By The Crest

❃2❃

Eyes shooting open, Wooyoung shot up from where he laid down like Frankenstein when he finally came alive. His breathing was erratic, his eyes were blown wide, and he looked like a total wreck. The male took several deep breaths and took the time to calm himself down. Once he had somewhat stabilized his breathing again, Wooyoung looked around his new surroundings.

It was all strange.

Wooyoung is supposed to be dead. He clearly remembers what happened to him; the car hitting him, people surrounding the scene, even him allowing hinslef to pass to the afterlife. Yet, he was alive and breathing and that the accident felt like it was only a dream.

Scanning his eyes over the luxurious and Victorian looking room, the room was so familiar to the male. The white and blue colour scheme with gold accents, floor to ceiling windows that allowed the sun and its rays into the room, and the comfortable king size bed. The description was familiar, like Wooyoung had heard- or more like he had read it before. Just as he was about to let his curiousity wander around. A knock came from the double doors that matched the room's aesthetic, looking just as fancy with its intricate gold details.

"Come in" Wooyoung was startled at his own voice. It being probably a pitch higher than his original one and had this tone that held power in it. He was also startled with how the order casually slipped from his tongue, like it moved on its own for a second.

The doors opened to a man who entered the room. As he stood at the end of Wooyoung's bed his posture held poised, his outfit was a normal tuxedo but with a gold pendant that was attached to where his heart is supposed to be, and his hands stayed idly on his sides. Wooyoung could only guess that the man in front of him was a servant with a rank high enough to have an expensive looking accessory to his chest.

"Greetings, Young Lord Wooyoung" The man bowed a full 90° degrees.

"His Grace has tasked me to ask whether or not The Young Lord is still meeting Young Lord Yeosang later for lunch" The servant disregarded with how the male looked at him like he was lost.

"Uh, yes. Yes I am" Wooyoung said after a moment of silence. He makes sure that he didn't look like a complete stranger to the situation. His stiff shoulder from earlier began straining so he relaxed them as to not alert the servant that something was wrong.

"Then, I will send for Junyoung and other maids to fix you a bath. Excuse me" The male then left the room with a bow, closing the doors to give the male privacy. As soon as the doors clicked closed, Wooyoung sprinted to the vanity that was near his bed. When the servant called him a 'Young Lord' earlier something crossed his mind. Looking at his reflection at the mirror, he couldn't believe what he saw.

"No fucking way" His voice came out as a whisper. Too shocked with what he was seeing that was supposed to be his reflection.

The male was a whole new person. And according to a certain book's depiction of him; Hair black as ink, a face that had to been blessed by the gods, and the presence of the beauty marks on the bottom of his left eye and bottom lip. Only one person had these features.

Jung Wooyoung.

He had become the Jung Wooyoung from the novel 'The Wounds of The Heart', the same novel that he last read before he died in the real world. Which means, he was in the world of the novel itself. How was this possible? The male didn't know himself, but figuring out how he ended up in the world of fiction needed to be put to the side for a while as he heard another knock come through.

"Come in" Wooyoung, had by now, was slowly getting used to his new body and voice. The doors then revealed a man in a tuxedo again as well as three other female maids. The man was probably the 'Junyoung' person that the other servant mentioned earlier.

"Good morning, Young Lord Wooyoung" The four of them bowed in unison, like they had practiced it.

"Morning"

Wooyoung caught himself before he could bow back to them. He remembered in the book and some random knowledge of his of how nobles didn't need to be so formal with the maids and servant. Hierarchy played a huge role in this kind of era.

He followed the four of them in the bathroom as he allowed the two maids to strip him of his clothes while the tub got filled with warm water and rose petals by Junyoung and the other maid. Sinking his body into the heavenly pool of water, he told the maids and Junyoung that he could handle washing himself. They didn't question him and bowed to signal their leave from the bathroom to head to his bedroom and tidy things up in there.

Now alone with the calming scent of the rose petals, Wooyoung sighs as questions began going through his head.

If he was in the world of the novel he read with him being the main character, does that mean that all the events that happened in the novel will actually happen? Will the crest of the soulmates appear on him? And will he actually die at the hands of his own soulmate, the prince?

He shivers at the thought of dying again as he began using the soap near him to wash himself.

In the book, his character dies at the sword of the prince himself because of his crest. The prince didn't get his crest, but the original 'Wooyoung' was so lovestruck by the royal that it causes him to go and confess his feelings one day but gets rejected instead. That led him to have a huge heartbreak, thus also going against the crest's rules of abandoning his crest and destined soulmate. And because of that, Amia, the novel's Goddess of Love, is force to bring upon him a curse for going against the sacred crest.

The curse was described to be how the darkness would consume a person.

Starting from where the crest has been planted on one's body till it slowly spreads like black, octupus-like vines that are out of control, the eyes would turn full black with a white slit in the middle, and a black ancient symbol would appear on the person's chest. One would look like they had sold their soul to the devil in exchange for them to take revenge as well as for the worthless blessing that was carved into them.

And Wooyoung didn't want that to happen to him.