***
“you cant find her?! What did you mean you cant find her!? Are you saying she just vanished out of nowhere?!”
TaeHyung frowned as he heard his brother loud voice from the study room where he -undoubtedly- taking out the pile up frustration towards the men that they hired to search for a certain someone, a very important someone,
Sighing inwardly, the youngest Kim pushed the heavy door open and instantly greeted by his two brothers and Jimin agitated faces,
“anything from the Lee?” SeokJin quickly ask, not even bother to let TaeHyung adjust to the room’s atmosphere. The younger shakes his head tiredly as he slumped down onto the nearest sofa just beside Jimin and the later groaned, clearly expecting anything other than his bestfriend head shakes,
NamJoon, being the sanest one out of the three swipe his palm across his face then back to his previous task at hands, sending order to all undergrounds loader to track down the girl,
“you’ve been staying with the Lees for days Tae, JooYeon has missing for 4 nights, are you sure they don’t find anything?” SeokJin ask again, sternly this time and TaeHyung sighed, “no hyung, not even a sight of her, I even asks the household staffs, they know nothing of her where about, or even where she spend her time when she’s not in the manor” he answered,
SeokJin closed his eyes out of frustration before turn his attention back towards the two men whose standing in front of his study table anxiously and ‘tsk-ed’, “search again” he finally said in a low tone after a long pregnant silent and the goons look up, flabbergasted “pardon, my Lord?” one of them squeaked, earning a secret shakes of head from his companion and sympathized stares from NamJoon as he stood behind his older brother seat by the window,
Squinting his eyes dangerously, SeokJin stare back at the men, jaw hardened and the men shivered under the heir cold stares, “I said find her! Search every inch of this kingdom! Every holes! Every path! I don’t ing care what method you use, just ing find her! And don’t ever think to come back here with another ‘she’s gone’ excuses again or I’ll rip that tongue of yours myself!” he barked and with a flick of a finger shooed the frightened men away. NamJoon watch they literally ran away then sighed as the double door slammed shut and turn to look at his frustrated brother cup his face, leaning on his elbow tiredly,
Kim SeokJin are known for his level headedness, always think the things throughout anytime, anywhere, but when something got out of his control, he became a whole different person. And he wont stop until the things get back to what it was or in this case, until Lee JooYeon been found and back under the safety of his wings,
“we should have ran after her that day” Jimin whispered miserably after a long silent and two pair of eyes instantly set on him, he frowned,
“I felt it, her feelings, its like my own heart stabbed by thousand knives, hyung” the boy says again, looking at TaeHyung and NamJoon’s face before moving to SeokJin who still not moving any muscle from his position at the back of the table, “and that-,” he continued, gulping lump that start to form in his throat “that betrayed looks on her face, Lord knows that looks still hunted me”,
Jimin fidgeted on his seat “we have to find her hyung, I cant live on with this feelings, knowing how dejected she felt that day”,
The room grew silent again after that and the atmosphere dampened even more. NamJoon stared blankly out side the window, looking at particularly nothing as the storm roaring outside and TaeHyung look up at the ceiling, working his brain out to put every single pieces of information he could find during his stay at the Lee. He’s been staying with Nara ever since they found out JooYeon is missing, Nara been so attached to him lately and grew ridiculously restless in the past few days. He’s been trying to find any clues of wherever JooYeon could hiding, what she’s like and what she likes to do in her free time by asking the staffs but the only thing he found was how miserable the girl life is when she live in the manor. He knew that Nara and her mother dislikes the girl, Nara has told him everything, every trouble the girl loves to create but he never knew of the other versions of the stories, never curious enough to find out until these past 3 days when he walk around to questions the manor staffs,
And these stories are bothering him
Turn out, many of the so called trouble she’s been into were caused by Nara or her mother in that matter, but when he’s about to find out more and even tried to pried deeper, Nara came back and drag him to have a tea with her and her mother. He tried to pursue the Lees to keep searching for the missing girl but they lightly brush his request away by telling him that it’s not the first time JooYeon ran away like this and she’ll be back soon so he just have to stay with the longer to wait for her but minutes turn hours and hours turn days and no sight of her so he decided to come back to the palace and report to his brothers. The Lee behaviors intrigued him, and not in a positive manners,
What if all those accusation that JooYeon said about Nara and her mother was true all along?
What if the Lee has been meant to all of this to happen in the first place?
And all the lists of ‘what if’s keep going on until he couldn’t even think of where all this thoughts sourced form but then again, he could never think of Nara able to commit to such deeds, no matter how she hated her half-sister. He refused to belief,
“the thing is,”,
TaeHyung quickly fix his eyes at his oldest brother and SeokJin pull away from his intertwined hands to stare straight at Jimin with misery in his eyes, “do you feel anything from your bound with her, Jimin? Because I cant,” he said quietly and at the realization, NamJoon curse in a whisper as he catch on what the meaning of his brother’s words,
“its like she really is no longer here”,
Jimin let out a quiet whimper and there’s no need for TaeHyung to be as genius as his second brother to catch on what’s happening because there’s a reason why SeokJin ask Jimin that question and not him nor NamJoon. The only one other than him that tied to the girl was Jimin and the boy whimper prove everything, just like SeokJin, he too, no longer feel the bound and that’s definitely something to be worried about, no wonder the their eldest became so desperate,
They have to find her, no matter what it takes.

 

***
I stood on the balcony and stare ahead blankly, watching the looming shadows cast the cold weather and creating the snow everywhere, moving slowly like a flowing silk at the sky, the weight of the power, blanketing every inch of the realm in it. I don’t even sway when the snow start pilling up on my head and exposed shoulders as I let my mind ran loose, many thoughts come and go, I practically paid no attention to my surrounding even when Nox rubbed his head on my forearm because Lord, am I freezing?,
That’s before soft knocks pulled me back from my trailed thought and I noticed the frost that start to form on my fingertips, slightly covering the perfectly manicured black and red nails. I turn my head slightly to acknowledge the visitor and the door opened, “you’ll catch a cold”,
KyungSoo said softly as he strolled inside, crossing the spacious room before stood beside me and following my example, staring at the horizon, at the menacing yet beautiful shadows,
I keep my mouth shut, even when he reach for my red locks and clean the snow on top of my head, “I’m serious JooYeon, you’re freezing, what are you doing, exposed to the shadows like this? You know the Empress sending her shadows out to strengthen the barrier again today, where is your coat?” he said again, sternly this time and I roll my eyes when he noticed my fingertips, “grandmother power wont hurt me” I stated flatly, the lack of emotion in my tone’s surprised me even KyungSoo halt in his movement for a second before feign the ignorance as he keep trying to melt the ice on my fingers while knowing another has frozen me inside and he could do nothing to prevent them,
“yes it will, her power are never meant to bring any good to everything that it touched, nothing’s immune to them, not even you, look at all this frost” he answered quietly, gesturing his hand at my frozen fingers and I watch him walk back into my quarter to pick the coat that I laid on my bed then put it around my shoulders on top of the black silk open shoulder dress I wear, “never go around without them again, where’s your black hood anyway? At least it could warm you enough, and you look better with it” his eyes soften and I turn rigid at the mention of my so called hood. That thing bring out so many painful memories,
“I feel better without it” I indifferently said, avoiding his gaze but I know he sees right through my lies, I felt so thankful when he decided to drop the matter and change the topic,
“the Empress planned to release JongIn today, you know?” he start and my ears perked at the mention of the familiar name, I whip my head to look at him but taken aback at the remorse that evident on his face, “isnt that a good thing? She promised me to release him when she brought me here”. Yes, she gave me her words, the day she spilled about my heritage, my true bloodline. She promised to set him free if I willing to go with her and I instantly agreed as I need an escape myself, from all those heartache I experienced and she gave me a bone shivering smile at my decision. I honestly felt like I’ve sold my soul to the devil that day,
But then again, I’m too tired to even questioning things, too feed up at everything that happens and I just don’t care anymore,
KyungSoo shakes his head at my question with a tired smile decorating his handsome face “no, he’ll be banished,”, my eyes widened at his words and tried to muster something to say but he beat me to it, “this will be the last time you see him, I’m sure you have tons of question to asks, that’s why I’m here,”, I fell silent at the revelation,
“lets go visit our brother”.

 

***
Starring up ahead without emotion evident in his eyes, JongIn watch as a tiny mouse ran across his prison bars, its worm like tails trailing along and halted when it stopped to pick a piece of food that originally from JongIn’s plate, that’s when the boy pick a random pebble from the prison floor, aiming for the poor mouse before a sudden voice called and scare the thing away, forgetting the piece of food in it’s hurry,
JongIn clicked his tongue in annoyance before looking up to glare at his brother, KyungSoo wave at him innocently “didn’t think I would say this but, go find something your own size to bully, JongIn-ahh” he said cheerfully and the younger boy roll his eyes,
“like what? Those pile of bones there?” he shot back sarcastically, mentioning towards the other cells that indeed full of old dried skeletons, KyungSoo raised his eyebrows and chuckled,
“I see the dungeon didn’t change your attitude, that’s good” he answered, leaning forward to the bars before let out a saddened smile at the condition of his younger brother, it pained him to see him like this, no matter how strong of a beta he is, JongIn still one of their youngest and KyungSoo’s instinct is to protect him,