ELVEN | K.TH

29

He looks up, gaze wavering.

"...what?"

I said you're too kind.

I was a silly, young girl. Someone who would've died, if it weren't for you that saved me that day.

His body freezes, like ice. And I see everything of the horror that sets in his face as he realizes that I had remembered. I'd remembered, all the memories that he had blurred.

I'd remember everything.

He shifts off of me immediately. But I clasp his wrist, pulling him back the moment he tries to put distance between us. I pull him back so hard he nearly falls on top of me.

I sign with a single hand, eyes firm.

You're not going anywhere. Listen to me.

Listen.

He gasps as I force him to turn back towards me. "How did you...do you remember everything...?"

I nod.

He makes a painful noise deep in his throat.

Taehyung, I stare at him. You can't possibly be thinking that what happened to me was your fault. You were just passing by. You should be thinking of yourself as my savior.

"You don't understand."

What do I not understand?

"I was watching you. And I saw the tree— I saw it snapping, and you playing so innocently, right underneath it."

"And I didn't do anything. I couldn't."

Taehyung, you were a child.

"That doesn't excuse anything. That won't change the fact that you could be speaking right now, Rinei. Nothing will."

His expression crumples.

"And do you have any idea how I felt when I heard your voice that day?"

That...day?

Oh. The day when I'd first connected with him.

He looks at his hands.

"Your voice sounded enchanting. Sweeter than the voice of any elf I'd heard."

"I cannot believe I let you lose that."

I breathe. You did not let me lose anything.

Taehyung.

His eyes are still fixed blankly on his hands. I have to lift his face up to look at me, my fingertips touching his chin.

My bottom lip trembles.

It's not your fault.

He tries to turn his face away. But I hold him in place, and his eyes widen when my grip tightens.

"...Rinei."