AN - I apologize for the extended hiatus.

My mental health has tanked a lot and I am still trying to manage with my grief. I sincerely miss writing and really want to finish this story, as well as some Shinee and maybe BTS fanfics I have prompts for. However, my staggering mental health has directly affected the writing process. I thank you all for your patience and understanding. I hope that the wait for this chapter was worth it and pray that my brain allows me to write even more.

Please enjoy and feel free to leave any feedback that you may have. I appreciate it :)

…………

The sunlight beat down on all that it touched.

It danced off ripples of pristine waters as amber and silver-scaled fish leapt and dove back into small ponds all around. It peaked through breaks in the lush crowns of trees that swayed and rocked as a cool breeze blew through the valley.

As Hakyeon danced in its glory, the sun seemed to be moving with him as it gleamed off the golden embroidery of his airy white silk robes. His lithe limbs gracefully reached up towards it while birds sang aloud and his servant specters hovered about, watching in awe.

The Sun God swayed and spun to a melody that only he could hear. One whose soft strings told a tale of love unbound by distance. A love transcendent of the frames of time by which humans shape their lives. A love blessed by the Cosmos, so much that even their immortal hearts seemed to beat as one. 

A strong wind billowed through his clothes, twisting the long sash about his waist around his leg, making him trip and tumble to the grass. He landed on his back, the thin blades of grass itching against his exposed arms and legs.

Hakyeon sighed. Though he tried to convince himself of such a pretty fiction, the absence of Taekwoon’s touch seeped into his being, It reminded him that such tales were lies meant to bring human souls closer to denial. That even in death, they could find some semblance of peace and harmony when they were finally led to Shangri La where all souls united as one.

Hakyeon’s love was a tragedy. After all, Gods wer not meant to live with the freedom that human dreams could offer. What they had instead was truth.

His fingertips caressed the slick blades of grass beneath him. He squinted as a break in the tree above allowed the sun to beam into his eyes. He clenched his eyes and tossed his head aside. Gritting his teeth, he tried to fight it. Not the burning sun that seared his eyes, but the tears that were building and threatened to show his pain.

“Why?” he asked to nothing. “Why is fate so cruel?”

The soft sound of footsteps in the grass alerted him to the approach of company.

Who, he asked himself, who could step from the blissful bounds of Shangri La into his inner sanctum so casually?

Only a few were granted such access, one of which he knew that even in his wildest dreams could not abandon the Underworld. Oh, but if only.

Hakyeon allowed himself to drift into that flow of thought for just a moment.

If only those cold fingertips could glide across his sun-kissed skin and tether his body to a dream, one where the roles of the gods did not bind him to a place so far away. If only they could draw out the longing within him and etch a picture of combined love and frustrations into the fabric of his being. If only…

The sun faded quickly behind the shadow of a person who now stood above him. He opened his eyes to see a familiar face and rather particularly long nose.

“Daydreaming about the jackal again?” joked the friend, who was none other than Jaehwan.

“I cherish you, Ferryman, but disrespectful remarks like that make me want to drown you in the river Styx.”

“Well, I never,” Jaehwan said with a feigned expression of hurt.

Hakyeon climbed to his feet. His servant sprites gathered around him, fussing and rejoicing over his short-lived dance. In their own incomprehensible language, they insisted on cleaning him up. It sounded like nothing more than whispers in the wind to Jaehwan, but when Hakyeon nodded, they made quick work of making the dirt on the back of his robes disappear.

Hakyeon gave them a fond smile before willing them away with an order to return once called. Once they were alone, he fixated on Jaehwan, who was watching the little sprites dance away in the distance.

“What brings you here, dear child? Not many things leave you with the desperation to seek a private audience with me.”

“I think my Twin Flame has finally come to Shangri La.”

It felt as if the Cosmos had read his mind. It knew all. It understood all. It revealed all. He now questioned if perhaps changes would come about with the arrival of one particular human soul.

Yet still, Hakyeon sighed, though the sound was inaudible when the wind shook the crown of the tree above.

“Jaehwan-ah, why must you keep breaking your own heart like this?” he asked,

“Because I believe in the Twin Flames!” proclaimed Jaehwan.

“Innocent Jaehwan. Precious Jaehwan.” Hakyeon said, softly resting a hand on his cheek. “Eternity is a long time to put your hopes in a fairytale.”

Hakyeon wasn’t sure if he was saying that to Jaehwan or to himself.

“But I implore you Sun God. I think it’s real this time.” Jaehwan defended. “We’ve said nothing, yet I know his soul. I feel it as if it were my own. As if his pain and even his confusion in death is my own.”

“This may be true, but you have felt such empathy for countless travelers for centuries. And you know, Jaehwan, that even the Cosmos plays its own tricks and has lies to tell.”

“I…I…”

Jaehwan felt defeated. Like the child he was to the elder god, he leaned into the warmth being offered, and fell forward into Hakyeon’s arms. Hakyeon embraced him and sat his chin on his shoulder, smelling the sweet fragrance of forest and cherry blossom clinging to his precious ferryman.

The story of the Twin Flames foretells of a meeting of clone souls. Two souls who are an exact copy of one another and are fated to meet each other in life, then reunite in Paradise. Jaehwan knew this when he was tasked as ferryman and still believed it even after ushering souls to their grim fates. If anything, his duty convinced him even more that it had to be true.

Jaehwan wasn’t a god like Hakyeon or Taekwoon, but simply a guardian spirit. After death, he was tasked with herding souls, like the defenseless cattle he once watched in a land of grass and sunlight. For centuries, he had watched them fall and get lost in the river Styx in spite of his warnings. He’d sent them off on their journeys at the shores of Shangri La, where he was sure to never see most of them again. And he had met some after their judgement, absent of their identity, but liberated from their suffering for all eternity.

This time, he sensed that his flame was coming, and in the mystified eyes of the soul he’d been guarding this very day, he knew that he found him.

“I can’t watch anymore,” Jaehwan said in a small voice. “I feel the fire inside of him. It’s the only form of light that ever matched my own. I just wanna be free. I’ve earned it.”

“My child, I understand.”

Hakyeon pulled back but held Jaehwan’s shoulders.

“I understand, and I assure you that you have.” Hakyeon said with a warm smile “We will have the usual banquet of the Second Day. Perhaps it will allow you time to discover things that will validate your suspicions. For now, guide him well.”

Hakyeon gestured for his sprites to return. They appeared around him and he turned his back to Jaehwan. Just when Jaehwan was about to pursue him, Hakyeon stopped in his tracks. He glanced over his shoulder, this time with a slightly colder expression.

“Judgement Day will befall him as it does all souls. Only then will you know for sure. So, be prepared, my dear Ferryman, for only the Cosmos can reveal the truth.”

As Hakyeon walked away, Jaehwan turned to leave as well. He stepped through the veil that would lead him back to Shangri La, where a clueless Wonshik waited for him, unaware of the fate that had yet to come to fruition.