The Fire Inside

26. Trust Issues

Jimin watched as Julien walked over to the girl. He seemed hesitant, as if one wrong move would bring the broken building to the ground.

"Ducky? That is you, right?"

"Hey Julien," Ducky said, voice clearly lowered.

"What...How..."

"Hold up. Before this sappy reunion continues, can someone explain how they know each other? 'Cuz all I heard was duck," Maria said, scrunching her nose in a pout.

They all turned to Julien and the newcomer.

A gasp was heard from the corner of the room, "Long lost lover? Julien, how could you!"

"Isadora! Let me explain!" Julien cried out pulling his blond identical hair.

The group was cynical about their relationship, but decided to let the anxious boy explain.

Julien let out a deep and exhausted sigh, "This girl is my sister. She's been missing, but apparently she knew where I was."

"Sorry Li. Things came up and I had to leave."

"Explain."

"How about after we leave..." Ducky looked to see the burly man staring at them curiously, listening in on their conversation.

"Where would we go then?" Varun folded his arms against his chest.

"My place! It's not like I was living on the streets or in sewers!"

She grabbed Julien's hand and dragged him out, leading the rest of the group outside—quite begrudgingly. They had just escaped from the hands of death—literally—and she was still a stranger to them. How could they trust her so easily? When they walked out of the brick, a blanket of menacing clouds covering the sky. The moon peeked out between the clouds throwing shadows on the dirt road. Isadora saw the dirt and decided she'd had enough of her own two feet. She began to run and tumble on the ground. By the time she stopped, the golden puppy had taken her place. She began to happily bark and looked at Jimin who was shaking her head in disappointment. Izzy tugged at Jimin's pant leg to show that she didn't care before padding over to Julien. She rubbed her head against his jeans and barked at him happily.

"Isadora! You turned back!" Julien exclaimed.

She let out another bark, happy and cheerful, before looking at his confused sister. She let out a low rumble from the back of her throat. Julien lightly kicked her side to tell her to cut it out. She looked away from him and stood in front of the girl. She barked noisily while Ducky stood curiously about why a dog suddenly started barking at her.

"Isadora! Stop that!" Jimin ran over and scooped her up.

"Sorry about that Ducky..."

"Dakota."

"Excuse me?"

"My name's not Ducky. This fool just calls me that. My name's Dakota," she stated while pointing to an awestruck Julien.

"Oh, sorry about that Dakota," Jimin said sheepishly, "My dog's kinda crazy."

Isadora nipped at Jimin's hand before whining.

"She wasn't there before..."

Jimin looked to Julien who seemingly shrugged. If this stranger was trustworthy in his eyes then Jimin saw no problem with her.

"This here is Isadora. She's a cursed human and an annoying mutt."

Jimin's statement earned another whine from the mentioned individual. Jimin looked over to see Isadora—her human form—standing and pouting.

"Oh my god! That's so—oh my goodness!"

"Dakota. Relax. It's not the end of the world," Julien deadpanned, still affected by the comment she'd made against him.

"Oh c'mon. Are you still salty about what I said? You are pretty stupid so I'm not far from the truth anyway. We all know that I'm the smarter one of us two! Got it from dad. Speaking of which, how're they? And what are you doing away from them? You never cared about leaving Sunset Village."

Julien's face dropped.

"Julien?"

Jimin looked at Julien's face. What was he going to say? At that point, Jimin just wanted Dakota to shut up. Then again, it's her family as well so Jimin didn't say anything.

"Julien?" Dakota called again.

Julien looked at Dakota with unshed tears.

"No. Stop. No way. Not possible."

"I-I'm sorry. So so sorry," Julien croaked.

Dakota pulled him into a tight hug.

"Shh. It's ok. I'm here. I'm still here. You've got someone."

"Don't worry Ducky. I already found someone that's there for me," Julien looked at Jimin with a gentle smile.

Jimin on the other hand, felt her heart skip a beat. What in the world was he saying to her? He'd saved her life time and time again, but never had she helped him in any way! In fact, she was the reason he left his family. Indirectly, she was the cause of his parents' deaths. This broke her heart and tore it into pieces. Pieces that were so fine, so scattered, that there was no way to pick them up.

"Jimin?" Julien looked at his friend in concern.

Jimin's attention was brought back to the people in front of her.

"I-I was never there for you. You've always been there for me, so please don't lie like that."

Julien looked like he had been punched in the gut.

"What're you talking about! You literally saved my ass so many times I lost count!"

"Name one."

"When you risked your life to stop the boulder that was hurdling towards us even though you could've been killed. I definitely couldn't do that! And just watched your body with the dancing flames around it, it was just magical!"

Just like that, all the minute pieces of her heart, every small chip, every shard, was carefully pieced together with the fine tool known as Julien. With a few sentences, he managed to put back an almost broken girl. Jimin smiled at him.

"Thank you. That was unexpected."

"I'm very enthusiastic about those I find close to my heart so your welcome," he threw a flying kiss to which Jimin cringed.

Dakota raised an eyebrow before dragging Julien away.

"You have the hotties for Jimin? I give you my blessings."

"Wait, what?" Julien looked baffled.

"You're imagining flames of love around the one you fell in love with. I can't blame you."

"Oh my god! Dakota! She has fire powers! She literally had fire swirling around her!"

Dakota suddenly grew two heads. Whatever Julien had said completely went over her head. First a dog-human and now a fire girl? It was way too much to handle after being reunited with her twin brother. She came to a halt when she saw a familiar building.

"We're here!"