Chapter [3]

The Clan: Prequel

 

 

"Night...mares?" Ji-U's normal tone of voice raised a little. She widened her eyes, glancing a bit to the girls' direction to check for their reaction. They were hanging their heads down focusing on making the dream catchers. She sighed out lightly, trying not to show her great disappointment. "Would you describe the dreams a little bit? Maybe I can help you to find the correct dream catcher." She received the blue dream catcher from Jooheon.

He scratched his head, unsure. "Well, I don't remember much about the details. But I was kinda trapped in a dark room with walls trying to crash me. And after that, I kept falling into darkness."

"Got locked up in a room then kept falling. Hmm, I see." Ji-U shut her eyes closed and inhaled deeply, somehow thinking of the punishment she would apply on Siyeon and Gahyeon as she knew Siyeon was the nightmare of locking people into a small space and Gahyeon was the nightmare of making the victim falling endlessly.

"Yoohyeon." She smiled at the younger girl and communicated with her through the eyes. "Why don't you help our customer to find a better dream catcher? So he won't have any nightmare tonight." She emphasized the last sentence, as to assure Jooheon that he wouldn't have to worry.

"Alright, sure." Yoohyeon adopted the smile on her sister's face and flashed it back to Jooheon then led him to the shelf chain on the left of the store. "These are the strongest dream catchers. You will surely have a good sleep tonight without any dream..."

Ji-U left the two customers to Yoohyeon and headed to the table where the other girls were sitting. As she noticed that Gahyeon's face now became pale and the kid almost fainted, she quickly urged them with a lie so Jooheon and Hyungwon wouldn't realize the weirdness. "Girls, how about you go have a lunch break now?" She faked a smile and followed them to a small storage behind the booth.

Gahyeon almost collapsed but Dami and Handong helped her to stand straight. Ji-U closed the curtain of the storage and softly sighed. Gahyeon gathered all of her last strength to push out an apology. "I'm sorry... It was my fault. I was so hungry so I told Siyeon and she took me out to hunt alone. Plus, that pal over there has a quite idealistic dark heart full of delicious fears right?"

"I already said we would go together." Ji-U was about to raise her voice at the kid, but looking at her pale face, she couldn't stand but sighing again. "I'm the one who has to apologize for not letting you girls eat enough. Tonight we will go together, okay?"

"And not only that, we almost got caught by a giant blue flower... Because of that flower, we ended up not eating much." Siyeon added, voice anxious and agitated. "Gahyeon is too weak now."

"Blue flower?" Ji-U became silent as she was buried deep in her own thoughts. They had had a hard time running away from the nightmare hunters, and there came that blue flower disturbing their eating time. Her flow of thought got interrupted by the groan of Gahyeon falling down.

"Gahyeon! Are you okay?" All the girls were worried about her. She fell unconscious in the arms of her sister Handong.

"Gahyeon!" Sua shook her shoulders but there was no response. The little girl lost her conscious. The other girls looked at Ji-U in worry. The oldest sister nodded in agreement as she knew what they wanted to say. "Handong, Sua, take Gahyeon back to the motel to rest. Dami, you go guard in the forest. Siyeon and I will stay here with Yoohyeon to see if we will hear anything."

"Okay." Sua accepted the order from the oldest sister then together with Handong, carrying Gahyeon back to their motel room. They hooked her arms around their necks and dragged the poor little girl away. Dami also took her leave to the forest, not forgetting a smile of assurance for her carefulness and a soft "Take care!" to her sisters before she had gone.

Siyeon and Ji-U watched themselves in the mirror hung on the storage's wall, putting on a fake smile to appear in front of the customers again. Since it was lunch time, it seemed like other merchants and workers from a factory in the area also paid a visit to the shop while taking their break. Siyeon immediately moved to help the new guests as Yoohyeon was still busy talking to Jooheon. Whereas, Ji-U noticed Hyungwon staring at the jewellery cupboard. She made her way towards him.

"You like the choker? It'll look good on you." Hyungwon startled when she approached, looking away to distract himself. She wasn't here when Jooheon showed me the choker. How the hell does she know? Hyungwon questioned himself. His pupils were shaking warily as he checked the timeline of all the events had happened from the moment he reached the store. He and Jooheon left the truck, went straight to the shop, meeting and talking with Yoohyeon first of all. Then, she led them inside where he saw the other five girls making dream catchers. He remembered how much impressed he was when he saw all the handmade dream catchers and how the shop was decorated. When they looked around, Jooheon showed him a lovely choker inside the cupboard and clearly, Ji-U wasn't there. Because right after that, Hyungwon reminded Jooheon of the reason why they came here in the first place and when Jooheon started complaining, that was when Ji-U came. An accident happened and... Okay, skip that part. He blushed a little then quickly shook the feeling off. She then greeted them, calling them the market's owners. Oh yeah, wait. She also mentioned that she was absent yesterday. How does she know that I and Jooheon are the market's owners when we didn't introduce ourselves to her? This girl... is quite unusual, isn't she?

A shadow darted across his face bringing him back to the moment. Hyungwon was kind of getting lost in his memory just now. "Hey! Are you okay?" Ji-U waved in front of his eyes again, trying to get his attention.

"Oh yeah... I'm fine." He swallowed hard. Putting on a normal face and a faint smile, he told himself to be careful.

Ji-U just smiled softly at him and opened the cupboard to take out the choker. "I made it myself. If you like it, I will give you as a gift." As her intention was to explore about the blue flower, she tried her best to be friendly with them. Seeing that Hyungwon was also wearing a choker, her sharp mind knew right away that choker was his thing.

"Uhm..." Awkwardly turning his head back to face the girl, Hyungwon expressed his shyness through his blushing cheeks. "But you girls already gave Jooheon a gift!"

"That's fine. You guys are our V.I.P customers." Ji-U laughed tenderly and wrapped the choker around his long neck despite his 'fake' rejection. For that moment, she realized a black symbol behind his ear, right under his jawline. At the same time, Hyungwon thought all the air on earth was away for the reason that his lung was empty as the air from there gathered into a big round ball then stuck up at his throat. He looked away again, trying not to be distracted by her eyes like last time when she leaned closer and closer to him. He gulped so hard that his Adam's apple jumped quickly and the invisible ball of air was swallowed down as well.

Ji-U hooked the choker for him, fixing it to make sure it wouldn't overlap with the one he was wearing. With a quick glance towards the direction where Jooheon and Yoohyeon were standing, she noticed that Jooheon also had a tattoo. But Jooheon's one was different from Hyungwon's. The symbol on Jooheon's neck looked like a hand-written letter 'X'. From the other side of the store, Yoohyeon caught her sister's gaze and responded also with her eyes that she noticed the same thing. Unable to solve the mysterious mark on Hyungwon's neck, Ji-U led him to a tall mirror installed deep in the wall of the shop and let him check his own reflection. However, he had no idea what was happening when his reflection appeared in the mirror. Ji-U's lips trembled when she mumbled the spell under her breath. Slightly, the reflection of the symbol was multiplied into two. The newly created one stacked up on top of the real one.

Siyeon glanced to their direction, somehow trying to warn her oldest sister not to cause any attention-gathering event. Another female customer also wanted to use the mirror, but the spell Ji-U just cast hadn't done its job yet. To protect her sister and their identity, Siyeon dashed toward the lady with the speed of light and offered her to use another mirror. Yoohyeon's eyes were focusing on her sisters even though was busy smiling to what Jooheon said. She let out an invisible sigh in relief when the guest left the mirror without noticing anything.

Not to let Hyungwon see what the magic did, Ji-U painted her face with a professional fake smile and complimented him on how good the choker looked on him and how good-looking he was. Hyungwon's smoky eyes moved from the mirror to Ji-U's face. He scratched his head and shyly accepted her words. Trying to break the awkward moment, he spoke up, "Your name is Ji-U, right? That's such a unique name. Sounds like a DJ."

"A DJ?" Ji-U burst into waves of soft laughter. "This is my first time receiving this kind of compliment. Why does it sound like a DJ name to you? Are you somehow a DJ as well?" She looked up at his face, totally didn't realize that what she thought was actually a fact. All she did was just making up of a topic to bring him away from the mirror.

"Urgh yeah—I actually am..." Hyungwon scratches his head again, nose scrunching up in embarrassment. "I and my friend Jooheon owned a club. And I'm the DJ there."

"Oh really? That must be awesome!" Ji-U's attitude transformed to the most friendly level she could pretend. Her eyes lid up at his words, asking him to share more. It was actually one of the nightmares' talents; they showcased their trustworthy factors and let people count on them, spilling out all of their deepest secrets and fears. Catching the sign of wanting to know more from Ji-U, without any hesitation, Hyungwon continued introducing about the club which he partly owned.

"Uhm so... The club is called 'The '94 Club'. Only people who were born in the 94s are allowed to go in..."

"94? We..." Ji-U cut him off. "Coincidentally, I and my sister are also 94 babies..." An awkward smile crept upon her face. Oh no... I'm not good at lying... If someone was born in the 94s then... how old would they be now? Do I look like a 94 baby? Urgh, why did I even start this lie if I wasn't sure... And then she spent another second to blame herself for never updating about the date and time and of the human's world.

"Really? I wanted to ask from the start tho since it seems like we are the same age." Hyungwon laughed at the so-called fact. Not really. I'm not that young anymore. When her pink eyes sparkled up, for a second he almost forgot one thing that he told himself earlier which was to be careful with this girl. "So... we took a rest and closed the club down for a week for upgrade purpose. Tonight it's going to be the grand opening. Would you like to come and be our V.I.P guests?"

"Why not? Of course, we will be there." Ji-U flashed her sunshine-like smile again and flipped her red blood hair. Alright, it works. You can do this, Ji-U. The closer you get to them, the closer you are to the secret of the blue flower.

Jooheon suddenly appeared from nowhere and wrapped his arm around Hyungwon's waist. "Did you invite them?"

"I did." Responded Hyungwon, smiling happily. "Ji-U and her sister will come."

"That's great! Please don't forget to bring your ID cards. It's a must to pass the door." Jooheon leaned forward giving out his hand in order to shake with hers.

"Sure." She shook hand with him, thanking for their visit to the kiosk of today.

ID cards... What the... Ji-U smiled waving the two guests on their way out but her gaze was sent toward Yoohyeon and Siyeon. Understanding the situation, again, Siyeon caught the signal and nodded her head. When the aforementioned female customer came to the cashier where Yoohyeon was standing after leading Jooheon out, Siyeon pretended to help to send their V.I.P guests off then tripped over, grabbing her purse skillfully stealing the ID card without anyone knowing. Everyone in the shop was staring at Siyeon wondering if she was fine. The lady was surprised and as she was letting her mind busy with the questions regarding Siyeon's health and condition, the young girl quickly sneaked the ID card to her sister Yoohyeon.

Ji-U didn't say anything, just quietly watched them, sighing lightly once the ID card was successfully hidden behind the cashier counter. "Oh well..." Her smile stole back the attention of Jooheon and Hyungwon from Siyeon so she could finish her mission. "I guess we will meet again tonight?"

As soon as the female guest left, Siyeon took the ID card from Yoohyeon again and walked toward the mirror. The spell that Ji-U cast on it earlier was still there. Being careful as she always was, Siyeon looked around to make sure no one was watching her nor coming near. Then with one swift move, she scanned the card across the mirror. The reflection multiplied into two and the one that was created by magic disappeared after a brief moment. Naturally, Siyeon came back to the counter and pretended to find the card on the floor as if it fell out from the client's pulse during the accident of earlier.

"Tonight." Hyungwon nodded, eyeing Ji-U. "At 7 pm."

"7 pm. Right. With the ID cards." Ji-U repeated to confirm the information from them and received a nod in return from Jooheon.

"We gotta go now." He said, tugging Hyungwon on the sleeve. "There are a lot of things to prepare." He turned around walking away.

"That's true. Let's go!" Hyungwon waved goodbye to the red-haired girl without forgetting to throw one last handsome smile and followed his friend.

Siyeon chased after the lady and gave her the ID card she had lost. Catching up with her a few steps to the left of the kiosk, the little girl bowed in manner, using both hands to hold the card. The guest smiled at her and kept thanking non-stop for the fact that the ID card was too much an important thing to lose. Jooheon and Hyungwon were also walking to that direction. When Siyeon picked her head up, she saw something fall out of Hyungwon's jacket's back.

A blue flower... She widened her eyes at the small tiny indigo flower lying on the dirt. Unable to get rid of the fear she and Gahyeon experienced the previous night when trying to disturb Jooheon in his sleep to eat his fears, Siyeon recalled the exact flower that was protecting Jooheon from them. She picked it up, hiding it in her pocket with a mysterious smirk on her face.

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-SBRPG
#1
interesting