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

Chapter 15

The rain did not care for you. It poured down from the sky unforgivingly, cutting through your layers of clothes with ease to slide against your skin until you could feel the cold right down to your core, until you forgot what warmth felt like altogether.

The ladder leading from the back door of Acedia's tree trunk house ended much quicker than you would have liked. You ascended maybe a branch or two before you had to resort to the climbing picks. Both you and Jisung had to stand there for a couple minutes to try and figure out how they even worked.

You eventually found out that you had to pummel the pick hard enough into the bark of the trunk until it stuck, and then use them to pull yourselves up. From there the process just repeated itself. You then had to yank the pick out and dig it back in further up, constantly pulling up your own body weight.

The first few times you did it were tricky, but you got the hang of it soon enough. And then it became hell. It didn't take long before your body started to groan in protest, your arms aching with the effort it took to drag your body upwards again and again. Your feet tried desperately to find natural footholds in the tree, digging into the bark or the spots your picks had just vacated, trying to relieve the pressure from your arms, but it wasn't long before they too were aching in pain.

Every time you reached another branch both of you stopped to rest. It was taking you forever to climb the tree. It took over fifteen minutes to just get between branches, and it felt like you were making no progress at all.

What was perhaps the most terrifying, though, was watching the distance between you and the ground growing. Peering down you could see clearly that a drop from this height would result in a rather brutal death. Your muscles were writhing in pain and the rain was making your grip irritably slippery. The chances of falling were terribly high. The thought made your stomach lurch.

But you would not give up. You could not give up. If not for you, then for Jisung. If you thought this was living hell, then for Jisung this was like a one way ticket to the pits of the underworld accompanied by Satan himself.

His body trembled every time he moved, his breaths were laboured and loud and there were many times that tears leaked from his eyes as he fought to keep climbing.

When you finally arrived at the branch, Jisung collapsed onto it without thought, almost sliding right off of it. He was puffing loudly, only interrupted by small sobs of despair.

"I-I can't do it." He cried into the branch. Your heart broke in two seeing him so beaten down. "I- I just can't. It's too far and I can't make it."

You sat down on the branch next to him. You knew how he felt. You really did. But you did not have the luxury to give up, and you would not let Jisung give up now either. If you weren't strong for him, then both of you would quickly tumble into oblivion. Figuratively and literally.

"Jisung," You ran a comforting hand up and down his back, trying to soothe his crying. "I know you're tired, I know you're in pain, and you can take a break for as long as you want. But you will keep going." He let out another choked sob at your words.

"You can leave me here, please, I just can't keep going." Tears threatened to spill from your own eyes, but your forced them back.

"Jisung, I will not abandon you. And I will not let you abandon yourself either. I know you. You dragged me from a lake and saved me from drowning, you pulled my almost lifeless body out of a muddy pig pen and brought me back to life, and most importantly you sat there and you listened to the terrible things I've done, and not once did you turn your back. You are strong, Jisung, you are compassionate and loving and kind, and that does not get to die here on a tree branch in the middle of the forest." You finished your small rant with a heavy breath. You hadn't expected to get so passionate, but once the words started falling from your mouth, there was no stopping them.