Shine Bright Like A Diamond

Chapter Thirty-Eight 

Over the short course of his life, Daesung had realized several harsh truths.

Three of them were ones that he held onto tightly.

One, there was no one he could ever trust as deeply as he trusted and loved his brothers. No one else in life could ever have that loyal devotion that he felt for them and that they felt for him.

Two, be ready to face enemies or anyone that would want to come between you and what you hold dear—that is family. He couldn’t allow anyone to ever dictate what truth was and what was lie unless he heard it from his brothers.

Third, love was not for the faint of heart, and in it did not always work out the way that you always wished it would. Crushes were meant to stomp you down to nothing, and who you ended up with was whom you ended up with—no questions asked, no trade ins, no refunds. Fate always had a plan, so enjoy what you can get. But always remember, that love can surprise you in the end.  

Such was life for one Kang Daesung, son of the great King Yang Hyun Suk and now the happy fiancée of Princess IU. It had taken a few weeks of getting to know each other, but after two months, it was now official. Sure, there was proof that one could end up with the one that they loved, easily. After all, Seungri and Young Bae had found each other through the fortunate event that their father had taken in Young Bae in as an orphan. He could have killed Young Bae and left him.

Ji Yong and Seung Hyun had somehow managed to meet as well, even though they were completely two different species, from different worlds. Fate had brought Seung Hyun to the surface of the earth, and managed to place him in Ji Yong’s stubborn and unrelenting path. Even then, as they faced at odds, they still found a way for them to be together.

And then there was he, whom had fallen in love with a person from the very beginning made it clear that she had feeling for someone else. Still he believed that maybe it would be rough, but that fate had also placed them in their own path, to cross the other. He had been wrong it seems. Every day he questioned why he would even feel anything for someone that had made it clear that she was not interested. He asked his own heart why it betrayed him like that, but there was no answer. It was up to him to move on and be happy now.

And Daesung was happy.

Two months had helped him grow emotionally than the last past years.

These two past months had been filled with a lot of difficulties. One was trying to search for a way to mate Ji Yong and Seung Hyun successfully. Their mothers had no answers, and his father had decided to go down to the basement and wake several of their ancestors. One of their uncles though, once awakened, had a lot to say, even knowledge about how Ji Yong and his reaper could be mated. His name was simply Danny or uncle D as he liked to be called. 

While he teased Ji Yong about knowing a way that he and Seung Hyun could bond, he had not said anything and simply kept avoiding the young vampire heir. Danny kept claiming that even if there was a way, it just wasn’t right. After all, nothing was impossible in the world. Daesung was mad that Danny would even consider taking the decision away from his brother. He had decided to corner Danny and asked him about it, and what was said to him was not something that he had not expected to hear.

*

The moon was shinning outside where Danny and Daesung had sat down, on the roof of the dark palace. Daesung waited for his uncle to speak, and for a moment he thought that he was not going to get an answer. “I know that Ji Yong says that he is in love with this reaper of his, but I can’t help but wondered really, if they are,” Danny breathed.

“They are,” Daesung said, without even thinking much about it. After all, he had never seen Ji Yong as happy as he was when he was with Seung Hyun. And he had seen his brother suffer a lot. There was no way that he was going to let anyone stop him from being with Seung Hyun. Danny smiled at the quick response nonetheless.

“I used to think that I was in love, once, so deeply in love”

“Huh,”

“Way back then, way in the past when I had first come of age. I had always been restless, and decided to travel, I had this feeling, that the one for me was not close and I had to go out and find them, wherever it was that they might be,” Danny smiled bitterly, “After years of traveling, I found someone.” He said.

“You did?” Daesung asked, perplexed by the sadness in his uncles eyes. Something must have happened; a happy vampire doesn’t go down to the basement to sleep decades into a coffin.

Danny nodded. “I thought, wow, I was right. My mate was somewhere far where I had to save her. She was a witch, pretty little thing. Brown eyes, long soft hair, small frame, petit, and full of life.” Danny’s eyes seemed to soften as he mentioned the girl that he had found, but he never gave her a name. “She was wicked, funny, but even though I loved her so badly, she didn’t understand that my feelings for her were strong. Although she was a witch, she is bound by the earth’s rules, mortality. She was aging, even if she lived to be a hundred, even two hundred, that wasn’t enough for me. I wanted her to live with me young and forever,”

Daesung looked at his uncle, frowning. “What happened?” It was a given fact that vampires couldn’t turn humans into vampires, even if they had magical properties or inheritances like witches. There was nothing that could turn a person immortal like a vampire.

You had to be born one.

“I asked her to make a spell; the rules of magic can always bend wishes into will. I asked her to keep herself young and healthy, so she’d stay by my side, but she denied it. She said that there was a reason why mortals and immortals were different,” Danny sighed, “Why vampires couldn’t turn the immortal like them, and that was because they were never meant to be together. If there was no way to be bonded together in a form to avoid death, then being with each other wasn’t worth it,” Danny looked pissed now. “That she’d rather be with someone that she could grow old with, and that was that. We were over,”

“You let her go?”

“She let me go,”

“But,”

“I watched her Daesung, get married to a warlock, have kids, live happily with a family. I never once saw her cry over leaving me, nor did she miss me. So how the hell can Seung Hyun love Ji Yong when he isn’t a vampire? When he can’t feel the same emotions?” he asked. “He doesn’t even belong here.” Danny sighed, “Ji Yong is spoiled if he ever thinks that he can get with someone he chooses, sometimes you gotta face facts. You just don’t get to be with the person you want, or believe you love”  

Daesung glared, “Seung Hyun faced Death just to get back to Ji Yong! I’m sure that’s proof enough that he’s never letting him go. That’s just how much he loves him!” Daesung got to his feet. “You don’t know anything about them,”

“A reaper facing death? What a joke,”

“They were mated before, and their bond was ripped apart. Seung Hyun was dragged into the abyss, and he risked everything to get back to Ji Yong,” Daesung wasn’t sure how he could place his words to convince his uncle that he wasn’t lying about Ji Yong’s and Seung Hyun’s love for each other.”Their love is just real!”

“I think I’ll be the judge of that,” Danny said with a smirk, “but Daesung, a reaper and a vampire, it’s practically unheard of.” He tilted his head towards the sky, “Not only are they different species, but they are from practically two different worlds. If I had to describe them, I would say that reaper is Ji Yong’s personal black hole…”

“Do you even know a spell to mate them together or not?”

Danny smiled, “I do, I didn’t travel and date a witch without learning a few things. There’s one spell that will bind them together, but I know that the reaper is automatically bound to the earth, for his source of energy, meaning that from that, we’ll have to split it and create a second bond that will tie a second energy source from Ji Yong, to him,”

“But that’s what they are trying to avoid!” Daesung protested.

“And they should,” Danny said, “You didn’t let me finish.” Daesung gave him a look “I’m sorry, but it’s a part of Seung Hyun’s natural structure to feed off what he’s bound off, but he’ll still be bounded to the earth that Ji Yong wont’ be his main food source, and Ji Yong will also have the ability to block him off if ever Seung Hyun tries to feed off him—basically what I’m saying, is, since it’s either way, it will be a dangerous bond—how well do both of them trust each other?” Danny smirked again, “In this bond, they could kill each other if they don’t.”

Daesung didn’t know, but stared at his uncle with slightly widened eyes.

“Tell me Daesung, how well do Ji Yong and Seung Hyun trust each other? Can you say now that they truly love each other?”

Daesung didn’t hesitate, he didn’t even think, “Yes”  

*

Daesung was starting to feel like he cared too much about what happened to his brothers, when really he should be worrying about himself and his future mate. But he couldn’t help but feel like no matter what way he thought about it, he was settling to be with Princess IU.

Was that enough?

If there was one thing that Seung Hyun did not appreciate, it was being followed—stalked—watched! Whatever anyone called it. It was plain annoying.

He didn’t like Danny, because he stared too much, and seemed to look at him with an evil stare in his eyes. Being a reaper meant many things, so Seung Hyun feared little next to nothing, and right now all he felt was irritation. He wanted to see how far that man’s obsession with speculating him went, so he decided to take a walk by himself, and head into the woods.

His goal was to escape him.

That was when Danny learned that he couldn’t follow a reaper. Especially when at the first sight of shadows that were cast by the trees around the castle, Seung Hyun had vanished as if he had never been there. For one reason or the other, that scared him more than anything else ever did. Danny stumbled back, getting out of the woods.

Frustrated that he was not going to be able to corner the blue haired reaper and question him, he eventually made his way back inside the castle. There he found Young Bae and Seungri looking a bit worried while Tae Hyun squealed and threw his little arms out looking excited. “What’s going on?” Danny asked as he approached them, his eyes darting back and forth from the running servants.

“Ji Yong is going on a small rampage,” Young Bae sighed, crossing his arms and turning a smile to his baby boy.  “Tae Hyun of course enjoys his uncle Ji’s hysterics,” the baby gave his daddy a very gummy and agreeing smile.

“Aish, he’s teaching my baby bad manners,” Seungri kissed Tae Hyun’s chubby cheeck.   

Danny was confused. “Why would Ji Yong…”

“WHERE THE IS SEUNG HYUN!” Ji Yong roared, as dread and fear seemed to filtered through the castle, enough that everyone inside could feel it. Several servants scurried around, looking for the reaper when they couldn’t calm down the vampire heir. Danny watched as flames up from the floor through the balconies, to the stairs and flinched. Neither Young Bae nor Seungri moved out of the way, while Tae Hyun let out a very amused giggle. For a second, Danny wondered if they were crazy.

“Why aren’t you guys trying to stop him?” he asked, glaring at the couple. Young Bae and Seungri didn’t even bother to tell him anything.

“The only one that can stop him is Seung Hyun,” Daesung’s voice sounded from the other side, next to the blond vampire was a beautiful young girl. She offered a smile, before turning to calmly look at the flames, keeping her arms around one of Daesung’s. They made a lovely couple.

Ji Yong was screaming around angrily, about how if no one told him where Seung Hyun was, someone was going to get hurt. There were also the threats made that when he found Seung Hyun he was going to place him on a leech or something ridiculous like that. It was kind of amusing to his brothers, but not to Danny who flinched every time that Ji Yong cursed.

“Isn’t anyone going to stop him?” he asked, and the others shook their head.

Ji Yong kept his small rampage, but Danny soon noticed that the flames weren’t hot; they weren’t tearing down the place. Ji Yong wasn’t really mad- he was scared, terrified, that he had lost Seung Hyun. This was Ji Yong panicking, while at the same time trying to protect himself, of whatever it was that he felt threatened by.

Danny found himself feeling sympathetic towards the young vampire heir. He wanted to comfort his young nephew, but when he tried to get close, it burned.

Ji Yong at this point had surrounded himself with his own flames, not allowing anyone near him.

“What is going on here?” Everyone turned around to face the King.

“Ji Yong is throwing another tantrum,” Young Bae said, placing an arm around Seungri as he pulled his mate and his son slightly behind him, and protectively. The King sighed, angry at what he heard. Daesung flinched as well.

“JI YONG!” Their father roared. Ji Yong’s flames parted only slightly to show the pouting vampire heir. “We’ve been through this for two months now,” he started but Ji Yong decided that he was not going to listen.

“Seung Hyun said he’d be back in ten minutes! It’s been more than that, it’s eleven minutes now,” The pink and blue haired vampire ranted to himself. “Now it’s twelve of them, where is he?”

“You really need to let him breathe Ji Yong, or he really will leave you,” Young Bae said jokingly, but it seemed to be the wrong thing to say. Although the flames completely disappeared, Ji Yong had a stricken look on his face. One of hurt and realization that he was being bothersome and clingy! What if Seung Hyun left him because he wanted to get away from him for that very reason? The very thought crushed him.

“Uh Ji Yong,” Daesung started. “He was just joking. Seung Hyun wouldn’t leave you for the world.”

“No, he’s right. I pushed him away,”

“I can’t listen to this bull anymore,” Danny suddenly said. “What is this hold that this ing reaper has on you anyways? You are a vampire! Act like one and find yourself a great vampire. The reaper will drop you faster than anything because he’s neither dead nor alive. Whatever it is that they are! You are not meant to be with one!” Danny roared, making everyone fall silent and look at him.

At that moment the front doors open, and Seung Hyun walked inside, softly humming the now familiar song that Ji Yong seemed to always unconsciously hum to himself. Seung Hyun had heard it so many times that now it was his most favorite song in the entire world. That lullaby was familiar to everyone in the room as Ji Yong’s song though that even Danny was shocked that the reaper knew it.

“Seung Hyun!” Ji Yong couldn’t stop himself even if he wanted to. He ran towards the reaper, and immediately threw himself into his arms, hugging him tightly. Seung Hyun shocked Danny though when he wrapped his own arms around Ji Yong, hugging him just as tight, and even kissing the top of his head, unembarrassed about the fact that everyone there was looking at them.

And the warm look that crossed his sharp, usually cold eyes…

Danny had not expected for the reaper to appear so suddenly, and comfort Ji Yong so warmly as he did. It was like nothing had ever happened. Ji Yong was happy again, his hand tightly clasping Seung Hyun’s as they walked over to join the others.

Danny might be their uncle, but he was not allowed in the dungeons with them. Thus he had never seen such an intimate display between both Ji Yong and Seung Hyun before. But he was glad when he saw it.

It gave him a lot to think about. Because when it came to family he spared no expense.

Still, he wished to talk to Seung Hyun and know him more.  

“Where were you?” Ji Yong asked, taking a seat on Seung Hyun’s lap while pulling on the reapers shirt.

“Just taking a walk,” Seung Hyun said. Ji Yong sighed, burying his face into Seung Hyun’s neck, and keeping a tight hold on him. He didn’t want Seung Hyun out of his sight, and although he knew that he needed to let go a little, it was still scary. Seung Hyun had asked him for only ten minutes, so that he can start letting go, little by little, but when it turned to eleven minutes, he felt anxiety flow through him.

It was odd, because he could no longer feel their strong bond like he could before. He didn’t like that they were no longer bonded to each other. All Ji Yong kept remembering was how they were torn apart. How their bond fell, the way he had seen it torn to shreds. He kept to himself that he had seen his broken bond, and he didn’t tell anyone when it had started to vanish until there was nothing left.

He didn’t want Seung Hyun to vanish as well.

“If only Danny will speak about what we can do to get you two bonded,” Seungri said, trying to get Tae Hyun to eat. The baby lately had become even more stubborn and picky about what he wanted to eat. Young Bae reached over, trying to see if he could feed him.

“Even if he doesn’t speak, Hyunnie and I will find a way,” Ji Yong confidently said.

“I’m sure you two will,” Young Bae said, “Now if only we could find a way to get Tae Hyun to eat,”

Daesung went over to them, and held his finger with blood over the baby’s lips. The baby turned his head, denying it. “He doesn’t seem to want blood at all,”

“He doesn’t want milk either,” Seungri said, worried about his child.

“Here, pass him.” Ji Yong said, and Seungri stood up so he could hand the baby over to him. Ji Yong immediately opened the baby’s mouth and frowned. Lately he had been reading things on babies, in case he and Seung Hyun ever had one. He really wanted to, but he was not sure if it was possible. “He’s teething; it must hurt for him to even try to eat,”

“He is,” Seungri looked, and then cooed at his baby. He couldn’t believe that his son was already going to start teething. “What do we do then?”

“We sooth his teething,” Young Bae said, walking out the door. Seungri decided to follow after him. Once they were gone, Ji Yong grabbed Seung Hyun’s hand and started to lead him out as well.

“We’ll see you later Daesung, Princess IU”

Daesung nodded his head, watching as his brothers left and turned to his future mate. He had done a lot of thinking, and the decision was final. That was why she was allowed in here. “We’re getting mated in just a few days,” he softly said, “How do you feel Ji Eun?”

Princess IU, named Ji Eun blushed and placed her hand softly into Daesung’s own. “Strangely enough, I feel happy,” she said, nodding her head.

Daesung smiled back, “Strangely enough, I do to,”

“Actually, I never thought that I would be giving a shot to being in love again,” she said, “but you are so sweet, I couldn’t help but fall for you,”

“Same here,” Daesung said, although in his mind he was thinking back to the pain that he had to face before he got here. Sure that his love life had not been the easiest, but it wasn’t a lie. He was happy right now, with Ji Eun by his side. He was no longer alone and life seemed to be just about perfect.

“I’m kind of excited, to be getting mated,” Ji Eun said, shivering with anticipation as she looked into Daesung’s eyes. She couldn’t have asked for anyone better to be hers.

“Me too, it seems almost unreal.” Daesung said.

And it almost did feel unreal.

That night, Daesung found himself walking to his room alone as he had escorted his future mate to her bedroom. He was walking down the darkened halls when he felt a cool chill fill the hall way and paused in his walking when he saw Minzy standing in his way. Her hair was covering half her face as she looked at him with what looked a torn look on her beautiful face. She looked so mad, yet at the same time so crushed.

“Minzy,” he whispered, his breath catching in his throat when she lifted her head completely to look at him.

“Daesung,” She whispered in return, the name so foreign to her. That was the first time that she had actually said it aloud. “I…I…Daesung…I” Minzy hesitated as she let her thoughts run through her mind. She knew what she wanted to do, she really did.

Then why were her words getting stuck in ?

“Minzy, maybe we should take you to the infirmary, so Gummy-noona could take a look at you,” Daesung offered that infectious smile of his, “Come on,” he said, his voice, soft, warm. How did she ever miss such delights? Daesung moved towards her, placing his hand lightly on the edge of her shoulder, trying to guide her, but she slapped his hand away making him gasp.

Minzy shot forward, both her hands grabbing at the collar of his shirt, pulling Daesung down to her—and kissed him!

Daesung’s eyes widened, unable to process what just happened.

It couldn’t be.

Surely, love was not for the faint of heart, and in it did not always work out the way that you always wished it would. Crushes were meant to stomp you down to nothing, and who you ended up with was whom you ended up with—no questions asked, no trade ins, no refunds. Fate always had a plan, so enjoy what you can get---

But always remember, that love can surprise you in the end. 

What will Daesung do now...hmmm....

Hope you guys are still enjoying the story.