The all too famous cautionary tale of loving someone you can’t have; someone who loves someone else, Kai is not immune to it’s pains and truth. But he's persisting still. Throwing away the caution that lingers in the back of his head. Kai watches Hei-Ran as she stares at the dancing flames in front of them. The sizzling of the blues and orange engulfs the new firewood he had thrown in. She’s mesmerizing to watch he kept thinking. If only he can tell her now. He wants to so badly leave everything behind that is their youth, that is a lie and just get on with life. Move on as a pair finally as it had been arranged since a while back. 

    He still remembers the first time he’d seen her. He had been on a horse, a young cub of six, trailing behind his parents as they regaled in the center of town as they would weekly since he had been born. She hadn’t looked like the rest of the townspeople so he mused that she was a traveler, someone not from the area. He had been enamored by her fiery red hair and her green eyes that for a small girl, it had been too overpowering.  When she had caught sight of him gazing upon her, her innocence exuded and a smile reciprocated her own. Something he had never let himself do. Right then and there the roots of caution had already been planted. He knew that this girl would lead him to do anything she had willed him to do. But just like now, he pushes the caution until it had become a tyrant habit and he’s in too deep to let it be uprooted.

    She looks up at him and a gentle smile escapes her lips and his better judgment had been thrown out the window again. He looks away. He's relieved that Hei-Ran's previous action and his lack there of had somehow been swept under the rug and she's looking at him like she usually does. It made him wince to see her pretend to be strong. Kai knows what it is she's thinking about. What she must be feeling at this moment. Rejection. The feeling of being unwanted. He figures, this would be the worst of time to make any revelation. He thinks it through and decides that once they get back to their home, then he'll tell her all. All that she needs to know and all that's he's kept from her.

     Silence lingered through the night with nothing but casual questions of comfort. The heavy air had indicated rain and the two supposed it would be smart to stop their journey and settle in early. She had not looked like she wanted to rush home and so Kai had just went with her every pace. He's thankful for it. It was made time to spend and gather up his courage. He's not quite sure how she'll respond. He's never been a coward in the battleground but somehow, the uncertainty of her response or reactions to the truth makes him cower. Suddenly he's shaken from his thoughts. She was crying again this time as she was trying her hand in making a makeshift cot.

Ren. But he hadn't known what to say after. Instead Kai pulled her to his chest and held her stiff unsure what he should say. He hadn’t had a clue what to do next. Why with all his experience, Hei-Ran rendered him vapid. He's had so many women in his youth yet he was so clueless when it came to Hei-Ran.

“I’m sorry.” She began but his fingers had suddenly touched her chin making her look up at him.

“Dont. Don’t be. I-" Suddenly his thumb began caressing her skin, his body had moved without consent. It electrified him to feel her so vulnerable under him and it both elated and scared him to have her permission this way. He's looking at Hei-Ran and the eyes that looked so lonely earlier now gazes up at him expectantly. Why did her gaze make him cower once again though his body had reached out like it had a mind of its own? Suddenly Kai realizes it then and there. That though he's scared to tell her all. Though he's worried about what might happen next, he shouldn't have been thinking about any of that because here's Hei-Ran waiting for him to make a move to say something to do something, to save her once again. And it had been his job since he met her, since he knew of her. Since they're futures had been arranged not just by the family but also the Crowned Prince. 

Your duty will be to the Lady not to me or the Crown. I want you to take care of her and her father. Keep her safe but most of all make her happy. 

Please, Kai. Tell me you'll do anything to make her happy.

Happy. Make her happy.

x

   He pressed his lips against her and he let it settle there ready to leave once she pushes him away.  But he had waited and when she didn’t pull away, he had sighed in her lips and tentatively began to move. Trying her welcoming warm lips and running his tongue against the plumpness of the bottom with caution still, he reveled in the sweetness that he's longed for all his youth. Her lips unmarked by anyone, had been everything to him and he had taken for granted the sweetness she's offered him once when they were young yet he refused.  He pulled away slightly to look at her face to make a memory of this moment, to engrave it still whence he can come back to on his dire need of beautiful memories til' his dying day. But something was amiss. She with her eyes close, waiting, had stilled him. With parted and her breath hitched, Kai had been suspicious suddenly. She hadn’t moved in her spot or even at all and it frustrated him to feel so uncertain. The pause had been his plea for her to look at him to open her eyes and see him. But still as he pulled away, she kept her eyes close possibly thinking of someone else. Fearing that his suspicions is true, he pulled away so suddenly and it awaken her from the stillness. Eyes widened in surprise, she looks at him with his forehead knitted together. Kai hoped she wouldn't be able to read his mind full of nonsensical cowardice and caution. Worried filled him realizing too quickly that he had kissed her unbeknownst to him what she really felt. Forcing her hand so suddenly, he hadn't even asked her how she truly feels about him, the state he found her yesterday, and the Prince. He had just assumed and tried his hardest to read her as he usually did. And knowing her, she is too broken to respond to something so sudden. Her stillness and her acceptance at this moment could be her way of reaching out for someone else in her state of loneliness and ache. Why did he just think of it now? Was he too lost in her gentle smile and her false pretenses of being okay? And here he was forcing her hand to kiss him. He pulls away ready to confront her actions and her heart. But she reaches up to him and pulls him back to her lips. A gasp. Anticipation he didn't want to own up to. He was the one anticipating all along. That's when he let go of everything. His fears and confusion. His uncertainties and suspicions. He decided to let whatever this was last a bit longer because the sweetness of her lips and her willing reception is everything he had ever hoped for and more.

HEI-RAN'S POV

x

   Warmth and security. I felt safe in the arms of my long time best friend. His kiss though lacking courage had been his way of saving me once again. I don’t know why I didn’t move away. When suddenly his lips had pressed on mine, I began to want to succumb to something familiar something that’ll anchor me in my fleeting mind and aching heart. I hadn’t realized until now what I had hoped for, what I have craved so much for. But it had been touch all along. Whence I closed my eyes to receive him, I had suddenly felt relief. The fact that I wouldn’t be alone ever, the fact that I will always have Kai and he is willing to take me is enough assurance that I can be happy someday. I will be wife to someone and I will be alright. Everything will be alright. I’d be a picture of normalcy. And that’s all I need to move on from this. But then I closed my eyes, and a picture of a man stretched against the bare white walls of my chamber in the Rose Castle whilst contemplating had entered my mind. Sehun. And he had looked at me with much need to reach out just like I’ve last seen him. We look to each other and then I realized how much of a fool I am to not succumb to a dream. I must reach out to him, something I wanted to do back in the ball that night whence he looked at me so pained. What harm a dream could bring if it’s only pretend. Not letting any time go to waste whilst it might be the only time I’ll be courageous enough, I closed our gap and pressed our lips together. His cold hands had reached up to cup my face but then he stilled and pulled away.

“No!”

   I said breathless as he had taken mine away. I opened my eyes to watch his gaze intent on mine and he’s broken still. That’s when I pulled him to me once again and let go of propriety and everything that should and ought to be.  I let my self get lost in the dream and revered in the beauty of our intimacy. Just for now. Just until I’m pulled from this dream. This is all a dream.

     Is it wrong to want a future so certain? I have felt the difference in Kai since he came for me in the Rose Castle. His intent, his attention had been too intimate. We've been close for many years since youth but this closeness...is this is the right choice? This kiss? This line we suddenly are crossing? Should I tread without caution as I feel now? I stood there thinking of a certain future. Engraining the fact that I am now just another maiden outside the fantasy of the Rose Castle. There is no Prince for me, no Crown or Kingdom at my feet. I am just Ren again and my future uncertain is now picked apart by my best friend who seems to want to mend everything together. Would life be like this from now on? Mended for security? And then Kai's every being engulfed me, forced to think of only him as he languidly ran nibbled and tucked on my lips as if he wanted to impressed upon me his true intent. A kiss I've only imagine once upon a time, it sent shivers down my spine now. I've fancied myself one of his pusuits back then. The way he held them so soft and tender, I remembered more than once thinking how it would feel to be on the other end of that gentleness he is so willing to give. And now I was on the other end of the touch and by heavens it feels good. It smoothed away everything that needs mending in my heart. My graining thoughts of sadness suddenly in a haze. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all I say to myself. A lifetime ahead with my best friend. The warmth of familiarity. A life of balanced certainty. But why do I keep wishing I was still in a dream?

    When they pulled away. A smile had displayed in her face and Kai swore to the heaven and the stars that are a witness to this beautiful night, tonight will be the night.  Kai stopped her and finally made a decision. He would tell her now. He would tell her everything, right here, right now so that they would be able to start anew. 

“Hei-Ran. Wait!” He still taking hold of her wrist. A gentle pull but still discreet with its motive.

“Hmm.” She hummed as she turns to look at him. The conflict in his eyes had told her right away that something was amiss.  She turns fully facing him now worry creeping inside. She hadn’t known why. The way Kai looked, she had been moved by his intent before his words. 

“Hei-Ran. I am not—“ He stops. Fear clawing in his chest. Suddenly he was unsure once again. He clears his throat and shakes his head a bit to start over.

“Ren, I know I’m not what your heart desires now. And you might not believe me whence I tell you, but I have only you in my heart since I first laid my eyes on you. I've been a fool to set you aside all those years and dismissed you whilst keeping you by my side. I knew once upon a time you've felt something for me. But I wasn't ready then. I am now. You are all I've needed and wanted and I've been a fool to ever let you go." She suddenly squeezed his hands to let him know it's fine now. She is here in whatever state it is she is there now. But he kept going. Trying his hardest to let everything in heart spill. 

"Letting you go... losing you to the Rose castle... to the Crown...to him.. I've lost you once and the thought had killed me to the core. And I don't want to ever lose you again. I want to be the one you wake up to first thing in the morrow and the last you smile upon before you slept. I want to be everything that you needed not just a savior. I want to realign the stars now and will the fates in our hands. For once not because it was arranged but because it was meant to be. We were meant to be. I want you forever, if you would have me.” 

Meant to be. How nice it sounded, to feel wanted for once. A certain musing of words and future to behold. How can she let it go now whilst her future uncertain. She'd be a fool to let it go now.

"Ren. Be with me for all the meaning of the words. Have me as I truly am-" He blurts honesty word for word and he thought this is it. He would tell her everything. 

“Though I have mused myself as something else, have me, all of me." He cups her face and with intent he looks at her ready to spill it all. Ren, you will never have to worry about an uncertain future because I will provide you and your father everything you both need. Because I am--" Suddenly an arrow whirred between the two and the connection had been broken. He stumbles back and he looses sight of Hei-Ran. Another arrow and then another until Kai had finally inched away and up to start running opposite and away from his spot.  He chances a look at Hei-Ran and she remained unharmed. She is rolling the opposite way, stood up and now running the opposite way. 

    She’s running as fast she can but she can’t help but feel like the whirring arrows are not stopping and twas’ just at her heel. She looks back for Kai and he's nowhere to be found. She skidded behind a tree and hides herself whilst she looks for her companion. She thought she wouldn’t know what to do if something was to happen to him. These pass few days, she had found herself musing the idea of having Kai around for the rest of her life just like he had offered. She thought it wouldn’t have been a bad idea to have him beside her, to be his wife. She even let her heart peer at the idea when she had let him kiss her just mere minutes ago. She thought it’d be passing and only brought about by her melancholy but now that she can’t find him, her heart grew weary. Would she lose him as well? 

    Hei-Ran decided she wouldn’t put up with it. She whirled around and back at the path where she came from. To hell with it. She wasn’t about to lose him as well. 

“Kai! Where are you? Kai! Kai!” But still no answer she picked up her legs fast and strong. She heard the whir of another arrow before she saw it. She looked at the direction it was coming from and had processed it’s arrival before she could move. 

“Tsuk!” The familiar rip of arrow on skin, she suddenly stumbles back bludgeoned by a heavy body now on top of her. She saw the blood in her hands before she had realized who it was. 

“Hei——Ran.” Her name breathless upon his lips, she suddenly realized the arrow had not pierced through her but to another body who had just saved her. A familiar body to whom she couldn’t believe to be true. The Prince. Sehun. He is atop her now and groaning still above her. 

“Hei—-Ran”

“Don’t speak! Oh the heavens, Prince Sehun. Please hold on.” She sat up and cradles his body against her lap. 

“Sehun, please open your eyes.” But he had barely gotten them open when a hand reaches to his collar and had pulled him off her. His body thrown to her side, she couldn’t fathom what just happened. Suddenly a hand was on her hair pulling her to kneel and a cold dagger was on her neck grazing her skin too near it’s drawing blood.

   She shrieked in dismay but the man who pulled her had just laughed at her helplessness. 

“I was told you were a fighter but like this you look just like another .” Another voice had paired his laughing and when he had she finally caught sight of the two she hadn’t a clue who they were. 

“Who are you? What do you want?” She tried her voice but she is closely succumbing to fear.  They answer her she is certain of it but she can't hear. Her mind is still at a lost. Now this. 

"Please. Please." Is all she can utter but nothing else came out.

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