After that night in the cottage, their relationship was difficult to define. It can happen with relationships at a certain stage, needing to be handled with gloves and care. Surely, they were more than ‘just’ friends. They trusted each other more than ‘just.’ But did they like each other in the same way? Woohyun hoped he did, but he also didn’t know what sort of relationship he was allowed to have with the nymph. Did he have to worry about some divine law that forbade it? On top of everything else?

Autumn was nearly here, the cooling air and early talks of Chuseok reminded him of that. Most trees had already lost their flowers. The leaves would soon change and drop. Then winter would come.

Before Woohyun could brood about winter and what it would bring, Sunggyu took his arm and pressed his face into the other’s shoulder. The gardener always had the habit of having a hand on those closest to him. He sought out comfort and warmth, much like Woohyun. And after that night in the cottage, Sunggyu wasn’t afraid of showing more affection towards Woohyun. They’d gotten closer emotionally. Why not physically as well? Although Woohyun didn’t know if this was truly a display of affection, or if the nymph was trying to sap the heat from his body. Sunggyu was shivering as they sat by the Han River, where they had been walking, after eating dinner. But Sunggyu became quickly winded, after a long day’s work, and sat down on the lawn, pulling the other down with him. Of course, he’d be warmer if they kept walking, but Sunggyu wanted this, to sit on the dried, crunchy grass and hide from the autumnal breeze behind Woohyun’s slight form. The sun was setting on the Han, and although Sunggyu had most of his face buried into the other’s shoulders, his eyes were watching the sun’s final rays dance across the water. His gaze was so intent, like he was painting this memory into his mind’s canvas.

And while he was watching the sun, Woohyun looked at Sunggyu. The nymph was skinner now. His once full cheeks sunken in. The reddish-pink hair faded into a dark brown, appearing black in this low light. A few brown leaves clung onto the branches crawling along the hand that Woohyun was holding. If he was like this in autumn, what would happen come winter?

“What are you thinking of?” Woohyun asked, hoping that his response would answer the questions that he really wanted to ask.

But it didn’t. “What do you think the spirit of the Han looks like?”

“Huh?” he was surprised. “You’ve never met the spirit of the Han?”

Sunggyu laughed. “Of course, not. Have you?” he turned the question around and nudged the other.

“I’m just a human!”
“I’m just a nymph!” he argued right back. Sunggyu lowered his head back down onto Woohyun’s shoulder. “I think you overestimate how much I know about the divine world. I know the Han River just as well as you know Moon Jae-in.”

“Point taken,” Woohyun yielded. Human or divine, the powerful have a world all of their own. There were many, many things that Woohyun didn’t know about the human world, who was pulling strings behind the curtain. Sunggyu was just the same, just as unknowing, or maybe even more so given that he was straddled between the two worlds. The nymph probably wouldn’t even know the answers to Woohyun’s questions, even if he were bold enough to ask them. They might as well ponder about the worlds together. “What do you think the god looks like?”

“Sungyeol is so tall, and he’s the nymph of a small spring. But the Han River?” Sunggyu guessed, “He must be a giant.”

“He must be as big as Kang Hodong or Choi Hongman,” Woohyun suggested.

Sunggyu shook his head. “Bigger,” he argued. “Much bigger. Like the statue of Yi Sun-shin.”

Woohyun let out a fake gasp. “What if it is him and it comes to life at night?”

Sunggyu sputtered into a laugh. “Statues don’t come to life,” he muttered.

“Well, I didn’t think bushes did.”

“Dummy,” Sunggyu teased. His hold on the other tightened, his sharp chin dug into the shoulder, serving as a reminder, like a thorn in his side: “Bushes and trees were always alive.”

They were, but that’s not what Woohyun meant. To him, there was a difference between living and being full of life, having a conscience and carrying a soul. He had never thought plants could walk, talk, and breathe like he could. He never thought that they had souls. And ever since Woohyun had learned of the existence of nymphs, his work became increasingly complicated. Right now, he was fighting off a mental breakdown as he was assembling bouquets of roses. Were these taken from a nymph willingly? Well, that would assume that all trees and bushes belonged to nymphs. So who decided which ones were nymphs and which ones weren’t? And who was this ‘who’? And if…

Woohyun’s existential crisis was deafened by Jangjun’s booming voice, “Hi! How can I help you?” The greeting pierced through the empty air, making Woohyun wince in pain, even though he was tucked away in the back room. So he pitied the customer that just experienced the full force of Jangjun’s voice.

“Is Nam Woohyun here?”

The customer’s voice rang in Woohyun’s ears more than Jangjun’s. He perked up, but he still needed to tie the bouquet, which he was frantically trying to do and failing. The roses wouldn’t lay right, as if they were resisting against him.

“Ah yes! Do you…have an appointment with him?” although it was something normal to say to a customer, the way that Jangjun said it wasn’t. He was strangely cautious, bordering on scared, of the customer, of Sunggyu. Woohyun had half a mind to leave what he was doing and see the strange sight: someone intimidated by Sunggyu.

“No,” and Sunggyu sounded embarrassed, like he got caught being somewhere that he shouldn’t be. Woohyun really had to finish this bouquet and come out to see this. “Is he busy right now?”

“Depends,” Jangjun was still on edge and dropped his voice. “Why do you want to see him?”

“Yah! Lee Jangjun!” Woohyun shouted from the back room, unable to contain it anymore.

“What is it, hyung?” Jangjun’s tune changed, quite literally. He was practically singing when he was addressing Woohyun. Jangjun spoke curtly towards the ‘customer’ as he hurried into the backroom, “I’ll be right back.” Soon Jangjun and his blinding smile were in front of Woohyun. “I’m here, hyung! How can I help?”

Woohyun furrowed his eyebrows, showing his frustration both with his coworker and the dang bouquet. “What are you doing? Is that how you normally treat a guest?” he grumbled.

“Well, no,” Jangjun admitted but also immediately crossed his arms over his chest, defending himself. “I’m not normally the type to judge. Live your life or whatever. But, hyung, he’s suspicious,” Jangjun whispered, gradually inching closer and closer to the other. “And scary looking. He’s wearing sunglasses inside. Inside! And he has tattoos all over. All over his neck and his hands…bu-but they aren’t classy or artistic like yours…or Joochan’s…or Sungyeol-hyung’s…Ju-just forget the tattoos. He obviously didn’t come here to buy something. I can tell you that. That man is no good.”

Woohyun couldn’t help but to break into a smile as Jangjun figuratively stuffed his foot into his own mouth. Honestly, Woohyun had laid that trap for his coworker. Normally, Jangjun was sly enough to wiggle out of these snares, but he’d walked straight into this one. Jangjun really had been spooked by Sunggyu. Strange. Woohyun tried to spook him further, “Yeah, that man is here for me.” Jangjun lowered his arms and his jaw in shock. “Bring him back here. I got to finish this.”

“Ah, wha-why-wh-who is he?” Jangjun stammered. Woohyun didn’t answer that; he just repeated his request, which Jangjun promptly ignored. He pulled himself back up, hands on his hips and declared, “Does he work here? If not, then he has no business back here.”

Woohyun laughed. Jangjun was looking out for his hyung and keeping him hidden away from the costumer out in the store. The harder Woohyun laughed, the more confused Jangjun look, which only made Woohyun laugh all the more. It was funny. How could he not laugh? How could that nymph be scary? It was silly! Jangjun was silly! Or was Woohyun the real fool here? His belly and his heart ached from the laughter. What business did the human have consorting with the divine? There was no way that this could end up well.

Yet, in spite of that, Woohyun could not stay away. Sunggyu was a thorn stuck to him, buried deep.

Woohyun inhaled sharply, the laughter and pain back in, burying it away. “He’s been a business partner of us for years. He works at the nursery that I go to on the weekends. He can come back here,” he explained.

“Wh-what?! He’s a…” Jangjun couldn’t finish. He had no words for once.

Woohyun nodded. “So send him in here, alright. Don’t worry about your hyung. He can take care of himself.” With that said, Woohyun picked up the bouquet and sliced his thumb across the rose’s thorns. “Ow!” he hissed.

“Yeah, hyung, you can take good care of yourself. Real good care,” his voice was drenched in sarcasm as he shook his head.

Woohyun had no time to snap back. The bell at the desk rang through the store incessantly.

“Hey! Hello? Is anybody back there? Woohyun-hyung? Dongwoo-hyung? JANGJUN-IE?” It was Joochan, shouting over the tinny belly. Woohyun sighed after realizing who it was. Was everyone here? Joochan’s voice boomed again, echoing into the back room, “I told you, Sunggyu-hyung. You have to ring the bell. They’re like dogs, trained to answer the bell.” Like the puppy he was, Jangjun did sprint back towards the desk. And the ringing finally stopped.

“And I told you, they already knew I was here,” Woohyun could hear Sunggyu hissing at his fellow nymph.

Jangjun put on his usual customer service voice in front of Joochan. “You guys know each other?”

“Yes! We grew up together!” Joochan explained.

“Well, that’s very unexpected,” Jangjun replied in a perky tone. “Hyung said that you could meet him in the back. I’ll take you there.”

Woohyun had finally managed to finish the bouquet and set it aside before Sunggyu was standing before him in the backroom. And underneath the harsh florescent lights, Woohyun could see why Jangjun was so spooked. Woohyun’s own stomach sank at the sight of the nymph.

The clothes hung limply and haphazardly on Sunggyu’s shrunken frame. He’d lost even more weight, and he was slouching, too tired to support himself upright, so he leaned against the doorframe. His thin hand raked through his nearly black hair. It looked brittle. All of it, all of him, from the branches scrawled along his tendons, to the hair on his head. Then with a heavy sigh, perhaps at the pitiful look Woohyun was giving him, Sunggyu removed his sunglasses, revealing the dark circles that laid behind them, and asked, “What happened to you?”

Funny, that’s what Woohyun wanted to ask him. But he didn’t and answered Sunggyu’s question instead, “I was distracted and sliced my finger.” He then popped the finger into his mouth, nursing it, and preventing himself from saying something that he’d regret later on.

Sunggyu lifted himself up from the frame and walked over to him. “You should really stop and wrap it properly. And take it out of your mouth,” he chided and pulled Woohyun’s hand away from his mouth. “That’s gross.”

“It’s fine,” Woohyun insisted, took his hand away from the other, and picked up himself along with the bouquet. “Don’t worry about it. It happens all of the time. I’m good.” A forced grin stretched across his tight face.

“No, it’s not fine,” Sunggyu argued while Woohyun was gathering another bouquet together. The florist just rolled his eyes as the nymph continued, “It’ll just keep reopening and bleeding. It’s not sanitary. Look at you. You keep dropping the stems! Can you even do that well with your finger like that?”

Why did Woohyun feel like Sunggyu was more concerned about the flowers than him? The florist let the bouquet be and stared at the other. Sunggyu just put his sunglasses back on.

Woohyun dropped his eyes down to his hands. A red line cut through the faded black ink. The blood began to pool, blotting out the tattoo below. It was bleeding more than it should. It hurt more than it should. It wasn’t an ordinary thorn, was it? “Fine. I’ll wrap it up properly,” Woohyun gave in and went to retrieve the first aid kit in the supply closet. Sunggyu followed him, only to pull the florist’s finger out of his mouth again.

“Stop that.”

“What’s it to you? It’s my finger,” Woohyun grumbled. Those sunglasses were irritating. The florist couldn’t read the other. All he wanted was even the slightest hint about what he meant to another. “Ah, I won’t be much help to you if I’m injured, right?” he guessed as he grabbed the kit.

The sunglasses couldn’t hide the deep creases forming on Sunggyu’s forehead, as big as they were. “That’s not it,” he mumbled, followed by a sigh. The nymph took the first aid kit away from the other. “Let me do it. I doubt you could wrap it well with one hand. You were just wrapping the flowers earlier.”

“O-oh,” was all Woohyun could say. What was he supposed to make of that? What was he supposed to make of the cold hand around his, leading him out of the closet and into a seat? “Why are you so cold?” he muttered.

Sunggyu either ignored that or couldn’t hear it above his coughing, as he pulled out a chair and sat himself down. “You normally aren’t this careless,” he remarked as he opened the kit. “What’s up?”

“Like I said, I got distracted,” Woohyun replied with a sniff and held out his finger for the other. As long as the other was offering, Woohyun was going to take all of the pampering he could get.

But it came at a price. “Distracted by me?” Sunggyu teased as he pulled off his sunglasses, finally revealing his eyes twinkling mischievously within those dark recesses. Ah, so they still had some life in them.

Woohyun scoffed, while continuing to eye the other carefully. “By Jangjun,” he retorted. Sunggyu pouted as he took the other’s hand into his. The sparkle in his eyes dimmed. Woohyun continued talking and watching the nymph tend to him, “He was scared of you.”

“Well.” Sunggyu glanced up at him for a moment, smirking. “I am pretty intimidating.” He then rubbed the antibiotic into the wound. It stung, and it was cold, so cold. But the florist felt his cheeks warm.

“Sure,” Woohyun played along. Sunggyu looked far from intimidating right now. He looked…Woohyun shook his head. Sunggyu was a nymph. He was divine. He was fine. The florist half-smiled. “You’re the scariest nymph that I know.”

Sunggyu sputtered into a laugh. “I’m telling Sungyeol that you think that. He’ll be jealous,” he practically sang with glee. He carefully wrapped the bandage around the crooked finger so that it overlapped perfectly. “It must be my muscles. I had been lifting weights.”

“Had been,” Woohyun picked up. He rested his hot cheek into his free hand. Sunggyu was still looking down at the florist’s hand in his. “You seemed to have lost it all. What happened?”

“Life,” the nymph answered quickly. “I’m busy. You know that. I don’t have…time.” The brows furrowed again. Woohyun had thought something was seriously bothering the nymph until Sunggyu suddenly burst into a laugh.

“What’s so funny?”

“I’m always taking care of trees,” Sunggyu revealed and raised his head once again. “Namu. You said that people called you that. Can I?”

Woohyun raised an eyebrow. This was a step closer. What was another step more? Or two? “Sure,” the florist responded and wrapped his hand around Sunggyu’s, bringing it closer towards him. “Do you have a nickname? What do people call you?”

“Sunggyu,” the nymph replied plainly. “I don’t have a nickname.”

“Hm,” Woohyun hummed as he drew a finger across his lip. “I’ll think of one for you. Something that suits you.”

“Don’t,” the nymph spat and shook a finger at the other. “Don’t you dare! I’m afraid of what you’d come up with.”

“Why? I’ll come up with a good one. The perfect one,” Woohyun couldn’t even say that without chuckling, which morphed into a hearty laugh when the nymph narrowed his eyes and pouted. Woohyun had seen that face before, inside of a nature magazine. It was more fitting for Sunggyu to be a spirit of this animal than a delicate flower. “You know? You look like a Tibetan wolf.”

“Shut up! I do not!” Sunggyu shouted and pulled his hand away from the other. He then crossed his arms over his chest in defiance. “I’m an azalea! I’m not some animal!”

Woohyun leaned over, grinning broadly, and cupped his hand over the other’s knee. “Why did you come today, Wolf-ssi?” he teased.

“Stop it,” Sunggyu growled like the wolf he wasn’t and batted away the hand from his knee. His arm then returned, folded over his chest. “I was visiting Sungyeol, and so I thought I’d drop by,” he sounded a bit annoyed yet he stayed in the chair. His eyes remained uncovered and locked on the other’s. “Are you playing tonight?”

“I wanted to,” Woohyun muttered, slouching in his chair. He dropped his gaze to his hands, feeling more self-conscience about them than ever. However, today it wasn’t because of how they look. They had really let him down today. Sunggyu had wanted to come watch him perform. But that thorn! Woohyun pout and showed his injured finger to the other. “But I don’t think I can with this.”

“No problem,” Sunggyu said with a shrug. “I’ll play for you then.”

Woohyun perked up. Oh, this was a step that he didn’t think they could take. He grinned. “We could try that.”

“Good,” Sunggyu replied with a nod. “So when are you done here? Now?”

The nymph who rarely left the garden had no concept of the workday. The florist had a few hours left in his shift and several more arrangements to make. However, instead of leaving, Sunggyu made himself comfortable in a nest of the florists’ coats and took a nap, like a young seed buried in loamy soil. Woohyun kept an eye on him while he worked. It wasn’t like the nymph had the best stamina, but he’d never seemed so worn down like this before.

However, outside the walls of this shop, winter was coming. The days were shorter. Darkness was already falling upon them, and the cold was biting the skin. Maybe all of that took a toll on Sunggyu, shocking his system. As a part of nature itself, maybe Sunggyu’s days were now shorter as well.

But Joochan still seemed to be his usual self, albeit with nearly black hair, excitedly whispering to Jangjun in the corner of the shop as he sketched. Their gazes kept flittered back to Woohyun whenever he entered the main room, and their whispers suddenly died on their lips. They were talking about him. But Woohyun’s mind was elsewhere and didn’t pay them any heed.

Dogwoods and azaleas were different plants. Of course, they’d react differently to the changing seasons.

And Sunggyu woke up around closing time. The respite had done him good. It was like spring had come again, and everything renewed and shined. Woohyun didn’t bring his coat out that evening despite the dropping temperatures. But in his heart, in the other’s presence, it was warm.

They sang together for the first time, and a larger crowd came to see them and hear their song. Something about two tattooed men pouring their hearts out along to melodies was intriguing. Intimidating yet delicate and beautiful. Sunggyu played the guitar deftly; his long fingers danced along the strings, appearing more like a muse than a nymph. Muse or nymph, Woohyun couldn’t lose to him. He may be just a mortal, but he could find his place among the divine with his voice (or so he told himself).

He wanted to prove his worth to them, to all of them.

Did his point get across? Were the hints that Woohyun had been dropping all night long get picked up? Or were the songs and the looks not enough? Maybe he needed to be more obvious. He took Sunggyu’s hand into his as they walked down the street after their performance. And there his hand stayed until they reached Woohyun’s apartment, even when their steps came to a halt.

“Well, this is me,” Woohyun spoke up, when everything had come to an end: their walk, their conversation, their evening.

“Eung,” Sunggyu hummed, looking up at the building.

“So…” Woohyun drawled out. Sunggyu’s tired gaze drifted back down to his, and all of Woohyun’s confidence went away. He let go of the other’s hand and waved. “Good night.”

“Hold on.”

Woohyun had been too wrapped up in his own thoughts and insecurities, wondering if he could dare to want something more, would that be sacrilegious, or if nymphs even had the same urges and appetites as humans, a need to be loved and wanted. He didn’t even realize that every look and every touch had been returned and that Sunggyu had just walked him home.

But the realization that nymphs could want what humans did (or Sunggyu wanted what Woohyun did) only began to dawn upon Woohyun when Sunggyu wrapped his arms around him in a hug. Although stunned, Woohyun quickly embraced the other, clinging, hoping that he had thorns or burrs to dig in deeper to the other and never let go.

With his nose buried into the crook of Sunggyu’s neck, it was like breathing in a fresh, sweet yet musky bouquet. Did would he taste as nice as he smelled? Woohyun’s lips pressed against the other’s shoulder, into his woolen coat, thinking that this was as close as he could get for now.

But he was wrong again.

“Namu?”

“Hm?” Woohyun hummed as he pulled away. Did he just get caught?

Well, Sunggyu did catch him, cupping the other’s cheeks in his cold hands. “Don’t go crazy,” he said before kissing him.

It was too late. Woohyun had already lost his mind, his reason, long before this potentially poisonous kiss. Knowing all of the risks, Woohyun still wanted to drink it in, the azalea’s nectar. Honey sweetness bloomed on his tongue. It was addicting. It wasn’t enough.

Nymphs tended to have this effect on humans. The smallest encounter with the nature deity would leave a mortal besotted and consumed. A kiss could be a man’s undoing, or at least that was how it went in the stories Woohyun read. Most of those mythical nymphs were also women, which obviously Sunggyu was not. They were stories from another place and another time.

However, in the modern age, when you called someone a ‘nymph,’ you are referring to the person’s insatiable drive. Was that more accurate?

Well, Sunggyu seemed eager enough. His cold fingers were wrapped in Woohyun’s clothes, and his lips on his neck.

“Do you want to come inside?” Woohyun asked breathlessly.

Sunggyu automatically let go and pulled away, snapping out of his own spell. He winced, then rubbed his eyes. What the nymph wanted and what he needed to do were two separate things. “I can’t,” Sunggyu spoke what the other already knew. “I spent all day outside of the garden. It’s been too long already. I can’t stay. I just can’t.” His head was now hanging lowly as he tried to convince himself to leave, but his feet seemed rooted to the spot.

“I understand,” Woohyun tried to sound cheerful in spite of it all. “Go.”

Sunggyu sighed, lifted his head, and forced a smile onto his reluctant face. “Thank you for understanding it. Well…”

Woohyun kissed the other before lightly shoving him onto his way. “Take care.”

He couldn’t help but to smile when he saw Sunggyu dragging his feet as he walked down the street and into the dark night. Woohyun finally managed to become a thorn buried deep inside of the other, slowly infecting him with his poison-like love.

Maybe Woohyun was like a nymph after all.

No, Woohyun wasn’t a nymph. He was reminded of that when he visited the garden that weekend. Sunggyu had invited him to stay for dinner. Pine nuts were on the menu, Myungsoo’s pine nuts. And before they could eat them, they had to harvest pinecones from Myungsoo’s tree. Standing before the tree, Woohyun had to be imagining things, but the tree looked like Myungsoo now. The pine needles even curled like his hair did.

Woohyun gulped, staring at the tree. He lost his appetite.

And he absolutely refused to touch the pinecones. But he carried the bushel for Sunggyu, who kept tossing more and more pinecones into it. Sunggyu had no qualms touching anything on the trees or bushes. He had a better understanding of a nymph’s connection to them, Woohyun guessed. But he was still shocked when Sunggyu picked up a pebble and chucked it into Sungyeol’s spring.

“What are you doing?!” Woohyun yelped, nearly dropping the bushel.

"Whenever I get angry at Sungyeol, I'll just…" Sunggyu picked up another, bigger rock and threw it into the spring. “Answer my texts! You know how! I friggin’ taught you!” Sunggyu shouted (maybe) fruitlessly to the rippling pool. He then turned back to Woohyun, bursting out into laughter at the human’s listlessness. “Eh, it’s fine. He doesn’t feel it…I think…Well, if he feels anything, it’s a slight tickle.” Woohyun must’ve not looked convinced because Sunggyu continued rambling and tossing pinecones into the overflowing bushel, “Sungyeol has been around for so long that I doubt anything bothers him anymore. Seeing how he doesn’t even bother to respond back to my messages, ehehe.” The nymph was smiling, but he also kicked a bit of dirt into the spring.

Woohyun put down the bushel and picked up a pinecone, staring at it for a second. "Sunggyu? What happens if we throw this into there?"

"No! Don't do that!” Sunggyu shouted, rushing over and tearing the pinecone out of his hands. “Myungsoo worked really hard to grow these. Be appreciative!" he wagged the pinecone at the other as he lectured. When he was done, he dropped it back into the bushel.

Woohyun narrowed his eyes onto the other. "What do you mean 'work hard'? How exactly does he grow these?" he asked.

Sunggyu shrugged. "I don't know," he mumbled before walking over to his bike and barking out, “Hey! Load up the bushel onto your bike, okay? I already have things in my cart.” Sunggyu only had some gloves and a trowel in his. Whereas Woohyun was already loaded up with plant food and other heavy items.

Woohyun shook his head and picked the bushel back up. "How do you not know?" he shouted back, making his way over to the bikes. Sunggyu only responded with a slight shrug and climbed onto his bike. Woohyun swore that he saw white streaks in the other’s hair as it moved under the sun’s dying rays. Odd, it all was. "You don't know a lot, do you?” Woohyun declared as he hopped onto his own bike.

"I'm just not that curious. I already know all that I need to know,” Sunggyu stated. "Besides pinecones seem like a private thing."

"But you tear it apart and eat its nuts," the florist retorted.

"Woohyun, don't go and make this weird,” the nymph snapped back before pedaling off.

"I'm not making it weird! It already is weird!"

It was weird that even a nymph wasn’t clued into their own lore. Weird that he wasn’t curious to find out more.

Was curiosity just a human condition? Maybe nymphs were more accepting of nature’s mystique and mysterious ways. Maybe they didn’t always need an explanation behind everything. Nymphs were okay with weird.

Myungsoo surely was.

"Have you eaten my nuts?" he asked Woohyun one evening, catching up with the florist after his performance.

"Myungsoo!” Woohyun hissed. His eyes flew around. “You can't just ask that in public!"

"Why?" Myungsoo asked, blinking. But then it suddenly dawned on him, and Myungsoo broke out into an embarrassed laugh. "Oh! Sorry."

“It’s alright,” Woohyun murmured and continued to pack up his guitar.

"But have you?" Myungsoo at least whispered it this time.

“I did,” Woohyun finally admitted. He did end up eating them that night with Sunggyu. It would be rude to refuse, and by the time they were finished with chores around the garden, Woohyun was starving. “They were delicious. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Myungsoo chirped back proudly. Apparently, he did work hard to grow them. He then let out a sigh and looked up at the sky.“The first frost is coming soon. It’s in the forecast. Then it’ll be winter,” his voice was tainted with sadness.

Woohyun tilted his head. “Shouldn’t you like winter?” he asked. “I feel like it’d be your season. With Christmas, and whatnot.”

“Well, I do usually like it. I do really well in the winter, but…” he stopped and glanced over at the other before looking back up at the sky. “It’s not everyone’s best season.”

“Eung,” Woohyun hummed and pulled up the guitar case to his back. They both began walking down the street. “Not everyone is an evergreen. The rest lose their leaves and…” The two of them stopped in front of a barren tree, planted in a small patch of soil on the sidewalk. Under the harsh, unnatural light of the streetlamp, the skeletal branches cast an eerie shadow onto the pavement.

“Have you talked about winter with Sunggyu?” Myungsoo broke the silence.

“No, I haven’t. Not in detail,” Woohyun confessed and kept walking. “He told me that he basically hibernates. Is that right?”

Myungsoo bit some words back and swallowed them down. “You should talk about it with him. Soon,” was all Myungsoo would say on the matter. “Winter is here.”

Based on that, Woohyun guessed that the winter often froze whatever warm relationships nymphs had with humans, never to be thawed again by the spring. After all, what sort of relationship could a human have with a slumbering nymph? It was hard enough with them awake.

“Will I see you in the winter?” Woohyun finally asked Sunggyu. The first frost had come and gone. Then the world had warmed up again, one last hurrah for the sun before the season changed. But Woohyun’s heart had stopped for a moment, seeing the frozen dew earlier that week. But then he got a text from Sunggyu, who was thankfully still awake. Right then, Woohyun decided that they had to talk about the winter. And so he did.

But he wish that he hadn’t after hearing Sunggyu’s answer: “Probably not. I don’t really leave my home in the winter.”
“So you really hibernate? Like a bear?” Woohyun voice was louder than he intended it on being. It rang throughout the store. Thankfully, Jangjun and Dongwoo were already gone for the day, but Sunggyu still put a finger to his lips.

“First a wolf and now a bear? I’m an azalea,” Sunggyu reminded him in a joking way. “I hibernate like a flower.”

Well, that didn’t help to clear any of Woohyun’s confusion. “Are you actually asleep the whole time?” he asked. “I mean, you’re partly human like me, right? You eat and use the bathroom too. So you can’t sleep the whole time!” Sunggyu was nodding along as he was fiddling with some twine in his hands. It was half-hearted, but it was still affirming everything Woohyun said. “If you’re awake, then we can still see each other. I’ll come to your cottage.”

Sunggyu sighed and left the twine alone. He rapped his fingers against the counter, refusing to look the other in the eye. But then he stopped and his eyes met Woohyun’s. “I sleep a lot. More than you think. I might not be up for more than a half an hour at a time,” he confessed.

“That’s fine,” Woohyun quickly replied and held the other’s gaze. “It’s still worth it.”

“I’m not sure if it will be,” Sunggyu argued. “I might be asleep again by the time you get to my cottage, and it would all be for naught.”

“Then I’ll stay until you wake up again,” Woohyun countered. His grip on the desk’s edge tightened.

“Woohyun!” Sunggyu whined, throwing his head back. He then straightened up and continued arguing, “What? Are you really just going to watch me sleep? Why? You’ll be fine for the first or second time it happens, but eventually you’ll get irritated by it. You’ll get irritated at me. But I can’t help it! I’m just doing what I’m made to do! I am not human. I don’t think you understand.”

“I understand!” Woohyun spat back. Sunggyu rolled his eyes. “Trust me. I do!”

The nymph looked over at him sadly. “You’ll never really know what it’s like. How could you? You don’t even know what you don’t know,” that bit harder than the first frost. Sunggyu got up from his seat. “Why are we talking about this? Let’s just get dinner like we planned, hm? Let’s go.”

“I’m not going,” Woohyun declared, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Woohyun, please.”

“No,” the florist stood his ground. “If don’t want to see me in the winter, then why should we continue seeing each other now?”

Sunggyu winced. “It’s not that I don’t want to see you…”

“Then what is it?” Woohyun cut him off. “What is it?”

“Fine,” Sunggyu gave in with a groan. “Whenever I’m awake, I’ll tell you. And you can watch me sleep if you want like a creep.”

Woohyun walked up to the other and held up a pinky. “Promise?”

“I prom,” Sunggyu said, limply wrapping his pinky around the other’s.

“What’s ‘prom’?”

“Half a promise,” the nymph replied with a cheeky grin before stuffing his hand back into his pocket. “Alright, let’s go get dinner now.” With that, he went out the door.

“Yah!” Woohyun rushed after him. “That’s…”

“It was just a joke. A joke,” Sunggyu interrupted and placed his hand on the other’s shoulders. “Just a joke,” he sang while tugging on Woohyun, who was sulking. How could the nymph joke when Woohyun was trying to be serious? Did he not take Woohyun seriously at all? Or was he joke a veiled truth and Sunggyu wasn’t planning on seeing Woohyun at all this winter?

The tugging stopped and the hand instead traveled across the florist’s back, bringing him into a hug. “Namu,” Sunggyu whispered before pressing a short kiss onto his temple. “I’ll call you. I promise.”

“You better,” Woohyun replied, turning towards the other finally. They both moved closer, lips almost…

“Hey, Sunggyu!”

“What?” Sunggyu pulled away and snapped back at Sungyeol, who was standing on the other side of the street in front of his own shop. The water nymphs must be unaffected by the cold because he was still wearing only a tank top so late in the year. Or maybe it was as Sunggyu said. Sungyeol had lived for so long that nothing bothered him anymore. “What is it?”

“Did you dye your hair?” Sungyeol shouted.

“Seriously?!” Sunggyu yelled and started to walk away from both Sungyeol and Woohyun. “You don’t notice my messages, but you’ll notice this?” he grumbled under his breath.

Woohyun watched Sunggyu’s hair bounce as he stomped down the street. Sungyeol was right. There were no white hairs in sight, and the strands were weighed down with the artificial color. The florist looked over at Sungyeol, who was shaking his head. “Good luck with him, Woohyun. You’re going to need it.” The look in his eyes changed, from placid to pity. “Seriously.”

“Why?”

“Namu! Hurry up! I’m hungry! Let’s go!”

It must be officially winter now. Although it had felt like it for a while with the dip in temperature, now Woohyun could note the shift in the seasons by the people around him. Dongwoo had gotten the sniffles. Miss Gong ordered poinsettias to be brought into the store. And the tattoos of water, traveling down Sungyeol’s limbs, had frosted over.

Sunggyu stopped visiting the flower shop. It didn’t seem like he left the garden at all. Woohyun hadn’t seen him in a week.

Was it possible that he hadn’t woken up yet?

Joochan came into the flower shop to drop off piles of pinecones from the garden (Myungsoo) to use as accents in arrangements. His hair was now black and the branches on his skin were nearly bare, save for a few brown leaves. Maybe his time to hibernate would come soon.

“I take it that Sunggyu is still asleep?” Woohyun whispered to the nymph, careful not to let his coworkers here.

“Hm? No, Sunggyu-hyung was the one who told me to give these to you,” Joochan said with a grunt as he lifted a bushel full of pinecones onto the desk. They spilled out of the overflowing bushel and scattered over the desk. Apparently, Myungsoo had outdone himself this season.

“Sunggyu? He’s awake?” Woohyun stammered.

“Ah,” Joochan froze and stared at the other wide-eyed. “For a moment. Practically a second. A millisecond!” He then stepped backwards towards the door. “Well, I really got to get back. There’s a lot to do. Bye!”

“Yah! Joochan-ah!” Woohyun called after him but to no avail. He wouldn’t get any answers from the dogwood nymph, but Woohyun knew where he could find some.

But he didn’t know how to get inside of the Nymphaeum. He was standing outside of the locked gates with a hand fruitlessly tugging on the gates’ metal bars. They never gave, of course. But Woohyun wasn’t going to give up. He instead backed up and rolled up his sleeves. He was going to scale the wall.

“The garden is closed to the public.”

“Ack!” Woohyun yelped.

Suddenly, on the other side of the gate was a woman with long, black hair, flowing across her face, like a ghost. But instead of a white hanbok, she was wearing a red, slim-cut suit. Her hands were in her pockets, and her eyes locked onto Woohyun’s.

She was more terrifying than any ghost. “I-I know, m’am,” Woohyun stuttered. He then cleared his throat before continuing. “I’m friends with Sunggyu, the caretaker.”

“Ah,” the woman in red said as she approached closer to the gate. “So you’re the tree from Miss Gong’s shop?”

“Yes, I’m Nam Woohyun,” he introduced himself with a bow. The woman turned her head as he did. She was obviously a person to bow to, a person worthy of respect, but that didn’t mean that she cared to see it.

“Come inside.” She opened the gate with ease, with breezy motions. She then stepped aside to let the florist in. Woohyun immediately did so, and the gate snapped behind him with a sharp thud. The lady in red wanted no other intruders. She just smiled gently at the startled Woohyun. “Nam Woohyun. I’ve heard about you from the others, well, and Miss Gong, of course.”

“You have?” Woohyun’s voice shook. The woman didn’t answer but started walking down the path towards the cottage. “They all said good things, I hope,”

“It didn’t displease me to hear them, but it’s nothing that I haven’t heard before,” she replied. With a smooth spin, she turned towards him. “You weren’t the first human to be welcomed into our world, Nam Woohyun, and you surely won’t be the last.” She twisted back around and continued walking. Woohyun gripped at his heart. Just when he thought she couldn’t act more like a ghost, she went and did that. Now she let out a sigh, no it was more like a thousand sighs resounding all at once. “Actually, I don’t even know if we can call it our world anymore. We live so closely with humans now. Yet less than 100 years ago it was far rarer to welcome a human into our midst, but now I find myself doing it every week. It’s not a bad thing, but I am not sure, if it is entirely good either. Hurry along now, Nam Woohyun,” she stopped once more and beckoned to the florist who was several meters behind. Oh no, she wanted him by her side. She refused to move on until Woohyun was at her hip. When he was close, her red lips curled up into an eerily peaceful smile. She pulled her hand from her pocket and fixed the other’s bangs. “The nymphs would rather live amongst you all than each other, than with the gods. I am sure there is a reason why,” it wasn’t posed as a question but why did it feel like one?

“I don’t know if I could tell you,” Woohyun replied with a shy chuckle. “All of this is still very fresh to me. I don’t dare to act like I know.”

“Oh, you know,” her smile widened when she said that. She then continued on the path. Woohyun followed as closely as he could, while still showing reverence to her, whoever she was. “You cannot tell me. You cannot put it into words. But surely you can show me, Nam Woohyun, can you not?”

“I will try,” Woohyun replied. He wasn’t sure what she meant or what she wanted him to do. All he knew was this: “I will do my best.”

“I will hold you to that promise,” her tone and gaze cut through him, making all of his hair stand on its end. What did he just swear to do exactly? While Woohyun was worrying about unintentionally swearing his life away, the lady knocked on the door. “My child, you have a visitor,” her voice was soft, too soft. Woohyun thought there was no way that Sunggyu would…

“If it’s Sungyeol, then…” Sunggyu began to shout from inside of the cottage.

“It’s me!” Woohyun cut him off.

“Namu?! Nam Woohyun?!”

“Yes! Yes! It’s me!”

It took a good while and a hefty amount of groans for Sunggyu to make his way to the door. Woohyun was losing his patience, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. After waiting a whole week, it was harder to wait one second longer. But then the door opened. A warm blast blew back Woohyun’s recently tidied hair. And if that didn’t do it, then the sight of Sunggyu’s snow-white hair would have.

“What are you doing here?” the nymph asked.

“Well, you never called,” Woohyun replied, still out of it. He then shook his head, getting it back on straight. “Woah, wow! Your hair! What…” He was about to touch it, but Sunggyu pulled away, making room for the other.

“Come inside,” Sunggyu beckoned. “Hurry! You’re letting out all of the heat!”

“M’am, you can…huh, wh-where did she go?” Woohyun blubbered as he spun around, looking for the lady in red, who had wafted away in the warm breeze. “She was just here.”

Then there was a hand on his collar. “Come on! Hurry! Hurry!” Sunggyu urged as he pulled the florist inside. “It’s cold.”

“B-but…where did you go now?” Woohyun had finally stopped searching for the lady, only to realize that Sunggyu had disappeared as well.

“In here,” a shaking voice echoed from the bedroom, followed by the sound of teeth chattering loudly. Sunggyu was slow to answer the door but quick to jump back into his bed. Woohyun snickered. How like the nymph. But that was nearly the only thing that was ‘Sunggyu as usual.’ The cottage was bright and oh so hot under the light of the heating lamps, scattered throughout the small house. It felt like a greenhouse, muggy and damp, oppressive. Woohyun peeled off his coat as he walked into the bedroom.

“You weren’t kidding about the heat,” he remarked, throwing his coat at the foot of the bed. Sweat was already forming like dew on his skin. “God, how are you not melting in here?” he asked as he wiped his brow and sat down by Sunggyu’s side.

“It’s winter,” the nymph’s voice was muffled by the blanket covering his nose and mouth. He was nearly cocooned in several blankets. The white hair peaked out from underneath the blankets covering his head, hanging down like icicles.

“I know,” Woohyun spoke softly. He placed a hand on the cocoon, not really knowing where he was touching.  “You promised that you would call me. You lied.” He then pulled down the blankets from the other’s face. He wanted to talk. “You’re obviously more awake than you led on. So why didn’t you call?”

With his face now exposed, Sunggyu huddled down, his eyes downcast, and rocking back and forth. “Because,” he began but struggled to finish, “This…isn’t fun.”

Woohyun couldn’t look at the nymph. Anxiety weighed down his stomach, threatening to pull him down a spiral of questions and insecurities. So he picked nervously at the blanket and mumbled, “I don’t care. It’s fine.” Sunggyu scoffed and opened his mouth, but quickly clamped it shut again and hid it behind the protection of the blankets. Well, that didn’t help Woohyun’s anxiety at all. “Sunggyu, I don’t mind looking after you. I hope you know that. I want to do it, honestly.” The nymph glanced over at him, with furrowed brows. Sunggyu didn’t believe him, and Woohyun hated to beg him to. “Let me, please.”

Sunggyu pulled the blankets back down again and knocked into the other one with his shoulder. “It’s fine. I’m used to doing this on my own,” he explained. Now it was Woohyun’s turn to scoff. He rolled his eyes as well. Sunggyu jolted towards the others. His tight grip on the blankets loosened and fell around him as he yelled, “You don’t know what you’re getting into!” His last few words were broken up by coughs. The nymph gave into the coughing fit and doubled over.

Woohyun patted him on the back gently “Oh, I know just how finnicky azaleas are, trust me,” he grumbled. His fingers tapped his back, punctuating his words, “Finnicky, demanding, and stubborn.” The coughing soon stopped, but the nymph didn’t move. So Woohyun wouldn’t move from this spot either. He was growing to take root and stick to the other. He wrapped his arms around Sunggyu and laid his head onto the nymph’s back. “Look. I’m already here. You can’t get rid of me now.”

Woohyun felt a large sigh creaking through the back. “I suppose not,” Sunggyu whispered. He then raised his voice just a fraction louder, “I’m not…trying to get rid of you. I’m giving you an out. You can leave whenever you want to.”

“I don’t want to,” Woohyun muttered as he rubbed his face in the back, which then moved when Sunggyu pulled himself up slightly to look at the other. Woohyun’s throat tightened when their gazes met. He was caught, so he might as well confess, “I…I like you.”

“I know,” Sunggyu replied. And responded to the florist’s confused expression with one of his own. “We’re dating, aren’t we?”

“Are we?” Woohyun challenged with a shocked laugh. He pointed out towards the door. “Because a second ago, it felt like you were trying to get rid of me.”

“I wasn’t! I swear I wasn’t!” Sunggyu was waving his hands as he shouted. The blankets fell around him and a few coughs slipped from his mouth. “I just…wanted to make sure,” he managed to squeak out between coughs. Woohyun narrowed his eyes on the nymph, not knowing what to do or what to make of him. It seriously had felt like Sunggyu was trying to break up with him before they even got started. And now the nymph was giving him a finger heart and shy grin. “I like you too.”

“Thanks,” Woohyun grumbled, still pouting. That was the worst confession that he ever received, and he hated how happy it made him. The florist leaned against the other, who then wrapped him up in a hug. Woohyun shivered when the nymph’s icy fingers held onto his arms. Although Sunggyu’s hands had been cold for a while now, they were never like this. Nor was his nose ever like this, like an ice cube being brushed against the nape of Woohyun’s neck. “Why are you so cold?”

“It’s winter,” Sunggyu mumbled into the other’s clothes and tightened his grip. Was this a hug or was this the nymph siphoning whatever heat that he could from the human.

Well, this human was willing to give his heat, his love, away more freely. “Here,” he offered. They then arranged themselves until they were both lying on the bed. Sunggyu was once again wrapped up in his cocoon, but this time with Woohyun, who was also trying to rub the warmth back into his skin. It probably was a fruitless effort, but all that Woohyun wanted to care for Sunggyu. So it was successful in doing that. It didn’t seem like Sunggyu was going to tell him to leave again, not with the both of them wrapped so tightly, secured at the other’s side. With that thought, grumpiness withered and died; contentment blossomed. Apparently, Woohyun’s wishes weren’t in vain; nymphs and humans could dare to have relationships. Heck, he was already in one without even knowing it. The florist wasn’t going to get struck down by the gods for desires, no, actually it appeared to be the opposite. That lady in red, whoever she was, seemed to approve of him. Woohyun hoped that her approval mattered in this crazy universe.

“So,” Woohyun breeched the subject. “Who was that lady earlier? The one that led me here?”

“My mom,” Sunggyu immediately answered and then clarified, “I mean, she’s the one who planted me. I didn’t come out of her…”

“I get it. I get it,” Woohyun interrupted. “So your mom, is she a nymph too?” he didn’t quite know how to word the question, so it came out awkwardly.

Sunggyu shook his head and his gaze became distant, lost in thought. “I feel like she’s something more than that.”

“Hm? You don’t know?” to that, the nymph shook his head again. Woohyun laughed in disbelief. “But she’s your mom!”

“I’m too afraid to ask. My mom is scary,” he said, shivering from something over than the cold for once. Woohyun laughed even harder. The nymph rolled over to face the other and shoved him. “You go ask someone if they’re a goddess or not! Go! Go and see how’d they react!” he shouted and once again fell into a fit of coughs, not even bothering to cover his mouth, just spraying Woohyun’s grimacing face.

“No thank you,” the florist grumbled while wiping his face and pulling away. “I’ve watched the Goblin. Messing with deities doesn’t turn out well,” he mused. His mind drifted back to the lady in red. She had been relatively nice to him, and Woohyun was still terrified in her presence. Never before had he been before such an intimidating figure with such an awesome aura. The nymphs were mystifying and alluring, especially the white-haired one pouting in his arms, but they were not scary. One was a creature that you wanted to flee at the sight of; the other was one that you couldn’t tear your eyes away from. A soft smile graced Woohyun’s face as he played with the snowy hair. “Eh, don’t worry. You don’t count. You’re not scary. You’re a minor deity, very minor, itty bitty god. So there’s very minor risk involved.”

“Jerk,” Sunggyu swore and jabbed his elbow into the other. Okay, so maybe not such a minor risk. That would leave a bruise. “I’m major. And I’m poisonous! Go ahead! Try me!”

“But you’re the spirit of a bush,” Woohyun teased.

“A big one! Look!” Sunggyu sat up and gestured out of the window to his azalea, which was now hiding underneath a tarp, away from the elements, the freezing cold. Ah, so that was why, Woohyun mused as he interlocked his fingers with the thin fingers, cold as ice. The tattooed barren branches covered almost the whole digit now, as if it had grown rather than the nymph shrinking, right before his eyes. Could this hand soon disappear into nothingness?

Woohyun pressed the hand to his lips, holding it close, not wanting it to go. “You’re the biggest bush that I’ve ever seen.”

“Come over and pick me up. I want to get out of here.”

That was a common phone call from Sunggyu ever since that night. The nymph had difficulty getting out of the cottage on his own, especially when his mother was strict about the ‘no cars in the garden’ rule, and neither of them wanted to make her angry. So Woohyun would often plop Sunggyu into the cart attached to the bike and ride to the gates. It was like Elliot breaking out E.T. from the lab, they joked. They were escaping together, which made this already illicit relationship more exciting.

They didn’t do much in the outside world except have meals or go to cafes. Once they tried to go to the movies. It was a matinee, but Sunggyu slept through the whole thing, from trailers to credits. Although the nymph was nestled at his side, Woohyun felt a pang of guilt. It’d been his idea. He had no idea how little Sunggyu was capable of doing right now.

When Woohyun was pedaling back to the cottage, he nervously brought it up, “You know, you don’t have to push yourself for my sake.” He cast a glance back at the nymph to make sure he was awake. Sunggyu’s eyes were shut but he was nodding along. “We don’t need to hang out if you’re not up for it.”

Sunggyu’s eyes snapped open. “No,” his voice boomed. Woohyun stopped and looked back the other, who was fully awake and crawling out of the cart (they were only a few meters away from the cottage anyway). “No, I want to hang out with you.” He walked up to the human’s side. Either because of fatigue or shyness, Sunggyu couldn’t raise his head. “If you’re not here, then I’m alone. And…it’s boring, being alone.” He slowly lifted his head. “Look, I know I’m not much fun these days. I promise I won’t fall asleep next time we go out.”

“I don’t think that’s a promise you can make,” Woohyun stated bluntly. Sunggyu opened his mouth to argue but the human countered with this offer, “We could just hang out in the cottage. It might be easier.”

“You won’t get bored?”

Woohyun scoffed. Just months ago, Sunggyu treated the florist like a lowly intern in the garden, helping out with chores, but now the nymph cared about keeping him entertained and interested. The nymph cared about Woohyun, earnestly. With a smile, the human shook his head. “No, we’ll make it fun.”

And Woohyun did his best to keep that promise. He brought games for them to play, came up with a list of shows for them to watch, and books and things for him to do while Sunggyu napped, which was quite often. Woohyun was grateful that he’d always been the type to keep himself entertained because it would be unbearable if he wasn’t. No wonder why Sunggyu had warned him so much. Time drifted slowly in this hot and sluggish cottage, almost as if winter had frozen it too.

Often times the other nymphs would come by to check in on Sunggyu. Less and less were they surprised by Woohyun also being there. He was fixture there now, like one of the many heat lamps. In fact, Woohyun had often joked about being Sunggyu’s living heat lamp, whenever the nymph clamped onto him and refused to let go. He belonged there now, in the house, by Sunggyu’s side.

Woohyun felt like was a part of the garden.

As usual, the moment when Woohyun believes himself to be a part of their world, something happened to prove just how much of an outside he was.

After leaving Sunggyu’s cottage early one morning, heading off for work at the flower shop, Woohyun ran into Joochan on his way out. Joochan was pruning a holly bush nearby his own dogwood tree. Woohyun had greeted the nymph while passing him by, but then quickly retraced his steps. Joochan’s cheeks were full, rosy, healthy. His hair underneath his beanie was still black. He was wearing Sunggyu’s gardening belt and gloves as he was doing chores not meant for him. Or were they?

“So this is why you’re part-time at Sungyeol’s place?” Woohyun guessed. “You spend the rest of your time here?”

“Oh oh, yes,” Joochan admitted with a laugh. “I’m working.” He made a show of his shears before snipping off another holly leaf.

The human eyed him carefully, the oddly laughing nymph. “But aren’t you deciduous too? Shouldn’t you be hibernating like Sunggyu?” Woohyun pointed out and literally pointed at Joochan’s barren tree.

“Hibernating?” Joochan repeated, confused. “Ah hah!” He dropped the shears and clapped his hands together. “It’s because, um…look! I still have a leaf. See! Right there! Way up there!” He sped over to Woohyun’s side and pointed high up into the sky. The human tried to follow where Joochan was pointing, but the nymph’s hand kept drifting all over. “You probably can’t see it because I’m so tall,” Joochan declared and patted the other on the back. “Well, got to get back to work!”

“Yeah, sure,” Woohyun muttered under his breath while he squinted up at the tree’s seemingly empty branches. He supposed a nymph would know his own tree best. But he also had a growing suspicion that something else was going on.

And he knew exactly where to find his answer: a man that lived for so long that he can’t be bothered to lie.

During his lunch break that day, Woohyun marched across the street and into Sungyeol’s tattoo parlor. The water nymph was sketching a new design, his long black hair cascading over his shoulder like dark waves. A calm, placid surface and Woohyun was about to throw a large boulder into it.

“I saw Joochan in the garden this morning,” Woohyun’s voice boomed in the empty parlor. Ripples were cascading.

“Huh.” Sungyeol snapped his head up and dropped his pencil. “You saw…” he was slow to anchor himself in the situation.

“Why isn’t he hibernating like Sunggyu?” the human asked. “I saw him doing chores, but Sunggyu can’t even get out of bed. Something isn’t adding up, right?” Woohyun lost more of his confidence the more that he spoke, especially when a smirk broke cross Sungyeol’s face.

“Hibernating,” the water nymph repeated with a scoff. “Is that what he told you?”

“Yeah,” Woohyun admitted in a low voice.

“Nymphs don’t hibernate,” Sungyeol finally confirmed all of Woohyun’s suspicions, and it wasn’t a pleasant feeling. He felt pulled down by truth’s current, drowning in betrayal.

All the sudden, he wanted to deny it all. “Are you sure?” Woohyun begged.

“Yes,” Sungyeol couldn’t lie, which was why Woohyun came in her and why he was itching to flee right now. But the human was stuck. Sungyeol’s hand on his shoulders kept him there. “It’s about time someone tells you. You should’ve known long before now.”

“What?” was all the human could croak out. This was moment was more terrifying than meeting with the lady in red.

“I don’t know if you can really call it this, if he pulls through, but for the last few winters,” Sungyeol paused because it was hard for even him to say: “Sunggyu has been dying.”