The Truth Hurts [exo]

10

My eyes opened when I felt something touching my cheek. I looked down and saw Jongin's pale face staring up at me. He was perfectly illuminated by the moonlight.

"Your fever's gone," I commented after feeling his forehead. He didn't give me any indication that he had heard me though. His fingers still stayed against my cheek and I brought my hand up to touch his, hoping to bring it down. "Do you need something?"

Jongin gave me the faintest of smiles. "No, I just wanted to play your hair."

I blushed a little but I knew he wouldn't be able to see anyway. "You did a good job cutting it," I complimented him as I twirled a lock of hair around my finger. Though the end was blunt, it was manageable.

"I did," he said with a small chuckle. "I'd cut my own but you seem to have too much fun with it."

Then I realized that I still had a hand on his head, ready to run through his soft hair again. I pulled my fingers away hastily. "Sorry."

"Don't be." He brushed away a strand of hair that was tickling my nose and I noticed a silver band on his finger.

"What's that?" I stared at the ring, wondering what implication it held. Could he be engaged?

He lifted his hand and looked at the ring himself. He seemed to be thinking of something, as if he didn't know how to tell me about the ring. Oh no, this must've been something too personal for me to hear. "This?"

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." I grabbed his hand and put it against his chest. I didn't know if I wanted to hear about it anyway.

He used his other hand to hold mine as he pried his ringed finger out. "This is my family ring." He showed me the band of silver and I could see little markings on it but it was too dark for me to figure out what they were.

His family? So there were more of these mind-reading super humans? "Jongin, if I may ask..." I trailed off, trying to formulate a sentence that wouldn't sound too rude. "Are you a human being?"

"Of course."

I scratched my head with my free hand. "But you can do all those things like reading my mind which, by the way, I'd appreciate if you'd stop doing it."

He shifted around a little to get comfortable before answering me. "I guess by your standards, I'd be called a wizard or a warlock?" When I nodded, he continued. "Please don't call me that. It makes me feel like an old man with a long white beard."

I laughed, imagining Jongin with a beard. "Okay, I won't. But how did you get away with this? Anyone practising magic is sent straight to the gallows."

"I'm good at keeping secrets," he said while looking straight into my eyes. "You have to keep it a secret for me, okay?"

"Okay." For him, I knew I would have to stay true to my word or else he'd be killed. I watched as his eyes slowly began to close and for a second, I feared that he was dying right in front of me. I wanted to keep talking to him. "How do you do those things when other humans can't?"

"I don't know," he replied in a whisper. "I've been trained as a kid to just do these things. My little sister was going through the same training, too."

I smiled and thought of a little girl running around like Jongin would. "You have a little sister?"

"Yeah, and she's even more restless than I am." He played with the ring on his finger. "Or maybe I'm just getting old."

"What's your family like?"

Jongin shrugged and stopped fiddling with his ring. "I don't really know. I haven't seen them in a while."