King of the Darkest Stars (EXO Kai ff)

Chapter Fourteen

I had finally gotten everything I had ever wished for growing up.

My face didn't show any emotion. I stared blankly at the plate of food in front of me. No part of me felt any desire to eat it. The sauces had been spread with swirls and small designs carefully to add some idea that we held a prestige above everyone or that the food would somehow taste better if it looked better.

They gave us silverware for this meal of tender meat and seasoned potatoes and other small colourful side dishes. It has small designs of twisted lines and flowers and I studied it closely to avoid the eyes of anyone. Kai was sitting at the end of the table promptly ignoring me but also refusing to speak to my father who sat next to him and across from me. Nari was next to me and she was staring at me like I was a fire burning letters she had promised to keep forever.

She wanted me to be continuously strong so I could be her way of feeling free and rebellious. I had betrayed her expectations and now she was disappointed in me. If she thought it would turn me back to the way I was before, she was wrong. I was used to disappointing people. It wouldn't make me try to fight him. I was done with it all. It wasn't worth the effort. What use would it be to run and be free? I was here to protect my mother and my country.

My mother was gone and my father could take care of his own country.

He told me he could take this all away whenever he wanted. He clearly didn't see much value to this marriage. So, why should I? Why should I work to fix something that was never whole in the first place? It was always meant to be fragmented. I was never meant to love the man next to me. I was never meant to show him kindness, I was only ever meant to sit silently next to him and be the calm faced picture of obedience.

Here I was.

No more emotions plagued my face. I wasn't fighting him. I wasn't doing anything to him. I was here and that's all he could ask for. I wouldn't give any more or any less. I would just exist in the shadow of him, barely existing and no longer living.

"Aera." Nari's voice was a low mumble, hidden from the rest of the guests. "Why... What happened?"

I felt I had somehow found the cord that connects my face to my heart and cut it. I gave Nari a soft smile and took her hand.

"Nothing's wrong." I let go of her and let the smile fall from my face. Nari moved around me to glare at Kai.

"What did you do?" Her whisper was violent and was on the verge of being disqualified as a whisper altogether. Kai gave her a smile similar to the one I had given her.

"Thank you for your concern." He nodded to her and continued to eat.

"You broke her." She grabbed my arm and I winced. She quickly let go and examined my red, sewn up wounds. "Oh, I'm sorry."

I felt Kai's gaze on my arms. Whatever. He wasn't concerned. My father on the other hand... his gaze was seething as he stared at the wounds.

"What happened?" He leaned forward and his concubine next to him looked annoyed to lose the attention she had been getting.

"Nothing. I fell." I folded my arm and let my fingers curl over the wounds. "What do you care?"

"Do not speak to your father that way." His concubine scolded me with such fervor that any other day I would have laughed.

"It wasn't rude. It was a genuine question." I met his eyes in my new cool calm.

"Should I not be concerned for the safety of my daughter? How am I to know if her new husband treats her well?" His gaze landed and rested on Kai.