"That's enough Yugyeom! What's going on? You've been distracted and can't focus on anything lately. You nearly got sliced in half just now and I don't know what's wrong with you."

Jaebum was fuming. Yugyeom had been out of it for nearly a week now. At first Jaebum thought it was nothing, just lack of sleep or something of the like but no! Yugyeom simply stared off into space like an airhead.

"I-I'm sorry, Jaebum-hyung. I-"

"No that's enough! Tell me what's wrong, right now. What has got you so distracted these days?" Jaebum rarely raised his voice but Yugyeom could have died. If Jaebum hadn't canceled his spell the young wizard would have been split in half. They had been sparing by practicing defensive and offensive magic but Yugyeom had barely kept up.

"I-I… I don't know what's wrong with me. I've just had a lot on my mind." Yugyeom couldn't tell Jaebum the truth, he just couldn’t.

“Don’t give me that bull Yugyeom! Tell me now or ill force it out of you!” At this Jaebum moved forward until he was practically screaming in Yugyeom’s face.

“I met a human, damn it! I didn’t mean to, I swear! He-“

“You what?!”  

“He doesn’t know about us. I just told him I live in the woods with my brother.”

Jaebum didn’t speak for a while; he just paced back and forth. Yugyeom dreaded what his mentor had to say, knowing that it would cause him to cry. He even felt his throat constrict and his vision blur with tears.

“That’s it. No more going outside. Not until I can trust you or until whoever talked to you forgets you”

Mark wouldn’t forget me. He wouldn’t – won’t forget me.

Jaebum was still rambling about something but Yugyeom had toned him out. Just the thought of Mark forgetting him was terrifying, Yugyeom didn’t want put too much thought as to why. Still not paying attention Yugyeom quickly fled to his room not caring about the screams of ‘Come back here, we’re not done talking!’ that came from Jaebum. Along the way the tears that were threatening to fall silently slipped down Yugyeom’s round cheeks.

---

It took a while to gain even a little bit of Jaebum's trust back, but it happened. After constant kissing up, doing what he was told, and lots of respectful speech it almost seemed like Jaebum had forgotten about the human. Now Yugyeom could go outside and explore again, but at the back of his mind he still thought about Mark. Yugyeom still wanted to see the human; there was something about Mark that had Yugyeom hooked. Of course Yugyeom didn’t seek out Mark; he just made it very easy to be found.

In one of those long strolls that Yugyeom got in the habit of doing after the fight with Jaebum he finally saw Mark again. The human was looking around and easily treading over the uneven forest ground. Yugyeom didn’t really think about the consequences when he ran toward the Mark at full speed but before he could hit the human head on a hand stopped the young wizard and shoved him against a tree. A sharp knife was pressed against the soft fragile skin of Yugyeom’s neck too fast for Yugyeom to process the action. Not daring to even breathe the young wizard looked into the eyes of Mark; the dark pools had no emotion and had a killer intent. After what felt like forever Mark slowly pulled the knife away and his dark eyes lit up, recognizing Yugyeom.

“I’m so sorry Yugyeom! I acted on instinct; I thought it was … something else. I-I’m really sorry.”

Millions of thoughts rushed through Yugyeom’s mind much like the first time he met Mark. Last time Mark looked like a lost sheep, not knowing how to even navigate the woods, unlike now where he looked like an experienced woodsmen ready to kill anything in his way.

“I- its okay, I shouldn’t have startled you; I’ll just go.”

“No, stop. Wait Yugyeom I just … I wanted to see you again. I knew you lived in the woods so I learned them like the back of my hand. I looked and looked but never found you. I thought you weren’t real, that I had made you up”

Yugyeom couldn’t believe the words coming out of Marks mouth; the human had looked for him, maybe even missed him. Just the thought of Mark missing him sends a weird feeling through Yugyeom’s stomach.

“I-I’m real.”

“I can see that.”

Sitting on a nearby log neither noticed the hours pass, both wrapped around a bubble asking each other question after question. Eventually the dreaded question of ‘when can I see you again’ came up. At this all Yugyeom wanted to answers was ‘whenever you want’ but he knew that was impossible, Jaebum would sometimes get paranoid and wouldn’t allow the young wizard out with a human roaming the woods.

“I don’t know. My … brother was mad about last time; he probably won’t let me out as it is now.”

“How about we meet a week from now, near the river by the old watermill?”

“I don’t know if I can make it, so don’t get your hopes up”

Yugyeom had never been gladder that he had explored enough of the forest to know which river Mark was talking about. He knew how to get there the only problem now were Jaebum’s random bursts of paranoia. At first Jaebum might be happy as can be and the next minute he would be screaming at the top of his lungs about someone coming to get them. Yugyeom wasn’t sure if it was a traumatic childhood experience that has caused Jaebum’s paranoia or if it was just a natural thing but it became tiring.

On his way back to his house after saying his goodbyes to Mark Yugyeom noticed tinny snowflakes falling. In the back of his mind he recalled what Jaebum had told him.

Change.