o=o=o

 

~AUTHOR’S POV~

 

“She’s not even that beautiful” CL scoffed as she saw the girl sleeping with her head resting at the edge of the bed.

 

“You should get your eyes checked” Seungri said. “She’s the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen here”

 

“Maybe YOU should get your eyes checked” CL returned.

 

“Your bitterness is showing again” Seungri noticed.

 

“It’s really useless talking to you” CL grimaced.

 

“You find everything I do useless” Seungri fired back.

 

“Hey, you two” Bom joined them. “Can you take your bickering some other place? There’s a sick person here”

 

The two glared at each other and walked out of the room. As soon as they were out, Kwon Jiyong’s eyes fluttered open.

 

“She was reading you a fairytale book a while ago” Bom scoffed. “Beauty and the Beast, to be exact”

 

“Why am I not surprised?” Jiyong chuckled lightly.

 

“I have a feeling she thinks she’s Beauty and you’re the Beast” she continued as if he didn’t speak. “Funny isn’t it? Who in their sane mind would read a fairytale story to a teenage boy who doesn’t even believe in forever or promises or. . . . “ she trailed then sighed. “but I guess your taste changed. You prefer mentally unstable people now, don’t you?”

 

“Bom, you’re not really doing any good to my condition right now “Jiyong cut off. He sighed and closed his eyes.

 

“When are you going to stop this foolishness, Jiyong? You’ve been endangered TWICE because of her. Are you going to wait for the third time to kill you?”

 

“Can we just talk when I’m feeling better? You’re stressing me out”

 

“Of course” Bom tightly said. “Now that you’re stable, you don’t need me anymore, do you?”

 

Jiyong heaved a sigh again as Bom left the room. He hates being in bed all the time and the other acting like this wasn’t helping him at all. He tried to push himself up in a sitting position but his wounds were giving him hard time. he exhaled loudly at the effort of trying to ignore the pain hitting every part of his body. But at least, the cursed wound’s not a big problem anymore.

 

He suddenly stopped pushing himself up as he heard Dara’s grunt. He looked down and saw the girl starting to wake up.

 

“Ya!” she suddenly burst out. “What are you doing?! You’re not that well yet!” she growled then pushed him back to the bed.

 

“I’ll get sicker if I remain lying here!” he returned.

 

“Will you just stop arguing?” she snapped. “I’ll pin you down myself if you insist on getting up”

 

“Like you can do it” he snorted.

 

“I can” she said, determined. “And I will if I have to”

 

Jiyong sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. The girl was right, he hasn’t regained his strength yet but he doesn’t like the fact or idea that he’s just lying down and doing nothing. “Bom said you were reading a fairytale book me” he started, his eyes opening to look at the girl. “Like, seriously?”

 

“When I was a child, my father used to read my books everytime I’m sick and I always feel better afterwards”

 

“So you think I’ll feel better because of it, too?”

 

“It obviously worked” she said. “Seeing that you’re awake now and being rather rude again”

 

Jiyong chuckled. “Ah, I must’ve been really bad to get this punishment of being involved with you”

 

“So. . .” she trailed. Jiyong looked at her and saw her cheeks turned scarlet. She had her head bowed down and she was fidgeting with her shirt.

 

“So what?”

 

She cleared . “Ah. . . you. . . why. . .?”

 

“Can you talk in normal human language?” he impatiently cut off.

 

The girl blushed eeper. “W-why did you. . . y-you kiss me?”

 

Jiyong grimaced upon remembering the event. “Oh, that” he scoffed. “I guess I just love hitting on girls”

 

“Why are you like that?” the girl suddenly snapped, looking up. “You always do or say something that would make people hate you”

 

“Don’t make a fuss about it. It was nothing. I was just playing around” he shrugged.

 

Sandara turned red from anger but she tried to contain it. “I’ll let your rudeness pass for now” she sighed. “But I’ll get back at you once you’ve fully recovered”

 

“When will your boyfriend get back, anyway?” he asked. “You’re being a burden and a nuisance to me already”

 

Dara’s face fell, a frown creasing her forehead. “He hasn’t called me yet” she whispered quietly. “And I can’t contact him”

 

Silence followed her words.

 

“Do you want me to find him?” he asked out of nowhere. The girl suddenly looked up, surprised. Then, a knowing smile curved her lips.

 

“No need” she said. “Krystal told me he’s still in Europe, doing something”

 

“I thought you and your friends had a fight?”

 

“Krystal told me before the MISUNDERSTANDING happened” she said. “They’ve been ignoring me actually. As much as I don’t want to be alone, I don’t really find it that disturbing though the whole thing makes me sad. That would be your fault, I guess. You showed me that being alone once in a while isn’t a bad thing. And besides, I still have Sulli, you, Youngbae, Seungri and CL. Err, I’m not so sure about Bom”

 

“You’re friends with CL?” he snorted.

 

“Well, we talk” she shrugged. “But it’s not really surprising isn’t it? I literally lived here for the past days because Seungri told me it would be safe for me if I do so that he and Youngbae can take turns in watching over me. I usually sleep here in the chair after Youngbae take Bom to her room. She usually falls asleep watching you, too. Sometimes I sleep beside you. That must be the reason why you’re recovering quite fast, eh? My presence is like a medicine to you”

 

Jiyong suddenly burst out laughinmg. “You’re fu- aw!” he frowned as Dara slapped his mouth. “What was that for?”

 

“You’ve been swearing here and there for the past days, especially after you got that cursed wound. I tolerated it because I know you’re in pain. But now that you’re on the process of healing, I’m not going to tolerate it anymore”

 

“I’ll do what I i-!” he started but stopped as the girl slapped his mouth again – harder this time.

 

“Don’t be stubborn” she growled.

 

o=o=o

 

eventhough the others didn’t allow him to go home, he didn’t listen. He insisted on going back to his house. The girl, realizing that she can’t persuade Jiyong to stay put, decided to assist him on going home by driving him to his house.

 

When she stopped in front of his house, he immediately got off the car and went straight into his room without opening the lights. Since he usually leaves his CD on the player, he went to switch it on. He turned around, heading towards the bathroom. He was on the process of taking his shirt off when he suddenly stopped.

 

~Why do birds suddenly appear

Everytime you are near. . .~

 

He took a sharp intake of breath and went to turn his player off. Then, he proceeded on switching the lights on. He looked around the room and started going red. He then angrily marched towards his closet. His blood suddenly rushe4d up to his head as he saw half of his closet was filled with different color of shirts.

 

“SANDARA PARK!!!!!!!”

 

“Yes?” the girl answered cheerfully, appearing at the door. “Oh, so you saw the changes. Do you like it?”

 

Jiyong turned sharply to her. His eyes turned black, wiping the grin off the girl’s face. She cowered in one corner as Jiyong started marching towards her. “Where are my things?” he gritted.

 

“I. . .” she squeaked.

 

“What did you do to them?!” he bellowed, making the whole house tremble. The shaking even intensified as Dara failed to answer at once. “WHAT DID YOU DO?!?”

 

“I dumped them in the garage” she whimpered.

 

“Bring them all back here!”

 

She nodded and quickly took off again, even if the house was still shaking. As soon as she was out of sight, Jiyong started to calm down, making the entire trembling stop. He looked at his bed again, grimacing at the sight of the pink bedsheets, pillow covers and blanket with Minnie Mouse’s face on them.

 

 

~JIYONG’S POV~

 

I wanted to hit everything on my way. I wanted to throw everything out. I wanted to punch the wall until it turns red from my blood. I consider my room as my sanctuary, my own personal space. I don’t like the idea of someone touching my things. I took several breaths to stop myself from bursting out again. I might destroy the whole house in the process.

 

The girl came back a while later. My jaws automatically snapped together as I saw her crying. What the ing hell is she crying about? I’m the one who’s been offended here. I watched as she went to my closet and started pulling the colored shirts out.

 

“Where did you get those?” I asked.

 

“I- I bought them” she sobbed heavily. I stared at her in disbelief. Is she trying to get to my conscience? But wait, I shouldn’t have a conscience right? I’m not entitled to have a conscience.

 

“Just leave them there!” I hissed. “Ill do the disposing myself tomorrow”

 

She nodded in response, eyes cast down. She then went to put all my CDs back to where they used to, still crying heavily. After that, she walked towards the bed and started pulling the bed sheets off, her sobs getting louder.

 

“Will you stop crying?!?” I snapped. She bit her lower lip to stop the sound coming out but her tears continuously flowed down. I uttered an oath under my breath as I turned my back on her. My hands went to my waist as my eyes closed. I summoned all the patience I got. I faced her again after a few seconds and angrily marched towards her. I grabbed both of her wrists roughly and turned her to face me. “Leave it!”

 

“Your grip hurts”

 

I loosened my grip on her wrists. I was trying to come up with something to say when she suddenly walked past by me and out of the room.

 

“Ya! Where the fu-“ I paused, “are you going?!?”

 

That girl is really testing my patience! I’m dead tired. I badly need rest and eventhough I don’t want to admit it, I’m not feeling that well yet. I glanced at my bed longingly and disgustingly. How am I going to sleep in a PINK bed? That girl. . . aish!

 

I suddenly froze as I noticed the silence. Without having second thoughts, I went downstairs, looking for the girl. When I didn’t find her in any part of the house, I went outside.

 

“!” I spat as I saw that her car’s gone. I immediately jumped in the air and turned into a crow and started looking for her or her car. Where am I going to look for her anyway? I don’t even know where she went in the first place! With that thought in mind, I went back to the ground and resumed my human form. I took the phone from my pocket and went to call her.

 

My grip tightened on the phone as I waited for her to answer. I was beginning to think that she’s not going to take my call when the ringing was suddenly replaced by her voice.

 

“Hello?” she sniffed.

 

“Where the are you?!”

 

A long period of silence followed.

 

“I’m at the port” she answered after a while. I ended the call and went to travel through air again.

 

When I reached the port and saw the girl standing alone, hugging herself, the anger started to boil inside me again. So as soon as I went back to my human form, I was already spent up.

 

“Are you really that stupid?!” I yelled. “Do you even know what’s going on here?! are you that brainless to go away like that without even telling me?!”

 

“I know what’s going on!” she returned. “You don’t have to shout at me”

 

“If you know what’s going on, then why did you take off just like that? Are you enjoying being in danger? Are you loving the idea that someone will come to your rescue if something happen? You-!”

 

“Bom’s rigtht” she calmly cut off. “And you’re right. I’m being a burden already. I don’t want that. So from now on, you’re free. You don’t have any responsibilities or obligations to me. I’ll inform Jae it was my decision. I’ll ask him to still pay you back” she paused and took a deep breath before turning away from me. “You can leave now”

 

I was surprised with the turn of events. I didn’t expect her to say those words. Maybe I just got used to her bring stubborn and all so her submissiveness took me off guard.

 

“It’s cold out here” I said.

 

“I’m fine” she said.

 

“Are you really trying my patience?” I gritted.

 

“No. I told you, you’re free from any obligations and res-“

 

“Well that’s bull! My patience isn’t that lengthy, Dara so stop ting around”

 

“I’m not-“

 

“Get in the car” I ordered. “NOW!”

 

“Why are you being difficult? I’m already freeing you from-“

 

“Aish!” I cut off and grabbed her arm. I started pulling her forcefully, not minding if I’m hurting her or if I’ll eventually rip her arm off her body. That would be better for me, I guess. I’m fed up. My patience can’t keep up with her stupidity and stubbornness.

 

I went to the passenger side as we reached her car. I pushed her roughly inside.

 

“Aww” she moaned.

 

“I’m driving” I stated and went to the other side of the car.

 

“You’re being really rude and mean” she said as I got inside.

 

“I don’t have patience with people like you” I returned.

 

“That’s why I’m freeing you from your obligations to me. That’s what you want, right? To get rid of me?”

 

I chose to remain silent. And it was like that for  some time as I started driving back to the house. After a while, I started noticing the girl’s expression. She was trying to suppress her smile, and I bet she’s even suppressing her giggles. I frowned and was about to ask if she’s losing her mind when it finally hit me.

 

“That was all an act, wasn’t it?” I asked tightly. With this, she burst out laughing.

 

“Seriously?” she laughed. Did. . . you really think. . . you’ll get rid of me. . . that easily?” she added in between her unusually high-pitched laugh. She started kicking her feet and pounding her hands on her lap. She was literally writhing from laughter. I suddenly found myself wanting to choke the girl. I swear, I’ll literally go insane if I spend too much time with her.

 

Annoyed with her overly delighted laughter, I pulled the car beside the empty road.

 

“What’s so ing funny?”

 

“You” she laughed. “You should have seen your face, aigoo!”

 

“Do you want to die? I got the urge to kill you right now” I hissed menacingly.

 

She put on a straight face. “You’re such a spoilsport” she pouted. “I’m just happy because I’ve proven something.

 

“And that is?” I gritted.

 

“Huh! I’m not going to tell you” she smugly said. “But I admit I got really scared and hurt back at your house, angry even. But everything faded as I was driving to the port. I told you time and time again, you can’t get rid of me that easily. If you’ll beg on your knees, maybe that can happen but knowing your pride, you won’t do something like that”

 

And I thought her IQ was below sea level. Seriously, her irrational mind will cause me y sanity.

 

“Huh” I snort3ed and started the car running again. “Time would come that you’ll want to stay away from me, spoof. You’ll see”

 

“And time would come that you’ll ask me to stay” she returned.

 

“Your self confidence is astounding to the point of stupidity”

 

“You, on the other hand my friend, is simply stupid” she casually said.

 

I chuckled lightly. “You-“ I started and glanced at her but stopped as I saw something dark at the corner of my eyes. I looked up ahead again and saw a crow darker than the night sky, its beak wide open while approaching the car. My reactions were instant. I stepped on the break; my muscles tensed as I opened the passenger’s door with my mind and pushed the girl out. The crow flew straight to the car, breaking everything that’s glass made. Shards of glass pointed at Dara but I was able to halt them from getting to her.

 

“Get down!” I told her but instead of following me. She stared wide eyed at the pieces of glass in the air. I quickly got off the car, letting the shards fall to the ground. I helped the girl up but she suddenly screamed and pushed me aside. I turned sharply around again and felt all my blood went to my feet. The girl had dropped open, wearing a pained expression. Her brown eyes stared blankly ahead.  I quickly went in front of her and saw shards of glasses piercing her body.

 

“Ji. .yong” she rasped then out.

 

o=o=o

 

I laid the girl’s body on the bed and ripped her shirt off. I went to remove her pants, too. I raised my hand in front of her and slowly extracted the shards out of her body. I looked at her wounds and cursed under my breath. I took one shard of glass and slit my wrist. I closed my eyes and started chanting under my breath. I placed my bleeding wrist on the biggest wound she had and continued chanting.

 

I slowly felt my strength ebbing away. I looked down and saw that all of the girl’s wounds were closed to healing. I urged myself to continue even if I’m slowly getting paler and paler than before.

 

The girl’s eyes fluttered open in time that I was about to collapse. She slowly pushed herself up. “Ji. . yong?” she mumbled. “What ha-?” she stopped as she looked down and found herself with nothing but her underwear. “Ya!” she burst out, covering herself with the blanket. “What did you do?!”

 

I stood up and swayed. And then, I collapsed.

 

 

 

 

=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o

TEASER:

 

 

“Pack your bags” he said.

 

“Why?”

 

He smirked, pushing himself off the wall. “We’re going to the mountains”

 

“Mountains?” I asked.

 

“Yes” he answered. “Me and the others usually go to the mountains once a year. It’s some sort of competition but since I can’t let you wander around on your own, we decided to compete by pairs”

 

“Compete by pairs?”

 

He growled. “Do you really have to repeat everything I say?”

 

= = = 

 

“I’m fine with anyone as long as it’s not Seungri” CL said.

 

“There’s no way I’m pairing up with you, too” Seungri returned. “I’m pairing with Sandara” he announced.

 

An argument followed as Bom stated she wants Jiyong to be her pair while Youngbae said he’ll pair up with Bom.

 

“I’m pairing up with the girl” Jiyong cut them off.

 

“I knew this would happen” Bom’s mother sighed. “To be fair, we’ll be using the fishbowl method. All of you, pick a paper”

 

= = =

 

“I’ve got number one” Youngbae said.

 

“I’ve got number one, too” Bom sighed and looked at Jiyong suspiciously. “You cheated, didn’t you?”

 

“What are you talking about?” Jiyong waved off.

 

“I’ve got number two” Seungri announced gleefully.

 

“Oh no” CL groaned. “That’s it, I quit. I can’t pair up with him”

 

“You can’t quit CL. It’s the rule”

 

“This is hopeless” CL sighed. “For sure, we’ll be the losing team but of this. . . this jerk”

 

“Did you get number three?” Jiyong asked. I nodded in return. He smirked. “Looks like I have to endure your presence for three days”

 

“T-three days?” I repeated. “You didn’t say it would take three days! I still got classes on Monday!”

 

“Sorry, you can’t quit”

 

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