[elevator - jonghyun]

chapter 20;

“So.” Sehun starts, swinging his arms as he steps up to stand beside Hyemi. “What’s up?”

Hyemi is grateful that Sehun had finally broken the silence that’s been looming over Sehun, Baekhyun, and her ever since they left the castle a little under two hours ago.

(The goodbyes had been lighthearted, despite the underlying heaviness to the atmosphere, Baekhyun had embraced Joonmyun carefully and Hyemi had watched as Joonmyun murmured something in Baekhyun’s ear, too far away to hear.

Jongin had stood by Sehun and her side, giving her a sideways glance, all soft smiles and careful eyes. “You’ll both do well.” He had said, eyes flickering between Sehun and Hyemi. Sehun had scoffed, rolled his eyes, and said something about obviously not needing luck, he’s Sehun; he’d never bite the dust. Hyemi had rolled her eyes and Jongin had just pursed his lips and flicked Sehun’s forehead in annoyance.

Chanyeol had been sweet, heartfelt, pulling each of them into his arms one after the other, rumbling “Be careful” in all of their ears.

Minseok had looked cold, icy eyes glinting in the dim candle light, obviously still upset about Luhan. But he had managed to look her in the eye and say, “I didn’t waste my time training you so that you could die. You’re the reason for my parole, remember that and don’t die on us.”

Hyemi had made a face, “I’ll make sure not to inconvenience you.” Hyemi had retorted, crossing her arms. Minseok had just smirked and ruffled her hair, much to her annoyance.

Joonmyun was a reassuring force, squeezing her shoulder gently while he gave her words of encouragement.

Kris, on the other hand, had been stoic the entire time, even as Zitao stood in the corner, speaking softly to Sehun.

Just before they had stepped out the door, Kris finally spoke, standing tall and stoic in front of the palace doors, like a dragon manning the gates of shelter. His eyes, heavily shadowed by his angled brows, never quite lost that calculating, vindictive look to it, his chin pointed up as he looked between Baekhyun, Sehun, and Hyemi, eyes lingering on her.

“Good luck.” He spoke in a regal sort of way and Hyemi wonders if this is the most kindness she’ll ever get from him. “You’re going to need it.”

They had been escorted away from the castle, on a carriage, to the main road that led straight to the Wall, and when Hyemi had looked back at the castle, she could have sworn she had seen a familiar figure up at the highest balcony. She could have sworn she had seen the King watching them go.

But something else had caught her eyes, further down the glittering castle front, where one of the lowest windows was thrown open wide. Leaning out the window stood Amber and Soojung, Soojung’s long hair fanning out in a way that reminded Hyemi of a flag waving in the wind. They just stood there, watching, and Hyemi felt a sort of tug at her chest, a sort of longing to go back, to join them at the windowsill, and she couldn’t figure out the reason why.)

Now here they were, walking on foot down a dirt path, yellowed grass and ash gray trees lining the road occasionally broken by a stone building that was either bubblegum pink or sunset orange or bright, neon yellow.

Baekhyun hasn’t said a word to her since he slammed the door in her face last night. He speaks to Sehun, as if everything is all right, but he won’t even look at her and it makes her feel like he’s personally punching her in the heart every single damn time.

(She thinks this is infinitely worse than when he had left because this time around Baekhyun is completely present. He just won’t look at her or speak to her and it’s ing with her sense of well-being so much more than she’d like to admit.)

When Sehun clears his throat loudly, she’s jolted out of her thoughts, remembering that he had asked her a question.

“Nothing.” Hyemi mumbles, “Nothing’s up.”

Sehun hums and the noise sounds a lot like disbelief.

She glares at him for good measure and he snorts, wrinkling his nose in irritation, “This is going to be one hell of a trip.”

Hyemi’s pretty sure Sehun doesn’t mean that in a positive way.

~.~.~.~.~

“How long does it take to get to the wall?” Hyemi asks Sehun as she trudges along beside him, her eyes occasionally flickering to Baekhyun walking in front of her as he drags a long, ashy gray branch along behind him, creating a sort of trail. Sehun walks behind him, scuffing at the trail with his foot to get rid of it.

Hyemi isn’t sure why Sehun’s doing that and she feels uneasy as she watches Baekhyun continue to absentmindedly create a trail along the dirt road with the dead branch.

Sehun pauses, blinking up at the darkening sky, the pink clouds dispersing slowly into a navy blue color as the giant sun begins to disappear over the horizon, the light imprint of two separate moons glowing softly in the sky. “An hour or two at the most. It’s a lot of walking.”

Sehun takes a sip from his water bottle, as if to emphasize that face.

“Yeah, it is.”

And then Baekhyun speaks, doesn’t look back from where he’s staring, straight ahead, but his words drift back to them loud and clear and Hyemi immediately sets her eyes on him. “We should hurry. We don’t want to get stuck out here in the dark.”

Hyemi glances out over the forest, eyes flickering past the electric blue flowers that protrude from the base of the dead, ash gray trees lining the roads, towering over them, leafless but so sinister.

Thunder booms in the distance, startling both Sehun and her, but Baekhyun comes to halt, so suddenly that Sehun smacks into his back, expletives dripping from his lips as he rubs his chin. “What the hell, man?”

“Do you hear that?” Baekhyun glances over at Sehun and Sehun opens his mouth to respond when suddenly Sehun expression freezes in place.

Hyemi closes her eyes, straining her ears, but all she hears is distant thunder claps. She opens her eyes and scans the horizon, before she catches the sight of distant lightning, a storm, ahead of them, beyond the wall, she assumes, judging from how far away the storm seems to be.

The thunder claps don’t sound unusual compared to Earth’s, they’re interspersed into random intervals, though she does notice the way the sound seems to die away too quickly after it hits, the lightning bolts in the distance cracking before suddenly shattering overhead like broken glass.

Boom.

Sehun grimaces, eyes filling with a sort of worry she never quite seen in his eyes before.

Boom.

“Jongdae.” Sehun murmurs, tone disbelieving, and Baekhyun nods, jerkily, his entire body tensing in a way that makes her nervous. Suddenly, she wants to reach out and smooth down the tense wrinkles between his brows; she wants to pull him into her arms and never see this much rigidity in his body movements ever again.

“He’s okay?” Hyemi asks, surprising herself with the amount of relief flooding her body and her voice, the hope in it incredibly obvious.

Baekhyun doesn’t answer her, doesn’t even look at her, and gestures for them to continue walking, his stride much faster than before.

Sehun frowns, looking down at Hyemi for a long moment. Then he pats the top of her head as if she’s a small child, and it’s reminiscent of that time with the monsters in the clearing. She can’t help but swat at his hand, especially when he proceeds to ruffle her hair.

She tries in vain to flatten her hair and he gives her a smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “C’mon. The faster we get to the wall, the faster we can figure out if Jongdae’s okay.”

He grabs her wrist and pulls her along, but her eyes don’t leave the lightning strikes looming so far ahead of them. She hears thunder again and again and again and—

~.~.~.~.~

“Idiot!” A shrill voice echoes all around Hyemi and Hyemi lifts her head from the floor, her limbs aching. “Idiot, idiot, idiot.”

Hyemi squints, sitting up, and then she realizes that she’s sitting beside a younger version of Minseok, curled up on the floor as he groans and weakly tries to push a girl away, the girl the shrill voice belongs to. Hyemi peers at the girl, a small woman with long black hair and a face that matches Minseok’s exactly. They could be mistaken for twins.

“You could have died!” The girl version of Minseok cries out but her voice wavers the tiniest bit as she remains squatting beside Minseok, swatting at any part of his body she can reach.

Instead of dismissing her words, Minseok finally uncurls from the floor and looks at her with an unwavering expression, icy eyes melting in a way Hyemi’s never seen them melt before. “But I didn’t, Sohee. I’m fine.”

“Yeah, we’re fine.” Hyemi’s mouth moves on its own, a familiar voice leaving her lips.

Sohee’s glare snaps up to meet Hyemi’s eyes and she sneers, “Just wait until I get my hands on you, Jongdae.”

Hyemi feels her face contorting and she figures Jongdae—she’s Jongdae!—is making a suggestive face at Sohee because the glare on Sohee’s face deepens, even as she—Jongdae—speaks, “Oh, can’t wait.” He wiggles his fingers suggestively and Sohee straightens up, stomping around Minseok.

Minseok glares, eyes glinting icily, and Hyemi can’t believe how similar Minseok and Sohee look at that very moment, “That’s my little sister you’re making eyes at, .”

Jongdae just laughs, heaves out a loud, obnoxious laugh, while Sohee smacks him lightly across the back of his head, muttering something along the lines of ing erted over and over again with each smack to his head.

But then Jongdae’s laughter starts to distort in Hyemi’s ears, warping and pulsing against her ear drums until his laughter is reduced to nothing but white noise, electricity buzzing in her ears like a bothersome bee.

Hyemi’s standing on the roof of some building, castle towers looming in the distance. The forest trees lie past the gates of the building like a sea of brown and gray, blurring together in the distance. The roof has no safety railings and it’s strangely lopsided, the side Jongdae’s standing on a few meters higher than the other side of the roof, a ramp that just keeps going and going connecting both sides of the and beyond, falling down past the walls and towards the ground, beyond Hyemi’s line of sight. The buzzing electricity sound is ever-present and Hyemi wonders how Jongdae hasn’t lost his mind yet.

“Or maybe I have.”

Hyemi practically jumps out of her skin, a squeak leaving her lips, “No way.”

Jongdae’s voice echoes all around her, disappearing into the vast sky above, “Yes way.”

Hyemi frowns, even as her face stretches out into a grin, before her legs—Jongdae’s legs—start to shift, stepping closer to the edge of the roof before he crouches in place. “This is so ing weird.” Hyemi mutters because she feels like she’s floating, unable to maneuver herself in any way at all.

“Tell me about it.” Jongdae responds, tone slightly irritated, “You’re literally inside my head.”

Hyemi’s about to answer, when Jongdae pulls something out of his pocket, the telltale click echoing on the rooftop.

It’s a mirror, she realizes (of course he keeps a damn mirror on him), and after a minute she sees his face staring back at her, his expression the same as the smile she can feel pulling at her facial muscles, though it’s not the expression she, herself, wants to express.

She’s not happy about this, by any means.

“Is this,” Hyemi feels the confusion wash over her as she stares at Jongdae’s face, eyes drifting over the long scratch running down his sharp jaw. His lips curl into a mischievous little smile and she frowns before continuing, “Is this happening right now?”

Jongdae shakes his head and Hyemi ignores the fact that her own head is moving at the same time. She’s just there in spirit, trapped inside Jongdae’s head, and that’s why she’s copying his movements. At least, that what she keeps reminding herself so she doesn’t start to freak out.

“This isn’t happening right now, exactly, because I passed out a while ago.” Jongdae informs her in a factual tone, his eyes drifting upwards as he scans his surroundings. “I think I’m dreaming.”

“Oh, great.” Hyemi murmurs, a bit sarcastically, “Now I’m having a telepathic moment with you or something. This is just great.”

“Wow.” Jongdae sounds incredibly amused, curled smile widening, “I thought Luhan was the only one who could do that.”

“You’re not helping.”

Jongdae laughs, his loud voice echoing in the silence around them. He laughs and laughs and laughs until she hears the rustle of leaves from way down below.

Until he stops laughing.

As suddenly as he started, he just stops, the silence ringing between them. She blinks, watching as he stares at her through the mirror, his eyes flickering in a way that reminds her of sparks. He looks distracted, almost, like he’s lost in something she can’t sense at all. “They have him, don’t they? They have Luhan?”

“Y—yeah.” Hyemi examines his expression, watches the concern and tension build in the tightness of his jaw. “Are you okay, Jongdae?”

“I think…I think I’m in trouble.” Jongdae murmurs, his voice growing distant, even though she’s practically in his head. The sparks in his eyes seem to grow and Jongdae’s eyes seem to fracture before, the image of it blurring and cracking like lightning streaking through the night sky back on Earth. “I can…I can feel Luhan’s…oh, .”

“J—Jongdae?” Hyemi’s voice trembles and she hates that she sounds so weak, but Jongdae’s expression is breaking before her, tearing apart at the seams in a way that has her scrambling for answers, scrambling for a way to keep him from becoming nothing but cracking, shattering lightning.

“I’m…I think I’m gaining consciousness.” Jongdae murmurs, his voice sounding so far away. Jongdae’s expression twists into a grimace that’s half-playful and half-completely-serious. “I’m beyond the wall, okay. Hyemi, listen. I’ll be fine. Don’t come looking for me. But, if please find Yixing. Please—. Please keep an eye out for him. Promise me that you’ll watch out for Yixing.”

“Of course I will, but….But you’re in trouble.”

“Don’t come looking for me. I’ll be fine.” Jongdae doesn’t sound like he believes his own words and Hyemi feels a tug at her heartstrings, a sick feeling building at the pit of her stomach. She can’t just leave him to deal with whatever has him on his own.

Jongdae’s eyes spark, bright sparks spilling down his cheeks like tears. The only difference is that these electric tears are charring his skin, burning it a bright, angry red color, the smell of flesh burning filling her nose.

“But—”

“Don’t.”

Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t, don’tdon’tdon’tdon’t—

Don’t.

~.~.~.~.~

Hyemi jerks awake and momentarily seizes up in fear when she feels hands tighten around her legs, clutching at her arms as she flails in the grip.

“Don’t.” A familiar voice murmurs right next to her ear.

Hyemi freezes in her movements, her fingers curling around soft fabric as she slowly opens her eyes, taking in her surroundings. She’s breathing hard, raggedly, against a hard surface.

She feels her body shift as she picks her head up, the darkness replaced by soft evening light and a mouthful of dark hair. Hyemi jerks back, shrieking a little too loudly, and the grip on her thighs tighten to an almost painful grip.

“Ow, you’re choking me.” Baekhyun groans, bending over backwards until she loosens her death grip around his neck.

“Sorry.” She murmurs, voice raspy to her own ears.

He doesn’t respond, instead shifting her further up his back so he can settle her on his back more comfortably. She wonders if he’s just going to go back to not speaking to her again and it makes her chest feel heavy, her grip on the front of his shirt tightening unconsciously.

“You just lost it back there.” Sehun’s voice cuts through the tension between them and Hyemi turns her head to the side. She can’t seem to lift her head as much as she wants to, her cheek resting on Baekhyun’s shoulder as she stares up at Sehun. She momentarily wonders why her visions are leaving her weaker, why they’ve not only become more intense, but they’re also affecting her physically much more than before.

Sehun stuffs his left hand into his pockets, her backpack hanging from his right shoulder. He doesn’t exactly look at her for a moment, choosing instead to glance over at her in a way he must think is incredibly discrete. “You said Jongdae’s name a few times.”

It’s quiet between the three of them as Hyemi tries to figure out how to tell them.

It’s quiet until, “Is he okay?”

Baekhyun doesn’t turn his head to look at her, he just trudges on ahead, but his voice rings in her ears. She thinks about lying to him because she doesn’t want him to go looking, not when Jongdae had said not to.

But she doesn’t lie.

Slowly, she buries her nose against his shoulder and murmurs, “I don’t know.”

Her voice is muffled but it echoes in the silence surrounding her.

(She doesn’t tell the truth either. She doesn’t tell him that no, Jongdae is not okay, none of us are.)

He’s stiff beneath him so when she can’t stand it anymore, she weakly lifts her head and says, “Put me down.”

She expects him to protest, the Baekhyun she’s always known is protective and stubborn and he would have said no, don’t even think about it.

This Baekhyun slows to a stop and slowly unclasps his hands from around Hyemi’s thighs, allowing her to slip off his back. For a moment, she doesn’t let go of the front of his shirt, but when he looks between her and her curled fingers on his chest, his eyes narrowed, she pulls away, as if she’s been burned.

He stares at her hand for a moment, before he eyes her face, “You’re lying.” She blinks, opening to protest, but he continues, “You do know.”

“Baek—”

Baekhyun just smiles and the worst part is that it reaches his eyes; it fills his entire expression with wry amusement. “Let’s go. We need to get to the wall as quickly as possible.”

She tries to step towards him and he watches her stumble. There’s a flicker of something in his eyes but it’s gone, just as he turns away.

Her fingers tremble; they won’t stop. Not even when Sehun puts an arm around her waist, steadying her carefully.

She stares at Baekhyun’s walking along the dirt path, watches his back move further and further away from her, and doesn’t even flinch when Sehun presses medic pills against , making her swallow it with a gulp of water.

“Come on.” Sehun presses a heavy, comforting hand to the middle of her back, “It’ll be okay.”

Even though the energy in her body is seeping back into her bones, thanks to the pills, she still feels heavy and lethargic; she feels horribly heavy as she watches Baekhyun trudge along ahead of her.

~.~.~.~.~

It’s dark and cold when they finally reach the wall. Or at least, that’s what Hyemi assumes is the wall.

It looms overhead, hundreds of meters of earthy, moss-covered wall spearing at the murky sky. If Hyemi squints, she can just make out the guard towers at the very top, overlooking either side of the wall. Hyemi’s eyes wander down, to the plain, stone building protruding out in front of her. There’s a worn out red door along with a couple windows, both windows barred and covered by tattered white curtains. There’s a potted plant on one of the windowsills, the flower a brilliant neon orange color, contrasting brightly against the purple center, its stem sticking straight up and the flower petals bent at a strange angle. Hyemi watches the flower, intrigued by the way it seems to sway the tiniest bit. A small bug, glinting yellow beneath the yellow lantern light hanging in front of the door, hovers too close to the flower and Hyemi watches with morbid curiosity as the flower’s petal begin to pulse, opening and closing at a steady pace, until suddenly it stretches its petals and snaps up the bug, midair.

Hyemi blinks, watching as the flower pulses before the petals fall open and the bug is gone.

She feels queasy at the sight and slightly terrified because even the plants are terrifying in this planet.

“Don’t worry.” Sehun nudges her arm and grins at her in amusement, “Those plants usually don’t grow big enough to take one of us out. They manage to get a finger or two but that’s about it.”

“Ew.” Hyemi mumbles and Sehun snorts.

That’s when the red door swings open and a woman steps out of the stone building, her eyes piercing as she settles her gaze on each of them, one at a time. There’s something regal about the way she holds herself, her hair pulled up into a braided ponytail and her expression as stoic as Kris’s had been. Even under the dim lantern light, Hyemi can tell that she’s gorgeous, in all her cold, ethereal glory.

“I’ve been waiting for you three.” She says, her eyes settling on Baekhyun. There’s a moment where her eyes widen exponentially, but then it’s gone, as if she hadn’t been surprised by his presence a moment ago.

“Commander Jung.” Baekhyun and Sehun bow and Hyemi is too slow to do the same, so Sehun presses a hand into her back and pushes her down into a bow, rolling his eyes at her despite the smile.

Commander Jung just smiles and it morphs her face completely, the coldness seeping away to make way for so much warmth Hyemi’s mouth nearly falls open in amazement. Commander Jung waves her hand in dismissal, “No need for formalities, we trained together. Call me Jessica.”

They step into the stone house and Hyemi expects stone benches and weapons everywhere. But there’s just a couple worn out couches and a bunch of fold up chairs stuffed into the corner. Jessica leads them through the narrow passageway in the right, a soldier clad in armor and spears bowing respectfully as he opens the door for her, revealing what Hyemi assumes is the inside of the wall.

It’s long rectangular room that Hyemi can’t see the ends of; it just curves around and out of sight, seeming to never end. Staircases and metal overhanging corridors fill the empty space above their heads like a spider’s web. Hyemi cranes her neck upwards, but she can’t see the top of the wall, all she sees is a maze of stairs and metal overhangs, tightly woven nets hanging at intervals in a way Hyemi figures is meant to break someone’s fall if they were to fall off. The thought of falling off one of those staircases makes her shiver. There are soldiers everywhere, some casually dressed and some not, all of whom glance over at them with curious eyes, whispering behind their hands as they pass by. Hyemi sees them disappear into rooms, signs like Barracks and Café hanging from the doors. Ahead of them, a few hundred meters from the entrance of the wall, stands a giant garage-like door, an elevator free-hanging just beside it. The giant door is barred with heavy metal rods, like it hasn’t been opened in years.

“There used to be hundreds of gates accessible to the public back in the day, but now we just have four, at the North, East, South, and West entrances. This one has been closed off for years due to lack of government funding.” Jessica says, glancing sideways at Hyemi as if she’s read Hyemi’s mind. Hyemi thinks of what Minseok had said about poor government funding regarding proper handcuffs and she fleetingly finds it amusing that government funding is a huge deal here, like it is back on Earth.

“There’s a door.” Hyemi says, pointing at the chained door placed directly in the center of the giant door. The chains around the door don’t seem to be rusted into the door. There’s a lock glinting against the door and it catches Hyemi’s eye.

“Yes.” Jessica nods, smiles again, her teeth showing. “It’s closed to the public, not us.”

“Oh.”

Sehun snorts and Hyemi makes a face at him because he’s obviously snorting at her. Baekhyun, on the other hand, is staring at the elevator beside the door with determined eyes. “Can we go up?”

Jessica looks over at him, examining his expression for a long moment before she says, “That’s the plan.”

~.~.~.~.~

“Sup Jung, what brings you up to my humble hell—oh?” Hyemi watches a tall man with shoulder length bronze hair practically fall over himself as he scrambles to straighten up.

“Captain Kim.” Jessica rolls her eyes at him, her lips twitching. “You’re keeping watch, right?” Her eyes slide from Captain Kim over to the man slumped over in his seat and wrapped up in a blanket, snoring loudly.

Captain Kim just gives her a dazzling grin, even as he viciously kicks the sleeping man’s side, forcing him to fall out of his chair and shriek. “What the hell, man, it’s just Jess—oh .”

“Oh indeed.” Captain Kim agrees, solemnly, even as he observes Baekhyun, Sehun, and Hyemi, his eyes lingering on Baekhyun and Sehun before they stop on her, recognition flickering there the moment he looks at her.

Captain Kim’s partner isn’t as subtle as him because the man is staring wide-eyed at Hyemi even as he spins on his heels, swiveling back and forth like a pendulum as he stares between Hyemi and Captain Kim. “Heechul. Dude. That’s Asha’s kid.” He whispers behind his hand loudly.

Hyemi glances between them in disbelief because they knew her mother and even Baekhyun seems surprised by their words.

“I know, Donghae. Dude.” Captain Kim—Heechul—tacks on a tone of disgust at the last word.

“What’s she doing here?” Heechul looks at Jessica, the frown on his face incredibly out of place, in Hyemi’s opinion.

Donghae leans toward Jessica and murmurs, “Does this mean Kris actually took out time to visit you?”

Hyemi has never seen a person’s face grow so irritated so quickly. Jessica actually looks like she has half a mind to shove Donghae off the wall. “The Prince is not here.” Jessica says, stiffly, and Heechul doesn’t even hesitate on grabbing Donghae by the scruff of his neck and pulling him away.

Donghae whines when Heechul smacks the back of his head. Jessica rolls her eyes at the sight and the irritation fades as quickly as it came, a stoic expression replacing it. Hyemi thinks she looks familiar, like Hyemi’s seen Jessica’s features on someone else before.

“I brought them up because they wanted to go beyond the wall.” Jessica explains as Hyemi steps forward and leans on the guard tower railings, her eyes drifting over the vast land stretching out beyond the horizon.

In the distance, she sees lightning striking at the trees, far to the left. There’s nothing much to see, just land that’s obviously taken a toll from the Tree of Life losing its powers. She’s about to turn away when Jessica leans up beside her and nudges her cheek, pushing her head to the side until she’s staring along the tree line straight ahead, where smoky gray meets deep, earthy brown.

Within the shadows of the trees, she sees figures swaying and waiting, their dark bodies hovering in place. Hyemi feels a chill run down her spine when there’s a high pitched keening noise coming from their direction. She clutches at the railings, her fingertips digging into it as the cold wind wildly pushes her hair in all kinds of directions, smacking almost painfully against her cheeks. The keening starts to get louder, all-encompassing and ringing in her head.

And then the dark figures seem to step out from beneath the safety of the shadows, revealing themselves. They don’t move any further, they just seem to gather closer together, and for a second, it looks like they’re craning their necks, staring at her as if they’ve all got their eyes set on her. She can imagine the jagged teeth, the blood red eyes, the ringing screams, and she’s shaking against the railing.

“That’s the first time they’ve moved since they’ve gotten here.” Heechul’s voice cuts through her frantic thoughts and Hyemi forcefully tears herself away from the railing, jerking when someone touches her arm gently. Slowly, she tries to breathe, even as she looks up so she can apologize for yanking herself away from someone who was just trying to help.

(Her apology dies in because Baekhyun is staring down at her, hand hovering over her elbow.)

Heechul’s staring at the monsters through a pair of binoculars, “Damn, those things are ing ugly.”

“Is that what you notice first? Their ugliness? Not their giant ing teeth or their floating bodies? Or maybe the fact that they’ve got blood red eyes?” Donghae looks over at Heechul in disbelief.

Heechul just shrugs, squinting through his binoculars, hair a mess because of the wind, “Yeah, well. I’m not about to let something that ugly eat my .”

“I would hope they get nowhere near your .” Donghae mumbles, shaking his head as he puts down the binoculars.

Sehun laughs and Heechul smirks even as Donghae wiggles his brows at Sehun. Hyemi feels like she’s missing out on some kind of joke.

Jessica makes a face and speaks authoritatively, though Hyemi can hear the amusement in her voice. “You two said you noticed a safe path around those…things, right?”

Heechul and Donghae both exchange a look before they grin.

~.~.~.~.~

“I just can’t believe you’re Asha’s kid.” Donghae mutters around a mouthful of food. They’re being served meat Hyemi can’t quite figure out. It tastes like chicken but it doesn’t look like chicken. It’s pink.

And they’re sitting in between the front entrance and the chained off giant door on a bunch of mats, their voices echoing in the giant, never-ending wall room. It’s strange and it makes Hyemi feels so incredibly small.

“How do you know my mother?” Hyemi looks up from playing with her food, ignoring the way Baekhyun is not looking at her from Heechul’s side.

“Believe it or not,” Heechul slurps at his soup before grinning at her, “Me and Donghae are ing ancient.”

Hyemi stares at them and wonders what that could mean. They barely look thirty. Donghae nods, dipping his head down in a way that has Sehun laughing. “Seriously, we may look gorgeous, hip, and young, but we’re old as hell. The King’s…wife and I were good friends, a very long time ago. Before she had her accident.”

There’s tension in his words, barely noticeable but easy to pick up. Hyemi blinks and murmurs her name, “Jia?”

Donghae doesn’t answer, so Heechul speaks up, “We didn’t know Asha well after she left school. We used to have classes together but then she just stopped coming. That was around the same time she was announced as the…vessel to the Tree.” Heechul pauses and looks up at her, frowning, “We were all training for a spot in the King’s Elite Guard. There was Lee Minhee and Byun Baekho and the elite Oh couple, who were promised to each other before Guard school even began. The one hundred other Kim family’s fighting for recognition alongside me, the healer family from the Zhang district beyond the walls. It was tough and competitive. Jia was doing so well, but then she got into a horrible training accident while in her second year. She went from top of her class and a guaranteed spot on the King’s Elite Guard to working behind the counter of the local sweetshop alongside her parents. It killed her more than she was willing to admit.”

“Stubbornness runs in the family.” Jessica inserts, her hair falling into her eyes as she stabs at her food with her fork.

Heechul chuckles a little humorlessly, “It does. She was a stubborn little thing. Donghae had a hard time with her. He always came to me complaining about ‘Jia this’ and ‘Jia that’. Should have known that she’d somehow catch the eyes of the Prince Sungyeol, huh? What more could she do to piss off Donghae?”

Donghae snorts into his food, “If she had her way, she would have dated the Old King himself.”

“That’s when we met your mother again.” Heechul says around a wide grin directed in Donghae’s direction. “Jia and Asha were best friends and…Asha was different, lonely.” Heechul’s eyes grow sad then and he sighs, leaning back on his hands, “Sometimes, it really did seem like Sungyeol loved Jia. But then he’d run off with dear Asha and she’d…” Heechul shakes his head, his long hair messily falling over his shoulders. He looks sad, bitter almost, “We weren’t allowed to be friends. She wasn’t allowed to do anything but befriend the royal family or befriend a ing tree. At some point between conversing with a goddamn tree and running around the forest barefoot, she must’ve convinced herself that she loved Sungyeol. I think she did that because…because she knew she had no future otherwise. She couldn’t love anyone otherwise. It’s tragic, really.”

Donghae nods, voice soft, “Your mother was convinced that she loved the Prince and her best friend more than anything else in the world, but her best friend and the Prince loved…having power more than anything. It makes sense that they fell into relationship together.”

“And left no room for you.” Heechul states bluntly. Donghae doesn’t get angry, like Hyemi (and Sehun, judging from his expression of disbelief, expects him to). He just snorts and bursts into laughter. But there’s nothing funny about it.

“Funnily enough, Sungyeol wanted Donghae as far away from Jia as humanly possible. And he convinced himself that I was the brains behind Asha’s escape.” Heechul shakes his head, “So he kicked us out of the Elite Group and sent us out to the wall with no hopes of moving up ranks, the ing bastard. Of course, getting kicked out of the Elite Group wasn’t so bad. At least, we’re still alive.”

Both Baekhyun and Sehun stiffen at that and Jessica sighs, loudly, “Be sensitive, you two.”

Heechul just looks between Baekhyun and Sehun with careful, unreadable eyes, Sehun and Baekhyun holding his scrutinizing gaze with unwavering expressions. It’s a silent conversation, Hyemi realizes, one she doesn’t think she’ll ever understand.

(Not when she was the reason Baekhyun and Sehun’s parents and Heechul and Donghae’s former friends were dead.)

“Jia passed away, though.” Hyemi manages to speak, remembering the framed photo of her on the King’s wall.

“She died a couple years after Kris was born.” Donghae speaks quietly still and Hyemi watches the way Heechul rubs his knee in gentle comfort. “Some say stress and others whisper of guilt. I think it wasn’t just guilt. It was heartbreak.”

“Heartbreak?”

“Sungyeol and Jia both loved Asha more than they ever let on. I doubt they ever knew it, themselves, not until much later. And they came to learn that she didn’t miss them at all. Who would miss the people who held them captive for years? Sometimes…sometimes, it seemed like she meant more to them than the power she had did.” Hyemi’s mind reels over his words but Donghae just shakes his head, “But we’ll never know the truth. Not when they’re all either dead or locked away and dying.”

Hyemi stares between the two men and she speaks softly, her voice echoing in the silence stretching between the group, “Sometimes some memories are best left in the past.”

Her eyes flicker up only to meet Baekhyun’s gaze halfway. He’s staring at her, expression unreadable, but there’s something there, something that makes her heart flutter and her cheeks grow red because she remembers what he says, she listens, and she wants him to know that.

Baekhyun holds her gaze for a second longer before he breaks away first, leaving her hanging, breathless.

~.~.~.~.~

“Good luck.” Heechul pats Hyemi’s head while Donghae shoves a bag into her limp arms, making her stumble.

They peer out over the forest, through the crack where the door is left open the tiniest bit, and Hyemi shivers at how eerily silent it is.

“Thanks.” Sehun murmurs, “We’re definitely going to need it.”

Baekhyun smiles at the two of them, even as Heechul ruffles his hair and mutters something along the lines of Baekho would be proud. Too proud, if you ask me, the .

Jessica smiles at Hyemi, as Sehun and Baekhyun step out the door, ahead of Hyemi, Sehun clutching a map Heechul and Donghae drew up for them. When Hyemi makes a move to go on ahead, Heechul stops her, pressing a hand to her elbow.

“When this is all over, you find a way back home, do you hear me?” Heechul looks at her quite seriously and Hyemi slowly starts to nod. “Your mother was a sweet woman, ruined because of circumstance. You don’t deserve her fate. Be careful.”

And then she’s being pushed out of the wall and into Baekhyun’s back. The door slams shut behind them with a sort of finality that rings all around them. The forest is quiet, the charred branches creaking softly in the wind, and Hyemi’s heart won’t stop slamming in her chest at the sudden spike of anxiety.

They’ve crossed the wall. They’re in the God of Death’s territory now.

~.~.~.~.~

“Do not stray from the path.” Hyemi snaps, tugging at the back of Baekhyun’s shirt. “That’s what Jessica said.”

“Who cares?” Baekhyun spins on his heels and looks her in the eyes, “We need him.”

“Baekhyun.” Hyemi’s fingers tighten around the hem of his t-shirt, even as she glares, “Jongdae said not to look for him. He told me he was in a dangerous spot.”

“All the more reason to find him.” Baekhyun hovers over her and they’re so close that she can see the way his jaw tenses, the intensity in his eyes, the desperation.

“But he’s—”

“Look.” Baekhyun cuts her off, raising his voice in a way he’s never really done with her before. She’s taken aback, tugging at the hem of his t-shirt as she involuntarily steps back. He averts his eyes, his jaw clenching, before he speaks again, voice so much softer than before, “Whatever we’re planning on walking into is going to be dangerous and Jongdae can help us. He knows how to fight and he’s good at long range combat. You can barely control your powers and you’ve trained for a few weeks, not years like he has. We need him to take on Yeonma and his possible army.”

Hyemi exhales softly as she looks into his eyes, searching his face for no reason other than to observe his reactions, “What if we don’t make it out of there?” She steps up closer to him, trying in vain to make herself look bigger than him, to intimidate him somehow.

But he doesn’t step back, no, he steps closer, forcing her to stand her ground, despite how damn close he’s standing, hovering over her. She can smell him, the smell of mint and a hint of sweat mixed in with the shampoo they had all used back at the wall. It shouldn’t smell good or comforting but it does and she wants to step away before she jumps him right then and there.

“If we don’t make it out of something as small as that, then how are we supposed to take on the God of Death himself?” Baekhyun breathes, even as he takes another step closer. This time, she steps back; otherwise he’d be pressed up against her, her cheek growing pink.

Sehun clears his throat behind Baekhyun and she looks over his shoulder. Sehun gives her the most -eating grin she’s ever seen, “He has a point there.”

Hyemi groans and Baekhyun steps forward again, forcing her to step back. She turns her gaze up at him, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion, even as she continues to slowly step backwards, Baekhyun slowly stepping towards her with each step she takes backwards. And then she hits a tree, a gasp leaving as she throws her head around, blinking rapidly.

He leans forward, so close that she can’t even think properly, her eyes flickering up and down his face. He leans down so ing close and she thinks she could map out blueprints of his face for an eternity, watching the way his jaw ticks as his eyes sweep up and down her face, an amused little smirk playing on his lips as he places a hand on either side of her, caging her in against the tree.

He bends forward, slowly, and she leans back in a futile attempt to melt into the tree.

Slowly, carefully, Baekhyun brushes the pad of his fingers across her cheek, her eyes widening, unblinking, as she remains fixed on his movements. He flicks a strand of hair out of her eyes, twisting it around her pretty fingers. “Hyemi.” He murmurs, his voice melting all around her in a way that has her squeak out an incoherent response.

He gently tucks the strand of hair behind her ear, his warm fingers brushing against her skin and making her grow breathless. Then his fingers flutter down to her chin, lifting it so she’s looking him in the eye, watching the stars in his eyes dance darkly, twinkling with amusement. He breathes and she can feel it on her skin and she feels mesmerized by his touches, by the tiny circle he’s drawing against the bottom of her chin. His lips hover over hers, a few centimeters away and all she wants to do is press herself into them, but his eyes are dark, telling her to stand still, so she does. She does.

And then he speaks and it’s smooth and soft. “Hyemi.” He repeats, a sharp edge lacing through his voice, “Don’t try to intimidate me ever again.”

And then he’s pushing himself off the tree trunk, away from Hyemi, before turning and walking away, brushing past Sehun (who’s gaping like an idiot at the scene).

“Oh, my God.” Hyemi breathes, slumping against the tree.

“You really pissed him off, didn’t you?” Sehun mutters in disbelief, a few feet away from her. “What did you do?”

Hyemi feels like she’s just run a marathon, her breathing uneven, but she still manages to glare at Sehun, pushing herself off the tree while avoiding looking Sehun directly in the eyes. “Shut up.”

“Let’s go find Jongdae, then.” Sehun murmurs, his neck stretching out as he looks up at the sky, at the black puffs of clouds hovering close to the ash grey treetops.

Hyemi stares up at the sky, too, the hairs at the back of her neck standing on end when she sees a streak of electric blue lightning pierce through the dark clouds, shattering the sky’s smooth dark expanse of clouds violently.

a/n: omg sorry for the late update, this is a bit of a filler chapter, but also it has important info about hyemi's mom and kris's parents!!

remember to tell me what you thought thank you so much!! i'm off to work bye!! ily!