CHAPTER #13

THE GIFT.

Bora wasn’t the type of person who necessarily looked for trouble to get past her boring days. She was never the one to misbehave or perform mischief, not even as a child just because she hated the complications that followed it. She liked to stay on the safer side; always the one who preferred reading about science, numbers, languages, learning new things that are useful and worth her time – things that are safe and predictable. Whether it’s exciting or not totally depends on a person’s perceptive, but to her, it was everything she could have asked for. Really, she wasn’t the type of a person to take a lot of risks.

 Then there is her love for Swordplay. Something she could get killed for just because she dared go against the norms of the men dominated society she lives in. It was barbarous- how people can have such double standards, but sadly only her thinking won’t make a difference. They are still going to think what they want. It was a relief – even if small – that their ruling family was at least not narrow-minded like the majority of the mass.

 Thinking of Swordplay, she knew that her passion and her personality indeed went parallel to each other. There was no point (no matter how far you extend the line) where they can meet or blend in. It baffled her too sometimes. The contrast was alarming and bewildering at the same time. She was ambitious, she was witty, but she was not a risk-taking person. Her love for the art of sword was the only exception.

 A loud knock on the door of her room startled the girl out of her trance. She blinked down blankly at the book she was reading before gradually turning her face towards the entrance. It was a wonder how she ended up deep in thoughts; especially when she was immensely enjoying reading about the history of their Kingdom. Another knock, this time more persistent, prompted her to quickly hide the book under the pillow and get off the bed.

 Bora hadn’t gotten a chance to indulge in the countless books in the castle library secretly until just recently. It just so happened that being assigned to the King’s room somehow made her important which in turn meant that she got a bigger, more spacious room to herself alone. She didn’t need it. Her previous roommate was a half decent person and they didn’t mind each other presence, but she loved the fact that now she could at least do what she enjoys the most – reading.

  The soft rattling of her door’s handle brought her attention back to the matters at hand. She had no idea about who it could be at this time of the night. It was almost 1 in the morning and no sane person would come knocking at her room’s door; well except for Sooyoung. It wouldn’t really have been an issue in the past since they had no curfew, but now it is.

  It’s been almost a week since they have caught the intruder. Bora hasn’t seen much of Sehun or any of his friends after that. According to what she has heard from Sooyoung and Seulbi; the King has gone on another journey with the army generals and a few of his friends. She had an inkling that it was something related to the man that they have caught, but she refrained herself from digging in too deep. She has done more than what she was required to. There was no need for her to worry over the things that didn’t concern her.

 What concerned her was the fact that a curfew was in fact forced upon all the residents of the castle; be it a maid or the Queen herself. No one was to be out of their rooms after the clock strikes 12 at night; except of course, for the guards and the senior maids that were assigned to patrol the maid quarters to make sure that everyone was abiding by the rules. It was for the security purposes and Bora really respected the decision, after all, people tend to do horrible things in the darkness of the night. Her friend has already gotten her in trouble with the senior maid once and Bora wasn’t really looking forward to another warning. The old lady was a nice one, but she wasn’t really pleased when she found Sooyoung stepping out of her room after the curfew. It was their luck that both of them had a respectable position in the castle or they might have gotten reported and punished.

 Shaking her head, Bora hesitantly made her way towards the door and soundlessly opened the lock. She was really not fond of getting caught while breaking the rules again. It was highly likely because the senior maid must be doing her final rounds at the moment.

“Sooyoung I swear to gommph-” She started heatedly while stepping out of the room, but the rest of her words were muffled by the rough hand that came up to cover and push her back inside. Stumbling back, she instinctively brought her hands up to pull the oppressive hand away from her face and brought her wide, confusion ridden eyes up to stare at the face of her visitor.

Sehun…

She faintly registered the sound of the door slamming shut before it was locked and she was being turned around. A soft gasp left her lips when she felt the cold surface of the door digging into her back. She intently stared down at the hand that was touching her and willed herself to not blush; judging from the heat that was emitting from her cheeks – she wasn’t sure how successful that was, but she can’t really blame herself this time. Sehun was the last person she expected to see in her room past the midnight; alone. Gulping nervously, she bashfully pulled her hands away from his and averted her gaze. It was silent for a moment before the hand on was finally pulled away.

“Hey,” The King greeted breathily which incited her to face him again.

“Y-You shouldn’t be here at this time, My King.” He wasn’t supposed to be in her room; no matter what the time was.

“Why not?” Bora looked at the male anxiously when she heard that and timidly tried to press herself against the wall more firmly when she realized that the only thing that she was wearing was the thin, long cotton gown which was obscenely sticking against her body. Sehun wasn’t really supposed to be there; not when she was dressed in her night clothes.

“It’s 1 in the morning.” She stressed as if that should explain the sensitivity of the situation; it really should.

“I know,” Sehun claimed with a nonchalant shrug before stepping away from her; obviously sensing her discomfort with their incredibly close proximity.

“Then why are you here?” Bora had half a mind to ask him about how he knew where her room was, but there were more pressing matters at hand.

“I wanted to give you a gift.”

“A gift?” That pulled her out of her worries for a split second.

“We wouldn’t have known there was someone shadowing me if it wasn’t for you. God knows what would have happened if that man has gotten away with it.” The tall male explained himself with a small smile before looking around the room; there was nothing to see, but he still seemed to be enjoying doing it.

“I have been busy lately so I decided to give it to you as soon as I came back.” He continued, bringing his stare back to fix on her face.

“You couldn’t have given it to me in the morning?” She really couldn’t help, but be worried about being caught.

“What’s wrong with now?”

“You shouldn’t be in my room!” She burst out loud before consciously lowering her voice. Being labeled with bad names back in her town has been enough she didn’t want a repeat of it in the castle too.

“You come to my room all the time,” Sehun seemed completely unfazed by her slightly raised volume. Maybe she was over-reacting, but she had all the right to.

“That’s different,” Bora informed in a clipped tone before staring at the door in paranoia.

“I come to your room to work and it’s not the middle of the night.”

“And I came to your room to give you a gift.” She was seconds away from smacking the male at the back of his head.

“You don’t need to give me any gift-” The irritated girl opened to retaliate further, but stopped abruptly when she saw Sehun pulling out a very familiar looking piece of jewelry out of his pants pockets. She looked at him shocked for a long moment before reluctantly taking a step in his direction.

“That’s mine…”

“You dropped it during our fight in the ground.” He provided with a shrug before slightly shaking her anklet to emit the soft melody that used to always accompany her walk.

“You kept it.” It was a statement, not a question and the tall male knew it well.

“Considering the slightly rusty state of it I assumed that maybe you would like to have it back. It seemed like you have deep sentiments attached to it.” He explained before letting his arm down.

“I wanted to give this back to you alone and sadly now is the only time.” Bora shifted her eyes away from the anklet to stare straight into his eyes. She didn’t even try to hide the shock that flashed across her features; not that she could have even if she tried. There was silence once again before she finally broke the intense eye contact that they just shared.

“Thanks,” She mumbled shyly and stretched a hand out to take her anklet out of his hold, but to her surprise, Sehun pulled it back just before she could grab it.

“I want to put it on for you,” The King demanded with a smug smile when he noticed the confusion on her face.

“W-What?” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“You heard me.” The male persisted before kneeling by the bed and mentioning for her to sit down.

“Are you crazy?” The disbelief on her face was rather apparent.

“I won’t give it to you if you won’t let me.” He argued stubbornly.

“That’s my anklet.” She argued back.

“You lost it. I found it, now it’s mine.” He justified with a mischievous smile and mentioned with his eyes for her to sit down. Bora face morphed into a scowl instantly, but otherwise, she stood rooted in her place; contemplating whether she should tell him to keep the jewelry because there was no way in hell that she was going to allow him to do what he was asking for. Though in the end, she decided that it was just going to make things unnecessarily longer given the fact Sehun was anything, but compliant.

“Fine,” She surrendered with a sigh before slowly making her way towards the bed he was kneeling beside.

“But you have to promise me to leave as soon as you’re done.” It was a decent bargain if not good.

“You really hate my presence here, don’t you?” Sehun inquired with a raised brow.

“Do you know how immoral this is?” She fired back which made him chuckle airily.

“You spent a night in my room first if you’re forgetting.” Bora absolutely hated that self-satisfied smirk on his face.

“Are you going to leave or not?” She asked in an irate manner before reluctantly sitting down in front