[Dara]

  My throat was burning. I coughed, and the darkness around me was replaced by a dim light as my eyelids fluttered open. My head spun a little, and I struggled to sit up as my mind cleared from the oblivion that I was in. How long had I been lying here?

  Wait. This bed felt different, and the room was one that I haven't seen before. I halted my breath. There was someone sitting with his head in his arms against the bed, still soundly asleep. The drumming inside my chest gets faster and faster and my fingers reached for the scissors lying by the side of the bed. Where am I and how did I end up here? The last thing I remember, was that a war was still going on out there.

  Inching closer vigilantly, I nudged the sleeping figure, the scissors in my hands raised. 

  There was no response.

  Swallowing the fear that was mingled with uneasiness, I nudged the man again, this time harder.

  He shot up, drawing a long breath. Startled, I shrieked a little, scrambling to the edge of the bed away from him, my hands trembling like a leaf.

  "Dara! You're awake!" The man gasped, his eyes flickering to the scissors on my shaking hands, and I released my grasp. It fell onto the bed with a small bounce. 

  He's Seungri.

  Relief and weakness flooded me, and I find myself unable to look at him in the eyes. I probably couldn't look at anyone in the eyes at all now. Seungri looked on in concern. He doesn't know. He doesn't know that I'm responsible for what happened outside. 

  "Hey, it's okay now." He sighed, and with a small startle I realised my hands were still badly shaking. "You're at my residence. Hyung's one needs... some cleaning." He said slowly, and a flash of all the blood in the courtyard that night burned in my mind. I flinched.

  "The Taeyangs had retreated. The army from the capitol are here, treating the wounded." 

   The word Taeyang triggered a name in my mind and it brought a tearing, ringing pain in both my head and my chest. 

  "Are you listening to me?"

  Seungri voiced pulled me out of that ringing pain and I looked up, dazed. He was staring intently at me, his features showing nothing but worry and frustration.

  "Are you hurt?" I asked finally, surprised by the low tone of my voice, before my eyes fell on a bandage wrapped around his upper arm. Seungri glanced at it nonchalently, and shrugged.

  "You... are almost as skilled as Jiyong... Why did you hide that?" I asked quietly, the scenes of his surprising combat skills flooding into mind. Seungri blinked at the question, before twisting his lips in a small, crude smile.

  "Sometimes, its better to stay low and look like a fool." He said with irony. "That's the only way I can stay and look out for hyung."

  I didn't quite get what he meant. Is he referring to the people in the palace?

  "How did I end up here?" I asked again.

  "You passed out and was wheezing. I found hyung struggling to get you anywhere with you in his arms. You looked horrible."

  "That's not possible, I never had asthma..." I muttered to myself, and Seungri frowned in confusion at the last word. I remember screaming and crying at Lee Soo Hyuk, (again there was a short pang as his name reappeared). The feeling of my lungs being empty sets in after a while, but I still wasn't paying attention to it. It was hard to breathe, and it fueled my panic and hysteria. I remember the strength in me slowly draining out, but I was instead more focused on the terrible truth that was revealed, and was more intented to ask that person why had he chose to do this to the people here, to me. Why me? Then Jiyong grabbed my face and yelled at me to breathe, and that when I realised I haven't been able to get any air in for a while. 

  "The physician said this happens when people encounters strong violence." Seungri said. "Now rest."

  I didn't answer him and he left the room. I sat on the unfamiliar bed, unable to close my eyes. I felt weak, not only in the body but my mind too. I wanted to see how was the people and the town but I didn't want to face the scenes either. It felt like I had woken up from a long, horrendous nightmare. 

  So this is how it feels. Betrayal. It's a crumpling feeling. It's nauseous. It chars all your nice memories with that person and burns you in the process. It feels like a ride. When you're travelling smoothly, there's happiness and there's exhilaration. There's hope, and to me, that was meeting a friend, gaining a friend in a place that seems impossible to. it's like finding someone to laugh at you, laugh with you. It was the most precious kind of relationship, friendship without anything more or less. And then the ride plunges and crashes, and you're thrown off the car. Your stomach lunches to your throat. You're confronted with reality: There's no 100% safe ride in this world. He was lying all along, and my ignorance in that had people killed. It burned down a town. You insides and your organs are tangled and crushed. Eventually, when you get on your feet, you're dizzy. Numb. You're empty and barefooted. The world is spinning but you remained rooted. You want to leave the site of the crash but you can't move. 

  This is how betrayal feels like.

  It erases your confidence of ever getting into a car again.

[-]

  A shroud of grey dust covered the Fire City. The aftermath of the fires left houses and buildings in splinters and charred remains. The survivors were busy. Those that were fit enough to move or were blessed with just a few bandanges were busy scrubbing what appears to be blood stains off the streets. The less fortunates ones lay by the side in a row, and yelping, as healers and physicians from both Pyul attended to them in a hurry. The bodies were removed from open view, and together they were brought to the side of the hill to wait for burial. The Dal soldiers dispatched from the capitol were demolishing too-damaged houses and rebuilding new ones in their place. 

  Seungri rubbed his hands together before putting them to his mouth. The weather is escpecially chilly tonight, and he wonders how are these people going to stay warm. Blankets and kerosene lamps had been distributed, but he knew they wouldn't be enough. A mother was huddled close to her daughter by the side, and Seungri untied the coat around himself to give it to them. He glanced at the sufferings happening in the Fire City with a tortured expression, and cursed the babarians from the other side, as well as the capitol that sat around doing nothing until it was too late.

  His face stiffens when his eyes were met with the Crown Prince, who had arrived in town. About damn time he should. Seungri thought darkly, and went up to his half brother, who was preoccupied with the concealed shock of the state of devastation here.

  "Look at the state of the place." The Crown Prince sighed, furrowing his brows. Seungri gripped his hands tightly.

  "We requested for reinforcement, hyung. Why didn't the capitol sent them? The army we need to help us defend?" He asked in a tight voice.

  "Look, there are procedues. When your soldier first reported, we couldn't know for sure if it was a false alarm or not. And time is needed for us to dispatch soldiers when we confirmed that it wasn't, too." Taeil answered smoothly, before flashing Seungri a small glare. "Are you blaming you and your brother's incompetance to protect these people o the capitol?" 

  Seungri clenched his jaws tightly shut. 

  "Where is Kwon Jiyong." Taeil continued. This is the best chance to get the town under his rule, and he would qualify for his coronation ceremony.

  "Still healing. He isn't fit enough to see anyone yet."

  "Is he?" The Crown Prince contemplated for a moment, "How bad are his injuries?"

  "Bad enough." Seungri almost snarled. 

  The Crown Prince spared his youngest brother a glance. He knew well enough that he isn't the fool or good-for-nothing prince that everyone thinks he is. It wasn't hard to see through his act, and it makes Taeil wonder what should he do with this boy when he becomes king. To leave Seungri as he is might become dangerous. A snake left on its own would always slither back and strike when the time is right.

  "Well then," Taeil smirked, patting Seungri on his shoulder. "Let him rest. I'll see him when he's good to."

  Seungri kept his eyes on his brother for a good 3 seconds, then lowered his head.

  Dara finally pulled open the doors of the room. Her lunch and dinner lay forgotten on the table by her bed. She grasped the frame of the door to support herself before stepping out of the room. It's already late. Outside, candles and glowing lanterns lit the unfamiliar yard of Seungri's residence. She glanced around, dazed and numbed, before her vision was caught on an old physician exiting from a room with a tray of bloody bandages.

  She pulled open the door to that room and quietly stepped inside. The interior was bathed in a soft yellow glow from the candle flame. She was right to assume that this was where Jiyong was. He lay on the bed, his top body except for the freshly changed bandages that were wraped around his torso. His face was glistening with sweat and his eyes were tightly shut but with his brows furrowed. His hair plastered against his face and he was shivering. Dara placed a hand on his forehead. Burning.

  Dara sighed softly, her eyes wandering around the room until they fell on what she was looking for- a thin, soft-covered book. She took it from the shelve and returned to the side of the bed before sitting down by its edge. Jiyong stirred in his fitful sleep and Dara started fanning him, hoping that his fever would go away. It should be working, as his knitted brows slackened a little. Dara smiled to himself as she studied the man's sleeping face.

  "Don't fall in love with me, Dara."

  The smile on Dara's lips faltered as what Jiyong had once said long ago bubbled up in her mind. She didn't understood why not then, but she guess she does now. She knows that she can't stubbornly stick by his side forever. She knows that. She knew it all along. She knew it when he screamed at her for not running when she was caught under that tower that was almost set aflame, She knew when Jiyong kissed her abruptly and then asked if she understood what he meant. She was once again reminded of it when the King announced his impending wedding to the Pyul Princess. One day, he'll have to go and she'll have to return to where she belongs when love was something that happened like dream. 

  She knew it when her heart first fluttered for him when he saved her from that arrow in the forbidden forest where she had tried to escape.

  So she cherished every single moment she has with him. Every look at him was etched in her head like she'll never see him for another time, knowing that one day she'll be gone and they'll be left with more pain than they had before.

  But knowing doesn't stop the pain. 

  Almost six months had passed. It's time for her to unstick herself from his life. For everything to go back to normal.

  It's time for her to go and time for him to forget. To be with that beautiful girl and have a nice little family with her.

  She had wasted too much of his time.

  Dara set aside the make shift fan in her hands, failing to realise that her face had became stained with silent tears. She swear no silver or korean won can make her give up the position of just sitting here, listening to his soft breathing as he sleeps. She edges closer to him and brought her lips to his, but stopped just before they touch. She shouldn't. A drug addict shouldn't be crawling back to his needle just after he declared to quit. She'll wake him.

  Dara straightened up, looking a little lost and a little afraid, and stared helplessly at the man as if it would stop the clenching feeling inside her chest. She wiped her eyes from the back of her hand like a child and stood up.

  "Don't forget." She whispered with a small smile. "There was a girl that really liked you." 

  That fondness will turn into missing.

  It will hurt, but it is an inevitable part of the process.

  Inevitable part of the ending.