ELVEN | K.TH

47

RINEI

Again tonight.

Only a few hours after we'd gone to sleep, I feel him slip out of bed. He doesn't respond no matter how loudly I call him— doesn't make any move that he'd heard me at all.

He almost seems possessed.

He leaves the room. Makes his way out the side door of the Palace, like the past nights. Stands from a quiet moment in front of the City, before leaping upwards onto the thick branch of the oak.

But this time, I'd brought someone with me.

Jimin breathes in awe and confusion.

"He doesn't hear you at all."

I nod, keeping my gaze on Taehyung as his eyes skirt over the line of the horizon. Then his gaze turns to the Elven Forests.

His body tenses, in the light of the moon.

"He's about to leave."

Jimin's expression is unreadable as he scoops me into his arms and leaps up into the tree after Taehyung. And I grip his shoulders, completely breathless.

The chase begins, after that.

Taehyung is unbelievably fast. He crosses the entire City within seconds, his silhouette flickering through the trees interwoven with each other.

He never looks back. His attention is only fixed in what is front of him.

Jimin curses softly as a branch whips across his cheek, in his rush to keep up.

"...ow, dammit."

"Here," I murmur, my words strained as I try not to focus on the fact that we're at least sixty feet above ground.

I throw my hands out in front of me, to try and block out any sharp, stray branches in the way.

Jimin quickly pushes down my flailing hands.

"Rinei, that is not ideal. Taehyung will flip if he finds even a single scratch on you the next day."

We get deeper.

Every time I feel that Taehyung would finally stop, he doesn't. He just keeps on going, set on someplace I have not the slightest clue where.

Then I hear Jimin's sharpened tone.

"This...This is the way to my cottage."

"The where?"

"Cottage." He repeats, his golden hair whipping from how fast he moves. "I don't understand. Why would he..."

But he's right.

Ahead of us, Taehyung's faint silhouette drops to the Forest ground next to a familiar, tiny cottage. The place is beautiful at night— I can see his outline even clearer with the moon surrounding him.

He enters through the door.

What in the world...?

Jimin lands softly on the grass after him. And I climb out of his hold, my eyes fixed at the door Taehyung had closed behind him.

This was where he'd been coming? Every night?

Why?

I walk towards the cottage door, almost spellbound with the curiosity. There is something in the air— something magical that I can almost feel against my fingertips.