CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

Mate—I am the mate of the most powerful Grand Duke of Verboden, I am his rightful partner, I am equal to him in every matter and every aspect of our faerie life. To others, being the chosen one for the Night Lord is considered to beyond heavens blessed but for me it wasn't. Why? It is because I cannot accept that mating bond especially that I already have someone inside my heart, I am even about to be married, with mating bond or no.

I may not be so sure right now of the wedding matters but I am sure that my love for Myungsoo is true and strong enough that the mating bond seems nothing, but can I truly defy the mandate of the heavens?

I was too occupied with a lot thoughts and crying that I didn't heard someone entered my room until I felt my bed sank due to the sudden weight. I didn't look at my visitor, I don't really give a damn whether the Night Lord came after me or it was someone else. My visitor talked, it was a female and the voice seems belong to the Day Lord's sister Hayoung.

"Are you fine? I saw you running away from the training arena, is there something happen?" I heard Hayound said as she made her way closer to where I am curled up onto my bed.

"H-He told me," I am trying to tell her the reason but my own voice seems to fails me and it pains me to even mentioned what I've just been told. 

Hayoung must have understand what I am currently facing since I felt her comforting touch around me as she gave me a light hug and said, "I think I know what made you ran and cry like this. You already knew, my cousin has told you, hasn't he?" I nodded.

"If I say that I do not like the thought being mated to him, am I bad?" 

"No," she said quietly, "Actually, not all faeries are lucky enough to have the ones they truly love as their mate and apparently it seems like that situation can be applied to the both of you."

"You knew we are mates?" I asked and she meekly gave a nod. 

"That was the first thing that he has said upon his arrival at our home after what happened back there in the devil's lair. Once that he transformed back to his faerie form, Tae had this wild look on his face that made all of us panic. I mean, of us six, my cousin is always the calmest and seeing him with that kind of look terrified us all. We tried asking him what was wrong but instead of answering our queries, he only kept mumbling the words 'she's my mate' and 'naeun', and I figured out that Tae has finally met his long awaited mate and it's you."

​​​​"C-Can you tell me more about him?" I can't quite believe that I asked Hayoung this ridiculous favor but is there something wrong about knowing more about the heavens has destined me with? 

"What do you want to know exactly, Naeun?" Hayoung asked in response which made my throat bobbed. 

"Everything," I said as I wiped the sea-salt tears away from my face, "...Specially what he did during these past four months, please."

The Night Lord's cousin perhaps was contemplating whether if she will grant my ridiculous request or not since she took a long pause and gave a doubtful look at my direction. I thought she will never agree but I was glad that her look changed then she took a deep breath and said, "Fine."

"As I've told you, I have figured out that Tae has already found his mate but our other friends were not as quick-witted as I am that they didn't fathom what he really meant. As a result, I was the only one who pushed the mate matter. I quickly went to him once I ensure that he has rested enough but guess what I saw—an extremely drunk Grand Duke with an extra puffy eyes. It was depressing to saw him like that, Naeun. Taemin is a very tough one yet I witnessed how he weep over some random female, and it made me curious about her, about you. I asked him to tell me more about you, at first I thought he wouldn't bother but I was surprised that he did,"

"It may sound absurd but believe me when I say that my cousin is a passionate and a kind of a male that take anything about romance seriously. It's ironic, the Grand Duke of the Night Kingdom is actually a hopeless romantic despite of his strong and deadly look. I don't know what Tae truly feels for you but what I am sure is that it pained him; it pained him that the heavens has given him a mate whose heart already belongs to other. He said it himself, ' the heavens for ing an already ed man! Hooray for my mate and her undying love for a male who's not me! Damn it!', those were his exact words."

​​​​​"All these four months, Taemin has became utterly melancholic