ɪ ᴀᴍ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴛʜᴀɴ ʜᴀᴘᴘʏ ᴛᴏ sǫᴜᴇᴇᴢᴇ ᴍʏ ᴛɪᴍᴇ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴛʜɪs ɴᴇᴡ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ. ʜᴇʀᴇ ɪs ᴛʜᴇ sᴜʀᴘʀɪsᴇ ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ. ᴛʜᴏᴜɢʜ ɪ ᴡɪʟʟ ʙᴇ ᴀᴡᴀʏ ᴀɢᴀɪɴ, ɪ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ sᴛɪʟʟ ʀᴇᴘʟʏ ᴛᴏ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴍᴇssᴀɢᴇs 💕

Third Person POV

The ignited candles colour the dim room with orange and yellow. The tiny flames waver when Jimin passes by. He is trying to adjust Ping's posture to a sitting position despite her being half awake at the moment. Once she is leaning against the headboard, Jimin blows the soup before tipping the bowl against her teeth to feed her.

As Ping swallows the soup, Jimin can hear the sound of the liquid travelling down her throat. It leads him away from anxiety, somehow. However, her eyelids snap open all of a sudden before she glares daggers at him with her shimmering pink eyes. Lifting up her hand, she flaps the bowl away before Jimin can even react. The liquid splatters onto the ground.

On the other hand, Wonho can imagine a thousand bad scenes that may happen in this bedroom after witnessing such an emergency and he is ready to prevent them from happening. Without hesitation, he stomps into the room while rolling up his sleeves.

But, Ping's next move changes his mind.

***

Jimin

Ping pulls me closer towards her by grabbing hold on the collars of my shirt, scaring me shitless. She does not utter a word while what remains is our eye contact. Before I can even notice, she is already taking my breath away by pressing her lips against mine.

Such a sudden act of hers leads my heart to pound hard against my rib cage, skipping several beats occasionally. My legs give in while I sit onto the edge of the bed, surrendering upon her aggressive confession. Slowly, my vision blurs when dizziness takes over my head. And that is when I come to realise one truth.

She is inhaling my essence.

I manage to get away and breath in some air before she pulls me back to position a few seconds later. At this moment I strongly need Wonho's help as I am losing my strength to fight back. I can't push her away as my body fails me.

Now that I understand the feeling of my prey when I consumed their essence without mercy in the past. Most of them died due to my overconsumption. And I freaking felt so happy and satisfied about it.

"Wonh..." Again, I fail as one of her hands covers my mouth. My back collapses against the mattress as she pins me down. My heart beats strugglingly as I try not to pass out. Her eyes are glimmering like diamonds, pink diamonds. But wait-

It is fading.

The colour is fading.

By the time her grip on me loosens, I exchange our current positions by getting on top of her, pinning her down. Both of us panting hard with startled faces. Eyes met. The pink in her eyes pulses like electricity before the original colour regains control. "Jimin?"

There she is.

Gritting my teeth, I can barely stand the pain spreading across my chest. As a Faerie myself, running out of essence is similar to a human having not enough air. Soon, my vision is all nothing but pitch black. Sleep engulfs me like the chrysalis that covers a growing caterpillar.

***

Ping

"Jimi- urgh!" I can't help myself from groaning in pain when Jimin collapses on top of me. "Boy, you are so heavy!" His exposed collarbone is poking my shoulder when I try to nudge myself away. His hard chest leads me to blush due to both our body warmth and my own thoughts. My heart skips a beat while I realise that I couldn't get up due to Jimin's weight. Thus, I can only move my head around to take in the details of this foreign place.

The candle lights up the room in a ghostly manner due to the dancing flame. The room door is shut, but a hint of sunlight penetrates through the gaps underneath, telling me it isn't night time. Obviously, waking up in a place I don't know with Jimin passing out on top of me is definitely not the best thing for myself to experience. Luckily, I am not experiencing it in the dark, or it will be a somewhat traumatising experience. Soon, someone pushes the door and sunlight pours in.

A tall, male figure appears by the door, but I couldn't quite see his face as the sunlight washing against his back is too strong until he speaks. "Well, that's unexpected." Tracing the side of his approaching figure, I recognise the man as Wonho after the candle light illustrates his face. His hair colour has changed as they aren't auburn anymore.

"What happened?" I ask, raising my head to make eye contact with him. Wonho shakes his head with a bitter smile when what I can comprehend from his eyes are sadness and sympathy.

"It's complicated," he answers finally while reaching to help me up. Once he readjust Jimin's position on the bed, he turns to fetch me a bowl of hot soup, a cute wooden spoon is provided. "Drink this, you will feel better." His tone is full of concern and his expression is serious. It is written all over his face.

I could have denied his offer because of all the troubles and problems I created so far. Though I am unconscious most of the time, I can feel my Faerie side trying to gain control on my body, forcing my human side to sleep while it plays around savagely. "Jinjja joesonghamnida (I am really sorry)," I can't help apologising for a few more times when reaching out to take the wooden bowl with both hands. My head lowers to show my sincerity. Wonho keeps quiet and this is expected. But he pats the side of my shoulder before turning to mop the floor.

The steam warms my heart nonetheless. It reminds me about my family before the tragedy. We used to sit around a table and enjoyed our meals together. Taking in one spoonful of soup, I can't help missing my mother and the food she cooked.

"Jimin brought you here," Wonho says, pulling me back from my train of thoughts. I avert my gaze towards him as he blows off the candle beside the bed. "He needs sleep to recover." I hope Wonho can disclose more information, but I prefer not to say by the time I open my mouth. "I'll give Jimin the chance to explain everything to you once he wakes up." As a result of his words, I turn to look at Jimin's sleeping figure, in which his face looks relaxed unlike the moment I regain true consciousness.

Moreover, it is interesting that his fluffy hair and long eyelashes have turned white. Silvery white, which is nearing the eye colour of my dead father. Glimmering constellations and stars float all over his body, adding in more elegance to his body. The sign of him recharging for energy is indeed fascinating as if he is one kind of a special universe.

But no one could tell how long Jimin is going to stay in this state. It could be a long wait. It could be a month or worse, a year. It takes a longer time for a dream elf to recharge and heal itself when the injury is severe. This is what Wonho tells me after I leave the room.

He teaches me a lot about Faeries, which helps me more in understanding my Faerie self. "As long as you feed yourself from time to time with essence, your Faerie side won't take control of your body so easily. Unless you are in a dangerous situation," explains Wonho when I ask him about my ever changing personality.

But deep in my mind, I know well enough that it is important for me to figure out what my Faerie self truly wants in order to prevent bad things from happening. I have to try to communicate with it. Hopefully, both of us can reach an agreement at the end of our discussion.

______

A week has passed and Jimin has yet to move his eyelids. The night breeze rushes past my cheeks when I climb to the top of Wonho's tree to admire the orange and pink sunset. The faraway clouds are the mixture of grey and purple, showing the gloomy side of the sky.

My left hand clutches on a tiny plate of blueberries offered by Wonho. I remember buying this with my mother from the supermarket when we were living a human life. The price was pretty expensive, yet the taste never fails us. It makes me to believe whenever I think about sad stories of my life, one taste could make the pain go away.

"It tastes so good." My nasal tone is obvious while a streak of tear draws a line across my face. "I am not a cry baby. I am not a cry baby. I am not..." No matter how strongly I discourage myself from crying alone on top of this tall, tall tree, my emotions are overpowering my self control. The negative feeling is intense and I begin stuffing all the remaining berries into my mouth, hoping to ease the pain rooted in my heart as quick as possible.

My father died... My mother died... And Jimin hasn't woken up yet. The last segment of my life will be gone if Jimin dies. I can't live without him. I definitely can't live without him!

The thought repeats and hurts my chest every time it appears in my mind. Soon, I end up sobbing silently while watching the setting sun through my blurry vision. These thoughts are indeed torturing if I have to handle them alone. Like literally.

"Omo, Ping-sshi," I quickly wipe my tears away after hearing Wonho from behind. "Gwaenchanhayo (Are you okay)?" It takes not more than 2 seconds for him to take a seat beside me. "You're not alone, Ping," he soothes while taking away the empty plate from my hands. His smile warms my heart, yet it is not enough to repair the broken pieces. "Jimin would like to see you."

As if the words hold magic, I break into a bright smile at the sudden news. "Jinjja (Really)?" And he gives me an affirmative nod. A delighted smile is plastered on his handsome face which reassures me more.

"Let's go and meet him, shall we?" he suggests with a bright tone while helping me up. We maintain our equilibrium by placing our hands on the tree trunk throughout the way down to the hanging nest. Usually, I would have hopped in excitement with a loud cheer. But falling down from the nest is another story, so it's best if I'm not doing that.

ʜᴏᴡ ɪs ɪᴛ ɢᴏɪɴɢ?