"How much time do we have left?" asked Ara.

After some walking, the three had found refuge behind an oak tree where they were hidden from the masses of fey. Mingi took out the pocket watch for a look, "Two hours," he said. "I think we're far enough, so how do we find Ealdhun?"

"Well..." usually Ara would have figured out the next step, she still hadn't now. "How about we ask?"

"That's your plan?" Mingi stared. "You think some kind faerie will show us directions to Ealdhun?" 

"Look!" Ara pointed at the little creatures not too far away from them, scrawny looking as they frolicked around another mushroom ring. "We can ask them."

Yunho squinted his eyes, "What are they?"

"Pixies," said Ara. "Or piskies, whatever version. Jongho told me about them before, they basically think like little kids. We can try and get some answers from them."

"Can they be trusted?"

"Faeries can't lie, and we don't have to worry about getting tricked with kids," she assured. All this mentioning about Jongho had gotten to her head, and Ara wondered if they'd have more progress with him around. He had always rejected the idea of even associating with the fey, but he seemed to have a considerably extensive knowledge on them. 

"So who's going to get them to talk?" Mingi asked. "We can't all go up to them, that might scare them away."

"I'm not good with kids," Ara answered. "I don't think I'm any better with faerie kids."

Mingi hesitated, "Well I guess I can try and talk to them." He turned and approached the pixies before anyone could object. From behind the trees, they watched as he marched forward - in the most un-intimidating way he could be, and the pixies started to notice him approaching. "Er, hey little guys!" he began merrily. "Don't be afraid, I just want to ask you something and I'll be on my way," from his pocket, he produced a shiny coin and gave it to the scrawny pixies who accpeted it with pure curiosity. That seemed to make them interested.

Ara had to smirk. "Maybe he's not such a panini head after all. Yunho, is everything alright?" she turned to ask her ghost who had gone back to his odd silent state. She might have been thinking too much, but Ara felt like Yunho was even avoiding to look at her. 

"Y-yeah sure, why do you ask?" replied Yunho. There, that was the answer. 

She reached to touch his hand, he let her but it didn't feel the same. "Because I think you're lying," she told him. "You've been acting weird since I got in Mingi's car, and you went ahead to wait for us at the square..." she trailed off when the thought occured to her. It couldn't be. "I swear if you think there's something going on between us, I assure you there isn't."

He let out a laugh to sound entertained, but it came out as hollow, bitter even. "You have no reason to explain to me, Ara. None at all."

She frowned, "Huh?"

"Mingi's my only friend, doing everything, risking his life for mine in return so from the bottom of my heart, I wish him nothing but happiness. So I guess his life and mine were interconnected from the start ever since I dragged him into whatever mess that happened eight years ago, neither do I remember it. But you, there's no reason for you to do all this,"

"Of course there's a reason! I'm-" Your friend too? Was that what Ara wanted to say? 

"I saw you two come to me, how people were looking at you and Mingi - Rocco even pointed it out," he said quietly. 

"Rocco says whatever he wants, that doesn't matter how other people think-"

"When you were dancing with that faerie just now, everyone could see, I could see how happy you were." Yunho stared at her with an intense gaze, like fire burning through her soul. Had she been smiling the entire time? Ara wasn't sure. Overwhelmed? Sure, but that was like how people were starstruck by celebrities. She wasn't sure how Yunho had interpreted that as her...falling in love with Septimus.

She shook her head, "You think that prince and I would-"

"It doesn't matter what I think," he said harshly, fists clenched. "All I'm saying is that seeing you like that, dancing, being with someone who you can show off to the world - I don't know why I don't feel happy when you can be happy,"

Ara pursed her lips, but the urge in her heart willed her to say it anyway. "What if saving you is the only thing now that can make me happy?"

Yunho's face twisted. "You're lying-"

"You're lying when you say your thoughts don't matter, there's a reason why you feel the way you feel now," desperate she reached out to touch his face, but Yunho caught it. His expression was hard as stone, but Ara could feel his hand trembling. So alive, so so alive. 

"People wouldn't see me, they'd think you're mad. You can never tell people you're holding my hand, or even if we-" he closed his eyes. "It's almost like a cruel joke, a ghost falling in love with the living girl."

He said the words, before he could stop them from tumbling out.

"So you admit it," Ara said softly. "How can this be a cruel joke when your feelings are reciprocated?"

Yunho sighed, "Ara, please-"

"Because I think whatever that faerie gifted me so many years ago, it was my destiny to fall in love with you - that's why I'm going to be the person to save you," she took one step closer, so close that she felt the beautiful world of Faerie dim from view. Yunho tried to pull away, still she reached and cupped his face brushing his hair covering his eye. He looked at her, torn between telling her to stop and letting her do as she wished. The unwavering, quiet determination in her eyes made him quiet.

"I'm going to bring you back Jeong Yunho, whether you believe in me or not."

A yell erupted near them and Ara whirled around, to find Mingi running off in the opposite direction. "Stop it! Give it back!" he demanded as he chased the pixies, who had somehow gotten hold of the pocket watch. They snickered, floating further and further away. Ara cursed under her breath and ran after them, with Yunho in tow. 

"What happened?" asked Ara when she had caught up with Mingi, somewhere in between she had discarded her heels and was now running in her stockings. 

"I got distracted and didn't see them steal the watch from me," he panted in frustration. "Weren't you keeping at eye on them too?"

Ara didn't say anything back, this was partly their fault too and she knew that. She looked around and Yunho was gone once again, probably ahead of them as well. At the corner of her eyes, she saw blurry figures lurking from behind the thicker curtains of trees and shadows, bright illuminating eyes watching the two humans tresspassing in their land and Ara hoped that was not the most peculiar thing they had seen that day. And she felt it personally too, they had ventured far deeper into Faerie without a sense of direction. 

It was uncertain how long they had been chasing, but eventually Ara and Mingi reached a grove and there were the mischievious pixies struggling to yank free of their pocket watch, all while Yunho had been fighting them off. Hurriedly, they raced towards him and helped. Three bigger sized humans against a gaggle of pixies, the little creatures let go not long after - muttering furiously in an unknown language, in a very un-childlike manner before flying away. 

Ara huffed, "Who knew pixies were such sneaky brats?" 

"At least we got the watch back." Mingi panted, trying to catch his breath. It wasn't easy running in suits and dresses, much less trudging through the grass and getting the fabric caught in twigs. Some areas of his coat had been ripped, microtears evident from front to back. Out of frustration, Ara yanked away the frills and ribbons hanging off her skirts and sleeves, tossing it onto the ground. 

But Yunho didn't seem quite relieved.

He looked at the grove around them nervously, unknowingly shifting closer to Ara and Mingi. "Something doesn't seem right about this." 

Ara felt it too, deep in her bones that there was more than just a wide expanse of trees and shadows around them. It was as if everything had invisible eyes, watching them being defenseless and lost in an unknown place. The more she thought about it, the more apparent the whispers became. Why was there whispering?

"Why fight when you can be here? Dancing and singing with us!" a voice giggled. "Nothing changes in the Whispering Grove, join us! We will have a good time..."

Ara gasped, the voices cooed alternately between her left left and right ear, as if she was being spun around and played with. "Stop it, who are you?" her voice came out smaller than expected. 

"Ara listen to me!" she could hear Yunho calling out her name, but he felt so far and unreachable. 

"We know you're scared, fear not for we will never hurt you. Araminta, don't run away..."

Her hands covered her ears. "Shut up, shut up!"

"ARA, WATCH OUT!" and suddenly she was shoved violently out the way. Shocked, she stumbled onto the ground - inches away from where the dark figure lunged at her. Her ears were ringing, but she had woken from her trance and stared at what had happened.

Hidden somewhere between the trees, figures began to emerge, covered in inhuman features of bark on their skin, twigs in their hair and horns, fangs and slitted eyes. They were cornering Ara, like hyenas preparing to prance for their pray. She sat there frozen, until Yunho hauled her up and dragged her away before her legs recovered. 

And soon they bolted through the grove, where feral howls and shrieks from the woodland faeries hunted them down. In the midst of it all, Ara thought frantically - they seemed to be running in the spot over and over again, like an endless cycle until it was only a matter of time before she grew tired. Mingi was nowhere to be seen either, he couldn't be far-

"There!" Yunho pointed ahead, barely visible behind the bushes - was Mingi sprawled on the ground, unconscious. 

They picked up their pace, until they reached their friend. Ara dragged his head onto her lap, her fingers shaking when she saw the blood trickling from his temple. "H-he's bleeding," she panicked and looked around desperately. "We can't leave him here-"

The deafening shriek cut her off, and the second time she blinked - she realized what Yunho had done. The wood nymph and Yunho were a few feet away from her, wrestling out of each other's grasp as they rolled on the ground. The nymph then slammed Yunho against a trees, laughing in glee before sinking her teeth into the ghost's shoulder.

Yunho screamed. 

So many things happened at once, the roaring in Ara's ears, the seeping pain that had creeped in when she realised Mingi wasn't the only one bleeding and the more she tried to reach for Yunho, the further she slipped int0 the darkness.