26. Chae

It was strange. After talking to Oscar, after venting everything, after telling him I was angry, I felt... nothing. I wasn't even angry at him, I felt hurt, hurt and repulsed when I had to... remove the brand.

I avoided the Elder for the rest of yesterday, I avoided everyone. Except Tae and Sebby, but the both of them didn't say anything. We sat side by side on the grass, Sebby in the middle, staring out towards the north side, absolutely silent.

When the sun set, they too, left to sleep off the enduring day. I stayed.

I couldn't go back into the house. Not yet. I just needed a little more time. A little more time for my mind to clear and a little more time for the cogs to click into place.

I woke up to a beatiful sunrise, achingly warming the dewy hill. I lay there, damp from the grass and as still as death.

We called the hill the Naughty Corner. A comical twist on this very hill, the one with the magnificent view of everything. The hill where the North was straggling, restrained and stuck in time, where the South was scrambling, inflating and all - consuming, where the sun sets in the West and is reborn in the East.

This is where we came to ponder and reflect.

This is where I saw Wes sprint into the treelines. This where I saw calm, collected Wes take a tree trunk in both hands and smash his head against it. The trunk splintered.

I walked up to him, deliberately rustling the undergrowth.

"Releasing stress," he grunted.

"Does it work?"

He snorted. "No."

I flitted back to my original resting place in  a heartbeat, at the top of the hill.

"I have something to tell you, I think," he said. He didn't bother to raise his voice, we were Elite and I could hear him just fine.

"What's it about?" I mumbled wearily, patting the damp grass next to me.

I felt a swift of wind as he complied. "Oscar, Elder Park..." he mumbled, right next to my ear.

"Good? Bad?"

He studied my expression. "Good maybe, bad maybe. Depends who you like more..." he trailed off again.

"Important?"

"Very."

"Don't tell me."

"What?" he said, he took a sharp intake of breath. "It's big, Chae. Really really big. I have to tell someone."

"No, no you don't. Please Wes," I patted the grass. Thump, thump, thump. It reverberated gently through our bodies, like the way one soothes a distressed baby. "Cause if I know, that would make me a terrible person." All the while, I patted the ground, trying to soothe his troubles. Thump, thump.I looked into his eyes, willing him to understand.

His breath caught in his throat when it did. And he looked scared of me, scared and horrified until he looked confused. And then he streaked into the forest, thumping through it until I could no longer hear him, trying to disconnect from the world for maybe just a split second of clarity.