Pneuma | BbangHyun✅

Flight

[영]

I sighed heavily as I wandered around not too far from the bookstore with Cutie and Gin. "Why are we left out?" "I'm not sure either." "Hoon!" I turned around and saw Jaehyun hurrying after me. "Come on!" "Where are we going?" He didn't answer as he dragged me down the street.

He pulled open the bookstore's door and ushered me inside. "Wow. This is a lot of books..." "Kim Younghoon, right?" I snapped my head in the direction of the voice. "How do you know?" She didn't answer and fueled my fire further. I didn't like secrets. "Now will you tell me since he's here?" "Of course." I felt Jaehyun squeeze my hand as she took a sip from her cup. "You two aren't from this time period." I was pretty sure my mouth was agape.

"If you don't believe me, travel around and learn what you can." It's true that I didn't believe one word she had just said. "Would traveling around really reveal the truth?" "Yes indeed. I can't tell you anymore than this. I'm sorry." "I get it. You want us to go on a emotional adventure to learn about ourselves and if you were to tell us the story would end rather quickly." She nodded at Jaehyun and I couldn't help but feel lost. What were they talking about? "Well, time waits for no one. Get going." We nodded then left the store. "What were you talking about back in there?" "Don't worry about it Hoon. I just wish we knew who to look for."

My mind couldn't help but dwell on the fact that she said we're not of this time period. How could we not be? We were born just like everyone else in our class, with the exception of those who skipped or were left back. "Younghoon." "What?" Gin pointed towards an intersection. "It's Jaehyun." I looked to my side and saw he wasn't there. "Did you see what happened?" "Someone took him." I wasted no time in dashing towards the intersection. I came to a stop and found myself in the middle of a crowded area. "Of course. It just had to get crowded at a crucial time."

I don't know how long it's been since I started looking for him. "Gin, you can't track either of them?" "Nope." I frowned heavily then felt close to giving up. It was a huge city, so the probability of someone having seen him was very slim. "What if they're no longer in the city?" "They're here." I looked at Gin who had started sniffing the air once more. "This way. It's very faint, but I can smell that blasted kit." It was refreshing to know that Gin wasn't fond of Cutie either. She needs her personality fixed too.

The pace we were going at was too slow for my liking. Despite Gin running, his quick steps only equaled two steps of mine. "Can't you grow?" "I don't think so. Cutie can though." I gave him a confused look as he turned into a suspicious looking area. "She can grow?" "I happened upon her roaming on her own and she suddenly became a full sized kit. Her fur was slightly shimmery." There really was something about Cutie none of us knew about. We stopped and took in our surroundings. "They're here, but the smell is god awful. It's messing with my nose." I closed my eyes in hopes of being able to feel Jaehyun's presence. I knew I didn't have a power like that, but it was worth a shot.

I knocked on the door and was greeted by an old man. "How may I help you?" "I was wondering..." I described Jaehyun and told him that if I lost him it'd spell trouble for our country. "Oh...Come in...He's with us." Us? I followed him inside then felt relief when I saw Jaehyun happily drinking and eating. "Jae!" "Oh, Hoon. Sorry. They dragged me away before I could grab you. Want some?" I took a seat next to him then took the cracker out of his hand.

"So, why did you kidnap our king?" I felt Jaehyun's eyes on me, but I motioned for him to stay silent. "We didn't know he was a king. He just looked like someone my grandma showed me." I looked at the old man who nodded. "Her family always passed down a photo of a young man to the second born. Unless there's only one child then they receive it." It seemed like an interesting tradition, if you could consider it one. "Can we see it? The photo?" I looked at Jaehyun who seemed curious.

The grandson returned with a photo then handed it to me. "Grandma said I ever run into someone who looks exactly like him to give him this box." He produced a box from a void that landed on the table with a clack. "She said you'd know how to open it. So..." Jaehyun touched the lightly decorated box with care. "Do you know how to open this?" "I've never seen a box like this." He tried using his strength, but it remained tightly shut. "Are you two angels?" "Yeah? What else would we be?" I watched as he showed off his gold wings. "Grandpa on the other hand..." His mood quickly dropped as he placed a hand on his back. "It recently came about too...the blue gradient..." "Blue gradient..." I had remembered that I've read about it before. It meant his grandfather was dying.