In case Sungyeol catches him, Myungsoo hid behind the tree with his back against the body of the large plant. Confusion was visible in his eyes and questions were fresh on his mind. Cautiously he looked out from behind the tree just to find Sungyeol departing from his partner. The man Myungsoo has never seen before, and it slightly irritated him how close they were. Once the lad has taken off with his hands in his pant pockets, Myungsoo moved away from his hiding spot. In the open, he watched to make sure the unnamed stranger was not going to come back. After giving it a few more minutes, Myungsoo finally observed the state of the clinic.

To him, it looked the same, but he hadn’t seen how the walls got dirtier over the course when he was absent. Finally, his eyes make out a figure charging out from the clinic.

“Sungjong—!” The voice of the caller was cut off immediately.

Myungsoo’s heart skipped a beat when he locked gazes with Sungyeol for the first time after months. Surprised and startled by Myungsoo’s presence, Sungyeol took a step back and stared at him. No words were exchanged but it was obvious that the two had many things they wanted to ask and know.

With Myungsoo’s unexpected visit, Sungyeol was checking on him for any wounds. As Sungyeol takes his stethoscope out of his ears and wrap it around the back of his neck, he was trying his best to avoid Myungsoo’s curious stare. “Everything looks good. As usual.” The doctor stated. Before Sungyeol could move a step away from his patient, Myungsoo eyed his finger then reach out to grab his hand.

“Who is he? Did he give that to you?” Myungsoo asked, feeling the pain in his dry throat. It felt like he hadn’t had a drink for days.

Sungyeol easily snatched his hand away from Myungsoo and sighed as he continued to look away from Myungsoo, “Why do you care? You vanished without a trace anyway,”

“What?”

“It has been five months since they’ve announced you dead,” Sungyeol began, “but as a doctor, unless your body was discovered there was no way you would be dead. So Naesang and I look into your sudden disappearance, but even after months of searching, there were no signs of you. I came across something strange while looking for you in the city,” Sungyeol stopped to catch a breather but Myungsoo stood up from his seat.

“What are you talking about? I asked you about your ring, what is this I’m dead story tale?”

Sungyeol reached into his white coat and pulled out a folded, old newspaper. As he handed it to Myungsoo, he allowed the lad to reach for it while he continued.

“Not only as your doctor but as someone who cares for you, I did some more research on the case since it was a lot similar to yours. I didn’t believe for a minute that it was possible until I saw you today after six months,” Sungyeol explained.

Myungsoo who has already scanned the content of the newspaper look up, “Six months..?”

“Did you look at the article already?” Sungyeol asked, “Do you know about this Ailee?”

Myungsoo’s eyes widen, “Did something happen to her?” Sungyeol did not show any emotion and instead nodded toward the paper in Myungsoo’s hands.

“That man who has a serious case of cold body temperature claimed he came across a woman named Ailee. On their first day of meeting, he fell asleep in her presence and it was a year later when he finally woke up. He was found in an abandoned home and it was due to construction that the workers were able to discover him. Otherwise, he would have fallen into some eternal sleep,”

“H-how do you know all of this?” Myungsoo asked, reading the headline to himself over and over again in his mind.

“The man said so himself. I thought it was one of those made up stories to gain attention, but his creativity is too real to be fake. Especially when I’ve seen it with you,”

“Sungyeol..You’re scaring me. What are you saying?” Myungsoo asked.

“He said he was warm on the inside, cold on the out,” Sungyeol responded before sighing once more. While Myungsoo process the information, Sungyeol changed the topic to avoid the awkward silence, “About the ring, I’ve moved on since I wasn’t sure when you’ll return or if you’re really dead. I’m engaged to my cousin now, I’ve told you about him before. His name is Sungjong, our wedding will be set when father comes back from his yearly business travels. You’ll come to the wedding right?”

Myungsoo found himself sitting a few miles away from Sungyeol’s clinic. He still couldn’t believe what Sungyeol had told him. What about Ailee? What is that thing with warm on the inside and cold on the out? What is it about it being six months later? Why is Sungyeol getting marry to his cousin who he had a crush on when they were kids? What did Myungsoo miss? Myungsoo re-read the title over and over again but could not grasp it. It can’t be true. But why does it feel so familiar?

Myungsoo finally sat himself down under a tree’s shadow and held the newspaper out wide for him to see everything on it. Then quietly he read the whole text to himself.

“Mysterious man discovered at the construction site. The man claimed he had received a gift from an Ice Maiden.”  

The mysterious man, 27, identified as Kim Sunggyu was found at an ongoing construction site trapped in a body of crystal ice. When he was rushed to the hospital, doctors were shocked to find his condition stable and normal despite his freezing, iced cold skin. Sunggyu, however, said he did not feel any cold and said the last time he remembered being there was to meet a woman named Ailee in 2015, of last year.

Sunggyu further explained that this woman is an immortal Ice Maiden. The only Ice Maiden we know is a 100-year-old story of a man who claimed he had been touched and loved by a woman, in his words a witch, who said she was the Ice Maiden. In the 100-year-old story, the writer experienced the same warm on the inside and cold on the outside body temperature. Scientists and doctors believe this is a made up story as it was not possible for a human being to be warm on the out and cold on the in. They believe Sunggyu was able to keep his skin cold with some dark magic unknown to them.

During the interview, Sunggyu was able to provide details on the activities and even description of the mysterious Ice Maiden, Ailee. “Ailee was bright. She knew who I was when she approached me. She asked me how have I been living with her gift. When I asked her what gift was she referring to, she told me the gift that disabled me from feeling the cold. I couldn’t understand what she meant. I don’t know what cold or warm is. I’ve never felt any different other than people telling me I was cold. But what is cold exactly?”

However, just after a few days where Sunggyu was discovered and interviewed, he was found dead at the same site. Officials believe Kim Sunggyu committed suicide when the certain dark magic got to him. Ever since the passing of Kim Sunggyu, no other story similar to his has been brought up to the attention of the public and professionals.

Ailee’s home.

Myungsoo turned the doorknob when no one answered his knocks. “Ailee?” He called. Myungsoo may have only met Ailee once but he felt there was a link somewhere. Why does Ailee feel so familiar now that he had read all about Sunggyu’s case? And why did it feel like Ailee was responsible for Sunggyu’s death? Just what was an Ice Maiden? Was she really a witch? Do witches even exist? “Ailee?”

When Myungsoo was about to take any more steps into Ailee’s home, he felt the sudden grab at his feet. Looking down he saw how ice began to climbed and formed on his feet, but before he could freak out the hand of someone fell on his shoulder. Myungsoo’s spun his head toward the toucher and came eye to eye with Ailee.

“Myungsoo, you came back for me, please come with me,” she said as her hand moved up toward his face, which sped up the forming crystal around his twisted body.

“I—”

“Myungsoo!”

Myungsoo blinked and the next thing he knows, Sungyeol had replaced Ailee’s spot. Myungsoo looked down when he no longer feel the crystals that had been holding him down.

“Sungyeol?” Myungsoo asked in surprise. Not only was he taken aback by Sungyeol’s sudden appearance, but being locked and held in Sungyeol’s embrace again nearly knocked him off his feet.

“I’m sorry Myungsoo, I’m sorry. I should have waited for you no matter what. You fought for me when my father was against it, but I..I’m sorry,” Sungyeol whispered as he tightens his hold around the shorter.

“Sungyeol..” Myungsoo uttered.

In the months that followed, Sungjong and Sungyeol’s wedding became Sungyeol and Myungsoo’s instead. Sungjong promised he will never set foot there again and Sungyeol’s father came to learn that though he didn’t approve of Myungsoo 100%, he still liked the guy more than Sungjong. Naesang who heard the news rushed back to the mountain forest, where he promised to make Sungyeol and Myungsoo’s wedding the most different and special.

Sungyeol and Myungsoo will exchange vows and ride a boat to their destined home, where Naesang had set for Sungyeol and Myungsoo to move in together. The lake Naesang had chosen was near the bottom of the mountain where it ran three miles across and through the company of water plants and animals.

As Myungsoo and Sungyeol settled in the wooden boat, the rest of the guests including the local residents of the mountain, employees and regular patients at Sungyeol and his father’s clinic were present. The small group sent off the two with smiles and waves. Myungsoo and Sungyeol sat across from one another as they begin to drift off into the long path of the lake. Once plants and such hid them from their guests, Sungyeol moved over and sat before Myungsoo. As he leaned and laid against the chest of Myungsoo, the two kept quiet as they enjoyed the peace around them.

Until Sungyeol broke the ice, “Let’s be happy Myungsoo, you only get to marry me this once so let’s make this work,”

A smile was plastered across Myungsoo’s face as he rests his chin on the top of Sungyeol’s head and caressed the hands of the taller man, “Same goes to you. You’ll only marry me once so—”

“Myungsoo,”

Myungsoo stopped halfway. He heard his name being called but the voice does not belong to Sungyeol.

It was a woman’s voice.

“Myungsoo,”

It was Ailee’s voice.

Myungsoo quickly glanced around, scanning his sighting for any signs of Ailee. He could hardly see anything else but plants and trees around him. Then slowly he noticed a figure standing on the river bank. The shape of the figure obviously belonged to Ailee.

“Myungsoo?” Sungyeol called this time.

“Ailee..? Ailee.” Myungsoo whispered over and over to himself. Then he saw how Ailee walked into the water and shortly after her whole body was underwater. Like a flying bird’s shadow over the surface of the water, Myungsoo followed the spot on the surface that appeared to be Ailee.

“Hey, Myungsoo—” Sungyeol called as he sat up to face Myungsoo. Sungyeol followed the pupils of Myungsoo’s eyes when he wasn’t responding to the lad. “Myungsoo, what are you looking at?”

“Ailee,” Myungsoo continued to whisper. Moments after the spot was gone, Myungsoo could make out Ailee’s face in the water.

“Myungsoo, come with me. Show me how grateful you’ve been living with my gift,” Ailee’s voice could be heard before the upper half of Myungsoo end up underwater.

“Myungsoo!” Sungyeol hollered before reaching to grab onto Myungsoo. Meanwhile, Myungsoo could see all of Ailee underwater. Her hands were cupped against his cheeks and she wore her usual kind smile.

“Come with me Myungsoo,” she said as she moved closer to his face with hers.

Once Myungsoo blinked for a moment, a rushed of old memories came pouring on him.

When Myungsoo was only three he remembered playing by the well. It was the first time and in a long time that it had snowed in the mountains and the youth was excited to feel and touch the white snow. Myungsoo was building himself a snowman when his mother came out from their small home to check on him. While finding a spot to sit and watch the boy play, she took a seat on the well. As she watched Myungsoo started to run around the small snowman. Laughter rose as his mother joined in on the laugh.

But their happiness was short-lived.

Myungsoo’s running became uneven and he found it funny that his mother was laughing with and because of him. Myungsoo unknowingly charged into his mother, hoping to get a hug from her. But his sudden charge caught her off guard and in the slippery snow the two fell into the well together, his mother holding onto him as they fall in.

While Myungsoo lies on top of his mother that night shaking from the cold, he couldn’t think of what to do to get help. He and his mother lived alone and his uncle was a few body of trees down. So when night came to his unconscious mother and his freezing body, the only thing that could keep Myungsoo warm was the spell of Ailee, who had been watching them from the top of the well.

She noticed the baby boy and his dying mother. Her goal was to save the boy as she could not love and be loved by another woman. Thus she cast a spell, created an invisible coat that kept Myungsoo warm until the following days where Naesang comes to find them.

Later that day Myungsoo met Sungyeol’s father and was the man’s first patient. And the old man never expected his first patient to become the husband of his very own son.

When Myungsoo opened his eyes he saw….

A/N: Uh I decided to keep this short so sorry if it felt rushed…. One shot and especially short stories are not my forte. I basically lack the skills to execute them properly. Let me know if anything didn’t make sense, I’d be happy to explain some more :D I’m sorry for the cliffhanger ending but I decided to leave it up to you readers to decide how you wanted it. Myungsoo could wake up and see Sungyeol or he can either drowned and be taken by Ailee. Thank you for reading.