Chaeyoung felt drowsy after all the hours of ignoring sleep. Jungkook's grandfather had asked her to get a rest and by that, she knew that he meant for her to get at least a short nap. But she hadn't been able to. She had felt anxious at each second, because Jungkook had not yet opened his eyes.

But a smile managed to form on her tired face because his abdomen was already healed. His chest was surprisingly quicker to heal, and she was unsure whether it was because of her or it was because the spirits of Healers had granted her the miracle she wished for. She was left with his shoulder, and perhaps, if she was finished with that, then she would be able to take a short nap.

Chaeyoung's head slightly turned to the closed door of Jungkook's room as she placed her hand over his shoulder. Jungkook's grandfather was talking outside, but she was sure he wasn't talking to her. At least one other man was outside, talking in hush whispers and Chaeyoung glanced briefly at Jungkook.

Panic rose within her, all the while thinking of how Jungkook's tormenters could be out there and Jungkook's grandfather was alone facing them.

But could it be possible that they feared nothing even after the old man had beaten them up? They were knocked out with horrible wounds, but they were lucky that the elder Jeon had spared them their precious lives.

Carefully, Chaeyoung stood and walked to the door, hesitating as she held onto the door handle. She opened it as slowly as she could to prevent the door from making a sound. When the door opened wider and the faint voices became clearer, her brows furrowed.

"It is an urgent matter, sir. Please."

She stepped closer and stood behind the large frame of Jungkook's grandfather and saw a mop of blond hair that she recognized immediately.

"Jimin?"

Jungkook's grandfather stepped aside. "Is this really your brother?"

Chaeyoung's eyes locked onto Jimin whose eyes had widened as he looked at her from her head to toe, life emptied out of his face.

"Yes. He is my brother," she said, and her eyes flitted toward Taehyung who had just the same expression as her brother's, standing just beside him with his mouth hanging open. "And that is my friend."

Jungkook's grandfather left them quietly and went to check on his grandson, leaving the three of them breathing silence instead of words to greet each other. It was Jimin, finally, who broke the thickened silence.

"What happened to you?" His eyes glistened and lips trembling as he pulled her into his embrace and Chaeyoung's brows furrowed in confusion when Jimin hugged her tighter. "Who hurt you?"

Chaeyoung pulled back, pushed some of her hair to behind her ears and watched Jimin's tears slowly rolled down his cheeks. She turned to Taehyung whose face had went paler than ever.

Jimin brushed his thumbs across Chaeyoung's face here and there, blue lights glowed under his fingertips and she felt lighter and lighter. It was only then she realized that he was healing her face.

She had cuts caused by the harsh slaps she received from the men who had captured her while she was on her way home. She had thrashed and clawed and tried to fight them, but she was outnumbered. Once her face had healed, only then she remembered the pain on her gut and ribs of when she was kicked by one of the men, the pain on the back of her head of when Jiwon had stepped on with his heavy boot, the pain on her neck when Hanbin was strangling her. She shuddered in fear and like a rush, her tears fell, and she threw herself into her brother's protective arms.

*

The air was stuffy and Jimin was left with no word in his mouth as he healed each one of the areas where his little sister was injured. He decided that he would ask right after he was done with everything.

Taehyung had pulled him and his sister a little farther from Jungkook's house, sitting underneath a large tree and told them that they needed somewhere private to talk. Chaeyoung refused to go too far, her reason was muffled and unclear to him as she spoke through broken sobs with her face buried into his shoulder.

He sat in the middle of his sister and his best friend, and every one of them was silent the whole time. Taehyung was staring far into the distance, his finger twirling in the air slowly and the fallen leaves on the ground tens of steps away from them floated in the air, moving in response to Taehyung's silent command like a slow dance.

Chaeyoung's tears had stopped, her fingers fiddled on her white dress, impure with blood everywhere. Jimin's heart ached at the thought of all those bloods on her dress belonged to her.

He breathed out heavily. Perhaps, Taehyung was right. It could not be possible. Guilt began to breed within him for all the assumptions he had made.

"Why did the two of you come here?" Chaeyoung asked.

Jimin felt too guilty to even speak. Now, he was more confused than ever. He wished the answer would just solidify in front of him. When he glanced at Taehyung, his friend lifted a brow, urging him to tell his sister the reason.

"You were not home for dinner and I was worried," he said with a slight stammer.

Chaeyoung sighed heavily, folding her knees up and wrapping her arms around her legs. Jimin felt a soft nudge on his side and turned to Taehyung who mouthed to him something. Tell her.

"Chaeyoung, there is something I need to tell you," he said finally after contemplating for a couple more moments.

She seemed to realize how serious the topic would be that she finally looked at him, her body stiffened, and she began to sit straight. "I hope it is not any news regarding Koo Junhoe."

Jimin's breath hitched at the way his sister spat Junhoe's name like it was a sinful word. He shifted on the ground, pushing away all thoughts of the man as he shook his head gently. When Chaeyoung's brows knitted and forehead creased, Jimin wetted his lips and swallowed a couple times, throat suddenly drying. Taehyung seemed to register the situation that he gently held onto Jimin's shoulder, assuring him that it would all be fine.

He began to tell his sister. From the moment he was visited by the Supplier and received Red Dahlia, everything the Village Leader told him, the appearances of some faces in his head, how frequent her face surfaced in his mind whenever he thought of the flower. He let out a long breath and turned his gaze toward his sister.

Chaeyoung's face had lost its color, eyes hollow, lips parted and body frozen. He cleared his throat, trying to assure himself that he was wrong the whole time and that Taehyung was right. But the way Chaeyoung was acting at that moment was making him scared. He was scared that he was right. He wanted her to prove him wrong.

She sucked the air in sharply, her fingers curling around her bloodstained dress. Jimin's eyes dropped toward the reds around the whites of her dress. Taehyung's voice repeating the word 'impossible' echoing in his head suddenly became distant from the moment he revealed every thought of his. Chaeyoung couldn't have lost that much blood. If that were her blood, she wouldn't even be able to stand on her two feet without begging for her life to be blown in again. The cuts on her skin would not have let out that much blood that the dress would have been largely covered in red.

"Whose..." he trailed off, taking a moment to breathe calmly as the nervous heightened. "Whose blood is this on your dress?"

Chaeyoung looked down slowly and briefly stiffened, seeming to realize the amount of blood hanging onto her dress when her eyes slightly widened. She swallowed hard, gripping onto the dress.

"It is not yours," Jimin stated and Chaeyoung confirmed with a slow nod. "Then whose?"

"J- Jungkook's," she choked.

Jimin's head whipped toward Taehyung, his eyes full of alarm but all he saw reflected on his friend's eyes were warning. Another warning to remind him that he could still be wrong. Jimin wanted to speak, but Taehyung cut in quickly.

"I do not mean to offend you, Chaeyoung. But I do have a question to ask if you don't mind."

Chaeyoung looked up and her glossy eyes stared confusedly, looking back and forth between Taehyung and him. "I don't."

"Did you cause it?" Taehyung asked in his deep voice and Jimin's held his breath. "His blood is on your dress. Were you the one who hurt Jungkook?"

Chaeyoung's confusion quickly turned into disbelief. Shock flashed across her face and her mouth hung open. Her eyes wide, staring into Taehyung and then to Jimin.

"Have I gone mad?"

She had leaned back in shock, startled over the accusation. "Why would I do that to him? Why would I want to cause him pain? I would never do something as repulsive as that!" she burst, hot tears trickling down her face. "Why would you think that I -" she paused and then her eyes blinked slowly.

Jimin could see the realization in her eyes as she pieced things together. Her eyebrows furrowed so deeply as she eyed them both. Her eyes narrowed.

"Did you think that I'm – I'm," she struggled to continue and Jimin struggled to breathe. He didn't even think he could breathe. With a lowered voice, she continued, "that I'm a Dual?"

The silence that fell right after was so heavy and thick that it was almost impossible to break it. Especially when Jimin felt Chaeyoung's and Taehyung's eyes looking straight into him as he avoided their eyes.

"Did you really?" Chaeyoung breathed heavily, disappointment lacing her voice.

"I told you," he heard Taehyung muttered from beside him.

"Well, what am I supposed to think when everything seems to point at you?" Jimin asked with a fall of his face, guilt in his voice. He buried his face into his hands, pulled his hair and grunted. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry that it was all I could think of. I wish the village leader wouldn't have given me a warning so confusing."

How could he? How could he suspect that his sister was a Dual? How could he stick to that assumption when his sister's voice in his head desperately calling his name like a last call for help?

Chaeyoung's frown grew heavier as she huffed out a sigh, and Taehyung was in between of comforting them and teasing him for his fault in accusing his sister of being a Dual.

"Did I not warn you, Jimin?" Taehyung stood up and patted his bottom to rid the dirt. "You always ended up assuming wrongly."

"Always?" Jimin scoffed. "Is this not my first time?"

"Remember when you assumed Chaeyoung would be better off with me because supposedly she likes me?" Taehyung chuckled and his sister's balled fist immediately landed on his arm.

Just a couple seconds later, the two of them found a little smile on each of their faces because of Taehyung. But soon, the smiles were wiped off again, because of Taehyung as well.

"Well," Taehyung slowly began, his own face holding a serious expression. "Now that it's confirmed that Chaeyoung is indeed not a Dual, it still is a mystery, is it not? Why would Chaeyoung appear in your mind each time you thought of Red Dahlia if she is not a Dual?"

Jimin nodded. He felt a pair of eyes staring at him for the longest time. Chaeyoung's eyes were showing judgement against him no longer, but something else was there. Jimin narrowed his eyes, staring back at his sister before his eyes slowly flickered toward the house behind them.

"Is he...?" he asked carefully. Was that why Chaeyoung's dress had been drenched in blood? But why would she stay the night in Jungkook's house, then?

Chaeyoung sighed. "No, he is not." She flattened her palms over her dress, running them across the garment. "If he is really one, he would have been able to protect himself without anyone's help," she muttered.

"What exactly happened?"

"A group of Newcomers attacked him. The leader was also the one who had injured Jungkook badly the first time. I have no clue of why they did it. It seems a lot like a revenge."

"How is he, then?" Jimin asked. Far back in his mind, a memory of when Jungkook asked a large number of herbs from Taehyung surfaced. His stomach twisted, remembering Taehyung's words on how unlikely it was for a person to survive if it wasn't the first time.

"He... is still unconscious." Chaeyoung clasped her hands together. "I have tried to heal him. As you might have guessed, it took me so long to heal even one wound. Perhaps that is why he has not woken up yet."

"Worry not," Jimin assured his sister, holding her hands that were tightly clasped together. "I will help. He will be fine. Don't you worry."

Taehyung was shifting on the ground uncomfortably before he crouched down in front of them both. "Those attackers, do you think they are the Duals?"

Jimin tilted his head. "Why?"

"Could it be that..." Taehyung trailed off momentarily, looking around as though he was afraid what he was going to say next would be heard by someone lurking around secretly. "Could it be that Chaeyoung is the one that you should protect from the dangers around? She was in danger, you said. You heard her crying for help in your head, like when we were little. Perhaps, the reason why she would always appear right after Red Dahlia occupies your mind is because she was targeted by the Duals. And they are the Duals."

Then, another memory of Jungkook flashed in his mind. Of Jungkook suddenly asking him of Red Dahlia, of the Newcomer's suspicions against him. Jungkook had asked if he was involved in flooding that area with Red Dahlia. Jimin's eyes widened, realizing that that was a sign. Those men were the ones who left the flowers around Jungkook's house. Those men were Duals. Jungkook might be their pawn.

Chaeyoung was shaking her head vigorously on his side. "No." She was frowning as she stood up to her feet. "They are not. I do not think they are Duals."

"I believe they are the ones who scattered Red Dahlia around here," Jimin reasoned. "They must be Duals."

"No, they are not," Chaeyoung argued.

"You better convince me that you are not defending them after what they did to him," Jimin cocked his head toward the house. "Why would they -"

"Junhoe," Chaeyoung blurted out rather out loud, then, lowering her voice. "Koo Junhoe is."

Jimin exchanged looks with Taehyung before he looked down to his feet. He felt a huge lump in his throat as the incident at Junhoe's house came to mind. "Koo Junhoe is what?"

Her voice dropped into a whisper when she answered, "I am to be betrothed to a Dual, Jimin."

Jimin's heart dropped to his stomach.

"Koo Junhoe is a Dual."

The air stuck in his throat as he recalled back to when he talked to Junhoe, asking the latter of his sister's whereabout.

Junhoe had spoken without a stop, making Jimin confused more and more as the latter had strangely answered each of his questions that he had only let linger in his mind, unwilling to say them to the bastard's face. He had wondered deeply why that happened. Even Taehyung, his best friend who had been around him for so long would not have guessed everything right.

"How did you know that he is one?" Taehyung asked, curious brow quirked.

"Someone accidentally spilled that secret to me," Chaeyoung said with a low voice. "Junhoe did not directly admit that he is indeed a Dual, but then he threatened me to not tell anyone about it."

"If he is a Dual," Jimin felt his heart pacing as he thought of his parents, "we must get you home. We must tell Mother and Father about this. The unison must be canceled. Father has to know that the man whom he has chosen for you is not a 'fine' man!"

"No!" Chaeyoung stepped backward, her arms hugging her figure as she shook her head. "Father... Our parents..." she bit on her lower lip as her eyes closed. "They knew, Jimin. They knew what Junhoe is."

Before Jimin could question the frown that she had on her face, she let the revelation flowed out of her mouth in a rush, like it had been waiting to be freed.

"Junhoe threatened me that if I were to report to the village leader about him, he told me that he will drag our family with him. Because our parents knew that he is a Dual. They knew but they agreed to unite Junhoe and I," she exposed.

Jimin froze in his spot, unable to let his mind think any further when he could only question himself again and again of the reason his parents had to risk their own daughter.

"I may be wrong, Jimin," Chaeyoung said. "But if Village Leader Seokjin meant that it is I whom you should be protecting, the dangers that he meant might not be those attackers."

Jimin gulped down nervously, already knew what his sister was about to say.

"Perhaps, the dangers are none other than Koo Junhoe and our own parents."