Chaeyoung gently pulled her hands from Jungkook’s hold. She held his face and smiled at him as she wiped his tears. Chaeyoung tilted her head to press a kiss on Jungkook’s lips, letting her lips linger for a moment before she welcomed him into her embrace.

“Then, will you promise to do as you claimed you would?”

Jungkook’s hot breath blown toward her shoulder. He broke the embrace with such a deep frown. “Chaeyoung…”

“Do you promise, no matter what?”

He closed his eyes and reluctantly, he nodded. Chaeyoung smiled, gifting him a few more kisses all over his face, tenderly and unrushed. “Then, people should not worry.”

When Jungkook’s frown and concern were still apparent, Chaeyoung’s smile widened on her face. “I just needed your answer. I know you’re not a traitor. You will never be. I just needed you to hear yourself, to assure yourself that no matter what happens, you will remain loyal unlike your father. He might be related to you by blood, but you are nothing like him.”

“You are not a Dual,” he stated. His eyes were on hers, waiting for her confirmation.

“Yes, I am not.”

It was like he had been holding his breath the whole time that when he released a sigh, his chest seemed to drop ceaselessly. Jungkook buried his face into her chest, his arms wound around her body, crushing her into him.

“You will promise not to scare me like that again, Chaeyoung,” he said, voice slightly muffled.

Chaeyoung chuckled softly, her fingers gently twisting about his red locks. “Did it terrify you that I might be a Dual? A monster?”

“You as a Dual do not terrify me,” he said. “Losing you terrifies me.”

Chaeyoung’s lips formed a small smile. “Then do not push me away anymore.”

Jungkook pulled back slowly. His brows drawn together. “I am sorry,” he said, cupping her cheek. “I was trying to protect you.”

Her thumb rubbed his cheekbone momentarily, tracing the outline of his face as she stared into him. “I know you meant well,” she said. “And I know you wouldn’t do it if you knew.”

He stared at her confusedly. “If I knew?”

Chaeyoung inhaled softly and exhaled. She did it a few times. Another reason why she wanted to know what Jungkook would do if she was a Dual was that she wanted an assurance that being loyal to the village should be prioritized.

She had considered, for a brief period, to see Junhoe as no foe of hers. But with the revelation of who he was, and the relation of her own family members in the deal, sometimes, deep adoration and love should be sacrificed. She could never understand, though, how her father prioritized duty over anything else, yet he was betraying the village by keeping Junhoe’s identity a secret.

Jungkook, who was irrevocably in love with her, would also sacrifice love if it meant that people were going to be safe from harm of the Duals. She would do the same. She should do the same. Even if it meant that she needed to lose her family members who had silently betrayed them. She had known what she needed to do, but she had doubts. Now, uncertainty was no more. Even if the world went dark for her, she knew she still had the lights of her life. Her brother, her friend, and Jungkook.

Jungkook needed to know who Junhoe was. It was no longer a suspicion. Junhoe himself had confirmed it.

“You wouldn’t want me to be with Junhoe,” Chaeyoung calmly said, “if you knew that he is a Dual.”

The color disappeared from Jungkook’s face.

“The man whom I am supposed to be united to… is a Dual, Jungkook.”

Chaeyoung explained to him how she figured it out, how she became certain of it. She told him every single thing that he needed to know. Everything that Jimin told her, she let Jungkook know.

She hadn’t the slightest idea how she was going to confront her parents about it, but she knew that she would do it together with Jimin.

*

Jimin had just finished tending to a Cultivator child’s shattered toes, leading the boy out of the tent with his father when an agonizing cry of a woman pierced through the serenity of the Healing Sector.

The woman, looking slightly older than his mother, was of the Cultivator Sector. She had dropped to the ground, a younger woman on her back had fallen to the ground with a thud, body limp and unmoving. “Help!” the older woman cried.

Jimin rushed toward them at the same time two guards kneeled beside the two women. One guard tried to help the older woman up to her feet, the other one checked on the unconscious younger woman.

“Help my daughter!” the older woman pleaded, crying louder. “Please!”

“What happened?” Jimin asked, healing the older woman’s scraped knees but she couldn’t speak as she continued to sob.

The guard carefully turned the younger woman’s head to the other side, checking her pulse with furrowed brows. “Healer Park,” the guard looked up. “She’s still alive. But she’s too weak.”

Jimin noticed the paling of the woman’s skin, veins showing around her neck and temple and jaw, lips blue. Poison through ingestion, Jimin told himself in his mind.

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