Cowardly Warrior | Taehyung ✔

Equal

I'm left all alone in my carriage.

I rub my eyes which were drenched with tears.

Suga was angry at me. Suga didn't want to speak with me ever again.

Suga was the only person to know that my identities of Aman and Amira were the same person. He knew that I was a female royal pretending to be a peasant boy.

He could easily expose who I truly was, and I'd never be allowed outside of the palace walls again. Heck, I'd be bordered in my own bedroom until after I was married and had kids.

If Suga revealed my identity to the entire world, I wouldn't even be angry. It serves me right. I deserve it.

But I still had to represent my academy. I won't give up just yet.

I completely wash my makeup off and put on my Haden's Academy uniform.

I looked at the reflection in the bucket of water, and observe my determined expression paired with my swollen eyes and bronze skin.

I will fight until the end.

Travelling a secret tunnel from my carriage, I was able to arrive at the arena field in one piece, without anyone questioning me.

All of the participants were wearing masks, because the royals had to disguise themselves alongside the peasants.

We were randomly assigned numbers because the royals and rich didn't want to be referenced with their real name. The protection of their identity was prioritized.

I'm waiting in one of the lines. I recognize Jin in his mask, who's three lines away from me. He sees me and mouths the words "What happened?" and gestures to Suga, whose expression was as hard as rock and avoids my gaze.

"I'll tell you later!" I tell him. At least I had Jin. For now.

"Contestant 349 VS 51," someone finally announces.

Contestant 349. That's me.

I walk to the center of the field. There's a panel of judges to the side and crowds of people watching us from a safe distance.

I glance up to the right and find the grand balcony, perched high up. There's Chinua.. the Queen.. the King... then, I find my father looking right at me.

I abruptly look away, afraid he'd recognize me if we made eye contact.

Finally, my opponent arrives and approaches me.

"Rules: You must knock out the other opponent outside of the circle using either hands or legs. Two minutes limited to each of the three rounds. No weapons or foul play," the referee instructs.

No weapons. Of course, the King was here and we were all examined for weapons before we were let into the arena. The King barely was outside of the palace and his safety was the most important.

I finally observe my masked opponent. The tall, broad frame, bronze skin blessed from the sun, piercing gaze .. Wait! Was this-

"3..2..1!" A gong was finally hit.

My opponent does a rapid set of kicks and I avoid them all.

"Oh, it's you Aman!" He recognizes me. "This should be fun."

"Sky," I finally say, catching my breath.

"Guess we finally meet again," He bows.

"Yeah. Didn't know it'd be so soon." I bow back, mockingly.

"I expected it," He grins, like he knew everything he needed to know about me.

"Well, it's a small world. Small kingdom." I swung left, then right. He dodged both lunging blows, rolled to the right, raised his arm to parry another attack.