Pain.

All you felt was pain. Excruciating pain, exploding in your abdomen.

The force of the the blow had you flying backwards, your back hitting a nearby tree and the pain doubled, tripled, quadrupled until you could hardly breathe.

Your vision is blurry, white and black spots dancing around, making you dizzy. You couldn’t move, couldn’t think. You didn’t know what was happening, but everything hurt.

You hear your name, the sound ringing in your ears. You try to focus on breathing, though it proves very difficult. Each breath hurts, each more painful than the previous.

Someone is holding you, though you can barely feel his cold fingers against your skin. You start to grow numb, the pain beginning to dull into a thud.

Your body is shutting down and you try to fight it, trying to stay awake, wanting to see Jongdae.

All you could see is a blur of colors. You can’t even make out his face.

You feel your consciousness start to fade. You feel so tired, so sleepy.

Your eyes slide closed.

Jongdae is trembling.

He couldn’t believe you had jumped in front of him, taking the blow in his place. He is by your lifeless side in a second, but is afraid to touch you. Your stomach is bleeding heavily, ice surrounding the perimeters of the wound to keep it from healing.

Though he doubts you can heal from such a wound anyways.

Jongdae tries to push the thought away, but it keeps coming back. He’s calling your name, fingers touching your cheek and they still feel warm. The smell of your blood is everywhere, and he’s never felt so sick of the smell.

“No,” his voice is breaking, and so is his sanity. “No, no, no. Please. You can’t die, please.” He cups your cheek, pressing his forehead against yours. Trying to feel your warmth.

He can hear your heart, just faintly. It’s all he needs to believe you’re not dying.

“Please, please.” He prays, tears welling up in his eyes. “I love you. I love you so much, please. You can’t leave me like this.”

Your heart grows ever fainter.

And then it stops altogether.

Jongdae freezes, his eyes dilated, listening and waiting. Waiting for a sound. Anything.

Nothing.

Your body is quiet, no breaths, no heartbeat. Your skin is growing colder against his already cold fingertips by the second.

Jongdae breathes out heavily, shakily. He scans your face desperately, trying to find any sort of reaction.

Jongdae shakes you. Just once.

Nothing.

And suddenly it’s as if a string had snapped within him.

He feels himself shaking, his emotions rising and exploding at the peak. A surge of anger overwhelms all the sorrow he feels, doubling his senses and adrenaline pumping through his veins as he turns to Minseok with a vicious snarl.

“How could you?” His voice drops like a ton of bricks in the air menacingly. “HOW COULD YOU?”

The only reaction Minseok gives is a chuckle. “What a stupid human, thinking she can protect others.”

His words cut like knives into Jongdae, but they fuel his anger even more. He lets himself feed off of this feeling, blinded by the need to kill him for hurting you like that. He takes a step forward, then another. He can’t even see Minseok anymore, he just sees red. “You. Will. Pay.”

“Really now?” Minseok laughs, opening his arms as if to welcome him, his posture confident. “You can’t defeat me, brother.”

“You’re not my brother.” Jongdae should’ve felt sad saying that. He doesn’t.

The air is becoming so cold Jongdae can see his breath fog up every time he breathed. Minseok is controlling the environment—but then again, so can he.

The sky becomes a terrifying black, covered in clouds zapping with electricity, waiting to burst.

Jongdae takes another step forward, eyes glowing in the dark. He says only one word. “Die.”

All at once the sky bursts, white hot lightning rushing towards Minseok from all around. Minseok creates a dome of ice around him to protect himself, groaning at the intensity of the blows. This is much, much stronger than the ones before. A never-before-seen surge of energy he didn’t know Jongdae was capable of. Obviously he had underestimated him.

Minseok suddenly feels a wave of panic filling him, finally seeing that there’s no way he can win against Jongdae like this. But he takes in the comfort knowing that there’s no way Jongdae can come from this unscathed either. He’s done too much, gone too far to back off now.

Jongdae watches, channeling all his anger and sorrow into hi