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restlessmaknae · 2 years ago

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you’re my fireflower [k.s.h]

As a medic, you would have never let an unconscious, bleeding boy die in front of you, but by saving him, you actually tie yourself to him for life.

➳ Characters: soldier!Seunghun x female!reader/you

➳ Genre: romance, fluff, comedy, fantasy, magical realism, kingdom au, hybrid au

➳ Words: 14.7k

➳ Warning: mentions of blood, wounds, cuts, minor character deaths, attacks

➳ A/N: This story was inspired by Seunghun’s red hair, hence the header from the 458 MV. I hope you enjoy it because I truly enjoyed writing this story. A poll is up at the end for possible spin-offs. Thank you so much for reading! ❤️

➳ CIX taglist: @wccycc, @dat-town

As a medic, you were used to treating wounded people, sometimes even half-naked wounded people, but a fully naked person was new even to you.

However, when you heard a loud thud as if something had crashed into your wooden house, you couldn’t just sit still and do nothing. Birds flew against your walls a lot of times, especially at nights when the dim lights outside didn’t provide enough light for them to be able to differentiate between your house and the rest of the woods. Cons of living beside the woods included frequent encounters with more or less wounded animals, but the pros included being close to herbs and flowers that you collected to make creams and lotions in order to treat the citizens of the kingdom.

On the other hand, when you walked out of the house (prepared with a wooden stick in your hand in case it wasn’t a bird after all, but a bigger animal) and you caught sight of a totally naked guy in the mud, you literally froze in place. He had some scratches on his face, there was a huge cut across his abdomen and his arms seemed bruised as well.

When you cautiously walked closer to him, an alarming thought crossed your mind: what if he was dead? It would still not explain why he was totally naked because even if he might have been defeated by an animal in the woods, it was highly unlikely that he would be rid of all of his clothes including his boots. You contemplated whether or not you should wait for Hyunsuk to come back from gathering night-blooming flowers, but he had just gone out, so it was unlikely he would come back anytime soon, and the boy in the mud seemed to be losing blood from his abdominal cut pretty quickly. The flashback of your parents bleeding out in front of you came back, and you shivered, not wanting history to repeat itself. That helplessness, that desperation…

As if anything could make the situation worse, it started raining yet again, and as the raindrops came in contact with the boy’s body, his scars seemed to darken in colour. You didn’t know what was happening - just who he was or what he was -, but based on your medical experience, it wasn’t good. Even though you didn’t specialise in magical medicine, you had a feeling that it wasn’t a good sign that his scars were changing colours, so you crouched down to the stranger, threw his arms around your shoulder and started dragging him inside the house with you.

Since there was no way you would clean him up when he was losing blood this intensively - it was enough to bear the sight of his naked body -, you laid him on the ground beside the fireplace to warm him up and put a blanket over his body, so that you could concentrate on treating his wounds while not having to look at him from the waist down. His chest was rising up and down extremely slowly, but you didn’t know what happened, so you didn’t know what to do for him. You tried to gently nudge him in the shoulder, then you patted his cheeks, but he didn’t react to either. You were really, really hoping that he wouldn’t die in front of you.

You touched his forehead to see if he had a fever, but he didn’t seem to do so. You tried to take care of his abdominal cut first, but he was bleeding so rapidly, you felt searing tears sliding down your cheeks. He couldn’t die, you had to save him. You wouldn’t be able to keep living peacefully if you let someone die after how your parents had died in front of your eyes. You just couldn’t. Fear already engulfed your mind the moment you had caught sight of him, but now you were basically terrified, so you tried to work as fast as possible.

You continued on by disinfecting his scars that seemed almost black in the flames’ light, so you wondered whether he was attacked by a werewolf for it was said that werewolf’s bite caused black marks. Though you had no recollection of werewolves inhabiting the nearby woods, so you didn’t think that it was possible. Your brain was trying to come up with more and more scenarios as you were tending to his scars, trying with a fireflower lotion in hopes of aiding blood circulation as fireflowers helped to regain one’s strength and energy.

When you got to his arm bruises, you swore your eyes played tricks on you because the scratches on his arms didn’t seem black, they were a dark ruby-red.

“I must be going crazy,” you mumbled to yourself as you put on some lavender-infused drops on his wounds. Lavender was said to soothe the skin, and it worked for all kinds of injuries: burns, bruises, inflammation, rashes and so on. So whatever he had been through, you hoped that it would help him.

After that, all you could do was lean over him and pray for him. You instinctively put your hand on his abdomen as you were crying over his body. You felt an odd sensation going through your fingers, your whole body becoming numb as you were weeping over him for god knows how long. A wave of fatigue rushed over you as if you had been drained of your energy, and you felt dizzy. You really, really wanted to save him, but what if it didn’t work?

When there was another loud thud by the doors, you almost jumped back from the boy’s body on the floor, thinking that it was another random stranger. As it turned out though, it was only Hyunsuk fumbling with the keys to the door as his fingers were slippery due to the rain.

“I swear that it’s always me who gets to pick flowers at night when it’s raining. I’m getting tired of it. Maybe someone actually cursed me or-” Hyunsuk started complaining the moment he made his way inside, and you didn’t dare to interrupt him because you didn’t really prepare an explanation for the recent events.

When your brother walked into the room and caught sight of you crouching beside a boy whose naked upper half was exposed, he was understandably shocked.

“What did I miss? Who is he? And why is he half-naked?” Hyunsuk raised an eyebrow challengingly, lacing his arms in front of his chest as if he was the older one out of the two of you, and you weren’t his older sister. “Don’t tell me you’ve brought a guy over while I was away,” he added with a mischievous glint in his eyes, and if you had your wooden stick from before, you would have surely launched it at him.

“Does it look like I brought him over when he looks like this? Do you think I even beat him up?” You exclaimed frustratedly, your tears drying on your face as you pointed at the bruises on the boy’s body only to realise that there were no bruises on his face anymore. The bandage around his abdominal cut was also less bloody than before. The cuts on his arms seemed to heal quickly as well. At least, you thought so. “Wait a minute…” You held up your hand, waves of shock going over your body. You couldn’t hallucinate his bruises. You weren’t crazy. They had been there just a few minutes ago, and there’s no way your medicine helped him to recover so quickly.

“It’s okay. You can continue. I’ll just pretend I’m not here-”

“He’s unconscious, Hyunsuk. I didn’t do anything to him and I wasn’t planning on doing anything to him, okay? Just listen to me without interrupting me, please,” you said through gritted teeth, throwing one last confused glance in the stranger’s direction before straightening up and explaining the situation to your little brother from the odd noise outside as if something had crashed into your house, finding him in the mud naked and bruised to raindrops changing the colour of his wounds. Then, you pointed out that he didn’t seem to have any wounds anymore even though you had surely seen them before.

Thankfully, Hyunsuk didn’t play you for a fool, instead, he listened to you with growing concern. Just like you had suspected, Hyunsuk was also pondering whether this guy had something to do with magical medicine as the whole blood changing colour didn’t make sense to either of you.

“It doesn’t really make sense to me. Let’s say he was drunk, but why would he go around naked in the woods while drunk and then crash into our house?” Hyunsuk mused, just as perplexed by the facts of the recent events as you were. He examined the guy on the floor as if it was an unknown plant you had never seen before and didn’t know of its use, his serious self resurfacing. “Wait, look!”

When Hyunsuk exclaimed, you turned your head towards the stranger, and your jaw dropped. It wasn’t enough that his bruises were now actually gone once and for all, the bandages turning back to their original white colour, but his previously pitch-black hair was slowly turning ruby-red. Lock by lock, soon enough, his whole hair was displaying a vivid burgundy colour.

“Uhmm, what did you give him?” Hyunsuk blurted out teasingly, and you smacked him in the chest. Though when you did so, you felt a rush of fatigue coming over you yet again. Maybe you should sit down or go to sleep soon. That night there was already a lot to take in.

“I didn’t give him anything that would turn his hair a different colour. I only put fireflower and lavender on his bruises.”

“Well then, we are either both hallucinating or this dude isn’t reacting normally to non-magical medicine.”

There were two types of medicine in your kingdom: magical and non-magical medicine. Magical medicine was mostly used on the members of the royal court including the royal family and the royal army, plus magical creatures that lived in the woods or in the mountains - such as fairies, unicorns and such - or serving the kingdom - such as dragons guarding the palace. Non-magical medicine, on the other hand, was used on humans to treat their wounds, and that was what you practised with Hyunsuk. Magical medicine was also extremely rare since only magic practitioners could deal with it since they were the ones born with the ability to tame magic, but even they needed thorough practice and extensive training to be able to make use of their abilities to their full potential. Magical medics were also almost exclusively serving at the palace.

Since you and Hyunsuk were no magical medics, you used herbs, plants and other natural remedies to treat those who came to ask for your services. You didn’t have the ability to tame magic, nor did you help magical creatures. However, since you knew what was normal in your practice and what was not, the stranger’s blood changing colour and his bruises going away in the matter of minutes were definitely not normal, and you both knew it.

At this moment, the stranger’s eyes flicked open and he sat up to reach up with his hands (though he was merely grasping air), his whole body tensing in the act. He focused on nothing in particular, and it was as if he didn’t even see you, didn’t even see what was going on around him, he acted more like a person awakening from a nightmare.

“Run!” He exclaimed, desperation dripping off his words before he fell back to the ground, his chest heaping up and down in a more uneven rhythm.

You and Hyunsuk blinked at the scene, more puzzled than ever before, and you probably waited a few minutes in silence until you dared to speak up.

“Maybe he’s actually drunk,” was what your little brother said, but he still offered to look over him for the night in case the burgundy-haired stranger woke up again and attacked you. You highly doubted that he was drunk or that he was capable of hurting someone, his previous act looked as if he wanted to warn someone about a possible danger, but as to why it seemed like that or what was it about, you had no idea.

So you let Hyunsuk keep his eyes on the stranger, you were tired either way. So tired that you fell asleep the moment you fell into bed.

You usually offered medical services in your house since your herbs, lotions and other medical remedies were stored in a separate storage room inside, but you couldn’t let visitors in until you had a naked stranger (still with a blanket covering his body) in your house. Even though Hyunsuk decided to move him from the living room to his own room, you couldn’t risk someone catching sight of him and questioning you or the stranger waking up and causing trouble. So you listened to the citizens’ concerns and symptoms on the terraced front, putting out some chairs to sit on, and if you needed something from inside, you went into the storage room and got what you needed.

Since Hyunsuk and you usually took turns offering services, it was unusual that you were on your foot all day, helping patients, but your brother insisted on watching over the stranger instead of you.

“It’s enough that you’ve seen a guy fully naked, and you aren’t married,” he had mentioned sulkily, and even though he wasn’t a very conservative boy, it didn’t mean that he wasn’t overprotective when it came to you. Especially after you had lost your parents, and you had only each other now.

“It’s not like I’ve purposefully wanted to,” you had counter-attacked, letting out a huff. You couldn’t have believed that it had been what he had been fussing over, but you had decided not to go against his words when he had offered to watch over the stranger.

So that’s why you were out treating patients all day, and when they asked why they couldn’t go inside, you said that Hyunsuk himself was sick, so you didn’t want them to catch anything. It worked though, they didn’t question your words, only a few younger girls were sad to hear that it wouldn’t be Hyunsuk who would be helping them out. Your brother was indeed popular with girls.

At the end of the day, when you asked Hyunsuk if anything had happened, he said that the stranger had seemed to wake up, grabbed Hyunsuk by the shoulders and told him to ask for help, then fell back into the bed like the night before when he had exclaimed to run. His body temperature seemed to rise after this, but it went back to normal a few hours later. A few of his locks also turned back to pitch-black, but when you stole a glance at him at night, half of his hair was still bright burgundy.

He was breathtakingly beautiful, you had to admit, with his sharp jawline, his high cheekbones, his plump lips and his charismatic aura. There was just something about him that pulled you in, but you knew better than to trust a pretty face. He might have looked gorgeous, but he was still a stranger you knew nothing about.

“Do you think something might have happened to him, and he’s having flashbacks?” Hyunsuk mused out loud that night when he came out of his room to have some warmed-up porridge with you.

“I guess so. It’s definitely odd that he’s suddenly awakening and exclaiming such alarming things. On the other hand, it’s also really odd that his wounds are no longer visible, and his hair is changing back to its original colour. Just who could he be?”

“Or what could he be?” Your little brother topped your question, and he was saying something for you knew that this was definitely not a normal occurrence. He couldn’t have been a magical creature because such creatures didn’t have fully human forms. However, his hair and super fast healing definitely had something to do with magic, so maybe he was a magician practising his skills in the woods, it’s just that whatever he had been doing the night before had backfired? That was the only logical solution you could have come up with, but that still didn’t explain his naked self.

Either way, nothing happened that night and the following morning. Everything was just like the day before, and you were about to go inside for some water since you didn’t seem to have more patients waiting outside when Hyunsuk came out of his room. More like ran out of it.

“He woke up, and he wants to talk to you. He seems pretty stable to me,” Hyunsuk notified with ragged breaths, and you furrowed your eyebrows in question.

“Me?”

“Yeah. Come on!” Your brother prompted you, but before you would have done so, you put out a sign saying that you were closed for the time being and closed the front door.

When you went into the room, you didn’t expect to see the stranger in clothes, but thankfully, Hyunsuk had seemed to give him some of his clothes although they were a bit big on him. His hair was also back to fully pitch-black, and he seemed conscious and awake, not tormented by any flashbacks.

When his eyes landed on yours, he eyed you for a second, and you thought that he would be intimidating because his gaze was deadly, and you felt like you could drop to your knees if he wanted you to. He had that aura around him, it was nowhere near his ethereal, peaceful aura when he had been sleeping. However, in the next second, his lips curled upwards, and his whole face softened.

“I’ve heard that you were the one who found me,” he stated matter-of-factly, his eyes still on yours. Gosh, his gaze was really intense, you wanted to look away, but you could already feel Hyunsuk tense up beside you, so you didn’t want him to think that you were more uncomfortable than you should have been. He seemed as harmless as one could be.

“Oh, yes…”

“Thank you so much. You’ve saved me. I’m very, very grateful for that,” he continued gently and did a whole 90-degree bow. Your hand flew to your mouth, and you exchanged a puzzled look with Hyunsuk. He was so polite as if he had been someone from a high rank.

“Ah, it’s nothing. I just… I just did what I felt like was the right thing to do,” you explained to him, a bit bashful after his sincere gratitude. You definitely didn’t expect him to be so well-mannered and collected, but maybe it helped that he was all healed now, fully clothed and he had a natural colour to his hair. He looked less intimidating this way.

“I’ll repay you both for your assistance, but before that, can you tell me what state I was in when you found me?” The stranger looked at you expectantly after straightening up, and you were sure that you were blabbering at this point, but you tried to describe the situation as best as you could. He thanked you yet again when you brought up the fact that you had taken him in from the rain, and when you mentioned what kind of medicine you had used on him first. The pitch-black haired boy hummed as he was listening to you, but slightly giggled when you mentioned him being naked.

“I’m sorry about that. That’s out of my control.”

If anything, that just made you even more confused, but sensing that you had nothing more to add, Hyunsuk picked up the storyline from where you had left off and told him about the past two days including the change of his hair and his wounds healing fast. The stranger didn’t seem surprised by it, if anything, he seemed neutral, he only seemed alarmed when you had told him that he had been here for two days.

“I need to go now, they’re already worrying about me,” he announced firmly, and you didn’t have the confidence to ask who he was referring to. However, before any of you could speak up, the stranger continued. “You two need to come with me, too.”

“We don’t even know you. You could be a criminal.” Hyunsuk threw him a glare that usually worked on those people who didn’t take no for an answer, but the pitch-black haired boy didn’t waver. If anything, he seemed apologetic about having brought up such assumptions.

“I’m sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Seunghun, and I work for the royal palace. I’m the prince’s most trusted soldier.”

“You mean, prince Jinyoung’s?” Hyunsuk emphasised in shock even though there was no other prince at the royal palace. The King and Queen had two children: prince Jinyoung was the first-born and princess Jinhee was the second-born.

“Yes. I was in a carriage delivering a message to the neighbouring kingdom when our carriage was attacked. I told the coachman to run and ask for help, I’ll deal with those who attacked us, but I don’t know if he has managed to notify anyone,” he explained thoroughly, and you could feel that Hyunsuk was ready to doubt him, but he shut his mouth close when Seunghun got to the end of his monologue.

Oh. Oh, that made more sense. Not just his actual identity but the flashbacks he was having. It didn’t explain why he was naked, but you could take it for what it was: an explanation.

“Why would you need us to come with you after this? Are you still in danger? Are we in danger now?” You eyed him tentatively, and your heart skipped a beat in fear. Did you get yourself into trouble because of him? Were these attackers looking for you too now? How serious was it?

Seunghun shook his head. He looked away for a moment before he looked back at you, and even though he was trying to keep up with his friendly approach, you could sense that what he was about to say made him feel uneasy as well. His face hardened, and his lips quivered a bit before continuing.

“It’s not about that. You have to take an oath to the royal family that you would not tell anyone about what you have seen.”

That didn’t seem so bad in your opinion, but Seunghun still looked at you as if he had been asking for a lot. You could see that he was struggling within himself, and despite not knowing him, your heart did a silly little turn out of concern.

“Why can’t you just take our word for it? We won’t tell anyone that a random naked guy just crashed into our house,” Hyunsuk insisted, his judgemental tone resurfacing. He was usually the one who could tell people off because he didn’t like putting up with people’s nonsense whereas you were more soft-spoken.

“Not even about my hair changing colour or my wounds disappearing? Or my wounds turning to black in the rain? Or why was I naked in the first place?” Seunghun asked, almost weary, and the air around you shifted completely. It was icy, rigid and doubtful. Not something that you would have expected from the soldier with the warmest smile.

“Well, we won’t,” you spoke up feebly, trying to appear as confident as you wanted to be. “It may seem odd to us, but since we don’t know why these happened to you, we can’t tell anyone,” you reasoned, and Seunghun let his lips curl into a bittersweet smile. It was a sad little smile, as if he had already had this conversation replayed in his head before he knew what you were about to say.

“That’s exactly why you need to take an oath. You can’t tell anyone what I am because I’m not supposed to be alive. I was killed by those attackers, but I still survived because I’m a phoenix.”

A phoenix. That couldn’t be. Magical creatures didn’t have human forms.

“I’m not even supposed to exist, not in this form, but I still do, and one of the reasons for that is because I’m tied to the magical medic who saved me. I can heal faster and be reborn if the magician’s powers and fireflowers’ effect are combined, but this time, it wasn’t him, it was you who saved me,” he added without batting an eye, and looked straight into your eyes. Your heart literally skipped a beat, and you were frozen in place, your mind shutting off.

“But… we are no magical medics,” Hyunsuk blurted out instead of you, and you were thankful that he did so because you didn’t have the will in you to speak up.

“Or you merely think so,” Seunghun tilted his head, then took a step closer to you. Hyunsuk protectively took a step closer to the soldier, but he got the message and stepped back. “You said my wounds started healing when you started tending to my wounds. If I can get recharged with magic and fireflowers, my wounds heal within minutes, even if they are serious. If you don’t have magic in you, that wouldn't be possible.”

“But I…”

“Didn’t you unconsciously put your hands above my abdominal area? Weren’t you extremely desperate to save me, and suddenly tired after doing so?” Seunghun inquired, and your jaw almost dropped. You had forgotten about weeping over him with your hands resting on his stomach, and that odd sensation going through you followed by waves of fatigue. You didn’t think of it too much, you didn’t think that it had to do with anything, let alone the way his wounds started healing afterwards. You assumed you had been too emotional, and the stranger’s near-death experience had drained you.

You nodded, albeit still in shock, and it was only thanks to Hyunsuk’s collected self that you understood the weight of the soldier’s words.

“You’ve said that you’re tied to the magician who saved you, but this time, it was my sister. So now is she tied to you, too?”

“Yes, she is.”

You felt like the ground had opened up beneath you, the realisations hitting you one by one. The stranger you had saved was not only a phoenix, but you were also a magical medic who was now tied to someone like him - someone who shouldn’t have existed.

After learning about all of these, there was no way Hyunsuk would have stayed behind. Even if he hadn’t been the one who had saved you, he still knew of what Seunghun was, so he needed to take the oath, too. On top of that, the soldier couldn’t exactly tell you what would await you there since the magical medic who had once saved him practised at the royal palace, and it was safer for him there because they were deeply connected. Since you saved him this time, he couldn’t tell what it truly meant because it had never happened before.

“I didn’t die a lot of times before, to be honest, and every time I did, it was Byounggon who helped me heal. Usually, if I die as a human, I can take on my phoenix form and I can fly back to the palace to receive medical help. This time though, I can only assume that I didn’t succeed,” Seunghun explained while you were making your way to the royal palace on horseback. It took around 2 hours to reach the royal palace on horses, but it was the fastest option, and in this area, it wasn’t common to hire carriages. So as always, it was Hyunsuk’s friend, Yonghee, who gave you three of their horses since they had a farm, and he always helped you out in exchange for you not charging him when he or his family needed any medicine from you.

You gulped down a nervous lump in your throat, a bit frightened what it could entail for him to die, then take on his phoenix form and then be reborn again. Since magical creatures didn’t have human forms, it took you time to process the fact that he was a phoenix. He had explained that his parents had died when their house had caught on fire, and he would have died with them too, but Byounggon - who had been a little boy back then just like Seunghun himself and who had been living close to Seunghun’s home - had noticed the fire and dragged the boy out while risking his own life. His magic had barely resurfaced back then, but it had come out in full-force as he had been trying to save Seunghun’s life. Since he hadn’t known at first just how much he could have helped the almost burned boy, he had also applied fireflower on his wounds - the flower that was born after fires, so interestingly so, it was almost like a phoenix, born after turning to ashes.

When you inquired if the combination of magic and fireflowers aided his healing or one was enough, he couldn’t be sure. He said that Byounggon didn’t want to experiment on this, so he always used both, and actually, you did so, too.

“So why were you naked in the woods?” Hyunsuk blurted out after a few minutes of tense silence had fallen over the three of you, and the soldier found it so amusing, he started giggling. You blushed at the thought of having seen him naked while your brother seemed to put on his usual overprotective face.

“Well, that is what comes with me switching between my human and phoenix forms. If I go back to my human form after my phoenix one, I always end up being naked,” he shrugged casually as if it was an everyday thing for him to speak about it. The thought crossed your mind that it must have been quite bothersome for him to always leave his clothes behind when he died, but he didn’t seem to be bothered about it. Instead, his lips turned into a cheeky smile, and he averted his eyes to you, mischief glinting in his beautiful mahogany orbs. “But it wasn’t that bad of a sight, was it?”

You almost choked on your own saliva, but you had more pride than to let him be so cocky around you. Besides, Hyunsuk looked like he was about to throw hands at the soldier, so you spoke up before he had the chance to do so.

“Well, you’re quite fit if that’s what you’re asking… but Hyunsuk is quite strong as well,” you pointed out matter-of-factly, then turned your attention back to the road ahead of you instead of Seunghun’s burning gaze. You didn’t want to give him the satisfaction to see you blush, but you were sure that your cheeks were on fire, so you started fanning yourself with one hand while you held the reins in the other.

“Yes, so don’t make her feel so uncomfortable again,” Hyunsuk commented, his voice not leaving room for any disapproval. However, the other boy didn’t seem too fazed by your words or your brother’s slight warning, instead, he continued playing the little game he had started.

“Did I make you feel uncomfortable?” He inquired, his voice posing a challenge for you. You knew that the question was directed at you without looking in his direction, and you shook your head even though your heart was telling a different story. “See, I didn’t.”

“Hey, know who-”

“Enough, Hyunsuk,” you turned to him, trying to plead with your eyes. The last thing you wanted was for the two of them to end up in a fight and show up in front of the royal family with bruises all over their body. “We’re heading towards the palace after all,” you voiced out your reasoning, and despite not appearing less agitated, your brother left it at that with a slight huff and a pointed glare in the soldier’s direction who found the situation more amusing than anything.

Oh dear gosh, you couldn’t wait to arrive at the palace.

Two hours had never seemed so long before. Even though you were on horseback, you had to slow down to march through villages, and you could only speed up through hills and woods. Seunghun continued blabbering all throughout the journey, and you could tell that he was a jokester for he always tried to drop a joke here and there, but Hyunsuk didn’t seem to appreciate it at first. After a while though, he realised that he and the soldier had a similar sense of humour, and if it hadn’t been torture before, it would have been torture afterwards with these two trying to top each other’s jokes. At least, Hyunsuk seemed to let go of his hostility towards the other boy, and they didn’t get into a fight even when you took breaks to feed the horses and let them drink from the river.

You had never been around the royal palace, so you had no idea what to expect, but the palace seemed even more magnificent than you could have imagined. It was a huge building with tall towers scraping the sky, wide terraces and a beautiful, blossoming garden around. However, to get inside, you needed to go through three security gates - one that involved the dragons that guarded the palace. You were lucky that you had left the horses outside the first gate because you were sure that they would have gotten scared and maybe even run away if they had seen the dragons from up-close. You also felt your knees wobble at the sight of these gigantic animals just a few feet away from you. However, when Seunghun discussed the situation with the guards, they whistled at the dragons that immediately backed away and cleared the path for you.

After all the gates, the huge front door had another handful of guards standing by, but they easened up as they caught sight of Seunghun, and had a little chit-chat about where the boy had been before letting him in. One also offered to notify the royal medic that he arrived, but the so-called Byounggon showed up almost immediately when you stepped inside the spacious hall. It was a hall full of paintings, large flower vases, tables made of glass and wood, glass windows that let in the many colours of the setting sun, painting the otherwise blandly coloured carpets in a palette of colours.

“Oh my god, Seunghun! You’re alive! I’ve thought that you… I didn’t feel the connection anymore, and I assumed…” The medic in a beautiful burgundy-black tunic shrieked, fighting his tears as he made his way towards the soldier. When he reached him, he hugged him so tight, you wondered whether they were more than just a soldier and a medic. They seemed like good friends finding each other again.

“You’re crushing me, Byounggon,” Seunghun chuckled joyfully, but no malice could be detected in his voice. The medic hugged him for some more time, and only let go of him when the soldier announced that he was alive thanks to you.

As if it was the first time he had noticed you and Hyunsuk standing beside Seunghun, the medic looked at you apologetically and introduced himself as Lee Byounggon, one of the royal magical medics at the palace (and Seunghun’s best friend as the latter added). He bowed politely and wiped his tears away as he straightened up. You briefly introduced yourselves with your brother and bowed back out of courtesy.

“So you… you know who he is, right?” Byounggon blinked at you rapidly, trying to put together the pieces of information.

“They do. They didn’t know at first, but I’ve told them after they’ve saved me.”

“It was my sister, actually. I just… assisted to look over him,” Hyunsuk corrected the soldier, and the gaze they exchanged told you that they had no more revulsion between the two of them. Hyunsuk’s gesture almost seemed friendly as well, you were more than baffled.

“Ah, thank you so much! Thank you so much for saving him!” Byounggon thanked you profusely and even bowed frantically as if he was trying to overdo someone else in a bowing contest. You were so shocked by his gratitude that you had no idea what to say, but after what you had heard of him - how he had saved Seunghun when he had been young, and how he had taken care of the soldier ever since -, you could only imagine him like this. Forever caring and having only good intentions.

“I… I didn’t even know how I did it,” you confessed, feeling torn about the whole situation because you didn’t feel like you earned his gratitude despite the fact that you had saved the soldier. Byounggon furrowed his eyebrows quizzically, so Seunghun explained the whole situation to him, not leaving out the part that you didn’t know about your own magic. Hearing that, the medic mentioned something about a visit to the master magician, but before he could elaborate on that, a lanky boy walked into the hall with two muscular men by his side.

He had a small face with delicate features, and nothing could compare to the aura he held. He radiated elegance, chicness and that kind of icyness that came with him being in a high rank. As opposed to the guards by his side or Byounggon’s attire, he wore only white - a white tunic that was split in the front, so that he could move around more freely with his arms, it had sleeves for maximum protection, a hooded back and probably cotton pants, though his tunic almost reached the floor, so you couldn’t be sure. He had the deepest shade of black hair, but his eyes were warm when he looked at you all. There was no question that he was prince Jinyoung.

Following the others’ action, you also bowed deeply alongside your brother, but when you straightened up, the previous rigid atmosphere was nowhere to be seen. It was replaced by a tender one with the prince asking about Seunghun’s condition, and telling him how worried they had all been when he hadn’t come back from delivering the message even though the carriageman had arrived the day before, albeit a bit wounded. He was fine, prince Jinyoung reassured Seunghun, before moving on to the two of you.

You introduced yourself yet again, and even your usually confident brother seemed to sway a bit in front of the prince. Prince Jinyoung, sensing his discomfort, patted the boy’s shoulder in a friendly manner, and you watched the sight with a small smile.

“You two will need to take the oath as Seunghun has already told you. However, you will be greatly rewarded for helping out the best soldier of the royal palace, and for saving him even though you did not know his identity,” he announced with an air of authority, and you didn’t feel like you had the right to go against his words despite only doing what you were always doing - helping others. So you bowed yet again, thanking him for his generosity.

“Prince Jinyoung, I believe we need to visit the master magician as well. Do you think it is possible for him to see us as soon as possible?” Byounggon turned to the prince with a slightly worried expression whereas the royal merely waved his hand.

“It is possible if I say so,” he answered confidently and turned around to lead the way to the master magician. Hyunsuk’s jaw almost dropped to the floor, and he mouthed how slick it was from the prince to say something like that, and you had to hold yourself back from laughing at your little brother’s antics.

Seunghun, on the other hand, caught sight of your scene, and when his eyes found yours, he gave you an amused smile, one that made his eyes smile, too. He was too gorgeous, you had to look away.

The master magician repeated what you had already known about Seunghun’s condition, about how he could be reborn, how much it took for him to heal with a magician’s help and how connected he was to the magician who helped him reborn. On the other hand, he couldn’t tell you exactly what it meant that you were the one who had saved him this time, not Byounggon, as it had not happened before. He also added that it would be too dangerous to try and see if you can change the connection back to Byounggon’s magic because it might risk not just Seunghun’s life, but yours and Byounggon’s as well.

Nonetheless, Seunghun’s body had seemed to accept your magic, so now, it seemed that you were the one connected to him, not the royal medic. Byounggon also admitted that he had felt like the connection with the soldier had been caught off two nights ago - on the night you had saved him. Byounggon had fainted and spent the next two days resting, he only sprung out of his room when he had seen from his window that Seunghun had been approaching the entrance.

“Does it mean whenever something happens to Seunghun, I will feel it? Is it the same vice versa?”

“Yes, you may feel it just like Byounggon had described it. Seunghun might feel it too when something happens to you because now your magic lives in him,” the master magician explained patiently, not looking down on you at all, and his gentle approach reassured you that you can ask about anything that might concern you. That’s why you decided to pose a question that has been on your mind ever since Seunghun had mentioned the deep connection between him and Byounggon.

“If, by any chance, I die, does it mean my magic will not keep Seunghun alive?”

The room fell silent for a moment, and out of everyone, Byounggon seemed the most bitter about your question. You could only guess that he had already asked this question before. Seunghun, on the other hand, avoided your gaze, and you had a feeling why.

“It may happen, but I have never seen a magic like this before, so I can’t confirm it for sure,” the master concluded after letting silence stretch long enough for it to be unbearable, his fatherly smile showing empathy and understanding.

You weren’t a fool, you knew what it meant. Above anything else, you needed to take care of yourself and protect yourself because if you didn’t, it might hurt Seunghun, too. Your magic was inside of him, it kept him alive - you kept him alive. No matter how absurd it seemed, his life was in your hands now.

“What does it mean for me then? I can’t tame my magic. I didn’t even know I possessed it until today.”

“It means that it would be better if you stayed here and learned how to tame your magic. In return, we can protect you, and by protecting you, you can also protect Seunghun,” the master suggested, but it wasn’t an order. He looked at you as if he understood your internal battle, and you had a feeling that not even prince Jinyoung would have held you back if you had decided to leave.

You, on the other hand, might not be able to live with the guilt that you could possibly kill Seunghun if you had gotten into any unfortunate incident. It was enough for you to be reminded of how suddenly your parents had died when a fight had broken out at an inn close to your home. One wrong timing, one dangerous man had been enough to take the lives of many.

“What about my brother?” You asked instead of pondering more about your own life. After all, Hyunsuk didn’t show that he had magic in him, or at least not yet, and there was the question of your medical services as well. Who would take that on if you weren’t around?

“It is possible that he might possess magic since he is your brother, but he might not. He can stay here and learn with you, or go back to his usual life while possibly attending one of our training centres.”

You exchanged a glance with Hyunsuk, one that was bearing so many different emotions. The prince reassured you that you didn’t have to decide right then and right now since you still had to take the oath officially and then write a confidentiality contract about it. On the other hand, you seriously felt like time was slipping through your fingers because the more you thought about it, the more quickly the following events happened, and soon enough, you found yourself with a brand new fate.

There was just so much to wrap your head around that you didn’t have time to mope over the recent change of events. Hyunsuk went back home to take care of your medic shop while signing up for a magical training class to see if he possessed the same kind of magic you did. He also sent your clothes over even though you received a handful of clothes by the royal court - similar to those beautifully sewn tunics the medics here worn and other garments that you might have needed as a female. The clothes people wore at the royal court were elegant yet useful, each a bit different from the other depending on the person’s position, however all of them were in the burgundy-black colours of the kingdom. The only ones who could wear white were the members of the royal family.

You immediately began your training with the master magician since you had done something extraordinary that hadn’t happened before, so he wanted to keep a close eye on you. He was an elderly man who had seen a lot and practised his magic a lot, he was said to be the master of the most powerful magicians in the kingdom, so it was an honour to learn under him. Given his responsibilities though, he had to take care of a lot of matters, so you learned from other magicians as well, and you had classes with Byounggon too who helped you understand what it meant to be connected to Seunghun in detail, and what it entailed that the boy was a phoenix.

Byounggon was an exceptionally gentle soul. He might have looked intimidating with his sharp facial features and strict gaze when he was examining something, but he was patient and ever so empathetic. He never raised his voice at you, instead, he shared amusing or quite awkward stories of his time in the court. He also shared many stories of him and Seunghun from early childhood to present days. Based on his words, Seunghun was the most loyal person he had ever met, someone who cared deeply, and someone who had been there for him through thick and thin - and not because of their bond, but because of their friendship. Even though the soldier was witty and liked to pull pranks on poor medic who was self-aware enough to know that he was incredibly gullible, he could never truly hold a grudge against his best friend.

Even though you could only see Seunghun in passing for the next few days since they had to take care of the carriage attack matter, you could see for yourself just what kind of a person he was when he seeked you out one night, asking if you could talk privately.

The royal court was the extended part of the palace, not attached to the main palace, but separated by a back garden that had an area that was free to visit as long as one had the permission to be on the palace grounds in the first place (the other part of it was strictly reserved for the royal family). You didn’t really have time to look around the garden since you had gotten here, but the pitch-black haired boy chose it as the place to talk.

He showed you some of the flowers he found especially gorgeous, took you to the little pond where you could see blindingly beautiful water lilies dotting the surface and hiding many colourful types of fish underneath. There was a little bridge connecting the walking path to a tree-lined island with a lantern-lit pavilion in the middle, and he came to a halt there, sitting on the bench at the pavilion.

You followed his example, taking in the beautiful scenery with fireflies flickering in the distance, the palace lit like a dazzling spectacle, the pathway in the garden dimly lit by lanterns guarding the sights as if it was a hidden gem, a well-kept secret. It was tranquil and serene, away from the hustle-bustle of the court grounds where everyone was heading somewhere - to deliver messages, to take classes or trainings, to hold classes for the royal family, to cook or wash or make anything for the royal family and such.

“I’m sorry,” Seunghun broke the silence suddenly, his voice coming out deeper than before. You could tell that he was being very sincere because there was no hint of mischief in his voice, nor in his face. The boy that looked back at you was deeply apologetic, his shoulders hinged, his features solemn and the ends of his lips quivering as he caught your gaze.

“About what?”

“Everything. You have every right to be angry at me for being tied to you. If I hadn’t-” He started on his monologue, but you cut him off.

“If we hadn’t met and I hadn’t been the one who had found you, you could have died. I am glad that I could save a life. As a medic, that’s the most I can ask for,” you insisted since you saw it from a different point of view, and this was what you had promised to do for life after you had lost your parents.

You had been young back then, sewed at a nearby house alongside your mother, while your brother had been helping out your father hunting in the woods and selling the meat of the animals you hadn’t reserved for yourself. You had always been interested in medicine, and since the woods were close to your home, you had often gone out to pick up herbs and medical flowers to make lotions that were soothing for your mother’s tired hands after a long day of sewing. You had also been the one who tended to your father’s or brother’s bruises whenever they had had any. After you had lost your parents though, you had felt so helpless and kept messing up what you had worked on while sewing, so you had started learning under the nearby elderly medic, and soon, your brother had followed you. After the elderly medic had died, you had opened your own medical services to the nearby people, and it had thrived ever since then.

So for you to be able to save a life was more than you could have asked for, it was the result of your hard-work, added luck and it seemed that your hidden magic, too.

“But still… You must have plans for the future, plans that would take place outside of the palace, and now, it’s best for you to stay here. You might even have a suitor waiting for you back home,” Seunghun blurted out rather troubled, but hearing his last words, your lips curled up at the end. You would have never thought that someone like him would even think of a suitor waiting for you back home, but maybe your brother’s warning words had gotten to him.

“I don’t have a suitor, and Hyunsuk will be fine. He might seem childish at times, but he is really hard-working. Plus, the master said that we can leave the palace, it’s just better if we do so together,” you pointed out what you had learned, your voice rather patient. You didn’t intend on arguing with the soldier, you merely wanted to share your point of view. Since he didn’t seem to believe you thus far, you decided to ease the tension. “I thought you’re on better terms with my brother than before,” you added with a semi-playful smile, and there it was, that beautiful smile blossoming on his lips in return. Seunghun seemed so much more gentle and approachable when he smiled for there was something in it - warmth, compassion, hope or maybe because it felt a bit like solace - that softened his whole facade.

“That’s true, but now I have to make sure that he will like me even more,” he set his intention proudly, still smiling, and you had to look away because the sight in front of you was too much to take in. He was too much to take in, your heart felt oddly giddy beside him, and you didn’t know what to do about it.

Hence, you looked back at the scenery in front of you. While you couldn’t deny that just a week ago, you couldn’t have imagined that you would be living in the royal court, tied to a phoenix in the body of a handsome soldier, it had its own beauty. You believed that everything had its reason, so maybe, meeting Seunghun was the universe’s way of helping you discover your magic that might be able to help many others in the future, and to reassure you that you weren’t doomed forever after your parents had bled out in front of you. You could save a life.

“It’s true that it’s rather sudden, and it’s true that I didn’t think my life would turn out like this, but I know you wouldn’t have tied someone to you on purpose, and actually, you’ve helped me discover my magic. That is something that I consider a gift,” you decided to share your thoughts with Seunghun since you couldn’t tell just how agitated he still was over your bond. “I just… I feel so out of place,” you confessed, a slight hue of pink tinting your cheeks.

You usually liked to uphold a strong, invincible facade because you were the older sibling, and after your parents’ death, you didn’t want Hyunsuk to have anything less than what he might have needed. If not for yourself, you wanted to be strong for him, but here, with you being a new addition to the court, with you still learning about your magic, you felt vulnerable.

“I’ll be here if you need anything, and Byounggon is also a really, really nice guy. Prince Jinyoung and princess Jinhee are also on good terms with those who live in the royal court. Even the courier, Donghyun, is a nice kid. Everyone is really welcoming, so you don’t need to worry. And really, don’t hesitate to send someone for me. I’ll also check up on you whenever I can. I know I couldn’t do so this past week, but I’ll do so in the future. I promise,” he said it in one-go, only taking in a deep breath when he finished. You directed a soft smile at him as you looked back at him, waves of gratitude washing through your body.

“Thank you, but you don’t have to.”

“But I want to. I want to get to know you better, too,” he replied instantly, almost tormented. You were rendered speechless for a moment, and he took that as a bad sign, so he added right away: “If you’re comfortable with that, of course.”

“I am,” you bobbed your head, hoping that your cheeks didn’t flush too much. You thought that after seeing him naked, nothing could make you feel this way around him, but here you were, your heart hammering rapidly, threatening to jump out of your ribcage.

“I’m glad then,” he noted, trying to suppress his proud smile by pressing his lips into a thin line, but he looked like he was trying to hold water in his cheeks instead. You looked away, suddenly aware of the closeness of the boy, and you were secretly glad that he didn’t speak up for some time, but then…

“Besides… Your medic attire here really suits you. It highlights your beauty,” he complimented sincerely, and you almost felt like your neck had whiplash, you looked back at him so quickly. You were ready to tell him to stop joking around, but he looked rather shy, not the smug Seunghun you had expected to see who boasted about the sight of his naked body, so you didn’t have the heart to tell him off. Instead, you mumbled a quiet thank you, earning yet another coy smile from the boy.

You spent the rest of the night talking about your past life. Since you had already known some stories of the boy, it was no surprise that he was interested in you, too. When he heard that you had lost your parents when you had been younger, he seemed deeply empathetic, not making any jokes or belittling your feelings. He did crack up though when you started telling him stories of little Hyunsuk since he had seen more of Hyunsuk’s intimidating self than his silly, goofy self. He also shared stories of him and Byounggon, and how him, Byounggon and prince Jinyoung used to play hide and seek in the royal gardens when they had been younger since the latter had barely any court members his age until Byounggon’s father - a magical medic as well - made the young boy and the rescued Seunghun visit the master magician at the palace. They had been at the palace’s service ever since and living there, but according to Seunghun, neither of them minded. That’s why the prince had seemed friendly towards the two boys when you had first seen them, because they were actual friends.

That night, Seunghun walked you back to your cabin at the royal medic’s house, and after he left, although you failed to notice Byounggon by the corner, he watched your goodbye with a fond, almost excited smile.

You fell into a routine at the royal court, and soon enough, you were looking forward to your training sessions and your weekly visits back home. Even though you were often exhausted after using your magic, you learned bit by bit how to tame it, and it made possessing magic a less terrifying experience. You knew that you were in good hands here, and everyone was trying to help you out as much as they could, so you didn’t want to disappoint anyone. You practised as much as you could, and when you didn’t have training, you helped out with the herbs and non-magical medicine since it was your expertise after all. You also met more members of the royal court, and soon enough, you didn’t feel so out of place anymore. Seunghun was right: everyone from the women working at the kitchen to the courier kid were welcoming, and often, even the prince and princess came to spend time with you all. The royal court was like a little village, so you didn’t feel that stuck anymore either, you had everything you needed there.

You couldn’t deny that you missed Hyunsuk, but with how busy you were at the palace, days passed by eventfully, and your promised weekly visits arrived quickly. Seunghun always accompanied you, and indeed, the two boys became good friends over the course of the next few weeks. Hyunsuk had also become more responsible about his duties, and now, he had Yonghee to help him out who had always seemed interested in medicine, so he could make use of his book-smart medical knowledge now. Yonghee’s family had a farm where he usually did what his parents asked him to do, but he had three siblings, so there was enough help at home, and he had always been too smart to not put his brains to use.

Hyunsuk did go to see if he possessed magic, but they said at the training centre that he might not have or it might not have resurfaced so far even with the exercises they gave him. He wasn’t discouraged by that, after all, he didn’t measure his worth by his ability to have magic within him or not, and for that, you really, really admired him. He could have easily been jealous over your abilities, but he was the furthest from jealous. A know-it-all, he was though…

“Don’t worry about me, sis. Worry about your soldier instead. I’m afraid his eyes will pop out once, he keeps looking at you with those loving eyes,” Hyunsuk once whispered in your ear when you were about to leave and Seunghun already went out to check on the horses. Bewildered, you looked at your brother in disbelief, and smacked him in the chest.

“Hey! Don’t say things like that. It’s not what you think,” you reprimanded him in your usual older sister tone, but as expected, Hyunsuk didn’t even bat an eye. Instead, he boasted a cheeky grin that made him look so much younger than he was.

“You seem to be in too much denial for it to be a groundless assumption,” he singsonged joyfully, but before you could counter-attack him, the door flew open, and Seunghun came back with a giddy smile, letting you know that the horses were ready. When you looked at your brother, he still had that annoying, knowing grin on his face, and shrugged as if he didn’t say anything.

Nevertheless, you tried your best to forget about Hyunsuk’s words, but you couldn’t help but wonder if the soldier felt the same way about you. After all, he kept his promise, and checked on you almost daily, but you assumed that it was out of pity first, or maybe it was because he was connected to you. Byounggon also pointed out that Seunghun kept finding a reason to see you, and he didn’t usually act like this, but according to his best friend, the soldier was in a particularly good mood lately. He was usually upbeat and energetic, but there was something different about him.

“I haven’t seen him like this before, so I can only assume that it’s because of you,” the medic admitted, yet his smile wasn’t cheeky or knowing. It was a gentle, almost prompting smile, one that you reciprocated with a shy one, and diverted the topic to your abilities instead.

The more you thought about it, the more you realised that you cared about the boy, and not just because you were tied to him, not just because he had almost died in front of you. However, you didn’t dare to let him know about your feelings. Even though he wasn’t immortal despite being a phoenix (he aged like everyone else because of his human self whereas he could be reborn because of his phoenix self, but one day, he wouldn’t be able to be reborn again), and when he wasn’t in a dangerous situation when you needed to help him, he was just an ordinary soldier who kept making you blush by the garden pond and who kept making you laugh with his silly pranks on poor Byounggon, you didn’t know whether it could work, whether you would actually put him in more danger by being closer to him than you already were.

Still, he gave you flowers when he visited you, and when you heard a gardener complaining that someone had chopped off some of the flowers in the royal court’s garden, you had to resist the urge to laugh. He loved talking about what your favourite flowers in the garden represented, precious little things he had probably asked someone about, but he presented it as if he had already known about these. He also got you dates and dried fruits from the market when he was doing errands out of the palace since he knew how much you loved them. Even apart from these gifts, he was a man of affectionate acts; it was in every look he gave you when you as much as miscalculated your steps and almost slipped, it was in every hand he held out for you when you were getting off your horse, it was in every enthusiastic wave he directed at you even if you were on different sides of the pond (somehow he always caught sight of you), it was in every spoonful of food he put on your plate instead of his when you had dinner at the court canteen together, and he knew which side dishes were your favourites.

On the other hand, you couldn’t stop worrying about him. You knew that he couldn’t die if you were around, but he was a soldier, and he didn’t need to go far to get bruises or a swollen ankle. He gave it his all during his physical training, and those resulted in some scars that healed fast if tended to by magic, but others couldn’t know about what Seunghun was, so he was usually treated by other magicians apart from you while you were preparing to do so yourself. Byounggon said that it usually took him only a few minutes to heal Seunghun’s smaller wounds whereas the others might have needed more time.

Once though, Seunghun came back from the border covered in bruises when a group of rebels tried to attack the royal army. Since the rebels were good fighters, Seunghun suspected that they were from the neighbouring kingdom’s army, but he couldn’t be sure why (though after the carriage attack, something had to be going on), so they held the rebels as hostages, and they were currently being interrogated.

The soldier, however, was rushed to you by Byounggon who said that you should try to heal him now since the master magician had deemed you ready after you had been already using your magic on others, strictly under a more experienced magician’s watch. This time, too, Byounggon was by your side, and you three were in a smaller room at the royal infirmary. If it hadn’t been for your bond with Seunghun, others could have been around as well, but Byounggon knew the best way to treat Seunghun, so it was better this way.

As you practised, you pulled in all of your magic - that felt like a wave of energy rushing through your body, waiting to be used up -, concentrating on the image of Seunghun’s bruises healing, and put your hands above his core. It wasn’t necessary for you to place your hands over his wounded body part since the centre of his energy was around his abdominal area, and what you needed to do was to recharge his energy centre with your magic. Apparently, that’s what you had done while weeping over him on that fateful night, and similarly, you felt the same kind of desperation moving in you. The room ceased to exist around you, all you could feel was that energy rush transferring through your hands. It was as if you had been running nonstop, your throat burning, your mouth dry and heart beating so rapidly that you needed to catch your breath when you felt a hand over your shoulder.

“Good job! You can stop now,” Byounggon notified you firmly, his voice bringing you back to the present. As you opened your eyes, you tried to take in everything in the room to ground yourself, awakening all your senses; the smell of the freshly washed sheets under Seunghun’s body on the bed, the softness of the pillow under you in the chair, the warmth of Byounggon’s hands over your shoulders, the sight of Seunghun’s now intact skin, and the sound of the slight hustle-bustle in the corridor outside of the room.

“Thank you. Thank you so much,” Seunghun smiled at you affectionately, his eyes twinkling with mirth. You, on the other hand, felt a bit numb still, and as you were trying to stand up from the chair, you nearly lost your balance. If it hadn’t been for Seunghun’s firm grip on you, you might have fallen back. “Are you okay?” The soldier inquired, genuine worry causing his forehead to appear wrinkled. You had never seen him so concerned before, and the way he looked at you as if he was ready to walk through fire for you made you feel even more dizzy.

“Yes, I’m fine,” you nodded nevertheless, but didn’t go against the other medic’s advice when he suggested sitting back down. As you took a seat again, Seunghun’s grip loosened around your wrist, but he still didn’t let go. You didn’t mind. It was as if he was your anchor, and you were ready to let him ground you.

“It’s normal for you to feel everything more intensively when it comes to Seunghun. It’ll get better after the first few times,” Byounggon explained with a hint of empathy in his voice. No wonder you had slept so well the night of saving Seunghun. You had basically knocked yourself out back then. “I’ll bring some water for you,” Byounggon offered without you asking him to do anything, and left the room immediately.

You blinked a few more times, the dizziness slowly losing its grip on you. Soon, everything shifted back to place around you, yet you weren’t worried about yourself. Instead, you kept looking at Seunghun’s exposed arms and face to examine if there were remains of his bruises or there was none left.

“Why are you so worried? You can see that I’m fine,” the boy mentioned with a wide, toothy smile, and he looked down at himself to prove to you that you weren’t hallucinating. He looked as if he hadn’t been attacked at all.

“I know, I just… I can’t help but worry about you. Despite knowing that you can’t get seriously hurt, it’s still painful for you until someone tends to you, and I don’t like that,” you huffed, your lips forming a pout unbeknownst to you. Seeing that, Seunghun let out a joyous laughter, something that warmed your heart, yet confused your mind.

You finally looked up at him, looked into his deep, dark orbs, and blinked a few in confusion.

“You’re cute when you’re sulky,” he explained the cause of his laughter, a smile blossoming on his lips yet again. You felt bewitched when he smiled like that, and you were sure that your cheeks were turning ruby-red, so you switched on your defensive mode.

“I’m not.”

“Yes, you are.”

“No, I’m not.”

The more you bickered, the wider the boy’s smile got, and the faster your heart was beating. You felt like a kid again, that childish excitement yet nervousness that you experienced when you had been playing hide and seek with Hyunsuk in the woods. This time, it was also a bit like that; trying to hide your feelings while seeking out his reaction to see if he felt the same way.

While you were bickering, Seunghun leaned forward a bit each time he spoke up and so did you. So after a few rounds, your faces were so close that you could see the slight blemishes on his skin, the roughness around the edges, the imperfections that made him perfect. You could see a tiny version of you in his mahogany orbs, and you wondered how he actually perceived you.

You kept gazing at each other for a few seconds before the boy dared to speak up, quiet and tentative, yet there was that confident edge to his voice that told you that he really wished to know the answer to his question.

“Why are you actually worried about me?”

You gulped nervously. He was too good at reading you, it seemed. Something that you would have hated if it had been for someone else since you wanted to appear as strong as possible at all times to hide your vulnerabilities and pain, but it was him out of all people, and he knew more about you than anyone else apart from Hyunsuk. Plus, he hadn’t left or ignored you despite knowing about your past and despite seeing your weaknesses.

So you wanted to be honest with him.

“I… I think I’ve gotten used to worrying only about Hyunsuk after what happened to our parents, and I was fine with that, but when it comes to you, since the moment I saw you, I’ve been worried,” the flashback of seeing the boy covered in bruises and that huge cut on his abdomen came back, and you shivered. You noticed only then that Seunghun was still holding your wrist because he gave it a slight squeeze. “Then, I got to know about who you are, and that we are tied, and I actually felt relieved. I thought I saved you once, I can do so again, but now I’m scared. I’m scared because I know I’m worried for another reason.”

The confession fell from your lips almost easily, like a part of a lullaby that you were singing to him. He was nothing but caring towards you, and since Byounggon had also mentioned that he had never seen his best friend like this before (and Hyunsuk had also teased you about Seunghun’s heart eyes), you dared to guess that he reciprocated your feelings. Not to mention the way the boy worded his question, as if he was also trying to see if you felt the same way.

And now… Now when your faces were so close to each other’s, when you could see every crease, every twitch of his lips, every shift of the emotions crossing his face, something in you told you that Seunghun didn’t lean back for the same reason you didn’t.

When he leaned forward, ever so subtle and ever so slow as if he wanted to give you time to back away (though you wouldn’t), you prepared your heart for what was about to come, your eyes slowly closing.

However, the door flew open right in that moment, and you immediately leaned back into the chair whereas Seunghun put his arms behind him on the bed to support himself, increasing the distance between you two quite drastically.

“Sorry for the wait. Mrs Choi stopped to tell me about the letter she received today, so I couldn’t leave until she told me all about her grandchildren,” Byounggon chirped rather bashfully as he put a jug of water on the bedside table and poured you a glass of water before reaching it out to you.

“It must have been exciting,” Seunghun noted rather forcefully, but his slightly awkward smile went unnoticed by his best friend.

“You know how she is. You can’t escape from her once she starts talking.”

“Yes, you’re right,” you mumbled after taking a few sips of water, knowing the elderly woman at the canteen all too well. However, when you exchanged a glance with the soldier, you could see that he was rather embarrassed about the situation as well, so he directed an apologetic smile at you. You smiled back, albeit a bit coy, and let the other medic tell you all about the stories he had heard.

After your rather intimate moment at the infirmary, nothing changed, except the fact that during random times of the day, the image of his face being so close to yours came back, and you immediately flushed. You couldn’t do anything about the state of your heart either, it went crazy whenever Seunghun was around. Before, you had never as much as dared to think about loving someone so deeply apart from Hyunsuk, let alone letting others love you. You had steeled yourself because the less people you had close to your heart, the less painful it would be to lose them.

However, even since you had entered the royal court, you had become so intertwined with other’s lives, there was no turning back from here. You became friends with the maids, the couriers, the ladies working at the kitchen, Byounggon and the other magicians, and even princess Jinhee. Seunghun, however, was a totally different story because you weren’t just friends, you knew that. You could feel it in your bones now; after the infirmary, you couldn’t go back to how things had been before, it was just a matter of time before you fully gave in to your emotions, and you both feared that moment and waited for it to happen.

In the meantime, you went on your usual evening strolls when the weather and your duties allowed, Hyunsuk visited you one weekend to bring over some night-blooming flower lotion and some home-made kimchi from Yonghee (who had been nothing but grateful for the opportunity to work with his friend), and then, you went home for the weekend with Seunghun. In the beginning, you had felt like it would be a burden for the soldier to come with you since there was only a slim chance that anything could happen to you, let alone you losing your life. However, after a while, you had realised that he would have been more bothered by the fact that he couldn’t have accompanied you, so you let go of this concern.

Usually, you left the palace early in the morning and came back later at night, but this time, Hyunsuk and Seunghun got way too competitive when it came to a round of children’s games, and kept competing until you told them that it was time to leave. Your suggestion wasn’t approved by either of them, so you gave in to staying for the night. Once they had enough of the games, Hyunsuk washed up first, then Seunghun (who was given Hyunsuk’s clothes yet again to sleep in something clean), and after that, it was your turn.

However, when you came out of the washroom in your nightgown and wished goodnight for both of the boys who had agreed on sleeping together in Hyunsuk’s room, your brother closed the door on himself and locked it from the inside.

“Wait! I thought Seunghun would be sleeping in your room,” you shouted after him after exchanging a puzzled glance with the soldier. You could imagine Hyunsuk leaving you without a reply, but at least he shouted back:

“Not a chance. He’s all yours.”

You didn’t know what to do with your little brother’s sudden behaviour, but you tried to make it as casual as possible when you suggested different options for Seunghun. The jet-black-haired boy couldn’t accept your offer of staying in your room on a mattress beside your bed. Instead, he brought the mattress out of the storage room to the living room, beside the fireplace. He even cracked a joke about that particular spot being familiar since Hyunsuk had told him about how he had been placed there when your brother had walked into the house on the night you had met.

You bid your goodbye to Seunghun afterwards who singsonged a goodnight to you, and you headed back to your room with butterflies in your stomach. Sleep didn’t even come to you easily, and you kept tossing and turning in bed until you had to use the restroom. You tried to be as quiet as possible because the restroom was on the other side of the living room, meaning that you had to cross the living room to get there. Seunghun, however, was with his back to you when you walked past him, so you assumed that he was sleeping.

Nevertheless, when you were about to walk back to your room, you noticed him turning towards you.

“I’m sorry. Was I too loud?” You whispered tentatively, halting in your steps. The boy shook his head, a gentle smile forming on his lips. He didn’t seem weary, there was no sleep in his eyes, so you believed that he was telling the truth.

“Not at all. I couldn’t sleep either way.”

“Are you uncomfortable?”

“No,” he shook his head yet again before you could think of making adjustments in case he was uncomfortable beside the fireplace.

You bobbed your head as you received his answer, unsure what to say. You felt like you could just sit beside him and talk for hours just like you did during your night strolls at the court, but you weren’t sure that it was the time or place for that. Before you could overthink the matter though, Seunghun broke the momentary silence.

“Actually, I have something to say,” he announced confidently, waiting for you to potentially go against his words if you wanted. Since you were all ears, you prompted him to go on as you lowered yourself onto his mattress, so that you could be at eye-level with him. He also pushed himself up into a sitting position, so you were face-to-face, just like at the infirmary.

“I pressed you about being worried about me because I feared that you might feel like you have to do so. Because of our bond, you know. I don’t want you to feel like you must do something because of me. And I had this silly thought too… That you might like me, but you feel like you have to because of the fact that we are tied.”

Your heart skipped a beat when the word ‘like’ rolled off his tongue. His voice was tender, his words even more so, and the look he gave you was nothing but affectionate. Still, there was a hint of doubt in his orbs, the seed of uncertainty planted in his features from his tensed shoulders to the way he fumbled with the ends of the blanket in his hands. This moment, of him being so raw and concerned and uncertain, scared you a bit for you had never seen him in such a state. This moment was like a glass bead that could break if you were hasty with your answer or if you didn’t word yourself right.

“Do you only care about me because of our bond?” You tested the waters, not taking your eyes off him. He seemed a bit taken aback by your question; not hurt, but instead, bewildered that you would have ever dared to assume such a thing.

“No. That’s so not true.” He shook his head fervently, many different emotions crossing the sky of his orbs. He might not have realised why you asked about this out of the blue, but his shoulders easened when your lips curled into an understanding smile.

“It’s the same for me,” you reassured him first things first. You wanted to tell him all about your feelings so badly, but you needed to pluck up your courage. Instead, you reached for his hands first. He was reluctant to let go of the blanket he was still toying with, but when you peeled his fingers off the material, he let you hold onto him just like you had let him hold onto you at the infirmary. He looked down at your hands for a moment before looking up at you again, and there it was, his signature tender smile that you loved so much.

As if it was the one thing that prompted you to speak up, you found yourself delivering your confession; by the crackling fireplace, over your intertwined fingers and through the rapid beating of your heart.

“I like you, Seunghun. Not the one I’m tied to, but the soldier who’s loyal to his friends, who would do anything to make others around him happy, and who always remembers every little thing about me. I like you for who you are, not what you are,” you emphasised, squeezing his hand in the meantime.

Seunghun looked at you as if he had looked at you for the first time. He didn’t move for a few seconds as if he was still trying to process what you had just said, but then, he didn’t hesitate. He leaned forward to continue what he had started back at the infirmary, and you didn’t protest. You kept looking into his warm, mahogany eyes, swimming in them, drowning in them, letting the waves crash over you as his lips touched yours. Your eyelids shut unconsciously, and for a moment, there was only him, only you, only him and you.

You felt Seunghun lean back from the kiss, and you opened your eyes to see a fully blossomed smile tinting his plush lips. He seemed radiant like the first ray of sunshine in the morning after a stormy night, and your heart felt warm just by the sight. You would have never thought you would be the one to make him so happy one day because he gave away so much of himself to others, but you were delighted and a bit shy that you could make him beam like that.

“Gosh, I like you so much,” Seunghun exclaimed, his voice and face and heart full of love as he crushed you into a hug, and kept you in his arms tightly. You felt yourself melting into his embrace, feeling safe and sound, vulnerable and well-protected at the same time.

You were in such an ecstatic state that you were only made aware of your surroundings when you heard a key turning, and in a blink of an eye, Hyunsuk opened the door of his room just to lean towards the door frame, eyeing you two hugging each other.

“It was time,” he grumbled, but there was a mischievous smile in the corner of his lips, so you could tell that his annoyance was fake. You knew him enough to know very well that he had seen it coming.

“Did you hear everything?” You guessed frantically as you let go of each other with the soldier to turn towards your brother. Nonetheless, your fingers were still intertwined.

“Yes, so now that’s done, don’t be too loud. I want to have a peaceful sleep,” he semi-warned you, but there was still that cheeky smile on his lips.

Once Hyunsuk went back to his room again, you exchanged a glance with Seunghun, only to start giggling. Then, you felt his arms around you yet again, and you eased into his touch, his warmth already familiar despite it being so new still.

“This feels like a dream,” the boy sighed into the embrace, and you could only share his sentiment. This really did feel like a dream, the best kind, that made your heart flutter and your cheeks flush. On the other hand, it was your here and now, and you weren’t ready to let go of it anytime soon.

“Hopefully, it won’t end soon.”

“It won’t,” Seunghun insisted, newfound confidence lacing his words. “We’ll keep on dreaming together for a long, long, long, long time,” he emphasised quite playfully, but when he let go of you, and you looked into each other’s eyes again, you knew that he was being serious.

“I can’t wait.”

“Me neither,” he replied, albeit a bit coyly, and you giggled yet again. It really felt like a dream you didn’t want to wake up from, it was so warm, so comforting, so hopeful.

You might have been the one to save Seunghun on that fateful night, to forever seal your fate together, but you felt like he had saved you, too. He was your phoenix that rose from the ashes despite the hardships life had thrown at him ever since he had been really young, and you were his fireflower; growing from even the toughest grounds through the toughest circumstances and blooming for him, only him.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed the twist with Seunghun’s phoenix form. Since phoenixes are usually red and gold, the idea came to my mind seeing his red hair that he should have red hair in his phoenix form, and when he turns to ashes and reborns as a human, his hair turns back to pitch-black. That was basically where it evolved form. I don’t write a lot of fantasies, so let me know if you have any questions regarding the fantasy world in the story. 🥰

All in all, I hope you enjoyed the story! Thank you so much for reading it! ❤️

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Since I’ve gotten quite attached to the side characters in the story, I have some possible spin-off ideas.

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