—~~—

17

Jongin went flying through the forest, his body on autopilot.  He had grown long and lanky in the past winter months, but he no longer tripped on the underbrush that lined the green pathways; he could probably traverse this trail with his eyes closed.

It was his first day back to summer camp, and he was in a particular hurry.

It'd been a whole year since he’s spoken to Kyungsoo—seen Kyungsoo—, and Jongin had a burning question that he needed to ask the older male.

He burst into the clearing, out of breath and sweating as usual.  "Kyungsoo!" he yelled jubilantly, voice cracking and going higher in pitch.  He cleared his throat, a blush rising to his cheeks, and started again.  "Kyungsoo! I'm back---"

The words died on his lips as he stared at the small log cabin that was nestled near the boulder.  

Where did that come from? Who----?

A familiar sensation crept over him, and Jongin stiffened automatically, wondering where Kyungsoo was spying on him from this time. 

Jongin's eyes caught movement from the open window of the house, and he squinted, tilting his head.  Kyungsoo stood inside, a weird, half-smirk on his face.  The older male came forward, leaned out of the open window so that his muscular forearms were braced upon the sill.  "Welcome back," he greeted, voice as low and smooth as Jongin remembered.  

The younger boy cleared his throat again, feeling parched all of a sudden. Kyungsoo narrowed his eyes and Jongin straightened in self-consciousness, pulling himself to attention.  He fixed a grin on his face and raced toward the house, relieved that Kyungsoo seemed welcoming.  He'd been afraid after the way they'd parted last summer that Kyungsoo wouldn't show up anymore.  That he would just slip out of Jongin’s life in the same silent manner that he'd seemed to slip in.

Jongin stepped through the doorway, a hundred questions on flying through his mind.  He had so many things to ask, little things that had piled up over the winter.

But first, there was one very important question that he was dying to know the answer to.

"Kyungsoo,…” he said, even as he looked around the small two-bedroom house with interest.  He paused in his exploration and turned to face the quiet male.  "Have you ever been in love?"

Kyungsoo went completely still, his eyes suddenly flat and black, staring back at him impassively.  A typical expression.  But Jongin had started to pick up on the minute differences in that blank stare.  Right now, for instance, he could tell that Kyungsoo was actually a little shocked, eyes slightly wider than normal. 

The older man continued to stare at Jongin, and Jongin held perfectly still, desperately wanting to know the answer to his question. 

“Yes, I’ve been in love.” Kyungsoo’s gaze dropped.  “I still am.”

Jongin’s heart pinched at the quiet admission.  “Does she live with you? In the forest?”

Kyungsoo turned toward the doorway, his posture beginning to close Jongin out.  Jongin thought for a second he wouldn’t get a response from Kyungsoo, that he’d pushed too far, wanted to know too much, but Kyungsoo spoke again.

“No.  He died a long time ago.”

He?

Jongin could feel a blush crawling up his neck again, a weird kick in his stomach.

He?

It was such a taboo where he came from, for a man to love another man, to feel attraction for another male.  Such an ugly taboo, that Jongin had been scared of his own heart, his own feelings.  Because he was quite sure that it was not soft and pretty females that drew his interest.     

“He died a long time ago, but I will never stop loving him.”

That weird kick in Jongin’s stomach solidified and sank like a heavy anchor.  An overwhelming sense of sadness had begun to creep throughout the cabin, and Jongin cleared his throat, decided to try and steer the conversation in a different direction.

“So, um…is this where you’re going to live now?”

Kyungsoo walked through the doorway without another word, melting into the forest as he tended to do. 

Jongin stepped outside and didn’t even attempt to follow him.  He sighed and glanced upward, could tell that the sun had begun to set by the slant of the shadows.  He needed to get back to camp.  

 He would try again tomorrow.

--~~--   

It took him a whole week before he worked up the courage to ask Kyungsoo another question.  The older male had been quiet, but at least he’d deigned Jongin still worthy of his presence.

They were hiking through a part of forest that was so thick with branches and leaves that it created a sort of arching green tunnel.  Over the years, it had become one of Jongin’s favorite places to walk.  He was following behind Kyungsoo, as usual, watching the way his broad shoulders bunched and relaxed as he moved wayward vines and branches from the pathway.

“How do you know when you’re in love?” Jongin blurted.

Kyungsoo didn’t stop moving, but glanced over his shoulder, one thick brow raised, disappearing into the fringe of his dark bangs.

Jongin felt like his face was on fire.

They reached the end of the tunnel before the older male answered.  The forest cleared, the trees petering out into nothing, the view open for several miles.  In the not too distant distance, Jongin’s hometown rose from the ground like a giant concrete monstrosity.  Foreign, unnatural.  Manmade.  He and Kyungsoo found a low branch to sit on, and then they both just stared out at the cityscape for a while.  The sweat cooled on Jongin’s skin as a soft breeze brushed by.

“You know you’re in love because you find yourself thinking about the other person all the time,”  Kyungsoo said lowly.  “You want to know what makes them happy, what makes them sad?  If they aren’t right next to you, you wonder what they could be doing instead.  They make your heart beat fast, but at the same time you feel so calm around them, comfortable…. You’d do anything for them.  Be anything for them.”

Jongin turned his head slightly, just enough to surreptitiously study Kyungsoo’s profile as he spoke.  The thoughtful tilt of his head, the open vulnerability in his eyes. The planes of his face had softened into an expression that Jongin had never seen on him before. 

His heart sped just a tiny bit as he watched the way the sunlight fell across Kyungsoo’s face, the way the breeze stirred his hair, leaves rustling around him in a soft whisper.  In that moment, Jongin felt there was something so very raw, and wild, and powerful about Kyungsoo, but also something so very delicate and tender.  Something on the verge of breaking.  

“The other person feels like home,” Kyungsoo finished, turning to stare directly into Jongin’s eyes.  Jongin blinked and his gaze darted away in embarrassment from being caught.  Kyungsoo probably thought he was the weirdest person in the world.  

Freak. Freak. Freak.  

Just like all the people back in the city. 

“Why do you want to know?”

Jongin stiffened in surprise.  He hadn’t expected Kyungsoo to ask him why he wanted to know.  Kyungsoo never asked him questions.  “I just…,” he inhaled deeply and forced himself to look back up, “I keep thinking about this one person.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, he’s…,”  Jongin’s throat closed up as it always did when he had such taboo thoughts.  Thoughts that weren’t normal.  It was just so wrong to like another male.  But Kyungsoo was staring at him with absolutely no judgement.  And Kyungsoo himself had already admitted that he had feelings for another male, so Jongin closed his eyes and forced the words out.  “He goes to school with me.  He’s at camp this year too.”

A lie.  

There was no boy at school or camp.  There was a boy who lived in the woods, and had dark hair and a short stature. He was hard to read and he didn’t really say much, but that didn’t stop Jongin from thinking about him all the time.  

Summer after summer.  Winter after winter.  An endless cycle of Kyungsoo, Kyungsoo, Kyungsoo.

“Do you want to get back then?  So you can spend time with him?”

“No!” Jongin answered quickly— a little too quickly.  His breathing was starting to get a little fast, a weird feeling creeping over him, as though he’d revealed too much.  He was waiting for Kyungsoo’s gaze to change to one of pity, disgust.  

Freak.

“I mean, it’s okay,” Jongin amended weakly, feeling himself start to tremble.  “I’ll see him tonight.  And tomorrow.”

Kyungsoo turned away with a shrug, seemingly indifferent to the matter.  “Suit yourself.”

Jongin exhaled heavily through his nose, suddenly wishing he were near one of those distant brick walls so he could bang his head against it.

So embarrassing.  Everything about you is so embarrassing and wrong.  

Jongin was too young for someone like Kyungsoo, too weird and gangly, and dumb.

Kyungsoo stood, the movement smooth and graceful.  “Time to head back.”  He walked off without another word.

Jongin sighed.  He was probably nothing but a nuisance to Kyungsoo, constantly showing up and following him around, asking questions and talking all the time.  Why would Kyungsoo even think twice about you?

Especially if he were still in love with someone from his past? Jongin stared out at his home city, his heart pulsing with hurt and dejection.  He swung his legs beneath himself and hopped to the ground, blinking furiously before turning to follow Kyungsoo back into the forest. 

—~~—

The sun was dropping low in the sky, and Kyungsoo was climbing the tallest tree that still remained in his small swatch of land.  The lower branches were as big around as one of his legs, but the smaller branches, the higher ones…they were much less substantial.  The thin limbs began to bow under his weight as he continued to climb higher, but he felt no fear.  The branches would hold.  His powers were particularly strong today. So Kyungsoo kept climbing until he was swaying in the very tip-top of the tree, looking out over his pitiful territories.  

Looking out in the direction of the human camp.

Jongin hadn’t come to visit him today.  The first time in almost three summers.  

And as much as he hated to admit it, Jongin’s absence made him feel…uneasy.  As though a reliable routine had been disrupted.  And he didn’t like it.  He didn’t like it one bit.

He blew out an annoyed huff and rested an elbow against the tree, wondering what the young Human could be up to.  Perhaps he was spending time with that boy he had mentioned yesterday?  

Kyungsoo drummed his fingers against the bark of the tree, and the leaves shuddered in response.  

“What?”  Kyungsoo questioned to the forest around him.  “I’m not agitated.  I’m just…”

He had been caught off guard when Jongin had started asking questions about love.  Jongin had always asked Kyungsoo a lot of questions, but he had always kind of steered clear when it came to questions that delved into Kyungsoo’s past.  

Honestly, Kyungsoo had surprised himself when he’d actually answered Jongin yesterday.  Love was an emotion he remembered, but it was not one that he had truly felt in a long time.  He wasn’t really sure where that answer yesterday had come from, how he’d conjured those words up so easily.  Perhaps he’d had a lot of time his past winter to really reflect on his feelings for Kai, and so they were still close to the surface, those remembered emotions.

He smoothed his hand along the tree again, feeling lonely.  A vine twined around his finger in comfort.

“Yeah,”  Kyungsoo mumbled.  “Maybe he’ll be back tomorrow.”

—~~—

After three days of avoiding Kyungsoo, Jongin finally decided he was capable of putting a lid on his budding emotions, and at least act as though everything were as normal as the past few summers.  He could do that for a couple of weeks, just until the session ended. 

He slipped away from the camp as he always did, nobody bothering to ask where he was going or follow after him.  Over the past few years, he’d created the quiet reputation of being invisible.  It was easier to disappear that way.  He hit the path, found the ravine, passed the waterfall, entered the forest.  

Kyungsoo was sitting on the boulder when he entered the clearing, almost as if he were waiting for him.

Jongin paused, wondering if the older male had actually been concerned over his absence.  He cleared his throat, and Kyungsoo blinked, relaxing back into a more unaffected pose.  

“I, um…I brought sandwiches,” Jongin started.  “If you’re hungry.”  

Kyungsoo inhaled deeply, his chest expanding, the fabric of his shirt stretching tight.  “Yeah,” he said, voice low.  “But I want to take you somewhere first.”

“Somewhere?—“

“You’ve never been there before.”

Jongin cocked his head.  “Okay.  Let’s go.”

Kyungsoo stood from his place on the boulder and held out his hand, invitation clear.  Jongin took a step forward and slipped his palm into the older male’s, allowing himself to pulled upward.  Kyungsoo’s hand was calloused, warm and rough were it engulfed Jongin’s own.

“We’re climbing,”  Kyungsoo said as he hauled Jongin up onto the large rock.  “Here, let me take the backpack.”

“Wait, we’re climbing into the trees?”

“I’ll help you.”

“What if I fall and die?”

“I said I’ll help you.  You’ll be fine.”

“I don’t think you understand how uncoordinated I am.”

“You’re not uncoordinated.  Now do you want to come or not?”

Oh, Jongin wanted to come, and he was going to climb, despite the very definite risk of him falling to his death.  Kyungsoo was offering to take him somewhere special, somewhere he’d never taken Jongin before, and for some reason, it felt like a big deal.  A glimpse into the closely guarded secret of Kyungsoo’s forest life.

From the boulder, Kyungsoo easily reached with both hands to grab a low-hanging branch, his forearms flexing with the force of his grip.  Jongin swallowed heavily as the shorter male suddenly shot upward, all upper body strength.  Kyungsoo lifted himself onto the branch as though it were nothing, gracefully settling himself, backpack and all.  He turned to look down at Jongin expectantly.  

Jongin blinked up at him.

Kyungsoo stared back.

“Oh, right,” Jongin gestured toward the branch.  “My turn. Yeah.  I’ll just….I’m um….right behind you.”  

This is going to be awful.

Jongin wiped his sweaty palms on his pants before reaching out to hold onto the branch.  Kyungsoo had already stealthily moved to another perch, affording Jongin more room to climb.  Jongin inhaled deeply, tightened his grip, and then lifted himself upward.  

Or well.  He tried.

He trembled with effort as he tried to lift his own body weight high enough, but he couldn’t quite crest the branch.

Please, if I can just get onto this one branch, I’ll work out all winter.  I’ll take a break from eating chocolate.  I’ll do twenty pushups every night for the rest of my life.  Please, just don’t let me fall.  Please. I’m so embarrassing already….

He huffed and pulled, swung himself a bit, eventually managed to somehow get one leg over the branch.

And now he was hanging from the tree like a giant, overgrown sloth.

Jongin closed his eyes, considered letting go and falling onto the boulder below.  

A sharp snort had him opening his eyes to stare above where Kyungsoo was trying (and failing) to smother a laugh into his palm.  

Jongin huffed up at him.  “I told you!  I told you this was a terrible idea.  Let me down.  Kyungsoo come get me down from here.  I’m done. I’m finished.  That’s it.”

And Jongin was whining and complaining, wriggling a little bit, beyond caring how ridiculous he looked. He glanced back upward again, and his next words died on his lips.  In all the years he’d been coming to visit Kyungsoo, he had never seen the older male smile.

Not once.

But right now, Kyungsoo was smiling.  He was smiling so widely his cheeks were bunched and his eyes had disappeared into happy crescents.  Jongin had just enough presence of mind to vaguely note that Kyugsoo’s lips formed a sort of heart-shape when they pulled across his teeth like that—

—And then Jonign’s grip slipped and the world was suddenly upside down as he hung from the branch by only his legs.  His vision turned into black and white stripes as his shirt slid down and covered his face.  And now his entire torso was exposed.

Why?  Why am I like this?

He knew Kyungsoo was back on the boulder because the older male’s voice was suddenly right beside him.  

“Maybe we’ll go another time.”  The cadence in Kyungsoo’s tone insinuated that maybe not.  

There was a light prod to Jongin’s chest, a fingertip to his sternum, and he jerked as though he’d been stung.  He hurriedly tried to pull his shirt back into place, glaring out at Kyungsoo, who was now only a foot away.  

“You’re possibly the worst climber I’ve ever seen.”

And Jongin felt a sudden surge of indignation, the need to prove him wrong.  “No!  I can do it.  Seriously.  Let’s go.”   But all the blood was rushing to his head, and it was really getting hard to even think straight, much less figure out how he was going to get out of this situation without cracking his skull open.  But strong hands were suddenly on his back lifting him upward, and Jongin released his shirt and grabbed for the branch instead, twisting to settle himself upright. 

He gave the black spots in his vision a moment to clear, and then Jongin carefully stood up and reached for the next branch.  He scrabbled up three more branches in a row before stopping to look back for Kyungsoo.  The dark-haired male was still standing on the boulder, hands on his hips, back pack settled on his shoulders as he stared upward.  

For a moment, it felt as though their positions had somehow been reversed, that Jongin was the boy in the trees and Kyungsoo the boy from the city that came to visit every summer.  An obnoxious boy with a backpack, standing on the boulder and staring upwards.  Jongin shifted so he had a better view of Kyungsoo’s face.  Through the leaves, he could just barely see the smile that quirked the corner of Kyungoo’s lips.

He wondered what it would be like to go to school with Kyungsoo.  To go out to eat afterward, maybe share a cup of ice cream.  What flavor would Kyungsoo like the best?  Probably something plain, like vanilla, or chocolate…

Down below, Kyungsoo moved, his strong arms lifting him upward, bare feet gripping the tree with ease, and the vision was broken.  

Jongin snorted.  

Kyungsoo no more belonged in a city than Jongin belonged in a tree.

He wiped the sweat from his brow, and reached for the next branch.

—~~—

“Here.”

Jongin grabbed Kyungsoo’s hand, and allowed the older male to pull him up the last bit of the way.  He huffed and sprawled outward on the flat planks of wood beneath him, allowing himself to rest for a moment.  

He’d made it.

Jongin blew his bangs from his forehead and stared upwards, wondering at the thick growth of branches and vines above him.  They formed a sort of domed roof, so perfectly fused and notched, curving gracefully upward, that Jongin had a hard time convincing himself they hadn’t just naturally grown that way.  “Did you build this place too?”

Kyungsoo was moving around somewhere to his left, and Jongin sat up slowly, savoring the moment and taking everything in.  

“I did.”

They were in a sort of treehouse, with solid wooden planks that served as flooring and open spaces between the twisting branches that created windows.  A cross-breeze wafted inward and Jongin lifted his face toward the cool air, his gaze darting around to take in the eclectic collection of objects that decorated the walls.  

There were strange pieces of scrap metal, curved and rusted, hanging along the walls. Here and there, shelves were lodged between branches and Jongin tilted his head at the old pieces of green bottle glass and broken ceramics that refracted sunlight back toward him.  

He crawled closer to the shelves, squinting.  There was a small jar, filled with metal pellets that were no bigger than his pinky finger.  Some of them were flattened from use, others completely round, and whole.  Jongin had never shot a gun before but he knew enough to recognize that what he was looking at was ammunition.  Next to the jar was a pair of metal scissors that had rusted completely, but still held their shape, and next to that, an old aluminum can.

Jongin tilted his head and moved on to a different shelf.  This one was covered in plastic.  A group of plastic bottles, half of a plastic frisbee, a grocery sack, the bottom of a red Solo cup, and ….something that was orange.  Maybe part of a construction cone?  Hard to tell.

“What is all of this?”  he asked, eyes roving over what looked to be a chunk of rotted leather… a shoe sole maybe?  

Kyungsoo was suddenly beside him, staring at the objects with an unblinking intensity.  “Just things that humans have left behind.  Basically trash.”

And there was a lot of it.  Everywhere Jongin looked, there were things—just things— stashed away, carefully organized.  Every object had its place among the twining branches and leaves, until it was almost impossible to tell whether or not the plants were intruding on the objects or the objects intruding on the plants.  The overall effect was a strange sort of orderly chaos that was unnaturally…beautiful.  

But also kind of sad.

These harsh manmade objects did not belong against the delicate green foliage of the leaves or the dark brown flesh of the branches.  This collection almost seemed like a weird human-made tumor that had flourished within the walls of the forest.  

Jongin’s gaze slipped from the bits of litter and came to rest on the male next to him.  Why had he collected all these things?  Taken the time to stack and pose them so carefully?  

“Sandwich?”

Jongin flinched, tried to look anywhere but at Kyungsoo, but he knew Kyungsoo had definitely caught him staring at him.  He accepted the food, shoving the sandwich into his mouth to block the questions that were threatening to come sprouting out.  His gaze eventually settled on the low storm clouds that were building outside, beginning to block the sunlight.  Jongin tried very hard to ignore the heat that was creeping up his neck. 

“I’ve lived in this forest for a long time.” 

Jongin glanced over again, surprised that Kyungsoo was sharing even that bit of information with him.  Jongin sank to the floor of the treehouse, sandwich in hand, and Kyungsoo sat down next to him.  There was a colorful rug, cushy, made out of different fabrics.  Jongin settled in. 

“Just out of curiosity, Jongin, how old do you think I am?”

Jongin chewed thoughtfully for a second, weighing that question in his mind.  It was one he’d thought about a lot over the years.  “Early twenties? Late-twenties at the most.”

Kyungsoo snorted, a flash of amusement lighting his eyes.  “Why do you think I’m out here?  Living in the forest all by myself?  Don’t you think it’s weird?”

“It is weird,” Jongin answered immediately, swallowing hard.  “It’s super weird.  But who am I to judge?  People tell me I’m weird all the time.  My reason for coming out here is because I just wanted to be alone.  But I don’t why you’re out here.  Maybe you were raised by the forest animals and this has always been your home?  Maybe you used to live in the city, but people judged you and shamed you for having feelings for another man, and so you escaped to a place where they couldn’t reach you?  Or maybe you work for the government and you’re doing top secret research?”  

Jongin was breathing fast, his eyes darting around the room.  He felt like his words were exploding out of him. All the questions and theories and his own fears that had been building within him for years now just coming out in an unstoppable wave.  

“I mean, honestly, you could be an escaped convict that’s been hiding out in the forest for years.  Maybe you’re about to murder me and add my bones to your collection, but who knows? Not me.”

Jongin’s gaze eventually settled on Kyungsoo.  He looked a bit startled in the wake of Jongin’s answer, but eventually a slow grin curved his lips and his eyes crinkled in amusement.  Jongin’s mind slowed back down to a staticky sort of silence as he basked in that smile.  

Two in the same day.  Absolutely unheard of.

“Ah, well… you wouldn’t believe the truth if I told you.”

“Try me,” Jongin urged.  

“No,” Kyungsoo snorted leaning back against the leg of a nearby table.  “I think it’s better if you never know.  Honestly, it’s not important anyways.”

Jongin blinked, a little let down.  “I wish you would tell me,” he mumbled. 

“Maybe one day you’ll figure it out on your own.”   

There was a distant rumble from outside, and Kyungsoo stood, attention focused toward the open sky.  The storm clouds had grown high, heavy with rain.  It wouldn’t take long for the storm to reach the forest.

“We should probably get you down before the rain comes…”

Jongin took one last look around the treehouse, as though it were an oasis, a mirage, that would disappear the moment he took a step away.  His eyes jumped from object to object, searching for the something in particular.  Something that gave away the presence of another person, someone that wasn’t Kyungsoo.  

Was he happy here, the person that Kyungsoo still loves?  Is this where they both stayed? Together?

 Jongin couldn’t tell.  He wished it didn’t bother him so much.  “Okay,” he said, crawling to the edge of the planks.  “Let’s go.”

—~~—

The rain reached them shortly after they started climbing down, and Kyungsoo felt a sick sense of foreboding curl in his gut.  

The water was making the tree branches slick, and even though he was climbing down in front of Jongin, stopping as often as he could to turn around and offer a hand, the younger boy was, for some reason, refusing to accept his help.  Jongin moved slowly, carefully, his eyes fixed on the his next step instead of on Kyungsoo.  

The rain was loud around them, pattering against the leaves and roaring to the ground.  Kyungsoo tried to keep his patience in check, wanting nothing more than to just scoop the Human up and get them down in seconds.  Safely. 

Kyungsoo turned back to climbing.  He could handle this, he could stay perfectly calm—

Right at that moment, Jongin let out a high sound of distress, and Kyungsoo turned just in time to see him slip from his branch.

Kyungsoo moved without thinking.  He shot downward, using his powers to manipulate the foliage, trying to reach Jongin before he hit the ground.

Save him, Kyungsoo demanded the Wilds. Slow him down.  And he felt the forest respond, vines shifting to cradle Jongin and dampen his fall, branches subtly moving to ease his way.

Kyungsoo landed on the forest floor just before Jongin crashed though the lower branches of the canopy, and Kyungsoo quickly positioned himself so that the Human fell into his arms.  The Earth Spirit grunted as the force of the fall slammed them both into the muddy earth.  

They laid there for a moment, both breathing heavily, Jongin’s backpack squished uncomfortably beneath Kyungsoo’s back.  Kyungsoo took stock of the situation, his heart pounding in his chest.  Jongin was completely on top of him, face buried in Kyungsoo’s neck, legs heavy against Kyungsoo’s own, unmoving.  

Several more seconds passed, the rain still hissing around them, and finally Jongin lifted his head.  His bangs were plastered to his forehead, water pooling down his cheeks and dripping from the pout of his lips.  

“You— how did you—?”

Kyungsoo stared up at him intently, ignoring his words.  “Are you okay?”

Jongin’s brows furrowed.  “I’m fine.“

Kyungsoo blinked, his vision going blurry for a second.   

Kai?

He blinked again, his eyes still playing trick on him.  The Flower Spirit had always loved the rain, would insist on running through the puddles until he was soaked and as saturated as the plants.  And Kyungsoo loved it best when the Flower Spirit would catch him in the middle of it all, press his lips hard against Kyungsoo’s, slick with rain and good energy.   

Kyungsoo reached out and slowly cupped Kai’s face, an overwhelming range of emotion igniting within his chest.

I miss you, I want you, come back.  

“Kyungsoo?”

He blinked, and suddenly remembered where he was.  The backpack was digging into his skin, the person on top of him was holding stock still, eyes wide.  Kyungsoo had lifted himself upward, so that their faces were close.  They were practically breathing the same air, his hand still settled against Jongin’s face.  The Human’s eyes darted down to Kyungsoo’s lips and back up.

Not Kai, Jongin.

Kyungsoo rolled them over, pushed the Human away with a gruff shove.  He stood and dropped the backpack to the ground.  “Go home, Jongin.”

He half expected a protest, a look of hurt confusion, but Jongin stood without a word, grabbing his backpack and hefting it over his shoulders.  The Earth Spirit watched the Human boy turn and dart down the path that led to the waterfall, a weird sense of anger beginning to creep through his veins.  

He was alone.  Again.  No Kai. No Jongin.  Just he and the last of the Wilds.  

He had nothing.  

Nothing, nothing, nothing.

Kyungsoo wanted to scream, shout, drop every bit of his power into the earth and rip it apart.  He wanted to disappear.  

He wanted to get off this forsaken piece of land, and he knew the rules, the stipulation he had to fulfill.  He knew exactly what he had to do, but he would not, he would not, betray Kai in order to do it. 

Kyungsoo took to the trees and headed in the opposite direction of Jongin.  He sank into himself, allowed the most basal nature of his spirit to take over his mind and drown out all of his emotions. 

He needed to remember who he was, and why he was here.  He was the forest, a Spirit of the Wilds, and Humans would always, always be the enemy. 

—~~—

A week passed, the last week of the summer camp session, and Jongin sat on the boulder, alone. 

The sun began to set, and still Jongin sat.  It wasn’t until darkness touched the tips of the trees that he stood with a sigh.  

“Next summer is my last summer, Kyungsoo.”

The Earth Spirit didn’t move from his hidden spot, his face carved of stone.

“I just wanted you to know that.”

Jongin left, shoulders slumped, lips pressed together in a frown.

Kyungsoo let him go.

—~~— 

A/N:  Wow, I really want to finish this story by Christmas!!  That deadline is only a month away now... yikes.    Hope everyone is doing well!  Thanks for reading, and thank you so much to everyone who left a comment last chapter.  <3

-RedThreads