Pain is inevitable.                                                                                                                                                                      

Suffering is optional.

-Haruki Murakami

Sungjong stopped by his cottage slightly later than usual. He removed his cloak and sat on the soft couch like he always did. They had casual chit-chat over their regular evening tea about the townsfolk and about the soon-to-come winter. It occurred to him that it would be just fine so long as the hunter was not aware about his actual identity. He realized that they, even as a wizard and a witch-hunter, they could stay the way the were. He just had to be very careful.

Unfortunately for both of them, Sungjong, who was gleefully swinging his arms as he demonstrated how weird a particular girl from the village were, clumsily knocked a tall flower vase sitting on the drawer next to the sofa. Reflexively, Myungsoo extended an arm and the vase magically curved, gliding swiftly in the air and landing safely on to his hand. No. It was not happening. Myungsoo cursed mentally as the realization hit him hard.

“What,” Sungjong exclaimed in utter shock, standing from his seat instantly but look too taken aback to utter a proper sentence. “You.”

“Sungjong,” begged Myungsoo “It’s—”

The youth paid no attention to his pleading and rushed to picked up his worn out robe, making his way for the door. Myungsoo stood there trying to block the exit and prevent the hunter from fleeing.

“Sungjong, please—”

The black-haired warlock did not see the full-force slap coming. He was left with a burning left cheek and the man who stole his heart got away.

He should have know better than to expect things to just run smoothly. They were a warlock and a witch-hunter after all. He was bound to find out and they were damned from the very beginning. Still, even knowing it, Myungsoo never expected it to hurt that much. His cheeks may be stinging in pain but it was his chest that ached like nothing before.

Hurriedly, he packed his stuff, saving his favorite antiques and a few rare books first. He walked away from his beloved cottage that night, leaving quite a number of thing he had considered precious, including his treasured garden of herbs. Myungsoo felt a tiny pang of sadness at the knowledge. But it just could not be helped.

What hurt the most, though, was the fact that he had seen evident anger and betrayal in that usually timid face. He cussed under his breath and moved on as the snow started to appear. Before the dawn, Myungsoo was thousands of miles away from his abandoned cottage. 

A/N: As mentioned before, this and the next chapter are short :\ sorry just have to do it this way.

And lol sorry for not updating sooner. Anyone experienced errors too when accessing aff like some time ago? o__o what happened really..