A/N: Turn on the music! :)
~*~
I knocked on Hendery's room.
I tapped my foot on the ground impatiently as I waited. Everyone who was walking pass me was giving me suspicious looks, but I ignored them.
They were all going to the Dinning Hall. So I would expect Hendery to be ready to go, but he wasn't answering.
I feel like something is not right, and I don't like that I'm having this bad hunch.
Why aren't you answering?, I said to myself mentally.
Then the door flung open to reveal someone who I wasn't expecting.
His platinum white hair caught my eyes first before it landed on his beautiful pair of eyes.
We continued to stared at each other, like we were having some kind of a silent conversation.
"Taeyong— w—where's—"
Without letting me finish my sentence, he grabbed my wrist and pulled me into a hug.
"I'm so sorry." He whispered next to my ears.
I closed my eyes shut, "I'm okay, Taeyong. Really."
"No, no you're not."
My lips were trembling.
"I am. I'm okay."
"Stop lying."
"I'm not." I burst into tears, and started to sob. "I'm okay."
"It's okay, shhh..." He hushed and patted my head gently. "I know."
"How'd you know...?"
"I didn't." He said. "I was on my way to go on my mission, but I heard that you were coming back. Then you came here looking... hurt. I'm sorry but I had to know how you're feeling so I had to have a skinship with you."
We pulled away gently. Taeyong wiped the tears away from my cheek. "So you know what happened?"
Taeyong shook his head as a no. "I just felt it, I don't know what happened. It doesn't matter, but I'm sorry that you had to go through that."
"It happened already, and I have accepted it." I said. "Now could you tell me where Hendery is?"
~
I looked everywhere, the garden, the library, the Dinning Hall, the laundry room, the infirmary, everywhere. But I couldn't find him.
He has to be somewhere.
I stopped two girls who was on their way to the Dinning Hall. They frowned looking at my from head to toe.
"Have you guys seen Hendery?"
The girls looked at each other before shaking their heads as a no.
I grunted in frustration and started to ask everyone who I passed by.
At this point, I was feeling restless. I had this bad feeling in my gut and I didn't know why but I had to find Hendery.
He was acting weird, especially the time when the Jennie incident happened. Since then I haven't really talked to him or asked him what happened that night.
He looked like he was under the influence of someone, or something. As if he was doing something involuntarily.
"Did you see Hendery somewhere?" I asked the three girls.
One of them nodded.
The other two and I looked at her.
"Where?"
"We did?"
"Where did you last see him?" I asked.
"Didn't you guys remember? The time when we were passing by the Astronomy Tower, he was going up there. He was going up the stairs to the tower."
I wasted no time and stormed off to the Astronomy Tower.
I climbed up the stairs, gasping for air.
I couldn't wait, I didn't know why I just had to see him as soon as possible.
As I was on top of the staircase, I saw him. Looking out of the view of the Lotus City, better than what you could see from the maze garden.
But he was standing on the railing.
"Hendery," I said, my voice was shaking.
He didn't respond. I didn't think he noticed my presence either.
"Hendery," I raised my voice a bit.
What is he doing standing on the railings?
"Hendery! What are you doing? Is this some kind of a training?"
He still wasn't responding.
"Yah! Hendery!" I tried again calling for his attention. This time angrier than I intended it to be.
Very slowly, he turned his head to see me. His eyes widened in shock. "Juli?"
"What are you doing? I came looking for you because—" I stopped myself, "can you get down from there please?"
"No—no. I—"
"Hendery please. Get down."
I started to walk closer to him but he held out his hand to stop me.
"No! Don't come."
"Hendery what the fuck are you doing?"
I was desperate to give him some sense, to make him listen. He looked so distraught and confused.
"Hendery... don't... don't do this. This is never the way. I'm here, tell me what's going on. Get down from there and let's go to the garden. Just tell me, and we can go figure this out okay?"
"It doesn't matter, nothing matters anymore. It's— I can't... you... ugh!!" He held his head and shuffled his hair in frustration.
"You matter, Hendery. You matter alot. You matter so much to me. Without you, I wouldn't even be here. I believe in you, you can get through this. This is not worth it. You don't have to do this."
"You don't understand, Juli. I'm in a nightmare that has been going on... forever. I can't ever wake up."
"Then help me understand. Let me help you. Please, Hendery. I'm begging you. Don't do this. I can't..." I fought my sob to speak, I breathed in. "I can't loose you too. I can't. Please don't. Please. Please. Please don't. Please..."
I kept repeating the words.
I held out my hand to him, "please."
He took my hand hesitantly and finally jumped down.
I immediate threw myself at him for a hug.
I felt so angry, hurt, I felt like I wanted to punch him. I was so scared that my hands were trembling still uncontrollably.
"Let's get out of here, okay?"
~
I gave him the cup of hot tea I made at the pantry. He was sitting on his bed as he took the cup from me.
My hands were still trembling.
My whole body was numb, and so light. I was so relieved that Hendery didn't do it.
I sat at the bed next to his, assuming it was Taeyong's, who was on his mission.
I stared at the floor. I rested my trembling hands on my knees, so they could stop trembling. But it didn't work.
I felt Hendery. I understood what he was saying.
I am also in a nightmare that I can't seem to wake up from.
The difference with me was I have Jaemin and Renjun. I can't just leave those two alone. And I for sure can't let Mai's sacrifices be meaningless.
"I'm sorry." Hendery said quietly. "I don't know what I was thinking."
"Please don't ever do that again." My voice broke by the end of the sentence.
I started to sob. I don't know how many times I've cried for the last few days. I'm so tired.
I'm so tired of being helpless, useless.
"I thought I was going to loose you—"
I felt something weighing down on the bed next to me, and it was Hendery. He pulled me into a hug.
"It's okay. Thank you for getting me out of that situation."
"Are you sure you're okay now? Do you need me to make something for you? I make good grilled cheese." I said between my sobs.
Hendery let out a chuckle. "I'm fine Juli."
"Promise me you'll never—"
"I promise. It won't happen again. I promise."
I tightened the hug and pulled him even closer if it were possible.
"Stop crying. I'm okay, Juli, really."
"I don't— I don't know why— I'm crying."
"What's the matter? What happened?"
I hit his chest. "What the fuck do you think!? I was so scared, and angry, and just... angry. I was too weak to help Mai, with all the powers that I have, I could've easily burned every one of the infected we had to encounter. But I couldn't! I was useless! Mai had to pay the price. She was infected because of me, because I was useless even though I had all the power to kill them all."
I sobbed harder on his chest.
"And I thought I couldn't save you too—"
"No, no you're not weak. You are the strongest person I know. What happened to Mai was not your fault. You don't have to blame yourself like this."
"No, no I'm not—" I still couldn't stop my sob. "Hendery, you have to know that there are three people that I can't think of loosing now. My brothers, and you."
"Thank you..." he said. "I just realized... I think I can't loose you either. I don't think I want to go where you don't."
It sounded like he was assuring himself of something else, like he wasn't having this conversation with me.
But I didn't want to push him into explaining the situation, yet.
I pulled away gently and looked at his eyes. "Let me sleep here, with you."
"Uhm—" his eyes widened, and his face became red in a matter of second. "W-what did you say?"
"Let me stay here with you."
~
The girls ate their lunch in silence.
Which was unusual.
Rosé put down her knife and fork, and looked at me. "Okay, I can't do this anymore. Juli, you okay, hun? Of course you're not. You haven't spoken a single word or say a comeback at Wendy's controversial topics since the Hi you gave us this morning."
"Rosie, come on," Jennie scolded Rosé. "Jules, if you want to talk you know you have us right?"
I wonder if you guys knew the truth, you would treat me the same like this.
"The mission went well. But I—" I breathed out shakily. "Let's just say we had a bad encounter with someone."
"I'm so sorry, Juli." Seulgi said.
I smiled at them weakly. "Sorry for bringing down the mood like this."
"Awwww, Juli. You don't have to be sorry. We all know how first missions can go wrong." Rosé said.
"Yeah, we lost a comrade in my first mission." Jisoo said.
"I'm so sorry, Jisoo." I said.
"We are all here for you, Jules." Jennie hugged me from my side.
"Thanks." I mumbled.
Then our attention were shifted on the table next to us.
Four girls were talking a bit too loud about their friend's first mission, the blonde girl. What they were saying, made my skin crawled in disgust.
"Wait... which earth did you go to?"
"You know, Earth 366,"
One of them gasped in horror. "Don't tell me it's the earth where disgusting zombies roam around eating humans!"
"No! It's not like that! It's even more annoying. They're called the infected because they carry this virus that will be transferred by saliva or something, that's why they bite you." Explained the blonde girl.
"Ew! That's so gross. Are there still humans living in Earth 366?"
The blonde girl nodded.
"That's so stupid. The infected should just infect every last one of them. That should end their suffering when they all become one like that." Said the redhead girl.
Then the girls laughed.
I jolted up from my seat.
"Juli!"
"Jules!"
"Juli what are you doing?"
I ignored Black Velvet and made my way to our neighboring table.
I grinned at all of them, and walked to the redhead girl.
I grabbed the collar of her shirt to make her stand.
"Juli no!" I heard Rosé called out.
But it was too late.
My fist landed on her dirty mouth and it sent her falling to the ground.
"You bitch!" The blonde girl stood up from her seat and returned the punch to my face.
I punched back her stupid face.
She widened her eyes and tapped the flowing red liquid that was running down from her nose.
"You're the Dummy from Earth 366, aren't you?" She smirked. "Go back to where you belong and rot there with your infected family!"
I launched at her.
The girls from her table were launching at me ready to beat me up.
But instead, my nose bumped to someone's chest, and it felt familiar.
I looked up and found Jaehyun's face looking down at me.
"Get the fuck out of the way, Jaehyun. Or you're gonna get it too."
"Go for it. Just release your anger to me." Jaehyun said.
"Are you fucking dumb? Get out of my way!"
"I'm sorry for what happened, I hope you forgive her."
I turned around to find where the voice was coming from. It was Yuta, helping the redhead get up from the floor.
Hendery was also trying to calm the rest of the girls.
"What the hell do you think you guys are doing?" I hissed at Jaehyun.
"Stopping you for killing these girls? Come on, let's get you out of here. You're making a scene."
I looked around the cafeteria and found every single one of the students were watching us.
I gritted my teeth and kept my silence.
Jaehyun pushed me gently out of the way.
"Huh! Would you look at that? This barbaric, uneducated peasant has the 127 under her—"
I lowered my head out of Jaehyun's arm and spun around. "Really? You're gonna slut-shame me now? What are you? A seventh grader? Do you want another taste of this?" I raised my fist and walked to her.
Jaehyun turned me around again with him.
"That's enough, Haerin. You've said enough." I heard Yuta spoke behind us.
Jaehyun continued to drag me out of the cafeteria.
~*~
A/N:
A lil spoiler for upcoming chapters:
Juli will have time with the demigods to further understand their world, and also, the Great Prophecy.
Stay tuned!
CHEERS!