The Queen and her National Treasure

Chapter 9

Third person's POV

The Queen shot up from her seat, she slams the table angrily, 'What? Why? Who did it? Who dared to lose my bird? I gotta...' She yells,

'It was... me.' Mina answers in her tiny voice, her tears are starting to fall upon seeing how angry the Queen got,

'Huh?' Chaeyoung wants a confirmation,

Mina glances up at The Queen to check how angry she is at the moment before repeating, 'Your Majesty, it was... me. I... lost Blue Thunder.'

'You did?' Chaeyoung asks once more while starting to slowly walk down to where Mina is kneeling,

Mina is now sobbing hard, 'Yes, Your Majesty. Because... Blue Thunder didn't eat his food, so I thought he was unwell. I had him out of the cage to check on him but then he flapped his wings, wanted to fly away. I held onto his feet but he just scratched my hands and flew away.' She tells Chaeyoung the whole story between her sniffles,

The Queen is now right in front of Mina, she crouches down and just stares at the girl for a long while. The anger when she first thought someone lost Blue Thunder, the sad feelings when she knew from now on, she won't be able to see her favourite pet any more... all those feelings suddenly turned so insignificant compared to the way her heart hurts seeing how much Mina is crying with the fear is clearly written on that innocent face, the fear that she might have made the most powerful person of the whole Kingdom very upset,

Without a word, Chaeyoung reaches her hand over and wipes the tears away for Mina, despite the fact that there are still many guards and maids present in this room. She scans Mina's body with concerns because the girl is shaking a little, probably because of what Head Court Lady Nayeon told her about what happened to the maid who starved Blue Thunder on purpose. And soon enough, the Queen notices the cane which Mina is holding tightly with both of her hands,

'Why are you holding a cane?' Chaeyoung asks,

'Your Majesty, it was... my fault that you lost your favourite pet. I... deserve a punishment.' Mina speaks through her tears while bringing the cane up with the gesture of offering it to Chaeyoung with both of her hands,

The Queen is a little surprised at that action, she didn't expect this at all. Well, she has never seen anyone done this before, not until this adorable and gorgeous girl here in front of her who decided to go with such a risky move, because offering a cane to someone who is angry is like jumping straight into the blazing fire. But at the same time, Chaeyoung has to admit that it's such a clever move too, there were no words being spoken, but she can clearly read the reason why Mina does this. The girl wants to say that she's sorry, but she didn't lose Blue Thunder on purpose, and that it was just an accident. Because there's absolutely no way anyone would purposely let the bird go, then run right over here with a cane and ask for punishment,

On top of that, with this little gamble that Mina dared enough to experiment it with the Queen herself, Chaeyoung can tell that eventhough Mina doesn't let it shows but on the inside, the girl is very confident about her own special spot in The Queen's heart. But what Mina doesn't know is that she not only has a spot in the great Queen's heart, but she also owns it, she owns that already smitten heart to the very core,

Chaeyoung tries her best to keep her poker face, she proceeds to take the cane from Mina's hands, 'Show me your hands. Both of them.' She commands,

Mina's already pouting lips are starting to shake a little, her diamond tears continue to fall upon thinking that her risky experimental move has failed miserably, and now she will be in for some pain by that very cane that she offered. Mina takes a glance at the Queen to have a final confirmation before slowly brings both of her hands up and show them to the Queen as told. She reluctantly has both of her palms straight opened while having her eyes tightly closed, can't bear to watch her own hands getting hit,