royal blood

43 | a life of despair.

yeri wandered the dark hallways of the palace, waiting for the sunrise. she looked around, trying her best to figure out where she wanted to go and spend her time by herself. yeri decided on the old library, where she doubted anyone could be, especially in the early hours of the morning.

she walked down the grand staircase, before reaching the hallway that lead to the library. for some reason, the hallway seemed darker than usual, and it contained disturbing paintings all around it. yeri raised her eyebrow, weirded out by the sudden placement, one she was not aware of.

yeri walked down the hallway, as she spotted a pool of blood infront of the library's door. she covered her mouth in shock, waiting to see what had gone down in that room. as she slowly opened the door, a pair of hands were laid on yeri's shoulders. she flinched, turning around to see that is was her brother, who had an unusual smile on his face.

it was not doyoung. it could not be doyoung, and the person pretending to be him scared yeri. his eyes were red, his fingers were long and pale, and his face was full of bruises and scratches. yeri tried removing his hands, but his fingers nailed into yeri's skin, making her let out a yell. she tried to move around, but was unable to.

" dear sister, are you scared of me ? of your own brother ? " doyoung, or the figure pretending to be him, spoke, as he looked directly into yeri's eyes. " are you afraid of who your brother actually is, not a picture-perfect prince who has never done anything wrong ? i have done many wrong things. do you want to hear them ? "

" i am not going to hear anything ! " yeri managed to cover her ears, as doyoung continued to stare at her. " you are not doyoung ! you are not real ! you have no place to come here and tell me those things ! " she started yelling, closing her eyes. she could feel doyoung's hands wrap around her neck, as tears started rolling down her cheeks.

was this the moment she was going to die ? killed by the hands of her dead brother ? yeri chose not to believe what was happening, but it seemed real. doyoung, who was her role model growing up, not revealed that he was not a good person. he was an evil man, who did things that yeri could not even imagine doing.

" what did you do ? " yeri asked, struggling to take deep breaths. doyoung started laughing, as tears continued to roll down on yeri's cheeks. " what did you do, to not make you the picture-perfect prince ? what did you do, doyoung ?! " she yelled, finally removing doyoung's hands from her neck. " tell me, tell me what you have done. "

" ask seulgi. " doyoung said, with the same smile plastered on his face. suddently, everything turned completely black, making yeri let out another scream.

—

yeri suddently opened her eyes, terrified at the nightmare she experienced. as she slowly got up from her bed, she thought about the last words doyoung told her — to ask seulgi about what he had done. she thought if it was even real, since it was a nightmare, but it would be best for her to go and ask seulgi.

she walked towards sooyoung's room, seeing that seulgi was getting out of it. seulgi quickly bowed towards yeri, trying to leave. yeri walked infront of seulgi, now stopping her from walking away. seulgi let out a sigh, scared by yeri's sudden action.

" listen, seulgi, .. i need to ask you something very important. it might come as extremely weird, but, i really need to know the answer to this. " yeri began, as she could see how scared seulgi was. was she already aware of what yeri wanted to ask her ? it seemed like seulgi was bothered by something, and yeri wanted to know the reason for this fear seulgi had. " how did you and my late brother get along ? "

suddently, seulgi froze. she lost the fear and was now simply emotionless. she was not going to answer from yeri saw her, nor she was going to try and leave. yeri patiently waited, but it seemed like seulgi was either taken aback by the question, or there was something sinister that happend behind yeri's back just then. and yeri believed in the first option. " were you two close ? " she asked again.

" he was very nice to me. " seulgi replied after a few moments of hesitation, as she looked down. " me and him did not talk a lot, but whenever we did, he was really a gentleman and knew how to speak to me. that is all, we did not know anything else about one another. " seulgi cleared her throat, as yeri nodded.

she could hear footsteps coming towards them, making her turn around. jaehyun was standing infront of them, as a small smile appeard on his face. yeri let out a sigh, walking away unsatisfied with the answer she received from seulgi. she was too scared by the question for it to have such a simple answer.

she looked behind her one time, seeing that jaehyun started talking with seulgi. they were smiling at eachother, a thing that surprised her. were they together ? did seulgi happen to see him, a thing that made her freeze on the spot ? yeri thought of every single possibility, until she was met with baron sicheng in front of her, with a small smile on his face.

" i did not prepare a shakespeare quote for you, this time. " sicheng said with a small laugh, as yeri smiled back to him. " what brings you here ? you seem to be worried by something, a thing very unusual for you. you are always either angry or happy, not anywhere in between. " sicheng continued to laugh, as yeri agreed with him by nodding.

" i actually had a terrible, terrible nightmare. it was about me getting choked by my brother, who was telling me that he was actually a terrible man. after i asked him what he did, he told me to ask seulgi. i woke up afterwards, and went straight to seulgi. " yeri explained the situation to sicheng, who's eyes widened.

" i, actually, experienced some strange dreams some time ago. it was about me catching the hooded figure, then it turned out that there was not anyone there .. " sicheng said, as yeri was rather surprised by his reveal. " extremely strange. thankfully, i was able to brush it off and forget about it. " he continued with a hopeful smile, as yeri saw how jaehyun walked away, leaving seulgi all alone.

what happend between seulgi and doyoung ?

—

it was a hard morning for seulgi, but she clearly expected to sleep less, due to the shock she experienced the previous night. doyoung asking her to sleep in the same room as him still made her question his intentions towards her, but he at least allowed seulgi to sleep until seven in the morning.

for seulgi, that actually meant that she was late. she was supposed to be down, in the kitchen, to prepare doyoung's breakfast and to give the morning greetings to the head maid. she was clearly late by close to a whole hour, and the maids probably saw that she was gone from her usual sleeping place.

when seulgi got up from doyoung's bed, she saw as he enterd the room, smiling towards seulgi. he walked up to seulgi, holding a warm blanket for her. seulgi, who was surprised to see doyoung acting this way, walked up towards doyoung and bowed. " your majesty, it was inappropriate for me to sleep here. i shall leave now. "

" oh, but please, do not leave. " doyoung put the blanket on the bed, holding seulgi by her wrist. " i went downstairs to the head maid and let her know that you had a rough evening and fell asleep on one of the couches. she handed me this blanket and told me to put it over you, so you will not be cold. " he said, as seulgi shaked her head.

" why do you like to be around me so much ? i have only now been assigned as your maid. i am guessing that you planned for me to be here, because there is no other way that you have gotten attached to me so fast. " seulgi let out a scoff, as doyoung was shocked to hear that.

suddently, doyoung's face turned red. he widened his eyes, approaching seulgi with an expression that scared her. what was he going to do ?

—