WHITE

"How do you know Scythe?"

"Holy crap!"

Brushing off my shocked yell without even blinking, V repeats his question as calmly as five seconds ago while I'm trying my best to calm down my own heart attack.

"Scythe."

"You mean Jungkook?" I ask, a bit confused at the fierce look in his usual cold green eyes. "The one that I—"

"Yes, the one you fought today." He nods, frustration clear in his voice as he growls. "He would've ripped your mentality into shreds if he didn't know you personally."

"Is that what he does?" I ask, surprised at the unexpected Blessing for such an innocent and bright person. "Wait, why do you sound— did you actually want my mentality in shreds?"

"Yes— what?" Then he stops himself, pale cheeks blushing with either emotions of anger or embarrassment. "I mean— why can't you just understand, demoiselle? I didn't just speak a different language."

"I met him the first time I was here." I say, the anger dissipating at the surprise that I'd managed to snap him so easily. "He was the one who led me to Winter Wing, you know."

But when I look back at him because of the silence, he nods once before walking out of the room. His face is back to the same thing as a stone palette, and I sigh as he mutters over his shoulder.

"For the afternoon lesson, see me in Ever Hall."

And then the door closes behind him, and I'm left wondering where in the world that was supposed to be. I'm staring off into space with my legs crossed on the bed when there's a knock on the door.

I look up.

"V?"

"Can I come in?" But instead of the face I was expecting, I see someone completely different. Jungkook has a smile tugging on his lips as he pokes his head through my doorway, expression mischievous.

"Yeah— hold on for a second." I say, jumping off of my bed and hurrying around to quickly clean the pile of battledress and carelessly-tossed boots.

"Okay." I breathe, opening the door to fully reveal his always-amused face. He hasn't taken off his clothes from earlier, still wearing black and silver shine over his eyes. "Okay, you can come in now."

"Were you expecting someone else?" He says, and my cheeks warm with an embarrassed blush as I shake my head. He must've heard me call out V's name when he knocked.

Now that I think about it, it pisses me off.

"No, of course not." I huff, annoyed at myself as I cross my arms and hold up my head. "What are you talking about?"

His smile widens.

"Anyways, thank you." I say genuinely, recalling early morning. "If I hadn't gotten paired up with you, I would've been screwed."

"No problem." He laughs, eyes curving into crescents. "I see Siren hasn't managed to gotten to the language part yet."

"She has." I stress, trying to make my words more careful. "I just suck— I mean I'm just bad at it. I've talked like this all my life."

"So— I heard your Blessing was something related to the mind?"

His eyes flicker to me at my abrupt question.

"You're not wrong." He says smoothly, eyes never losing the hint of mirth. "You heard that? From who?"

"V." I confess, can't helping the curiosity burning in my eyes. "He only gave me bits and pieces though. But one thing's for sure— if you didn't like me, then I would have my mind shattered apart, right?"

He laughs.

"Yes, you should be thankful I favor you." Then his eyes narrow a little bit, his right hand tensing behind his back. "I don't shatter minds, though."

"I just— change them a bit."

I blink. Somehow that sounds much more scarier, but I try my hardest not to show the astonishment in my features as I change up the topic.

"Do you prefer Scythe?"

"You must call me by my Blessing name in front of the others, Miss White." He says firmly, and I understand. Being comfortable with friends in this place was harder than trying to fit a camel through the eye of a needle. "No exceptions."

"Right." I say promptly, but then I suddenly jump when a burst of pain courses through my body. My gaze instantly flickers towards Jungkook, but he hadn't noticed.

When I glance at my palm, my lips part in confusion.

There's— a burn mark.

It looks exactly like V's, even though it's a lot smaller. Even the fiery glow is there, fading away after delivering its shock of agony.

What.....?

"I'll see you at dinner." He says, making me look up as he bows loosely. "I just wanted to check on you to see if you were fine— I was unsure if being that close to my Blessing affected you."

He shoots me one of his bright smiles before walking out the door.

"But you seem to be okay."

The moment the door shuts tightly behind Jungkook, I flip my palm upside down and stare blankly at the dark mark looking back up at me.

Was this because of Jungkook—

No. It couldn't be. The mark looked way too close to V's for it to be something caused by someone else. But this, too, made zero sense.

Sleep solves everything.

Pushing the burn to the back of my mind, I pull the blankets over my head. It was probably not permanent, and even the flashes of pain weren't that often—

Then I break into another mini-seizure as pain like someone was tearing my hand in two rips through my senses.

A forced whimper escapes my lips.

So this is what he'd felt like?

Biting my lips hard enough to draw blood, I press my other hand against the marked palm and will my Blessing to heal.

And then I nearly die.

Red flashes in front of my eyes, and I scream and break into tears as the mark grows instead of disappearing.

I need help.

Kicking off the blankets with my vision blurry, I don't even bother putting on my shoes as I run out to the halls barefoot. Terror that another wave of horrifying agony would come soon, I run insanely fast to the only person I can.

But when I fling open the doors to Winter Wing gasping for breath like a fish on land, neither Jimin or V are there.

Are you kidding me right now?!

Heart leaping in my chest, I freeze for a long moment. I don't know where to go, what I needed to do to escape from this pain.

I need to do something, or I'm going to go crazy.

More urgent than I'd ever been in my entire life, I find myself flinging open random doors before finally getting a grip on my sanity.

Calm the hell down.

Anxiety freezes my blood as I make my way back to V's room, checking to see if he'd returned. But he isn't there, and I force myself to take more deep breaths at the panic roaring in my ears.

It would be much more logical waiting for him here than running around turning this damn Palace upside down searching for him.

The pain hits when I'm least prepared for it.

Trembling violently, I cover my face in my hands as I tuck my knees close to my cold figure. The tension releases when the pain draws back, and I want o cry as I hug myself tighter.

Ow, ow, ow.

"White?"