~*~

 

Hendery stared at me with his eyebrows knitted together. 

"Hendery," I began to say.

"Do you know how worried we were?" He immediately said.

"I uh..." I trailed off.

"What were you doing in the Dark Forest?" Hendery demanded.

"I—"

"Why would you do something like that?" he asked, slowly and surprisingly in a calm manner.

"Hendery," I said under my breath. "Calm down."

"Calm down?—" He breathed in. "That was reckless of you, you don't know what's out there."

"Yeah, you're right, I don't." I replied. "I don't know anything, because you guys don't telling me anything..."

Hendery sighed. "What is it?"

"What?" I said in annoyance.

"There's something bothering you, just tell me."

I glared at him, giving him the are you kidding? face. "Like you kissing me out of nowhere without saying anything afterwards?"

Hendery pursed his lips, "what do you want me to say?" 

"I don't know, you just don't go around kissing me and then wanted us to pretend that we don't know each other and then danced with me— I know you were confused, and maybe not in your right mind but, that isn't fair to me—"

Then he attacked me by putting his lips on mine. This time, he held the back of my neck to pull me closer to him.

I pulled away and breathed in sharply.

"Don't ever run away like that." He whispered while our foreheads were on each other's. "Just come to me when you have something in mind." 

"Did Victor tell you?" 

"Tell me what?" 

"About why I ran off like that?" I said, not meeting his eyes.

"I want you to tell me yourself, why did you run away?"

Part of me is relieved, because I really don't wanna talk about it. Taeyong did something to make me feel better and I don't want to talk about it only to recall what the feeling was like before.

"I— I can't."

Hendery brushed his fingers from my shoulder all the way down to grab my hand. It made me shivered.

I hated it, because it was making me crazy.

"I don't want you to be alone." 

"I know," I said under my breath.

"We can't go eat dinner."

"Why not?"

"We need to do something about that." Hendery said, pointing to his face while looking at the cut on my cheek.
 

~
 

I looked at the mirror that was right next to the row of beds in the infirmary.

My face was covered with nasty scars and cuts, so were my arms, and legs. I dabbed the cut on my cheek with a towel I soaked with warm water. It stunk like hell. I flinched.

"Let me help you." 

I saw Hendery's reflection behind me. He slowly took the soaked towel that was in my grip and made me turn around to face him. I watched him soak the towel with more water and squeezed it so it wasn't dripping. He slowly, gently tapped on a wound that was on my cheek.

I cringed so hard due to the stinging pain. 

"I'm sorry." Hendery said.

"No, don't be."

"Lucas should be here in a few minutes." He said.

"Lucas?" 

"The doctor— substitute doctor. He has mastered the art of healing from the Northern Water Tribe at the age of 16. He is my good friend and is also a very good healer." Hendery said.

"What happened to the real doctor?" I asked.

"He has to go back to his hometown to clear out some business."

It was so odd to see Hendery acting up like this. Before we got here he seemed fine, maybe a bit worried about me, but now he seemed like he was avoiding to meet my eyes.

I gripped his wrist, stopping him from treating me. Yet he still was not meeting my eyes.

"Something is clearly bothering you that you aren't telling me about."

His jaw tightened, "I told you to drop this—I am fine. You have nothing to worry about." He said, like he was threatening me more than making me relieved.

I loosened my grip on his wrist and let him resume. 

I needed to talk to Jaehyun. I think I might've known about what's really happening here.
 

We heard someone cleared his throat and we immediately stepped further away from each other.

"Lucas," Hendery said, his mood seemed to be better.

He walked to Lucas and gave him a quick hug.

Lucas just smiled at Hendery and didn't say anything afterwards. 

He was tall and his dark hair was pushed back perfectly. He walked over to me and probably was scanning what was wrong with me.

His big bulging eyes finally met mine. "Hi there. I'm Lucas, and you are?"

I stared at him for quite sometime, and hated myself for doing that. "Hello. I'm Juli."

His eyes wandered to every inch of my face. "This should be easy and quick. May I ask what happened to you?" He said as he was guiding me to sit on one of the nearest beds.

"I ran... to the Dark Forest."

"For what? A morning jog?" Lucas said as he placed a big bowl of water on the side table.

Hendery snickered.

"Long story." I looked away from him.

Lucas smiled to himself. "Sorry, may I?" He was asking a permission to examine me and I nodded as a yes.

He cupped my chin gently and tilted my face.

I couldn't help but to study his face too. His darker skin complexion was flawless, almost making me jealous. He was so tall that he was towering over me. His eyes were big and beautiful.

He let go of my face and took a step back. He let out a small vial and it made a plop sound as he pulled the cover open.

He did a grabbing motion and glowing water was coming out of the vial.

"Relax, this is a spirit water I got from—" He stopped himself. "You need this, Juli."

"Why would she need a spirit water just to heal her cuts?" Hendery said as he was leaning his side against the wall.

"They're not just cuts, they're rich of dark energy."

"What does that even mean?"

Both of the men just looked at me like they were trying to tell me something, but decided not to.

"What?" I said to the both of them.

"I have to get those dark energy off of you, so your spirit is not corrupted by it." Lucas said gravely.

"What happens if it does?"

"You will be driven to madness, and want nothing but destruction. You just simply want other to suffer because it satisfies you." Hendery said, like he was speaking out of experience.

I looked at Lucas, hoping he would say more. 

"May I?" He said.