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He was pretty. So unbelievably pretty that he would not dare to rip his eyes off the boy-sized nymph in front of him, tumbling to the woods while humming along to a song playing in his head. Hair all messed up from the nightly wind, howling through the trees and resonating in each and every spot, but still looking so perfectly styled that there was no doubt that he belonged into this spot. Into the beautiful green that reflected the moonlight back into the sky and, maybe, it wouldn’t have been weird watching the boy strolling through the woods with such confidence if he himself was not ducked behind a bunch of bushes. But he was and he had no intent in changing his location if it meant gazing at the boy longer, brain trying to figure out why he had never seen him before. He wondered where he could have hailed from, because Renjun was convinced he knew every being in his part of the forest even if it sounded pompous. He really did! But the golden hair and tan skin would simply not match to any presence that he had felt prior and it bothered him more than the fact that the subject of his thoughts had just broken at least twenty branches by not paying attention and falling over.
“Oh for fuck’s sake!”, the swearing was more entertaining than the actual fall and it took Renjun all of his self-control to not burst out laughing at the wet leaves stuck in the boy’s hair, which the other seemed to not mind. He listened to him hum, sing along to another song all while trying to stay in hiding and not surprise the other too much. Simultaneously, his brain was running as if doped up, rattling to guess what type of nymph the golden boy could be and he desperately hoped him to be a kissiaie the more he watched him as his heart worked overtime. Nothing felt worse than the throbbing over someone he had barely seen for an hour, nothing felt worse than not being able to build up the courage to approach him and talk. Except the part where Renjun tripped over the singular root pointing out of the ground and couldn’t help but make sounds. Great. Now he had definitely ruined his chances and he was going to get an earful from Jaemin later. His body screamed at him to just keep lying there and not get up from the embarrassment he had put himself through, because who in the world walks in the middle of the night while hiding from a pretty boy. Renjun, that’s right. Would he be in this situation if he had any shred of confidence other than, oh you know, overseeing the woods? No he would not be, but sadly he was and there was no escaping his imminent destruction that came when he slapped his hands over his face and heard footsteps approaching. Closer, closer until he knew the other could see him, especially with that stupid flashlight he turned on on his phone. “Before you say anything”, he groaned, the wet ground staining the back of his shirt and seeping onto his skin, “think if you really want to know about it.” His fingers moved apart a little, away from his eyes so he could meet the others eyes, realizing that even that was a horrible mistake. There wasn’t one flaw. Not a single one and, yes, usually nymphs were creatures of beauty, but he didn’t know there were any that could steal his breath by doing nothing but stare at him with a concerned expression on their face.
The flashlight spazzed off as the boy offered him a hand and Renjun hesitated placing his own in his palm, “I don’t bite?” - “Oh, I was hoping you did”, he didn’t even know where that came from but it was worth joking to see the sun rise, smile so bright that his lips parted in awe as he watched the boy close up. He wasn’t much taller than him, but his skin was speckled with more moles that Renjun could barely make out in the dark surroundings. He was much more beautiful up close, so entrancing that he forgot he was still resting his hand in his palm until his mind snapped back to reality and he awkwardly pulled away. “So, why were you laying on the forest floor again? In the bushes no less?” His brain struggled to come up with something that did not make him out as a stalker, which genuinely he was at this point in time, with the considerable amount of time he had spent watching the taller stroll on the forest path leading directly from the outer ends to the rivers that ran deep with freshwater. Desperation wanted him to disappear into the earth right then and there and he cursed every existing power that he had not in fact been born as a bird, because if he was not humanoid he would not have to be having this conversation and could simply soar through the skies. “Uh”, his voice failed him and his stuttering reflected the mental dilemma he was going through, “I wanted to run home, but hearing you sing distracted me?” He could have been blind and still noted the raised eyebrow he was being given in response to his completely believable story. “I’m honoured? If you hadn’t fallen over your own feet I might even have thought your statement was cute.” The mischievous glint in his eyes matched with his tone of voice and maybe, just maybe, Renjun was more attracted to the boy with each passing second, scolding himself as he usually did not believe in any kind of love that stemmed from first meetings.
His head shook but he refused to return the gesture, ignoring the edging he was getting in favour of burning curiosity, “Are you new here anyway? I never saw you around.” Eyes closely watching the other’s shoulders shrug, “Not really, I live on the edge of the forest”, Renjun’s ears peaked, eyebrows furrowing as he tried to figure out what was off about the other then, “I just don’t go really deep into it!” “You live with humans then”, he was pointing out the obvious, he knew that, yet another response wouldn’t form in his mind and he didn’t want to stay silent. The golden hair bobbed up and down in tune with his nods, bangs falling back over the shortly exposed forehead lightly when his face came back down. Renjun groaned in annoyance, “How do you even do it? Humanity is disgusting, I will never understand wanting to be around them.” His hands folded in front of his chest, the latter puffed out simply to appear bigger. He didn’t. He just looked tinier than before. Amusement sparked in the other’s eyes and Renjun felt a sense of accomplishment distracting the other from the fact that he was laying on the ground and instead finding a common enemy, “Not all of us are lucky enough to find a spot without human influence!” The pair joked for a while, Renjun’s cheeks heating up with each comment the other made, questioning how someone could look so good with leaves glued to his head. They added something to the aura he had and he didn’t even know what, he just knew they did and he was fine with it. “Hey”, his companion checked his phone and Renjun tilted his head, “wait don’t look like a lost doe. I have to get home, I’ll see you around?” “Ah.” He felt his heart shatter, pieces slowly picking themselves up but his fingers getting cut on the sharp corners, “Come back soon, please?” Anxiously waiting for the other to smile, the sense of relief he felt when he did was comparable with a strong ocean wave crashing into the sand below. “Don’t stalk me next time, I know you did!” He could barely reply, golden hair already vanishing behind layers upon layers of different greens that begged Renjun to indulge in their comfort.
They did meet again. A couple times, each at another point of the day with Renjun picking up on what Donghyuck - apparently the boy’s name, he got tired of not being addressed properly - felt like when he was there. When he thought about it, it did seem weird, it was a confusing perk to have for sure but he figured if it came down to it at least he could save apart of forest life if there was ever any real danger. Donghyuck wasn’t though, not in the literal sense, the only thing the boy kept doing was make Renjun’s heart run hot with emotion and he was convinced one day he would give him a heart attack. For the time being he just listened to Donghyuck talk, about all the things Renjun didn’t experience, all the things that he refused to like with his entire being because it was too human. Though when it was the other talking, somehow he could accept it. Maybe it was simply because Donghyuck carried the same distaste, because Donghyuck would come to him once a while and do nothing but complain about the things that were happening in the world and Renjun was there to listen to him every single second. It wasn’t all one-sided, though he wasn’t sure if his ever increasing heartbeat was mutual, with the tan fingers running over his own every day that he felt like ranting about who- or whatever and successfully redirecting his anger into blossoming happiness, blood rushing to his face in an instant. He still had never asked. Mind so set on his mental image of Hyuck surrounded by ivies, that he didn’t think of any other possibility. For all Renjun knew the other could as well not be a forest nymph but have a background in an entirely different territory. But his golden boy never spoke up about it when Renjun made assumptions, he simply smiled and went along with whatever Renjun was going off of. Mostly his imagination. He laughed when Donghyuck told him about his human friends, met with the other pouting and insisting they were nice, dagger burying itself into Renjun’s heart when he recognized the sad look on his face. “If you say so, I believe it”, he said with the utmost conviction, fingers hastily reaching for Donghyuck’s to give his words reassurance, regretting the action within a second when Hyuck’s eyes shook.
They knew a lot about each other at some point. Renjun knew all of Donghyuck’s favourite ice cream flavours, which he was immediately forced to try when he revealed he never ate ice cream. Not once or twice, the other had convinced himself of making Renjun try every flavour and it turned into the brunette trying a flavour everytime the golden-haired could spare a visit. Donghyuck knew about all the friendly bullying Renjun received from his fae friends on the daily and all of the spots that looked the most beautiful, while Renjun got to know the things Donghyuck bottled up. All their feelings flowed so freely when they were together, all of the secrets he had kept from everyone but himself just seemed to spill out every time his gaze met Donghyuck’s and it felt so natural. Everything matched when it came to them, every move and thought in sync, all the jokes on each other’s expense so innocently spoken that neither of them could begin to hate the other for them. Sincere emotions based on the encounters of a single night that made both of them laugh when they looked back on it a month later, Renjun leaving out the part where his heart jumped out of his chest when they first looked at each other each time. Leaving the detail out every time they talked until they sat on a broken down wall at the end of the forest two months after their nightly expenditures, simply because Chenle stated if he did not confess by the end of the month he would hex him and refuse to undo the curse. Renjun knew better than to go against whatever the younger was up this time, recalling the time he had locked Jisung in a glass jar and took him home just so the two could play LoL together for a week straight. Sometimes he genuinely wondered why the two were best friends, with all the things Chenle had subjected the fae to, but he did not question Jisung’s taste. Not when he had a more than platonic crush on the boy sitting next to him, holding a cup of mint chocolate ice cream and dangling his legs off the concrete wall. Renjun had planned this all out the second he was threatened, wanting to bloom flowers when he asked Donghyuck out and amaze the other nymph. Which, in theory, was already stupid but Renjun thought it was adorable and he was going to stick to it. Except he didn’t, because the second he jumped off the concrete his legs started shaking and his throat closed up. “Wait, no, don’t get up”, the words spilled out faster than he sorted himself out when he watched Donghyuck push himself up by his hands. Anxiety was the only thing that filled his mind and honestly, he had forgotten all his words now that he was standing in front of Donghyuck, watching him tilt his head in question and move back onto the concrete block. “I wanted to tell you something”, he swallowed but it just fueled the stone setting itself in his throat, so heavy that breathing was harder than ever. Renjun brushed brown strands of hair out of his eyes, chocolate irises meeting each other and a heavy breath escaping his mouth, “I really, honestly, genuinely like you.” He felt vines making their way around his feet and with another breath the barren field exploded into a million colours, blossoms scattering the ground around the two in a circle. It wasn’t big, Renjun wasn’t that strong, especially not under the protection of trees but it was enough to cover both of them in the beauty of each and every vibrant colour he could think of. It was enough to make Donghyuck drop his ice cream down and make Renjun giggle anxiously at the sight. The gold on Donghyuck’s head looked so much more beautiful surrounded by the array of plants and even if he didn’t think it possible, right at this moment he believed he fell deeper down the rabbit hole. “You-”, it took a while for Hyuck to gather himself, so long that Renjun started fiddling his thumbs, expecting the rejection to hit harder than he thought it would beforehand, “did all this?” Disbelieving, he snorted, “I tell you I like you and all you ask is that? I told you I’m a Hyleoroi, of course I can do this much.”
Utmost curiosity, maybe a hint of fear, settled in his chest as Donghyuck’s eyes pinned back into his, “I didn’t think- Do nymphs have this power?” The fear got worse, each joint of his body throbbing with inexplicable fear that for once did not stem from his own feelings but the fact he might have been wrong. About everything he assumed but didn’t dare to ask. “I- Wait, I do like you too, I swear I can’t joke about this. I’m just”, he paused, eyes flickering back and forth between the dead plants just a few meters over and the vibrant livelihood around him, “stunned.” There was some relief, not enough to make up for the disbelief on his face when Donghyuck cupped it in his hands and stared at him with nothing but admiration, “This is beautiful. You are beautiful, I love all of this. I’ve never been so grateful for a sleepless night before.” Flinching. Eyes focusing on anything but the other’s face, despite the temptation to look back, “I was wrong, wasn’t I? You’re not like me.” Donghyuck was nothing like Renjun. Donghyuck wasn’t even close to how Renjun was, because despite popular belief he was human. The exact kind of person Renjun hated so why couldn’t he bring himself to hate the one standing in front of him with such a loveable expression, wanting nothing more than communication that the brunette had forgotten about. Communication that would have been crucial and prevented Renjun from even thinking of the wrong things, thinking that Hyuck could in any way not be human. “You never asked, I thought you knew”, he heard his voice quieten and it broke him in more ways than one, broke every piece of him that was holding stable and returned it to dust, “does that change us?” And for the first time Renjun wanted to say it did, he wanted to say that they would never go together, because he always believed no human could ever be as incredibly addicting as Lee Donghyuck was, but he didn’t. He couldn’t bring himself to refuse his crush for something as stupid as his distaste for anyone that was not mythical, though his voice was no more than a whisper, “I hate that I can’t not like you. That I’m going against all my morals because I have such a stupidly huge crush on you.”
Renjun went against his morals. Against everything he taught and preached, all he lived his entire life with when he looked back and wrapped his arms around the taller with such conviction both of them almost tumbled over. He went against so much more when they decided to date, with Renjun wary of everything that meant him being around humans and Donghyuck respecting his comfort zone, planning only the smallest of steps for the two to be able to go on dates. For some reason Renjun liked it and he would never want to go back. Never want to go back to the night they met and ask Donghyuck about the things he thought about back then, because the answer would have turned him away. Refused him the happiness he wanted and, no matter what, he would always stick with his human soulmate. It felt okay after a while, it stopped feeling weird and he would crave affection whenever the other was away to attend to matters that Renjun would never wrap his head around. But he loved it and he would repeat the same cycle over and over if it meant getting to date Donghyuck.