Seven | Book 1 (An EXO fiction)

22.

~Chapter 22: The Queen's Cousin~

"How are you? Where have you been all this time? Why didn't you come see me? Are you well? Have you been eating? How often do you fucking strip here at the castle? I don't even know how to-" his hand comes up to my mouth and cuts off my words. He has on that eye smile that can melt even the driest of ice. I blink while just scanning his handsome face.

"Shut up. You're rambling." He says softly. I breath in and out through my nose to keep myself from spouting out everything I've been wanting to ask him. I don't think he's allowed to be in here, but that just means I need to be even more composed. I don't want him to have to leave just because my excitement got the best of me and someone happened to find him here. After seeing that I've quieted down Jongin removes his hand and looks at my face thoughtfully. "You're okay?" He's asking as if he's having a hard time believing it himself.

I snort. "Barely."

"I heard about what happened when you got here." I frown in confusion at his vague statement. "I heard about the girls who died and got taken away that day. I thought you were one of them." My heart pounds at the simple observation. I could have been one of them. Easily.

"Ho-How'd you hear? Does the whole castle know?"

He shakes his head minimally. "No, I was just listening around for news about it. About, uhm, about you. I was trying to make sure you were okay. No one else pays much attention to it. They don't like hearing about the next human girl who will be taking up space in the palace." I can't say that surprised to hear that. "I'm just glad you weren't hurt." He says looking away for a moment. I grab his hands in mine.

"I am okay." I say truthfully. The fact that he was worried about me warms my heart. "I'm not going to lie and say that it was no sweat because it was. I was...I was terrified that I was going to die next. The other girls, those girls...they were...they shouldn't have been made to come here. They didn't want to be there. I was the only one who did..." I trace circles on the back of his hand to keep myself from crying while thinking about their terrified faces. "I felt like a traitor Jongin. No one in their right mind would willingly come into this place, but I did. And seeing the girls who were like me made me realize how fucked it is that I'm here. I'm a fucking traitor to my own kind..." I whisper the last part and force myself to swallow the growing lump in my throat. He slips his hands out of mine, and his comfortable arms envelope me. I can do nothing besides just relish in the fact that someone like him exists here in this little hellhole to bring me some kind of ease.

"You aren't a traitor." He leans his cheek against the top of my head. "You're doing this to help them too. If you weren't there, then one of them would have been forced to be here against their will. They would have had to deal with all of this without any warning, and that wouldn't have turned out very well now would it?" he asks. I shake my head and feel his cheek ruffling my hair. "Okay well then stop beating yourself up about it." I push myself away.

"I'm not beating myself up, I'm just wondering if I'm really doing what's right or not and if it'll actually even make a difference it's just-"

He gives me a knowing look so I stop. "That's called beating yourself up."

"Blah, blah, blah Mr. Know-it-all." He rolls his eyes at my childish way of dismissing him. He's a dummy, but he always says such truthful things; a dummy with deep ass words. Trying to steer the conversation away from me, I change the topic of conversation. "Back to the real issues at hand. How'd you know I was outside of the Charmer hall door?" It's not a real issue at all, but his timing was just so impeccable that I was curious as to how he got there right as I did.