#the humid fucking weather and the mix of this stupid event

[lilyflxwers]

wearing a long sleeved top so my grandmother doesnt clock my tattoos and kill me. well. i just looked down at my arms and u can fucking see them through the top. bloody HELL

[jenonctcity]

Shadows In The Snow

Lee Jeno – Smut/Fluff/Angst

Prince!Au, Royalty!Au

Warnings: Mentions of Anxiety/Panic Attacks, Explicit Sex, Mild Violence, Mentions of Character Death, Mentions of Illness.  

Word Count: 20k

(This is NOT part of the Charia Kingdom Series. This is a completely different story and is not related to that series at all.)

An arranged marriage between the Prince of the Northern Kingdom and the Princess of the Southern Kingdom came as a surprise to both of them. Neither of them had wanted the forced marriage, but being under the thumbs of their parents, they both had no choice. The Princess is sent to the Northern Kingdom to live alongside her future husband but is met by a reluctant and cold Prince. Not wanting to know his bride, he’s distant and mean, not caring if she gets offended or upset by his actions. How does he react after a severe turn of events happen? Love or Hatred? Prince Jeno questions everything in his head and comes to a final conclusion about his future.

You could remember the first time you stepped foot into the castle of the Northern Kingdom. The air was warm despite the cold bite of the weather outside, the rooms lit up brightly making the place feel welcoming, and the entrance hall so pristine it was almost glowing. Of course, the palace you grew up in was just as lavish as the palace the Lee family lived in, but it felt like you were stepping into a whole new world. Whereas your home was filled with warm colours to match the humidity and setting of your Southern Kingdom, the interior of the palace in the Northern Kingdom matched the snow that fell from the sky and laid thick on the ground. The only warm colour was that of the candles lit inside lanterns that lined the walls, and the gold that mixed in amongst the white. Not much natural light came through the windows from the flurry of snow that fell from the sky blocking the sun. That was five years ago, and it still felt exactly the same to you, apart from this time you had a gut wrenching feeling of anxiety from the lack of comfort you felt. Before you had been surrounded by royals you didn’t even know the name of, lords and ladies, and people who had a stupid amount of money. This time you only had Mark, a royal servant, as your company. From what you could gather, he was a kind man, and you could only assume he was Prince Jeno’s personal assistant. He was dressed in typical servant attire, his black suit being quite the contrast to the white interior of the halls he walked you down. Before you had been in the palace for a ball. One that would mix the future heirs of the Kingdoms together in hopes of possible alliances and marriages. Now you were walking down the halls of the Kingdom to meet your future husband.

When your father had graced the news upon you that you, the Princess of the South, would be marrying Jeno, the Prince of the North, you’d actually been rather excited. You’d met the Prince once before at a ball his family held in their castle. He’d asked you to dance and before you knew it, he was whisking you around the dance floor at the age of fifteen with his hand in your own. He was very sweet from what you could remember. His boyishly handsome face and adorable eye smile being imprinted in your memory as a crush on him bloomed in your stomach. After the dance, he’d bowed to you and pressed a kiss to the back of your gloved hand. You hadn’t seen him since that night, and now you were nervous for your reunion with the blond Prince. The people of the Northern Kingdom were known to have black hair that stood out amongst the bright snow, however, the royal family all had light coloured hair, it running in the family for generations. You knew this from all the portraits on the walls that had golden plaques highlighting the names of each royal family member. You were brought out of your thoughts by the muffled sound of shouting coming from behind a closed door. Your eyebrows furrowed in curiosity as Mark stopped in front of the door. This led you to believe the aggressive voice behind the oak door was that belonging to Prince Jeno. Mark hesitated, the voice as clear as day, and he didn’t know whether to take you away or to follow the strict instructions he had of taking you to meet the Prince. Your palms started to sweat as you listened to the deep voice.

“I won’t do it. You can’t force me to marry some random girl I’ve never even met!” His voice echoed around the room and into the hall where you stood. You felt a hot flush run through you, and you doubted it was from the warmer clothes you’d been stuffed into upon arriving in the cold kingdom.

“I can and I am.” A softer voice retorted, not sounding at all phased by the argument at hand. “You have met her.”

“Well obviously she isn’t that special since I can’t remember her.” The voice growled before a thud of wood hitting the marble floor sounded.

“Stop acting like a child and take on the responsibilities of a Prince. You’re an adult now Jeno and you better start acting like it.” You looked down at your feet, refusing to look up at Mark as you felt embarrassed from hearing all of this. Sadness flooded your body; all the excitement having been drained from you upon hearing the argument between the Prince and what you could only assume was the King.

“Fuck. You.” The deep voice growled before the sound of skin slapping skin echoed through the room, a dead silence followed that. Mark was frozen on the spot, not wanting to interrupt but feeling guilty for listening in. You felt bad for the young servant. He was clearly stuck between a rock and a hard place.

“Don’t you dare speak to your father like that ever again Jeno.” A soft but stern voice of a woman piped up.

“I’m sorry Princess, I didn’t mean for you to hear that.” Mark whispered and when no one spoke from behind the door, Mark used this as an opportunity to knock on the door. You bowed your head to him and tried your best to plaster on a fake smile despite the heartache you were feeling beneath.

“Come in.” The woman’s voice spoke, and Mark opened the door.

“Your majesties,” He bowed to the King and Queen, then turned to Prince Jeno. “Your highness,” He bowed to him and then cleared his throat. “Princess (Y/N) of the Southern Kingdom has arrived.” He stepped out of the way to reveal your nervous figure. You bowed to them and continued to keep your fake smile on your face. You glanced over at Prince Jeno timidly. The first thing you noticed was the bright red mark on his cheek from where he’d been struck by the Queen. Then you noticed the hard look on his face. He looked at you like he wanted you to tumble to your death off of a cliff, like you meant absolutely nothing to him. You also noticed how handsome he’d grown to be. He had deep eyes that you wanted to get lost in but stopped yourself from doing, his strong jaw making his cold expression look even more severe and his pink lips forming a hard line. He was wearing his white and gold uniform, you thought he probably had to be forced into it due to his reluctance to fulfil his Princely duty of marrying you. He had also grown a lot since the last time you saw him, his now tall frame looking daunting to you as his broad shoulders were clearly tensed up. His blond hair was parted off of his forehead and he had a crown perched on top of his head. Your smile faltered and you averted your gaze quickly, then noticing the chair that was upturned on the floor. That must have been the wooden noise you’d heard clattering from behind the door.

“Welcome my dear!” The Queen smiled a wide smile quickly, approaching you with her arms out. When she got to you, she cupped your cheeks and looked into your eyes. She didn’t say anything, but she could tell by the wateriness of them that you’d heard everything that had just been said. “Did you have a safe journey?” She tried to distract you and lift your spirits, her stomach fluttering in guilt at her son’s behaviour. She looked at your long-sleeved dress that went down to your feet. The thick, red material being a symbol of your Kingdom’s red flag. “Are you warm enough? I know how much different it must be from the heat of your Kingdom.”

“Yes, your majesty.” You spoke quietly and gave her a weak smile. She let go of your cheeks and instead took your hand into one of her own.

“Let me introduce you to my family.” You’d never met the King and Queen before, but you’d seen them from afar those many years ago when you’d attended the ball they held at their palace. They both hadn’t aged a day from what you could remember, their faces looking youthful with slight age marks around their eyes. The Queen was probably one of the most beautiful women you’d ever laid eyes on. You felt like dirt compared to her and tried to push back the self-conscious feeling you felt. She had long blonde hair that was dead straight and stopped at her waist, two braids met in the middle of her head to keep her hair out of her face and the golden crown she had on top of her head gave her an ethereal look. You knew that she was too in your position once, but you doubted it went down the same way as it was in that moment. You wondered if she was chosen to marry the King because of her blonde hair, assuming the Royal family wanted to keep up the gene of them all being light haired. Gazing at the Queen made you long for your own mother, the Queen of the Southern Kingdom. You gulped back the lump in your throat and looked at the King as she introduced him.

“This is my husband, the King of the Northern Kingdom.” He bowed his head to you and gave you a genuine smile that reached his eyes. You couldn’t help but notice how much his son looked like him, they had the same face shape and nose, but the Prince had his mother’s lips and eyes. Together the two had made the most beautiful offspring.

“It’s a pleasure to have you in our home, I hope you feel welcome here and I’m happy to welcome you into the family.” His words felt sincere, but you didn’t feel welcome at all, at least not from the Prince. The King and Queen were doing a good job at making you feel comfortable though and it made you wonder how to lovely people such as themselves produced such a cold son.

“And this is our son, Prince Jeno.” She smiled, giving him a wide-eyed look that told him he was going to regret acting up in front of you. He let out a long sigh and bowed to you even though he looked reluctant to do so. “I wish you both good health and fortune in your upcoming marriage.” They both bowed once more before leaving you alone with the Prince in the sitting room you’d been brought to. Jeno let out a sigh and looked at Mark.

“Take the Princess to her chambers.” When Mark hesitated for a moment, clearly having been instructed by someone else to do something different, Jeno raised his voice. “Now!”

“Right this way your highness.” Mark exited the room quickly. You gave Jeno one last look, your heart pounding in disappointment as you looked at him. He turned his back to you and his shoulders stayed rigid until he heard the door shut behind him. You trailed after Mark through the daunting halls of the unfamiliar palace, feeling nauseous for your next meeting with the hostile Prince.

---

You tried to think of many ways to get out of going to dinner with your fiancé. However, as you sat on your larger than needed bed, you couldn’t think of any good excuses that would excuse you from meeting with the Prince. A maid had knocked on your door, waiting for your response before letting herself in. She told you it was time for you to get ready for your dinner, and she’d presented you with a baby blue and gold dress. The baby blue material was made from the finest of silk, with gold coloured lace adorning the top portion of the long-sleeved garment. The skirt came down to your ankles, and you’d been given a pair of matching blue heels to wear. The maid had then brushed out your long hair and plaited it, so the thick plait fell over your right shoulder. When you looked into the gold framed body length mirror, you couldn’t help but think about how innocent you looked. Your eyes were no longer red from the sobbing you’d done after Mark had left you alone in your new bedroom, but they still felt heavy and itchy.

“The Prince will be so shocked when he sees how beautiful you look your highness.” The sweet maid smiled at you from where she stood behind you. You caught her eye in the mirror and gave her a weak smile.

“What’s your name?” You asked in a quiet voice, feeling the comfort of her voice seep into you.

“My name is Nayeon, Princess (Y/N).” She kept up formalities as she bowed her head to you, the grandfather clock in the corner of your room chimed, signifying the turn of the hour. “Oh, it’s time to head down to dinner. You’ll be dining with Prince Jeno in his private dining area.”

“Will it just be the two of us?” You asked meekly, your hands clasped together as you played with your fingers in nervousness.

“Yes, your highness, now if you’d like to follow me.” You hesitated for a second before you followed her. She took you down the wide hall and you noticed that the temperature had dropped since the sun had gone down, making a light chill cascade up your spine, with the only light available coming from the lit lanterns flickering on the wall. She guided you around a corner and down one more hall before stopping in front of an open door. “Just through there, your dinner will be served soon.” She smiled and motioned for you to enter the room with your hand. You timidly took a step into the room, it looking like a typical dining room for a royal with a dark oak table in the centre, two chairs opposite each other on either side. A lit candle was on the middle of the table, in between two beautifully decorated plates. You then noticed Prince Jeno stood beside the table, he stood up straighter as you entered the room and bowed to you. You returned the bow, opening your mouth to speak but not really knowing what to say to him.

“Sit.” He pulled out one of the chairs and motioned with his head for you to sit. You hurried to take a seat, not wanting him to get mad at you like he had previously shown earlier on in the day.

“Thank you.” You spoke quietly, placing your hands in your lap and keeping your posture straight as you watched him sit in the chair opposite you. You let out a gentle sigh, averting your eyes and glancing around the room at the décor. He made no effort to start up a conversation with you, and you had no idea what you could possibly say to the Prince that would make him want to talk to you. Dinner was served and Jeno barely even looked at you. The silence made you feel sick and you hardly touched your food. He noticed, but he didn’t care. If you wanted to starve yourself then that was your problem, not his.

You left the dining room feeling dejected and sad. Nayeon took you back to your room and pretended as if she didn’t know that the Prince had hardly spoken with you, keeping a gentle smile on her face. She helped you get ready for bed, and then left you on your own with nothing but the light of the moon shining through the gap in the curtains. You sat on your bed, looking up at the ceiling as tears flooded your vision. You let out a long sigh, trying to contain your emotions as a wave of homesickness came over you. It was no use, because tears streamed from your eyes the second you thought about your parents. In a way you knew you should feel resentful of them for sending you away to a kingdom you didn’t really know to marry someone you’d only met once, but you knew they only did it because they had to. Your kingdom had been met by a financial crisis, and the first thing the royal advisors told your parents to do was to marry you off to a Prince from a financially stable kingdom. Obviously, your parents went to the richest kingdom out of the four kingdoms in your country. The Northern kingdom was best known for cold weather and its army, it had a reputation of being the saviour when it comes to wars with other countries across the sea. During wars, all four kingdoms banded together, and it was always after the army from the North got to the battle that it would end up being won. The Eastern kingdom was known for its rainy weather and the luscious fruit and vegetables that it produced. Food from the Eastern kingdom could be found in any of the four kingdoms as it was a highly traded good. The Western kingdom best known for its fishing and fashion; those being traded amongst the kingdoms for such a low price that the demand for the products kept the economy running. And your kingdom, the Southern kingdom, was known for its high population and poverty. It’s not something you were proud of, but the people in control were trying their hardest to get rid of the people living on the streets and give them a roof over their heads. Especially as your country had blistering heat almost all year round. You didn’t even want to think of the people who died from the exposure to the sun. But due to the financial crisis, this wasn’t achievable, so when your parents came to you about the arranged marriage, you didn’t kick up a fuss about it and instead decided to think of the positives, which led to you actually being excited about the marriage. Now though, you just wanted to go home.

---

A whole week of being ignored by the Prince had done nothing to lift your spirits. Well he hadn’t ignored you, but you wouldn’t class irritated looks of disgust over dinner every night to be polite. It really seemed to you like he hated you, and it felt like a knife being twisted in your stomach every time Nayeon would come to your room to collect you for a meal with your future spouse. The only time you could remember smiling and feeling genuinely happy was when the Queen had summoned you for lunch one afternoon. She’d made you feel welcome and tried her hardest not to talk about her son, instead asking you about your life and recommending things for you to do in the palace in your free time. Apart from that, you just counted down the days until your marriage whilst you strolled around the palace absentmindedly.

On Friday, you’d been dressed up in a pale pink gown. You’d gotten used to the long sleeves and heavy materials over the past week, nearly all of your new clothes being suited for the cold weather outside. You were glad though, because you still found yourself getting cold even under all the cloth you had draped over your body. Your hair had been pinned in a half up, half down style, the section that was up having been plaited into a bun. You felt pretty, which gave you a small burning of positivity in your gut. At midday, you’d been taken to the main dining hall. It was much larger than the intimate one you’d been eating with the Prince in, and you’d much prefer to have dinner with him in there from now on. Your eyes laid on a young man. He had a wide smile and black hair, his navy blue and white uniform telling you that he was of royal blood. You recognised the crest on his badge to be that of the Western kingdom. Sat at the table and not moving was Prince Jeno, he watched as the other handsome man approached you.

“Princess (Y/N), it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Prince Jaemin of the Western kingdom.” He bowed to you, holding his hand out for you to place yours in kiss. When you did, he brought your hand up and placed a soft kiss to the back of it. Your heart fluttered and a small smile rose on your lips. You’d known Prince Jaemin for a total of 30 seconds and he’d already shown you more affection and kindness than your own fiancé. You glanced at Jeno to see if he’d reacted to seeing another man kiss his fiancées hand, but he just watched you both with a blank look on his face. You bowed back and he didn’t let go of your hand, gently pulling you over to the table. He pulled your chair out for you and you sat down, sitting directly opposite to Jeno. Jaemin sat beside you and cleared his throat. “So, are you enjoying the North (Y/N)?” He asked, looking at you with a cute smile on his face. Where Jeno looked intimidatingly handsome, Jaemin looked the kind of handsome that had all the girls cooing over him, his smile being his killer feature.

“Oh, yes I am.” You lied with a fake smile on your face. “I can’t say that I love the weather, but everyone has made me feel so welcome.” You put emphasis on the word ‘everyone’, shooting Jeno a smile as you directed that at him. He narrowed his eyes at you and smirked in retaliation. His smirk put a horrid feeling in your stomach, because that confirmed to you that Jeno knew exactly how he was acting towards you, and that he couldn’t find it within him to care.

“That’s great!” As you spoke with Jaemin, the servants brought out the food, setting down steaming plates in front of all three of you. You sipped at your wine and listened to Jaemin as he went off on a tangent about marriage. You noticed that throughout the meal Jeno had flagged down the nearest maid multiple times to refill his glass of wine.

“May I ask what brought you here today Jaemin?” You asked when he’d finally taken a moment to stop talking and to eat instead. He swallowed his food and looked at Jeno before looking back at you. He was about to answer when Jeno spoke up first.

“He visits once a month.” His voice was deep and held little emotion.

“Oh, may I ask why?” You asked Jaemin despite it having been Jeno that gave you an answer.

“Our mothers are sisters, when his mother comes to visit my mother, she brings him with her.” Jeno was the one to answer you yet again. This is the most conversation you’d gotten out of him since you arrived, and it was a bittersweet moment for you. On one hand you were happy that he was actually talking to you, and on the other hand you were devastated that he sounded so emotionless.

“So basically, we’re cousins.” Jaemin nodded and smiled, taking a sip of his own wine. “He’s older by a few months.”

“That’s lovely.” You gave Jaemin a genuine smile and you could see that he really looks up to Jeno, despite the small age gap.

“Not as lovely as you Princess.” Jaemin winked at you and sipped at his wine again. You felt your cheeks flush and you shot a glance to Jeno who had one eyebrow raised, but apart from that, he didn’t look like he cared. “I must say, I am rather envious of my cousin for being the one to marry you, but I wish you happiness.” You almost begged Jaemin to take you away from this kingdom and to take you home with him, but you knew it wouldn’t make much difference and would only make things worse for you in the long run. “But you know where the Western kingdom is.” He winked at you. Jeno cleared his throat as a warning but Jaemin didn’t seem phased at all.

---

Jaemin’s visit two weeks ago had seemed like a lifetime ago, and you wished the handsome boy would come more often so you had something to look forward to. Jeno hadn’t spoken to you much, which you were getting used to. It made you wonder if this is how he was going to treat you even after you were married and with children. You hoped not, that was enough to make anyone go insane. It became too much for you one morning, and after sitting through breakfast on your own in the large dining room, you decided to make an effort with the Prince. Walking down the east wing of the palace that would take you straight to the Prince’s chambers, you passed Mark who had a smile on his face the moment he saw you.

“Good morning your Highness.” He bowed to you, expecting you to just bow and continue walking but you stopped, holding your hand out to him to stop him too.

“Good morning, do you happen to know where the Prince is?”

“Oh yes, I believe he’s just finished his breakfast and he’s relaxing in his bedroom. Would you like me to take you to him?”

“No that won’t be necessary, thank you Mark.” You bowed your head to him. He bowed in return and bid you goodbye. You walked towards the Prince’s bedroom and stopped in front of his door. You took in a deep breath and gingerly knocked on the door, regretting it almost immediately as all your courage drained from you.

“Come in.” The Prince’s voice called through the door. You noticed that his tone was light and airy, not like anything you’d ever heard from him since every time you’re in his presence he’s hostile and blunt. As you entered the room, you saw him look up to see who it was. His face fell when he saw you stood timidly in the doorway; his eyes boring into yours for a moment before he turned to look away once more. “What do you want?” his voice was no longer airy and light, his tone more resembling daggers stabbing at you with the intent to harm.

“I wish to get to know you better. We are going to marry after all.” You tried to hold a tone of confidence, but you were afraid you sounded like a nervous child about to tell their mother they’d wet the bed.

“I’m busy.” He grunted, not even sparing you a glance.

“Doing what might I ask?” You walked into his room, nerves flooding your body with such unease that you could feel it in your toes and fingertips. He slowly turned to look at you and narrowed his eyes, clearly not liking how you questioned him.

“Fine. Let’s spend time together.” He stood up, his chair skidding across the marble floor with an ear tingling screech. He snatched your wrist into his hand and pulled you harshly out of the room. The grip he had on you was hurting, but you decided not to say anything as he dragged you through the castle. You struggled to keep up with him, having to alternate between jogging and walking fast so that you didn’t fall. He pulled you outside into the freezing wind and let go of you. Your arms automatically wrapped around your body, goose bumps rising on your body as the long-sleeved dress you wore did nothing to protect you from the wind. Flurries of snow hit you as the sky coughed out the snow in sparse gusts. “Go stand over there by that tree.” He commanded you, pointing at a tree that had a large trunk. You gulped but obeyed him, not wanting to make him mad, but you were very confused as to why he had instructed you to do so. You trudged through the snow and stood with your back to the tree, your body shivering from the chill. He went over to a small wooden shed nearby and pulled out a bow. Your eyes widened as he grabbed 3 arrows and stood parallel to you, about 20 feet away.

“What are you doing?” You questioned as he loaded the bow with an arrow, standing with two feet apart and his left side facing you.

“Spending quality time with my fiancée! You’re helping me practice my archery!” He gave you a wide smile, but you could see the sinister look behind his eyes even from far away. “Now stand very still, don’t worry my love, I am very good at this.” He winked at you and your stomach plummeted through the snow.

‘He’s going to kill me so he doesn’t have to marry me.’ You thought to yourself as he pulled back the string, closing one of his eyes as he aimed at you. You didn’t think that the shivers you were experiencing were from the cold anymore, but from the paralysing fright you were undergoing. You couldn’t move, your feet feeling anchored to the floor like a one of the criminals they locked away in the dungeons. Jeno smirked to himself when he saw you squeeze your eyes shut, letting go of the string and sending an arrow flying towards you. It hit where he had aimed it for perfectly, and it stuck into the bark of the tree an inch above your head. You let out a whimper and flinched as you heard the ear-splitting crack of the wood above you, your heart pounding in your chest and your breathing becoming too quick for you to control.

You were having a panic attack. Something you hadn’t had in a long time. As a child you were riddled with anxiety after one of your nanny’s had told you a story of a princess being kidnapped from her home. You lived under the constant fear that bad people were going to break into your chambers and steal you in the dead of night, using the guise of the dark to get away with it. Needless to say, once your mother and father found out why you were suffering from constant anxiety attacks and would flinch whenever anyone approached you, they had banished that nanny from the castle. After months of therapy, you had found your life much easier to cope with and your parents had assigned guards to be with you and stationed outside of your door every night. You grew out of it by the time you were a teenager. But this was bringing back all the feelings you’d been able to push aside for so long, and you felt like a child once more, cowering at the thought of being killed by a stranger. Jeno loaded another arrow into his bow and aimed it at you, pausing once he saw you let out a sob, your frame hunched over and arms wrapped around yourself.

“Shit.” He mumbled, knowing he’d taken his little joke too far. He was one of the best archers in the kingdom, so he knew his arrow wouldn’t hit you. But you didn’t know that, and in your mind, he had every reason to want you dead. He lowered his bow and gulped, throwing it to the floor and running through the snow to you. “Open your eyes.” He grunted, placing his big hands on your shoulders and giving you a firm shake. You couldn’t breathe. It felt like his arrow had hit you in the throat and punctured your windpipe, the air not successfully inflating your lungs and your head feeling like someone was crushing it with their hands. “Hey!”

“D-don’t k-k-kill me.” You stuttered out, your lungs gasping for air as your throat gave it restricted access to small puffs of oxygen. Jeno was taken aback by your words. Standing frozen in the snow with his eyes watching you have a meltdown in front of him. He snapped out of his daze and gulped down his guilt, sighing like you were a nuisance as he scooped you up into his arms. You whimpered as he touched you, your body going completely stiff in his grasp as he trudged through the snow, carrying you like you weighed nothing.

“I won’t hurt you.” He mumbled, taking you inside and setting you down on a lavish chair that was in the corner of the hallway beside a small round table that held fresh flowers in a beautifully painted white and blue vase. He kneeled down on one knee so that he was facing you. “Breathe…” His voice was uncharacteristically soft, and he took one of your hands into both of his. You looked at him, your eyes bloodshot and your cheeks freezing cold from where the winter air had hit the tear tracks on your skin. You hadn’t seen him this close since you were fifteen and had been dancing with him at the ball. He was beautiful. His straight nose, his deep brown eyes, his very slightly plump but very pink lips and his strong jawline had you distracted from the internal panic you felt. Your breathing slowly steadied as he kept his stare on you, looking you dead in the eyes as he studied you. His thumb stroked the back of your hand, and you gulped down the lump in your throat as you looked at him. You bottom lip wobbled and one tear fell from your eye as your brain came back around to its normal state. “Are you alright?” He asked, slowly withdrawing his hands from your own. You nodded in response, not trusting your vocal cords to answer him. He stood up, and with a curt nod of his head he hurried off down the hall of the castle, leaving you alone in the chair he’d sat you in. Not long after Jeno’s retreat, Mark came running down the hallway with a panicked look on his face.

“Princess!” You knew that Jeno had recruited Mark to go see if you were okay. It hurt you that Jeno couldn’t even bare to be with you that much that he couldn’t stick around and be with you himself, instead he sent his servant. Mark kept asking you questions and trying to gain your attention, but you couldn’t bring yourself to care about what he was saying. He timidly helped you up to your feet and took you to your bedroom, checking on your every hour to make sure you were feeling okay. You weren’t.

---

It had been three and a half weeks of your dearly beloved Prince Jeno doing his finest effort to avoid you. You had briefly seen him during a dinner that the King and Queen both required your attendance for. You sat opposite each other and he refused to meet your eye, his attention on his mother most of the night and it seemed as though he was ignoring his own father as well. Although you had no idea why he would do that to the King. But you didn’t want to ask to find out. He spoke to his mother and even sat beside her, seeming almost as if he was being clingy with her like you’d expect a 5-year-old mummy’s boy to be. She played up to his whims and always responded to him like a loving mother, even going as far to pat his cheek at one point when he shot her a small pout at something his father had said. The whole scene didn’t look very Queen and Prince like, more mother and son like. But because the dinner wasn’t official business you assumed that they didn’t care. It was now obvious to you that the slap she’d struck Jeno with on your first day in the castle was a very rare occurrence.

You had spent a few afternoons with the Queen, getting to know her and learning how to do your official duties as the upcoming Princess and Queen of the Northern Kingdom. She was a very gentle soul and you always felt comfortable around her. As for the King, you didn’t really see him much unless it was in passing or that one time during your dinner with the royal family. Nayeon went missing for a week, and Mark had told you that she was on leave for those 7 days just to visit her family, but that she would be back again in no time. So for that week you had no one to keep you company, which saddened you deeply and left you wallowing in your loneliness as if you were being punished like a criminal on trial for manslaughter.

When Nayeon came back she made sure to spend a lot of time with you to make up for her absence. She made you tea every night before you slept, and she would tell you stories that her family had embarked on. Your favourite story of hers was the one about her father going into war when she was a child. Her father had been in the Northern army and had fought along many men, old and young, in an attempt to stop the four Kingdoms being invaded by the Country of Hacin across the seas. You remembered being very young when armies from all four Kingdoms banded together to fight off the incoming threat. The war had started after your parents refused to set you up for an arranged marriage with Prince Renjun of Hacin. They didn’t want you to be in a different country, so they refused the offer presented to them. Which the King and Queen of Hacin didn’t like. Causing them to declare war. It was mostly the Western Kingdom that got the brunt of the war, as they were the Kingdom parallel to Hacin across the sea. The troops made their way to the Western Kingdom and fought against the threat, but it wasn’t until the Northern Kingdom joined that the war finally came to an end. You had heard that thousands of men had lost their lives in battle, and you were eternally grateful to them all. Nayeon’s father was one of the men who never made it home to their families, and that’s the reason why it was your favourite story of hers. Because you could see the pain in her eyes and her strained tone in her voice as she tried to hold back her tears, and it made you feel grateful for the life you’d been given. You had made sure that Nayeon knew how you felt towards the war and she could tell that you were grateful for her father’s sacrifice.

A few days ago you started to feel really hot, despite the chill drifting in like a haze into your room through the open window. The curtains billowing from the slight breeze the cold winters air presented the Kingdom with. You shouldn’t shake the burning feeling that you had sitting inside of you like a furnace with an unlimited supply of coal. It caused unwanted sweat to bead on your skin and your lungs to speed up in attempt to cool yourself down. It was night-time so you knew most of the staff would be asleep or busy doing their own chores. You gripped onto the sheets of your bed and squeezed your eyes shut as a wave of nausea flushed through you and made you feel on the verge of throwing up. You gritted your teeth and stood up, involuntarily bending and gripping at your stomach as the unbearable sense of sickness stabbed at your gut. You whimpered, a sob falling from your lips as your knees buckled, your body hitting the floor with a dull thud. Externally you felt numb, the tips of your fingertips having no feeling and your body crashing to the floor didn’t bother you. Internally though you felt like you were going to die a slow death. You tried to steady you breathing, but you couldn’t, nothing but choked sobs falling from your lips as you gently blacked out.

---

The sun shining on the white snow was causing Jeno to squint as he drank his morning tea. His mother was accompanying him during breakfast, and they sat peacefully inside of her personal dining room. The floor to ceiling length windows allowing the hot sun to hit his skin and leave behind a warm feeling. It was a rare day of no clouds or falling snow, which always had Jeno waking up in a good mood.

“Jeno, my dear…” The Queen sipped at her tea and delicately dabbed at her mouth with a napkin. “You should be having breakfast with (Y/N), not with me.” She gave him a soft smile and let out a laugh when he sighed, immediately popping food into his mouth with his fork in an attempt to delay his response. “She is a lovely girl, and I know you don’t want to marry her. But avoiding her isn’t going to do either of you any good in the long run.” Jeno chewed his food slowly and gulped it down, sighing once more before nodding.

“I know mother.”

“Is that all you have to say?” She tilted her head, furrowing her eyebrows and rolling her eyes.

“No, I-” He was interrupted by the doors to the room flying open, Mark stood in the doorway, out of breath from where he had been running.

“Your Majesty, your Highness, you have to come quickly!” He gulped watching as the mother and son both stared at him in confusion. The Queen slowly rose from her seat but Jeno stayed where he was sat.

“What is it Mark?” She asked, approaching him quickly.

“It’s Princess (Y/N), we found her on the floor of her room about ten minutes ago. She was breathing but she was unresponsive. The Doctor is looking at her now.” Mark spoke so quickly that Jeno almost couldn’t understand what he was saying. He widened his eyes and stood up quickly. He then paused, and slowly sat back down in his chair. He coughed awkwardly and bowed his head once to Mark.

“Make sure she gets the best care. Keep me updated.” His voice held no emotion, and Mark knew that the Prince wasn’t going to be following him anytime soon. The Queen frowned at her son, but instead of chastising him, she quickly followed Mark.

Jeno sat at the dining table and pushed his plate away from him. He felt sick with worry that something bad was going to happen to you, but he couldn’t bring himself to face you. He was still holding guilt from the stunt he had pulled with you but didn’t want it to seem like he cared too much about you. He let out a sigh and rubbed his hands over his face in frustration, unsure of what to do.

---

The anticipation had killed Jeno over the day that he avoided everyone in hopes of not having any updates about you. Every time he heard footsteps approaching his bedroom, he made himself busy and refused to let anybody in, acting as if his work was more important than you. He hadn’t had a chance to take a step back and gather up all of his thoughts and feelings towards you. He was conflicted. On one hand, you were probably one of the most beautiful humans he had ever laid eyes on, and you had a very sweet personality to go with your sweet looks. But on the other hand, he did not want to get married yet, he also didn’t know you that well and because of his stubborn nature, he didn’t want to get to know you purely out of spite at his forced marriage.

The next morning, Jeno went about his day as normal, eating breakfast and then making his way to the palace courtyard to practice his archery. When he made it to the doors without bumping into anyone of significance, he metaphorically gave himself a pat on the back. Until Mark approached him from behind.

“Your Highness,” Mark spoke up, causing Jeno to jolt in surprise at the sudden chirp of Mark’s voice. Mark had always been silently stealthy and was almost a professional at silently making his way around the palace. “Sorry to interrupt, but you told me to keep you updated on Princess (Y/N).” Jeno turned around and let out an irritated sigh, nodding his head at Mark.

“Go on.” His voice was gruff, and he rolled his eyes. Mark took a deep breath, giving Jeno eyes that were full of pity.

“The Doctor has diagnosed her with the Macetipis Virus…” Jeno felt like a surge of heat rush through him at Mark’s words. His throat created a lump of emotion that made him feel uncomfortable and he had to look away from Mark to keep his cool. “She has all the symptoms, a high temperature, she keeps floating in and out of consciousness, and she keeps throwing up a yellow liquid.”

“I know the symptoms Mark.” He growled, storming off down the hall without giving Mark another look. He made his way to your bedroom, not bothering with knocking as he let himself straight into the room. Nayeon looked up at him with a wide-eyed look as she set down a steaming cup of tea on your bedside table. She immediately bowed and cleared her throat awkwardly. “Out.” Jeno grunted. She complied immediately and left the room without another word. Jeno gulped when he saw you tucked up in your bed, your eyes closed, and head lolled slightly to the side. Tears gathered in his eyes as he looked at you, feeling a horrid guilt at how he’d treated you as he stared at your limp body.

He sat down on your bed, taking one of your cold hands into both of his. He lifted it up to his lips and laid a gentle kiss to the back of your hand, a tear falling down his cheek as in that moment, he absolutely hated himself. You were going to die. He was sure of it. The last person he saw with the Macetipis Virus didn’t last longer than a week before she took her final breath and died peacefully in her sleep. He was sure his sister was going to live, but she didn’t. And at the age of thirteen he watched her slowly wither away before him even though the doctor had told the family that it was possible to overcome the disease. She was only ten years old, and she had her whole life ahead of her. Jeno had always promised her that when he became King that no one would ever harm her, and she could live her life as a beautiful Princess wherever she wanted to be, without having to worry about an arranged marriage. Now he couldn’t fulfil that promise because her little life was cut short, all because of the virus that was unavoidable. It wasn’t contagious, and so far, no one had figured out how people became ill with it. There had been no cases of males having the virus, so it was assumed that only females could contract it. Jeno knew this, that’s why he wasn’t worried about being by your side during this even if it wasn’t supposed to be contagious.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered, stroking the back of your hand with his thumb. “You didn’t deserve how I’ve been treating you…I should have realised that you’re in the same boat as me and you’re going through an unwanted marriage as well.” He gulped, keeping his voice in a low whisper so that no one outside of your room could hear you. “Now you’re probably going to die, and you’ll have died unhappy and I am so sorry Princess.” The lump in his throat started to burn, but he didn’t care. He sat by your side all day, ordering anyone that entered your room to leave. He left around mid-evening to eat some dinner. You hadn’t woken up at all throughout the day, much to Jeno’s dismay. He wanted nothing more than for you to open your eyes so he could voice to you how sorry he was with you actually being able to hear him.

---

“What the fuck do you mean the wedding is being pushed back?” Jeno growled in a low tone, his teeth gritted, and his fists clenched. He had a surge of anger flush through him and he could feel his hands start to shake in aggression.

“Well Your Highness, Princess (Y/N) is very s-”

“I know that she’s sick.” He snapped; the poor servant stood opposite him flinching in fear. “Who made this decision? Tell me!”

“T-the King and Queen.” The servant gulped but visibly relaxed when Jeno stormed off down the hall, making his way to the throne room where he knew his mother and father were. He wasn’t subtle as he burst through the wooden doors to the throne room, completely ignoring the small crowd of people and storming up the royal red carpet to his parents who were both sat on their respected thrones.

“You pushed back our wedding?!” He shouted, his legs moving fast in his haste. He stopped in front of his parents, a scowl marred on his face and his shoulders rising and falling as he tried to catch his breath. “She’s going to fucking die any day now and you want her to die an unmarried woman?!” Jeno’s voice got louder, his anger evident to the people who brought him into the world. Everyone in the room was dead silent as they listened to the distressed Prince. The King frowned at him, shaking his head and rolling his eyes.

“Jeno calm down.” His father spoke with a stern voice, sitting up straighter on his golden throne and looking down his nose at his son.

“NO!” Jeno stepped closer, running a hand through his thick blond hair in frustration. “You know how frowned up it is to die an unmarried woman, and you want that to happen to her?!” He gulped, tears filling his eyes as he flicked his eyes over to his mother. “Mother…she doesn’t deserve this…” He knew the Queen would be the one to pity him and end up giving him what he wanted, like she had most of his life. “Please.”

“Jeno, she can hardly hold her own head up. She can’t marry someone in the state that she’s in.” Her voice was soft, and she gave him a look that shows how much pity she felt for him.

“It’s been three days and they’ve told me that the keeps waking up, she can do it!”

“No.” The King spoke again, shutting Jeno off and causing the young Prince to let his emotions get the best of him. His face crinkled up as he started to sob. He felt embarrassed at his crying so he covered his face with his hands. The King rolled his eyes and let out a sigh. “Don’t even try to turn the water works on, your mother isn’t going to give in.” They were both used to Jeno turning on his emotions to make his mother give him what he wanted, and the King assumed that what he was doing this time. This made Jeno angry again, ripping his hands away from his face and staring at his father once more.

“Go to hell.” He turned around and ran out of the room, not bothering to look back as his mother called for him. He ran until he reached his own room, knowing he needed to gather his thoughts and calm himself down before he visited you for the day.

He left it an hour before he collected a small bunch of bright yellow flowers from the palaces inside garden, letting himself into your room and coming to a dead stop when he saw your eyes staring back at him. This was the first time he’d been around to witness your consciousness, only having heard about it from Nayeon.

“Jeno?” Your voice was raspy and barely audible from where you laid in your bed. Jeno gulped, approaching you slowly with a slight hesitance in his heart. He felt like your eyes were piercing through him, making his insides tighten and his throat close up.

“How are you feeling?” He asked the first thing that came to his mind as he gently set the bunch of flowers into an empty vase on your bedside table.

“Bad.” You whispered out, unsure of how to communicate with the man who had only ever shown hostility towards you. If you didn’t have the horrible sense of nausea swimming inside of your stomach, you probably would have felt butterflies of anxiety take flight. He timidly sat on the edge of your bed, awkwardly grasping his own hands before letting out a sigh.

“I want to apologise to you for how I treated you.” You watched him from where you laid, your eyes nervously darting around the room when he stared you dead in the eye. “You’re a Princess, and you didn’t deserve to be on the receiving end of my immaturity.” He reached out and took your hand in his own, lifting it to his lips and pressing a lingering kiss to your cold skin. “I’m so sorry.”

“Jeno.” You used all the strength you had to try and sit up, but you couldn’t quite muster it. Jeno let go of your hand when he saw that you wanted to be more upright, placing his hands underneath you to lift you up against the pillows. He grabbed the cup of tea that was still lukewarm to the touch and raised it to your lips. You sipped the tea and cleared your throat, feeling a sort of relief at the liquid at it slid down your throat. “It’s okay, I forgive you.” You spoke in a soft manor, shocked at the sight of the hard-headed Prince being apologetic to you. You’d never seen this warm-hearted side of the Prince, and you wanted to cry your heart out at how sweet he was being.

“They pushed our wedding back…but I promise you, when you recover, we will have the biggest wedding in all of history.” His encouraging smile made you let out a whimper of a giggle, your throat still feeling groggy and not allowing you to make all the noises you wanted to. “And I will be the best husband I can be. But until then, you need to get better, so that I can take you on some dates.” He chuckled, ignoring the tears that came to his eyes as he had it in his mind that you weren’t going to survive.

“Tell me about the dates.” You closed your eyes when a burning sensation ran down your oesophagus, causing you to wince as a rush of nausea hit you in the gut once more.

“Okay well I don’t know if you’ve been to the inside gardens yet, but I want to have afternoon tea there with you. It’s beautiful, there’s an array of so many colours and smells, and it’s so quiet in there. The walls are made entirely of glass, so it gets rather hot when the sun hits it, but the white of the snow outside is such a contrast to the colours inside that it-” He paused as you started to cough, your chest jolting as the uncontrollable coughs left your mouth. Jeno immediately jumped to his feet, pulling you forward so you were sat completely upright. He patted your back firmly, then rubbed his hand in circles on your back. “It’s okay, cough it up.” He grabbed the nearby bowl that had been set aside for when you needed to throw up, holding it in front of your mouth as he patted your back with his other hand. You felt embarrassed as you coughed, eventually puking into the bowl and letting out a whimper from the mortification you felt at throwing up in front of your fiancé. “Good girl, it’s okay.” He put the bowl down, grabbing a handkerchief from your drawer and wiping your mouth with it. He gently kissed your forehead without thinking about it, laying you down again and stroking your hair gently.

“Thank you.” You whispered out, your cheeks burning and the sick feeling sitting heavy on your stomach still.

“My sister was ill with the same illness you have.” He looked down at the floor, a heavy sinking feeling washing over him as he thought back to watching his sister die. You didn’t even know that Jeno had a sister, and you were intrigued to find out more. No one had ever told you about the Princess of the Northern Kingdom, so you had no idea she even existed. You wanted to ask him about her, but you didn’t know if he would respond to you with hostility, and you also found it hard to speak after the onslaught of pain you felt in your throat from throwing up. Jeno continued speaking without having to be prompted, feeling a slight weight lifted off of his shoulders at finally talking about his sister after being silent about it for so many years. “I spent all day every day by her side, I wouldn’t even let the maids help her, it had to be me. I was her older brother and I felt the need to protect her.” He cleared his throat as a lump arose inside of it, all his emotions pilling up and making tears well up in his beautiful eyes. “She died 4 days after being diagnosed.” You reached out and took his hand in your own, giving it a weak squeeze just to show him that you were listening, and you felt empathy towards him. “I won’t let that happen to you.” His eyes bore into your own, and you could see how broken the Prince was, all of his bad attitude making sense, but not excusing it.

He sat by your side all evening, talking to you for about ten more minutes before you drifted back into unconsciousness, but he still stayed by you. He asked Mark to fetch him a book so that he could keep himself entertained whilst keeping watch over you. At around 7 o’clock the door to the room opened slowly. Jeno looked up and smiled softly when he saw his Mother entering the room. She looked slightly surprised to see him sat there, her eyebrows raising on her beautiful face.

“Jeno I didn’t know you were here.” She closed the door with a gentle push, not wanting to make too much noise as she saw that you were sleeping.

“You shouldn’t be here; you could catch it mother!” His eyes widened with worry, not wanting his own mother to catch the disease that took his sisters life. He knew it wasn’t contagious but he couldn’t risk it.

“Jeno I will be fine; I’m only stopping by for a few minutes.” She smiled softly to him, giving him a small bout of reassurance. “You’re a good man Jeno, you being here for her when she’s in this condition is a good thing for you to do.”

“I don’t want her to wake up alone,” He closed his book and set it aside, moving to stroke your lifeless hand that laid on the bed. “I owe her so much; she can’t die alone.”

“Oh sweetheart.” The Queen sighed, approaching her son and leaning down to place a kiss on his head. She felt a sudden rush of pride at his confession, glad he was finally acting like the fiancé that you deserved. She was finally seeing the young man that she’d raised to be a compassionate, loving Prince. “I’m glad you’ve finally come around to marrying her…may I ask what changed your mind?”

Jeno thought for a moment, before taking a deep breath and letting out a long sigh. “Miyah never got to have her happy ever after and seeing (Y/N) like this broke my heart. I want her to have her happy ending.”

“You know you have to apologise to your father. The way y-” She was cut off as you started to cough in your sleep, your eyes suddenly blinking open as you couldn’t cough up what was stuck in your throat. Jeno jumped up from his spot and lifted you up so you were sitting upright, patting your back hard to stop you from choking. The Queen watched with wide eyes as you coughed up blood, it staining the sheets over you and dripping down your chin. Jeno gasps loudly, frowning in confusion at the sight of the blood. He rubbed your back as you started to sob from seeing the blood, his stomach dropping as he looked over at his mother. “Miyah never coughed up blood! It isn’t one of the symptoms, she may not have Macetipis!” He propped up the pillows against the headboard and laid you against them, not sparing any moment before sprinting out of the door towards the palace’s doctor’s room.

You looked at the Queen and whimpered, fear rushing through you and your stomach twisting in anxiety. “I don’t want to die!” Your voice was hoarse, and you shuddered before spewing more blood onto the sheets. The Queen stroked your head as your breathing picked up, your chest rising and falling fast in your panic. She opened her mouth, but you couldn’t hear anything she was saying, everything sounding muffled and cloudy as your vision blurred. The world went dark as your eyes closed, your consciousness slipping away once more.

---

The sound of birds singing is the only sound you heard when your body brought itself out of the slumber of sleep that you’d been in more than 24 hours. The last thing you remembered was the sight of your sheets being spoiled by the sight of your own blood, but as you stared down at the sheets placed delicately over your body, you saw nothing but pristine white. You laid there for what felt like ages, feeling thirsty but not having the energy to reach for your glass of water that you could see sitting on your nightstand looking appetizing and delicious. You felt better than you had felt since you’d come down with your sickness, and you prayed that you didn’t get any worse. Jeno entered the room half an hour later, surprise written across his face when he saw you staring back at him.

“You’re awake!” He rushed to your side and took your hand straight into his. He had a soft smile playing on his lips, but you could tell he was being suspicious about something. “How are you feeling?” You cleared your throat as he helped you sit up, propping your thick pillows up behind you to keep you steady.

“Better.” He passed you the glass of water when he heard how croaky your voice was, it sounding like you had a thousand swords lodged inside of your throat.

“I have something to tell you, and I don’t want you to panic. Just know before I tell you this, that everything has been sorted out, and you will be getting better okay?” His fingers traced soft circles on your skin that left a tickling sensation in their wake. You nodded, not wanting to use your voice if you didn’t have to as your throat felt stiff. “You didn’t have Macetipis, after you started coughing up blood, I knew something wasn’t right. I got the doctor, and he knew immediately that you’d been poisoned.” Your stomach flipped and you felt queasy at the thought of someone trying to kill you. “It didn’t make sense at first, no one from the outside had access to your room. So I knew it must have been someone who had been coming into your room. I’ve been here most of the time, and the only people who were allowed in this room were my mother, my father, Mark, the doctor, Nayeon, and myself. The doctor tried his best to save you, so it wouldn’t make sense that he was trying to kill you. My mother, father, and I would never do such a thing. If we wanted you dead, you’d be dead.” His words made your eyes widen in surprise that he’d say something that dramatic in such a calm manner. “I trust Mark with my life, and when questioned he said he knew nothing about it, and I could tell he wasn’t lying to me. Which left dear, sweet, Nayeon.” He growled her name, his fists clenching around your hand but not hard enough to hurt you. “When questioned, she confessed almost immediately. She’d been putting poison in the tea she’d been serving you.” Your heart dropped as you thought of the sweet maid who’d made you feel welcomed. You had no idea she could even do something like that. “The poison was a weak one that would take at least two weeks to finish you off. It was meant to give you a slow, painful death. But you have to take all doses of it for it to work. She said she’d gotten if when she was visiting her family. She blames you for her father’s death in the war.” Your heart ached as Jeno told you that. You had trusted Nayeon, and you felt tears fill your eyes as you thought it all over inside of your head.

“What’s her punishment?” You closed your eyes, willing the tears not to fall as your throat hurt even more with the rising lump inside of it.

“Death.” He sneered, his body tense with hatred and anger. He couldn’t believe that someone had the nerve to try and take his Princess away from him, right underneath his nose too. You gasped, your eyes opening quickly.

“No! Please don’t kill her Jeno!” Your tone was desperate, and Jeno knitted his eyebrow together in confusion at your plea.

“She tried to kill you (Y/N)!”

“You shot an arrow at my head.” You deadpanned at him, showing him you weren’t afraid to speak against him if you had to. His face immediately fell, and his mouth opened and closed as he tried to conjure the right words to say.

“I didn’t ever intend on hurting you though…” His voice was soft, and he glanced down at his hands.

“You could have. Prince Jeno, please…spare her life.”

“No. The punishment stands, and I don’t want to hear you ask for me to change it again. Am I clear?” You shuddered at his dominant tone, immediately losing all the courage you previously had to speak against him and just simply nodded. He sighed and momentarily closed his eyes. “They’ve set a date for out wedding. It’s a month away.” You didn’t reply to him, sipping your water slowly and keeping your eyes anywhere but on him. “Princess…don’t ignore me.” You looked at him and gave him a blank stare, only giving him the silent treatment to show him that you were displeased with his choice. He frowned at you and took the glass of water out of your hands. “When you’re better, we are going to spend a lot of time together, because I am determined to make this work between us. So you’ll have to talk to me eventually.” When you didn’t reply to him, he started to get frustrated, not used to people pulling this kind of thing with him. “Fine.” He stood up and before you could say anything, he’d stormed out of the room so he could throw his tantrum without you seeing.

You let out a sigh and snuggled back down into your bed, feeling a wave of fatigue hit you as you got comfortable. You flinched when the door flung back open and Jeno was stood in the doorway with a scowl on his face.

“You win! She’ll have her life spared. But you are forbidden to speak with her, and she will be sent to live in the Western Kingdom as a slave. Happy?” The smile that you gave him after hearing his defeat made his heart flutter, and he knew in that moment that if all if took for you to smile like that at him was him giving you your own way, then he’d have to start getting used to not having things go his way.

---

It had been two weeks since Nayeon’s confession. You were up and about on your feet and finally enjoying your time in the Northern Kingdom now that you had a fiancé who cared for you. It made you slightly sad that you had to be on deaths doorstep for him to come to his senses and make an effort with you, but since spending most of your days with the Prince, you were overjoyed that he’d changed his mind about you. Your first official date with Prince Jeno was a simple walk around the castle the day after you’d found out about Nayeon poisoning you. You were still rather tired, and Jeno didn’t want to tire you out completely, so he took you on a slow walk around the castle and told you all the stories he had about growing up in the castle. He held your hand tightly, keeping you close to him and enjoying every second he spent with you, just talking about sharing stories. It wasn’t an extravagant date, but it meant the world to you, and your opinion on the cold-hearted, hot head-headed Prince had completely changed. He’d taken time everyday to see you, whether it was to take you out and about on walks, or just to have breakfast, lunch, or dinner with you. Which you really appreciated, considering how busy the Prince was with his duties as the heir to the throne. He had told you that your parents had been exchanging letters with his own parents, but they had decided not to visit you during your illness, instead hoping to see you next on your wedding day. It hurt you that they couldn’t be bothered to make the trip to see you, but you pinned it down to it being such a long journey and you knew just how hard it was to sleep in a horse drawn carriage for the two day long journey.

The flickering candlelight sent shadows dancing on the spines of the thousands of books that lined the walls. Books that told stories, real and fiction, of wars, love, and of creatures of the night you knew didn’t exist. The library felt warm, the large fireplace lit with simmering flames to keep the Prince and his Princess warm in the late hours of the night. You watched Jeno’s lips as he read from the book opened in front of him, his eyes darting back and forth as they trailed across the words written on the paper. Your cheek was resting against the palm of your hand with your elbow keeping it steady on the table, and you couldn’t help the small smile on your lips as your listened to Jeno read about a Prince and a Princess falling in love. It was him who picked the book off of the shelf, and to be honest you had zoned out when he was reading some parts of the story, your brain focusing on his beautiful face more than the poetic words that tumbled from his mouth.

“He grasped her hands in his own, the softness of her fingertips causing riptides in the ocean of love he held deep within his soul, riptides he was ready to dive headfirst into, wanting nothing more than to drown from the assault of her love. The moonlight hit her rosy cheeks, if he wasn’t already blinded from her beauty then that would have ended his eyesight in that moment. Her lips were inviting, like a poison apple begging him to take a bite, but he knew in his heart that the poison she was offering with her plush, angel like lips, was one that would do him more good than bad.” He suddenly closed the book, glancing up at you with slightly reddened cheeks. You furrowed your eyebrows, moving your hand from your cheek to rest it on the table.

“I was enjoying that…” You pouted at him, wanting to know what happened next with the Prince and Princess. “What happens next?”

“Come with me.” He stood up abruptly, hoping that you couldn’t see how his hands were shaking as he snatched your hand into his own.

“Where are we going?” He started to walk so fast that you had to use your free hand to raise your flowing dress up off of the floor before you tripped over the loose material. He failed to respond to you as he steered the both of you through the dimly lit palace. He took you down three flights of stairs until you were on the ground floor, and he didn’t stop until he was stood outside of an arched wooden door. He pushed open the door and held it open for you to enter, smiling sweetly at you wondered past him. The first thing you noticed was the smell. The fresh, crisp smell of flowers and dirt was a welcoming smell, and one that you loved because it reminded you of the springtime in the Southern Kingdom. You couldn’t see much because of the looming darkness, but the full, bright moon shone through the glass ceiling and walls, lighting all the beautiful flowers giving them all a dim colour. You just knew that in the bright sunlight this place would be absolutely stunning.

Jeno gently guided you through the gap between the large flowers and leaves, following the trail that was purposely left and bringing you to an opening where a small table and two chairs resided. You then noticed a small indoor pond off to the side, surrounded by an array of different coloured roses. He pulled you into the clearing, the moonlight beating down on your both and causing shadows to fall on Jeno’s perfectly sculpted face. Your breath hitched in your throat when his hand came up to cup your cheek, his thumb stroking your hot cheek and his other hand lacing your fingers together. He smiled softly at you, his eyes memorizing every detail on your face that the moon bestowed upon him.

“You wanted to know what happened next in the story.” He whispered, his tongue darting out to lick his bottom lip causing your heart to almost skip a beat in anticipation. “I’ll show you.” He gulped as he leaned in, both of your eyes drawing to a close as his cool lips settled timidly on top of yours. You breathed in sharply through your nose, shock sinking into your nervous system as you realised that you were finally kissing your future. Of course you’d felt his lips on your forehead before, but that felt like nothing compared to the feeling of his lips slotted between yours. He drew away, his lips lingering on your own as his thumb started to sweep across your cheek again. You felt your lips automatically pulling into a shy smile, your eyes blinking open with the surprise of seeing his piercing brown eyes gazing at your face. “This is our story…”

---

The wedding came and went faster than you’d wanted it to. The build up to the wedding only days before had felt like they’d dragged. Your wedding dress fitting, seeing how the grand hall was decorated with the most beautiful and expensive décor that the staff of the palace could find, and finally seeing it all come to be. Your parent’s arrival the day before the wedding had you in floods of tears just from how overwhelmed you felt. You had been on deaths door just a month ago, and there you were, watching your parent’s carriage be pulled by horses with fur as black as night into the grounds of the castle the day before your marriage. Jeno had very busy, so you’d only seen him in passing in which he had looked slightly stressed and had barely given you a rushed kiss on your lips. He had to go to the town hall and give a speech in front of the civilians of the Kingdom about his marriage to you and what it meant for the Kingdoms future. You’d been there at his side, dressed up beautiful in his Kingdom’s colours and looking regal and stunning in the glowing sunshine. The snow had melted away, giving you a view of the Kingdom in a different light, but you knew that it would probably be back soon as the weather in the Northern kingdom was unpredictable.

On the day of your wedding you’d been whisked out of bed, hurried through your breakfast, and immediately taken to be dressed. Your hair had been pinned up and had beautiful white snowbell flowers woven into it. Your face had been subjected to a light dusting of makeup to accentuate your naturally stunning features. You felt like a Princess. You also felt sick with nerves, the familiar feeling of anxiety swimming around like a shark inside of your stomach. But you couldn’t let yourself be taken over by the panic, especially as you stared in the full-length mirror at yourself. Your wedding dress had long sleeves, the entirety of the dress having a layer of snow-white lace over the top of it. The body of the dress coming up over your chest and covering the corset you’d been stuffed into, the tightness of it making your anxiety worse as it felt like a constricting snake wrapping itself around your body. The skirt was a typical Princess skirt that would drag across the floor as your walked despite the beautiful white and gold heels you wore. Your lace veil was so long that it dragged along behind you as you walked. On top of your head you wore a heavy, solid gold crown that was fit perfectly for a Princess.

Once you’d arrived at the Kingdom’s church in your beautiful white carriage pulled by white horses, you waved timidly at the crowd of hundreds of civilians waiting outside the church to give you their well wishes. You noted that Jeno wore a similar crown to your own that sat on top his white blond hair when you finally got to see him as your father, the King of the Southern Kingdom, walked you down the aisle. Seeing Jeno stood at the end of the long aisle made your heart flutter. All of the past worries you had washing away like the melted snow as he stood in his white and gold royal uniform, the same one he’d been wearing on the day you’d arrived at the castle. You’d forgotten about how he’d treated you upon your arrival, but you didn’t care as you took a deep breath, your feet carrying you slowly walked down the aisle. Jeno knew he wasn’t supposed to turn around and look at you, but he couldn’t help himself. He turned around and felt his breath hitch in his throat, tears pooling in his eyes when he was how stunning you looked. After you fell ill, he never thought he’d get to see the sight of you looking like an ethereal angel as you walked down the aisle to marry him. So the sight overjoyed him, his heart bursting with the love he’d found within himself for you. He hated himself for how he treated you, especially now that he knew he was head over heels in love with you.

The ceremony flew by, your hands connected and his lips feeling warm on your own after you’d exchanged vows and rings. The gold ring felt heavy on your finger, but not from the physical weight of it, more from the emotional meaning it had. You were tied to Jeno for life now, and it had your heart beating in joy. You caught sight of Prince Jaemin wearing his own royal uniform in the front line of the crowd, his smile so wide that you couldn’t help but smile just as wide as him. Jeno bit his bottom lip, contemplating his next move, but in his head, he thought ‘fuck it’, and he swept you up into his arms. You squealed in surprise and held onto your husband tightly, the bouquet of red roses in your hand falling to the floor from your shock. Carrying you bridal style out of the church made Jeno feel a sense of pride in himself, and he ignored the heavy feeling sitting in the pit of his stomach about what was to come later. You both climbed into the awaiting carriage, Jeno’s lips finding your cheek as soon as the carriage door closed.

“I love you.” He whispered, lacing his hands with yours and causing you to almost combust on the spot. It was the first time he’d uttered those words to you, and it had your eyes filling with tears of happiness and love.

“I love you too.” You whispered back just as gently as he had. The two of you waved at the people who lined the streets of his Kingdom, your Kingdom. It dawned on you that you were no longer the Princess of the Southern Kingdom, and instead, the Princess and future Queen of the Northern Kingdom.

The wedding ceremony was followed by all the guests of the wedding going to the castle to celebrate with a banquet, soon followed by lots of dancing and mingling. You sat by your husbands side the entire time, greeting your guests with a smile and bow. The two of you held each other close when it was time for the two of you to have your first dance as husband and wife. The entire room going silent apart from the echoing music of the large orchestra as you moved around slowly with him. Soon after everyone else was able to join in, and the room was filled with joy of the festivities.

You were ushered away from Jeno by one of the maids and Mark when it hit 11pm and the guests were starting to dwindle. Your stomach hit the floor as you knew exactly what you were being taken away for. Mark’s voice echoed around your head, but you didn’t take in any of his words as he spoke to you about what was about to happen, despite you already knowing exactly how things were about to go down. You were taken to your new bedroom that you were going to be sharing with your new husband. The décor was beautiful, and it was very similar to the bedroom you’d previously had in the castle. You had a feeling Jeno had requested it to be that way to bring you more comfort. Mark excused himself and left you with two maids. They stripped you down from your wedding gown, leaving you in the white, lace lingerie that you’d been told to wear earlier on in the day. The brassiere came down to an inch above your belly button, the wire in the bra pushing your breasts up and making them look very appealing to the eye. It was paired with a matching pair of panties that did nothing to hide your ass. You wore white, thigh high stockings that were clipped onto the white suspender belt wrapped around your waist. They touched up on your makeup, pulled your hair from the pins to let it fall at your shoulders, tousled from being up all day, and finally left you on your own to await Jeno’s arrival.

It was Kingdom tradition to consummate the marriage on the day of the matrimony in order to create an heir. You were very nervous, especially as you had been dolled up to look sexy, which is something you had never had to be before in your entire life. But you supposed if it pleased your Prince, then it was worth it. You waited for Jeno, nervously pacing around the room in your heels before ultimately deciding that you felt uncomfortable and slipped them off, padding around the room in your stockings instead. You bit at your red painted bottom lip, deciding to sit on the bed to wait for your husband. You sat in the centre of the large bed, the silk bedding feeling like clouds on your bare skin as you leaned on one arm. The doorknob turning had your stomach erupting in the butterflies that had chilled out momentarily. Jeno entered the room and quickly closed the door behind him, leaving his hand on the doorknob as he looked at you with a shocked expression. He wasn’t expecting to see you like that, and his cheeks went bright red with heat from his sudden embarrassment. He hated that they’d undressed you like that, having would have preferred to undress you himself from your beautiful wedding dress. You watched him with shy eyes, wanting to cover yourself up from how he was just stood by the door, dead still, with his eyes on you. Eventually his eyes narrowed, and he shook his head. You looked like the epitome of innocence and grace, and he hated it. He hated that he was expected to ruin you in that way by taking your innocence.

“I can’t do this.” He spoke lowly, your stomach falling through the floor at his words. “No I can’t do this.” He shook his head, his eyes moving around the room to look at everything apart from you.

“What do you mean?” Your voice was soft and fragile, mirroring how you felt in that moment.

“This was a mistake!” He shouted at you, his face looking hard, his eyebrows scrunched up and his eyes seemingly darker than what they had been when he entered the room. You flinched, gulping in fright at his sudden outburst. You didn’t think you’d ever seen this Jeno again after how sweetly he’d been treating you since you fell ill. But maybe that was all an act. An act he couldn’t keep up any longer.

“Jeno…” Your eyes filled with tears as you watched him grab the vase of flowers on the dresser beside the door. The vase hit the wall on the other side of the room with a deafening smash, the flowers and shards of porcelain hitting the floor and making you squeal in surprise. He was angry, and he had never learnt how to control his anger. So he did was he always did when he couldn’t cope with his emotions. He acted on them and ended up getting aggressive.

“This was a huge fucking mistake; I don’t love you. How could I love you when I hardly fucking know you? I was forced into this and I can’t do this anymore!” His shouts echoed around the room, causing a sob to fall from your lips at his confession. The vein in his neck was prominent from how hard his shouts were and his strong jaw was tensed. His eyes held so mush hostility you wanted to cower away. “It would have been better if Nayeon had succeeded. Then neither of us would be here.” With that final blow to you, he pulled the door open and stormed out of the room, slamming it shut behind him with a loud thud that felt like it set a crack in your heart. He’d just told you that it would be better if you were dead. And it hurt. Nothing had ever hurt you more in your life than those words he’d just thrown at you on what was supposed to be the happiest day of your life. You sobbed harder than you ever had before, your throat burning and face wet from the tears that tracked down your cheeks. Eventually after you’d calmed down some maids entered the room to clean up and comfort you. But you just ignored their presence, feeling numb and staring at the broken vase across the room. Picturing your heart to be just as shattered as the vase.

---

You hadn’t seen your new husband since he’d ran out on you. It had been five days, but it felt like five months. You felt a longing in your heart, which surprised you because your heart felt so broken and your mind felt so numb. Every member of the palaces staff was either avoiding you, or treating you like you’d break if they spoke in any other way that didn’t sound patronizing. So it didn’t take a genius to put two and two together and figure out that the word had spread about your husband running out on you on your wedding night. Humiliation was a good way of describing how you felt, on top of the sadness and longing, it sat at the edge of your heart, ready to dive off into the pit of your stomach and bring back the butterflies that felt like daggers hitting the walls of your gut. You’d asked Mark where Jeno was, but he just told you that he couldn’t tell you as he was instructed not to. He seemed deeply apologetic though, and you couldn’t blame him for staying loyal to the family he worked for.

The last thing you wanted to do was meet with Prince Jaemin for lunch. But you found yourself being forced to because apparently he wouldn’t take no for an answer and he was prepared to go to extreme lengths to get you smiling again. You soon found out what those extreme lengths were when he let himself into your bedroom with a few maids in tow. The maids were each pushing a metal cart that had steaming hot plates of food you wished you had the appetite to want. Jaemin gave you somewhat of a sad smile, going to the table and chairs inside of your bedroom and pulling a chair out.

“Take a seat Princess.” He nodded down to the chair in his grasp, waiting for you to move from your seat on the bed. You let out a soft sigh, standing up and taking a seat at the table. Jaemin sat opposite you and cleared his throat. “This is probably a silly question, but how are you feeling?” You wanted to laugh at his question, giving him a strained smile as you picked up the mug of hot tea placed in front of you.

“I’ve felt better…have you seen him?” You sipped at the liquid slowly, keeping your eyes on the dark head Prince of the Western Kingdom as he started to pick at his food. He nodded, giving you another sad smile.

“I have. He’s…” He sighed as he thought about what to say, his eyes narrowing as his brain ticked over his words. “Jeno. He’s just Jeno.” The maids left the room as Jaemin dismissed them with a curt wave of his hand.  

“He told me he loved me, then hours later he told me that he never loved me… He also said it would be better if I was dead.” You looked down at your fingertips that were clasping the handle on the mug tightly, trying to will the tears that flooded your eyes away.

“He’s stupid.” Jaemin’s words caused Jeno’s ears to prick up as he stood outside of the door, listening in on your conversation as they door had been left open by the maids when they left. He gripped the bouquet of roses in his hands tighter and his eyebrows furrowed. “You’re such a beautiful woman, and he doesn’t deserve you. You’re kind, he’s not.” You glanced up at Jaemin, feeling like a knife had been twisted in your gut as you listened to Jaemin’s heavy words. “I can only regret that Jeno’s parents beat my own to asking your parents for your hand in marriage.” He let out a sigh, continuing to eat as if he hadn’t just told you that he wished he was your husband and not his own cousin. Jeno felt his blood boiling, and he wanted nothing more than to hit his cousin around the head with the flowers in his grip. But instead he let out a sigh and stomped off, pushing back his plans to apologise to you as he didn’t want Jaemin to hear what he had to say to you.

“Prince Jaemin…I’m a married woman, you shouldn’t be speaking to me like that.” You wanted to sound assertive, but instead your voice was shaky and showed how nervous the conversation was making you.

“I do apologise, I didn’t mean to make you think about what could have been.” He gave you a slanted smile, clearing his throat awkwardly. “You need to eat, you look awful.” This had you letting out a curt laugh, your eyebrows raised as you looked at the cheeky Prince.

“That’s no way to speak to a Princess!”

“I’m just telling you the truth! Please, eat.” Jaemin pushed the bowl of soup in the middle of the table towards you, holding a spoon out for you to take. You let out a gentle sigh and took the spoon, sipping at the warm soup in hopes it shut Jaemin up.

---

Jeno had spent the rest of the day boiling over what he’d heard Jaemin say to you. He paced around his room and had made a complete mess of his normally neat hair from tugging at it in frustration. The sun had long gone down and he groaned as he laid on his bed staring up at the ceiling with a blank expression. He had yet to prepare for sleep, still wearing the loose white shirt tucked into his tight dress trousers. His mind wondered to thoughts of you. He heart was breaking just as much as yours was. He hated himself for the things he’d said to you, and the reasons why he said them to you. The Prince could no longer bare it and came to the decision to put an end to his distress.

He pushed himself up from the bed and didn’t think much of it as he left his room. He let his legs carry him across the castle to where you had been staying in what was supposed to be your shared bedroom. Without even thinking to do the polite thing by knocking on the door, he swung open the bedroom door, his words caught in his throat as he saw you sat by the large window, staring out at the moonlit night wearing a silk robe, your bare legs stretched out on the floor in front of you. You turned to see who had just rudely let themselves into your bedroom and your breath hitched at your eyes fell on your husband, stood with his lips parted and his hand still gripping the door handle as he stared at you. He pushed the door closed and took a few steps into the room, not really knowing what he was expecting your reaction to be. But he knew for sure he wasn’t expecting the reaction he got.

You stood up, pulling the robe tighter over your pyjama clad body, the cotton tank top and shorts not doing much to hide your body, but you weren’t expecting anyone to burst into your room unannounced. Without a word you walked up to the blond Prince stood in the middle of the room, his eyes trained on you as you moved. Your palm hitting his cheek let out a slapping sound echo off the walls, his mouth popping open as his head snapped to the side from the surprising strength you had put into the attack. He was shocked, he had no idea the meek, timid, placid Princess who he’d grown to love had it in her to lay her hands on her husband like that. But he found a fire burning inside of his stomach that made him love you more for doing that.

“Are you proud of yourself?” He slowly turned his head to see the fire behind your teary eyes. A fire that looked like it was about to be put out by the water begging to fall from the waterline of your eyes. “You made me think you loved me, and then on our wedding night you told me you wished I was dead. Now I have to be married to someone who doesn’t love me and be in a loveless marriage for the rest of my life!” He looked down at his feet, letting out a short sigh and trying to ignore how pained your voice was. “Get out.” You turned to walk back to the window, wanting to watch the falling snow in the moonlight in hopes it would calm down your racing heart. You were stopped by a strong grip on your wrist that pulled you against a firm chest, your free hand coming up to land against it in your surprise. The hand on your wrist loosened and a pair of strong arms wrapped around your body, keeping you pressed to Jeno’s torso. The feel of his grip and his familiar scent is everything you’d been dreaming about for the five days that you’d been apart from him. It was almost overwhelming being so close to him, the tears finally breaking past their barrier and streaming down your face as your heart felt like it was slowly mending itself. He pulled his arms away from your waist and moved them to cup your face in both of his hands. Tilting your head up so that your gazes were locked, he poked his tongue out to wet his lips as he took a deep breath.

“I love you so much that it physically pains me to watch the tears as they fall from your bewitching eyes. Being away from you for the past five days knowing how my words would have affected you made me want to throw myself from the tallest tower to my own demise because I knew how hard it would be to coax you into trusting me again. After the wedding, my father took me aside and reminded me of my duty as a Prince, and that I was expected to produce an heir. So that was swimming around in my head like a poison fusing with water and turning all my thoughts damaging. When I opened the door to see you poised like an angel with no wings, I felt like I was doing the world a disservice by tainting your innocence and I don’t know where my mind took me but it was an unpleasant place that left a bitter taste in my mouth and a tear in your heart.” Your eyes glistened with tears as Jeno never once glanced away during the poetic words he spilled to you. He sounded like the Prince in the book that he was reading to you in the library on the night of your first kiss. “I would never wish you dead, nor would I want to ever live in a world that you didn’t exist in. I love you, and I can spend the rest of my life telling you so and apologising if I have to. If it means that you will love me the way you did before I let my mouth talk without my hearts consent. Forgive me Princess.” He stared into your eyes, his own swimming with sincerity leading you to know that he meant the words he spoke.

“I forgive you.” You whispered, letting out a soft sigh as you gazed as his facial features, falling more in love with him as your mind went over his speech.

“Thank you, from this moment on, I will be the husband that you deserve.” He leaned in and placed his lips to your own, the kiss being soft and long as his arms moved from your cheeks to your hips. You moved one of your hands to his jaw and the other to his shoulder, feeling lost in the kiss as he slowly moved his lips against yours. This was everything you’d been dreaming about since your wedding night, and you couldn’t describe the joy and relief you felt at finally having your husband by your side. He licked at your bottom lip, pushing his tongue past your lips when you gave him entrance and letting it explore your mouth as he slowly backed you up to your now shared bed. You’d finally get to share the too big bed with the man you love instead of sleeping alone. That thought alone send sparks across your body that gave you a tingling warm feeling you’d never experienced before.

He moved his lips to your jaw, placing tender kisses to your warm skin before trailing them down your neck. He sucked gentle bruises on your neck as quiet mewls and gasps left your parted lips. His hands tugged at the silk tie of your robe and let the silk slide open. He pushed it from your body and let it fall to the floor, leaving you scantily clad in your pyjamas. His hands scaled up and down your sides as his fingertips got used to the feeling of your body, the silk bunching up as he let his hands wonder underneath your pyjama top. Pulling away from your neck, he gently lifted you onto the bed, crawling over the top of you and diving back in to kiss your lips with vigour. His hands framed your head, holding his body up as his tongue trailed your bottom lip. His body rested against yours, slotted between your legs with his crotch pressed to your own.

You knew the basics of sex. You’d been taught by a very red-faced Mark a few days before your wedding and he’d assured you that Jeno had also received the same embarrassing talk. But you still felt a bundle of nerves wind itself up inside of your stomach and the thought of having the Prince on top of you without any clothes on. But at the same time, you felt a spark of excitement travel to your core that you’d only ever felt before when you’d gotten curious and let your fingers wonder. All the orgasms you’d had were self-inflicted by the use of rubbing your clit late in the night when there was no one around to hear your quiet whimpers. So the feel of Jeno hardening against you through his clothes and your thin pyjamas was causing that familiar feeling to build, spurring you on to want more.

You turned your head and let his lips kiss at your cheek leaving faint marks of spit against your warm skin as his tongue darted out to taste you. Your chest was rising and falling fast as you tried to catch your breath, Jeno’s lips never stopped as you opened your mouth and spoke. “Have you ever…?” You felt your cheeks flare up as you blurted out the question, unable to finish it and hoping he would catch your drift. He paused and his silence piqued your curiosity, so you turned your head to look up at him. His mouth was parted, and his eyebrows were furrowed, almost as if he was annoyed at your question, and you could almost see the cogs turning in his mind.

“No of course I’ve never had sex…have you?” His eyes widened slightly, and he pulled back slightly. You had a feeling if your answer was yes then he was going to cause a scene that would wake up everyone in the castle. It was expected of a Prince or Princess to stay a virgin until their marriage to another Prince or Princess. So you would feel the same way if you found out that Jeno wasn’t a virgin, and you could understand why he had pulled such an annoyed face now you knew he thought you were asking about having sex.

“No! Oh no I didn’t mean, er…I didn’t mean that. I meant have you ever…touched yourself?” Your cheeks were boiling as your embarrassment set in, your voice almost a whisper as you asked him. Jeno visibly relaxed and a small smirk arose on his face.

“Yes, I have. Have you?” He lowered his head and laid gentle kisses to your neck that left a heavy feeling in your stomach. “Have you been a dirty girl and used your fingers to do the job your Prince should be doing?” His voice dropped an octave and your stomach fluttered as his lewd words, your hips bucking up into his as you wished for him to copy what you did late into the night. “Do you want me to do the same to you?” His fingertips trailed down your side, sending shivers up your spine and a small whine to leave your chest.

“Yes.” You whispered breathlessly as he sat back on his knees, staring down at you like a predator staring at its prey. He smirked; his bottom lip caught between his teeth as he tugged your pyjama shorts down your legs slowly. You suddenly felt shy, automatically closing your legs to block his view of your heat but he gripped at your knees and forced them apart.

“Be a good girl.” He gazed down at your glistening pussy, his tongue darting out to wet his lips as his eyes darkened. He tried to push down his own nerves, wanting you to think he was confident even though you knew he’d never seen a vagina before. He paused, taking a deep breath as he trailed a tentative finger over your folds from your clit to your dripping hole. “Wow…” He breathed out, shuffling back on the bed and laying so that he was at the right angle to lean out and lick at your centre with his slow tongue. You let your head fall back against the pillow as his tongue flicked up and down slowly, circling your clit and forcing a loud moan to erupt from your lips. Your moan provoked him to take your clit between his lips and suck on it softly, his finger trailing down to your waiting entrance. He slid it in very hesitantly, remembering the words Mark said about it being very painful for a woman if they aren’t prepped properly.

“Jeno…” You whined and lifted your head to watch him as he started to devour your pussy, his enthusiasm making you almost see stars as your toes curled and back arched, the ball of pleasure in the pit of stomach flaring up as if it was going to explode at any moment. “Oh!” You squeaked, biting your bottom lip to stop yourself from screaming as he brought you to the edge that you’d sat on many times before from your own doing. Only this time it felt a hundred times better. He stopped abruptly, removing his mouth and stopping his finger. As he pulled his face back you noticed his lips and chin glistening with your juices, causing your stomach to do a flip at obscene sight.  

“I want you to finish on my cock baby girl.” His words almost shoved you over the edge, but you nodded and gulped down the saliva that had built in your mouth as you watched him. You nodded eagerly and licked your lips, gasping slightly as he pushed another finger inside of you. The slight stretch made you wince at first, but after a minute of him pumping his fingers in and out of you slowly the pain dulled, and you could feel the pleasure pouring through.

He pulled his fingers out and sat up again, popping open the three buttons at the top of his shirt before pulling the loose shirt over his head. You propped yourself up on your elbows, staring at his defined body with hearts in your eyes. His blond hair was fluffy from the friction of pulling his shirt over his head and you wanted nothing more than to tangle your hands in the light strands and trail your tongue down his chest. He threw the shirt to the floor and paused as he took the button of his trousers between his fingers and thumbs. He visibly gulped and looked up at you with hooded eyes. You could see that all his confidence had flown out of the window as he stared at you. You smiled softly, sitting yourself up and pulling your own top off, throwing it to the floor with his and leaving you completely naked in front of him. His eyes went wider than you’d ever seen as his sight dropped from your face to rest on your breasts.

“Shit.” He gulped again, his mouth almost watering at the sight of your chest. It was the first time he’d ever seen a pair of boobs in the flesh from what he could remember, and he wasn’t disappointed. He hurried to pop open the buttons on his trousers and he discarded of them, leaving him completely naked. You didn’t get much of a chance to look at his penis as he hurried to lay over you, taking on of your nipples into his mouth and cupping your other breast with his big hand. You wrapped your legs around his waist and could feel his hard cock brushing against your core, making you want more.

“Jeno, I want you now.” You whispered, his eyes glancing up to look you in the eyes as his tongue swirled around your sensitive bud.

“Hang on.” He mumbled against it, taking it between his lips once again and sucking hard. You giggled softly, reaching up and running a hand through his hair and pushing it away from his forehead.

“You like that don’t you?” You bit at your bottom lip as you watched his lips suckle on your nipple. He closed his eyes and nodded, pulling his lips back and letting your nipple go with a pop.

“Are you ready?” He moved a hand down sitting back slightly and taking his cock in his right hand, pumping it a few times. You finally got to see it, your eyes zoning in on the large member he held tightly in his hand. You’d never seen a man’s privates parts either so you had nothing to compare it to, but it definitely didn’t look small, and had a vein running up the underside, the head a pink colour with a milky bead of pre-cum leaking out from the top.

“Yes.” You nodded eagerly, settling your head against the pillow and trying to relax. He smiled softly at you, leaning over you and placing a tender and lingering kiss to your lips as he started to push his cock into you. You gasped, the pain a lot worse than the pain you’d felt from his fingers. Your back arched and tears pooled in your eyes as you tried to cope with the pain, not wanting him to stop as this was the most intimate you’d ever been with anyone, and it being your husband that you loved with all your heart meaning you’d be crushed if he stopped. He went slowly, pulling out a few times only to push in again in an attempt to fit inside of you better. He stopped once he was fully inside of you, laying kisses on your cheek and stroking your side affectionately to calm you down.

“Tell me if it gets too much Princess.” He spoke quietly into your ear, pulling his hips back and rolling them into you again. He was laying over you so that his forearms were pressed to the pillow on either side of your head, wanting to be as close to you as he could be but still so he could control the situation. He repeated this slowly, letting his head drop into the crook of your neck as his eyes squeezed shut from the immense pleasure shooting up his cock into the pit of his stomach at how tightly your walls were sucking him in. It took at least a minute of Jeno pushing his cock in and out of you for you to feel the pleasure that you’d felt when he’d used his fingers. The pain died down and you focused more on how his strong figure loomed over you, his breath panting against your neck and the sound of skin slapping against skin as he fucked you slowly. “I love you.” His voice was deep and gruff, but the words held so much meaning to you that you let out a loud moan, gripping at his back, leaving red marks on his skin as your nails dragged across it.

“I love you too.” You whimpered, your back arching and thighs starting to shake as euphoria fluttered down onto you like the snow that fell from the sky outside of the window. His thrusts got faster, and he let out little grunts and moans, his tongue darting out to lick at your neck before his teeth bit your skin, sucking a dark bruise into your skin. Your senses felt heightened and you felt like sobbing as the burning in your stomach roared like a fire about to explode. You couldn’t hold on any longer, and as Jeno’s lips met your own in a sloppy kiss, the ball of fire in your stomach finally burst and sent the best feeling you’d ever felt across your system. The orgasm Jeno gave you felt so much better than any you’d been able to bring upon yourself, and you felt yourself wanting to cling onto the man above you as he continued to make love to you.

“Fuck, baby.” He groaned, his eyes tightly shut as his rhythm faltered and he tensed up. His biceps on either side of your head became more defined as he tensed, his hips slamming into you one final time as he came inside of you, his hot seed spilling into your velvety walls. He lifted his head up and slowly opened his eyes, gazing at you with half open eyes. He let out a dazed smile, his hips rolling into yours a few times as he rode out his orgasm. He leaned in and laid his lips on yours, kissing you sweetly and full of love before attempting to pull back from you. You whined and gripped at his body, shaking your head as non-verbal sign that you didn’t want him to get up yet. He let out a soft chuckle and wrapped his arms around your body, rolling you both over so that you were laying on top of him. You laid your head against his chest and let out a sleepy slightly smile.  “Thank you.” His chest vibrated against your head and you looked up at him, stroking at his skin with your fingernails as you raised an eyebrow.

“What for?” You asked, pressing your ear to his chest once more to listen to his heart as it started to beat slower.

“For being such a forgiving, and loving person. What I did was inexcusable, and you had every right to ignore me and tell me to back off. But you didn’t and I am so thankful for that, because I love you, and I’ll love you until my dying breath.” His words tugged at your heartstrings and made you feel a sense of elation. It helped that you were basking in the bliss of sex and his cock was still tucked inside of you, so you hadn’t yet felt the soreness you were sure to feel.

“You’re my Prince,” You pressed a kiss to his chest and smiled at him. “And I am your Princess. I wouldn’t change that for the world.” His arms wound around your body tighter and he placed a kiss on your forehead. It was quiet for a few minutes before his voice broke the silence.

“Can we do that again? Now?”

“Jeno!” You gasped, using your hands to push up on his chest to give him an amused, but shocked expression. “…Okay!”

---

The castle felt like a much happier place to you now that you could walk around without worrying about whether you’d end up pissing off the angry Prince if you came across him. Instead you now walked around actively trying to find him, wanting to spend as much time with him as you possibly could. The first night you’d spent together those five months ago had been the kickstart to the happy ever after that you’d read about in the books. And ever since that night, Jeno had stuck to his words and had been the best husband you could have asked for. When he wasn’t doing his Prince duties, he was by your side. Keeping you company, reading to you, trying his best to bed you, or talking to the ever-growing bump you had that held the future Prince or Princess of the Northern Kingdom. It didn’t come to a surprise to either of you when you’d found out about your pregnancy a month after you consummated your marriage. And the King and Queen were thrilled once you announced it to the Kingdom. The Queen had been spending a lot more time with you too, ecstatic that her son had finally seen the light and started his life with you. You had exchanged a few letters with your own parents, and they were happy for you and promised to visit you soon. Prince Jaemin had given you a wide smile and a friendly hug, before turning away and letting his face fall at the news of your pregnancy. He couldn’t ignore the thudding in his heart as it longed for you, but he had to pretend everything was fine and that he was happy for his cousin and yourself. You hadn’t heard anything about Nayeon, but you wished her well and decided to let go of all the negative feelings you felt towards her, giving her your forgiveness despite her attempted murder.

“Will you read to our little Prince or Princess when they’re born?” You sat in the library, opposite your husband at the table in front of the large window, watching the snow as it calmly settled on the ground of the Kingdom. Jeno looked up from the book in his hands and gave you a bright smile.

“Of course I will.” He laid the book down on the table and followed your gaze out of the window.

“They’ll love the fairy-tale books, especially the one about the brooding Prince who fell in love with the kind Princess.” Your smile widened as you talked about the book he’d read to you on the night of your first kiss. You turned to look at him and let out a soft chuckle, licking his bottom lip.

“Yes, it sounds rather familiar doesn’t it?” He tone was teasing, and he glanced out of the window again before letting his eyes fall on your prominent baby bump.

“How did the story end again?” You rested a hand on your bump as Jeno stood up. He helped you to your feet and stood in front of the glass with you, looking out at the Kingdom from the high window as he wound his arms around your frame. You placed your hands on his chest and gazed up at him, a soft smile playing on both of yours lips.

“They lived happily ever after.” He leaned down, capturing your lips with his own, pouring all the love and affection into the exchange. Thanking you in his mind for how you took his cold heart and heated it with your own love. 

----

Hey, it’s finally out! This took me over a month to write and it’s brought me stress, joy, and finally a sense of achievement at writing something 20k words long. I would appreciate it dearly if you took a moment to tell me your thoughts and feelings about this piece. I’d love some feedback! I hope you enjoyed it x

[nike-shawn]

Vampire Shawn, Part One

Happy Halloween loves! Part two coming soon.... send me any ideas or comments you have for the series!! 🎃🎃

“Hey. Do you need someone to walk you home?”

His eyes are kind. They remind you of your dog’s eyes a little; innocent yet slightly mischievous. You smile to yourself— comparing a handsome boy’s eyes to your dogs’ probably means you’ve had too much to drink.

“I’m fine, actually. Thanks though,” you tell him, handing him your now empty solo cup. “If you could toss that into the trash can behind you, that’d be great.”

He looks slightly confused but takes the cup anyways and quickly deposits it in the large plastic garbage bin that somehow belongs perfectly fine in this dump of a frat house. There are cigarette butts and crushed beer cans underneath each of your steps as you make your way back to your friends in the kitchen.

“Um,” you hear him start again, and you wonder how he caught up to you so fast. “I was just asking because I noticed that the guy you were talking to earlier left with my friend.” You turn to face him. His kind eyes look a little sad now. “He shouted something at you but I don’t think you noticed. Something about ubering?”

“Fuck,” you mutter. It’s not entirely unlike Freddie to leave without you. In fact, it’s starting to become the norm.

“So, like I said, I can walk you home. I got left behind too so…” he drifts off, shrugging.

You look at him for only a few moments before deciding that, yeah, this kid looks trustworthy enough. The alcohol flowing through you is starting to make your eyelids feel heavy and if Freddie is already gone then there’s nothing else for you here. The booze is gone, the house is getting too crowded to move easily, and you’re bored.

“Sure.”

He smiles and you can’t help but return it with one of your own. He nods and leads you out of the party, one gentle hand on your wrist.

You break out into the front lawn of the house and you finally feel like you can breathe properly without the humid, stinking air of the fraternity. The boy looks over at you happily as you dramatically sigh and say “40 degrees never felt so nice”.

“You more of a cold-weather person?”

“Yeah. Love when the leaves change and the snow comes. Best part of the year.”

“I’m a winter person too,” he replies, and you hum a response as you remember how cold his fingers were on your wrist earlier.

You’re a few steps in front of him as you rattle off the directions to your apartment. The two of you start to talk about the guy who was screaming the lyrics to Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus when he suddenly stops. You don’t recognize that he isn’t right beside you anymore until he says “wait just a second.”

He takes a step off of the sidewalk and into the grass. Fall leaves crunch underneath his shoes as he peeks into the dense wall of trees right ahead of him. You shift nervously from one foot to the other. “Is something wrong?”

“Do you hear that?” He asks, looking back at you for a moment with an inquisitive look. “Sounds like an animal is hurt.”

You don’t wanna sound like an asshole, but part of you wants to say F it to whatever animal is in there and just get along with your walk. It’s getting chillier and chillier and all you have on is your stupid, skimpy nurses costume. “Is this some Halloween prank?” You ask. “Because it’s not very funny.”

“No, no,” he says. “C’mere. Can you hear that?”

You step forward a bit but are still a ways behind him. You strain your ear to try and hear what he’s hearing.

“I can’t hear anything.”

“Oh,” he says, taking a step back. There’s a shift in his attitude. If you weren’t so drunk maybe you would’ve noticed that he’s suddenly impatient, walking quickly ahead of you.

You are almost out of breath when you see your apartment complex come into view. The boy hasn’t said anything since he stopped to check on the animal. “Um, hey,” you start, “it was really nice of you to walk me back but I’ve got it from here.”

His energy shifts yet again, now back to his happy-go-lucky frat boy persona. He flashes a brilliant smile and starts to undo his flannel. You realize that he went as some kind of lumber jack for Halloween as your gaze follows from where his fingers are loosening a button all the way to his large, tan work boots. “If you won’t let me walk you back, at least let me give you this. You’re shivering.” He hands you his flannel, smile still stretched wide across his pretty features. You absentmindedly wonder why he didn’t offer it earlier but take it anyways, grateful for the extra warmth.

“Thanks,” you say, draping it around your shoulders. He reaches forward and starts to do up the buttons for you. You feel a strong pull towards his body, like you could just melt right into him. Once he has the last one done, the one right at your neck, you two share a laugh and he starts to step backwards, beginning his walk back to wherever he lives. “Nice meeting you!”

“You too,” he replies.

You scramble to find a suitable goodbye, but he’s already walking quickly away from you. You stammer out, “wait, I never got your name!”

He looks over his shoulder, lips quirked up at the ends. “My name’s Shawn.”

And then the night swallows him up.

🖤🖤🖤🖤

Weeks pass and you forget about Shawn. You scold Freddie for leaving you at the party but you aren’t really mad. Although Shawn was slightly odd, nothing happened. There was nothing memorable about the walk back, really, besides that scene with the wounded animal that you couldn’t hear. But you chalk that up to him just being a sympathetic drunk— it’s not a bad thing to want to help another living thing.

You come home from class one day and sling your backpack down on the floor as you flop onto the couch. Your roommates are all gone this weekend visiting family since you have a few days off in the beginning of next week, giving you a whole 4 days to yourself. You sigh happily and turn on a movie.

Rain is pounding on the roof and you’re almost asleep when someone knocks on the door. You’re startled awake by the noise. Quickly, you smooth down your hair with your palms and straighten your shirt before opening the door to reveal…

“Shawn?”

He smiles that signature smile. “Hey. I was just wondering if you had that flannel from a while ago? I have an event and we’re all supposed to wear one.”

You’re taken aback by the surprise, but you hurry to accommodate him since you have had the flannel way too long. You just didn’t know how to find him again. After a quick chat with Freddie you knew that he was a frat brother, but you weren’t going to trek all the way over there just to drop off a shirt. So you say, “yeah of course. Let me just go grab it.”

“Am I allowed to come in?” He asks.

“Oh, yeah! Yes, of course.”

It seems to take him an unnecessary amount of time to actually step into your apartment, but once he does you rush off to grab the flannel that you’re sure has just been bunched up in your closet somewhere.

When you return, he’s still standing by the door. You hand him the shirt and let out the breath you didn’t know you were holding. “There ya go. Sorry it took me so long to get it back to you.”

“No worries,” he assures.

You assume this is the part where he leaves, but he stays put. You rock back awkwardly on your heels.

Suddenly his eyes take on a concerned look. He takes a few steps forward with his hands outstretched, almost like he’s about to catch you. “Woah, are you feeling okay?”

You feel completely fine, though as soon as his hand makes contact with your shoulder you feel heavy and leaden, your eyes already drooping.

You feel only a small pinch before you fall asleep.

🖤🖤🖤🖤

When you wake up, you’re back on your couch, but this time you’re laying horizontally across the cushions with an ice pack on your forehead. You can faintly hear Shawn’s voice coming from the kitchen.

“I don’t know, I don’t know,” you think you hear him saying. “I don’t know what to do.”

You try to sit up but when you do, all the blood rushes from your head and you start to feel dizzy.

“I can’t just do that. She’ll never go for that.”

You try to tune him out. You remember passing out and start to comb through the reasons why you would suddenly lose consciousness. You were nervous, that’s for sure, but you’ve never passed out from that. You haven’t had water in a while. Maybe that’s what it was.

Shawn must’ve ended his phone conversation because he comes into the living room and immediately sits on the floor beside the couch, leaning back on his palms casually. He takes a deep breath. “So,” he starts, “I need to tell you something.”

“I know I passed out.”

He laughs a little, though you can tell he didn’t think it was funny. His face has taken on a worried undertone and he keeps running his hand through his now tousled curls.

At his sudden nervousness, you feel a bloom of your own anxiety crawl up your throat. “What is it?” You ask quietly.

“Have you ever read Twilight?”

The severity of the situation contrasted with the stupidity of his question makes you laugh. “I watched the movies,” you tell him.

“You know how he’s like, all pale and stuff? And he is just really fuckin’ weird?”

You laugh again. “Sure.”

“Real vampires aren’t really like that.”

The smile starts to fall from your face. This doesn’t sound like a joke. “Shawn, what are you even talking about?”

He clears his throat, now moving so he’s a bit further away, leaning his back against the bottom of your lounge chair. “I’m being completely serious when I say this, OK?”

“Okay.”

“I’m a vampire.”

You fight to keep a straight face. A mix of disbelief and anger is starting to show on your features— your eyebrows start to shift towards the middle of your face and your jaw falls open a bit. You want to laugh but you also kinda want to cry. “What?”

“I wouldn’t have told you but, uh,” he pauses, clearing his throat, “something came up when I bit you.”

“You… bit me?”

He clears his throat again, a nervous tick. “So, there’s something that happens when a vampire is… hungry… Um, and basically I can make you fall asleep just by touching you and when you wake up you don’t remember the bite itself. But, yeah. So, when you fell asleep I bit you. You can probably still feel it.”

You don’t move. Shawn blinks at you a few times, then takes your hand gently and leads it to the junction of your neck and shoulder where there is unmistakable soreness. You don’t stop looking at him, in shock.

“Anyways,” he continues, “does that make sense?”

You look down to where the flannel hung over a chair by the door. It’s snowing now. It shouldn’t be snowing, you idly think. It’s only November 1st.

“Y/N?”

You jolt back to life. “How do you know my name?”

Shawn looks surprised at the question. Of course, there are many other questions you could’ve asked, but this is the one that popped into your head at a time where there is little you can make sense of. He runs a hand through his hair. He says, “I did a little research.”

“How?”

“I put in your address on the auditor’s website.”

Well. That makes sense. Part of you was expecting some kind of magic spell he cast to find out this information.

Shawn stands and offers you his hand. You look at it and blink. He says, “can I show you something?”

You nod and take his hand. You should probably run or ask Shawn if he’s on hard drugs but you don’t. You let him keep your hand in his as he leads you to the bathroom.

As soon as the two of you step in the mirror, you see them. Two puncture wounds, identically shaped and on a backdrop of a dark blue-ish bruise. You gasp out loud, your hands immediately drifting to the spot. You knew that it was sore from when Shawn drew your attention to it earlier, but you didn’t know that it would look like this. This is a bite. An unmistakable bite from someone with two long incisors and a thirst for blood.

And if Shawn’s telling you he’s a vampire, you’re having a hard time refuting it now.

Part Two 

[withyounct]

Demon Jaemin x Reader

Genre: Angst, Fluff

Words: 2.1k

Over the course of your lifetime you’ve died a total of five times, all different reasons and out of your control. Death, thoroughly done with the anomaly that is you, sends in his favorite demon Jaemin to “fix” the problem the next time you die.

Next 

A/n: I wrote this instead of studying. Enjoy 🌸

The loud pounding of your heartbeat was deafening. You could feel every stop in the arrhythmic motion, the irregularity  in it. The first thing that hit you was the pungent smell of sterile air heavily mixed with sulfur. It was a ghastly smell you’ve had the unfortunate pleasure of experiencing in the past. Sitting up from the cold wet ground, you frantically looked around your surroundings.

“No.” You said softly, confused to be back in the same white room. You looked to your left where you knew there was a single black desk with a man boringly jotting things down. You stared at the man, contemplating if you should get his attention and get this over with, or just sit there in the hope that this is all just a dream. Which essentially what it was; a dream.

After a few seconds his eyes fluttered up to you the bored look in his eyes started to fade, irritation setting in.

“Ah fuck it’s you.” He hissed. With haste he filtered through the countless folders sitting on the desk, presumably trying to find yours. “You have no idea how hard you make my job.” A string of complaints poured out of his mouth. The coldness of the room started to seep into your bones. Pulling your legs to your chest, you tried to maintain any body heat you had left. You watched as the man pulled out a folder that started to become black at the corners. He took one look at the folder than at you. Without a word he tossed it on the ground, not sparing it a glance as it combust into flames. A sigh left his lips as he leaned back in his chair.

“One day you won’t be so lucky, kid. And when that day comes I’ll personally drag your ass to the freezing pit.” The look in his eyes screaming murder.

The sound of your alarm caused you to jump up in fright; heavy breathing as you cautiously scanned your room. The sun just rising above the horizon, shedding a little light into the darkened room. A chill ran up your spine as you felt the damp fabric of your clothes. Confusion riddled you as the events of last night came flooding back.

You had gotten into a small fight with your friend Jeno at a party. It began to storm and you started to walk home. Despite fighting Jeno wanted to drive you, but you stubbornly refused. Other than that you didn’t remember anything, you didn’t know how you got home. Drinking wasn’t something you partook in, so the memory loss was unsettling.

Your second alarm made you looked down at your phone again which caused you to see the string of concern texts and calls from Jeno and a few other friends.

“Shit.” You quickly found his contact and waited for him to pick up.

“Y/n have you completely lost your mind! I get that you’re mad at me, but let someone, anyone, know you got home safe or at least answer your goddamn door. Mark and I were one second away from calling the police!” His voice blasted through the speaker.

“You came to my apartment?” You tossed your phone on the bed and started to peel off your rain soaked clothes.

“Of course. We pissed off the neighbors at how loud we were knocking.” The anger in his voice faded, concern replacing it. “Where were you?”

You walked in front of your mirror, eyes widening as saw the large lightning marks that ran down your neck to you back. The blotchy streaks protruding ever so slightly off the skin. “I don’t know. Here I guess.” Your voice small, distant. Fingers trailed up and down the markings, hot to the touch despite how cold your body felt.

There was a silence then a quiet sigh from his side. “Listen it’s still raining out. Please let me take you to class. We don’t have to talk if you don’t want to.”

“Jen I don’t think that’s a good idea. It was a stupid fight and I'm not angry anymore. I just- I’ll see you later okay.” You didn’t wait for his reply as you grabbed your phone to end the call. You immediately searched up everything about getting struck by lightning and the possibility of sudden acute memory loss, but of course there was nothing linking the two.

Feeling another chill run through your body you decided to take a shower in the hopes of heating you up. Very carefully you washed around the marks, unsure about putting pressure on it. After the significantly hotter than usual shower you got dress for class. Spring was coming up around the corner, winter fading away as the days past. Despite the warm weather out, you grabbed one of your turtlenecks from the back of the closet. fixing the collar to make it sure it securely covered any marks you grabbed your umbrella and headed out.

By all accounts it was a warm humid morning, the light rain only adding to the humidity. Normally you would be already sweating, but you couldn’t stop shivering. Folding your arms across your chest, letting your umbrella lean on your shoulder, you tried to stop your teeth from chattering. A random gust of wind smacked you in the face as you regretted your decision in turning down Jeno. You quicken your pace as you reached campus, practically gunning it to the psychology department.

Walking past your usual spot in the front of the classroom you opted for sitting in the back where the heater was. Not really up for paying attention, you opened your laptop to record the lesson. Being your only class of the day you were more there for the attendance than anything.

Pulling out your phone you decided to stop being a shitty friend and text back in the group chat that you’ve been avoiding all morning. After apologizing for falling off the face of the planet and worrying them you suggested that the group should grab a bite to eat after all there classes were done for the day. Surprisingly they were quick to agree. A silent sigh left your lips, there was a bit of tension from last night, so you were thankful that they wanted to squash it as quickly as you.

The hour and a half flew by and you made you way to your favorite off campus café.

“I was wondering were my favorite customer was.” Kun smiled from behind the counter.

“As a store owner I don’t know if that’s something you can yell. What about your other patrons?” You joked, swiping your card as he started making your regular order.

“They mean nothing.” Jaehyun said as he appeared from the back. He avoided a smack from Kun as he handed you a fresh muffin. “A free muffin for a cute muffin.” He smiled.

A grimace made its way on your face. “That was the worst one yet.” You laughed, thanking him as you took that plate in hand.

Taking your drink from Kun, you wandered to the back. Opening your laptop you typed in something that had been bothering you since you woke up.

The freezing pit.

His words repeatedly cycled through your mind. The markings on your body was concerning, but something you would figure out later. With no real direction you typed in the first thing that came in mind. Dante’s Inferno.

“What disgusting weather.” A figure whined, leaning his umbrella on his shoulder as he watched you from outside the café. A playful smile graced his lips as he took the deciding steps into the building. You were too busy immersed in your reading to notice him. He gently nodded at the baristas and made his way over to you. Your eyes traveled upward as he wordlessly sat down. The confused expression was adorable in his eyes. He offered up a simple smile as he watched your eyes turn from confusion to slight horror.

The smell was the first thing you noticed. It was masked, but impossible to miss. Sulfur. You looked at the man sitting across you. He was different from the man in your ‘dream’. He was younger, seemingly somewhere around your age, with pastel pink hair. He was too handsome that he didn’t seem real. There was an otherworldly feel about him. You watched as he gently closed your laptop with one hand as the other materialized a folder out of thin air. He placed it down for the both of you to see.

“So I’ve heavily debated all morning what I was going to do. Do I just watch you secretly from a distance or properly meet you. I went with the more fun option.” He smiled. There was something off putting about as he glanced down at the papers. “Y/n, death a total of five times. The current one being last night at 1:38 am by lightning. How unlucky. You spent approximately two minutes in the waiting room before you magically, for the fifth time, disappeared back to the world of the living.” Closing the folder he looked back up at you. You were frozen, unable to truly comprehend what was going on.

“This isn’t real.” You were dumbfounded. You leaned back in your chair wanting to move away from him, but not having the ability to make your legs move. You were about to yell to get Kun or Jaehyun’s attention, but as if he could read your mind he laughed.

“Those two are taking a little nap in the back and I’ve locked the door, so no one could bother us.”  He leaned forward grabbing hold of your wrist, you immediately tried to squirm away, fear rising. He flipped your hand over and started drawing something on your palm. As soon as he was done he let you go. To held your hand close to your chest, eyes widened in fright.

“Check it.” He pointed at your neck. Hesitantly, you pulled down your collar, surprised that the marks were gone. “I didn’t mean to scary you, that wasn’t my intention.” He apologized. “However, it was the quickest way to get you to a certain understanding.”

Looking up at him you were both terrified and intrigued. There were so many questions, so many holes in your life that didn’t makes sense. Instances that you would just blame as a dream, nightmares, that you knew deep down were real.

“You’re a demon.” The steadiness in your voice surprised you both.

“Jaemin.” He nodded, smiling. He opened your folder again.

“Every time you came back to life shifted the stability of the realms in some way. For example, it was supposed to be a sunny day, however.” He pointed outside as a crack of lighting lit up the cloudy sky. “Death is understandingly ticked off.”

“The guy in the black suit?”

“No, that’s Doyoung. He’s more so the accountant for both heaven and hell. He keeps track of where souls go. He’s more pissed at you than death. He’s normally really nice, but he’s a bit of a perfectionist and you’ve repeatedly messed up his numbers.” He waved off. “The thing is when someone dies their placement is written in the folder. Yours is always empty and sixty seconds after your death your folder starts to burn and you disappear. We’ve already ruled out celestial help. The angels are as confused as us. Even if you were some type of witch you wouldn’t be able to get past Death, let alone Doyoung.” Sitting there you tried to retained everything he laid out in front of you, only offering up little nods.

“You’re calmer than I expected.” He accused suddenly, taking a piece off your forgotten muffin to eat.

You shrugged. “I woke up with lightning marks all over my body with no recollection of how I got home. Which isn’t the strangest thing that’s happened to me. I don’t know what’s going on, but I'm willing to believe anything at this point.” You answered honestly. “But I have to ask that Doyoung guy said something about the ‘freezing pit’. Am I hell bound?”

Completely sliding the plate his way, he chuckled. “No, most likely not. Like I said you tend to bring the worst out in him, but he has no power in where you go. But that brings me to why I'm here.” The somewhat causal air between you two turned dark, tensed. “There’s a thirty second window where no one knows where you go before you get back to the land of the living. The next time you meet your unfortunate end I'm going to make sure you stay dead.”

A chill running up your spine caused you to shiver. The forgotten smell of sulfur working its way back to your senses. Clarity in your fate as you looked upon the being that you were undoubtedly going to see for the rest of your natural life.