using the alcohol, Bom found an ointment that said it will help scars heal quickly, and decided to put some on Youngbae’s knee. Squeezing out the ointment, Bom carefully rubbed it on his knee. Suddenly, she realized that the others were still standing, watching her actions.

Turning around to face them, Bom said, “You guys can go ahead and sleep now. We have to wake up early and walk back to the inn tomorrow, so you guys should rest. I’ve got this covered.”

“Are you sure?” Seungri asked with a worried look on his face.

            “Yeah,” Bom answered, smiling slightly. “The bandaging process is a one person job, so I’ll be fine. Go ahead and sleep. If anything comes up. I’ll let you know.”

            The four bystanders nodded a bit unwillingly and started taking out their sleeping bags, getting ready to sleep. Bom turned back to Youngbae and continued applying the ointment. By the time she was done, the sky was already pitch black, and everybody was already asleep, including Youngbae. The only light came from the moon, but it was enough for her to do a satisfactory job.

            Bom packed up the kit, put it back into the basket, and fished out her sleeping bag. Looking up, she realized that Youngbae didn’t have a sleeping bag. Bom took out a blanket and crawled over to him. She rolled down his pant leg, and covered him in the blanket. Bom was about to go back to her sleeping bag when Youngbae caught her arm. Turning her head, Bom noticed that Youngbae had his eyes open.

            “Thanks for everything, Bom,” he whispered.

            “No problem,” she answered and went back to her sleeping bag. As she started to climb in, Bom looked up and saw Youngbae staring at her with a questioning face. She asked what the problem was.

            Hesitating, Youngbae asked. “Your unrequited love is Seungri, isn’t it?”

            Bom stopped what she was doing and looked over at him. “How— I mean what? No, it’s not him. That was a long time ago, it—”

            “You may be able to hide your feelings from other people, and you may even be able to hide your feelings from yourself, but you can’t hide them from me,” Youngbae interrupted. “It’s been like this since we were little. I know how your mind works.”

            Bom was about to object when she thought better of it. “How… How do you know?”

            Youngbae turned away from her and looked up at the sky. “Whenever you’re around Seungri, you have a smile on your face. You’re just happier around him.”

            “Well, even if you know or don’t know, it doesn’t matter,” Bom sighed. “It’s still unrequited.”

            “So you’ve given up?” Youngbae asked.

            “I have to,” Bom answered. “Seungri and I… I know for a fact that we weren’t meant to be. And besides, the only person Seungri has his eyes on is—“

            “Chaerin,” Youngbae filled in.

            Bom nodded. “See? Even you can see that. And even though Chaerin doesn’t realize this yet, but she is strengthened by Seungri. Take yesterday for example. After one sentence from Seungri, Chaerin became more confident, more self-assured. Imagine if she actually let herself like him. She would change drastically, and for the better.”

            Youngbae was silent for a moment, and for some reason, Bom felt a buildup of energy in the air.

            “Then what about yourself?” Youngbae asked quietly, a little too quietly.

            “Umm,” Bom was unsure of what to say. “What about myself?”

            “Aren’t you considering this too logically?” Youngbae asked, the volume of his voice rising. “Why don’t you think of your own happiness before caring about others’?”

            “Shhh,” Bom looked around to see if anyone woke up. Thankfully, they were in deep sleep. “But you have to agree with me on this, right? Those two are perfect for each other. What both of them lack is confidence, and both of them can find that in each other. If I intervene, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself for ruining their potential. I mean, you like Dara, don’t you? But you wouldn’t mess up Dara’s and Jiyong’s relationship just because you like her, right?”

            Youngbae didn’t say anything in response, so Bom continued. “And I only like Seungri because I think he’s a good guy. The way I like him is kind of how Chaerin likes Jiyong. He’s like Prince Charming to her, but in reality, she’s more like Rapunzel than Cinderella. She just doesn’t realize that her prince is gathering up the courage call out her name.

            “And as for me, I really admire the sincerity of Rapunzel’s prince, but I most likely have a story of my own. That story just isn’t developing as fast as the others.”

            Youngbae looked at her with expressionless eyes. Ah, that poker face again, Bom thought. I wonder what he’s thinking. When he finally opened his mouth, he asked. “Which fairytale would you like to have?”

            Surprised at his question, Bom thought it over thoroughly. “I’m not sure. Even though I used to like Alice in Wonderland when I was a kid, my favorite fairy tale now is Beauty and the Beast, so maybe that one.”

            Bom heard Youngbae gasp. Quickly turning to him, she asked, “What’s wrong? Is your knee hurting?”

            Youngbae shook his head. “No, nothing’s wrong. I just realized something, that’s all.”

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Starlightshine: Thanks for commenting! And glad you're back :) Lol, yeah, Melanie's in denial XD Actually, after thinking about it, all the girls have some issues with denial o_o I wonder what that says about me...  Hehe, and your guess is sort of close!