Nitewood | iKON Donghyuk

16

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Donghyuk and I spent most of the afternoon on Saturday searching through the archives. I couldn't find much about my family line except that my parents were indeed born and raised in Nitewood. The archives contained mostly basic information I already knew.

Sighing in defeat while surrounded by my circle of papers and documents, I began to put everything back into its rightful place.

"Nothing?" Donghyuk half smiled at me. I shook my head in disappointment. "Well, I guess you should be grateful I'm here." He offered me an old, dusty book with no title cover.

I looked up at him as I took the book into my hands. "What is it?"

"I think it's a book about the legends and history of Nitewood. It might be useful. Here." He took the book and flipped to a page with a drawing of the demon I described. "It looks like what you described," he said as he pointed at the eerie drawing. Its vicious face gave me a bad case of deja vu, but I took the book in my hands and examined the page.

Under the picture was the word Stricket scrawled in scratchy writing. The right side of the page has a large description, but I closed the book before I read it. "Thanks, Donghyuk. I think I'll check it out."

"Mhm. Glad I could be useful for once," he joked as we headed out of the library and towards the dormitory.

At the dormitory, Donghyuk and I decided to split ways since he wanted to find Yunhyeong. I slipped into my room and plopped myself onto my bed and began reading the page on the Stricket, realizing it was formatted like a journal.

Stricket is a creature that originates from only the darkest trenches on Earth. When I encountered one, I felt as if my body's heat had drained out of me and was replaced by the ice caps of Mount Everest. It was a bloody day. It was war day. The Stricket had somehow discovered one of the rare Fluorescents, who is under the protection of the mighty Silver Crusades, resulting in blood shed and lost lives.

I paused after reading, trying to remember where I had heard of Silver Crusades. The history of this journal must've dated back centuries because I learned the term when learning about the Nitewood Massacre in History on my first day. I buried my nose back in the book, immersed with the amount of information it packed. Real or not, it was interesting.

I saw them only in dreams before. The fear they leave in their wake is unbearable. It wasn't until that fateful day that I faced void eyes. To escape the war, many were leaving behind their homes: their lives. I wanted to stay behind since I felt it was my duty to protect Nitewood. I watched as my home was burned to ashes by the leading Stricket and fled to the woods, where I came across a group of Strickets. Their soulless eyes seemed to absorb the sight of a human in front of them. In a flash, a herd of them had already attacked me to the floor.

My body had been drained of everything, gashes and gruesome bites embedded in my skin. I could barely twitch a mere pink muscle without feeling excruciating pain. I was broken and dying. My last breath would've been that day. If it hadn't been for her, I would be dead.

My reading was interrupted when Sira came bouncing in. "Donghyuk stole my Yoyo~" she pouted at me before asking, "what is that?"

I closed the book after marking my page. "Just some book." I shrugged, not wanting her to know about my recent episodes of nightmares.

She narrowed her eyes at me in suspicion but let it go anyway. She dropped onto her own bed and shouted into her pillow, "THIS WEEKEND IS GOING TO BE BORINGGG! WHY CAN'T WE GO ANYWHERE?"

I laughed at her whining and offered, "maybe we can plan something fun with the boys."

She immediately brightened up and nodded vigorously. "Yeah! Good idea, Y/N~~" she thew me a thumbs up before asking, "how's your research on your parents, by the way?" I looked at her, wondering how she could know. She just shrugged and defended, "a girl got ears."

I sighed and decided to spill about my nightmares, explaining why researching my parents were important to me. She nodded encouragingly. "Ya know... I think my grandma might've mentioned a lot of this fairytale myth stuff. She's very into it. I can try to get information on all of this stuff."

Her asking her grandma made me think of Aunt Daina. Maybe I could call her about all of this later. "Awh, thanks, Sira. For dealing with a weird roommate," I laughed gratefully before continuing, "would she happen to know about what Fluorescents are?"

Sira tapped her chin thoughtfully before saying, "I think so. I vaguely remember a bedtime story about that, but my memory is pretty fuzzy. I'll ask her. But right now, my top priority is fooooood. I'm craving chocolateeeee, Y/N!" Her whines seemed endless, and I wasn't sure how to stop her.

I rubbed my temples and let out a sigh of relief when there was a faint knock at the door. I immediately got up to open it, grateful for any escape from Sira's whining. Standing at the door was Yunhyeong, his arms full of decadent chocolate treats.

My jaw dropped, slightly jealous of how great Yoyo was to Sira but temendously relieved that she would be satisfied. Sira stopped her whining momentarily to look up at the door and immediately bounced to the door to wrap Yunhyeong in her arms, completely ignoring the chocolates.

"YOU'RE THE BEST YOYOOOO~~<3" She excitedly exclaimed into his shirt, earning a deep laugh from Yunhyeong. After leading him into the dorm, she plopped down on her bed and began to dig into her boyfriend's gifts.

"Awwwh you two are so cute," I smiled at the couple with a small smile and felt someone's hand on the small of my back. Startled, I abruptly turned around and was met with Donghyuk's face.

"We're cute, too," he winked and then gestured toward the door, "you might want to close the door or else random people can get in," he chuckled.

I shook my head at him while smiling as I made my way over to close the door. "Well, people should be taught not to walk into random peoples' rooms," I teased.

"Now, if you were random, would I be giving you this?"

I turned around to see him holding out a small bundle of colorful flowers. The surprise was so sudden I couldn't help but bring my hand to my mouth. "Oh my gosh, Donghyuk. They're beautiful. Thank you," I said, taking the flowers from him and finding a container to put them in. "What are they for?"

He nervously rubbed the back of his neck, looking at the floor. "I just wanted to give you something pretty, even though they aren't even half as pretty as you," he smiled. "Plus, I have to get you prepped for when I ask you to be my girlfriend soon." He wiggled his eyebrows at me, laughing at my shocked expression.

"DO IT REALLY SOON DONGHYUK BECAUSE YOU TWO ARE TOO CUTE. I HAVE SO MANY FEELS. I MEAN YOU GUYS ARE BASICALLY ALREADY A COUPLE. JUST MAKE IT OFFICIAL!" I heard Sira scream from her bed, mouth full of chocolate.

I giggled slightly at them and then turned to Donghyuk. "Well, whenever you decide to, just know the answer is yes." Now it was my turn to laugh and tease a blushing Donghyuk until he decided to tackle me into a hug.

[A/N: Sorry, a shorterish chapter for todayyy! Life of a student trying to balance time is such a struggle XD Enjoy life, lovelies! <3]