Third POV

 

 

But Taeyeon continued to keep her guard up and threw the fork right past his head, hitting the stone wall behind him, sticking in the wall as the force she threw the fork with was enough to make it dig into the stone wall much to the shock of the man the fork flew past.

 

"That was a warning to you, so you don't get any funny ideas. Now who are you and why am I here?" Taeyeon asked with a threatening tone as she once again grabbed a fork and was now aiming at the mans head.

 

"Taeyeon, put the fork down now, before you hurt yourself." The man in front of her commanded with so much force in his voice that she felt her hand quiver at the impact of his command.

 

But Taeyeon wasn't going to let it show as she smirked saying with an demanding tone, "The only one who's going to get hurt is you, so why don't you just answer my questions."

 

However, Taeyeons response only seemed to fuel the mans urgency to control her as he once again commanded Taeyeon to put the fork down. But Taeyeon was stubborn and didn't like the idea of not having anything to protect herself, so she defied his orders and kept the fork in her hand. The man across from her then sighed in exasperation, and before she knew it the man had found his way behind her, holding her from the back, knocking the fork out of her hand as he held her tightly in his embrace.

 

"My Taeyeon, when are you ever going to finally listen to what I say?" The man behind her whispered, not softly but protectively as his grip around her waist grew tighter. 

 

"You know, I've put everything on the line for my marriage to you, so why can't you just behave and stay by my side like you used to and not running off and getting lost causing me to worry so much. Now you've lost your memory....." Kris began to say as he reprimanded her.

 

"Kris...." Taeyeon uttered, interrupting his lecture, as it dawned on her just who this devilishly handsome man who she was no caught within an embrace with. 

 

Her calling out his name didn't go unnoticed by Kris as he then spun her around to face him cupping her cheek in his hand as he looked at her with hopeful eyes, "Taeyeon, could it be that you remember me?"

 

Taeyeon saw the chance to escape from his grasp as his strength when holding her weakened. She then flicked him in the head hard as she then used him as a stepping stool to do a backflip to the other side of the room, maintaining a fair distance from Kris as she stood on guard once again. She then looked at Kris's dumbfounded face with a laugh and poked her tongue out at him saying with a mocking tone, "Of course I don't remember you. If I did then I wouldn't be running away from you now would I?"

 

Kris chuckled at her words looking at her with gentle and caring eyes as he said, "Trust me, even if you hadn't lost your memories I'm sure our encounter would have resulted in this stand off we are having right now. Although, I have to say, your new found strength and agility is something that surprised me immensely."

 

Taeyeon scoffed at his words mumbling to herself "So the old Taeyeon also disliked your bossy and overprotective attitude?"

 

However, Kris had good hearing and heard what she said, his face turning grim as he looked at her suspiciously asking "What do you mean by old Taeyeon? Are you not Taeyeon?"

 

Taeyeon rolled her eyes at his question before looking at him in disbelief saying in a sarcastic tone, "Wow, you can't tell the difference between me and your own fiancée? You must've really loved her, huh?"

 

Her words made Kris boil with anger as he glared at Taeyeon, gritting his teeth as he said "Of course I love her, she's like a little sister to me, and to have you question it is unforgivable. Now tell me, if you aren't my fiancée Taeyeon then who are you?!"

 

Just as Taeyeon was about to answer, Jaejoong barged into the room after hearing the commotion and seeing Kris seething with anger with Taeyeon opposite him looking like she is trying to defend herself, also taking note of the fork that is stuck in the stone wall that Taeyeon had thrown earlier. 

 

Misunderstanding the situation as Kris and Taeyeon had switched places, with the fork etched in the wall now behind Taeyeon and with Kris's anger, Jaejoong fully misunderstood the situation and immediately stood in front of Taeyeon to protect her, glaring at Kris with disapproval as he said "Your highness, I am very surprised and upset that you would intentionally lash out at Taeyeon, especially when she is feeling unwell."

 

Kris looked at Jaejoong in disbelief while Taeyeon stood behind him with a smirk on her face at Kris being put in his place. His attitude and demeanour was one of an absolute control freak, although she couldn't deny that he cared for Princess Taeyeon a lot, but having him treat her as a child is an absolute no, she would have to teach him how he should really treat a lady and from the sounds of how Princess Taeyeon was with him to begin with, it is not hard to see that she was feeling the effects of his somewhat suffocating love.

 

"Jaejoong, you know that I would never hurt Taeyeon, ever. I even swear on my honour as the Prince of Erin that I, in no way intended to hurt her." Kris said as he tried to prove his innocence to Jaejoong and from the looks of it, Jaejoong believed him as he moved from his spot in front of Taeyeon, choosing to trust in his words.

 

And as soon as Jaejoong had moved out of the way Kris swiftly made his way across the room to Taeyeon and held her captive in his arms, disguising his trap as a hug in front of Jaejoong who grinned at their skinship before heading out of the room to let them have some alone time much to Taeyeons dismay as was  shut by Kris's crushing embrace as he had made sure to keep one hand on to stop her from alerting Jaejoong. 

 

Once Jaejoong was out of the room and from what he could hear, away from the room, Kris removed his hand from Taeyeons mouth allowing her to be able to speak while keeping his arms tightly around her so she can't run away. "Now then, where were we?" Kris said darkly as he smirked at the now trembling Taeyeon who he has now captured.

 

"U...um, I was j...just about to go b...back to sleep?" Taeyeon stuttered in anxiety as she posed her statement as a question while looking at Kris's dark and cold eyes, a huge contrast from the loving looks he had given her earlier when he believed that she was his Taeyeon.

 

Although his eyes remained dark and cold, Kris couldn't help but find Taeyeons stuttering to be quite cute along with the anxious look she has on her face and the way she said it as a question while tilting her head upwards to look into his eyes with her adorable big brown eyes had his heart racing at her cuteness, squeezing her tighter in his hug to contain himself.

 

His actions made Taeyeon scared as she thought that he was squeezing her because she had made him even angrier. She shut her eyes tightly with a pout naturally appearing on her lips much to the frustration of Kris who found that his self control was wavering at their close proximity and her repeatedly adorable acts.

 

He set her free, for the fear of what he might do, turning his back on her as he tried to regain his tough demeanour before turning around with a strict look on his face as he asked "If your not my Taeyeon, then where is she?"

 

Taeyeon remained silent, unable to answer him, no more like unable to tell him her theory of what could've become of this Princess Taeyeon. Taeyeon thought that if the queen who had lost her memory when she appeared as she did was her real mother then maybe what happened to the real queen is what happened to the real Princess Taeyeon and that is she disappeared. She only came to this conclusion on the fact that her family tried for years to find their mother, searching every corner of the world, exhausting every resource they had at their disposal and they couldn't find even one person that was anywhere identical to her mother as she was to Princess Taeyeon.

 

With Taeyeons silence, Kris grew impatient and worried about what exactly could've happened to his Taeyeon. With his patience wearing thin he lashed out commanding, "Out with it now! Tell me what you know woman!"

 

Taeyeon flinched at his command much to the regret of Kris who didn't like the fearful look she now had on her face but that was the only way he was going to get an answer to his question. 

 

"I...I'm not really sure what happened to your Taeyeon. But it's possible that she has disappeared from this land for good. I don't know if she.......er, maybe passed away but you see, my mother disappeared from my family one day much like how she has disappeared, but we couldn't find her anywhere at all, but now it might be possible that my mother that had disappeared years ago may be the queen here that had amnesia from before. So what happened to my mother could be the same as what happened to your Taeyeon. Maybe, since I'm here now, your Taeyeon is somewhere else." Taeyeon explained with uncertainty to Kris what she has deduced from the course of events that she has recently experienced and linked back to her past as well to create such a hypothesis.

 

Kris, who had been listening to Taeyeons theory quietly finally spoke up saying in disbelief "Do you think I'm stupid?  How could any of what you said happen?"

 

Taeyeon pouted at his doubts correcting him in saying, "I didn't say that it did happen I just said that it's possible that, that is what happened. And if you could believe that I'm not your fiancé then why don't you believe what I'm telling you now?"

 

Kris scoffed at her correction saying "Well then, since you can't answer that question then tell me why exactly are you here, posing as my fiancé?"

 

Taeyeon was taken aback by his question and had a look of confusion on her face before scrunching her eyebrows together and looking at Kris with a troubled look on her face saying "Well I don't know why I'm here." As she had out before she had agreed to anything with Jaejoong. Hesitating after hearing about having a fiancé in the picture and it turns out that hesitation was justified seeing this scary looking prince in front of her.

 

However, Kris's patience had just run out as he slammed his fist down on the table next to him, making Taeyeon jump in shock as he shouted, "Well what do you know!" His eyes piercing Taeyeon like sword.

 

Soon there were tears springing from Taeyeons eyes as she started to cry from Kris's constant verbal attacks on her. She had gone through so much in the space of three days, being swept away from her home, her family to be delivered to a bloody battlefield, to then be rescued and betrayed by that traitorous King Kyungsoo, then being caught in an Arcadian trap, set free and hearing the possibility of her mother being alive to then faint and wake up to this interrogating demon before her. She had had enough so much so that she couldn't control herself from letting her emotions get the best of her as she cried silently in front of Kris, tears streaming down her face as she shut her eyes tight, sniffling here and there, crying her heart out, crying tears she had been holding back since she had been dropped here. Away from her home, her family, Kris being the catalyst for Taeyeon letting her emotions take over.

 

Taeyeons sudden breakdown brought immense shock to Kris as he was left speechless, dumbfounded even at the sight of her tears, panicking on the inside as he started to pace back and forth wondering what he should do in such a situation, Taeyeon being completely unaware of Kris's internal panic as she continued to cry with her eyes shut. Kris was at a total loss at what to do. Should he try to hug and comfort her? Should he maybe command her to stop crying? What should he do? This woman in front of him seemed so strong and capable that Kris went all out when questioning her but now he sees how fragile she really is and how he well and truly broke her. As Kris continued to contemplate about what he should do next, a knock came at the door. "Kris, Taeyeon I'm coming in~" Jaejoong said as he twisted the door knob to come in.

 

Seeing the state that Taeyeon was in, continually crying without any notice to the knock at the door, Kris seized Taeyeon into his arms and immediately pulled both her and himself onto the bed, covering Taeyeon with the blanket as he remained uncovered on the bed just casually sitting there as he pretended to watch over her. Jaejoong finally opened the door to see Kris on the bed with Taeyeon under the sheets, Kris then looked at Jaejoong and whispered "Shhh", as he pointed at the supposedly sleeping Taeyeon. At this Jaejoong immediately understood and nodded his head before leaving the room quietly.

 

Once Jaejoong left, Kris breathed a sigh of relief before opening the blanket to reveal a still crying Taeyeon. Kris immediately groaned as he stood up from the bed before making his way around the bed towards Taeyeon who was now sitting up, sniffling to herself as her tears refused to stop. "Look here." Kris demanded Taeyeon as he was now in front of her, bending down so they could be face to face.

 

At his command, Taeyeon immediately opened her eyes and looked at Kris, her eyes continuing to tear up, as she looked at him with her blurred vision. Kris then put his hands on both of her cheeks as he began to wipe away her tears with an aching heart but he retained his stern demeanour as he said "Stop crying." 

 

To this Taeyeon brushed his hands away and started to wipe away her own tears saying in a weak tone as she sniffled "I....if you w...went through wh....what I d...did you w....would cry t...too." Taeyeon couldn't contain herself as she spoke, bursting into tears once more.

 

Kris scowled at her new found tears before sitting down beside her and enveloping her in an embrace as he then started to pat her head uttering out some comforting words, telling her that everything was going to be fine, that she was going to be okay, that she had nothing to fear. With his actions, Taeyeon was once again reminded of her brother Heechul and the memory of him soothed her as she settled into Kris's embrace slowing calming down and stopped crying.

 

Once he felt that she had finally stopped crying, he let go of his embrace with her to see that she had well and truly stopped crying. However she was now sleeping peacefully, tired from all the crying she had done earlier. Kris then gently rested her head down on her pillow, then looking over her with a gentle gaze as he then softly patted her head once more before planting a kiss on her head. He then headed out of the room, leaving the girl to rest for the moment as he was now left alone with his thoughts. Why did he kiss her just then? What were these feelings he felt just now? Why does his heart race at the thought of her? She was clearly not his Taeyeon but why did he feel so attracted to her? Just what kind of feelings was he having towards her? Could it be that he had fallen in love with her? 

 

These thoughts crept into his mind, as he knows that his feelings for his Princess Taeyeon were nothing but brotherly feelings, however to protect her from having to possibly marry that evil King Kyungsoo, Kris proposed to Taeyeon so as to keep her safe. But it seems it may not have been enough as Princess Taeyeon is now gone with this other Taeyeon replacing her and this new Taeyeon was making him feel some things he had never felt before, love. But what if this new Taeyeon was the reason why his Taeyeon disappeared? What would he do then?