Arcus // ATEEZ ✔

24: before it ends

Inis Realm

Their world resumes.

The 9 of them watch as the sky turns a purple hue, the colour gradually getting darker as if something is brewing, about to explode. They squirm from where they stand, holding hands with each other as they accept the fact that after all of this is over, they'll no longer exist. The world Jinju had created for them will be obsolete, and they'll be nothing but characters in a story, names on a page. They close their eyes, waiting for their bodies to turn into nothing, brought away and swallowed whole.

They understand the reason for their existence; they were built from the imagination of Oh Jinju, and they were only acting based on the story she had wrote for them. Once she had find out the truth, she would pass on and the world right here would be paused. The moment her soul is laid to rest and the people around her has learnt to accept her passing away, is the moment their world will be destroyed.

"It's not over yet," Hongjoong utters before he breaks off from the group and climbs up the structure.

It's his intuition to act impulsively, but he knows: someone in the real world had continued the story, written for this scene to happen. He doesn't have much time before Narae's body reaches the ground, and that's where he'll lose the chance for them to continue the story.

He launches off the tower, racing down as he reaches out his hands, calculating the possibility of him swooping in to catch Narae before she reaches the ground. He grabs a hold of her hand before he has to forcefully pull her towards him, trying to defy gravity as he wraps his arms around her.

She has her eyes closed but as she feels someone holding her she dares to open them, and she sees Hongjoong looking at her, telling her that she should only focus on him, trying to distract her from the surrounding. The king knows that the princess is scared of heights.

After giving a small smile and nodding to assure her that everything's going to be okay, he lets her bury her face inside his embrace as they descend slowly.

"It's going to be fine, princess," he assures as he lands on his feet. "We're already on the ground."

The princess doesn't let go and curls herself silently. He doesn't put her down, letting her take a moment to compose herself, knowing that she's shaken from the experience.

"Are you hurt anywhere?" he asks while looking at her face, partially covered with her black hair.

As she slowly shakes her head without saying anything, he gives a sigh of relief. She untucks her head and opens her eyes, and while he is still carrying her, he stares at her and smiles. Despite having a near-death experience just moments ago, she feels her stomach churning not from the fear, but from the butterflies dancing around in her stomach. Wordlessly, he puts her down and helps her to tidy up her hair.

"Are you-" Hongjoong starts but he gets cut off.

Impulsively Narae throws herself to the king, kissing him full on the lips. Hongjoong gets taken aback slightly, but it doesn't take much for him to return the gesture. By the end both of them are staring at each other, unsure of where the vigour had come from.

"I- I- have no idea what just happened, but I-" Narae stutters. "-felt like it was necessary to do that."

"Uh-" Hongjoong starts. "Yeah. Like there's this tugging feeling and someone at the back of your head telling you that you have to do it."

Both of them look up as they hear whistles and shouts from above; some of them are giving them cheeky smiles and thumbs-up, while some look slightly jealous at their interaction.