~Chapter 61~

The Truth is Hard to Tell

No One’s POV~

            Taemin rushes over, but quickly stops as he notices the crowd of Peacekeepers carrying a bloody and chained up Heechul in their arms. Anger quickly consumes him. You had Heechul hyung in your grasp this entire time?! Taemin summons his spear and charges at the Peacekeepers. A full-on battle occurs as Taemin swings his spear ruthlessly at the group. “Taemin, wait—” one of them tries to talk to him but is quickly silenced by a straight kick to their face. Despite suffering from unhealed external injuries, internal injuries, and lack of strength, Taemin’s rage is enough to fuel him.

            The Peacekeepers are forced to pull out their weapons as Taemin nearly gets them each with a fatal stab. Taemin yanks the unconscious Heechul out of their grasp and places him down gently before attacking them once more. Taemin fights his urge to kill as he puts his spear away and uses his fingers to jab at their pressure points, locking them in place. One by one, the Peacekeepers are forced to freeze where they are. Because Taemin attacked them so suddenly, no one was prepared to fight back, making them so easily defeated by him.

            Taemin swallows back the blood that is threatening to be barfed out. He is forcing his body beyond its capability. You are not supposed to use any energy and should not move around a lot after being healed. He was supposed to meditate and regulate his energy flow before fighting with such might. He glares at the Peacekeepers and quickly turns to Heechul. His face etches with pain as he sees Heechul covered with numerous injuries.

            Taemin draws a safe amount of internal energy and sends it to his hyung’s body, helping him heal. Taemin trembles as the strain on his body is more and more prominent. His breathing becomes heavier has it takes much more effort to draw in his breaths. He keeps trying to swallow back the blood as it continues to threaten to come out.

            “Taemin!” Mr. Dragon runs over and quickly forces Taemin to stop sending his energy. Finally, Taemin hurls out the blood that he was trying to hold back. “What happened here?” Mr. Dragon asks as he frantically wipes Taemin’s chin with his sleeve. He looks around and notices the Peacekeepers are motionless. “Did you fight with them?!”

            “Quick, Mr. Dragon, save Heechul hyung.”

            “Worry about yourself,” Mr. Dragon says and makes him sit down. “I told them to take care of him. Why are you all fighting?”

            “You left him in their care? Why is he so heavily injured?” Taemin asks angrily. “This is their idea of taking care of someone…”

            “Taemin-ah, I need you to unlock their acupoints. Can you do that for me?” Mr. Dragon says carefully. “If you don’t trust them, you can at least trust me, right?” Reluctantly, Taemin nods. Mr. Dragon helps him stand up and walks him over to each of them. Finally, the Peacekeepers are able to move.

            “I need an explanation, now,” Taemin demands.

            “I think it would be best to talk about this after Minho wakes up,” Mr. Dragon says.

            “Wait, what happened to Minho hyung?”

Key’s POV~

            I massage my temples as I close my eyes to give myself a quick break. I exhale slowly as I feel the days without sleep taking a toll on my body. I fight the urge to sleep but eventually give up. I let my head fall and I lean it onto my arm, supporting it up. This way, if I fall into deep sleep, my arm might fall and my head would as well, waking me up. It’s a good preventative tactic. After a few minutes, I hear my tent open and someone walk in with light steps. I have to punish my soldiers later. Tsk. Letting an assassin come in and kill their general…I reach for under the table and grasp my fan, ready to strike the intruder.

            Little did I know the awaited attack did not come. Instead, I feel a familiar presence next to me as a thick cape gets draped over my back gently. After carefully tucking the cape so it covered me completely, I hear a chair get pulled over next to me. At this point, it would be too awkward for me to announce that I am indeed awake, so I begin to steady my breathing, playing my part properly.

            I nearly jump as I feel his fingers slowly pass along my eyebrows. “It’s okay…just relax,” he whispers softly. I didn’t realize I was furring my eyebrows. I try my best to relax and he hums to himself, pleased.

            A few moments passed and he has not done anything, almost like he was contemplating something. Finally, I feel his hands wrap around my neck and head, supporting me, as he rests my head onto the table. I guess my napping position looks really uncomfortable…haha.

             “I really wish I was able to be more helpful to you…” he continues. “I’m sorry…” Are you kidding me? You’ve been the most useful partner I’ve ever— heck, I never had a partner before. I’ve always been so alone before and…having you here is enough to give me strength to continue. Don’t you know that? Jonghyun hyung brushes the back of his hand onto my cheek. If someone were to randomly do this to me, I would find it awkward or maybe even cringy. But when Jonghyun does it, it’s like he is pouring his heart into every small gesture of comfort. I can’t help but to lean my cheek closer.

            A set of heavier footsteps come rushing toward my tent and Jonghyun quickly exits the tent and closes the door. Oddly, I feel a bit of disappointment when he retracted his hand. My body immediately noticed the coldness the lack of his touch brought. “Shh,” I hear him whisper outside. “Our general is resting. Follow me, we don’t want to disturb him.”

            I wake up abruptly, surprised that I actually fell into deep sleep. After pretending to be asleep and feeling at ease with Jonghyun attending the issues in my behalf, I fell asleep without planning to. Even more surprising is that I am on my bed in the tent. This means that I was carried and moved over to my bed and I didn’t even wake up! Who moved me and when was I moved?! Years of being on high alert on missions and now with Jonghyun hyung around, I let myself get babied and spoiled. I mentally hit myself as I rush to put my shoes on. They were taken off without me noticing as well.

            I hear a light knock on the door and subconsciously reply, “Come in, Jonghyun.”

            “Up already?” Jonghyun hyung says as he enters, carrying a tray of food.

            “Why didn’t you wake me up?” I say without thinking. It’s not his job to wake you up, Kim Kibum.

            “Sorry, I didn’t mean to overstep, but I thought you needed the rest.” He places the tray down on the table and sets everything up nice and neat. “I fetched you some hot water to wipe down your body. I was afraid that I’d wake you if I were to do it myself so I just boiled it, hoping that when you woke up it wouldn’t cool down too much.” You didn’t think it would be an issue of you having to see my bare skin, but an issue of me waking up? The audacity…

            “Wait, were you up all night?” I ask.

            “Uhm, I’m okay though. Are you sure you don’t want to rest some more?”

            “I’m fine,” I say with a hint of anger in my tone. For some reason, knowing that Jonghyun sacrificed his own sleep for my own made me upset…with myself. If I did not witness his tender care and consideration than maybe I would react differently, but to know someone was so kind to me without wanting anything back…it makes me mad seeing how I cannot repay him. Jonghyun hyung-ah, don’t waste your love on me.

            “If you’re planning to feel bad about me treating you nicely, then don’t. I’m not asking for anything back from you. If I haven’t made it clear yet, I hope what I’m saying now will ease your mind.”

            “You’re…a great friend, Jonghyun hyung,”

            “My pleasure.” Although he accepted my sincere compliment, one cannot deny the hint of pain in his eyes. I…really don’t deserve your love for me…

Onew’s POV~

            With Taehyung identifying himself as the Dagger of Resentment wielder and Baekhyun being the king’s potential vessel, I cannot help but be a bit at loss. Originally, I would advise for us to get the dagger and kill the emperor, but now with a vessel at hand, even if we try, the king might transfer himself to Baekhyun before his cultivation shatters. The second option would be to destroy the vessel and then the king, but we clearly can’t do that now.

            I expected the vessel to be a strong cultivator or even someone evil enough to bear the king’s dark energy, but it’s Baekhyun who we are talking about here! I can’t possible kill him. What confuses me the most is how can it be him? But then again if it isn’t him, the king would have no use keeping him alive for this long. Something must not be right…

            “You okay?” Joon asks as he puts his weapon down. “You didn’t even notice me walking in.”

            “Just a bit confused, that’s all.”

            “Is this about what Taehyung talked to you about?”

            “Mhm, I don’t know what to do~” I whine as I burry my face into his neck. Joon chuckles softly as he pats the back of my head. He pulls me into a tight embrace and places me on his lap naturally. I lean on him as I play with the stray locks of hair that has fallen from his tied hair. “I feel like I’ve been worrying a lot but haven’t taken much action. At this rate, the emperor will complete his plan before I make up my mind.”

            “Jinki-ah, of course you feel like we are doing nothing. The king purposely separated our team to weaken us. Jonghyun and Key are fighting off bandits, Minho, the White Masked Hero, and Kai are hidden in the Forbidden Forest, Taehyung and Baekhyun are basically under house arrest while Jimin goes off with Jong Kook hyungnim. He even sent Mir and Thunder on other tasks, so they are not readily by my side to help out,” he sighs. “But that’s the point. He wants us to be separated and feel powerless while he gets to go around collected the pieces that he needs.”

            “So what should we do?”

            “You shouldn’t be doing anything,” Joon says and taps on my nose with his finger. “This is an issue for people that belong to this time period. You and Jonghyun shouldn’t be involved. You two should focus on finding a way to go back—”

            “What?” I sit up and turn to face him. “You want to send me back?”          

            “It’s much too dangerous for you to stay here and you belong in the future. We already lost Taemin. I don’t want to lose you and Jonghyun too.”

            “You’re right. We did lose Taemin, but that’s an even bigger reason for us to stay here. Taemin died. We may be from the future, but this past will affect us on the long run. We will become angels and demons. We will run into this cycle again, but next time it won’t be him that dies, but you.”

            “I know that I died in vain this life which harnessed resentful energy and made me into a demon. But look, I’m a monster now. Unless they shatter my bead, I’m going to still be alive. I will continue to live and if I wait, what, five hundred years or so, I will reunite with you again. After we settle this, I can help Minho and Key cultivate. Then, they will also be able to live as celestials once they reach the final stage. Jonghyun can reunite with Key then and Minho can hopefully find Taemin in his next life. All of this can be fixed if we send you two back.

            “If you two die, then you will forget everything we’ve been through. You two will continue with the cycle somehow just like how Taemin’s soul has moved on. Let Taemin’s death be an example for us. God knows what form he has taken after he died or if there’s even a chance of us ever meeting him again. Do you think if you were to die and left me behind, I would be able to be at peace? Minho fell into such a terrible state and even with the White Masked Hero by his side, he still struggled. I know for a fact that if I knew you were waiting for me, I would try my best to stay alive, to cultivate as much pure energy as I can, so I can reunite with you one day. If you were to die…it would break me.”

            “Joon…are you...scared?” I ask hesitantly. When Taemin, Jonghyun, and I went back in time in the beginning, we declared that it was our goal to make sure Joon doesn’t die in vain and fix the cycle. Never once did Joon seem so adamant about sending me back. Even after Taemin died, he never thought about sending me back.

            As he spoke just now, his words were rushed. He usually is more of a person that spoke with his actions, yet today he talked so much in one go. Since I am sitting on him, I can feel his uneven breath and hands slightly shaking. He avoided my eye contact just now as well.

            I don’t think I ever asked him what his thoughts on the emperor were, but now as I see him trying to send me away to safety, I feel that he must be really unsure about facing the king. He needed me away and protected so he could focus, fight his hardest, and try his best to return to me. If I were here, he feels that he would be distracted.

            No matter how powerful the enemy, how overpowered he may seem, Joon never thought he would be too weak to ensure my safety. I know I have been worried while thinking of ways to face off the king, but now with Joon showing his true feelings toward the faceoff, I am even more worried. My once confident and undefeatable Joon is now uncertain.

No One’s POV~

            Minho slowly opens his eyes and regains consciousness. He realizes that he is lying in bed and sits up. He stops moving as he notices Taemin’s head laying atop his pantleg. Taemin has fallen asleep while sitting next to the bed. How long has he been sleeping like that? His back is going to hurt. Has he been beside me the entire time I’ve been unconscious?

             Minho thinks back at how bad Taemin’s condition was when he last saw him, and he immediately started to worry. Have his internal injuries healed? How can he be taking care of me when he hasn’t healed? Minho is afraid that if he tugs his pants away from under Taemin, he might wake him up. He is also afraid that if he lets Taemin sleep so uncomfortably on the cold floor, that might worsen his condition.

            Minho notices that the sun is up, meaning it is not too unreasonable to wake up his other half. He reaches his hand out and tenderly touches Taemin’s furrowed eyebrows. After a few light touches, Taemin finally wakes up. Seeing that his hyung is finally awake, Taemin smiles warmly. “How are you feeling?”

            “Still a bit weak, but I’m fine,” Minho assures. “Your injuries…”

            “He’s been stubborn and won’t rest even though he’s injured,” Mr. Dragon says as he enters with two bowls of medicine. “He kept insisting that he’d stay by your side,” he passes each person a bowl. “Drink up.” The two oblige and hold back cringes as the medicine was awfully bitter.

            “His condition hasn’t gotten any better. How come I seem more energetic than him?” Minho asks as he pulls Taemin atop the bed and wraps him up with the blanket.

            “Should I explain, or will you?” Mr. Dragon looks at Taemin who is burying his face under the blanket. His eyes innocently stare back at Minho, almost like he was begging to not be forced to talk.

            “He can tell me when he’s comfortable,” Minho comforts and pats Taemin’s head with care. “Were you not able to help him heal?”

            “I was able to, but he has new injuries on top of the old injuries, so his body is weak.” Minho looks at Taemin when he heard ‘new injuries.’ He holds back his question, knowing very well that Taemin would refuse to tell him anyway. “I’ll leave you two then.”

            “Thank you,” Minho says and Mr. Dragon leaves, as being the third wheel is not fun for either party. After Mr. Dragon exits, Minho lays down next to Taemin and naturally pulls him into his arms. Taemin leans his head on Minho’s firm chest and enjoys the familiar sensation.

            The two lay there for a while, just taking in each other’s presence. Although Taemin was mad at Minho before, the guilt of seeing him injured was enough to make him forgive him. “I’m sorry the Peacekeepers are around,” Minho finally says. “If you don’t want them around, I can find another location for them to hide at. I just don’t want the king to find them and kill them off…I know having them around has made it hard for our living condition.”

            “It’s okay,” Taemin sighs. “If they act up, we can kick them out then.” He holds back the urge to tell Minho about his duel with the Peacekeepers. Minho hyung would’ve told me if he knew Heechul hyung was in their custody. He let the Peacekeepers stay with us and care for their safety this much…if I told him of their deeds, it won’t help him heal. I guess I will tell him later, Taemin decides.  

            As if Minho read his mind, he asks Taemin, “How were you when I was gone? You clearly weren’t resting if Mr. Dragon said you had new injuries. Were you playing around with the baby dragons too much?” Taemin chews the inside of his lip nervously and avoids eye contact with his lover. Minho notices the guilt spread across Taemin’s face and pulls him even closer. “Are you not answering because you don’t want to lie to me? Afraid I’d be mad if I found out the truth?” Taemin buries his face into Minho’s chest and nods. Overwhelmed by his cuteness, Minho laughs. “You’re acting like I’m a scary person.”

             “Wait, I forgot to ask you, how did the battle end?” As Taemin blurted out his question with the intent of changing the topic, Minho’s smile froze in place. This time, it was Minho’s turn to struggle with telling the truth.

~Comments are loved~

Eh hem....so I graduated...Hopefully this means I will be more free to update!