In the Kim's mansion

NEXT DAY

Y/n was lost in the labyrinth of her thoughts when her hand smoothly diced the celery stalks. Their fibrous texture provided a momentary distraction from her introspection until a voice from behind interrupted her.

"Y/n."

Namjoon spoke in a low whisper as he stood at the exit of the pantry. Hoseok was busy bathing while Jin wasn't home yet. It was a perfect opportunity for him to discuss with her about his bead, which rested inside her body, making it even more difficult for him to detach himself from her.

Y/n glanced over her shoulder and saw Namjoon standing behind her, anticipating her attention. She quickly washed her hands turned around to face him, and spoke.

"What is it?" Her expressions were dull and her voice sounded tired in Namjoon's ears as if she had indulged her mind in the act of insomnia.

He moved closer to her and saw the prominent eye bags under her eyes. Realising his intense stares, she insecurely shifted backwards and averted his gaze from him.

"Did you cry yourself to sleep, last night?"

With that being said, Y/n reminisced how she was unable to sleep last night. Hoseok's truth and Namjoon's behavior towards her made her feel insecure as a person. Since she was being instructed by Mrs Kim to sleep in Ajumma's room, sleeping beside Ajumma's loud snores wasn't something she hadn't experienced before, but this time, it wasn't helping either, making her mind remain waking during the whole night.

Am I not trustworthy enough? Am I that bad as a human? That someone's disgusted by my presence, to such an extent?

Y/n was never a girl who tried putting extra effort to impress the people around her, but this time this scenario wasn't working. Those words Namjoon spoke on the day they shared a kiss left a wound in her heart, making her secretly feel insecure around him.

Hoseok's truth screwed her thought process even more, and before she would've realised, her mind questioned her soul and heart, cursing them both for her current state.

"What do you need?" Y/n's remark confirmed Namjoon's instincts as he moved again closer to her. His eyes softened while staring at the girl in front of him. His hand momentarily moved closer to her face, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. Y/n's eyes darted towards him, as she confusingly watched his actions.

His hand now shifted towards her chin; killing his urge to bite her small chin, he gently brushed it with his fingertips. Y/n tried her best to maintain a distance between them, but she was aware of the effect he had on her and how her mind blew every time he was near.

"Let's talk." Namjoon finally spoke.

"About?"

"About us," The second Namjoon said it, Y/n heart's skipped a beat. Her eyes lit up, but her mind was not convinced, and it didn't go off Namjoon's notice.

"Don't ask me how. But I know that you had a bead stuck inside you," Namjoon said as he removed his fingertips from her chin, and stepped backwards.

Y/n's eyebrows twisted in confusion when she heard the unshared information from him.

"As you're already aware by now, we're gumihos. It's not a normal pearl which you might be thinking. It's a gumiho's elixir. An exquisite part of us that keeps us going for centuries."

"What?" She whispered.

"And most importantly, it's... mine."

Y/n's already exhausted mind couldn't handle the shock waves that ripped within its walls. She wanted to throw a tantrum, act feisty in front of him, destroy him through her sharp words, but she was too tired to make this happen, too tired of all that was happening to her.

She stumbled backwards on her feet, but Namjoon was quick enough to hold her by her waist before he proceeded to lift her onto the kitchen countertop.

"You look exhausted."

Y/n was internally flustered by his action before she finally realised the situation, and spoke.

"How are you gonna take it out of me?"

Namjoon's gaze pierced before he sighed and added, "It's complicated."

She sighed, "How did all this happen?"

Namjoon's hand rested on both sides of the countertop. Sitting in between, Y/n was more than confused by his changed action. She chose to ignore her instincts and concluded that this change in his behavior was because of his urgent need for his bead.

"You wanna know?" Namjoon asked as he leaned closer to her face making her shift her gaze away from him as she nodded.

FLASHBACK

In the gleaming moonlight of a night, Namjoon stomped forward in the woods. The crackling of dried leaves became a constant reminder of the danger that the human world contained for gumihos.

After waiting for an hour in the forest, Namjoon secretly entered the campus, in the hope that he'll find Hoseok somewhere. It was already past midnight, as he unknowingly stood in the low-maintenance garden beside the girls' dorm and waited for his friend to show up.

The canary that sat in the cage hanging from Kyla's room's window frame vigorously chirped and flapped its feathery wings on spotting a figure.

Namjoon panicked at the little bird's unexpected response. Hoseok wasn't showing up anytime soon, the bird's constant chirping was making him irritated. He didn't know where he should go and where he shouldn't because meeting Hoseok was important in search of the answers he tried to seek.

Making an impulsive decision, his wildly animalistic and preying hunch kicked in, and he decided to silence the canary, once and for all. He carefully took out the cage of the tamed bird, and within a matter of seconds, a fox appeared into the view. Scratching the feathers away with its sharp claws and licking the delicious blood of the little bird's body.

When he came here, Namjoon's mind was an emotional mess, he came here after engaging in a useless cycle of blame with SeokJin. The truth about him being a foster son was undeniably hurting his soul to its very core. And so he decided to find the truth about his biological mother, to find her as soon as possible, and to finally call someone as his family.

Hoseok, whom he coincidentally met while preying in the woods, was helping him find information about his mother. In hope, she might have flown to the human world, just like many gumihos and hybrids.

Shortly after, a guard heard some muffling voices from behind the bushes. He yelled making Namjoon's fox form nervous. He had never faced a human before, and the conspiracy theories that revolved around them made it even more difficult for him to regain composure. Anxiety gushed over him as he heard more yells and steps approaching him.

He found himself in the middle of changing back to his human form to teleport back to the forest, or to simply hide under the bushes.

While stationing himself to hide his body under the huge bushy greens, a nervous gag got trapped inside his throat, making him suffocate for air. His ears twitched when he heard the guards approaching nearer. His eyes were completely shut when he panted for air. With a dry cough, the elixir finally came out of his body, changing its form into a bead, and rolling ahead into the bushes.

Maintaining a distance from the wild creature, the guards cautiously flashed their lights on the laying fox. Namjoon's fox form was startled by the sudden flash of striking light on his closed eyes. He wasted no second to growl at them and ran through the whole campus. Finally finding the exit, he ran into the woods, leaving his elixir behind.

END OF THE FLASHBACK

"And when I realised that I'd lost my bead, it was already the next morning."

"You said, Hoseok was helping you find someone important. May I know who were they?" Y/n asked.

Namjoon looked elsewhere, his eyes focused on the half-chopped celery, as he remained silent.

"Only if you're comfortable," Taking Namjoon's silence as a gesture Y/n quickly added.

Namjoon half chuckled, and a smile got tugged at the corners of his lips, showcasing his prettiest dimples, making Y/n's gaze stuck at them.

"Don't worry. She wasn't my past lover, as you might be thinking."

"I never said that," Y/n quickly retorted, her exhaustion now far gone, as he teasingly worded about her lingering assumptions, making Namjoon chuckle again.

"I have a lot of questions, will you answer each one?"

Namjoon nodded, "But before let me take you somewhere."

"Right now?"

Namjoon hummed and scooped Y/n in his arms. She was startled by his sudden action, and a yelp escaped from her mouth.

A flash of light surrounded both of them, as they vanished from the kitchen. Y/n opened her eyes when she felt a thud on her spine realising that she was on the ground, and saw a panting Namjoon at a distance.

"Are y-you okay?" She stood up and nervously asked. Namjoon took his time to relax his body that was enduring without his bead.

"I'm fine, it's just a simple task like teleporting consumes a lot of energy without a bead."

"Then what was the need? Are you dumb?! You even took me with you."

"Stop being ungrateful! I wanted to show you this place."

"What place?"

"Look around."

Y/n's eyes looked around and she realised that she's been standing in one of the most beautiful and untouched places on the planet. Cherry blossoms surrounded the whole region, their small petals glistening from glitter as they flew with a gentle breeze.

She grimaced as her eyes admired the beauty of cherry blossoms surrounding them, while Namjoon was busy admiring Y/n's features.

"It's beautiful," Y/n spoke in admiration as her eyes lay on a small lake nearby.

Namjoon hummed, "Very beautiful," he whispered while still looking in her direction before he cleared his throat and spoke again, "It's called The Blossom Valley. The small lake that you see, is called The Lake Of Magic."

"Astounding." Y/n whispered in amazement.

"Come, let's go towards the lake," Namjoon unconsciously tangled their hands together and moved towards the lake. While Y/n admired the beauty of the lake, he plucked a big leaf from the nearby tree and rolled it into a cone.

"What are doing?" Y/n asked, puzzled by his actions.

He then proceeded to fill the leafy cone with the lake's water and brought it closer towards Y/n's lips.

"Drink it. It has healing properties."

Without speaking further Y/n drank the healing water and felt a wave of relaxation rippling inside her body while Namjoon drank the left portion.

"You said, you have questions. "

"Hum, why do gumiho's beads come out of their bodies?"

"We all are bound to go through a phase called the ripening phase, once in our lifetimes. You can say, it's a transitional state. Its end is marked by beads coming out of our bodies."

"Is this like puberty in humans?"

"No. You see, puberty in humans only happens upon reaching a particular age, while the ripening phase can happen at any age. It depends on a gumiho's ability to endure emotional pain and traumas. There're barely any physical changes that happen, unlike puberty."

"So like, you all are maturing while going through this phase?"

"You've got it. It starts when a gumiho reaches the peak of their emotional turmoil."

Y/n nodded as her mind wandered onto the various reasons that could've caused his ripening phase before an intriguing question popped inside her head.

"But, how come you didn't feel anything or some sort of connection with your bead when you kissed me?"

Y/n's unexpected mention of their shared kiss made Namjoon flustered. For a few seconds, he awkwardly stared elsewhere as his mind reminisced of the pleasant memory.

"I will not deny the fact that I always felt a strong sense of energy around you, maybe that's why we usually found ourselves around each other. But since I wasn't aware of my bead's presence inside you, I couldn't get a hold of it through my mind."

"I see. It was all bead's effect. "

The last few words slipped from Y/n's tongue in the form of a whisper. But it already reached Namjoon's ears.

"One surmising human you are," Namjoon said, in low whispers as he playfully bent his neck over to reach Y/n's height.

"How will you take it back?"

Namjoon huffed a great exhale. He didn't want to repeat his mistake neither did he want to name his infatuation with Y/n. His past trauma made him afraid of new relations, that maybe they'll leave him behind, or one day they'll confess that it was all a well-fabricated lie of his expectations. Taking a few minutes to word his sentence, he finally spoke.

"The only way to attain my bead back is by kissing you. BUT! I'm still searching for other ways. It's the last option because this whole process will leave you with utmost exhaustion. Even cause death, but that's the case in most strenuous circumstances."

Y/n grimaced in utter shock, "If I disagreed?"

"Then I'm left with nothing just to slowly degrade towards my death."

"Is this an emotional threat? Cause I'm not falling for it."

Namjoon chuckled as Y/n smiled and folded her arms together.

"We should leave," Y/n suddenly blurted as she remembered her half-done household chores.

"Can we not st-- ... fine, as you wish."

Namjoon nodded before he pulled Y/n closer. Their breaths brushed each other's cheeks and Y/n shifted her gaze away from him. She grips tightly on his overalls, and with a lot harder effort Namjoon teleported both of them to Jin's room.

Namjoon quickly pushed himself away from Y/n to regain his composure. While panting and breathing heavily, his blurred gaze shifted towards Y/n's back.

Stuck on her feet Y/n's eyes traced the half-naked man in front of her. Hoseok stood at the entrance of Jin's room, his hair wet from the freshness of the bath, with just a towel wrapped around his waist. His lean, muscular body glistened with water droplets, as he awkwardly glanced at Y/n.

Namjoon's gaze finally caught Hoseok in view, and without wasting a millisecond. He shouted from behind.

"Yah! Jung Hoseok!"

He yelled and quickly stepped between Y/n and Hoseok, "Why are you still not leaving?"

"Will you let me," Hoseok replied while gesturing for both Y/n and Namjoon to step out of his way. Namjoon shifted sideways, making Y/n shift in response while still not letting her get a glimpse of the ethereal view.

Hoseok entered Namjoon's room, and finally, Namjoon turned around only to find Y/n smirking as her gaze was stuck on Namjoon's room's closed door.

"Where's your eyes going? Look at me!"

Y/n scowled at his annoying behavior, "Shut up! You're annoying," she said and started stepping out of the room.

"What? I'm annoying? Did you ever look in the mirror?"

Rolling her eyes Y/n left a jealous Namjoon in the room.

✧