|THE CURSED FOREST|

42

Deep inside the forest, in the palace with a wave of his silver stick, Jin sealed the door shut, trapping Taehyung inside the palace chamber.

Taehyung attempted to reach the door, but the silver enchantment hummed with power and repelled him with each step. Undeterred, Taehyung continued to shout, determined to find a way out.

The walls of the room glowed with the power of Jin's magic, trapping Taehyung inside.

Eunjae waited for Jin in the king's court, surrounded by the grandeur of the palace.

Soobin and Beomgyu were awestruck, taking in its ancient splendor despite its age and the layer of dust that had settled over the years.
The walls were adorned with rich tapestries and intricate carvings, all of which seemed to have been preserved from a thousand years ago.

"Did you used to live here?" Soobin hesitantly asked Eunjae who blinked at him, pursing her lips nervously.

"In my past birth, I used to live here..." She replied. Soobin nodded looking away and took a deep breath; so did Eunjae.

"And mermaids of that time?" Beomgyu suddenly asked, pointing at a mermaid sculpture on the wall.

"Mermaids used to live in water." Sunghoon entered the palace taking the three attention, "They could not live on the land for that long..."

He stood beside Beomgyu and looked at Eunjae and Soobin.

Beomgyu bit his lips awkwardly, standing between the three and immediately ran to Jin as he came.

"I have sealed the room, but he will escape with Namjoon's help." Jin said. "We should get going for now."

"Lord Jin, I wanted to talk with Soobin and Sunghoon in private..." Eunjae said and both Sunghoon and Soobin looked at her in surprise.

"Sure." Jin nodded, turning around to leave.

"Shh Eunchae.. Sorry Eunjae... Sohee has asked me to not leave Soobin alone." Beomgyu said, whispering to her.

"Come with me." Jin grabbed Beomgyu by his coat and dragged him out of there.

Eunjae took a deep breath closing her eyes and turned to face the love of her life from two different births.

"Soobin, even if our parents fixed our marriage we started to have feelings for each other after some point and I cannot ignore that even after remembering everything." Eunjae knitted her brows as looked at Soobin, "But I also can't help but remember, and feel the love that I had in my past life for prince Sunghoon..." Her gaze flickered over at Sunghoon.

"I have no right to play with both of your feelings because I don't know what I want, what I feel... and right now there are things more important than that." She exclaimed, biting her lips.

"Maybe I am selfish for asking this but for the time being, can we ignore our feelings?" Eunjae swallowed harshly as met the surprised eyes of both of them.

"After seeing you getting killed in front of my eyes, after my soul being trapped inside that tree, thinking I would never even see a glimpse of you... if I can just see you safe in front of me, knowing my Eunjae is alive, remembers me... it'll be more than enough for me." Sunghoon softly chuckled as looked at Eunjae who harped the glint of sadness in his eyes.

"It'll be hard to ignore my feelings for you, but I can hide it." Sunghoon said and Eunjae smiled nodding at him.

She looked at Soobin watching them both with a placid expression on his face, "Soobin?"

"You both are destined to be together, we all may hide or ignore it but you both belong to each other. Even if you choose him I won't get hurt, Eunjae." Soobin said, letting out a deep breath. Eunjae's eyes softened as he walked towards her and Sunghoon.