• The Cursed Rebirth of Kuro • 『 various! yona of the dawn χ reader 』

⚜ C h a p t e r - o n e ⚜

After days that felt like years of captivity in the hands of her enemy, [Name] escaped. Although she did see him as a threat, she felt as if she was leaving everything she had spent so long treasuring behind once she had finally managed to leave castle grounds. Her pain forced her to run ahead, afraid to be caught again and put through the same torture she had experienced. As much as she didn't want to look back, she did.

The castle reminded of Yona and Hak, and the memories she had made with the two. Them and... Soo-won. The three of them were quite close as children, but Soo-won began to drift apart.

Until now.

Yona was so excited that day. [Name] remembered the countless times Yona'd ask her, 'how do I look?' and how often she'd ramble on and on about him finally seeing her as a woman and not a child. She perfumed her clothes with the finest incense, applied the highest quality of lotions and makeup, all just to meet him. She went all out - just to impress him. Her 'small' crush on the blonde was quite obvious. Hak and [Name] would frequently tease her about it.

Later on, Hak and Soo-won were practising their archery together. [Name] stood beside Yona, declining their offer to join them, knowing she was allowed to. She didn't want to leave Yona, and [Name] usually practised her archery alone. [Name] held in her laughter when Yona kept whining about Hak and Soo-won spending time together without her, wanting to do archery with them as well. But of course, her father, King Il, didn't allow Yona to handle weapons.

To cheer her up, Soo-won offered her a ride on his horse, which she gladly accepted. [Name] carefully led Yona to Soo-won's horse, not wanting to ruin Yona's beautiful dress. [Name] cared for Yona as an older sister, although their ages weren't too far apart, she was clearly the mature one out of the two. Hak often joked about Yona's maturity, saying how Soo-won only saw her as a child because she was one. It satisfied Hak to see [Name] laughing at his teasing, yet he adored the way she'd defend Yona at the same time, reassuring her that she wasn't actually a child.

While Yona was riding on Soo-won's horse, [Name] remembered their conversation about Soo-won's engagement. She almost choked on air when she heard Yona accidentally lie about an engagement to Hak. She knew that Yona was slowly digging herself a hole that would be difficult to get out of.

Yona was quite depressed after the archery. [Name] tried to comfort her, rubbing her back soothingly, knowing that Yona was upset that Soo-won believed her lie. As you remembered what King Il said, the train of happy memories started to become less... happy.

King Il told Yona that her being betrothed at her age would be natural and that her engagement to Hak might not be a complete lie, she spilt about wanting Soo-won, and not Hak. Alas, her father completely disregarded this, raising his voice to make his point clear to Yona. His strictness did not match his usual happy-go-lucky mood.

The events afterwards only made [Name] regret everything more.

The next day was Yona's birthday. She received many gifts, but [Name] knew the beautiful hair ornament Soo-won had given her was of most importance. He complimented her hair, comparing it to the sky at dawn. This simple action almost immediately made her doubt her hatred towards her long and curly red hair. Yona was so happy. That night, Yona begged [Name] to come with her to convince her father of her feelings.

But, on that same night. . . King Il was murdered. Right in front of their eyes. The blood splattered on the clothes of the killer. His evil grin. [Name] was so terrified by the gruesome scene that she wasn't able to turn around and comfort Yona like she would always do. Why?

It was the identity of the killer that shocked [Name] the most. The betrayal she felt paralyzed her. Quiet sobs escaped her mouth as she couldn't remove her eyes from King Il's dead body. A man she trusted, a close friend of hers. Someone who neither of them thought would've been capable of such an awful thing.
Soo-won.

It was his fault that she was here now, having to escape the castle that she considered her true home. His fault that she was separated from Hak and Yona, with no idea of their location and safety. His fault that pain racked through her entire body, making it almost impossible for her to keep moving. Nonetheless, she kept walking. At this point, she'd be happy anywhere but the castle, trapped in the arms of Soo-won.

How long had she been walking? There weren't many ways of keeping track of time. Adding to the stinging pain in her back and head, her legs were aching. [Name] was tired. She convinced herself that she'd gone far enough to rest. She tried to tell herself that it was going to be okay.

Although [Name] didn't consider herself a liar, she knew that was a lie.

Nothing was okay.