2NE1 Dara It Hurts (c) ntwogu (http://ntwogu.deviantart.com/)

“Noona,”

I slowly turned my head at Seungri, blushing when my eyes passed by GD, who was sitting beside him, and asked, “Yes?”

He laughed, which was immediately followed by the laughs of others as well including GD, though his was more of dry. “You’re swallowing invisible food.”

I moved my tongue across all the edges and curves of my mouth and then looked down to verify. I haven’t touched my food—even haven’t held my utensils. My face reddened at the sudden realization and I murmured, “Sorry.”

I bowed my head down and then looked around using only my eyes. I didn’t really touch my food and my mother looked worried, after all this is her first time after two weeks to see me again.

I sighed and stood up, earning all their attention. “I’m not hungry.”

My mother sighed and forcedly smiled, which I can tell from the movement of her facial muscles. “Sandara, please eat even a small piece.”

I looked at the plate in front of me and then hesitantly shook my head. It may have looked rude but I don’t really want to eat.

“I’m going upstairs.” I said and walked towards the door. Before I exit, I noticed that GD was more worried than my mother and I totally regret not eating.

I was so absorbed by the almost-kiss that I didn't entertain my mother in her visit. She was fine by it though, because she thinks I was affected by the news of the sighting of a Pax. She just left me a letter after dinner, telling me to be fine because she won't be visiting again. That time, I really cried but I can't let her go on visiting me every Wednesday. She's already old.

Tonight, I borrowed Top's MonsterBook to research more about the pieces of information I got from EXO’s haunted house, the pieces of information Kwon Henry left before he died. But I can’t concentrate when every other second, news about the retaliation in EXO’s haunted house pings to alert the user. Top really is up-to-date with news.

I tried turning off the alert, but Top’s desktop’s icons were named in Latin and Greek and so, I only can open the internet browser because it was the only icon I can remember by picture.

I grabbed the envelope I managed to steal from the medicine box and opened it. There were old and withering papers inside and a locket charm with a ruby red stone at the middle. I turned the envelope over and found a handwritten message. Ad epistulas omnis qui accipit, et mutare vellem videas pacem super custodiam meam ego mundo. Sit ut lux erit, mittam te ad lumen est mutare mundi. – Kwon Henry, 03-10-1990

To whoever gets my letters, may you see the peace and change I wanted to set in my world for me. Let the light that I'll send to you will be your light to change my world. I translated at the back of my mind, subconsciously. When did I suddenly learn Latin?

I turned the paper over again and grabbed the first paper of the batch. It was so old that one wrong move could tear it apart, and I have been in contact with so many Monster-manufactured papers that I know something would happen once a paper is tore apart. For example, if you use the red stationary paper, it will catch into fire when you tear it in half and if you use the blue one, it becomes water that splashes on your face.

“May 03, 1972.” I read out loud the date at the upper right corner of the paper, handwritten by someone I assume in his teenage years. It was rushed, as if he wants to write sooner than later.

I used a paper that the words I marked important on it will be temporarily tattooed on the first person who will read this letter until he or she fulfils what I ask of him or her to do. This is not a request or a command. The words will fade away eventually if you decide not to fulfil it, though you must be fully disapproving before it does, and the paper will again be recreated.

I am 16, turning 17 this November, the month which monsters deem as the month we are lucky. They said I am lucky. I am the best monster in my training school, exceling in both academics and in combat. I have a girlfriend at SME, who is considered the most beautiful monster of our batch. I am almost-perfect according to them. I am a genius. But I am not.

Just recently, I have found I am a Pax after I accidentally cut my arm with my knife. Why? Because my blood is not black. It’s dark red.

Of course I panicked. I could get expelled, banished or even worse, killed. I am a Pax. I am a threat to the society.

But I decided that they didn’t know. I must be always invincible.

And I have been thinking to conduct something. I am a Pax yet I never thought ever in my life to kill my fellow men. I was never excited to see the blood of my friends staining my arm. I was never angry of monsters.

Yet why would they tell that Pax are ones? It’s because we are extinct.

I have a gut feeling there is more to us than the rumors. I could be something special.

So until I am found out, I’m going to research more about my kind—my true identity.

My mother’s calling me. It’s time for my daily flu shot.

And for my instruction, keep the locket safe. Wear it please. It contains my blood and it’s not because it’s special. It’s just in case I’m the last Pax-monster ever to live and you are not of my kind. As my researches progress, keep my blood safe. I have a feeling it contains something that holds the answers to my questions.

Our questions.

Kwon Henry

The paper turned into smoke and swirled around my arms until it dissipated. I rolled my sleeves up and saw a temporary tattoo on the inside of my arm, its bold black message saying: Wear and keep the locket safe. I quickly grabbed the locket with the ruby red gem on top of it, which I just knew was actually crystal and only had blood inside. It’s a blood of a Pax. It’s dark red, different from mundane blood which is white and even different

Two things ran inside my mind. What if the letter is fake and it wasn’t from Henry Kwon? and Would these series of letters lead me to the answer I’m finding? But I won’t find the answers to these questions without wearing the locket and risking everything for the sake of the whole monstrosity.

But why would I risk everything I have, including my life, for the sake of the race I am not part of?

Am I so tired of being mundane that I want to live being a Pax?

Or do I really have something or someone I’m holding on to in this world? Someone I am too reluctant to leave?

Before I could reach out and call Chaerin, there was a knock on the door and a soft voice followed, “Sandara, can we talk?”

I smiled. That was the answer. He is the answer.

I wore the locket around my neck, sighed and answered, “Sure, G.”

Before I open the door, I gazed at the inside of my arm, where the tattoo once been and then clicked the button on the small box Chaerin gave to me, making the envelope owned by Henry Kwon be kept inside.

GD led me to his study, which is a big room with a red velvet sofa facing a whole wall covered with books and a desk placed opposite of the door, its back facing the large window. I have cleaned the place and it was dust-dree unlike my first visit here.

He motioned for the sofa, so I sat down before he followed shortly after, bringing with him a cup of hot tea.

“Thanks.” I murmured, accepting the cup with both hands and blew on it.

“I’m sorry about earlier.” He directly and abruptly said, without even having introductions. “I know how much your family values waiting and acts after marriage. I’m sorry for touching you even.”

I smiled, my lips against the rim of the cup and answered, “It’s okay. It didn’t happen anyway.”

“But you were so angry….” His voice trailed off. “You didn’t even eat.”

“I was just shock.” I clarified, taking a sip. “You don’t need to stress about it.”

“But Dara…” He paused again and then decided not to continue his sentence, sighing.

“I have a few questions though.” I said, turning my body towards him and I have to admit, I am much more comfortable with him now than I was before he almost kissed me. Maybe that gave a sort of assurance—an assurance of my feelings, maybe—but at least there was. If ever he only did it because he was a man, then it’s fine. If ever he did it because he likes me too, it’s better.

GD took a sip from his cup before replying, “Sure. Anything.”

“Did you meet your father?” I asked away and when I noticed the sudden dim in his eyes, I quickly retorted, “It’s not being personal! I was just curious and—“

“I researched about him after I learned I am his son. It took time, especially that I was alone and abandoned but I did find something about him.” He cut me off. “He’s the former captain of the race’s armed forces and he was looked up by everyone.”

“Anything other than that?” I asked, prompted even. I must’ve sounded like I’m his father’s stalker.

He shrugged. “If you want me to state one by one our family powers I inherited from him and I learned from his side. That’s all I knew. I can’t even learn about him personally since my mother is in the mundane world and…well, I’m mad at her.”

I smiled. “Well, there’s one I’ve not yet met.”

GD raised his eyebrow at me and I immediately flailed my hands, my face red in embarrassment. “I mean, it’s not like it’s worth mentioning after we spoke about your father. It’s nothing just—Well—“

He laughed. “You can tell me.”

How can I tell the person I currently like that I am in love with someone I never even met? I don’t know and it’s hard. It’s like talking with an apple inside your mouth—awkward and hard. It’s the reason why we only take a bite from apples and not eat it as a whole.

“Well,” I started, puffing out both of my cheeks. “It’s just that, well, since my mother is a fortune teller, she has been reading my fortune ever since I can remember. When I was fifteen, she read my fortune and was shocked to see it. It turns out, she had found out about my future husband. She then wrote his name on a piece of paper and inserted it in a locket.” I laughed. “I still wear it and believed in it but after ten years, I haven’t still met Kwon Jiyong.”

GD coughed then said, “What?”

“Kwon Jiyong.” I laughed.

“Oh,” He said, looking at the other side.

I laughed. “Well, it’s not like all fortunes are true. Sometimes they don’t but there are a special few who really come true. If I will marry Kwon Jiyong, then it must be so.”

GD’s face was red when he looked back at me and maybe because the room was too hot plus we were drinking a cup of tea. He stood up from the sofa and coughed. “Uh, I need to do something so, I’ll get going.”

I smiled at him before he left me alone in his study and I have to admit, it's better if the name Kwon GD is the one that appeared rather than Kwon Jiyong.