~ Chapter Twenty-Three: Unicorn ~

The Fallen

Random Rambles: It's October 7th, which means that it's LayDay today ~ In honor of the precious unicorn (who may or may not be my bias amagad), the new chapter is Lay's POV (^-^). Thanks again for the comments guys, hope y'all still like the story so far ;) <3

***

There wasn't much he could remember about his childhood days, which any other person would find odd, but to him it had never been a big deal. He had always been forgetful, his mind wandering to places so far away he wasn't even aware of where his thoughts were going. 

Lay was the type of person with his head in the clouds, but his feet planted firmly on the ground. His mother always told him what a special mix of fact and fancy he was. He was a dreamer, an idealist that wasn't afraid to work hard to pursue his dreams, to attain his goals. It was one of the reasons why everything Lay attempted was always brought to success, but he never bragged about it. He was grateful and humble about his abilities, respectful to the gifts that were given to him, realizing that they could just as easily been taken away from him. 

That was why Lay worked hard and diligently, to continue achieving the goals he had set and to make the people he cared about proud and most importantly of all; happy. Lay had a personality that was calm and gentle on the surface, but behind his blank stares and oblivious confusion was a passionate, intelligent young man whose heart was made of gold. His misfortune, was that this particular heart was vulnerable to breaking easily. 

He may not remember much of his past, like his brothers could, but he did remember pain. His brothers had told them the vague snippets of their past and he enjoyed listening to them because they sounded like fun, happy memories. Some were even mysterious and a bit frightening, but he could see their eyes light up when they mentioned it. Their memories gave them good emotions. When they asked him what he could remember, Lay would smile, rub the back of his neck and give an embarrassed shrug of the shoulders. 

"I don't remember," he would say, "but I'm sure they're similar to yours." 

His brothers would laugh and shake their heads in amusement at him. "Ah, so typical of this hyung!" they would exclaim. "Why are you so forgetful, hyung?" and they would cheerfully and he'd let them because nothing made him more happy than to see the ones he cared about be happy as well. 

In truth, Lay didn't want to share what little he remembered, because it hurt too much. There were times when he was caught off guard and would wake up with his face stained with tears. He remembered once even screaming in his sleep to such an extent that it had woken the entire house. The look of fear and alarm on his parents and grandparents' faces was something he never wanted to see again. 

No. Maybe the reason why Lay didn't remember much of his past was because most of it was painful. And if that was the case, he didn't want to remember anything else. 

Why are you hurting for me, Lay? I don't want you bearing my suffering. 

The voice was so soft and so gentle in his memory, but he knew that it was filled with excruciating pain. Pain that he felt in his heart, in his body, in his mind. He couldn't heal himself, so he bore with it. 

Your heart has always been the softest. Your soul the most empathic. And you're still so surprised that I chose you to be my unicorn. My healer. 

Even thinking about it made his heart sink to his chest. He didn't even know what was happening, why the voice was saying the things it said. All he knew was that those memories were tied with pain and grief, so heartwrenching he wasn't sure how anyone could bear it. 

Smile for me. 

And so, he did. Always. He never faltered, always made sure to tend to others, try his best to make them happy and to keep it that way. He did whatever he could in order to prevent having to feel such pain and sadness again. If he did came across those things, he did what he did best; he healed. Any injured animal would not go past him unnoticed, and Lay wished that he could heal humans the same way; he doubted that there would be a sick person left on the island then. But things didn't work that way. He couldn't heal cancer. He couldn't raise people from the dead. He only helped. Whenever and wherever he could. 

Right now, he was thinking how he could help Suho and the rest of his brothers. He was one of the lucky ones to not suffer any severe effects from the upcoming full moon. Luhan had once reasoned that it was probably because he had the ability of healing and that that made him immune to the time of the month. Lay wasn't sure whether that was the case, but he was fine with it. 

Everyone was so concerned about Jae, and try as he may, Lay couldn't quite understand why. When they shook hands, she didn't feel at all malicious or dangerous to him. In fact, she had a warm touch that for some reason made him feel extremely calm. More so than usual. Still, that simultaneously caused him to worry. If he didn't know any better, it was as if Jae had unknowningly transferred some of his energy he used on her back to him. Lay hadn't mentioned it to his brothers because Suho was stressed enough as it were, but it had intrigued him. 

What if he went up to her and just asked her if she could do something like he and his brothers could? No. Even he knew that that was a poor idea. He wanted to know more about her though. He had been curious since yesterday, when he thought she was a boy. Right now, he was staring at the back of her head, his face an expressionless mask. It was the last class of the day and extra curricular activities would start. It would be nice hanging around the science lab with Mr. Tabi, and his brothers. 

Would Jae like to see it too?

Lay cautiously glanced over at Suho, who was too busy with the class to pay attention to him. He smirked and shook his head. Suho would kill him for sure. He resorted to stare out the window instead, a new concern flooding in when he thought of the E.T. security systems and all the poor, unsuspecting animals that might accidentally walk up against them. The thought alone made his fingers twitch. Since he knew, first hand, what pain and suffering was, he didn't want others to feel them as well. He figured that that was most likely the reason why he was able to heal creatures, of which he was grateful for. 

Lay fluttered with his eyes when he gazed outside, momentarily blinded by the sun. However, upon second glance, Lay realized that it wasn't the sun that was blinding him. They were flashes. Flashes in his mind that intruded his thoughts and made his head hurt. Lay cringed, but said nothing, quietly holding his head and closing his eyes, hoping that it would soon pass. 

It didn't. 

For the first time since ever, Lay found a new memory. 

He was a child and he was crying. The dove in his hand wasn't moving. "You can do it," a voice called to him. The dove woke, fully healed and flew out of his caring hands. 

"Will you remember this feeling, Lay? There's more than pain and sorrow in this world." 

He blinked his eyes open, the warm feeling in his chest lingering. Lay then noticed that the class had grown quiet. The teacher had stopped talking, and for some reason, Jae had turned around to look at him, curiously. Upon seeing her face, he automatically smiled, but blinked rapidly again when he heard the teacher sighing and his classmates snickering. Did he miss something?

"Yixing, did you even hear what I asked you?" the teacher suddenly called, startling him. 

His dumbfounded and slow reaction elicited snickering from his classmates and he shyly rubbed the back of his head as he usually would do when he felt embarrassed. 

The teacher sighed. "Yixing, at least pretend that you're paying attention to the class. And get your head out of the clouds, boy."

"Ne, seonsaeng-nim. I'm sorry," he apologized sincerely as the teacher went to ask another student a question. Suho gave him a questioning look from beside him before leaning towards him, risking getting caught by the teacher. 

"What were you thinking about?" he asked. 

Lay shrugged his shoulders apologetically. "I don't know. I forgot," he said, making Suho roll his eyes at him, though there was a small smile on his lips. The expression made Lay happy. It seemed so long since Suho smiled. 

"Well, don't try to remember it then, unless you want teacher to catch you daydreaming again," his hyung said and Lay nodded obediently. It didn't take him long after that to stare out the window again, the voice ringing in his mind. 

"There's more than pain and sorrow in this world."

"Really? What else is there, then?" 

That was him. He had asked that question, and he sounded so young. He couldn't see the voice smiling, but he could tell that it was, when it answered him. When he wanted to make sure that the teacher wasn't paying him any attention, since he didn't want to get caught off guard again, he noticed that Jae was still carefully peeking behind her, at him. He didn't make a point to hide the fact that he had noticed and she flushed red, caught by his stare. She gave an apologetic smile before turning around, making Lay notice how beautiful her hair was shining.

The voice in his head was chortling with cheerfulness when it answered his question:

"Love." 

 

Like this story? Give it an Upvote!
Thank you!
Nin-Nin
Hi guys~ my first original ebook is available on Amazon and I'm having a lot of feels. If you have the time, check out my previous blog post for more details - I'd appreciate the support <3 Thank you and have a lovely weekend! Love, Nin-Nin

Comments

You must be logged in to comment
Wanderer_bj
#1
I don't even know how many times I have read this.😍
BeckyBooGirl
#2
Chapter 4: This is one of my favorite exo fanfic. I have read this story 5 or 6 times already and still love it like i did when I first read it❤
InspiritCarolyn
#3
This is one of those fics I can come back to again and again without getting tired of re-reading it. Each time I read it, I love it the same as the first time.
aonani_k
#4
Chapter 109: I finished it once again and as before, I enjoyed reading such a great story. Hope all is well. :)
aonani_k
#5
Chapter 2: It's been years since I read the story and today I just felt like re-reading it! Glad it's still here. :)
Sehixneeo
#6
Chapter 109: Argh, I will never ever forget this story. Ever. 🥺💛
Jaerin
#7
Chapter 109: This story will always be one of my favorite, a masterpiece 🤧💞❤️
Pxnellyxq #8
Chapter 107: WHAT IM LEGITIMATELY SHOCKED AND TEARING UP
Pxnellyxq #9
Chapter 100: why is the white wolf making me feel emotional :///
Pxnellyxq #10
Chapter 61: Stinky kumiho