#20200804

I told you to tell me when you’re tired! We could have taken more stops! he can imagine you nagging as you drag him towards a hollowed out tree. He lets out a coughy-laugh at his hypothetical dialogue and continues the rest of the walk himself, knowing you too are worn out from using magic nonstop. 

‘I’m going to get some more water,’ you write to him, waving your empty bottles.

‘I’ll come with,’ he replies, getting up from the tree.

You shake your head and force him to sit back down. ‘Rest. The stream’s not far, and I have my daggers.’

‘Well, yell if another dragon spots you.’

You salute him, and he watches your back walk away with a tired sigh. Wearily, he leans back against the tree and looks up for any predators. He doesn’t even notice his vision growing dimmer and dimmer as the winter breeze tickles at his hairs until a voice pulls him out of his slumber.

“Hwang Hyunjin? I finally found you! This forest made it a tad difficult, but no worries.”

The Terror freezes. He knows that voice anywhere. “Lee.”

“Long time no see, my boy. Turns out you were hiding in this academy all along! I should have known.”

Hyunjin turns slowly around to see the man he hates most now with a large scar across a sewn-shut eye that was not there before. In his hand dangles a purple necklace. “You can’t do anything when I’m human,” he snarls.

Lee chuckles. “So what? You’re going to stay like this for the rest of the race? You can’t even survive like that out here, let alone win.”

“How did you get in here anyway? This is a students only event,” Hyunjin hisses.

“How doesn’t matter,” the man hums. “What matters is that I’ve found you now, and it’s only the matter of when you’re going to be mine again. Speaking of which, how’s your new rider? Pretty little thing, isn’t she?”

“You keep your dirty hands off of her!” Hyunjin hollers.

Lee only chuckles at his anger. “Oh, my dear boy. You know that you’re the only one I’m interested in, but if she can help me get to you, then I suppose I don’t mind her company again.”

Again?

“Ever wonder why my dragon isn’t here right now?”

As if on cue, a grey reptile lifts off into the sky. Between its two front paws is you, tied and gagged. Behind your back, your fingers are spelling something.

‘Run!’

Like claws he will! Not when you were attacked by goblins and definitely not now. He unsheathes a knife and makes a long cut along the abdominon of the dragon as it swoops down. It roars in pain and drops you.

Hyunjin dashes over, standing between you and the foe. Lee mounts his pet and again flies towards Hyunjin, grabbing you both between different limbs, and returns to the air. Hyunjin stabs and stabs with his knife, but with his master on his back, the grey dragon’s body is no longer its own. It can roar all it wants, but trumpets of victory is all Lee can hear. 

“So nice to see you again, Miss L/N. I’ve been looking for you too.”

Hyunjin looks at you confused. What business did you have with Lee, and why was he talking aloud to you? However, you are too occupied thrashing around to free yourself to notice your friend.

Knowing you can’t respond to him with your gag, Lee turns to Hyunjin. “So what’s it going to be, Boy? Are you going to transform, or am I going to have to kill this poor, innocent girl here?” he taunts, having the dragon fly higher and higher into the sky. “Guess you can decide on your way down!”

With that, the dragon drops both your and his bodies. Hyunjin knows that it’s all over for him if he transforms, but it’s all over for both of you if he doesn’t. The ground is approaching much faster than survivable. Decide on his way down? There’s only one option given to him, and Lee knows it.

Hyunjin pulls you into his arms, tearing away your gag and mumbling a spell. Lee cackles triumphantly as deep purple scales appear before his eyes. He flies closer to Hyunjin and casts a spell immediately, making him freeze up to prevent him from flying away. However, this means Hyunjin is continuing accelerating downward.

A dragon can survive a fall from this height, but not you who is still wrapped up in his frozen arms. Luckily, there’s one part of him that Lee doesn’t control: his white prosthetic fin. Hyunjin angles it so that he rotates just in time for him to land on his back and uses his belly to absorb your impact.

“How sweet, taking the fall for your savior this time, eh?” Lee teases, walking over to the fallen dragon. Hyunjin can only glare at him uselessly. 

Savior? He doesn’t have much time to think as pain replaces all thoughts when Lee wastes no time on his first incision, this time for a claw. He can hear you singing from between his arms where he has you securely protected between his arms, but it is in vain; even you cannot over power another magician whom a dragon has sworn to. 

“You know, maybe it was a good thing you were rescued six years ago,” Lee hums cockily, inspecting the claw he has just detached from the Terror. “Your parts are even more beautiful now that they’ve matured.”

Rescued? Hyunjin doesn’t remember any of this. One moment he blacked out from pain, and the next, he woke up at this school.

Just then, he hears a voice from above. “Hyunjin?”

On any other day, the Terror would have cursed at that voice, but today, it was music to his ears.

“Oh my claws, that’s Hyunjin!” cries Chan

“Got more friends to help you out?” Lee scoffs. “What are they going to do against a Twilight Terror?”

He forces Hyunjin onto his feet, dropping you to the side and mounting the dragon to which Hyunjin screeches in distress, but before he can see where you landed, Lee has already taken him into the air. From a distance, Changbin is zeroing in on his location.

“Fire.”

Hyunjin watches in horror as a flame erupts from his own mouth towards his friend. 

“Wanna fight?” Changbin roars, narrowly missing the attack.

“It’s my rider’s doing!”

“Rider? I thought you hated riders!”

“He’s why!” 

“Hyunjin!” Chan exclaims once he’s confirmed his identity.

“A prefect, eh? Ooh, I’m really scared,” Lee laughs.

“Where’s Y/N?” demands Chan.

“Somewhere. Don’t care. You can find her now before some wild goblins kill her, or you can try to fight me and end up dead. No guarantee your corpses would be buried together though.”

“And who are you?” growls Chan. He casts his gaze down and sees Hyunjin’s bleeding paw. “Nevermind, I know exactly who you are, Lee.”

“Surprise, surprise! I’m famous! But unfortunately for you, your time to escape unscathed has run out,” Lee snickers, making Hyunjin release another shot of fire. 

“Just find Y/N!” Hyunjin begs his roommate.

“And leave you to this man?”

“Don’t worry, Hyunjin,” Chan calls out as if he can read the dragon’s mind. “Y/N’s not that weak. Just worry about yourself for now!”

Chan avoids another fireball as he talks. Regardless of who’s controlling him, Hyunjin is still Hyunjin, and Chan cannot hurt him. He also knows that any attack he aims at Lee will just be blocked using the Terror’s body. How is he to free him from that man? he ponders, skillfully slanting Changbin to avoid a stream of flames. 

In the midst of his planning, Chan spts something grey in the corner of his eye. He suppresses a giggle when he notices it’s you on the back of Lee’s previous ride with your ability to control other dragons. You are signing a rescue plan to him, and Chan repeats it to Changbin who relays it to Hyunjin discreetly, all the while standing his ground against Lee and keeping everything under the villain’s radar.

Hyunjin wants to yelp happily knowing that you are alright, but he keeps his calm to hide your presence. He gives the slightest of nods when he’s understood the plan, hoping that you can see it. Once you’ve received the okay signal, you jump into action.

Lee is surprised to say the least. You swoop in with his dragon, biting off Hyunjin’s white prosthetic which throws the dragon off balance. Unlike you, Lee has never flown Hyunjin with only half the normal number of fins. He yells curses as his dragon begins to topple, and Chan takes this chance to attack from the front, ripping off Hyunjin’s necklace. 

As soon as he does so, Both Lee and Hyunjin begin their descent to the ground, so Changbin grabs Hyunjin. 

“You won’t succeed again L/N!” Lee curses having spotted you. Since you and the dragon you are riding are nearby, Lee regains control of it, overpowering your magic with his rights as its owner.

“Y/N!” Chan yells, reaching his hand down for you as Changbin swoops in, lifting you away from the reach of Lee. Together, you watch the man ride away with taunts of his return.

“I told them the course wasn’t ready!” Chan scowls as soon as all four of you are back on the ground.

“What do you mean?”

“Remember when I got pulled out of the winter ball?” he both sighs and signs. “There was something wrong with the force field around the course. Force fields are what keeps nonstudents like that creep out of campus, but we were having trouble maintaining the one around this course. I told them we needed more time to fix it, but they insisted that the New Year’s Race can’t be postponed!”

‘Well what are we going to do now?’ you ask. ‘Hyunjin can’t turn into a dragon for even a second, and two humans aren’t going to survive until midnight in this forest.’

“Having three people on a dragon might be dangerous especially with all these battles going on, but we can wait here with you,” Chan offers, and Changbin nods. 

‘We can’t possibly ask that of you. Besides, Lee already has his eyes on Hyunjin. He can’t keep hiding in the school forever.’

“I have a plan,” Hyunjin announces. All heads turn towards him, and he to you with his notepad. ‘I’ll swear to you. It’s the only way you can overpower Lee.’

Changbin agrees, silently surprised that Hyunjin is willing to hand himself to another rider after six years of swearing that it’ll never happen. Chan on the other hand, is surprised at how bewildered you look. Shouldn’t you be ecstatic that he’s finally accepted you?

You grab Hyunjin’s wrist and stare into his eyes. Don’t.

Your partner furrows his brows. ‘Why not?’

You look around and finally back to your partner. ‘Can we talk? Privately.’

Hyunjin nods and excuses the two of you. Once you’re alone, you start writing urgently.

‘You can’t swear to me.’

‘This whole time, I thought I was the one with a problem with it, not you.’

‘It’s just that…’ You bite your lip, unsure of how to tell him. ‘I don’t want to hurt you.’

Hyunjin takes your hand in his. ‘What do you mean?’

‘The first person you’ve sworn to has already hurt you. If I do it too, you’d never recover from it.’

‘Y/N, what are you trying to say?’

You pull your hand back and turn away. ‘I’m not a dragon rider, and I was never intended to be your rider from the day we were assigned to each other,’ you finally confess. 

Hyunjin puts a hand on your shoulder to turn you back his way. You can’t look at him.

‘I’m a dragon trainer. Because I can control dragons that aren’t my own, I’m hired to rehabilitate injured and traumatized dragons such as yourself. After the treatment is complete, I adjust them to a real rider.’

Hyunjin can’t believe his eyes. ‘So what are you saying? All this time, everything we’ve been through together, you did just for a wage? All the things you’ve said to me, were they all just scripts?’ Are all my feelings just bought by money? 

You press his hand down to stop him from writing and shake your head fervently. ‘I sincerely care for every dragon I work with!’

He glares at you.

‘Please believe me…’ You bite your lip. ‘And if it makes you feel any better, I’m not getting paid to work with you.’

‘Then why are you here?’ he scoffs, making you wince.

‘The girl who rescued you from Lee six years ago asked me to be here.’

‘Someone you owed a favor to or--’ He cuts himself off, and his eyes widen into round discs upon realization. How familiar he thought you looked from the start. How you knew his preference for appai berries. The unidentified girl in his flashbacks. How Lee knew who you are earlier. It all adds up. 

“It was you,” he breathes, his voice barely a whisper as memories he tried to repress come rushing back. 

“Why?” he kept roaring. “Why?” 

In his blurred vision, he spotted an pre-teen version of you, Lee’s rider-in-trainning, approaching him with a blade behind your back. 

“Ah, Miss L/N. Have you brought the other scalpels like I asked?”

You nod your head carefully having picked up a sense of what he is attempting. “What are you doing, Master?”

“Let me teach you the real reason we spend so much time befriending these beasts,” Lee chuckled. “Watch!” 

With that, he ripped Hyunjin’s fin clean off, making your heart drum in your ear with fear.

“No!” you cried. You raised your hidden blade, trying to stop your mentor. You succeed, giving him a large gash right across his eye. 

Lee screamed, and his magic faltered for just a moment. You took this chance to approach Hyunjin for his necklace, but all he saw was a person coming at him with a knife. In his fear, Hyunjin released a series of flames. You managed to rip off his necklace right as Lee recovered from the shock and as the dungeon Hyunjin lit on fire began tumbling down on all of you.

And then all was quiet.

The last thing he saw before the world went black was a girl struggling to get a pillar off of him. She was bleeding in the head right where her auditory cortexes were.

‘I was so scared of Lee, I left you at Sheng Academy and ran. I hid and got around with whatever wild dragon I can use to enter local competitions for their prize money and learned to ride without my ears until a rich lady recognized what I can do and paid me to rehabilitate one of her trophy dragons with an amputated leg. My career started after that.’

‘So I’m the one who blew out your ears?’ Hyunjin gasps.

‘That’s not the point.’ You reach up for his cheek as a single tear of guilt slides down. ‘The point is, you don’t want to swear to me.’

‘No, I can and I will,’ Hyunjin writes adamantly. ‘You can leave me, or cut me up; I don’t care. It’s the only way we can get Lee off both our backs.’ 

You disagree. ‘We can break his pendant and release you from your oath.’

‘Nothing can break a magic pendant though.’

‘No, not nothing.’

“You’re insane,” Changbin decides, demanding that Chan signs it to you which the latter refuses.

‘What are the chances of its success?’ Chan asks instead.

‘It depends on him,’ you answer, motioning to Hyunjin. ‘You need to leave now, or this won’t work.’

‘This… this is too dangerous. I can’t allow it!’ 

You look Chan in the eyes. Your charisma isn’t only limited to dragons. ‘You’re going to have to.’

The oldest male takes your hand and frowns at you. He then kisses the back of one before letting go. ‘Come back to me.’

You don’t answer.

Hyunjin makes sure Chan has left before he turns back to where they have found Lee sleeping on a field. “Okay, here we go.”

You nod and step into the clearing, carefully sliding a blade from your thigh. The winter sunset kisses your hair as you tiptoe towards the man. You let out a low note to keep his dragon asleep and hover over your target. You pull the knife back and bring it down to his neck when a hand catches your wrist.

“You honestly think that would work?” Lee sneers. “Have you learned nothing from your time with me?”

You snarl and jump back.

“Why so shy? It’s just me, Sweetie,” he hums, standing up and spreading his arms out. “But honestly, what were you thinking, coming alone at me with nothing but a dagger? What happened to your other friends? Left you behind to complete the race, I suppose? That is quite typical of prefects; they care about nothing but their image.”

Hyunjin clenches his jaw, feeling oddly defensive for the rider.

He continues. “Not answering? That’s alright. I must admit, it’s rather noble of you to try and save little Hyunjin, but as I always say, noble acts are usually the most foolish ones.”

Lee says something and his dragon awakens. It knocks you to the ground, and Lee bounds you up like before. “Now, let’s hear you scream for your knight in shining armor.”

He takes your own blade and digs it into your shoulder, staining your white coat with red. You bite your tongue and snarl at him.

“Resilient, aren’t you? That’s why I took you under my wing. Well, that and your special ability.” A round kick to the head. “Too bad your heart isn’t nearly as tough. We could have been rich, Miss L/N, we really could have. That Terror could have bought us a whole mansion with a pretty fountain in the front.” Another stab. You can’t hold it this time and let out a cry. “There it is! Good girl,” Lee approves. “You know, it’s not too late. Just give me the Terror, and I’ll let you free! I’ll even take you back and give you your own room in the mansion.” 

Lee sighs at your lack of response and motions at his dragon. It takes a step back and conjugates magic at its mouth for an attack. At this, Hyunjin cannot sit still and watch any longer. With a powerful roar, he flies into the clearing and throws the other reptile into the trees while shooting a fireball at Lee. 

“Oh goodie!” Lee cheers and grounds Hyunjin immediately. He turns to you and pulls on a rope which tugs you up so that you dangle from a tree. “I’ll tell you how this is going to work this time, Hyunjin. I am going to light this tree on fire--” he does so-- “and going to take, oh, just some of your parts. If you cooperate, I might finish in time for what’s left of you to save her before she burns to death! Isn’t that fun?”

Hyunjin roars in protest, but stays still for his master. He keeps his eyes on you as you thrash around in attempts to save yourself from the incoming flames. He doesn’t even feel Lee's knife entering the second part of his tail; all he can hear are your panicked gasps, and all he knows is that Lee is going far too slowly for him to finish on time. Forget his threat, Hyunjin has to break out of his hold now or you’re dead!

But how?

He catches sight of your eyes that are filled with tears from ash irritation and fear of your impending doom. Your gazes lock together and you stop squirming. Slowly, you let a small smile spread over your lips. 

That smile. He has seen that smile before. It’s the one you gave him before saving him from the goblins at your own expense. It’s a smile of gratitude for the time spent together and apologizes for the time you’ve cut short. It’s a smile of hope for him and resignation for yourself. It’s a smile of peace. A smile of acceptance. A smile of farewell.

“Hyunjin...” 

The voice. His name. It’s softer than a feather yet stronger than a storm. It pierces through his heart and awakens something in him. He wants nothing more than to hear it over and over again. From you. From you when you’re happy, from you when you’re mad, from you when you’re excited, from you when you’re alive.

“NO!” he bellows, watching your coat catch its first flames and your body going limp.

Hyunjin wills his front arm to move to crawl to you, and it does. 

“What are you doing?” Lee shrieks as his purple necklace begins to vibrate. “STOP!”

Another step. It’s now enough for Hyunjin to crane his neck up off the floor. 

‘No, not nothing,’ you had told him. ‘A dragon’s loyalty oath puts its master before itself. We just have to find something you want more than Lee when you swore to him. We just have to find something you want more than yourself.’

Hyunjin unflurs his wings and Lee’s necklace shatters into his face, piercing through his brain. This goes unnoticed as only one thought resides in Hyunjin’s mind, body, and soul: hearing you say his name again.

Without either of his tail fins, Hyunjin can no longer fly. He opts to climb through the flames and rip you from the ropes with his jaw. When he succeeds, he falls to the ground and rolls around to put out the flames. 

Hyunjin immediately returns to human form and begins resuscitation on you, ignoring the burns he’d just received himself.

“Come on, Y/N, come on!” he cries. “I did not just agree to your stupid plan for you to die on me!”

He pinches your nose and blows twice, making sure your chest rises each time. On the second one, you suddenly cough, spraying black saliva everywhere. 

“Hyun…” you try before being interrupted with another cough attack.

When you turn back to face him, you see him with the widest smile you’d ever seen. He lets his head collapse onto you and soaks your chest in tears. Weakly, you bring your hand to his head and stroke his hair.

“... jin.”

‘So this is it then? Really?’

You press a new white frame onto his pendant. The second rising sun of the year casts a glow around the both of you.

Hyunjin sighs and helps you adjust your new white coat around your cast. ‘Your wounds haven't even healed yet.’

‘I’ll be fine. Promise.’

‘I know you can be, but I don’t trust that you won’t do something reckless again.’

‘Touche,’ you laugh. It’s a beautiful laugh. Hyunjin wishes he could record this one. ‘Make sure you graduate, okay?’

‘I won’t let you down,’ he promises. ‘Have you told Chan?’

‘Why would I tell Chan?’

He rolls his eyes. ‘You know he has the biggest crush on you.’

‘He deserves someone who’s not trying to get herself killed every week.’

‘Sounds like my kind of girl,” Hyunjin winks. 

You scoff humorously and toss a red bag at him. He catches it and knows exactly what’s inside. 

‘Good work, Hyunjin!’

He shakes his head and pulls out a piece of paper from his pocket, and unfolds the crumpled parchment. He shows you the back of it which reads ‘Good work’ then folds it before flipping it over so that all you can see is the word ‘friend.’ It’s the note you had given him during your first practice when he asked you who you are.

You place a hand over your heart, touched.

Hyunjin walks over and pulls you into a hug. “Thank you. For everything.”

~4 years later~

You wipe sweat from your forehead and look up to the new school you had built for disabled dragons and riders alike. There are still a few odds and ends you have to sort out, but you cannot be more excited for the opening. 

Just then, you feel the snap of a twig from someone approaching you from behind. You whip around to confront the intruder, but before you can, he speaks. Or rather, signs.

‘Are you hiring? I have a degree from Sheng Academy,’ the man signs fluently.

Your aggravation melts into joy. 

“Hyunjin!”

--end--