━━━━━°⌜ 苦悩 ⌟°━━━━━

"Isn't everything supposed to happen as it's said or thought?"

- HOLO (이하이)

━━━━━°⌜ 苦悩 ⌟°━━━━━

Upon that sunny day, amid the bonny waving winds, crepuscular visions evaporated into hoary and spiffing cloud. There came a real space for dreaming. As if lightning had blossomed into the most steady of comforting glows, comes the sunny day.

But it really wasn't the time to have been dreaming. Nor was it the time to have found solace in the nice weather.

"It's high time, Taehong." Fores said, zipping her bag close. "If you want to come, you can. If you don't, well... I have no issues."

"But then, what about mom and dad?" Concern filled his eyes. They were now big, and round, with a glint of pain lingering close. If you ask me, I would have been in much worse of quandary, living his life.

"Hmm," Fores hummed as if she didn't know how to respond to him. It wouldnt be a surprise if I said, she really didn't know how to respond to it. "I don't know."

Honestly, I might sound a bit parti pris about claiming this one life but I do not want them stepping out of this shelter. The world outside is fiendish and I am not playing with words, this world right at the moment is by far the worst of what I have seen till now.
There are guns, and barrels and fire, the smoke makes my blood run cold. Even though I don't have such a thing. And the poison in the air suffocated even me.

Wait, the war hasn't commenced yet but their feet into the outer land would be the stepping stone to catastrophe.

"I know what happens in that mind of yours, Fores."

Fores' head jerked to the side, and I was surprised to have caught sight of Taylor making her entry. She didn't have much written on her face. Well, there wasn't exactly a time I'd seen her wearing her heart on her sleeves, so I'm not going to grumble about that.

"W-What do you mean?" Fores was suddenly floundering with her words.

Taylor only had a smile. A smile that was just there for the sake of it. Maybe smiling had always been a kind of chore for her, for it never seemed guileless.

"You want to go outside, don't you?"

"Maybe."

"You're an adult, or so you may feel. It's not my place to restrict you anymore, even if I do feel it's not exactly the right time to move about. Outside the house, I mean."

Silently I had been imploring for her to have thoughts about that absurd notion of hers, a second time.

"I'll be out for just an hour, mom. Really." It was almost as if she'd been asking for dispensation. Only adults who had a job to go about on could walk undaunted. The situation was such. And Fores wasn't an adult. Yet. At least in the eyes of the law.

"Be safe. If anything, anything at all, seems suspicious... Run back home. Fores, please," Taylor seemed extremely solicitous.

"I will."

Fores had that small smile of triumph playing at her lips. She'd gotten through the first hurdle she'd face.

"Can I go too?" Taehong's meek voice emerged between the two women. Even though he'd grown a lot taller than the both of them, and even had his voice grow in bass, he was still acquiescent.

Taylor chewed on the inside of her cheeks as she thought about it. "Promise me, you'll stay safe."

I've got to tell you this. Right now. Right this instant. It will probably only be astute of me to inform you that I may switch to narrating about Fores, sometimes. It saddens me, yes. That I'm not exactly directing my sole focus to Taehong. So, bear with me.

I tuned in to their conversations. Trivial, though. Compared what other things they could be talking about. But that's alright.

"Come on, Tae," Fores called, gripping the shoulder-straps of her bag.

The lower half of their faces had already been sheathed with a cloth, their crown shrouded by the hood of their top. Their eyes, however, remained free from the barricade of such a curtailment.

Her eyes were the hue of the new spring growth, bright and soft all at once. There were flecks of strength, of the kind of green that came only as summer advanced. A kind of green that bled into the nature. While his eyes... were different. The currents of the ocean lapped against the steel borders of his irises, and the emotions held in them were unfathomable.

Taehong looked unsure, as he moved with hesitant steps. The black cloth he wore around his cheekbones, fluttered with every shaky breath he let out, and he had already been sweating. "Hmm," he hummed.

The door swung open and the first foot came down slow onto the mucky road outside. Their eyes cautiously swiveled back and forth the ends of the street.

Once they both were completely outside, and they heard the door shut close, the space between them became attenuated. "Stay close," Fores said, wrapping her fingers over his forearm.

The dust lay thickly like winter's first snow, but instead of being a spirit-raising pristine white, it was a melancholic dirty grey. The gusts of wind blew it into the air in great swirls and the light from the window illuminated the particles. Every movement sent a vortex of dust into the previously stagnant air. The sun beamed down, shining ever so bright, with not a tree in sight for shade.

There used to be a time when all those green leaves filled me with a certain vigor. So much life in those small green things, I must say. Carrying the burden of something so troublesome, like humans, must've been hard on them. I pity them, sometimes.

"What's happ-" Fores breathed out.

"Shh..." Taehong urged, pulling Fores, to a corner.

Fores had seen them again. The black clothes, I mean. Take a trip down the narration. Remember Taehong had given you an insight into one of her snippets? Those men, exactly.

"What are they here for?" Fores hushed, as she tried her best to squeeze into an alleyway behind them. It was narrow, and a little damp from all the water that had been leaking. And most of all... It had a fetor of decay.

The smell combined with the bête noire that ran through her veins; her face had grown paler. The white tint of her skin reminded of all those people I'd met, while claiming their souls.

"Isn't this the calmest of all towns there is?" Taehong asked, peeping outside, every few seconds. "Patrolling here would be pointless."

Heavy breaths filled up the confined space, and she was visibly trembling. He had been keeping himself occupied by watching the men's retrieval. He only jerked his attention to Fores, when a muffled thud rang against his ear drums.

"Fores? Fores!" he whispered, as bent down looking at her fallen form.

Her face had heated up, slight patches of sanguine tainting her otherwise, plain skin. Her eyes didn't open, though. She remained unresponsive.

The trepidation had consumed her from the inside, slowly digesting whatever consciousness Fores had left... Until she lost it all, in the snap of a finger. The echo of the anguish she'd endured, revisited her, like an unwanted guest. And she fell victim to it. Unfortunately.

The corners of her eyes had become an abounding abyss of caliginous expanse. She struggled to even nudge Taehong, so that he could notice her state. And before long, her legs had given away, her eyes closing on its own accord.

Responsibility fell on him, like bricks on granite. With Fores being the one with a solid motive, he felt feeble without her. And there was only one option left. To go home.

So that was exactly what he did.

His lithe figure bent down, his slender arms were around her shoulders in no time, hauling her upright. There was no time for de trop thoughts to occupy his mind, as he dashed without second thoughts.

He didn't think whether they'd see him. He didn't think whether the running would cause too much suspicion for them to start firing their arms. He didn't think what the dire consequences might have been.

The brown aura around him, that had been languishing until then, suddenly started to vibrate.

"I know. I'm not that oblivious," I commented, as though I were telling her that I could read the situation more clearly than her. And it was true, for a fact. I was adroit at this. After all, it is what exactly I've been doing since time immemorial.

And hence, I had been there for him. Despite my own rules set for not caring about you weaklings, I've had to bend them. For a few special beings. And he was one of them. Fortunately, he didn't need my protection, explicitly.

Seconds of sprinting and he'd returned to the door he'd come out from, a frail Fores dangling in his arms. They were safe. At least for now.

----------

"From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them. And that is eternity."

- Edvard Munch

════════════════════