Face The Truth - Han Jisung x Reader (Fae AU)

Chapter 12

Walking into the farm you had been tired, but walking out of it you were faced with an exhaustion you'd never known. The poison from the apple had taken a huge chunk out of your energy. Your limbs felt like lead, your feet dragging behind you in the dirt with every step. Jisung didn't seem much better off himself. Though he had escaped the challenge unscathed, he had still been through a lot afterwards, practically trying to completely revive you. You had no idea how hard it must have been for him to see you dying in his arms, the only thing that could help him right now slowly slipping away.

Things felt different now. These challenges had been serious before, but now a different sort of misery settled over you. After finishing the challenge at Herschel's farm you had realised that you were no longer playing for your secrets, you were playing for your life.

The pair of you had been silent since you left, but only because you'd been too tired to talk about anything that had happened. Immediately after you'd regained consciousness, you and Jisung had to spend the next few minutes pleading the staff not to ring for an ambulance. That interference would have been detrimental. On the spot you had to come up with the lie that you'd simply had an allergic reaction to something, and that you'd fallen into one of the pig pens, which was why you were covered head to foot in mud. The lie was flimsy at best, but after about a hundred reassurances from both you and Jisung that you were fine they finally left you alone. They did treat the two of you to a free meal though.

During your meal Jisung had brought out a roll of paper from his pocket. It was wrapped in twine, the paper itself brown, the edges tattered. You guessed that was the next clue then. He hadn't had the chance to open it yet, so the two of you opened it together then and there. Fortunately, there was no intricate thinking involved in deciphering what the clue was. It was a map. Drawn on the paper in weird, brown-ish ink was a series of drawings depicting things like trees, hills, lakes, and of course, Herschel's Farm. Trailing from the farm was a dotted line that led a path through the map, which appeared to just be of the surrounding forest, no civilisation in sight other than the farm. The line ended at a copse of trees, a large black circle indicating the location of your next challenge.

"How did you know which apple to choose?" You asked after the two of you pored over the map for a while.

"Are you kidding? It was easy." Jisung scoffed, leaning back in his chair and stuffing a French fry in his mouth. You furrowed your brows at him. "It was the one that looked like an apple." He said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Seriously?" You nearly yelled. "It was seriously that simple!"

"Which one did you eat?" He asked, clearly surprised you hadn't picked the same option as him.

"I picked the black one." You said sheepishly. Jisung flung his hands up to cover his face, groaning deeply.

"Why the hell would you pick that one? It literally looked like the most evil, soul sucking, killer poisonous piece of fruit I've seen in my life!"

You crossed your arms over your chest defensively. "Well sorry, but after the last couple challenges, I wasn't sure I could just trust what my eyes saw!" You argued back.

Jisung still looked skeptical. "Okay, whatever you say. I just knew that the pig thing asked me to eat the normal apple so I picked the one that looked like a normal apple, I thought it was pretty simple." You resisted the urge to lean over the table and smack him over the head, reminding yourself that he had just saved your life.

Your conversation was interrupted by a little old lady that hobbled over, smiling fondly at the two of you like she knew you well. You smiled at her expectantly as she walked over, leaning heavily on a cane.