You constantly, stealthily invade the breaks in my everyday life

Exiled to a dark dream, your gentleness awakens me

I’m not in time to close the window, you flee far away

            All he remembers is the running.

            Yi Xing has gone barging into their house in a panic. The news he bore feels heavy. Min Seok doesn’t recall how they were able to get from his house to the front of the Lu Mansion.

            “Auntie, let me in! Lu Han needs help…” Yi Xing pounds the gates of the mansion the same way he did at his house. Unlike his, the door doesn’t open immediately for Yi Xing here.

            A servant opens the door, suspiciously eye-ing them. “The Madam is resting at present and doesn’t want to be disturbed; you might want to come back later…”

            “Mei, it’s me Yi Xing… I used to live here. Don’t you remember me?”

            The servant averts her eyes, she clearly recognizes his friend though she doesn’t want to acknowledge it. “I apologize but please come back another time…”

            “I need to speak to my Aunt, it’s about Lu Han…”

            “I—“

            “Tell them Xiu Min is here… Tell them… I came to speak about the Kims…”

            She hurries back into the house. Yi Xing leans on the gate obviously exhausted and hurt at the same time. The clear rejection of his only family must’ve upset him more than anything else.

            A different servant came back, this time she opens the door wider letting both of them pass. Min Seok is relieved that they are allowed to come in although he’s pissed at the way they treat Yi Xing. Once everything has been settled he has decided to have a word with Lu Han regarding this unfair treatment.

            Lu Han.

            They have to help Lu Han.

            Lu Han’s mother was waiting for them inside Lu Han’s room. The faint beeping of the heart monitor assuring them that Lu Han is still alive though Yi Xing has told him that it’s really not the case. Lu Han is currently at the critical ‘in-between’.

            He can’t fully comprehend the situation but looking at Yi Xing’s and Lady Lu’s worn out faces, it might be more serious than any of them thinks.

            “I may be at fault... I insisted that Lu Han takes this journey...”

            “What have you done to my son?” The lady of the house spats. “Mother-in-law never talks about you. Your existence and that of your family’s has been kept secret from acquaintance. You have been exiled and you still have the nerve to step into our ancestral home?”

            Kim Min Seok is bristling with anger. Who are they to talk to Yi Xing like that? He’s still family regardless of the circumstances that led him to be isolated. “You people... No wonder Lu Han is lonely. THIS is entirely your fault. Yi Xing has always been looking after Lu Han... How... Why do you treat him that way?”

            Yi Xing grabs his arm, preventing him from doing anything rash.

            “You... have no right to an opinion when you know nothing. Your family has made my life miserable, are you aware of that? Has your aunt told you about her silent torture of me?” The pent up resentment is kept in check by manners deeply instilled in her. If it was not in Lu Han’s presence, Min Seok is sure she’ll be breathing down his neck. “For Lu Han, I’ll forgive you both for your intrusions. My son has chosen you that’s why I’m letting a Kim in here. Don’t think you’ve become privileged.”

            Lu Han’s mother retreats to the safety of her room. She has made it apparent; she won’t be taking any part in anything that involves that odd child. They better not do more harm to her son.

~0~

            They’ve been sitting in Lu Han’s library for what seems to be an eternity. Yi Xing tries his best to look through the books Lu Han still owns. He prefers to search the family library but this room is the only place he’s allowed in.

            He doesn’t know exactly what he’s looking for; it’ll come to him eventually. It always happens like that.

            Min Seok sits by Lu Han’s desk, innocently playing with the latter’s paperweights. He still doesn’t know how to broach his idea for the rescue. He won’t take the risk unless he’s certain there’s something off with his reader. The gnomes did say that someone was sabotaging him. The map has never lied about anyone else, only Lu Han. The only thing he thinks anyone who’s sabotaging him can control. Kyung Soo is clearly unknown to them. He can trust his reading on the ghost.

            If the thing that he saw there is an indication of danger, he shouldn’t be here looking for something that might not exist. He should be out there doing a rescue, gut instinct be damned.

            A book suddenly fell from the top shelf, as soon as he tried to pick it up it slid towards the alcove where Lu Han is situated. It went under the bed, away from Yi Xing’s grasp. He tried to reach out as far as he can, grappling on anything his fingers can get a hold of. On the second swing, something brushes his fingers burning him.

            He immediately withdraws his hand, his fingers are singe.

            He calls out to Min Seok for assistance, using the light from his mobile phone. Yi Xing spotted a yellow paper hanging on the underside of Lu Han’s bed. He pulls it out, eyes growing wide at the characters written on the now fading paper.

            The bed shakes. The pair immediately slips out from under the bed. Lu Han’s body is convulsing though the heart monitor beeps normally.

            “No...” Yi Xing looks around the room in panic. “Not—”

            “Yi Xing, what’s happening?!”

            “We have to find it... Where... If it’s being used for entrapment... It needs to be put—” Yi Xing mumbles to himself.

            “Yi Xing!” Min Seok shouts. Doing his best to shake his friend out of what he thinks is a rising panic attack.

            “The one taped under Lu Han’s bed is a suspension spell... If I’m right, there should be four of them. We need to find them and remove them fast.”

            “But Lu Han’s...”

            “It’s the spell being crippled. Lu Han’s body is reacting to it. I believe it’s the reason why his soul can’t return to his body...” 

            They scoured the entire room for the yellow talismans. Min Seok has managed to find only one; Yi Xing on the other hand effortlessly got the other three.

            “Your hands are... burned...” Min Seok points out, looking at his friend’s injured fingers. He glances at his hand. The paper is as it was, it didn’t vanish.

            “Give it to me...”

            Min Seok concedes, handing over the paper to Yi Xing. The moment the spell touched Yi Xing’s fingers it disappears, leaving more burn marks to the already burned fingers.

            The body on the bed stops thrashing. Silence envelops the room. The heart monitor’s beeping the only sound that can be heard.

            “Does this mean, Lu Han can now return to his body?” Kim Min Seok stares at Lu Han, still sleeping peacefully; it’s as though the incident from earlier never occurred.

            “Yes...”

            Min Seok smiles in relief. “Should we tell him? You’d be able to locate him, right”

            Yes... And no...” Yi Xing decided it’s about time he tells his friend exactly where Lu Han is.