#I will continue to retaliate with cursed folklore | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

akinnie75 · 6 years

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Moonchild

Pairing: V x Reader

Genre: Fluff, Slow Burn, Fantasy, Romance, Somewhat Angsty

Word Count: 25k

Summary: The tale of the legendary Moonchild—a mythical creature known for its ability to heal life of all sorts—is merely a fantasy, but an encounter with one makes it a reality.

For millions of years, the moon watched over Earth, revolving around the planet and gazing at its beauty. But no matter how long she remains with Earth, the moon is too far away to ever grasp it. So whenever the earth was in danger, she can never protect it. That’s when the moon gave birth to her children, dropping them on earth and become destined to protect the earth. For many centuries, the children of the moon protected the earth, healing its dying plants and wounded animals.

As time marches forward, there came the birth of humanity, who then became fascinated by the remarkable beauty of the moon’s children, capturing and enslaving them for the value of their appearance. Chained down and unable to keep the promise with the moon, they were given harsh treatments by the humans, and the moon could do nothing to stop their suffering.

No longer able to watch her children in agony, she took away their powers, draining them of their outward grace as well, only equating them as the same quality that of a human. Soon, when she gave birth to new children, they would become tainted by the sins of humanity. So she brought upon another curse on her children afterwards. If they ever face the wrath of the sun, then they would wither under it.

The lore of the moonchildren has been passed on in the small town of Hwanghon, supposedly the town where the first moonchildren were born. Though the tale of the moonchildren has been twisted and told in many different versions, the origin story still remains the same.

------

You’re wandering alone in the dark, gloomy forest as you cry for your mother. After you lost your ball in the forest, you ran inside in search of it, but by the time you found it, you were already deep in the forest to be able to retrace your steps. You searched in all directions for an access way out of the forest, tripping over every tree root and getting scrapes and cuts from falling. By the end of the day, you’re hungry, scared, and alone. Because you’ve been walking all day, you finally give up, getting in a fetal position as you wail loudly for anyone to help you.

That’s when you hear a tune so clear and vivid that it’s impossible for you not to hear it. It sounds like a husky voice, humming an unfamiliar but delicate tune that you’ve never heard before. Instinctively, you get on your feet, following the alluring voice. Whenever you lose the direction of the voice, you stop to listen to it carefully, then return to your tracks. You have no idea who it is who’s singing this tune, but you find it oddly enticing as you try to find the source of it.

But to your surprise, the voice leads you out of the forest. All day, every villager in your small town of Hwanghon searched everywhere for you. One of the villagers spots you and runs toward you, asking if you’re alright. It’s the old man who runs the bakery, and he carries you to your mother. He runs as quickly as he can, and you can only turn your head to get one last glance of the forest.

There, at the edge of the forest, stands a tall, slender man hiding behind a tree. You can’t get a clear picture of his face since it’s nighttime and he’s under the tree’s shade, but all you can remember are those fluorescent, murky blue eyes, glaring right back at you.

------

It’s been eleven years since that time you got lost in the forest, but it still feels like it was just yesterday when you saw a moonchild for the first time. Moonchildren have been a folklore in your small town, Hwanghon, claiming that they are droplets of the moon who come here and protect nature. Though they’ve never been spotted before in real life, there are rough sketches of them everywhere. They normally have skin as pale as milk, silver hair resembling the color of the moon, and eyes as blue as sapphire. You know for certain that when you were lost in the forest, you encountered a moonchild, and he led you out of the forest.

Despite it being more than a decade since that incident, you can’t quite seem to get that tune out of your head, though you don’t exactly remember every note of it. His voice was so deep and hoarse, but distinct in a way that you’ve never heard another person sound like him before. This led to you to develop a fascination in music, as you spend every moment of your time replaying that melody in your head, trying to replicate it, but never getting it perfectly. You would always play it on the piano, but it just doesn’t sound the same if it isn’t him singing it.

You’re alone in the music room of your high school, sitting in front of a piano. You play the first couple of chords that you remember slowly, then picking up the tempo and changing the rhythm, but it doesn’t feel right. It’s not like how he sang it. You slouch as you huff out a sigh, frustrated that once again, you can’t exactly remember the tune.

You lean over to grab the music sheet from the piano’s stand. The sheet is scribbled with your writing, music notes in between measures, personal notes to yourself. On the top of the sheet is the title, The Moonchild’s Melody, written in dark blue ink. You take your pencil that’s been resting on your ear, and you scribble out the potential tune that you just played. It isn’t the one that you were looking for. Another sigh escapes your mouth as you rub your sinus with the eraser end of the pencil.

Suddenly, someone takes away your paper from your hands. You spin your head around to find Soori staring at the music sheet that she took from you with an eyebrow raised.

“What the hell is this? The Moonchild’s Melody? What kind of fairytale shit are you writing?”

“Soori...can you please give it back to me?” You ask in a unmotivational tone because you know Soori never listens to you.

“Don’t tell me, you still think that moonchildren are real?” Soori rolls her eyes at you. “What the hell are you, a kid?”

Soori tosses your music sheet to the side, flailing in the air before landing on the floor. You were about to get up and pick up the paper, but Soori sits next to you, one arm wrapped over your arm.

“Did you forget what I asked you to do? Instead, you wandered to here pretending to be Mozart and shit.” She whispers into your ear.

“But...you told me to go away.”

“Bitch, you’ve been with me since we were kids. I think you know the fucking drill without me having to explain every rule to your ass,” you can hear the change in tone in Soori’s voice. She’s clearly getting annoyed at you for standing up against her. “Hurry up and buy us some lunch before they run out of the good stuff.”

Scared of what she might do if you retaliate, you get up and walk out of the music room. Standing by the side of the door is Soori’s two friends, Eunhae and Jieun. They whisper into each other’s ears before they saw you. When you make eye contact with them, they simply giggle at you then continue to whisper among themselves.

“Oh yea, and Jieun needs to copy your English assignment from yesterday.”

You don’t say anything because you know that you have no choice but to let her copy off of your homework. You continue to the cafeteria, where you check your wallet to see if you have enough money.

Soori is your older cousin. Before you were born, she was the only child in your immediate family, so of course she was spoiled to death, but it wasn’t until you were born that you started getting the attention. She hated how she wasn’t the center of attention anymore, so whenever the two of you were together, Soori would pretend to play the loving, mature cousin, but behind the scenes, she is a demon. You could never escape her grasp because your family has family gatherings very often and pair you two together, and on top of that, she goes to the same school as you.

After buying them the same exact packs of food that you always buy for them, you run across the halls. You didn’t expect the line to be this long, especially since it’s the later half of lunch. You can already imagine Soori calling you foul names for taking too long. You quicken your pace to the music room in fear of Soori lashing out on you.

“Hey! No running in the halls.” You’re right by the music room when someone calls out to you.

You spin your head around and slow down your speed. “I’m sorry!”

The person who called out to you is your homeroom teacher, Mr. Kim. He immediately smiles, waving at you after he recognizes you. “Oh, (Y/N)! Didn’t expect you to be the one breaking the rules. Actually, can I speak for you for a second?”

You don’t want to stall time longer than you should, but you can’t bring yourself to say no to a teacher. You turn back around and approach Mr. Kim, who’s still smiling, unaware of the situation you’re in.

“So, have you thought about the competition I told you about?”

Not only is Mr. Kim your homeroom teacher, but he’s also a music teacher. Other than Soori and her friends, he’s the only one who knows that you like music. One morning at school, he caught you playing the piano, but since it’s rare for people to play originals and not some theme song they found on a popular animated show, he let you play.

You shake your head. “No...I don’t think I’m up for it. Besides, I don’t think the music that I play is popular with people.”

That’s right, you love listening to slow, piano ballads and ancient Western folk tunes, anything that reminds you of nature. People nowadays are interested in EDM or techno, no longer the old-fashioned, real instrument-based songs. There’s no point in entering a competition filled with people much more talented than you.

“Come on now! I’m pretty sure you’ll be a breath of fresh air! Why don’t you talk it over with me?”

“Uhm, sorry but now right now. There’s somewhere that I have to go now.”

You really don’t want to see yourself with Mr. Kim. It’s not because you don’t like him; if anything, he’s one of the most supportive teachers in your school. But besides disliking your entire existence, the one thing that Soori hates the most is seeing you talking to Mr. Kim. She was a part of his choir when she was a freshman, and she fell in love with his kind personality. She gets immensely jealous, even if it’s an innocent greeting across the hall, it’s enough to tick her off. You look behind you at the music room in case Soori is listening.

And what you were afraid of comes to life, as you see Soori peering out of the music room, glaring at you while conversing with Mr. Kim. There’s an uneasy feeling settling inside of you as she shoots dagger eyes at you. You dislike how of all students, Mr. Kim has to stop and talk to you.

“Oh okay. Well, lunch is almost over anyway and you have a lot of food to eat by yourself, so enjoy the rest of your lunch.” Mr. Kim pats your head before walking off.

You don’t look back at him, just eyes kept on Soori. You walk to her, holding the packs of food close to your chest. Once you get close enough, the irritated look on her face disappears, and she puts her arm around you, dragging you into the music room, where you see Jieun and Eunhae reading your music sheet.

“You wrote this?? It looks so ugly.” Eunhae remarks.

“Soori said that you still believe in that moonchildren fairytale, the one that old people tell kids, right?” Jieun asks.

“...Yea…” You nod your head timidly.

Soori smirks, pitching you on the cheek. “Awww, isn’t my little cousin here just so naive? It’s like she still believes in Santa!”

“But I really did see one…!”

Soori’s expression changes nearly immediately, glaring at you with squinted eyes. “Well, aren’t you a smartass? You know, all four-year-olds claim that they see Santa too.”

Normally, you’d take in everything that Soori would throw at you, but the one thing that you can’t stand is when she calls you a liar about seeing a moonchild. You know what you saw, and it wasn’t something you made up when you were a kid. Even if you don’t remember the face, you do remember it sang a song, which is why you keep trying to replicate it—to remind you that that memory isn’t a fake.

You shrug Soori’s arm off of you. “I’m not lying! I really saw one in the forest! Why would I lie about it?”

Soori hates how you get like this sometimes, so she was so close to tugging at your hair, but then an idea pops up. She smiles, complimenting herself for having such a brilliant idea.

“I know! Since you’re so adamant about them being real, then how about tonight, let’s go catch us some, yea?”

Your head is already screaming for you that that’s a bad idea. Even her friends give the impression that Soori must be out of her mind. As much as you believe in the folklore, you’re more terrified of the forest, especially at night. It’s already difficult to move around in the forest during the day, but at night? It’s practically impossible without night vision.

You still remember that time when you got lost—how scared you were. All those wounds you got on your feet, the unfamiliar, eerie sounds coming from all sorts of directions. Just thinking about returning to the forest is already enough for you to send chills down your spine.

“S-Soori...I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“But aren’t you the one who’s always saying that they’re real? Well then, prove it to us!” Suddenly, Soori pulls you in close. “If you don’t come, then I swear I’ll do whatever I can to make your life miserable.”

She shoves you away, taking the lunch that you bought for them from your arms.

“Let’s go. The music room feels too humid. I want some fresh air.”

Jieun and Eunhae both look at each other before following Soori. The two of them have no idea what Soori has in store for you. Knowing Soori, it’s probably something that you won’t like for sure, but then of all the time you’ve known her, she’s never gone this far before. Usually, she would call you names and boss you around, but she not to the extent of going to somewhere. You can only pray that she won’t do anything too harsh.

------

It’s 10 PM, and the four of you are standing at the edge of the forest. It’s so dark that if you didn’t have the flashlight on your phone, then you would have no idea where you would be going. Eunhae and Jieun are sticking close to each other while Soori stands confidently on her own.

You turn to Soori, clutching onto your phone tighter. “Soori...do we really have to go in? It’s late, a-and we have school tomorrow.”

“We didn’t come this far for nothing! Don’t pussy out and let’s go in!”

She smacks your back, encouraging you to go in. You try to stop your feet from moving forward, but Soori makes it hard for you not to. Pushing you in first, Soori, Jieun, and Eunhae follow from behind.

“Ew! This place is so dirty!” Jieun screeches

“It’s because we’re in a forest, no duh.” Soori comments.

“Ugh, I’m definitely gonna take a shower right after this. I can’t stand the dirt.” Eunhae clicks the roof of her mouth.

The four of you trek your way through the forest without any real sense of where you’re all going, just wherever Soori is leading. You do find it ironic that Soori is the one who suggested that you would find the mythical creature, but she ends up taking the lead. You stay right behind Soori, terrified of the dark and anything that’s in the forest.

“Soori, where are you taking us? I just wanna go home! I feel like there’s spiders all over me!”

“Geez, stop being such a wuss Jieun! This forest doesn’t have any dangerous animals! It’s too small of a habitat to keep animals like a wolf.”

“But that still means foxes, snakes, bugs, and all sorts of other animals!”

“You sure do hate animals, do you Ji-Ji?” Eunhae chuckles.

You also don’t like thinking about the possible dangerous animals that could be slithering around your legs either, but you don’t tell them anything because you know that Soori is only going to use it against you and tease you.

Suddenly, Soori stops walking, having you nearly bump into her. Jieun and Eunhae stops walking soon after, holding each other’s hands.

“Wh-what is it, Soori?”

“I...think I just saw something.” She points her flashlight to a specific area.

None of you say anything, just trying to make out what Soori sees. Even if she claims that she saw something, you can’t really define what exactly she’s looking at. If anything, you don’t see anything that stands out at all.

That’s when Soori screams practically out of nowhere, alerting you and her two other friends. “Run!”

Jieun and Eunhae scream from the top of their lungs and run off. You try to follow them, but then Soori purposely pulls you back, causing you to fall and lose the grip on your phone. In that quick glance when looking at Soori, you can see her grinning. You drop your phone with the flashlight side covered by dirt.

By the time you land on your bottom, the three girls already ran off, laughing. That’s when it hits you--this was a prank to leave you in the forest. Soori knew that despite your strong belief in moonchildren, you’re absolutely terrified of the forest. She must’ve done this to get back at you for talking to Mr. Kim today. But why go to this extent? Is it because she didn’t like how he loves to talk about competitions with you and not her? Or is it because he pat you on the head, while she’s practically become nonexistent to him?

The memories of being lost in the forest resurfaces, and the sounds of crickets, branches breaking, and rustling of bushes are making you petrified. Your feet refuses to get up, and you resort to covering your ears and covering your eyes. You can only hear your heavy, unsteady breathing as you try to calm yourself down. Get it together. You’re not five anymore. All the sounds that you hear is just you making it up.

You know that this time, no one is coming back for you. The three people who left you here will undoubtedly lie about leaving you here if anyone were to find out that you went missing. You manage to calm your nerves down and get on your knees to search for phone. Since you can’t see anything, you use your hands to feel everywhere. You feel a bit squeamish when you feel something that isn’t grass or dirt, but you try to ignore it, telling yourself that it’s just your mind playing tricks on you.

Eventually, you do find your phone, and you sweep the dirt off of it. It’s a relief to find that the flashlight is still working, so now you have to search for a way out of the forest. You leap over bushes and watch out for branches that stick out to avoid getting scratches. You’re still terrified of what could be in the forest, but you block out everything that scares you. You try to remain strong because you know that no matter how many times you would call out for help, there will be no one to save you.

When you jump over a small bush, you accidentally slip on a loose rock and in front of you is a steep slope that you didn’t see previously. You roll out the slope, trying to reach out to anything that’ll stop you from rolling, but you’re going too fast to get ahold of anything. You do manage to grab a branch, but it’s not strong enough to hold you, so the sharp edge of the branch ends up slicing your palm instead. The next thing you know, the back of your head heads a rock, and you fall unconscious.

------

“Soori is such a kind girl! You should how to be like her more, (Y/N).”

“Your cousin already learned how to cook, so why can’t you cook?”

“Why don’t you get into choir too? I’m pretty sure that you’ll learn a lot from Soori. She’s really good at everything she does.”

Why does Soori have to be better at everything you do, yet still put you down? It’s not like she does all those things because she likes to, but because she just wants to be better than you at everything. It just took your birth to make it her lifelong goal to make sure that you never get the spotlight. You wish you were never born if you knew that Soori was set out to make you miserable.

That’s why you’re so passionate when it comes to moonchildren. That belief is the only thing that Soori can’t take away from you. From a simple witness of a potential moonchild, you want to nurture that memory and create it into something that Soori can’t take away from you. It might sound small and ridiculous, but it’s really the only thing that you can call yours. And so, even if you never see a moonchild ever again or if whoever you saw in the forest that fateful night wasn’t one, you still wouldn’t care, because that memory in itself belongs only to you.

Even if he doesn’t actually exist, or if he’s in your dreams, it would be nice to see him one more time before you go away. That’s the one wish that you ask for.

The first thing you see when you open your eyes is the full moon in a small opening with no trees. You’re still in the forest, lying flat on the dirt. You can’t remember anything after hitting your head hard on the rock. If you hit your head hard enough to fall unconscious, then you should be having a bad headache...but you’re not feeling anything? Your head isn’t pulsating, nor is there any physical injuries.

You feel your forehead, but that’s when you feel something sticky on your palm and a sting on your hand. You raise it up to the the light coming from the moon to see a black stain running down your arm, starting from your palm and ending at your elbow. You realize that it’s dry blood, and you must’ve cut your hand when you tried to grab that branch when you fell down. You sigh, trying to think of a way to explain this to your parents.

You try to figure where you fell down. By the way, what are you laying on? Your head is resting on something that feels soft, like it isn’t leaves, soil, nothing. It even feels like you’re resting on a hand. You turn your head to the side to see a pair of legs. Where the hell are you?

“Wh...what?”

A shadow hovers over you, and when you look up, you’re met with a pair of glimmering, dark blue eyes darting back at you. Right now, you’re resting on stranger’s lap. You scream in horror as you scoot away from the stranger, but you don’t go very far when a piece of bark on the ground pierces your wounded hand. You cringe in pain, clutching your wrist to stop the stinging.

When you look back at the stranger, you finally get a better look at him. His features look oddly familiar, like you’ve seen him before. The blue eyes, the silver hair, his outfit all white. This person...looks the same as the person you saw in the forest eleven years ago.

The stranger gets up from his spot and walks towards you. You want to run away, but then you’re too slow at getting up as the stranger is already down on one knee, reaching out for your hand. He takes you by the hand, and you flinch, nearly pulling your hand away from him, but the way he’s handling you so gently make you doubt that he’s dangerous.

The man traces his index and middle fingers down the bloodstain on your arm, then reaches over to pat you on the back of your head with his fingers. You don’t understand what he’s trying to convey. He sandwiches your injured hand in between his hands, and there’s a shimmering glow coming from the palms of his hand. Your eyebrows crease, unable to comprehend what kind of sorcery he’s pulling right now. When he finishes, he releases your hand. You look at your hand, and you’re astonished to see that despite the dry blood still remaining, your wound is gone!

You shoot your eyes at the man with your jaws dropped, speechless of what just happened. “Y-you...did you...just...heal me?”

You can’t believe this, but then, how can you? He just pulled off some magic trick right in front of you, something you would only see one television. Are you still dreaming by any chance? But you can’t be dreaming because you definitely felt pain from your hand.

The man doesn’t respond, not even a slight reaction. You lean a little closer to him, debating whether or not you should ask him something that’s been in your mind for a while now.

“Are you by any chance...a moonchild?”

But he doesn’t respond. He just stares at you with those teal eyes of his. He acts as if you didn’t say anything.

“Can you understand me?”

Once again, no respond. That most likely means that he can’t understand a word you’re saying, or he’s purposely choosing not to answer you. You want to express to him how thankful you are to him for healing and keeping an eye on you while you were unconscious, but since you can’t do it in words, you try to think of other possible ways to express it.

You take him by the hand, and he stares at you with a confused expression. You hold it tightly, both hands wrapped around it. You give him a heartwarming and sincere smile. “Thank you.”

Even though he doesn’t know what you’re saying, you still think it’s polite to say it at least. The man’s face finally changes to a slight expression of confusion. Perhaps he doesn’t understand human customs of thanking others. He wiggles his hand out of your grasp so that he can feel the top of your chest. He lightly puts his fingers where your heart should be, then he uses his other hand to caress your cheek, with his thumb touching the tip of your lips.

Normally if some stranger were to touch you like this, you’d kick them off this instance, but there’s something innocent about the way he’s feeling you. It’s not out of lustful desires over your body...but more so out of curiosity. His eyebrows crease, as if observing every detail of your face. Your eyes are locked onto his eyes, unable to look away from those gems.

That’s when the tips of his lips curl up ever so slightly, but his lips seem to be quivering. His expression has been serious all this time, but this is the first time he’s smiling since you’ve woken up. It’s not a real smile though, as he seems somewhat awkward trying to smile. That’s when a possible theory pops up in your head: does he...not know what a smile looks like? If your hypothesis is correct regarding him being a moonchild, then it would make sense that he doesn’t understand what seems to be normal to humans.

“(Y/N)!! Where the hell are you??”

The sound of Soori’s voice echoing in the forest scares the man, and he pulls his hands back immediately. When the two of you see three flashlights pointing everywhere, that’s the signal for him to run away. He gets up and silently runs away.

“Wait!” You call out to him, but he’s already too far gone to hear you.

Your voice doesn’t reach out to the one who you wanted, but to the three people who left you. “(Y/N)?! Where are you??”

Eunhae shines her light down the slope and finds you sitting on a patch of grass. “Hey guys! I found her!”

You decide to forget about him for now, and you climb up the slope back to them. When Jieun flashes her light on you, she screams in horror, scaring you as well, as she might’ve seen an animal from afar.

“Oh my god!” Eunhae jumps from fright.

“What?”

“There’s fucking blood all over you!”

You raise your arm up to show them your stained blood. Jieun and Eunhae screech at the sight of your blood. You know you won’t be able to explain it to them that some stranger healed your wound within seconds, so you quickly try to think of excuses.

“Are you talking about this? It’s just sap from a tree.” You don’t know any tree that oozes sap as dark as this, but this is the best you can think of in a few seconds.

“No, you idiot! We’re talking about the blood all over your head!”

Blood on your head? You touch your face with your clean hand, but you don’t feel blood. However, you do feel it when you touch the back of your head, around your ears, and your hair just covered in your dry blood. When did this happen? When you woke up, your head wasn’t in pain at all.

And then you figured it out. Earlier when the man was pointing to your bloody arm then to your head, he was trying to say that he just healed your head. It would also make sense why his hands were on your head when you woke up.

“Should we take her to the hospital?” Eunhae suggests.

“No! I’m fine! Really!! I look like this, but I’m fine.”

“But that looks really bad…”

How can you prove that you’re okay? The blood isn’t making your situation better. You try to think of other possibilities to make them brush this off, but nothing comes to mind.

“If she says that she’s fine, then she is. Let’s just go home. I’m tired,” Soori starts walking ahead, leaving the three of you simply confused. “You better wash yourself before Auntie and Uncle finds you like this. If I get in trouble for this, you’re dead.”

“O-okay…”

She might’ve said that so she can save herself, but you’re still thankful that she said that, which is probably the only time you thanked her. Since Soori is the one who makes the final decisions, Eunhae and Jieun don’t disagree with her. They follow her right from behind, and you turn around, getting that one last glance at the place where the moonchild found you. Is he even a moonchild, or are you going insane? You don’t even know if what happened earlier was even real, but then the blood without a single sight of a cut is proof that what happened a couple moments ago really did happen.

------

You already feel like you’re going insane with what you’re about to do. Right now, you’re in the forest and the sun is setting. Based on the books that you’ve read about moonchildren, they are never seen during the day, so nighttime is the only chance you’ll see them.

You aren’t sure that by visiting the forest again will guarantee that you’ll see him again, but there’s no other way. You hate going into the forest alone more than anything, but your interest in him is stronger. You take in a deep inhale before entering the forest.

This time, you brought a better flashlight. In case you get into another accident, you conserve the battery in your phone so you can call for help. You just pray that there will be reception when you’re in danger. Since the sun is up, you still have time to kill before it’s completely dark out. You search for a nice-looking tree, and once you do, you sit down with your back leaning against it. You take out your phone from your pocket and your earphones from your backpack. For the time being, you decide to listen to music while watching the sun going down.

It’s now dark, and your paranoia is starting to creep up to you again. Thankfully you brought your earphones to block all the scary sounds away, but then that would mean that you wouldn’t be able to hear if he’s nearby. With that in mind, you take out your earphones so that you can hear him.

Unfortunately though, you’re already starting to fall asleep. Because you wake up early for school, you tend to sleep earlier. It’s not 100% certain that he’ll come out again, so you even start to wonder if this is even worth the time. Last time you came here, it was because it was a joke for Soori to just scare you, but this time you really do want to see him.

A few hours has already gone by, and still no sight of him. You think about getting up and searching for him, but the thought of possibly falling down a small hill again scares you. Your eyes are becoming heavy, and it becomes harder for you to stay awake. Your plan was thought out too prematurely, and you should’ve brought something like coffee to keep you awake. And the next thing you know, you fall asleep.

That’s when you’re quick to remember what you were doing here in the first place. You open your eyes, and you see a familiar pair of sapphire eyes staring at you. You screech, not expecting to see a face as the first thing when you wake up. Your scream terrifies the man in front of you, causing him to flinch. He moves away from you, but then you reach out to him, feeling apologetic about rudely screaming in his face.

“W-wait! Don’t go!”

He doesn’t make another move. You’re relieved that he actually stopped, especially since he doesn’t seem to understand what you’re saying. You crawl slowly to him, and he looks like he wants to run away. You shush him, trying to calm him down as you move closer.

You close the gap between you and him, and you’re now sitting on your knees. The two of you stare at each other without saying another word, as you don’t know what to say to him. You honestly didn’t expect to see him again. You’re trying to think of anything that’ll make him understand you, but you’re drawing to a blank.

While you were thinking, he leans forward and takes a lock of your hair, brushing it downwards with his fingers. “...Girl.”

You’re surprised that he can speak. You also lean a little closer to him, excited that he can speak. “You can speak??”

But he doesn’t respond. He simply moves back, a little shaken that you seem exhilarated for some reason.

“Uhm...h-how about this…” You point to your face. “...My name...is (Y/N).”

He tilts his head in confusion, but he ends up raising his finger, then points to you. “(Y/N)...”

You feel giddy inside. You’re happy that your conversation is getting somewhere with him. Since he’s finally opening his mouth, you decide to see if he’s really what you think he is. You pause to think about how you’re going to approach this, then you have an idea.

“Okay...then…” You point to him, then you point up at the moon. “Are you...a moonchild?”

You pull your hand back, but he only continues to stare up at the moon. He stares at it longingly, seemingly contemplating about something.

“Mother…”

You can assume that that single word is enough to prove that the myth of children of the moon really do exist. Then again, how else can you explain last night when he healed your wounds within a span of a few seconds? No only that, but his physical features definitely fit the descriptions of a moonchild.

When he finally lowers his head, you point to his chest. “...What’s your name? Name?”

But he doesn’t respond. He only stares at you, waiting for something else to come out of your mouth. You give him a few more seconds before giving up.

“You don’t have a name, huh.” Either that, or he doesn’t know what ‘name’ means.

Despite knowing a few words, it’s not enough to really start a conversation. He knows less than a toddler. You did read in one book that a moonchild stays away from human civilization, so it would make sense for his lack of a language. But...he can’t have lived without learning any form of communication. Maybe he can communicate in some other way that you don’t know? But then again, he does seem to know some words, so it might mean that he’s gotten into human contact before. You don’t know. Thinking about this too much is going to make your head hurt.

------

The next day, you’re in your house, looking for something. You’re glad that your mother didn’t throw away your elementary school workbooks, though you question why she would even still have them in the first place. You were able to find it in the depths of your basement. Once you gathered everything that you need to bring to him, you set out to the forest again at sunset. Since you don’t know where he usually stays before it gets dark, you decide to pick another place to wait for him.

Just around the time when the sun disappears, you can see a figure hiding behind a tree. You wonder if he’s trying to hide from you, which you think is cute. Maybe it’s the first time he’s approaching you while you’re awake, so he’s feeling a bit shy. You smile, unable to handle how cute he’s acting right now.

“It’s okay. You can come out.”

He peers his head out from behind the tree, and giving in to your welcoming smile, he creeps towards you. Once he’s close enough, he kneels down in front of you, waiting for you to say or do something. You rummage through your backpack, where you take out a few of your workbooks and a pencil for him. He only stares at it curiously, too busy observing it rather than taking it.

“Here, let me help you,” you crawl next to him, opening to the first page of the book. “Trace the letters just like how it’s shown right here. Use the pencil to write it out, then just repeat.”

You hope that brief explanation was enough for him, even though it was poorly explained. Just as you thought, he doesn’t seem to understand what you were trying to say. You grab the pencil and start tracing some of the letters for him to copy. You give the pencil to him so that he can try it.

He follows your steps by writing the same letter that you wrote. His handwriting is sloppier than yours, similar to that of a five-year-old’s. It’s barely recognizable compared to the letter that you wrote, but it’s good that he’s starting somewhere.

He repeats this process for the other letters of the alphabet, and you’re surprised that he’s learning fast. It might be because he did learn a language before, but it might be the first time he’s learning how to read and write. His brain is connecting the dots between words he didn’t know make sense before. Since he’s learning so much so quickly, you might have to bring in level two tomorrow.

Seemingly out of nowhere, his head perks up as if something caught his attention, startling you. “What is it?”

He sets the workbook down and jogs towards whatever alerted him. You follow right after him because you don’t want to be alone in this pitch-black forest. You shine the flashlight on him so that you don’t lose track of him. He’s pretty fast, jumping over bushes and dodging trees like it’s nothing, meanwhile, you’re struggling to even watch out for rocks.

Eventually, he stops in a specific spot with an area in covered in dry dirt. After fighting against the prickly shrubs, you find him kneeling down in front of what seems like a chunk of fur. When you get closer, you realize that the chunk of fur is a deer. At first, you cower back, afraid that the deer will start kicking, but one you have a better look, you discover that the deer has injured its hind leg, and there’s blood pouring out of its leg.

The deer is breathing heavily as if gasping for every bit of air possible, and you feel sympathetic for the poor deer. On the other hand, he doesn’t seem bothered by it. Without an ounce of hesitation, he hovers his right hand over the deer’s bloody hind leg. A white glow of light appears in the palm of his hand, and you witness his powers in work. You wipe your eyes, unable to believe that the wound on the deer’s leg is closing. All that remains is the deer’s blood smeared on its light brown fur. He then pets the deer’s back, and the deer slowly gets on all fours. It glances at you and him, only for it to then turn away and calmly walk off as if all of this never happened.

Once the deer is gone, he turns his attention back to you, sitting on the ground and crossing his legs. His gaze doesn’t deter from you as you stutter with your words while pointing at him. What in the world happened?

“Y-you...you…” Because of the shock, you can’t quite make out your sentence.

He merely stares at you with his round, glittering eyes, his head tilted ever so slightly, wondering what you’re doing. That’s when he plays a game of charades and imitates holding a pencil, pretending to write the air. You come to the conclusion that he wants to continue to write in the workbook. You try your best to brush it off like how he does it, but then you just can’t quite do it like him. Besides, you accidentally left your workbook back at the other spot, so you have to go back to get it.

------

You’ve been sneaking out of your house to meet that person in the forest. Most of the time, you bring your workbooks so that he can learn how to communicate with you. So far, the books have been helping him, and now you’re able to make a decent conversation with him. It’s only been a couple of weeks since you first met him, and he’s already almost done with your fifth grade level book. It kind of offends you in a way that it takes you a year to complete one workbook, whereas it only takes him a few days.

The both of you are reading the book together, reading one of those word problems you used to dislike so much when you were a kid. You still hate them if you have to be honest. You shine the light on the book so that you can read it along with him.

“‘Minseo walks down the block to meet Woonji...and when she sees him, she waves her hand e-en...enthu…’” He stutters with the last word.

“En-thu-si-as-ti-cal-ly,” you underline the word with your index finger. “Enthusiastically.”

“En-enthusias...tically?”

You nod.

“What does that word mean?”

“Uhm...well…” You put your finger to your cheek, pondering. You really don’t know how to explain what enthusiastic means in basic terms. “It could mean as in happy, like you’re happy to see Woonji.”

You imitate the pictures, pretending to be Minseo and waving at him with a smile. Though, since you’re not really an expressive person, you feel somewhat awkward imitating an emotion you don’t really feel, but you hope that you were able to portray it enough to him.

“For example, right now I’m waving at you because I’m excited to meet...uhm…”

Even after all this time, you really don’t have a name to call him. You don’t know how you were able to spend all that time with him without calling him something. You assume that it’s because there never came a situation where you had to call his name.

“...Do you really not have a name?”

He ogles you, not really knowing how to answer you. “...I don’t know what ‘name’ means. Does it mean (Y/N)?”

“What?” You have no idea where he got that from.

He points to the top right corner, and up there, there’s the font ‘name’ with an underline on the right side. On top of that underline is your name in your elementary school handwriting. He must’ve assumed that name means (Y/N), which you can’t help but find that adorable. You never got the chance to erase your name for him. Well, you never thought it was necessary in the first place.

You chuckle. “No, that’s my name. A name is what you call something or someone.”

He still doesn’t understand what you mean. You search around to make your explanation more understandable. You pick up your backpack and point at it.

“Like this. Its name is called ‘backpack’,” you set your backpack down, then you take an extra pencil from your backpack. “And the name for this one is called ‘pencil’. Basically, a name makes it easier to call you. Like if I see you from far away, but you don’t see me, I shout your name and you react to it.”

You think that he understands, or you hope so. He stares blankly at the pages in front of him, scanning the childish images of two poorly drawn stick figures that are supposed to represent Minseo and Woonji.

“I don’t think...I have a name…”

That’s what you thought, but then...it’s kind of sad that of all his time living here, he never had a name. There is the name ‘moonchild’, but that’s similar to calling you ‘human’ or ‘girl’. Since you’re in the topic, you might as well pick a name for him, but you just don’t know what name suits him. First, you think of naming him ‘forest’, but then that’s too basic, and you get the feeling that he’ll probably come to hate that name. You think about the most common names, but none of them fits him.

Then you look down at the workbook, in the next word problem, it’s a short story about a young girl sharing her apples with a little boy. You read the boy’s name, and you think it fits perfectly with him.

“I know! How about...Taehyung?”

“Tae...hyung?”

“Yea. Do you not like that name?”

He shakes his head, smiling timidly with his head lowered. “No, I like it.”

Just by seeing his content for his name makes your heart jump. You can feel your cheeks burning up, so you look away before he can catch you. However, it seems like Taehyung already caught on, and he darts his eyes at you with a worried expression.

“Are you okay? Are you sick?”

“N-no...I’m fine. Just ignore it.” You clear your throat.

You can’t believe your heart skipped a beat because of a simple smile. You just don’t see it often on Taehyung’s face, that’s all. Maybe you’re not comfortable with his smiling face, which is why it took you by surprise.

------

Now that you and Taehyung can talk to each other, you’ve been learning a lot about him. You learn that Taehyung enjoys making flower decorations for animals, though most of the time, they don’t accept them. Usually, they would have it around their necks, but soon after, they would pull it off with their paw. You also learn that Taehyung doesn’t eat. He said that he doesn’t know what it feels like to be hungry, but he does understand the concept of sleeping.

He explains to you that the earliest memory he has is of him staring up at the moon. He remembers his small hands reaching out for it, but he knew that he could never reach it. Taehyung learned the concept of motherly love from the various animals who cater to their children, and sometimes, he could hear the moon weeping for him, though he doesn’t know why the moon cries.

You also learned that you’re not the first human interaction he’s ever had before. There has been countless of other kids that have gotten lost here, and he was able to help them escape. Most of the time, they don’t return.

“You say that you only help kids, right? What about older kids and adults?”

Taehyung knows what to tell you, but he isn’t quite sure how to say it. “...They...don’t have good intentions. They only like to take things and not give back. Kids don’t have evil thoughts, so I trust them.”

“What about me? You saved me when I was a kid, too. Do you remember me? I was that little girl in that red dress, buckle shoes...”

“I remember all kids who come here. Even though I save kids, it’s rare to see them here.”

“But why did you save me a second time? I’m not a kid.”

Taehyung does his usual habit of staring at you intently, then he points to your chest, specifically where your heart is. “Because you called out to me, and I came.”

You called out to him? Surely you knew that he existed, but you don’t remember consciously calling him.

“It was the first time someone called for me. I only come when they cry for help, but you didn’t say that you needed help. You said that you only wanted to see me.”

You don’t understand a word he’s saying. Did you call out to him when you were knocked out? But then you didn’t have a name for him at that time, so how could you? Plus, he barely knew any words, and when you spoke to him for the first time, he didn’t understand you. That’s when you were thinking of another scenario. You recall the time when he knew there was an injured deer. He knew the exact spot without any faults.

“I have a question. How do you know I said that? And at the time with the deer...how did you know?”

Taehyung clutches his chest. “I listen to here, the heart. It tells me everything.”

What? During your time of research about moonchildren, you didn’t know anything about them being able to read the heartbeat (or what you assume is the heartbeat). Perhaps this is an ability of the moonchildren that has yet to be recorded, or maybe it’s a new ability that has been developed over time?

“The deer cried, saying that it wants to live. It wanted to see her babies one more time. And then...your heart told me that it wanted to see me.”

Oh no. So does that mean that this entire time, he can pretty much read your mind through your heart? All those times when you thought that you were being slick, hiding your emotions and all, he knew what you were really feeling? It’s so embarrassing that you can’t bring yourself to look at him. Now that you know of this, you know that you can’t really hide your true feelings from him.

“But I don’t know what your heart is saying right now. You only feel this when I say some words, or if I do something. Am I making you mad in a different way?”

If ‘mad’ meaning crazy, then yes. Everything he does always catches you off-guard. Of course he’s gorgeous, but there’s so much to him that you adore about him too. At least you’re safe for now since he doesn’t know what it means.

“No, don’t worry about it. I’m not mad at you. It’s not like that.”

Taehyung still doesn’t know what you’re talking about, but you think it’s better this way for now.

------

You’ve been having a hard time staying awake during school. Most of the time, you find yourself nodding off before realizing that you’ve just missed a large portion of the lesson. Fortunately for you, Taehyung only appears at night, so you have all the time you need to finish your assignments before meeting him.

The only real time you have peace and quiet from Soori is when you’re in your school’s music room early in the morning, but with the decrease in sleep hours in exchange to see Taehyung, it’s becoming difficult for you to stay up to play the piano. You know it’s not a necessity to meet Taehyung every single night, nor is it a requirement for you to be at school so early, but those two things are what makes you the happiest.

You don’t remember when you fell asleep in the music room, but when you wake up, you realize that you’ve been leaning on the piano keys. You were feeling uncomfortable with your posture, so you moved your arm, accidentally pressing four keys at once, startling you. You check the time, and you’ve been asleep for ten minutes. Rubbing your sinuses, you sigh, searching for the music sheet that you left on the piano stand. For some reason, it’s not there. Did the wind blow it off by any chance?

“This is really different compared the kind of songs that kids like you nowadays listen to. It’s really intriguing.” You hear a familiar voice from behind you.

You spin around to see Mr. Kim standing behind you, reading the song that you’re currently working on. “Mr. Kim!”

“The Moonchild’s Melody, hm,” he studies your sheet a bit longer, making you feel all the more embarrassed. “That’s an oddly specific name. Is there a reason behind that?”

“About that...it’s a dumb reason. You don’t want to know.”

Mr. Kim sets the music sheet down and leans on the side of the piano. “But I did ask you, right? So in some way or another, I do want to know.”

“Uhm...well...it’s not really a big thing, but when I was little, I got lost in the forest. Right when I was losing hope that someone would find me, I heard someone sang a tune. I followed the voice, and the next thing I know, it led me out of the forest.”

“Oh wow! Must’ve been a really crazy night.”

“It really was. And when I looked back, I saw a moonchild. That’s when I knew that the moonchild helped me get out.”

You can still vividly remember that day. Those blue eyes that belong to Taehyung, and that voice he used to sing the song. You know, you never thought about asking Taehyung to sing it again. Would it be too much to ask him to sing it again?

“So you saw someone, and you automatically assume that it’s a moonchild?”

You blush slightly, just grasping at how childish that sounds. “I-I told you it was really stupid.”

“No, it’s not. To be fair...I believe that they’re real too.”

“Really?!” You didn’t expect him to believe in them too.

“I usually never like to say that I do because don’t you think it’s weird that a man in his late twenties still believe in them? But since you think they’re real, I think it’s safe for me to say that they’re real too.”

You can’t imagine Mr. Kim’s reaction if he were to find out that moonchildren are real. He has no idea that they aren’t just myths, but real beings such as Taehyung.

“I also had a similar experience. My grandma took me to the forest when I was little to watch the fireflies, but then me being a kid, I trailed off. I was really scared that I wouldn’t see her again because she’s very important to me, but then I saw a mysterious person with glowing blue eyes sang this enchanting song, and then I was reunited with my grandma again.”

“Actually, they…” But your voice trails off before you even finish.

You almost told Mr. Kim about Taehyung. At first, you thought that it’d be terrific to share this secret with Mr. Kim too since he’s a believer, but then you immediately remember Taehyung told you that he doesn’t like adults, and Mr. Kim will surely ask to see Taehyung. Sure, you’d like to think that Mr. Kim isn’t like any other adult who has malicious intentions as what Taehyung claim they are, but you can’t read people like how Taehyung can. You don’t like to doubt your favorite teacher, but you don’t want to betray Taehyung.

“Hm? What were you going to say?”

“Nothing! I was just speaking my mind. Anyway, first period is about to start, so I should get going.” You give him a brief smile before grabbing your backpack from the floor.

“Okay well, if you ever need anything, then don’t be afraid to ask.”

Before you leave, Mr. Kim gets close to you—closer than usual—and pats you on the head. It’s a normal habit of his to pat you on the head, but this time, this one feels different. Because after he pats you on the head, he runs his fingers down your hair.

Feeling unsettled by this, you move away from him. “I should get going now.”

“Okay. See you later.”

You speed out of the music room, having no idea what just happened. Unbeknownst to you, you didn’t notice that this entire time, Eunhae was standing on the other side of the door, listening in to your entire conversation with Mr. Kim. Since Soori is infatuated with Mr. Kim, Eunhae took pictures of Mr. Kim patting your head and brushing your hair and sends it to Soori.

------

In the forest, you’re following Taehyung, who’s going around the forest and healing various kinds of plants. You simply observe him feeling the different plants before healing them, returning their green colors back to them. No matter how many times you’ve seen Taehyung use his powers, it never stops to fascinate you.

“So if you keep mending them, is it possible that they’ll become immortal?”

“What is immortal?”

“When you live forever.”

“...No. Everything I heal dies one day, I’m only return them to their original aging state.”

Original state? It doesn’t exactly make sense, but you accept it regardless.

“So then...how do you know when it’s time for them to go away?”

“I’ll know, and they’ll tell me.” He answered it like he knew you were going to ask that.

“What about during the day? What do you do?”

“I...don’t know what I do. I think I sleep. Before I even get a glimpse of the sun, I close my eyes, then wake up when the moon is up.”

“Are you saying that you’ve never seen the sun before?”

He shakes his head. “I did see it one time. I was really curious about how the world looks like from the perspective that humans usually see it, but…”

That’s when Taehyung rolls up the sleeve on his right arm, revealing a horrifying, red burn mark across his forearm. Seeing the scar across his arm scares you, as you thought that Taehyung is impervious to injuries. Just seeing it plastered on his pale skin makes you think that Taehyung also has a possible ending to his lifespan as well.

“I was trying to protect my eyes from the sun, but in a few seconds, it burned my arm. I was too scared to come out to the sun again after that. I think my skin can’t handle anything that’s too hot.”

You feel bad for him that he’s never gotten to experience what it’s like being awake during the daytime. Sure, you’ve been in the sun for most of your life, so you should be immune to it, but just hearing that Taehyung can’t even get a chance to be out in the sun or anywhere hot makes you feel sad. You wish Taehyung got to see the beauty of daytime.

Taehyung can sense that pit of sadness in your heart. He can feel the pain, but you don’t have any physical pain, so he doesn’t know what to do to fix that. That’s when he remembers the workbooks that you lend to him and the different scenarios that he’s read. There was one short story that he read that intrigued him, and it was how to comfort someone during their rough times.

He extends his hand out to and pats you on the head. He’s so stiff when touching your hair, just moving his hand up and down with his fingers spread out. When you realize what he’s doing, you look up at him, confused with what he’s doing.

“It’s okay, don’t feel bad about it.” Taehyung forces an awkward, square-shaped smile.

Just like that time earlier, your heart skips a beat. Your face explodes in red, and your mind is a disaster. There’s just something about the little things that Taehyung does that makes you feel all fuzzy inside.

Earlier today when Mr. Kim patted you on the head, it didn’t feel as good as this. In a way, you felt a little disgusted. But why? He’s your favorite teacher, and all the girls love him. Not only that, but he gives you a lot of special treatment. Shouldn’t you be feeling the same way you do as the other girls feel for him too? So then, why is it that Taehyung is the one that makes you feel like this and not him?

You lower your head slightly, feeling his large hand messing with the top of your hair. Your heart is pounding like crazy, but you don’t hate this.

However, just like how Taehyung always throws you off, the amount of emotions your heart is extruding to Taehyung is making him confused as well. There’s something captivating about the expression on your face and your heart beating so rapidly that he finds so alluring. He doesn’t know what your heart is trying to express because he’s never seen a living being communicate this way towards him, but he doesn’t particularly hate it. On fact, it also makes his chest pound too.

Unconsciously, Taehyung wants to see more of this side of you, so he becomes rougher with his head-patting. At this point, you think Taehyung’s behavior is becoming weird. And in the next moment, that feeling in your heart disappears from Taehyung’s sight, leaving him disappointed and wanting more.

“Uhm...Taehyung? Are you okay?”

Taehyung blinks profusely, a bit surprised at how much in a daze he was in. “Yea...I think I’m okay.”

You thought that that was pretty odd of him to do that. But then again, he can read you, so he must’ve known what you were feeling when he pat you on the head. Now you’re starting to get embarrassed again since you completely forgot that he can do that. You tell yourself that you have to be more careful next time and make sure that Taehyung doesn’t tease you again.

------

You’re feeling really frustrated. Right when you finally thought about sharing Taehyung the song he inspired you to make, you lose your music sheet. Of course, you can sing the tune without your paper, but you wanted to have your paper so you can keep notes in case Taehyung helps you with it. You also thought it’d be nice to teach him how to read music too.

For now, you decide to visit Taehyung and forget about it. Although you’re upset that years of work put on that single song is now gone, you can look for it later. You hike through the dim forest in search of Taehyung with your flashlight as your only vision. You’ve been calling his name out for quite a while now. Normally, he’d answer you back or appear out of nowhere from behind a tree, but he’s nowhere to be found.

You continue to trek through the tall trees surrounding you for a little longer, then from a distance, you see someone’s head peering over a bundle of bushes. You immediately recognize the silver hair, so you pick up your pace to get closer. Just as you thought, the person is Taehyung, and he’s crouching over something. Since his back is facing you, you can’t make out what he’s looking at.

You approach him, leaning over at what is in front of him. “Hey Taehyung, what are you looking at?”

But your question is answered when you see what it is. What lies in front of him is an orange fox, resting on its side and barely breathing. Your peace of mind is disturbed, and you feel this overwhelming sense of melancholy. Taehyung can sense how clouded you must be feeling, having to see an animal nearing its death.

“Wh...what happened?”

“...He got sick from eating too much human food. He said that when he got hungry, he would visit a little boy who would feed him food his stomach isn’t used to.”

Since foxes are naturally from the wild, their diet isn’t immune to human food, so their stomach cannot handle too much food that isn’t consistent to what they eat. You can’t but pity the feeble animal. He could’ve lived a longer life had he not been fed by humans.

“Healing the injuries inside of him is the same as healing the outside ones too, right?” You ask.

Taehyung doesn’t answer right away. “…Yes, it is, but...he says that he doesn’t want to be healed.”

“What? What do you mean? But he’s in pain.”

“He is, but he said that he’s ready to go away now. He’s lived a happy life and wants this to be his ending.”

That...sounds so sad. If you’re in pain, wouldn’t you want to be healed? You can’t seem to grasp what Taehyung’s talking about.

“But you can still heal him right? Or at least make it less painful?”

He shakes his head. “I can’t do anything if he doesn’t want me to help him.”

And in that moment, you could’ve sworn that you saw the life drain out of the fox’s eyes. The fox gives out one last breath before finally passing away. That was the first death you’ve ever witnessed with your own eyes, and you’re consumed with a mixture of emotions. You’re sad to see the fox not wish for an extended lifespan, but you’re also upset that the cause of his death is human ignorance. For humans, it seems fun feeding animals all sorts of food, but they don’t know the consequences. They don’t see the ugly side, seeing the animal actually die in front of them.

Your emotions are being thrust out so strongly on Taehyung. He strokes the fox’s back one more time. “It’s okay, (Y/N). The fox doesn’t blame the young child for his sickness. I think he was happy that he got to see the child one more time.”

“What?”

That kid is the reason why the fox died, but he doesn’t blame him for it? Then again, who are you to speak for the fox? Perhaps, there was a relationship between them only they understand. Though, you still are a bit surprised that the fox holds no anger towards the kid.

Taehyung stands up, leaving the fox’s body on the ground. “Let’s go.”

You’re caught off guard by Taehyung’s apathetic tone. He just saw an animal die, and he doesn’t seem to be affected by it.

“Taehyung?”

He turns around. “Yes?”

“…Never mind.”

You decide that it’s not worth mentioning it. Perhaps he’s so used to seeing death that it’s natural for him to not acknowledge the body. You turn back to look at the body once more before running after Taehyung.

------

A few days later, you return home from school, though it isn’t like usual. This time, Soori didn’t walk home with you. Normally, she’d walk home with you to criticize everything you do, and the only time she doesn’t walk home with you is when she’s hanging out with Jieun and Eunhae. Personally, you don’t really care because that means that you get to spend less time with Soori. You rather walk back alone then hear another word come out of her mouth.

You enter your house through the front door, and there are voices coming from the kitchen. At first, you thought that it was your parents talking, but then you can make out three or four more voices including your parents’. After taking off your shoes, you walk to the kitchen to find your aunt, uncle, and Soori with your parents. The first person to notice you is Soori, and just by seeing that smudge little smile on her face, you know that misery is about to unfold.

“Oh! (Y/N), why didn’t you walk home with Soori?” Your mother asks as she rushes to you.

You look at all of your relatives in the kitchen, and you have no idea what is going on. “Uh...I don’t know. I had something to do after school.”

“Well, you should’ve been here to hear the news, but Soori probably already told you at school!” Your mother exclaims with excitement.

“What news?” Though you don’t know, your gut tells you that it isn’t good.

“Oh jeez kid, you’re such a bad cousin! How can you not know this? You go to the same school, so it should’ve heard about this by now.” Your father sighs.

“It’s okay, Uncle! It’s my fault. I was too excited to tell everyone that I wanted to wait until we were all home, but then I thought (Y/N) was already home. I guess not.”

You wish you could wipe that innocent smile off of her face and let your family know how much of a demon she is, but she’s so good at playing her role that you know that your family won’t believe you. Soori skips towards you, taking you by both hands, tilting her head innocently with a childish smile.

“Remember the music competition Mr. Kim mentioned? So I submitted an original song written all by me, and I just got the notice that I got second place!”

“Wh-what??”

“The judges read her song, and they said that the song is so unique and distinct from other competitors’ work, saying that it’s such a uncommon yet mystifying outlook on the world around us.” Your uncle chimes in.

It’s too hard to believe that. You’ve known Soori for so long that you know that Soori has never picked up a pencil to write music. In fact, she only got into choir just so that she can beat you in music, and that she can get close to Mr. Kim. Soori has no real interest in music, so there’s no way she wrote something from the top of her head.

“Aren’t you going to congratulate her?” Your father interrupts your thoughts.

You shake your head, retreating back to reality. There’s no way you’re going to congratulate her because this is unbelievable. You shrug your hands off Soori’s grip and move away from her.

“Show me the song. Prove it to me that you wrote it.”

“What? But…(Y/N), I really did-”

“I need to see it.”

“(Y/N)! Is there a need to interrogate your cousin??”

“I-it’s alright Auntie, I kept it a secret that I enjoy writing music, so it’s normal for (Y/N) to suspect me. A copy of the song is in my backpack, so I can show it to her since she wants to see it.”

Soori takes off her backpack and puts it on top of the dinner table. She rummages through her backpack, taking out her binder and revealing a music sheet. The moment you saw the title, that’s when you knew that she stole your music sheet and submitted it, claiming it to be hers. Everything is exactly written likes yours from note to note. She didn’t even try to change it up.

Enraged, you snatch the paper from her hand. “You copied me!”

“What…? (Y/N), wh-why would you suspect me of something like that?? I...I…”

“(Y/N)! Lower your voice this instance! Soori did nothing to you!”

“You stole this from me, then you wrote it in your handwriting, saying that it’s yours!! All this time, you said that this song was crap, but then you go ahead and submit it into the competition?? You’re a scum!”

Soori pretends to be distraught by your words, clutching her hands close to her chest as if offended. You know well enough that Soori is just acting, but her acting is convincing her parents and yours too.

“S-sure...I might’ve been inspired by you because you’re such a great musician, but I didn’t mean any harm...I would never copy you! So please...please believe me that I actually wrote this!”

“(Y/N)...this is so unlike you...You always looked up to Soori, and now you’re raising your voice.” Your aunt finally speaks up.

Looked up to that lowlife? There is no way in hell that you would ever respect Soori. Soori is an egotistical maniac who would do anything to just be better than everyone else. You’ve gotten so used to Soori being in the spotlight that you honestly don’t even care if she takes nearly everything from you.

Soori always thought that your music is stupid, so she always looked away from that, and you liked that about her. You liked how shallow and materialistic she is as a person that she doesn’t value anything really important. Even with her romantic interest in Mr. Kim, she likes him merely because he’s handsome.

Writing music and being in your own world, so deep into your thoughts that you forget that you exist, was the only thing you could enjoy because you knew that Soori can never breach it. But now that she has by taking what you treasure the most and turning in into an item to be judged by outsiders, it’s as if she stepped then spat on it.

Unable to contain years of contempt towards her, you grab her by the collar of her shirt, pulling her close to your face. “When will you stop fucking playing around?!”

Soori doesn’t say anything, and she only looks surprised.

“You’re a piece of vermin that can never get out of my fucking life, and I wish you could just fucking grow up and learn how to take a shit on your own!! Just looking at you irritates me! I pray that one day, you will get what you asked for, you bitch!!”

Before you can let your mouth run any further, your father takes you by the arm, and Soori’s father takes her away from you. Since you’re not even done releasing your steam, you try to fight out of your father’s arms.

“Why the fuck are you always defending that piece of trash?! You’re my dad, so aren’t you supposed to believe me more than her?! Why does everyone believe that faker more than me?!” At this point, you’re just blaming your anger at everyone.

“(Y/N)!! Calm down right now!”

“That’s right, you’ve always wished that I was like Soori!! You all wish I was the perfect, beautiful, straight-A girl just like Soori, right?? No! You ended up with me! Someone who’s out shadowed by Soori that it puts you guys to shame! You all wish I was dead, right? Well, I hope I fucking die too!!”

Without warning, your father lets go of you, then you feel a sharp pain hit your left cheek. It was so sudden that it didn’t even register in your brain that your father slapped you. The force was so strong that your head swung the same direction as the hand. You look up to see your father, and all you can see is anger in your father’s eyes.

Your mother runs to Soori, hugging her as if you’re the one in the wrong. “Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry Soori!”

“I-it’s okay...I was just a bit shaken up...that’s all.”

“(Y/N), don’t you dare talk to your cousin like that ever again, especially since she did nothing wrong. You’re getting upset over a piece of paper. Get over it.”

It hurts to hear that even after your outburst, your father is still defending Soori. But the fatal blow didn’t hit until your father said that you got mad over ‘a piece of paper’. It’s the same ‘piece of paper’ that you spent years working on. You woke up so early in the morning to work on that single song, playing the piano until your hands began to ache to the point of bandages. You took care of it as if it was your child. That ‘piece of paper’ made you feel like you can be ‘you’, and to hear that your father doesn’t even accept ‘you’ it hurts you all the more.

When you look at everyone’s reaction, you can see from the corner of your eye something you wished you never saw. In your mother and aunt’s arms is Soori, covering her face with her hand as if traumatized, but underneath that hand is the most malicious smile you’ve ever seen in your entire life. There is no feeling of regret in Soori, and her expression is telling you that she won yet again.

You can’t stand being in the same room as everyone, so you run out the door, not even bothering to wear shoes. Your parents run after you, calling after you, but you ignore them as you run with tears covering your eyes. Being in your own house is too suffocating.

------

You didn’t even give second thoughts when you instinctively ran into the forest. For some reason, your feet led you there, and all you can think about is one person. You want that person to be with you--to remind you that you really are important and that someone does treasure you. Unfortunately, since it’s still sunny outside, Taehyung can’t come out to comfort you.

You circle around the forest, eyes darting everywhere in hopes that Taehyung would appear somewhere, anywhere. “Taehyung? Taehyung!!”

No matter how many times you call out for him, he doesn’t come out.

“Taehyung, please...I really need you right now...I feel so alone…”

He doesn’t respond back to you. The only thing that you can hear return to you is the sound of various noises coming from animals. You can’t see them, but you can hear them. Your head makes a sharp turn when you hear the bushes hustling, and your paranoia is playing tricks on you again. What if that’s a poisonous snake? What if a wild animal jumps out at you and eats you alive?

You were able to forget about your phobia of the forest whenever you ventured in here because you knew that Taehyung would be here to protect you. Your fear never really went away, but Taehyung helped you pushed those thoughts away temporarily. Now that you’re here without Taehyung, your mind plays tricks on you, convincing you that there’s no one out here in this world that wants to save you.

You crouch down, covering your ears with your hands. Why did you come here? You were naive and thought that Taehyung is your hero. Taehyung hates people like you--people who ask for things but never expect to repay them. You only came here because you want to be reminded that you are needed without even thinking of repaying Taehyung. Taehyung did fine without you before, so what makes you think that you changed him in some sort of way?

In the end...I really am alone.

------

What point is there to live when you aren’t important to anyone? Should you die if you truly believe that you can’t change anyone or anything? That’s how I feel right now. There are so many scenarios where I can think of a world without me. My parents won’t have a daughter, but at least they would have Soori as a replacement. Even if they have Soori, they would only try again to have another child.

Out of the billions of people out there, one person dying doesn’t make a real difference, so if I were to die, it won’t change anything. I’m merely a speck of dust in a world filled with dirt. So if anything, I would prefer to die than to live in an intoxicating world.

Even though I ask for death, why is there this beautiful tune that I hear? That sweet, tender tune that I tried so hard to replicate because I desperately want to remember it. It reminds me of the time when I saw Taehyung for the first time as a child. I think he was the first person who ever reached out to me. He didn’t need to lend his hand physically, just that simple lullaby was enough for me to stand back up again. And ever since then, that lullaby has been enough to push me through life.

Whenever I was pulled down, all I had to do is play that tune on the piano, and I would feel so relieved. Even though it may never be exactly the same as the original, it helped me more than I could’ve imagined. So…if I were to ask for death…would that mean I would never hear this tune ever again?

You don’t remember when you fell asleep. You must have after all that crying, despite being terrified of the forest. You can still hear the sound of unknown noises coming from all around the forest, but there’s one distinct sound that’s louder than them all.

There’s the sound of someone whimpering very close to you. You can even feel something wet dripping onto your cheeks. Is it raining? When you checked the forecast this morning, it never said anything about rain. So then, what is falling onto your face?

You open our eyes, and you get this sense of deja vu when you’re met with two familar pair of blue eyes. However, the huge difference is that the eyes in front of you right now are covered with tears. You then realize that you’re laying on the ground, and Taehyung cupped both hands on your cheeks as he sobs uncontrollably.

Once Taehyung catches on that you’re awake, he doesn’t hesitate to pull you in for an embrace. You’re shocked, blinking profusely, wondering what’s going on. “Taehyung…? Are you okay?”

“I’m so sorry…I didn’t know how to heal you.”

“Wh-what? What are you talking about?”

“Your heart…it was screaming in pain…but I didn’t know how to fix it. You were hurting yourself…but you weren’t giving yourself physical injuries, so I couldn’t fix you,” Taehyung’s voice hiccups as he struggles to speak. “I wanted to heal you…but I couldn’t because you didn’t need my help…your heart kept screaming for you to die. You didn’t want to live anymore, and I was so scared…I really thought you were going to…di…die…”

Taehyung holds you tighter, and you can feel his fingers trembling.

“Don’t ever say that about yourself again…Don’t hurt yourself like that.”

You can’t imagine what Taehyung must’ve felt when he read your heart. You must’ve been suicidal, and he might’ve never known what it feels like to go through that so he panicked. Taehyung may have the power to heal inner and physical injuries, but not psychological and emotional scars. He must be so used to having the ability to heal people that he must’ve felt so powerless to see you fight with yourself.

“Taehyung…I’m so sorry I…just wasn’t in the right mind.”

Words cannot express how sorry you are for making Taehyung experience emotional pain, but Taehyung must’ve understood you since his grip around you has loosen up a bit. You think it’s a bit strange that Taehyung would hug you so suddenly, since most of the time he’s kept his personal space unless he was curious about something. Perhaps this is one of the few things he knows without having to be taught.

You were behaving so selfishly. The dark side of your mind was driving you to think that you wanted attention. In reality, you just wanted someone who can understand you, and you’re happy that you got to meet Taehyung. You don’t have to speak a word, and he knows how you feel.

Taehyung finds it so odd. Just moments ago, you were asking yourself to disappear, but with just a simple hug, it was enough to change the pace of your heart. He didn’t even use his powers heal you, but you’re already feeling at ease. Ironically, he’s also feeling calmer compared to before. That was the first time he’s ever felt that sort of wound. He wishes to never feel that pain ever again. But most importantly, he wishes that you would value yourself more. You don’t know how much you mean to him, and he didn’t know either until there was an actual possibility of you disappearing from his sight.

------

You’re leaning against a tree, shining a flashlight on the book that you’re currently reading when you hear a branch cracking in half. You beam the light to the source of the sound to find Taehyung standing still, only staring at you. You shove your book back into your backpack, and you get up to greet him.

Patting the dirt off your pants, you approach him and smile. “Hey, Taehyung.”

Instead of greeting you back, Taehyung remains silent since he knows that your smile is only a coverup for how you truly feel. Suddenly, he pulls you in for a hug, holding you with very little space in between.

“Taehyung?”

Instead of saying ‘hello’ to you, Taehyung has been greeting you with a hug every time you meet him. He knows that you’re not completely fine after what happened, but you are improving. Still, it frustrates him to know that he can’t fix your troubles.

“(Y/N)…”

“What is it?”

“Will you ever feel better? I don’t like seeing you hurt and not be able to do anything about it…”

You adore how Taehyung is so innocent. It seems like the only thing he can think of is how to cheer you up again. You feel terrible that you make him feel sad as well. As much as you want to continue to smile for his sake, he can read through your facade.

You gently push Taehyung away, feeling undeserving of his sympathy. “Thank you Taehyung for your concern, but something like this can’t be fixed in an instant.”

“How long does it take?”

“…It takes time. I don’t know how long, but it’ll definitely heal.” You force a comforting smile.

But your emotions contradict your words. You sound so unsure of yourself, almost like you’re really telling him that you may never get over the fact that your family seems to love Soori more than they love you.

Since you don’t want Taehyung to keep worrying about you, you try your hardest not to exert your negative aura even more than necessary. “Come on Taehyung, I brought you a new book to read.”

------

Due to the lack of sleep you’ve been having ever since you started meeting Taehyung, you’ve been prone to falling asleep in nearly every location. You started sleeping more in class, and you no longer go to the music room early in the morning. Alternately, you use that time to wake up later, especially since you don’t have the same passion like you did before when composing music.

Regardless of exchanging your hobby for sleep, you still feel tired. You don’t feel like you belong in your own home anymore. You never really did in the first place, but after that incident, there’s no way you can look at your parents the same. To try and forget about your stress, you start spending more time with Taehyung. Though, Taehyung doesn’t make your situation at home any better--he simply makes you forget about your issues temporarily.

You and Taehyung are sitting next to each other, leaning on a tree as Taehyung is reading the book that you brought him. He recognizes this book as the one you were reading before he interrupted you. It’s a story about the struggles of an adolescent boy as he transitions from childhood to adulthood. You thought this would be a good book for him to read because it has a lot of aspects of what it’s like living with humans, and it’ll help Taehyung learn more about them through that book.

“‘His eyes gaze from top to bottom at the mature woman….He has never seen a female so go...gorgeous...Her e...e...eth…ethe’…?” Taehyung scans the word ‘ethereal’, having no knowledge of how to pronounce that word. “(Y/N), how do you say this word?”

He calls out to you, but you don’t respond.

“(Y/N)?”

Taehyung looks down to see that you’ve fallen asleep on his shoulder. He was so invested into the book that he didn’t realize that you fell asleep on him. Taehyung sets the book down on his lap as he watches you, your chest rising up and falling down slowly. He listens to your breathing that is barely visible, observing every detail of your face.

Though your heart rate is calm, it’s still unsteady. He’s aware that you said that pain like this takes time to heal, but he can’t accept it that easily. Since he can’t use his powers to treat you, he has to think of other solutions to make sure that you return to that once happy and bright person.

Taehyung returns to the book, skipping over ‘ethereal’ and continuing with his reading. That’s when he read something that intrigued him.

Though anxious to speak to the girl of his dreams, he gathers up the courage regardless. He has taken note that she is a typical girl who has a keen interest in anything that shines as bright as the moon--something that even shines brighter than a million stars. He can already picture her grinning the smile that he grew to know and love.

Taehyung reads over the lines ‘shines as bright as the moon’ over and over again. Though he knows very little about humans, he likes to believe that he knows the moon better than any human out there. Taehyung looks up at the moon, seeing as it illuminates its light down on earth. He closes his eyes, figuring out a possible way of bringing the moon and a million stars to you.

------

“Taehyung, where are you taking me?” You ask him as he drags you by the hand.

The next night, Taehyung is taking you deeper into the forest. You’ve never gone this far because you always felt the need to be able to see the exit of the forest, but since Taehyung is with you, you put faith into where he wants to take you. Besides, this is the first time Taehyung wants to show you something, not you this time.

“A place where you can touch the moon and stars.” Taehyung answers rather discreetly.

You have no idea what he could mean by that, but you trust him anyway. Since he doesn’t want to ruin the surprise, Taehyung had requested that you turn off your flashlight and rely on his hand to guide you. He also said that your flashlight might scare the moon and stars away, though you don’t know what he means by that.

“We’re here.”

Taehyung pushes a low branch aside, and the sight in front of you leaves you in awe. There’s a small but clear lake; it’s so clean that you can see the bottom. On the shallow side of the lake is the reflection of the moon, and there are dozens upon dozens of fireflies hovering the lake.

You’re astounded by the indescribable beauty of the lake. You could’ve never imagine that this small forest has a lake this magnificent. You approach the reflection of the moon, kneeling down and staring face-to-face with it. You want to dip your fingers into the water, but you’re worried that you will dirty the crystal water with your hands.

“This place is beautiful.”

“...Are you feeling better?”

You turn to him, a bit confused. “What?”

“The book that you lent me said that female humans like things that are shiny like the moon and a million stars. I wanted to take you to the moon, but it’s too far away, and the fireflies here are shiny like the stars.”

So that’s what he meant. He wanted to take you to the lake to see if he can cheer you up. You must’ve worried him more than you thought, and you feel at fault. You look down, feeling so guilty, since you don’t deserve Taehyung’s kindness, and he can sense that you don’t seem all that happy about this.

“...It didn’t work. Is it because it’s not the real moon and stars?”

“Taehyung...why?”

He tilts his head. “Why what?”

“Why are you being so nice to me? Didn’t you say that humans my age and older are scary because of their bad intentions? I have bad intentions too, you know. I only went into the forest to see if you’re real, and I only give you stuff to read so that I can communicate with you. It’s all only for me. So why don’t you ever try to run away?”

In a way, you want to scare Taehyung away because he’s too good for someone as average as you. He can sense that deep inside, you’re begging him to leave you, but the selfish side of you wants him to stay by your side forever. Right now, your heart is very fragile. A single word can shatter your heart because you’re in a state of confusion. You don’t know what you really want.

“At first...my first instinct was to run away from you.”

Just as he thought, his words pierce your heart like a wooden stake. He can see your torn expression, wanting to run away and cry but at the same time try to accept his words.

“Even though I can communicate with anything that breathes, they could never communicate back with me. I thought that I would be fine with healing the wounded, then see their backs as they walk off, never approaching me ever again. But then...you became the first one to acknowledge me.”

Taehyung kneels down in front of you, caressing your cheek as he reminisces the time when he healed you. His thumb touches the edge of your lips, and his gaze remains locked onto it. Taehyung grabs your hand, pressing it tightly against his chest.

“I will never forget that warm feeling you gave me when you smiled and said ‘thank you’. It felt like the loneliness I never knew I had had been wiped away. I want to do anything I can to protect you because I want to reciprocate the same feeling back to you like you did for me. So I think...I’m selfish like a human too.”

Your heart skips a beat and your face flush with red. No matter how you look at Taehyung, he’s not for you. You couldn’t hold it in anymore. With his hand still on your cheek, you put both of your hands over his, and you burst into tears. You were busy pitying yourself, when you have Taehyung here who cared only about you. In a way, you understand how Taehyung feels, being alone and trying your hardest to please others, but to only receive nothing in return.

Your eyes cried, but your heart was screaming with joy. He’s never seen an emotion as confusing as this. Of all the lost children he saved in the forest, he always saw that their expression matched their feelings when they cried, but you’re crying despite how happy you seem.

“Did I make you cry again?”

You scoff, grinning as you shake your head. “No, I’m happy.”

“Then why are you crying?”

“This is called ‘tears of joy’. Sometimes you’re so happy, thankful, and relieved that a rush of emotions run through you that it’s hard not to cry.”

Taehyung still doesn’t understand.

“Maybe one day you’ll experience too. It’s a good feeling.”

“So then...you’re happy again?”

You nod. “Better than before. Thank you, Taehyung.”

Words cannot describe how appreciative you are of Taehyung, but you think he fully understands how you feel. You feel like all those time you’ve spent with him has been worth it.

------

Soori can’t seem to understand you. She took away the thing that was most important to you and claimed it as hers. Sure, it did take a toll on you, and you did seem quieter than usual, but all of a sudden, you’re back to normal. Was she mistaken about music being most important to you?

Not only that, but she’s noticed that you’ve been looking rather sleepy, but there’s something about your attitude that changed—like you’re glistening with optimism and hope. She’s determined to figure out what it is that has changed you.

It’s lunch break, and Soori is getting annoyed that you’re nowhere to be found. You’re supposed to be in Soori’s classroom within five minute after the lunch bell has rung. She hates it when you do this. This usually means that you have some idiotic idea for your song and you rush to the music room.

Just as she suspected, Soori finds you in the music room, but you’re with Mr. Kim this time, which she finds irritating to see. No matter how many times she’s threaten you, you just never seem to learn, and you continue to stand by the man that Soori loves. What is it that is so important that they have to have a conversation about?

When Soori looks through the classroom window, your back is facing the door while Mr. Kim stands on the opposite direction. She hides behind the door, pressing her ear on the door, listening in to your conversation with him.

“Why weren’t you upset?”

You sigh. “I really was. I think...that was the first time I’ve ever exploded on my parents. Even though I know that Soori copied, I can’t really prove that it’s mine.”

Soori knows what you’re talking about, but she prays that you better not paint her in a bad way to Mr. Kim or she’ll definitely kill you.

“But then I realize that I got worked up over nothing because the song isn’t even mine in the first place. Technically, I copied too.”

“Hm, really? Could it be that you copied off the moonchild?”

There’s a long pause.

“Yes. Honestly in the end, it was just my fault for being childish. I claimed something that was mine and didn’t want anyone else to take it. I feel like such a hypocrite…but something inside of me tells me that the moonchild who made this song wouldn’t mind that I took it from him. So I don’t have any rights to get angry at Soori for copying me.”

Soori rolls her eyes at your attempt at using pretty words. There’s no way you truly feel like that 100%; a part of you has to be upset at her.

“And how would you know that the moonchild wouldn’t mind that you stole the song from him?”

“…Because he’s a pure person, and he never asks for anything, nor does he get upset at anyone for giving him nothing. And when you do show him appreciation, he treasures it so much, so…I want to learn how to be as selfless as he is.”

“…You seem to know moonchildren very well. Are you perhaps talking about the moonchild both you and I met long ago?”

Soori is surprised to hear that Mr. Kim believes in that ridiculous myth that moonchildren exist. Though, that can possibly explain why he’s so attached to you. In a way, the both of you are similar.

It takes you awhile to answer him back, as if you’re carefully thinking of what words to tell him. “I guess you can say that.”

You’re not really denying it, nor are you agreeing with Mr. Kim. Soori can smell that you’re hiding a big secret from everyone, and she wants to know what it is. Whatever this secret is, it could possibly be the source of why you’re so bubbly as of recent.

------

Of all places, why is it that you’re walking into the forest? If Soori can remember correctly, you always were on edge whenever she would mention anything about the forest.

Since she doesn’t want you to know that she’s following you, Soori decides to use a dimly lit lighter to remain behind the shadows, but enough to see her surroundings. When she looks at you from afar, she can’t just seem to understand how you’re better at moving around the forest than her. If anything, when Soori dragged you into the forest a few months back, you were too scared to move alone.

Because she dozed off, the wind blows the fire from the lighter away, and you’re already gone from her eye. Also adding that there is little to no natural lighting, Soori has no idea where she’s going. She tries to fight through the plants that is in the way, wishing that she had a machete to cut down every piece of nature in here. Soori curses your name under her breath, wondering why you have to go to a location as hassling as this.

“Taehyung? What’s wrong?” Soori can hear your voice from a distance, but who are you talking to?

“There’s something dangerous nearby.”

Who is that voice? And what is it that’s so dangerous? It’s starting to freak Soori out as well. She doesn’t want to be in danger, so Soori wastes no time to find you.

“Be careful, (Y/N). It’s coming closer.”

It doesn’t matter to Soori who that second person is. She just wants to find you so that she isn’t scared. She follows the direction of your voice, as well as the second person’s voice. Eventually, she can see you a few feet away. She runs towards you, and once the distance is closed, she sees Taehyung, the one you were speaking to earlier. To prevent her presence from being noticed, she hides behind a bush.

Soori is completely shocked seeing Taehyung. She knew immediately from his appearance that he is a moonchild. Though she knows only little about moonchildren, she knows that their physical beauty is absolutely stunning, and that statement alone cannot describe his appearance. Soori has never seen anyone as gorgeous and exotic as Taehyung.

“It stopped moving.”

“Do you know what it is?”

“...Not exactly...but whatever it is, it’s not safe to be around it.” He says as he stares directly at Soori’s direction.

Soori gets the feeling that the ‘dangerous person’ he might be talking about is not an animal, but her. Whenever she looks through the small holes in the bushes, she can just feel Taehyung’s eyes locked onto her, which terrifies her.

However, the tense air is interrupted by the sound of grass rustling behind you and Taehyung. Getting a better look, what lies between them is an injured white rabbit with a patch of red blood on the top of it.

“Sorry rabbit, we shouldn’t be distracted from you. We know how much pain you’re in.” You say comforting words to the rabbit as you kneel down.

Taehyung kneels down in front of the rabbit, choosing to forget Soori behind the bushes since right now more than emitting dangerous vibes, she seems more fearful. He presses his hand gently on the rabbit’s back, and what Soori sees shocks her. She is speechless when she sees the white glow appear from the palm of his hands, healing the rabbit within seconds.

The rabbit stands on its hind legs, sniffing the tips of Taehyung’s hands. He giggles when the whiskers tickle his hand, and you laugh along with the scene. Meanwhile, Soori is covering both of her mouth, having no idea what to take in. She swears, maybe her mind is going crazy, but even if what she saw is a fake, there is no doubt that you snuck out of the forest to meet a man. After soothing her beating heart, Soori knows what to do to get you back.

Once the rabbit leaves, Taehyung turns his head back to the bush where Soori was hiding. “What is it, Taehyung?”

“The thing that was hiding behind the bushes just left.”

------

Before you know it, it’s already two in the morning. You spent most of your time teaching Taehyung how to read and do simple math. He seems to be slower when it comes to learning numbers because it’s a foreign concept to him. At least for reading, he has some background experience, but nothing for math, so teaching him definitely took longer than needed.

You walk back to your house, walking through your neighborhood like you normally would when you come home from school. You stand in front of the door to your house, unlocking it with your key. Since your parents are both heavy sleepers, it’s easy for you to sneak in and out of the house without waking them up.

When you quietly shut the door behind you, you hear a booming voice, making your heart jump. “(Y/N)!!”

Following that voice is footsteps approaching you, then grabbing you by the arm. You look to see that it’s your father, seemingly infuriated by you.

“What the hell are doing so fucking late at night?! Have you’ve been sneaking out to meet a boy?!”

Your heart drops when you hear that. How did they find out? For all the times when you snuck out, you made sure to check and see if they’re sleeping. Were you not careful this time?

“Wh-where did you hear that from?”

“Soori told us! She called us, saying that she was very worried about you because she saw you run into the forest only to find you alone with a boy!”

Now it makes sense what that ‘dangerous’ vibe that Taehyung was sensing. It wasn’t a dangerous animal, but Soori. Did she by chance also find out that he is a moonchild?

“Who the hell is this boy?? I’m going to fucking kill him.” Your father mumbles under his breath before attempting march out of the house.

Fearing for Taehyung’s life, you instinctively push your father away from the door. “Stop it! Don’t hurt him!!!”

“So you have been meeting a boy!! Do you have any idea what girls like you are called? A whore!!”

Those words sting you, especially hearing that from your own father, but right now, your feelings come second. You have to do everything to stop him from finding Taehyung. You wrap your arms around your father, tugging him by the bottom of his shirt and pushing him back to stop him from charging outside.

Seeing as your father is becoming violent, your mother finally steps in, pulling both you and your father apart. “Stop fighting! We can discuss this in the morning, but as for now, we do not need to be immature!”

Your father sneers at you one more time before snatching his arm back from your mother. “Fine, but I’m going to install a lock on the outside of your bedroom.”

“What?! But Dad-”

“You lost my trust, and you’re going to have to earn it back.”

Your father grabs you by the arm and drags you upstairs to your bedroom. You glance back at the front door, desperately wanting to tell Taehyung your situation. But no matter how much you try to fight off your father, you just can’t seem to get away.

------

A week has passed since your parents found out, and they’ve been keeping a close eye on you. You are strictly prohibited from going anywhere after school and must come back home. You can’t sneak out to the forest to tell Taehyung about your situation because they made Soori in charge of you at school.

She won’t let you out of her sight whatsoever. She pretends to act like this caring cousin, but you know that beneath that smile, she’s enjoying your pain. You would love to rebel against her, but Soori threatened to tell everyone about Taehyung. You know how selfish humans can become knowing Taehyung’s powers, so you want to keep him hidden for as long as you can.

Every day feels like hell having to be stuck with Soori and her two sheep friends; it even makes you wonder how you were able to tolerate this for years before you met Taehyung. Every day just feels excruciating knowing that you won’t get to see Taehyung. At this point, Taehyung might think you abandoned him, and you wish you can tell him your situation.

It’s lunch break, and you’re tasked to buy lunch for Soori and her friends. You used to dread buying food for them, but then now that Soori is glued onto you, this is your only time to be separated from her. You’d love to take your sweet time getting the food, but taking longer means a worst punishment from Soori.

While making your way to the cafeteria, you just so happen to pass by the music room. Mr. Kim sees you through the classroom window, and since it’s been a long time since he last spoke to you alone, he wants to take this opportunity to talk to you again. He gets up from his desk, jogging towards you.

“Wait! (Y/N)!” Mr. Kim calls out.

You turn around, and you’re relieved to see a familiar and trustworthy person. “Mr. Kim!”

“The music room gets kinda lonely, you know, without you playing the piano.”

“Don’t lie. I’m sure there are other students too who come in to play the piano.”

“That’s true, but I miss listening to you play the piano,” He smiles. “Anyway, where have you been lately? You came back to the music room for a time, but stopped again. Did something happen?”

You don’t know what to tell him. You want to tell him the full story, but Mr. Kim doesn’t understand how heavy your situation is. You know that besides Taehyung, you can trust him, but how can you when you’re unsure if he’ll believe your story?

Seeing how silent you became when he asked that question, he knows that what you’re going through is serious. “Why don’t you talk to me in the classroom?”

“But I have to go back to Soori.”

“Soori can wait,” he grins reassuringly. “And if she throws a fit, then I’ll be there to back you up.”

Just hearing him saying that already sounds comforting to you. You’ve been desperately needing someone to listen to you, so you’re glad that Mr. Kim stopped you in the middle of the halls.

“So...your parents found out that you’ve been seeing someone in the forest, and because of that, your father installed a lock on the outside of your door and your mother asked Soori to watch over you at school?”

You nod your head.

“...I understand your parents’ concerns...but isn’t that going a bit too far? Your father sounds...controlling.”

“He can be sometimes, but other times he’s a great dad. I just...wish I can talk to my friend again and let him know that I didn’t abandon him…”

Thinking about Taehyung and imagining him waiting for you pains you. You don’t want him to doubt you, especially after his confession that night at the lake. Mr. Kim leans forward on his chair, contemplating about you told him.

“May I ask who this ‘friend’ is?”

You pause to think about it. Should you be honest and tell him that Taehyung is a moonchild? Or should you lie? You know that Mr. Kim believes in moonchildren, but you don’t know to what extent he believes in.

“Could it be that this ‘friend’ you’re meeting is a moonchild?”

You eyes become wide, surprised that he guessed it right, and on the first try. “H-how did you…?”

“You hinted it a lot to me, so I just guessed. Don’t forget, I know a lot about moonchildren too, so I know when you’re talking about one.”

You’re glad that the worst part you feared the most is over. It was a lot easier than you thought it’d actually be.

“If you want...I can help you reunite with him.”

“What?” You can’t believe what you’re hearing.

“I can talk to your parents saying that you need to stay after school. I can tell them that you’ll be rehearsing for a music competition. I think they can trust me enough that they wouldn’t need Soori to supervise you, right? What do you say?”

You can’t believe it—Mr. Kim is going to help you see Taehyung again! Because of how excited you were when hearing that, you nearly jumped and agreed to it. However, thinking realistically, you start to wonder if that’ll really work. Your parents have never met Mr. Kim before, so you’re unsure of what your parents will believe him.

Seeing how concerned you look about Mr. Kim’s plot to lie to your parents, he puts his hand over yours to put your mind to rest. “You can believe in me. I know how it feels to treasure someone. You want to do anything you can for them.”

You can see how determined Mr. Kim is. He even seems more determined than you do, honestly. You’re going to lie to your parents, and your own teacher is going to help you with it too. Though this seems far fetch, you’re willing to go through this plan for Taehyung.

------

Amazingly enough, your parents agreed to Mr. Kim’s plan. You don’t know what Mr. Kim said to convince them, but he did. Maybe a part of it is due to his good looks and that somehow persuaded your mother to agree to him, but you’re more surprised that your father said yes too.

Regardless of what happened, you and Mr. Kim are walking together to the forest. It’s been a few hours since school ended, and the sun is setting. At the edge of the forest, you and Mr. Kim stand, side by side.

“Wow, today is fairly hot, isn’t it?”

“It is hot, but it’s okay.”

Mr. Kim reaches into his backpack, taking out a water bottle. Because you’re taking him to the forest, Mr. Kim brought his hiking backpack and inside of it is a whole array of necessities, such as first aid kit, flashlight, food, water, etc. You think it’s quite comical seeing Mr. Kim all prepared like he’s going camping.

Since you are feeling slightly thirsty, you take the water bottle and take a sip. “Thank you, Mr. Kim.”

“No problem! Don’t want my student to faint because of the heat!”

“Actually...thank you, Mr. Kim, for a lot of things. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t helped me.”

Mr. Kim smiles, showing all of his white teeth. “No problem, (Y/N)! Anything for my favorite student.”

“Well anyway, thank you again. I’ll repay you in any way I can!”

“Actually…I am a bit curious about something.”

“What is it?”

“I’d like to see how a moonchild looks in real life.”

This is the question that you’ve been dreading in the back of your head. You were hoping that Mr. Kim wouldn’t make that request. As much as you trust him, you don’t know if Taehyung will be okay with it. You’re already lucky that you’re the exception, but since Mr. Kim is a full grown adult, who knows if Taehyung sees something about him that you can’t.

“Uhm...if I could, I would...but I don’t know if Taehyung will be okay with it. He’s a bit shy when meeting other humans.”

“Ah, I see. If it makes him feel uncomfortable, then I’d like to see where you and your friend meets at least. He won’t appear until nighttime, correct? You see, I’m just very curious about moonchildren, and I want to get to know more about them.”

Mr. Kim’s request seems more reasonable, so you decide that showing him the spot where you meet Taehyung is enough.

------

“How intriguing! I can already feel the vibe of a moonchild here!” Mr. Kim utters as he excitedly strokes the trunk of a tree.

You chuckle at Mr. Kim’s childish behavior. “It’s just a normal tree. I just happen to meet Taehyung here, that’s all.”

You say that, but Mr. Kim seems more interested in this section of the forest. The sun is still setting, drawing closer to nightfall. All you want is for the sun to hurry up and go away so you can see Taehyung again. You’re worried that Taehyung might be upset at you for not telling him where you’ve been all this time, so you want to clear up the misunderstanding as soon as possible.

“Say (Y/N), do you know about the origin story of moonchildren?”

Your head perks up.

“It’s said that millions of years ago when the first sign of life came to exist on earth, the moon fell in love with life as if they’re her children. So when she saw them suffer due to illness, disasters, and age, she gave birth to children of her own to save children that doesn’t even belong to her. How weird is that?” Mr. Kim’s voice suddenly became serious.

“Ummm...I guess so?”

“Actually, did you know that is false? The moon didn’t give birth to life because she’s incapable of creating it. Instead, she cried because she knew that she couldn’t save those who were suffering, and those tears fell on those who suffered the most.”

Where is Mr. Kim getting at?

“The word ‘suffering’ is such a subjective term, so who gave the moon to judge someone who is suffering? Because of how unfair the moon is, for a time, I didn’t believe that moonchildren existed.”

All of a sudden, your head starts spinning, and your knees feel weak. “W-wait...Mr. Kim.”

“It wasn’t until I found out that you saw a moonchild, I became obsessed with you. I did everything I could to make you favor me, but you were so stubborn, keeping to yourself all the freakin’ time.”

It’s getting harder for you to hear Mr. Kim, and all you can hear is mumbling. Your eyelids are becoming heavy, and your body feels so weak that you fall to the ground, too weak to even lift your head up.

“Mr...Kim...”

Mr. Kim looks at you from the corner of his eyes, looking apathetic as it becomes difficult for you to even move a single muscle. You can’t explain it, but for some reason, you’re starting to feel tired. Mr. Kim approaches you, kneeling down, but you can only see his shoes. He wiggles the water bottle that you drank in front of you.

“The medication kicked in faster, probably because you’ve been feeling fatigued due to a lack of sleep, isn’t that right?” Mr. Kim leans in closer to your ear. “I should really thank your cousin. If it weren’t for her making your life miserable, then you wouldn’t have leaned on me for help, and I would’ve never been able to find a moonchild.”

You want to curse at him, but even your mouth isn’t moving. What have you done? You put Taehyung in danger, and you don’t know what Mr. Kim is going to do with him. You impulsively thought that Mr. Kim had good intentions. You should’ve known, and you should’ve listened to Taehyung. The medicine fully kicks in, and you’re unconscious.

Once your finally asleep, Soori, who has been following you and Mr. Kim, walks out from behind a tree. “Is she finally knocked out?”

“Yes. Take her to another section and keep an eye out.”

“Anything for you, Mr. Kim.”

------

Just like the previous days, Taehyung hopes that tonight is the night that you finally return. After waking up from a deep sleep, he stretches his arms and yawns. If you aren’t at the usual meeting place, then he would have to do this usual routine of searching for you in the forest. He’s been debating whether he should leave the forest and search for you, but then he’s never gone outside before, so he wouldn’t know where to start.

However, this day is different in particular because he can sense your heartbeat somewhere in the forest. It’s not as visible as usual, but regardless, he’s ecstatic to know that you’ve returned. Taehyung listens carefully to the sound of your heartbeat and follows it diligently. Unfortunately, he gets interrupted when he senses another being in the forest—and standing right behind him.

Taehyung turns out and finds a tall man with a hiking backpack on and hands up to signify his surrender. Taehyung didn’t notice him before because he was so focused on finding you that he didn’t check his surroundings. Taehyung is ready to run away when the man calls out to him.

“Wait, don’t run away! You must be a moonchild, aren’t you?”

Moonchild? Taehyung does recall that word being bounced here and there from you, but he doesn’t really know what it means. He assumes that it might be what humans call his species. Still, this doesn’t make Taehyung feel less cautious.

“I know I’m a stranger, but (Y/N) has told me a lot about you, Taehyung.”

His ears perks up when he hears your name. Seeing how Taehyung’s guard has decreased, the man slumps his shoulders and stretches his arm out for a handshake.

“My name is Jihun Kim, and (Y/N) is my student. She brought me out here to meet you, so you can trust me.

Taehyung is hesitant about taking his hand. He claims that you led him here, so you must trust him a lot. But there’s this heavy and dreadful feeling about him that Taehyung can’t shake off. If Taehyung has to describe it, then the only way to explain it is that he hasn’t felt this terrified in such a long time.

Sensing the immense amount of danger coming from Mr. Kim, Taehyung moves away from him.

“...What’s wrong?”

“Where’s (Y/N)?”

“I don’t know. She was with me but we separated.”

Taehyung knows that he’s lying through his teeth. This only worries him even more about what he’s done to you. Thankfully, Taehyung can still hear your heartbeat, but he can’t pinpoint exactly where you are.

“How about you help me look for her?” He suggests.

Mr. Kim gives him a fake smile, but Taehyung only glares at him. “I can look for her on my own.”

Taehyung turns around and is about to head off. Mr. Kim is surprised how quick Taehyung is to reject his offers. You described him as friendly and pure, but maybe only to you. Even though he wishes not to cooperate with him, Taehyung seems to care about you a lot.

“Taehyung, it’s either you help me, or (Y/N) will be in danger.”

Taehyung stops in his tracks. He knew there was something off putting about Mr. Kim, but hearing it from his mouth confirms it.

Taehyung is overwhelmed with anger, imagining endless possibilities of what he could’ve done to you. “Where is she??”

“Don’t worry, she’s safe. Unless, you do something that gets me upset, then in exchange, I’ll hurt the one you love the most.”

“D…don’t hurt her…please…!” Taehyung’s anger swiftly changes into desperation for you.

“I won’t hurt her as long as you do something for me.”

“What is it?”

------

In a remote area of the town, Mr. Kim is walking behind Taehyung while having both his hands tied behind his back with a rope. This is the first time Taehyung has gotten out of the forest, and it’s different from what he pictured. He thought that the buildings would look more cartoony based on the picture books that he read, but they’re more firm and dull than he expected.

Unfortunately Taehyung isn’t given enough time to observe them because each time he slows down, Mr. Kim pushes him to move faster, pointing the tip of a pocket knife to his back. “Come on! Don’t slow down!”

Mr. Kim puts his hand on Taehyung’s shoulder to make him move faster, which would usually force Taehyung to nearly lose balance and fall. Since Mr. Kim is leading him to an isolate part of the town, no one can hear or see them walk along the empty, dark streets.

As much as Taehyung wants to run away, the thought of you in danger refrains him from escaping. He’s afraid that if he were to run away, then your life would be in danger. If it means to see you again, then he’ll endure this.

Taehyung and Mr. Kim stand in front of a two-story house made of all wood. The house looks rather old—resembling that of a haunted house in those horror films. However, Mr. Kim gives him no time to glorify the tall building, as he pushes him into the house.

Inside the house is dark and cold—slightly disorganized with a piece of cloth here and there, a couple of plates in the sink, but not too extreme where it’s completely unsanitary. There are so many objects and technology that Taehyung is unfamiliar with. If he wasn’t bidden by the ropes, then he would approach every item in the living room and kitchen and touch them.

“Why do I have to keep reminding you to keep moving?! Go!!” Mr. Kim orders Taehyung while shoving him up the stairs.

Taehyung has never seen stairs before in his entire life, so initially, he didn’t know that he had to lift his feet up to go up the stairs. Mr. Kim doesn’t waste time to let Taehyung learn how to use the stairs, so Taehyung is tripping over his own feet.

Once they make it up the stairs, Mr. Kim takes him by the arm and drags him to a bedroom, where it’s pitch-black. Mr. Kim may not be able to see things clearly, but Taehyung can—and the first thing Taehyung notices is offsetting to him. In the corner of the room is a bed, and on that bed is a human being. However, the human’s heartbeat is slower compared to an average heartbeat, and it feels as though it gets slower by the second.

To be specific, the human on the bed is a very old, wrinkly woman. The elderly woman on the bed looks rather peaceful, despite Taehyung sensing that her life is deteriorating in front of his eyes.

Suddenly, Taehyung is shoved forward, then forced down onto his knees, face-to-face with the elderly person. “Heal her.” Mr. Kim orders.

But Taehyung does not move a muscle. He simply stares at the elderly woman with a bewildered expression. Mr. Kim is confused, since Taehyung has been listening to every one of his orders except for the most important one of all.

“I said heal her!” Mr. Kim demands.

Still, Taehyung continues to stare at the elderly lady. This only irritates Mr. Kim more, so he grabs Taehyung by the hair, clutching it hard enough where strands fall off, and pushes his head closer to the elderly lady.

“What’s so hard about healing someone?! Can’t you see how sick she is?? If you don’t hurry up, my grandmother will die!” Underneath that angry tone, there’s a touch of desperation.

Unable to remain impassive, Taehyung looks away from the old woman. “I...can’t.”

“What…? But you’re a moonchild! Aren’t you supposed to?! Soori said that she saw it with her own eyes...a-and (Y/N)...”

Taehyung looks down with guilt. “I’m sorry…”

Mr. Kim is horrified to learn about this. He went the extra mile to make sure that he’d be able to capture Taehyung and heal his grandmother. There is no other cure for her other than the powers of a moonchild.

Not willing to take ‘no’ for an answer, Mr. Kim turns him around and points the blade of the pocket knife to this throat. “If you don’t fucking heal her right now, then I’m going to kill you and (Y/N).”

Taehyung is horrified of the knife being pressed against his throat, but there is nothing he can do. “I can’t heal her.”

“WHY THE HELL NOT?! SHE’S DYING RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU, AND YOU DON’T FEEL AN INCH OF SADNESS?!” Mr. Kim raises his voice unexpectedly, but his lips begin to quiver. “She’s...dying. She’s my only relative who still loves me...so if she dies...then...I’ll be alone…”

“Grandma, I’m here again.”

“Jihun? Did you have another fight with your parents again?”

“Yea, we always get into arguments every time we talk about music. What’s so bad about doing that as a career? I’m better off just cutting ties with my parents and live with you, Grandma.”

“Jihun...I know it’s hard to get along with your parents, but you can’t keep relying on me to run to. One day, I’m not going to be here anymore, and you’ll have to make friends of your own. Why don’t you start by mending your relationship with your parents?”

“You always worry about that! Relax, Grandma.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because when the time comes, I’ll definitely find a cure for you! Grandma, I promise that I’ll protect you.”

“...I promise...I swore to myself that when the day comes...I’ll do anything to make sure that my grandmother doesn’t die…” Mr. Kim mumbles to himself, biting his bottom lip. “If I can’t keep to my own promise, then what am I as a person?!”

Mr. Kim looks at Taehyung, feeling futile and bitter.

“So please...save her…I beg of you.”

“...I-I can’t...I’m sorry.”

Just hearing that again is irritating Mr. Kim even more. “WHY NOT?!”

“Because...she's lived a happy life.”

Mr. Kim is shocked to hear that. He moves back from Taehyung in a state of shock, dropping the knife. Mr. Kim can’t believe it. Was he annoying enough that even his own grandmother seeks death to escape from him? Is Mr. Kim just that unlovable?

“Jihun…” His sickly grandmother calls out to him.

“Grandma!” Mr. Kim immediately runs to his grandmother’s side, kneeling down and facing her.

His grandmother uses all of her remaining strength to give her grandson a reassuring smile. “It’s okay...you don’t have to pretend to be strong anymore...You’ve grown up to be a fine, young man, and that’s already enough for me. You’ll be fine without me.”

“Grandma...I…” Mr. Kim’s eyes start to well up with tears.

“Even when I’m gone, you still have people who care about you...You just have to take the time to accept them. Promise me...that you’ll keep running for your dreams and never stop.”

At this point, Mr. Kim is covered with tears, seeing that his grandmother is going to die within moments.

“I-I will…”

But even before Mr. Kim got the chance to answer, Taehyung can already feel his grandmother’s heart has stopped beating. Despite not hearing his answer, his grandmother died happily, as if knowing that Mr. Kim will not break the promise.

Taehyung has seen numerous deaths before, but this one was so heartbreaking for him to watch. Perhaps it’s because every time he saw a living being die, they were always alone. A mother fox would know when her baby is about to die, so she leaves it alone to wither. Plants have no emotions, so when a flower next to them dies, there is no response.

However, Taehyung has never seen someone mourn for one life. He forgets that sometimes, as cruel as humans as be, they are the most sympathetic beings on this earth. In a sense, Taehyung can understand Mr. Kim’s grieving, because he felt that way when you were depressed. It was a type of pain that Taehyung has never witnessed before, and it was terrifying, never knowing when you would take your life away. He wanted to help, but you refused his help.

Even if he could, how could he have fixed you? He’s relieved that in the end, he was able to make you feel better again, but after seeing Mr. Kim lose his grandmother and seeing how broken he is, will he one day have to face this with you?

------

“What do you mean ‘let her go’???” Soori shouts in her phone.

Meanwhile, Soori is in the forest with you, still unconscious and lying on the ground. It’s been a few minutes since Mr. Kim’s grandma’s passing, and Soori received a call from him.

“There’s nothing more to it, just let her go. Taehyung really wants to see her.”

“B-but...why are you letting that creature free too?? You said that after it heals your grandma, we would sell it and keep the money to run away together. Whatever happened to that?”

There’s silence on the other side of the phone. “I said that...but I’m sorry Soori. I lied to you.”

“What?”

“I knew you had feelings for me but hated (Y/N), so I used that to my advantage to convince her into letting me meet the moonchild. I’m sorry, but I don’t feel the same for you.”

Soori is speechless, having nothing to say to him.

“Just let her go, and I’ll report myself to the police. I’ll tell them that you had nothing to do with this. And Soori...please stop hating your cousin. Life is too short to hate people.”

Without saying another word, Soori hangs up the phone. She can’t believe what Mr. Kim just told her. What does he mean that he used her all this time? She thought that Mr. Kim felt the same way, and their relationship was mutual. Was it all just a lie?

Soori turns her head to you, who is still asleep on the ground. She grinds her teeth, clutching on her phone tightly.

“Why does everything always have to work out well for you?” She crouches down next to you. “What did you do to my precious Jihun to make him side with you? All those times you spent in the classroom, were you fucking him?”

Soori takes out her lighter from her back pocket, flicking it on. She smiles maniacally as she stares at the enchanting flaming ball of light.

“I’ll teach you not to mess with me anymore.”

------

Taehyung and Mr. Kim are walking side by side. Mr. Kim feels a little awkward walking with Taehyung, knowing that he manipulated Soori, drugged you, and kidnapped him. But Taehyung doesn’t seem to mind it, as he’s too busy staring at all the houses and buildings around him. Despite his physical appearance being that of an adult, he’s got a mind of a child.

“I know this is late to say this but...sorry for everything I did.”

Taehyung stares at him with a stoic expression. “It’s okay.”

Surprised, Mr. Kim head jerks back slightly. “What? That’s it? You’re not mad at me?”

“No,” he shakes his head. “You had good intentions. I think...if it were (Y/N), I would do anything too.”

Once again, he remembers the time when you were upset, and he didn’t know how to make you feel better. Mr. Kim tilts his head curiously, wondering about his relationship with you.

“I’m curious, what is (Y/N) to you?”

“What (Y/N) is to me? What does that mean?”

“It’s to describe the level of importance a person or thing is to you. For example, is she just an acquaintance? Friend? Girlfriend?”

Taehyung reacts slightly to the term ‘girlfriend’. He’s read it before in the books that you lent him, but he never bothered to ask what it means because he assumed that it meant a female friend. Since Mr. Kim separated to two terms, friend and girlfriend, Taehyung’s initial assumption is doubted.

“What’s ‘girlfriend’?”

“Well, it’s when you are romantically interested in a person.”

Taehyung doesn’t say anything, which probably means that he doesn’t know what that means either.

“How should I explain this? To be romantically interested in someone, you’d think about them all the time, your heart tends to beat faster, and you want to be with them all the time. In simpler terms, you love her.”

Mr. Kim’s explanation is very cheesy and basic, but he doesn't know how else to explain romance. Taehyung thinks about all the times when he waited for you and how lonely he felt when you weren’t around. Taehyung’s mind is constantly occupied with thoughts of you, that unforgettable smile you gave him the first time you met him, the insatiable amount of compassion you give him, and everything else. If it is what Mr. Kim describes, then it might be what he says it is.

“I think...I love her.”

That’s what Mr. Kim probably assumed already. The length that both he and you go for each other is beyond friendship, and the way you both look when talking about each other; it’s impossible not to see how much the two of you are in love. Just thinking about you makes Taehyung want to see you even more.

Unfortunately, that sweet thought is cut short when Taehyung hears a number of cries coming from the forest. He’s never heard this many cries before at once. That’s when Mr. Kim and Taehyung both get a whiff of smoke, coming from the same direction of the forest. Looking up at the sky, they can see red and orange flames just above the trees, and smoke covering the sky. Without hesitation, both men run to the forest, worried for Soori and you.

------

The fire looks stronger from up close. With each second wasted, Taehyung can hear more and more animals and plants cry for help. He’s never seen a disaster this bad before, and he can’t stop hearing all of these cries. He keeps his distance from the fire, already feeling his skin burning up and the tips of his hair burning to a crisp.

Right beside the edge of the forest is Soori, on her knees and staring at the burning forest with disbelief. Mr. Kim runs to her, kneels down in front of her and shakes her. “What’s going on?! What happened???”

“...What have I done? ...I killed her. I killed her. I killed her. I killed her. I killed my only cousin.”

“Oh my god...Soori, please tell me you didn’t start this fire! Tell me that (Y/N) is safe!!”

“She’s gone...I killed her...What did I just do?! I killed her!! It’s all my fault!!!” Soori covers her ears, unable to bear with the sounds of the flames, only increasing her guilt.

Mr. Kim can’t believe what she’s saying. Soori is at the brink of insanity, and there’s no way he can get her to talk. Amidst the cries coming from the lives in the forest, Taehyung overhears Soori repeating how she killed you. He doesn’t believe it himself--he won’t believe it.

He listens carefully amongst the cries, hoping to hear you. Taehyung blocks everything but the sound of your voice, having it memorized in his head. And it works. He can hear you, somewhere around the center of the forest.

I don’t want to die yet.

Taehyung sprints into the forest. Mr. Kim calls out to him, but he ignores him. His priority right now is to save you, but the moment he stepped into the blazing fire, his skin started to burn. Because his body isn’t used to the exposure, his skin is easily burned, and just like the scar on his arm, his skin soon turns into the same color as his burn mark. It’s extremely painful having to experience wounds to this extent, but right now, nothing else matters except for you.

Taehyung tails your voice, and eventually he finds you, still unconscious on the ground. Luckily, the fire hasn’t gotten to you yet, but it’s very close. He jumps through raging flames, though not left unscathed. He picks you up bridal style, with his arms writhing in pain from physical contact with your body. His skin burned nearly to the point where he no longer has any, the exposure of his muscles is excruciating, but your safety comes first. He takes in the pain, biting his lips, and sprints out the forest.

------

Despite it being a tough journey, Taehyung is able to get you out of the forest. Right by the side of the forest, he lays you down, where you finally wake up, coughing out all of the soot that you inhaled. Relieved that you’re still breathing, Taehyung leans close to you.

Though even the slightest touch of you is enough to bring him an indescribable amount of pain on his burned skin, Taehyung helps you sit up. “(Y/N), are you okay?”

You rub your eyes, as it still hurts from having close contact with fire, but you recognize that voice to belong to Taehyung. “Taehyung? Is that you?”

Clearing your eyes, the sight of Taehyung’s entire body covered in burns horrifies you. Initially, you didn’t even recognize him. The pale, smooth skin that you always saw is now cooked to a golden brown, and the tips of his silver hair are practically gone. Because of his injuries, he no longer resembles that of a moonchild.

You’ve been unconscious for so long that you have no idea what’s going on and why Taehyung is hurt. Even though you’re extremely concerned for him, Taehyung is relieved to know that you’re not suffering from any physical injuries.

“Oh my god, Taehyung! You’re covered in burns!! We have to take you to the hospital!”

You put your hand on his forearm, but he flinches. You move your hand back, realizing that even the slightest touch is as bad as a thousand needles to the stomach.

“No, I’m okay.”

“This is not okay!! You said that you can’t expose yourself to any heat, right?! Then why did you run into the forest?!”

“Because you didn’t want to die...and I wanted to see you one more time.”

You feel a sharp pain in your chest, feeling guilty for being the reason for his injuries. You look down, angry with both him and yourself, clutching a handful of grass on each hand out of irritation. You try your hardest not to shed tears.

“You idiot!! Why did you have to go this far for me?! Why couldn’t you just run away and save yourself?!”

This is not how you wanted to reunite with Taehyung again. He stays silent, not knowing what to say to soothe your anger. You look over his shoulder, watching as the forest is covered in a blaze of fire and hearing the townsfolk trying to calm the fire down. You can’t help but blame yourself for all of this. If you hadn’t been so naive and believed that Mr. Kim was a good person, then Taehyung and his home wouldn’t be in danger.

“This is my fault...If I had not met you in the first place, then you wouldn’t be hurt, and you would still have a home. It’s all because of me that your life and home is in danger!! I wish I never met you!” As hard as you try, you simply can’t hold back the tears.

You sob to yourself, having no idea how to fix this. You gave Taehyung nothing but trouble. Who knows what Mr. Kim did to him while you were still unconscious. The least you can do in this situation is blame yourself.

Taehyung takes you by the hands, his hands trembling from the pain. You look at him, confused, wanting to ask what he’s doing, but you refrain yourself when you stare in awe at how Taehyung is smiling softly.

“But I’m glad I met you.”

He brings your hand to his chest, feeling his heart beating at an unhealthy rate.

“Even if you regret it, I won’t. The memories I made with you will always be important to me. I learned so much from the time I’ve spent with you.”

Taehyung thinks he now knows why it was more heartbreaking to see Mr. Kim lose his grandmother. It’s all those memories he created with his grandmother; it built up to something irreplaceable. To know that a life will one day become nothing more than a person’s memory is what makes death difficult to face. That’s why Taehyung is a moonchild ecause the moon couldn’t bare with the suffering and deaths. But in the end, a life that breathes will one day stop.

Taehyung removes your hands and stands up. “Wait, Taehyung! Where are you going?!”

“...Now that I know that you’re going to be safe, I have to do what I’ve been doing all my life. I can’t let those who is still clinging onto life lose hope.”

Taehyung walks into the burning forest. In the state that he’s in, you know that without a doubt, Taehyung will surely not make it out alive. The thought of Taehyung dying is unbearable, especially since you finally got to see him one more time.

“No, stop Taehyung! Look at yourself! You’re not in any condition to save lives! Stop trying to act like a hero and come back!! Please!! I don’t want you to die…” You say, but Taehyung continues to walk off. “Taehyung I...I love you…”

He stops walking.

“I’ve been in love with you all this time, but I was too scared to tell you anything. So please...don’t go...You’ll die..” You sob in your hands.

Taehyung walks towards you, removing your hands from your wet face. You and Taehyung make a long and agonizing eye contact. He uses his thumb to wipe your tears away, then he raises his head up, kissing you softly on the forehead. His lips burns as it touches your head, but it feels so sweet at the same time. You never taught him what a kiss means, but he still did it instinctively. Perhaps in the end, Taehyung is more human than you think.

He pulls his head back, and now you see tears streaming down his burnt cheeks, giving you the most genuine smile you’ve ever seen in your entire life. “(Y/N), I think I finally know what ‘tears of joy’ feels like. I wish I can live a long, peaceful life as a human with you, but I know I can’t. So I can only tell you that I love you too.”

Just like the animals who died in front of his eyes, they were all ready to face death, and now it’s Taehyung’s turn. You can tell from his eyes that no matter how much you try to convince him, he’s going through with his plans. Even until his last moments, he’s putting others before his.

Taehyung stands up and walks into the forest. You can only do nothing but sob in defeat, head lowered to the grass. You cry aloud with agony, losing your first love.

My child...you’ve been nothing but given during your entire existence on this earth. You’ve never asked for anything but me, and you truly are a saint. Because I’ve been a poor guardian, I will grant you one wish.

------

Epilogue

The next morning, the fire died down as if it never happened. Taehyung must’ve used his powers to save the entire forest, as well as the animals harmed by it. The townsfolk can’t explain how the fire disappeared so suddenly like that, but only you know the full truth. Soori brings herself forward to the police and is arrested for arsen. Mr. Kim also comes forward and is also arrested for attempted kidnapping and drugging of a minor.

You walk into the forest, looking for any signs of Taehyung’s body. You’ve been searching for hours to no avail, praying that his body didn’t turn into ashes. With Taehyung gone, this forest feels bigger. It just doesn’t feel right knowing that Taehyung isn’t here anymore.

Among the silence, a familiar tune plays from a distance. It’s the tune that Taehyung sang to you many years ago to help you out of the forest. You turn your head to the direction of the song. The source of the singing is not from a human—it sounds more...bird-like, as if a bird is whistling the tune. When you look up at a tree branch, you see a blue jay humming the tune.

With your eyes on it now, the bird flies to a different branch, but it looks behind, as if waiting for you. For some reason, your instinct tells you to follow the bird, and so you do. The bird picks up its speed, and you start running after it. You don’t know where this bird is taking you--you don’t even know if the bird is taking you anywhere and if it’s just you desperate for answers.

That’s when the bird leads you to a large bed of flowers surrounded by various animals, ranging from deers to rabbits. When you get closer, you scare the animals away, causing them to all run away. At the center of the flower bed is a young man, lying flat on his back. You rush towards him, thinking he’s one of the men from town who was trying to stop the fire.

However, upon closer inspection, the physical appearance shocks you, as he has exactly the same features as Taehyung. His body figure, height, smooth-like skin, but the major difference is that his hair isn’t silver...but dark brown. His skin isn’t silky like Taehyung’s, but peach--if not, a shade darker than peach.

You get down on your knees, staring at him longer. He undeniably resembles Taehyung. Can he actually be him? He can’t be. He was in a state where even if he were to heal himself, he would still be left with scars. But this person has no signs of injuries on him.

While thinking to yourself, the young man opens his eyes, revealing it to be brown colored. You move away, unsure whether he’s good or bad. He sits up immediately, then he feels himself, acting as if he’s dreaming. Then he turns to you, absolutely shocked.

“(Y/N)...”

Hearing that all too familiar voice, he is without a doubt Taehyung. But how is he still alive? And why does he look...more human? He no longer has his abnormal hair and eye colors. However, right now, none of that matters to the both of you. You’re both just glad that you get to see each other again.

Taehyung jumps onto you, hugging you tightly. He then pulls you back, kissing you on the lips. Because he wasn’t focused on where to aim, he accidentally kisses you on the corner of your lips, but it doesn't matter. All that matters is that right now, Taehyung is alive again, no longer a moonchild, but as a human.

The End

A/N: Thank you to everyone who took the time to read this, it really means a lot to me! I’d love to hear your opinions and advice on how to improve in terms of writing, so don’t be afraid to message me! :D

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