Chapter 7 (Acaronar)

Violet
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Tokyo, Lee's Residence

Monday, August 25th, 2025

Sitting at the couch in the middle of this spacious room, Eunbi can’t stop glancing at the door, her feet were tapping the floor impatiently. She has been waiting alone for almost an hour, but the person she waited for still hasn’t come. And Eunbi is not the type to sit peacefully to wait for someone. Bored, she stood up and went to the chair behind the table not too far from the couch and started twirling around with the chair like a child.

Her peaceful time not even last for a minute as her toe hit the corner of the table. She cried out in pain, although still managed not to curse out loud. Decided to stop behaving like a kid, she began to observe the room as her hand her throbbing toe.

The owner of the room is indeed an art lover as well as a painting collector. Various types of paintings adorn the walls of the room. She had entered this room many times, but never fully pay attention to the paintings. The only part of the wall that attracts her is the side with landscape paintings on it. Working as an art director and movie producer, Eunbi used to observe many paintings and the value of it, just for the sake of the job. There are many paintings in this room but the landscape paintings were the most beautiful ones for Eunbi. They are her favorites and she always enjoyed staring at them.

“Hey, sorry to keep you waiting. The meeting was beyond my expectation,” said a familiar voice behind her, distracting Eunbi from the painting as she saw Lee Kaeun on the door. “What do you want to talk about, hm? I thought you were back to Seoul already.”

Eunbi wasted no time as she approached Kaeun and handed one large envelope to the older girl. Confused, Kaeun opened the envelope to found a pile of photos inside.

Kaeun smiled in awe as she looked at them. “Did you visit these places on purpose and take pictures for her? She must be happy to see it.”

“I didn’t take the pictures, Unnie,” Eunbi said, followed with Kaeun’s expression changed from admiring to confused again.

“Who is it then? And why−?” Her sentence stopped in the middle as her eyes met Eunbi’s. She gasped. “No way. Don’t tell me these photos−”

“Taken by An Yujin, yes,” Eunbi continued. “Yujin is the photographer.”

Kaeun shook her head, still not believing. “Are you sure that Yujin took these photos?”

“She posted them on her website a few hours ago. That’s why I came here to talk to you.”

“But that’s impossible,” Kaeun pressed. “Yujin has never seen the paintings, how could she take pictures in the same place as the paintings?”

Eunbi shrugged, has no answer for that. She looked back at the side of the wall with the landscape paintings.

“Eternal Flame Falls, Stonehenge, Macchu Picchu, Coyote Bluffs, Pyramid of Giza, Tree Tunnel, Fly Geyser, The Silfra Rift, Angkor Wat, Cano Cristales, Yonaguni Monument, Great Blue Hole,” Kaeun looked at the photos in her hand and matched them with the landscape paintings on the room. “Mt. Kelimutu, Monolith of Uluru, Travertine Pools, Dead Vlei, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Lake Natron, Temple of Jupiter, Bagan, Plain of Jars, and...?”

There are only 21 photos on her hands. Kaeun’s eyes stopped at one painting. The last one. The 22nd painting.

“She only took 21 photos?” Kaeun moved and sat on the couch, followed by Eunbi

“All I know is she takes one photo every month.”

“Why you just told me now after 21 months have passed?”

“Because I just found out about it too, just like you. One of my staff who followed Yujin’s website and channel just showed it to me today,” Eunbi explained, looked as frustrated as Kaeun. “I don’t understand too, how come? That’s why I came to you.”

“Do you know where Yujin is? Seoul?” Kaeun asked.

“As far as I know, she wasn’t in Seoul during summer vacation, Unnie.”

Kaeun looked back at the photos, seemed to think of something before finally taking a deep breath.

“Yujin shouldn’t know anything. They should not have any ties.”

“What do you mean?” Eunbi asked.

“I know this is stupid, but I always feel uncomfortable when it’s almost their birthdays again. I always thought that it’s out of guilt,” Kaeun smiled slightly, “But seeing these photos, what if my worries are reasonable? Maybe there’s something that happened to them five years ago that we don’t know.”

Eunbi didn’t say anything.

“But still, guarding The Ruler is the main duty not only for us but for The Pillars too. Letting The Pillars to be the center of attention is dangerous. They will be the bait if The Necromancers attacks us again,” Kaeun continued.

Realizing the topic, Eunbi shook her head. “Unnie, I don’t want you to report this to The Elders.”

“But we can’t solve it ourselves, Eunbi-ya. There are THE GREAT things that we must guard and we need them. Like it or not, The Pillars must return to Gallia.”

“You know The Pillars hate the Delta Team the most, I don’t think they would listen to us.”

Kaeun let out another frustrated sigh. She doesn’t want to repeat the same mistake, she can’t let anyone get hurt again. But with this situation, she doesn’t have many choices.

“We have emerald and ruby. We only need sapphire and diamond.”

Eunbi sighed, aware of what Kaeun was thinking. “Unnie... Please, don’t. We’ll hurt them. We made a big mistake five years ago, I don’t want to repeat it again.”

“If only I had other choices.”

 

***

 

Seoul International Hospital

Monday, August 25th, 2025

Chaewon opened her eyes when she felt movement between her arms. She stretched her arms to look at the face of the girl who was buried in her chest. She stared at Minjoo’s face, feeling contented as she heard her breathing.

“Good morning.” Chaewon kissed Minjoo’s forehead and let the younger girl hug her back.

“Mowninghh...” Minjoo’s voice sounded muffled because she buried her face in Chaewon’s chest.

They stayed silent after that, and Minjoo almost returned to her sleep if only not for something warm brushing her face lightly. She groaned as her headache back.

“Tell me where it hurts, hmm?”

The soft voice made her open her eyes to find Chaewon staring worriedly at her. The close distance between them surprised Minjoo, automatically she moved away from Chaewon. But the sudden movement only worsening her headache.

“You’ve been caught in pain like this, stop acting like nothing has happened.” Following Chaewon’s soft voices, Minjoo felt a pair of hands encircling her body and the next second, she felt a gentle on her head. “You really worried me.”

One kiss landed on her temple and this time Minjoo gave up. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, letting Chaewon fix her position so that Minjoo could lean comfortably on her.

As a warrior, Minjoo prefers to be the big spoon when she is with Chaewon. But at times like this, she knows she needs Chaewon. The older girl always knows how to comfort her, especially when she w

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Ahn__Nick 0 points #1
Chapter 65: wonyoung will be a great mother in the future 🥺💖
Kimhyunjun 0 points #2
Chapter 65: Chapter 65: yujinie and wonyoungie deserve to get married and have many beautiful babies. Please author-nim , just let them have a chance to be happy.
robogirl98
1688 streak #3
Chapter 6: the vlossary definitely came in the clutch!! it helps bring better understanding to the story!!!
robogirl98
1688 streak #4
Chapter 5: this vlossary will for sure come in handy as the story progresses!!! thank you!!
robogirl98
1688 streak #5
Chapter 4: it's all coming back slowly!!! missing izone so much rn!!
robogirl98
1688 streak #6
Chapter 3: forgot how fascinating it was to read this!!!
robogirl98
1688 streak #7
Chapter 2: happy new years authornim!!
Kimhyunjun #8
Chapter 61: Happy new year author-nim 🎆🎊 Thank you for update 💗
robogirl98
1688 streak #9
Chapter 1: Ohh off to a good start!
robogirl98
1688 streak #10
been awhile since i read this, need to read over again to catch up! let's go!!!