Hyunjoong

After taking a cold, relaxing shower, I walk exactly 5 minutes from my house seeing the red, worn out barn. The door squeaks as I try to open it quietly, sending echoes inside the barn. It's completely pitch dark and chilly.

''Imo? I'm here!'' I call out. The lights suddenly turn on, displaying a barn filled with piles of old hays on the ground, cobwebs and imo standing behind a table with various items; candles, silverwares, a blindfold, one big jug of water and three glasses.

''What are these?'' I ask in confusion, approaching her.

''Your training equipments, but first, I want to speak to you about your gifts,'' she says and motions me to sit on a wooden stool.

''These gifts can be triggered by energetic and powerful emotions,'' she continues, ''What emotion made you trigger them?''

''Anger,'' I say, remembering what Hyomi told me.

''You've never gotten angry to this extent before?'' imo asks curiously. I nod and brush away a cobweb stuck on my wrist.

''I see,'' she says.

''Is it normal to have two gifts, though?'' I ask unsurely. Imo shakes her head; ''It's not, actually. Seunghyun only has one gift,'' she says, almost sounding happy. Her statement suprises me. Seunghyun's had a gift this whole time?

''You have the gifts of fire and mind-reading,'' imo says proudly. That describes why I felt something was wrong with Hyomi.

''How do you know that? And I couldn't exactly read my friend's mind, I kind of felt it,'' I say.

''I can tell your energy, Hyunjoong-ah. With proper training, you'll be able to read minds easily instead of feeling them,'' she assures.

''What gift does Seunghyun have?'' I inquire.

''Persuasion,'' she says, ''That's how he got the villagers to worship him, the pretended xian.'' That makes me wonder if he has ever tried to persuade me or Hyomi.

''You and I are the only ones that can't get affected by Seunghyun's gift, however he can get affected by yours,'' she says certainly.

''Eottoke?'' I ask astoundingly.

''Since you have the ability to read minds, you can read his intentions, knowing what he's about to do,'' she says.

''So you-?''

''Neh, I can read minds too. Other questions?'' she interjects.

''Yes one more; how exactly did we get these abilities?'' I ask.

''Ah, that. These abilities have run in our bloodline for a long time, since the withcraft trials during the 18th century. Some of us see it as a gift, others a curse. The villagers are aware of our gifts, but I would like to keep it a secret from the village. My wish is to mind-wipe all the villagers here so that our bloodline can live peacefully again. Anyway, everyone in our lineage were born with one gift, but you are the first one to have two of them.'' she admits. My eyes widen with astonishment.

''I don't know the reason behind it, but I'm researching on it,'' she says, as to answer my question.

''One more thing; if the girl you love ever gets persuasion inside her mind, the only thing to stop it temporarily is only when she's with you. I have no idea how to stop it permanently though. Mind-wipe is the best solution but it may be deadly for you. It drains your life energy if you don't know how to master it,'' she says. I curse under my breath, hoping that Hyomi hasn't gotten any persuasion in her.

''Let's get started with the training now, shall we?'' she asks and head towards the table, picking up a candle.

''I want you to light this candle with a faint fire,'' imo instructs. ''Empty your mind and collect a bit of energy, not all of it which caused you to get knocked out.''

I do as she ordered me to do; emptying my mind and picking up a slight energy.

''Focus your collected energy on the candle and think of it igniting faintly,'' her instructing voice sinking into a whispering command.

I stare at the candle and let my collected energy wash over it. A faint blue-redish fire sparks up right in front of me, suprising me that the fire is keeping it's posture.

''Good job, Hyunjoong-ah. You can put the fire out if you slowly drop your energy,'' imo advices. Within a few seconds, the fire fades away as if it were never there.

''So how do you feel? Are you hurt or in pain?'' she asks calmly.

''Neither of them, I feel fine,'' I say. She smiles and hands me a glass of water. I thank her and gulp it down quickly.

''The amount of fire you want to ignite is based on your energy level. If you keep on practicing, you'll be more immune to it and you will rarely get unconscious. Too much energy that your body can't handle can cause you death or drain your energy completely, so be careful,'' imo warns. I nod and ponder about it for a moment.

She proceeds to the blindfold and hands it to me. I put it on and listen attentively at her;

''For you to be able to read peoples' minds, you have to gather at least a quarter of your energy to do it. Having a blindfold on will prevent you from feeling the energy of mine. Gather your desired amount of energy and focus only on my mind. You should be able to hear it and not feel it,'' she commands. I hear the clink of silverwares as imo picks one up.

''What am I holding?'' she asks. I collect the amount of energy I need and slowly set my focus on imo's mind. It takes a while for me to hear anything but a weak whisper in my subconscious mind enters abruptly; a spoon.

''A spoon,'' I pronounce.

'''Wrong,'' imo says sternly. I remove the blindfold to see what the answer is; a fork.

''I clearly heard you saying it was a spoon, imo,'' I say concisely.

''And you heard right, but you should also read my intention, whether I'm lying or not,'' she says wisely. ''We are going to pull an all-nighter for you to master all the basics, Hyunjoong-ah.'' I sigh at her statement and stretch myself to ease my anxiousness.

''Again now. As soon as you hear the faint whisper, look for the voice behind it. You can do it,'' she assures. I take a deep breath and wear the blindfold again. A quiet clink catches my attention.

''What am I holding now?'' she asks. I collect my energy again and focus on her mind, this time the whisper appearing quicker than before. A knife. I dig deeper behind the whisper to enter imo's intentional mind. I focus on her intention for a minute. A strong voice suddenly enters my subconscious mind; ''I'm not holding anything.''

''You claim that you are holding a knife, but you're not,'' I call out.

''Jal haesseo. Good work,'' imo praises. I remove the blindfold to verify my statement, it turns out to be right. I give myself an imaginable pat on the back.

''Yah, don't become too confident now,'' she says. I bite my inner cheek out of embarassment.

''Continuing to the next process?'' she asks.

''Yes, let me drink some water first. I'm parched.''

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Seunghyun

''Welcome back, abeonim,'' I say, tightly holding onto a smiling Hyomi.

''Mwoh? Abeonim?'' he asks in surprise, eyeing the two of us. Hyomi flashes out her engagement ring, awing her father.

''Omo...'' he says. ''I'm so proud of you both. Especially you, my daughter. Chukahae to you both!'' he beams and hugs us both happily.

''We're not planning our wedding yet, it can wait. We just wanted your blessings first, appa,'' Hyomi says.

''You've got my dear blessings, arasso?'' he chuckles. We both smile and I help abeonim carry his luggage inside their house. After I wish him a good nap, I step out of the house seeing Hyomi continuing hanging the laundry on the washing line. Feeling the urge to hold her, I sneak up and embrace her. She gasps in suprise and giggles afterwards. I face her, linking our hands together and resting our foreheads on each other.

''You startled me, oppa,'' she says, gazing into my eyes. I grin and start kissing her forehead and further down to her lips. She quivers with pleasure and grabs my collar intriguingly, urging for more. My lips trail to her neck, it passionately while she grabs my hair alightly. I move further up to her ear and whisper alluringly;

''I love you.''

''I love you too, oppa.''