ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴘɪᴇ ɪs ᴀ ʟɪᴛᴛʟᴇ ʟᴏɴɢᴇʀ ᴛʜᴀɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʀᴇᴠɪᴏᴜs ᴏɴᴇs.

Ping

The day is bright as the light yellow sunlight pours into the room through the glass windows. I can see it through my blurry vision. I want to compliment on such a simple yet comfortable atmosphere but, I can't. In fact, what I am doing right now does not express any meaning of my liking as I'm crying so loud until my ears ring.

"You did it, love." I can hear my father says. His voice soft as silk while talking to my mother, who is shimmering down after giving birth to me. The fuzzy outline of her smile enters my narrowed, glassy eyes. A towel is wrapped around my body to keep me warm before the doctors and nurses hand me to my parents.

"No," says my mother lovingly. "We did it." Then, they kiss briefly before placing their loving stares at me.

My cry fades upon the warmth transmitted from my mother's weakened body. Instead, it turns into an adorable babble once I've fully calmed down.

Plenty of congratulations are spoken by the surrounding medical staff as they are replied with similar numbers of thank you's from my parents. "How do we name her, darling?" My father asks while my mother giggles in delight.

She hesitates for a short while before answering, "I'm thinking of Ping, Tian HuiPing is the name. What do you say?" So it's my mother who gave me the name.

"Hui means kindness, Ping could mean equality. I believe our daughter will grow to become a successful woman one day with this name," my father analyses before ending the conversation with his pure agreement.

"I'm going to bring your baby to the crib, Mr and Mrs Tian," informs a female voice before I feel myself distancing away from my mother's warm embrace and into someone else's lap. With the rise of sudden insecure feeling bubbling in my stomach, I begin to whimper and cry. Without making any voice, the nurse continues to bring me out of the room and into another one where soft whine fills the atmosphere by other babies in the small rectangular cribs.

My vision goes from blur to clear and repeat numerous times like a camera focus. The nurse leaves the room before coming back with a bottle of hot milk for me. As my taste buds make contact with the warm soothing liquid, the woman utters something which I couldn't understand, yet surprisingly, I can remember until now.

Foeg hén, Elaria.

The fact wakes me up in a dry gasp, croaking out a throaty groan while I begin to register the moving greenness which is decorated with splotches of yellow and white lights through my blurry vision. Like the one in my dream not long ago. As I give my point of view a slight turn to the left, I can see tousled black hair dances through kisses of the morning breeze and there is the outline of Jimin's jaws, beautifully portrayed by the light orange sunlight.

"Awake, efret?" I can feel his chest vibrates while asking me the question. "Had a nice sleep?" And his double-barreled question leaves me silent with words stuck in my throat.

Before dreaming about myself as a baby, I wasn't sleeping well. I kept stirring on the bed with a few frustrated grunts penetrating through my dry throat as the urge of using those powers is intense. It is madness.

"Why am I here?" I manage a steady tone while shifting in his bridal style embrace. His hands prop just at the right body part of mine - somewhere below my shoulders and beneath my knees. "Where's Beomgyu?"

He stays silent.

"Tell me, please," I soften my voice a bit, hoping to gain his empathy.

"If I say I'm taking you to see your father, would you believe me?" My breath hitches until I nearly forget to breath. My father is dead. He is long gone along with my mother ever since that hospital incident. Part of my heart has already accept the harsh fact, yet there are a large part of it craving for his return, hoping so strongly that he is still alive somewhere in this world. This twisted world full of not-so-innocent humans and untrustworthy fairies.

"No," I say with my faltering voice out of inconfidence. "I have enough of lies already, Jimin..." My chest aches so much and I can feel his muscles stiffen upon my words. Those are my true feelings and honestly, I feel bad lying. And I feel worse to picture the victim itself. Let alone experiencing it.

But just as my emotion is welling up my warm tears, a sonorous yet melodious cry of an eagle pierces through the solemn atmosphere like an invisible blade. Following the patting sound of wings, I turn my head around to see a golden eagle flying towards us. And before it hits the ground, it turns into human form with feathers slowly fading into thin air. The last part to vanish are the arms.

"I told you not to follow, hyung," says Jimin when the man strides towards us to shorten our distance.

"Don't you see she doesn't trust you, elf?" he questions while nodding politely at me in a meantime. A brief smile forms with the thin line pressed by his thick, manly lips. The sudden change of mood is driving me confused. The tear has flowed out and roamed towards my temples before dissolving in the thick threads of my hair. Yet, I am not feeling sad anymore. "Right, yeoja?" And his confirmative question pulls me out of my train of thoughts. Involuntarily, I nod.

A puff of air is exhaled through Jimin's nose as he closes his eyes for a great 3 seconds. He jerks his arms to balance my position well before stopping by a tree. Then, he set me down on the ground full of dead brown and orange leaves as I lean on the tree limb. Eyes fixated on the two gentlemen. Quiet when listening to them arguing the topic further in Korean.

"Is that true?" I ask and this stops them from quarrelling or negotiating but directs their attention fully at me. "...that my father is still alive?" My heart races so fast that I nearly forget to breath. A part of me wishes them to say no, so that my assumption is always right in which Faeries cannot be trusted; but the rest of me wishes them to say yes because I miss my father so much.

He must have tried to help me adapting to my new life. A life as a part human, part Faerie. Or efret as pronounced by Jimin. But time doesn't give him the chance to do so.

"Yes," the man says a little hesitantly. "He's with the Queen, held as a prisoner because of marrying your mother and allowing your birth."

"But why?"

"Your mother was one of the licensed staff in Red Twig Lab." The name sounds familiar. I am sure I have heard it somewhere. "Not only being a normal staff, she was the head among them all. She planned experiments and the next targets to be captured alive, so that she can use them as lab rats to test the agent she created." The words are pricking my ears like thousands of needles and that it hurts to hear further. But I don't stop him from proceeding.

After exchanging knowing looks, both of them sit in front of me with their legs crossed. Their expressions serious with dark memories and invisible rain clouds hovering over their heads. Occasionally, I might expect a lightning strike. However, the stranger's expression softens when he continues to narrate.

"Jimin was her favourite lab rat," he says while glancing at Jimin who tries to stay quiet and unaffected. His body is shaking so bad and I don't doubt that it had traumatised him more than I can ever imagine. "She always advised him to stay by telling how unique he is and how the agent could make him indestructible. He listened and he trusted her. The agent did strengthened his powers throughout the test, but it made him merciless. He killed his own kind under the spectate of those crazy scientists." Jimin is already covering his ears while muttering 'jebal geumanhae' in stutters and whispers, while I clamp both hands on my mouth after knowing the back story that explains my inclusion to this world.

"I think you should stop talking," I blurt out while the stranger eyes me in mere shock. He must have never expected me to say such words in return. "...'cause Jimin looks uncomfortable." The strangest thing I find is that even though the story involves such strong emotions to take place, Jimin doesn't choose to leave but stay. He doesn't choose to snap a loud 'shut up' but cover his ears when facing fear. "I would like to hear more of it afterwards. But I need to brush my teeth and change my clothes, so-"

"We're going to your house now, alright?" the man interrupts with a firm smile to seal the deal. Without further hesitation, he pushes the ground to stand up and eventually towers over me.

"Please do," I say in a calm voice until I surprise myself. My view still stays on Jimin in concern.

Once the topic stays on hold, Jimin stops trembling but his chest rises up and down in a rather fast speed when he collects his breath. His gaze lands on mine before he smiles to tell me that he's fine. "We have to get you to a portal," Jimin says through his groan while standing up as well. I mirror their actions to follow their pace. "There's one nearby."

The stitch suit is too warm until I can feel myself sweating inside. Besides that, the two gentlemen are taking a bit to fast while walking ahead of me. "Wait up, guys," I shout through a series of pants while running clumsily towards them. The boys stop upon my call but Jimin is snickering at the look on my face.

Am I look that funny to run in a Stitch pajamas?

"You look like a bear trying to walk with two feet," Jimin comments as soon as I finally reach them both. I force out a fake smile while humming in concede. In fact, my stomach begins to growl underneath the thick clothing and I accidentally catch a glimpse of Jimin's shifting ears.

Unlike the usual size of a human one, save that pointy part on the shell, the right side of his ears seems to lengthen right at the moment my stomach protests in hunger. "Are we there yet?" I query as the stranger spares me a sideways glance, the stare intense but soft with kindness.

"Almost," mutters Jimin confidently as he turns left at the sight of a marked tree. He brushes his fingers against the tree bark until he touches the mark. "We are close," Jimin affirms while sending us a reassuring sideways stare.

None of us respond with a sound, only continuous taps on dry leaves filling our eardrums with sound waves to filter through. Silence commences on creating awkwardness among us until the stranger voices out, "We've been talking, but we haven't known each other yet. Ireumi mwoyeyo (What's your name)?" he asks while slowing down to let me reach by his side, leveling our shoulders in a straight line so that we are walking together. "Je ireumeun Wonhoyeyo (My name is Wonho)."

"Ping imnida," I answer based on my thin knowledge of Korean words.

"Mannaseo bangapseumnida (Nice to meet you)," Wonho says with a toothy smile. His right hand reaches out for me to shake. With my lips curved into a light smile, I take his hand and shake it. His palms are rough as sandpaper, as if he's been working with heavy and coarse objects for a very long time.

We both take our hands away from each other before the awkwardness rises again due to lengthened skinship. "Does Beomgyu know about me being with you guys?" I ask while I can hear Jimin taking in a sharp breath.

Then, as if the sound is forced out through the narrow tunnel of his vocal cord, a simple but reluctant 'no' is uttered by the boy leading in front. "We stole you away from him, because persuading him to let us have you without his company is never the plan."

"Park Jimin." Wonho's voice is full of warning. But Jimin's straightforward answer keeps repeating and echoing in my head, making me frown.

"We are here," utters Jimin while pretending nothing has happened. What presences in front of us is a rather tall but thin tree bark with no leaves growing on the branch. Unlike the twisted and crooked tree I've seen last time, this one is dead. As can be seen on the tree limb, the tree bark cracks and a major part of it has been peeled ruthlessly to the ground by Mother Nature. "This is our entrance."

"Okay," I respond as I can see a light smirk forms through looking at the side of Jimin's visage. His jaw relaxes when he puts his palm on the cracking tree bark. Soon, white light illustrates every aperture of the tree trunk, making the dead tree look alive. It takes 5 seconds for the light to finish spreading throughout the tree limb and once it is done, the ground rumbles until birds squawk and fly away from branches.

A little panic, I look around the forest to examine what the Nature will respond to this grand opening of a portal. On the neighbouring trees, leaves rustle and flutter to the earth. Some lands on my hair when I stumble into Wonho's lap. Luckily, he is quick enough to catch me. "Hold on," Wonho reminds with his voice struggling to break through the loud rumbling sound.

Resultantly, my muscles flex and I grasp Wonho's shirt tightly until the fabric crumples in my fist, trying to balance well. As the ground shakes once again, Wonho places his hand on my back as he shields me with his manly embrace.

Thick, ugly lines with sharp edges begin to draw the ground starting from the glowing dead tree. The line is moving towards us, splitting the earth in half. Jimin is still making contact with the tree trunk when the large gash draws nearer. "Jimin?" Wonho's voice is full of uncertainty.

"I will catch up," he shouts through the loud sound of stone falling and sand brushing. "...once the ritual is completed." His eyes are flashing with silvery grey as our gazes meet for a short one second. Although this looks a little bit like a goodbye scene in movies, somewhere in my gut feels confident that Jimin will follow behind us.

Soon, the lines pass the soles of our feet, drawing out a whimper from my trembling lips as this portal definitely involves free-falling. Despite having someone encircling his protective arms around me, the idea of falling into endless darkness of an abyss sounds terrifying to be true. "Think of a safe landing place, Ping-sshi." Wonho says when we succumb to the pull of gravity.

"Al-alright," I answer through my chattering teeth. As I close my eyes and picture the safest place in my mind, my own bed appears. And not long after I've secured my imagination, light pours from under our feet until we land onto something bouncy and soft.

As Wonho is literally shielding me with his arms, he lands onto the bed first with me pressing on him. "Gwaenchanayo (Are you okay)?" he asks in concern while I am too embarrassed to respond. I've never dared to wish for a moment like this - being protected by a well-built and good-looking Korean guy when falling down through a portal and into my own home. Own room.

"I-I'm okay," I stutter without looking into his eyes. Instead, I crawl away from him while noticing the closing entrance above us. A figure is approaching in a fast speed and he is shouting something at us.

"...get out of the way...!"

***

Third Person POV

It takes a few more seconds for the light to consume the tree in every single inch. The large gash on the ground is getting narrower as it begins to close like a large zipper. Biting his lower lip, Jimin leaps into darkness like a somersault jumper while a grunt vibrates through his throat.

The exit on the other side is diminishing as well, the pressure sets his heart pounding frantically against his chest. The image of Ping and Wonho on the other end is getting bigger for his eyes to digest as he approaches further.

It seems like the bed is where Ping thinks is safe to land on. But not for him if he has to land on the both of them.

"Get out of the way!!" he shouts as loud as he can with his hands waving as a gesture. The walls are getting nearer and the feeling of getting slapped to death by the mountain rocks leads Jimin to enable a faster sprint. "Get out of the way!!" he repeats again. His throat sore.

Far from a distance before Jimin is inches away from the exit, he's relieved to see Ping shifting herself away from the bed. However-

Why isn't Wonho moving?!

He thinks out so loud until he is muttering it throughout the fall.

With a rather loud shriek coming out from both men, Jimin lands headlong onto Wonho's body. The force is so huge that the wooden material of the bed creaks with a mere cracking sound.

The exit shuts entirely and thereby leaving no trace of entrance midair. Breathing heavily, Jimin rolls over from Wonho's torso and lies beside the big brother. Both of them cursing the same Korean word, "Aish...!"

"You elbowed my stomach," Wonho hisses when forcing himself to a sitting position with one hand. His another one clutching on the aching part when he staggers towards Ping, who is standing at the corner, watching the two in shock. "Gwaenchana," Wonho reassures through a groan as he passes by to reach the door.

"You look like a scaredy cat, Pinky." Ping jumps upon the shorter distance between Jimin and her without notice. She has been focusing too much on Wonho until she doesn't realise Jimin is approaching from behind, his walking style unsteady as well.

"I-I need to change," she stammers while fidgeting her fingers until her knuckles sing with melodious bone clicks. "Could you please wait for me outside?"

Jimin respires sharply with a grin. Staying silent, he yanks the door open by its doorknob before disappearing with the dim living room light.

_____

On the other hand, Beomgyu's house is empty as there is no sign of somebody living in the mushroom, not even the private library, for now.

Ten minutes ago, several fairy knights burst into his living room without knocking at the door. At that moment, he was searching the house in panic after discovering Ping's abscondence.

"The Queen would want to see you, Dust Fairy," said the one who led the army. His eyes locked firmly at Beomgyu's face while registering every little change occurred on the beautiful visage. "The trees whispered about you trying to attack an efret during the daylight, which is against the Fair Law. You need to come with us and seek the Queen for forgiveness as well as mercy."

The Queen is an unpredictable woman.

Beomgyu knew more than anyone that if he followed the steps of those knights and entered the Queen's territory, it won't be easy for him to come out in a whole piece.

He might have experienced a similar childhood with Jimin's, but he was certain that he wouldn't share the same luck as the latter anymore since the day they got out of the hellish lab.

"I have a girl to protect, I can't come with you, not now." As the knights were circling around him in large numbers, it was far too impossible for him to escape. "Please, she's missing and I need to find her."

The knights exchanged looks while digesting Beomgyu's words. Their expressions grim with dark thoughts. "Drug him."

Before Beomgyu can even utilise his powers, the fairies standing behind him had already made a move. Not only they bound his hands to his back with thorny vines despite his pleadings, one of them slammed his face with a cloth soaked with the smell of burnt mandragora.

It took only three seconds for Beomgyu to lose consciousness and stop fighting. As his body went limp, the knights dragged him out of his house like ants. There waiting obediently by the mushroom building, was a gigantic black leopard collar with a cage in gold colour. Its size as large as a human style double storey house.

At the sight of the unconscious Byeomgyu, the leopard's eyes flash with excitement. "Bow for the cage," orders the leader of all knights as the enormous animal growls in pique. Sniffing with reluctance, it leans down until the cage is beyond the knights' reach. 

ᴀʀᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴄᴜʀɪᴏᴜs ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ᴡʜᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ǫᴜᴇᴇɴ ɪs?