The Truth Hurts [exo]

22

"Jongin!" I screamed as the monsters began charging at him. Why was he so stubborn to fight, anyway? What was with him?

I struggled against my restraints but there was no use. I could only look on as Jongin slashed into the necks of giant, ill-coloured creatures.

Though I was supposed to be mad at him, I couldn't. I wanted to help him. Did that make me the enemy or was I still a good person for helping a friend?

I mentally scoffed at the word "friend". In desperate situations, even friends would kiss friends. Was I that horrible to kiss? I mean, this was a life or death situation and Jongin had chosen death.

I looked up at the stone statues beside me. A man, a woman, and a little girl. What did Jongin have to do with them?

"Hmm, you're strong. But you're going to be a traitor just like the rest of your family. You know we can't let any of you out, right?" The queen laughed and I looked over. The giants were lying on the ground in their own blood. Jongin stood to the side where he was panting heavily but still glaring up at the balcony.

His body was covered with blood and I suddenly felt nauseous. This scene was much worse than the death of ten men.

"You promised!" Jongin began. "You promised if I found your son a wife, you'd set my family free."

"We did," the queen nodded. "But you didn't find our son a wife."

Jongin took a step forward, as if he could fight the queen himself when she was all the way up there. "And then you said if I was strong enough—"

"I lied," snapped the queen. "Do you think I would let you and your family try and escape ever again? You should be thankful that we've let you live for another year. You are blessed with all this power and strength yet you still—"

"Blessed!" Jongin looked furious. "All I've accomplished is put my family in danger. Then I kidnapped three princesses and had two of them hanged! Is this what you call blessed?"

My lips trembled in the midst of Jongin's anger. He looked to be in so much pain, much more than I could ever experience. I looked up at the statues again. If these people were his family...

"Aww look," the king cooed. "The poor princess is so frightened, it's cute. Maybe we should scare her some more."

The queen laughed coolly. "I know what'll scare her. Men," she ordered and two ogres with bats came out of the stone doors and approached Jongin.

He almost didn't have time to react as one swung an arm. The queen was right. I was more frightened. The adrenaline that had powered Jongin was gone and now he was staggering around, just trying to dodge the attacks.

"Actually, how about we really terrify the girl?" The king seemed so pleased with himself and his ideas. "One of you, on her."

Suddenly, I saw one of the giants turn towards me. I sucked in a breath. It wasn't far from me and even with its slow steps, it wasn't going to be long before it reached me.

"No!" Jongin's voice rang out and echoed off the stones. It was so loud that it stopped the attackers for a second. "Attack me all you want, but leave her alone."

"But it's going to get boring if you just kill all our men." The king shrugged. "I could give you one last chance but..."

"Jongin," I couldn't believe I was going to say this. "What's so wrong with kissing me?" I yelled at him.

He stared back at me with an open mouth; so he couldn't believe I would say something like that either. The king chuckled with amusement but the queen rolled her eyes, obviously tired of us already.