Starfall. |Lee Know

Thirty-Nine.

Dabin felt like she was under some magical spell. She was absentmindedly following the familiar melody. It was as if she was following the pied piper. She kept walking barefooted on the grass, making her way to where she heard the music come from. She made it to the lagoon. It was clear that the source of the music was near, but where was it?

Through the darkness of the night, Dabin could spot a white figure lying flat on the grass just as she was lying earlier. Her curiosity peaked as she stepped closer. A few more steps and she gets a clearer view of that figure that was somehow attracting and inviting. Dabin flinched when she stepped on a dry branch that broke and crackled underneath her barefoot but luckily didn't hurt her. She looked down on her feet and then looked up to be faced with what she didn't expect.

That white figure had a head that poked up at the sound of the dry branch crackling. That head emerged for more to show a man standing to his full length.

And that man was no one but the one she longed for.

Time stopped for both of them as they stood facing each other at a distance. Dabin, as usual, stopped breathing, while Minho forgot how to blink.

As handsome as ever, he stood there. He looked much better than the last time she saw him. Maybe he gained some weight but it all went to all the right places. His hair seemed shorter. It was a length that she never witnessed but it was hell-beautiful on him as always. Dabin could swear she saw an earring dangling from his right ear. A piercing? It was out of character but who cares when it looks that good? Instead of a suit or a tuxedo, he was dressed in a wide loose white silk shirt that fell to his thighs, meeting the wide loose white pants that fell to his bare feet. Both peices of clothes swayed with the lazy gentle wind, thanks to their thin and soft fabric.

He looked like a mythological character that appeared inside the woods of wonderland.

On the other side, there was Dabin. She stood there with her light blue dress bunched up in her hands, exposing her legs from her knees down to her bare feet. Her hair was longer than Minho could remember, and it fell perfectly everywhere around her now smaller figure. Her tiara was nowhere on her head and instead, there were some leaves and grass. She looked thinner and the rosy cheeks of hers weren't there anymore. However, she was getting redder.

"Dabin," Minho called from where he was standing. "Breathe."

Immediately, Dabin gasped. She forgot she wasn't breathing. She breathed in and out multiple times before she looked at him again. She was still trying to process if he was really there or if it was just another hallucination.

"Are you really here?" She questioned.

"I guess." He shrugged his shoulders and gave her a sweet smile.

Oh, boy! He shouldn't have done that! He shouldn't have stirred all of those emotions in her chest. He shouldn't have brought every single memory and tear.

Dabin was as collected as ever. Maybe she was still numb to the reality of him being there ahead of her. She didn't take a single step closer and stayed where she was, afraid if she advanced, he might disappear into thin air.

"Where have you been?" She asked.

"Far, very far, away from the four kingdoms." He replied.

"I looked for you everywhere. I even visited the beach house."

"That's why I left." Minho sighed. "I knew that Hyunjin gave you the key and that you might come looking for me, so I left."

"What? Why?" Dabin jolted.

"I was a criminal, Dabin." He pushed his hands into the pockets of his pants. "You come to me and you become tainted with my accusations for the rest of your life."