Hyungwons wedding was quickly approaching. You both knew you only had days left to relish in your makeshift paradise with one another.

After the night of the ball, the two of you had been quickly used any time you could to be with each other. From staying up late at night kissing or talking about the deepest of things, to secret meetings in the abandoned part of the castle. Every chance you got was precious.

And now your precious moments were limited to the few days you had left before Hyungwon was forced to leave you behind. No matter how hard he tried, his father refused to call off the wedding. The king was growing more and more frustrated with his son the more he pushed, but Hyungwon refused to give up quite yet.

You were lying in his bed, curled up into his chest. The two of you sat in silence, unsure what to do. Hyungwon sighed and craned his neck to kiss your forehead. “What if we tell my father about our relationship?” He suggested, but he knew it was a bad idea when you laughed at his idea. “Yeah, I’m sure me being locked up in the dungeons would make way for a very happy ending.” You grumbled.

The two of you had been laying in bed, thinking of ways to prolong the wedding. It was no use, King Tano would sooner die than to let Hyungwon be with you. You looked up to Hyungwon, a small spark of hope had ignited within you. “What if we ran away?”

You felt Hyungwon’s heart begin to beat faster as he thought about what you had said. “We could run to the next kingdom. We could take some clothes and jewelry and anything else from my family’s rooms and sell them.” You continued on.

Hyungwon nodded his head and held you closer. “We could get a basis and start a life there,” Hyungwon whispered. He sounded as if he was seriously considering the idea. He smiled a ghost of a smile as he thought about it all.

“We could leave tonight,” you shot up from the bed and attacked Hyungwon with light kisses on his face. “We won’t have to be under the control of your fath-“ Your thoughts were interrupted by a set of frantic knocks on Hyungwon’s door.

You clammed up, praying that no one heard you from outside the room. You straightened your skirts and dusted them off. You took a deep breath and made your way to open the prince’s door.

Mary stood at the room’s entrance, a worried look in her eyes. She pushed her way past you and entered the room. Hyungwon pulled his silk night robe closer to his body and got out of bed. He was not used to visitors like this.

Mary pulled you into the room and held on to your arms tightly, enough so that it hurt. Her greying hair was disheveled, her eyes red and blotchy. “Y/N, you need to get away from the castle, now.” She spoke is hushed put urgent tone. You looked at your aging guardian carefully, your heart rate speeding up. This wasn’t promising.

“What happened?” You voice was soft and slow. You tried to calm Mary down but the old woman refused to do so. “He threatened my family and the kitchen staff. He threatened to torture and kill them. Y/N, I am so sorry.” She was crying now. Her body was shaking, her firm grip on your arms loosened as she started to break down.

“Mary…what did you do?” You knew what she was about to say. You cursed under your breath and looked to Hyungwon.

“The king came to the kitchens. He interrogated us about you. He saw you at the ball and he wanted to know where you were. Y/N, I am so sorry. Please leave now, he’s coming soon.”

Hyungwon’s face fell, this happened all too suddenly and he wasn’t ready to let you go. He reached for you and held your hand. “I won’t let him hurt you,” he said lowly. He tried masking his fear of losing you by false bravery. You shook your head. You weren’t going to let yourself crying. Not today.

You pulled him into a deep kiss before pulling away abruptly. “I love you,” you mouthed to him. His eyes widened, his grip on your hand became tighter. “Don’t leave,” Though he knew that you would be dead soon if you didn’t. You turned to Mary and bunched up your skirts. You looked behind you to Hyungwon one last time before running out of the room and towards the one place you knew where to hide.

You crept around the halls, going slowly and as quietly as you thought possible. The halls were eerily silent, not a soul in sight. You kept your ears open, creeping around as carefully as you could. Your heart nearly leaped out of your chest as you moved around silently.

Though, you weren’t silent enough. Just as you heard movement behind you, your vision blackened and your body fell unconsciously to the floor.

---

You awoke with a piercing pain in the back of your head. You opened your groggy eyes and focused on what was in front of you. A pair of legs who were clothed in an ornate set of leather boots stood in front of you. You brought your head up weakly, your breath grew ragged. You met the king’s angered eyes and as you did, you could feel your soul leave your body.

“You hid for quite a while, little girl. I’m quite impressed. Though, you were quite stupid to come to my party with my son.” Tano scoffed and pulled your face up so you would face him. “You look exactly like your filthy mother. I wish you had died that night. You’ve only made things more complicated.” He shoved your face away roughly.

You were knocked back but you refused to fall down. You picked stopped yourself and glared up at the king. “Why did you kill them?” Was the only thing that came to your mind to ask.

The king rolled his brown eyes “It’s simple politics, deary. I was the second in  command of this kingdom and if your father and the rest of your family died, then I would gain the rights to the throne. You are even more stupid than you appear.”His voice was like nails on a chalkboard and you couldn’t bare to hear him any longer. You stared up at him and spit in his direction. All sense of humility was gone and anger fell into its place.

The king rushed to you and grabbed you by the throat. He lifted you up seamlessly, hardly considering your weight. His face was flushed red with anger. “You’re a little brat,” he growled. He threw you on to the ground, causing you to screech out in pain.

“You’re one of my son’s charity cases, or so he thought.” He snapped, a sly grin spreading on his face. “He takes in poor, pretty little things and treats them like princesses before he sends them off with some money to start a new life.” The king grumbled, “It’s disgusting if you asked me.” He turned to you, frowning.

“I bet that’s what he was trying to do with you, but he doesn’t know the truth.” The king kicked your already battered body until you couldn’t find the strength to stand up. “He doesn’t know the truth that his poor little chambermaid is actually a princess.” He kicked you one last time before walking a few steps away from your broken form.

You picked your head up from the ground with great struggle, only just enough that you were able to glare at the king. You chuckled dryly, your mouth stale and filled with blood. “A charity case? I don’t believe so, Tano. He may have offered help to his servants before, but he knows all too well who I am.” You watched in humor as the king’s face fumed with anger.

“There’s a little thing called love. If you had ever experienced love then we wouldn’t be in this position. It may be hard to believe, but your son and I have fallen in love. I know you wanted him to grow up cold and heartless just like you, but that won’t happen.” You spat the blood out of your mouth and weakly.

“Love? You’re the reason he’s been attempting to cancel the wedding.” The king laughed to himself, shaking his head. “This is quite the story, Y/N. Well, since I am a man who is kind and ‘loving’, I’ll allow you to spend one last night with my son.” He stood over you like a giant peering down at his food.

“But tomorrow, I’m going to force you to stand by my side while you watch him marry another woman. Then, right after he’s married, I will bring you to the middle of the chapel and kill you myself, just so my son can watch the light leave your eyes.” The king waved you off and started walking back towards his throne. Without looking back, he told you one more thing. “If you tell him about this or sabotage the wedding in any way, Hyungwon will be the one to die. I can always make more children, it wouldn’t be too great of a loss.”

You felt guards latch on to your arms and start dragging you out of the throne room. No, you weren’t going to let yourself cry. Not this time. You were going to find a way out of this.

---

You limped towards Hyungwon’s room. Your body was covered in cuts and bruises that you covered up by an old uniform. You took a heavy breath before knocking on the door. Hyungwon only took a second before the door flew open. Once he saw you, all relief fell over him. He threw his arms around you and hugged you tightly.

You winced at the pain but didn’t let it show. “I thought you were gone. I thought you were dead.” He whispered to you, burying his face into the crook of your neck. You wrapped your own arms around him, but you weren’t as happy as you thought you’d be.

Hyungwon pulled you into his room and pulled you into a kiss. This might be one of your last kisses you thought. The last one before you were to die. You had been living in the castle all your life in fear of dying by the hands of the king.

After you’ve feared something for long, the fear begins to fade away until you don’t remember why you ever feared such a thing to begin with. Dying no longer scared you. You accepted it the second you walked into this room. The moment you met Hyungwon again after years apart was the very moment you lifelong fear disappeared, but it was also the moment a new fear was born.

Losing Hyungwon was your biggest fear and you couldn’t do anything about it without him being hurt.

You looked up to him, love and sorrow in your eyes. You took a deep breath and held his face. “I can’t run away with you, it’s far too dangerous. So please, please let’s have this night together while we can.” You wanted to cry, so very badly, but you couldn’t let yourself do that. You had to stay strong or else Hyungwon would want to take off at any moment.

Hyungwon nodded, his messy brown hair falling into his eyes. He understood in a way, that leaving his entire kingdom behind would prove to be more dangerous than anything.

He bent down to kiss you and pick you up from your place on the ground. The pain soared through your body, the bruises on skin throbbed and hurt.

He set you down by the foot of the bed. He meticulously undid the first button of your uniform. He set his lips carefully on yours as he started to undo each button one by one. You brought your own arms up to undo the buttons on his shirt, which was thin and white.

He opened the shirt of your uniform and gawked, seeing the bruises on your body in full display.

You looked away from him, you knew he was going to stop at the sight of your injuries. “Y/N…” His voice trailed off into an almost whisper as he examined the dark bruises left on your body. “What the hell happened?” He snapped, running his finger near a cut on your collar bone.

You grabbed his face to steady his wandering eyes. You shook your head and urged him to continue. “This is our last night, Hyungwon. Please, show me that you love me. Don’t worry about anything else.” You pleaded with him.

He nodded, though disapprovingly. He made his way towards your lips again and continued to slowly undress you, careful not to cause any more pain to your wounds. He let go of you and shrugged the white button up off his shoulders.

In all the nights you had slept in the same bed as the prince, you had gotten a feel for what his body was like. Lean and sculpted lightly, though seeing it in front of you was a different feeling all together.

He grabbed the back of your neck and pushed you down on the bed softly. You felt the back of bed engulf you like a warm embrace as Hyungwon kissed along your neck, making sure to kiss above every blemish that his father caused.

Making love to Hyungwon was like breathing.

It felt so natural and you never knew that it was something that you needed until now. He went slow, though that’s what you needed. He tended to your every need before he dared to even think about focusing on him.

He was a lethargic lover. You loved that about him though, it made the experience seem so much longer and magical. A little bit of magic and happiness is the only thing you needed right now.

His moans were quiet and sounded more long drawn out hums. His breathing was heavy as he moved in and out at such a pace that he made sure he was to hit every spot you needed him to. You wanted to scream out his name, but you knew that if anyone heard the two of you, it would be game over. So you kept your mouth clenched shut with great difficulty.

Where you didn’t have bruises before, Hyungwon made sure to put a different kind of marking. Love bites littered your entire body, from the small of your neck to the insides of your thighs. He wasn’t one to mess around when it came to marking what was his.

You held his hair in your hands as he pushed in and out of you, both of you nearing your peaks at last. He let out a loud moan the second he came, your owns lewd noises followed. He pulled out of you and went right back to his previous position.

His arms caged you so you couldn’t leave his side. His eyes peered down to yours, his hair falling on your face and tickling it pleasantly. “I love you, Y/N. And I swear to you that I will find a way to be able to spend the rest of my life with you.”

You finally felt a stray tear fall down your cheek. He brought his hand up and wiped it away gently. “I don’t think we’ll have our happily ever after,” you cried. Hyungwon dug his head into the crook of your neck and kissed it. “I know, Y/N. But please, just for now, let us live our happily ever after.” He too cried, unable to fathom the thought of leaving you behind.

You closed your stinging eyes, holding on to Hyungwon like your life depended on it. This time tomorrow, Hyungwon will be laying in this same position with another woman and you’ll be cast into the fires just like the rest of your family.

So right now…right now was the only way you could get your happily ever after