A/N: You can play the song that I attached (maybe in low volume) while you read :)
~*~
"If you let me, I can try something out." Taeyong said.
I stared at him blankly. "What do you mean?"
"It's best if I show you." He said and was about to take my hand.
I quickly took my hand away from him.
"I'm sorry." He said.
"The last time I trusted someone I ended up in the restraining chamber." I mumbled.
He stayed silent for a few second. "I care not about other people's affairs. I don't intend to get involved in anyone's business." He said as we watched the blue waves. "The bending world, the gods— I'm actually sick and tired of everything about them." His voice was tired and bitter, like he has been holding grudges on something. "So, you might be the enemy of the Fire Nation, or a bounty hunter, or an assassin, or even the enemy of my father— I don't care." He said. "I don't think you are any of what I've just mentioned but, if you are, I don't care. I would just like to help you because I can."
"What if I'm your enemy?" I asked.
"Then I'll kill you," he said while he smiled at me, then his expression softened in a matter of seconds. "But you are not my enemy. I know my enemy when I see one."
I looked at him in surprise and shuddered. "Fine." I said. I might have just made the second mistake. "So, can you take away my fear?" I asked.
"Uh... I don't think that's a good idea." He said. "I know how we sometimes want to not fear something, but fear makes us more aware; because if you fear something, you'll unconsciously plan a way to deal with them when you have to face them— you'll be prepared. It's one of our most crucial survival instincts."
"Even fear of spiders?" I asked.
He chuckled lightly. "That, it's good to have that gone." He turned to look at me in the eye. "I wouldn't want to take away your fear, not until I see what it is. Trust me when I say it's sometimes good to fear something. Like the fear of failure, because you fear of failing, you'll work harder to prevent such thing from happening."
I blinked at him, wondering why his voice was more soothing than the sound of the ocean.
"But I'm sure I can do something to make the feeling less intense."
I stared at him; his eyes, nose, then his lips, and back to his eyes. "Why are you doing this?"
Taeyong brought his eyebrows together and looked at me, "why wouldn't I?"
I stared at him, not knowing what to say anymore, still wondering why would he help a stranger?
He held his hand in front of me, "give me your hand." He said as he positioned himself so that he was facing me.
I put my hand on his palm. The cold of his hand sent shiver from the tip of my fingers to my entire body.
"Now close your eyes."
I did what he told me. Then the cold breeze brushed my face.
"I think the Sirens are gone." He said.
I felt his body moving closer to mine. He put my hair behind my ears. I felt his touch on my ears as he took the earplugs out.
"Now can you focus on my voice?" He said, softly.
How can I not? It's the only thing I could hear at the moment. The sound of the sea and the birds faded away as soon as he spoke.
I just nodded as an answer.
"Okay. I just want you to relax, you might experience flashes of memories you don't want to remember. They're going to be the memories that you fear the most, or that may cause the fear itself. Are you ready?"
I nodded again.
Then, it was as if I was sucked into my own mind. I was running, through the dark woods again. But this time, heading back to the institute.
I was inside of the library, reading the book about the Avatar. I saw myself frowning as I read it and closed the book in anger.
The image changed and I was in the clinic, laying on one of the beds. Victor was sitting beside me, arguing with me. I felt the emotions I felt when it happened: disappointment, anger, and fear.
The image faded away and I saw myself being held by the guards, holding me from coming closer to Jaemin and Renjun. I saw Victor made a call to take them away. I thrashed around and the ground started to grumble. A wave of strong wind blew everyone away from me. Then everything was black.
The next image appeared, I saw Hendery. Then I saw Renjun and Jaemin trying to hold back their tears. I was back inside of the small cabin in the woods somewhere in Atlanta. Then I realized this was when Mai...
I wanted to get out of whatever it was Taeyong was doing. I didn't want to relive this horrible moment.
"Stop resisting, everything will be alright." Taeyong's soothing voice said.
Then the image changed again. I saw myself hugging Renjun.
No, this has to stop.
Then I saw a lot of flashes of images of the things I tried to forget. Burning Renjun, then burning Mai's garden, the bullying in school. Then I saw myself as a kid, and Mai was trying to get closer to me.
then a shot of pain ripped the image away.
I opened my eyes to see Taeyong was no longer holding my hand, he was holding his head in pain instead.
"Are you okay?" I held his shoulder.
He nodded as an answer. He looked up to me and stared at me with unreadable expression. "You—you're..." he stammered and shook his head. Like he was surprised to have found out who I was.
"What is it?"
He hesitated to answer. "There's a strong curse on your mind guarding you from your own memories."
"I know." I mumbled. "You didn't tell me that you were going through all of my memories."
"Traumatic memories, fearful events, memories that cause fear as an emotional reaction. They're the only things that I can reach."
Then he leaned closer and cupped my face. He brushed his thumb under my eyes, erasing my tears. "I'm sorry you have to go through that again. I know this sucks,"
It's beyond suck. It was like every horrible things that had happened just happened again. I couldn't control my breathing, my palms were sweating.
"Shhh shhh..." he hushed. "I'll take some of it away."
I kept my eyes closed. I held to both of his wrists which were still holding on to my face.
Then the fear was slowly going out of my system, like Taeyong was extracting it. My chest felt so much lighter, like I could finally breathe again.
Then he let go of me slowly. I opened my eyes and met his sparkling eyes. We pulled away at the same time. I felt heat rising up to my cheek.
"How do you feel, Juli?"
I just realized I haven't told him my name, but I figured he knew it already because he saw my memories.
Nevertheless, I felt so much better. It felt like the heavy weight that was on my chest and the worries and all the anxiety weren't as intense as before. They were still there, but I wasn't feeling much of it anymore.
"Thank you," I smiled to him widely. "I'm sorry, I should've introduced myself earlier."
"Don't be. It's a beautiful name, for a beautiful soul."
I looked away from him in an instant and regretted it. I must've looked so obvious.
"When you were in my mind, I wasn't expecting you to pry into my life like that." I said.
"Don't worry, I didn't see it as much as I felt it, but I'm sorry for what you've been through." He quietly said.
I looked away from him and stared at the sea.
"I almost..." I began to say. "I felt so lost, scared and I didn't have hope, but now I do. It feels so... so great." I grinned and closed my eyes to feel the soft breeze. "You might not know how much I appreciate what you did," I leaned forward and gave him a hug. "But thank you. I will never forget this."
It lasted so short and I wasn't expecting him to return it. "What you do... what you have, is beautiful. It's a wonderful gift, Taeyong."
He looked away, like he wasn't agreeing with the last thing I said. He smirked. "You're probably the only one who has that opinion about my ability."
"No, you just made me feel so much better. That's a wonderful gift." I said.
"Juli," he said, softly. "Fear is also what makes us human. It's what makes us... us. That's why I don't want to take your fear away. Ironically, I was afraid myself that you would forget why you had that fear in the first place, and you eventually would forget what caused it."
After he said that, I immediately thought about Mai. I remember how scared I was at that moment, but Taeyong was right. I wouldn't want to forget that. Forgetting what happened wouldn't change the fact that she is gone. So, I wouldn't want to forget Mai's sacrifice.
"I get what you mean," I replied. "But what you have is still a wonderful gift." I smiled.
Taeyong smiled back, "thank you."
~
We decided to head back to the institute together.
He told me a lot of things about him, but he never mentioned about his godly parent. He has to be a demigod. He didn't look like a vampire, and I don't think werewolves have powers like he has.
His parents can't be a minor god or goddess either, he was too powerful to be theirs.
Maybe he is the son of one of the Big Three?
The power of controlling fear... is it who I think it is?
"So you were supposed to be in 127?" I asked as we walked side by side.
He nodded, "but I always skip classes and I never really want take the Level Test. So Victor was worried if I was just going to hold them back." He chuckled. "That's the good thing about the institute, you can't really expel students if they don't commit the Great Crime."
"The Great Crime?"
"For us demigods and benders, and also werewolves is to have killed someone. It also applies to vampires, but they'll also have 3 warnings if they ever drank from a human."
"No one in the institute has ever killed anyone, right?"
Taeyong looked down and smiled to himself awkwardly.
Hendery.
I decided to drop any other questions regarding that.
We walked together through the Main Hall. I thought since it was around the time for dinner, everyone must be in the Dining Hall. Thinking that if I go there, I'll have to lie to Jennie and the others like I am not the Avatar.
I can't really see them right now, but I would have to act normal in front of Jennie because we shared a room.
"What's on your mind, Juli?"
The way he said my name made my heart flutter.
"Taeyong," I said and stopped on my track to face him. "You know that I'm the A—"
"Juli!!"
Both of our attention was drawn to the voice of a girl yelling.
Jennie and the girls were running to me. She gave me a hug so tight I couldn't breathe.
"Guys, what's going on?" I said, while I was suffocating.
"We were so worried that you just vanished all day long!" Rosé said.
Then following the girls behind them, were Victor, Hendery, Yuta, Jaehyun, and the rest of the 127.
I was surprised to see them all. Were they looking for me while I was with Taeyong?
I met Hendery's eyes, which were full of worry. He looked at me and I knew he was glad to see me, but he still looked hurt. He looked away after that.
"It was so funny and sweet, I've never seen these three worried so much about someone—Ouch!"
One of the 127, that I wasn't sure who, wasn't talking to us, he was talking to the person that just hit him in his stomach. None of us were saying anything which made us hear everything that he had said.
These three? Did he mean Yuta, Jaehyun and Hendery? Why the hell would Jaehyun be worried?
"Mark, shut up." The guy, who I believed was Ten, hissed. He looked at Jaehyun, Yuta and Hendery like he was worried if they heard what Mark had said.
Of course they did, everyone did.
I caught Yuta sending Mark a deathly glare. Mark realized what he said and he looked down in embarrassment.
I smiled watching Mark, he reminded me of Jaemin and Renjun.
I hope they are doing fine. I haven't heard from them since Lotus City.
"Where have you been? What the hell happened to you?" Irene asked as she scanned my entire figure.
It must've been the bruises and cuts I got from running in the Dark Forest.
My eyes naturally looked for Taeyong who was standing a few meters away from me and the girls. Then everyone looked at where I did.
I felt sorry for giving the attention Taeyong seemed to not appreciate.
"Taeyong found me in the Dark Forest," I lied.
Their heads turned to me in unison. The girls gasped in shock, the guys also looked a little surprised.
"What the hell were you doing there? Thank the gods nothing happened to you!" Rosé said.
"You could've died being eaten alive by monsters that live there!" Jisoo said.
"Thanks to Taeyong, I didn't." I said.
I could've sworn, for a fraction of seconds, I caught Victor giving Taeyong a judging look before he turned to me.
"We were all so worried and almost formed a search party to go and look for you." Victor said. "We are all glad now to see that you're okay. Now, let's just put this behind us and head to the Dining Hall to join the others."
Jennie and Rosé hooked their arms around mine and started to make me walk with them.
When my eyes caught Hendery's who wasn't walking with the rest of us, I stopped and pulled my arms away from the girls.
"You guys go ahead," I said. "I promise I'll catch up with you."
The girl seemed to notice what was happening between me and Hendery and just nodded. They walked away with the rest of the guys.
Taeyong nudged my elbow, "see ya around, Juli." With a smile that vanished as fast as it appeared. Then he left with the others.
Finally, I was left alone with Hendery.
~*~
A/N:
I love Taeyong's character 🥺
I might put some songs too for the following chapters if not pictures that are relevant to the each chapter, whatcha guys think? Did you guys liked the song for this chapter? Should I continue to do this? I mean it won't be in every chapter, just a fee lol and the songs would probably be similar to this one.