Dark Side | NCT

05 ; KETCHUP

When Taeil was still four years old, he can think on his own and listen to what his parents have told him to do and this not only does made him a good child, it also made his grandparent's work to get even easier.

To them, Taeil is their most precious boy that ever exist. A child with an integrity, then also becoming a famous child in their hometown. Every people trusted him so much, that his family told everything about the secrets, the forest behind them too.

They gave him a book, a pile of books that had written before to tell something extraordinary, of a few stories that have never spoken up to. Most of them were written by the Moon family and only some of them being published to the world in the form of a fiction. It's quite popular in late 90's but everything vanished after that. Taeil believed, he was the cause to it.

He shooked his head and blinked away of the thoughts.

Taeil murmured foreign language to summoned something after he searched it from the book, and it's the same way as Hana does but with different words.

His finger was held up and pointed to the squirrel after he's done, casting a spell on it. The dark smoke swirls around the animal and nothing happened.
Both of them stared at the squirrel after Taeil closed the book.

"You're going to die," Johnny joked in his monotonous voice. The squirrel was so shocked at the point where it knocks itself on the dark brown magazine holder. It squeaked in painful whine, which shocks the squirrel even more.

"I can talk?" A cute, high-pitch voice lingered in the room and the two nodded. Taeil, the one who almost knew how everything works, pointed his finger towards the squirrel's throat. "I just summoned a tiny part of this forest's power to help you communicate through our language."

Johnny sipped onto his coffee, while poking Taeil's shoulder. "Will it be temporary?"

He sighed and take the mug away from him, drinking half of the liquid inside and placed it back in front of Johnny.

"Yes. Unlike yours, it's a gift," he murmured and glanced on the squirrel again. The half-empty container was being put aside by Johnny, grinning to himself hearing the word 'gift' from him, when he already know it's because of the day when Taeil was begging for the nature to help him.

Especially when he lose his hearing right after..

He give Taeil a glance and the other rolled his eyes, harder than ever, which is normal for them to act like this. Taeil continued back what he said earlier, "and did something happened? Is there something wrong?" He questioned.

Sometimes, some animals would come to Johnny to ranted over things but it rarely happen to say the least. Taeil figured out that it could be important. What else could be so important? Does it related to the tourist? Taeil already give a small lecture to the tourist days ago about the importance of keeping the environment clean.

The squirrel scrunched its nose again, making Johnny giggled at the cuteness. "Do you know that house, where it's made of brick?"

The two shared a look, raising their eyebrows together, nodding at it knowing that it is talking about her house. "It's our friend's house. Her name is Hana," Johnny breathed out.

"Ouh.. So I heard that her house was being casted a spell. I heard if from my family. Why did they do it?" In this moment, Johnny joked a bit by pretending that the high-pitch voice is actually a song to his ear. Taeil punched him and Johnny glared at him while rubbing his shoulder to ease the pain.

"It's actually me, who casted the spell. It can keep her house safe from any intruder or any other tourists who's being 'over-curious' to check out the house. But at the same time, we put a boundaries, so when we step inside, we actually can see her house with our own eyes. And it only works on humans," he explained more detail, thinking that it could satisfy the squirrel and yet, he was met with a disappointment.