Cinderella's Fate | 🤍 seongjoong 🤍

Chapter 45

(ai image)

Seonghwa's POV

It was time.

     I took a deep breath to suppress the rapid heartbeats that had picked up. I kept repeating that I was fine, convincing myself once and for all that nothing will go wrong. But my mind betrayed me, flashing back to my escape at the ball.

"You thought the same thing then," a small, bitter voice reminded me. "And look how that ended."

I pushed that thought right away, as not to fuel m insecurities to their maximum potential.

    I shook my head sharply to get rid of it. This earned a curious glance from Yunho, who sat beside me in the car he had hired. His expression was calm, but his eyes searched mine, silently asking if I was okay. I gave him a weak smile, not about to fully say the emotions I was feeling, and then before he could ask me anything, I looked out of the window.

    The window was tinted so that I was able to see the outside clearly, but anyone looking in wouldn't be able to. I watched as the trees, houses, cars, and pedestrians passed by, making a note of the things I saw to cope with the rising anxiety.

The car slowed down and the outside came to face a huge wall.

The driver finally slowed to a stop and announced, "We're here."

    Yunho thanked him for his service and got out of the car. I quickly followed, walking towards the gray wall. There were cracks , moss, and small weeds growing from the ground.

    I looked at Yunho who looked back with a smile before heading to the wall. I adjusted the bag slung over my shoulder and followed. The wall was connected e to the building and as he went around the circular building , to where a brown door, made of metal , appeared. He went to it and with a key , he opened the door, it slowly gave way to use the rusted sounds echoing .

    Inside was dark, but Yunho seems to know where he was going without any light. At the end of the long tunnel , Yunho had been holding my hand as no to get lost, there was a door. Beside it, there was a keypad.

    He instead didn't type as sequence, he went to press his book on the shelf. It opened a door reading to the library.

We thought we were slick, but the door makes a sudden noise once it closed behind us, at which altered someone.

"It must be the guards" , Yunho said, his calm demure a contact to my erratic heart. I didn't want to get found out so realty.

"Who is there ?"

    The voice came just a few feet away from us, but Yunho was swift with his movements and led me to hide from the guards. Once we arrived at the safe space, we adjusted a few metres to the control room, and another few metres to the entrance of the secret library. Yunho bid farewell.

   I didn't want him to go, grabbing his sleeve,and with pleading eyes , I was begging him to stay. I wanted to feel reassured that everything would go well. Instead of caving in, he advised me to put on the mask, the one from the ball, and to follow the map. There were instructions written on the back to disable the security system so that once I was inside the secret library, it wouldn't automatically shut me in.

"Everything will be fine", he said, "I promise you that, hyung. Soon, all this will come to an end"

I looked at him puzzled, but he still gave me a hug before exiting the safe space.

    Taking a few deep breaths, I followed the route Yunho had mapped out, avoiding the camera's line of sight and slipping past blind spots. Each step was calculated, my heart pounding whenever I had to freeze in place to let a guard pass.

    When I reached the control room, I found it locked as expected. Retrieving the small key Yunho had prepared for me, I slipped inside, shutting the door softly behind me. Rows of monitors displayed the palace from its different angles, including the route I'd taken, but missing some of the spots I had hidden in.

   I quickly disabled the cameras covering the areas I'd marked on my map. Double-checking the feeds to ensure no alarms had been tripped, I locked the control room behind me and continued.

    When I reached the final set of doors, I used the codebreaker one last time, my hands trembling as the lock clicked. The rush of joy filled my veins and I saw the door swung open, revealing a space that took my breath away.

    The secret library was nothing short of magnificent. It came straight out of a fairytale. It was big, the bookshelves reached all the way up to the sky. Each shelf was filled with old, glowing books that sparkled gently, clearly infused with magic to keep their original form pristine.

   In the middle of the library stood a beautiful spiral staircase. My eyes followed up to see the flower window, a set of windows in which were positions to resemble a blooming flower, the natural light as well as the magic flowing through the room where the light. This made this room the most efficient room in terms of power.

But I didn't have time to stand still. I had a task to complete.

    I moved to the shelf marked with the letter "F." My eyes scanned quickly until they found the one Yunho had told me about.

Fate.

   The title was written in shiny gold letters that caught the light. I reached for it and gently pulled it from the shelf. Examining its clear green colour with no marks and designs, I flipped through the pages quickly, hoping that a letter would have fallen into my hands.

However, a soft noise, like cloth brushing against wood, drew my attention away from the book.

My body tensed. 

     The footsteps came closer, in which I decided to turn, heart beating faster, running away from it. Suddenly, a hand grabbed my arm. I gasped, trying to pull away, but the grip was strong.

My breath caught in my throat. I looked up, eyes wide with fear, thoughts running wild.