The Varied Path (Akatsuki no Yona Fanfiction)

Chapter 94: Overprotective Brothers

Twenty minutes later and Calista was standing in front of their friends, woken up from their slumber. She tried to talk her way out of it, but Shin-ah wasn't having it. Either she would tell them, or he would. He didn't care for their protests as he dragged them one by one out of the tent, the rest of the dragons and Hak only half sober from their nap.

However, once she finished, all of them were looking significantly more awake than before.

"You went after him by yourself." Hak expressed darkly.

Like Shin-ah, there was no question and she found herself nodding guiltily.

Hak ran a hand through his hair, exhaling forcefully. "Look, I get it. You wanted to deal with it yourself. But that doesn't mean you go off on your own, we had an arrangement."

Calista bowed her head, stammering, "I-I know that. I d-didn't intend to fight him."

He raised a disbelieving eyebrow and she rushed to explain herself.

"I paralleled him the entire time!! I didn't do anything halfway, I employed the full extent of my skills, but he still caught me."

His back straightened at that and Yoon tilted his head, wondering why that was so important.

"What?" The pretty boy bellowed impatiently when neither party made a move to elaborate. "What does that have to do with the fact that she still left without telling us?"

Hak plucked at the grass, furrowing his eyebrows. "If she was really tapping into her entire skillset, that means that she had no intention of fighting him."

Kija puffed out his cheeks slightly, not following the Thunder Beast. "How do you know that?"

"She just told us, White Snake." He rolled his eyes boredly as the white dragon took a swipe at him with his right hand, dodging it nonchalantly.

Calista broke them apart, silently begging her brother with her eyes not to start anything. Not when she needed them to be serious for once and hear her apology. Shin-ah motioned for her to continue and she took a deep breath.

"I know how to manipulate people." She gritted her teeth vehemently. "I hate it, but as a last resort, I'll use it to get away. That being said, I can do everything under the sun when it comes to deceiving people."

Jae-ha stopped cleaning his knives, expression clearing in a way she couldn't fully decipher. "... You play mind games."

The nod of her head confirmed it and he stabbed his knife into the ground, stalking away from them. Zeno, who was listening adeptly, leaped to his feet, following the green dragon.

Calista hung her head, ashamed. "I've never employed it with any of you, I know that relationships aren't built on deceit."

Looking around, her shoulder slumped in relief as it was obvious that they believed her. There was no malice, only confusion and a longing to understand it. Understand her.

Shin-ah desperately wanted to hold her, but she had told him that if she was going to do this, she had to do it on her own. She wanted to try and stand on her own two feet while she bared her soul to them, and he was never one to deny her. But that didn't mean he longed to comfort her, to ease her worries and make it all go away.

For now, he would settle for supporting her from the sidelines.

"I'm so sorry, I never meant for any of this to happen!!" Calista cried out helplessly and Shin-ah just managed to pull back at the last second as he reached out for her instinctively. His hands balled into fists at his sides, restraining himself as she continued to wail.