Jihwan was still a young tree sprite, he was only just old enough to be assigned to his own tree and he was so excited. Until he found out that the tree to which he was being assigned was a little sapling that a young family had planted in celebration of the birth of a new baby girl.
At first he hated the idea of having to share his home with these humans, they would be loud, they were obsessed with cutting their lawns and t trees, as if allowing things to grow as they wanted was a horrifying idea. He had resented the humans a little bit, until they brought home from the hospital, the cutest little baby girl he'd ever set eyes on.
It wasn't an unheard of for a sprites to bond to a particular human or family. Sprites spend their days caring for the tree or plant their spirit lives in and sometimes the surrounding plant-life, the sprites that felt protectiveness over humans just had a few more things to take care of.
 

The first time Jihwan realized he was completely taken by the baby girl was the first time the human mother had brought the girl outside to play on her new little baby swing. A bee had landed on the swing, unnoticed by the mother but seen by both the baby and Jihwan. Jihwan had seen it coming, the delighted twinkle in the baby's eyes as she'd reached out to grab the fun new toy she thought she'd just spotted. Jihwan had never moved so fast in his life, only just getting to her side in time to lead the bee away (the bee had thanked him, once he'd explained what the baby had been aiming to do and promised to tell the other bees to give the human wide birth).

 

His next and one of the most memorable interactions with the baby was at her first birthday party. Her parents had organized a little party for her in the backyard and there were other humans and their young ones who had come to visit and bring presents to celebrate his human's first year of life. Yet, somehow with all these humans, there had been no eyes on his human long enough for her to try to pull the shiny thing off the table. The shiny thing which happened to be the knife his human's mother had brought out to cut the cake. Jihwan hadn't even thought, there are rules against a sprite showing oneself to a human, but his human was still young and wouldn't even remember and no one else was looking. He, only briefly, showed himself to the baby, distracting her from the knife long enough for her father to turn around and see what she'd been about to do. That had been the first time that Jihwan had been the cause of his human's giggles. He'd heard her giggle before, her happy laughter was one of his favourite things in the world. He thought he might even love it more than his tree but being the reason for those joyful noises?

 

He told himself that he was never going to break the rules and show himself again, and for a while he was able to keep to that. Helping and protecting her in more discrete ways but then his little human had learned to walk. She was so much harder for Jihwan to protect now, it felt like every time she blink, she was seconds away from getting into more trouble. Her first days of walking had even brought about a noticeable change to the plant life on the property, even Jihwan couldn't deny that he'd been neglecting the plants in favour of watching out for his human. This time, Jihwan hadn't even seen what happened, he'd been busily plucking dead flowers from the bush in front of the house to encourage new growth before the season ended, his human hadn't even been outside until suddenly, she was trying to climb up the ladder her dad had been using. He panicked, the human father was up on the roof of the house and where was the human mother? He saw no other choice but to draw her away again. This was the second time he'd revealed himself. He'd hoped that it would be enough to distract her away from the ladder, appearing briefly next to her and then disappearing again. She'd just stared at him (although he was invisible again) with those big, curious eyes and then turned back towards the ladder, trying to pull herself up. There was still no sign of the human parents, so Jihwan took even more drastic measures. He grabbed her hands, something that was basically unheard of, and guided her away. That was the only time he'd ever touched his human. The risk was far too high, revealing himself, but to one so young, the elders had let it pass. Even among older humans, revelations so short were often passed off, a strange twinkling that the humans just try to blink away. But touching a human?

He'd been called back by the elders and scolded worse than he'd ever been. They threatened to give his tree to someone else if he carried on as recklessly as he had been. For fear of being taken away from his human, Jihwan became very silent. He still protected his human when she needed him, but, as hard as it was for him to see her get hurt, there was a lot more discretion on when he stepped in and when he let natural consequences teach his human about her world.

 

Even with Jihwan new approach as more of a spectator in her life, she grew up safely and well. She learned to speak and Jihwan's heart was warmed by her cute, nonsensical grasp of language. He watched over her shoulder as she drew colourful scribbles and was proud of his little artist when those scribbles turned into little stick people. Usually her drawings were of her family and herself. Sometimes, though, she drew another boy. A boy with bright red hair and her parents were always confused by this boy, but Jihwan pulled at a lock of bright red hair from his bangs and he felt his heart swell. His favourite was when she started talking to him, as if she knew he was there and that he was listening. Sometimes, he couldn't help but whisper back.

The first time she broke his heart was the day she listened to her school friends words that she was too old to have an imaginary friend, and she stopped talking to him. Jihwan's first experience with losing his best friend.

 

Jihwan shouldn't have been too heartbroken, he was never supposed to have had that, so having it taken away shouldn't have been such a blow. But he'd gotten too greedy and once more he retreated into reluctant silence.

For years, Jihwan just watched her from his tree. He watched her friends come and go and he watched her 'graduate' from elementary school. His little human was growing up so beautifully and he couldn't be more proud of her or more heartbroken that she'd forgotten him and all he could do was watch her from his not-so-little-anymore tree.

 

The second time she broke his heart was the winter of her 15^th year. The winter a boy walked her home from school and Jihwan had witnessed this boy ask her to a movie and kiss her before the boy made a hasty escape, shouting from the driveway that he'd see her on Friday. And then turn around and stupidly correct himself, because obviously she'd see him at school the next day.
Stupid human boy, his human could do so much better.
That was the day that, as his heart was trying to climb out his throat, Jihwan realized he'd become way too attached to his human. He wished that that “better” could have been him.
That winter was a very quiet winter, Jihwan was experiencing for the first time what it felt like to be heartbroken over a girl. He still felt protective of her, but this time, in an attempt to extinguish his inappropriate affection for his hum-- the human, he removed himself further from her than he'd ever done before.

 

It was in the following spring that Jihwan discovered his broken heart was completely irrelevant in the face of his human's heartbreak. The fist time he really approached her since she started dating the human boy, the first time he'd gotten really close to her since his days as her “imaginary friend” was the day she came home from her date and instead of going into the house, she sat at the base of his tree, sobbing. First, apologizing to his tree, he plucked off one of the blossoms and dropped it, letting it flutter down, gently landing in her lap. She picked up the blossom, staring at it miserably with tears still rolling down her cheeks. Jihwan didn't know what to do to help her but he couldn't bear the sight of his human so broken.

“Please don't cry” he whispered, breaking the vow he'd made all those years ago to just protect from afar.

 

He was surprised when she didn't startle. He was more surprised when she wiped at her tear stained cheeks and answered him.

 

“You are still here. I had a feeling, I felt like you were still near. I'm sorry I stopped talking to you”

 

Jihwan just stared at her, unable to process her words, that she'd not forgotten him.

 

“Come on, don't stop talking to me now”

 

“I” Jihwan hesitated. “I'm not really supposed to talk to you”

 

“Oh,” she replied sadly. “I guess that's why you never really tried to get me to talk to you again..?”

 

Jihwan nodded, forgetting that she couldn't see him, but she carried on, as if she had.

 

They talked that day – well, she had talked, Jay mostly listened – for almost 2 hours, until the human mother had come out and collected her baby girl into a hug, telling her to cry if she needed to.
Jihwan's heart had fluttered when his human responded that she didn't think she needed to cry anymore, she'd talked with a friend and she already felt so much better.

From then on, his human insisted on doing her homework or reading outside by his tree whenever the weather was good enough to allow it. Whenever she was alone, she spoke to him, never insisting he answer back (but sometimes, when he was pretty sure he could get away with it, he would whisper back). The two of them talked about everything; his human told him all of her secrets and worries and dreams and she asked him about himself and his tree and what that meant. They had a few good years of that, their special friendship. His human had tried to date a couple other human boys, none of whom were good enough for her but she'd never neglected with him and that was the only time she'd ever come home crying over a boy.

 

What worried him, was the day she'd come home from school, excitedly telling him that she had gotten a letter from one of the universities that she'd applied to, her top choice. She asked him to be with her when she opened it, trembling with nerves and for the first time since that day on the ladder, he allowed himself to touch her her, gently brushing his hand down her arm in an attempt to comfort her, whispering “Of course”.
Exactly as he'd expected, his smart little human had been accepted early into her first choice school and she'd hastily thanked him for being with her when she opened it, before running into her house to share her joy with her family.
Leaving Jihwan alone to wonder what it would mean for him when his human left home to go to university.

 

That was the day that Jihwan started neglecting his plants again, truthfully, he even spent less time watching over his human but it was all for her in the end. Well, probably mostly for him, he was selfish when it came to his human, but he hoped for her too. He was spending his days researching, going through archives and even into mythology to see if there had ever been any cases similar to his. He needed to find a way to stay with his human. Even if he could never love her as a human male could, he needed to at least be with her.

 

With him secluding himself, retreating into his research he hadn't even noticed his human was spending significantly less time out by his– their tree. Her graduation from high school was quickly approaching and Jihwan hadn't found much in the way of answers. He became depressed, knowing he would soon be separated from her and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He started sticking around his tree a little more, losing hope and talking to her more often when she visited. If he was going to lose her anyway, he might as well enjoy his last bit of time with her.

One of his favourite days was the day she went to her prom. His human had come out, dressed so beautifully in her prom dress, with her hair specially styled. She looked more beautiful than anything he'd ever seen. Even the female water sprites, who were known for their beautify, couldn't hold a candle to his human. She took his breath away. He watched joyfully as she insisted on having pictures taken with her girlfriends out by his tree. Then when she asked to have one taken of just her and she carefully put her arms around the tree, pretending to hug it, he knew she was getting as close to hugging him as she knew how. Just before the human father took the picture, Jihwan stepped next too her, and put his arms around her. Even though she wouldn't be able to see him, he hoped that whenever she looked at that picture, she would remember the feel of his arms around her, hugging her as she hugged their tree.

 

It was mid-summer, when his human was reading out under their tree that he finally voiced his worries about their upcoming separation. He'd felt guilty, when his human had tensed immediately at his words, perhaps it was something she'd never thought of and now he was making her feel bad about leaving him. That was not what he wanted, so he tried to brush off his words, until she stopped him.

“Can I tell you a secret?”

She hadn't waited for his answer, she'd just hopped up and run into the house. Not too much later, she'd returned, slowly approaching the place the two of them had been sitting with her hands behind her back.

 

“I, uh. I didn't want to leave you behind when I leave for school. I don't think I could live without you and I.. um, I remembered you telling me that your spirit was tied to this tree. I thought, well I hoped that maybe if it was the same tree, you could..” she trailed off, bringing her hands in front of her to show him a plant pot with a tiny tree branch poking out. He knew it was a part of his tree, he could feel his energy tied to it.

 

“I took a clipping from the tree after I got my letter. It took me a couple tries to get one to root but I've been taking care of this one for a few months and it's doing great. I know it's not a permanent solution but it's technically the same tree, right? Does.. does it work like that?” She looked around worriedly like she was trying to find his eyes, waiting for his answer.

 

Once again she'd found a way to steal Jihwan's breath. How had he never thought of this?? It was technically the same tree. He'd heard stories of sprites changing trees to one of their tree's offspring in the event of their original being cut down, His situation wasn't the same but.. he didn't see any reason for it to not work. He looked around quickly to make sure no one was around and that was the first time since she was a toddler that he revealed himself to her. The first time in his life that he revealed himself to a human for longer than a second. Her eyes widened at his sudden apparition but he didn't give her a chance to question anything, he too quickly wrapped his arms around her, picking her up and spinning her around.

 

“My genius little human. You figured it out!” he put her back down on the ground but rather than letting her go, he pulled her into a tight hug. “Thank you.”

 

She looked at him, still too shocked for words. Realizing he'd been visible for too long, he quickly disappeared again and stepped away.

 

“You..don't have red hair? I thought your hair was red.” Was all his human could manage.

 

Jihwan laughed, “I had a playful youth. Sprites age a lot slower than humans do, but I've grown up since then too.”

 

“You're..actually really handsome.”

 

Jihwan was grateful his human couldn't see him blush at the compliment.

 

“But you think the clipping will work? You'll be able to come with me when I leave?” She asked again.

 

“Yeah, I think it will. It won't be able to stay in that pot forever, it will eventually need more room to grow but it will be a little while before it needs to be replanted. I don't know if you noticed, but I've been around a little less. That's because I was looking too for a way to stay with you, maybe by then I'll have found a more permanent solution.” Jihwan confirmed.

 

And it was true. In the next few days Jihwan prepared the little cutting to take on his soul and he prepared his old tree to separate from the soul it had been bonded to for so many years. When the day finally came, he was able to make the switch with no snags. He spent the last few days of the summer, a little embarrassed at his new, temporary living situation: the corner of his human's bed room. Learning to anticipate when he needed to look away, when he started having thoughts he would be ashamed to admit to her (and her forgetting to warn him that she was about to change was enough for both of them). He knew he wouldn't be able to get rid of the feelings he'd developed for her and seeing her with other human males was something that he now dreaded. He knew he would devote all his new free time– now that he didn't have a whole property of flora to look after– to trying to find any way, any loophole that would allow him to be with his human the way he really wanted.

 

The end of summer finally arrived and the moment that had once been Jihwan's anticipated 'worst moment' came and passed. The human father carefully packed Jihwan's new tree into the family car, hugging his daughter over the sentiment of needing to take some of her tree with her. And they finally left their home, he and his human together beginning a new chapter of their lives.