home, jaemin

chapter sixty-six

sirens wailed loudly in the late night, ambulances and police cars making way to the ceremony grounds.

"here," jaemin offered, wrapping a towel around jiyoung's shaking body. it was already bad she wasn't wearing more layers of clothing but she was still covered in water in the cold which made it worse.

"thanks," she said quietly, staring at the ground. jaemin noticed the expression on her face and wrapped his arms around her, warming her up further as she buried her face in his chest- as if asking for protection.

she had just killed a man. a sick and twisted man. one that tormented her from the day he kidnapped her. was it really a justified death? or was she just telling herself that so she'd feel less bad? either way, it wasn't working.

even without wanting to, she could picture the moment that he knew he was going to die. the big and bad attitude had left his body and fear encased him, shining through his eyes. and then she blinked. when she opened her eyes, he was dead on the ground.

she remembers how his body fell with a thud. his face falling forward onto the ground. the back of his shirt had been ripped from the fight and she could see a tattoo. when they were wheeling him away along with the other men that her friends had fought, she could tell they all had the same tattoo.

the other friends thanked the paramedics for checking up on them and made their way to where jiyoung and jaemin were still sitting in one of the large vehicles.

"jiyoung?"

the said girl looked up at her group of friends walking over, each of them carrying sad smiles on their faces.

"your pupils are gray now with little bits of white. what does that mean?" mark asked, looking at the different colors.

jiyoung sighed, ignoring the pain in her back. "uh, i think it means i'm tired and fearful or upset right now."

"why are you upset?" nayeon asked.

jiyoung looked up at her with a small smile, knowing nayeon could find the answer for herself.

"no, i'm serious, jiyoung. why are you so upset over killing a man who challenged you to a death duel? the same man that was taunting you over there about taking you away from your family as a baby and laughing about it? he's a bastard and as far as i'm concerned, he deserved every bit of pain he felt today." she ranted, taking a seat next to jiyoung.

jiyoung looked up at her and weakly wrapped her arm around nayeon while jaemin interlocked her other hand with his. "thanks nayeon."

the older girl smiled, patting jiyoung's head affectionately, "any time."

jinae watched the scene as she walked over to the group. she had jiyoung's glider, laying it against the ambulance. "i'm assuming you have some more questions now."

jiyoung smiled and looked up at the older woman she would begin calling mother, "just two for right now. my father, the real one. who was he?"

jinae sighed as looked at the nine watching her before answering. "your father was a very good man. we were around your age when you were born. he was assigned to be the next councilman but a few months before his ceremony you were taken from us in the middle of the night. at the time we were engaged but he was killed. the councilmen discussed what would happen and decided since i was his soon-to-be wife that i'd take his position as a councilman."

the kids all listened attentively. they were immersed in jinae's tellings.

"you know, he loved you so much. he was the youngest out of the soon-to-be councilmen and loved your guys' parents to death. he was there for each of your births and was so excited to finally have a daughter of his own. we thought you'd all grow together before the day of your own ceremonies but after his death, everything just changed. for the worse, at the time. we all split up until naturally, you all become friends. after that, we had come back together- the other parents welcoming me with warm hearts."

each of the kids were beginning to tear up alongside jinae, the mention of an undeserved death hurting each of them, especially when he was the father of their close friend.

"he'd be proud to find out you're a prodigy. minjoon wasn't lying when he said you came from a long line of prodigies. your father was one as well. the night you were taken, we had both been drugged. somehow he couldn't even use his bending and it led us to this outcome."

jiyoung paused at the mention of the irregular name, "minjoon? you mean hyunjoon?"

jinae shook her head no, "hyunjoon was a fake name. his real name was jeon minjoon. he's a famous criminal in the republic that escaped from prison years ago and had been on the run. he was a famous blood bender that could bend without the full moon. he was a prodigy once but when he was thrown into prison, he got his bending taken away. i'm assuming that's why he was performing so many experiments on you- to test what he could do to himself to restore it. those guys helping him are also escapees which is why they're getting transferred to another secure prison now."

jiyoung only listened, feeling weaker than she'd like to admit. "i don't think i'm gonna be switching elements so quickly between one another any time soon," she lightly laughed, laying her head on jaemin's chest.

"it was cool," chenle mentioned. "i've never seen someone who could bend more than just one element. actually, it's highly unlikely we'll ever meet someone else who can so you're one of a kind!"

the others laughed at his realization, finally feeling a bit better after the scene.

"and the second question. my eyes. in the nightmare i had that i had been taken, i already had black eyes. was i born with them?"

jinae shook her head, "no. you were born with light gray eyes that matched your father's. remember when you were in my office and i said i had already known one thing about you? it was that you were a prodigy. when you were only a month old, we found out. your father and i had been playing with you one day when your eyes flashed a color of yellow. i'm assuming that you were so distraught the night you were taken and onwards that your eyes somehow changed, staying black since that night. i'm not sure if you will have black eyes forever, though. so it's best we do some tests."

jiyoung nodded, laying her head back on jaemin's chest as he snaked an arm around her waist. "i think the word test is gonna haunt me for the rest of my life," she joked.

jaemin smiled having the familiar weight back on him. his hand right hand squeezed jiyoung's in an act of comfort. the action was mostly meant for her but it made both of them feel better having one another back.

here we go, come with me
there's a world out there that we should see
take my hand, close your eyes
with you right here, I'm a rocketeer

━ rocketeer, far east movement

i forgot to post this chapter last night, sorry :(
also, i'll be updating 3 chapters tomorrow!