Jimin spent the entire night tossing and turning in the squeaky uncomfortable bed in the motel room he had rented. He was so restless that once the sun peeped from over the horizon, he was already up and putting his clothes on.

Throughout the whole night, his mind kept drifting back to that ridiculously young looking girl back at the bar. The way she'd look at him, the things she'd say – almost as though she knew him from before.

But that would have been impossible, wouldn't it? He had never seen her in his life. How could she know this about him and the fact that he'd suffered a terrible loss? That his guilt and remorse wouldn't leave him alone, eating him up from inside?

How?

It was crazy and he felt absurd. It probably didn't mean anything. But the point was, he had already dismissed another suspiciously accurate comment on a similar occasion – he recollected how he'd chalked up the words of the beggar woman called Vera who had warned him about something dark lurking around him and his friends last year.

And – no surprise here – it words had ended up being absolutely true.

Deciding to learn from his past mistakes, Jimin fled his motel room very early in the morning. He had planned to leave town that very same day, but the plan changed. No matter what it took him, he'd find that girl again, even if he had to stake out in front of the same bar the two had met, or ravage the entire city.

The more Jimin thought about it, the more he was convinced that it was no accident that he had run into her. Was she by any chance following or stalking him? She seemed to know a lot about him and was accepting of his harsh attitude last night, which was weird enough as it was. If she was any other girl looking for nothing more than a casual hook-up at a bar, she'd have stood up and left the second he had given her his cold side stare.

But no, Iris had stayed and had kept on talking to him. This had to mean something, and Jimin was slowly but steadily starting to think that she had approached him for a reason. Whatever that reason was, he'd unravel it, no matter what.

The whole day, Jimin surveilled the seedy bar from afar. This was a relatively small town, so with the exception of a stuffy restaurant, this was the only establishment that worked until late at night. If Iris was from around here somewhere, she'd definitely swing by at some time in the evening.

It made Jimin uncomfortable and he was perfectly aware how stalker-ish that was. Had this been a different situation, he'd be outraged by his actions, but right now he was desperate. It was a shot in the dark and he was certain of how slim the chances of this actually meaning something were.

But if there was one thing Jimin had learned in the past one year, it was to follow his gut feeling.

It was around 7pm and the sun was already starting to set when she finally came. Her pale blonde hair glowed in the twilight gloom, drawing attention as she moved down the street. It stood out so much that Jimin wondered how he hadn't noticed her earlier last night.

Hurriedly, she went into the bar. Jimin waited for an appropriate amount of time to pass before tossing his already lit out cigarette to the ground. He stepped on it and straightened out his jacket, making his way to the bar with haste.

Upon entering, he let his eyes scan the perimeter before they cast over Iris's ashen blonde hair. She was sitting on the same stool as the day before, toying with the straw in her drink absent-mindedly.

Without wasting any more time, Jimin marched up to her and dropped on the stool next to her. Her shoulders slightly stiffened and she gave a soft gasp once she saw him there.

"Hey." a small scowl appeared between her eyebrows.

"How the hell do you know me?" Jimin questioned crossly, getting straight to the point.

Expectedly, Iris seemed petrified by this aggressive interrogation. For a moment, she simply stared at him in confused horror. Then the moment passed and her cheeks flushed with a delicate rosy hue.

She lowered her head, shiny strands of ashen blonde hair falling in front of her eyes. If Jimin didn't know better, he'd almost think that she was being shy.

"Answer the fucking question." He grumbled. He was by no chance afraid of hurting her. God knew he'd go to any lengths to get answers from her, most importantly because he had the strange feeling that Iris had some role to play in his plan to bringing Aera back. It was either that, or he was becoming delusional.

"Remember how I told you that I can see things?" Iris murmured, offering him a brief coy smile. "I can hear them, too. Last night they told me to come here to this bar."

"They?" a deep frown appeared on Jimin's forehead. "Who the fuck is that?"

"That's what I call the guidance that I receive sometimes," she smiled half-heartedly. "It brought me to you. When I saw you here last night, I had the urge to talk to you. For some reason you were drawing me in."

Bewildered, Jimin leaned backwards in an unconscious impulse to remove himself from this outrageously bizarre situation.

"You're looking at me like I'm some kind of weirdo." A frown tugged at Iris's mouth. "That's how most people look at me when I tell them. I just want to be honest, but they usually don't believe me." she murmured apprehensively.

"What else can you do?" Jimin's heart paced as his eyes surveyed hers.

Iris chewed on her lip, her pupils dilated. She seemed like she was debating on whether to tell him more or not.

"I can see some things when it comes to people," she admitted. "For instance, when I looked at you, I saw a little boy crying."

"Did you see something else?" Jimin's breath got stuck in his throat.

"Not at first," Iris shook her head. "But later on, when you were about to leave. My vision made me follow you outside. I saw pain, so much pain. And guilt. And a girl's face, but it faded away quickly afterwards."

"What are you?" he questioned harshly in a demanding voice.

For a second, Iris stared at him as she absorbed the question. The tension in the air escalated to a hundred as Jimin waited for her reply, agitated. She averted her gaze as he regarded her with hard staring eyes, unblinking.

Iris let out a slow controlled breath. She gave her shoulders a wiggle in an attempt to cover up the anxiousness clawing at her system.

"I'm just highly intuitive." She shrugged, a tight smile plastered over her lips.

Jimin let his fist fall heavily on the bar counter.

"Cut the crap." He growled, his Adam's apple bobbing as he gulped.

Abruptly, Iris's electric blue orbs cut to him.

"You know what I am." She stated breathlessly.

It was all the confirmation Jimin needed, and enough to ignite a faint sparkle deep within him. It transformed into something truly stronger, a more intense emotion that surged inside. Forgetting every decent manner he ever had, he grabbed Iris by the wrist and yanked her forwards, making her slip from her stool.

"What is happening?" she questioned, perplexed but also horrified by his aggressive gestures.

"We're leaving."

author's note:

uh-oh. Jimin, what are you even doing?