✔️ Predicted 𓆩♡𓆪 | y.jw

08

"We have arrived." the driver announced, startling me from my sleep. I slowly opened my eyes, met with Jungwon's eyes already focused on me. Upon seeing me wake up, his eyes quickly turned to the window.

I leaned forward and looked at the time from the clock above the driver. We had been driving for two hours.

Next to Jungwon, one of the guards opened the door. I patiently waited for Jungwon to step out of the car, but the door next to me - that I happened to be leaning on - suddenly opened too. A noise came out of my throat as I started falling to the ground, my eyes turning to Jungwon to see him panicked with his arm outstretched, trying to grab me.

Before I could completely crash to the ground, a pair of arms encircled me, preventing me from falling. I sighed in relief, even if the fall to the ground wouldn't have been fatal. It wouldn't look good for the commoners' first impressions of the new Royal Mistress being her tumbling out of the car.

The guard who had caught me carefully helped me back onto my feet. Once he was sure that I was securely on my two feet, he let go of me. I turned to him, thanking him. I was met with a young, very good looking man.

Was every young vampire blessed with good looking genes? I silently thought in envy.

Next to him, another guard quickly bowed to me. "I apologize for suddenly opening the door. I will keep in mind to warn you next time. I'm glad Geonu was able to catch you before anything happened."

I laughed. "No worries. Luckily, nothing bad happened." The guard smiled, thanking me.

Geonu had no such smile on his face. In fact, his entire face was void of emotions. It was only his eyes that I saw, scanning my body to make sure I had no injuries. He wordlessly bowed at my thanks. He was probably an introvert, or extremely focused on his job.

I gave him one last smile before walking to Jungwon, gently grabbing his hand like he instructed me to and taking in my surroundings. It was utterly different from the city.

It was as if I stepped into a different time zone. Previously in a large, brightly lit city, now I was in a torch lit street with vendors lined at every open space. Instead of the suits that the rich were wearing in the city, the vampires here were dressed in normal shirts and pants.

However, the atmosphere here was also lighter than the one in the city. There, the people were only focused on their goal and where they were going. The vampires here were smiling as they bought and traded things, minding their own business.

They seemed more comfortable here, and less cold. Around us, people started to crowd in curiosity but were blocked by the guards from getting close to us.

I turned to Jungwon, curious to see what he would do. Instead of paying attention to the commoners surrounding us, Jungwon's gaze was fixed to the side. His eyes were cold and calculated. I looked for whoever was the poor victim of his gaze. To my surprise, it was Geonu.

If Geonu was bothered by Jungwon's glare, he certainly didn't look like it. In fact, he seemed to be completely calm, barely batting an eye. He look directly back into Jungwon's eyes with his own fire. Feeling my gaze, Geonu met my eyes.

Jungwon's hand on mine tightened, causing me to look back up at him. He was still glaring at Geonu.

Ah.

So this was what this was all about.

I stiffled a snort. Men and their silly pride.

It probably hurt Jungwon's pride that Geonu was the one to catch me instead of him, and it probably hurt Geonu's pride that Jungwon was with me, even if neither of them had any romantic feelings for me. Typical men.

I tugged my hand slightly to the direction of the commoners, trying to bring Jungwon's attention back to the vampires still curiously staring at us. He broke his gaze with Geonu and finally looked at the commoners.

At the sight of them, he smiled brightly. What was once a cold gaze was now a very caring, soft gaze as Jungwon took in the sight of the vampires. I could tell that he enjoyed being here, maybe even more than at the castle. He seemed more comfortable here.

Suddenly, a woman's shout rang out. "Areum!"

I looked in confusion for the woman who had yelled that, trying to find out what was wrong. Before I could find her, something tugged at the bottom of my dress. I looked down at the person, finding a young girl with sparkly eyes and a big smile. She was looking up at me in admiration, and my heart instantly softened.

However, I quickly saw the number of guards charging after her, swords drawn. The lady let a terrified scream out. Instinctively, I let go of Jungwon's hand and quickly grabbed the girl, shielding her from the guards.

"Hold." Jungwon's sharp voice rang through the air.

Immediately the guards stopped, shiething back their swords. I glared at them in annoyance for not stopping even when they saw me shielding the girl, but they gave no indication that they cared.

Jungwon kneeled down next to us, gently pushing my arm away to get a look at the girl. Seeing her big, innocent eyes and childish smile, his face immediately lit up.

"Cute..." He murmured, bringing a hand up to tickle the girl. She giggled, inching away from him and closer to me. Someone jogged up to us. Jungwon and I looked up just in time to see the lady drop onto her knees in front of us, head on the ground and tears spilling down her face.

"Thank you for sparing my daughter, your highnesses." The lady choked out, evident that she was the girl's mom. Jungwon immediately went to her, helping her up. "No worries, we enjoy meeting everyone of you." He kindly told her. The lady's eyes were wide at his hand on hers, not quite believing that she was touching royalty. I shot her a smile.

Areum laughed and ran to her mother, the latter clutching onto her tightly.

Jungwon carefully helped me back up onto my feet, grabbing my hand again. "Now," he said, "Let's go meet my people, shall we?"