Rapunzel (Seventeen JeongCheol story)

Chapter 3 - The Village

A/N: I wanted to update yesterday but things got out of hand a bit so yeah... I'm here now!! Longer chapter ahead :)

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'I can't believe she would lie about such an important thing' said Jeonghan picking up a pile of books and putting them back on the shelves. The three friends managed to put the furniture back in their places after the chaos in the basement and were now cleaning up their mess. 'I mean if she found me when I was more than a year old, then why didn't she just tell me that? And why does she have my hairbrush?'

'She is lying about everything all the time' reminded him Jisoo. Then he yelled. 'Oh my, there's a huge spider!!'

'WHERE??!' screeched Dino and jumped about a meter high before landing back on the floor with a huge thud, his left leg breaking through the wooden floor, creating a big hole in it.

'I was joking' laughed the bunny amusedly. The baby dragon glared at him angrily as he pulled his leg out of the hole.

'Very funny! Look, now the floor is broken! We have to repair it' he said sadly. Jeonghan stepped closer with the candle and held it above the hole to see it better.

'It's okay, we'll figure something out' he assured Dino and crouched down. He furrowed his eyebrows. 'Wait. There's another room under this one' he whispered and sat down on the edge of the gap, hanging his legs down, illumining the hole with the faint light of the candle.

'She has one more secret room, awesome' sighed Dino.

'This is not a room. It's a tunnel' recognized it Jeonghan.

'Where does it lead to?' asked Jisoo, peeking down.

'I don't know. But it has to lead out of the castle. I think I'm gonna check it out!' said Jeonghan excitedly.

'How come you always get so happy as soon as you can get into trouble?! You want to leave the castle now??' asked Jisoo facepalming [or rather face-paw-ing. Ye that wasn't funny sorry about that]. The answer to his question came in the form of a thud as Jeonghan dropped down into the lower corridor, not leaving the candle behind. 'Awesome, leave the blame for us to take!' added the bunny.

'Don't worry guys! She told me not to bother her until dinner. I have more than two hours' said Jeonghan. 'I'll just check out what's out there. I'll be back before she realizes I'm missing' he added, squinting his eyes as he stared at the dimly lit corridor.

'I hope so because if you don't, she's going to feed me to her weasel' shivered Jisoo.

'Just- Just hold on and watch out for her. Please, do this for me! I've been locked up here for my whole life! This might be my only chance to see what's on the other side of the magic wall' sighed Jeonghan. Jisoo and Dino frowned but nodded nonetheless.

They understood him, even though their situations were quite different. Dino could've left the castle and flown over the magic wall any time if it wasn't for him being scared of heights (which is pretty much a drawback when you're a dragon who's supposed to learn to fly sooner or later), and Jisoo... well, the bunny was satisfied with living in the castle as long as he gets his daily dose of carrots and manages to avoid the weasel successfully.

Jeonghan smiled back at them and showed a thumbs up before taking a deep breath and starting to walk forward in the dark tunnel.

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Jeonghan was walking for what felt like forever. He kept hearing strange noises from time to time that scared the crap out of him. Sometimes he had a thought that said it's not a good idea and he should just turn back, but his desire to find out what he has been missing out on all these years seemed to be stronger.