thief (of my heart)

-V-

The girls walked through the dark passage with the small fire. Chaeyoung ahead, Jennie in the middle and Jisoo with Trojan at the back.

"Is it still far?" Jennie asked, slightly trembling as she shifted on her feet. The darkness gave her a bad feeling along with the occasional rustles.

"Depends," Chaeyoung responded without looking back. "If we keep going with this snail speed, then yes."

Chaeyoung led them by looking at the arrangement of the stones on the ground. They might look the same to outsiders but she knew every single one of them was different and served as a guide. It were only slight differences like different tones of brown and the amount of small black dots on them.

Jennie scrunched up her nose in horror. She turned her face back to Jisoo. "Shall we move in a faster pace, yes?" She asked timidly and scared, making Jisoo reach for her hand while her other hand gripped Trojan's lead rope.

The gesture made Jennie relax and interlace their fingers. She came to feel safer with Jisoo by her side. After all she is the only one she had left.

"It's no good idea to use all our stamina if it's not necessary." Jisoo said apologetically.

Jennie sighed sadly. She knew the elder was right. What if the guards suddenly surprised them? They should be at their best always.

The thief trailed her hand from Jennie's hand to her wrist and pointed to Trojan's saddle. Jennie obliged and let Jisoo help her up before she leaned her cheek on his head and closed her eyes. Jisoo's free hand rested on her back.

"Are you two like dating?" Chaeyoung suddenly asked after examining the two.

Jennie's eyes snapped open and Jisoo removed her hand from its position.

"No!" Jisoo denied hard "Of course not!" She made a snorting noise like it was something absolutely ridiculous.

"Indeed. Such an affilation between the two of us is absolutely unthinkable." Jennie nodded in agreement.

"Why is that?" Chaeyoung asked not really interested, just bored and saw this as a way to make time pass quicker.

"Obviously because she is a princess and I am–"

"A woman." Jennie finished. Not only that but Jennie has a war to end. No time for other things. Although her father did mention to her that she was supposed to get to know possible marriage candidates, it's clearly off the table now. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. She wasn't interested in those all high and mighty scumbags anyway.

Chaeyoung and Jisoo tilted their faces to her. It wasn't weird that Jennie thought this way, at all. To this time same gender relationships were a crime in the kingdoms. The princess was taught by her father that such relationships are sinful and unnatural.

"Does that really mat–"

"Achoo!" Jisoo sneezed to make Chaeyoung stop talking. She didn't want to upset the princess. Chaeyoung received the hint and kept quiet.

A big rustle catched their attention.

"W–What was that?" Jennie asked alarmed and grabbed the hoodie of Jisoo's cloak so tightly she almost suffocated.

"Rats." Chaeyoung responded composed. "There's lots of them here."

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Jennie jumped down from Trojan's saddle and landed in Jisoo's arms. She buried her head in her shoulder and wrapped her thighs around her waist.

"That's a little overdramatic," Chaeyoung stared at the trembling princess. "They are not going to kill you, your highness." She mocked.

The rustling got louder and small squeaks were audible. It sounded like it came closer.