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The tavern was nearly empty, except for the haggard man that sat at one of the many tables, a beer clasped firmly in his hands.
"I don't usually leave the asylum in the middle of the night, but they said you'd make it worth my while," the man scowled as he greeted Jaehyun. Jaehyun let out a hearty chuckle and tossed a sack of gold on the table, the coins rippling across the wooden surface. D'arque clutched a piece between his greedy fingers.
"Ah, now I'm listening."
"I've got my heart set on marrying Jungwoo, but he needs a little..." Jaehyun pondered his choice of words, "persuasion."
"Turned him down flat!" Taeyong added, much to Jaehyun's annoyance, who shot the man a heartfelt glare.
"Everyone knows his father's a lunatic. Hell, he was in here raving about a beast and a castle."
"Taeil is harmless," D'arque reasoned.
"The point is, Jungwoo would do anything to keep him from being locked up."
"Yeah, even marry him," Taeyong nodded in Jaehyun's direction, dismissing the glare burning holes into his back.
"So, you want me to throw his father in the asylum unless he agrees?"
Jaehyun and Taeyong nodded in agreement. A malicious grin spread across D'arque's face.
"Oh, that is despicable. I love it!"
Taeil was rambling in the solitude of his own home, unaware of the plan being plotted against him.
"If no one will help me, then I'll go back alone. I don't care what it takes. I'll find that castle and somehow I'll get him out of there," Taeil concluded as he threw the last of his belongings into the tan trunk that was splayed on his bed. The trunk shut with a resounding snap, and Taeil left the house, fetching one of his horse's from the barn. He mounted the old stallion, whose joints weren't quite as sprite as before, and rode away from the degrading town.
Jaehyun, Taeyong, and D'arque wandered the town, one goal on their minds: to find Jungwoo or Taeil.
"They live just up ahead," Jaehyun reassured, noticing D'arque's unamused expression. The man nodded curtly, and true to his word, the cottage came into view. Jaehyun ascended the stairs and pulled the knob on the door, surprised to find it unlocked. Jungwoo had always been a bit of an overprotective man, wary about who was allowed to visit his insane father.
"Jungwoo! Taeil!" Jaehyun yelled into the empty living room, his voice echoing back to him.
"Oh well, guess it's not gonna work after all. " Taeyong gave a nonchalant shrug, his heart caught between happy and upset for the lovesick puppy he'd been following blindly. Jaehyun's hand came in contact with his neck, blocking his airways.
"They have to come back eventually," he hissed, stepping closer to the door with Taeyong still struggling in his grasp. "And when they do, we'll be ready for them." Jaehyun dropped Taeyong in the snow littering the porch outside, either not noticing or choosing to ignore the shivers that raked his body.
"Stay here until they come back."
The door slammed shut, abandoning Taeyong in the frozen nightmare.
"Dammit," he cursed, pounding on the side of the yellow colored brick. His hand stung almost as much as his heartstrings, that were being dangerously played like a harp by Jaehyun.
