#and if anyone tried to get between them... like jihye was cute and that little 'rivalry' was more amusing than serious

[carmenlire]

@ semantic error anon you are not sending too many asks AT ALL!!! I need you to know my brain is buzzing with the power of a hundred thousand bees at your idea and rest assured I love it and immediately started thinking about how jaeyoung would react!!!

[luxaofhesperides]

there in the tower.

A Sleeping Beauty inspired dark fantasy fic.

for ORV RARE PAIR WEEK 2021 @orv-week; day one, prompt: fairy tale

also on ao3.

. . .

They say that the dragon is guarding a princess. After all, dragons will always kidnap princesses and no one else. Who else is so valuable? So important in the kingdom? So weak? So when the dragon flew through the sky and curled around the base of a large tower, it seemed obvious that there was a princess inside, awaiting rescue.

Here’s the thing, though: Na Bori is not a princess.

She’s a seamstresses daughter, a common girl who doesn’t attract much attention from others. So why had the dragon taken her?

Of course, Lee Jihye had no way to know for sure that Na Bori was taken until she actually goes to the tower, but Na Bori had disappeared and a dragon appeared the next day. There were investigations, of course; nobility keeps track of their daughters and what bloodlines they marry into. Every princess and noble girl in the continent is accounted for. People have speculated that there may be a missing princess, perhaps born out of wedlock, or a sickly, weak girl who had never been introduced to society. And then they wondered if they should even bother rescuing the kidnapped girl if they weren’t respectably nobility.

Lee Jihye had to run out of town because of that one. Apparently starting a bar fight and smashing a chair over a marquis’ son is a bad move.

The barely suppressed panic thrums in her chest, filling the empty spaces between her ribs as she continues her journey to the tower. 

No one has seen Na Bori since the dragon appeared. No one had looked, either. Who would care for a seamstresses daughter? But Lee Jihye has been besides Na Bori for years, has grown up with her, has never known anyone so bright and clever and kind. 

The thought of Na Bori gone forever, trapped in a tower because  no one cared to look  makes her furiously blink tears out of her eyes. No one else is looking, but Lee Jihye. She would never stop until Na Bori was safe by her side again.

Here’s another thing: Lee Jihye is not a knight. She is training to be one, under the instruction of an old warrior who has settled down to live the last years of his life in peace. There are other knights and princes traveling to the tower, fighting beasts and bandits in order to rescue the poor maiden trapped besides a dragon, hoping to gain glory and honor for their deeds. Lee Jihye just wants her best friend back.

It’s easy enough to avoid them; Lee Jihye’s been dodging them for weeks, knowing she’s too tense to handle anyone’s company. These nobles are planning to gain fame or riches or a wife out of this. The last knight who had said something about pitiful women always clinging to their saviors got his teeth knocked out and a concussion from how hard Lee Jihye punched him. She left him lying on the side of the road, fists shaking as she desperately tried to erase thoughts of Na Bori married to a pig like him. 

The less time spent with others, the better.

She cuts down another branch in her way and dives deeper into the forests that surround the castle.

“But what if you get sent far away?” she asks, stabbing her needle especially viciously through the fabric.

Lee Jihye is rather happy that Na Bori doesn’t want her to go. The rare occasion where Na Bori clings to Lee Jihye instead of the other way around are moments memorized and held onto fondly. She knows that there is no one in this world closer to her than Na Bori, knows that she’s the person who knows Na Bori best, but it’s nice to hear that she’s wanted.

Smiling, Lee Jihye reaches out and takes one of Na Bori’s hands, stopping her from tearing through the fabric. “I’ll still come back,” she promises, “Where else would I come home to?”

“And if you get hurt?”

“I’ll just get strong enough that nothing can hurt me.”

Na Bori is mollified, and it shows in how she relaxes and finally sets down her sewing. “You still have a long way to go then. Strong knights don’t cry over a little tumble down the hill.”

Lee Jihye flushes and scowls. “Hey! It was my first assignment and it was a steep hill. I hit a lot of things on the way down! It hurt! If anything, it would be weird if I wasn’t

  crying when she wakes up. Lee Jihye faintly hears Na Bori’s voice whisper, “Crybaby,” but it’s only wistful thinking. Forcing her aching body up, Lee Jihye wipes away her tears and prepared herself for another agonizing day cutting through the thorny and impossibly large brambles that block entry to the tower. 

“Okay,” she tells herself, “You’re almost there. Na Bori is waiting for you, so you can’t give up yet.” 

Many of the others have turned back. She no longer sees other groups making their way to the tower. It’s been eerily silent for the past two days. 

If she had been anyone else, if she had been sane, Lee Jihye would have turned around too. The entire area felt unwelcoming, downright hostile sometimes, and made every nerve in her body scream at her to turn around. A heavy pit of despair grows in her stomach and the hopelessness it causes makes her physically sick a few times.

Still, Lee Jihye presses onwards.

The longer it takes, the more she worries, her brain providing morbid images of Na Bori’s body rotting in the tower, or being eaten by the dragon, or any other terrible thing that could happen to kidnapped people. It has Lee Jihye on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and she’s been teetering on that cliff for a few days now. 

There’s no doubt that the area around the tower is full of dark magic. It gets into her head, twists around her bones, squeezes the air out of her lungs and slowly suffocates her each day. It gives her nightmares, makes her relive memories that feel like they’re happening again, like Na Bori is there with her only for wakefulness to destroy the illusions. Lee Jihye has only been in this dark magic infected forest for two days. Na Bori has been missing for a week and a half. 

The fear she feels for Na Bori and what she’s had to endure only makes things worse.

Lee Jihye hacks through another large thorny bramble and continues in deeper, ignoring the weariness that makes her want to collapse and never get up. Thorns have caught on her with each step she takes; most of the cuts clot up quickly, but the rest leave a trail of blood to guide her back out. 

The tower doesn’t look any closer.

She lifts her heavy arms to cut through another branch.

Na Bori shrieks and jumps onto Lee Jihye, clinging with all her might. Startled, Lee Jihye stumbles back a few steps, trying to regain her balance without dropping Na Bori. She wraps her arms around Na Bori, holding her up, and looks around for the source of her distress.

Crawling across the road is a centipede.

Lee Jihye can’t help but laugh, easily carrying Na Bori away from it, continuing down the road to her house. 

Na Bori, still holding onto Lee Jihye and making no moves to get down, smacks her shoulder. “Don’t laugh!”

“I can’t believe you call me a crybaby when you jump into my arms as soon as you see a bug.”

“It’s a perfectly reasonably fear! Nothing should have that many legs, or those weird eyes, or pincers, or--ugh!” She shudders, scaring herself by imagining the very things she hates about bugs. 

It’s cute, how insistent she is that bugs are weird, gross, and wholly unnatural. Lee Jihye has listened to these complaints for many years, and she wouldn’t mind listening for many years more.

“Don’t worry,” she says, adjusting her grip around Na Bori’s waist. “I’ll always be here to rescue you from the evil, scary bugs.”

Na Bori tucks her face into the crook of Lee Jihye’s neck. Her warm breath sends shivers down her spine; it takes everything in her not to stumble or drop Na Bori. 

“My valiant knight,” she says, and Lee Jihye can hear the smile in her voice. 

Who needs kings and queens? The only person she ever wants to dedicate her sword to is already in her arms. And if asked, Lee Jihye would gladly dedicate the rest of her life.

It’s just. There are little moments between them, where Lee Jihye thinks Na Bori also wants more, wants to push the limits of their friendship into new territory, but what if it’s just wistful thinking? They’ve shared what feels like their whole lives together, and there’s no guarantee that Na Bori wouldn’t leave one day. But if she stayed… If she stayed, Lee Jihye would give

up and let the brambles consume her body. She doesn’t know how long it’s been, how far she’s gone. Dreams and reality feel the same and she can’t quite tell which is which anymore. The tower is still the same distance away it was when she first saw it rising above the brambles. 

Everything hurts. Her ears are ringing. She’s been bleeding sluggishly for days now, always torn apart by new thorns. There’s no point in trying to patch herself up when the next set of brambles is ready to rip her flesh apart.

The tip of her sword drags through the dirt. She’s given up trying to cut a path through to the towers. Instead, Lee Jihye settles for twisting between the branches, uncaring for the thorns that reach out for her greedily.

Whatever dark magic saturates this place is slowly killing her. Lee Jihye doesn’t know much about magic as she’s never had a talent for it, but she knows enough to understand that this is incredibly powerful and dangerous magic. 

What does it have to do with Na Bori?

The answer is: nothing good. Who cares about the specifics? All Lee Jihye has to know is that the magic is going to (if it hasn’t already) hurt Na Bori. The need to save her from this, to bring her back somewhere safe, is what keeps her going despite how painful it is.

As much as her body screams at her to give up and just lie down until she withers away, Lee Jihye pushes forwards, ignoring every ache and cut and bruise.

She will get to the tower. 

Na Bori will come home.

Their hands bump together and they both reflexively jerk away. The air between them is awkward for a moment, then Na Bori laughs and picks up the last apple slice and brings it up to Lee Jihye’s lips. 

"Here,” she says sweetly, and Lee Jihye takes a bite, watches the juice trail down her fingers and wants more than anything to lick it away, to press kisses against Na Bori’s nimble hands, wants

to cry, to scream, to just be done with it. The tower looms above her, no closer and no farther, mocking her and she twists herself through another bramble, wincing as a thorn drags along her arm, beads of blood beginning to

fall into the river. The colorful leaves line the banks of the river and Lee Jihye watches as Na Bori carefully shifts through piles of leaves, searching for the mushrooms that she needed for dinner. 

“Jihye, come here!” she calls, waving her over. 

And Lee Jihye goes, as she always does. “What is it? Did you find

a way in, but it’s all just stone. No doors, no windows, just stone. She finally got past those horrible brambles, and now that she’s at the tower she can’t find a way in. It’s too tall for her to climb with her how exhausted she is. There’s no way up.

Lee Jihye can’t help but cry, screaming in frustration as she presses the heels of her palms against her eyes, trying to breathe through the sobs that force themselves out of her chest.

The magic has only gotten stronger. Dreams, memories, reality, it’s all mixing together. One moment she’s walking through town with Na Bori, the next she’s trying not to gut herself on a large thorn. One moment she’s cutting down a branch and the next she’s waking up then walking past the brambles then waking up and seeing Na Bori smile then waking up and waking up and waking up but she can’t remember falling asleep.

Is this a dream? Is she awake? Is the tower before her real or is this just another illusion?

She’s come all this way. She can’t go back, not without finding a way in that fucking

tower over her and Lee Jihye is sobbing as she watches they push Na Bori into the river. The one holding her back is laughing meanly, saying something about how no one would care about what happens to them, just two poor common girls who only have each other, bet their parents wouldn’t even notice them gone.

N a Bori is coughing up water in-between insults, and Lee Jihye whimpers as her arm is twisted more and more and any more will hurt her, will break her bones, their hands are too big and strong and no one is coming to save them and

"Get up Jihye!”

There is a dragon curled around the tower. It’s smaller than what she expected. Smaller than what she remembers. It stares at her, but it doesn’t attack.

It looks just as tired as she is.

“Hey,” Lee Jihye rasps out. “I just want her back. Please.”

The dragon huffs and drops its head to the ground. There is a collar around its neck, digging into its flesh. Dried blood colors the edges of the collar, and Lee Jihye feels sick to her stomach. Whatever magic is taking place here is vile enough to hurt a dragon, a creature of pure magic from the core of the planet. 

Killing the dragon would be an act of mercy.

Lee Jihye approaches. It watches and doesn’t move. Its golden eyes are so tired; the dragon has already given up.

She raises her sword.

They are seven years old when they first meet. The new seamstress in town is delighted to see that her daughter will have a friend her age. She waves the two of them off to play and goes back into her store, ready to get started on mending clothes.

Na Bori grins, bright and lively; it’s the biggest smile Lee Jihye has ever seen, and she’s instantly enamoured. 

"Hi! I’m Na Bori. Wanna play?”

"Sure! I’m Lee Jihye, I live down there,” she points behind them to the cluster of houses near the fields, “and you’re the first person I’ve met who’s my age!”

Na Bori doesn’t waste any more time talking. She grabs Lee Jihye’s wrist and drags her along. It’s the first touch she’s felt from someone outside her family that didn’t hurt. She’s gotten used to hiding from the local bullies and crying when they were done with her, but Na Bori’s hand around her wrist is what makes her feel like she’s splintering apart.

It’s a good feeling. 

She follows along behind Na Bori, and remembers that kind touch whenever she thinks about why she loves Na Bori so much.

The collar falls to the ground. It was hard work cutting through it, but just because Lee Jihye doesn’t have a talent for magic doesn’t mean she can’t use it. It’s all about mana direction and intent. This forest is full of mana that feels rotten and wounded, but it is mana nonetheless, and Lee Jihye has spent days in it. It’s easy enough to focus on the memory of the first kindness another child showed her and use that to fuel the intent of  help  rather than  harm .

The dragon blinks and some life returns to its eyes. It watches her carefully as she sheathes her sword and wipes the sweat off her brow.

“I helped you get out of the collar. Please help me too.”

And it does. 

The dragon nudges its nose against her stomach and lets her climb on. She holds onto it’s large horns as it ascends and circles the tower. There is a single window in this entire tower, up at the top, and it is there that the dragon stops, using its claws to dig into the stone walls and cling to the tower so that Lee Jihye can climb in through the window.

It rumbles at her softly, and Lee Jihye pats its nose. “I’ll be back soon.”

The inside of the tower is dark save for the light that comes in through the window. It’s full of books and bones, strange symbols drawn on the wall and the floor. There is a man collapsed against a table, gaunt and covered in dried blood. His chest moves, the only sign that he’s not dead, and symbols are cut into his skin, turned black from channeling dark magic.

Lee Jihye doesn’t hesitate to run him through with her sword. He dies silently, not knowing the danger he was in the moment he stole Na Bori away.

That is, if Na Bori is even here. If she isn’t, Lee Jihye is going to have a breakdown, then go out and continue her search. But she’s sure that Na Bori is here. 

She has to be. 

In the back is another set of stairs that winds up, and Lee Jihye climbs them, leaving her sword out just in case.

It’s much darker up here, but still Lee Jihye can make out the bed and a person lying in it. There’s a table besides the bed, full of sharp objects she doesn’t know the use for, and small vials of blood. Dread fills Lee Jihye and she approaches the bed to get a closer look at who is on it.

Na Bori sleeps peacefully.

Her arms are bare and full of healing cuts. Lee Jihye collapses, half-laughing half-sobbing in relief. She reaches out and shakes Na Bori, trying to rouse her from her slumber, but Na Bori doesn’t stir. 

She’s as still as a corpse. 

Lee Jihye shakes her harder, then pats her cheek. “Bori-ya? Hey, Bori-ya, I’m here. I’m here to take you home. Wake up, will you? Please, wake up.”

Na Bori remains motionless. She’s never been a deep sleeper, or a still one. Seeing her so still and silent terrifies Lee Jihye. 

“Please,” she whispers, grasping one of Na Bori’s hands and pressing her forehead against it. “Please, wake up.”

Lee Jihye sobs. She went through all this and now that she’s here, it doesn’t matter. Because Na Bori is stuck in a magical sleep that Lee Jihye can’t wake her from. 

Desperate, Lee Jihye pulls on the rotting mana around them. Blood drips from her nose as she pushes herself through exhaustion and pain, letting the decay take root in her body as she tries to use magic to break Na Bori out of her enchanted sleep. It hurts so much, behind her eyes, in her throat, around her heart. It hurts but there’s nothing else she can do, so Lee Jihye keeps pulling the mana in, then pushing it into Na Bori through their joined hands, wishing  wake up wake up wake up come back to me please I missed you so much please come back I want to go home please don’t make me leave you .

She’s not made for magic. Doesn’t really know how to use it and it takes a toll on her body. She barely notices that she’s stopped crying. She just doesn’t have the energy to make tears. 

Lee Jihye resigns herself to death. Better than leaving without Na Bori. She slumps over, slowly losing her strength. Na Bori sleeps on.

They were supposed to have a future together. She wanted to find the courage to confess to Na Bori, to make a life with her, to become a knight for her. She wanted so much but she’ll never get it because their story ends here.

These are her final moments. She’s allowed to be greedy. Lee Jihye leans down and kisses Na Bori; their first and last kiss. She presses her lips against Na Bori’s mouth and just stays there, tired and weak.

Na Bori takes a breath. 

And she kisses back.

"Why do you want to be a knight? Isn’t it scary?”

Was it? Lee Jihye had always thought the stories of adventures and fighting monsters was really cool. She says as much to Na Bori, who scrunches up her nose.

“But what if you get hurt or run into a really scary monster?” she asks, clutching the skirt of her dress in her fists, knuckles white.

“Then I’d fight back and come to you so you could help me! Being a knight might be a little scary, but I’d also be strong enough to defeat any scary thing that I find.”

“Would you save me if I was in danger?”

Lee Jihye grins and grabs Na Bori’s hand to link their pinkies together. “I promise that I will always save you.”

     Na Bori has to support Lee Jihye as they both stumble down the stairs and make their way to the window, where the dragon is waiting. It coos at them, concerned, and Lee Jihye manages a weak smile that seems to reassure it. 

They somehow manage to get onto the dragon, holding onto ridges of its back as it takes off and flies them away from the oppressive force of black magic.

“Jihye?” Na Bori murmurs from behind her, arms wrapped around Jihye’s waist as she leans against her back. “Thank you for coming to save me. I kept dreaming of you and our promise.”

 “I told you didn’t I? I’ll always save you.” Lee Jihye wishes she could be cooler when she says it, but she’s exhausted and the relief of having Na Bori with her makes her voice small and weak. 

Na Bori presses a kiss to the back of her neck. “Sleep. I’ll take care of you until we get home.”

Feeling like a child again, experiencing her first kind touch from another, Lee Jihye relaxes against Na Bori, and lets herself drift off as her heart splinters and fractures, then comes together whole.

[jeongyunhoed]

You’re traveling to another dimension It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity It is the middle ground between light and shadow, Between science and superstition It ties between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge This is the dimension of imagination

An ATEEZ Twilight Zone!AU (masterlist here)

A/N: The second bonus chapter. I’m surprised I managed to finish it just in time. Happy Birthday Mingi!

XI. Dead End (Mingi)

Song Mingi woke up with a splitting headache, the headache that came as a result of a hangover. He could barely open his eyes as he slowly sat up, his hands covering his face in the hopes of alleviating the pain. His longtime girlfriend, Na Jihye, was sleeping next to him on the bed and it was then that he noticed that this wasn’t his house. They were still wearing the clothes they were wearing the night before when they went to a friend’s party. He couldn’t remember what else happened, only that he drank a little too much. 

“Where are we?” He muttered, looking around the room the two of them were in. Did they check in at a motel? Did they crash someone’s house? This definitely didn’t look like any of his friend’s houses. 

He got up, noticing his phone on the bedside table that was already drained of its battery. Mingi groaned and stood up, and it was only then that he noticed what the bed he was sleeping on was. The blanket was nothing more than a thin cloth, and the mattress was only a thick layer of foam covering a plastic bedframe. No wonder his body felt a little too stiff and his back felt a little sore.

He rubbed his temples, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. Jihye was beginning to stir. “This is so uncomfortable” She mumbled, rolling over to look at him. “That was some party,” She said, sitting up to rub her eyes, some of her makeup smudging onto her hands. 

“Yeah, did you check us in someplace last night?” He asked. 

Jihye wiped the rest of her smudged eye makeup onto her sleeve, the white blouse she was wearing now stained at the sleeves with bits of beige and black. “No, at least I don’t think so, we wouldn’t have gotten very far with the state we were in last night,” She muttered. 

“Do you remember what happened to us before we got here? Do you remember how we even got here?” He trudged towards the door that he assumed led to the bathroom. Mingi paused when he noticed how unusual the doorknob felt. It wouldn’t turn, yet the door opened. He saw that there was nothing else on the side, the mechanism that he’d hear click to let him know it was closed. It was as if the doorknob was simply glued onto the door and nothing more. 

“Someone must’ve brought us in, or ran into us on the way, maybe we were in an accident and people took us in,” Jihye tried to reason. 

Even the bathroom looked unusual, and as Mingi tried to open the faucet, there was no water coming out. The mirror looked like it was only reflective paper glued onto a wooden frame and the plastic shelves were just that, the bottles fused into it. Everything looked like the inside of a dollhouse. “What do you remember?” He asked. 

“I could only remember we were coming from the party, and all of a sudden there was this big, dark, shadow,” Jihye tried to remember while he rubbed his temples as he stepped out. “Just a big, dark, shadow. The next thing I know, we’re here, trying to make sense out of this place.” 

“I’m trying to do that right now, something’s not right, something feels weird” Mingi sat back down on the edge of the bed. “We should get out of here,” He reached for his now drained phone and held her hand as he led them out of the bedroom and into the hall. 

He made a beeline for the refrigerator, hoping to get a glass of water to drink, or at least something to get rid of the hangover. “Hey, there’s coffee” Jihye spotted the coffee pot on the counter. She noticed that even the cups were plastic, yet painted to look like they were made of porcelain. But as she lifted the pot to pour the contents into the cup, there was nothing. It was still. “What in the world…” She muttered, shaking the pot, yet nothing moved. 

Mingi closed the refrigerator door. “It’s plastic. Everything inside the fridge is plastic, no wonder I didn’t feel anything cold when I opened it” He frowned. 

They suddenly heard a little girl laughing, and the two of them looked around for the source of the sound. “It’s probably coming from outside” She suggested, and Mingi led her out of the house, following the laughter. 

It all became quiet. The laughter stopped. It was then that they realized they were in the suburbs, unlike anything they had ever known. There weren’t any gates on the houses, just wide open spaces with driveways. There were parked cars in some of the houses as well. It was like being in another country. Mingi felt even more uneasy and he squeezed his girlfriend’s hand as they began walking down the street. “Where are we?” He said in frustration. “Are we still in Korea?” He sighed, frowning at the thought of being completely lost. 

Jihye squeezed his hand in assurance and approached a car that seemed to have someone inside. “Excuse me?” She called out, her expression falling when she realized that the person in the car wasn’t a person at all, but a mannequin. 

Mingi brought the mannequin out and tried to get in the car, but only found that the keys were fused into the vehicle, and as he realized, made out of plastic. “Something’s not right about this place” He muttered, turning to Jihye, who seemed to be thinking the same thing. “Something’s not right about this place we’re in at all, it’s suddenly so quiet, the things we’re seeing are like this, it’s like being in an escape room or something where everything’s so fake.” 

“Isn’t there anything else we can do?” Jihye asked, suddenly reaching into her purse for her phone, only to see that the battery had gone out as well. “Well, shit.” She turned to her boyfriend. “My phone’s out too.” 

“We’ll have to walk then, find the nearest store or something,” Mingi led the way down the street, seeing how quickly the surroundings had changed. From a residential space, the following block was soon made up of stores and buildings. Yet, they noticed how quiet it was, a little too quiet for a place that could be assumed to be busy. “A convenience store!” He said, spotting one in the corner of the street. “Maybe we can find out where we are” 

They approached the store, only to find that there were more mannequins, some were posed as clerks. The snacks and drinks on the shelves were also made out of plastic. “If this is some elaborate hidden camera, it’s not funny anymore” Jihye accidentally knocked over the pyramid of plastic bottles. 

Mingi looked around. “Hey, there’s a cat outside,” He said, noticing the figure of a cat standing by the window. 

Jihye hurried outside. “The cat’s so cute,” She tried to bend down and approach the feline, pulling her hand back when the cat fell over. Mingi bent down to put the cat back upright. “It-It’s a dead cat?” 

“I think it is” Mingi said, and helped her up. “I think it’s been dead for a while.” 

They heard the little girl’s laughter again. “But we’re not alone, that’s a good thing, isn’t it? At least it’s not just us in this creepy place” Jihye tried to assure both of them. “Oh, I want to go home, it’s too early for us to have to deal with this, we’re probably in some movie set, a very big movie set.” 

“How can you know that?” 

“Because how else can this be explained? Mingi, let’s get out of here” Jihye argued, clutching his arm. “Let’s keep going, there must be something somewhere else.” 

The further they ran, the more they saw how quiet and empty the place was. They stopped at a park, still hearing a little girl laugh. “Nothing, no one’s out here, no children playing,” Mingi said, pushing the empty swing. “But where is that laugh coming from?” He turned back to his girlfriend, who was seated on the bench, anxiety written all over her face. “What else do you remember?” He asked. He wanted to get mad, to lay blame, but he couldn’t find it in himself to. It wasn’t the time or place to argue. 

Jihye looked down at her purse. “I just remember having to drag you out of the party, Hongjoong was trying to book us a taxi but I said we’d be able to find our way out, but there was something dark over our heads, a shadow of some kind,” She suddenly stared at him. “Mingi, what if- what if- what if we’re dead? What if we’re ghosts in an empty town? Or what if- what if we’re in hell?” 

Mingi shook his head. They suddenly heard the sound of a train. Both of them sat up. “Would there be a train in hell? I don’t think so” He got up, pulling Jihye to her feet. “Let’s find the station!” 

They ran further down the street past the park, stopping when they saw the station itself. Mingi and Jihye skidded to a halt in front of the ticket booth, not caring if there was someone behind it or not, and as they had expected, there wasn’t. They were finally going to go home when they saw the train. “Oh I’m now feeling as happy as the day when I said yes to being your girlfriend” Jihye boarded the vehicle, Mingi following her with the doors closing behind them. “What are we going to do about tickets, though?” 

“There wasn’t anyone in the booth, and there weren’t any machines, what else could we have done?” Mingi sat down beside her. 

The train began to move and it was then that they noticed the name of the place they were coming from. “Pleasantville. That’s ironic since this place is anything but pleasant” Jihye commented, resting her head on Mingi’s shoulder. 

“We’ll be out of here anyway, we don’t need to go back here again” He assured her, holding her hand and lacing their fingers together. 

“When we get back to civilization, I am going to take a long shower and sleep for 24 hours” Jihye sighed, closing her eyes in content. 

“I’m going to take that shower with you and sleep for 24 hours too” Mingi grinned, squeezing her hand. “We should probably start living together now, what do you think?” He asked. 

That made Jihye sit up, smiling at him. “I’d love that.” 

A moment later they felt the train slow down, and Mingi’s expression fell when he looked out the window. The familiar sign of Pleasantville. They were back to where they started. “Oh no.” 

“What? What is it?” Jihye looked at where he was looking as well. “Well- Maybe we’re in a different kind of Pleasantville?” She said. 

The sinking feeling came over both of them, and they reluctantly got down the train. “There’s no use staying, we might go around again, back to where we started. Back here,” Mingi said quietly. He looked up at the sky, his expression horrified when a large shadow had appeared. Jihye looked just as horrified as they tried to run away from it, knocking over fake trees and plastic barriers from a fake construction site. 

The shadow caught up to them, and Mingi tripped and fell, making Jihye fall over as well. 

A giant hand scooped the two of them up, and they were in the palm of the source of laughter. It was a giant little girl, looking at them in delight. “Don’t be so hard on your pets, your father brought them all the way from Earth,” They saw another giant, the girl’s mother appear. “Put them down,” she said. 

“Okay mother,” The little girl placed them back on the model town she had built.

[mirage-krp]

The guardians welcome [ MIN, SUNKYU ] to the city of Jeonseol. He is [ A GUMIHO ] currently living in [ AZURITE ] and working as [ A NURSE ] at [ JEONSEOL HOSPITAL ].

Welcome to Mirage! Please follow the admin twitter within 48 hours of your acceptance.

Faceclaim: choi yeonjun of tomorrow by together (txt)

Name: min sunkyu

Nickname(s): n/a

Age: 1813

Date of birth: july 28, 207

Species/myth/cryptid/etc:

kumiho/gumiho

a nine-tailed fox with transformative abilities. they often take on the likeness of a full human or a human with a pair of fox ears and nine tails, luring unsuspecting humans in through primarily seductive means to feast on their liver and/or heart. kumiho own yeowoo guseul, which are beads that consist of knowledge and are the main source of a kumiho’s energy; they are also used to absorb others’ energy. yeowoo guseul can be stolen and used to provide power and knowledge to whomever takes it. it is said that a kumiho may become human if it can abstain from eating humans for a thousand days.

in sunkyu’s case, he harbors the ability to transform from his human likeness into his true form of a nine-tailed fox and anything in-between. he may also change any of his skin-deep features and mimic the appearance of others, though not entirely; there will always be something inherently foxy about his appearance no matter who it is he mimics, and it is typically attributed to sharp eyes or teeth. he is also stronger than a human and possesses sharp nails that can extend to act as claws if need be. on the subject of yeowoo guseul, he owns a good many and typically wears twelve of them as a bracelet on his right wrist; he uses them just as others would to absorb energy from others. they take the form of small, bluish-white beads that resemble pearls. lastly, sunkyu is able to communicate with foxes quite easily.

Weaknesses:

yeowoo guseul are just as much of a weakness as they are a strength. should any of them be stolen from him, he’ll experience a feeling of fatigue in proportion to the amount of beads missing from him (i.e., losing two would make him feel very tired and drained for somewhere between one and three days, whereas losing four would make him feel that way more intensely and for much longer). if sunkyu were to lose all of his yeowoo guseul, he would become weak until he either acquired some form of energy equivalent or died.

sunkyu must be careful of what — or who, rather — he eats. while he can carry on a normal omnivorous diet just like anyone else, being a kumiho means that he often ventures beyond that. humans are all fair game, though he is unable to properly digest certain other species. any species devoid of a heartbeat or with odd genetics that prevent the formation of human-like blood cells and organ structures fall under the category of difficult to impossible to digest, and it would make him sick to attempt consuming them.

although he can hold himself over for around six months with only the energy he gathers from his yeowoo guseul, sunkyu will feel a sense of hunger that increases over time if he doesn’t feast in that time frame. should he go for a few years this way, he will feel extremely weak and, eventually, become so hunger-driven that he is willing to consume whomever is around him at the time.

dogs (including species similar to dogs, such as wolves) are sunkyu’s worst nightmare. they can pick up his fox-like scent, and (although he’ll seldom admit to it) he’s quite uneasy around them.

as kumiho are of malignant nature, those empowered by faith or of pure disposition (i.e., angels) are able to see through his illusions.

Favourite song or quote: queen of broken hearts by blackbear

Residence: azurite 4

Occupation: nurse at jeonseol hospital

Personality:

(+) outgoing, witty, adventurous, charismatic

(+/-) cunning, confident, observant, noncommittal

(-) vain, deceitful, somewhat fickle and selfish

Background:

as a red fox in the forests of the southern korean peninsula, sunkyu’s lifespan should’ve lasted somewhere around five years. his recollection of that time is sparse, remembering only short snippets of hunting, burrowing, and growing ever older as his pack would die out time and time again. he remembers his behavior gradually becoming odd to the foxes around him; although this species isn’t known for hibernation, he became so bored with his repetitive life that he would sleep for hours on end — hours turned into days, days into weeks, and weeks into months. surely, that must’ve been the beginning of his consciousness evolving.

one day, he awoke from what must have been a three or four-month-long slumber to the foxes around him sniffing insistently; they seemed concerned yet still able to distinguish him as one of them. sunkyu was just as confused as the rest of them at first, only realizing the clear differences between himself and his pack upon standing up on not paws, but feet. and surely, that must’ve been the beginning of his being evolving.

the shift in his physical and mental state was not accompanied by anything grand; he had no one to guide him on his new life, and, at first, he simply tried to live with the pack just as he had done before because it was familiar to him. through this, he gained an understanding that he could shift from the form of a fox with nine tails to a more human one. however, he couldn’t understand the insistent feeling of hunger slowly consuming him. no matter how much he ate with the others, he never felt full. this feeling is what led him to finally venture to see humans that traveled to busan’s outskirts. it wasn’t that he had never interacted with humans, no— at times, humans would come into the forest he and his packs occupied, but he had never interacted with one so directly. at first, it felt odd to appear as a human and speak with one, but the closer he became to them, the hungrier he felt. from there, it was as if his body knew exactly what to do — and in turn, his mind consciously acknowledged it and learned. although he doesn’t remember the occasion any longer, it was the time he began to understand what he wanted and how to get it.

throughout countless years after this, he stayed at the forest’s edge and tempted unsuspecting humans to consume them in the end. he learned how to use his yeowoo guseul to further sustain himself, continuing on like this until boredom threatened to consume him and reports of missing persons gathered heftily to the point of humans no longer freely exploring the forest he inhabited. when the humans became too sparse and the boredom too frequent, he decided to move on.

he began to participate in human life, moving to busan and parading as the species he so loved to consume under the name of heesung. countless more years passed like this until history repeated itself; heesung became bored of his surroundings, and far too many people were being reported as missing or dead. in the end, he moved to miryang, and then from daegu to andong, from andong to jecheon— and so on. it wasn’t until he began yet another life in seoul under yet another name (minsoo, this time) that anything of note occurred.

life in seoul was different; the city was large and opportunity often hit him square in the face. the humans there interested him, and over a thousand years of life brought him the knowledge he needed to pursue them in a way that wasn’t as abrupt as nightly seductions. he decided to attend seoul national university due to the large population of students in the city, and he was beyond tricky enough to get in and enroll in one of the longest programs: medical school. he lived as a student just as anyone else, sometimes venturing out at night to catch a meal off-campus only to come back to his dorm before the next morning came.

at university, minsoo was a social butterfly that kept up good grades and paid for tuition through the money he’d stolen over the years from his victims. when classes became stressful, he ate more and found solace in the human friends he’d made as well as his visits to forests near the han river. by his fifth year at university, he found a girl he cared for dearly; for him, such a feeling was foreign but far from unwelcome. jihye was a medical student just like him, and she carried an air of maturity and charisma around her that was enthralling. the two would often study together and do trivial things such as getting coffee or food, but minsoo found every activity pleasurable so long as she was there. for once, there was a human he didn’t want to consume; he wanted to live with her and carry on his life alongside her.

they became college sweethearts and fuel for one another, and minsoo was so taken by her that he resolved to do his best to become what she was: human. they went through medical school and graduate school together, and minsoo did his best to ignore the nagging hunger constantly dragging him down; the happiness he felt with her was far more important to him than whatever weakness was slowly but surely consuming him. “i’ll become human and never feel this hunger again if i hold on a little longer,” he’d tell himself. if only he knew it would take a thousand more years for that to happen, he’d understand his struggle was hopeless in every possible way.

in the end, minsoo couldn’t keep the promise he’d made to her or to himself. his promise of a long, happy life with jihye was broken the very night hunger overtook him. these memories are so far suppressed in his mind that the only recollection he allows is jihye’s shocked face upon seeing the minsoo she loved so profoundly sporting fox ears and nine tails, and her shy smile as she told him that it was okay, she loved him anyway. “they’re cute. they fit you,” she’d tell him, yet silence and the smell of blood hung thick in the air only a few hours later. the full realization of what he’d done only settled in the next day, with her corpse slowly beginning its decay in his apartment. that was the day he fully gave in to the nature of a kumiho once more; he noted his efforts as useless as sadness and anger set deep into his heart.

the short-lived frenzy he went into after jihye’s passing was brutal, to say the least. he’d begun work at a hospital alongside her, and he continued going to work without her. questions of her whereabouts were met with lies of “i don’t know” and “she hasn’t been talking to me lately.” to a certain extent, everyone around minsoo and even minsoo himself knew the things he said had no possibility of being true; he cared not for that, though. he locked it away in his head and allowed himself to become reckless at his job, consuming brain-dead and hopeless patients even if a part of him knew it would end badly for himself.

lo and behold, it did just that: hardly a week of this passed before he was caught. the humans called him a monster, and rightfully so; what kind of nurse would consume patients?

minsoo did the only thing he could at that point in time: he fled and threw away his life in seoul in an attempt to bypass the repercussions of his actions. he threw away his name, his connections, and his physical form for the longest time and made a home in a forest as far away from seoul as possible. he went back to living as a fox, sporting nine tails as the others around him only sported one, and avoiding humans altogether beyond going out to seduce and later consume them whenever hunger arose.

and again, the fox found his life becoming boring and repetitive. he couldn’t live this way, especially not with a more advanced consciousness than the foxes surrounding him. he found that interaction with others was something he needed lest he become lonely and bitter, yet he also found that living with humans again held the potential for history to repeat itself. what was he to do, then?

it took hardly any deliberation after the knowledge of jeonseol found him for him to decide living there would be the best option available to him. jeonseol would be a safe haven where he wouldn’t have to consistently disguise himself, and so he adopted the name of sunkyu and made his way there. his past work as a nurse in seoul made it easy to work at the hospital in jeonseol so long as he ignore his bitter memories. the potential life he could make for himself here far outweighs going back to the humans’ domain, at the very least.

Any wanted connections?: n/a

[luxaofhesperides]

look how long love holds its breath

in which lee jihye is the one comforting a crying na bori, instead of the other way around.

for ORV RARE PAIR WEEK 2021 @orv-week; day two, prompt: hurt & comfort

also on ao3.

. . .

Let it be known that Lee Jihye is a person who cries easily. Even when she doesn’t want to. Especially when she doesn’t want to. No matter how hard she tries to hold them back, eventually the tears spill out. Na Bori teasingly calls her crybaby but it’s not mean, like how others say it, just a fact, something said with warmth in her voice. 

She doesn’t mind being called crybaby if Na Bori’s the one who’s saying it because she knows Na Bori will help wipe her tears away.

Lee Jihye is used to crying, often alone before Na Bori gracefully and stubbornly forced her way into her life. What she’s not used to is Na Bori trying to wipe away her own tears with her breath hitching around repressed sobs.

It feels like the ground has dropped out from under her feet, like her heart turned to stone from the sheer terror that runs through her. Na Bori is not one for crying, so if she is, something is really, really wrong.

“What’s wrong? Are you hurt somewhere? Did something happen?” Lee Jihye drops her bag immediately, uncaring for the dirt she’s have to brush off of it later. Other students pass by them, glancing at them then quickly looking away. Na Bori presses her forearms against her face, hiding, as her shoulders jerk at the force of the sob clawing its way out of her throat. 

“Come on, Bori-ya,” Lee Jihye says, a little desperately, pulling her closer. “Talk to me.”

Na Bori takes a deep breath, holding it as she swallows back her cries and manages to say “I can’t--” before her voice fractures and breaks. She hunches in on herself, and Lee Jihye feels her throat tighten, sympathetic tears springing into her own eyes before she quickly blinks them away.

There’s no time to be crying when Na Bori needs her. 

“Come on,” she picks up her back and wraps her free hand around Na Bori’s arm, gently pulling her away from the school, “Let’s go. We can skip today.”

Na Bori doesn’t argue. She doesn’t say anything at all, just weakly follows along Lee Jihye. When they’re a street away from the school, she drops her arms and stares at the ground, tears slowly trailing down her cheeks. Lee Jihye swallows dryly, struggling to say something, anything, that will help. But she’s never been good at comforting others, so all her emotions tangle into a knot in her throat and she stays numbingly silent.

The silence stays between them all the way to Lee Jihye’s apartment, and the jangle of keys sounds far louder than normal when she opens the door and pulls Na Bori in. She kicks off her shoes without care and dumps her bag off to the side, then carefully guides Na Bori to sit down. She carefully takes off Na Bori’s shoes, lining them by the wall, and setting her school bag aside after pulling it off her shoulders.

Somehow, this makes Na Bori cry harder, biting her lip to muffle her sobs as she drops her head, trying to hide her face. 

“Hey,” Lee Jihye whispers, pushing Na Bori’s hair behind her ear and tilting up her face. “It’s alright. You don’t have to hide from me. Cry all you want, you deserve to after dealing with my crying all the time.”

Na Bori manages a weak smile at that, then abruptly stands up. ‘I’m,” she starts, then clears her throat to rid her voice of its roughness, “Can I go to your room?”

“Yeah, of course. You don’t need to ask, this place is your home too. I’ll bring you some water.”

She watches as Na Bori walks away, years of familiarity letting her move through the space with ease, then turns and heads towards the kitchen. 

Now that Na Bori is responding to her, she can feel some of the fear leave her. Her skin feels like its too tight around her body, and Lee Jihye is taking careful, steady breaths to stave off the worst of the panic. So long as Na Bori is with her, they’ll be fine. She’s talking, she’s somewhere safe, she’s calming down. Lee Jihye fills a cup with water and her hands stop shaking.

When she gets to her room, she finds Na Bori curled up on her bed, knees tucked into her chest. Lee Jihye sets the glass aside on her nightstand, then sits besides her and runs a hand through her hair, the way Na Bori would during times when Lee Jihye couldn’t stop crying. It barely takes a few moments before Na Bori is relaxing into the touch, closing her red-rimmed eyes with a sigh.

“Jihye,” she murmurs, holding out a hand that she quickly takes. “Am I a good person?”

Where was this coming from? Na Bori is the best person Lee Jihye has ever met; kind and funny and lively and strong. She makes everyday brighter. She makes Lee Jihye happy. 

“You are. You’re the best person. My favorite person.”

“I don’t feel like it today.”

Slowly, Lee Jihye shifts, lying down besides Na Bori so they’re face to face, barely an space between them. “What happened?” she asks, brushing her thumb over Na Bori’s knuckles.

“I got into a fight with my mom. I didn’t eat because I woke up late and she yelled at me for never appreciating the fact that she makes breakfast everyday, that I was an ungrateful daughter, that I wouldn’t have to stay up so late if I was a good student. If I was smart.”

For just a moment, Lee Jihye hates Na Bori’s mother for saying such things. Then she forces the feeling away, because Na Bori wouldn’t want her to hate anyone. 

Na Bori swallows heavily, squeezing Lee Jihye’s hand tighter, then admits, “I feel like my mom wishes she had a better daughter. Someone who was actually smart and cute. She always makes me feel like a disappointment.” Another tear falls and Na Bori shuts her eyes, visibly trying to hold it back.

“You’re not a disappoint, you could never be,” Lee Jihye soothes. “Your mom doesn’t know you is all. She’s barely ever there.”

“She’s all I have.”

“You have me.”

She pauses, then opens her eyes to meet Lee Jihye’s gaze. “I do,” she breathes, “I do have you.”

“And I’ll always be here. No matter what.”

“Promise?” “Promise.” Lee Jihye links their pinkies together, then, unthinkingly and recklessly, brings Na Bori’s hand up to press a kiss against the side of her hand. 

Lee Jihye watches her face flush before she turns her head to hide against the sheets, and despite the fierceness with which her heart pounds against her chest, she’s not scared at all. This is Na Bori, her best friend, her everything, who deserves more than a mother who makes her feel like she’s not enough. All she’s got is Lee Jihye, but that’s enough. Lee Jihye will be enough for her. 

“You’ll see yourself the way I do one day,” she murmurs, watching as Na Bori peeks at her and struggles to keep her eyes open, exhausted from crying. “You’ll have someone who’ll cherish you and you’ll be far away from your mom. It’ll hurt now but you’ll be happy in the future.”

“And you’ll be with me,” Na Bori says, so easily like there isn’t a single future where they aren’t together.

“I’ll be there for as long as you want me.”

“Thanks, Jihye-ya.”

“Go to sleep,” she says, because if this conversation continues she’s going to have a heart attack. A very nice heart attack, but a heart attack nonetheless.

Na Bori smiles at her, tired but more genuine than the one before, and closes her eyes, quickly drifting off. Lee Jihye stays besides her, keeping hold of her hand. She wants to hold Na Bori closer, wants to be greedier and never let her go. They’ve been tentatively pushing past the boundaries of friendship for a while, and though Lee Jihye is ready to jump head first into something more, she’s more than fine waiting until Na Bori is comfortable enough for it. So long as they’re together, she’s happy. There’s no rush, after all. 

Lee Jihye promised her forever.