《我明白》-[w.jh]

[30: lose]

Minghao burst through the door of Seoyul's house, dashing up the stairs towards her bedroom. He carried her weeping, weak figure towards the bed, laying her gently on it.

"What happened to you this time? Where's Junhui? Doesn't he look after you?" He asked as he poured her a cup of hot water from the pitcher in the kitchen. He handed the hot mug to her.

"Jun...he, he left...Seori came and..." Seoyul choked on the water, causing her to cough.

Minghao soothed her, trying to calm her down. "Drink first," he told her.

When Seoyul had finished the water and pulled up the covers around her, she turned to him and said, "Minghao, Seori manipulated Jun into leaving me by using me...she's brought him somewhere I don't know about...I can sense his feelings through our bond, I know he's scared! I want to look for him, but I don't know where to go..."

Minghao looked down at his hands, then looked back at her.

"I think I know where she is."

"Take me there. I want to look for him."

"You had better stay here. Who knows what she'll do."

Seoyul shook her head. "I'm not just going to stand here and wait for him to return."

Minghao sighed. Sometimes, Seoyul was just too stubborn.

• • •

Jun took a look around the icy cave.

It definitely looked like a place where innocents got murdered. Maybe there was a chamber that was meant specifically to freeze people to death.

Maybe that was going to be his fate.

He walked behind Seori, trailing her footsteps until she stopped in front of a frozen vortex. She turned slowly to face him, and he could see that her icy blue eyes were filled with coldness.

Not the warmth he was used to seeing in Seoyul's eyes.

"I'm sorry you have to do this. This was not my original intention."

Her eyes showed no sign of apology.

"However, it seems you have a way deeper bond with my sister than I had initially expected. Like many others before you, I had assumed you were after her power. Her money. Her fame. Turned out you knew nothing about her until she herself mentioned it."

"Many men came to our house, asking for her hand. Some were rich merchants' sons who thought that girls always dreamed of marrying a rich man. Some were public figures who wanted to marry a famous woman. Some were mere admirers who thought they could have her hand in marriage. And that made me jealous," Seori confessed. "I had the money, but I didn't have the fame nor the power. I was always made to feel inferior to her."

"There is a rule in this world of ours. We are forbidden to marry a human. This was never the case before, since our cousin has a human father, but because too many half-breds like him started popping up, they banned these marriages."

"I wanted to leave this world. Find a place far away from here, where I would start again. If I found a husband there, I would marry and have a family, and no one would be none the wiser. But then this stupid rule exists, so I needed to collect thirteen different souls in order for me to have this rule bended away from me. I made a deal with my sister for her to help me and she agreed. She aided me in collecting a few souls, but then when it came to you, I had trouble. You are a rare case. A very, very rare case indeed."

"Then, my dear sister fell in love with you." Seori sneered. "She then betrayed me by taking all the souls that the two of us had collected together and submitted them to the authorities, and asked then to consent to her marriage with a human. Naturally, since she had done whatever they had wanted, they agreed. Now she is with you, trying to find her happily ever after, and what am I supposed to do? Just stand by and watch." Seori spat on the icy floor. Jun could sense her deep hatred for what Seoyul had done.

"However, before she had gone to the authorities I had already discovered that she was in love with you. She refused to come home one night, and then I found out that she was in bed with you. That night I found out, I had been working on an experiment my boss assigned me to. I must have mixed the chemicals wrongly, but it was a blessing in disguise after all, because I summoned a great power, a power greater than Seoyul's, a power greater than everyone else's."

Seori pointed at the frozen vortex. "There lies the Darkness, a power that many have tried to summon and control, but failed. But you don't need to know that. Let's come back to why you are here." Her lips curled into a smile, and evil smile, and Jun froze.

"The Darkness is hungry. I have fed it everything that I thought could satisfy it, but it wants more. It needs a living soul, a soul to satisfy itself. I would have sacrificed my dying sister, but for a mysterious reason she has recovered. And since you have been so willing to save her..." Seori cast a knowing glance at Jun.

Jun realised what she was going to do.

"So you're feeding me to that...that thing."

"So fast on the uptake." Seori turned to inspect whatever was hiding inside the vortex. "Don't worry. If the Darkness does not like you, you'll have a chance of survival. You will still be able to see your darling...or not."

Jun felt sick at his stomach. He stared fearfully at the vortex, fearing, fearing, yet hoping...

"Jun!"

He heard her voice, that voice he would recognise anywhere.

"Seoyul!"

He tried to run to her, to her wide, oustretched arms, but a force held him back. It was pinning his feet to the floor, preventing him from moving.

He caught a glimpse of Minghao.

"Seori, stop it. Now."

Seori laughed. "Should have known you'd show my sister my hiding spot, Minghao. Not that you blew my cover anyway. I'll still be the victorious one at the end and you know it."

Minghao's eyes narrowed to a glare. "Let him go, or you know what's going to happen."

"Or what? You're going to report me? That won't work," Seori cackled. "I was planning this to be discreet, but since the two of you are here, let's all watch this show, shall we?" Her eyes glinted dangerously.

Seoyul charged towards her sister and grabbed her collar. "Free him!"

Seori smirked. "As if I would."

With one swift movement, she lifted Jun into the air by some invisible force. Jun wanted to scream, yet no sound came out. Seoyul shouted something, but he couldn't hear her. Minghao was trying to grab at Seori, but he couldn't quite get her.

Seori laughed eerily. "Say goodbye."

And with that, she tossed Jun into the vortex.

He knew Seoyul would be rushing to the vortex, screaming his name, yet he couldn't say anything but a single, whispered "I love you".

The Darkness swallowed him, and Jun prayed that he would somehow come out alive.

a/n
okay this chapter is kinda different from the rest i guess
also this will be my last update, because i have major exams that don't end until october. so i hope that you guys will understand.
i'll just leave yall with this chapter and i hope you have a nice day, thanks for reading!