livi

many years ago, before the kingdom of decelis was barely a little dot on the map, something magical happened only miles away from the bridge to the isle it lay on. a drop, just a small little drop, of sunlight fell from high above, landing on the ground of a cliffside and somehow making a golden flower blossom, the magic within it lying unknown until centuries later.

back in decelis, fast forwarding to the good parts, it was soon discovered that the king and queen were expecting a child, growing their well-admired family and now offering the kingdom an heir. the citizens had hoped and prayed that the pregnancy would be easy on their nobles, wishing their queen the best of conditions for her time of growing the child within her, but these prayers did little help.

unfortunately, they were proven to be not very effective. soon, the citizens began asking why the king wasn’t making any more appearances outside of the castle to go talk with them as he normally did, and the answer that they received was disheartening and concerning for them.

the queen had fallen ill, her condition worsening by the day. the king had been getting no sleep, simply worrying nonstop about the wellbeing of his wife. the people of decelis were almost the same way. they’d stay up with him, on vigils just poring through their books and scrolls for a solution, or for those that didn’t read, all they did was pray. even if it hadn’t worked before, it still could work now. to some it was almost a way to try and relieve maybe even a fraction of their worry about the kingdom and the nobles.

finally, after days of waiting at the queen’s bedside, sleepless and worried, the king received news of something that one of the citizens had discovered in an old book that had been passed down from a couple of generations.

“your highness,” the head of his royal guard set his hand lightly on the king’s shoulder. “i think we’ve found a cure.”

the king didn’t process his words at first, exhausted eyes still set on his wife, violently ill and bedridden. then it seemed to hit him all in a single moment, the man moving to action quickly.

“gather all of the royal guard,” he ordered. “we set out at dawn for this so-called cure.”

“yes sir.” the guard saluted, then quickly marched out of the room to alert his fleet of men. it was the whole kingdom’s mission and wish to see the queen healthy again, so this would be a quest that every citizen would approve of.

they set out on their ships only hours later, journeying alongside the coast of the mainland until they finally arrived at the point on the map in the ancient tome that they’d discovered the cure in. it was obvious that it was here, the large golden flower already glowing in a way that they could see from the sea.

it was a difficult hike up the cliff, but it was all worth it when the guards were able to uproot that flower and take it to the boat, transporting it all the way back to decelis where it would hopefully heal their queen like the ancient tome said it would.

but unbeknownst to them, they made it just in time. a woman named irene had also been approaching the healing flower, pausing to duck secretly behind a bush when she’d heard the guards coming up the cliffside.

when she saw them take it, she was furious. she’d been using it to keep herself young, having already lived for far more than her time should have been. and it was that greed for youth that led her to follow them back to decelis, watching from afar as they used it to heal their queen.

the journey back home was taken as quickly as possible, every man on each of the ships eager to get the flower back to their queen. nobody wanted to lose her or their heir.

they rushed the flower to the palace as soon as the first ship docked in the harbor, the captain of the guard hand delivering it to his king, who still hadn’t moved from his place at his wife’s bedside.

a bowl full of hot water was given to him, the king placing the golden flower within it for a moment to allow its healing properties to diffuse within the liquid before holding it up to his wife’s lips, helping her to drink the thing that they were hopeful would heal the queen.

and it did. the queen made a miraculous recovery and the whole kingdom celebrated because of it. they were all relieved that the generous monarch was okay now, and now her pregnancy was almost near the end of its term, so excitement was also being expressed about the soon-to-be born heir.

weeks later, the queen went into labor. it was a private affair, the king and the royal physician and his assistants were the only ones in the room with her, and thankfully it was a short and easy labor before she gave birth, the cries of the newly-born princess cutting softly through the palace walls.

she was presented to the kingdom a week after her birth, and everyone loved the little girl almost instantly. decelis’ little heir was a new icon in the kingdom, and all of the citizens just kept wishing the royal family nothing but the best with their new family.

a month of peaceful times went by for the king and queen and their newborn daughter, the kingdom thriving around them and the family receiving much love and support from their people. it was a time that everyone wished would never end, but there was a disturbance soon after that would change the kingdom for a very long time.

that woman that had been using the flower up until it was taken by the guards, irene, didn’t want to give up her magical source of youth. it was only her that seemed to realize that the flower’s powers had transferred to the young child, and the girl’s long hair seemed to be just an obvious sign of it.

so she snuck into the palace one night, through the window to stand right beside the young princess’ bassinet, and proceeded to try and snip of a large piece of that flowing hair to see if that would be enough to give her back a source of her youth.

but as she said the incantation that activated the magic in the flower and cut through the strand, it shriveled, growing less shiny and voluminous and thinning out instead, the magic just vanishing from the severed hair in her hand. since that didn’t work, the only way that irene knew that she could stay young was taking the child with her and just making a whole new life with her while convincing her that unknowingly keeping her young was a good thing.

the girl started crying again right as irene swept her into her arms and escaped swiftly through the same window that she’d come in through. it woke the king and queen, sleeping in the room connected to the princess’ nursery, but they were too late, just catching the last of their daughter’s distancing cries and an empty bassinet and open window, letting in a chilling breeze.

they were devastated and distraught, the queen collapsing to her knees, already sobbing for the child that had just been stolen from her that she hadn’t even had for more than a month. the king’s emotions were more of anger, furious that someone had gotten into the castle and stolen his only child, of which the pregnancy had almost killed his wife.

“from now on, the royal guard will be doubled! half will go to the search for the princess and half will take part in the heavy security for the palace and the kingdom,” he shouted, having sent his servants to wake the whole castle and royal guard.

the search for the lost princess began that morning, ships getting launched to every mapped corner of the mainland’s coast and other guards being sent across the bridge to scour the interior of the mainland. the king would not have his daughter out there without sending hordes of soldiers to search for her. the whole kingdom believed that there had to be some chance of getting their princess back, but hopes began to fade after almost a year of searching, when the girl’s first birthday came along.

the king and queen decided that they were going to start a festival in honor of their missing daughter, allowing the people of decelis to be happy and celebrate their own loved ones and just have fun while honoring the memory of the little girl that everyone loved for the short time that they’d gotten to know her.

so, it became a tradition, each year, the king and queen would launch the first of many pink lanterns in their lost daughter’s honor, standing on the main balcony of the castle and just standing and holding each other as they watched the night sky light up in a rosy glow that countered the stars.

the queen always teared up at the sight, genuinely touched that all of the citizens in her kingdom did this along with them to remember the princess. with her daughter stolen away, she’d become more emotional as she made her rounds around the kingdom and caught glimpses of other families with many children, but she still remained that humble, kind woman that helped everyone that she could. the people called her brave and inspiring for this still, admiring her even more for the fact that she still hadn’t changed for the worse even after such a traumatic memory of her daughter being taken from right under her.

but unbeknownst to the people of decelis, their princess laid only a short horseback ride from the bridge on the mainland, hidden away in a tower that was tucked into a grove guarded by an entrance that seemed just like another wall of ivy over a rock when it really wasn’t. nobody knew that she was here except for irene herself.

the woman that had stolen her away from her home and her kingdom raised the princess as her own daughter, telling her to call her mother while brushing her hair and inconspicuously saying that incantation to make herself younger with the magic that the girl’s hair possessed.

the young girl didn’t see anything awry in the way that irene raised her. she’d been so young when she’d been taken that she couldn’t remember any other life besides the one that she was living in the tower, so she just tried her best to be a good daughter and do what irene asked of her without asking any questions.

as she grew older, the little princess became fascinated in the pink lights that glowed in the sky only once a year. she remembered her mother always talking about how anything outside of the tower was bad and they weren’t going to talk about it, but she just couldn’t help but be fascinated by them.

maybe one day, she could go see them and find out what they really were.

the morning started as it always did, the sun beaming in through the open shutters on the large window that served as a door when you used your hair to lift mother up into your little home, warming the space of your bedroom with the beaming light. it was such a peaceful way to wake up, alongside nature so that you’d get to enjoy the day in the main room of the tower, sun shining through the couple of windows.

you yawned as your eyes fluttered open, lashes separating from where they’d been together as you slept. the sun had been warming the empty side of your bed, you often drifting from the middle to the side that was farthest from the door that creaked open to let the morning light in.

not to any surprise at all, jungwon, your cat, was already laying in a puddle of the sunlight near the entrance of the room, eyes closed and curled up. he was more of a drifter than anything, doing everything to his own accord and at his speed. you had learned quickly when he’d first been introduced to the tower by mother that you didn’t need to try and make him do the things that you wanted him to do.

sitting up, the covers pooled onto your lap, falling down from where they’d been pulled up to cover your chest all the way up to your armpits. you got so cold at night sometimes that you’d freeze to death if you weren’t all covered up. the tower was not a place that kept heat in well. at best there would be a drafty chill that floated through the air in the dead of winter.

thankfully it was closer to the season of summer now, the sun warming everything when it blazed bright, high in the sky, beams peaking through the large window of the tower. sure, you weren’t quite as cold at night now, but there was still a strong appeal to curling up into the covers of your bed and laying under the blankets. it was like a comforting warm hug almost.

well, it wasn’t like you really had real warm hugs to compare it to. the hugs that mother gave you were scarce, and even then she wouldn’t even fully embrace you, just sort of letting one arm hover over your shoulders and giving you a little squeeze before pulling away quickly.

you’d become used to it by now though. being alone for the majority of the time was just how your life was. sure, you had jungwon, but he still wasn’t a person. sometimes you wondered just how terrible the outside world was if mother refused to let you go outside the tower. were the people really monsters like she always described in her vivid stories, the same ones that she’d told year after year whenever you started asking too many questions about outside of the tower.

as you’d gotten older, the questions had stopped passing through your lips, already knowing exactly what mother would say. your younger self had been eager to repeat them day after day, but it got old quickly, so you resorted to dreaming instead, staring entranced at the stars whenever the night sky was clear enough for them to all twinkle bright for you to see.

it was almost as if they were your friends too, greeting you almost every night with a sparkle. they were always there for you, unlike really any other person. the one human being in your life frequently made day trips and left you all alone, and the rest of the world was apparently too dangerous for you in her eyes.

but there had to be a good reason behind it. you knew mother always meant best, even if it was a little bit extreme. if staying in this tower meant that you’d be safe, at least you knew that you were tucked away, safe and sound.

a little sigh escaped from your mouth as you swung your legs out of the bed, standing up quickly and padding over to the little dresser that sat in the corner of your room. the old wooden thing was clearly one of the older items in the tower, but it did you good for its age. it was still fully functional and the wood wasn’t even splintering, making it a pretty decent piece of furniture.

you always set out clothes for the next day just before you went to bed, even if it was typically just a variation of pretty much the same dress in just slightly different shades of color. there were several that even looked just about alike if it wasn’t for the little bits of wear that only you really noticed. you’d been wearing them for so long that you could tell exactly which one was which and which day you normally wore it on.

laundry was only done about every week, so the rotation of dresses that you went through was just another part of the mindless routine that you’d gone through for the entirety of your life. mother made you do yours and hers, letting you sit there on the floor and scrub away in the basin of soapy water. you didn’t mind. hard work was a good thing and it was something else for you to do other than just sit and waste away staring at the walls or the same words on the pages of the few books that you’d read hundreds of times.

you grabbed the dress on your way out of the room, heading for the little bathroom attached to your bedroom to splash some water on your face and run a damp cloth across your body, ridding yourself of any sweat or grime that might have been on your skin as you slept.

next was the dry towel, larger than the cloth that you’d used to clean yourself, running it across your body to pat dry all of the moisture that had freshened you up from the night. once that had absorbed all of the stray droplets of water, you were finally able to pull your day dress on, lacing it up in mere seconds from lots of experience of doing it yourself over the years.

the skirt of it swished around your legs, falling to just below your calves in soft pleats of a light lavender, as you pranced around the bathroom, setting the little things that had somehow drifted from their places exactly where they should be. an organized space was the best thing to you. and it gave you yet another thing to do!

but before you left the room, you grabbed the brush that sat beside the sink, staring dead at you with eyes even if no object like that even had any. you knew what was next and it did too.

your steps tapped lightly against the floor as you walked out of the bathroom and through your bedroom, not stopping until you reached the bright space of the main room of the tower. you walked through the sunlight, feet warming quickly before you passed back into the shadows on the floor, headed right for the little couch in the corner of the room.

you loved brushing your hair here, able to see the little peeks of nature outside of the tower through the window, but not directly in the heat of the sunlight that poured through. not to mention the fact that you could see all of the little paintings that covered the walls.

the corner right above the smaller window farther up the wall was slathered in blues and purples and yellows, the night sky coming to life against the dull walls. you’d made sure that you could always see your friends in the stars no matter if it was daytime or the sky was covered in clouds after the sun finally set and the moon rose.

they’d all been charted too, each star accurately denoted on the wall in the position that you always saw it in when staring up at the twinkling dots. you could practically draw them with your eyes closed, just from memory with the amount of times that you’d just traced over the designs with a clean paintbrush, nothing on it. you weren’t painting over any of your work, you were just reliving the moment that those walls had been brought to life through the art.

you so wished that you could continue to cover the walls in your art, but there was just no wall left to cover. everything was painted. sometimes if you got desperate enough you begged and pleaded for mother to bring you back some of the large leaves that she’d found on one of her little trips. they made okay canvases, but they weren’t anywhere close to another wall.

sometimes you even considered painting that old dresser, but you could never end up bringing yourself to do it. there was just something about the tone of the pure wood that screamed that it wanted to be left alone, continuing to show its own beauty.

the soft sound of jungwon meowing pulled you gently out of your thoughts, putting a small smile on your face as you watched the cat paw slowly over to you and jump up onto the couch, settling in on the other side of it from you. at least he knew when you needed to be kept on track with the way that you wanted to keep yourself busy doing something instead of just daydreaming for hours upon end.

“yeah, i probably should get on brushing,” you whispered softly, smile still tight on your cheeks. standing up for a moment, you reached behind you and gathered up all of your hair, which a decent amount of it brushed the ground gently as you walked. once it had been all wrangled into your arms, you sat down once again, setting the soft strands into your lap and holding them by the ends, beginning the long process of brushing through it all.

the ends were first to keep from yanking all of your hair out of your head, brushing up your hair little by little after several passes through each section that you moved on to. by the time that you’d just finished running the brush fully through all of your hair, you could feel the slight soreness that always onset after reaching so much with your arms. thankfully it had gotten better over time. in the transition from mother brushing it for you everyday when you were younger to you brushing it by yourself on the many days that she was gone with only a few times every fortnight that she’d brush it, your arms had burned so terribly as you held them up for so long, making you so sore but you had no choice but to face the pain and learn to deal with it because tangled hair this long was not something that you wanted to have happen.

mother still helped brush your hair every once in a while, singing that one little song that you’d grown up hearing so many times. now, it was something almost soothing, reminding you of the peaceful childhood and the moments where all of mother’s attention had been on you, loving you as much as she could.

she was more distant now, both physically and emotionally, but that was okay. you’d come to terms with the fact that she’d trusted you to give you a little more independence and helped you to learn to live on your own.

sometimes you really did wish that she trusted you enough to let you explore outside of the tower though. because glancing at that wall full of the stars that you saw every night, you remembered that there were a few missing. except unlike the ones that were painted, they didn’t appear every night. just once a year, glowing in those blush-like tones and gently moving along the skyline.

admittedly, this was not a normal feeling for you. just after lunch, you’d fallen into a sort of frenzy as you’d nibbled on the little plate you’d fixed yourself as a light midday meal, staring dreamily at the corner painted with the cluster of stars that could be seen outside of the tower window.

your mind was just running wild, eyes glancing around with the plate of food abandoned on the little table next to the couch. you had just suddenly felt the urge to paint, slathering another part of the wall in a medley of beautiful pink, white, and deep blue for the night sky on that one night a year where another crowd of twinkling lights appeared, a beautiful pink compared to the yellow ones that remained in practically the same spots for most of the year.

your body moved before your mind did, springing up from the couch on which you were sitting to go gather the box of paints that mother had brought you over time. you just had to do it.

when you returned, almost skidding when you forced yourself to stop in front of the grand mantle in the front of the room, you saw exactly where you wanted those pink lights to go on the tower’s walls.

there was something that resembled a door panel that sat on top of the mantle, exactly in the center as some curtains draped to either side of it. you could just move that and push aside the curtains and it’d make a great blank wall to paint! why hadn’t you seen it earlier?

jungwon just gave you a lazy look, obviously curious as to what had just made you so energetic all of a sudden, but he set his head back down and closed his eyes again after a moment of watching you as you climbed up onto the mantle with the help of some furniture and your hair.

you weren’t even tired as you pushed the panel to the side, tucking it behind one of the curtains that hung next to it and then tying those aside where the wall was bared and ready to paint. one quick swing of yourself down and a climb back up had you setting the box of paints next to where you were standing on the mantle, brush in hand and ready to brush the first stroke of paint on your newfound canvas.

the deep blue covered the brush as you dipped it slowly in the pot of paint that you’d just mixed, turning the auburn bristles dark with the new color and staining them with the leftover paint once most of it had been brushed onto the wall. it was the color that took you the most time to cover the wall with, making it into the image of the night sky with each long brushstroke that you made.

once that tedious part was over, it was time for the even more exciting portion of your painting: the actual pink lights and the faint stars that could be seen glowing behind them in shades of soft white. you added those first, dipping your brush into the color of paint that had been made from ground up shells that had been the color of ivory.

the small dots that you made blended into the night sky that you’d given them easily, brush lightly adding little halos around them as you did your finishing touches with the color. the water swirled around the brush and clinked against the little glass cup of water you’d sat next to you to rinse off the old color to paint with a new one. once it emerged from the cloudy water, you tapped it against the edge of the glass, small droplets of water falling back into the cup with the rest of the water.

your smile grew as you dipped the brush into the pot of paint that was the color of the blush roses that mother sometimes brought back to you when she stumbled across them while off on her journeys. that was actually what it was made out of, you drying the petals and grinding them up to a fine powder before mixing them into a spare little bit of white paint and some water to make it a smooth texture.

it was like you almost fell into a dreamy haze as the brush moved across the wall, leaving strokes of paint behind that brought the pink lights to life in your painting, bringing all of the memories of watching them move through the sky on that one night a year that they appeared.

in fact, it was almost that time of year again. the rainy weather of spring was drying up, leaves turning a vibrant green after a season of growth for all of the plants that had shriveled into themselves during the cold winter. only a few days from now, the heat of summer would be made a little better, you getting to see those pink lights once more, the night sky dark among the twinkling of them and the stars that laid faintly behind them.

“y/n! come lift me up!” mother’s voice cut through your fantasy-filled daze, making you scramble to get everything put away before she came up into the tower. the curtains were tugged hurriedly back into place, making sure that they covered every bit of the freshly dried paint, paint pots clinked against one another as you grabbed the box that held them all and jumped carefully off the mantle, setting it down and rushing over the the large window.

“coming mother!” you called in return, gathering up the hair that dragged lightly behind you and swinging it up onto the little hook above you that acted like an anchor for helping to lift mother into the tower. you could see her standing at the base of it a ways below you, arms crossed with her basket balanced on one of them.

you let out a little grunt as you hauled her up, the strain a familiar, but still difficult action for you to perform. it was good for you to do though, just to get a little extra activity other than just rushing excitedly around the tower for the most part.

she, on the other hand, wasn’t even breathing more than quietly, smoothly stepping onto the wooden windowsill once she was high enough in the air to do so, pulling her hood down with a flourish as she stepped down into the tower in front of you.

“you know how i don’t like to be kept waiting, y/n,” she said in that soft voice of hers, the tone of it almost politely scolding. you did feel bad about taking so long to help her up, because you usually were there the second she called out. but facing just a sentence with a mostly-calm tone from her was a lot better than her freaking out when she found you mid-painting of the thing that she’d told you to forget about so many times.

you tilted you chin to the ground slightly before responding, making sure that she knew you were bashful because you were truly sorry. “i’m sorry mother, i was in my bedroom reorganizing a few things and it took me a moment to set some things down and get down here.”

then came the smooth laugh that she always did when it was clear that she was the boss. “it’s alright my darling,” she took your chin between two fingers and tilted it up gently, eyes with a pitying expression that only masked the satisfaction of seeing your obedience. “let’s just make sure it doesn’t happen again, right?”

you were quick to shakily nod, not wanting to upset her any more by taking too long to agree. you’d much rather have her be that sickly sweet form of nice than passive aggressive because she was frustrated with you. those few days had not been fun to roam around the tower during.

“you’re such a good girl for mummy, aren’t you y/n. i’ve raised you well,” she cooed, patting you on the top of your head gently before walking right past you to the little kitchen area to the left of the main part of the lower floor of the tower. “it’s honestly impressive how you can do that every single time.”

you breathed out a little sigh, responding bubbily to her, “oh it’s nothing mother!”

“then i don’t understand why you’re not prepared to lift me up at the time that you know i’ll be back at!” she chuckled, the jab mainly floating past you as you were back off floating between barely listening and daydreaming about asking her if you could go see those pink lights.

she brushed past you then, setting her basket down with a flourish that only she could have. “now how about i brush your hair for you dear,” she turned back to you, soft smile back on her face and looking right into your eyes for a long moment before she walked past yet again to grab the hairbrush that always laid in the little drawer of the table next to the couch.

“but i already..” you tried to say, failing to finish your sentence when she cut you off, knowing the message you were trying to convey.

“it’s okay dearest, i’ll just brush it again for you! it’ll just make your hair even softer and more beautiful.” she walked over to the little chair that had been declared hers for a long time, gesturing at the little stool that sat before it for you to come take a seat and let her brush your hair. “and you remember how that little song of ours that we sing while i brush goes?”

“of course mother,” you said quietly, taking your seat and chewing on your lip a little bit as you waiting for her to get started so she could get done faster.

you could almost hear the air whoosh around her dramatic gestures behind you, waving her hands around and placing one on her heart like she always did when she asked you if you could do a task that you were certain that she already knew that you did. “oh who am i kidding, of course you remember it! such an amazing daughter for remembering so much!”

when you began to sing softly, the familiar feeling of positive energy beginning to flow through your veins reappeared, almost buzzing below your skin a little bit as you hurried through the words that you’d sung so many times before. to be honest, you just wanted it to be over with, able to at least go sit in the solitude that you normally disliked.

after the last few words rushed out from between your lips, you heard mother gasp surprisedly behind you. “goodness, y/n slow down. it’s not a race dearest.”

while you’d sat there though, you’d decided that you were indeed going to show her the painting, just to see if you could convince her to let you have the one birthday present that you’d dreamed of for as long as you could remember.

you started slowly, standing up and facing her with a gentle smile on your face, “so mother, do you recall those lights in the sky, the ones that appear only once a year, and on my birthday of all days?”

“oh do you mean the stars dear? i thought you of all people would know that they’re in the sky all year,” she responded, voice lilting in that tone that you’d grown to realize meant that she knew she was the one in control.

“no mother, the pink lights that sort of drift as the night goes on. and they happen to be tomorrow night, so i was just wondering if i could maybe go see them…” your voice drifted off at the end, growing softer as you got a little more nervous to hear her response.

the look on her face changed when she heard your request, softness growing harder and eyes growing sharper. “y/n, the outside world is a dangerous place, and you can’t go out there. i don't want to hear about the lights again.”

you didn’t protest, lips pressing together at her answer. there was no point in trying to continue to convince her if this was her response to the first time that you asked.

she stood up quickly from her chair and walked swiftly over to where her basket laid, picking it up and hanging it over one arm. “i’m off to go get things for dinner dear. i’ll be back sooner than you realize.”

jake’s heart was beginning to beat a little faster, not yet pounding like it would be a few minutes in the future, but still enough where he could feel the adrenaline starting to rush through his veins, spreading all throughout his body and exciting his mind. it was go time.

“get in and get out sim,” a sharp voice pulled him out of his thoughts, jake turning to see the stern faces of his co-conspirators. “focus on the crown and don’t get distracted. i know how you can get.”

bangchan and felix stood across from jake, the former having been the one that spoke to him, both with their glaring faces that made the air around them turn dark. they were certainly intimidating, but with jake having known them for a bit of time and just being himself, he wasn’t scared of them. rather, it was a lot of fun for him to tease and mess with them a little bit. he knew they wouldn’t do anything serious to him – they needed someone smaller and more agile to sneak in and do the pilfering.

“relax boys,” jake said, smirking as his words came out in a playful tone. “i know what i’m doing, and nothing bad’s going to happen as long as you two can lift me back out. it can’t be that hard since you claim to be sooo strong.”

felix made an annoyed face at him and the black-haired man next to him rolled his eyes, ignoring jake as he moved closer to the edge of the skylight that they’d be sending jake through, into the room full of jewels that they were about to steal from. 

their main target was the shining crown that sat on a pedestal with a glass dome over the top of it, not having been touched for almost eighteen years. technically, it belonged to the lost princess, but it was more like it was supposed to be for her. she’d never really even gotten the chance to wear it before she was stolen away, having not been seen since despite all of the search efforts that the king and queen exhausted.

the rope was rough against jake’s fingers as he carefully tied it around himself, double and then triple-knotting it before checking even more times that it was secure. he wasn’t too worried that he would get dropped or anything, bangchan and felix were pretty muscular, and if they were going to do something to him, it’d be after they got the goods they were after, not a minute before.

“ready now sim?” bangchan asked with an annoyed grumble, clearly ready to have what he’d dragged himself up on this high roof for already.

jake smirked back, giving him a cheerful affirmative before turning to face the now-open hole of the skylight, readying himself to drop down. but he knew better than to think that the pair behind him was going to let him go at his pace.

“woah now,” jake turned, seeing the exact thing that he’d expected to see right as he stood over the skylight – extended arms ready to push him in and move him along. “boys, you’ve got to learn to go with the flow, not with the desire. that’s motivation but not the process.”

felix moved forward, almost grabbing jake by the collar, “enough yapping pretty boy. it’s time to shut up and do your job.”

“alright, alright,” jake held his hands up, walking backwards slowly until his heels were about to hit the edge of the skylight.

he swung one leg over and sat down, turning back once more to make sure that the two had the rope tied around him held firmly before he finally pushed off and descended down into the room.

there were a whole bunch of guards stationed in random places around the room, although all were in front of the one treasure that jake would be taking. seems like they only thought intruders would come in through the front. and even more ironically, the glass case that normally laid around the shimmering crown had been removed, probably for cleaning or something along the lines of that. they just kept making his job easier and easier, didn’t they.

jake had just been lowered enough to grab hold of the crown, his fingers catching around the edge of it and pulling it up into his hands, signalling to his accomplices above him to lift him up now. but of course, the yapping had to do it.

one of the guards close to the crown’s now-empty pedestal sneezed, and before jake could stop himself, he’d said, “you’know, all the dust that collects in these carpets is terrible for people with allergies. you should really see about getting that post of yours changed. you deserve better.”

“i really do,” the guard sighed back, not making the connection of why there was a voice behind him all of a sudden until jake was almost lifted fully back out through the skylight. the guards all turned around sharply to catch just a glimpse of him before he and felix and bangchan were running, keeping to the roofs until they were almost out of the kingdom.

“what did i literally just say sim,” came the angry retort from the black haired man running beside him, he and his partner clearly furious that, once again, jake’s mouth got them into something that they could have completely avoided if he just didn’t say anything at all.

“oh please we’ll be fine,” jake assured them with that suave tone in his voice, “i mean, we got the crown after all. well really i did…”

“shut up and run!” felix shouted at him, tired of the sound of jake’s voice and the teasing words that he kept saying.

“alright, alright. i’ll be quiet now.”

the sound of the trio’s footsteps hitting the ground as they kept swiftly running into the forest, having just crossed the bridge to the mainland was quickly drowned out by the sound of thundering hooves and the clank of boots from guards running on foot. they were being chased.

trees kept passing by as jake, bangchan, and felix stumbled through the foliage, which kept going from dense to open back to dense again. jake was almost certain that there was nothing else but the trees and shrubs for miles and miles, having gone the opposite way of the little establishments that he knew of in the forest. but to his and the other two men’s surprise, they came across a decently sized cliff face, which had enough little crevices to provide footholes along with the couple of arrows that jake had stashed in the satchel that now contained the crown.

“i’ll go up first and the i’ll help you guys up, how about that?” he asked, a little bit out of breath but still in his playful tone of voice that he always spoke to felix and bangchan in.

“how about you give us that satchel, and then you go first and help us up sim,” felix countered in that deep voice of his, clearly meaning to be intimidating.

jake sighed, playing along to his own beat. he did hand it over first before climbing up, but he also swiped it back before he pulled himself up off the ground and onto the cliff face with the toes of his boots and the points of the arrows that were gripped tightly in his hands.

as soon as jake managed to pull himself to the top, bangchan’s voice was already calling to him from down below. “now help us up sim!”

a big smirk appeared on his face, happy with both how successful he’d been and how unobservant his accomplices were. jake walked to the very edge of the cliff, now dangling the satchel that the two below him thought that he’d given them on a finger, just taunting them now.

“see ya boys!” jake shouted, turning and breaking into a sprint once again since he could yet again hear the thundering of hooves getting louder.

but as he kept running, the sound of the horses and the guards wasn’t the noise that was beginning to make him nervous. it was the loud sound of a bird cawing about, clearly trying to track him down. curse the captain of the guard for having that crazy bird that was more like a military general itself.

several more minutes passed with jake just running as fast as he could, ducking under the trees for cover and fighting through a few bushes to keep from all of the open clearings that just seemed to multiply the farther he got into the forest. the last thing he needed was for that bird to be able to see where he was at well.

shit, jake thought to himself when he came across an open clearing that he just couldn’t avoid. to keep going away from all of the soldiers, he’d have to cross that open area. otherwise it meant turning back for a much larger chance of getting caught by the guard, or worse, felix and bangchan.

he decided to just go for it. that was all that his life was about anyways. jake lived for adrenaline-filled moments like this, and they came with each new day due to his method of survival in the world. there was a brief pause that jake took to catch his breath at the edge of the trees that had done good to cover him, and then he was running again, eyes fixed on that big outcropping of rocks a little ways away.

and then he heard the loud cry of that palace bird, and then a sharp peck to his arm as he ran, clearly trying to get the satchel from him to return the crown. jake was not about to let that happen. he was almost there, hearing a waterfall when he turned behind the giant rocks and spying it a short distance away.

he let out a sharp laugh at his discovery. birds couldn’t fly through a waterfall, so when jake got through it, he’d be safe, not at risk of another attack from that guard bird.

jake was fighting every single muscle in his body, forcing himself to go even faster than he’d ever thought he could run. and he made it, the bird’s sharp cry of anguish at the loss of its target a clear sign that jake had won for now. he could deal with being wet over being captured and pecked to death by that angry bird.

he shook his hair lightly, droplets of water flying everywhere as he ran his hands over his face, swiping away any stray water that remained there. nothing much seemed special about the little grove that laid behind the waterfall, so jake walked the short distance to a dry-looking rock with a bunch of hanging ivy falling down over it, intending to lean up against it while he dumped out his boots and wrung out some of his clothes.

but jake had been so caught up in the thoughts of drying off and happiness that he’d escaped capture that he didn’t think to look any closer at the curtain of ivy hanging over the rock, and when he leaned up against it, he barely managed to catch himself when he discovered that he’d leant up against nothing but air.

jake stumbled a bit as he recovered his balance from the surprise, and of course, when he looked up, he was surprised even more.

a tower laid in this huge grove, green grass luscious but nothing compared to the huge stone structure in the middle of it all. it would be the perfect hiding place, hidden behind not one, but two natural doors that nobody seemed to know about.

the walk to the base of the tower was full of smug emotions, some of success and some simply out of the fact that he’d outsmarted so many people. the same climbing strategy for the cliff earlier could even be used for jake to scale the tower, and it wasn’t long before he was digging the arrowheads into the gaps between the huge stones and finally up into the actual tower.

his first glimpse of it brought a lot of curiosity to mind. it seemed like someone really lived here. and was living here. jake was about to go look around and find some more answers to his questions, but before he could take another step, something heavy and metallic hit him in the side of the head, and there was nothing but black.

you let out a startled gasp when the strange man hit the ground with a loud thump, the sound of the frying pan that you’d grabbed out of fear hitting his head now forever engrained in your mind. you’d just taken down a whole man. like a full-sized adult human male.

jungwon seemed to be sharing a little bit of your shock, his eyes open a lot wider than you’d ever seen them and his tail held up in the air instead of brushing along the floor like it usually was. and it took a lot to even get a little bit of emotion like that out of him. he was just very chill.

“oh my god jungwon, what are we going to do with him?!” you asked frantically, not even caring that the cat couldn’t talk back and respond to you. “what if he’s dangerous or crazy or eats people just like mother said?!”

the feline tilted his head in what seemed to be curiosity after a moment, probably when the shock had worn off a little bit. he padded closer and stared at the limp man on the floor right next to you, not doing much else other than sitting down. the both of you had no idea what to do clearly.

but while a crazy amount of thoughts were running through your mind, one really stood out to you once it reached the front of your head. if you could take down a grown man, then you could probably do okay in the outside world. it couldn’t be as scary as mother kept talking about, right?

you repeated the thought out loud to jungwon, looking at him instead of the man at your feet. all he did was meow back softly, blinking up at you before walking around the man to inspect him a little more and then walked back to the couch that he’d been sitting on before, curling back up like nothing had happened.

and then you realized that you were going to have to put him somewhere, and you had no idea where that was. at least until your vision swiveled to spot the large wardrobe out of the corner of your eye. there wasn’t much in it anyways, and there was definitely enough room for him.

dragging him over there, on the other hand, was a lot more of a struggle than finding a place to put him. you were huffing and puffing by the first foot you pulled him across the floor, still several to go. that took you a while. and then you remembered that you were going to have to actually get him into the wardrobe. great.

“don’t look at me like that,” you groaned, eyeing jungwon, who was giving you possibly the biggest side eye a cat could manage. “i don’t see you doing anything to help.”

the loud meow he responded with almost seemed to portray a clear message. jungwon was pretty much saying that he couldn’t help. cats weren’t there to help shove grown men into wardrobes.

your grunts of effort filled the tower when you tried many times to fit him into the wardrobe and close the door, finally succeeding when it felt like your arms and legs were about to give out, your breaths coming in short wheezes and little dots beginning to appear at the edge of your vision. thank god that was over.

you stumbled over to the nearest chair and plopped down, exhausted, closing your eyes and letting your shaky arms lie over your head. ugh you were so tired, the minutes passing by quickly as you did nothing but lay there, resting a moment before you started moving around again.

and when you finally felt energetic enough to open your eyes and sit up, something caught your eye that you hadn’t noticed yet.

a brown satchel laid on the floor, right where the man had first fallen when you’d hit him with the frying pan. but it wasn’t the satchel itself that surprised you, it was what was inside. the light was reflecting brightly off of something in it, and when you approached and opened it to find out exactly what the object was, you were confused for a moment.

you took it over to the mirror with you, knowing that it was some type of accessory to be worn, but not quite sure how. first you tried it on your wrist, quickly realizing that it was definitely not the right way to wear it when it dangled loosely from your arm. the only other way that you could think of was putting it on your head.

it laid upon your hair easily, adorning the top of your head with the shining crystals that were on the piece of jewelry. and as you kept looking, you were pretty sure that this was the right way to wear it. but a turn to jungwon had the cat scrutinizing it now, watching you with wide eyes for a long moment before finally shaking his head lightly.

you just shrugged, not really caring about how it was worn now. you were stumped anyways and didn’t want to use any more brain power on it right now. but you did have the perfect hiding spot for it, wanting to keep it hidden just to have a little edge over your new guest.

the bottom stair gave way easily, the wooden plank coming up to reveal a little cavity where you could stash a few things. the satchel was shoved into it quickly before you replaced it, walking back over to the couch with a big sigh.

now you knew that you could handle a surprise like that. perhaps showing mother would even convince her that you could actually handle yourself out there and you weren’t entirely harmless.

and as if you’d just summoned her with your thoughts, you heard that familiar call of her voice.

“y/n! let down your hair!”

this time, you rushed over to the tower door, swinging your hair over the hook and quickly pulling her up into the tower once again. you wanted mother in her best mood to bring up exactly what you wanted to tell her about now.

“oh thank you my dear,” she smiled, giving you one of those light pats on the head like she always did. “much better than how you kept me waiting yesterday.”

you really didn’t think it had been that long. maybe a minute or two, but you knew better than to let any of that out of your mind. you didn’t even know if the things that you were planning on actually telling her would make her agree or get very upset with you.

her basket was placed down and an assortment of natural items were being taken out of it before she spoke again. “oh and y/n, i’m making your favorite potato stew for dinner! an early birthday treat since i found a little patch of good-sized root vegetables while i was out and about.”

a beaming smile popped up onto your face, more of instinct than an actual reaction. sure, you did enjoy eating mother’s potato stew, but you’d much rather have a different present for your birthday. but yet again, you didn’t want to disappoint her when you’d already lagged behind a few seconds before she’d gotten into the tower the last time she’d returned, so your reaction was definitely a lot brighter than it was in your head.

you took a deep breath before you finally spoke, hoping that mother would truly listen to you.

“so i know you said not to bring up the pink lights again,” you held up your hands, frantic for your voice to keep speaking and get to the part that could maybe convince her before the budding emotions in her eyes could come out at you. “but i really think that i can handle myself out there. look there’s something i want to show you…”

“y/n,” the sound of mother’s voice was a little worrisome, a deep and scarily calm tone to it as she stopped you, “i told you to stop talking about those silly lights, and yet you still choose to ignore me. quite frankly, i’m hurt. do you not trust my judgement of the horrible world out there?”

“but mother, i really can handle it, i’ll even show you,” your voice kept going up, you taking rushed steps over towards the wardrobe, ready to pull it open and reveal to her that you indeed could survive going out into the world.

she just clicked her tongue at you, striding over to where you stood, hand loosely grasping the handle of the door. “y/n, i said not to. it’s almost as if you’re ignoring me on purpose over and over again. do you really want to do that to me? i’ve done so much for you, yet this is how you repay me,” all of the things she said hit you hard, really making you remember how much she’d done for you. she’d been the one to raise you and take care of you and make sure that you were fed and had a place to sleep.

you just couldn’t stop wanting to show her the strange man that was hidden just inches away, the thought of even a chance of convincing her that letting you go out to fulfill your dream of seeing the lights that you’d always wanted to. something just kept drawing you closer and closer and whispering into your ear that you had to do it now or it would never happen.

“i promise, i can…”

mother’s eyes changed to something of a kindling rage, likely now furious that you’d continued talking about the lights when she’d told you not to bring them up.

“y/n, i’m very disappointed in you. i’ve raised you to be better than to just blatantly ignore what i’ve asked you so politely to do. if you think that what i say doesn’t matter, then i guess you must be the one to listen to then. is that right? now everyone has to let y/n have her every little whim and can’t help her understand the real danger that the world holds.”

you looked down at the ground in shame, the words coming from mother’s mouth hitting you hard. but that damn desire to go see those lights was even stronger. you just decided that you weren’t going to say anything more and add fuel to the fire, letting your hand slip off the handle to the wardrobe door.

“i don’t know what’s made you like this all of a sudden, but seeming how you think you’re so tough and mighty that you can handle the world now, maybe i should let you go out and discover how wrong you really are to think that i’m so terrible for just wanting to keep you safe.”

even more words like the ones she’d just spoken poured out of her mouth for far longer, making you feel more and more guilty for just not leaving the subject alone like she’d asked kindly of you yesterday. maybe she really was right. maybe the world was a whole lot worse than you’d just imagined.

“i’m sorry mother,” you apologized softly after waiting for her to finish her whole guilt-inducing spiel. “i should have just erased those thoughts from my mind when you asked me to and not brought it up again. i’m sorry for making you so upset, and i hope that your trust in me hasn’t been entirely lost. i promise i’ll do even better at listening to you from now on.”

“oh sweetheart,” she cooed, anger melting from the way that she was holding herself and from her face, instead being replaced by an expression of almost, comfort, although you didn’t look at her face long enough to notice the smug look of success that appeared once she pulled you into her chest for an embrace. “i forgive you. i should have known better than to think that you’d always just keep your thoughts about staying in the tower. now it’s not the greatest time to ask, but what do you want for your birthday darling?” she pulled away, giving you a little look of warning, “and you know that it’s not going to be going and seeing those lights.”

“of course mother!” you eagerly nodded, wanting to please her and get on her good side once more. “how about some more of that white paint that you brought me a while ago?”

she raised her eyebrows in surprise. “well the trip to go get those shells that it’s made out of takes me several days. but i suppose since it’s your birthday, and it’s what you want, i’ll go get some for you sweetheart. as long as you’re okay to be alone here in the tower for that long.”

“i think jungwon and i will be fine mother,” you said with a soft smile, “thank you.”

“oh it’s the least i could do darling,” she exclaimed, embracing you once more. “after all, your birthday only happens once a year.”

jake’s eyes felt heavy as he tried to force them open, blinking slowly as the world came back into his view. he could barely recognize what surrounded him, but a faint little memory of climbing up into the room where he was sitting in was sitting at the front of his brain. but he didn’t remember much after that. just pulling himself up over the windowsill and managing to get a good look at the room before…

clang! the sound of a metal pan hitting the ground brought him back to the last moment that he remembered before waking up here. right. he’d gotten knocked out with one hit to the head from it. but by whom?

a chuckle came from his throat as he could see the figure in the shadows scrambling to pick up what they’d dropped. “having a little trouble?”

“no!” the shadowed person scoffed in an obviously feminine voice, clearly glaring annoyedly at him through the cover of the shadows in the corner of the room. “just stop talking and answer my questions!”

“well alright then,” jake tried to raise his hands, but he couldn’t. and when he looked down to see his arms tied to the arms of the chairs, it alarmed him. “why am i tied up?!”

it was the strange girl’s turn to scoff at him. “maybe because you climbed up into my tower and are a complete stranger that i’m not sure if i can trust yet.”

“fair point,” jake nodded, that charming smile of his appearing on his face. usually it only took a moment for it to work its magic, so he just sat and waited for the girl to cave and come untie him just like he’d imagined moments ago in his head.

“what’s the smile supposed to do?” a sour look appeared on your own face, confused as to what the mysterious man was doing with his expression.

he looked appalled at the question, sputtering embarrassedly as he broke character. “what?! ugh i swear this is the first time it hasn’t worked. why now of all times?!”

his little temper tantrum was funny to you, making you let out a quiet little giggle before you steeled your emotions once more and tried to at least act a little tough in front of your “captive”.

“c’mon, at least come out from those shadows. i should at least be able to see the girl that’s not folding under the splendor of this face.” the man appealed to you, a confident smirk now back on his face. you sighed, deciding that he probably wasn’t going to stop asking, so you might as well save some of your time and mental capacity and patience.

you stepped out into the light slowly, one bare foot coming after the other as you looked up from the ground, eyes meeting the stranger’s in a tension-filled glance.

all jake could think about when he caught a glimpse of what you looked like was that you were pretty like he’d never seen before. no other girl that he’d seen before had quite the look of grace that you did. but he wasn’t just going to downright fall for you and be such a weak man with soft feelings. he was a charming guy that flirted with all girls that he came across. it was just an added bonus for him that you were pretty.

“hi,” he introduced himself. “i’m jake sim, nice to meet you, even in this situation.” his face screwed up slightly as he finished his sentence, looking down at the ropes tying him to the chair that he sat in to gesture to the fact that he was indeed tied to a chair in this moment.

you pursued your lips before telling him your own name, jake continuing to try and charm you with his smile as he complimented your name. his flirting was so obvious that it was painful to you, but at the same time it was just plain funny and validating. you’d never really had anyone talk to you other than mother, so it did make your heart flutter a little bit.

not in an attractive kind of way, you lightly giggled to yourself. you only appreciated jake for his nice comments as a friend. he had broken into your tower after all.

“okay,” he finally said, snapping you out of whatever daze your thoughts had placed you into temporarily. “now what’s it going to take to get me untied and out of this chair, y/n?”

you let out a little snort at that. “who says that’s happening right now?” you weren’t stupid. a random man, who you’d just barely had the beginnings of a conversation with, still wouldn’t be someone that you would just let free as soon as he told you his name.

“oh come on!” he exclaimed, frustrated that he was still tied to the chair. “and seriously, what’s with the cat?”

jungwon, your cat that your mother had gotten you for your thirteenth birthday, just did what he wanted most of the time. right now, he was weaving tauntingly through jake’s legs, meowing as he seemingly flexed the fact that he wasn’t the one tied up.

you expected nothing less of jungwon, who had proved time and time again in the games that you two had played over the years that he’d been in your company. he was one smart cat, and he knew that he was on the side that was in control. you let out a tinkling giggle at the sight, letting your hastily-built walls fall for just a moment before you refocused on the man that he was taunting and put them right back up.

you raised an eyebrow in amusement and curiosity, wondering exactly why he was so on edge about jungwon just circling his legs. well, jungwon could be a little intimidating when he tried to be, even if he was just a fluffy cream-colored cat.

“it’s just jungwon being jungwon,” you laughed lightly, your voice tinkling in a way that made jake’s heart almost a little bit drawn to you and the little glimpses of soft personality behind the face that you’d put on to face him, the stranger in your tower. “besides, you’re in his domain, and more importantly mine, so i don’t think you’re going to have much sway with those attempts at demands.”

now jake wasn’t exactly opposed to staying right here and just looking at the pretty girl standing in front of him, but he figured that he could at least do some appealing to you to maybe convince you to let him out later and to maybe see if you were as enthralled with him as he was with you.

there was just something about you that just kept drawing him in little by little, making him want to be close to you but also just know more about you. he’d never really had an interaction like this before either; all the people he hung around at his age were the scarce roughnecks that barely worked with him in the business of thievery. even when he was growing up in the orphanage, all the girls really didn’t talk to him other than to summon him for his turn at chores.

he wasn’t the only one that kept staring in the silence that neither of you seemed to notice though. you were still sort of glancing back at him, that curious look still popping up on your face for a few seconds at a time before you masked it when you realized that he was looking right back.

you cleared your throat after a long moment, finally wanting to get to business and see why exactly jake had found himself in your tower of all places.

“so, what’s the whole story behind all of this,” you asked with eyes that sparkled with curiosity, turning away for a quick moment to drag another chair to the center of the room where jake sat. if you were going to chat cordially, you were at least going to sit down and be on his level. it might take a little while to hear what he was going to say.

jake’s first instinct was to let out a frustrated groan, but he refrained. something about the way you just seemed to want to know what was going on and how your full attention was on him kept the annoyance about having to explain what was going on at bay, and rather brought eagerness to tell you all about it instead.

“well, it all started when i teamed up with these two guys that i kind of knew from a couple of jobs on and off…” he started, a little hesitant at first to reveal his ways of keeping himself afloat in the kingdom, but still managing to gather the courage to just be honest and put it all out there. “and then we ended up getting spotted right as i grabbed the crown that we were after, so we kinda had to hightail it out of there. let’s just say with this profession you have to think for yourself than the people you’re actually working with, and these guys have always been a little sketchy anyways, so when the guards actually found us, i was halfway up some cliff with the bag that had the crown in it. they didn’t realize until after it all started going down that i’d snatched it from them,” he chuckled, seeming to you as if he was becoming more and more at home in the chair that he was still tied up in. “after that, i was still getting chased by that one bird that’s like the pride of the guard or whatever so i ducked behind a rock and ended up in this little grove with your tower. it was just common sense to climb it.”

the soft smile on your face didn’t fade once as he told his tale, making jake feel just the more at ease. “hmm, that was certainly an interesting tale,” you hummed after a moment’s pause, still managing to somewhat surprise jake with your calm reaction.

he let out what you could describe as a relieved sigh. “thank god you don’t hate me or are disgusted by what i do or whatever. i was so afraid that something would change for the worse after i told you everything.”

to be quite truthful, his heart was still pounding a little bit in his chest, but definitely not as much as it had been in the previous moments. everything was fine and you, the pretty girl standing in front of him, definitely didn’t hate him for what he’d just revealed.

you let out your own little sigh before you spoke, eyes locking on jake’s in an almost pitying glance. “of course i wouldn’t hate you. you don’t seem like you’d hurt me or do anything terrible, so why would i?”

that pulled a small but gracious smile from jake, and you continued after mirroring it back to him. “the outside just seems so cruel, especially if you have to resort to the things that you do just to survive. maybe mother really was right about how awful the outside world is,” you mused, gaze casting off to the side where the beautiful pink stars that you’d longed to see lay painted on the walls.

jake offered you a sad smile. “yeah, the world can be pretty terrible, but sometimes all it takes is a dream to make it even a little bit brighter. it’s just something i’ve gotten used to and i’ve accepted that this is the way that my life is going. i guess yours isn’t too much better either, all stuck in this tower.”

there was just something about what he’d said about dreams that ignited something within you, propelling an idea right to the front of your mind and out of your mouth. “yeah, dreams really do make life seem a whole lot better… and i think i’ve got one that you could maybe help me out with.” you looked at him with gently pleading eyes, conveying the message of the desire to do the one thing that you’d wished for all of your life that you’d never been able to do.

his eyes softened as he understood what you were about to ask of him, jake still listening and watching you attentively as you revealed your own story to him.

“for as long as i can remember, i’ve been in this tower. i’ve never left since all mother talks about is how dangerous the outside world is and how i’d just get hurt the moment i stepped outside. but there is one thing from the outside world that i’ve seen, and those are the stars. for the most part, every day of the year except one, they’re all normal, glowing brightly in shades of white and yellow, but on that one day where they’re not normal, pink stars appear in the sky, floating there for a short time before disappearing into the night. then they’re gone until the next year. i’ve always wondered about them and truly just wanted to go see them even closer than just through the window.”

jake cut in softly, knowing exactly what you were talking about. “those pink stars are actually lanterns. the kingdom puts on this pretty grand festival every year on the lost princess’s birthday to honor her memory, and when night falls, everyone launches special pink lanterns into the sky.”

“really?” you asked, eyes wide in curiosity at the discovery of the fact that those stars weren’t stars at all. “what happened to the princess?”

“i think it was only about when she was a month old, but the princess was stolen from the palace one night and nobody’s been able to find her since. it’s been like eighteen years or something crazy like that,” jake told you with almost a sad tone in his voice.

that sounded like such a horrible thing to you, the little girl being taken from her parents that young and never having been found. your eyes glazed over a bit as you tried to find the positive in the situation. “at least she’s honored with something as beautiful as that. you can tell that her parents still care, even if it’s eighteen years later.”

“yeah,” jake nodded, letting the melancholic feeling air out of the room for a moment before lightening up the subject. “but if you really want to, i can take you to see the lanterns. it’s in a day or two i think, and i know some places that we can lay low to catch a glimpse of them.”

“you would?” you asked, touched at the fact that jake would just take you to accomplish the one dream that you’d had for so long. nobody had ever really offered to do anything like that.

well, it was hard for anyone except mother to do that because jake was the only other person besides mother that you’d even seen or talked to in your life. jungwon didn’t count.

“mhm,” the man confirmed, nodding once more. “you seem to sweet to just leave here and not help you live out your dream.”

that made you blush a little bit, letting out a little giggle before you turned away so jake couldn’t see your flushed face.

“at least, as long as you give me that bag back. i kind of need it to survive in that horrible place that is the outside world.”

once the blush had faded a little bit from your face, you turned back to him, giving jake a little smirk that he found both incredibly cute and attractive. “i’ll see about that.”

“so y/nie, are you ready to finally see the world?” jake asked you, signature smirk yet again pasted onto his lips. “i mean, if we’ve only got so much time before your mom or whoever that lady is comes back, so we might as well make the most of it.”

you smiled back at him, shaking your head a little bit as you thought about just how much jake had made that one facial expression in front of you. if it had come across his face that many times in the short time that you’d talked with him, then who knew how often he did it every day. no wonder those people that he was running away from sounded like they hated him so much.

well, one group did have a pretty good reason and that was him being a thief, but his two accomplices seemed to not be fans of him either. but he did have you to get along with now!

“yeah!” you exclaimed excitedly, heart already starting to pump faster and faster as the blood rushed quickly through your body, eagerness about seeing the outside world outweighing any other worries that had crossed your mind previously. it just felt too good to think about leaving. it’d be okay, you were coming back after all.

“okay,” jake mumbled, looking down around him for possibly a way for him to get down. “but how are we going to–” his voice cut off, shocked when you just swung your hair onto that hook and jumped, locks fluttering around you as your body rushed towards the ground.

but right when you were about to reach the vibrant green grass, you stopped, grabbing onto your hair before your feet could make contact with the ground. it was just so – different. the quietly anxious thoughts returned for a moment to buzz through your head as you thought about it, continuing to just stare as you could hear the faint noises of jake grunting as he climbed down on his own, grumbling under his breath about why he couldn’t have gone down with your hair instead.

“you know,” jake panted, having reached the ground while you were still in your head, wondering if you’d make a good decision for yourself or not. “it’s not going to hurt you, y/n. it’s just grass.”

you took a deep breath, inhaling through your nose as your felt your lungs inflate with the crisp air that surrounded you, no longer cold and stale like it was in the tower. and then you let go, your feet making contact with the lush green grass as you slowly stepped towards jake.

he was watching you with a strange, almost mesmerized look in his eyes, which snapped back to that signature smirk of his once he noticed you staring right back at him. you really didn’t think anything of it. he seemed like such a delightful person, such a shame that he’d had to do the things that he’d done at such a young age to survive.

“see, not that bad, is it?” he asked you, smirk fading to something like a soft smile, a chuckle escaping him as he watched you nod happily and then kneel down into the grass, arms stretching wide as you enjoyed the feeling of the soft grass.

jake kept smiling as you lived out the moments that you’d never gotten to experience yet. you were just too cute to him, bubbly personality and incredible art skills only a few of the admirable things he’d already seen about you. truly, he thought, if it had been any other person in that tower that put him in the exact same situation, he’d be constantly trying to guilt them out of it so that he didn’t have to do much to get his satchel back, but you were different.

he wanted to show you the world that you’d never gotten to see. he wanted to be the one to make you keep smiling brightly and giggling softly, happy with the fact that he’d somehow managed to stumble across the tower and just changed your life entirely for the better. but those were feelings that he just needed to keep inside. jake didn’t want to force anything on you, and the feelings that he was experiencing were probably going to be way too much for someone that hadn’t been outside a tower for their whole life.

and that was okay. he’d much rather you be comfortable with him and stay friends for this short little time than make you uncomfortable for a long time just about the thought of him. other men needed to realize that women were humans too and they deserved the same amount of respect as they did. no wonder why all of the other criminals that jake had chatted with complained about how they could never get a girl to stick around with them.

you let out a loud sigh, arms starfished out from you as you laid in the soft grass. “i had no idea that it was like this out here. mother always said that everything was harmful and you had to be careful to avoid pretty much all of it.”

jake’s eyebrows furrowed as he looked down at you. “i wonder why she’d say that. yeah, there are some bad things in the world, but they’re very rare and seldom stumbled upon. there are bad people too, but there are more good people than anything.”

he got nothing more than a little shrug back, the acknowledgement of the strange things that your mother had said to make you scared of the world disappearing into your brain behind all of the dopamine that was rushing through your body and mind. it was just so deeply ingrained in your head that she was doing what was best for you, so you really didn’t pay much attention to anything else.

finally, after letting you just take in all that you could see and feel of the world around you for a couple more minutes, jake spoke again, acting as the somewhat reasonable voice between the two of you. “alright y/nie, remember we can only go see the lights if we have enough time to make it to the kingdom. if you think this is amazing, just wait ‘til you see the rest of decelis.”

“right!” you exclaimed, jumping up and skipping over to his side. “let’s go then!”

irene didn’t think anything was out of sorts until she saw the bird.

she’d just been walking along the familiar path that she’d taken before to get to the beach that she’d gotten the white shells that you’d asked for when it flew over her, little harness with a shining medal attached to it.

the reflection of the light off the metallic badge was what had originally gotten her attention, wondering what had just painfully reflected the sunlight into her eyes until she actually saw what had done it. she could recognize that navy blue colored leather and the little sun insignia on the medallion from quite far away. it was a palace bird. and that sharp caw could only belong to the captain’s eagle, known to be even better than some of the high ranked guards.

“y/n,” she let out a gasp. it was flying in the direction of the tower. and the lost princess that lived within it. irene was not going to let them take the one precious thing that she’d taken from them. she was going to stay young forever, and nothing could stop her from doing that. not even a stupid bird.

she tore through the trees, running back across the very path that she’d just been taking her merry time walking along. there was nothing calm or merry about this situation. if that damned bird managed to somehow get past the waterfall and the rock entrance covered in ivy, her whole plan would be spoiled. eighteen long years would come to an end just like that.

irene’s lungs were burning, feet blistering and rubbing against her shoes (which most definitely weren’t meant for doing anything but walking leisurely in), by the time she finally stumbled to a stop at the base of the tower, gray clouds filling the sky almost as if the weather could tell that something was clearly amiss.

“y/n! let down your hair!” she shouted, beginning to panic when there was no answer, no toss of shining hair out the window after a long moment. “y/n!!” her shouts got more and more desperate as the seconds ticked agonizingly by.

all irene could think of was the worst. you clearly weren’t in there. well, there was a small part of her brain that was just hoping that you were just ignoring her or asleep or something, but with the air around her growing more and more tnse, she doubted the fact that those hopes were true.

right, there was a hidden entrance on the other side of the tower, hidden behind piled rocks that hadn’t been mortared in. she’d just go in through there. irene had to find out what was going on and fix it, quickly. she could already feel the wrinkles beginning to return to her face, she thought, a disgusted look appearing on her face, quickly dropping the expression when she remembered that it would just make her appearance worse.

stones tumbled to the ground after irene scrabbled at them for a moment, nails scraping against them as she moved quickly, trying to clear the way to get into the tower as fast as she possibly could. she felt frantic as she pulled and yanked at the rocks until there was a hole in the base of the tower wide enough for her to fit through, then shoving her body into it as she practically ran up the steep stairs that wound up to the top of the tower, legs burning and feet on fire.

irene was panting hard when she reached the top, banging on the tile above the last few stairs until it finally dislodged and shifted to the side to let her in with a loud clatter. and what she emerged into the tower to see worried her immensely.

it was dark, matching the ominously gray atmosphere that the sky had transformed into outside of the tower. and as she rushed through all of the tower, the few rooms and the little hiding spots in every corner of the main room, irene was horrified to discover that you were indeed not here.

her stomach twisted at the thought of her source of youth being lost. if she didn’t find out where you were, she could kiss everything that she’d done to stay looking beautiful goodbye. the painful last eighteen years of having to pretend to like you and be motherly as she raised you “as her own” would be all for nothing.

she let out a frustrated scream that echoed into the empty tower, falling to her knees in frustration and exhaustion and clutching her hands to her face for a moment. but when she dropped them and opened her eyes again, she noticed yet another shining thing, this time coming from a little gap between the first and second stair of the little staircase that lead up to your room.

pulling up the old wooden stair was nothing compared to what she’d had to do to get into the tower a moment ago. it revealed a worn leather satchel, but that wasn’t the interesting thing. it was what the satchel contained that truly caught irene’s attention and made her worry all the much more.

irene pulled a gleaming crown out of the satchel, holding it up to the faint light for a moment before she dropped it in horror, realizing just how bad this could be. if you’d seen this and somehow made the connection between it and you, all of this could be ruined just like that.

but that still hadn’t given her answers to exactly why and how you’d left. she was certain that you wouldn’t have left on your own, so who convinced you to? who did the satchel belong to?

and her question was answered quickly when irene pulled a worn paper out of the satchel, unfolding it to see a wanted poster for one jake sim. a criminal.

now she was just furious. out of all the things you could have done to ignore all the things that she’d instilled as important in your head, you chose to trust a criminal. hadn’t she told you that all people were bad?

none of that mattered now though. she was going to go get you back, irene smiled cruelly at the crown lying on the floor, and she didn’t care what she was going to have to do to make that happen.

“so y/nie, what do you think of the outside world so far?” jake asked, smile tipping the corners of his lips up as he turned to face you as the two of you continued to walk. his eyes were fixed on your face, you thinking that it was just him waiting politely for your response, but he was really just looking for another way to look into your eyes and get lost in them.

you’d been quiet for the last part of your journey, staring at your feet as you kept walking through the shaded groves of thick trees and bushes and tall grass. there just really hadn’t been much to come to your mind to say to jake. it was just the fact that he was next to you, in the peaceful surroundings, that made you feel all the more comforted.

“uhm,” you paused, gentle smile on your face as you looked up into jake’s eyes, getting lost in the honey brown orbs for a long moment, completely oblivious to the fact that jake was doing the exact same thing before you finally backed away from him a little bit and blinked. “it’s definitely a lot different from the tower. very green. almost seems like there’s no other color more than green here.”

that pulled a chuckle from the man walking beside you. “oh trust me, there’s a lot more than just green in decelis. you’ve just got to get there first.”

okay, that made at least a little more sense to you. you guys just weren’t in the place that those magical pink lights came from yet.

but you were still curious. “how much farther is the kingdom away?” you asked, peering up at jake with wide eyes that just seemed to stare even deeper into his soul. he didn’t mind in the slightest. jake would gladly bare all of himself to you if you simply just asked him to.

“oh we’ve still got a little while of walking before we even get to the bridge,” jake sighed, gaze darting around as he faintly recognized the area that you two were passing through. hmm, maybe you’d be able to handle something like that…

“okay then!” the pep in your step seemed to have faded a little bit since you’d first left the tower, adrenaline beginning to slow its rush through your bloodstream, but your voice sounded still as enthusiastic as it had been when jake had first agreed to take you to see the lights.

ehh, jake shrugged to himself. he was sure that you’d be fine…

“with all this walking you sure must be famished!” he burst out, the bubbly tone not anything like you’d expected to hear coming from his mouth. “i definitely am and i know just the place right around the corner where we can make a little refuel stop!”

you were still pretty taken aback by the sudden enthusiasm, so you just managed to nod at first, letting jake grasp your elbow and guide you along limply.

when you finally processed the outburst that you would have only thought you were capable of, that’s when you finally had some sense to be curious about this strangely placed spot to eat that jake had suggested.

“but i have to ask jake,” you started gently, him slowing to a stop to allow you to speak while looking right at him. “why is this place just randomly here in the middle of the forest. don’t you think that’s a little sketchy?”

“sketchy!” he laughed, face scrunching up in delighted amusement as he doubled over, loud cackles escaping from him as you just stood there watching, confused as to why your concern was so funny. “oh please, the gnarly potato isn’t sketchy at all y/nie! don’t worry about it! it’s a great place!”

“okay!” you exclaimed gently. it couldn’t be that bad, could it?

it was in fact, more than that bad, you discovered when you two made it through the old wooden door of the equally old-looking building that was the gnarly potato according to your guide, aka jake.

the stale smell of men and beer permeated the air, sticking to your skin and in your nose like you’d never be able to get rid of it without a bath that was days long in a powerful river. you hoped that it wasn’t the case when you left.

you could tell that jake was able to sense the fact that you’d tensed up a lot, extremely uncomfortable at the raucous environment of the tavern. “hey, relax y/nie. it’s okay. i promise i’m not going to let anything bad happen. it just looks bad but it’s a lot better than you’re thinking right now.” he looped his arm through yours, drawing you up against him to at least offer you a bit more comfort in the new situation and place.

“thank you,” you glanced up at him quickly, tucking yourself further into his side as your eyes crinkled up softly with a brief smile before darting back down to keep your strict watch on what was going on around you. taking note of everything helped too, letting you know of your surroundings and bringing you more comfort alongside the presence of jake.

your heart had just slowed its pounding a little bit when a tall man stepped in front of you two, gruff face startling your heart back into its frightened pace. “sim,” he glowered, gruff voice and staggering figure scaring you as you just clutched jake’s arm closer to you.

“heyyy jungkook,” he smirked, voice lilting up at the end of his sentence like he was being slightly cautious but cockily playful at the same time. “long time no see man.”

“really, i didn’t know that sim,” the scowling man was sarcastic as he continued to glare at jake like he’d personally wronged him.

“well, i’m just here to show y/n here around and introduce her to all of the spots around decelis that everyone has to see.” jake chuckled, still confident as ever. “and then tonight we’re going to go see the pink lights. it’s the whole reason she wanted to go out anyways.”

jungkook looked unimpressed by the shorter man’s explanation. he just continued to stand there among the loud clamor that cut through every molecule of humid air in the tavern.

“isn’t that him?” a man with shaggy black hair sidled up to the intimidating man, holding a worn piece of paper up so that the both of them could see it, glancing at jake in between looks at the paper. a nod and a growing smirk from jungkook sent the shaggy-haired man scurrying off, mumbling something about fetching someone. you could only think of how odd the brief encounter was, not making anything else of it than confusion.

or at least, confusion that only lasted for a little while longer when two more brawny guys approached you two, brutally yanking jake from the tight grasp you had on his arm and holding him up in front of the entire bar.

“he’s mine, i found him first!” one shouted, pulling at jake’s leg as his confident expression had finally faded into a look of fright at being tugged at like a turkey leg between two hungry men. except they weren’t hungry for turkey – their stomachs were growling for the reward money posted at the bottom of the wanted posters that had been plastered all around the kingdom with jake’s face on it.

“no, i’m the one who realized it was him!” the chaos just kept getting louder, one voice drowning out the last and then just continuing on with the arguing. “back off! i need the money, unlike you gluttons.”

and by then, you’d had enough. there was no way that you’d gotten this far and would let things come to an end before you even got to do exactly what you’d left the tower to do.

“everyone stop it!” you shouted, standing on a table that you’d just shakily climbed among the fray of men shouting at each other and continuing to pull at jake. “put him down and leave him alone! i need him!”

miraculously, it worked. the pulling and tugging on jake ceased to a standstill and he remained just held in the air now, everyone frozen while their eyes had turned to you.

“the only reason that i’m here right now is because of him. i’ve never left the tower that i live in, and he’s the one that helped me to see the world outside of it.” your voice cracked faintly, your emotions fueling the passion of the message that you were trying to convey. “it’s my one and only dream to see those pink lights, and he’s going to take me to do so. if you rip him apart like ruffians, i can’t accomplish the one thing that i really hope to do.”

you were expecting something, anything else than what actually happened after your outburst. definitely not anything like what actually happened.

“fine,” one of the bargoers with brassy blonde hair that darkened to a brown at the ends grumbled, “put him down but still keep an eye on him.”

the smile that had vanished when you first walked in finally bloomed back across your face. “thank you,” you sighed breathily, incredibly grateful that you were lucky enough to have been listened to.

“of course sweetheart,” that same man offered you a kind smile for the gruff personality that you’d seen from him so far. “everyone should be able to live out their dreams, especially you from what it sounds like.” a dreamy look appeared in his eyes. “i’ve always yearned to dance in front of the kingdom and share a message through the moves, so i know exactly how you feel.”

another man stumbled up beside him, eyes wide in a way that you could only see as spaced-out and kind of adorable. his blue hair looked almost black when the light hit it right as he spoke with a shining smile. “oh i’ve wanted to go and row boats during all of the little festivals and be the moodmaker when a couple’s trying to have one of those fancy romantic moments and i’ll be the best boat paddler decelis has ever seen…”

you giggled at him as he continued on for a moment more, even more details about helping people to share meaningful moments and just rowing boats along spewed from his mouth. this was honestly so heartwarming – the fact that the men who’d been intimidating at first had now opened up and shared their softer sides with you because you’d been bold enough to share yours first.

“doesn’t anyone care enough to ask me about my dreams?” jake chuckled nervously, wanting the attention but also to get let down from where he was hanging from a hook on the wall by his jacket.

“can it pretty boy,” the bronze-haired man scowled at him once more. “it’s hers that matters.”

jake fell quiet again after that, actually listening to what the other people were saying for the first time. but the pub didn’t stay quiet for long after that.

“i got one of the guards!” the shaggy black-haired man had returned, chest heaving as he worked to take in the air that he’d used up while running off to fetch one of the palace soldiers.

“shit,” the bronze-haired man mumbled. “hurry, get sim and her over here with me.” he gestured you over to a spot behind the bar where all of the taps were, pulling on one as some of the others distracted the guard for you two.

turns out it had been good that you’d revealed your dream and why jake didn’t need to be turned in, because otherwise it looked like he would have ended up hauled back to the kingdom to a jail cell while all of the bargoers argued and brawled over who’d keep the reward money.

a tug on a tap that had a potato on it revealed a hidden passage behind the bar, wood thankfully creeping open without any noises that would give you two away.

“thank you,” you whispered to the man, climbing carefully into the passage after jake.

“of course sweetheart. go live your dream.” he smiled at you one last time before the gruff look was once more sealed onto his face and the passage door creeped to a close. now you two were on your own once more.

“we’ve got to go, now.” the first words that came out of jake’s mouth right after the passage door had shut behind the two of you were sharp, filled with concern and haste that was just reflected more so when you looked up into his eyes.

your heart was beginning to pound again, feeling like it had been put to good work over all of your nerves and discomfort from your first impressions of the tavern that you two had just snuck out of. and as the two of you looked ahead, assessing the tunnel that laid beyond, waiting to be taken to safety, your breaths began shortening, pulling little puffs of oxygen into your lungs in quick succession.

you could see nothing but dull shades of brown from the carved-out tunnel, supported with wooden beams that looked almost as old as you with how worn they were. some were even beginning to splinter at a concerning level, which sent a little pang of doubt at whether or not this was exactly the safest thing to be doing to your chest, but you ignored it. everything you’d done with jake so far was a little bit dangerous, and you’d learned quickly to use it to your advantage.

that little bit of risk that laid within everything had taught you that you could do things that you hadn’t even thought you were capable of. hell you hadn’t even thought of the existence of some of the things that you’d seen before today.

and you were doing all of this for your dream. you and jake were going to go see the pink lights that you’d yearned after for so many years of your life up in that tower. there was no way that you were going to back away from that just because of some old wood in a tunnel.

“alright, cmon,” jake whispered, taking your hand and pulling you along in a rushed walk. his neck kept snapping behind the two of you and then back, swiveling to keep a close watch on whether or not any of the guards had found the tunnel and entered it to follow you two and capture him.

you knew it was always good to be more safe than sorry, so you sped up your own pace, jake speeding up next to you to match you in a swift jog. the faster you two could get to the end of this tunnel, the better chance that you’d have of escaping with your guide.

but a little voice in your head whispered about the possibility of the guards meeting you two at the end, having found out from the bargoers, either unwillingly or with a betrayal of you two. you silenced it as you kept running, continuing to convince yourself that you two were going to get away and that the kind men in the bar that had warmed up to you after talking about your dream wouldn’t betray your and your chance of seeing those lights. they had to have some heart within them.

jake inhaled a swift breath beside you, having turned his head to catch a glimpse of the ground that you two had just run over and left behind. the action confused you for a moment, wondering if he’d just tweaked something until you heard it. the quiet thundering of feet that kept growing louder and louder by the second. they’d found the tunnel.

“shit.” jake’s grip tightened on your hand, speeding up once more as your legs began to struggle to keep up with the pace that he’d taken up. it was just because he had longer legs, your shorter ones feeling like they were now working overtime just to keep up and not be yanked off your feet. that would be bad.

“we found them!” a guard shouted behind the two of you, catching a glimpse of your silhouettes as you kept running through the dark tunnel, light from their lanterns reflecting on the packed dirt walls. the tunnel had straightened out by now, the curves and turns that had guarded you two from being seen until now in the rest of the tunnel no more.

both of your chests were heaving as you ran, feet pounding as hard as they could against the dirt as you kept going, hoping and praying that you could make it. “we’ve just got to keep outrunning them by a little bit,” jake encouraged you. “i think we’re almost there.”

and jake was right about that. as you two kept passing through in escape of your pursuers, you suddenly saw a bright light at the end of the tunnel that hadn’t been there until now. it was the end.

but when you two finally burst through the last wooden frame, into the light of the open world once more, something seemed wrong. it was almost too easy. was there really nobody here? did nobody find out where the tunnel let out at the opposite of the gnarly potato?

“long time no see sim.” a deep voice cut in from behind you two, two men standing in the shadows of a hidden corner just to the side of the tunnel exit. “except, i don’t think you wanted to see us again. too bad.”

jake paled next to you, hand going clammy before he let go of yours, body stiffening as he turned to face the mysterious men. “boys, boys, don’t worry i was going to come find you again, i just needed a little time to hole up by myself.”

“oh really?” the dark-haired one asked, angered sarcasm obvious in his voice. “a little birdie told me that you just ran off to take the crown for yourself. and right now that seems like exactly what happened.”

it all seemed like a blink of an eye when everything exploded into even more chaos. the guard poured out of the tunnel, having finally reached the end of it right when the two men had leaped at jake, likely intending to harm him for running away.

and all you could do was just stand and watch, frozen in fright as jake swiped up an extra sword that had been knocked from the hand of a soldier, raising it to block blows from both the guard and the two men who claimed that he’d wronged them.

you had to do something, right? your heart kept pounding like it was about to pump right out of your chest, breaths sharp and shaky as you continued to panic a little bit as you surveyed all of what was going on around you.

oh, right! you’d brought along the frying pan that had been used to start all of this. maybe it could help you now to keep things going.

“jake!” you shouted, getting his attention quickly before tossing him the cast iron pan, having lost his sword only moments ago to one of the horses, who was oddly being guided by an eagle rather than a rider. the thought of a bird who could do that frightened you a little bit frankly, but thinking about anything else than escaping right now would just hinder you.

several more minutes passed by as you stood frightened in a corner, just watching as swords continued to clash (and funnily when you’d look back on it, jake with his frying pan). but then you saw it, exactly what you were looking for– an opening in the fray for you two to make your escape.

you broke into a swift sprint, bare feet clapping against the tall rock formation that the tunnel had let out upon, hair already being gathered into your arms as you kept going. jake caught onto what you were doing moments before you reached him, smirking at his opponents before grabbing onto your waist and running with you as you two jumped.

your hair caught on one of the wooden poles that was keeping a series of water troughs held up, allowing the two of you to swing away towards another wooden-framed opening in the rock on the other side of the canyon.

the air whipped through your hair and across your face, you smiling at the feeling for the short moment that you two remained in the air before landing hastily on your feet, already breaking into a run by the time that everyone you’d left behind up on the first rock formation processed exactly what had just happened.

all of the soldiers had broken into a rush to try and find a way down, to stop you two from getting to that other tunnel, completely forgetting about the other two men that snuck back into the shadows, fury raging in their eyes about losing their chance at full revenge on jake for all that he’d done to them yet again. they still vowed to get back at him, no matter what it took to do so. nobody wronged bangchan and felix and got away with it.

but at this point, that eagle that you’d been rather curious about, worried when you’d noticed all that it could do, was tired of all of the soldiers continuing to be the incompetent fools that they always were. jay was the prized bird of the captain of the royal guard for a reason, and it didn’t surprise most that had seen him in action that he did better than most of the human members of the guard.

he cawed at the horse he had perched himself on, flapping up into the air to convey the exact message of what he was asking it to do. thankfully this one was pretty competent, so it went right on about obeying.

it only took a couple of thundering kicks to one of the tall rock columns that sat propped right next to the formation that they were all on before it fell exactly in the direction that jay had wanted it to. they couldn’t get away and into the tunnel if it got blocked off by a huge slab of rock.

the really odd thing was though, fate seemed to really love and hate you and jake at the same time. by some miraculous boost of adrenaline and energy, the two of you barely made it past the old wooden threshold of the tunnel before the gigantic pillar of rock came crashing down, effectively trapping you two inside. but it also took the water troughs down too, them crashing down and spilling huge waves of water as a deep creaking could be heard from the dam behind you, horrifying when you two realized that the wooden wall that was holding all of that water back had just entirely collapsed.

at first it didn’t scare you, just standing there and staring at the rock that had almost crushed you while catching your breath for a moment finally, the adrenaline wearing off as rapidly as it had come on.

but then you turned and saw a pile of large gray rocks instead of a tunnel like you two had expected.

“hey hey, i’m sure it’ll be okay,” jake tried his best to assure you, an equally terrified look on his face. and then just like you, he sort of broke from the fright. “oh god wait that whole tidal wave of water is going to come in here and we can’t get out…”

oddly enough, you’d just become the calm one. “jake, hey, look at me. i promise we can make it out of here.”

“but can we? we’re going to drown if we can’t get those rocks moved…” his eyes lit up with a realization. “wait we should have been trying to dislodge them the whole time!”

fingers scrabbled against the rocks, some smooth and some jagged, the two of you trying to find a way out of having water seep into your lungs and choke you in your last moments.

none of it was working, you realized to your horror when none of the rocks budged, the water beginning to fill the small tunnel rapidly.

“ugh we just need to get out of here!” jake’s tone was frantic, hissing out a curse when he sliced his palm open on the sharp edge of one of the rocks he was pulling at.

but at this point, your hope was getting lower and lower. at least until you realized one last thing right before the water swallowed you two.

there was no shame or bashfulness in doing it now, the words to the incantation that you’d said so many times beginning to bubble through your lips underwater, igniting that glow in your hair that always happened when you sang. jake’s eyes widened in shock at the sight, but they quickly turned to where the strands were floating to a little gap between the rocks, the two of you now frantically pulling and tugging until that little gap turned bigger. the air in your lungs was growing stale, bubbling out of your mouths as the rocks tumbled away, pulling you two through the tunnel now with a strong suction of water.

it was the last thing you remembered before you blacked out, vision fading as your consciousness waned alongside jake’s.

bangchan and felix were furious when they finally managed to escape the flood of waters that had been let loose when the dam was brought down by that cursed palace bird, soaked to the bone and clothes dripping as they dragged themselves along, cursing jake sim the entire time.

they’d been far too foolish to trust someone like him. people with that bright, charming air to them like jake exuded really were the most likely to just up and leave or simply screw something up. next time, they’d be going for him, not with him.

but the one thing the two men weren’t expecting was the old woman that walked up to them, hood pulled low until she swept it down in a dramatic air.

“i thought you two were never going to take a break,” she smirked up at them, voice purring sensually with each word as she held a worn brown satchel on one finger out in front of them. and it was a worn brown satchel that looked very familiar now that they thought about it.

“who are you?” bangchan demanded, not sure whether to be startled, amused, or curious about the purpose that the woman had for following them. “and why are you following us? you know we are dangerous, right?” a predatory smile appeared across his face, trying to intimidate the woman to get a quick answer out of her.

all she did was laugh at him though, felix and bangchan exchanging even more confused looks. “oh please boys, i’m not here to threaten you. i’m here to help you.”

“help us with what?” felix couldn’t help but give into the curiosity as to exactly what the woman was talking about now.

“why catching jake sim of course! he has something of mine with him and i’d like it back.” the slowly-simmering anger now began to shine faintly through the confident face that she was wearing, revealing the true motive for “helping them”.

“and why exactly should we help you get what you want? what’s in it for us?” bangchan asked gruffly, the desire for revenge outweighed by the dislike of the thought of simply doing someone else’s bidding like slaves.

it was clearly the question that the woman had wanted them to ask, that sly smile tugging again at her lips. “oh the crown of course! i have it right here.” she reached into the satchel and pulled it out, the fading light making faint reflections through the crystals at the center of the crown.

“so we get it after we get sim and whatever thing of yours you want back so badly,” felix assumed, expecting what any other person who was asking them to do something for pay would say.

“you two can have it right now!” the woman smirked at them again. “i trust that your revenge will help you seek him out even more swiftly.”

the two men glanced at each other one more time, conveying a silent message through their eyes before bangchan turned back to the woman. “alright then. we’ll see you again when we find him.”

you burst out of the water, lungs burning as you threw yourself onto the side of the riverbank, coughing and sputtering as water came back up through your lips, having been only a moment away from being choked out of life with all of it. jake was a couple of yards away from you up on the riverbank as well, in pretty much the same condition that you were.

by the time the two of you had rid your lungs of all the water that shouldn’t be there and rolled over to finally take a deep breath full of precious oxygen, you two were about ready to take another hour-long nap. you were just so tired and your body was exhausted.

the light was already beginning to fade with the sunset, warm colors blooming across the horizon as you two sort of just laid there, looking at each other with the reverence that only surviving something that crazy together would give you.

at least you two had been able to dry off somewhat by the time night fell, bringing about that chill that even occurred in the dead of summer. it would have been a nightmare if you’d remained soaking wet and had died of hypothermia after luckily surviving the chance of drowning.

“come on, you can do it,” jake mumbled under his breath in front of you, kneeling beside the little firepit that you two had made to keep yourselves warm. it made you giggle lightly, quiet enough where you were the only one that heard it.

it only took a minute or so more before jake had a spark going among the little structure of twigs that he’d set up meticulously, dropping to his knees to blow on it some more until it roared into a fully-fledged fire. the embers were already crackling as you held your hands up closer to the flames, sighing happily when you already felt the chill in your fingers melting away.

“thank you jake,” you smiled at him sweetly, grateful for all the work he’d done to get the fire set up and going.

“of course princess!” he bounded back over next to you, dropping down and taking a seat on the ground beside you. “and call me jaeyun.”

you were surprised for a moment when he said it, confused as to why now and why you that he’d chosen to ask to address him like that. “oh okay. what brings that on?” you asked, simply curious about the name.

he offered you another smile, a softer version of that confident smirk that he’d worn when you two had first met. “that’s my real name. at the orphanage i just kind of got tired of people yelling at me with it, so i started going by jake. now it’s sort of just reserved for special people.”

your eyes softened in sympathy for him. “aw jaeyun, that’s so horrible. i’m so sorry you had to go through all of that. how many other special people are there to know the real you? i’m not meaning to pry or anything i just…”

“no it’s okay y/n! it’s not anything you could have controlled or changed, and if it had been any different, i’m not sure that i would have met you.” he gazed into your eyes, your gaze reflecting right back. “and just for the record, it’s just you princess.”

something in your chest panged at his words, not having felt anything like you were feeling before. it felt like butterflies were fluttering about in your stomach, your heart burning with a warmth like the fire in front of you. this was the first time you’d truly felt loved and cared for.

“hey,” you smiled up at jake, eyes swimming with happiness. “do you want to see something cool?”

“i mean sure,” he shrugged. “but can it beat the glowing hair?”

come to find out a few minutes later, it would indeed be a lot cooler than just the glowing hair.

your hair tickled jake’s palm as you wrapped the ends of it around his hand, concealing the angry red cut that he’d gotten earlier when you two were trying your best to escape the flood of water from the broken dam.

“so what’s this supposed to do exactly?” jake asked you hesitantly, a little confused why your hair needed to get wrapped around his injured palm for something cool.

“all you’ve got to do is stay still and relax jaeyun,” you soothed him with a soft stroke of your hand on his arm. “i promise nothing bad’s going to happen. it’s just going to be really good.”

“okay,” he nodded with a sigh, giving you the go-ahead to do whatever you were going to show him. “i trust you y/nie.”

the words of the incantation that you’d sung just hours ago began to flow from your lips softly, sweet voice just drawing jake into yearning for you even more. sure, it had been the crown at first, but now, he could only look at and think of you.

your hair began to glow and shimmer faintly, becoming brighter than it had been underwater the first time that jake had seen it, seeming to almost glow warmer around his palm, which was now being tickled by that warmth for some strange reason.

internally, jake was sort of freaking out, only because it was a whole new thing that he had no idea what was going on, but he really did trust you, so he kept calm on the outside, breathing through his thoughts to dissipate them as you finished singing, the glow fading from your hair as quickly as it had ignited.

and then the real shock came when you delicately unwrapped the strands of hair from around jake’s hand, his eyes widening when he noticed that any sign of the cut had just been erased, almost like it had never happened.

his eyes stayed fixed on his now-unblemished palm, mouth hanging slightly open at the sheer surprise and wonder at the fact that you’d just healed him with your hair. the thought was just too much to process that quickly for him.

“you good jaeyunie?” you blinked, fluttering your eyelashes as you peered at him in sweet concern. “see, wasn’t that pretty cool?”

“cool?!” jake finally snapped out of his shocked stupor, setting his hands on your shoulders as he enthusiastically spoke. “more like incredible! i can’t believe you just healed me–with your hair.”

you blushed, flattered by the compliment and a little bashful from the physical contact. “thank you! i’m glad i could be of help!”

jake didn’t say anything, his face slowly inching closer to yours as the two of you stared deeply into each others eyes, entranced by the moment. he almost got close enough for your lips to touch, but you just startled all of a sudden, breaking the moment awkwardly.

the two of you laughed it off for a moment, you embarrassed at how you’d just broken the heavy moment of chemistry between the two of you. jake said something about needing more firewood, so he left you to go off and collect some, telling you that he’d be back shortly.

the forest was quiet as you just sat there, listening to the occasional crackle of sparks peacefully until a voice that you thought you wouldn’t hear for another couple of days cut through the silence.

“y/n!” mother gasped behind you, rushing up behind you and tugging you to your feet. “come along now dear, let’s go home and forget about this whole mess with the thief.”

“it’s fine mother!” you insisted nervously, trying to squirm out of the grasp that she’d taken your hand in. “he’s not bad at all, in fact several people i’ve met out here aren’t evil and nobody eats other people!”

“oh sweetheart,” she just sighed, turning to you and taking both of your hands in hers. “he’s just practically brainwashed you. all people out here are only doing things for themselves. all he wants is the crown.”

“no,” you shook your head, insistent on the memories that you’d gained over the past day being genuine. “he wants to take me to see the lights and i really have enjoyed going on this journey with him..”

mother’s voice turned dark, almost malicious. “oh, so you think he’s in love with you. i hate to break it to you darling, but he’s not. all he wants is the crown and the money that comes with it. why don’t you give it to him and see. really, you should just listen to me and come back home before he hurts you.”

“no,” your voice echoed sharply through the little clearing. “i want to go see the lights with him. he’s not like that.”

“okay then,” mother’s face soured. “if you think you know best, then go ahead, do what you want. just don’t come crying back to me when he leaves you.”

jake was still half-asleep when he began to hear an incessant cawing, grumbling lightly under his breath for it to stop so that he could go back to sleep. in no world did he want to be fully awake right now. the ground was surprisingly comfortable to sleep on here.

he’d almost gotten fully back into the dream world when a sharp peck nipped his arm, making jake swat irritatedly at what was biting him. and the pecks didn’t stop during all of this ruckus– they just got more and more frequent and a lot more painful.

“ugh stop it!” he finally shouted, voice still thick with sleep as he opened his eyes right as his fingers collided with the thick feathers of an eagle. “leave me alone!”

the bird did not take that well. it went for his face next, sharp beak going right at him as jake scrambled back, holding his hands and arms in front of his face to protect himself from the crazy creature.

all of this had woken you up, hearing jake’s cries of protest against the bird’s attacks on him. you sat up slowly at first, rubbing the sleep from your eyes, not having realized that jake was literally getting attacked by a pretty big bird. but once you realized, you rushed into action, not hesitating for a moment before jumping right between jake and the eagle right before it was about to fly in for another strike.

“okay both of you, cut it out,” you said in a stern voice, looking both of them in the eyes as they both returned your gaze with confused and stunned looks. even the bird looked surprised that you’d just impulsively jumped right in front of it as it was about to keep attacking its prey. “you need to stop acting like this, because i don’t know why it needs to be taken this far.”

jake took a step back, holding his hands up in somewhat of an attempt to keep the encounter peaceful now that you’d intervened. “alright, alright. but this bird’s gotta stop attacking me. i promise i didn’t do anything.”

said bird looked as if it almost raised an eyebrow in doubt at what jake had just said, getting a little giggle out of you before you squashed it down and put the serious look back on your face, still wanting to be in control of mediating the situation.

you looked at the bird more closely now, noticing that there was a little engraved buckle on the harness that it was wearing, so you cautiously stepped forward, reaching out slowly with a hand to get a closer look while still being gentle and respectful of the bird’s space like how anyone should be of an animal. even people needed their own space and to be treated well too.

“jay,” you read the eagle’s name off its tag out loud. “well it’s nice to meet you jay,” you addressed the bird, offering him a little smile.

he dipped his head back at you, letting out a calm little caw that you were pretty sure meant that he liked you or just didn’t mind you or something. it didn’t really matter as long as he wasn’t attacking jake anymore or you.

a delicate sigh escaped you next, cutting the tension that was beginning to grow back between jake and jay. “so the thing is, i need him to take me to see the pink lights that are going to be in the sky tonight. it’s been my dream for so long and he’s been ever so kind enough to take me, so i really would appreciate it if you didn’t kill him or take him in for whatever he did or stole.”

jay just sort of stared back at you as you talked to him, beady eyes blinking calmly as you explained the situation. “but i promise, tomorrow, you two can clash all you want. would you please just give me today?”

he remained perched on the little branch that he’d landed on when you’d broken up him and jake, seeming to contemplate your request for a long moment before he finally nodded again.

“oh thank you so much! it really means a lot to me and i’m so grateful that i’m getting this opportunity to live out my dreams.” you clapped your hands together in delight, spinning around with a joyful smile on your face.

your enthusiasm brought a smile to jake’s face, still wary of jay on the inside but mainly focused on you and how you almost seemed to glow like your hair had last night when you became happy about something. it almost felt like you’d become the light in his otherwise dim life of barely scraping around, having to steal just to be able to eat a meager meal.

“alright then boys!” you started skipping off in the direction of the kingdom that jake had pointed out the night before. “let’s go check out this festival before the lights tonight!”

you were the one leading the way the entire walk to the bridge that lead to the little island that the kingdom of decelis laid on, pace a happy skip that never let up. the enthusiasm flowing through your veins didn’t stop for a second, masking any sort of energy drain that might have hit you after doing something like that for so long.

but behind you, the tension was back, jay and jake making all sorts of faces at each other while quietly clashing, respecting your wishes of no fighting, but barely. it was hard enough for them to be in the same space, let alone right next to each other as they accompanied you to the place where seeing your dream would come true.

and there it was, you realized when the three of you finally cleared through the last of the forest on the mainland that one had to travel through to get to the kingdom itself, spotting a large, cream-colored cobblestone bridge that created a path right over the dark blue water to decelis in all of its splendor.

“oh this is all so wonderful!” you exclaimed, smile growing even bigger by the second as you took it all in. the decorations that adorned the kingdom for the festival shining in red silk with a bright yellow flower at the center of every banner.

while you pranced around happily though, jake was busy trying to gather up the hair that trailed behind you, attempting to help keep it from getting stepped on and yanking on your scalp.

by the time that you three had fully crossed the bridge into the kingdom, already stepping into a large square full of celebrating people, jake’s arms were fully of soft, shiny hair, following you closely.

“hey girls!” his eyes stopped on a group of kids that were sitting around braiding each other’s hair with delightful giggles. “do you want to take on a bigger project?” he gestured to all of your hair that he was holding, smiling as he watched their eyes light up with excitement, scrambling over to you three.

and they worked insanely quickly too, taking a mere ten minutes to get all of your hair braided perfectly with little flowers tucked into each little strand. you couldn’t stop spinning around and admiring their work, sending each of them off with little hugs and waves.

“aww aren’t they so precious?” you cooed to jake, watching them run off with a soft smile on your face.

“yeah, they really are.” he responded, but he wasn’t watching them go off, he was looking right at you, watching your eyes soften in admiration at their pure excitement about doing something so simple.

before either of you could say anything else, you were both dragged off with a yelp by different people to join in on the dancing that had merrily started up, people clapping along as others danced and swung their partners around swiftly.

you couldn’t do anything but laugh joyfully as you spun around with a random man, living gleefully in the lively spirit of the festival and the instruments that were being played passionately with cheers and claps escaping those watching. but your eyes weren’t focused on the man that you were dancing with. they were locked on jake, dancing along to the festive music with a random woman.

he looked up too, locking eyes with you and offering you a big smile, eyes and heart growing warm for both of you as you saw the other having a good time just letting the music flow through you and dancing along.

but as the music grew quicker and quicker, people dancing around each other even swifter, partners began passing hands, spinning each other off to a new partner. and right when it was yours and jake’s turn, you two spun right into each other, hands interlacing as you two collided, pausing for a moment to look into each other’s eyes even more as your chests heaved up and down from all of the lively dancing.

your feet moved along with his, easily finding a rhythm that matched each other and the music, not breaking eye contact for even a moment. the crowd eventually faded to a light buzz, the two of you almost in your own little world as you moved as one.

you broke apart hesitantly when the music ended, shattering the barrier between you two and the rest of the world just a tiny bit, but not breaking it completely, you and jake still holding hands and walking right next to each other as you two and jay went on your way through the rest of the kingdom to check out all of the other parts of the festivities before the sun set.

all of it was such a great experience, the different stalls with all sorts of little neat crafts and foods, the many musicians playing their instruments all along the streets, but the thing that strangely stood out the most was the little memorial dedicated to the lost princess, who the whole festival had been created in memory of.

it was something about how her eyes were such a distinct color, one that you were positive that you’d seen before, as well as the sheen of her hair that had been brought to life through the large mosaic of her and the king and queen. you just couldn’t put your hand on why, but it was something that you felt like you’d seen before, and not just a glimpse, like fully looked at several times.

you just shrugged after a moment more of looking at it, turning to jake ready to find out what you two would be off to go see next. if you couldn’t remember why, then it must not be too important.

“here, let me give you a hand y/nie,” jake smiled, taking your hand in his as he helped you into the little boat that he’d gotten for you two to watch the pink lights in. “we’ll get a fantastic view of all the lanterns from here!”

“why thank you kind sir,” you teased playfully, smiling brightly as you took your seat across from him, fixing your eyes on the center of the kingdom. you didn’t want to miss any part of the lights.

time seemed to slow down around you two, just resolidifying that little bubble around you both as you continued to watch the skyline for the pink lanterns while jake watched you, his love for you growing by the minute as he watched your entranced face, gazing off into the sky and waiting for your dream to come true.

and it did a few moments later, the faint pink glow of the first little group of lanterns behind launched into the sky, your eyes growing even wider in awe as they drifted slowly across the sky, followed by waves upon waves of more of them, filling the sky with the beautiful radiating pink light.

jake let you stare a little while longer before catching your attention in a soft tone, smiling at you as he showed you the two lanterns that he’d gotten you two to launch for yourselves.

your smile of delight made it all worth it and even more, eagerly taking yours with gentle hands and watching jake as you both lifted your lanterns into the sky, sending them to float among all of the others.

“so is it everything you dreamed of?” jake asked with a soft chuckle, taking your hands in his gently, the touch comforting and making your smile even wider.

“absolutely!” you replied with a dazed tone. “thank you again for doing all of this for me, it’s so beautiful.”

“of course,” jake squeezed your hands lightly, thumbs running softly over the backs of them. “but not as beautiful as you.”

you flushed at the compliment, heart fluttering while your hands remained intertwined. and then you leaned forward, letting your actions speak for your words as your lips pressed to his, eyes fluttering closed as jake laid his arms gently around you, leaning into the kiss himself.

you two pulled away after a long moment, both letting out a relieved laugh before leaning back in for another. tonight had truly been the most special one of your life. it felt so good to be loved.

“i hope it’s okay if i say that i’ve sort of been in love with you for a majority of this trip,” jake confessed softly. “i’ve never felt this way, but i know that it’s something that i want to keep alive.”

you smiled, in agreement entirely. “i think i fell for you too jaeyun. and i hope that this moment never ends.”

“it’s time to wake up princess,” jake nudged your shoulder gently, trying to pull you from your dreams so that you two could leave on time to get back to the tower.

you reluctantly sat up, rubbing the sleep from your eyes as you mumbled an okay and sat there for a moment longer before finally getting to your feet and yawning as you stretched your arms behind you.

it was a very early morning at that, but you were the person that had asked to head out so early just in case, so you weren’t going to complain. not when you had the chance to talk with jake more on the journey back.

“ready to get going,” he asked with a loving smile, staring into your eyes like he’d never get to see them again if he looked away. you two had just grown that much more fond of each other in the last day.

you reached out to take his hand, stepping in front of him on your tiptoes to leave a quick little peck on his lips. “yep, i’m ready!” he just kept staring at you with flushed cheeks and a dorky smile for a moment before he realized that he needed to move.

the two of you began your journey back to the tower hand in hand, chatting about many different little random things as the cobblestones of the winding streets in the center of decelis gave way to the exposed cream-colored stone of the open air of the bridge that lead back to the mainland, where you’d spend a majority of your day together walking alongside one another through the dense forests until you reached the tower.

it was truly so early that it seemed like no other soul was alive here in the dark morning before the sun had even begun to think about rising. in a sense, it was almost like that little bubble that had formed around the two of you yesterday during all of the festivities had spread across the kingdom, letting you two just live together in your own little moment forever.

you’d just stepped off the bridge, officially now back on the mainland, before jake said something in a soft dreamy tone to you, one that you’d only heard over the last day or so when he was talking to you and you alone. “y/n, i hope you know that i’m so grateful to have someone to love me and understand me for who i really am. it means the world that you didn’t judge me for the things i had to do in order to survive in the world, and you’re quite possibly the only light that i’ve ever had in my life.”

that brought tears of pure joy and love to your lash line, welling up but not falling. “jaeyun, as ironic as it might be that you were the first person i met from the outside world, i’d be perfectly fine not knowing or meeting anyone else. you helped me accomplish my dreams and i actually feel so loved for the first time in my life. i don’t know how life would be if you hadn’t climbed up in that tower.”

“aww, well isn’t that just so sweet,” a voice that you’d heard only once or twice before cut in, still recognizable enough to send a chill down your spine. “too bad your little fling isn’t going to last much longer.”

“felix, bangchan,” jake grumbled, eyes already showing the fury of a man whose love had just been threatened. “what the hell do you want?”

“oh that’s an easy question sim,” bangchan chuckled darkly, sending your stomach into knots as you clutched jake’s arm in fright. “we want her.”

jake spat back at them. “fuck no, you’re not taking her anywhere.” he gently guided you behind him, effectively shielding you from their gaze and any attempts to grab you from where you stood next to him.

felix smirked at the two of you, almost as if he was amused at jake’s reaction. “last time i checked, you weren’t going to have a say in the matter.”

“please, i can give you anything else or help you get anything else, hell you can even have the crown back,” jake tossed the satchel that you’d given him last night out of faith towards them, the crown spilling out of it when it landed at their feet.

“hmm,” bangchan tilted his head, acting like he might have been considering the option, but it quickly became obvious that he was just toying with the two of you, like a cat playing with a mouse. “a little birdie told us that she’s worth a lot more than just a crown, so i’m afraid i’m going to have to pass you up on your offer sim.”

he raised a hand to the man standing next to him, a signal that you two very quickly learned meant to take care of the two of you.

before either of you could move to avoid it, the dark-haired man snatched you around the waist, yanking you up into his hold, squirming and protesting as the blonde man stalked towards jake, making quick work of knocking him to his feet and then slamming the butt of his sword into jake’s head, knocking him out amidst your screams of protest.

“no jake!!” you cried, voice going shrill as you were carried away into the night, the two men leaving jake’s body crumpled, unconscious on the beach shore. “let me go! get your hands off me!”

but as the two men carried you through the fog, a figure standing there in a familiar cloak surprised you.

“y/n dear, oh i’m so sorry it had to come to this darling, but i couldn’t think of any other way to save you from that criminal,” she looked into your eyes with a disguised look of fake concern. you knew better than to think she was concerned about anything other than herself.

“i didn’t need saving from him!” you shouted, rage finally erupting from you at being taken from jake’s side like this. “i think, rather, i needed saving from you, and he did exactly that.” your tone turned venomous, tired of being taken advantage of and thought of as a fool.

the look on her face turned stone cold instantly. “fine. if you want to be that way then be that way y/n. come along now boys, we have a new tower to journey to.” she turned to you, tapping you on the nose with a scowl that you weren’t used to coming along with the action. “and don’t worry my dear. it’s not far away at all and it comes with its own form of entertainment.”

and true to her snake-like words, you were at the new tower in no time, which strangely had a view of a large building with a courtyard on the inside, which you weren’t able to figure out what it was when you got a glimpse of it.

the minute you were thrown to the tower floor, your arms and legs were locked in chains, heavy metal binding your feet and arms together with only enough distance between them for you to shuffle around. both of the men had already joked about how there was no chance you could leave now.

your face felt sticky from the trail of a few tears that you’d shed when they’d first nabbed you and knocked out jake, having dried a while ago when no more tears fell on the entire walk where your body bounced against one of the men’s shoulders with each step.

and the sun had begun to rise too, you looking up at the growing light on the horizon from where you laid limply on the floor, completely disheartened in the situation at hand.

the click of the heels of the woman that you’d called mother for so many years drew your attention upwards to where she looked down at you instead of continuing to look out the window, letting out a yelp when she grabbed you by the collar and dragged you over right next to the window, sharply telling you to sit up.

“now let’s get ready for the real entertainment boys,” she chuckled, the ominous sound sending dread through your very core. “look y/n, everything’s been brought up to life now.” she pointed at the courtyard in the middle of the mysterious building that you had yet to identify.

“you must be curious what that place is, huh,” the blond man approached you, looking down with nothing less than the smile of a man avenged. “it’s the prison,” he bent down to whisper in your ear, now pointing at something, or rather someone being escorted along in the courtyard. “and that’s your little boyfriend over there, about to hang for his crimes against the kingdom. such a mystery how the guards stumbled upon him just knocked out on a beach somewhere, isn’t it?”

you inhaled a sharp breath, tears welling up in your eyes as you couldn’t look away, watching horrified as the little figure that was jake was dragged up onto a platform and held still despite his struggles against the guards holding him, a noose draped around his neck. he stood there for a long moment, the struggle stopping as he seemed to fully relax into the realization of his fate. and then they shoved him off, the noose catching his neck and snapping it in an odd angle, body going limp as he swung from the rough knot of rope around his throat.

the sobs just overflowed at that point, horrified at the sight of jake dying because of you. the one person in your life that genuinely loved you and cared for you was gone as quickly as he’d come into your life. so what truly was the point of living now, just numb to the pain forever and being used for all that you were worth by horrible people.

“now now dearest,” the wicked woman whispered to you, comforting you with a voice that only sounded more and more manipulative by the second. “he wasn’t good for you anyways.”

with that comment, you finally snapped entirely. “you know what, i’m not going to let you get your way. you think you can just use me now that i’ve experienced pain and the one person i loved and was loved by was taken away from me.” your voice kept growing louder, you rising to your feet as you looked her in the eyes. “you’re wrong. and there’s nothing left for me in this world, so i hope that everything you want is ripped away from you too.”

you stepped towards the window, dragging those heavy chains with you as you glanced down at the ground. there was no hesitance when you jumped, hearing the outraged screams of that wretched woman as you fell, wind whistling through your ears for a long moment before you hit the ground, everything turning black after you landed.

maybe in the world beyond, you and jake could be reunited as lovers, neither held to the unfortunate hands of life that you’d been dealt in your tale. those whose souls were linked together could never stray far from one another, no matter in life or death.

divider credits to @thecutestgrotto, @olenvasynyt, and @hyuneskkami

© seungsoftly 2025 please do not copy, repost, or translate

“you little bitch,” jake mumbled whinily, eyes still locked on the crux of your legs where you laid on the bed, bare for both him and the older man standing beside him to see. “why won’t you let me lick my girlfriend’s kitty? doesn’t it just look so delectable?”

heeseung just chuckled at his desperate younger friend, who was practically salivating at the sight of your glistening pussy under the dim lights of the bedroom. “relax jakey, you can eat *our girlfriend* all you want, but later.”

the younger man let out an annoyed whimper, a pout emerging onto those luscious lips of his as you just watched it all unfold, blood pumping through your body as your chest heaved up and down lightly with each breath.

you laid there, obedient as ever so that you wouldn’t be the one that was being punished tonight. you knew better than to move from the position that heeseung had ever so carefully guided you into. there was no way that you were going to chance it, especially since his favorite punishment was leading you right up to the edge of your orgasm but never letting you fall over into the waves of pleasure. and usually he’d just leave you high and dry for days afterwards if you’d been particularly bratty, not even letting you barely satisfy yourself with your own hands.

“but she is delectable, isn’t she?” heeseung smirked, running his thumb over your folds and along your clit, your hips chasing the touch as he rubbed a few deeper circles on the sensitive bud before pulling his hand away entirely. “and you’re going to sit there,” he pointed to the large circular chair in the corner that doubled as a little bed with how it was like a huge beanbag with all of the blankets and pillows piled on top of it, “and watch how i get to have a taste and make our princess feel good. if you’re a good boy, maybe i’ll even let you clean her up after i have a round with her.”

another whimper escaped jake’s lips, but this time it was softer, and maybe even a touch submissive. if one of you loved following every command heeseung gave, it was jake. you could see the fluffy-haired man’s pupils dilating as he kept watching you and the man that stood in front of him, and they fluttered shut for a moment when heeseung guided him by the shoulder, pressing down lightly to make him sit down.

the tents in both of their pants were just growing more and more obvious, and it was just making you more and more wet as the thoughts of what was to come flashed through your mind. jake was already shirtless, the hoodie that he’d been wearing for the past couple of hours tugged off the moment your lips met his on the couch earlier, and heeseung was unbuttoning his own shirt as he walked slowly towards the bed, stripping it off with a seductive look in his eyes.

his lips met yours in a gentle kiss at first, pulling away for a second afterwards but meeting them back again a lot more messily this time. it didn’t take long for you to begin moaning softly into his mouth, your tongue chasing his in a delicate dance of passion as heeseung leaned over you.

finally, he separated his lips from yours, the both of you breathless as your chest heaved up and down, taking in all of that oxygen that you’d deprived your body of during the passionate kissing. a look to the corner of the room where jake was revealed that the other man was sitting there and panting too, just watching with large eyes as you and heeseung gave each other’s bodies languid attention.

heeseung chuckled at the sight of his boyfriend, all worked up over just watching you and him kissing. “seems like you’ve been good so far puppy, but let’s see if you can continue to behave. you can touch over your underwear but you can’t do anything else.”

jake nodded shakily, exhaling a deep breath at being praised and finding out that he could at least offer his aching length at least a little bit of relief. even a little bit of pressure felt good at this point.

but heeseung wasn’t teasing and drawing things out anymore. he gave one more smirk in jake’s direction before climbing back off the bed, dropping slowly to his knees on the plush carpet as he dragged your hips to the edge of the bed, setting your legs on his shoulders right before he dived in.

you and jake let out a loud whimper at the first touch of his tongue against you, flicking against your clit a few times before sliding down to lave over your hole and slurp up all of the juices that were dripping from your pussy. that first moment where you felt one of their mouths on you would never fail to send an incredible pang of pleasure through your core, feeling incredibly better than you always expected it to be.

“mmh,” you moaned softly, as heeseung continued to almost make out with your pussy, alternating between kissing and licking at your entrance and sucking and flicking your sensitive clit. your hands tangled in his hair after a particularly euphoric swirl of his tongue, and you could feel him smile against you in satisfaction as you kept him pressed to your pussy.

the loud one was jake at first, letting out all kinds of whines and moans as he watched heeseung continue to savor eating you out with wet sounds that echoed through the small room, but soon you were the one with sharp gasps escaping from your mouth, breaths coming closer and closer together as you continued to be pleasured.

as heeseung kept licking and sucking away, you could feel yourself getting closer and closer to your peak, the knot in your stomach coiling tighter and tighter as his mouth worked at your core. your eyes began to roll back a little bit, thighs tensing and abs clenching as your head tilted back, all in preparation for falling over the edge of your orgasm and coming all over heeseung’s mouth. or, at least you thought you were about to, until he pulled away right before your peak crested over.

you let out a little sob, quickly quieting the noise when you remembered through your pleasure-filled haze that if you were completely good and perfect that maybe you’d get to have the orgasm that you so desperately wanted to feel. yet another glance towards jake let you notice that he was pouting at the fact that heeseung had pulled away too, always enjoying the sight of you coming, but you both knew that he preferred to be the one doing it. after all, he wouldn’t have pulled away right before you orgasmed. instead, he’d still be licking away, sending you into shocks of overstimulation until you’d have to push him away because you were so sensitive.

“don’t worry princess,” heeseung cooed softly, fingers stroking your hair gently as a soft smile appeared on his face, mouth and chin shining with your slick. “i promise i’m going to make you feel extra good, especially since you’ve been such a good girl for me and jakey.”

you clenched at the praise, letting out a relieved sob as he ducked down and returned to his spot between your legs, this time running his fingers over you, collecting your wetness that helped him to slide his fingertips along your folds. the pads of his fingers rubbed over your clit a few times before returning back down to your entrance, pressing lightly over the fluttering hole before sliding one in, knuckles rubbing along your sensitive inner walls in a way that just had you craving more.

“that better, sweetheart?” heeseung asked, eyes sparkling with delight as he looked up at you, watching as he slowly wrecked you more and more. you responded with a shaky nod and a whimper before you threw your head back at the feeling of heeseung sliding a second finger inside of you alongside the one that was already there and rubbing up against the spot nestled there that made your legs start to shake and stars start to appear at the edge of your vision.

as he continued to pump his fingers in and out of you, heeseung returned to sucking at the sensitive bud at the top of your folds, making gasps and moans erupt from your mouth as you got closer and closer to that peak that you were wanting to fall off of.

when he could tell that you were getting close, heeseung detached his mouth from your clit, still steadily pressing his fingers into you at the pace that he knew you loved, making sure to rub against that spongy spot that helped you closer and closer to your orgasm and replacing his mouth with his thumb to rub tight circles against your throbbing nub.

“jakey…” he called out to the other man, wanting to draw his attention from the desperate rubbing that he was doing against his erection where it was pulsing and leaking through his underwear. “how about you come over here and hold our princess’s hand while she cums. that way you can watch the way i make her feel good up close.”

the man in question scrambled up, eyes locked on your face as he stumbled over to the side of the bed, moving to stand to the right of where heeseung was on his knees between your legs. you scrabbled for jake’s hand with a shaky move of the arm that had previously been gripping onto the sheets for dear life and squeezed once you had laced your fingers together, feeling comforted at the contact for a moment before the pleasure overtook you again.

“ohmigod ohmigod,” you whimpered as you could feel yourself creeping upon that cusp of your peak, one hand gripping heeseung’s hair in a firm hold and the other doing the same for jake’s hand. your legs began shaking again like they had just before heeseung had pulled away the time before, heels trembling as they dug into the skin of heeseung’s back. you started gasping softly, eyes beginning to roll to the back of your head as your vision began to shine white, the knot in your stomach coiled so tight that it was about to rip apart entirely.

“that’s it princess,” heeseung mumbled against your clit, eyes darkened in lust as he watched the look of absolute satisfaction wash upon your face. “go on, come for us.” one more flick of his tongue and rub of his fingers against that soft spot inside of you pushed you over, letting out a loud whine and then a series of soft moans as the pleasure just washed over you in intense waves, pussy pulsing around heeseung’s fingers as he kept gently moving them and lapping at your clit to gently work you through your orgasm.

it took you a few moments before you returned back to yourself after your orgasm, letting the white fade from your vision and the ringing in your ears quiet before opening your eyes to see jake’s wide-blown pupils and chest falling up and down like yours was right now.

“god you’re so hot baby,” he groaned, leaning over you to press his lips to your in a desperate, messy kiss. once he pulled away lips swollen and panting breaths being let out of his mouth, you let out a satisfied little giggle, smiling up at jake.

“she is, isn’t she,” heeseung mused, having already stood up from where he’d been kneeling on the ground for some time and grabbing you by your hips gently but firmly, dragging you so that you laid fully on the bed now. but before he set your head back down on the pillows to finish what he’d started, he gestured to jake, who was half kneeling on the bed and half standing beside it. “take those off and then come sit behind her so that she can lean on you.”

jake scrambled to do as he’d been asked, stripping out of the black briefs that had a wet spot on the front from where precum had been leaking out of his tip and climbing up onto the bed behind you. once he leaned back against the headboard and the few pillows behind his back, heeseung set your back against his chest, tugging you down by the hips a little bit where you were laying in jake’s lap, caged by his legs.

that devious looking smirk that both of you knew meant heeseung was scheming just a little bit was on the older man’s face as he settled between your legs, having shed his own briefs while jake was too. it was clear that one or both of you was about to be up for something, and you two realized exactly what just a moment later.

unfortunately for jake, you weren’t the one that heeseung was planning on tormenting tonight. it was truly a night for him to watch, and he pouted once more upon the realization.

“now princess,” heeseung addressed you, “you can do whatever you want while i fuck you. jakey here can only watch and let you grind against him if he wants to get off. no touching for him.” he just reiterated it in a harsher tone once his gaze flicked up to the other man’s. “i mean it when i say she can grind, but that’s however she wants to. i’m just going to fuck her like i normally do, and if the momentum is good enough for you to get off, then it is. no trying to hump against her when she’s not even moving. and i did mean it when i said that if you’re a good boy you can clean her up after i’m done.”

jake’s eyes rolled into the back of his head with a groan at the mental image of getting to bury his face between your legs to clean up you and heeseung’s combined juices. but to be able to do that, he just had to stick through you moaning and rubbing back against him and watching as heeseung had his way with you. he could do it. all he had to think about was the dripping pussy that he would get to eat as a reward for being good.

once more paying attention to you, heeseung stroked himself once or twice, lightly tapping his head against your clit and chuckled darkly as he heard your light moan from the action. he stared deep into your eyes as he guided himself downwards to press against your entrance, the mushroom-shaped head of him getting sucked into the warm, wet hole as he pushed in gently, you gasping at the feeling of becoming full.

all three of you moaned as heeseung pressed deeper and deeper, eventually bottoming out with a slick sound as his hips pressed against you. there was a moment’s pause for you to adjust, like there always was when either of them fucked you, but after that, it was all a quick pace that made your toes start to curl as heeseung kept hitting a spot that made you see stars when he thrust in.

the wet sound of skin slapping and moans filled the room, the three of you falling so far into the pleasure that you were giving one another that the time seemed to stop and it was only what was happening now that was going on.

the knot in your stomach had slowly and slowly begun to coil up again, getting ever so tighter with each deep thrust from heeseung into your dripping pussy. you were just laying there in bliss, like the pillow princess you loved being when you were doing exactly what heeseung asked of you, wrapped up in jake’s arms as your head leaned back against him and you kept making short bursts of eye contact with him, the pleasure causing your eyelashes to keep fluttering as your eyes rolled back.

jake wasn’t suffering nearly as bad as he thought he would be, waves of pleasure coursing through him at just the sight of you and your face as your boyfriend made you feel like you were in bliss. the rocking of your body against him at least giving him some sort of pressure against his aching dick.

“hee–” you gasped, body trembling as your hands scrabbled against his abs, not doing hardly anything to stop the intense rhythm that he was fucking you with. you started tensing up, getting closer and closer to coming yet again and just anticipating the feeling of your eyes rolling back as you cried out from absolute pleasure.

he didn’t even slow down his pace one bit as he responded to you in a teasing tone. “about to come again princess? jakey, why don’t you rub her clit for me? you know how to when she’s right about to clench on me and make those pretty noises.”

jake obliged the older man eagerly once more, snaking a hand down to your mound, where his fingers easily grew slick and he began rubbing tight, quick circles on your clit with two fingers.

the combined pressure of heeseung pounding into you and the feeling of your sensitive bud being stimulated was just too much for you to hang on much longer, and your legs trembled even more than they already had been before you let go, a loud cry coming from you as you saw white, head tipping back and pussy clenching down hard onto heeseung’s length, which slowed to a bit of a milder pace within you to let you ride out the fluttering of your pussy.

that, in turn, triggered heeseung’s own orgasm, his cock pumping rope after rope of warm cum inside of you, painting your walls as you laid boneless in jake’s arms, the other boy’s dick still throbbing underneath you as he eagerly watched both of you reach your peaks. the loud moan that he let out when he finished coming made you clench down on him lightly again, and heeseung extracted himself from between your legs with a groan.

and now that both of you had finished, jake took it upon himself to do the one thing that he’d been promised since he was good. you were quickly held up so that jake could slip out from under you, heeseung taking his spot without a word and stroking your hair lightly as you laid in his lap, still tired from the two orgasms that you’d already had.

another loud gasp cut from your throat when jake attached his mouth to your pussy slurping and licking up all of the fluids that had slowly begun to drip out of you. there was just something about the combined taste of you and heeseung that was just so delectable, and jake’s favorite thing to do after a round was clean you up like this. even if it was his own cum that he was eating out of you.

the messy licks and lapping at your pussy, along with the overstimulation of getting eaten out again after having two orgasms, brought you to your crest quickly, pussy fluttering lightly around jake’s tongue as the mind-numbing pleasure left you senseless in heeseung’s arms.

jake bounded up quickly after he finished licking you, hand pumping himself in short jerks, clearly having been quite worked up just from watching and finally getting to eat your pussy. he reached his own orgasm a few moments later, warm ropes of his cum landing across your stomach and chest as you just laid there, exhausted.

the three of you took a few moments to catch your breaths before heeseung gently lifted you up, allowing himself to get off the bed so that he could pick you up and carry you to the bathroom, jake following behind closely.

the rest of it was all sort of fuzzy to you, still in that post-coital haze as you used the bathroom and then let your boyfriends give you a little bath before drying you off and dressing you in one of your comfortable pajama sets. you just sort of hovered there, letting them take care of you after such an intense night and then allowing them to lead you back to the bed, where the sheets had already been switched to fresh ones that were dry of any bodily fluids.

heeseung pulled the covers back as jake helped to tuck you into the middle of the bed, the older climbing in on your right side and the younger on your left. you just snuggled in, comforted by the feeling of your boyfriends curled around you in the bed.

and just before you drifted off, you caught what heeseung whispered into the darkness of the bedroom.

“i think next time, we should let jake have some attention. after all, he was such a good boy tonight.”

divider credits to @strangergraphics and @leilakittya

© seungsoftly 2025 please do not copy, repost, or translate

divider credits to @cafekitsune and @enchanthings-a

© seungsoftly 2025 please do not copy, repost, or translate