What Happened When the Bell Tolled Twelve

Everyone knows the Cinderella story; the typical one involving a boy and a girl, a shoe, and true love.

For Kim Taehyung, life isn't that easy. With threats of abuse hanging over his head, night and day, it is impossible for him to be accepted.

Instead, he's viewed as an outsider in both his home and his village.

"Oh look, there's that poor little Kim boy," they whisper as he passes. "Did you hear his mother passed away a few years ago? I heard he hasn't talked to anyone since."

To everyone else, Taehyung lived life as if he were in a trance; looking at everything but not really seeing.

Going through life, but not really living.

Until one day, a ball is announced. A chance for everyone to be something they're not. For Taehyung, that meant someone worth acknowledging.

It was supposed to be uneventful. It was supposed to be a normal, boring ball.

But Taehyung held a secret; one of magic and mystery that hadn't been seen in the kingdom for hundreds of years. A secret that would wind up being his undoing.

This is what happened when the bell tolled twelve.

~

"So you- you mean you never believed it?"

"Taehyung, I saw right through it once you walked in the door."

~
Trigger warning: mentions of and emotional and physical abuse
Written by C