Development

As they all sat down for dinner, the only ones talking were Chanyeol and Chen. The others were sitting quietly, staring at the other two like they were aliens. Not even Luhan said anything, he was just studying Chen with a frown on his face. Ever since Chen came to the school things hadn’t been exactly normal. Creatures they had never seen before suddenly erupted all over, and they discovered new ways to use magic. It was not Chen’s fault, that’s not what Luhan was thinking at all, but it was quite weird that it all started happening in sync with Chen’s powers coming to life. He’d have to talk to Alice about that. She had tried hiding things from Luhan for a few weeks now, and Luhan was getting tired of it. In many ways, Alice was just like a child, even though she was older than anyone would ever want to admit. It made Luhan want to pull out his hair sometimes, since he always had to make sure she wasn’t doing anything that could be dangerous for her. When Heechul had been with her he had been her rock, the one holding her down so she wouldn’t float away like the balloon she really was. But once he disappeared Alice was all alone and had to take care of herself, which caused her to start drifting. When she was developing the school she had that to keep her steady, but once that was finished and her only job was being headmistress she started floating again. When she met Luhan she had been very different from what she was now. 

Luhan could still remember that day as clearly as it had happened just a couple of days ago. When he first saw her, and explained his and Sehun’s problem to her, she had seemed like a very sensible woman, and he had trusted her blindly. But after talking to her for a longer amount of time, he noticed how fidgety she was being. How her eyes were roaming around the room, and how she couldn’t keep her hands still. They were constantly twisting a napkin between her fingers, and she didn’t even seem to be aware of that she was doing it. He also noted that she seemed to have some trouble concentrating on only him. Even as she was talking to him she did other things, like contacting people from other schools and sending messages. Luhan, who was very keen on seeing when something was wrong, had slowly started breaking into her mind. It had been difficult, she had the most difficult mind he had ever encountered. It was like a mace, dead ends everywhere, and it constantly changed patterns. But Luhan loved puzzles, and he was powerful as well as very patient when it came to those things. So after a long time of trying he finally broke the puzzle, and he started understanding why Alice was like the way she was. 

She was broken. As whole and controlled she seemed on the outside, she was broken. All the things she had seen, and did, and felt responsible of broke her bit by bit every day, as she continued breathing and all those she had ever cared about didn’t. There wasn’t a day she never once thought about Heechul, it could be all from beautiful memories to painful ones, or just pictures of him in her mind which were filled with so much agony that Luhan got scared. Luhan never told Alice what he had seen inside her head, but he couldn’t help thinking that she somehow understood. When he had asked her how she was feeling each day and started helping her with different kinds of tasks she had looked at him with piercing eyes, but just like him she never said anything and just let it happen. She was secretly happy about having someone to care about her. 

She never opened up fully, though, until Chen had stood in her office and she started crying. It was a big day for her, when that happened, and for Luhan too. But he knew that the little break down would just keep Alice grounded for a little while, and then she would once more start floating if someone wasn’t there to hold her down. And Luhan didn’t know for how long that person would be him. He couldn't stay with her forever, but who could? Alice was right in that sense. When everyone else stopped breathing and was laid down for a final time, she was still standing. People might wish for an eternal life, but Luhan didn’t. Not after seeing what it actually did to the person living forever. 

Sehun nudged Luhan carefully and said boy looked up, shocked over how long he had dozed off. 

”Sorry Sehun, did you say something?”

Sehun looked at him with concern. ”No. You have barely touched your food. Is something wrong?”

Luhan smiled, and ruffled the younger’s hair. ”No, nothing special. I was just thinking about something which made me a bit upset that’s all. I’m fine. I totally just dozed off.”

Sehun stared into Luhan’s eyes for a moment, but then he nodded and smiled. He trusted Luhan. If he said everything was fine, then it was. ”Okay. Now eat. You’re already too thin. I’m gonna end up always topping if you’re gonna be that breakable.”

Luhan snorted. ”Yeah, like that’s gonna happen any time soon. Hmph.” He then picked up his chopsticks and started eating with new conviction, which made Sehun grin wildly. That threat always worked perfectly.

Once everyone finished eating, everyone looked expectantly at Chen and Chanyeol, who stared back.

”Well” Chen said after a few moments, ”I have no idea where to begin really. Me and Chanyeol were practicing, and Chan surrounded me with his fire, and I tried fighting back by just sending my power straight into his. But when we did that something happened. It was like out powers merged into one different power, like the one we finally made when you guys came around. We have no idea how it happened or why, all we know is that it did. And it only works when we match our powers perfectly.” 

The others looked at confused as Chen felt, and even though he had thought it was cool to merge his powers with Chanyeol’s, it was a bit frightening that no one knew what it meant, or why it had happened. 

Luhan sighed. ”I think we have to talk to Alice about this. If she doesn’t know, no one does.”

The others agreed, and stood up, heading towards Alice’s office. When they knocked she opened after just a few moments, and they watched as her eyes widened just a little bit at the sight of them all. 

”Is something wrong guys,” she asked, worried. 

Chen shook his head. ”No. Nothing is wrong, but something happened when we were training, and we have no idea why and how. And we thought of asking you, since it feels like if you don’t know, none do.”

Alice smiled a small smile. ”I doubt that’s true, but I will try to help you if I can. Come in.”

After everyone had settled inside Alice’s office, who seemed to become larger when more people filled the room, Chen and Chanyeol told their story once more, infront of the surprised Alice. Once they finished, Alice smiled again, for real this time, and opened .

”You don’t have anything to worry about boys. It’s been a very long time since this happened last, but it has happened before. People who manage to add enough power together at the same time can merge their powers, in that way creating a new one. The firsts time it happened it was during the time Malcolm the creator and his brothers were alive, and the it happened again when I was young, which was a long time ago. Me and Heechul merged our powers by accident, and our friends managed to do it as well after we did. But it’s very difficult, and you need to trust each other completely to be able to make it happen.”

Chenyeol looked at each other and grinned, proudly, but then Chanyeol thought of something and turned to Alice with a frown. ”But, how come this doesn’t come up in any of our books in school?”

Alice sighed. ”Because almost no one actually succeeds in doing it perfectly. Many may reach what you did, but to be able to work the new power together so it actually does something other than just float in the air if extremely difficult. Me and Heechul had to practice for months to be able to do it, and it steals a lot of energy doing so. Me and the other headmasters of other schools came to the conclusion that we would not teach the kids of our schools about this, unless they managed to do what Chanyeol and Chen did themselves. We decided that it would be a waist of time, since it’s so hard. But now, since you know, it might be worth a shot with you. Who knows, it might even make you stronger.” 

As the 12 boys left, Alice looked as they walked away with a painful look in her eyes, and went back into her office, where she pulled out a drawer, and took out a very old photography, staring at it with agony, and love. In the picture, there were six people, with their arms around each other, all laughing. In the middle, was a very young and free looking Alice, surrounded with her closest friends at that time, and with a boy with long hair standing next to her. He had a smirk on his lips, one arm around her and the other was holding her hand. There was a glint in his eyes, and Alice was laughing at him, and not at the photographer. 

She the picture with her thumb, a lone tear landing on the long haired boy. ”It’s been a long time Heechul, since I felt like you were so close to me. Power merges used to be out specialty, remember?” She closed her eyes for a few seconds, determined not to let more tears come out, and then she put the picture away. It had been too many years to count since he held her in his arms the last time, but she could still remember his warmth, his smell and his laughter in her ear. It was ringing in her ears still. She missed every single thing about the love of her life. The way he looked when he was angry, the way he held her when he worried, the way she could comfort him when he cried. Every single thing. He had been her everything, the only thing to keep her truly grounded, and now when he was gone she didn’t know who she was anymore. They say time heal all wounds, but Alice still wondered when that time would come, because it still hurt just as much. 

A new tear fell, and another, and another. Soon, the sobs shook her whole being, and she sunk down against the wall, putting her arms around her knees, trying to keep herself together as though it felt like she was being ripped apart. Every ounce of her being missed him so much, every single day, and she couldn’t help wishing that she had been selfish, and begged him to stay for just one more day. So that she could have held him for a little longer. So she could have felt him a little longer. She put her hands over her eyes, pressing hard, but it didn’t stop the tears from falling out. Nothing would anymore. And there she sat, the small fragile, powerful headmistress, and cried her heart out, the tears staining her shirt. She grabbed the closest thing available, which was a vase of flowers standing on the floor, and threw across the room with a scream, and watched it shatter into million pieces, so it now looked like her heart felt like. The flowers floated out on the floor, the soil slipping down in every crack there was. Slipping away more and more, just like her. She screamed again, and the glass cup she had standing on her desk shattered, vaporizing into a cloud of glass dust, sinking down to the already soiled floor. 

Alice’s whole body was shaking, and she put her head on her knees, and let the tears run freely. He was gone, and he would never come back, no matter how much she missed him. He was gone.   He was gone.

After a long time, the tears started running out, her body stopped shaking so much, but she was too tired to rise form the floor. She just let her body relax where it was. She didn’t care anymore. Her eyes slipped shut, the tears drying around them, and then she heard the door open, but when she looked up no one was there. Then there was a clatter, and she looked towards her desk, where a drawer had opened and something had fell out. She stood up and walked towards it, picked it up, and then she froze. It was a picture of the school, just when they had finished it. God, it was beautiful. And that was all it took. She smiled, and put the picture back closing the drawer once more. She then turned towards the door, and walked out of her office, heading for her bedroom. 

She was alive so that she could protect the lives on the school, and so that she could keep the forest of the cursed at bay. She had a purpose, no matter how much it hurt, and she would have to live on until someone else could protect the school. The school had been her dream, and Heechul had supported it. She owed him not to give up. That would be like giving up on her memories, and she was never going to do that. So she would fight on, just a little bit longer. She knew he would have wanted that. A smile graced her lips once more, as she reached her bedroom door. She didn’t know if it was the crying, the screaming or the despair which had made her lose hope once more, but it only took the picture of the school to make her come back to herself. She didn't know who had done that, and honestly she didn’t care, but she was grateful. Alice had never given up, and she certainly wouldn’t now either.

Chen and Xiumin both headed towards their shared room, not saying much walking next to each other. Xiumin was confused to why Chen had been able to merge his powers with Chanyeol. Alice had said the people merging had to trust each other completely, but from what Xiumin knew the two of them weren’t all that close yet. So why had they been able to do it?

”Chen?” he asked carefully. The other nodded and looked at him expectantly. ”Alice said to merge you have to trust each other completely. Do you trust Chanyeol that much?”

Chen smiled, and nodded. ”To be honest, I have complete faith in all of you. It might sound stupid, I know, but I trust you all. Lay is my brother, and he trusts you all, and I would have faith in him no matter what happened. I learned to trust you quickly, after you saved me from Sungjae that first night. And you trust the rest. From what I have understood from you, and what I have learned from others, you have a hard time trusting people you don’t know, and I completely understand that, even if I don’t know the reason. But you trust them, and if you trust them I will as well. And ever since I came here none of you have been anything else than helpful. I like all of you. I trust you. And I am happy that Chanyeol trust me as well. Maybe it’s because I am Lay’s brother.”

Xiumin shook his head. ”No. Before we met you, all we knew was that you were Lay’s brother, but we have all learned that sometimes family can’t be trusted, not in all matters. But when we met you, I think most of them immediately changed their minds. Even I did, after a short period of time. You’re a fighter Chen, with or without powers, and that’s wildly appreciated here. Our trust towards you didn’t come from Lay. It came from you.” 

Chen blushed madly, and looked away, muttering incoherent things under his breath, while Xiumin just laughed. Chen punched his shoulder, and Xiumin laughed harder as Chen then had to rub his hand since it hurt after hitting him, and Chen blushed even more.

”You’re cute” Xiumin let out before knowing what he was truly going to say, and now he was blushing as much as Chen did.

”So.. So are you” Che mumbled quickly, not looking up, hiding under his bangs and he hurried towards their door, red as a tomato in his face. Xiumin went after him, a bit slower trying to get order on his own face. Stop it Xiumin, you know better than to blush. You never blush damn it. But he just is so cute, sqbeoqbvqovbq NO! 

 Once the two had finally made it inside their room, and had stopped blushing, they started talking again, about random and totally useless things.

”Hey Xiumin, is it just me or does Lay look like a unicorn sometimes?”

”NO way!!!! I said that to Luhan once but he couldn’t see the resemblance! I thought I was alone!”

”You aren’t! I swear, this one time I was convinced he really was one, and had just been fooling me and our parents for a long time. I remember I even looked for his horn.”

”You did what?!”

”You heard me. And he didn’t even try to stop me!!!”

”Hah lol. Hey did you know that I used to hate Lay in the beginning?”

”FOR REAL?”

”Yep. He accidentally took my peanut butter sandwich and I freaked out since NO ONE touches my food, and I was convinced he took it just to be mean. I didn’t forgive him until he gave me this huge jar of peanut butter. Then I loved him for a few seconds.”

Chen stared and Xiumin looked horrified. ”NO LOVE LIKE THAT!!!! NEVER! Ew!!!! Sorry, I know he’s your brother, but no. Not my type. I mean, he is gorgeous, but no.”

”How come?”

”What?”

”He’s not your type?”

”Well” Xiumin smirked, ”I prefer someone more… submissive.” 

Chen blushed again, and Xiumin looked away, just barely keeping his own blush away. But both were determined not to keep the awkward silence, and so Chen started talking again.

”Hey XIumin? What would would you do if you were the last person on the planet? Would you live on? Or would you prefer dying?”

Xiumin looked at Chen, all signs of humor and embarrassment gone. ”I would kill myself, to be honest. If I was the last human alive, there would be no hope for me anyways, I would still die one day. And to live alone without all those I loved, and without all those I never got to know? I don’t think I would be able to handle that. I would lose my mind, knowing there would never again be someone there to talk to. And if everyone else had died, there’s probably a reason, right? Then it’s not meant for the human race to live on. And if that was the case, I wouldn’t want to be alive either.”

Chen nodded, being fairly pleased as he had thought of a similar answer himself.

”Why were you asking such question?”

Chen looked at Xiumin, and shrugged. ”It’s something I am curios about. How we all would react if the impossible would happen, you know? And after someone tells me an answer, I can never help thinking about if that person really would do what he said in that situation, or if she would do something entirely different. I mean, it’s easy to answer one thing, being all safe and sound, but I think it’s interesting how different some become really inside the situation which was only hypothetical before. Sorry for being weird.”

”No, not at all. It’s an interesting question, and I’m sure it carries a lot of different answers. Hopefully, we will never have to know what we will do if that day comes.”

Chen smiled. ”Yeah. I’d prefer us to live on a little longer.”

And so the night went on, the two asking each other questions, smiling and laughing, and then being serious, only to go back to laughter in the next question. It brought them a lot closer than before, these conversations. They had started doing this a few days ago, and they were still learning quite interesting things about each other. Chen had learned that Xiumin was not only handsome, and powerful, he was intelligent as well. Really intelligent. He had interesting opinions, and always answered after thinking things through, and he always answered as truthfully as he could. Xiumin had learned that Chen was a lot more observant than he had thought, and that he had som really interesting ideas and opinions on things which other people never really thought about. To the two boys surprise, they actually had a lot in common. But they also had their differences. The other day the two had gotten into quite a heated argument about which flavor of ice cream was the best, only to laugh it off later. Both of them really enjoyed their little moments, getting to know each other better. 

As of now, they were both sitting in Xiumin’s bed, backs against the wall, still talking. Chen was mindlessly moving his fingers, massaging them or just drumming them against his knees. This, Xiumin had learned, was a habit, which Chen never really noticed he did. 

”Hey Chen, now it’s my turn to ask a weird question. If someone really close to you got hurt, what would you do?”

Chen turned towards Xiumin, looking at him with sad eyes. ”Well, I was never able to save Sungjae, so I think I would have done anything to help them. Like I did with Kai. Especially if they got hurt because of me, because I was too weak to do anything. But if there was nothing to do, I would have to learn how to live with that.”

”I see.” Xiumin looked away, to hide the sadness floating in his eyes. 

Chen sighed. ”Xiumin. This about your sister, isn’t it?”

Xiumin turned towards Chen, surprised. ”How did you..?”

”I notice things. I like to observe, and your reaction was the same as when we’re talking about her. And I was right.”

Xiumin nodded, and looked down, his fingers twitching, and he pressed his fingers together, trying to make them stop, closing his eyes. He quickly opened them again though, as he felt something warm touch his skin, and he watched as Chen took his hand in his own, squeezing it lightly. Xiumin squeezed back, and made his decision.

”Chen. Would you like to know what happened to her? What happened to Mellie?”

Chen squeezed Xiumin’s hand harder. ”Only if you want to tell me. If you are ready.”

Xiumin took a deep breath. ”I am.”

They were silent for a few moments, only moving to lay down instead, and then, looking up at the ceiling, Xiumin started speaking.

”When I was four years old my mother gave birth to a little girl, which she and my father named Mellie. Millie was like a little angel ever since she was born. She had black hair, and truly black eyes, with soft pale skin, and pretty smiles. She wasn’t really like other babies. She was really quiet, and she never cried unless something scared her really badly. I remember that the first time she cried was when a dog had tried to attack her, and how devastated mum and dad was to see their quiet beautiful girl cry.

When she was born, my parents told me that I was now Mellie’s older brother, which meant that I had to look after her as she grew older. And I did. I loved Mellie a lot, she was really just one big ball of sunshine all the time. On her sixth birthday, I got my powers, and I remember how she screamed in happiness for me, and how she turned her own party to be about me, when it really was about her. She was really unselfish. 

But she was also really stubborn. If she had decided she would do something, she would do that something, and nothing getting in her way could stop her. She’d back down that day maybe, but she’d be on it the next instead. She grew up to be quite the whirlwind, honestly. Wherever she went, things would stir up and become more alive, happier and more filled with hope. She had her way of meeting people, she’d give them her winning smile and she’d tell them that everything was going to be alright, and they would believe her, without really thinking about it. 

When she turned 14, I was 18 and had already been enlisted in this school, since I had gotten my powers really early, and they turned out to be really difficult to control. My powers also made me angry all the time, without me really knowing why. I was just angry, and cold. After I got my powers I was always cold, and I just assumed that made my heart cold as well. I almost never came home from school, because I still couldn’t master my powers perfectly, a small set of rage and they would go berserk. I hated it, and I think that’s what made it so difficult to control, because back then I just couldn’t accept the powers I had gotten. I thought they made me a monster. 

But I came home for Mellie’s 14 birthday, because that was what she wished for the most, and I was never one to refuse her anything. So I came home, and I was really happy for a while there. My mom and dad embraced me, and told be they had missed me which made me realize I had missed them too. And then Mellie came running through the hallways, screaming my name and throwing herself around my neck. I remember how happy I felt then, because I was afraid she would have grown distant from me the time I was gone, but she hadn’t. She was still the same and our relationship was still standing. 

It was a great birthday party, to be honest. There was a great mix between our family and her friends, and we were all just really happy. I remember that we sung a lot that night. But then, as most of the guests had gone home, our grandparents was the last one leaving, a terrible scream was heard in the village. We stood there, stunned, not knowing what had happened for such a scream to erupt in our usually quiet village, but then they came. Hundreds of magmas came running, blood already oozing around them. More screams filled the air as they flew through our village, killing those who fought back, turning those who didn’t. My parents forced us all inside the house, and then they left, running down the hill to help the fighting villagers. Before they left they told me to protect my sister, who still hadn’t gotten any powers, and I said I would. That was the last words I ever said to them. 

I remember waiting, praying for them to come back, sitting on the floor with my little sister and my grandparents guarding the door, waiting for mum and dad to return. But our waiting was only filled with more and more screams, and tears were running down our faces as we all realized what it meant. That they never would come back. I remember my granddad opening the door, running out to fight the magmas in his sorrow filled rage, my grandmother screaming for him to come back, gaining the attention of the magmas still alive. My grandfather did his best, having a power which allowed him to laser the magmas if he got close enough, since it was really short ranged. It worked for a while, but then more and more came and he no longer could fight all of them. I will spare you the bloody details, but let’s just say that it wasn’t pretty.

My grandmother, realizing what she had done when the magmas starting closing in on our house, threw the door shut, sobbing as she had just witnessed her husband of 50 years getting torn to threads. She put her hands on the door, as she had been gifted with humongous strength, but the magmas were many and my grandmother old. After some time of fighting her, they managed to destroy the door sending her flying across the room, breaking her neck as she she was thrown straight into our staircase made of stone. It was only me and my sister left, and I stood up pushing her behind me. I had only been crying until then, but seeing my grandmother getting killed like that filled me up with more rage than I had ever felt before. I was so angry, and my powers just exploded. I remember that my body lit up with a strange, white-blue light, and that My eyes burned in my head. And I screamed, and as I did everything around me just… got covered in a layer of ice. It was not enough to make any damage, but that was only the beginning of my powers, who was released from the prison which was my mind. I remember putting my hands out as one of the magmas came forward, freezing it to the bone, exploding into little pieces as other magmas ran through it. They were too many, and I realized that if I didn’t kill them all at the same time, my sister who was sobbing would be killed, and I swore to my parents I would protect her. And so I became even angrier, the rage filling my entire being. Cold rushed out of my body as I screamed louder than I ever had before, tears pouring down my face as I cried for all the people we had lost that night. Our beautiful village, destroyed by creatures who had once been human, who we might even had known before they turned. I screamed and I screamed and I screamed, not noticing the silence  around them. I closed my eyes, and let my power roam free, getting rid of all the rage I had ever felt. 

Once it was gone, I finally stopped screaming, opening my eyes as I breathed heavily, looking around me. All over, there was magmas standing, staring at me with blind eyes as they were completely frozen. Every single thing inside the house was frozen, not just the magmas. The TV, the furniture, the flowers.  And that’s when I realized that my sister wasn’t crying anymore.”

At this point of the story, tears were streaming down Xiumin’s face as his voice had turned into a whisper. And all Chen could do, teary eyed himself, was to wrap his arms around XIumin, and hold him hard as he finished his story. 

”As I turned around I saw something I every day wish I could forget, but never will. Mellie, my wonderful, beautiful, loving sister, was as frozen as the magmas. She was staring at me with her black eyes, frozen tears still stuck on her face. I tried reversing what I had done, but I only managed to get half of it away form her, as I had used up all the energy I had. My screams for help were useless, as the whole village was already dead. The magmas had killed them all, or that’s at least what I thought. When everything finally became too much for me, I hugged my cold sister and fainted.

When I woke up, I was in the school’s hospital, and a very worried Alice was sitting next to my bed. I remember that I just sat silently, as she explained to me that since I managed to kill all of the remaining magmas a lot of the villagers who had escaped through the woods had managed to get away, and were alive and well, all thanks to me. That I had saved a lot of people. But when I asked about my sister, she turned sad. Alice told me that my sister was alive, since Lay had managed to warm her up when they got her to the hospital, but only barely. And that if she ever woke up, they didn’t know what the damage would be. She told me she was sorry, and I told her I wanted to be alone. 

I promised, I swore to my parents I would keep her safe, but in the end it was me who had become her fall. All because I completely lost control over my powers, because I willingly let them roam around as they pleased. I let it happen, I let her get hurt, and I would never get her back. She was in a coma for months, laying there, waisting her precious life in a hospital bed where I had put her. I went to see her every now and then, just to see how she was holding up, but she never woke up. It was like she was still frozen.

I distracted myself with training, with mastering my powers so that I would never hurt anyone innocent with them again. i owed her that much. It took me a long time to accept that my closest family was now gone, and the only one I had left was in a coma because of what I had done. It hurt, and it still hurts. But then there was a small light in my world of darkness. She woke up. One day, when I came to the hospital, Lay told me she woke up, but I knew from the look on his face that things weren’t all that great. When I went to see her, she was sitting up in bed, talking to one of the nurses, and the nurse was smiling at everything she said. Because my sister was, is, a ball of sunshine. When I went inside the room, she looked up and smiled, and then she politely asked me who I was. As it turned out, Mellie couldn’t remember a thing about her old life, not me, not our parents or other family nor friends. It was like everything just had been erased. Like she was an empty flash drive, ready to be filled with new information. And that was when I realized that the best way to keep her happy, and safe, was to let her fill up with new information. So I lied, and I just told her that I was the one who found her passed out on the road many months before. She was shocked as I told her, but accepted it all the same. And when it was clear she would never get her memories back, she cried, but Alice comforted her ad told her everything would be fine.

Today, she lives far away from here, with her boyfriend and his family, training in a school to become a nurse. Turned out she had healing powers, just like Lay, but more on the emotional plane. No wonder she always managed to make people happy. She now calls herself Sarah, and she is happy. But she doesn’t know who I am anymore, who anyone she used to know are, and it hurts. I know I made that decision but it hurts, Chen, so much.”

Xiumin was now sobbing, and Chen just held him closer as he patted his back, silent tears streaming down his face. He had never imagined that this would be Xiumin’s story, that this was his dark secret from the past. That he had sworn to protect his sister, but in the end he was the one who hurt her instead.

”Oh Xiu.. shh, shh, I am right here it’s fine, you’re fine, shhh. It’s not your fault.”

Xiumin tensed and looked up. ”Stop. Don’t tell me all that crap that I just wanted to help because i still hurt her.   I. Was. Not. In. Control.”

”No, you weren’t, but that doesn’t mean it’s your fault. NO, Xiumin listen to me! You were young, you couldn’t have had complete control over such powerful power you have. And it’s not you who sent a horde of magmas to your village. You might not want to realize this Xiumin, but you did keep your promise to your parents. She was fine.”

”SHE WAS IN A COMA”

”I KNOW THAt. I know that, but Xiumin she was fine. She wasn’t hurt, and you protected her. You pulled her behind you, and when all of your family members were gone, in a situation I don’t even know if I had been able to think, you fought on. You protected her, and you saved a lot of villagers at the same time.”

”I am a monster.”

Chen hugged Xiumin the tightest he could. ”No. never. All you ever did was completely justified. You did more than anyone else had ever managed to do. You saved so many people that day, and you saved your sister as well. If you hadn’t been there on that day, or if you hadn’t lost control, she’d been dead, Xiumin. Stop fooling yourself. If what you’re telling me is right, you weren’t nearly strong enough to take on so many magmas. If you hadn’t lost control both of you would have been dead today. You might have not realized it yourself, but you did the only thing you could have done to save her. You lost control. And she lived. She’s alive. She might not remember anything, but she is alive. You kept your promise. You kept her safe. She’s alive. She’s okay. She’s happy. You’re not a monster, Xiumin. You’re human. A beautiful, kind, shining human. You tell me that she is like sunshine, but you are that as well. You don’t see it, but when you speak, when you care, when you yell, the others look at you like you’re a leader, like someone they respect and love. You managed to get me to sleep a whole night without a single nightmare. You managed to make me feel safe, only after a short time together. You’re no monster Xiumin. Not at all. You’re sunshine as well. You’re my sunshine.”

Chen and Xiumin stared at each other, Chen’s heart on his sleeve. He had given up faking things, and he gazed into Xiumin’s eyes with as much love as he could muster, and Xiumin looked back, a wondrous, surprised look evident in his eyes. But there was love as well. Xiumin might be Chen’s sunshine, but Chen was the one who had listened to his story holding him hard, brining him out of his self hatred. Chen was Xiumin’s light at the end of his tunnel. Chen was his hope. 

Author’s note

Well . This turned out more angsty than I intended. I really hope you still like it though. And wahaa, development on the Xiuchen department! ING FANTASTIC! This chap also revealed some secrets I have been hinting for a long time, hihi. Nice to finally get them out into the open.

Hopefully, there won’t be another month until next update.

Much Love!!!:D