Jungkook could only smile, an enormous smile that showed all his teeth, his gigantic eyes narrowing in a gesture of sincere joy.
The room they were going to be precisely one door that had no inscription on its front. For a boy Jungkook's age, the entire process of acquiring a gem was practically a secret. Yes, they told you what a gem of destiny was and what it was for; They also told you you could use others to help you solve some problems, channel anger and frustration, overcome addictions, etc. But they revealed none of the juicier parts to you. And one of them was the treatment the gems received. If you asked Jungkook what he thought was behind the door, he would probably tell you that there was a laboratory, ancient or modern, or a research room. He would soon discover that it was neither.
After opening the door and entering, they found themselves in a room that varied from the rest in which the colours were a mixture of beige and shades of red and brown, making it seem more welcoming and familiar. The only light in the room came from a lamp on a table to the left of the room. On each side were two huge, ceiling-top shelves filled with books. To the right of the room, which was dark, I could distinguish only the shape of a sofa with a small table and a lamp. Right on the sidewall were a cabinet with several drawers and a vase with plastic flowers on it.
Jungkook waited with his mother while Hana went to the back of the wall. Once there, she raised her right hand and slammed it against the surface. Almost instantly, a golden light flashed on one ring on his hand. If someone had told him the same thing that he was witnessing at that moment, he would surely have answered that he was crazy or that it was a dream. But he himself was present, and he could see clearly how the wall was losing colour as if someone had poured water over the fresh paint. After its passage, there was only a wall that looked like glass, although it did not reflect or reveal anything; it just existed.
"Very good, Jungkook," Hana said as she turned around. "It is time to take the last step." With a wave of her hand, she motioned for him to come closer.
"I'll wait around here."
"Mom, aren't you coming?"
His mother just shook her head. "It's unnecessary. This is something you have to do for yourself, like everyone else before you. You don't have to worry, everything will be fine."
The young man swallowed. His mother was right, he had to do this alone; it was about finding his gem. But that didn't mean he was going to hide his reluctance to walk through a glass wall or whatever. He was used to rooms with connecting doors, just not ... that.
"Come on, it's just a barrier, it will not bite you," Hana told him with a touch of humour, hoping to defuse the atmosphere.
With a sigh, Jungkook approached the barrier until he was level with Hana.
"From this point, you will see things you have never seen before and that you will see nowhere else. So don't be in a hurry and enjoy the surroundings." Jungkook just nodded. "Now we are going to pass through the barrier. The feeling will be quite unusual, but I assure you that nothing will happen to you."
Wanting to see this strange sensation firsthand, Jungkook tried placing his hand against the barrier. He gave a little gasp at the sensation. Not that it was painful; it was just weird that when touched, its surface was smooth. Actually, it was like touching the surface of a lake. And with that idea in mind, he closed his eyes and finished gathering the courage to break through the barrier, although at this point it seemed more like a vertical lake to Jungkook's mind than anything else.
Once on the other side, and just a couple of seconds after opening his eyes, Jungkook was forced to close them again. The light that greeted him was blinding. He did not know if it was because of the change between the two rooms, or if this place was always so illuminated, but you had to wait until the vision was usable. That, coupled with the intense smell of flowers and the sound of water, made him think they had come out to a patio.
"Dazzling, right?"
"Quiet."
Once he could fully open his eyes without fear of burning his retinas, Jungkook looked around. To his amazement, they were not on the outside. The most accurate description would be that of a greenhouse. There were multitudes of flowers of every kind, deep green plants decorating various parts of the floor and the walls, sticking to them like suction cups. At the back of the room was a tree so tall it reached the ceiling and it looked ancient. The trunk was enormous, with a few roots sticking out of the ground. The canopy of the tree was huge and thick with leaves that Jungkook did not recognize. Not that he was a botanical expert either, so he downplayed it.
In front of the tree was a pond with a couple of plants scattered on its surface. These opened their flower every time an insect approached. They were not bees, nor wasps. Just an insect that glowed like fireflies and flew from the flowers in the pond to different parts of the room. At that moment he noticed that in one corner there was a worktable, with different objects that Jungkook did not recognize, and on it, a shelf with several cans on the shelves. Maybe that was the place where the last part of the process or some kind of experiment was done.
"What do you think of this place?" Jungkook had completely forgotten that Hana was with him.
"It's amazing." Jungkook dared to take a few steps forward as he looked around. The closer he got to the pond, the bigger everything seemed to him, the more full of sounds, colours, life.
Shortly after, Hana was by his side and explained the entire process.
To begin with, Jungkook had to touch the tree trunk, close his eyes, and visualize the stone he had chosen. After a few moments, he would feel a vibration and then he would have the gem in his hand, as long as it was the correct one.
"I don't get it." Hana cocked her head in question. "I'm supposed to have already decided which gem I wanted. Why wouldn't it be the right one?"
"Because we desire things that we cannot have. Imagine that you had chosen a ruby because you like its colour, its qualities, or what it represents. When you touch the tree, it could not give you that gem."
"So the tree doesn't give you what you want, but what you need?"
"The purpose of having a gem of destiny is for you to find your soul mate. It would be useless if you chose one that did not fulfil that function."
"I understand that, but how is it possible for the tree to know what you need?"
Hana returned her gaze to the tree, her eyes focused on a distant point.
"This is the tree of destiny. There are many theories about its origin, but you learn that in class. The important thing is that the fruits of this tree are precious stones, or gems, or stones, whatever you want to call it. And each one one of them represents a single person. There may be thousands of people who wear a ruby, but they are all different. " Hana waited a moment for her words to settle into the young man's head.
"So stones are like fingerprints, right? No matter how similar, each one is unique." The woman only smiled in response to his comment.
"It's a good comparison." Hana looked back at Jungkook. "Your stone is decided from the moment you are born and remains inside the tree until this moment. When you already have your stone with you, it will mould itself to you, and you to it. As one more extension of your body. As time passes, you will understand it better.
After Hana's explanation, Jungkook felt more secure. He wanted to get his stone as soon as possible, and so he made it known to Hana, who told him to approach the tree while she waited by the pond. Jungkook followed the steps to the latter, and soon a piece of Ametrine without a specific shape was in the palm of his hand. But he did not care. For it, it was something incredible to witness such a strange and amazing phenomenon. When he finished looking at the stone and how the violet and gold mixed, he returned to the pool to join Hana.
The next, and last step, was to dive into the pond while holding the stone. Hana assured him it was the same as crossing the barrier and that inside it would be like in the water, except that it would not get wet. It was a space reserved to forge the link between the stone and its bearer, to make them one. When it was done he would be brought back to the surface.
Jungkook didn't ask questions, just stared at the pond as he took in the last step. It wasn't complicated, but it was quite unsettling. You learn quickly that you have to hold your breath underwater to avoid drowning, but now that knowledge was of no use because it was not water, it was an illusion. And it was so good that it really looked like water, just like the barrier. But it was different; behind the barrier there was oxygen. Under the pond, there could be anything, maybe even no bottom.
Hana had said that nothing was wrong, that everything was safe, and Jungkook believed her. All along he had told her the truth and yet, he couldn't help but feel that nervousness that clenched his stomach. The same thing he felt before an exam for which he had studied until he knew every word, every comma, but still did not know if he could pass. Once with the paper in front of you, all doubts disappeared, and it only remained to squeeze your memory until there was nothing left. And that's what he had to think, that this was just one more test.
This is something that you have to do for yourself, like everyone else before you.
His mother's words echoed in his head, and Jungkook wanted to laugh at his own fear. Everyone had to go through this at some point, and no one died for it. It was something necessary. The reward was more valuable than holding on to his fear. So with a deep breath, he headed for the pond.
Hana had seen the doubt, insecurity, and fear in the young man's expression. Despite being so quiet and reserved, he seemed to understand things as they were. He didn't fight to change them but accepted them as something natural. Everything had gone wonderfully, from choosing the stone and passing through the protective barrier, to get the said stone. You didn't find someone like Jungkook every day. Like him, his intuition carried away a few. Few wanted to know the reason for things, the origin of everything that governed their lives. Only then did she realize that maybe she had been wrong to let himself be carried away by emotion. Maybe he had put too much pressure on the boy without realizing it. And that was not what she wanted, because it was counterproductive.
"If you want, you can wait until later t-
Hana could not finish her sentence as everything happened too fast. In the blink of an eye, Jungkook had approached the pond (briskly running, he was no longer uncertain) and plunged into it. After its passage, only the movement of the water produced by the jump remained.
Hana's first instinct was to get him out of there, but she knew it was useless. Once inside, you could only get out when the ritual was completed. As much as she tried to reach in, she knew that an invisible force would stop her. All she could do was wait on the edge until Jungkook emerged and pray that the worst didn't happen.
Jungkook always thought the worst part about getting into the water was the temperature. No matter how cold it was outside, the water was colder. It doesn't matter if you were roasting from the heat and soon lost your skin, if you got into the water, it would be much colder and the contrast would be worse. And that is precisely what Jungkook hoped to feel. The tree room (it made more sense to call it that instead of the greenhouse) was surely warmer than water, and yet Jungkook did not feel that chill that momentarily paralyzed you. In fact, he felt absolutely nothing after he dived, just the sensation of the surrounding water, of floating like in a bubble, but he was not cold, nor afraid. He was just getting his eyes used to the dark, trying to see what was at the bottom if there was any.
A light shone inside his hand, where his stone was, and Jungkook opened his hand wide to see it better. It was his stone that emitted that light and it was fascinating to see how the two colours were mixed as if they were something liquid instead of solid. Little lines of light came out of the stone, running over her skin and infusing it with comforting warmth. The lines formed patterns that Jungkook did not recognize, only to disappear a few moments after fixing on his skin. It was in the middle of this that he heard a voice.
This story belongs to @nometoloko on AO3. I'm just her translator. I'm sorry guys for ending the chapters like this, but then the entire story has 6 chapters with around 20,000 words each. So I'm trying to make it shorter. Hope y'all liked it.