Chapter 21 : The revival

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An intense frenzy had fallen upon the elven city after the storm that gave birth to Sehun. When Taemin came back, he was successively tackled to the ground, and then held in a bones crushing hug that had lasted a good three minutes. The first assault had come from his wolf, Chinua, whom he had shamefully forgotten about and who had been deeply worried for him. The second one came from a very stressed out Jonghyun. The forest prince had thankfully let go of him before he could be the actual cause of any injury on Taemin. After he made sure that Taemin was as alright as he could possibly be, that he was correctly fed and didn't need to sleep more, Jonghyun proceeded to tell him everything about the state of the castle and the forest.

It took a whole four days for the elves to clear out their city, rebuild the bridges, tend to the wounded, and come back to a peaceful community. At first, they couldn't properly use any magic ; every time one of them tried to siphon some power from the forest, they were met with a magic so raw and stubborn that it raised the hair on their backs. They were left with their hands and arms to lift and extricate rocks and wood away from the paths. But on the third day, the forest had come back to a calm that allowed them to tap into its strength for magic.

Once the castle had been restored, Jonghyun had to deal with the rest of the forest. It took days, that turned into weeks, for him to deal with all the problems that the storm had generated for each and every clan. He had to form a battalion and travel up to the great north of the forest to deal with invaders goblins, who tried to prey on one of the leprechauns villages there. There were troubles in southwest, with pixies and dwarves. He even had to interfere between two factions of centaurs, whose quarrel over their ruined lands ended up threatening a small community of gnomes.

While the forest prince had been traveling everywhere, the king and queen had been dealing with most of the requests inside the castle. And Taemin's studies had been rearranged to a far smaller amount, as to give him time to take care of more important business. Or so it seemed. That's what he had been told. But in the end, with Jonghyun and Minho gone and the forest going back to calm, Taemin ended up with nothing on his hands to do. Junmyeon was strangely absent, and even Jongdae, the other fairy he still didn't know very well, wasn't there to make conversation.

Taemin had first wanted to take part in Jonghyun's little getaways, but the forest prince had made quite a few more or less relevant arguments against the idea. And Taemin had been forced to abdicate. It was true that he didn't have any sort of correct training in combats ; he had always been so clumsy as a kid that his parents had given up on him at some point. And although most of Jonghyun's work didn't include any real battle, he judged it better to be safe than sorry. Above all when it concerned Taemin.

Taemin couldn't call himself bored when there were always a thousand things he wanted to do, but he felt a strange guilt at the idea of exploring the city and burying himself under tons of books, when he was probably required somewhere else. Even though he had no idea where he could be waited.

When he managed to share those concerns with Jonghyun, as his fiancé was back home for the next couple of days, said prince had laughed.

"Please just enjoy your free time before your professor comes back to you. You could just visit the greenhouses, or the school... The kids are always very excited to see anyone from the castle. Or you know, go to your nymph lover," Jonghyun simmered with a wink.

And so, Taemin had obeyed. He went to meet the children at the elementary school, and spent a whole afternoon telling them everything there was to know about the mountain elves. He had promised to come back for a lesson about the creatures that lived there and not in the forest.

And then, he met Jongin. Several times. Jonghyun had advised him to take Chinua with him when he couldn't just sneak out, so it wouldn't look suspicious to anyone. And Taemin had been able to make his way to Nowhere at least once every two days for a while. Jongin was delighted; he seemed to come to him even quicker than usual and the flowers in his hair didn't have time to disappear anymore.

Until one day, the agitation settled down. One morning, Jonghyun came back home from his last mission, and the whole subject of the storm was put aside.

"Aha!"

The sudden exclamation behind him startled Taemin, and the prince turned around, eyes wide open and guilt written all over his face.

"Yes?" He shrieked, straightening up, already searching for an excuse to give to whoever caught him red-handed as he attempted to flee the castle.

But his stare fell on Jonghyun, who was grinning at him smugly, leaning against the wrought iron gate of the castle's main garden.

"Is this how you sneak out?"

Taemin visibly relaxed into a small pout as he glanced at him up and down.

"You're back."

"Yes, I am."

Taemin seemed to hesitate for a few seconds, but he finally came closer to hug him, briefly and a little awkwardly.

"I missed you," he admitted.

"There, there," Jonghyun breathed out as he patted his back. "Don't change the subject. I'll have to teach you how to properly break away from the castle."

Taemin laughed in his hold and scratched his head with a blush.

"I haven't been caught... up until now. I'm not that bad."

"I didn't explicitly say that you were bad. I just think you could use some of my wisdom concerning eventual secret passages hidden in the castle that would bring you back to your bedroom at dawn without anyone knowing you spent the night out of your bed. Things like that..."

Jonghyun had a very self-satisfied expression when he saw Taemin's face brighten up in wonders and hopes.

"Secret passages?" Taemin whispered excitedly. "You'd let me-... I mean-... I could spend some nights out?"

Jonghyun brought him closer, putting one of his arms around Taemin's shoulders with a conspiratorial smile.

"Of course, my dear."

Taemin's heart started racing at the memory of his first, and for now only, night with Jongin. He had truly thought it would be impossible to do it again, he knew it would be far too complicated to come back and dodge every single person on the way back to his bedroom early in the morning. But the prospect of learning new ways in and out of the castle, that would allow him to sleep once again in the tight hug of his nymph's arms, made him so happy he almost burst into a squeal.

"For now though," Jonghyun said, his face relaxing into his gentle smile, "did you have to go?"

Taemin blinked a few times, as if he had forgotten that he was indeed on his way out.

"Oh, well... I thought you weren't coming back before tomorrow... I was going to see Jongin."

"Is he waiting for you?"

Taemin's gaze softened at that, as he remembered how his nymph told him that he always wanted to see him.

"Yes and no, I suppose. He's always waiting, but he's not expecting me for now. We can't set up dates, so I usually call him when I have time."

Jonghyun nodded knowingly and squinted his eyes a bit.

"I don't want to keep you here, then..."

"I don't have to go," Taemin immediately replied.

There was a certain gratitude in the way Jonghyun looked at him, that made Taemin believe that the other prince simply didn't dare to ask for his time. As much as he longed to see Jongin again, Taemin couldn't deny he had truly missed Jonghyun in the past few weeks, and he didn't want the other prince to feel unwelcome, or bothersome.

"I mean," Taemin continued, with a sheepish smile, "I actually saw Jongin yesterday. I really took advantage of you telling me that I was allowed to meet him more... so hum-... I can stay here today, with you. If you want."

Jonghyun looked at him quietly, as if he was pondering over the situation.

"Are you sure?" He asked in a small voice.

Taemin took him by the arm and turned back towards the city.

"What did you have in mind?"

Jonghyun straightened up, visibly delighted.

"Would you have lunch with me? There's a nice place I wanted to bring you to, they make delicious gratins. Even better than the ones made from our chef."

"Well, if you bait me with warm food, of course I'll follow you."

Jonghyun snickered, and slowly lead him through the city. They had to stop every few meter, for Jonghyun to properly salute people he hadn't see in too long. Between two greetings, the forest prince told Taemin everything about his last trek to the south and one of the leprechaun village. They had been trying for weeks to rebuild their homes, only to see all their efforts destroyed every night. They had started an intense quarrel with a bunch of pixies living around, thinking the tiny creatures were behind that mischief, only for Jonghyun to find out that they were actually being mocked by fauns.

"We couldn't do anything," Jonghyun complained, "it's not like we have any power over spirits. In the end, it was Minho who proposed to make an offering, and eventually, the fauns went away."

"Did you see them?" Taemin asked, impressed. "The fauns, I mean."

"No, I didn't, but the pixies did. We could only hear them laugh. And trust me, you don't really want to hear a bunch of fauns laughing hysterically in the middle of the night. Stuff of nightmares, I'm telling you."

Taemin inhaled sharply; he seemed torn between a slight fright and an intense curiosity.

They arrived in the charming restaurant Jonghyun wanted to eat at and a thrilled waitress brought them to a round table, set back against an arched window. From there, they could look down to the river crossing the elven city. It took Taemin a few minutes to stop raving over the wonderful menu; and by the time he decided to trust Jonghyun's advice about a specific cauliflower gratin, his bottom lip was red from how much he had been biting it.

"So, let's get down to business, shall we...," Jonghyun sighed as he crossed his arms over the table.

Taemin perked up at that, blinking a few times in confusion before he tilted his head.

"What do you mean?"

"I want to discuss what happened before the storm."

"I still don't-...," Taemin stopped himself mid-sentence as he could see what Jonghyun was waiting for. He pinched his lips and nodded. "Oh. You mean... my faerish lessons with Junmyeon."

Jonghyun's stare was unfocused, absentmindedly laid on his own fingers playing with his knife.

"Yes, indeed," he said, and his voice sounded far away. "Junmyeon already explained to me, and Minho, how you two ended up having secret lessons."

Taemin squirmed a bit on his chair, feeling uncomfortable. A sudden thought came to his mind, about how he somehow always found himself in that terrible situation where he was hiding stuff from Jonghyun, one way or the other. He never truly meant to be all secretive. He had never been such a good secrets keeper anyway, it was a wonder how he had managed not to spill things by inadvertence up until now.

"I'm sorry."

Jonghyun straightened up, with raised eyebrows.

"You don't have to apologize."

"But I didn't really mean to do that behind your back. I feel like I'm constantly lying to you... by omission. I just wanted to do this for Jongin. I wouldn't have gone against your wish otherwise. You know, I felt a bit bad because he's working so hard and struggling to learn elvish and he's really adorable and doing his best. I just wanted to try to do something for him too... but because of all those rules about spirits, which I don't even understand or correctly know, I couldn't tell you. It's so tiring."

"I know that," Jonghyun assured him, with a soft smile. "Junmyeon already made quite a speech to defend you before I could even start to complain and be upset. When I said that I didn't want elves to learn faerish, I was only trying to-... I don't know. I'm starting to rethink everything. I thought it was impossible. It has truly been for so long. It was me trying to protect you uselessly once again. And suddenly you managed it, and Junmyeon wasn't even able to tell us how you did that, it's still a mystery to him."

"It's a mystery to me too."

Jonghyun winced, and sighed pitifully.

"I was hoping you'd have something more to tell me."

Taemin opened his mouth, but stayed quiet as the waitress came back to them, leaving their gigantic plates in front of them. He couldn't help but goggle at it in such a way that Jonghyun started laughing.

"By all that is holy, was that supposed to be a two persons meal?" Taemin squeaked.

He looked over Jonghyun's plate, to see a similar mountain of food waiting to be eaten.

"It's so delicious, you're soon going to be happy that your plate is so full."

"Maybe," Taemin pouted, "but after this, I won't have enough appetite to have a dessert. And their desserts looked nice."

Jonghyun was shaking with another laugh, and he rolled his eyes.

"Then you don't have to finish it, and you'll get your dessert. Or we'll take one to-go."

Taemin pondered over the thought for a second, and finally gave Jonghyun a sneaky little smirk.

"Okay, then," he chirped as he took the first bite.

"Spoiled kiddo," Jonghyun mumbled.

"Yes, I am," Taemin retorted, almost proudly, before he decided to go back to the matter on hands. "Anyway, I truly have no idea why I'm able to hear faerish. I'm not even sure when it started... I mean, we were barely doing anything with Junmyeon. He made me meditate, for the most part, he was trying to train my sense of focus. He wanted to go slowly, we didn't even got to him trying to speak faerish in front of me purposely."

Jonghyun made a face that took a snort out of Taemin. He was frowning, his lips pursed as he chew slowly on his piece of leek.

"There must have been a trigger," he whispered.

"I suppose. Maybe it will become clearer once I get back to my lessons with Junmyeon. I mean, I don't know... maybe if I manage to go further than just hearing..."

Jonghyun hummed lowly, before he shook his head, as if chasing his thoughts away to get back to the conversation.

"Well, you won't get more lessons from Junmyeon for now."

His sentence made Taemin freeze on his spot and perk up slowly in disbelief.

"Why is that?"

"Junmyeon won't be around for a little while. I thought he had come to tell you..."

"No," Taemin whispered. "No, he didn't."

Jonghyun looked a bit sorry, even though he hadn't done anything wrong. And Taemin couldn't help the slight pang that drew his heart down, both at the thought of not being able to continue his faerish lessons with the fairy, and at the fact that Junmyeon had apparently forgotten to let him know about something important enough to force him to leave the castle.

"What happened?" Taemin asked, trying to mask the hurt in his voice.

"The storm actually gave birth to a nymph," Jonghyun explained. "Junmyeon said he has responsibilities over that spirit so he won't be able to take care of his duties in Melalhil. He wasn't making a lot of sense, he kept mumbling, then crying out, saying it was the most important moment of his whole life, yelling at Minho and me that the Lord of nymphs himself had said we were allowed to know about it... and it included you. He was packing his stuff, he barely even said goodbye to me. I think the whole thing has troubled him a lot."

"Oh, I see," Taemin said, even though he wasn't sure that he actually understood whatever the whole thing was.

He still felt a tiny bit better knowing that Junmyeon hadn't forgotten him because he was unimportant, but because the fairy had been too preoccupied.

"Minho has been in contact with the Council of High Fairies of Hazelbarrow, and another fairy will take Junmyeon's place until he decides to come back. Hopefully, it will be someone willing to help us out."

"Yes, hopefully..."

Taemin felt conflicted about the idea of learning faerish with someone other than Junmyeon. It would be nice to come to know another fairy, truly. The only ones he knew up until now had all been quite charming.

"Do you know how long Junmyeon will be absent?" Taemin inquired.

"No, I don't. Sorry."

Taemin found himself thinking back on the few fairies he had met at the ball, when he first arrived in the forest. One of them had been quite polite and pleasant, but he couldn't remember his name. He could vaguely recall his round face, thick eyebrows and bushy black hair.

"If they agree to continue teaching you faerish, I thought you could work with Minseok. He's one of the gardeners, and he's the only one who can hear fairies too. Maybe-... I thought that maybe, together, you could find some common point, some cause..."

Taemin agreed in a nod. He seemed to remember that he was supposed to eat his gratin, and not only play with it with the end of his fork.

"Are you alright?"

Taemin looked up at Jonghyun's worried tone, and gave him a smile.

"Yes. I was a bit lost in thoughts."

"I could see that. Nothing too terrible?"

"Not really," Taemin admitted. "I just realized-..."

He stopped himself mid-sentence, pondering over his next words, and Jonghyun tilted his head at him, his eyebrows twitching. Then Taemin sighed.

"I want to learn more about fairies. And spirits. Nymphs, of course. But also fauns. And what kind of spirits there are in the forest. I'd like to know why Junmyeon has responsibilities over a nymph. I'd really like to know more about nymphs... Sometimes I'm scared-... like-... I get nervous that I'd do something wrong, when I'm with Jongin. Because I don't know if there are things I shouldn't do. I'm glad to be learning everything about leprechauns, but it would be more helpful if my teacher could enlighten me about the spirits instead."

Jonghyun snorted at the mention of Taemin's last subject of learning, but then he offered him a bright smile.

"Your teacher might not be willing, nor able, to help. It doesn't mean you can't learn by yourself."

"Do you also have some wisdom to share concerning spirits?" Taemin asked, with a mischievous scrunch of his nose.

It made Jonghyun laugh out loud.

"Oh, certainly not. But I'm getting curious myself. So I say we should do a little bit of researches."

Taemin wiggled on his chair, coming closer to Jonghyun.

"This is getting interesting."

"I thought about us... I have a lot of plans for the next few months to be honest. I'll just add that to the list."

"You've got to tell me more than that," Taemin whined. "Why are you getting all enigmatic?"

Jonghyun pulled out his tongue and pointed his fork at him. Some bits of potatoes fell from it, but the prince didn't seem to notice it.

"I've thought of ways for you to see your nymph... I'm gonna take you out of the castle a bit. Let's travel through the forest. I've only taken you to places near Melalhil, but the forest is so much bigger than that. So we should plan some trips. Some could be real, because you do deserve to explore everything, some could just be an excuse for you to meet Jongin for a few days. And for me to get some time alone, because I'd really appreciate that."

Taemin was speechless. His jaw quivered, as he tried to bring his thoughts into words to formulate sentences, but he couldn't. His heart was hammering wildly against his chest. This was so much more than he had expected. Jonghyun kept going out of his way to give him more freedom and more time with Jongin.

"Jonghyun...," he called softly. "I don't know what to say. I'm so thankful for everything."

Jonghyun blinked twice, apparently surprised by his reaction.

"Well, it's nothing really. You want to be with the one you love and I'd like some moments just by myself, so I'd say it's quite fortunate. It would be silly not to take advantage of that, wouldn't it?"

As he looked at Jonghyun's gentle, tender smile, Taemin wished his friend would one day find someone that would give him everything he hadn't been able to offer him.

Jongin knew, as he woke up that morning, that it was a special day. Something was coming; there was the smell of fresh rain lingering in the air and the trees were singing through a very soft wind. The nights were getting smaller, little by little. When the wood nymph opened his eyes, he saw flickering rays of sunshine peeping through the roots of his willow tree, lighting his home gently.

Kyungsoo came to visit him quite early, and even though Jongin was surprised, as he hadn't been expecting guests before at least noon, he welcomed him happily. The fairy kept looking at the small violet swinging in Jongin's hair with a fond smile. They talked for a while, about Taemin, about Jongdae, about food, about elves, and a dozen other subjects they found interest upon. They played hide-and-seek, and stopped only when Kyungsoo grew too grumpy of Jongin's unnecessary and incessant cheating.

"You want to play but you keep cheating!"

"I don't cheat," Jongin cried out.

"We established that fading into a tree was cheating. You're not hiding, you're disappearing!"

For a lack of a good argument to defend himself, Jongin had started pouting and then, Kyungsoo decided it was better to stop playing altogether. And to bring Jongin out of his sulky state, he mentioned Taemin again. Taemin was always the best option to make Jongin forget about everything else.

Jongin had started to boast a bit about how much he had improved his elvish in the past few days, because he kept going to meet his prince and was being a very good student.

"'Soo, I want to ask something."

"What is it?"

Jongin was sitting cross-legged on the ground, and his fingers were playing with his own toes as he kept his eyes lowered.

"How do I ask Taemin if I can kiss him?"

Kyungsoo straightened up at his question, eyes wide and nose scrunched. Jongin was giving him an innocent glance, his head tilted a bit to the side, and the fairy coughed loudly.

"Oh, you want to kiss him now? I see. I see..."

"Yes, I do. But you said I should always ask first for those things and I don't know how to ask so it's a bit complicated."

Kyungsoo nodded sharply, sniffing awkwardly and held his hands behind his back.

"Yes, that's right. You have to ask first, I think. That's very important. So hum... kiss. That's the word. You should say something like... Can I kiss you, please?"

Jongin's smile widened impossibly and he sat taller on his .

"Ki-ss," he repeated, "Can I ki-ss you, please? Is that right? Is it?"

Kyungsoo barely kept himself from sighing. Jongin wanted to kiss elves now, and it made him strangely sad. His nymph used to be so small; it felt like it was only the day before that Jongin didn't even knew anything about physical love. What a cursed day it had been, when one morning, Kibum and him had witnessed two nymphs kissing. Then they had started to ask questions and now, Jongin wanted to try for himself.

His nymph was only 78 years old and Kyungsoo had been naive enough to think maybe him and Taemin weren't interested in things such as kissing yet. At least, he couldn't be prouder that Jongin had remembered not to do anything without permission from the other.

"Oh ho ho!" A sudden booming voice echoed. "What is this? Who's kissing whom?"

Jongin and Kyungsoo both jumped a bit, and the nymph turned around to see a whole procession coming towards them. Jongdae was excitedly flying around; and he actually made a bee-line to Jongin with another cackle.

"Do we want to kiss elves now, Jonginnie? Do we?"

Then there was Jinki, who landed next to Kyungsoo and bumped their shoulders with a loud laugh.

"This is it, your precious child is getting corrupted," he sniggered, and Kyungsoo tried to slap his face, but Jinki dodged easily and pulled out his tongue.

Then, there was Junmyeon, who was rolling his eyes and sighed as he turned around to apologize to Chanyeol.

"Please know that not all fairies are such idiots."

"Oh, I do know, Mister Junmyeon. You don't have to worry for me," Chanyeol gently answered with a smile.

"Ah. Good. That's good," Junmyeon chirped, pleased.

Jinki cackled at that, so dramatically that he fell backwards and squirmed on the ground.

"Junmyeon is being all uptight again... Oh I can't wait for the day you'll have to explain what a kiss is to your precious Sehunnie! It's gonna be hilarious!"

Junmyeon huffed and puffed, and his entire face reddened with anger.

"What? What what what? What are you saying? I won't do such things!"

"Oh trust me, you will. There will come a day when your baby nymph will have tons of questions, as they all do, and you'll be the one he will ask for answers."

"Don't say things like that," Junmyeon cried out. "He's not even awake yet, how dare you!"

And then, as if to finish Junmyeon even more, Kyungsoo allied with Jinki and smirked at him.

"You should appreciate his innocence while it lasts."

"I'm sure Sehun will not care at all about kisses!" Junmyeon grumbled.

Jongin looked over all of them, while blinking slowly, and pouted when his eyes arrived to Chanyeol.

"Is it bad to want to kiss?" He asked, suddenly unsure.

The faun's big eyes grew even larger as he shrugged with a wince.

"Don't look at me, I have no clue."

"No," Jongdae immediately answered, "it's perfectly okay. We were only teasing."

"And how would you know if it's bad or not?" Junmyeon snorted as he gave a side glance to the other fairy.

Jongdae froze, looking at him with an outraged frown.

"Of course I would know," he shrieked, "because I've kissed plenty of fairies already! I am an expert! Kisses are perfectly alright and they're good for your health."

Junmyeon started laughing even more and Jongdae became all bothered. His face reddened, his eyebrows furrowed and he pinched his lips.

"Of course you did," Jinki simpered sarcastically, "probably as much as me."

Jongin's jaw was hanging open as he tried to follow the tiny but intense fight going on. His eyes kept going back and forth between all fairies and the sudden extreme agitation after his very calm day with Kyungsoo was starting to make him dizzy. Jongdae was about to explode in thunderous cries, when another voice reached them.

"My, my, my... What is all this cacophony about, hm?"

A silence fell after that. All traces of annoyance disappeared from Jongdae's face as his eyes started to shine brightly and a smile bloomed on his lips. Jongin, on the contrary, tensed visibly and gasped before he looked over Kyungsoo in discomfort. The three others fairies stayed politely quiet, while Chanyeol was the only one to cheerfully look at Baekhyun, having no idea who he was dealing with.

"Jongin wants to kiss his elf prince," he happily explained, "and Jongdae said he was an expert at kissing. Hi, I'm Chanyeol!"

Baekhyun blinked very slowly, and glanced at every single being around. He ended up staring at Chanyeol, and his face softened as he approached the faun, so close that their noses almost touched.

"Hi Chanyeol," he said, and the faun was squinting, eyebrows furrowed, to look back at him. "I'm Baekhyun, Lord of all nymphs."

Chanyeol hiccuped, frozen on his spot; and a sense of horror invaded him, swallowing him whole. He tried to open his mouth again to splutter something, an apology for his boldness maybe, but nothing came out.

"Will you be more careful next time, my dear?" Baekhyun continued, in a gentle voice. "You cannot tell people about Jongin and Taemin so easily. It's supposed to be a secret."

"Oh," Chanyeol mourned, "oh, of course. Of course, hm-... Your Majesty? I'm sorry. I'm very sorry."

Chanyeol cowered in front of the nymph, and whimpered when he saw Baekhyun raise his hand. But the nymph only smiled and patted his head, his hair lightly.

"You have such pretty horns," he absentmindedly commented, "and very cute ears. You're lovely."

The sudden change of topic took Chanyeol aback and made him blush furiously. But before he could thank him, Baekhyun turned to Jongin.

"Jongin, my little sunshine, it's been so long!"

Jongin flinched as Baekhyun hopped closer, plopping down next to him. The older nymph tried to pull him down to his lap and Jongin fell all over him with a little cry.

"What's with you?" Kyungsoo grumbled with a roll of his eyes.

"Oh, I haven't seen Jongin in so long. Last time I came here, he could still sit on my knees," Baekhyun whined with a miserable pout.

"I've grown a bit since then," Jongin puffed.

"I have to admit that you did."

Jongin penibly sat back and squirmed away from Baekhyun, his cheeks awfully red. He gently pushed Kyungsoo so the fairy would stand between him and Baekhyun, hoping that his tiny presence would somehow prevent the eccentric nymph from assaulting him again.

"How have you been?" Baekhyun asked, invading his personal space once more by leaning towards him.

"Oh," Jongin hiccuped. "I've been alright, I guess."

He couldn't look at him in the eyes. Baekhyun was too bright, too loud, too everything that made Jongin anxious, if he were honest. He had seen the other nymph three times in his life, and still Baekhyun acted so familiar and close to him that Jongin had no idea what to do with himself.

"You're still very shy, I see," Baekhyun sighed.

"Everyone is shy around you," Kyungsoo protested, trying to shield Jongin with all of his 9,52 centimeters.

"Oh, really?"

"Yes," Junmyeon chirped with an apologetic smile as he landed in front of Baekhyun. "That's because we know you less than you know us."

Baekhyun seemed lost for a moment, and his eyes went from one fairy to the other, before they stopped on Chanyeol, who blushed all over again.

"What kind of riddle is that?" Baekhyun whispered, blinking awkwardly.

"You know," Junmyeon offered, "it's because of all the things you see. They make you very knowledgeable. I think sometimes you forget that you don't actually see us in persons as much as you think. You know a lot about us, but we don't know much about you."

There was a small solemn silence, until Baekhyun suddenly clapped his hands.

"But you might be right! Would you see that! You might be very right," he exclaimed, and then turned back to Jongin. "How many times did we meet, my dear Jongin?"

The wood nymph pinched his lips as all the attention was back on him.

"Hm-... Four times. It's the fourth."

Baekhyun gasped, and then sighed, shaking his head slowly.

"That's a pity. A pity, it is indeed. I knew it was a long time ago but I didn't-... oh, it's so sad. I will have to be more careful."

"You don't have to," Jongin tried to say. "It's okay if you don't come..."

Baekhyun's face fell into sadness and his voice was soft and quiet, as he spoke again.

"Oh. Am I such a stranger that you don't want me around?"

Jongin blinked a few times as he seem to realize what he had just said. His insides twisted with guilt and he stuttered an apology.

"N-no. No I mean-... If you're-... If you're busy. It's alright. We're alright."

Baekhyun didn't seem that convinced by his explanation, but before he could say anything, Jongdae came closer.

"Why did you came today, Lord Baekhyun?" He asked with a bright smile.

"For the same reason as all of you," Baekhyun laughed. "Why else?"

"Ah? There's a reason? Why are we all here, then?" Chanyeol blurted out, and cowered on himself when all eyes turned to him. "I'm sorry, I saw the fairies so I followed them... I thought we were gonna play or something."

Baekhyun's laugh became louder at that, but a sudden hiss made him stop.

"Be quiet," Jinki complained, from his spot, a little further away. "Please, it's time."

Jongin's eyes widened and he jumped on his feet, scurrying closer to Jinki. All the fairies followed and as Chanyeol looked completely lost in between, Baekhyun rose on his feet to take the faun's hand in his.

"Come with me," he whispered gently.

They approached the pond and squatted on the shore. Chanyeol was looking over at Jongin's eager face, and Baekhyun his hair gently, turning his head towards the water.

It was shifting in a smooth motion. The soft wind made little patterns on its surface and Chanyeol got mesmerized by the circles and bubbles appearing. He panted in wonder, and the sound echoed in the perfect silence that now reigned in the clearing.

Then something appeared, and Chanyeol couldn't help the surprised whistle that escaped his lips. A shadow moved, at the bottom of the pond, and it was coming closer quickly, making him fall back on his ; he got startled when it finally came out of the water.

A buzzing sound rang in the air, and Jinki bumped against Kibum's head, using his whole body to somehow, awkwardly hug the nymph's nose. Kibum started to laugh, one of his hand coming out of the water to pinch the fairy's waist.

"You little troll, did you miss me?"

Jinki came off the nymph's face to look at him with a grumpy face.

"Me? Missing you? Me? Not at all. I was trying to be nice."

Kibum looked at him with a tender smile and brought him closer to kiss his hair quickly. Then he looked over the shore of his pond, as Jinki now clung to one of his finger, and his face brightened up when he saw the crowd waiting for him.

"Kibum!" Jongin squealed, his voice tight with emotions.

"Rejoice now, for your favorite nymph is back," Kibum simpered.

Jongdae immediately started to clap his hands, and the two other fairies imitated him, followed by Chanyeol. Kibum bowed theatrically, giggling a bit, and hurried to swim to them. A small wave lifted him off the pond and he let himself fall over Jongin, hugging him tight. Jinki had let go of his hand just in time, and was flying over them so excitedly that it was making Baekhyun dizzy just to look at him.

"I missed you so much," Jongin croaked, in between Kibum's arms.

"Of course you did," Kibum snorted.

But the water nymph suddenly tensed, and drew back a bit to look at Jongin's face with a frown.

"Wait a minute," he grumbled. "I'm supposed to be mad at you. You've been lying to me! I had decided to sulk."

Jongin's eyes filled with sadness as his smile dropped from his lips. He lowered his head, his cheeks blushing with shame.

"Yes... yes, I know. I'm sorry, I can explain everything," he murmured pitifully.

Kibum sighed, and tousled Jongin's hair.

"Not now. I will celebrate coming back, then I will sulk a bit and then you'll explain to me why you hurt me like this. If your reasons aren't good enough, I might mope for a while."

A sheepish smile bloomed on Jongin's lips, and Kyungsoo's gaze on him softened as he saw another little flower appear in between the wood nymph's strands of hair.

Kibum leaned closer, leaving a tiny kiss on Jongin's forehead before he turned around to greet the rest of his friends. The fact that Baekhyun himself had come to witness his awakening was something that Kibum was going to brag about for a few years, perhaps even a decade or two. Nothing too extravagant.

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Dear everyone,

I am immensely sorry that I've made you wait this much. I hope that you can forgive me & that this chapter met any expectation you had. It has been difficult to write & to be honest with you, I'm not 100% satisfied with it. But I'm truly happy about what it sets for next chapter & I cross my fingers that you are too.

I'm forever grateful for your support.

♥

Take care of yourself.