When Fates Collide | ATEEZ

𝕿𝖜𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖞 𝕿𝖍𝖗𝖊𝖊

"Advisor Kang, the King and a girl who I'm guessing is Princess Eunbyul." Yunho replied.

"Advisor Kang." She repeated his name as her eyes narrowed, "That bastard."

The three men looked at each other before looking back to Arae, surprise filling their eyes as they had never seen this side of the girl before, not to mention anyone regaining their composure from a traumatic event in such a short span of time. 

It was strange but she felt as if she already knew what had happened to the Prince and seeing his face again would only confirm her suspicions. She walked to the small screen in Yunho's house and tapped on it. It flickered once before turning on and revealed what seemed to be the Prince's speech looped on repeat on the Imperial Media's channel.

There he was. She thought as she ran her fingers over his face, a wrenching feeling twisting in her heart as she looked at his chest. She took a deep breath as the symbol met her eyes.

"What is it Arae?" Jongho asked as he walked up to his sister.

She kept her gaze fixed on the screen, "He's been cursed." She stated simply as she pointed to his chest. She knew that her brother wouldn't be able to see anything but she squinted her eyes anyway, "There are thorns wrapped around his heart. They're...piercing it." She felt her voice quiver as she described what she saw and her head twitched as the sharp pain raked through her skin once again.

"Just like my curse."

Her brother's eyes widened as he instinctively looked at her back, now knowing exactly what she meant.

She tore her eyes from the screen as she walked back to face the other two tall males.

"What about San and General Kim? Where are they?" She questioned as an uneasy feeling began to brew in her stomach.

Mingi sighed before taking his phone out and showing her a text message.

Get Arae out of the city. Get her somewhere safe.
He's coming after her.

Her brows furrowed as she read the message from her brother. She looked back up at Mingi who looked down at her with a hopelessness in his eyes, "I know what you're thinking, but you can't go back there Arae."

He sighed again as he slipped his phone back into his pocket, "This is too much even for us." He breathed out, "We can't break a curse. And we sure as hell can't kill Thanatos."

She didn't say anything but simply let her head hang low. Mingi was right. Despite her wanting to believe that this wasn't over, she knew that right now this was a battle they couldn't win. She hated it, but she needed to do what she swore she wouldn't do. She needed to run.

"You're right Mingi." She said finally, making the three males snap their gazes to her with wide eyes.

Her shoulders slumped, "There's nothing we can do now. There's no point in making it worse when there's no way we can get an advantage over him."

Mingi's eyes softened as he could hear the slight tremble in her voice. She was flaming with anger, but instead of acting out on it she was using it to clear her mind and rationalise the situation before them. Even in an impossibly infuriating scenario like this, Arae's mind was still stronger than her heart. And he couldn't help but admire her for it.  

"Then what should we do?" Jongho asked.

"We should listen to San-hyung's message." Yunho replied, "We need to get Arae out of here."

She looked at her friend before nodding slowly.

"I know where you'll be safe." Mingi said, making Arae give him a knowing look as she shook her head.