Cinderella's Fate | 🤍 seongjoong 🤍

Chapter 28

Narrator's POV 

"Seonghwa hyung, please come out of your room", Mingi knocked on the door for the nth time that day.

    He was worried about his friend who, the day before seemed to be in higher spirits , came back from the forest, looking sullen and defeated. Yunho had theories that maybe someone had made him feel that way, but they had not seen him with anyone but them. Even their neighbours, Soobin and Kai, had not hung out with him one on one.

    The sudden mood change from their hyung had them worried, since they had grown fond of him and made new memories. In fact, they hoped that their rest of their friends would get to meet him and see that he fits right in with their band of misfits.

"Please, hyung. You haven't eaten all day since you came back from the forest yesterday", Yunho said, once he arrived to join Mingi at the door.

    A small click to the door's lock was heard faintly, and the creek of the door alerted the two men, anticipating. A dark figure and familiar cloak was seen from the small slit that the devastated man allowed. A hand reached out toward Mingi who, without hesitation, handed a plate of a good soup, good for nutrition and hydration since Seonghwa had been crying a lot recently.

    Yunho took the initiative to walk closer and give a reassuring smile before asking if there was anything that Sonehwa needed. Our poor protagonist shook his head , closing the door.

    The two men shared a look and quietly went downstairs. They were greatly disappointed that they didn't know how to conform to their hyung , and they felt like their friendship with him wasn't strong enough, and they were falling short of their friendship.

    An idea popped into Yunho's brain , to which he shared immediately with Mingi. Mingi was a bit sceptical about the whole plan, but since Yunho had reassured him that it wouldn't be a problem, they got to work. Yunho made a phone call, while Mingi prepared a small snack for him to bring along with him once he proposed their idea to their hyung .

    Seonghwa took the bowl of soup to his bed, setting it down gently by the night stand. He let out a sigh and began eating small sips from the spoon, as it seemed hard for him to drink it directly from the bowl. There was a knot in his throat , one that couldn't dissolve naturally. It became tighter and tighter, halting the man's actions. Placing the spoon back in the half empty bowl. His head hung low and his hand covered his face.

He felt guilty.

    A guilt so thick that he wasn't able to cry, he would let out sobs, but no tears were left to cry, and the same scene kept repeating in his mind. Seonghwa had realised that he had been too harsh on Hongjoong that day, in the forest, venting out all his frustration of his life on him and chasing him away completely.

    And as the ball kept coming closer and closer, he knew that he needed to get prepared to see his face again, and face the reality of the curse, since it will be all going according to its plan.

    But at least, he thought, he had destroyed whatever relationship he had with Hongjoong. The prince would found someone else to marry at the ball and live out a better life. Their happily ever after. Seonghwa laid on the bed , spreading his whole body out , looking up at the ceiling.

    He hated himself for what he did, and he just wasted himself in pity. His actions had reminded him that maybe, he might have been the villain all along. Since he had left his two brothers for this journey, had left his father for the Thai journey, had worried his two friends and draining a friendship with someone he had feeling for.

    The sound of a ticking clock gained his attention, pushing his thoughts aside. He looked around the room, but there was no clock. He didn't remember purchasing one or getting one from Yunho or Mingi . He rested his head back on the pillow , waving it off as having imagined it , possibly the roller coaster of emotions had made him hallucinate.

    However, the ticking sound was persistent, irritating our main protagonist into getting up from the bed. Wiring his brain , he'd deduced where the clock was. Not on the walls , not on the floor, not on any furniture, not even on the desk.

The only thing that was left was the bed.

    He patted the bed , but the sound shifted along with him. He thought to himself how strange as he patted himself , feeling a heavy metal object to which he remembered was the compass . Bringing it out of its pocket, he gasped at the sight.

    The compass had lost its north, west, east, south symbols now replaced by numbers, in Roman form, and the hands of the compass were ticking just like a clock. A small light flashes and numbers appear above.

4 days left.

    Seonghwa looked puzzled, but as soon as he did the maths, he realised that it was pointing to the ball. Just like the original curse track, the ball should have sealed his fate as soon as the prince would have got a hold of his shoes. What had changed in the curse so far was the fact that his mother didn't marry the prince, but she still had the same ending that began the new curse. Which Seoonghwa was currently living out .

    Seonghwa was hoping to avoid the ball at all costs , and now that his relationship had severed with the prince , there would be no change in getting to complete the cycle of the curse.

    A knock on the door halted his thoughts and many questions that were looming on his head. He felt all over the palace with his emotions, but he also knew that there was no time to duel on it .

"Seonghwa hyung! I know you haven't been feeling well lately", Mingi stated.

"And we thought that it will be a great opportunity to go out" , Yunho continued.

"So ... What do you say? ", Mingi finished.

    They were really hoping that their hyung would take the invitation and get a chance to see him happy again. They believed that the situation required their hyung sharing his thoughts and emotions with them, and go back to a happier life.

    Do not get them wrong, the help was for the benefit of their hyung , who had seemed to spiral into a fake or pre depression, sometimes looking like he wanted to give up on his life. That's what it looked like to them .

    Seonghwa, in the confinements of his room, dark, since the lights were off and the curtains were drowned back, pondered on his friend's request. Since there wasn't really that much time to waste, he needed to get a reason to enter the most surveilled place of the country: the royal palace.

The more he thought about it, the more the idea of getting away from all this was appealing to him.

    It seems like an eternity had passed since they asked the question, but Yunho and Mingi were really hoping to get the man out of his cave.

    The door clicked, the sound of the door creaking open to reveal their favourite cloak man , standing in form on them. He was holding his backpack, a trusted companion for any adventure.

"So ... what should I pack?"

Huge smiles appeared on the married couple's face and directed their older friend downstairs.