His heart was thundering in his chest, beating so forcefully that his breathing was laboured in response. He was nervous, but he wasn't quite sure what for.
Was it to do with standing before the person he was about to face? Was it to do with the answers he could find behind the door? Perhaps it was a mix of both. But when the door creaked open, and an elderly woman with salt and peppered hair is revealed, her eyes piercing, yet sorrowful, he balls his hands into fists, trying to contain the shaking.
"I was wondering when I'd be seeing you here again" She whispers, and yet, there's something in her gaze that encourages Jaemin to take a deep breath.
She had been expecting him.
She wasn't guarded, nor weary, nor blameful... There was something in her words that was welcoming, a softness that lured Jaemin's heart to steady.
"You knew I was coming?"
"It was only a matter of time," Her gaze lingers on him for a moment more before she opens the door wider, "Come, we have much to discuss"
And following her command, Jaemin follows Donghyuck's grandma into her house, his mind still nervous, and hands sweaty.
The house in its silence feels so harrowing. There's no thundering footsteps from the twins as they shout teasing's across the room, running from Johnny who only wishes to school them. There's no birdsong that filters through the rooms, the melodic sound carried by a sweet breeze that rustles the flower petals of the wild weeds that are scattered about the house in glass vases, teapots and whatever else could home nature's most beautiful creations. But most importantly, there's no Donghyuck- no warmth, no light, no familiar voice that calls out to him, dripping in honey and secrets.
Jaemin glances to the elderly woman leading him through the house, her sagged shoulders looking just a little bit heavier than they had looked on their first meeting. He wishes he knew what to say to her.
She silently leads him through the house, passed the kitchen, passed the staircase leading up to his friend's room, steering clear of the garden... They keep moving swiftly before she stops before an old oak door. From the markings across the frame, Jaemin has an idea of what he's about to walk into, and yet he's still surprised when such a scene unravels before his eyes.
Deep amber warmed with vanilla-sweetened patchouli embraces Jaemin as soon as he pushes the brass door handle, allowing him access to a world of leather-bound books and melted wax streaming down elaborate candlestick holders.
He feels as though he has stepped back in time.
Books wallpapered the room, some with coloured covers that had faded with time and use, others looking as though they were freshly printed. Decades, probably centuries, worth of knowledge was preserved here, within a messenger's study, both the room and the secrets inside having been passed down from generation to generation.
The room was a lot darker than the rest of the house. Thick patterned curtains were drawn, blocking any natural light from shining through. Because of such, the air was thick and suffocating, and Jaemin wonders if anyone had stepped foot in here since his friend's passing. He also wonders if that was how Donghyuck felt, suffocated, by his gifts and all the secrets he had to bare alone. Jaemin's mind drifts back to his godfather and how happy he was to be rid of it all.
"He spent most of his time here in his final days," She voices, her words whispered and fragile, almost as if she were afraid to disrupt the peace of the room, "I haven't touched a thing."
Where Jaemin's gaze had been concentrated on the deep red rug sprawled underneath a matching and worn armchair, and an old coffee table that seemed to be acting as a desk judging by all the books piled on top of it, he now turns to look at the woman stood beside him.
No more did he see her as a powerful sorceress hiding in an aged and lived-in body, no more was he intimidated by her presence. Now she was just a grandma who had lost her grandson. Now, she felt a little bit more human.
"I'll give you a few moments alone in here" She says, a soft smile on her lips as she bows her head, already retreating to the door, "It's what he would've wanted, I'll come back later."
Her swift exit distracts Jaemin from the words she had uttered for a moment. He found himself scanning the room after she leaves, confused as to why Donghyuck would've wanted him to see this study. Something also tugs in his memory, didn't she want to speak with him? Or is that something that will come later, after Jaemin has explored this room he had so abruptly found himself in?
He makes his way passed the first few mahogany shelves that tower above him, looking so imposing that he feels so small, so insignificant in the face of all this magical history.
He pads over to the coffee table in the middle of the room, the dark wood hidden by dusty scrolls of parchment that litter most of the surfaces. There's a trail of ink adorning a few loose sheets of paper upon the table, with sticky black finger prints leaving their marks upon three different tea cups upon the table, all varying degrees of unconventional in their shaping. He also notes clumsy droplets of ink spilling across the carpet below.
Whatever Donghyuck was researching, from the state of his study, it looked complex, and incredibly frustrating.
He lowers himself onto the deep red velvet armchair that was pulled up to the coffee table, admiring the rushed scribbles marking the pages before him.
However, almost immediately his eyebrows are drawing together, sculpting a deep frown onto his forehead.
Between the ink splodges on the page before him, he makes out a name. His name.
It's only a few lines, but intrigued, Jaemin holds the paper in his hands, bringing it up to his eyeline.
'Jaemin is still unaware of the gifts he possess. I've tried to give him time, but that is something we are now running out of. They're closing in, I can feel it.'
With his frown deepening, he reads the lines again, and again.
Did Donghyuck know what he truly was? Did he know the extent of his gifts and messy lineage? And who are closing in... Could it be linked to the warning the Kamaitachi whispered just the other day? A band of dangerous spirits... Are they on their way?
As his mind begins to spiral, he sees it again, his name on another piece of parchment.
'I've never met a Yokai like him before. It's so strange. The power pulsing from him is indescribable, and yet what is the most astounding thing is that Jaemin seems to have no idea of the gifts he possesses. But there's something there. He's different. Whenever I'm with him, I can sense it. It's like I've been searching for him before I really even knew what I was looking for. And now he's here. Now I've found him.'
That feeling he remembers taking over him on the first day he met Donghyuck, that familiarity and comfort, whilst they were sat underneath the great oak tree outside... Donghyuck felt it too. Like two halves finally coming together.
As his eyes drag over the words inked onto the paper, he begins to understand why he had been lead here. So many secrets were inked into the pages before him, and he was determined to uncover each and every one.
However, before he can move onto another entry, a rushed smudge at the top corner of the page catches his eye. It was a number. A date.
Curious, Jaemin quickly pages through what sheets he had just read through, and slightly more than their content, he was stunned by the numbers branding each.
In his hands were diary entries, and as he looks at the dates, his hands begin to shake.
It couldn't be...
Quickly, and a little clumsily, he arranges them all in chronological order, his eyes flying to read the first of many that littered the desk before him.
'Something's coming. I can feel it. Rolling into town on the early morning mist, something we have not seen in centuries. Grandma is solemn, perhaps she can feel the shift in the air too. I know I should be cautious, but for some reason, I feel excited. I feel like the world is on the verge of change, or perhaps it may just be my world... but something is coming, and I am ready to see what that something is.'
Without a moment's rest, he picks up the next entry.
'Their arrival is getting closer. It's been occupying my mind for days, I can barely sleep. I'm trying to uncover what it could possibly be. It feels like another messenger may be coming our way, and yet... I don't know. It's darker, different, something I can't quite describe. Could it be some sort of spirit??'
And as Jaemin scans over his friend's scribblings, words crossed out and theories re-written, at the bottom of his page, something written in bold capitals snags his attention.
'A SHADOW!!'
Jaemin glances at the date marked on the top of the page. It was the day before he arrived in this town.
Donghyuck had known a shadow was coming.
Jaemin felt his heart stop. Shock taking him hostage.
As his mind had frozen, his body acts on pure instinct only, picking up the next entry in the pile. Only this one had just one word written upon the entire page.
'Jaemin'.
And it was dated on the first day they met.
The parchment crumples under his touch.
Donghyuck had known. He had known from that very first meeting what he was.
But why had he not said anything? Why had he not revealed such information to Jaemin himself? God knows there were plenty of moments such knowledge would've been helpful...
Jaemin gets his answer a few moments later, when his fingers brush across the very last diary entry his friend had written, and tears swell in his eyes.
'And so my time is finally up. I've known this moment was coming for a while... The shadows that chase me in my dreams, the vast pit of unending despair that has planted its roots in my stomach...
I know I am fated to die, and I know I must, so that other players and hidden knowledge can finally come to light... and yet I'm so afraid.
I know I must trust the universe, and I must believe in my powers- I know that eventually I'll be okay... But I can't shake the grasp that fear has on me.
Jaemin is strong, and I will trust him with my life, because I know that amongst the uncertainty and doubt he feels, he'll learn to grow into his own gifts, and our friends will help show him the way. The bond between us has been awakened, although, if I am right, it was buzzing with life the moment of our first meeting.
I haven't told him any of this- of what he is, of the bond we share, and perhaps when he finally learns he may resent me for my secrets... But it was never my place to say, nor was such knowledge his burden to bare, not just yet at least. He will find out precisely when the universe intends him too, exactly when he's ready. Then, and only then, can we help save each other. To have told him before would've only worried him, it would've rushed him to learn, to engage with this world... And that's when fatal mistakes are made, or decisions based solely on emotion are agreed upon. It would've only ended in more darkness...
I hope one day he can understand my reasoning, even if he does not agree with it. He was fated to come to this town, and we were all fated to meet... And so if my trust in the universe falters, then I will continue to trust in my friends. I trust that I will see the light once more, and we will be reunited forevermore.'
Tears stain the parchment in his hands.
Above the noise of his warring heart, unsure whether it should rip itself open or to hold itself together, in the knowledge that Donghyuck was counting on him, the door to the study opens again, and amidst the tears glinting in his eyes, causing his vision to grow hazy, he manages a smile to the elderly woman who looks as though she too is drowning in emotion.
"So..." She croaks, her own eyes teary as she glances at him over the desk, "You figured out why you've been brought here?"
And Jaemin can't articulate the way his heart swells.
Donghyuck knew.
Donghyuck knew everything.
From before Jaemin had even landed in Korea, Donghyuck knew they were destined to meet, he knew they were to become friends, confidants, and he knew of the string of events that were about to unfold.
They had been tied together from the very beginning.
He knew he was going to die. And he knew Jaemin would be the one to pull him back.
Was it Donghyuck he could sense in his dreams? Was it his voice that was calling out to him whilst he was still in Japan, luring him here? The voice he could still hear now when he closes his mind and goes to that place.
"I can bring him back..." He whispers, his pronunciation skewered by the thick emotion caught in his throat.
He looks up from the papers in his hands, shaking, as Mrs Lee smiles over at him.
"Always three steps ahead that boy is" And Jaemin doesn't know if he wants to laugh or cry. Donghyuck knew he would pass into the spirit realm, and so he had given Jaemin everything he needed to pull him back, "I will be in the kitchen should you need any assistance deciphering our books"
But just before she can leave again, Jaemin hears his voice call across the room.
"You knew about me too" He says, and she nods slowly, confessing her knowledge, "The first time Donghyuck introduced us, you knew what I was"
He casts his mind back to that day, to the way she looked at him, to her careful words when she took his hands in hers and uttered how strong he was. He remembers how Donghyuck had shrugged playfully, throwing Jaemin's suspicions out of the window as he got him to believe she was merely playing the part of a crazy old woman. But she had known, just like her grandson had, that their fates were intertwined.
"I knew what you were" She repeats, "But I knew not what role you would play in this story"
And with that she turns her back to him, reaching for the door once more as she crosses the threshold. Only this time, she pauses, casting a glance back into the room, at Jaemin sat at Donghyuck's desk.
Both her eyes and voice are filled with emotion as she manages a smile, "Dear shadow, bring my grandson back to me"
And then she is gone.
— • —
After Donghyuck's grandma had taken her leave, Jaemin had rushed to his phone, fumbling the device as he went straight to his contacts and ordered an emergency group meeting with his friends.
As expected, they all dropped what they were doing, and arrived within minutes.
With them all here, stood within Donghyuck's study, looking so confused and yet in awe of the place, Jaemin spills what he now knows.
"I've called you all here for a reason, and I am still in shock about it myself, but before I tell you the reason, I need to tell you about myself..."
He tells them about his parents, and what had transpired years ago that resulted on them on the run. He then tells them that because of his mother's nature and the magic that flowed through his veins, he was connected to the spirit realm.
Jeno had to sit down at that point.
And then, he tells them this.
"That night before we left to find the spirit messenger and the teke teke, Donghyuck gave me a blessing..."
And it's Shotaro that rises from where he was sat, crossing the room, his attention fixated on Jaemin's forehead. With the confirmation of Jaemin's words, the messenger's eyes seem to light up, "He bound you two together, using very powerful magic... You two are linked, fated."
"He told me it was some sort of protection charm" Jaemin explains with the shake of his head, now knowing that it was not the case, well, not in the way he initially thought, "And at the time, I thought it was a protection for myself, but it wasn't. He knew, way before he stepped out of his house that day, that he was going to sacrifice himself to save us. He knew it was something he had to do. And so he prepared himself, and us, for when it finally happened. By solidifying the link between me and him, making it into something tangible, I can reach him where he's resting in the spirit realm. I can feel him, I can hear him talk to me, he's reaching out, and I have a feeling that if I reach back--"
"You think we can bring him back?" Jeno whispers, tears already collecting in his eyes. A few fall when Jaemin nods his head.
"It's been done before" He utters, and with Doyoung and Donghyuck's grandma having faith that it can be done again, Jaemin knows that they have to at least try. How could they not?
"And when the time is right, come and find me"
At the random muttering that falls from Mark's lips, everyone falls silent, turning to face him. He's sat on the floor, leaning against one of the many bookshelves, as a smile begins to work its way onto his face.
Confused, they all continue to watch him for a moment.
"Oh, Hyuck..." Mark whispers, closing his eyes as his smile becomes wider.
When the silence stretches on for a moment more, Sungchan questions what Mark is on about. It's then that the shapeshifter opens his eyes, fondness and relief sparkling there as he begins to explain.
"One of the last things he said to me was, 'when the time is right, come and find me'... And at the time, I just thought he meant when we're reunited in death, but that wasn't it at all..."
It was an instruction, a reminder that he had a plan, and that this wasn't the end.
"We're going to bring him back and then I'll kill him myself" Jeno whispers, his words muffled as his hands are pressed against the bottom half of his face, trying to tame the wild emotion that threatens to overwhelm him.
"So, what do we do?" Sungchan questions, sounding just as frantic as Jaemin felt, "Where do we start?"
"By going through all these book, all his writings, there must be something useful in this library somewhere" Shotaro says, already reaching for one of the books lying on the coffee table before him.
Jaemin holds the parchment he had been reading to his chest, knowing Donghyuck must've left some clues for him in his words.
"And then" Jaemin announces, reaching for his phone that lay discarded by his side, "We contact the only other group of people who have done this before"
They needed all the wisdom they could get, and what better mentors than the three people who would've moved heaven and hell to get what they wanted, even if it pissed off a council of ancient grumps.
He just hoped the time difference wasn't too bad in England, as he pressed Jaehyun's contact number.
— • — • — • —
notes-
a day earlier than planned because i couldn't contain it anymore... we're getting hyuck back!
you guys are in for a wild ride...