By The Crest

❃5❃

TW: DRUNK HARASSMENT NEAR THE END. (READ AT OWN RISK)
‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾　☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

Breathing in the fresh night air, Wooyoung stared at town in the distance.

After his first time seeing San in person, he felt himself be overwhelmed with all sorts of emotions. He wasn't sure if it was his own emotions or artificial emotions that the novel gave him. Still, the male had to excused himself from his friends, saying he wanted to get some fresh air. Mostly to clear his thoughts but being able to see the view of the town and night sky was an added bonus.

His hand was placed on one of the pillars of the balcony while he stared at town. He could hear the busy voices of the people that explored the night market and festival in honour of the prince's birthday, the full silver moon that watched over the exuberant land, and the sparkling stars that created a few constellations that Wooyoung recognize from his classes.

Usually, he would easily get bored when he was in class in the real world, but now he was liking it. The new knowledge about the world that he was in was very interesting to him. Here, they had gods and goddesses that they worship and that they hold certain events to show their dedication, monarchy being the main type of ruling system, and the best part of it all was that magic was real.

It took everything in Wooyoung to not show his shock when his teacher mentioned it during one of their classes, but he couldn't let the thought slip his mind for a second.

The fact that magic was present in the world and that it flourished powerfully on the land that he was in, Wooyoung was literally spellbound by it. However, the more he delved deeper into the topic things began making sense, like the crest for example.

He read a book in their home library out of curiosity about how the mark was able to do its job of matchmaking people because it had magic in it, specifically Amia's magic.

Amia, to what Wooyoung understood, is the novel's version of Aphrodite, The Goddess of Love. The book claims that Amia had a human lover before she went to the heavens, so she gifted her lover a crest of their own. The mark symbolizes their love and commitment to each other and that hopefully they may, someday find each other again. So, when Amia was given the chance to return to the land of humans, she quickly sought out to find her supposed lover. That is until, she found him with another woman. Anger flooded her vision with the sight of her lover with a different woman, so she cursed him on the spot.

Making the legend of the crest be alive until today.

Wooyoung had to sit in silence after reading the such tragic tale, yet he thought that maybe it was Amia's magic that brought him to this world in the first place.

His rough sketch of it was that maybe because of him wanting to comfort San when he knew that the prince was both in pain due to his painful past and that he killed his own soulmate. Maybe, somehow, Amia blessed him this new body and life so that he could change tha prince, letting him know how it feels to love and be loved.

A deep sigh escapes Wooyoung as he starts to head back inside, the air nipped at his face as it gradually became a little more cooler. Luckily, the balcony that he went to was near the ballroom since he wasn't planning to walk far and get lost in the huge palace.

The hallway had a long red carpet that overlapped the clean floors, on the left were tall windows where the moon's rays seeped in, and the flame of the candles on the right wall contrasted with the silver light. Wooyoung stared at the night sky from the windows before he heard thumps from behind him. Turning around, he saw a drunk man stumbling through the hallway. His right hand fumbled on the wall to get a grip on something while he tried to stable himself and his left held a bottle of wine that looks to be freshly opened.

Wooyoung has a hunch that the man had more than that one bottle that he held with him. As the man staggered along, he notices the young male in front of him.

"Aren't you a pretty thing, hmm?"

His slurred words was enough for Wooyoung to continue his way back to the ballroom, not wanting to deal with a drunk man who tried flirting with him just now. Yet, the man had other plans. Picking up his steps despite them being wobbly, he manages to grab and latch onto Wooyoung's arm.

"Please let go" Wooyoung tried saying in a calm and demanding tone. Thoughts began racing in his head, wishing that somebody would save him.

"And let something gorgeous as you go? I don't think so" Suddenly, he roughly pinned Wooyoung to the wall. The bottle in his hand spilled some of the alcohol on Wooyoung's clothes, staining the fabric with its dark red colour.

"Let go! Please stop!" The drunk man had to place his bottle on a nearby dresser, teetering on both of its side before standing up right while its contents swirled around lightly. Both of his hands were now on Wooyoung hands that he pinned above his head. The male kept thrashing around in the man's hold only to get caged between the wall and the drunkard's sweaty body.

"You're making this more difficult that it already is so stop moving" The man then attacked Wooyoung's neck with his lips. Wooyoung couldn't form a single word, choking up on his fear. His head was turned to the side while painful whimpers left him, not wanting to see what the man was doing to him. Tears began falling from his closed eyes, wishing for everything to stop and that someone could save him.

Then, his arms that were above his head fell to his side while the man's lips stopped abusing his neck. His opens his eyes to see the drunkard on the floor passed out and in front of him was the person he least expected that would save him.

"San" Wooyoung stared at the prince who looked at the passed out man on the floor with his signature cold stare of his. The prince perked up at his name, only noticing the person that he save just now. He remembers the male as the one who was busy playing with his glass instead of listening to the king talk.

"Looks like this year's birthday isn't so bad after all"

San takes a step closer and kneels near the drunkard, examining his face to identify who he was and from which family he came from. He stands back up with a grimace from the heavy stench of alcohol that emmited from the man.

"Take him to the dungeon" That's when Wooyoung noticed two guards appear to do what they were told. Each of them had the man's arm around their shoulder while they dragged him away to the dungeon.

Wooyoung stayed where he was, still frozen from shock and confusion until a hand holding a handkerchief was in front of him. He gulps while his gaze meets San's bored one. Wooyoung takes the cloth with a shaky hand as he begins wiping his tear stained cheeks.

"Wooyoung!" The said male turns his head to see his three friends run over to him with worried faces. Wooyoung turns his head back to look at the prince but saw him already leaving in the direction where the knights dragged the man that harassed him.

"What happened to you? Do you have any idea how worried we were? And are those hickeys!?"

Hongjoong's voice went in Wooyoung's ear and out the other as the younger kept looking at San's leaving figure before he passed out.