Jimin was almost finished healing the last patient of the day in the tent when he was approached by his colleague. He was informed that his friend was waiting for him outside, that something urgent was on the tip of his tongue, that he had to see Jimin no matter what.

Despite his curiosity, Jimin diligently made sure his patient was fully treated before he went out to get Taehyung who was begging to the distraught Healer. Taehyung rushed himself in as soon as he noticed Jimin. Noticing how serious this might be, noticing how Taehyung had not an ounce of playfulness in his face, Jimin's eyes flew toward his colleague, silently requesting to be left alone with his friend.

"Is something the matter?" he asked as he carefully walked toward his friend who had been pacing inside the tent. He looked anxious with his eyebrows furrowed and when he finally looked at Jimin, the latter felt a sudden tightening at his throat.

"Be honest with me, Jimin," Taehyung said, his deep voice dropped lower. "Why exactly do you have that flower?"

Jimin was left speechless at the darkening of Taehyung's green eyes. It was a rare sight to happen. He'd seen it only when Taehyung was totally furious of something. When Jimin opened his mouth to speak, nothing escaped. Not a sound nor a word.

The answer was simple. The Village Leader gave it to him. Yet, it suddenly felt like a sin to let a secret out to Taehyung despite the many secrets of Jimin that Taehyung had already known.

Taehyung looked around cautiously. It reminded Jimin of the time when Youngjae was there, acting similarly to his friend. With a sharp exhale through his nostrils, Taehyung stepped closer to Jimin. The taller man's eyes bore into Jimin's and Jimin felt it again, that unknown fear eating him on the inside.

When Taehyung spoke, his voice was almost a whisper. "I do not believe that you wish to give it to someone. Did you receive it instead?"

At that moment, Jimin knew that he needed to be true to his friend. Though he wanted to reply with a word, Jimin instead was only able to nod his head. Taehyung's frown only grew heavier as he looked away, muttering curses under his breath.

"What could that person mean?" Jimin heard Taehyung mumbling almost to himself. "Why did he send it to you? What does he want from you?"

Jimin's eyes narrowed and he slowly held Taehyung' shoulder. He had a hunch that his fear did not suddenly exist and mature inside of him for no reason. The way Taehyung had been behaving made his worry grow. Taehyung might have figured out what the flower meant.

"Taehyung." He tried to calm himself down by breathing calmly as he asked, "What does the flower mean?"

"Red Dahlia is associated with the attack because they are known to be leaving the flower on their victims' bodies," Taehyung explained as slowly, Jimin's face began to pale. "Red Dahlia is their secret symbol. It's a symbol of betrayal."

*

Chaeyoung mindlessly fiddled with the grass, sitting beside the pond for hours. She had sneaked out of her quiet house early in the morning, too early that the sun had yet to rise, when everyone was still sleeping.

She didn't think she would be able to sleep. She had not been able to sleep ever since her meeting with Hana. Chaeyoung closed her eyes and lied down on the grass, her hands clasped on her stomach. She felt the tightness in her chest. Hana's words swirled in her mind without a stop, leaving her with nothing else to think of.

-

Chaeyoung waited patiently as Hana seemed to prepare herself before she let out the words that she wanted to say. She sipped on the cinnamon tea served to her by the Cultivator quietly all the while letting her eyes rest on the latter. Hana had her hands clasped on the table, her sigh was soft yet it was easy to listen to the sound of dejection in it.

"You can't stop the unison," Hana said after some time. "You need to marry him."

Chaeyoung felt her eyes narrowed. She didn't understand. Why did everyone made it seem like marrying Junhoe was going to save the world? Her lips pressed into a thin line as her impatience began to expand.

"I do not want to be tied to someone that I have no feelings for," Chaeyoung told her, still trying to be polite in her tone despite her impatience toward everyone's behavior. "Why are you trying to keep away your feelings for him? Don't you love him?"

"I do!" Hana suddenly snapped, tears about to break through her glassy eyes. "I love him. I really do. But there is no other way. He needs to be with you for him to live."

The skin of her forehead creased as confusion settled in. Chaeyoung doubted that Junhoe would get killed by his parents or her father if they were to cancel the marriage. If there would be anyone who would die because of it, it would definitely be Chaeyoung. Her father would probably take her own life for disobeying his order.

"It would be the only solution," Hana muttered with broken voice. She dropped her face and roughly wiped her eyes with her sleeve. "He needs to live."

"Don't you want to be with him?" Chaeyoung prodded, ignoring everything Hana had just said. She refused to hear another talk about her not being able to help the village for her lack of skill in healing. Her father was enough. She didn't have to hear it from a Cultivator.

"Don't you understand?" Hana spat with her eyes wide. "I want to be with him, but I can't. Being with me will not spare him his life. Only by marrying you would."

Hana lowered her voice as though the next thing that she was about to say was something forbidden and couldn't be heard even by the trees around. "Don't you know already that only by marrying a person with the same ability with his primary ability would he be able to rid of his secondary ability?"

Shock flashed across Chaeyoung's countenance at the mention of primary and secondary ability. If she wasn't sitting, she would have fallen to the floor. Her legs had gone weak and her face paled. Hana seemed to notice all of that, and her own eyes displayed surprise and regret.

"Don't tell me that you... that you don't know that he's a..." Hana stammered.

Chaeyoung gripped the edge of the seat tightly as the new information pierced into her brain. Hana cursed under her breath, cursing herself and constantly asking herself why she even said something about it, that she shouldn't have opened up. Chaeyoung couldn't think of anything else but Junhoe at that moment as she slowly rose from her seat and stormed out of the Cultivator's house, running as fast as she could, away from that sector as Hana's last words buzzed in her ear.

-

"Chaeyoung?"

Her eyes flew open and she took a few moments to register the face she was looking at. Jungkook was looking down at her for a few more moments before he sat beside her. Chaeyoung pushed herself off the ground when he asked her if she was alright.

With a soft smile, Chaeyoung merely nodded. Jungkook caressed her cheek to which she immediately leaned into the touch. She closed her eyes at the way his thumb brushed against her cheek bone gently. She took his hands into hers and dropped a soft kiss on his knuckles.

Jungkook stared at her with a soft smile, leaning in for slow kiss that easily melted her. He rested his forehead momentarily on hers after their lips detached. Pulling back, Jungkook asked her again, "Are you all right?"

Chaeyoung couldn't look into his eyes for long, dropping her head to his shoulder instead. She nuzzled her face into his neck, clutching on his Defender outfit with her fingers and breathed softly, wishing for him to wrap a protective arm around her. Jungkook did. He pulled her closer, providing her the warmth that she was most fond of.

She didn't know where to start telling Jungkook about Junhoe. The fear was sealing her mouth shut. If what Hana told her was true, her future with Jungkook seemed to incline to impossible. Of course, she could just go with what her heart wanted the most. But doing so might place the biggest risk on her family, on Jungkook and on her. Lives would be on danger.

At the same time, she didn't want to be labeled as a traitor. She didn't want to betray the trust of everyone after failing to meet their expectations. Chaeyoung inhaled softly, slowly feeling calm at every gentle stroke Jungkook did on her head. She didn't want to betray Jungkook's trust, Jungkook's feelings, and Jungkook's love.

Chaeyoung had begun to see Junhoe as someone she would call a friend. She had begun to see that behind all that façade, he was more than just a heartbreaker. He might not commit to one person physically, but his heart only had a room for one woman.

"Is something bothering you?" Jungkook asked softly.

Chaeyoung forced herself to lean away from him, sitting upright while still appreciating him holding her waist, his thumb brushing against the thin fabric of her clothing. When she turned to look at him with saddened eyes, the words bubbling in her throat quietly disappeared when her eyes settled on his own bothered eyes.

Jungkook had something hidden in his eyes. There was something that he wanted to say but he'd locked them deep inside of him. He seemed bothered about something as well. She traced his jawline tenderly with the tip of her finger, tilting her head. Softly, Chaeyoung asked, "What is bothering you?"

He looked slightly taken aback. His lips separated but sealed a second later for a couple times. Eventually, he breathed softly, chest gently rose and fell as he did so. He dropped his gaze to his own hand on his lap, clenching and unclenching his fist. She noticed the hard swallow he had. What was bothering him?

"Did you get injured?" she asked, slightly feeling panicked as she inspected him with her eyes, her hand quickly held his.

"No," he said with a little shake of his head.

His smile was forced, she noticed. For an unknown reason, Chaeyoung felt an uncomfortable feeling settling in her guts. His smile that he forced to last long only looked sadder as each second went by. Her heart twisted in pain upon seeing that, not knowing what those meant.

"Jungkook?" She cupped his face. "What is -"

"If..." he cut her off with a sad chuckle that escaped him freely. He licked his lips before continuing, "If I ask you to do one thing, will you do it?"

Her eyes fluttered a few times, trying to read the message behind all of what he was saying to her. She remained silent, her fingers that were touching his face quietly trembled and so were her lips. Bad feelings began to surround her.

"What -what do you want me to do?" she stammered.

"You must know that I am requesting it because I care for you deeply," he said.

"What are you trying to tell me?" Her heart was thundering behind her chest, her breathing was uneven as she anticipated the bad news.

Jungkook only looked at her for long moments, brushing the skin of her face with the back of his fingers. "Perhaps, Chaeyoung..." he took another pause, struggling to say the next words. "Koo Junhoe is the right choice of a man who can take care of you," he said with heaviness in his voice that he tried too hard to conceal. "So, I need you to be with him."

Jungkook kissed her hard. He kissed her like there would be no tomorrow. He kissed her like it would be the last time they would kiss. He kissed her so deeply that she could feel nothing else but farewell hiding in the way he was holding her, leading her eyes to suddenly water as fear of loss began to evolve inside of her. Her hands held his shoulders tightly and when she realized that she could easily lose him like that, she clasped her hands behind his neck as they took each other's breath.

He broke the kiss and both of them gasped for air. He gave one last smile before he pushed her hands off him and took off, leaving her as her hands flailing, trying to catch him, but he was fast. When she finally stood, he was gone, leaving her stunned, wondering what his reasons might be to suddenly become willing to let her go.

She wished she had told him what bothered her. She wished she never asked him what bothered him instead. She wished Jungkook knew that Junhoe was not the right choice of a man who could take care of her. Junhoe would never be the right choice.

Koo Junhoe possessed another ability apart from being able to heal. He was, without a doubt, a Dual; a dangerous threat to the village.