King of the Darkest Stars (EXO Kai ff)

Chapter Twenty Two

By the time I woke up, he was gone. He'd left a rose, which was sweet and showed he'd thought about me before he'd left, but it also marked the end of our time alone together. I knew things were going to change, I just wasn't sure how.

Last night...

We'd come home tired and he certainly needed the rest. Yet he'd kissed me and kissed me and we'd fallen into each other. I don't think anything else could have happened even if we'd spent the entire night out in the woods. There was something desperate and intense about the way we touched each other.

Since the beginning we were never calm or balanced in any way. This felt somewhere between a fight and a union. Apparently that was what marriage meant to me. I would wait months on end for the day he got off work if that's what it took. I would get the shard of human he had in him a few days a year and fight with him the rest. It was completely worth it to me.

His heart wasn't near me anymore.

I didn't know what he felt. I picked up the rose and twirled it in my hands. I got up and pulled my diary out from under the dresser. I opened up to the next blank page and placed the rose inside. I closed it and wondered if I was supposed to take any extra steps to press it. My sisters often pressed flowers in their journals. They'd often tried to kill me when I stole them too.

"Morning!" I heard Yun-hee call from the sitting room. I pulled on my night clothes and dressing gown and hastily pushed open the door to meet her.

I pushed open the door and tripped over the train of my dressing gown and had to grab onto a chair to keep my balance. Yun-hee was unbothered by tripping now and didn't seem to take it as anything out of the ordinary. I felt a rush of guilty excitement... like a child who had gotten away something so trivial they would have only been laughed at upon discovery. I was being foolish, but I didn't seem to be capable of anything else.

"I have your breakfast ready." She gestured to the small coffee table and I sat down on a mat by its surface. They had replaced all the glass dishes with ones of bamboo and hickory. At this point they knew better than to bring anything that could touch upon the word breakable.

I stared up at the painting as I ate. I still wasn't going to take it down. I stood by my words. He was being a monster. Albeit, I didn't hate him. He was terrorising me with the sword either way. I was going to get it. I only hoped he hadn't destroyed it out of spite.

I ate the food silently and mused over plans to get it back. It was clear Yun-hee would sell me out the moment U-jin asked her to, so that ruled the both of them out. U-jin might indulge me every now and then but his loyalty to Kai was incredibly clear. I would not come between that. Even if I tried. That left Nari. She would help me if only to annoy Kai. She knew I didn't wish him harm and that my motivations were merely selfish, not resentful.

She was my best bet.

I would see her today.

I got dressed into a sky blue dress and Yun-hee braided flowers into my hair. The fabric felt much nicer on my skin than that of the dress I wore the day before. I felt guilty for the comfort I found in things most people never had a chance to touch. We did not get to choose how we were born, only what we do with the life we are given.

A loud knock sounded on the door and I jumped at the animosity behind it. Yun-hee looked at me for approval and I nodded. She opened the door and U-jin burst in, breathless and panicked. My heart stopped. He'd died hadn't he? He'd overworked himself when he was supposed to rest and gone off and died!

"There's been an attack." His words were intermittently cut off by his breathless panting. "At a town by the capital. The rebels have numbers beyond what we thought possible. They are surrounding the town. Kai is already out there with the soldiers. We're leaving and likely won't come back for a few days."