"There must be another way!" Ara cried. She looked at Yunho, speechless and somewhat terrified by what he had heard. The room was silent after Ealdhun's explanation, that a curse with such sinister nature had its own sinister price - and only some cruel enough would do such a thing. 

Then Yunho finally came to his own senses, he backed away, colour drained from his face. "No, no. If that's what it takes to break this...this stupid curse - that's not right!"

Jongho stepped forward, "Surely there's a way around this?" he asked Ealdhun, but he sounded uncertain. "Isn't that how faerie magic works? Find the loopholes in the bargain? It doesn't only have to be this way,"

Ealdhun shook his head, "This is not fey magic, far less forgiving. This is one of the darkest forms of magic, corrupted and vile - there is nothing benevolent about it. And there is nothing I can do to change it." He looked at Yunho, and there was tinge of sombreness in his expression, like he genuinely pitied him. If there was anything he wanted to say, he didn't at the end. 

"Yunho, listen to me," Mingi said, despite not knowing where Yunho stood. "For me, it doesn't matter what the price is okay? Remember - what you had to go through all these years for what Serafia did to you, your dad - I'm not saying it's justified, but maybe just this once-"

Yunho a breath, "A price by blood? How is that ever justified?" He held his head in his hands, frustrated and confused. In swift motion, he whirled around and ran out the room. 

"Yunho wait!" Ara called out desperately, but her feet were already on the move and she chased after him. 

Mingi was about to go after them too, only to be held back by Septimus. "Let them be, they won't go out the court. Sometimes it's better to leave people to their own thoughts first, we have other things to deal with,"

Jongho sighed, "He's right, we've been stuck here for too long and since we know the entirety of the curse now and we currently can't do anything about it - we should be heading back,"

Mingi still wasn't convinced, "But Yunho-"

"Ara's already gone after him, and you can't see him either so there's no point in following them," he put a hand on Mingi's shoulder. "He's your friend and though I'm not sure whether ghosts can change, but you must know what kind of person he is. The Yunho you knew, would he be fine with someone else's life in exchange for his?" 

Mingi didn't want to admit it, but the answer to it was already crystal clear. The Yunho who was generous enough to treat people to lunch everyday at the school cafeteria, he who would never let anyone be blamed for something they didn't do, helped out at the orphanage every other weekend. Yunho was his first and last real friend, the kindest person he ever knew.

"No, of course he wouldn't be."

Ara found him by the lake.

His back faced her, leaning against the trunk of a blooming pink hawthorn tree while he watched the swans glide silently on the water. It was an odd sight, how there were barely ripples on the lake despite the pair of swans swimming around, their majestic bodies of white a clear contrast against the blue of the lake. Ara hesitated to announce her presence, worried that Yunho might run away from her again. 

"I've been looking everywhere for you," she said after much contemplation. Yunho's head turned to see her, but to her relief, he didn't run again. She pursed her lips, "H-how did you find this place? I don't think Septimus gave me a grand tour of the place yet."

"He was here actually yesterday while you and Mingi were...asleep," Yunho answered, his tone resigned. Were you avoiding me so you came here? Ara bit back those words and listened on as Yunho told his story. "He told me about the lake, that you could see your greatest desires at night when the lake was completely still and the moonlight shone directly onto it,"

"It can do that?" Ara echoed curiously, now staring at the waters with greater curiosity. She wasn't sure why the voice in her head urged her to ask. "Well, did you see anything last night? Your greatest desires?"

He nodded, avoiding her gaze. "Guess what I saw?" he asked, but he didn't sound like he wanted her to do as he asked. 

"You...saw yourself alive? You were no longer a ghost?" that was the obvious answer, Ara thought. There couldn't have possibly been anything else he wanted more. Her hand reached out to touch his wrist, smooth against her fingertips, becoming a natural instinct of sorts when she wanted him to open up to him - as if she was unfolding an envelope to his thoughts. Moments like this were rare for them, where they were left alone without anyone present to give them odd looks, mistaking Ara touching the air and staring at open space. There and then, she could do as she wished.

Her hands went to rest on Yunho's chest, feeling the strong palpitations of his heart; of a boy who was neither dead or alive. But what Ara did not know, was how much willpower it took for Yunho to not let his desolation show. Her touch against his skin was like electric, sparks blazing inside his soul ; even more when he was reminded of what he saw the night before in the moonlit lake. Yunho swallowed, "I saw us," his voice trembled when he said it. 

Ara stared and he continued, "You asked me what was it that I wanted most in this world and I thought that too - that I wanted nothing more than to be alive, but it's more than that. This," his hand carressed Ara's cheek, she held onto it before he could let go. "-us together, in each other's arms. Loving you unashamedly, openly - that is what I want most in the world,"

"And we can do just that, nothing's stopping you Yunho." Ara whispered.

He closed his eyes, pained. "Listen to me, Ara. If the only way for me to come back alive is to sacrifice someone else, I can never live in peace knowing that. Jongho told us that everything faeries do have double-meanings, that things aren't always as easy as they seem. Maybe that was what the faerie gifted you, for you to be a hero - and to be a hero comes with sacrifices. And I think that means you'd have to give up on...me, someone you love-"

"No!" Ara shook her head. "If that's the case, I don't want to be hero. If paying such a price will bring you back, then I'd rather be selfish than a hero, Yunho," she said. 

"Ara, listen to yourself!" Yunho snapped. "If you didn't know me, you would never have said that!"

"But I do know you, and nothing is going to change the fact that I love you with all my heart and soul, Jeong Yunho."

The words rang in his ears, the dinging of a bell setting off an alarm inside of him - and nothing could stop all the weight of the world from crashing down. He pulled her close without warning, and he kissed her. Like a wave drowning out the world, his lips collided with hers. Ara stiffled a gasp, eyes closed as she let Yunho hold her close. She had boyfriends before, had been kissed before - but never felt emotions as strong as she did now. She could feel the perfect curve of his lips, the soft flutter of his lashes against her face; Briefly she opened her eyes, and saw the warm fawn brown of his: you're so beautiful, she thought dreamily. Ara knew, that being kissed and loved by Jeong Yunho was the one thing she wanted most in the world and she didn't need the lake nor the moonlight to show her that.

"I saw this," Yunho murmured when he pulled away, and Ara's heart ached. "All of this, all of you - I want it so badly. And I'm just so...angry that it can never come without a price," his voice was on edge. "But I don't want it, even if it kills me inside, Ara, I don't want it," he stepped back, gradually pulling himself away from her. "Whatever you do, don't bring me back that way, Ara, or else I will never forgive you or see you again."

"Yunho?" she said but he still drifted further away from her, eventually evaporating into a shadow and vanished from sight.

When Ara returned without him, she had to explain to everyone why he left, of course leaving out the more intimate bits.

"If he wants to be left alone, it's best to do that - for now," Jongho had said. "Don't worry Ara, he'll come back."

They stood near one of the doors they had passed earlier on the way to the manuscriptorium, where a opening was already there - their exit from Faerie. But only Septimus was there to send them off, Lady Auraline was nowhere to be seen. "She had a talk with Jongho earlier, he didn't seem quite happy after their chat though," Mingi filled in for her. 

"Jongho's never happy if it's about her," Ara replied, as a matter of fact. She hoped he hadn't been listening when he approached them, now back in his jeans and hoodie - but it only made  the saber hanging by his side more obvious, its hilt coated with bronze. She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Don't worry it's glamoured, no one will see it when we get back," he answered, like he knew exacty what she was about to say. "Here," he took off the little vial dangling off the chain around his neck - and Ara realised Yunho's last breath had once again, been transferred. "Ealdhun gave this before he left, I'm giving it back to you."

Ara frowned, "Me?"

Jongho shrugged, "You're the hero in this story, so you should make the choice - at least that's what he meant I guess. Plus, his debt to Jocelyn was cleared already."

"So it's either we let Serafia do what she wants, or we let Yunho be a ghost forever?" she said. 

Mingi sighed, "What if we don't have a choice? Yunho will hate us at first, but call me heartless because I'd rather he hate me than be stuck as a ghost forever. You heard what Ealdhun said, there's no way around this."

Ara knew that too, but the thought of Yunho hating her wasn't something she liked. Him not being there with them made her feel worse, after he had made her feel so many things at once. 

Septimus cleared his throat, "Before you leave, here," he handed something to Jongho - a rose gold acorn the size of a pebble. "I know you and Lady Auraline are not on the best terms but this is my offer, you never know when you might need help from a dashingly charming prince of Faerie."

Jongho rolled his eyes but accepted it nonetheless, Ara figured Septimus wasn't exactly going to leave him with a choice anyway. "Until we meet again, dear cousin! Faerie will always welcome your return!" he waved dramatically as the trio were about to step through the shimmering portal. 

"Is he always this...frivolous?" Ara asked Jongho, watching Mingi walk through first.

"I don't know him well enough to be sure." 

She was the last to leave, letting the blinding lights take over.

The next second was an instant change, and the overwhelming scent of exhaust smoke and putrid sewage made her cough. Ara stumbled and crashed into Jongho, both of them tumbling out from what she realised was an alleyway in front of her apartment. Immediately she missed the unpolluted air of Faerie. "Wait, where's Mingi?" Indeed he was nowhere to be seen. "Is that supposed to happen?"

But Jongho wasn't listening as he looked towards the flats. "Ara, why are there cops at your house?"