day 1: illeá forest, 0726 hours.
"ah, here we are," yerim says as they enter a clearing, the bronze of her locks turning blonde once more. jungkook does not see her in blonde as often as he sees her in scarlet, but her beauty is imperishable, no matter what kind of treasure she douses herself in. (enshrouded by stardust, she is ever beauteous.)
in the middle of the verdant clearing, is a small shrine, held up by wooden bars, its crimson color faded due to its withering state. the leaves of the willow trees around them are stained by mauve and cerulean hues, spilling to the grass in the form of wilted fronds.
jungkook looks around in undisguised curiosity. "what are we doing here?"
yerim maintains a straight face as she walks along broken stone walkways, the chiming of bells ringing through the air around them. "shrines prove to have more magic running through them. it'd be easier this way."
"easier to do what?" he asks as they stop in front of the shrine, leather sandals grazing against rough stone. yerim places her palms together, and magic begins to fill the air, dancing through breezy winds.
she glances at him, eyes shifting to emerald green, resembling the garden beneath their feet. she still drags her jewels with her, it seems, judging by the golden bangles wrapping around her spindly arms, weighing her down and down and down (alas, she never sinks). jungkook doesn't say anything much about it; beautiful, she still is.
"to jump," is her reply, as magic dances around her, much like a wayward tango (with all those unpredictable fluctuations in upbeat footwork and sudden halts in step). she takes his hand in hers, snow white skin brushing against the stars on her wrist as glitter pours into his veins.
"jump?" jungkook repeats, biting on his bottom lip, letting the luscious flesh sink between his teeth. her blonde hair turns brown, and she puts her hood on.
the vibrant garden in her eyes are gone too, sadly, replaced by hazel orbs that jungkook has seen all too often. it's okay. even emptiness, she could still find the beauty in.
"mm," she hums, a tune that flies with the wind, strings the magic along with it. "i cannot go as far as the aether kingdom, but i could bring us to the least challenging route."
he furrows his brows, obvious confusion found amongst the creases of his face. "least challenging..?"
all at once, the world around him distorts, resembling how his universe looked like when he first downed sweet, sweet liquor with his brothers, able to find solace in the hazy euphoria of rundown bars. yerim's touch is still numbing to the nerves, but it keeps him from drifting away, so he holds on as tightly as he could, bruising little regulus, that shines brightest amongst the stars in leo.
they appear, and they disappear. they are, and then they aren't.
the clearing is empty now, save for the humming magic in the air, still engaged in their arbitrary tango.
bells chime in the distance. white marble begins to crack.
(a wheel turns, creaking and creaking and creaking.)
°
day 1: the crystal coves, 0729 hours.
when jungkook can finally feel reality with his own fingers again, his vision clears, and he is hit by a sudden nausea.
his knees buckle, and he falls to the ground, a groaning mess.
yerim looks around and sighs, healing the burn that formed on her side. the cold diamond shards that surround them glimmer in the darkness of the caves, with only the mangled sunrays around to illuminate them.
she lays a spindly hand on his head, fingertips glowing a comforting green. the ache in his head is gone, and his stomach threatens to spill no longer.
"are you done now?" she asks him with an edge as sharp as the crystals around them. there are still bruises on her wrist, but jungkook doesn't see them yet. "we'll have to quickly get going."
"what did you just do?" he mumbles out a question, rubbing his head with his hand tiredly.
"i jumped us here to save a lot time," yerim says, adjusting the rings she wears (they hug around her fingers like a child would a tree). "ah-- teleportation, in a way? i can't go too far, though. i would've needed far more magic for that."
"ah," jungkook nods, eyes traveling around, captivated by the glimmering gems that surround them. "where do we go from here?"
yerim nods at the source of the light cutting into the crystals, an opening that leads to the world outside. "out the caves, is the shore. walk along it to the south for a few days, and it'll bring us to the village right next to the aether kingdom. hm, songum?"
"sogeum," he supplies, as he squints his eyes and stares into the bright light in the distance. he hears the sounds of crashing waves, warring ocean streams drenched in scorching sunlight. "are we actually walking down this shore for days straight?"
she huffs, sagittarius's brightest star (kaus australis?) dimly twinkling on defined cheekbones. "you fool. there are more caves along the beach, contrary to your belief-- once it's nightfall, we'll take shelter in the cove nearest to us for the night."
"oh," is his reaction, anticlimactic as it is. "that's-- that's a good idea."
"mortals," yerim mutters under her breath, rolling her eyes. "are you ready now? i'd like to get a move on as quickly as possible."
he stares at her for a while, stares at the several billions of centuries in her eyes, the big bang that destroys and creates. despite the plain greenish-brown colors, her orbs viewed creation, and the destruction of all things. those eyes are the beginning just as they are the end.
he's like a grain of sand compared to all her beauty and greatness; a mayfly and a god.
and oh, he loves her so, but he wouldn't quite mind never getting any in return. jungkook is too small a soul compared to her; he is scared that if yerim ever does reciprocate his ignited feelings, they would simply be too much, too big. jungkook wouldn't be able to carry all her love in his body and will burst into millions of pieces instead, mere petals of red, red, red that plague the void air.
he nods as he stands up, letting out a breath he must have been holding onto forever. "yeah, okay. let's-- let's go."
°
the temple in the clouds, where time does not exist.
the weaver stares at the tingling red string in the center of the room, pretty face relaxed into a blank expression as empty as his heart.
"oh, fortune," he sighs, a hand running through his rose colored hair like knives through silk. "you and your brothers and sisters are all the same. continuously digging your own graves, heading towards your own self-destruction."
water flows, bells chime. the wheel still creaks, death in the weaver's mesmerizing eyes.
he shakes his head. "star children," he mutters to himself, bitter and all kinds of bite as he takes a pair of scissors, and cuts a white string. snip, snip, snip. the string falls to the floor as light as a feather, and another future ends. he huffs, a stray lock of hair blown out of his face. "always getting my work cut out for me."
°
day 1: the crystal coves, 2245 hours.
"yerim," jungkook calls her name once, as they huddle around a burning inferno amongst freezing shards, moondust sprinkled on sharp edges.
"yes?" she says, moonlight dripping on porcelain flesh. her fingers trace the crystal ball before her, heather and gleaming and by all means mystifying. there is a future she saw in there, but that is one story not worth recounting.
"are you the sky?" he would ask, curiously peering into eyes that held all of nature's beauty in them. jungkook's eyes lay on her fair flesh, traveling all the way from sagittarius to taurus to cygnus to pisces.
if yerim is the sky, he wants to be the sun that lights her up, the sun that gives her the warmth her cold self would appreciate, welcoming burning heat with open (but broken) arms. he wants to be the moon that chokes out all the clear blue out of her, making way for plum and orange and cherry-red streaks that soon become a dark navy, sprinkling stars all over the horizon for her.
"well, no," yerim says, tilting her head to the side as she ponders and ponders and ponders. her black hair turns silver, sterling strands spilling all over the fair skin of her shoulders, across her skinny collarbones. "not exactly."
"so what are you, really?" he questions, pouring the tea she made into his own cup, emanating the scent of herbs.
she hums. "i suppose i am everything, just as i am nothing."
in the end, the unspoken 'i am yours,' hangs in the air like a circus boy on a tightrope, treading on thin ice. it threatens to fall and break the surface, slip off her tongue, but it doesn't.
in the end, they go to sleep in peaceful silence, exchanging idle goodnights.
when his eyelids flutter shut, he hears yerim quietly heading towards the crystal ball, dipping her fingers into a future he'll never know about.
her magic hums and echoes around the cave, lulling him into the most tranquil of sleep, serving as the most mellifluous of lullabies.
when he sleeps, he sees the darkness that comes with it; when yerim sleeps, she sees tomorrow, the weaver, jungkook, and him.
°
gee i wonder who the italicized *him* is 🤔 and i wonder why the weaver calls her fortune 🤔 i wonder how yeri's sisters died 🤔 wow so many mysteries such wow. my writing is lame but whatev just bear with it ok!! unlike doomsdays where each chapter gets longer and longer, the chapters keep getting shorter and shorter here. but hey at least that means my updates are more frequent 😂😂 pls vote and comment if you could/want!! it's greatly appreciated 💖 and happy new year guys, since it's already january 1st 2017 where i am :-)