✓ the hooded princess • kim seungmin

t w e l v e

She pulled out the key while Seungmin slowly twisting the door knob with his arm in front of her, in case if someone or something from inside jumps on her. At that moment she ignored his hatred towards the guy and let him did it.

As soon as he opened it, he noticed a huge unknown black machine in front of him and it started to grumble when he pushed the door open.

In a flash, Eunkyung could feel her body was pushed aside and she almost stumbled back but Seungmin managed to catch her. They somehow landed on the ground and a loud sound of a bow releasing went passed behind him.

She was too shocked that everything registered when she realised Seungmin was over her, wincing. And she noticed his hand was slightly trembling against her wrist.

"Oh my god," she breathed out while pushing him off her slowly. The arrow got stuck in the tree trunk. "Did... did you hurt anywhere?" she didn't know what to do. The thing could have killed the guy if he didn't see the machine and was not fast enough to move away.

Seungmin couldn't say a word. The grip on her wrist tightened as he closed his eyes, thinking of the possibilities that could happen earlier.

"S-seungmin?" worry washed over her. "Oh god I shouldn't have brought you here. Let's return."

"I'm okay." he carefully got up and pulled the princess along. They brushed off the dirt from their clothes and hands. Eunkyung was contemplating whether she should go on or return to her family. Worse, she had no idea what was waiting inside the house.

The door was left ajar. Carefully, she walked in, trying not to hit anything with Seungmin following behind her.

"All is just the same," she said. "The only thing that changed was that thing." she pointed to the arrow machine that has strings attached to the door.

"When was the last time you visit here?"

"More than one month ago, I think." she went to one of the rooms and was about to open it but hesitated.

On the other hand Seungmin was looking around. The living room only has two couches that seemed too old and dusty. The interior design of the house was an open design so he could see the dining room, the kitchen and the back door on the left side. At the other side there were three doors, one of them being the toilet.

He noticed the girl stood still in front of a door which he assumed would be the bedroom. Though there's fear remained in him, he pulled the girl aside and opened the door.

Luckily there's nothing coming through. Both of them went in.

The room was so small. There's only one bed, a one sided shelf that could be used as a wardrobe and a small bedside table.

"What are we doing here actually?" he finally asked the question that had been playing in his mind ever since he came here. Eunkyung still didn't tell him the reason why he had to tag along.

For you to prove to me.

"For this." she pulled out a bundle of papers from the drawer. Seungmin coughed at the dust that greeted his nose and frowned.

"What's that?"

"The reports." The guy leaned in to see the handwriting of an adult scattered on the papers. He had to pinch his nose as Eunkyung flipped the papers and dust kept flying around. "The reporters wrote all of this as an update but never get to submit it to the King. So they passed it to me."

"Why didn't you give the King?" he asked genuinely curious.

She sighed, "I told you I can't. They will find out I've been sneaking out here. And the last reporter was sick before being killed," she went to the last page and saw the date, "Two months ago."