Taeyeon woke up with heavy eyebags over the bottom of her eyes, much to the amusement of Tiffany and the cold glares of Jessica. She grumbled as she stared at the reflection of herself in the mirror.

“I look like ing .” She announced, earning a scowl from Jess and a naughty giggle from Tiffany.

“You look perfect, Taetae.” Tiffany cooed like a mother hen, adjusting the pink bow on her dress with meticulous care. “Look how the pink compliments you!”

“I look like a sleepless pink monster.” She deadpanned as Jessica hurrumphed in agreement, and Tiffany smacked her arm in incredulous hurt.

“Pink! Isn't!--”

“A monster~” Jessica and her deadpanned at the same time, a fleeting smile crossing their lips before she turned her face from Taeyeon, and the latter sighed.

“I'm sorry.”

“About what?”

“About...you know.”

“No, I don't know.” Taeyeon grinded her teeth at Jessica's stubbornness.

“Can't you just not be so stubborn for once?”

Jessica turned annoyingly back towards her sister.

“How about...no.” She grinned triumphantly as Taeyeon threw a pillow at her face, earning a shriek of shock from Tiffany.

“Kim Taeyeon! You are not going to ruffle the pink dress I made both of you wear today!”

“I don't see why we have to wear pink dresses to Daesung's execution.” Jessica deadpanned. “Isn't it a tad too cruel to bring such a celebratory colour to our old best friend's demise?” Tiffany glared at her.

“Don't wear it then!” She exclaimed huffily.

“Absolutely.” Taeyeon barely held back a snort of a giggle from her nose as Jessica literally tore off the dress from her body, a sigh sinking from her lips as she slipped into her familiar set of breeches.

“Are you ever gonna tell him the reason why you chose Seunghyun, Taeyeon?” Taeyeon's eyes flickered as Jessica turned the conversation back to a more serious topic, and chagrin boiled in the pits of her stomach.

“Could we not discuss about this now?”

“Sure.” Taeyeon blinked at her suddenly easygoing nature, for it was unlike Jessica to back down without a proper fight. “Shall we wait till we're all old grannies to talk about it again then? Who knows, by that time, Jiyong may have already found out.”

“Found out about what?” All three girls froze in their places as Jiyong's low voice echoed from the front of the chamber. “You look ravishing, my Queen.” He said lowly, pulling Taeyeon possessively into his embrace.

“It's nothing, Jiyong. Just a mere jest between us.” Taeyeon attempted to smile peacefully, feeling her eyebrow twitch as she lied, cursing Jessica for her lack of restraint in , especially in the palace.

“Hm.” Jiyong hummed neutrally, neither giving away if he believed her words or not, and a chill fled down Taeyeon's back. Jiyong was never an easy opponent to rally against. He was clever, in spite of his fluctuations and childish temperaments, and Taeyeon knew that she had been quite liberal with some of her attempts in the palace, which, she felt would have definitely fallen under Jiyong's eyes. He was just...choosing to ignore and side with her instead.

Currently.

“We were just discussing if it was too cold hearted for a Queen to wear pink to a criminal’s death sentence.” She smiled shyly up at Jiyong with crinkling gentleness, her fingers adjusting the tie he wore with his suit. “And you look absolutely handsome today, Kwon Jiyong.” She breathed in his ear, pretending to ignore Jessica's groan of disgust and Tiffany's frown of disgruntledness. Jiyong look darkly at her, his eyes hovering over her body intimately, full of lust. A crooked smile graced him from ear to ear as he tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

“It's never too cold hearted to wear something ravishing on someone's death.” He said low and sensually, driving spikes of desire up Taeyeon's back.

“Your cheeks are ing pink.” Jessica interrupted, crossing her arms, and just like that, the sizzling chemistry between her and Jiyong shattered into shy awkwardness.

“Thanks, Jess.” Taeyeon deadpanned, still feeling her cheeks tainted with heat in them as she released her hands from Jiyong's chest.

“You're welcome.” Her sister beamed annoyingly. “I live to forever be you and Jiyong's light bulb when things get a tad too romantic.” Jiyong chuckled lowly, his face buried in the tender crook of her neck as she scowled at her sister.

“Come.” He gently pulled her around the waist. “We will be late for Daesung's execution if we delay any further.”

~~~~~~

Taeyeon wanted to close her eyes and relax.

Everything was going according to her plan, but for once in her lifetime, she couldn't get her body to obey what her mind desperately wanted her to do. The greatest and once most powerful and wisest man of the kingdom's daughter, Kim Taeyeon couldn't relax. Her teeth ground against each other in frustration, and Jiyong's arm slid up and down hers concernedly, feeling her stress and nerves in her tight tense muscles.

“You alright?” He asked lowly, a tender spark of concern in his eyes, and Taeyeon felt her chest well with deep fondness for the man sitting next to her. She gave him a brief nod, and patted his arm, trying her best to smile convincingly at her husband.

“Commence the execution.” Jiyong waved his hand lazily, and Taeyeon watched with shivering apprehension as Daesung was brought to his knees.

Panic filled his features as Taeyeon sat calmly in her seat, raising her cup to her lips indifferently and sipping on the drink.

Didn't Taeyeon say she'd help him get out of this execution? Daesung felt his bones seize in terror, fear and regret.

Then what the hell was she doing? Sitting there and doing nothing?

The blade in the executioner's hands glinted menacingly in the sunlight.

.

Daesung felt like screaming as his eyes stayed glued to the unmoving Taeyeon.

I shouldn't have trusted her.

shiiiiitttt I'm gonna die! Curse you Kim Taeye--

The sword swung down, true in it's course, and Daesung's head rolled with a bloody splat off his shoulders, tumbling in it's horror struck form to stop at the bottom of the execution stage.

“Is it over?” Taeyeon trembled in her seat, her hand clutching to Jiyong's strong arm. “Is it done?” Jiyong felt a sense of overprotectiveness assault him as Taeyeon trembled beside him, her eyes tightly closed at the scene.

“Yes.” His voice said lowly and softly. “It's done.” He sighed softly as he felt every part of Taeyeon's body relax. “Come. Let's get you back to your Chambers.” He muttered lowly, lifting her to her feet with odd gentleness. Taeyeon nodded mutely, carefully avoiding the head on the ground and blanching at the sight of the gore and blood.

Her eyes met Hyoyeon and Yuri's own, and the latter grinned, swinging a pendant from her fingers and nodding curtly, just once.

It was done.

~~~~~~

Taeyeon reclined with a sigh on her dais, dressed simply in only a white flimsy nightdress in the middle of the day. She stretched lazily, almost like a lazy pale cat, and collapsed with a contented sigh on her features, feeling the slow but satisfying ache in her body--a telltale sign of a rather rough but satisfying hour and round of with Jiyong.

He had taken her as soon as they had returned to her Chambers after Daesung's execution, and had chased everyone away from her rooms. A faint pink tainted her cheeks at the thought of his strong body just only moments ago, pulling her tight against his body made her cheeks flame and desire shoot through her body.

Well, at the very least, her attraction to Jiyong never did change.

She would have to warn him about being more careful when sampling her skin though. Taeyeon stared half with pride half with embarrassment at the reddish marks on the nape of her neck, before a knock interrupted her trend of thoughts.

“Are you two very much done with your heated pounding of each other, or will we get scarred walking into your Chambers?” Hyoyeon's terribly annoyed voice floated through the door, and Taeyeon gently hid a smile.

“He's gone for a long while.” She called back. “Come in.” Her two sisters, Yuri and Hyoyeon strode in abruptly, the latter with rainbow hair wrinkling her nose at the musky smell of through the room.

“It reeks.” She announced, flinging open the windows with vehemence.”And you're glowing!” She pointed accusingly at the stretching Taeyeon. “You're ing glowing while we were waiting outside the doors in the heated sun!”

“It's called afterglow, Kim Hyoyeon. It happens when one has a very satisfactory and good with multiple s. “ Yuri immediately prattled off, leaning lazily against her chest of drawers. “It's normal. She's a beautiful woman, he's a man. And men think with the tools dangling between their legs more than their minds.” She dodged a pillow thrown harshly at her face.

“Can we not talk about how active my life is?” Taeyeon scowled at her sisters. “If you're so disgruntled about me getting some, just find yourselves a man to satisfy you!”

“Noooo..”

“Nah, I'm good.” At their response, Taeyeon threw two pillows directly at her two sisters faces and huffed.

“Tell me, did we get it done?”

“Well duh, what did you expect? We're probably way more efficient than Jessi and Tiffany in this kind of stuff.” Hyoyeon tossed the pendant to Taeyeon carelessly, ignoring the shriek of alarm from her sister's lips. “His soul is locked in there. We called upon some favours with the djinns. Took quite a while, but they succeeded in turning him fully.”  Taeyeon hummed at Hyoyeon's words, unlatching the pendant with slender fingers.