pairings: Jack Frost!Hueningkai x fem!reader
tags: smut, angst, fluff, strangers to lovers, Jack Frost au
word count: 31k
warnings: mentions of past trauma, emotional manipulation, isolation, mentions of death/fear of loss, soft dom!Kai, sub!reader, oral (f!receiving), unprotected sex, multiple orgasms, temperature play? emotional sex/comfort sex, neediness, worshipping.
a/n: This is my first time writing a long au, so im sorry if it might get abit repetitive sometimes. It took me 2 months to write(!!) i did proof-read but after reading it a few times it almost made me go cross-eyed so sorry for any mistakes I missed cause I went back and forth and changed up the dialogue a few times!! I'm really proud of this one and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it <3 (also english is not my first language)
teaser - main story - bonus
Itâs always so quiet in the snow.
Not the peaceful kind of quiet. Itâs the kind of quiet that makes you feel like the world has moved on without you. The kind that stretches on for years â centuries â until even your own name feels like an echo.
Thatâs the kind of silence Kai has known for as long as he can remember.
He walks above the town of Eira Hollow on rooftops slick with frostâ his frost â, unnoticed and unseen. His white hair shifts like windblown snow, catching the light of the moon. In one of his hands, his staff trails behind him, emitting a soft glow. He watches children participating in a snowball fight from afar, their laughter and screams echoing through the evening air. Lovers walking hand in hand down the street, their breaths forming clouds as they share quiet conversations. Old shopkeepers closing up early when the wind starts howling a bit louder. But no one ever turns their head at him. They never see him.
He tells himself heâs used to it, that itâs fine, that his only job is to bring winter, not be remembered for it. But with every snowflake, he hopes to be noticed. With every frost, he hopes it will be admired in the windowpane.
Kai sighs and leaps from the roof, caught gently by the wind like a falling leaf. He lets his feet carry him into the forest behind the town â the part no one ventures into after sundown. Children are told itâs too cold and dark at night. But he doesnât fear the cold. He is the cold.
Still, the ache in his chest never quite leaves. Not even here, where the only things that recognize him are the trees blanketed in ice and the ever-patient moon staring down at him â almost as if itâs mocking him. Kai lets out a scoff, kicking a pebble across the frozen lake with his staff.
So much for being chosen.
Most people warned you about Eira Hollow.
âToo cold,â they said.
âWinter there never ends.â
âYouâll be begging for spring by the time December hits.â
Even as a little girl, you were never afraid of the cold. Youâd run outside barefoot at the first snow, cheeks red and hands numb. You loved it â the way the world went silent when snow fell, the way ice made everything sparkle. To you, winter never felt harsh. It felt like homeâa home you never found inside, anyway.
So when you heard of a quiet town nestled between pine-covered hills and known for its endless winters â a place where snow lingered well into spring, and the lakes froze so thick you could skate across them until April â you didnât hesitate. You packed your things and moved into one of the old cabins at the edge of the woods.
And when you arrived, something already felt different. As if winter were alive here. Every gust of wind seemed to carry meaning, the snow not falling just with grace, but with intention â like a beautiful white blanket settling over the ground. As if every bit of frost on the window was carved with precision and dedication.
You shook your head as you laughed to yourself. Your excitement about finally leaving your depressing city and starting to build the life youâve always wanted may have gone a little to your head.
Itâs just past golden hour when you wander out behind your cabin, boots crunching through fresh snow. Now that youâve fully settled in and given every trinket you own its designated spot, you can finally do what excites you the most â explore outside.
The woods are wrapped in a soft blue haze, everything touched with frost like the fairytales in the books you used to read as a kid. The icy wind blows softly around you, yet the cold it leaves makes you wrap your jacket around yourself a little more tightly.
You hum to yourself as you walk, cheeks flushed, and your scarf continuously tries to fall off your shoulder. Youâre not going anywhere in particular, just following your own curiosity.
Thatâs when you find it.
You come to a slow stop when your boots near the edge of the lake â wide, still, and glass-smooth â hidden in a dip between snow-covered trees. The ice is thick and untouched, not a single footprint on its surface. It's perfect, like something out of your dreams.
With the kind of reckless joy thatâs always gotten you into trouble, you cross the edge and step out onto the lake, slowly at first, like you are testing the sturdiness even though you know the ice is so thick you could be jumping with 30 men at the same time and it still wouldnât give in. Then you pick up speed, arms spread like wings. Your boots glide over the surface as you spin in a half-circle, breath hitching from the cold and the thrill. You start laughing, full and bright, the sound echoing all around you. You have never felt like this before, finally being free to do whatever you please, and no one can judge you for it.
Consumed in your own little world, you don't notice the rustling in the tops of the trees in front of you.
Kai watches with curiosity. He has never seen you before. Or even someone who loved the snow and ice that much at your age. You must have moved into the old cabin, a few minutes' walk from here. He guessed the little puff of smoke that he saw coming from the chimney wasnât his imagination after all.
His curiosity slowly turns into awe, the longer he watches you on the lake, arms flailing joyfully, hair tumbling from your hood as you twirl on the ice, babbling to yourself about the beautiful surroundings. Your joy seems infectious as he notices the corners of his mouth lifting.
Getting a closer look wouldnât hurt, right? Nobody sees him after all.
Kai jumps from the top of the trees down toward the lake. This time, you do hear the treetops rustling. You look up to see if you can spot a beautiful snow owl youâve heard roams this part of the town, but with your attention no longer on your feet, you suddenly feel yourself slipping.
You squeeze your eyes shut as a high-pitched squeal escapes your lips, bracing yourself for the fall â for your back to slam into the frozen lake. Good job, Y/N. Hurting yourself on your first day, arenât we? you hear the voice in the back of your head.
But the fall doesnât happen. Something has caught you mid-air. Or rather, someone?
Instead of hitting the hard ice, something soft and cold wraps around you, but itâs not a harsh cold. Itâs⌠gentle? Like the first breath of winter. The scent of snow and pine suddenly grows stronger. Your scarf flutters down over your eyes, and when you push it back, youâre upright again, staring straight into a pair of bright blue eyes.
A young man. His hair is white and soft as the snow itself, his eyes identical to the blue of frozen rivers, and his pale skin glows faintly in the low light. He looks like he walked straight out of a fairytale.
âWhoa,â you breathe, blinking. âWhere did you come from?â
A long silence stretches before he blinks. Like your voice startled him out of a trance.
âYou⌠can see me?â His voice is quiet. Disbelieving.
You tilt your head. âWell, yeah? Youâre holding me.â You smile a little â cautious but intrigued â scanning his face for any hint that heâs joking. When your words register, he suddenly lets go, stumbling back and clutching his hand like heâs been burned. The sudden movement makes you wobble on the ice again, arms spreading wildly before you manage to find your balance.Â
Heâs dressed oddly: a dark sweater, sleeves pulled down past his wrists, and a long wooden staff clutched in one of his hands. He only stares at you with wide eyes. Like youâre the one who suddenly appeared out of thin air.
âYouâre looking right at me,â he says, more to himself than to you, breath stuttering. âYou can see me. You⌠see me.â
âWell⌠yeah.â You furrow your brows. Utterly confused at this point. âYouâre kind of hard to miss.â
You try to take a step closer, concern flickering in your chest, but he stumbles back, shaking his head with wide eyes. âNo. No, thisâthis isnât real. Youâre not supposed to see me. Nobody does.â
You reach out slowly and carefully. âWait, hey, are youâ?â
But before you can finish, a sharp gust of wind howls across the lake. Making you close your eyes at the harshness of it, but when you open them again, he is gone, vanished like a snowflake in sunlight. All thatâs left is the soft swirl of wind around your ankles⌠and the cold place where his hand had been.
Itâs the next day, and you canât stop thinking about the boy on the ice. His white hair. His startled blue eyes. The way he kept repeating how you could see him. No matter how many times you replay the moment in your mind, none of it makes sense.
Where did he come from? Was he watching you? Did you not notice him because of your excitement? Why did he react like you were a ghost instead of the other way around? And most of all â how could someone disappear like that? You're not crazy. You know what you saw.
Still, the longer the day stretches on, the more you think about it, the more you start to question if that was truly what you saw. The voices from your hometown coming back to you. The names they used to call you, repeating like a mantra. You shake your head to get rid of the thoughts. That was something from the past; you are here to make a new life. So get out of it already, y/n.
You decide itâs time to do something a little more grounded instead of sulking alone in your cabin: a grocery run. Itâs a small town, after all. Maybe someone knows something. It never hurts to talk.
The bell above the door chimes softly as you step into the tiny general store, the smell of pine-scented candles and fresh bread wrapping around you. Warmth seeps into your fingers as you rub your gloves together. You grab a basket and make your way past the shelves of jams, dried herbs, and locally made everything.
There arenât many people inside. There rarely are. But behind the register â as always â is the sweet older woman with silver-streaked hair and kind eyes. You havenât caught her name yet, but sheâs always here, bundled in a thick sweater and humming old songs under her breath.
She greets you with a smile and a warm, âBack again, snow flower?â
âYouâre going to make me start answering to that name.â You laugh. You grab a pack of the local fruit tea and some fresh vegetables, putting them in your basket.
Her smile grows at your answer, her fingers tapping lightly on the counter. âIt feels like youâve been out and about in this weather more than most of us whoâve lived here our whole lives. No frostbite yet?â
âNot even close,â you say brightly, making your way back to the counter and setting down your little basket. âI love it. The cold. The snow. Itâs kinda the whole reason why I moved down here.â
She chuckles. âI figured as much. Itâs you and no one else.â
You hesitate for a second, watching her type in the prices of each produce item into her old cash register. âSorry, but⌠can I ask something kind of weird?â
She looks up at you, her eyes twinkling. âIn Eira Hollow, everythingâs a little weird. Go ahead.â
âSo⌠has anyone ever mentioned a boy around here? Like, white hair. Really pale, kind of tall. Looks like he walked out of a snowstorm or something?â
Then her face shifts into something like surprise â followed quickly by soft amusement. âA boy with white hair?â she repeats, raising an eyebrow. âIn the woods?â
You nod nervously. âBy the lake behind the cabins.â
And then, she laughs gently, in that grandmotherly way that makes you feel like a child caught trying to befriend bugs. Not like youâve just uttered the most ridiculous sentence ever â like seeing a ghost boy in the woods. The more you think about it, the weirder it starts to sound. But before you can take your words back, sheâs already answering your question.
âOh, sweet girl,â she says, finishing up ringing your items. âThe only people with white hair here are very, very old. You havenât been spending too much time out in that snow, have you? The cold might be catching up to you.â
You frown slightly. âI wasnât imagining it.â
Her smile doesnât falter â but her tone turns more coaxing, like sheâs comforting a kid with a wild story. âMaybe it was the light, or a shadow. These winters play tricks on people. The ice can reflect strangely. Makes you see things sometimes.â
You open your mouth â not sure if itâs to insist or explain â but she reaches into a bin behind the counter and pulls out a small tin of cocoa mix.
âTell you what,â she says kindly, slipping it into your bag. âMake yourself a big mug of this when you get home. With whipped cream, if youâve got it. Itâll help. You donât want to catch a chill, not with how long the winters last here and how much time you spend outside.â
You look at her, a smile forming on your face â but it doesnât quite reach your eyes.
âYeah,â you murmur, âmaybe the coldâs just getting to me.â
âOf course it is, dear,â she says, like sheâs sure that ends the matter. âJust be careful out there. Youâre not used to winters like ours.â
You nod as you take your bag and give her a small wave on your way out. The moment you step outside, the cold kisses your cheeks again. You take your time looking around the square, as if trying to spot the mysterious boy with white hair. But just like the old woman said, the only people you see, not even coming close to his hair color are the faded silver streaks of the elderly living here.Â
The wind picks up a little, making a stray hair fall before your eyes. Your vision follows the path toward the outskirts of town, where your cabin is. Without thinking, you make your way home, but the truth is, youâre not going to curl up with cocoa and let this go. No â youâre going to wait until the sun dips below the hills and the town lights flicker on behind drawn curtains. When the cold intensifies and the sky turns that soft, endless indigo.
Youâre going back to that lake to find out what the hell happened yesterday â to the boy made of winter.
The sun is low when you step back into the woods. Twilight settles over Eira Hollow like a velvet curtain â deep blue and silver â the sky already dusted with stars waiting to shine. The snow beneath your boots crunches familiarly, and your breath curls in the air like a soft white ribbon.
Youâve waited all day. Even made that damn hot cocoa with the stupid whipped cream. You couldnât resist anyway; it was indeed cold on your way back home.
You tell yourself itâs silly, that you shouldnât expect anything. Maybe it really was your imagination. A very detailed, extremely physical, emotionally confusing imagination. But after a few minutes, you see the lake again, its surface shining like glass under the first stars â and your heart gives that same flutter.
You pause at the edge of the lake and look around at the trees, eyes scanning every branch, every shadow. But the woods are quiet. Yet thereâs something in the air. A pressure. Like the wind is suddenly holding its breath â though it was blowing carelessly just a few minutes ago.
You step onto the ice again, slower and more carefully this time. You stop near the center, the forest standing like sentinels all around you, the cold biting at your cheeks.
You try to listen for anything that might give away that you are not alone, but all you hear are the faint rustles of forest life â critters scuttling through the snow and birds flapping above the treetops. You frown, feeling the awkward silence bloom between your ribs. Then, with a dry throat, you clear it.
ââŚHello?â you call. It comes out smaller than intended, barely louder than the wind. God, this feels dumb. Yet you steel yourself, shake the doubt off your shoulders, and lift your chin.
âHello?â you say again, louder this time.
Your voice echoes across the lake, bouncing between the trees. The forest shifts in response â the birds fly off and the critters go still, startled by your sudden defiance of silence. But then⌠nothing. Not even a breath. Not even the sound of wind in the trees. Just utter silence.
You hesitate, fumbling with your gloves, before taking a shaky breath and trying again. âIâm not here to harm you,â you say, softer now. âI just⌠I want to know what yesterday was about. You seeââ You laugh under your breath sheepishly. ââIâm quite the curious type.â
You wrap your arms around yourself trying to rub some warmth back into yourself. You had dressed warmly, but standing still on a frozen lake at this hour is a challenge even for you. The chill is sinking into your bones now, nibbling at your fingertips and tugging at your resolve.
You look around one more time, but nothing seems to be changing.
Thatâs when it really hits you â what youâre actually doing. Standing in the middle of a forest, on a giant frozen lake, calling out to a boy made of snow and wonder like heâs going to just⌠appear.
A breathy laugh escapes you. âWow.â You shake your head and turn toward the woods. âGreat job, y/n,â you mutter as you begin the walk back, your boots sliding slightly on the ice. âTalk to one mysterious winter boy and suddenly you think youâre the main character in some kind of Narnia spin-off.â
From the treetops, Kai watches you leave. His fingers are curled tightly around his staff, knuckles white with tension. He hasnât moved since the moment you stepped onto the ice â not even to breathe.
You were looking for him, and it was making his chest ache with something he couldnât name. Isnât this what he wanted? For someone â anyone â to notice him? To call out to him? Then why does it feel like his ribs are caving in just watching you stand there?
Why did he feel like he might collapse under the weight of your voice calling into the quiet?
You sounded gentle. A little awkward, but kind. And he was too afraid to answer.
The truth is, he doesnât remember how to be around strangers. Not really. Not when the last time someone saw him was⌠what, a century ago? Maybe more? Apart from his handful of friends, of course â but that didnât count.
He watches you step back into the forest, the dusk swallowing your shape until only the sound of your retreating footsteps remains.
Kai lets out the breath heâs been holding. It curls around him like a ghost.Â
And then he is left alone again.
Kai watches from the rooftops, the branches, the treeline â something he caught himself doing a lot. He's never been so aware of someone before. He notices your little journeys to the library and how you quickly turn around every time you come close to the lake.
The guilt has been eating at him â seeing the shame on your face every time you glance toward the lake, probably reminding yourself of the day you were talking into thin air. Which you werenât. Kai was already waiting for you. Every day. But you didnât know that. And Kai doesnât know how to tell you that.
He wants to show you heâs real. That much is certain. He wants you to know you didnât imagine him.
So, he decides to start small to change that. In a way he feels comfortable and does best.
When a few days pass and you donât try to visit the lake anymore, he sets his plan in motion. He leaves a pattern of frost on your cabin window â delicate, intricate swirls that mimic the movement of water, spiraling out from a central point: a snowflake.
Youâre curled on the couch with a blanket wrapped around you, staring blankly at your journal. Outside, Kai stands in the trees, breath tight in his throat, waiting.
You never look at the window.
The next day, he guides the wind just right, carrying a single, perfect snowflake into your open journal as you walk. It lands on the page, whole and unmelted â not even dampening it. But then your phone buzzes. You pull it from your pocket, snapping your journal shut with a thud as the snowflake falls into the snow behind you.
Again, Kai watches from afar as his fingers tighten around his staff. This was foolish, wasnât it? You were never meant to see him. To remember him. Maybe it was just a strange flicker of connection that was never meant to last â a spark in the dark that was already burning out. Was the moon just playing a cruel joke on him? Had he let his chance slip? All because he was too scared to speak?
A few nights have passed, and you're sitting on the small wooden step outside your cabin. The wind is gentle. Almost still. You're sipping your fruit tea, bundled in your jacket and a scarf. The sky above you is clear, dark blue, dotted with stars. The trees around you sway faintly, casting long, sleepy shadows.
You donât know what makes you shift your gaze from the night sky to the railing next to you. But you see it.
A large, whole, perfectly formed snowflake. Itâs not melting â not even a little. Itâs sitting on the wood as if carved from crystal, glowing faintly in the moonlight.
Your breath hitches as you lean closer. Thereâs no reason for it to still be here, sitting so perfectly â your lamp heater is radiating enough heat for you to be able to sit outside at this hour.
And then another lands beside it. And another. And another.
Your eyes flick upward, toward the top of the trees, instinctively, but the dark sky makes it impossible to see far. Yet, something stirs. You can't see it, canât pinpoint where it came from. But you feel it â the wind starting to blow just a bit harder.
You stand slowly, clutching the railing. Closing your eyes, you let yourself feel the wind. Then, turning your head slightly to the left, you open them again â staring at the top of a tall, dark tree. You watch it for a few quiet seconds until a sudden gust of cold wind, carrying that same sharp scent of pine, brushes past you, making you smile to yourself.
Then, without a word, you turn and head back inside.
And in the top of that tall, dark tree, Kaiâs breath is caught in his throat.
The North Pole never sleeps â not truly. Wind howls beyond the ridges, distant and mournful. Shimmer arcs across the sky â green and gold ribbons painting the heavens, folding over each other like silk on water.
Soobinâs workshop stands half-buried in snow, its windows glowing faintly with golden light. Curved rooftops glisten with frost, and wind chimes made of ice and starlight hum softly in the breeze. From inside, the tinkering of toys can be heard. Blueprints, paints, and crystal shards litter the long tables; delicate tools and ancient schematics rest beside cups of steaming tea. The air is filled with murmurs, the chiming of bells, footsteps â everyone in the workshop works year-round to make sure the shelves are filled when that one day of the year finally comes.
Soobin hums softly to himself as he carves a new plane model from ice. A different prototype, one he made earlier, zips through the air around his office. He adjusts his glasses, lifts the new plane toward the light, and twirls it thoughtfully in his hand, debating if it needs any changes â when a sudden face on the other side of the ice startles him.
A bright grin, all full white teeth and mischief, flashes at him before Soobin lowers the plane. Heâs greeted by the full face of a very playful Beomgyu, wings fluttering behind him in excitement. Before they can exchange greetings, a loud crash sounds behind Beomgyu, followed by a string of curses. They both look over to find Yeonjun rubbing his head between his ears. Beside him lies the prototype plane, now in pieces.
âWhoâs got ice particles flying around like that, mate?â Yeonjun groans.
Soobin lets out a deep sigh. âMaybe if you used the front door like a normal person â instead of leaping out of your portals into the middle of my workshop â things like this wouldnât keep happening.â
Beomgyu glances between the two before laughing loudly. âWait, this has happened before? I didnât know that!â
âLast time it was worse than just a toy plane,â a calm voice says from the corner.
Everyone turns toward the fireplace, where Taehyun has already taken a seat. His golden hair glows softly in the firelight. Beomgyuâs eyes light up, already preparing to ask for the story, but Yeonjun cuts in.
âAlright, alright, save the backstory for later, yeah? I donât want to steal the spotlight just yet.â He leans against a pillar, arms crossed and smirking. âBesides, itâs not every day Mister Lonely Boy invites us over for a tea party.â
He glances around. âSpeaking of his annoying ass, where is he? Iâve got eggs to paint.â
Then a gust of frost-laced wind sweeps through the room, and Kai appears at the center of it. His shoulders are hunched, fingers tight around his staff.
âSpeak of the devil,â Yeonjun murmurs. âLate to your own party, buddy. I expected better.â
âVery funny, Yeonjun,â Kai mutters, barely looking up. His cheeks are flushed, and he shifts from foot to foot.
âYou okay?â Soobin asks gently, stepping closer. The lights above respond to his motion, flickering subtly. Kai opens his mouth, then closes it again, fidgeting with the edge of his sleeve.
Yeonjun twirls his boomerang. âDid a snowman reject you or something, Jack Frost?â
Kai huffs â not quite a laugh, but close. âNo. Itâs just⌠there is somethingâ no, not something, someone. Itâs thisââ He pauses, eyes on the floor. ââgirl.â His cheeks go fully red as he pulls his hood lower over his face.
Yeonjun raises both eyebrows, and Beomgyu lets out a low, exaggerated string of Oâs, wings fluttering faster. Soobin smiles while Taehyun tilts his head curiously.
Their reactions making Kai groan out loud. âNot like that.â
âYou sure?â Yeonjun grins. âBecause you look like you got hit by a sled going downhill fast.â
âI donât know what it is,â Kai blurts. The words spill from him. âI donât even remember what this feeling is supposed to be. Itâs just⌠when I see her, something warms up inside me â and it scares me. Itâs like this⌠this glow, right in the middle of my chest. I want to be near her, even if I donât know what to say, or if Iâll mess it up. And I know it seems sudden, since I only saw her for the first time a few weeks ago, but the most important part isâŚâ He hesitates, swallowing hard.
The words hang in the air, and everyone seems to hold their breath.
âShe really saw me. Not like you guys. A real person. A human! And she talked to me. She looked me straight in the eye when she did it!â Kai gestures with his hands, animated now â but then lets them fall. âI canât remember the last time that happened.â His voice softens. âItâs been⌠centuries, maybe. Iâve forgotten what that even feels like.â
The others go still. Even Beomgyuâs wings slowed to almost a halt.
Kai shifts again, clutching his staff tighter. âAnd now⌠I canât stop thinking about her. About how I felt when she thanked me. It was like â like Iâd never been more real than in that moment. Like I wasnât just the winter, or the cold, or the wind people curse when they forget their scarf.â
He lifts his eyes, glassy with confusion. âIt felt like warmth. And I donât know what to do with that.â
The morning light drips through the curtains like soft honey, waking you slowly.
You blink your eyes open, stretching beneath the blanket as a yawn escapes. The remnants of a dream still linger. You try to remember, but itâs already fading. Yet there are a few things that you recall.
Warmth. Laughter. A silhouette just out of reach. And a voice â not exactly the words but the sound â the most beautiful voice youâve ever heard. Just so⌠happy.
There were hands too. Cool to the touch, not in an unpleasant way but soothing. The kind of cold that settles your nerves. Like dipping your fingertips into a winter stream, and getting that sudden rush of adrenaline.
You sit up slowly and glance out the window facing the backyard, still blinking the sleep out of your eyes, when you notice something.
Frost coats the glass â not unusual in itself. But what is remarkable is the pattern. A small swirl at the corner, with snowflake arms branching outward like blooming petals. Next to it, a crescent moon shape, trailing a tail of tiny stars like someone drew it with their fingertip.
You lean closer, breath fogging the pane, and trace the outlines with your eyes. Every line is deliberate and clean. A smile creeps up onto your face.
For days now, youâve been trying to rationalize what happened on the lake. Trying to ground yourself in reality â groceries, books, chores â even as some part of you kept returning to him. But this? This feels like a response. Not imagined. Not a trick of the cold. You see it clear as day now, someone left this for you. And you might have a slight idea who that someone is.
Kai leans on his staff, his cheek pressed against it, half-hidden behind a pine tree, his eyes fixed on the window. Or ratherâon you. Heâd drawn that one last night. He wasnât even sure if youâd notice this time; most of his frost patterns had gone unseen in the mornings, melted away by noon.
But now, finally, there you are. Leaning into his drawing with a smile on your face. Your fingers hover over the glass, tracing the delicate patterns.
Outside, Kai is smiling too. Itâs small and a little uneven, definitely nervous at the edges. But who could blame him? Youâd finally noticed his effort to reach out. Did this mean you would come out and find him again? To say Kai was anxious about facing you would be an understatement.
Later that morning, as you sip from a steaming mug of tea and journal at the kitchen table, you find yourself glancing up at the window again. The frost softly melting under the rising sun. You had mindlessly started sketching the patterns in the margins of your notebook. Before you know it, the page was filled with swirls, stars, and the moon. Ticking your pen against the kitchen table, you find yourself deep in thought. Was he trying to tell you something? Did he find the courage to talk to you? Was he feeling guilty that he fled so suddenly, and this was his way of making up?Â
It was him, right? The boy from the lake? It must be, no one can appear and then disappear again from a sudden gust of cold wind. So what was he? If he were ice cold, hair white as snow, and could paint with frost. It almost sounded like the old tale you once read about. A man who was winter himself;Â
The path to the lake feels different tonight.
Youâve walked this trail enough now to feel the change in the air. A folded paper rests gently in your hand â a sketch you made after that first meeting. His face, drawn from memory: white, soft hair slightly tousled by the wind, eyes wide with startled wonder, the shape of his staff sketched loosely beside him. You couldnât get the image out of your head even if you tried.
As you reach the lake, you stop at the edge again and breathe in deeply, the cold filling your lungs. The ice glistens under the moonlight, stretching wide and smooth. You step onto it, carefully, and your boots crunch faintly. Again, you are alone. But this time, you are a bit more confident.
âHello again,â you say softly, voice steady.
Thereâs an echo of your voice, but no response. Still, a small smile forms on your face.
âYou know,â you say as you walk toward the center, âfor someone trying to stay hidden, you seem to leave quite the cutest drawing on my window.â
âI liked the snowflakes too, you know? I wonder how you do it, you must have some kind of power connected to it.â Your heart beats faster, but you keep going, holding your sketch a little tighter. âBut it seems like we have something in common. Itâs slightly different from each other since I canât really make pretty snowflakes and frost appear out of thin air, so I have to do it the old-fashioned way with a pencil.â
You kneel gently in the center of the ice, pulling off your glove long enough to place the drawing down carefully. It flutters slightly from your hand, and for a few seconds, itâs just lying there.
Then â the wind stirs. A soft, chilly wind brushes past your legs as it turns the paper a perfect 180 degrees. The drawing now lay facing outwards, towards the trees. Your eyes widen slightly as your smile turns brighter, full of triumph.
âSo you are here,â you murmur. A quiet warmth blooms in your cheeks despite the cold. You tuck a strand of hair behind your ear, heart thrumming now. âIâd love to get to know you more.â
No answer. But the wind stirs again, teasing the strand of hair you just tucked away â like the brush of a fingertip. You bite your lip to hold in the soft laugh bubbling in your throat. âI take that you like that idea too,â you whisper. âBut it seems youâre very shy.â You glance up at the trees, gaze lingering a little longer. âThatâs okay. We can take small steps.â
You step backward, slowly making your way off the lake. Not turning your back until the glassy ice beneath your boots is replaced with snow. And as you reach the edge of the woods, you stop just once more, turning toward the frozen clearing.
âPlease keep your drawings of frost coming,â you say, voice lighter. âIâd love to wake up to them more often.â And then youâre gone.
For a long while, he doesn't move. Not until your trail has vanished into the pines. Only then does Kai let himself leap from the branches. The moonlight reflects off the ice, casting his figure in a shadow as he makes his way silently toward the center.
His eyes fall to the paper you left him. He studies your drawing, fingers gentle on the edges. You had drawn him. Kaiâs expression shifts from surprise to fondness as he admires the way you captured him. For the short amount of interaction the two of you had, you had a remarkably good eye for detail. The fact that you even captured the exact color of his eyes makes his stomach twist in a strange, fluttery way. His breath fogs the air. A small, stunned smile formed on his lips, and something inside him began to thaw.
Carefully, he folds the drawing and tucks it into his hoodie. Then he raises his staff. On your window â far away in your cabin where sleep has already taken over you â frost starts to bloom again. This time, it curls into the shape of two figures, a lake, and the soft gust of wind swirling. One of them is holding a drawing.
The morning sun creeps into your room as you wake. You sit up, wrapping the blanket tighter around you, and immediately glance toward the window. There it is, the beautiful frost drawing he left you. Your breath catches in your throat when you realize he drew you and himself, even returning the immense eye of detail.Â
So he was watching right there, the whole time, just like you thought. âThatâs where you were hiding,â you whisper as you trace the tiny figure in the frost with your fingertip.
That evening, you chalk a small white moon on the glass of your back door, adding a star next to it. Underneath it, you draw the lake as well, with a question mark above the tallest tree close to the lake.Â
It becomes a pattern. Nights and mornings filled with frost messages and chalk replies. A quiet conversation between two strangers.
Until one night, he gets a bit bolder. This time, he leaves a handprint, accompanied by a simple smiley face. When you lift your hand to press it against the glass of your bedroom window, youâre pretty sure itâs the same size as the one that caught you the day you almost fell. The cold still radiates from it â it must be freshly made.
Your lips curve into a slow, breathless smile. You lean forward, resting your forehead gently against the glass, peering into the night. Of course, you see nothing. But you donât let that ruin the moment. The glass fogs up as you whisper a soft, âHi.â
Outside, Kaiâs heart nearly cracks in two at the sight. Your hand pressed to his â even if it was just the outline of his. He smiles, as for the first time in decades, he doesnât feel like a myth.
Later that night, you tuck yourself into bed and fall into a peaceful slumber. Your dream is vivid. Itâs you and the silhouette again â the one youâve grown used to by now. Youâre racing through a snow-covered field together, leaping over frozen brooks, hands brushing, and laughter filling the air around you.
But the next night, the dream is different. The sky above is a darker hue. The trees bend a bit strangely. The silhouette is farther away. You try to run to him, but your feet suddenly feel heavy in the snow. His laughter still rings, but it sounds distant now.
The night after that, itâs worse. You hear whispers, but they arenât words â just noise, crawling at the edges of your mind. The sky is ink-black. The silhouette remains, but it doesnât feel like him anymore. He stands in the distance, unmoving, and thereâs something eerie about the way he holds himself. Worst of all, his laughter is gone. You wake with sweat on your neck, gasping for air, your blankets kicked to the floor.
But it keeps happening. Every night, the dream decays a little more. And as exhaustion overtakes you from the lack of sleep, you start to miss his frost drawings again. You stop chalking the door. Even when he draws a little rabbit for you, a Yeonjun-shaped inside joke heâd love to share with you one day. But the worst of all? Your smile doesnât reach your eyes anymore.
Of course, Kai notices. Your footsteps drag. Your eyes are duller. You barely glance at the window anymore. But still, heâs patient, he never misses an evening, even though youâre not responding like you used to. Yet with every passing day, his concern grows, gnawing at him as he wonders why youâre behaving this way. So one night, when the worry becomes too much, he decides to move a bit closer to the cabin.
Heâs met with the image of you twisting violently in bed, your face drawn in distress, whimpering softly beneath the tangled blankets. He presses his nose against the glass, trying to get a better look. Thatâs when he sees it â the usual golden sand, left by his friend Taehyun, the Sandman who brings beautiful dreams, is tainted as tiny speckles of black swirl within it.
Kaiâs chest tightens as he grips his staff. Something â or rather someone â was corrupting your dreams. And he would have to confront his friend to find out what the hell was happening to you.
The wind shifts the moment Kai arrives.
Taehyun doesnât look up immediately. Heâs sitting by the quiet stream that glitters with dust, legs folded neatly beneath him, trailing a ribbon of golden sand between his fingers. The air around him hums with peace â a lullaby in motion.
âTaehyun,â Kai says, his voice urgent and sharp.
The sandman lifts his gaze. âKai.â
âSheâs⌠sheâs not sleeping well. I saw her tossing. Again. Itâs been days now. I donâtââ Kai breaks off, breath uneven. âWhatâs happening to y/n?â
Taehyun looks over to his friend, then rises slowly, letting the sand fall from his hands.Â
âTake a breath, Kai,â he says in a calm tone. Kai does exactly what his friends says, as he feels his heartbeat slowing down. âIâm not sure why y/n is having trouble sleeping since I made sure to go out of my way to personalize her dream,â Taehyun says as he folds his hands behind his back.
Kaiâs brows pull together. âWhat?â what the hell is Taehyun talking about?
âI might have been sending her a few⌠cryptic messages,â Taehyun says, brushing a grain of sand dust from his sleeve. âLittle things like coldness, a certain laugh, a familiar figure in the distance. Something she wants to run to.â Taehyun raises an eyebrow at him, throwing a knowing look.Â
Kaiâs eyes widen slightly. âYouâve been making her dream about â me?â
Taehyun gives a faint smile. âI mean, she already was dreaming about how much she loved winter, why not throw in the reason behind all the beautiful snow?â
Kai canât believe his ears when Taehyun says those words to him. So every time youâd wake up with a smile on your face, it had been because of him? Or at leastâas much as you knewâit was him.
âIâI didnât know you were putting me in them.â
âI thought it might help,â Taehyun says softly. âYou said she saw you. I figured Iâd give it a push in the right direction with what I do best. I know it takes a lot of courage for you to speak to her.â
Kai stares down at the wooden floor between them. Feeling grateful for the way his best friend knows and cares about him. His voice is quiet when he speaks again. âThank you.â
Taehyunâs smiles, but it fades as quickly as it came as he remembers the way Kai made his entrance just a couple of minutes ago. âBut if sheâs having nightmares now, they arenât from me.â
Kaiâs head snaps up. âSo itâs not you doing this?â
Taehyun shakes his head, stepping forward, concern drawing tight around his usually serene expression. âWhy would I do that to you, Kai?â he says gently. âOr her?â
âI donât know,â Kai admits, rubbing his arms. âDeep down, I know it wasnât you, but when I saw the impact the dreams have on her, I didnât know what to think. Her dreams have changed. Theyâre⌠darker. I see it in her face. When she sleeps, when she wakes up. She doesnât even notice the drawings I leave anymore.â
The sandman nods grimly. âIs there anything else youâve noticed while sheâs asleep?â
âI donât know,â Kai murmurs. gently rocking from one foot to the other. âShe looks⌠afraid. And itâs definitely not me sheâs dreaming about anymore. It looks like sheâs trying to get away from something, or someone.â
An exhale pushes past Taehyunâs lips as he makes his way to the desk. âShe shouldnât be seeing things I didnât place.â A short silence falls between the two as Taehyun flicks his hand, and a book appears in front of him. He takes a seat behind his desk and quietly starts leafing through it. His eyes scanning the pages with urgency.Â
âIâ I also saw a few speckles of black in your sand dust,â Kai finally says, his voice barely a whisper. Taehyunâs hand stops mid-page, his calm expression faltering. Itâs as if even the sand dust stops flowing for a second â the constant faint hiss in the background disappearing entirely. Or maybe itâs just the sound of his own pounding heart taking over. The longer Taehyun stays silent, the more it makes him shift uneasily in his place. âTaehyun?â
The sandman looks up. âThereâs only one other being who could twist dreams that deeply without me noticing from afar. But he can never do it without leaving at least a bit of evidence of his dark magic behind.â
Kai goes still. ââŚYou donât meanââ
âPitch,â Taehyun says quietly.
The name hangs in the air between the two, and Kai feels like itâs suddenly very hard to breathe. âThe Nightmare King,â He whispers.
Taehyun nods once. His face concerned as he sees the growing panic on his friend's face. âI havenât felt him in decades. None of us have. But if he found a weakness ââ he makes direct eye contact with Kai, âsomeone important to one of us â he might not need to be close to us to get what he wants.â
Kaiâs stomach drops as Taehyunâs words repeat in his head. âWhy would he go after her?â he asks. âSheâs justââ
âYou know why, Kai.â Taehyunâs voice is gentle, but firm. âBecause she sees you. She has been giving you warmth. It only needs to begin with one who believes because â.â
âBelieve is power.â Kai interrupts. He is full-on pacing back and forth in Taehyunâs office now. Gaze at the floor in front of him while his staff drags behind.
âPitch feeds on fear. He corrupts the things that make us strong. Sheâs not just a random girl. Not to you. Youâre getting brighter, and with brightness comes hope. And he means to pull you back into the dark.â Taehyun stands up from behind his desk.
Kai stops in his tracks, suddenly breathless. âSo heâs trying to take her from me.â
âYes,â Taehyun says quietly, stepping close, resting a hand on his shoulder. âAnd heâs starting with the only place you canât follow â her dreams.â
Your body screams with exhaustion as you step onto the porch, yet sleep refuses to come. You hoped stepping outside might calm you down a little. These awful nightmares have been wearing you thin. Youâre making mistakes at work, forgetting to eat, mixing up appointments, falling asleep before you can even look at the beautiful drawings he leaves for you every night. And in the mornings, you barely glance at them as you rush out of bed, having slept through your alarm once again.
The night air is sharp but beautiful. The stars scatter like salt across velvet. You donât know where youâre going as you slowly descend the porch steps, breathing in sharply as the cold kisses your cheeks with a sweet sting. Your head hangs low as you walk toward the tree line, watching your feet vanish and reappear in the snow. When suddenly a shadow appears in front of you in the pale blue moonlight. Shadows arenât unusual here, not with a forest surrounding you, but this oneâthis one definitely does not belong to a tree.
Your gaze follows the shadow on the ground up to the figure it belongs to. And there he is. Standing right in front of you. Exactly as you remember him: shimmering white hair, a dark hoodie beneath a cloak rippling in the breeze, staff in hand.
His eyes widen when he sees you â or rather, when he sees you looking at him â and he instantly looks away, shifting on his feet, visibly nervous, as if unsure he's allowed to be here.
You take a careful step forward, barely daring to breathe. âI knew youâd eventually come and see me,â you whisper.
Kaiâs glance flickers back to you, then down again, eyes full of shyness. He looks like he could vanish at any moment, but he doesnât. After a tense pause, he mumbles, âHi.â
Itâs barely a whisper. Awkward. So painfully awkward. Kai bites his tongue, cringing inwardly at himself.
It melts something deep in your chest. A grin breaks across your face â something you havenât done in days. âHi,â you breathe back, your voice brighter, full of relief, joy, and disbelief. âHi!â You take another step closer. He doesnât move away this time, just shifts awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck, his eyes flickering to yours and darting away again with flushed cheeks.
You tilt your head, studying him like a long-lost constellation. âYouâre really shy, arenât you? You know I donât bite, right?âÂ
That earns the faintest smile from him. âIâm not usually⌠seen,â he says, words halting, sheepish. âItâs been⌠a long time.â
âWhat do you mean? How long?â you ask curiously, voice soft now. Did he mean he was some kind of hermit? Did he also live in a cabin in these woods?
He swallows and looks away. âCenturies.â The words are barely audible as they sink into you. The puzzle pieces are falling into place, yet you donât seem to get any more confident about who this boy is. The only theory you can come up with will probably get you hospitalized by how insane it might sound if you say it out loud.Â
Yet there is no other explanation. Your eyes trail over him again â the white hair, the pale skin, the bright blue eyes, the staff, and most of all, how the cold seems to ripple around him. The words escape before you can stop them:
Suddenly, the air stills. The boy in front of you meets your eyes, wide, like he canât believe you just said that. The awareness of what you just said starts to dawn on you, already scrambling for ways to backpedal, when he quietly interrupts
âYeah, but my friends just call me Kai.âÂ
The weight of it crashes into your chest, bringing a hand to your forehead, half-expecting to feel a fever. Or maybe that old lady put something hallucinogenic in your fruit tea? Thereâs no way this is really happening.
âIs this even real? Am I imagining things? Did I fall on the ice and end up in a coma, and now this is some vague dream Iâm having?â The words fly out of your mouth.
Kaiâs eyes go wide as your spiraling picks up. He holds up his hands, panicking. âNoâNo, youâre not going crazy! IâI donât know why you can see me either, but Iâm real!â His voice wobbles with nerves, but youâre too lost in pacing now.
âOh my god, did I die? Is this the afterlife? If I really fell, thereâs no way someone found me out thereââ
A sudden gust of cold rushes past you. When you turn, a beautiful ice sculpture stands in front of you, rising from the ground, veins of frost reaching above your height. You freeze.
Kaiâs voice cuts through the silence â firmer this time. âIf this isnât real, then why do you feel everything I do so deeply? Why does my cold stir something in you when no one else notices? If I werenât Jack Frost⌠then why can I control the winter?â
The silence stretches on between you and Kai as you open and close your mouth multiple times, but no words seem to come out. His eyes find the ground again. The moon was shining from above, casting soft shadows across the snow-dusted clearing. He was close enough now to see the way his lashes catch the light. The way his hands tremble just slightly where they rest on his staff, the way both of your breaths curl visibly between the two of you, and especially the loneliness tucked into his shoulders. The way heâs standing, like he doesnât expect to be allowed to stay. All you can see is this forgotten boy trying to make a friend, and you are making him feel like a fool by freaking out.Â
âI donât know why you can see me,â Kai says after a while, voice brittle. âNo one has in decades. And I get it. If youâre scared. If you donât want to see me again, I can just leavââ
His head snaps up. âYouâre⌠not scared?â
You shake your head, snowflakes tumbling from your hair. âWhy would I be?â
Kaiâs lips part â caught off guard by the sudden change in your behaviour.
ââŚBecause most people would be,â he says softly. âWhen they see something they donât understand. Something⌠that shouldnât exist.â
You smile gently, brushing a strand of hair behind your ear. âI know I just freaked out on you, but you are right, you feel very real to me.â
Silence stretches. He shifts his weight again nervously before finally saying, âIâm not used to talking.â
âThatâs okay,â you reply, with the softest laugh. âIâm used to talking enough for two,â and that earns you a tiny, shy smile. âI knew there was something different from this place, maybe not knew,â you amend with a grin. âBut I felt it. Ever since I came here. The snow here⌠it felt different, like it was alive. And I guess I was right.â
âI thought maybe I imagined you,â you admit. âAfter the lake. Even the old lady in town thought I had frostbite. But then the drawings started, and⌠I realized you were trying to talk to me.â
âI didnât know how else to do it,â he mumbles. âWords are hard when you havenât used them on a stranger in a long time.â
âYouâre not that bad,â you tease, making both of you laugh. There is a silence again, but this time it's comfortable. âYou donât have to hide anymore,â you whisper, voice warm, âNot from me.â
A shiver passes through you when he meets your eyes again. âWhy arenât you scared of me? Or at least weirded out?â
âI mean, Iâm still a bit weirded out. But you never made me feel like I should be. Somehow⌠youâve always been with me. In the snow. In the wind. I know you from when I was little â even if Iâm only now learning your name.â
And just like that, the smallest gust of wind brushes your fingers, cool and shy, like a hand reaching without touching. You take one tiny step back, nodding toward your cabin. âMind walking me back to the porch? Itâs getting a little chilly.â
You and Kai slowly walk back to where you came from, your footsteps almost in sync. Itâs a quiet walk until he speaks again. âItâs strange,â Kai says. âBeing seen.â
You glance over, curious. He doesnât meet your eyes, just watches the snowflakes drift between you. âWhen people stopped believing in me⌠I disappeared from their memory, too. Not just physically. Itâs like I never existed to them. One day Iâm part of a story, and the next⌠Iâm nothing.â Your smile fades. âIâm still here,â he adds quickly, as if trying to soften it. âI still walk the earth. I still bring the frost. I still keep the wind gentle when kids play outside in winter. ButâŚâ He trails off.
âBut they donât know itâs you,â you finish quietly.
Kai nods once. âExactly. They think itâs just the weather. Or coincidence. But not⌠me.â He pauses, rubbing at his palm with his thumb like heâs trying to warm it. âThere used to be kids everywhere who knew me. Who believed. But now Iâm just⌠a story. A very old one. The kind printed in dusty books no one checks out anymore. The kind tucked in the back of some forgotten library.â
Your chest aches at the way he says it. âIs that why no one can see you?â you ask gently.
He nods. âBelief gives me form. Attention gives me voice. Without it, I fade. I can still control winter, but only the necessary things.â His smile is small when he adds, âI knew things were dimming when fewer kids could see me.â
He exhales. âBut youâŚâ His voice fades for a moment before he laughs softly. âIâm sorry, I was being serious, and now all I can think of is when Santa Clausââ
âMy friends,â he explains. âThey still have believers. Santa Claus. The Easter Bunny. The Tooth Fairy. The Sandman, but you shouldâve seen them when people stoppââ
You stop walking, mouth falling open. âSANTA CLAUS IS YOUR FRIEND?â
Kai bursts into genuine laughter. Youâre not sure whatâs better â the fact that Santa Claus is his friend, or that you made him laugh.
He nods, eyes sparkling. âI could introduce you someday. He can be intense. But he is very kind.â
You both laugh as you reach the steps of your porch, stepping into the gentle glow of the heated lamp. But when the laughter fades, so does Kaiâs smile.Â
âIâm part of what they call the Guardians,â he says, voice returning to that fragile softness, âand so are my friends, but itâs been harder and harder to feel like I belong. When no one remembers you, itâs hard to remember yourself. And seeing them still being believed in, still admired⌠it gets lonely.â
You turn slowly to face him, and what you see nearly undoes you. He looks so young in that moment, yet his shoulders are heavy with centuries of silence. His eyes â pale and bright â hold the weight of every time someone chose not to believe.
Without thinking, you reach for him â a hand to his arm, just to offer something, but the moment your fingertips graze his cloak, Kai flinches. Not violently. Just a small, instinctive recoil. Still, you pull back instantly, guilt flashing across your face. âIâIâm sorry,â you stammer, stepping back. âI didnât mean to scare you.â
âNoââ he says quickly, stepping forward again, voice filled with panic. âNo, itâs not you. Please donâtâ Itâs justâ Iâm not⌠used toâŚâ He trails off helplessly, the words failing him.
You look up at him, offering the smallest, saddest smile. âItâs okay.â
But he shakes his head. After a few seconds, he slowly lifts his hand again, fingers shaking just slightly. His palm open, offering it to you. Your breath hitches, but you step closer as well, reaching out again and placing your hand in his. Itâs cold and brisk, reminding you of the first true snowfall, but itâs not an unpleasant kind of cold; itâs actually quite⌠refreshing. Soothing.
His hand trembles lightly around yours as he exhales the breath he didnât know he was holding. âYouâreâŚâ he murmurs in awe, ââŚso warm.â
You smile. âYouâre cold.â
His smile falters, as if thatâs something to be ashamed of. But before he can retreat into himself, you add gently, âBut your eyes hold all the warmth your skin doesnât.âÂ
Those words make Kai stare at you like youâve handed him a piece of himself he forgot existed.
The snow is lighter today. Feather-like snowflakes drift lazily through the streets of Eira Hollow. Inside the townâs tiny schoolhouse â warm with woodstove heat and rows of mismatched boots by the door â you sit cross-legged in front of a cluster of children, a large sketchbook propped on your knees. The room smells like crayons and hot cocoa.
Youâre here to teach an art session â âWinter Magic & Storytime,â youâd called it. Sweet and harmless enough when you pitched it to the teacher. Theyâd been easy to sway once you threw in a few historical facts for good measure. Teaching the kids about history and art, youâd said. But you had a different goal in mind, more like a mission if you were honest.Â
And the first step to that was wonder.
âYou know,â you begin, brushing charcoal gently over the paper, âsome people say winter is just cold air and snowflakes.â You glance up; a sea of wide eyes stares back at you. âBut I donât think thatâs true,â you continue. âBecause⌠sometimes? If youâre very quiet â very still â you can feel something in the air. Like itâs alive.â
Gasps ripple around you. A few tiny hands shoot up.
âBut Miss, I hate bugs!âÂ
You laugh softly as their bickering erupts, holding up a finger to interrupt. âExactly like magic.â
You flip to a fresh page in your sketchbook, swapping charcoal for colored pencils. Silver and blue strokes swirl across the paper â gusts of wind, the moonlight in the sky, the tall dark trees in the background. Then you switch back to charcoal, as you start sketching out a figure of a young boy in the middle of the page
âI believe someone makes winter happen,â you say, glancing up. âNot with machines or remotes â but with art. Just like how Iâm creating this drawing right now,â you tap the edge of the sketchbook. âThey say, if you really believe, youâll see it. The snow will sparkle brighter, and the frost on your windows will bloom into flowers!â The childrenâs whispers fill the air, their eyes round with awe.
âI saw snow that looked like stars last week,â a small voice murmurs to your left, so soft you almost miss it. The boy keeps his eyes on the floor, too shy to meet yours. The scene reminds you of Kai.
Your smile softens, finishing the drawing with a few delicate strokes. âTry looking a little closer next time,â you say, leaning in gently toward the boy. âYou might find even more beautiful shapes tucked in between.â His cheeks flush pink, startled you heard him.
With a final flourish, you close your sketchbook. Storytime ends, but the sparkle in their eyes tells you itâs only the beginning. Youâve done well, you think. Because belief doesnât start with facts â it starts with questions. And now, their little hearts are full of them.
Heâs perched high in the trees, as always. The branch he is sitting on curls perfectly in front of the classroom window you are teaching. The lazy swirl of wind toys with his cloak as Kai leans on his staff, legs dangling in open air.
Inside, you sit on the floor, surrounded by laughter, gasps, and wriggling little bodies. Your mouth moves in a rhythm of wonder, and every gaze is fixed on you. Even from his vantage point, Kai can make out the sketches youâre showing the children. The shapes are all too familiar â stars, gusts, swirls â things he knows like the back of his hand. The things heâs spent centuries crafting, unseen and uncredited.
But then you noticed, and now youâre sharing them. And the children, theyâre asking questions, they're leaning in, wondering. You are trying to help him be remembered. And it makes him feel a little less alone. The realisation makes something warm shoot through him, and suddenly it looks like the snow sparks a little bit brighter.
The past few weeks had been peaceful.
Ever since the night you stood hand-in-hand with Kai, the nightmares had quieted. Your dreams returned to gentle snowdrifts and soft laughter. The shadowed figure now had a face: pale skin, ocean eyes, and white hair that sparkled like stars. His laugh was beautiful, his eyes crinkling when he smiled. Your dreams were warm again, you slept more easily, and woke up lighter.
Your daily routine with Kai picked up once more, and he couldnât be happier seeing you respond with a smile back on your face. The world somehow felt more alive now.
At first, you barely noticed, but little things began to shift. Children started to drag their parents to the library, a girl in a pink hat pointing at frost on a window and whispering, âLook, Mommy, thereâs a flower in it.â Boys on the playground dared each other to âsee the winter spirit,â swearing they felt someone watching when the wind picked up.
You couldnât believe it at first. Your little drawing lessons had started something curious among the children, and it made your heart feel full, which is why you werenât expecting anything strange when you stepped into the small village store that morning.
The bell chimed like always, the familiar warmth greeting you. There she was â the sweet old lady behind the counter, perched on her stool like always, knitting needles in her lap.
âMorning!â you greeted, flashing her a warm smile.
You brushed it offâmaybe she hadnât heard you, she is oldâand started browsing. The place was quiet as usual, no other customers in sight. The shelves were stocked with everything you needed: Milk, eggs, that spiced bread she once recommended, and a few extra carrots for the soup recipe she shared when you first moved here. And when you just reached for a bag of oats, a voice drifted across the store.
âI didnât know you had it in you,â it said. You blinked, startled. The tone was calm, but there was something eerie about it you couldnât really place. You glanced around, confused. The store was empty. Just you. And her.
âIâm sorry?â you asked, brows drawing together.
The old woman didnât look up. But she was smiling nowâa smile that didnât reach her eyes. âItâs been an incredibly long time since anyone wondered about the beauty of winter,â she said softly. âWhat secrets it holds.â
A strange shiver crawled down your spine. Slowly, you stepped closer to the counter, heart thudding. ââŚIâm not sure I follow,â you said carefully.
She finally looked at you, and her eyes â so warm just days ago â were now a deep, unreadable black. âYou should be careful,â she said. âAncient magic is an incredibly dangerous thing. Young women like you fall for it so easily.â
Your skin went cold. But not the kind of cold Kai brought with him â crisp bite of fresh snow or the playful nip of winter wind. This was wrong. It was heavy and suffocating. The air suddenly felt thick and unnatural, like you couldnât breathe.Â
The old lady continued in the distorted voice, âI never thought Iâd hear that name again fall from human lips.â Her smile twisted.
The world seemed to freeze around you.Â
Her laugh burst out suddenly, sharp and strange. The sound wasnât human, not entirely. It was layered with the voice you had gotten to know so well in the past few weeks, but another voice was laughing beneath hers. Through hers.
Your entire body locked in place, basket forgotten in your hands. The only thing you could do was stare at the sight in front of you.Â
And then, in the blink of an eye, the air shifted again. The suffocating air suddenly vanished, and it was like everything snapped back in place.
The old womanâs warm voice floated toward you. âIs that all, my dear? Youâve made a good choice with the bread â I got it freshly delivered this morning!â
You blinked, disoriented. The store was lit and warm again. She smiled at you in the same way you were familiar with, like nothing had happened.Â
âIââ you stammered, forcing your limbs to move. âYeah. Thatâs all.â Your hands trembled as you set the basket down. She began scanning items, humming cheerfully.
âAre you okay, honey? Youâre so pale! You look like youâve seen a ghost!â
Your lips parted, but no words came. She kept talking to you, cheerful and oblivious. âAre you sure youâre eating enough vegetables? Iâll throw in some extra spinach, itâs fresh and extra tasty today! You can use it for your soup, add a bit of ginger â itâll clear your head right up!â
You barely heard her over the roaring in your ears. Only able to watch her act normally, as if the past few minutes didnât happen. Your body moved on autopilot. You paid, thanked her, stepped outside â and only then did you feel like you could breathe again.
You didnât hesitate as you ran home, dropped the groceries on the counter, and bolted straight out of the back door towards the forest. You didnât even slow down when you reached the frozen lake. Your voice broke the silence.
âKai?!â It echoed wild and raw. Birds flying off, startled by your voice breaking the peaceful quietness of the forest, critters running to find a hiding place. You werenât sure if you were shouting for help, for answers, or just because you didnât know what else to do. But you didnât have time to figure that out when a gust of wind spiraled through the trees. Snow danced in the air before he stood right in front of you.
âKai,â you gasped, breath shaking as you reached out for him.
His face paled. âAre you okay?â He stepped closer immediately, concern etched in every part of his expression. His hands finding yours, gripping them tightly. âWhat happened?â
You stared at him, clinging to his touch, trying to ground yourself in his presence. âI donât know,â you said quietly. âBut⌠something spoke your name.â
Kaiâs breath caught, and his jaw clenched immediately. âTell me what happened.â His tone was sharp and urgent.
You tried to explain, but no sound came out. Panic surged, your breath catching in your throat, as the encounter in the store flashed through your mindâstuck between memory and disbelief. You tried again, but only silence escaped. Your chest rose and fell too fast, like your body couldnât keep up with your racing thoughts.
Kai noticed the shift instantly. Without hesitation, he stepped closer. His hand came up slowly, cupping your jaw with cool, gentle fingers. The cold on his skin met your warmth, grounding you immediately.
You closed your eyes, letting the cold seep in. Your breath and thoughts began to slow as his thumb traced calmly across your cheek. Only when he saw your shoulders ease, your gaze clearing again, did he speak.
ây/n. You need to tell me what happened.â
This time, you found the words to tell him everything. Kai listened intently, his brows knitting together, eyes narrowing in thought. Determination settled over his usually soft features as he spoke.
âWe need to go visit a friend of mine, and youâre coming with me.â
You blinked, caught off guard. âWhat? Whoâ?â
But before you could ask anything else, Kai dropped his hand from your face and grabbed your waist, pulling you flush against him in one swift movement. The confidence of the movement stole your breath. Gone was the bashful boy who once flinched from your touch.
âHold on to me,â he said, voice steady. âTightly.â
Your heart stammered at the proximity, his scent filling your lungs, but the seriousness in his voice left no room for argument. Instinctively, your arms flew around his neck, clutching him tightly. He tightened his grip around your waist with one arm while the other grasped his staff.
Without warning, he tapped it twice against the snow, and a spiral of wind surged upward around your feet, lifting you clean off the earth. The ground vanished beneath you in an instant. A gasp tore from your lips as you buried your face into Kaiâs chest, your stomach flipping and twisting as the world dropped away.
Snowflakes raced past you, the air howling in your ears. But as suddenly as it came, the rush vanished, replaced by a cocoon of stillness. Seconds later, your feet met solid ground again, though you didnât dare open your eyes â not until you felt his hand rubbing slow, soothing circles on your back and heard his voice.
âItâs okay. You can let go now,â he murmured, his breath brushing the shell of your ear. âYouâre safe on the ground again.â
A shaky breath escaped you. Whether it was from the flight or the sound of his low voice against your ear, you couldnât tell. Only then did you realize just how tightly youâd been clinging to him â fingers curled into the back of his hoodie, your entire frame pressed against his. Heat bloomed in your cheeks as you quickly stepped back, your arms falling awkwardly to your sides. You cleared your throat, eyes darting everywhere except at him.
Kai, now blushing just as fiercely, scratched the back of his neck, the shy version of him clearly making a return
A soft cough from across the room snapped you both out of your haze.
âTo what do I owe this surprise visit, Kai?â The voice was new. â warm, almost melodic
You spun around and found a man standing beside a wide pile of glowing sand, one hand resting casually against a wooden post. His hair looked like it was spun from sunbeams â golden and soft, catching the faint glow of the surrounding candles. His skin shimmered subtly, as if dusted with stardust, and though his jawline was sharp, the warmth in his eyes softened every edge.
Those eyes â brown, deep, and twinkling â studied you with gentle curiosity. There was something oddly familiar about him, though you couldnât place why. You shifted on your feet, uncertain under his steady gaze. The movement made him tilt his head slightly, amusement curling at his lips.
âAre you going to introduce me to her,â he asked, âor are you going to let her try to solve the puzzle with sleep-deprived logic?â
âR-right, sorryâumâŚâ Kai stammered as he rubbed the back of his neck before glancing at you. âThis is⌠Taehyun,â he said. âHeâsâwell, heâs the Sandman.â
Oh. Suddenly, everything made sense. The warmth in your bones, the soft hum in the air, the way just standing near him made you want to curl up and fall asleep with a smile on your face. Thatâs why he felt so familiar.
âItâs nice to finally meet you in person, y/n,â Taehyun said with a kind smile. âIâve been hoping youâd come by.â
You gave a small, hesitant smile, nodding politely.
âThough itâs clear this isnât just a friendly drop-in,â he added, his expression softening as his eyes scanned your posture, noting the tension in your shoulders. âYou both seem troubled.â
Your gaze dropped to your boots, unsure how to explain what youâd witnessed. A thousand questions buzzed in your head, tangling your thoughts.Â
Kaiâs hand brushed lightly against yours, just enough to catch your attention. You looked up at him, eyes silently pleading for him to speak for you. He nodded once, understanding, before turning back to Taehyun.
âI think we have a problem, Tae. A serious one. And I need your help figuring it out.âÂ
The moment Kai finished recounting your incident at the store, Taehyunâs expression shifted. The warm amusement faded, the twinkle in his eyes replaced by a calm stillness. His hand came up to rest beneath his chin, eyes narrowing in thought.
Kai began pacing â a nervous habit you were starting to notice. His fingers curled tightly around his staff as he retold the story, this time in more detail. His words blurred into a language you couldnât fully follow, laced with terms like void-fracture, dream-echo, and soul-binding that whispered through the air like ancient spells.
You found yourself seated on the floor, trying to piece together fragments of their conversation, but eventually gave up, the words too ancient for you to understand. So you stood, your eyes drifting around the strange room you'd landed in.
It was cozy, glowing with a soft, amber warmth. Golden specks floated lazily through the air. The ceiling arched high, open to a sky filled with stars â though somehow, no cold touched the room.Â
Your wandering steps eventually led you to the large pile of sand at the roomâs center. It glittered like it was spun by the stars themselves. From high above, a thin stream of sand cascaded down, falling in a slow, endless rhythm â like an hourglass turned upside down. You tilted your head, watching in fascination. But no matter how long the sand fell, the pile never seemed to grow.Â
Drawn by wonder more than sense, your fingers inched closer. You just wanted to touch it â it looked so soft, so impossibly sparkly. But as your fingertips hovered near, a warm voice called out from behind you.
âIâd be careful touching that if I were you â unless you want to be knocked out immediately and make Kai carry you home.â
You jerked your hand back instinctively, clutching it to your chest like youâd been burned. Eyes wide, you spun around to find Taehyun watching you with a soft grin.Â
âS-Sorry,â you stammered, stepping back. âI didnât mean toâ I was just⌠curious.â
âDonât be sorry,â he said, his smile widening. âIt happens. It should happen. Wouldnât be much of a magic room if it didnât pull you in.â His eyes gleamed with amusement. âThe first time the Easter Bunny came here, he did the same thing. The only difference is⌠I let him.â
Kai let out a surprised snort. âHe dropped like a stone,â he added with a grin. âSlept for fourteen hours. Iâve never seen Yeonjun so disoriented in my life.â
A soft laugh escaped you, your heartbeat finally slowing. Even in a room filled with ancient magic and beings of winter and dreams, their teasing felt⌠oddly normal. But the moment passed quickly. As the laughter faded, Kaiâs expression sobered, and they returned to their discussion â voices low, tension creeping back in.
This time, you didnât wander. You quietly took a seat beside Kai on the couch, folding your hands together as the two boys â no, Guardians â dove back into the murky waters of whatever had followed you into the store.
Eventually, Taehyun leaned back with a sigh, running a hand through his golden hair. Kai mirrored him, exhaling slowly, his shoulders rigid. You recognized that look. They had found something â and it wasnât good. Taehyun turned to you, gentleness softening his gaze. His voice was quiet. âBack when your dreams started to turn⌠darker,â he began, âKai came to me. He was worried about you. We both were.â
You looked at Kai beside you, startled â but his eyes were already on you.
âWe knew the fear wasnât natural,â Taehyun continued. âDreams are mine to weave. I can usually feel when something isnât right â like if not enough sand had followed its way into someoneâs dreams, making it possible for it to turn into a nightmare. But this wasnât me.â
Kai took over, his voice quieter. âWe thought maybe⌠it had passed. That whatever was creeping in had grown weak, or lost his grip when you started to try to make the children believe in me.â
You remembered that shift â how the nightmares had softened, how your dreams had warmed after that night with Kai.
âBut,â he went on, âafter what happened in the store⌠after what spoke through herâŚâ His hand tightened around his staff. âWe know now that we were very wrong.â
Your mouth felt dry. âBut who? Who is he?â You glanced between them, confused, eyes darting from one to the other. You had no idea who they were talking about â but it was clear they knew exactly who âheâ was.
A long silence followed. Taehyun didnât answer right away. Instead, his gaze flicked to Kaiâs. They exchanged a look, speaking through glances in a way that needed no words. Finally, Kaiâs eyes dropped to the floor. When he spoke, his voice was quiet but heavy â as if saying the name might give it weight in the world again.
âPitch,â he said. âPitch Black. The Nightmare King.â
The name settled into the air like a thick smoke that refused to clear. You didnât know why your stomach dropped so fast; you had never heard of him. But you felt it. The way Kai said his name, the way Taehyun tensed â his golden eyes dark with concern â it told you everything.
You swallowed, your trembling hands curling into your lap. âOkay. I need you to tell me exactly what â or who â that is.â
Taehyun stood, crossing the room. His fingers trailed softly through the glowing strands of sand drifting from the sky. When he turned back, his face was gentle again â but his eyes had lost their sparkle.
âHe calls himself the Nightmare King,â Taehyun began. âBut once, long ago, he had a different name. Kozmotis Pitchiner.â
You blinked at the foreignness of it.
âHe was⌠like us, once,â Taehyun continued. âLong before you were born. Long before most of humanity remembered us. While I bring dreams as you sleep, he protected the dreams of people's longings â he guarded them.â
âHe was a warrior,â Kai added quietly, his gaze still fixed on the ground, âStrong. Respected. He guarded humanityâs hopes in ways we never could. But he made a mistake.â
Taehyun nodded, voice barely above a whisper. âHe tried to control something no one ever should â the Fearlings. Shadows born from the edges of nightmares, creatures that feed on fear itself. He thought that if he could control them, no one would have to fear anything ever again, and that all would be well.â He paused, looking pained, âBut they whispered to him, twisted him. He made a mistake by thinking you could erase an emotion. He became obsessed with it. But when he realised it was impossible, that fear would always eventually find its way in, he grew bitter. He called humans fools for giving in so easily. Until, eventuallyâŚâ
âHe became what he once fought,â Kai finished.
âHe became one of them?â you breathed out, eyes wide.
âHe became their king,â Kai said with a low voice, eyes turned dark.
âHe didnât just start spreading fear,â Taehyun said. âHe thrived on it. The more people feared, the stronger he became. Children stopped sleeping. Belief began to die. Magic started to unravel.â
You looked between them, stunned. âBut⌠he was defeated, right?â
Kai gave a single nod. âWe fought him. All of us â the Guardians. North. Bunny. Sandy. Tooth. Me. It nearly tore us apart.â
âIt did tear some things apart,â Taehyun said more quietly, his gaze flicking to Kai with a quiet sadness.
You followed his eyes â and saw Kai staring at the ground, his hand anxiously playing with a piece of wood from his staff. The weight of Taehyunâs words hit you all at once. Even though they had defeated Pitch, it had been too late for Kai; people had forgotten him â but not his friends. He had saved the belief of the others, while belief in him had fallen apart.
You thought of the frost drawings on your window. The laughter in your dreams. The sweetness Kai carried even in his quietest moments â always thinking about others before himself. And you pictured all of that, drowned in shadows.
âWhy didnât I learn about any of this?â you asked. âWhy does no one know?â
Kaiâs voice was brittle. âBecause belief is a fragile thing. Stories fade, people move on. But Pitch⌠he never really disappears. He just waits.â
âAnd now,â Taehyun said, crossing his arms, âwe think heâs stirring again. Whispering through dreams, finding cracks, testing who still remembers.â
You lowered your gaze. The memory of the old womanâs face â or what had worn it â haunted you again. âWhy me?â you asked softly.
âBecause you see me,â Kai's eyes finally found yours, âYou believe, and belief draws magic. Light draws shadow, you know.â
His eyes held a deep sense of sadness. You couldnât even begin to imagine how lonely the past decades must have been for him â watching everything go back to normal for his friends while he was left behind, with no one else to talk to.
You stared at him and exhaled shakily before reaching for his hand â the one still twitching anxiously â and giving it a reassuring squeeze, earning you a tired, but soft smile.
Taehyun watched the two of you, âThatâs why we need you to understand whatâs coming,â he said. âThis isnât just about winter magic anymore. Or frost drawings on windows. This is about belief. Light. Fear. And what happens when someone like Pitch decides itâs time to remind the world heâs still watching.â
You looked up, âThen I want to help,â you said, determined, making them both stare at you. âI donât know what I can do,â you added quickly, âbut if heâs trying to get to me, then Iâm not going to hide from it. Iâll fight with you.â
Kaiâs expression was unreadable for a moment â a mix of worry, admiration, and something you couldn't quite place. But then he smiled softly again. âYouâre braver than most Iâve known.â
Kaiâs fingers were cold but steady as he gripped yours a bit more tightly and tapped the bottom of his staff against the floor. âWe need to gather the others.â
Taehyun didnât question him â he only nodded, golden sand already swirling up toward the sky, where it began to pulse like a beacon of light through the stars.
The Guardians would know.
You didnât expect the North Pole to look like this.
When you blinked open your eyes after the familiar rush of wind and snow, you expected to be met with ice and coldness. But instead, your breath was stolen by warmth â not necessarily the heat of temperature, but of joy.
Twinkling lights danced between icicle-draped beams. Towering wooden shelves burst with handmade toys, each one unique and perfect, no matter where you looked. There were rooms upon rooms filled with cookies, laughter, ringing bells â and, inexplicably, reindeer napping by a giant fireplace.
And at the side of it all stood a tall man with strong shoulders, wrapped in a thick red coat, his eyes crinkling with kindness the moment he saw you.
âSoobin,â Kai greeted with a small grin.
âYou brought the girl!â Soobin said enthausiastically, âWelcome to the Pole, young one.â
You were still too busy trying to pick your jaw off the floor. Santa Claus was real. He was standing right in front of you! The very one who ate your cookies and brought you gifts in return! And apparently he was also very stylish, and.. lean?
âFor someone who eats a lot of cookies, youâre very muscular,â you blurted out.
The tips of your ears immediately turned red as you realized what youâd just said. Kai whipped his head around to you, eyes wide, clearly not believing what had just come out of your mouth â while Soobin let out a thunderous laugh.
âI like her already.â
It didnât take long before the other Guardians were gathered.
A tall guy with long ears emerging from his head arrived first, casually flipping an egg-shaped stone between his fingers before morphing it into a perfectly painted egg. âIf weâre meeting here again in such a short period of time,â he muttered, âitâs bad.â
Next came a black-haired fairy, a flurry of feathers trailing behind him. âSorry Iâm late!â he said breathlessly. âSome tooth emergency â you know how it can go with kids.â
They all settled around the giant wooden table in Soobinâs workshop. You sat close to Kai, your shoulders tight, eyes darting from face to face as ancient beings of myth and wonder filled the room.
Before you could fully register it, a familiar presence sat himself on your other side. His warmth was a sharp contrast to Kaiâs cold. Taehyun. You gave him a small, nervous smile â and he returned it with a soothing one.
âOh, Kai-ah! Is this the beautiful girl you told us about?â asked the fairy â the Tooth Fairy, you assumed, based on the story he just mentioned. His wings fluttered a little faster, showing his enthusiasm.
A blush crept onto Kaiâs face as he scratched behind his ear â another nervous habit youâd started to notice.
âOhâBeomgyuâyes. UhâY/N, this is Beomgyu. You might better know him as the Tooth Fairy. Beomgyu, this is Y/N. She⌠sheâs the girl I told you aboutâŚâ Kai stammered, his voice getting smaller toward the end.
Beomgyuâs grin widened, a perfect set of teeth on full display, as he threw himself across the table to shake your hand â the gesture making you break into a small grin yourself.
âItâs very nice to meet you, Y/N! Ohâand look at those beautiful teeth! I can tell you take care of them regularly! You know, I got all of your baby teeth back atââ
âBeomgyu,â interrupted a deep voice â belonging, you assumed, to the Easter Bunny, judging by the ears poking out from his head and the colored egg still twirling between his fingers. âYouâre going to scare the poor girl off.â The thick Australian accent didnât go unnoticed by you.
Beomgyu, who had still been shaking your hand the entire time, quickly let go. He flashed you an embarrassed smile before sitting down across from you.
âSorry, I get too excited sometimes. Especially when Kai brings someone new to the table!âÂ
âBeomgyu!â Kai groaned, hiding his face in his folded arms on the table. You could still see the tips of his ears peek out, colored a fiery red. The sight made your heart flutter, and you gently rubbed your hand over his back, as if to quietly tell him itâs okay.
âIâm Yeonjun. You might know me better as the Easter Bunny â the one and only bringing you colored eggs every spring,â he said, stretching out his hand from across the table. You took it to shake, and he gave you a wink before sitting back down again.
âSo, are you from Australia, Yeonjun?â you asked, trying to keep the conversation going.
The question earned a few snickers around the room. Beomgyu had to hide his wide smile behind his hand as he glanced at Yeonjun sitting beside him. Even Taehyun let out a soft laugh, while Kai lifted his head, watching his friendâs reaction with clear amusement.
You looked around, confused, wondering what was so out of place about your question. He did have an Australian accent, right? You turned to Yeonjun, whose eyes were closed like he was counting to ten. Panic began rising in your chest â had you said something offensive?
Before the feeling could fully take over, a cold hand settled on your thigh, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Kai leaned in close, his lips brushing just barely against the shell of your ear.
âDonât worry,â he murmured, âitâs a sensitive topic, but itâs not a question none of us have asked before. We still donât know.â
The hand on your thigh, the closeness, the low timbre of his voice â heat bloomed inside you. Since when did you start becoming the nervous one around him?
âOhâo-okay,â you stuttered.
Kai leaned back slowly, but not before his gaze flicked briefly to your lips. You noticed. The way the heat shot straight to your core had you clenching your thighs on instinct â which his hand was still resting on.
Out of the corner of your eye, you caught the faintest smirk pull at his lips before he faked a cough and quickly masked it.
Kai had explained everything from the beginning, eventually ending with the event at the store. Pitchâs name was spoken only once, but it sent a chill through the air that no fireplace could warm.
âHeâs testing us,â Soobin said darkly, resting his heavy arms on the table. âFeels like heâs got a new trick up his sleeve.â
âBut what kind of trick?â Beomgyu asked, his wings barely moving as he looked around in concern.
âIt has something to do with Y/N,â Taehyun answered, âI don't know exactly what yet, but I have a feeling it might have something to do with her ability to reignite the spark to belief.â
âSheâs a threat to him,â Kai finished, glancing at you. âIf she can get people to believe in me again, Iâll grow stronger. And he knows that.â
After long negotiations, plans were drawn, and patrols were discussed. Protection around Eira Hollow was intensified with a language you didnât understand. The Guardians were serious now â no more playful banter or mischief. This was the real deal.
Some more intense nodding and long sighs were heard before the meeting ended. One by one, they left. Taehyun vanished in a whisper of gold. Beomgyuâs wings carried him through the door at a speed your eyes couldnât follow, leaving only a few feathers behind. Yeonjun winked at you before jumping through a hole that appeared beneath him out of thin air. And Soobin simply nodded to Kai, who took your hand, tapped his staff, and held you tightly as the world blurred.
You landed outside your cabin. The woods were quiet, the only light sources being the dim bulb above your door and streaks of moonlight cutting through the clouds.
It was late. You shouldâve been tired. But your pulse was still racing, your mind still spinning. Kai hadnât let go of your waist right away. He just stood there, silently watching you.
You took a step back, gently breaking the embrace, his fingers lingering for just a moment longer, the look in his eyes making your breath hitch.
âGo inside,â he said quietly. âYou should sleep.â
You gave him a hesitant smile, unsure. âIâll be alright.â But your voice faltered â doubt creeping in.
Kai stepped closer again, bending slightly to meet your eyes. âYou canât let fear take over,â he murmured, voice low but steady. âThatâs what he wants. And I wonât let him have that. Not while Iâm here.â
You nodded, but the question remained â heavy on your tongue. âWhy is Pitch so fixated on you?â
Kai hesitated, then exhaled slowly. âIâve been thinking about that,â he said. âAnd I think⌠heâs jealous.â
You blinked. âJealous?â
His eyes searched yours. âYou see⌠eventually, we became the same. At least, thatâs probably what heâs convinced himself. Weâre the forgotten ones. Lost most of our power because no one believed in us. For centuries now, Iâve wandered the world making snowflakes no one looked at. He did the same with nightmares.â He took a deep breath before continuing. âBut we want to be seen for different reasons. I want to be seen for the fun. For the beauty. The joy. He wants to be seen through fear. Thatâs how he wants to be remembered â itâs how he gets his power.â
Kaiâs gaze dropped for a moment. âAnd then you came along,â he whispered. âThis⌠beautiful girl, who moved to a frozen town and looked at the world like it was made of stardust. Who saw the frost and smiled. Who looked at me, saw me, when no one had in centuries.â
Your heart skipped a beat. He hadnât called you beautiful before.
His blue eyes found yours again, glowing soft in the moonlight. âAnd I think that broke something in him,â he said. âBecause after everything⌠you chose to believe in me. Above everyone else.â
You swallowed hard, cheeks burning, but your smile was small â and real. âIâd choose you again,â
Kai looked stunned for a moment. Then slowly, he reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind your ear, his cold fingers somehow warm with care.
âIâll keep you safe,â he said. âI promise.â
And as he stepped back into the wind, vanishing in a swirl of silver-blue snow, you swore you heard his voice â soft as a breeze.
âThank you for seeing me.â
As you tried to continue your days as normal â waking up with frost blooming on your window every morning, hearing Kaiâs quiet hellos and good mornings â the peace youâd once felt when you first moved here never truly returned. Even as you had watched the Guardians intensify the protection around Eira Hollow, there was a faint tension in the air.
Every day, as you walked to work and back home, Kai made sure you knew he was by your side. He took his promise seriously. Sliding across rooftops, pulling off an extra cool trick whenever he caught you looking â making you giggle at his antics â or waving from where he was half-hidden in a tree, earning a small wave from you in return.
Lately, though, a quietness had begun to creep into Eira Hollow. Not that it had ever been a bustling, full-of-life town to begin with; there werenât nearly enough villagers for that. But it was as if everyone could sense something in the air. At first, you brushed it off, wondering if it had to do with the protections surrounding the town. Did they come with side effects? Were ordinary people simply not used to this kind of magic?
You started to notice a strange shift in town. The laughter of the children you taught was still bright, but the looks from their parents lingered longer on you than they should. Muted conversations would abruptly stop when you walked into the local store.
And one morning, the small bookstore you often visited placed a single book in its window display.
Delusions: The Psychology of Fantasy Fixation.
You froze on the street. Your breath fogged the glass as you stared at the cover, your own reflection faintly visible behind the printed title. Something in your stomach twisted.
You didnât buy anything that day.
At school, the children ran to you as usual, tugging at your hands and leading you to the art room where their paper snowflakes dangled from the ceiling like tiny stars. Today, you told them a story about snow having a heartbeatâa soft rhythm that could be heard if you listened closely on a quiet night.
âThey say itâs always in rhythm with him,â you told them, voice low with mystery.
They giggled, wide-eyed and eager. One small girl whispered, âDo you think he watches us when we sleep?â
You smiled softly. âOnly to make sure you wake up with the most beautiful frost decorating your window.â
But later, as you turned to sweep glitter from the table, you caught sight of one of the mothers watching from the doorway, arms crossed. She said nothing, only staredâlike she was seeing a stranger she no longer trusted.
That evening, Kai came to see you. He was busy making a bunny out of snow in front of your house, and you noticed him when you set your book down to take a sip of tea. The sight made you smile softly to yourself â it was far too endearing.Â
You opened the window and leaned out into the crisp air. âKai,â you called softly.
He looked up quickly at the sound of your voice, eyes going wide like youâd caught him doing something he shouldnât. The expression made you giggle as he walked toward the window where you leaned.
When he stopped in front of you, just inches away, your breath caught. Your eyes widened as he tilted his head slightly, studying your face.
âYou okay?â he asked.
You hesitated under his intense gaze. âOf course.â
His eyes narrowed. âYouâre lying. I can see it in your eyes.â
You looked down, a heavy sigh escaping you. Silence stretched between you as you searched for the right words before letting them spill. âI just⌠sometimes wonder if Iâm imagining all this.â
âNot you!â you added quickly. âJust⌠the rest of it. The kindness. The belief. Maybe I was too hopeful to think I could plant that here.â
He stepped closer, his fingertips brushing yours where they rested on the window frame, the contact chilling the tips of your fingers.
âYou aren't wrong to try,â he said. âThe frost doesnât always bloom right away. Sometimes the cold has to settle first.â
You smiled faintly. âThat sounds like something you just made up.â
âMaybe.â He grinned. âBut it sounded good, didnât it?â
You chuckled, and the sound warmed his chest.
âWhatâs got you thinking like this, anyway? Did something happen?â
You shook your head slightly. Thinking back on what had been worrying you, it sounded almost silly to say it out loud. âItâs silly, donât worry about it. I just get in this weird headspace when people look at me strangely for⌠basically just being myself.â You chuckled, but the sound didnât quite reach your heart.
âWhy would people look at you weirdly, y/n?â Kai asked softly. The sight of you nervously playing with your fingers made his heart ache.
âI have a feeling they think my stories are influencing their children too much. Got them talking about winter being alive â itâs all they can talk about these days. Their looks remind me of how my parents used to look at me every day.â
Kai took your hands firmly in his, the coolness of his touch grounding you. Your eyes flickered to his blue ones, the warmth in them radiating through you. âY/N, I canât even begin to imagine what it was like for you, but I can promise you I think youâre the most amazing person Iâve ever seen. And trust me, Iâve seen a lot of people in my lifetime.â
A soft smile crept onto your face as you gave his hands a squeeze.
âYouâre doing a wonderful job,â he continued. âLook at how happy the kids are, playing in the snow, listening to your stories, drawing what they think I might look like. Iâve even noticed their little faces pressed to their bedroom windows, hoping to catch a glimpse of the person you tell them about. Do you know how much that means to me, y/n? No one has ever done this for me before.â
A tear slipped from the corner of your eye, one Kai quickly brushed away with the tip of his thumb. His hand lingered on your cheek, making you lean into his touch without thinking.
âYou should sleep, beautiful. Iâll ask Taehyun to send you some extra-pretty dreams.â
The nickname, the placement of his hand, and the way he was looking at you made your heart and stomach do all kinds of crazy things.
âThank you, Kai. Youâre too kind.â You muttered out a faint blush visible on your cheeks.
âJust giving back the kindness you showed me from the very beginning. Itâs easy when it comes to you.â He slowly withdrew his hand from your cheek, taking a few steps back. âIâll see you tomorrow, alright? Youâve got this, y/n 2.â
You gave him a tight nod, watching as he tapped his staff and the wind began swirling around him. He gave you a small wave before disappearing, leaving you alone as a gust brushed past your face. The interaction left a warm feeling deep within you.
But when you turned in for the night, curling beneath your blankets and hugging your knees to your chest, the weight returned. That old fear crept back in â that maybe the whispers werenât wrong.
Maybe you were imagining things too greatly again.
The next day, at the market, whispers followed you like shadows. You passed two women you recognized, both too deep in conversation to notice you.
"I'm just saying, she spends an awful lot of time alone out there."
âAnd telling stories to kids about winter spirits is one thing, but making them obsessed with the idea itâs real? Honestly, itâs not healthy.â
You turned a corner quickly before they could notice you â before they could see the way you winced.
Once youâd steadied your breath, you stepped into a small bookstore you hadnât visited before. In the middle stood a table stacked with ârecommendedâ titles. One sat propped up in the center:
Imaginary Friends and the Children Who Cling to Them
That night, you curled beneath the covers and closed your eyes, hoping your dreams would dissolve the unease. But even your dreams were empty.
You still went to school. Still told stories and sketched them out. The childrenâs laughter kept you going. Your voice stayed bright, your smile still painted carefully on your lips â but it no longer reached your eyes.
Then the shift in town became impossible to ignore. Quick glances. Hushed conversations. Even one day at the bakery as you bumped into one of your students and his mother, she had pulled him closer, an arm wrapping protectively around him. Leaning down, she whispered something you couldnât fully catch â only the last word:
All while she held your gaze.
Your order was ready. You broke eye contact, blinking the tears away, forcing a quick smile for the saleswoman. You thanked her and practically ran out the door.
That word followed you like a shadow. In the market. In shop windows, where more books appeared with titles containing delusions, hallucinatory, fictitious. Strangersâ greetings grew stiff. Neighbors turned their backs.
Your steps grew quieter. The world turned colder â not the cold you loved so much but the ache of isolation. Is this what Kai had felt for centuries?
Thatâs why, one night, you found yourself again at the lake, sitting at the edge where the ice met the snow-covered grass. Your arms wrapped tightly around your knees, face tilted toward the sky.
Kai landed beside you without a sound. For a moment, he didnât speak â just sat in the snow, following your gaze toward the stars. The silence stretched, but it wasnât the peaceful kind you usually shared. It was thick with things unsaid, like he was waiting for you to break the ice.
When you didnât, it was his voice that finally did. âYou havenât been sleeping.â
You gave him a faint smile â the kind that wasnât really a smile at all. âYouâve been peeking through my windows again, Frosti?âÂ
He shouldâve smiled at the nickname. But he didnât.
âYou know, the Sandman being your best friend does come with its perks,â he said with a huff, turning his head toward you. You did the same. His eyes searched yours. âYouâre not okay,â he said. âI can feel it.â
You looked away, your breath fogging in the air. For a long moment, you stayed quiet. Then:
âItâs like itâs happening again.â
âThe way they look at me,â you whispered. âThe parents. The shopkeepers. Even some of the teachers. Like Iâm some strange little girl playing with stories. Losing herself in an imaginary life, living alone in a cabin on the outskirts of town, smiling and laughing at the wind because they donât see you â but I do.â You let out a short, bitter laugh. âI left my old town because I couldnât take it anymore. People thinking I was weird. Delusional. And nowââ
Your throat tightened around the rest of the sentence. âNow I feel like itâs following me. Like the past is haunting me, and I donât know what to do. Am I that broken that I canât let go of it?â
Kaiâs chest ached, guilt curled around his ribs. A cold hand reached out to you, placing it carefully on your back before he started rubbing it in slow circles.
âYouâre not broken,â he said softly. âYou saw magic where others were too afraid to. You believed in something long forgotten. And because of you⌠itâs coming back.â
You turned toward him, brow furrowed â and the sight made his lips lift, just a little, at the unintentional cuteness.
âOne of the kids⌠he saw me yesterday. Not just in the corner of his eye â really saw me. Smiled and waved. Called me âthe snow spirit.â Another drew me in class. Youâre changing things, Y/N. Youâve already begun.â
Something flickered in your expression. A soft spark. But it faded quickly, buried under the weight of whatever else haunted you.
âIâm happy for you,â you said, voice tight. âTruly. You deserve it.â But you didnât smile.
Kai removed his hand from your back and reached for one of yours, still wrapped tightly around your knees. You let him thread his fingers through yours.
âI donât know what happened in your past,â he said. âBut I swear, y/n â Iâm here. Iâm not going anywhere. You are giving me my life back, but I wonât let you lose yours in the process.â
Your lips trembled, eyes glassy with unshed tears. But you didnât look away.Â
His voice was steady. âI promise.â
You stayed like that for a long time, hand in hand beneath the pale moonlight, until your eyelids grew heavy and your head slowly leaned onto Kaiâs shoulder. He whispered that you should go to bed or heâd carry you there. Saying heâd see you tomorrow afternoon, making sure to walk you home from work.
Neither of you knew how much the promise you made would be tested in the days to come.
The cabin was quiet, but you couldnât sleep.
Your usual frost-decorated window was bare tonight. Only a few words were scrawled across the glass in neat, playful handwriting:
Gone to a meeting with the guys. Be back tomorrow morning. Stay warm.
It was simple and sweet â and it made your heart flutter just a little.
But now you tossed and turned beneath the covers, your limbs restless, your mind growing louder with every ticking minute. Frustrated, you huffed out a breath, shoved the blanket off, and swung your legs over the edge of the bed. The wood floor was far colder than you were used to, and you cursed yourself for leaving your fluffy slippers in the living room.
You padded down the hallway, arms wrapped around yourself as the cold crept beneath your pajamas. Had you left a window open somewhere?
You rounded the corner to the kitchen, moonlight spilling across the floor, guiding you through the dark. You decided to make yourself a cup of tea â maybe the warmth would quiet the rising dread that had been creeping in since the moment you tucked yourself into bed.
But halfway across the room â you froze.
A movement. Just a flicker â but you saw it.
You were standing frozen in the middle of the room, gaze locked on the fireplace. And thatâs when you saw it: a shadow, twisting. It was darker than dark, like ink spilling in water. It pulsed once⌠then again⌠before it stepped out.
Your breath caught in your throat. Every instinct screamed run, but your body wouldnât listen. Cold sweat prickled along your hairline as a chill threaded down your spine.
A man â tall, with eyes like burning coal and a smile pulled straight from a nightmare â stood watching you, his hands clasped behind his back.
He tilted his head as if in mock surprise.Â
âOh? Donât you recognise me?â he said, his voice smooth like a dagger sliding from its sheath. âTsk. Thatâs disappointing. Let me introduce myself properly.â
With a casual wave of his hand, the shadows around him stirred. They slithered across the floor, along the walls, rising like smoke and shaping into visions â half-formed nightmares that shifted and writhed. They looked hungry, held back only by an invisible leash, thrashing against it in frustration.
Your knees nearly gave out from under you.
âNoâŚâ you breathed, finally managing to move, stumbling backward.
He gave a mock bow, his grin widening at the fear in your eyes. âYes.â
Before you could react, the shadows melted away â slipping back into the corners like theyâd always been there.
âIâve been waiting a long time to meet you,â he continued. âYou, with your dreams and drawings, your stories and foolish belief.â He sneered, stepping forward as you instinctively shrank back.
âYou really think theyâll believe you? That youâll change this tired little town?â He chuckled darkly, voice laced with cruelty. âThey laugh at you now, just like they did back then.â
You swallowed hard, trying to steady your breath against the rising panic. âYouâre wrong. Iâm notâ Iâm not who I was then.â But the words wavered.
âA girl who still talks about magic. Who sees things no one else does.â He leaned in, eyes glinting. âDo you know what they see when they look at you? A joke. A fragile, broken thing playing pretend. Who else lives in the woods alone at your age? She must be running from something.â
Your hands clenched into fists beside you. âShut up.â
âAnd Jack Frost.â His voice dipped lower, venomous and cold. âYour Kai â do you really think someone centuries old would care about a girl like you? Oh, sweetheart,â He smirked. âHeâs using you. You make the world see him, and poof, he gets all his powers back. What more would an immortal need a mere human for?â
âNo,â you whispered. âThatâs not true.â
But the uncertainty bled into your voice, and he heard it. Pitchâs smile widened. He began to circle you slowly, like a predator, and you were his prey.
âYou didnât fit in there,â he said behind you now. âAnd you donât quite fit in here either.â Then, his voice softened to a silken lure. âI could offer you a place. Somewhere you can stop running. No pretending. No judgment. Ever.â
Tears burned your eyes as you fought against the chill closing in around you â but this cold wasnât Kaiâs. It was empty, so, so empty.
You shut your eyes tight, clinging to the memory of Kaiâs hand in yours, the calm in his voice, the warmth in his blue-eyed gaze. âYouâre lying,â you whispered, voice fully shaking now, a tear slipping down your cheek.
Pitchâs gaze narrowed, and the cold deepened. He was in front of you again, taking a step closer, and you could feel the temperature drop even further, as if your very bones were turning to ice.
âYour belief is dangerous,â he spat. âYou gave him something to care about. A weakness. Thatâs why he beat me once â because he had nothing to lose. But nowâŚâ His smile was all teeth. âNow he has you.â
âPleaseâŚâ you begged. âDonât hurt him.â
âI will take everything he loves, piece by piece. You. His friends. Himself. Iâll make sure he forgets the warmth of victory and remembers only the sting of loss again â the loss of you.â
Your voice finally broke, tears slipping freely, âWhat do you want from me?â
âCome with me.â The words were deceptively soft. âLeave this behind. Leave him behind. Do that⌠and I wonât touch a hair on his head.â
You trembled, every inch of you screaming. âAnd if I donât?â
âThen youâll watch this world turn to ash. And it will start with him.â
Kai landed with a grin, frost still glittering at the edges of his boots as he touched down outside your cabin. The sun was only beginning to rise, soft amber spilling over the pine trees and painting the snow in gold.Â
Last night, a handful of kids had called out to him. One boy had waved while sledding down a hill, asking if he was the one drawing frost bunnies on windows. Kai hadnât answered, too stunned, but the smile hadnât left his face the rest of the night.
After the Guardiansâ meeting â a brief discussion about a faint trace of Pitchâs power near Eira Hollow that they couldnât quite pinpoint, deemed too small to worry about â heâd flown back faster than ever, eager to tell you. But as he neared the cabin door, his steps slowed.
There was no chalk drawing.
His brows drew together, his smile slipping a bit. Maybe you forgot. Maybe you overslept. Still, his fingers twitched uneasily as he knocked. The door opened slightly without resistance.
ây/n?â he called, uncertain.
The only answer he got was stillness.
He stepped inside, grip tightening instinctively on his staff. The cabin looked⌠normal. Your outdoor shoes still sat by the door. Your coat hung neatly on the hook. But yet, something felt wrong.
ây/n?â Louder now, his voice echoed off wood and silence.
He checked your room â the bed was unmade, pillows crumpled as if you tossed all night. Not unusual for you⌠But this wasnât just messy; it felt abandoned.
The bathroom. The kitchen. He checked every room thoroughly, even going so far as opening cabinet doors, half-hoping you were playing some strange game of hide-and-seek. But everything was in its place, except for you.
There was no sign of a struggle or a hurried exit. No footprints in the snow outside other than his own. It looked like you had simply vanished. As he stepped back into the living room, looking around once more, something glinted near the fireplace.Â
He made his way over â and his heart dropped. Nestled in the center of the hearthstone was a small, perfect pile of black dust.
Kai stared at it, his body frozen, hands clamped so tightly around his staff that frost crackled up the wood. He knew exactly what it meant.
Pitch had touched this space.Â
He had crossed this threshold, and the one thing Kai cared about, the one he promised to protect, was gone.
The staff pulsed in his grip as he stormed outside, the wind picking up, snapping through the trees as the sky, once golden, began to turn steel grey. Clouds rolled in over the horizon, blotting out the sun. Then snow began to fall â soft at first, then harder, sharper, angrier. The frost patterns on the windows splintered into jagged scars as ice crept down the chimney.
Kai himself didnât speak or scream, but the storm did. His power surged, called by the thousand different emotions coiling in his chest, some he hadnât felt in decades. His hair whipped around his face as the blizzard responded to him like a creature unchained.
Pitch took you. Pitch took you.Â
Out of your own home. While they were busy wondering where he was hiding, he was standing right in the middle of your room.Â
Another crack of his staff split the air, weighed down by the raw power coursing through it. If Kai had to freeze the world to get you back, so be it. The days of being soft-spoken were over. Pitch was going to learn what a storm truly looked like.
Kai was pacing back and forth in front of your cabin. Snow whipping around his ankles, lashing across his shoulders, biting into the air like tiny shards of glass. Wind roaring around him like a tornado. His grip on the staff bone-white, fingertips glowing as frost spiraled downward in furious bursts â matching the rhythm of his breath.
His mind ran in vicious loops, cursing at himself: You shouldâve stayed. You shouldâve known. You shouldnât have left her alone. You knew something was wrong. You knew.
The image in your cabin kept replaying in his mind â the black dust. The stillness, the complete, suffocating absence of you. Heâd give anything to hear your voice now, running out the door with that laugh heâd grown to love, telling him you were playing just some cruel joke.
Instead, there was only wind â and his own anger, roaring in his chest like the blizzard he had unleashed. He didnât see how far it had spread, beyond the forest, bending trees to breaking, burying roads in snow so deep it trapped every car.
He didnât notice it was so bad that it had set off the alarms at the North Pole.
Soobin froze mid-sip, cocoa sloshing as the piercing wail filled the command hall. Heavy, urgent footsteps pounded toward the enormous globe at its center, eyebrows furrowed. He didn't need more information as he knew exactly where that kind of power came from, or rather, who it came from.
The Guardian of Wonderâs voice cut through the noise, sharp and commanding:
âGet me to him. Now.â
A shimmering snowglobe was pressed into his hand. With a swift twist, a portal flared open before him, leading straight to the source that had set the alarms screaming.
Snow exploded around him as he landed just a few feet from the cabin. The aggressive wind slapped instantly against him, almost knocking him back. Soobin threw up an arm to shield his eyes, squinting through the whiteout until he spotted the dark silhouette at the stormâs center.
He had never seen him like this. Not during the war with Pitch, when darkness swallowed entire cities. Not when theyâd stood on the brink of losing everything. Not even when Kai had already lost everything.
Kai paced like a caged predator, fists tight at his sides, dragging his staff through the snow. His head was bowed, each harsh, furious breath seeming to feed the blizzard, as if the storm were pouring straight out of his lungs.
âKai!â Soobin shouted, but the roaring of the wind swallowed it whole.
Nothing. Just a broken boy lost in the middle of his own storm. A storm of fury he didnât seem to be able to get out of.
Soobin set his jaw and pushed forward, each step a fight â snow up to his calves, wind clawing at his coat â but he didnât stop.
He could see him more clearly now: Kaiâs gaze locked on the ground in front of him, his steps vanishing almost as soon as he made them, erased by the relentless fall of snow. His eyes were distant, unreachable.
After a few slow, determined steps, Soobin finally reached Kaiâs side and, without hesitating, placed a firm hand on his shoulder and pulled him into a hug. It was like shoving a hand into pure frost. The feeling was as if frostbite instantly covered his whole body from how cold Kai was.Â
But the moment Soobin forced Kaiâs face into his shoulder, the moment Kai felt the solid weight and familiar warmth of an old friend, the storm shuddered. The wind eased. Snowflakes hung suspended in the air before drifting down, and the silence that followed was deafening.Â
Kai stood rigid, fists still balled tight, chest heaving against Soobinâs coat. Then, at last, a low, shaking breath broke free. His staff slipped from his hand, hitting the snow with a muffled thud.
Soobin said nothing. He only held onto his friend, holding him as if his warmth could anchor him back to the ground.
After a while, Kai stepped back with a pale face and lashes heavy from exhaustion. But his eyes â Soobin swallowed, his eyes looked absolutely wrecked.
âWhat the hell happened, Kai?â
Kai opened his mouth, but nothing came. He shut his eyes, drew in a few rough breaths, his brow furrowed as if wrestling with something he didnât want to say. Soobinâs frown deepened with every second of silence.
Finally, in a voice barely above a whisper: âHe⌠took her.â
Soobinâs stomach dropped. He knew the answer but had to ask anyway.
Their eyes locked â a storm raging in one, quiet dread in the other. âPitch,â Kai whispered. âPitch took Y/N.â
There was always some sort of sound at Soobin's workplace. But when the snow globe flared and two figures stepped through, time itself seemed to pause.
Beomgyu had been perched on the edge of the long memory-scroll table, enthusiastically recounting to Taehyun how one child in Eira Hollow had lost their first tooth and started believing in frost magic on the same day â âItâs a double memory core, Tae! I havenât seen one of those in, like, centuries! You shouldâve seen how shiny it wasââ but he stopped mid-sentence.
Yeonjun, who was lounging on the couch with a candy cane in his mouth, straightened while Taehyun, who was making tiny figures from his golden sand, half listening to Beomgyu, paused midair.
Beomgyu blinked as he took in the figures that stepped into the room. The way Soobinâs face was tight with worry, and behind him, Kai utterly still.Â
âGee, you look like you walked here from Eira Hollow,â Yeonjun said, pointing at their windblown hair in an attempt to break the tension.
âYeonjun.â A low warning rang from Taehyun as he gave his friend a side-eye. Now was not the time.
âKai?â Beomgyu called out softly.
But Kai didnât answer; he only lowered his gaze to the ground. It was Soobin who spoke, his voice low.Â
Beomgyu let out a loud gasp, a hand flying to his mouth. Both Yeonjun and Taehyun sat up even straighter. âWhoâ?âÂ
Kaiâs eyes rose to meet theirs. His usual bright blue eyes, darker than any of them had ever seen, not a flicker of his usual mischief in sight.
Beomgyuâs wings stilled, lowering him to the ground. His mouth still open in shock, eyes wide, all joy drained from his face. âNoâŚâ He shook his head, taking a step forward like he didnât believe it. âButâbut we only noticed a little bit of pitch magic outside of town! At the border, like he couldnât get in! Did he trick us? And y/n was just starting to make progress with the town! The kids! Iâve been collecting the most beautiful memories latelyâsome of them remembered, Kai! They remembered you.â
Kaiâs shoulders tensed at that. Usually those words would warm him. But now, anything that reminded him of you felt like a blade twisting in his chest.
Yeonjun swore under his breath, dragging a hand through his hair. Taehyun stayed silent, his expression tight, like a thousand thoughts were colliding in his head. Beomgyu looked between them all before settling back at Kai. âHe took her because of you, didnât he? Because she believes in you.â
Beomgyuâs hands clenched at his sides. His usual joy, now twisted with guilt and helplessness. âShe was doing everything she could to help⌠to make people believe again. And now heâs using that against her.â
âWe canât waste time,â Taehyun said suddenly, voice firm, leaving no room for argument. âWherever Pitch is hiding, itâs veiled. I canât detect any trace of his magic.â
âMe neither. I usually feel at least some of his irritating little pricksâFearlingsâsorry. But now? Nothing.â The Easter Bunnyâs ears twitched in all kinds of directions like he was listening for any kind of sound that would point him towards where Pitch was hiding with you.
âIâll check the Dreaming. Thereâs still a thread connecting her to itâmaybe I can find her that way.â With a flick of his wrist, Taehyun summoned a small orange cat, a slip of paper dangling from its collar with a golden human eye drawn on it. Its own eyes gleamed the same gold as his. It meowed once, looking to its master for permission. Taehyun gave a small nod, and the cat turned, vanishing into thin air.
âIâll work through the tunnels,â Yeonjun said, scratching behind one ear. âGot contacts in the Hidden Realms. If he took her somewhere⌠off-grid, theyâll know.â
Beomgyuâs gaze softened on Kai. âIâll send my baby teeth to listen inâsee if anyoneâs heard or seen anything that could point to them.â
Kai stayed silent. But when he finally looked up, he gave them a single, tight nod. The gloom in his eyes had shifted, replaced with a fire that wasnât there before.Â
Soobin stepped beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder. âWeâre going to bring her back.â
The Guardians exchanged a single, determined look. Then, one by one, they vanished, each diving headfirst to get to work.
You didnât know how long it had been. Time didnât exist down here. There was no sun, no stars, no ticking of clocks, only an endless stretch of silence, broken now and then by whispers that shouldnât existâbecause you were alone.
The air was thick and heavy â it clung to your skin and curled into your lungs, turning your thoughts to ash. Your limbs felt slow, weighed down, as if sorrow itself had sunk into your bones. It almost felt like you were slipping into a forgetting.
And everything was so incredibly dark around you. Like the world had been stripped bare of color and warmth. Even though the ground beneath you felt soft, it was not in a comforting way; it was the softness of decay, like soot. Like ash at the bottom of a long-dead fire. You were sitting in the center of what looked like a forest made of the darkest shade of ink, your back against one of the blackened trees. Those twisted trees stretched up tall, bent like broken limbs, covered in sharp thorns. They loomed above you, the branches clawing at a sky that did not exist.
Around you, the shadows moved, crawling along barkless trunks like living things. Shapes flitted at the edge of your vision, quickly vanishing when you tried to look. And, god, the feeling of being watched all of the damn time.
He only visited to bring food and mock you, disguising it as kindness. Claiming he only wanted to help you â that he needed to tell you the truth. His truth.
Speaking of the devil. He emerged from the black like he was made of it. A shadow given form. Tall, elegant, his silhouette too perfectly straight. Like a king in his own twisted realm. Black eyes staring straight into your soul.
He didnât speak at first; he didnât need to. His presence curled around you like smoke. He circled around slowly, almost lazily, hands clasped behind his back.
âI didnât lie, you know,â he said at last, voice smooth as silk. âThis could all stop â the fear, the weight, the nightmares â if you just let go.â
You said nothing; you just closed your eyes as you balled your shaking hands into fists in your lap. You had heard this before.
Pitch leaned down, just slightly, until his face hovered near yours, making you open your eyes again to look at him. His smile was like a knife too dull to kill, but sharp enough to cut. âI could make you forget him,â he whispered. âAll of them. Wouldnât that be easier?â
âNo,â you whispered back, even as your voice trembled.
His grin widened. âStill clinging to hope,â he crooned. âHow quaint.â
Then, his expression darkened, lips curling as his voice dropped into a snarl that coiled in her gut like poison. âHe canât protect you. He never could. He couldnât even protect himself from me, always too soft, always doubting when it mattered. What makes you think he could do it for someone else? Thereâs a reason he was forgotten.â
The words cut clean, but you forced yourself not to flinch. Because when you closed your eyes, tightly this time, you could still see Kaiâs face.
The first time he caught you on the ice, bewildered and blushing. The drawings in the frost. The soft patterns he left for you. The whispered promise in the woods: âIâll always be here.â Those memories were the only warmth you had in this dark hell, so you clung to them like you need air to breathe.
Pitch stood tall again, sighing, almost theatrically bored. Then he waved one hand with a flick of his wrist, and the shadows behind you twisted into shapes.Â
âI tried to be nice to you, but have it your way.âÂ
They slithered towards you, and before you could even react, you were drowning in memories.
A childâyouâcurled on the bedroom floor, tears dripping onto torn pages. Your sketchbook, ripped clean in half, lay beside you. Parents speaking in hushed tones across the hallway. âSheâs too strange⌠too obsessed with fairytales⌠she needs to grow out of itâŚâ More followed. The quiet lunches alone, the awkward stares, the teachers with tight smiles who said things like âSheâs just⌠imaginative.â
All the moments youâd buried deep played out before you like theatre, but this stage was built of shadows.
Pitch only watched you. Your breath came in short, broken bursts, throat burning with unshed tears.
Buy you wouldnât let them fall, you couldnât. Letting him see it had an effect on you was the same as giving yourself over to his darkness, to let him win. That would mean Kai would be alone again, and you would do everything in your power to never let that happen again. So you lifted your chin, just slightly.
Pitch narrowed his eyes. âStubborn,â he hissed, annoyed by your antics. He sure as hell underestimated your loyalty to Kai.
You didnât know how to fight this yetâor how to escape for that matterâbut you would do your best to figure that out. You knew Kai would have long noticed your absence by now, hoping he was searching for you. And even though you were still giving yourself a pep talk every time, it did get harder as times passed by to hold onto that hope in this pit of shadows.
Kai sat slumped on the edge of the curved windowsill overlooking the icy expanse below, his staff propped beside him. His fingers were clenched in fists, nails dug into his palms so hard theyâd nearly cracked the skin as Beomgyu stood beside him, not saying a word. His usually restless wings twitched with nerves. He hated this silenceâhated the way Kaiâs face stayed blank. That emptiness scared him most of all, and it had been days now.
The scene in front of him reminded Beomgyu too much of the very first time Kai had come to them. That lost boy with the power of winter and no memory of who he was. Who had woken in the middle of a frozen lake, alone and trembling, with nothing but only a name whispered by the moonâJack Frost. Back then, he had been angry and frustrated, lashing out because he understood nothing about what was happening to him.Â
It was only after Beomgyu had found his set of baby teeth in his arsenalâoffering to help him uncover what little was left of his pastâthat Kai began to accept who he was. From there, he made it his mission to make the most of what he had to offer.
Kai had built himself from nothing. He joy spun from just the sweep of his staff and chose warmth despite his nature. And now, as Beomgyu was watching his friend clench and unclench his fists, that spark inside him flickered dangerously low.
Beomgyu tightened his grip on Kaiâs shoulder, voice soft and hopeful despite his own fear. âSheâs strong, you know. y/n. Stronger than any of us expected.â
But Kai didnât answer. He didnât even twitch under the squeeze; the only reply Beomgyu got was the wind slamming harder against the windows.
Soobin had been gone for hours today as well, patrolling the sky with his sleigh, while Yeonjun was combing through old relics, tracing any signs of shadow magic through tunnels, and Taehyun⌠well, if anyone could find her through dreams, it was him. But he hadnât returned yet.
Beomgyu sighed, kneeling a little to Kaiâs eye level. âYouâre not that boy anymore, if thatâs what you are thinking,â he whispered. âThe one who didnât know what he was for or how to use his magic. You made your purpose. Once we find him, weâre going to take him down, Kaiâand this time youâll be the one to strip his power away.â
Beomgyu reached up and brushed a stray lock of white hair from Kaiâs faceâa soothing, almost maternal gesture Kai didnât resist. He leaned into the touch just slightly, the small motion making Beomgyuâs chest ache.
âAnd now⌠There has been someone who saw you. Who cares about you and your life deeply, and youâre gonna let him take that from you?â His tone had a bit of bite now. âYouâre Jack Frost, you idiot. Youâve painted the world in wonder, even after people forgot your name. Sheâs breaking through centuries of silence to make sure youâre thanked for your gift, so donât you dare disappear on me again.â
Beomgyu was about to speak again when the door creaked open. Soft, deliberate footsteps crossed the hall. He looked up just as Taehyun stepped inside. The sound alone made Kai lift his head.
âShe was asleep,â was all Taehyun said.
Beomgyu shot to his feet so quickly his wings fluttered. âYou found her?!â
Taehyun nodded once, but his mouth was tight. âSheâs dreamed. It was just a few seconds, but enough for me to trace it back to where itâs coming from. From that flicker, I saw she is in a lot of fear, mentally.â
Beomgyuâs heart dropped. Kai was standing now, listening to his friend intensely. The stillness that had possessed him was gone, replaced by pure rage.
âI can show you the path,â Taehyun continued. âWe need to gather everyone and move now. If Pitch senses even a trace of my sandââ He broke off when Kai snatched up his staff aggressively and strode toward him with a pace that made it clear: he didnât need more details.
The pure thought of you being alone somewhere unfamiliar, trapped without a way out, while Pitch was feasting on your fears, made Kaiâs blood boil hotter than it ever had before. How did someone in such a short period make him feel so many feelings? He didnât know what this feeling for you was yet, only that heâd tear through whatever hell Pitch had built to get you back.
âIâm going to get her,â Kai said, voice calm but eyes burning.
âI know.â Taehyunâs hand lifted, golden sand swirling in his palm. âAnd this time⌠weâll make sure he never touches anyone again.â
You still didnât know how much time had passed between then and now. All you knew was that the shadows had long since stopped biting, and the darkness no longer frightened you. It almost felt⌠welcoming.
Your back rested against the now-familiar treeâif it could even be called thatâits gnarled black bark pulsing faintly against you like a living thing. Your limbs were heavy, your mind even heavier.
The whispers had changed; they no longer hissed, no, they were soft now. Cooing like lullabies. Singing it was okay to rest. That the pain would stop if you just let go. That youâd done enough.
The scary thing was that you started to believe them, because what strength did you have left?
Your cheeks were stained with dried tears. Your fists, no longer clenched, lay limply at your sides. Your eyes were half-lidded, exhaustion tugging them shut, and darkness no longer gnawed at your skin; instead, it wrapped around you like a warm blanket, the way your bed feels after a bad storm.
Somewhere deep inside your mind, a voice still whispered his name, but it was small and faint. And you didnât notice the way the tree behind you was creeping over your skin, shadows curling like roots around your arms and legs, slowly pulling you in.
Pitch stood a distance away, watching with rapt delight. He watched you melt into his shadows and felt a rare thrill bloom in his chest.
"You see," he murmured to the dark, âI didnât even have to take her. She came to me. All on her own.â He paced forward slowly, hands clasped behind his back, expression twisted in mock sympathy. âThey always do, in the endâthe ones who feel and care too much. All it takes is threatening the person they love, and theyâll listen in a heartbeat.â
He watched the last shimmers of resistance flicker behind your half-lidded eyes, a single tear sliding down your cheek like a dying star.
Thenâa thunderous boom in the distance, followed by a violent crashâmade Pitch turn sharply. You, however, could only move your gaze so slightly when you felt the wind picking up, the familiar cold ghosting your cheek, though to you, it felt miles away.
A blinding light erupted in the center of the darkened forest, slicing through the gloom like a blade. The ground trembled as a surge of magic burst outward, coating the blackened floor in fresh snow.Â
When the snow settled, the source of the disturbance became clear. The Guardians emerged. A faint twitch of your lip was the only sign you could give, as your vision swam and lightheadedness became worse.
At the center stood Kai, his staff raised and aimed directly at the Boogeyman. His jaw was locked, eyes sharp as ice, knuckles white from gripping his staff so tightly.
The word cracked through the air, and Pitch's smile curled again, but it was a bit more uneasy this time.Â
Kai took a step forward, his staff glowing an angry blue as the ground froze solid beneath his feet. The others fanned out behind him, ready for whatever might come. Beomgyu drifted in last, head snapping in every direction, searching. When his gaze finally found you, barely visible beneath the writhing shadows, his eyes widened in horror.
Beomgyu glanced towards Kai, panic dancing across his features. âSheâs slipping,â he whispered. âSheâs sinking into him.â
But Kai didnât hear his friend. The roar of rage in his head drowned out everything else. Your eyes were closed, not like in pain, but you almost looked like you were slipping into a peaceful slumber if it wasnât for the awful scene around you.Â
Kai didnât take his eyes off Pitch. âYou shouldnât have touched her.â
Pitch tilted his head, amused. âWell, youâre a bit too late for that now, donât you think?â
In a blink, frost erupted from beneath Kaiâs feet, spreading it in lightning speed towards Pitch, and so the battle began. Magic cracked through the forest as Kaiâs frost slammed into Pitchâs shadows, a cyclone of blue and black ripping through the skeletal trees and sodden earth.
Soobin ran into the shadows without hesitation, twin blades flashing in the dim light, each strike splitting them apart, their forms crumbling into a cascade of black sand that hissed away into nothing.Â
Taehyun kept the darkness at bay with spirals of his glowing sand; his movements were quick and precise, each lash snapping out like a whip to strike with bone-cracking force. Golden coils wrapped around shadows and ripped them apart, scattering them into nothing before the next strike landed.Â
Yeonjun darted through the chaos, his boomerang whistling through the air before snapping back into his hand. In a blink, he vanished into a tunnel, reappearing behind a shadow and striking it down in one clean motion. He kept movingâportal, throw, catch, strikeânever in the same place twice.
But Beomgyu was gone from the fight. No one noticed him slip awayâthe clang of steel and shrieks of shadows covered his absence. He was already on his knees beside the tree, heart pounding louder than the battle behind him.
ây/n?â he called, voice cracking with urgency. ây/n, wake upâ come on, pleaseâŚâ
The bark of the tree had almost wrapped around your spine, yet your head still lolled slightly when he touched your shoulder. Your lips moved, a faint sound escaping: ââŚdonât⌠goâŚâ
Beomgyuâs heart twisted. ây/n, itâs me. Itâs Beomgyu â the guy with wings and way too many teeth, remember?â He grabbed your hands, wincing at how cold they were. The only answer you gave was a troubled, uneven breath. âCome on, stay with me,â he whispered frantically. ây/n, open your eyes.â
Out on the battlefield, Kaiâs fury lit the sky. A pillar of frost shot into the clouds, wild and unfocused. He still hadnât seen youânone of them had. Every ounce of their energy was pouring into making sure Pitchâs power could never hurt anyone again.
Beomgyu turned back to you, desperation in his voice now. âI donât know if you can hear me, but you have to fight. You canât let him win. Not like this.â
You twitched a mumble leaving your lips, ââŚhe⌠said⌠youâd be goneâŚâ Beomgyu froze, leaning in closer until his ear nearly brushed your cheek. ââŚhe said heâd⌠kill you allâŚâ
His wings shuddered. âOh god,â he breathed. âYouâre not just scaredâyouâre protecting us.â
He sat up abruptly, eyes snapping toward Kai in the storm, but his hand never left yours. Out there, Kai was driving Pitch back inch by inch, wrath pouring through every strike.
Kai glanced his way briefly, eyes unfocused, not even really looking at Beomgyu before his attention snapped back to the Nightmare King.
âKAI, SHEâS SLIPPING!â
Kaiâs body halted â his arm halfway raised, staff humming with power â as he turned, his eyes were wide and horrified now, finally snapping out of the blinding rage that consumed him.
Beomgyu was crouched over you, his hands locked tightly around yours, the desperation of keeping you awake in every line of his posture. And then Kai saw youâyour body slumped against the tree, black shadows almost completely swallowing you, the last tendrils curling toward your fingertips. Something in him broke.
âKai, go!â Yeonjun shouted from nearby, intercepting a black spike that Pitch had sent toward him. âSave her! Iâve got this!â
Kai didnât hesitate for a second as he bolted across the battlefield, heart pounding in a way it hadnât since he first awoke centuries ago.
He dropped to his knees beside you like the ground had given way beneath him. The shadows clung to you like living smoke, winding around your legs, your back, crawling up your ribs, leaving only your face untouched. Your pale, colorless face stood stark against the blackness, which pulsed with malevolent life.
Your breath was short and shallow, like each inhale was a battle itself. Kai hovered just inches above you, his hands shaking violently in the air, unsure where to place them. His own breathing turned ragged the longer he looked at you.
ây/n,â he said, voice cracking. âPleaseâ come back to me.â The only reply was the clash of the still ongoing battle echoing in the background. âSay something. Anything. Please, beautiful.â His voice broke entirely now while a tear ran down his cheek. He was beggingânot sure if it was to you, to fate, or to whatever would listen.
â...coldâŚâ A whisper barely there.
Kai blinked, startled. âWhat? Cold? Are you coldâdo you need someone to warm you? I donât understandâplease, I need to understand.â
â...coldâŚâ You repeated, weaker this time.
Panic bloomed in Kaiâs chest like wildfire. He turned to Beomgyu, who had been silently watching the two of you. Kaiâs eyes were glistening with tears his voice raw and unsteady. âGyuâshe keeps saying âcold.â What does that mean?! IâI donât know how to help her.â
Beomgyu was frozen for a moment too, knowing Kai wasnât able to warm you if that was what you meant. His touch was always cold, no matter what he did. But thenâ
Beomgyuâs eyes widened, and his wings started fluttering. âCold. Cold. Kaiâshe means you! She doesnât need warmth! You said once she found your cold touch calming, that it made her feel safe. You need to do what you do best!â
Kaiâs gaze snapped back to you just as your trembling fingers brushed the back of his hand.
ââŚcoldâŚâ You whispered again, the tip of your finger dragging along his skin like you were searching for him in the dark. Then you exhaledâa long, shuddering breath that felt dangerously close to a last one.Â
Without hesitation, he reached out with a trembling hand and cupped your face, his palm icy yet his touch firm but reverent. As soon as Kai made contact with your skin, the shadows started to scream. They recoiled like snakes, slithering away from the point of contact. Your skin beneath his fingers lit with a pale golden shimmer, the frost spreading over your skin making it look like the sun was shining through ice, chasing away the black tendrils.
Beomgyu let out a choked sound â both disbelief and relief. âItâs working!â
Kai let go of everything else. His staff clattered into the ground as he pulled you into his arms, wrapping himself entirely around you. A barrier of frost spiraled outward, snow swirling into a shield that forced Beomgyu to step back from the sheer force of it.
Kai poured everything into youâhis frost curling over your skin, his lips near your ear. âYouâre not alone, okay? You never have to be alone again. Iâve got you. Iâm here. Iâm not going anywhereââ
Shadows shrieked all around, but Kai only held you tighter. The tears wouldnât stop falling down his face, as you still hadnât answered him, burying his face into your shoulder. âPlease⌠Iâm not strong without you. Come back to me. Please come backâŚâÂ
A weak hand moved against him, fingers trembling as they curled around his arm. ââŚKai?â
His head snapped up, pulling back just enough to see your face. Your eyes were barely open, but they were on him. A breath of disbelief and joy escaped his lips, halfway between a sob and a laugh.
âYouâre here,â he murmured, touching your cheek again, all the warmth and love in him distilled into one look. âYouâre really here.â
You gave him the best nod you could muster, your brow furrowed faintly as you tried to focus, to make sense of where you were. âYou found me,â your voice hoarse and worn. âI was so scaredâŚâ
Kai pressed his forehead against hers. âIâll always find you.â
Kai barely had any time to savor your voice or your warmth in his arms before a bolt of black shot through the air. It slammed into the ground inches away, erupting in a violent plume of soot and splinters. Kai and Beomgyu moved at once, throwing themselves over you as a shield, the impact rattling through their bones, both cursing under their breath at how close the strike had come.
As the debris settled, the boys both snapped their heads at where the bolt had come from and were met with a smirking Pitch
âTouching. Truly. But Iâm not done yet.â
Kai rose to his feet after he gently eased you to Beomgyuâs side. His entire body trembled with rage that was quickly crystallizing into something unforgiving. Frost crept from his fingertips, crawling up the length of his staff as it snapped into his hand.
His gaze locked on Pitch, his blue eyes now so dark they nearly matched the boogeyman's.
âGet her out of here,â Kai finally said, voice low and tight with restraint.
Beomgyu hesitated. âKaiââ
Kai didnât look at him, but the force in his voice left no room for argument. Beomgyu gave a single, grim nodâone Kai didnât even see. He turned to you, as you had already slumped forward slightly, your body still worn out and heavy with exhaustion. He held on to you gently, slipping his arms beneath you â one under your knees, the other at your back â and lifted you into his arms.
You rested your head against his shoulder as he softly told you to hold on to him. You weakly nodded at that, but your gaze drifted past him, back to where Kai was standing.Â
âWe canât leave them hereâŚâ you murmured, voice cracking.
Beomgyuâs wings twitched anxiously. âWe donât have another choice, y/n. Youâre too weak. I need to get you somewhere safe. Theyâve got this.â
But you didnât take your eyes off Kai; there was something in his stance that didnât sit right with you. The frost radiating from him wasnât steady like it usually was; instead, it was floating around him in an erratic wayÂ
You could feel the fury pouring off him in waves, see it in the tremble of his grip and the stiff set of his shoulders. He was unraveling, as if grief, fear, and guilt were all flooding out at once.
âSomethingâs wrong,â you whispered, eyes still fixed on him. âHeâs too angry. Heâs not thinking clearly.â
Beomgyu had adjusted his grip, wings already fluttering to lift off, but paused as he followed your gaze.
âI know,â he said softly, voice heavy with understanding. âBut right now⌠we have to trust him.â
In the distance, the others were still locked in battle, the shadows coming in waves that never seemed to endâif anything, they were multiplying. You could see them starting to slow, each hit they took weighing heavier on their movements.
One blow in particular landed hard on Yeonjun, making him stagger and grab his shoulder, now covered in creeping black. âYouâre gonna pay for that one, mate,â he growled through clenched teeth.
The sound of his groan pulled Kaiâs focus for just a second, but it was enough for Pitch to shoot another black bolt. This time, Kai didnât see it coming, but you did.Â
The next moments stretched into slow motion, the black bolt slicing through the air before slamming into Kaiâs chest. The force of it hurled him backward, his body hitting the ground with a brutal thud making the glow of his staffâs die instantly.
Adrenaline roared through you, shoving every thought aside except one: reach him. You tore yourself from Beomgyuâs hold, stumbling as your feet hit the ground, but you kept moving. Somewhere behind you, Beomgyuâs voice called out to you, but it was a distant echo; you couldnât care less as every bone in your body told you to get to Kai.
From across the clearing, Soobinâs voice bellowed as he summoned a shockwave of northern lights into the sky, and Taehyun was already weaving illusions in the air to disrupt Pitchâs movement. Yeonjun moved like lightning beside them, eyes narrowed, boomerang glowing with the speed it was moving.
Your legs buckled under you, the weakness from earlier clawing its way back, but that didnât stop you as you stumbled forward, every breath tight in your chest, the pain of the torns on the ground nothing compared to the sight in front of you. The way his chest was coated in a creeping blackness. Ashy tendrils of shadow pulsed over his heart, like it had done to you, too.
âNo, no, noâŚâ you whispered, knees slamming into the ground as you crawled to him. Tears blurred your vision, your hands trembling violently as you pressed your palm over his chestâright above the cursed black stain.
His heart was still beating. It was a bit slower than usual, but there.
Suddenly, Soobin was beside you as Beomgyu had taken his place on the battlefield. Soobinâs face was grim but calm as he laid a large, warm hand on your shoulder. âHeâll come back,â he said softly, but out of breath. âWeâre immortal, remember?â
The words sank into you slowly. Fuck, how could you forget? They were Immortal. He wasnât gone.
You let out a breath you didnât realize you were holding and slowly rose to your feet, turning away from Kai â because now your blood was burning.
Your gaze swept the silent clearing. The shadows were gone, the Guardians standing in the center, out of breath and covered in dirt, but no sign of Pitch. But you could feel him.
âShow yourself,â you called, voice ringing strong despite the tremor in your bones.
A ripple was heard in the trees before ink poured from it, and Pitch emerged with a smirk. âYou called, princess?â
You narrowed your eyes at him, heart pounding. âIâve figured you out,â you said, taking a step forward. âYou call yourself the Boogeyman, the thing children fearâŚâ
Your voice hardened. âBut youâre the only one terrified of the real Boogeyman. Youâve become the very thing you were always afraid of â forgotten, unwanted⌠alone.â
You noticed the way Pitchâs smirk twitched.
âYouâre a jealous, bitter coward, terrified of being left behind again. Thatâs why you prey on the innocent. Thatâs why you came after me. Because Kai had something you never did.â
Your voice cracked, but that didnât stop you. âI love someone, and Iâm terrified of losing him. And you will never hear me apologize for that fear, because it means I have something worth protecting.â
Pitch took an involuntary step back. The shadows twitched at his feet â uncertain.
âI will never let your kind of fear control me,â you said, lifting a finger in front of you, a soft golden color radiating from it. âAnd I wonât let it control anyone else ever again.â
âIâll make them believe. In Kai. In joy. In the light that you will never touch. And when they do? Youâll be the only one left in the dark.â
The shadows around Pitch came back to life. Making you and the guardians raise to high alert. Yeonjun appears a few inches behind you, to be able to bolt into action when needed.Â
But the shadows turned. Pitchâs eyes widened in horror as the very darkness heâd once ruled began to slither up his legs, crawling toward his arms, gripping at his throat like betrayal.
âNoââ he snapped, snarling. âNo!â
He turned and ran, stumbling into the forest, vanishing as the darkness followed, biting at his feet.
You stood still for a long moment, your heart racing, letting the reality of what just happened sink in. The clearing fell silent again, save for the ragged breaths of the exhausted Guardiansâuntil a low groan cut through the air.
You spun around. âKai?â You dropped to your knees at his side.
He opened his eyes, slowly blinking as he was still a bit out of it, but when his dazed gaze met yours, he managed to give you a crooked half-smile.
âThis is definitely gonna bruise,â he rasped.
You let out a sob-laugh, grabbing his hand and holding it tightly to your chest. âI thought I lost you,â you whispered.
He gave a soft breath of a laugh, âTheyâll need to do more than that to get rid of me, silly,â but then his eyes softened. âIâm the one immortal, remember? I thought I lost you, y/n,â as his hand reached out to touch your cheek.
The fire crackled gently, casting golden flickers across the cabin walls. You sat nestled against Kaiâs side on the couch, his arm draped loosely around your shoulders, your head resting against him.
After everything that had happened â and after making it home safely â it was as though every unspoken feeling that had been simmering between you and Kai finally spilled over, no longer able to stay hidden.
Neither of you had said a word yet, still tangled in the weight of what youâd endured. Your fingertip traced idle patterns across the back of his cold hand, toying with his long fingers. You had never been more grateful for the chill that radiated from him.
âDonât leave⌠stay for tonight â please.â You whispered, your voice barely audible over the soft popping of the fire.
Kai stilled for a moment. Then he slowly lifted his hand and cupped your cheek, guiding your face to meet his. His eyes were soft and warmer than ever.
âI wonât,â he promised, his voice low and sure.
His gaze flicked to your lips, then back to your eyes. A faint smirk curved at the corner of his mouth as he noticed how heavy your own eyes had grown. Neither of you realized just how close youâd leaned until his cool breath ghosted over your lips. A smile tugged at both your faces before he finally closed the gap, kissing you with quiet tenderness.
You pulled back with a sudden giggle, your eyes sparkling. Kai tilted his head, breathy laughter spilling from him, too. âWhat?â
Your smile widened. âEven your lips are cold.âÂ
His eyes crinkled, a grin breaking through as a spark of mischief danced in his gaze. âDo you want to warm them up for me?â
Your breath immediately got caught as the air shifted with a thick tension, feeling a hum beneath your skin. You bit your lip, shyly nodding. Since when did he make you so shy?
The instant you gave Kai the confirmation he needed, he closed the space between you, kissing you slower this time. His hand slipped from your cheek to the back of your neck, deepening the kiss. His cold melted into your warmth until neither of you could feel where one ended and the other began.
Outside, snow began to fall in a soft, gracious way, as if it reflected Kaiâs feelings in the moment.
Kaiâs lips were cold, but the way they moved against your lips set your blood on fire. With each passing second, the kisses grew heavier and deeper. Urgency threaded through it, as if you both had been starving for this, afraid to reach out for too long. His hands roamed over you slowly, moving from your neck to your back and up again. Your hands were slotted in his hair, tugging on it softly, which earned you a soft sound out of him, giving you the confidence to shift yourself on his lap, sliding a leg over to straddle him as another, more broken groans escaped from the back of his throat.
He pulled you flush against him, hands gripping your waist tightly. ây/n,â he gasped against your mouth, the sound of your name sounded almost like a warning â or a prayer.
You whimpered, nipping at his bottom lip and rocking your hips experimentally, making both of you gasp. His hands flew to your hips, fingers digging in, almost making the skin bruise. âDonât start what you canât finish.â his voice was rough with restraint, like he was holding himself back, sending a shiver down your spine straight to your core. âI need you to be sure about this.â
A broken sound escaped you. âI need you, Kai,â you whispered, kissing your way down from his lips to his neck. âPlease.â
He groaned as you sucked a particular spot beneath his ear. âFuck.â His forehead fell to your shoulder, breath heavy and uneven, as his hands guided your hips, grinding you against the hard length straining his pants, the friction sparking fire through you both.
Another moan slipped past your lips as his fingers tangled in your hair at the nape of your neck, tugging hard enough to drag you back from his throat, purple marks already blooming there. âY/n, itâs been⌠a lot of lonely years. I donât know if I can control myself.â
You leaned back in, desperate for another taste of his lips. âThen donât.â And you saw the exact moment the control snapped in his eyes.
He pulled you back by your hair again, harder this time, testing if you meant it. You did. It was written all over youâin the flush of your cheeks, the haze in your eyes, the way you trembled in his hold.
âYouâre sure, baby?âÂ
âIâve never been more sure. Fuckâplease, do something.â
Kai kissed you like he needed your lips imprinted on his own. The centuries heâd spent alone poured out of him in the way he held you close. You fisted your hands in his hair, pulling him impossibly harder against you, answering with your kiss that he didnât have to fear that anymore.
The fireplace crackled behind you, casting golden light over both of your bodies as you sat tangled on the couch. He pulled back slightly, his breath shaky as he reached for the hem of your shirt, his cold fingers brushing your skin. âMay I?â
You nodded eagerly, arms lifting in sync. âPlease.â He quickly peeled your shirt off, cool air grazing your skin, and your cheeks flushed as his hungry gaze fell upon you. His cold hands roamed the new territory, making their way slowly behind you to unclasp your bra. It slipped down your arms as it was thrown somewhere on the ground.Â
Kaiâs eyes drank you in as he followed his cold hands roaming your warm body. You shivered as he touched the swell of your breast, goosebumps racing across your skin.
âYouâre cold.â He murmured, concern cutting through the haze of want. Without another word, he lifted you in his arms and gently guided you down onto the thick rug in front of the fireplace. The warmth of the flames immediately heated your skin.
Kai followed after, leaning over you with one hand braced beside your head while the other brushed tenderly over your cheek. âThere. I want you warm. Always.â He leaned in to kiss you again, his fingers sliding along your side, making you arch into him.
His lips traveled from your mouth to your jaw, nibbling before moving lower to the curve of your neck. Every so often, he bit softly, soothing the sting with the slow swirl of his tongue.
He pulled back to admire his work, purple bruises blooming along your neck, a proud smirk forming on his lips before he trailed his kisses down over your collarbone and to the swell of your breast, lingering there, his cold lips brushing against your heated skin. The contrast made you gasp, your body squirming beneath him, desperate to guide his mouth where you needed him most.Â
âYouâre so beautiful,â he whispered against your skin before finally taking your nipple into his mouth. He sucked hard, a loud moan tearing past your lips. His other hand slid to your other breast, cold fingers ghosting over the bud. He pulled away from your nipple, wet with his saliva, then blew his icy breath across it.
âOh my god, Kai!â Your cry echoed in the cabin, and you were grateful no one lived close enough to hear. The searing heat of the fire and your body against the piercing cold of his touch made you clench around nothing, your panties already soaked through as you rubbed your thighs together restlessly.
âTell me if itâs too much,â he murmured, lips pressing soft, open-mouthed kisses just under your breast as his hand slid to the waistband of your jeans. With slow, deliberate movements, he unbuttoned them and dragged the fabric down your legs, each inch of skin he uncovered rewarded with another kiss and caress.
Once your jeans were off, he climbed back over you, his face hovering above yours. His blown pupils and ragged breaths mirrored your own before he crashed his lips back onto yours. You rocked against him, and his groan vibrated through you, sending a spark straight to your core.
âIf we keep goingââ his voice broke into a moan when your nails raked down his back and he thrust his clothed hardness harder against your clit, ââyouâll be all mine. Would you like that, baby?â
You gave him a desperate nod, wanting nothing more to give yourself over to him completely, tonight and all the other days to come. âI would love nothing more.â
A loving smile appeared on his face, giving you one more slow kiss before dropping his gaze down and settling between your legs. His cool breath ghosted over sensitive skin, making you shiver as anticipation coiled tight in your belly.
âYouâre trembling,â he murmured with a smile, brushing his nose along your inner thigh. âBut youâre not cold anymore, are you?â
You didnât answer, too caught in the way his mouth inched closer to where you needed him the most. Your hips lifted instinctively, but his hands pressed you back down. âPatience, beautiful.â His eyes were dark with hunger as he looked up to you. The sight of him between your legs, hair a mess from your fingers repeatedly running through it, made you whine. Â
Finally, with a single swift motion, he hooked his fingers into the waistband of your underwear and tugged it down.
Kai groaned at the sight in front of him, your arousal glistening, pussy aching for him. Before self-consciousness could creep in about the way he was gazing at you, his mouth was already on youâslow at first, savoring you, as his arms slid beneath your thighs to hold you open and helpless while he tasted every bit of you.
Your hand slapped over your mouth, but a moan slipped out anyway as you rolled your hips against his face, desperate for more friction. His grip on your thighs tightened, tilting your hips higher so he could bury himself deeper, his tongue moving faster as he lapped through your folds. Your fingers tangled in his white locks, tugging harshly.Â
âThat feels so fucking good, Kai!âÂ
He groaned in return â the vibration making you mewl. Fuck, you tasted so good.
âKaiââ you gasped, but he didnât let you finish. Instead, his grip tightened, holding you steady, as he diverts his attention from your clit, to push his tongue as deep in your hole as he could, his eyes fluttering closed at the feeling of you clenching around his tongue.
âAre you close, beautiful?â he murmured against your pussy, pulling a desperate nod and a breathless whimper from you.
His mouth returned to your clit, blowing cool air over it like he had done to your nipple, making you jolt and fist the carpet beside you. One hand slipped from your thigh to your entrance, his index and middle finger prodding before sliding inside. He sucked your clit into his mouth harshly as he pumped his fingers into your slick heat, curling them immediately.
You arched against the intrusion, your moans tumbling out as the knot in your stomach wound tighter. His pace was relentless, curling his fingers at just the right angle, striking your sweet spot over and over.Â
âYour hands,â you whispered breathlessly, âTheyâre so coldâŚâ
His fingers stilled for a moment, concern flickering in his eyes. But you quickly cupped his jaw, pulling him up into a kiss, panting against his lips. âDonât stop. IâI like it. Itâs actually turning me on even more.â
He quickly picks up the pace again, a smirk forming as he sees your eyes roll back and your thighs begin to tremble. Moans and pleas spill from your lips like a mantra, and Kai leans in to ghost his lips over your ear.
âCome for me, my love.âÂ
His voice and the new nickname send you over the edge instantly. Your hands fly to his shoulders, nails digging in as you try to ground yourself while your vision blurs from the force of your orgasm.
Kai slows his movements, guiding you through it, cooing softly in your ear. When it becomes too much, you grab his hand to still him, your chest rising and falling heavily.Â
The room falls quiet, the crackle of the fireplace the only sound as you try to gain some sense. âAre you okay?â Kai asks, peppering your cheek with soft kisses.
The shyness in his voice makes you giggle as you open your eyes to meet his wide, blue ones. This guy claims he hasnât done anything in decades, gives you the best orgasm of your life with just his mouth and fingers, and then asks if youâre okay?
âAm I okay? The way you just made me come makes me not believe for a second you havenât touched a woman in decades.â A blush spreads across Kaiâs cheeks before he buries his face in your neck. You stroke his back, giggling even more. There was your shy boy.
âWhat if I told you Iâve never made a woman come like this?â he murmurs against your skin.
You cup his cheeks, lifting his head so he has no choice but to see the shock on your face. âYouâve never had sex before?â
He shakes his head quickly, blushing even harder. âIâI have had sex before, just notâ not like this.â
âLike what?â you ask, searching his face. His eyes dart everywhere but yours, but as you slowly rub circles into his cheeks, he visibly begins to relax.
He lets out a deep breath before meeting your eyes. âI donât really know how to explain it yet, since I donât even understand it myself butââ another breath, âI just get this really warm feeling when Iâm with you, and Iâve never felt like that before. N-not that Iâm some cold-hearted person!â he quickly exclaims, making you giggle out of fondness again as you lean in to kiss his nose.
He relaxes and sits up a bit, taking your hands into his to play with your fingers like a distraction. âItâs just⌠I feel so good when Iâm with you, and when Iâm away, all I can think about is when Iâll see you again. Itâs been so hard not to kiss you every two seconds when you look all cute outsideâyour nose rosy from the cold, bundled up, your eyes sparkling when youâre excited.â A smile spreads across his face as the memories rush in. âSo⌠yeah. Like I said, I donât know what all of this is yet, but I really want to figure it out.â
Your heart blooms from his confession, intertwining your hands together as you give him a soft tug to make him look at you. âThe feeling you are talking about is confusing, and sometimes it can even be scary because it gets overwhelming fast. But weâll figure this out together, yeah? Iâd say we make a pretty good team, you and I.â
He nods, then leans down to capture your lips in a deep, tender kiss, his hands cupping your jaw. After a while, you pull away to catch your breath. âI get that warm feeling with you too. Thank you for making me feel so safe.â You turn his head slightly and press your lips to his neck, sucking just below his ear until a moan slips out of him as he ruts his still-hard length against your thigh.
âLet me take care of that first, okay?â You slide your hand down to cup him through his pants, giving a firm squeeze. He groans low as you start stroking him over the fabricâuntil suddenly your wrist is caught in his grip, his hand clamping tight around yours.Â
âI told you I havenât done this in decades, and you think teasing me like this wonât make me cum in my pants in seconds?â he tsks, low in your ear. âThatâs not very nice of you. Iâd rather cum inside you⌠unless you donât want that, my love?â
The switch between shy Kai and dom Kai made your head spin, your hand flexing in his tight grip. âI want you to cum inside me.â
âThatâs what I thought.â His brows arched as he sat up, peeling his shirt over his head in one swift motion. âLetâs start with my clothes, shall we?â Your hands flew to his belt immediately, the metallic clink of it unclasping echoing in your ears. You fumbled with his jeans, unbuttoning them in a rush that made Kai huff out a laugh at your desperation. He helped you push down his jeans and underwear in one go, making his dick slap against his abdomen. The size of him makes you gasp.Â
He gave himself a few slow tugs before hovering over you again, his eyes dark, lips parted as he dragged his tip through your folds. You pushed back against him, needing him badly, but he only dipped his head to your throat, teeth grazing the skin there with a low growl that vibrated against your pulse.
When he finally pushed in, your eyes fluttered shut, mouth falling open. The stretch was delicious, filling you so completely your mind emptied until there was nothing but him. Kai groaned as he bottomed out, holding still for a few seconds before moving experimentally. âYouâre so warm,â he moaned, his voice breaking with each thrust. âI didnât⌠I didnât know it could feel like this.â
A gasp tore from you when he lifted your legs over his shoulders, the new angle letting him sink impossibly deeper â you swore you could feel him in your throat. He picked up the pace, a choked moan leaving him as he pressed closer, the heat of your breath ghosting across his cheek.
âGods,â he rasped. âYou feel like youâve been hiding spring in your skin just for me.â
His rhythm faltered at his own words, his voice raw. âDo you know how long Iâve felt empty? Iâve had the sky, the stars, the wind â but never this. Never someone to hold.â
Your eyes shimmered as his thrusts slowed, deep and deliberate. His lips brushed your temple, trembling with honesty. âI have my friends â I love them, theyâre my family â but this⌠youâŚâ His voice cracked as he buried his face in the crook of your neck. âThis is different. This is special to me.â
You wrapped your arms around him, sliding your leg down from his shoulder and locking your heels against his back, pulling him impossibly closer. âThen stay with me, Kai.â
He lifted his head, eyes glinting with awe. One of his hands rose to cradle your face, thumb brushing away a tear you hadnât realized had fallen.
âIâm not going anywhere,â he promised hoarsely.Â
He quickened his pace as he felt you tightening around him, your bodies slick and pressed together, the sharp sound of skin against skin mixing with your ragged breaths echoing off the walls. His eyes locked on the way your breasts bounced with every thrust, one hand reaching to tease your nipple.
Your body began to tremble, clinging desperately to him as you buried your face into his shoulder. âKaiââ
âIâve got you. Iâve got youâŚâ he panted, his other hand slipping down to your clit, circling it in quick, practiced motions.
The pressure broke you. His name spilled from your lips again and again as your release crashed through you, your body arching into his while white sparks burst behind your eyes. He slowed his rhythm only enough to let you ride the waves, your tight walls pulling him deeper with every desperate clench.
The sight of you coming undone beneath him snapped what little restraint he had left. With a final, hard thrust, he spilled into you, burying himself deep as pleasure tore through him. His body collapsed into yours, both of you gasping for air, your nails dragging lazy lines down his back.
You stayed like that for a while â tangled together, skin slick with sweat, lips pressing soft, desperate kisses wherever you could reach. At last, he rolled off you carefully, and you hissed at the sudden emptiness as he slipped free. He stood up to grab one of your blankets out of your basket and draped it around you, before lying back down. The fire had dimmed to glowing embers, only casting a faint golden hue across the walls.Â
He pressed a kiss to your forehead, his arm wrapping securely around your waist to hold you against him.
âI thought I had lost you, Y/n.âÂ
It was only a whisper, but the tremor in his voice cracked straight through your heart.
You lifted your head, offering him a weak smile before brushing a kiss to his cheek. âYou didnât.â
Outside, the snow had blanketed the world in silence â soft and thick, while the sky was scattered with stars shining brightly.
The morning sun filtered through the windows in soft golden beams, casting stripes of light across the floor and over your bodies. Birds chirped faintly in the distance, their song muffled by the thick snow outside.
Kai stirred first. His eyes fluttered open, adjusting to the light. The first thing he saw was you â hair fanned across the pillow, features relaxed, one hand tucked beneath your cheek. You looked Peaceful. You were safe.
His chest tightened. How long had he longed for this? Not just the kiss or the touch â but this warmth.
He let his knuckles graze your cheekbone. âY/N,â he murmured. You stirred with a soft sound, eyes fluttering open. A sleepy smile spread across your face as you met Kaiâs beautiful gaze. âHi.â
âHi,â he whispered back.
You scooted closer, arms wrapping around his waist, your nose brushing against his. âSo what happens now?â
Kaiâs gaze drifted to the window, where snowflakes floated lazily past the glass. âNow⌠we rebuild. We continue to make them believe again. Together.â
Your heart swelled at just that one word. âTogether.â
He smiled and kissed you â slow and sweet, like he had all the time in the world now.
The frost crunched softly under your boots as you made your usual morning stroll to the little schoolhouse. Fresh snow blanketed the town, glittering under the pale sunlight. Your scarf was wrapped snug around your neck, cheeks flushed from the cold. For the first time in weeks, there was peace again. The strange tension had lifted, people treated you normally again, as you knew now that it had all been Pitchâs doing â those little stunts twisting others against you.
It had been a few days since his defeat. Your dreams had turned soft again â filled with a boy with white hair who never left your side.
You let out a quiet sigh, lost in thought, until a sudden gust of wind brushed past you. You jumped with a high-pitched squeak before laughing when a familiar chill touched your skin, and arms slipped around your waist from behind.
âI swear you have a vendetta against peace and quiet,â you giggled, leaning into the cool chest behind you.
âOops,â Kai murmured, not sounding sorry at all as he pressed a quick kiss to the top of your head. âDidnât mean to scare you. Well⌠kind of.â
âSure, sure.â You shot him a sideways glance as he fell into step beside you. His hood was pulled up, snowflakes clinging to his lashes, but his smile was impossibly bright.
You walked together as your hands brushed each other every so often.Â
You walked together, hands brushing now and then, until something made you slow. Kai didnât notice at first. He kept talking â something about Beomgyu putting glitter on Yeonjunâs newly painted eggs, making him crash out â before realizing you werenât beside him anymore.
He looked over his shoulder and found you frozen in place. Your eyes were fixed on something just past him, making him follow your gaze.Â
A group of children stood in the snowy schoolyard, mid-snowball fight, arms half-raised and eyes wide in stunned awe. Every single one of them was staring at him.
ââŚWhat?â Kai blinked slowly.
You just kept looking between the kids and Kai. âTheyâre staring⌠at you.â
Kai turned again and raised a hand in an awkward wave. That was all it took.
âItâs Jack Frost!!â one boy squealed, dropping his snowball.
âCan you do the thing again?! When the ice goes like swooooshhhââ
âPlease! Make a giant snowman!â
Kai barely had time to brace himself before half a dozen tiny bodies barreled into him, laughing and tugging at his sleeves. Their excitement was infectious â and in seconds, his surprise melted into a glowing grin. He ruffled one kidâs hair and flicked frost across anotherâs glove with a wave of his fingers.
You watched from a few feet back, heart warm and full as you let yourself soak in the moment.
It was really happening, and there was no one to stop you now.
That evening, the scent of garlic and herbs filled your kitchen as you stirred a pot on the stove. The windows were fogged with steam, your cheeks rosy from the warmth. You were humming softly to the music flowing from your speaker when a gentle knock sounded at the door.
It creaked open, the heavy thud of boots filling the hallway.
âThereâs the star of the show,â you teased without looking up.
Kai stepped inside, leaving his boots by the door. Snowflakes clung to his hood as he shook them free, a bashful smile tugging at his lips. âThatâs going to take some getting used to.â
Still peeling a potato, you felt him cross the kitchen before he pressed his face into the crook of your neck, hugging you from behind. âI mean it. I still canât believe itâthat they saw me. That they knew me.â His voice was muffled against your skin.
âI can,â you said, as you dried your hands off and turned around in his arms. Your hands slid to the back of his neck, fingers playing with the soft strands of hair there. âYouâre unforgettable, Jack Frost.â
His forehead dropped to yours, cheeks warming with color. âThank you,â he whispered. âFor everything youâve done. For believing in me.â
You leaned up and kissed him gently. âI would do all of it again in a heartbeat.â
The stew behind you bubbled softly as Kai leaned closer, his hand slipping beneath your shirt to hold you tighter. âI love you,â he breathed.
You blinked, startled, and his eyes widened with panic at his own words. But your grin broke through, as even the tips of his ears flushed red. âI love you too, silly.â
Relief washed over him, pulling you in to let your lips meet again, but something strange happened, or rather, didnât happen, as Kai noticed you didnât shiver at his touch like you usually do. Kai blinked and pulled back slightly. âYouâre not flinching.â
Both your gazes fell to the place where his skin met yours. A soft golden glow bloomed beneath your shirt, light unfurling in gentle waves. Youâre eyes widened at the sight infront of you. âWhat is thatâŚ?â
Kai didnât answer. His eyes lifted past you â to the full moon pouring through the window, casting bright silver beams straight into the cabin where you stood.
A bright grin broke across his face, as if he already knew what it meant. âThank you,â he whispered into the silence.
âWho are you thanking?â
Kai looked back at you, brushing a strand of hair behind your ear. âThe Moon,â he said softly. âIt gave me my name and powers all those years ago. And nowâŚâ His smile deepened. âItâs given me yours to keep.â
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