Villain kids

23

There was silence.

Mark's words settled in the air like a spell cast too heavy. It took a moment before Donghyuck stirred, blinking as though trying to process what he'd just heard.

Hyuck: "I'm sorry. What? What do you mean?"

Mark didn't falter. His voice was soft, like he was reciting an old legend passed down only in whispers.

Mark:
"Your mother... she was a fairy. A beautiful one. Not just in looks, but in soul. She loved the forest, the wind in the trees, the way animals would follow her without fear. She helped anyone who needed her, and anyone who met her, loved her."

"One day, Prince Florian wandered into the woods she called home. He saw her-and that was it. He came back every day after. And she let him. He treated her like a person, not a creature, not something strange or otherworldly. They laughed, they shared stories, they fell in love."

"But then, one day... he didn't come. Not the next day either. Or the one after that. She waited. Worried. Confused. Until finally, she went to the castle, hoping to find him. And she did..." Mark's voice dimmed like twilight.

"But he was in bed with another woman."

Donghyuck's breath caught.

Mark (softly):
"It broke her. And in that heartbreak, something inside her cracked open. The forest shook. The sky shifted. Magic surged out of her-wild, unfamiliar. People felt it. They knew it was her. And they were afraid. That fear... she noticed it. She clung to it. For the first time, they didn't ignore her. They feared her."

"But Florian? He wasn't afraid. He didn't even know she'd seen him. He thought her love was enough to shield him from consequence."

"Months passed. His new bride had a child-Aurora. And when they held a celebration, your mother came. Uninvited. Changed."

"She wasn't the soft, glowing fairy anymore. Her beauty had hardened. Her wings turned to shadow. Even Florian hesitated when he saw her. And then, she cursed the child. Not out of power hunger, but out of pain. Of betrayal. Because the world that once embraced her, turned its back on her... for being different."

Mark: "Aurora-Jungwoo's mother-was the one she cursed. And the rest... you already know."

---

Silence again. But this time, it wasn't stunned-it was suffocating.

Donghyuck swallowed, his throat suddenly dry.

Hyuck: "Mark, I don't know how to say this nicely... but I can't take this anymore. It's too much. I need you to shut up."

The words weren't cruel. They were fragile. A trembling barrier barely holding together the storm behind them.

Mark stayed quiet.

Donghyuck didn't look at him. Couldn't. His hands were clenched at his sides, nails digging into his palms as his world tilted, twisted-reframed.

Everything he thought he knew about his mother...

All his life, she had been a monster. Cold. Distant. A queen of curses and shadows. He believed she wanted power. Feared love. But now...

Now he saw her as something else.

Heartbroken.

She wasn't born cruel-she was made cruel. By a love that abandoned her. By a world that punished her for being different.

And that realization stung more than any insult or curse she'd ever thrown his way.

She was capable of love-once.

But that version of her was gone.

And he... he would never be someone she could love again.

He'd spent his whole life trying to earn her pride. Her approval. Her affection.

But you can't earn love from a broken heart that refuses to feel again.

His chest ached with the weight of it all. Anger boiled low in his stomach-not at Mark, not even at Florian...

But at her.

At the Isle.

At all the villains who let pain twist them into something monstrous.

His whole life had been shaped by a legacy of pain.

And now, for the first time, he saw it clearly.

They weren't powerful.
They were pathetic.