You were seated in class, your attention being far away from anything that your professor was speaking of as you could shake from inside you that uneasy feeling that got born this morning.

Was a Goddess really going to appear? And if yes, what if she finds something wrong with the seal? You sure wanted to break free from him but him losing his soul for it to be accomplished wasn't exactly what you were thinking of nor what you ever wished for.

Till this moment he had been nothing but an annoyance to you, the truth was but you could also understand till a point why. Not all could have had the chill and calm behaviour that he has with a practical stranger as you were for him, to which he had ended up literally linking his existence. 

If you were to take a moment and think from his side, maybe that move would sound way more bothersome for him than it is for you. A hundreds-year-old spirit was literally enduring your attitude and trying to adapt to your environment while he had years without leaving his forest. That itself must have been difficult for him cause if it were you, having to undertake such a drastic change would sure have been scary. Yet he did it.

What was it worth all this trouble? If he is in pain as much as you are with that seal and the situation altogether. Was he so lonely in that forest that decided to legit risk his entity for a bit of socializing or maybe he was in search of something? Maybe he wanted to find someone to break his curse and set him free probably way more than you want this seal to be broken.

If you were to think about it this way, it sure made you sad, imagining him trapped in that forest that once was his happiness and home and later it became the ground where the body of a dear someone of his, lay. How must he have felt, staying in that place and living the memory again and again? How must he have endured, all the smiles and happy moments he lived with her becoming so bitter as from what Yukio had said, he considered himself responsible for her death as well, and you could see why would he feel so.

If he was to have told her that he knew that she was lying to him maybe her guilt would have been soothed a bit, realizing that she wasn't fooling the person she loved. Yet if he had she may have realized that he was doing everything she asked even though he was aware just because he loved her so dearly and that might have backfired, making her feel more burdened. Oh well, the situation sure sounds complicated now in your head but no matter how much you were to think about it, the past wouldn't be able to change.

Lost in your thoughts as you were, you didn't even notice that the lecture had come to an end and the other students were already gathering their stuff to get out. You realized only when everything suddenly froze around you and Hoseok's voice echoed in your ears.

"It's time~Come" His words echoed in the atmosphere making you jump up from your seat, being already nervous about all this.

"Where?"You asked him as you hurried to grab your bag and rush out of the auditorium, ignoring the frozen people that you met even out of that room. Everything seemed to have frozen as if time had stopped. Everything but you that was.

It was weird, to say the least, but also frightening because the atmosphere had a different feeling. There was something that you couldn't find words to describe but it sure gave chills all over your body and made you feel a sense of fear.

Hoseok didn't reply to your question, yet you left your feet to take you wherever they wanted to, having faith that the link you had with him may somehow be leading you to where he was and that was how you found yourself at the rooftop of the building, in where after you opened the door and entered, at your sight felt a lady, shinning and more beautiful than anything you had ever laid eyes upon.

She was dressed in traditional Japanese clothes and a glowing aura was surrounding her while Hoseok seemed to be deeply bowing to her as she was floating in the air.

"You made me travel to this land after so many years. I thought you gave up on wanting to make a seal with humans."The ethereal creature spoke and her voice seemed like was coming from the sky itself till her feet finally landed on the floor.

"Is she the one?" She questioned as she looked at you from the corner of her eyes and you felt paralyzed under her gaze then in a blink of an eye, something covered your vision, making your breath return even though you hadn't even realized when it was taken away from you.

"Yes, that's her, my Goddess. Please be considerate towards her human soul." You heard Hoseok's voice coming from close behind you, making you understand that it was his hand that was covering your eyes probably sheltering you from something that could be dangerous for you.

"I am always considerate Hoseok. However, as you know, I am bound to know and respect someone's free will." She replied and even though you couldn't see, you felt an uneasy feeling coming from Hoseok.

Was he scared too?

"From what I see the seal is perfectly placed. You studied it for so long after the last fail. It's so perfect that it amuses me. It has been centuries since I saw a spirit, perfect a soul bound."She exclaimed and you literally felt something inside you, as if a chain was pulled in your chest.

"Let me ask you, my dear human. Do you want to keep this seal?" She asked you and you felt Hoseok's hand pull you back and into his embrace where he kept a tight hold on you, with the hand that he had free while the other was still covering your sight.

"She wants to keep it."He replied in your stead thing that made you protest at the moment and push him a bit, freeing yourself from his hold as well as your sight.

You turned to look at the Goddess with confidence momentarily but as soon as you met her eyes, you felt the chain inside you being pulled and the last thing you heard was Hoseok's voice calling your name from a faraway distance, even though he was barely some feet behind you.

Your consciousness became dark and everything seemed to be turning around, making you dizzy as if you were in a laundry machine and that feeling kept going for some minutes till your vision started becoming light again however you found yourself in a different place.

You were no longer on the rooftop of your University but you were on a dark road with only a fool moon shining on you. In the beginning, you couldn't hear anything but as your senses started coming back to you, you started hearing screams as well as smelling something. After some seconds you even got control over your body and you managed to turn around only to witness an old-looking building on fire at a considerable distance.

Your eyes widened at the sight, having never seen such a huge fire up close in your life yet you couldn't help but run towards it for some reason, getting out of that secluded road and into the main one, where people were rushing to get away.

They were running, getting away from the smoke that was making them cough and was taking their breath away, however for some strange reason, even though you could smell the smoke and see it, it wasn't affecting your breathing.

The voices were blended and you couldn't really understand what was each person saying, however as you stood there in a daze, a certain voice pierced your ears way more clearly than the others.

"Don't run! We have to work together! There are people inside! Don't leave! We have to help them!"Someone fell into our sight, a boy dressed in clothes that matched the other people around. An era that you couldn't recognize. He looked young, maybe around seventeen or eighteen and he was the only one that was trying to stop people but no one listened to him.

"You can't let the orphanage burn down!" He screamed and a man shoved him on the floor as he got in his way, making you feel bad as well as mad at the man who did that.

"I will help you! "You yelled as you rushed towards him but as soon as you got closer, you saw that the guy that was on the floor was non-other than Hoseok. Your feet halted at that instance, perplexed about how that was possible however there was no mistaking that it was him. Even though he was younger, it definitely looked like him.

"What is happening?"You questioned right before Hoseok stood up and rushed towards the building alone, his body passing right through you, a thing that made your eyes grow wide from the shock.

What was this? How could that happen? This can't be the reality because you definitely were a human being that had a solid body till some minutes ago. Was this a glimpse of his past? As the minutes ticked away that was the only thought that grew stronger in your head.

"Hoseok wait!"You snapped out of it and rushed behind him, thinking that if he was to go in there alone, he would probably die. The fire was already out of control. There was no chance of stopping that with mere buckets of water, which you found laying around abandoned by people that may have tried to do something as you assumed.

"Hoseok. Don't go in there!" You yelled at him as you saw him running towards the flames as if he had no fear of death and somehow that made you scared.

Was this his last day as a human? Was this the birth of the Fox spirit and the death of the human Hosoek?

"Hoseok!" You called his name again, even though he was no longer in your sight and that made your heart start aching for some reason.

"He is crazy. No one can save these kids now." The voice of a lady was heard at your right and you turned and looked at the old lady who stood beside another one who seemed to be praying.

You stood there waiting for him to get out and without you even realizing you had started praying for him too and soon you saw him coming out of the flames, carrying children which he had tried his best to secure under his body and had given them his clothes.

He left them on their feet and told them to get away before he got back in and after a bit came out again with three more kids who had withstood burns that were visible but at least they were alive.

The woman that was praying just like you, rushed towards the kids to help but unfortunately, you couldn't touch any of them as your body seemed to just go through theirs.

"Ariam is not here, Ariam is still inside."A little girl grabbed at Hoseok's arm as he left down the other kids and he looked behind him, before telling her that she shouldn't worry and rushed back inside the flames that had already given severe wounds to his skin as far as you saw.

You were left stunned by everything that was going on. The situation was so heavy yet somehow you were paralyzed and unable to act in any way. Was it because of shock as you had never felt such an intense moment in your life or was it because of the giant flames that were laying before your eyes, endangering lives, and giving you a feeling of hell? You weren't sure, however, it sure felt horrible, witnessing it.

The kids were taken further away by that lady while you remained there, hoping to see Hoseok get out of there one more time, but the minutes passed and the building started falling apart without him in sight.

"Oh, Ariam is here. She is here." You heard a voice saying and you looked past your shoulder seeing the kids in the distance hugging a mother little girl.

Come on, You can't die like this. It's too cruel.

You thought to yourself as you realized that since that girl was out, he must have wasted his time searching for her till the smoke took his breath away and made him unable to get out.

It felt unfair to you at that moment, It felt painful to stay there and just watch. It felt wrong and you didn't even realize it when you started running inside the flaming building, going against the fear that had penetrated you.

You got inside and the flames were not able to do you any harm passing through you as if you were smoking however you didn't pay much attention to that as you were busy calling Hoseok's name and looking for him and after a while you finally saw him, laying on the floor, burning alive.

"No!" You rushed to him out of reflex however when you tried to grab him to pull him away you were unable to do so.

His eyes were still open yet no sound of pain was leaving his lips. All he was doing was crying as his lips were smiling while his eyes seemed to be looking at something. You followed his gaze only to see a drawing on the wall that had yet to be consumed by the fire.

His hand extended towards it as desperation appeared on his face, making you feel that chain inside your chest from earlier and a burning ache that literally made you leave a scream.

The room suddenly got filled with green flames as soon as your piercing scream echoed in the atmosphere and everything turned to smoke and darkness before your vision returned to you again you found yourself back at the rooftop, with the Goddess standing before you.

 "Do you want to keep this seal human, or are you willing otherwise?" You heard her voice asking you again and tears started rolling from your eyes as you replied.

"Yes. Yes, I want to keep it."You said and Hoseok looked at you surprised as he was never expecting you to say that.

And honestly, you would have never said so if it wasn't for the feeling that was ruling you at that moment and the memory of that painting on that wall.

A painting of him and a young girl that looked so much like you.

---To be continued...