~Chapter 18~

We Meet and We Part

Minho’s POV~

            “You have to wake up Taemin-ah,” I cry. “Please. You just started being more open to me. I just started to show my face to the people around me. So many good things are happening; you can’t just leave me when things seem to get better. You…How can you expect me to be happy when my source of happiness is not going to be with me anymore?”

            “Source of your happiness? Wow, I guess I’m more special than I thought,” Taemin says with a smile on his pale lips.

            “Taemin, you’re awake!” I gasp and hold onto his hand tightly. “You just fainted and I just didn’t know if you were going to wake up! You’re so injured and I just didn’t know what to do.”

            “Hyung…I’m sorry I didn’t tell you what was happening before. I was poisoned and my body was rotting. I was going to die anyways.”

            “Why didn’t you tell me?! I would have gone to find an antidote. I would have saved you. I would have–”

            “Risked your life.”

            “You know I don’t care–”

            “An even bigger reason for me to not tell you.”

            “Why are you so selfless!? Aren’t you afraid of death?”

            “I already died before, dying another time isn’t that bad.”

            “I know you told me everything about saving the world and dying in your past life. I know you, Onew hyung, and Jonghyun hyung came back in time to try to save our fates, but it doesn’t mean you have to die in the process. Please, Taemin-ah. You guys try so hard to get everyone together and yet you can’t seem to understand why I don’t want to lose you. If you die now, wouldn’t that mean you fail? You can’t die like this.”

            “But I can’t help it. Someone has to die. Someone from us six has to die; don’t you understand?”

            “I refuse to!”

Jonghyun’s POV~

            My eyes sting as they roam around the dark, eerie room. I smell rotten food and the stench of body waste. Key holds only my hand firmly, almost like he is afraid we’d lose each other. We try not to make a sound as we pass by some rooms– jail cells maybe–via the roof. When I use to watch dramas that took place in the past, I always thought it was bull how the people would travel on the roofs and such, but turns out, it’s the best was to sneak into a place. When people are on duty, they rarely look at the roof and since we are wearing black, we basically blend in. I hold onto my sword handle with my left hand tightly, ready to pull it out of the sheath when needed.

            We stop above a room and listen carefully. “Ahhh! You scumbag! Stop using your devilish poisons and fight me like a man!”

            “You think I don’t know you will beat me if we fight one on one!?” A girly male voice says back, cackling. “Just accept defeat and join the clan. You are a great hero; we won’t mistreat you.”

            “I will never betray His Majesty!” the other male yells back.

            “What has the king ever do for you? Capture your family, make you become his servant? He isn’t that much different than the dark clans. Don’t worry; we can get your family back for you. Mir, you have to believe me. We will not mistreat you. Whatever the king promised you, we will give you double. We will help you get revenge. The king will regret not treating you better. Forget the king, follow us.” Mir? Wasn’t that the name of the demon that was Joon hyung’s friend in our past life?

            “Fine, give me the antidote for your poison and I’ll think about it, Thunder.” Thunder?! Wasn’t he a demon too?

            “Which poison? You know I am a poison user. I have dozens, if not hundreds of poisons.”

            “Joon hyung told me his friend has been poisoned. His flesh has been rotting and his energy is depleted. You have an antidote, don’t you?”

            “I do. I can give it to you, but what will you give me to make me believe that you will join us?”

            “Don’t try to be hard on me. I need the antidote and you are willing to give it up to earn my trust, no?”

            “I think you got this wrong. You are the one asking me to help you, not the other way around.  I want you to join us, but you cannot use me to get your ways. Wanting you to be in our clan doesn’t mean I’m dumb. You have backup in the roof, don’t you?” I look at Key with shocked yes. The person knows we are up here?! Dramas are so deceiving! I actually thought no one would discover us!

            Key jumps down from the roof and I follow him, not letting go of his hand. We both enter the room and draw our swords. The men in front of us are indeed the demons from our past life. Thunder takes off his gloves and reveals purplish hands. He eyes us suspiciously and points at his face, gesturing for us to reveal ourselves. I look at Key and he nods. We both take off our face covering. “Kim Kibum, a special killer as well as a slave of the king,” Thunder says with a smirk. “Kim Jonghyun, I know you.”

            “You do?” I ask.

            “I do. Ever since Kim Kibum came to the martial realm and killed many of our skilled fighters, we were always weary of him. Of course we have to know the people he associates with.”

            “Wow, I didn’t know you were famous!” I say.

            “Neither did I,” Key says with a serious tone. “Hand over the antidote Thunder, before I add you to the list of people I killed.”

            “Oh? Is that a threat? Kim Kibum, I know you are a great fighter, but I am not bad myself. Not to mention that you are in my territory. I just need to call for help and you would be surrounded. I’m sure you are not going to risk it. You are smarter than that I assume.” Thunder says with a calm tone.

            “Come on Thunder. Stop being a coward. I’m sure you can stop with these games and fight us like a man. If you are as good you claim to be and if the clan is as powerful as you make it sound, then why don’t you cure the poisoned hero? Maybe then, I would be able to see you worthy to be allied with,” Mir says. “You know I put my hyung before His Majesty. If he wants me to save his friend, I have to. If you do me this favor, I swear I will pay the price.”

            “You are so lucky Mir is on your side, Kim Kibum. Fine, I’ll give you the antidote, but you will have to stay here Mir.”

            “I will. Now put on your gloves and stop freaking me out.” Thunder puts on his gloves and pulls out a small vial. “Take the vial Key, I have to stay here.” Mir says and looks at Key and winks. What was that? A signal? Key lets go of my hand and walks toward Thunder. Key grabs the vial with his left hand and hit Thunder hard with his right, knocking him over. Mir catches the poison user before he hits the ground. “Glad you understood me. Let’s go before they discover that we’re here.”

Minho’s POV~

            “I know you don’t want to believe it. I was like that once too. But after dying once and now going back in time to get the same result, I finally lost hope. I don’t want to die either, believe me, but I know I can’t escape fate.”

            “Stop using fate as an excuse Taemin-ah. If we try hard enough, things can turn out better.”

            “I want to believe that hyung, but at this rate, I don’t think I can survive to see our happy ending.”

            “Shh,” I hush him and hold back a sob. I hold onto his cold hands and rub it against my wet cheeks. “Please don’t leave me.”

            “I really don’t want to…but I’m just so tired of trying to stay awake…it’s so hard.” He swallows back his tears. “My body is rotting and it just hurts so much. I just want to be out of this misery…I’m sorry.” Tears escape his eyes as he closes them painfully.

            “At least let me put you to sleep peacefully…” I grab the flute that I left in Taemin’s room in our first meeting off of his shelf and place it on my lips. I sniff and let go of his hand, placing my fingers on the holes and play ‘Symptoms.’

Jonghyun’s POV~

            “We’re so awesome! I can’t believe we got the antidote and we captured Thunder. Since the evil clans lost a poison user, which means our clan won’t get poisoned anymore! Bwahahahahah!” I dance around after jumping off my horse.

            “Mir, we just met you, but it’s like we knew you for a long time. You’re a great guy,” Key says.

            “You’re too kind. Joon hyung is my friend and general from the palace. I came here to help him out. I’m glad we came in time.” I look over at Key who is smiling widely, showing his dimples. I reach over and hold onto his hand.

            “Great job back there,” I say shyly.

            “You too,” he smiles and looks away, but does not pull his hand away. I smile and we all walk toward the doors. My smile falls as we walk toward Taemin’s room. The doors are wide open and on the sides hang two white lanterns. No, we can’t be too late. I let go of Key’s hand and dash through the opened doors. I stop in front of a wooden coffin and fall on my knees.