Chapter Text
"Hongjoong!" a voice shouted.
Hongjoong's eyes flashed open. The brunet swiveled his head side to side, only to see pure darkness.
"Hongjoong!" the voice shouted again.
In the distance, Hongjoong could spot the smallest fleck of golden light, glowing bigger and brighter. Hongjoong stared into the blooming gold light shining straight into his eyes. Panicking, Hongjoong shut his eyes closed, but he could still faintly see the glowing gold through his eyelids.
"Hongjoong! Open your eyes!"
Furrowing his brows, Hongjoong tightly squeezed his eyes, trying to block out the shining gold.
"Please, Hongjoong, open your eyes!"
Despite his attempts, Hongjoong opened his eyes to see a man covered in flowing flames. His long wavy hair blew behind, and there wwere flaming wings sticking out from the man's back. But his piercing gold eyes, those sent a shiver down Hongjoong's spine.
"Find me, Hongjoong," the man said in the same tone as the voice he heard before. "Follow my voice and find me."
The glowing man turned around and floated off into the distance, with Hongjoong following close behind. As the darkness passed by, the glowing man progressively dimmed darker and darker until--
"HONGJOONG! HONGJOONG!"
Hongjoong sat up in his bed, throwing his sheets from above his chest to the side. To his left was his mother, holding another pillow and an ice pack.
His mother placed the back of her hand on Hongjoong's forehead. "You were talking in your sleep again, Hongjoong." Hongjoong's mother placed the ice pack on his forehead, holding it in place.
"I'm sorry mom, I didn't mean to wake you up," Hongjoong apologized.
"I know you didn't," his mother smiled, lifting the ice pack to place a kiss on Hongjoong's forehead before laying the ice pack back down. "Just know you're safe now."
Hongjoong sighed. The gold figure who haunted his dreams caused him to wake up in the middle of the night, scared and sweaty. He constantly reminded himself that he was lucky that this started happening during his summer break before he moves away for college. At least, hopefully the dreams will be gone by then.
"What was the dream this time?" Hongjoong's mother asked, as she took up the icepack off of Hongjoong's forehead.
"The same gold fairy as last time, calling me to find him," he replied, staring into his mother's wide eyes. "It felt real this time, I swear."
"Hongjoong," his mother stated. "You know fairies don't exist."
"But mother, what if they do?" Hongjoong's eyebrows furrowed. "I have been having this dream for weeks! It must be a message, a sign, something--"
"Hongjoong, please, just get some rest." Hongjoong watched as his mother slowly creeped towards the door, melted ice pack in hand. "And lay off the video games for a while and go into outside because clearly your screen usage has negative effects on your mind."
Rolling his eyes, Hongjoong shifted back underneath the covers of his bed, as his mother left the room and closed the door quietly.
Maybe his mother was right. Maybe all his dreams meant nothing and magic was not real.
And soon enough, the realm of dreams took over Hongjoong's body once more.
***
After being whisked away to the land of sleep, Hongjoong woke up to a peak of light shining through the smallest crack in the side of the window curtain right over his eyes. He rubbed his eyes as he sat up and saw the time on his alarm clock.
'12 PM!?' Hongjoong thought, as he immediately got out of bed and made a beeline to the bathroom. He rushed his entire morning routine from brushing his teeth to showering to choosing an outfit to doing his hair.
Hongjoong rushed down the staircase to find his father sitting at the dining room table reading the daily newspaper, while his mother was mixing a pot over the stove.
"Good morning, sleepy head," Hongjoong's father smiled. "It's about time you woke up."
"He had another dream last night," Hongjoong's mother stated. "One of the fairy ones again."
His father crunched the pages of the newspaper and put it down on the table. "You know fairies aren't real, right?"
"Of course, I know that." Hongjoong sighed, as he opened the cupboard and took out a box of cereal. He blocked out his parents' nagging while pouring milk that he took out from the fridge into his bowl of cereal. After placing the milk back in the fridge, Hongjoong sat at the table across from his father, who went back to reading his newspaper. Hongjoong ate his cereal as quick as he could without alerting his parents that he was trying to leave the house as soon as possible.
When Hongjoong was finally done with his cereal, he washed his plate and placed it in the dishwasher before saying goodbye to his parents. He went into the garage to find his bike, which he took out the side door and began riding down the street.
If Hongjoong ever needed a break from his schoolwork, his parents, and now also his dreams, he would ride his bike straight to Gardenia's Central Park. It was a short ride down the street, and Hongjoong could easily get there in fifteen minutes. He always sat on a bench in a clearing full of cherry blossom trees, which were still just as bright and pink as they were in April during peak blooming season.
Hongjoong took in a shallow breath. 'Why do my parents never believe that my dreams are real?' He stared at the cherry blossoms above, admiring the different shapes and colorations of each color and--
A small shockwave rumbled Hongjoong out of his thoughts, and he stood immediately. 'Is this a--' but another shockwave hit, knocking him down. He felt more shockwaves as he tried his best to stand up, and curious, Hongjoong decided to look for where the waves were coming from.
Hongjoong creeped towards the treeline, trying to approximate when the shockwaves would hit next so he wouldn't fall over again. That's when he heard a voice shouting.
"You think you're so strong!"
Hongjoong hid and peeked around a tree and spotted a boy with short, blond hair wearing an orange tank top that was cut at the side in a way that tapered across the body, letting part of his abs show. He was also wearing skin-tight matching orange leggings and boots. The main thing that stuck out to Hongjoong, was the blue, see-through wings with three points sticking out on each side.
'A fairy!' Hongjoong gasped, watching as the blond fairy utilized its blue staff with a sun design at the top to hit the attacking red creatures away.
Three of the red creatures ran towards the fairy, as he called out, "Solar Wind," while bringing his staff down to rhe ground.
The impact with the ground caused multiple beams of light to shoot out in the direction of the creatures, knocking them back. One of which, landed right in the hand of a giant, yellow ogre that crushed the red creature into gold sparks.
"Go away, you ogre, or you will feel the wrath of the Sun and Moon Fairy!" The fairy yelled, but it only caused the ogre to get angry.
Storming towards the fairy, the ogre pushed the fairy over before he could even react. More of the red creatures crawled towards the fairy, who was clutching his head.
"Your time's up, fairy," the ogre taunted, crossing its arms. "Ghouls, take the staff!"
The red creatures sped towards the fairy and each grabbed a limb to hold the fairy down. The ogre saunted over towards the fairy, and ripped the staff right out of the fairy's hand.
"Not so brave are you?" the ogre asked, bending down to look at the fairy right in the face. The fairy flinched back and shook.
"Get away from him!" Hongjoong hollered, stepping out from the trees. "Or else I'll..." Hongjoong looked up for a split second. "Wait, what will I do?"
"Get him!" the ogre shouted at the ghouls, who all focused their attention towards charging at Hongjoong.
Hongjoong's eyes widened as the creatures ran towards him. "Get back!" he yelled, holding his hand out, and he shut his eyes.
But, there was no impact. Hongjoong opened his eyes to see all the ghouls vanished into thin area.
Staring at his hands, Hongjoong quietly spoke, "Did I just do that?"
During his moment of pause, though, the ogre charged over and picked up Hongjoong by the arms. Holding Hongjoong in the air, the monster threatened, "I'm going to smash you like a china doll!"
'Oh no!' Hongjoong thought, as his eyes began seeing... sparks of blue?
A blue bubble formed around Hongjoong, expanding rapidly until it exploded, shining blue sparks across the clearing, knocking the ogre and all the remaining ghouls straight to the ground.
"Wow, you're so powerful!" the fairy looked at Hongjoong in awe, who was catching his breath on the group.
Wheezing in and out, Hongjoong heard steps walking towards him, and Hongjoong looked up to see the fairy, holding his staff once again.
"Are you okay?" the fairy asked. Hongjoong gave a thumbs up before turning to sit down better.
The fairy zapped the ogre with a large gold beam, then turned the staff towards the ghouls, bursting all the creatures into golden sparks.
"We'll meet again, blondie," the ogre said after getting up, before being transported away by a purple light.
"Thank goodness, they're gone at last!" the fairy spoke towards Hongjoong. However, Hongjoong watched as the fairy went limp at the knees, falling over to the ground.
Hongjoong ran over to the fairy on the ground, whose outfit magically changed from the tank top and leggings to an orange collared shirt and orange slacks. He noticed the fairy wore a silver coronet on top of his head, and the staff was completely disappeared.
"Are you okay?" Hongjoong checked, but all he got in return from the fairy was a bunch of babbles of meaningless phrases and words.
"Here, let me help you." Hongjoong moved the fairy's right arm around his shoulders and helped the man up with his left arm. He walked the dazed fairy towards the bench where Hongjoong left his bike, and Hongjoong used his right hand to hold onto the bike's handle and push the bike along.
What was usually a 15 minute bike ride became a 30 minute walk to Hongjoong's home, where Hongjoong went through the side door into the garage and dropped his bike off before bringing the fairy inside the house and dropping him on the couch.
"Hongjoong, who is that?" His mother asked, who stood from her seat at the dining room table and walked towards Hongjoong.
"Mom, I found him at the park. He was fighting off a giant man who also had powers that was trying to steal his septar. He's a fairy, a real life fairy. In our world, I can't--"
"He can't be a fairy, they don't exist! And you brought a random stranger into our house! Just wait until your father hears about thi--" Hongjoong's mother ranted.
"Hears about what?" Hongjoong's father entered the room, eyes widdening at the sight of the unknown boy on the couch.
"Hongjoong says this boy is a fairy, and he just saved him from an evil monster," Hongjoong's mother explained.
Hongjoong's father began ranting about fairies being fake, and Hongjoong needing to get his eyes checked, but Hongjoong kept paying attention to the fairy. The fairy's eyes slowly flickered open, and the boy sat up on the couch.
"Where am I?" the fairy asked, looking around, but once his eyes focused onto Hongjoong, the fairy smiled. "You saved me."
"Yes, I did," Hongjoong smiled in return.
"Your powers are so strong! I cannot believe you've been hidden in the human realm for so long!" the fairy exclaimed.
"Powers? Likely story, that's not possible," Hongjoong's father denied.
"Oh sir, but it is," Yunho retorted. "My name is Yunho, and I am the Crown Prince of Solaria, a planet in the Magic Dimension."
"I don't believe this. I'm calling the cops," Hongjoong's mother walked towards the landline on the kitchen counter, but Yunho pointed at the landline, which sent sparks out that caused the landline to turn into an onion. "Oh my!"
Hongjoong's mother looked at Hongjoong's father in shock. Hongjoong's father turned towards Yunho. "Maybe he is a real fairy?"
"I most certainly am." Yunho crossed his arms. "And your son most certainly is, too. He generated a force field that saved me from an attack that could have killed me!"
"I don't know how I did it," Hongjoong replied.
Yunho giggled. "A fairy doesn't need to know how to do something, he just does it."
"I'm...a fairy?" Hongjoong gulped.
"Of course, you are! Don't tell me you're not. Have you registered for the new program at Althea castle? It's the best school for young fairies like you and me."
"No, no, no, stop talking nonsense, please," Hongjoong's father complained, as he rubbed his forehead.
"But, what if it's not nonsense?" Hongjoong's mother spoke up, then looked directly into her husband's eyes. "I think it really could be possible that our son is a fairy.”