LOVE ME LESS ۞ taegyu

✯ ELEVEN

the days have passed slowly, almost without any change. taehyun still went to the shop occasionally to check on some new plants, and he always goes out to seek knowledge to the nearby village of lockechapel.

he has received only one letter from beomgyu, and he hasn't even visited him yet. he was wondering when he would visit and tell him, “hey, taehyun-ah. i'm better!”

he sighs to himself, walking to a nearby library to return books. he went inside, and was immediately stricken by the sweet smell of new and old books, and the overall ambiance is what made this particular library beautiful.

he approached the counter to see an elf with glasses, her pointy ears littered with piercings and her clothes might look a little too messy for him to be taken seriously by the other people in the village. maybe she was busy? there were a lot of books, after all.

maybe way too much. 

“um, good morning, hyuna,” he greeted awkwardly. the elf looked up at him and she feigned a look of surprise before smiling.

“hello there, taehyun~ are you here to return your books, or to get new ones? there's some in stock.”

his eyes lighted up and he nodded, handing over his books (all dusty, but otherwise clean and without any crumples). hyuna got off her seat and went to give the books to her boyfriend, who was a human.

taehyun's heard about dawn. they say that he used to be a performer before meeting hyuna. they were mocked but they didn't care. they just lived through it, and taehyun was sort of envious of them.

if you asked him why, he simply wouldn't answer.

anyways, taehyun manages to skim through the books that was new but he didn't take any. he'll have a break before he damages his eyes.

he went out of the library and looks around. he sees a familiar sundae shop and went there, seeing his centaur friend preparing ice cream for the young children of the village.

“look, it's taehyunie hyung!” squealed one of them, and the kids all look up to him. he smiles and waves cutely before he turns his attention to the chuckling centaur.

“you're pretty popular with the young’ins,” the centaur said as they were tying their hair up into a messy bun. the centaur had grey eyes and mossy teal hair and red highlights, their clothes shimmering brightly and their scarf was ineffective to hide their long beard. they wore a soft smile as they prepared the ice cream.

taehyun chuckled as he noticed that their beard was braided, “not as popular as you, mikoneus. look at what they did to you.”

both of them laughed and mikoneus prepared taehyun's favorite ice cream flavor and gave it to him in a small goblet and a spoon, “well, at least i'm pretty.” they wink.

taehyun laughs softly before he takes another walk somewhere else. it was a long walk, too, and his feet felt tired. it didn't bother him though.

he reached an abandoned fort, with the light of a few fairies illuminating it. they all chattered about his arrival and he simply giggles before he entered the fort.

it was full of many artifacts that he's managed to find over the years, and all laced with magic or had connections with magical beings. he turns on the lights and he saw a familiar head of blue rummaging through the artifacts.

he sighs.

“yeonjun hyung? what the hell are you doing in lashano? ah, excuse me, i'm going to correct myself—” he stops himself and see the older boy look at him in shock.

“what the hell are you doing here in starbrace? didn't you have work to do?”

he was slightly annoyed by the prince of chevaria, and for a good reason. he shows up whenever he pleases and doesn't tell taehyun beforehand. yeonjun was holding gold binoculars and taehyun was even more annoyed.

that was hidden for at least 3 years.

“i-i was waiting for you, since i had to say something. then i just..had to look around..?” he sounded so unsure of himself and taehyun was really close to banishing him from starbrace.

taehyun sighs softly and places the goblet on a table and grabs the binoculars rather harshly and places it inside his bag along with his medicinal equipment.

“alright, that's valid, i hope,” he commented before ushering yeonjun to sit down, and both of them did so.

“well, what brings the prince of chevaria here to the forest of lashano? i'm even surprised that the protector even let you in here, considering the situations of the magicals in your kingdom and ours.”

yeonjun was visibly embarrassed that taehyun caught him, but he tried to not let it show. his princely attire was a little ripped due to the twigs of the forest and dusty, too. he winced at yeonjun's appearance.

“i wanted some help on something,” he said after clearing his voice. taehyun looks at him, intrigued.

“fire away,” he says, and the lights suddenly went dimmer, and the entrance had a barrier, blocking out any magicals that could possibly hear them.

it made both boys comfortable.

“the king's planning to attack chevaria, and at the village where most of the lower class live. if i remember correctly, your sister is there protecting them.”

oh dear. not chaewon. no one could ever possibly hurt his one and only sister.

taehyun was shaken up.

“i was asking if you could help them evacuate here to starbrace—”

taehyun cuts him off quickly, “they can't! it's too dangerous for them here! can't you see how the king treats people like them? every month, he takes a group of them and burns them alive! he executes them publicly, and you don't think that's unwise for them to stay here, choi yeonjun?!” he shouts, standing up and looking down at the prince who was unfazed. he had tears in his eyes that were falling down slowly, his eyes full of emotions and pain.

he heard footsteps, and a soft whisper.

“who burns who alive now..?”

taehyun turns around to see a concerned beomgyu, with a blond, freckled boy tagging along behind him.