Her feet stumbled and she almost fell when Jimin pushed her into her room. "What is the matter with you?" she asked.

"Where were you?" Jimin asked in a hushed whisper. "You were late to your practice, I heard."

Jimin briefly narrowed his eyes to look closely at the little cut on her cheek, only furrowing his brows slightly and questioned her nothing as he slid his thumb over it. Without touching the skin, she could practically feel how the cut had gone and she was healed. Only short seconds passed. She wished she could do that.

"I wasn't that late. They hadn't yet started when I arrived." Chaeyoung told him, trying to sound calm.

Her heart hadn't been able to stay calm after that kiss with Jungkook. Her mind had been distracted for the entire time she was at her practice, all the time lingering about the memory of Jungkook's lips on hers. Tender, soft and gentle. Warm and soothing like an evening tea. It felt full. It felt meaningful.

"Is that why you are here? Just to ask me why I was late?" she asked, slightly worried on how she was to explain to her brother what had caused her to be late. Lying to him wasn't necessary when he could notice that it was a lie from miles away. But then, sharing a kiss with someone of the Defense Sector wasn't a good excuse for her unpunctuality either.

"No." Jimin turned his head around and locked the door. "Listen. I overheard Father and Mother discussing earlier," he said when he went to sit beside her. "They are going to tell you something very soon. It will be soon. That I am sure."

"Tell me about what?"

"Today's practice will be the last practice," Jimin said, his tone serious. From the look of his eyes, she knew he wasn't fooling around.

"What does that mean?" she asked with eyes narrowed, feeling her heart stopped beating for one moment.

Jimin looked down at his lap briefly and with a heavy sigh, he looked straight into her eyes. "They found you a husband. A Healer."

"What?" she breathed. "No, no, no," she shook her head. "They can't do that to me. I'm –I'm almost there! I am almost there, Jimin. I can almost cure a wound in one attempt. I am only left with making the scar totally disappear, I swear."

Her eyes began to shake, tears dropped, damping her cheeks.

Jimin looked around her room, rummaged through her things before he went out and came back with a knife. He sat beside her in hurry and Chaeyoung's eyes widened when Jimin looked her dead in the eye. "What are you doing?"

He said nothing. His gaze dropped to his arm and before Chaeyoung could think of saying anything, Jimin gritted his teeth and stabbed his forearm, dragged the knife until it almost met his wrist before he pulled it out with a louder groan and watered eyes. He breathed heavily, teeth gritting, and the pale skin of his face reddened.

Chaeyoung gasped in shock, panic arising and her tears rolled down wildly. "Have you lost your mind?!"

"Now, heal me."

"What?"

"Heal me!" he hissed. "We are going to prove to Father that you are not a hopeless Healer."

Chaeyoung couldn't breathe calmly and it was affecting her. She couldn't see her brother hurt like that. Her eyes wouldn't stop letting the water escape and she wiped them off roughly.

"Calm down," Jimin said. "Please calm down."

"What if I can't heal you?" She shut her eyes tight briefly and more tears poured down. "You are an idiot, Jimin!"

Jimin reassured her with his smile through his own tears trying to suppress the awful pain. "You can. Now, do it. Confidence must live. Hesitance –"

"Must die," she continued and exhaled loudly.

"Remember what I told you. Don't let your failure control your mind," he reminded her. "What do you want to do now?"

Chaeyoung looked at the blood staining her brother's clothes, dripping down his skin and some dropped on the floor and on the edge of the bed. "I want to heal you."

"Yes. You want to heal me. That's the most important thing you want and need to do. Heal me. Now, are you thinking of your failures already?"

He was correct. Her mind was a crowded space. She thought of what everyone said about her. She thought of every single time she healed a person she ended up doing it halfway. She imagined Jimin's arm having a large visible scar despite not feeling the pain.

"Get rid of them. Think of why you want to do it. Think only of that," Jimin instructed. "If you do not do as I say, you will only able to imagine that you are in your mind. But you will not be there. Because your mind is crammed, there will be no space for you in your mind."

Chaeyoung nodded.

I want to heal my brother. I want to heal my brother. I want to heal my brother.

Chaeyoung placed her hands on her brother's bloodied arm. She felt the warm liquid wetting her skin. Her eyes shook with fear. In all the practices, all the patients she had, none of them ever had a wound so fresh the blood still warm. Jungkook's wounds, too, albeit the appearance and the feeling they gave. They looked and felt new, but they weren't. The same was with Taehyung's. His arm was full of huge cuts here and there that revealed his bone, looked very new but they certainly weren't as fresh.

Jimin's was different. She saw it herself. She saw how the knife had slowly moved, creating a cut so big and deep she could see what was inside with every second that crawled away. She saw how the warm blood flowed in a rush, staining the clean garments with crimson red.

Jimin said her name gently. "Don't be scared. That's the last thing you have to be."

She nodded again, took a deep breath, and released her breath heavily hoping that the fear would follow. Confidence must live, hesitance must die, Jimin's voice echoed in her head. Chaeyoung swallowed, set her eyes down to look at the deep red around the whites, and she shut her eyes. The song played softly from within her.

Come confidence, come.
Come live with us.
Take comfort along
Live together with it.

Go hesitance, go.
Go far away from us.
Take our pain along
Die together with it.

As soon as the song ended and faded peacefully, blue lights began to glow.

*

The group of Newcomers dispersed after the trainer blew the whistle and waved his hand to dismiss them. The evening training session ended. It felt too long, particularly on that day. Every session on that day felt too long. It didn't actually help that he wasn't really on a good term with some of the Newcomers.

At each session, Jungkook would receive long seconds of deadly stare from them. He ignored them all, recalling his grandfather's advice every time he wanted to give them something in return.

But, Jungkook also felt stupid for letting those men attack him secretly. He hated being looked down, especially to them.

His flesh burned like hell especially at a time when one of the fools 'accidentally' speared him. He gritted his teeth and swallowed down any sound he almost produced when the thin spear of fire pierced his calf, leaving a hole burning dripping with his blood. Wicked grin played on the man's face, apologized without meaning and laughed with his friends, then, celebrating a victory.

Jungkook endured the pain with all his might. It was all due to his trainings that the pain didn't make him feel like dying, even when they hurt badly. It was all still bearable.

Yugyeom was talking to him, walking with him when Jungkook recalled seeing Chaeyoung walking into the small path leading toward the pond while he was training. He didn't see her walking out earlier but he could have missed it. A few more steps forward, Jungkook slowly halted his steps, feeling his heart restless the farther he walked.

"I'll see you tomorrow," he told Yugyeom, turned around swiftly and winced slightly when his calf throbbed, ignoring Yugyeom asking him where he was heading to.

Jungkook's intuition was almost always correct when it came to her. She was lying down on the grass, eyes closed and hands clasped on her stomach. Her face glistened under the soft touch of the moonlight.

"It's late," Jungkook said gently, sauntered toward her unmoving figure. When he sat down next to her, he glanced briefly and caught a clearer view of her face. Her expression calm yet it was easy to notice that it was just a façade. "Why aren't you home?"

Chaeyoung's breath came out relaxed. "You're always asking the same thing. Are you that worried of my wellbeing?"

Jungkook's eyes didn't move away from looking into the dark that was far across from where he was. Unlike the unbothered expression hanging off his face, his inside flustered. "I am always worried about you," he confessed.

Silence descended and Jungkook's mind reeled to the day when he'd locked lips with her. He recalled how her cheeks had turned rosy, her breaths had become slightly uneven, and how it had flustered her. It was a bit unclear to him, though, about her feelings. He wished she was as easy to read, just like how he was to her.

"I care about you," he spoke, breaking the silence, only realizing that the words he'd kept inside for so long had slipped so easily through his lips. All the time, he had only left her with big, huge hints. After what happened in his house, perhaps, hints were no longer necessary. "It is hard not to."

"I thought..." she began softly after leaving him hanging for a while, "it would cost me a different lifetime to hear that from you."

Jungkook stiffened. His head whipped to look at her and his heartbeat lost its tempo when her eyes looked directly at him, her lips allowed a smile to decorate her face. Chaeyoung licked her lips momentarily, staring at him while still lying flat on the grass, her initial pose unchanging.

He wanted her to say something more, because he wasn't good in reading and interpreting hints that involved whatever that lay inside of her mind, of her heart. He wanted something clearer than that to free him of doubts.

Chaeyoung's eyes rested on his for the longest moment before she slowly sat up, her knees folding in front of her and she placed both hands on top of her knees. Her eyes never left his. "I feel the same about you," murmured her.

His body reacted quicker, disallowing his mind to ponder upon it. With a hand propped on the grass at behind her, Jungkook's other hand lifted to cup her flushed cheek, then, slipped into her hair, combing the silky-smooth locks. His eyes stared deep into hers. In the sparkling eyes of hers, he saw the reflections of forlorn, halting him from placing his lips on hers.

Jungkook opened his mouth to speak, but Chaeyoung placed a thumb on his lips. He stopped himself, sensing her disapproval. When she let her palm caress the side of his face and pulled him gently for their lips to meet, Jungkook let his eyes close, allowing his lips to connect with hers with nothing else bothering his mind.

His heart wasn't acting the same like how his mind was. He felt the somber in her touch and it bothered him, leaving his heart restless when she felt that way.

Tears welled up in her eyes. Jungkook's brows furrowed upon seeing it. Chaeyoung looked away, wiping her tears with her knuckles after pushing his chest gently. His hand on the grass went to rest at her back, fingers lightly curling at her waist, holding her gently as he scooted closer to her.

She had her head turned to the other side, her hands clasped tightly on her lap and he felt like something was missing. Subconsciously, Jungkook pushed her hair to behind her shoulder carefully and stroked the side of her neck with the back of his fingers softly. And then, he realized it.

Her neck looked empty. The last time it looked like that was long ago that the view seemed strange to him now. "Where is the pendant?" he asked.

Chaeyoung slowly looked down, her hand went up to where the pendant had always been. Her fingertips traced lines there and when she turned to look at him, her eyes were mournful. "It's been returned."

Jungkook wiped away the tear that had fallen from her eye. She chuckled sadly, pressing her palms against her face before wiping it gently.

With a low voice, he asked, "For what reason?" He was confused and for some reason, he felt anger slowly building up.

"For being useless," she told him quietly. "I have been very consistent with failing, so they took the pendant from me. I can no longer go to practices, because I would only waste everyone's time."

It wasn't difficult for him to understand the Healers and their high expectations. The Healers that was once the largest community lost too many of their people during the attack. But to him, it was ridiculous that they wouldn't acknowledge small progress. They didn't seem to see how a small progress could be the key to something bigger.

"You have me," he said. Even without the formal practices, she was always practicing on her own. He didn't want her to give up just because they began to deny her access to the official practices with their Master.

She raised her brows slightly and Jungkook offered a smile. Gently, he brushed his thumb against her dampened cheek softly and looked into her eyes. "Your pendant may be taken away from you, but your ability stays, correct?"

She nodded.

His smile lingered as he dropped his hand from her face to her clasped hands. Jungkook took one of her hands in his and met her soft gaze with his own. Entwining their fingers, he said, "I offer myself as your patient. I am yours for you to practice your healing skill."