Beautiful Stranger; kai/krystal | romance, AU, 3880 words
Beautiful Stranger
Once upon a time...
A princess strolls through a garden, a majestic silhouette against an orange-gray sky, looking small against the backdrop of towering plants and gusty winds. From far away, she seems strong, but a closer glimpse into her eyes reveals a sunken loneliness, a cracked facade. The winds pick up, her blowing dark hair obstructing her vision, and she is forced to clutch her dress close to her to fend against the thick drafts. She shivers - her dress has always been too thin for her liking. The whirlwind continues for a good few minutes and then stops abruptly. The whistling of the wind still echoes in her ears.
"Ah..." comes a deep voice.
She turns around in surprise to be greeted by the sight of a young man, dressed in a shiny black jacket, hair slicked up to reveal a carefully contoured face with a slightly tan complexion. His eyes blink in confusion as he looks around him.
"Who are you?" she asks pensively, her dress fluttering in the breeze.
"A-annyeong," the mysterious man stutters in a language that the princess cannot understand.
An awkward silence settles between them, punctuated with occasional glances and hesitant smiles. The princess, normally assuming a cold mask, stares curiously at the stranger before her.
Where did you come from? she gestures at the stormy skies above. He merely smiles, lifting his index finger to his lips. It's a secret, he seems to be saying.
Meanwhile, at a distant watchtower, a guard whispers to his fellow watchman, "Who is that mysterious man next to Princess Krystal?" The other man shrugs, but the alarm is sounded with a quick ring of the huge brass bell in the stone tower, its loud tolling reverberating throughout the whole kingdom.
The princess gasps, her eyes full of worry as she gestures frantically toward the legion of approaching soldiers. The stranger gives her a squeeze on the shoulder, a lazy grin settling on his features.
Krystal turns around once more toward the coming guards, and when she shifts to face the strange man again, he is nowhere to be seen. Her eyebrows furrow in confusion, but there is no time to think. A soldier accosts her, grabbing her roughly by the wrist. He yells and grunts, shouting something demanding about the whereabouts of the man who was next to her. His words blur in her mind; she feels herself feeling dizzy and unable to answer.
She finds herself in an upper-story tower room, locked into the constraints of only a satin bed and a barren dresser. It is very familiar, since she has been sent up here for punishment countless times. She sarcastically thinks that it is one of the perks of being the cursed daughter of an oppressive queen, the kind that vouches for control, always unstoppable, fueled by greed and money and other selfish tendencies.
She can hear the scuffling feet of the soldiers outside guarding her door. Sighing, she sinks into the sheets of her bed, trying to warm herself with the thin covers - but alas, satin and silk only leave a cold feeling on her skin.
An almost inaudible wheeze, and she sits up quickly, glancing around. A nervous cough leads her to see the mysterious stranger again. A smiling wave is exchanged between the two.
"You can teleport?" her tone is one of awe.
His deep eyes follow her every step as she gets up to walk toward the wooden dresser. The drawer creaks as she pulls out some paper and some pens. "I stock these up so I can write or draw whenever I'm bored," she says, as if he can understand.
They sit down at the foot of the bed, the paper between them. She shoves a pen into his hand, surprised at the warmth of his skin. "Pen," she tells him. He takes it and immediately scrawls three letters onto the paper.
Kai, she reads. "Your name?" she asks. When he nods, she writes down her own name in cursive. Krystal. He looks at her with a question in his eyes as he points to the word.
"Krystal," she pronounces for him out loud.
"Ah," he finally understands. His gaze turns determined as his lips form the syllables. "Keu-ri-s-tal. Krystal?"
She giggles because she kind of likes the way her name rolls off his tongue. It has been a while since someone has addressed her in such a caring way. He starts to draw pictures, pretty pictures, of a distant land. Twelve forces. A planet with two moons. A big tree.
"Is this where you come from?" she pokes him, but the apologetic look on his face tells her that he does not understand. She sighs, letting the silence seep into the room. But it is a comfortable kind of silence now, like somehow the unspoken words can reveal more about themselves than conversations could ever do. There is something about him that intrigues her. Maybe it is the different skin color or his piercing gaze. She had never seen a foreigner before in her whole life.
Foreigner. Why does that sound so familiar? She gasps softly to herself when she remembers the words of her late sister, the last words of wisdom before going off to her death. My dear sister, she had said while caressing her sister's teary cheeks. Don't be sad. Think of this as a rescue from this wretched place. I'll finally be free, Krystal. Then her tone drops into a low whisper as she looks deep into the younger girl's eyes. Your rescuer will come in the form of a foreigner, someone from a distant land. When the time comes, you will need a magical music box. I can only tell you the instructions on how to get it...the guards are dragging her away. The older girl points toward the guards' room in the hallway next to them in one last grand gesture before the soldiers hit her to make her walk straight.
Silent tears unknowingly start flowing down her cheeks as she remembers this. Jessica, she thinks, her heart wrenching in painful memory. She feels the sudden touch of a hand on her arm; Kai is looking at her with worry evident in his features. She returns the pat on the arm, grateful to his presence. She so desperately wants to be rescued, heaven knows just how much she does.
She flips the paper over, quickly drawing a picture of a music box. "Important," she voices aloud, stressing the word. Her eyes are flashing in conviction, and her pen is pressing so hard into the paper that it pokes a hole into it. He seems to understand. Krystal continues to draw, her fast pen forming a depiction of the room that the guards usually rest in on their off shifts. She points to him and then to this room. "You stay here," she states, then points to herself and the door. "I'll go check out the guards' room."
As she gets up, his hand brushes lightly over hers. "Gwenchana?"
A nice smile graces her lips. "I'll be alright," she assures him as she lifts her finger to her lips. "Shhh..."
Her light footsteps barely make a sound as she makes her way to the heavy wooden door. She peers through the eye hole, and seeing that the guard outside is asleep, she rapidly makes her exit. She cringes when the door squeaks as it closes behind her, but soon she finds herself in the guard room. It is empty because the rest of the guards are out for inspection. The hem of her long dress drags along the ground as she searches the room for something, anything. Her gaze stops at a certain polished wooden box hidden in the far corner, with a hexagonal logo carved discreetly into it. She creaks it open to find a scroll, slightly yellowed with time. She rolls it open: Instructions for the Magical Music Box, written in Jessica's flowing hand-writing.
She can hear the guards returning up the stairs, their constant chatter buzzing in her ears like an alarm. She quickly closes the box, hides the scroll under her shawl, and runs back to her room where Kai finally sighs in relief. She hands him the scroll, excitement shining in her chestnut orbs.
Step 1: Go to the port of Nayman Sea. Cross the sea on the raft waiting for you.
"I know where that is," Krystal says, gesturing out the window, pointing toward the east. Kai still does not know what all this is for, but he trusts her - this princess, this girl who dares to befriend him. He immediately envelops her in his strong arms, and with a snap of a finger, they find themselves at the seaside.
"Wow," she mouths in awe. "Teleporting is very convenient," she giggles.
The mentioned raft is waiting for them, tied to a wooden post into the sand, waves threatening to carry it away. The two get onto it, and they untie the raft from the post.
It is kind of romantic, not exactly like the sea excursion that Krystal has always imagined with her future lover (she blushes at this), but with the salty tempests blowing at her back and the beautiful stranger by her side, she cannot help to feel a sense of bliss.
The waves start acting up, the raft tossing and turning. Krystal screams when she feels a slimy arm grasp her wrist. She looks down to see a sea monster, green and bumpy with many eyes. Kai clenches his jaw and whacks it so that it loses its grip on her. Suddenly, more sea monsters appear beneath the raft, and Kai desperately fends them all off at once, the princess yelling above the abrupt increase in turbulence. She fiercely batters them with a part of the raft that has fallen off in the encounter.
Finally, after exhausting battles with the sea monsters, they find themselves at another shore. They both clamber out of the raft, supporting each other. Their clothes are wet, but they find it strangely exhilarating as they read the next step on the scroll.
Step Two: Walk straight in front of you until you break into the protective force field. Once you are inside, you will be safe.
"Safe from what?" she questions aloud. Only a mere two seconds has passed before she hears a massive roar in the distance. She sees Kai gulp, grabbing her hand as they break into a run. The pounding footsteps of the thing grow louder as they hear it breaking tree branches in its way. In the distance, they see a purple glow, something floating, something like lightning.
Running, running, running. Her breathing is labored, sweat coats her temples, her dress is getting torn, but they push on. Kai gives out animalistic growls, his face contorted in agony.
They barge into the purple force field and immediately the roaring stops. They find themselves in a sort of paradise, the peaceful forest looking full of secrets. Krystal wheezes; she has never before ran this much in her life. But it doesn't matter, because she needs this. The twinkling of a music box entrances them, and they follow the music through the trees.
Step 3: Follow the music, and you will find what you are looking for.
When they reach a clearing, there, right in front of them, is a music box, propped open on a jaded rock, its ballerina figurine twirling like it has been dancing since the beginning of time.
Krystal reaches out to touch it, an anxious laugh escaping her being. Kai closes his eyes, breathing in the aura, drowning in the beauty of the music. "This is beautiful," he says.
Krystal stops in her tracks. "...I can understand you." Her eyes are wide open in surprise.
A wave of realization comes over him. "...I-I can understand you, too."
They both stare in awe at the music box before them. Magical, indeed. Kai picks it up, cradling it carefully. And whoosh! they find themselves back in Krystal's drab tower room, a dark contrast against the bright forest.
On a whim, Krystal throws her arms around Kai, their bodies melting together perfectly. She whispers into his ear, "My sister said my rescuer would be a foreigner. That would be you, right?"
"Rescuer from what?" is the deep reply, hot breath against her skin.
A harsh knock breaks them out of their reverie, and Kai hides behind the dresser again. He watches as Krystal gets dragged by guards out the room. He quietly follows them down the winding stone stairs and finds himself at the queen's court. Hiding behind a curtain, he cannot help but shiver at the beady stare of the queen, her sharp features sending chills down his spine.
"You!" the queen's shrill voice echoes off the hard glossy floor.
Krystal looks small but defiant in the presence of the queen on her throne. "Yes, your Majesty," she spats.
The queen's face darkens. "How dare you stand against me! Tell me, who is that man that was spotted next to you in the garden?"
The princess stays silent, as Kai holds his breath from the sidelines.
"You answer when your queen asks you! Do you hear me?! Goodness, my own daughter..."
Krystal burns with contempt upon hearing this. "Do not even think of me as your daughter..." she spells out each word with hate. "You do not care about me at all! All you do is punish me for no reason, always so selfish, so -"
"SILENCE!" the queen's hand is shaking as she points her finger at the girl before her.
"You were the one who killed Jessica!" Krystal bursts out, her voice slightly shaking.
The queen's anger swells into unthinkable proportions, and she lifts up her royal wand to zap the rebellious princess into nonexistence. Kai watches this, his eyes squeezing shut for a split second. He remembers the words of the leader of his own kingdom. You are hereby banished from Exo Planet, declares Kris, his face firm. You may keep your power of teleportation for now, but remember, if you ever fall in love, your powers will be revoked. That is your punishment.
Your powers will be revoked. The phrase keeps repeating in his head. He can already feel his power being drained from him. I must be falling in love, he thinks amidst his beating heart. But he uses his ability to teleport anyway, appearing before the queen in front of Krystal.
The queen's thin lips curls into a dangerous smile. "Ah, so it is you."
Kai stares at the queen with fierce intensity.
"Fun fact," her voice is annoyingly sweet. "No foreigner has ever entered this kingdom in 10,000 years! Ten-thousand!" She pauses. "Do you expect me to believe that your appearance on this planet is nothing suspicious? For eons, the kingdoms have been at war, and peace has finally come in the last 10,000 years. You," she shakes a condemning finger at him. "You are a direct violation of the Nafquss Treaty! Guards, take him!"
Kai finds himself hand-cuffed in a matter of seconds, the heavy metal chains dragging him down as he gets taken away. He hears the shrill voice of the queen in the background.
"And you, my...daughter," she is saying. "This is your punishment." She lifts her wand again.
There is an urgent tugging in Kai's gut. Your powers will be revoked, still rings in his mind. Anything for her. He breathes in harshly, using the last of his ability to rescue his love. Whoosh, is the shaky sound, the last attempt.
Zap! The queen zaps Kai instead, and he falls to the ground in a rumpled heap. Krystal cries out in despair as the guards have to restrict the queen from acting out on her anger.
"Kai," she whispers frantically as she shakes his shoulder. No response.
"You..." the queen's voice is menacing. "...will pay. My -" but she soon faints from all the stress, and Krystal cannot be any more thankful for such an event.
The guards drag Kai away from Krystal, and she runs out back to her room, heart heavy and tears numerous. The closed music box sits lonely on her satin sheets, one of its bottom drawers slid open. Inside, is a packet of powder. More familiar Jessica handwriting. Sprinkle this powder, and it can silence the music in this music box to everyone except the one it is intended for. Works only for one minute, so be careful. Good luck, my dear sister.
"Jessica, you are genius," Krystal mutters under her breath in appreciation.
She believes that the guards would have taken Kai to a dungeon cell, as they usually do for high-profile criminals. But he's not a criminal, she thinks darkly. She is still wearing the same dress, now slightly drier, but still ripped in certain places. Making her way down the steps, she stealthily creeps past the guards, grateful for the fact that they were never too bright anyway. The darkness wraps around her figure, the only sign of her existence being her soft breathing.
She spots his back silhouette against the dull glow of the yellow lanterns in the dungeon. The guard outside his cell stares straight forward like a statue, and Krystal almost asks herself whether he is actually human. Nevertheless, she knocks him out with a swift punch to the gut.
"Psst, Kai," she whispers, reaching through the metal bars. He does not awaken. Grabbing the key from the knocked-out guard, she opens up the cell, opening the music box and quickly sprinkling it with the powder.
She watches anxiously as his eyes flutter open. "Where am I?" he asks.
"Let's get out of here," she grabs his arm, and they run as fast as the royal swift-footed horses guiding the sun across the sky.
Once they are clear from sight, Krystal tugs out his shirt. "Take me somewhere. Where did you come from? Take me there, I beg you," her tone is pleading, her eyes searching his.
Kai shakes his head sadly. "I have lost my power of teleportation. When I was banished from my planet, the leader told me if I ever fell in love, my powers would be taken away," A playful pause. "...So I guess that means I'm in love with you, huh?"
She smiles. "Oh, Kai..."
He looks back at the castle behind them, the place of darkness, evil, and oppression. "But I will take you somewhere. I don't know exactly where, but if only we are together, it will be okay." He offers his hands to her.
The princess nods eagerly. "I will go with you, always."
And so they walk. There is no specific destination, just forward. Their footsteps make prints on the desert sand, but all traces are soon erased by the breeze. The two figures, connected by their linked hands, press on toward freedom, toward a new future together.
"If we just walk together like this, wherever we go, it'll be heaven," she whispers, still carrying the music box. The blissful tune is carried away in the wind, which soon spirals into more powerful gusts.
If one were to look at them from the distance, it would be hazy, a blurred line between dream and reality, as the oranges of the desert blend with the whirlwind, dissolving the two figures like sand. When the wind dies down, the horizon is empty, with no life in sight. It is like they had never existed. But one must believe that they are still alive in spirit, finally reaching their happily-ever-after.
"...so whenever you look up at the stars at night, you might be able to hear the sound of a music box twinkling in the sky if you listen closely. That's the sound of their laughter."
"Ms. Jessica, how do you know this?" a little girl asks.
And she only smiles to herself, her heart full of secrets.
That night, she looks up and the music is louder than ever.
A princess strolls through a garden, a majestic silhouette against an orange-gray sky, looking small against the backdrop of towering plants and gusty winds. From far away, she seems strong, but a closer glimpse into her eyes reveals a sunken loneliness, a cracked facade. The winds pick up, her blowing dark hair obstructing her vision, and she is forced to clutch her dress close to her to fend against the thick drafts. She shivers - her dress has always been too thin for her liking. The whirlwind continues for a good few minutes and then stops abruptly. The whistling of the wind still echoes in her ears.
"Ah..." comes a deep voice.
She turns around in surprise to be greeted by the sight of a young man, dressed in a shiny black jacket, hair slicked up to reveal a carefully contoured face with a slightly tan complexion. His eyes blink in confusion as he looks around him.
"Who are you?" she asks pensively, her dress fluttering in the breeze.
"A-annyeong," the mysterious man stutters in a language that the princess cannot understand.
An awkward silence settles between them, punctuated with occasional glances and hesitant smiles. The princess, normally assuming a cold mask, stares curiously at the stranger before her.
Where did you come from? she gestures at the stormy skies above. He merely smiles, lifting his index finger to his lips. It's a secret, he seems to be saying.
Meanwhile, at a distant watchtower, a guard whispers to his fellow watchman, "Who is that mysterious man next to Princess Krystal?" The other man shrugs, but the alarm is sounded with a quick ring of the huge brass bell in the stone tower, its loud tolling reverberating throughout the whole kingdom.
The princess gasps, her eyes full of worry as she gestures frantically toward the legion of approaching soldiers. The stranger gives her a squeeze on the shoulder, a lazy grin settling on his features.
Krystal turns around once more toward the coming guards, and when she shifts to face the strange man again, he is nowhere to be seen. Her eyebrows furrow in confusion, but there is no time to think. A soldier accosts her, grabbing her roughly by the wrist. He yells and grunts, shouting something demanding about the whereabouts of the man who was next to her. His words blur in her mind; she feels herself feeling dizzy and unable to answer.
She finds herself in an upper-story tower room, locked into the constraints of only a satin bed and a barren dresser. It is very familiar, since she has been sent up here for punishment countless times. She sarcastically thinks that it is one of the perks of being the cursed daughter of an oppressive queen, the kind that vouches for control, always unstoppable, fueled by greed and money and other selfish tendencies.
She can hear the scuffling feet of the soldiers outside guarding her door. Sighing, she sinks into the sheets of her bed, trying to warm herself with the thin covers - but alas, satin and silk only leave a cold feeling on her skin.
An almost inaudible wheeze, and she sits up quickly, glancing around. A nervous cough leads her to see the mysterious stranger again. A smiling wave is exchanged between the two.
"You can teleport?" her tone is one of awe.
His deep eyes follow her every step as she gets up to walk toward the wooden dresser. The drawer creaks as she pulls out some paper and some pens. "I stock these up so I can write or draw whenever I'm bored," she says, as if he can understand.
They sit down at the foot of the bed, the paper between them. She shoves a pen into his hand, surprised at the warmth of his skin. "Pen," she tells him. He takes it and immediately scrawls three letters onto the paper.
Kai, she reads. "Your name?" she asks. When he nods, she writes down her own name in cursive. Krystal. He looks at her with a question in his eyes as he points to the word.
"Krystal," she pronounces for him out loud.
"Ah," he finally understands. His gaze turns determined as his lips form the syllables. "Keu-ri-s-tal. Krystal?"
She giggles because she kind of likes the way her name rolls off his tongue. It has been a while since someone has addressed her in such a caring way. He starts to draw pictures, pretty pictures, of a distant land. Twelve forces. A planet with two moons. A big tree.
"Is this where you come from?" she pokes him, but the apologetic look on his face tells her that he does not understand. She sighs, letting the silence seep into the room. But it is a comfortable kind of silence now, like somehow the unspoken words can reveal more about themselves than conversations could ever do. There is something about him that intrigues her. Maybe it is the different skin color or his piercing gaze. She had never seen a foreigner before in her whole life.
Foreigner. Why does that sound so familiar? She gasps softly to herself when she remembers the words of her late sister, the last words of wisdom before going off to her death. My dear sister, she had said while caressing her sister's teary cheeks. Don't be sad. Think of this as a rescue from this wretched place. I'll finally be free, Krystal. Then her tone drops into a low whisper as she looks deep into the younger girl's eyes. Your rescuer will come in the form of a foreigner, someone from a distant land. When the time comes, you will need a magical music box. I can only tell you the instructions on how to get it...the guards are dragging her away. The older girl points toward the guards' room in the hallway next to them in one last grand gesture before the soldiers hit her to make her walk straight.
Silent tears unknowingly start flowing down her cheeks as she remembers this. Jessica, she thinks, her heart wrenching in painful memory. She feels the sudden touch of a hand on her arm; Kai is looking at her with worry evident in his features. She returns the pat on the arm, grateful to his presence. She so desperately wants to be rescued, heaven knows just how much she does.
She flips the paper over, quickly drawing a picture of a music box. "Important," she voices aloud, stressing the word. Her eyes are flashing in conviction, and her pen is pressing so hard into the paper that it pokes a hole into it. He seems to understand. Krystal continues to draw, her fast pen forming a depiction of the room that the guards usually rest in on their off shifts. She points to him and then to this room. "You stay here," she states, then points to herself and the door. "I'll go check out the guards' room."
As she gets up, his hand brushes lightly over hers. "Gwenchana?"
A nice smile graces her lips. "I'll be alright," she assures him as she lifts her finger to her lips. "Shhh..."
Her light footsteps barely make a sound as she makes her way to the heavy wooden door. She peers through the eye hole, and seeing that the guard outside is asleep, she rapidly makes her exit. She cringes when the door squeaks as it closes behind her, but soon she finds herself in the guard room. It is empty because the rest of the guards are out for inspection. The hem of her long dress drags along the ground as she searches the room for something, anything. Her gaze stops at a certain polished wooden box hidden in the far corner, with a hexagonal logo carved discreetly into it. She creaks it open to find a scroll, slightly yellowed with time. She rolls it open: Instructions for the Magical Music Box, written in Jessica's flowing hand-writing.
She can hear the guards returning up the stairs, their constant chatter buzzing in her ears like an alarm. She quickly closes the box, hides the scroll under her shawl, and runs back to her room where Kai finally sighs in relief. She hands him the scroll, excitement shining in her chestnut orbs.
Step 1: Go to the port of Nayman Sea. Cross the sea on the raft waiting for you.
"I know where that is," Krystal says, gesturing out the window, pointing toward the east. Kai still does not know what all this is for, but he trusts her - this princess, this girl who dares to befriend him. He immediately envelops her in his strong arms, and with a snap of a finger, they find themselves at the seaside.
"Wow," she mouths in awe. "Teleporting is very convenient," she giggles.
The mentioned raft is waiting for them, tied to a wooden post into the sand, waves threatening to carry it away. The two get onto it, and they untie the raft from the post.
It is kind of romantic, not exactly like the sea excursion that Krystal has always imagined with her future lover (she blushes at this), but with the salty tempests blowing at her back and the beautiful stranger by her side, she cannot help to feel a sense of bliss.
The waves start acting up, the raft tossing and turning. Krystal screams when she feels a slimy arm grasp her wrist. She looks down to see a sea monster, green and bumpy with many eyes. Kai clenches his jaw and whacks it so that it loses its grip on her. Suddenly, more sea monsters appear beneath the raft, and Kai desperately fends them all off at once, the princess yelling above the abrupt increase in turbulence. She fiercely batters them with a part of the raft that has fallen off in the encounter.
Finally, after exhausting battles with the sea monsters, they find themselves at another shore. They both clamber out of the raft, supporting each other. Their clothes are wet, but they find it strangely exhilarating as they read the next step on the scroll.
Step Two: Walk straight in front of you until you break into the protective force field. Once you are inside, you will be safe.
"Safe from what?" she questions aloud. Only a mere two seconds has passed before she hears a massive roar in the distance. She sees Kai gulp, grabbing her hand as they break into a run. The pounding footsteps of the thing grow louder as they hear it breaking tree branches in its way. In the distance, they see a purple glow, something floating, something like lightning.
Running, running, running. Her breathing is labored, sweat coats her temples, her dress is getting torn, but they push on. Kai gives out animalistic growls, his face contorted in agony.
They barge into the purple force field and immediately the roaring stops. They find themselves in a sort of paradise, the peaceful forest looking full of secrets. Krystal wheezes; she has never before ran this much in her life. But it doesn't matter, because she needs this. The twinkling of a music box entrances them, and they follow the music through the trees.
Step 3: Follow the music, and you will find what you are looking for.
When they reach a clearing, there, right in front of them, is a music box, propped open on a jaded rock, its ballerina figurine twirling like it has been dancing since the beginning of time.
Krystal reaches out to touch it, an anxious laugh escaping her being. Kai closes his eyes, breathing in the aura, drowning in the beauty of the music. "This is beautiful," he says.
Krystal stops in her tracks. "...I can understand you." Her eyes are wide open in surprise.
A wave of realization comes over him. "...I-I can understand you, too."
They both stare in awe at the music box before them. Magical, indeed. Kai picks it up, cradling it carefully. And whoosh! they find themselves back in Krystal's drab tower room, a dark contrast against the bright forest.
On a whim, Krystal throws her arms around Kai, their bodies melting together perfectly. She whispers into his ear, "My sister said my rescuer would be a foreigner. That would be you, right?"
"Rescuer from what?" is the deep reply, hot breath against her skin.
A harsh knock breaks them out of their reverie, and Kai hides behind the dresser again. He watches as Krystal gets dragged by guards out the room. He quietly follows them down the winding stone stairs and finds himself at the queen's court. Hiding behind a curtain, he cannot help but shiver at the beady stare of the queen, her sharp features sending chills down his spine.
"You!" the queen's shrill voice echoes off the hard glossy floor.
Krystal looks small but defiant in the presence of the queen on her throne. "Yes, your Majesty," she spats.
The queen's face darkens. "How dare you stand against me! Tell me, who is that man that was spotted next to you in the garden?"
The princess stays silent, as Kai holds his breath from the sidelines.
"You answer when your queen asks you! Do you hear me?! Goodness, my own daughter..."
Krystal burns with contempt upon hearing this. "Do not even think of me as your daughter..." she spells out each word with hate. "You do not care about me at all! All you do is punish me for no reason, always so selfish, so -"
"SILENCE!" the queen's hand is shaking as she points her finger at the girl before her.
"You were the one who killed Jessica!" Krystal bursts out, her voice slightly shaking.
The queen's anger swells into unthinkable proportions, and she lifts up her royal wand to zap the rebellious princess into nonexistence. Kai watches this, his eyes squeezing shut for a split second. He remembers the words of the leader of his own kingdom. You are hereby banished from Exo Planet, declares Kris, his face firm. You may keep your power of teleportation for now, but remember, if you ever fall in love, your powers will be revoked. That is your punishment.
Your powers will be revoked. The phrase keeps repeating in his head. He can already feel his power being drained from him. I must be falling in love, he thinks amidst his beating heart. But he uses his ability to teleport anyway, appearing before the queen in front of Krystal.
The queen's thin lips curls into a dangerous smile. "Ah, so it is you."
Kai stares at the queen with fierce intensity.
"Fun fact," her voice is annoyingly sweet. "No foreigner has ever entered this kingdom in 10,000 years! Ten-thousand!" She pauses. "Do you expect me to believe that your appearance on this planet is nothing suspicious? For eons, the kingdoms have been at war, and peace has finally come in the last 10,000 years. You," she shakes a condemning finger at him. "You are a direct violation of the Nafquss Treaty! Guards, take him!"
Kai finds himself hand-cuffed in a matter of seconds, the heavy metal chains dragging him down as he gets taken away. He hears the shrill voice of the queen in the background.
"And you, my...daughter," she is saying. "This is your punishment." She lifts her wand again.
There is an urgent tugging in Kai's gut. Your powers will be revoked, still rings in his mind. Anything for her. He breathes in harshly, using the last of his ability to rescue his love. Whoosh, is the shaky sound, the last attempt.
Zap! The queen zaps Kai instead, and he falls to the ground in a rumpled heap. Krystal cries out in despair as the guards have to restrict the queen from acting out on her anger.
"Kai," she whispers frantically as she shakes his shoulder. No response.
"You..." the queen's voice is menacing. "...will pay. My -" but she soon faints from all the stress, and Krystal cannot be any more thankful for such an event.
The guards drag Kai away from Krystal, and she runs out back to her room, heart heavy and tears numerous. The closed music box sits lonely on her satin sheets, one of its bottom drawers slid open. Inside, is a packet of powder. More familiar Jessica handwriting. Sprinkle this powder, and it can silence the music in this music box to everyone except the one it is intended for. Works only for one minute, so be careful. Good luck, my dear sister.
"Jessica, you are genius," Krystal mutters under her breath in appreciation.
She believes that the guards would have taken Kai to a dungeon cell, as they usually do for high-profile criminals. But he's not a criminal, she thinks darkly. She is still wearing the same dress, now slightly drier, but still ripped in certain places. Making her way down the steps, she stealthily creeps past the guards, grateful for the fact that they were never too bright anyway. The darkness wraps around her figure, the only sign of her existence being her soft breathing.
She spots his back silhouette against the dull glow of the yellow lanterns in the dungeon. The guard outside his cell stares straight forward like a statue, and Krystal almost asks herself whether he is actually human. Nevertheless, she knocks him out with a swift punch to the gut.
"Psst, Kai," she whispers, reaching through the metal bars. He does not awaken. Grabbing the key from the knocked-out guard, she opens up the cell, opening the music box and quickly sprinkling it with the powder.
She watches anxiously as his eyes flutter open. "Where am I?" he asks.
"Let's get out of here," she grabs his arm, and they run as fast as the royal swift-footed horses guiding the sun across the sky.
Once they are clear from sight, Krystal tugs out his shirt. "Take me somewhere. Where did you come from? Take me there, I beg you," her tone is pleading, her eyes searching his.
Kai shakes his head sadly. "I have lost my power of teleportation. When I was banished from my planet, the leader told me if I ever fell in love, my powers would be taken away," A playful pause. "...So I guess that means I'm in love with you, huh?"
She smiles. "Oh, Kai..."
He looks back at the castle behind them, the place of darkness, evil, and oppression. "But I will take you somewhere. I don't know exactly where, but if only we are together, it will be okay." He offers his hands to her.
The princess nods eagerly. "I will go with you, always."
And so they walk. There is no specific destination, just forward. Their footsteps make prints on the desert sand, but all traces are soon erased by the breeze. The two figures, connected by their linked hands, press on toward freedom, toward a new future together.
"If we just walk together like this, wherever we go, it'll be heaven," she whispers, still carrying the music box. The blissful tune is carried away in the wind, which soon spirals into more powerful gusts.
If one were to look at them from the distance, it would be hazy, a blurred line between dream and reality, as the oranges of the desert blend with the whirlwind, dissolving the two figures like sand. When the wind dies down, the horizon is empty, with no life in sight. It is like they had never existed. But one must believe that they are still alive in spirit, finally reaching their happily-ever-after.
"...so whenever you look up at the stars at night, you might be able to hear the sound of a music box twinkling in the sky if you listen closely. That's the sound of their laughter."
"Ms. Jessica, how do you know this?" a little girl asks.
And she only smiles to herself, her heart full of secrets.
That night, she looks up and the music is louder than ever.
------
It's just another story, I fell in love with a foreigner.
You came as a colorless light from far away, with a different look from a different world.
I ride the soft wind into your world,
I go right next to you and you ask where I came from.
You asked so innocently so I answered that it is a secret.
It doesn't matter, tell me everything, I'm ready
A strange person, a strange us, I want to get to know you, deep into that mask
No matter how heavy the door is, I'll keep it open so that we can talk a little more.
As if I was reborn as a child who doesn't know anything, I thought it was a dream so I closed my eyes and opened them again.
The kid called Curiosity is next to me.
It calls me and follows me around from morning to night
The detachment of dreams and reality resemble you.
Beautiful stranger, I've fallen into your big eyes, to the mysterious feeling, the language, I open my heart.
Beautiful stranger, people say that you're dangerous
They don't try to see the you that I see, no.
You are more dazzling than Michael, who can ever oppose you?
I won't forgive anyone who does.
Just like the first person to step on Eden, everyday I will only go toward you and trust you with my heart.
As your guardian angel, I will block out that strong wind, even if everyone turns their back against you.
Beautiful stranger, an angel with a clear soul.
The music that reaches through the tips of my hands, that music possesses my heart.
Beautiful stranger, you are mysterious to them
They're scared of you because they can't understand, so they just push you away, no.
Even if it's just a small thing, I want to protect you always so you won't have to suffer.
The stories in the deep silences
You came from a different image, a different world.
When you look at me as you extend your long hands,
Take me to the place where you are.
I want to walk side by side with you at least once.
Just once.
Don't hesitate, hold my hand, take me, beautiful stranger.
You know that I'm different than them, look at my eyes, beautiful stranger.
No matter where that is, I'm ready, take me to the place where you are.
I have come to love you now, there's no place for me to go back.
My wings have been taken away.
Even if I lost eternal life, the reason why I'm happy is because my forever is now you
Eternally in love.
Just like this, just like now, it's not strange, no.
Because if we just walk together like this,
Wherever we go, it'll be heaven.
inspired by f(x)'s 'Beautiful Stranger' and Exo-K's Into Your World (Angel)
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