Pairing : Eun x Jooheon (Monsta X)
Genre : Romance, Slice of life, Friendship, Slight Fantasy
Words : 5,954
Written By : Blu3Wind

While a storm of frozen air greeted the castrated streets of Seoul outside, one man nestled himself in the company of an open fireplace and burning candles. Other than the faint scribbles of his fountain pen on a piece of old parchment, he took liberty in the submerging silence. A new contract was due.

It was when a faint knock appeared on the door that he missed crossing the of his ‘t’—disturbing the perfect order he had established for himself. The second knock rang louder, and his eyes caught the trembling of his nameplate where Son Hyunwoo was written in shiny golden letters above the words Founder of Cirque de Monstres. Before the third knock appeared, he had gotten up from his stuffy cushioned chair, and opened the door to allow entrance to the cold breeze.

The street was clothed in darkness. Several street lamps illuminated warmth—a false illusion of acceptance one could barely find in this monstrous season. Yet, he felt it.

He was about to close the door when his eyes fell upon a strange sight. At the front of his doorstep, a broken wooden basket laid idle. It bore a baby inside, skin as white as a porcelain figure with lips the color of a decayed flower. Her cheeks were an appalled color of purple, neither human nor demon to begin with. What a terrible case of attempted infanticide.

As Hyunwoo continued staring at the silent creature, its eyes sprung open.

He knew by then, the baby had died.

***

Over the years, he had taken the child under his wings and named her Eun. She bloomed into an unordinary girl who would redefine the queerness of Cirque de Monstres. It was during her third year when she set his entire circus on fire that he learned of her ability. Since then, he had chained the girl’s life to his own, demanding a ransom for a debt she could never repay. It was a cruel scheme to ensure her eternal faithfulness to the circus, for he would never let her go.

Hyunwoo searched the lonely streets of Seoul to gather the lowliest of the ostracized people. The weight of their abandonment defined their true value to his circus. Under normal circumstances, the society would isolate their queerness and label them as monsters. But in a circus, these same people paid a large sum of money to see such inferiority on display. The weakness became a strength. The unwanted became wanted. The unordinary became extraordinary.

The case was no different from Eun. She learned of the segregation between social classes and economic hierarchy since an early age. Though true castration depended on people’s identity, whether they’d be defined as normal or monsters.

“Do not use your power at school,” Hyunwoo had warned her.

She had not been aware of possessing a power until she realized not a single classmate could light a fire with their bare hand. When she celebrated her birthday by immersing her finger in the fire of the burning candle, everyone started crying and called her a monster. The teachers called Hyunwoo and notified him of her demonic behavior—as they called it—demanding her to get exorcised.

Eun never returned to school since that day and was to remain locked up behind the circus wall. She considered it her lifelong punishment, not knowing Hyunwoo’s methods of discipline were quite eccentric. Whereas a normal parent would restrict a child from creating trouble, she was encouraged to create chaos. Because chaos attracted more people to laugh in the face of one’s misfortune. And Hyunwoo needed to reel in more audience for his circus.

She trained for many years to control her powers—which he had referred to as magic— and learned to aid the other five performers in their circus act. The five males were older than her and treated her like a little sister. However, they never seemed to age with each passing year, as if the chronology of one’s life was frozen in time.

Among them, her favorite act was that of Changkyun who could communicate to animals. He never needed a cage, and the tigers roamed freely in obedience to his commands. She would help him lit the hoops on fire for the tigers to jump through. One time she had miscalculated the size of the fire, and accidentally flicked the tiger’s tail with a small spark. The beast roared in pain, eliciting panic in Changkyun who failed to calm it down. The audience fled from the tent that day, thinking the tiger had come to feed on their flesh, not knowing it was howling for help.

Hyunwoo simply laughed, saying he anticipated her to have her own act someday.

The chance came for Eun when she was eight. The contortionist named Kihyun fell sick, and the circus did promise five acts. So Eun appeared wearing a black and red striped tutu that made her look incredibly ridiculous. The white paint on her face made her unrecognizable, though the audience barely knew of her identity anyway. When she created a timid little fire that nearly set herself on fire, people began to laugh. Her little expression of utter shock was received with mockery. Her mistake elicited a thirst for misfortune.

Since then, Eun swore to never perform a solo act ever again.

***

By the time she turned ten, Hyunwoo took her along whenever he went to meet up with new potential donors. She’d wait inside the office with her hands resting on her knees, and her feet pressed together like an obedient Catholic schoolgirl.

It was the moment when they exited the building that changed her life. A young boy, whom she presumed to be around her age, was performing at the end of the street. He was doing handstands one minute, then twirled his body into cartwheels in similar ways that Wonho the acrobat would do. Considering his smaller frame, the boy looked more jubilant when he moved with inaccurate precision. He’d miss a few steps here and there, and gathered a crowd who would laugh at him. She’d never forget the immense surprise of her observation afterwards. He’d laugh along.

Without realizing, her feet started walking to the boy as if his inner siren called out to her. She didn’t realize Hyunwoo permitting her to release his hand, only focusing on the great mysteries she wanted to seek answers to.

The ten year old Eun got to the front row of the crowd, watching the boy perform from up close. She noticed his jutted brown hair, though most were hidden underneath his oversized jester hat. It fell down every time he started doing a handstand, but while he juggled the balls, he’d retrieve his hat from the ground with quick movements. Eun felt the corners of her lips lifting into the faintest of a smile, but repudiated it when people started laughing. From up close, their boisterous laughters were amplified as well.

She waited until he was done with his act; until the crowd were done laughing at him. He’d flung his mismatched red and green chester hat on the floor, and people threw silver coins inside. Money she had none, so she threw him a question instead.

“Why are you smiling like that?”

The young boy looked up as he picked up his hat, still maintaining that goofy smile on his face. Due to his poorly painted face make up, the red line around his lips looked like someone had bumped into his arm when applying lipstick.

“Oh, hello there. I saw you at the front row just now,” the young boy spoke, his voice as pure and bright as his radiant smile. He emptied the silver coins into an old slingbag and placed the hat back on his head. “Did you enjoy my performance?”

Eun frowned. “I asked you a question first,” she insisted.

“Did you enjoy it?” He asked again, disregarding her reply. He stared at her in anticipation, his brown eyes gleaming with innocent hope.

Eun’s eyebrows sunk into a deeper arch, and she folded her hands. “Well, yeah.”

“Then that’s all the reason I need to smile,” the guy answered, flashing her another smile she couldn’t comprehend.

He flung the slingbag over his shoulders, suddenly so self aware as hastiness took over. “I have to return before I get scolded again. It was nice to meet you. I hope you'll come and watch my performance again next time.”

Eun stared in silence as he strolled away, looking back at her once to flash a stupid smile she wouldn’t be able to get off her mind.

“He is quite a character, don’t you think?” Hyunwoo spoke, appearing by her side as he gently placed a hand on her shoulder to lead her back into the car.

“He called his silly stunt a performance, but it isn’t as spectacular as the shows we put up at the circus. Even Hyungwon looks better when talking to his puppet, Dooly.”

“Now, now, as a ventriloquist he wouldn’t appreciate you calling Dooly a doll,” Hyunwoo spoke in his friendly yet mighty tone. Then he hushed it into a secretive whisper. “Besides, we both know Dooly isn’t a doll.”

“Yes, but we are outside the circus wall. You told me to pretend like magic didn’t exist in here,” Eun said, rolling her eyes.

“Clever girl,” he said, smiling as he patted her head. “For that reason, the little boy performed amazingly.”

Eun looked up with questioning eyes.

“A good performance is inclusive of its audience. If one can imitate the illusion of magic and allow people to believe in the unthinkable, it is a performance well done.”

That night, Eun couldn’t decipher the young boy’s answer nor Hyunwoo’s words. She carried her thoughts into an endless night until sleep greeted her.

***

When she was twelve, she tried her best to perfect her own magical abilities. No, not her power to create a fiery havoc, but one that imitated the other five performers at Cirque de Monstres—a power she possessed none of.

“Grab the trapeze bar before it swings away,” Wonho had said, but she did not possess his power of flight. He could have the slightest delay in his timing, but would never miss the momentum. That was why he never performed using a safety net.

“Imagine the volume of the box, and match your body to fill up the available space,” Kihyun taught his ways as a contortionist. But he bore power to shrink or expand his body as he liked. Fitting into an empty glass jar of milk would be doable for him, but not for her.

“Don’t think of the object being controlled by yourself, but see it as a separate entity,” Hyungwon said, holding Dooly on his lap. The human shaped doll nodded its head though Hyungwon’s hands were on his own laps. She could not bring inanimate objects to life either.

“Engage the audience, and take them on an emotional roller coaster” Minhyuk the ringmaster spoke. He had the gift to control people’s emotion, reeling them just enough to engage deeply in the upcoming acts. Eun did not even know how to socialize.

“Don’t come near Matthew. It will bite your head off,” Changkyun spoke about his tiger, the most realistic one. For this reason, she got along with him the most. He may be blunt, but she knew it was for her own sake.

“Why does it never bite your head off?” Eun had asked back.

“Because it considers me a friend.”

“Can it consider me as a friend?”

“You can’t talk with animals like I do,” Changkyun said, a fine line between keeping her safe and boasting in his own abilities. “You can consider everyone at the circus your friend. We’re the only ones who understand each other.”

Eun disagreed with it. She would never understand why they were willing to ridicule themselves for the sake of being laughed at. Every single one of their acts were responded with cackling laughters that eerily resembled a devil’s shriek. In the eyes of those high upper class people, they’d be seen as defective products who foolishly boasted in their inferiorities. They were the second rate thrown-aways. They were a circus of monsters, merely existing because of Hyunwoo’s kindness.

Speak of the devil, the man appeared. He was dressed in his long black overcoat that seemed a layer to thin for the winter and too thick for the fall.

“Are we heading somewhere?” Eun asked, immediately getting up. Hyunwoo never asked any of the other guys to accompany him, but knew Eun was quite fond of the outside world. She was at an age where curiosity was as normal as girls wanting to play with dolls.

“I need to meet up with donors again. I thought you'd appreciate coming with me,” Hyunwoo spoke.

“Sure.” Eun bid farewell to Changkyun, grabbed her own coat, and went outside. Technically, her power prevented her from requiring a coat, but she didn’t want people staring at her flimsy shirt. She needed to blend in, after all.

The familiar setting settled in front of her eyes when the car halted. It was the same place of two years ago where she met the odd guy. Her eyes unconsciously darted to the same corner, and indeed, a larger crowd had gathered.

“Go on. You may spend your time there until I return,” Hyunwoo told her, placing immense trust in her. He knew she would never run away, because she had no other place to go to.

Eun didn’t realize she was smiling in response, bobbing her head as she followed the source of the crowd’s laughter. Using her petite body, she skillfully wiggled her way through the crowd, earning the front row seat again.

There he was, as goofy and aloof as he had been two years ago. He grew much taller in their time apart, and she visualized herself reaching his shoulder. He still looked as youthful as before, having a boyish charm to his playful grin.

One would assume an improvement in skills and ability over time, but why had he gotten clumsier? He was trying to spin plastic plates on a pole clenched between his teeth, but as he looked up, his expression darkened at the realization it might fall on him. He muffled a panicked sound, and began wiggling left and right to find balance. His body created such exaggerated movements that almost seemed rehearsed to a trained eye. Within a split second, he lost the hold of his balance, allowing the plates to fall right unto his face. The people roared and applauded with laughter.

Eun looked confused. He was doing it again; making a fool out of himself to bring laughter to these people. Why would he ruin himself using such severe methods?

She waited until the performance ended before she approached him.

“So you enjoy pain, is it?” She asked.

The boy glanced up at her, and at recognizing her face, broke into a smile resembling the rising sun. It radiated so brightly even darkness could not prosper.

“Don’t liken me to a masochist. It is not the pain that I enjoy,” he said, chuckling deliriously at her blank face.

“Then, what is?”

“It is the forthcoming joy that allows me to endure the pain,” he spoke, setting the same red and green hat on his head. It wasn’t as loose as before, no longer trying to swallow his head.

Eun exhaled deeply, staring lazily at him. “You have to stop talking in riddles and use words I can understand.”

Instead, he answered with another grin, and started dancing his way to her before doing another cartwheel. She was surprised, but the weirder his act got, the wider her smile became. She laughed against her own will.

“I would do anything to make people smile. People are most beautiful when they smile,” he told her in an odd upside down position. Then he sprung back on his feet, landing a little too close in front of her face.

Eun flinched. Her heart somersaulted. She backed away. “You’re weird.”

“No, I’m Jooheon,” he corrected with a mischievous grin. “And you are…?”

“Eun.”

He raised his eyebrows, finally showing a different expression other than his cheerfulness. “Just Eun?”

“Yes. I was abandoned as a baby. Hyunwoo found me and named me Eun.”

“How terrible. My parents died when I was two, and I’ve been living at the orphanage since then.” Jooheon vaguely stretched his arm to pinpoint a certain direction. After realizing his unhelpful guidance, he turned back to her. “What about you?”

“Hyunwoo is the owner and founder of Cirque de Monstres. I live there.”

His eyes widened in surprise and his jaw dropped. He began jumping up and down, doing a comical dance that expressed his excitement instead of trying to seem foolish.

“Oh, I love circuses. Are you a performer too? What do you do?”

Eun had never seen anyone this excited about the line of work in a circus. She may be young, but she never witnessed such expression of joy before, not even on her fellow circus mates.

“I help others, because I am not good enough to do anything myself. Last time I almost set the circus on fire,” she said solemnly, a stark contrast to the glee he expressed.

“Nonsense! It takes great skills to set an entire circus tent on fire. I would have loved to be there and witness it,” Jooheon spoke, jumping from one feet to another.

Eun had no idea whether he was kidding or genuine—she would’ve questioned his sanity a little if he had been serious. Yet, she couldn't help but chuckle again.

“Perhaps you could be my accomplice.”

“To burn down circus tents? I am afraid I am not worthy of such grandiose tasks,” Jooheon said, dramatizing a woeful act as he swung his arm against his forehead like a helpless maiden.

Eun laughed louder. Visualizing it in her head was funny. Then the merry sound faded into her endless worries, remembering her reality. “I've been trying to learn other people’s acts though.”

Jooheon was silenced, staring at her blankly with his head tilted sideways. “Why would you do that?” He questioned with genuine wonderment in his voice.

“Because their acts are so much nicer than what I could ever achieve. Plus, it wouldn’t trouble other people.”

The silence momentarily took over before Jooheon burst out into a hearty chuckle. “Don’t you know the trick to a good performance?”

“There’s a trick?”

“Certainly,” Jooheon said, nodding his head in excitement. “The trick is to never compare yourself to others, and to keep doing what only you can do. I sure can’t put a tent on fire.”

The humor in his words was not reciprocated, and Eun stared down at her winter boots. The reason why she couldn’t swing on the trapeze, fit into a small box, talk to a doll, address an audience, or tame animals was because she had been trying to fit herself into a place she didn’t belong. She forced a puzzle piece to fit into a space it wasn’t meant for.

“I hope I’ll be able to come and witness it someday though,” Jooheon said, smiling as he kept his gaze on her.

“The burnt circus tent?”

“No. Cirque de Monstres.” He beamed just at the thought of it, and flashed another grin that could bring world peace. “I’d like to see you perform.”

Eun was caught off guard by his final statement, forgetting her ability to deflect and deny for a moment. For one second, as he stared at her with such confidence, she believed she could do it. There was something in his gaze that inspired her to try. Her fear and trauma of being ridiculed seemed to have disappeared. It was the sort of magic she had never encountered before.

Before she had a chance to utter a response, she heard Hyunwoo calling out to her from a distance. She had to part with Jooheon, and her heart felt heavy all of the sudden.

“I’ll see you, Eun.”

The girl couldn‘t help but smile at that before she her heels and ran back to Hyunwoo. She greeted him with a hug, burying her face against his stomach. She wondered whether he would notice her face warming up as the weather got colder. Then she asked him an innocent question.

“Can Jooheon join the circus?”

It made Hyunwoo’s eyebrows twist in surprise, looking a little apologetic. “You know we have rules about that.”

Eun knew, and she looked down with protruding lips. She wished Jooheon could stay with them.

***

The young male performer was perhaps the one and only human being she had ever interacted with outside of the circus. Even as years passed by, she hadn’t been interested to go with Hyunwoo to his meetings unless it was for that particular donor.

During the time she remained at the heart of the tent, she practiced her act. She wanted her next meeting with Jooheon to be quite a spectacular one; where she could meet his expectation, and capture his joy.

“Do you think it would be weird for me perform my own act?” She asked one day, earning a stare of disbelief from Changkyun.

“Are you planning on burning Matthew my circus tiger again?” He asked, his tone playful.

“I’m sorry.” She looked down, fiddling her fingers into a knot. “It’s a stupid idea. Forget I suggested it in the first place.”

Before she got up, Changkyun grabbed her by the arm. “I never said it was a stupid idea. I just needed you to promise you will leave the tiger alone.”

Eun blinked her eyes. “You actually trust me?”

Changkyun let go of her and started laughing. “Eun, the only person who doesn’t trust you is you yourself. The reason we agreed to let you help out in our acts is because we believe in you.”

The idea seemed so absurd at first, but as she talked with others, they were more accepting than she had expected.

“I think you are ready for your solo act,” Hyunwoo agreed when she proposed the plan to him. He started planning possible concepts for her, not noticing the girl hesitantly tapping her feet behind her leg.

“Uhm… I’d also like to give Jooheon a special invitation…” She said, avoiding the gaze from Hyunwoo’s eyes. Her entire body engulfed itself in the heat of a fire pool reflected through the color on her cheeks.

“Ah,” Hyunwoo hummed, knowing exactly whom she was talking about. He found it impressive considering she hadn’t forgotten about him over the years. She truly was special in the way others were ordinary. These circus performers may be monsters, but they held onto moral codes others tend to neglect, such as loyalty.

He retrieved the glossiest ticket from his drawer and wrapped it inside a fancy black envelope. “It should be better to give this out personally. Go on, now.”

Eun waited no longer to get into the car, and travelled to that same corner at the end of the street. It had been three years. She wondered if he would have remembered her the same way she remembered him. He probably had many friends at the orphanage to occupy his mind with, but to her, he was the only one.

There he was, leaning against the wall in complete solitude for once. He rubbed his hand together in front of a dry ash filled firewood. He wasn’t rushing to go back home, nor was he trying to bring cheers on people’s faces, but the sight of him alone was enough to trigger a jolt of happiness within her.

“Odd to see you not making a fool out of yourself,” she greeted him with a joke, anticipating the way he would smile at her presence.

When he looked up at her, she felt her heart stop beating for the second time in her lifetime. The boyish quality transformed into the charm of a young Adonis. His jawline was more prominent, and the gaze in his eyes just as equally sharp. His lips seemed slightly paler as he parted to speak in a deep voice she barely recognized.

“Pardon me, but who are you?”

Eun felt the vision of her anticipated reaction shatter into a million broken pieces. He didn’t smile or try to make her laugh. He didn’t even remember her. Her failed plan upsetted her enough to bring forth her tears. How foolish she had been.

“A-are you crying? Wait, I was just kidding, Eun.” Jooheon quickly got up from his feet, panicking at the crying girl. His attempt to trick her into good cheers had gone awry. He didn’t know what to do other than to wrap his arm around her smaller frame, fitting her awkwardly against his chest. The frozen fragments on his body strangely melted by her warmth. “I could never forget you.”

The statement alone made Eun cry harder, feeling undeserving of such affection. It took minutes before she calmed down into soft sobs, properly handing him the front row tickets to watch their show afterwards. This time, his reaction was exactly the way she had imagined it in her head, aside from his deep voice that underwent puberty.

“I never got to know what you actually do,” Jooheon spoke, staring at the ticket with an unfazed gaze, then at her. His eyes lost his spark, consumed by new exhaustion instead.

Rather than telling him, she chose to show him. With graceful movements, she twirled her hand to reach out to an invisible item, each fingers following along in perfect sync. When she unclasped the palm of her hand, a ball of fire appeared. She easily threw it into the fire wood, watching the small flame burst into a generous size for a campfire.

Jooheon stared at the dancing flames with utmost concentration. It seemed so surreal, but the warmth he found within was real. He averted his gaze to her, grinning in disbelief. “You can make fire.”

“Not quite exactly,” Eun said, flicking her finger to trace nonsensical symbols in the air. Every movement elicited the flames to move accordingly. “I can control it as well. My entire body is always warm because of this curse.”

Jooheon gaped a little dramatically, returning to the childlike wonderment she was so fond of. He suddenly grazed her hand with his own, stopping the fire from its waltz. He tested the temperature of her hand, and indeed, found comforting warmth.

“It isn’t a curse,” he spoke softly, smiling as he intertwined their fingers together. “It is a gift.”

Eun had never experienced this, not knowing what to do. The heat began rising throughout her body, forming drops of perspiration on her forehead and her hand. She held in her breath, afraid he would realize something amiss if he heard her staggering rhythm. Her heart found such ecstasy in his single touch.

“You are going to make so many people smile,” he said, wanting to release her hand.

She did not know what overcame her when her fingers unconsciously gripped tighter, preventing him from moving. For a moment they stared at each other in the stretch of silence, but he had long retracted his intention to release her.

“Does it ever occur to you that the people are laughing at you? Why would you continue to let them ridicule you?” She asked softly, resting her gaze on their hands. Even after many years, she had never found the answer.

“I’d like to think they are laughing because of me. In a world consumed by depression, being the source for people’s happiness is a great privilege. It is for that reason that I make a fool out of myself to bring them the slightest bit of joy they can find.”

Eun experienced a moment of epiphany whereby mental gears started rotating in place, and emotional vaults were unlocked. To the riddle he had given her many years ago, she finally understood the answer.

He smiled, a bit more crooked than his animated grins. He tilted her hand towards himself and gently pressed his cold lips against her burning skin, feeling her power spread over him in a temporary comfort.

“I will watch from the front row.”

***

Eun wore a bigger version of the costume she wore when she was eight. The design was heavily inspired by the gothic style and a sinister black and red color palette to enhance their looks as ‘monsters.’ Her entire face was coated in white paint, with decorations of red diamonds painted below her eye.

“Ready for your debut?” Changkyun asked, looking back at her with no sense of anxiety. He held the curtains open at an angle to take a peek outside. The circus tent was packed again.

“I won’t know until I try,” Eun said, unable to mask the nervous trembling in her voice. She tried her hardest not to display her real emotion. It didn’t matter how many people had come, she wanted Jooheon to watch her performance.

“That’s the spirit! Good luck!”

Minhyuk occupied the center of the ring, drawing all eyes towards him using his abilities. “It is time to introduce a hot new debut never seen before. Prepare yourselves to stand amazed at the Fire Lady!”

Eun had found the name quite stupid and embarrassing, but Minhyuk managed to stir the crowd into a welcoming uproar. She mentally remembered the way those people had laughed at her failure and inadequacy, but then she visualized Jooheon’s warm supporting eyes. At once, her fears vanished.

With every step bearing new confidence, Eun leaped into the stage to take a seat at the huge aerial ring at the center, wrapped with numerous red drapery around it. Two big torches of fire were placed to her left and right, ready to aid her in her performance.

With a single hand movement, as graceful as a ballet dancer, she swayed her hand to control the fire. As her body moved and twisted around the hoop, the audience realized the fire were mimicking her movements. It looked like three dancers had taken over the stage, moving in perfect reflection of one another, though two were made of fire.

Then her act got grander, and she clasped and unclasped her fingers with the grace of a fairy, watching the fire increase in size. She pulled her arms back, which spun and singled the big fire into a long burning swirl that stretched apart from its main source. She twirled her fingers, shaping the flame into a fireball. In the midst of the crowd’s amazement, she surprised them by throwing the fireball into random directions. When a chorus of gasps filled the air, afraid the fireball would hit them, Eun snapped her fingers in time. It released every single fireball into an explosion of colorful fireworks.

She couldn’t remember the rest of her act, only remembering the gleefulness visiting her heart when others found joy. She smiled when they smiled. She laughed when they laughed. She was no longer the object of their mockery, but the source of jubilant laughter.

By the time it was over, her fellow circus friends came by to offer congratulatory words, saying how proud they were. She basked in their compliments, but soon remembered she had to find Jooheon.

With the dark setting and the spotlights on her, she hadn’t been able to identify anyone in the crowd. She believed Jooheon was among the sea of people exiting the tent, and it wouldn’t take long to find him. But seconds turned into minutes, and minutes turned into hours. Eun had been eyeing the moving visitors, not spotting her special guest even when the circus tent had emptied.

“I need to go for a while,” she announced to the others, not thinking straight in the spur moment of time. Luckily, Hyunwoo understood her well enough to tag along without questioning her. The crystal beads flowing down her eyes explained the hurt and betrayal she felt. She needed answers.

Their car stopped in the usual corner where Hyunwoo would meet up with the donor. But today, Eun ran out of the car, looking around to sight Jooheon. And indeed, he still laid idle in the same spot.

Eun ran to him, not knowing what to say, or how to express her disappointment. Maybe she’d let her tears do the work, maybe she’d yell in frustration. So she squatted down in front of him, still in her costume.

There was an odd sense of tranquility from the way his eyelids remained shut despite her calls. His lips were parched and nearly as purple as a wilted lavender. A touch of his hand, and for once, she felt an incredible cold that overpowered the warmth of her body. It was a feeling she had never experienced, and it scared her. With it came vast emptiness, and the pain of being hurt and rejected.

How could she not have noticed it? He had been lifeless and lost his free spirited will the day before. He hadn’t been doing his goofy stunts, because he couldn’t. The boy was suffering, counting down the final seconds of his life, and yet he spent his final breath encouraging her. He couldn’t have seen her performance when he was dying.

However, where one would usually break out into mournful tears, Eun’s lips curved into a relieved smile. She clasped both hands around his, trying to keep it as warm as possible as she looked back at the approaching man.

Hyunwoo’s coat was a black color that camouflaged among the night. As he headed over, his silhouette looked like that of a grim reaper. Indeed, he collected souls, but not for death.

He kept a silent gaze on the young boy as seconds fleeted by. Then, the boy’s eyes sprung open. He knew by then the boy was dead.

Jooheon was utterly confused, as he should’ve been, and looked around him. He noticed Eun’s hands around his, and he stared up into her white painted face. The first sound he elicited after his death was that of gleeful laughter.

Then Hyunwoo knelt down, meeting him face to face. “Jooheon, is it?”

“Yes, sir.”

“How would you feel about joining Cirque de Monstres?”

Jooheon’s eyes jumped wide in amazement, staring at Eun for confirmation that he wasn’t dreaming. A small nod of her head was all it took to formulate his reply. “I would love to!”

“Good, you’d fit right in.”

Eun couldn’t have asked for a better way to end her spectacular performance. She held Jooheon up and supported his weight by placing his arm around her shoulder.

“Now you can truly be my accomplice,” she uttered lowly towards him, the red blush hiding beneath the white face paint when she realized he was too close to her cheeks. He nearly kissed her, and she would’ve let him. “We could work together on a new act.”

Jooheon soon burst into his usual grin. “As long as it’s with you, I have no objection.”

Indeed, he’d fit in perfectly among the rest, because they shared a similar history of being abandoned and rejected. Society saw them as monsters, but they were more humane than the living. Hyunwoo continued giving life towards the death, only because he saw what others were blinded to. If one looked hard enough, one would find wondrous beauty even in the smallest defects. That was the true gift only a few could possess.

Fin.

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Eyah! I reaaaally hope that you liked it! I am trying out a new writing style, and I've been wanting to try writing a circus AU, so thank you for letting me experiment through your gift~ Reading your requested genres, this is what I could come up with (romance, friendship, slight fantasy, not too fluffy, not too angsty, and not scary). Even if you don't like the story, I hope you got the overall message through this! It's a happy ending, see? <3