CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Crash And Burn

 For her whole life, Jaehwa had lived, holding onto the thought that tomorrow would always come and that the inevitability of erasure and of loss always brought with it a clean slate. It was the comforting possibility of new beginnings that allowed her to swallow the cruelty of the world with a hopeful heart but Jaehwa had mistaken her own silent suffering for the allure of peace.

She should’ve known better – she should’ve known that a past undealt with always caught up with the present but her optimism had stolen the possibility of her ever possessing a heart too cold or a mindset too cruel.

As she ran, her mind was so deeply embedded within the surfacing memories that she almost forgot to breathe. It wasn’t until Soojung had tugged her out of the building and the cold wind slammed into her face that her body reeled over from breathlessness.

She tumbled out of Soojung’s clammy hold onto damp grass of the sports field, wincing as the skin on her knees peeled back from the friction of the fall. Soojung stopped a few steps ahead, brushing her hair away from her face as she turned back to find Jaehwa blankly sitting on the ground with a vacant gaze in her eyes. She swallowed as she made careful steps towards the older girl and upon closer inspection, Soojung realised that Jaehwa had tears welling up in her eyes.

“Are you alright?” Jaehwa jumped at the closeness of Soojung’s voice and when she turned to look at the younger girl there was a blankness that Soojung found was so out of Jaehwa’s usual warm and composed demeanour.

For a moment, Jaehwa’s eyes searched through the night as her mind tried hard to process the question that Soojung posed. Her gaze drifted from the girl’s blood splattered face to the night skies before they fell back onto the way her hands fisted themselves into the grass beneath her body to stabilise her trembling. Her chest rose and fell in sharply as she sought the right words to convey her feelings but there was nothing. Nothing but the taste of sweet, sweet air splintering across her tongue.

Eventually, Jaehwa managed to execute the most subtle nod except Soojung didn’t believe a single bit of it. If anything, Jaehwa was just as traumatised as she was.

“Jaehwa.”

There was no response.

“Jaehwa.” Soojung placed her hands over the girl’s shoulders and gave them a gentle squeeze but the only response that Jaehwa gave was the tuft of air that she blew from her thin lips. At a loss for what to do, Soojung fell back onto her heels, observing Jaehwa even closer than before to notice that the wounds in her neck had healed perfectly. Her eyes widened and she extended a hand to touch the area where the streaks of blood started.

“Jaehwa.” She shook the girl harder and this time something within Jaehwa snapped back into life.

“Huh…” She almost whimpered before she squeezed her eyes shut and let the reality of the world seep into her senses. “W-What’s going on?” She whispered thinly as her hands uprooted the grass in an attempt to cup her aching head.

“You’ve healed… H-How is that possible?” Soojung whispered shakily, “Does that mean you’ve used magic or something? I mean… doesn’t that mean the Eligorians or something – Jaehwa… Jaehwa! Are you even listening?” It wasn’t until Soojung spoke that she realised she was panicking because she seemed to have momentarily lost the ability to form a coherent sentence.

“My head hurts.” Jaehwa sighed, wincing as she tried to shy away from Soojung’s hold but the younger girl was persistent.

“There is no time! Get up… Get up… Get up now.” She shot to her feet and attempted to pull the older girl up but Jaehwa had lost strength.

“W-Where are we going?” Her voice was wearing thin so that Soojung had to strain to hear it amongst the wind.

For a moment, Soojung didn’t know herself but there was really only one place they could find safety. “The princes… To the library!” Soojung stated as a matter-of-factly, “I mean, we have to tell the others what happened tonight. They’ve got to know – they’ve got to do something about what ever the hell just happened. We have to tell them everything…” The wide-eyed fear in Soojung’s eyes made Jaehwa realise that she had more things to account for than her own emotions. Soojung was right – the princes had to know because there were greater things at stake but she didn’t know how she should tell them or where to begin. She didn’t know if she could or if she wanted to.

 Chanyeol, with his hands tucked casually into his pockets, trailed alongside his brothers, feeling the cool air wash over his clammy skin. For the entire night, he hadn’t been feeling too well and was evidently quieter than usual as a result, but no one made anything of it.

He his lips as he continued walking, trying to take his mind of the constant and overwhelming heat that was emanating from within his body. It didn’t help that he was so sensitive to heat either because even though it wasn’t painful, it felt awfully like a fever – uncomfortable, damp and draining. He pulled his hand out of his pocket to touch his forehead but stopped when he caught the glimpse of a blue sign, flashing across the back of his hand.

His mouth ran dry almost instantly because it held an uncanny resemblance with the symbol that Lay had. Immediately, he lifted his gaze to find the rest of his brothers already quite far ahead, conversing comfortably with each other. They weren’t discussing anything important because they feared it becoming overheard but it was something that they nonetheless treasured – time with each other because who knew how many more days, hours or seconds they had left.

He shook his head to clear his hazy vision before he rushed up to Lay and peeled him away from Luhan and Tao.

“What the is happening?” He flashed his hand at Lay who stopped dead in his tracks and completely forgot what he had been saying to Luhan and Tao just moments ago. It wasn’t until he turned around to inspect Chanyeol’s hand that he realised, his blue sign was flashing as well.

“Lay, yours-“ Tao tried to point out but Chanyeol was too irritated by the feeling settling inside of him that he didn’t give Tao the chance.

“Do you feel it too?” Chanyeol snapped, annoyance emanating from every fibre of his being.

“Feel what?” Lay asked with brows furrowed as he fixed his gaze on both their symbols. There was nothing particularly similar about the design save the mystic blue glimmer and the way that it flashed on the same part of their skin.

“The ing burning feeling… I feel like I’m about to explode.” Chanyeol uttered between gritted teeth as the heat crept into his gums.

“When did this show up?”

“I have no idea.” C