Lumos: You are My Light | Daerin

III

"I don't see you and Haerin together anymore."

Danielle was sitting alone with her thoughts at the bottom of an empty stairwell until a familiar peer came from behind her. Their sensitive statement brought Danielle out of her trance. The gryffindor slowly made her way down the steps before leaning on the pillar that was wrapped in the staircase.

Danielle looked up at Hyein, her thumbs tapping together before answering, "Ah, um."

"It's been—hard, right now."

Her stiff words bounced against the walls of the stairwell. The hufflepuff tears her eyes from Hyein and proceeds to lose herself back into her deep thoughts.

"It must be." Hyein brings Danielle right back out, fully aware of how prone the upperclassman is to zoning out.

"I'd never seen Haerin so giddy in the mornings before, but she stopped. In fact, she looks cold–like the life in her was sucked out of her by dementors."

Hyein played with a galleon by the tips of her fingers. Occasionally, she would flick it into the air and catch it. She continued.

"I used to hear so much about her thinking of what to do everyday. She'd never been so excited about Tomorrows. She usually never bothered thinking past them."

Danielle assumed that Hyein was obviously sharing this information for a reason. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been by her side if it was not needed. Perhaps it was an attempt to touch her heart or knock some sense into her to the point that Danielle would find herself crawling back to Haerin.

And if it was, Danielle would feel shameful to admit that it was working. She couldn't possibly give in after just establishing and enforcing her own rule book. It would be embarrassing to herself if she hadn't abided by them within a week. Hyein's art of manipulation was something else, and it needed to be studied—not that it was toxic, but rather hypnotizing.

Or perhaps, Danielle is just beginning to realize how much damage she has truly caused, and Hyein is just indirectly pushing her to restore the relationship she once cherished.

Danielle turned to Hyein, her arms crossed and hands rubbing up and down her arms. She sought comfort and provided her own. Her voice was raspy as she felt fragile.

"Is that true. . ?"

Hyein nodded, "You know, for a long period, she was standing between the past and the present. She didn't want to continue forward because she was busy trying to recover the past and hold onto it."

Hyein sighed, her soft gaze meeting with Danielle's, "She wanted it all back... Everything she had with you."

"She wanted to move forward with you rather than on her own."

Danielle was awfully quiet, letting Hyein's words digest inside of her. She was getting lost in her thoughts once more, torn between which trains of thought to follow as her heart began to send mixed signals to them. In the end, it was an unfortunate clash, and Danielle was left with nothing to follow. She was lost and confused.

"Why did you push Haerin away?"

Danielle caught the sprinkle of hurt on Hyein's words. The gryffindor did not like seeing her dear upperclassman broken-hearted. It was an understatement and rather had her heart brutally ripped out from her chest, bleeding out. Hyein had never seen her friend so washed up in anguish before.

She wanted to help, trading information in hopes to understand furthermore how to guide Danielle and Haerin towards each other.

"Why did you leave her in silence?"