Arcus // ATEEZ ✔

5: a night of suspicions

Despite the warnings foretold by her lady-in-waiting, the rate at which she is allowed to roam and mingle around with the other royals seems to be unrestricted. The elderly are around the dining table, too drunk to function that even the queen has to be brought away to her bedroom by her husband, or else she'll be wreaking havoc with her powers out of control. The other royal family members are given a place to stay at the Inis Palace for one night, so none are in the rush to go back to their respective realms. Even the twins who can come and go as they wish decide to stay for the night, their eyes never leaving the princess.

Seonghwa pushes back his chair to stand up, momentarily forgetting about his sister who has no clue on what she's supposed to do next, before walking close towards Serim and signalling with his eyes that he wants to meet with the lady-in-waiting in private, their usual meeting place where no eyes could see. Since it's an opportunity now that his parents have retired for the night, he swoops in before gesturing slightly to Serim.

"Seonghwa," Narae calls out to stop his brother as she's wary of being left alone with the other royals whom she isn't familiar with, but her brother is already marching towards the direction to exit the hall. She tries her second best option, but even her cousin, Wooyoung is too drunk out of his mind as he keeps up with his high-pitched laugh. He looks to be particularly fond towards the prince of Aesa - Song Mingi.

So much for protecting her from these so-called princes who want nothing from her but the Arcus.

Seonghwa tries hard not to make any noise as he weaves in and out of the slithering hallways, his destination being the place he only visits when he wants some time alone with Serim. It's an opening behind one of the rarely-visited wings of the palace building, because the wing is facing the thick forest behind and adequate light doesn't infiltrate the space. A perfect place for a secret meeting.

Especially for forbidden lovers who cannot be together in any part of history.

He waits on one of the broken stone structures, swinging his legs before hitting his heels in a rhythmic manner against the stone, hoping that she would turn up. Lately they've been distant, especially after the accident that befell his sister. Serim has been keeping a careful distance from him, claiming that it's not appropriate for them to be gallivanting in secret while his sister is still unconscious. Now that his sister has woken up, maybe their relationship would return to usual, although 'normal' is not what their relationship is.

He plays around with fire, snapping his fingers to make sparks appear before throwing the flame towards a nearby torch to light the place up. He interlaces his fingers, getting nervous as the time keeps passing by without Serim making an appearance. There's a high chance that she wouldn't come, as things between them had been pretty thorny ever since his sister's accident. Whenever he wanted to meet her this past month, she would refuse and he would be left waiting for hours before he decided that he'd have to leave before the others start looking for him.

He looks up as he hears the sound of distant footsteps through the tunnel leading to where he is, already anticipating the face of Serim emerging. The footsteps get louder and he stands up, waiting in front of the opening.

As soon as he sees Serim's figure coming out of the shadows he pulls her hand, places another hand on the back of her head before driving her against the wall, and kisses her. She tenses for a moment as Seonghwa places his lips on hers, but relaxes as his hands snake along her spine to her lower back. She allows him to trail his lips along her cheek and neck before she lightly pushes him away, biting her lips and letting her tears drop.

"What's wrong-"

"Everything, Your Highness-"

He cups her face to place another kiss but she turns her face away, so she lets him breathe against her cheek. "Jo Serim, I missed you-"