3/31/12

IT'S THE END!!! To the subscribers who were here from the beginning, thanks for sticking with me until the end! And to the newer subscribers, thanks for showing your interest! I will have an epilogue-ish thingy coming up soon :D For now, enjoy this chapter :D

            Bom was flying for over 3 hours, and she was exhausted. It was quite easy to spot where the lake was. It was the source of all the mist and smoke that surrounded the whole land of Ton.

            When she clumsily landed onto the ground, Bom tried to her way through the thick and steamy mist. While she was walking, she tripped on something. As she retreated and felt what she tripped over, she saw that it was a shoe. The shoe was attached to a leg, and the leg was attached to a person she knew very well, “Youngbae!”

            Bom tried to shake him to wake up, but he didn’t budge. As she touched his face, she noticed that it was really damp. Sweat, she thought, and Bom realized that Youngbae was over the normal body temperature of a person. He was burning. Panicking, Bom tried to freeze him up with her own ice magic. But no matter how many times she did that, his body temperature would melt all the ice away.

            She quickly pulled off her pendant and switched it with Youngbae’s. As she put his on her neck, she felt like she was on fire, so she quickly took it off. But Youngbae was still out cold. Bom touched his hand and realized it was still burning hot. It was clear to her that Youngbae had worked nonstop for the past two days.

            Bom waited until Youngbae’s body temperature went back to normal. By this time, the smoke from his fire had already dissipated, and Bom was able to see her surroundings clearly. As Youngbae began to open his eyes, Bom’s heart began to pound. “Are you okay?”

            “Yeah,” Youngbae nodded as he sat up and took off Bom’s necklace. They exchanged the necklaces, placing them back into the proper place.

            Bom sighed. “That’s good. I thought you might have overdone yourself this time.”

            Suddenly, she remembered what had happened two days ago, and she felt tension in . She hit his arm.

            “Ow! What was that for?” Youngbae shouted in pain as he rubbed the place that she hit.

           “If it wasn’t for your… flimsiness, you wouldn’t have been put into this situation!” Bom yelled back, her voice cracking. She felt the pressure behind increase.

“Excuse me?” Youngbae asked, confused and appalled.

            “Don’t you like Dara?”Bom accused. “But you didn’t resist when Chaerin said that you guys were going out on a data, did you?”

            She couldn’t hold it anymore. Bom turned away from Youngbae before tears welled up in her eyes.

            Angry, Youngbae turned Bom back around. “Look, I’ve had enough of this! You know as well as I do that Chaerin is more stubborn than a mule when she sets her mind to something, and why do you keep on saying that I like Dara?! I’ve never liked her! I’m tired of you jumping to conclusions!”

            “What do you mean?! Didn’t you admit it last time I asked you?” Bom kept her head down.

            “I never gave an answer!” He used his hands to tilt her head up. “I—“

            His eyes grew wide. Bom furrowed her eyebrows. “What?”

            “You’re crying.”

            “Well, obviously!”

            “No, you’re crying… for me…”

            Bom hiccupped. Her eyes widened as well. Realization hit her like a bullet. Everything makes sense now.

            Whenever she cried for Seungri, her tears would be frozen. Youngbae had accused her of becoming cold and unfeeling. But, when she was crying for Youngbae, her tears would run down normally. When she was thinking of Youngbae, her feelings, her warmth, had returned. And it happened because of Youngbae. He was the only one who could balance her out, and her body knew it before she did. Even during the kiss with Seungri, her body was trying to tell her something when it didn’t react to him.

            It was Youngbae all along, Bom realized. She couldn’t even believe how long it took herself to realize this fact.

            Youngbae cradled her face and brought their faces closer together.

            “Wait,” Bom turned her head to the side. “I’ll have to kiss you back.”

            He grinned. “Exactly.”

            Leaning down, he closed the remainder of the space between their lips.

            The kiss was different from the last two that they had. It was so gentle that Bom was too scared to even breathe. Warmth spread through her body, and she kissed him back. For some reason, Bom felt as if she was finally…home.

            Suddenly, Bom felt a drop of water on her head. Pulling back, she looked up at the sky. Clouds hovered over them, releasing droplets of water.

            Bom and Youngbae looked at each other and smiled.