“YOU’RE TOXIC, THE ACCUSED. YOU MAKE MY HEART DIZZY”

***

Hey Chaewon, everything will be just fine if you are not around.

Hey, if I can’t be better than you than I better die, right?

I will make sure to be better than you in my next life.

Red. Everything is painted in deep crimson color as Chaewon averted her gaze from such disturbing sight. However, she is greeted by a long howl coming from an older woman which she barely recognize.

“You kill my daughter! You take her away from me!”

That woman spouted nonsense as she attacked Chaewon.  The girl gritted her teeth as she rewatch the scene again.

“That child, to be dead at such young age. What a waste.”

Another voice is heard whispering loudly.

“This must be a curse. That kid not even affected when her friend dead in front of her eyes. What is she even thinking?”

Muffled voices are talking again from every corner.

“She is not even feel sorry for Siha. How cold can she be?”

This time, a group of young children are gathering in circle and starting their speculation.

Those voices are all sounds annoying in her ears. Chaewon closed her ears tightly and run away, distancing herself from those judgy people. She fully knows that they won’t even care if she explain to them so she decided to ignore them.

They didn’t even bother to stop harassing the girl, be it her classmates or adults around her. They keep pointing their fingers at Chaewon, blaming her for causing the death of her friend, Siha.

Chaewon eventually become a shut in and refused to go out from her room as people are giving her those meany look. She is just another normal kid who tried her best to live her life but people decided to make her young age more miserable by putting all the blame onto her.

“She won’t even remember this. She is just a kid.”

Is what people told her parents when they begged them to stop. Their harsh treatment eventually changing Chaewon to become a cold person and her mother couldn’t help but cry when she realized sudden change in her precious daughter.

“I’m so sorry for not being able to protect you, Chaewon.”

***

Chaewon opened up her eyes as she rolled on her bed. She hate the dream that she had just now which making her want to puke.

“Stupid dream. Why must it come and visit me after all this time?”

Chaewon:

She grunted at those strange dream. Chaewon rubbed her eyes as she waking up from her position and want to check on a particular friend. She smiled as she see a figure who is snoring loudly and are amazed with herself that she can sleep with that noise pollution within her room.

As she stared at the girl who is still slumbering, the monitored girl suddenly grumbling while pouting which made Chaewon giggled happily and forgetting her dream. The girl who resembles a duck slowly opened her eyes as she heard some laughter erupting near her bed.

“Hey, good morning Chaewon.”

Yena:

She greeted Chaewon while flashing her smile and made Chaewon laughed even louder as the girl is smeared by her own drools. She throw a pillow at Yena who is wiping off her drools sheepishly.

Chaewon:

“Morning, sleepyhead. How do you feel today? Much better?”

Chaewon return her greet back while checking on Yena condition. The girl who they finally found back after disappearing in Fantasma is currently under recovery stage as she is too weak after being malnourished for quite some time. Not only that, Yena body are in a state of paralyze as she is fed with some kind of food that made the enemy numb while slowly decreasing their HP and away the target life.

Yena is considered as a lucky person because Nako manage to track her down and save her before the girl can be the next target of pixies, perpetrator behind all disappearance and death of adventurers within Fantasma for quite some time. Thanks to Minjoo and Hitomi healing skill which are playing major role in helping Yena to recover, the girl is making an impressive progress to be back on her two feet sooner than expected.

“They are going on a quest again?”

Yena asked Chaewon who are currently bringing in her breakfast. Due to her inability to move, Yena is getting some special treatment to have breakfast in bed as per suggested by none other than their healer.

“No, silly. Today is already weekend and the girls went to the bazaar. We need some money before we move to the next town.”

Yena face dropped as she heard Chaewon mentioning the word next town. Chaewon noticed changes on Yena face and cursed herself for being insensitive towards Yena feelings.

“Hey, don't be dejected now. We are not in a rush to leave Eailc, you know. There’s still so much unexplored place in this town and we can go visit it once you got better!”

She tried to cheer up Yena but the girl still hang her head down.

“I am sorry for dragging everybody down. We can already move to the next town if I didn’t get tricked by those damn pixies.”

Yena bitted her lips as she is swallowed by guilty. Chaewon hate it when Yena kept blaming herself for something that she can’t control and remove the tray of food away from Yena and return back to clasp her hands.

“Yena, you are an important family members of ours. There no such things as dragging others or whatnot, okay? You are not a burden and everyone make mistakes. Don’t be bothered by it too much.”

Yena is flustered by Chaewon sudden action but is overwhelmed when she heard those kind words. Chaewon might seems cold and distant at times but the girl know what to do when some of them are dispirited. She might be scary at times but she can be the most gentle fairy when she want.

“Thank you, Chaewon. It ease me somehow. Your words works like magic.”

Yena said with droopy eyes. Her food contain some medicine which Minjoo and Hitomi carefully pound for her and mixed it while cook her portion separately. The reason why they do that because Yena hate to eat medicine. The girl didn’t even give in when Eunbi tried shoving in those meds down her throats, saying that she rather laid in bed for months than taking other pills.

Fortunately, Nako manage to come up with an idea to trick Yena by proposing some method which will make her taking dose of medication without fail.

“Maybe she feels stressed to eat some medicine after surviving her childhood. She tend to be gravely sick, right? There must be something that made her hate pills so much and thus, maybe we can grind those meds into powder and cook it? She won’t realize it as long as no one tells her.”

Is what Nako suggested which is quickly agreed by all. Hitomi and Minjoo are relieved to see Yena eating heartily and is able to rest after every meal. Hitomi however is being a little bit naughty as she cannot resist Yena cuteness while sleeping. The ducky sleep with wide open and Hitomi carefully slipped in a piece of bread into Yena mouth.

She intended that to be a joke but is amused by Yena when the girl actually munch the bread instead and hugged remaining piece of the food. She manage to record it by using an Akashic stone and showed it in front of others which made them laugh joyously. Since then, everyone is being extra nice to Yena by feeding her even when she is asleep.

“I think I’m getting rounder by day but I didn’t eat that much though. How weird.”

Yena complained as they all gathered in the room to play some games after completing some quest everyday. All of them are working extra hard to stifle their laugh while hiding their face behind several cards that is used to play.

“I think