Ping

My heart is pounding fast while my mind is blank as unused paper. Our lips are connected and everything is beyond my expectation. I remember before he slams me onto the wall, my vision was laced with a hint of pink. And not to hide the truth, the colour was darkening before he kisses me.

Suddenly, I can't feel my whole body anymore, as if the energy in my body is drained. Soon, my legs turn wobbly and there I succumb to the pull of gravity until my butt lands on the ground. My vision has become blurred and so does my weakened hearing. Basing on what I can register, I can no longer see Beomgyu towering over me, but I can see another presence in this place. Not only that, I can hear the noise of fighting. The noise of breaking furniture and hissing in pain.

"If you dare touch her, juk il ge (I'll kill you)," admonishes a voice that does not belong to Beomgyu.

"I am getting her back from losing control, it's not the way you think, Park Jimin." The name alerts me with no doubt and that is how I regain consciousness almost immediately.

"Not the way I think?" asks Jimin in his ridiculing tone. "Then why is she looking weak?" A low bang follows after the interrogation and there goes the younger boy's groan in pain. Obviously, the noise is generated when somebody's head is knocking forcefully on the wall. Jimin's sudden appearance is already a surprise for us, though more like a shock, let alone his outburst that kills.

Consequently, I find myself shaping the very word, "Stop." My voice sounds unexpectedly calm but stern, and so that earns the boys' attention. Soon, they stop fighting with Jimin letting go of Beomgyu's collars unwillingly. Both of them bite their lower lips in uneasiness as they part away. "Mind telling me what's going on?"

"He entered m- our house without permission and attacked me," answers Beomgyu with his index finger pointing at Jimin, who hums in dissatisfaction. Both of his arms are crossed in front of his chest when he casts an unfriendly shoulder glance at the younger Faeboy. "He did not acknowledge what I have truly done to you, Ping."

Raising up my chin, I avert my gaze towards Jimin, who is still standing there, muttering things saying how stupid I am. "And you, Mr Park," he winces upon the call. He must never have expected I will call him like that one day. "Why did you attack my protector?"

Jimin rolls his eyes upon my question and takes a deep breath, trying not to lash out when answering my question, I guess. "He is hurting you," is all he says.

***

Jimin

Ping's eyes are now fixed on mine. Bewilderment is written all over her face. "He is helping me to recover from losing control, why does it count as hurting me?" she inquires with mere colour of purple flashes across her eyes. Obviously, she is angry, but she is under control as the colour no longer replaces the original black eye colour of hers. "Stop registering me, I'm asking you a question."

"Foolish," I answer mockingly with head shaking from left to right. "Can't you feel your consciousness turning weak? Like the night I attacked you for the second time?" My rhetorical questions must have triggered the memory that she would have wanted erase.

Backing away in small steps, Ping looks at the ground and begins covering her mouth, as if she is about to throw up. After all, she does suppress the nauseous feeling from getting over her after a few groans. "Don't you ever mention it again," she orders angrily, like a queen, which thereby rises the intention in me of sending her to see the Faerie Queen one day, but now, it isn't the right time. Certainly, her Majesty should get to see such lovely Fae Children of hers, who have just joined the Fair Woods, or humans may call it the Dark Forest.

"Why shouldn't I?" I ask with a slight tilt of my head.

And she stays quiet. Spending a hesitant look at the little Dust Fairy, she is shock to see his watery, hot pink eyes.

"I didn't mean to, my mistress," he tries to explain but is stopped by my little Pinky.

"Stay away from me," she demands with her firm tone, her hand reaching out as a gesture to stop him from coming closer. She hopes to leave, but she's just realised she has nowhere to go except the guest room. "...both of you..." And there she strides away, wiping her tears hastily with the back of her hand.

_____

Seeing her looking like this does not amuse me as expected. Opposedly, I can feel uneasiness spreading all over my chest alongside with my mind clouded with confusion. I don't understand why I am so drawn to her, even though it isn't about hunting her down and eating her alive.

It is something different.

Ever since she has found herself a protector, well, a petty one, I have ceased every contact we can have. Maybe not every, but at least I have tried. "Water?" asks the little Dust Fairy, interrupting my train of thoughts.

Standing up from the cold earth, I head over to the opened window instead. "No thanks." But just as one of my legs strides over the window frame, he bravely calls me by my whole name, again.

"Park Jimin." Feeling disturbed with the way he call me, I put down my leg and cast him another sideways look. Totally unpleased by his act. "Or shall I say, Subject 951013?"

"How could you-"

"How could I?" He breaks in, this time, even bolder. By examining his facial expression, I can tell he's fully confident about the fact that such way of addressing me lowers my self-esteem. Also, this reminds me of being a lab rat once after being shot by a gun through the heart. "If I've not met you during the test, you probably are still a puppet to the humans."

My fists are balled while I try to stop myself from starting a fight once again. "Arasseo (I get it)," I breathe, facing the trees outside the window again. "I'm not the one being tortured in a lab once, but let me tell you one thing, the way we treat that memory is totally different, Subject 010313." I state without looking at him. "Although you were stronger than me back then, it doesn't mean you still are."

Unsurprisingly, the Dust Fairy remains silent. The glass of water is still gripped in his shaking hands as I can register it through my peripheral vision. Heaving out a sigh, I exit the mushroom building through the rectangular frame, at last, and walk away into the darkest part of the woods without turning back.

**Flashback 회상 starts**

Without complying to their promise, the humans did not give me nice clothes and food. Instead, they handcuffed me and locked me into a cell. A paper was then slid into the plastic case placed by the side of the heavy metal cell door, my document. It wrote Subject 951013 as my name, or more like a label.

I was still a little dream elf back then. Unable to use my powers or abilities because of being underage and awaited no one breaking into the building to rescue me. Days after days of different experimenting, I finally lost hope. I stopped loving everyone I once treasured, including my family, my childhood friend and even my most favourite pet Doosun, a dog with orange and white fur. It used to stick its tongues out at me whenever I returned home. Yes, Doosun had two tongues, one was healthy pink like normal dogs while the other was light orange. And that always reminded me of the bright sun, of the bright side of this world.

On my first test, the scientists killed my pet dog in front of my eyes. At that time, my heart was not recovered yet from the gunshot. "You are strong as a little kid." One human had once said to me. "No healthy human kids can survive a gunshot like this," was what he added to emphasize how good I am compared to their own kind. I shouted my dog's name in the cell, watching it bled to death after its belly was cut deeply with a dagger. That man who shot me did that.

Then, the woman told me they wasn't killing my dog, they were transferring its soul to another body. They thought I would be innocent enough to believe their lies. But they were terribly wrong. I knew so well that they killed my most favourite pet was to let me feel lonely. As not only they killed my pet, they kept brainwashing me about my dead family. And sadly, I was somehow convinced by their word tricks.

Soon, I stopped struggling and I stopped fighting back. "It's going to be a little hurt," reminded the woman before she injected some kind of solution they had created into my neck. That was my 23rd test but still, I could feel the hint of pain although the sensation wasn't as strong as the first time I got injected. After that injection, I was put into a glass cell alongside with another child. Another Fae Children.

Clear enough, they wanted us to fight not for entertainment, but to test whether their inventions worked. In that test, only one Faerie can survive. For I was their most favourite subject, as they had mentioned to me, I was given the most injection out of all the other experimented Fae Children. They said with this medicine flowing in my bloodstream, my power would become stronger during the battle. Yet, they never told me what my power was.

So many tests were run, so many lives were taken by my own hands. I thought my life was meaningless besides killing until I was defeated by the Dust Fairy. It was the 100th test, and I overheard the scientists discussing to give both experimented subjects, which meant us who would be fighting and killing each other, the injection of the substance to see whether it worked for all Fae Children already.

This Dust Fairy was labelled 010313. Our similarities are the last two numbers in our assigned numbers. "Please don't hurt me..." he once pleaded but I had already addicted to killing for joy. The next thing I did was charging at him, trying to attack his brain and trap him in bad dreams before sucking out all the essence from his body, just as how I'd done to my previous competitors. However, he defended himself with a shield. I was thrown back to the opposite side and back to where I started my pace.

And that was the time I recognised my second ability. Or maybe it wasn't my own, but because of the effect of the chemicals in my body. I imagined that the shield was destroyed by turning into hundred pieces of glass shards. And it worked. In fact, I also imagined how the glass shards cut the Faerie boy and left him helpless with no more trump cards in his hands. They attacked as what I have thought they should.

Yet, the Faerie boy managed to play with his shields. Besides that, he healed his wounds in no longer than 3 seconds. "Don't make me!!" he yelled at me until I found myself unable to move a muscle. My eyes were then fixated on my enemy, whose eyes were shimmering in light grey. Soon, the next thing that happened was me, being thrown around inside the glass cell, wounded, shocked and scared.

To be honest, that was when I found true emotions back. I realised I need to escape this hellish place that held me captive for the rest of my lives. But before I confirm this place is not safe to stay, I tried to use my eye language to gain the scientists' attention to help me out. But what I got as an answer was one shaking index finger from left to right from the woman who said I was her favourite. No help, no pity.

"Nal juk yeo yo (Kill me)," I told, feeling hopeless already. Grunting, the Dust Fairy gave me one last toss around the cell and he stopped, still with his sharp teeth bared.

"Only one survives," he growled. "When we do not follow what they told us to do."

Then, he began breaking my limbs, which thereby led out my screams and cries in agony. However, I let him because I knew what he was planning. He wanted to use this test to escape. And he implied to take me with him if the plan worked.

And yes, it worked as planned. The scientists thought I was dead because when he broke my arms and legs, he took out the chip buried under the flesh of my neck that helped them to track me down and also, reporting my life signs to them - Just Right, Normal or Critical. For what happened next was totally the blank part of this memory because due to the extreme pain, I lost consciousness.

When I finally woke up, I was already in the woods, being healed by the Dust Fairy himself. I owed him a lot and I should know that. But, I was too hungry and I nearly attacked him. Thankfully, he got me sustained using the giant tendrils borrowed from the Earth Fairy.

That was how I'd sworn not to cross path with him. I found it hard to admit that I was not in control as him. And the worst, I was weaker than him. A few more years have passed until Wonho found me consuming on Faerie essence during the daylight and he brought me back to his place.

"The Queen will not forgive the mistake you'd made if you continue such crime," he used the word 'crime'. At that time, I was 12 years old, acting more like a wild animal than a normal Faerie. He told me that Faeries were only allowed to prey on each other during the night. This is a rule set by the Faerie Queen and no Fae Children of this jungle could ever break it or they will face terrible consequence. But due to my special circumstance, he brought me to see the Queen to seek for forgiveness.

"I thereby appoint you to this mission - make him Faerie and teach him how to control his abilities," was what the Queen said to Wonho. This big brother knew he had gotten himself into trouble, but he remained kneeling in front of the Queen and accepted the request.

"I will do as appointed, Your Highness," was all what Wonho had said before bringing me back to his home. As I was nearing the age of personality crystalisation, it was hard to train me and made me a normal Faerie, no matter how experienced Wonho was to dealing with problematic kinds like me.

**Flashback 회상 ends**

The thunder is roaring so loud and it pulls me back to reality. Looking up to the stormy sky, I'm greeted by the fierce strike of lightning. Luckily, I'm quick enough to avoid being electrocuted to death. True enough, a place with trees surrounding me is not safe to stay long during a rainy day, especially when it rains cats and dogs.

By the time I realise the place I'm walking to, there comes the Faerie I have thought about before the thunder roars. "I'll let you leave tomorrow." Instead of telling me to enter his mikasa with direct words, this is what he says to get me into his shelter, under his roof.

Putting my hands into the pockets of my jeans, I bite my lower lip while walking towards the door of his house without sparing a glance at him not because of I don't want to, but because of embarrassment. My clothes are all drenched by the rain, so it wets the floor of his living room when I enter.

"I'll get you some dry clothes, alright? Just stay put," he reminds as if I will leave without him noticing later, though I have done such things before.

"I'm not leaving for the next few hours," I blurt, still not looking at him. "Gomawoyo, Wonho-hyung."

ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛʜɪɴᴋ ᴡɪʟʟ ʜᴀᴘᴘᴇɴ ɴᴇxᴛ? ᴀɴʏ ɢᴜᴇssᴇs?

ᴛʜᴀɴᴋ ʏᴏᴜ ғᴏʀ sᴘᴇɴᴅɪɴɢ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴛɪᴍᴇ ʜᴇʀᴇ ᴏɴ ᴍʏ ʙᴏᴏᴋ ᴏᴜᴛ ᴏғ sᴏ ᴍᴀɴʏ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀs ɪɴ ᴛʜɪs ᴘʟᴀᴛғᴏʀᴍ, ɪ ᴠᴀʟᴜᴇ ʏᴏᴜ,  ᴅʀᴇᴀᴍᴇʀs💕💕 ᴅᴏ ʀᴇᴍᴇᴍʙᴇʀ ᴛᴏ ʟɪɢʜᴛ ᴜᴘ ᴛʜᴇ ʟɪᴛᴛʟᴇ sᴛᴀʀ ᴛᴏᴏ ʙᴇғᴏʀᴇ ʟᴇᴀᴠɪɴɢ, ᴡᴇ ᴡɪʟʟ ᴍᴇᴇᴛ ᴀɢᴀɪɴ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ɴᴇxᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 🤣💕