Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"God didn't exist when you laid with me the devil didn't touch me when you kissed me all of your glory gave me riches and I became an angel with your kisses"
Angel - River Styx
Spice - O - Meter: 🌶️🌶️(she's back...)
🥀
"I am not playing this childish game with all of you idiots."
The prince, as dull as he could be, was looking at her with a sloppy smile. One too many drinks, and he forgot they did not get along, in the most disinterested of ways.
"I am merely asking you to play hide and seek. What is childish about that?" He stumbled into the wall a bit, and Aera let out a winded breath. She wanted to go back to her room and stare at the ceiling until she fell asleep.
"I will rest instead. You are not my husband yet, nor my King so I truly have no intent on listening to you."
Taehyung said her name more solemnly, those gold-flecked eyes seeing too much. "Aera, just one game. I know we have not gotten along in the past but-" He paused, something like sympathy passing over his impeccably annoying features. Too brutal and too carved, "You barely talk anymore. You do not come to fetes, you do not even pretend to engage with the other ladies of the court. You are like a ghost. You don't fight with Jimin anymore."
"Don't." Aera seethed, from annoyed to enraged within a second, "One, never speak to me about your best friend." Her heart flared as she thought of the man, who was sent to hunt with a group of foot soldiers. In recent months, they had spoken little to each other. The wedding was set to occur within the next year, and he had made himself busy with everything but the preparation. She had spent every minute pretending it was not happening, by bedding other men and drinking. Every interaction between them had been frosted, stony. Nary is an insult, but instead a lethal dose of genuine hatred.
At first, it stung. She assumed he had finally grown up, and gotten tired of constantly bringing her pain. She should be happy he had finally given up. Every time he passed her in the halls, his face contorting in more distaste, she should have been grateful his mouth was kept shut. Still, it showed her that her fear of the initial engagement was now coming true.
That one day, everything would change.
Taehyung insisted, "You can say no. You can change your mind and leave within the first minutes of hiding. I just did not feel right not including you."
She did not say that he had not included her all night. That she had seen him flirting with another young woman. All of his friends did not like her. It was all fruitless.
