"Humans are weak and with a short lifespan. They easily succumb to their desires. Yet, there are few humans who are courageous. They know very well how little power they have yet they're not afraid to die. Their life passes in a blink of an eye. However, they can love in their limited lifetime... "

Settling himself beside one of the oldest trees in the forest, Yesung stared at nothing in particular. He sighed, a deep one.

Earlier, he saw a family settling at a house near the edge of the forest. Yesung absentmindedly stared the pale looking boy, which he presumed to be youngest among the five people, who tried balancing some luggage in his thin arms. He wanted to observe the new family, quite especially the boy, but he felt the gust of wind blowing from the middle of the forest.

Caught... That was what Yesung thought after feeling the gust of wind surrounding his body. Leeteuk, the eldest of the forest sprites, already caught him.

Heaving a final sigh, Yesung slowly transformed to deer, starting from the thorns slowly appearing at his red hair. It grew for about a foot. And with a glow of light surrounding his body, he transformed to a deer.

It will be wiser to come back to the forest now before anything bad can happen. He hopped from boulders to stumps to solid ground, not aware that the boy caught a glimpse of him.

<> 

Yesung luckily made it in time for the gathering of the forest spirits, led by Leeteuk, the oldest spirit. Every spirit was settling in and waiting for their meeting to start when Yesung found Kangin, one of his closest friends, calling him.

"Where have you been?" Kangin, asked as Yesung transformed from being a deer to human form. He suspiciously looked at his friend as if the other broke the rules, which Yesung slightly did.

Yesung timidly looked back at Kangin before answering, "Off observing." He leaned back against a tree and closed his eyes, knowing Kangin will lecture him for that.

"You did that again? How many times did I remind you that it was dangerous?"

Yesung opened his eyes in surprise. Instead of Kangin, Leeteuk was the one talking to him.

"Haven't you learned from your carelessness before?" Leeteuk sternly asked as he looked at the scar in Yesung's skin right above the joint in his left shoulder. "Do you want to be hit again by those weapons by human?"

"No," Yesung consciously adjusted his green upper wear to hide the scar from everyone, "I just wanted to see the new family that moved near the forest."

Leeteuk glared at Kangin, knowing he was the one who told Yesung of the rumor that there will be more humans living near the forest. Kangin feigned innocence by shrugging his shoulders.

The eldest sighed, "Just be sure that nothing like that will happen again. And I don't want you to interact with humans."

Choosing not to answer, Yesung just frowned and kept silent. He got a feeling that he'll soon interact with a human so instead of lying he didn't answer.

"Do you hear me?" Leeteuk asked again. Kangin nudged Yesung with his elbow but the other remained quiet.

The leader sighed again. “Here,” he handed Yesung something before turning around. "It’s already repaired, take good care of it. We will talk later," he walked to the front where all the other forest spirits were waiting.

Yesung opened his small palm and saw his pair of golden bells, shining as if they were brand new, tied with a piece of string. Though, they were not ordinary bells. They were the mourning bells. It was Yesung’s task to calm dying animals that went berserk. Only dying animals can hear the sounds of that bell. The other day, he clumsily broke it after calming a dying bear. Silently he tied the string around his finger left ring finger.

At first, he didn’t like his responsibility of calming down dying animals. He never liked seeing death, how it made everyone suffer before taking the life away. But as he helped more and more animals, he started being satisfied after giving some peace, both physically and spiritually. It was good for him to be the light dying animals see before dying peacefully.

Kangin was about to preach Yesung too but the other looked cutely at him and all he can do was shook his head as he listened to Leeteuk's speech.

<> 

"You should have answered earlier!" Kangin silently shouted, hoping not to disturb the animals, at Yesung when the meeting was finally over. Deciding to pay Sungmin and Ryeowook a visit, the two of them made their way to their friend’s.

"You know I'll do it again! So why lie?" Yesung stubbornly asked. "…as if I can stop myself from doing it Kangin, you fully know how much I adore humans!"

 "Then, I shouldn't have told you about the new family that will live near the forest," Kangin retorted. "I only told you that because you might get yourself hurt again," he softly added.

Stopping in his tracks, Yesung turned to Kangin and hugged him. "Thank you so much for caring."

Kangin hugged Yesung back and lifted him, showing off his strength, "You know you're like a brother to me. Though I'm not sure if you're the older or younger one."

"I'm older than you," Yesung said as he let go of Kangin, puffing his cheeks in annoyance.

Kangin laughed at the display of cuteness in front of him. Who would think that Yesung's really older than him with that baby face of his?

"Seriously, stop observing humans," Kangin said seriously as they continued walking. "You have an unhealthy obsession with them. Which is very wrong..."

"What's wrong with being 'obsessed' with humans?" Yesung asked, his eyes narrowing at his friend.

"Everything. They are weak.”

“True, all of the things you said are correct. But why didn’t you mention any positive trait of humans?”

Kangin remained silent and Yesung choose to continue talking. “They don’t have overwhelming strength like yours Kangin, I don’t have that strength either. But they are strong in their own way.”

“They have a short lifespan. They rarely make it to 100 years.”

“That’s another admirable thing about humans. Unlike us who can live for centuries, they live for only a short time so they’ll do everything to enjoy it.”

“They are greedy," Kangin stopped talking before adding, “Do I need to say all of their bad traits? And do you need to argue with everything I say?”

Yesung nodded before saying, “They are greedy for they desire making the best out of their lives. And more importantly, they can fall in love in their limited lifetime…”

Looking at his friend, Kangin can only sigh. In the end, it still came to the fact that Yesung wanted to fall in love, or whatever you call that. “Why can’t you just fall in love with one of us?” He asked out loud. “It can be one of us.”

“I tried,” Yesung answered sincerely. What Kangin said is correct. It can be a fellow forest spirit. Everyone was nice to him but none made him feel really special. “But none of you is the one destined for me.”

“How can you say that?” Kangin raised his brows.

“I just knew,” Yesung held his chest where his heart was supposed to be located. Smelling the flowers in the field they were in, he couldn’t help but smile. “But I know I’ll meet the one soon.”

Sighing again, Kangin watched Yesung’s back, who was leading the way, as they continued walking through the forest, “I just hope nothing bad will happen to you because of that whole falling in love thing.” 

“I’m sure it will no-ARGH!” Suddenly, Yesung fell after stumbling over something.

Immediately, Kangin ran to his side, “Are you fine Yesung?”

“I think,” he mumbled as he tried sitting up. He was thankful that the ground underneath him was soft but he felt bad for stomping at some of the flowers. Thinking of a legit apology to Sungmin, his friend in charge of taking care of the flowers in the forest, Yesung didn’t notice the shocked expression of Kangin, who was staring at whatever he stumbled upon. After finally succeeding to sit up straight, Yesung’s eyes opened wide as he saw a young man lying on the ground, the same young man he saw earlier.

Kangin and Yesung looked at each other before staring at the man again. While Kangin eyed the boy suspiciously, Yesung’s gaze at the boy softened as he saw drying tears in his face. Quickly, Yesung went nearer to the boy and wiped the tears away with his hands. 

“We should tell Leeteuk that there’s a human here,” Kangin said as he watched Yesung cradling the face of the young man. “Don’t touch him! He might be dangerous!”

“What part of him is dangerous?” Yesung silently asked as he maneuvered the man’s body so he’s lying on his back. “Look, his breathing is uneven,” Yesung placed his head against the chest of the other and listened to his heart, “Even his heart is producing weird sounds.”

Yesung stood up and tried pulling the still unconscious boy. He looked at the still unmoving Kangin and said, “Hey help me!”

Kangin looked dumbfounded, “WHAT?!”

“We need to help him! Look at how pale he is!” Yesung managed to pull the young man up and tried steadying him by hugging him. “Let’s bring him to his house!”

“We will be breaking the rules! Just let him go back on his own when he wakes up.”

“What if he’s very sick? Can’t you see he’s suffering?”

“Leeteuk will not be amused!”

“Then, let’s not tell him,” Yesung replied as he stared at the young man’s face, truly concerned of what happened to him. Earlier, he saw him laughing and looking happy but right now, he almost looked dead.

“I’m not helping you,” Kangin said as he raised both his hands in the air. “I don’t want any trouble.”

“Well, thank you for being my friend. It was nice having such a nice, caring and strong friend like you Kangin,” Yesung adjusted the young man as both of them threatened to fall down.

Immediately, Kangin rolled his eyes as he aided Yesung. “Be thankful that I really value you as a friend. If ever Leeteuk will know this, I’m going to kill you first before he kills us with his preaching,” Quickly, he transformed to his bear form and took the young man from Yesung, placing him over his shoulder. Kangin started walking towards Sungmin’s place. Running after him, Yesung hugged Kangin-bear from the side and allowed the other to carry him as well. Out of caring, Yesung held the young man’s dangling hands, using his left hand, at Kangin-bear’s back and squeezed it in assurance. The grip on his hand tightened and he wondered if the young man was already awake. Not seeing other signs that the other was awake, Yesung just let their hands holding while figuring out the fluttering feeling inside his body.

Silently, they made their way to the edge of the forest, where they will send back the unconscious boy that they found in the middle of the forest.