K.TH || PRINCE CHARMING

ᑕᕼᗩᑭTEᖇ TᗯEᑎTY-OᑎE

Nothing but white noise.

Confirming that the coast is clear, I slip out of the room and into the dark hallways. All candles have been put out, like night lights for kids, which are turned off once they fall asleep to save resources.

Definitely efficient in the grand scheme of things, but dreadfully inconvenient for me now for providing me with little to no visibility.

The moonlight provides me with enough light when I'm around the widows, but the dorm hall has none.

I'm forced to either hold on to the wall like a sick maiden seeking support or walk with my arms outstretched like I'm possessed.

I choose the first.

I set out, and I immediately freeze.

Is this how we took it when Yeji and Jisoo escorted me to breakfast? Wasn't it the other way around?

I spin around and head off in the opposite direction but freeze again after a few paces.

This can't be right; it was definitely the other way.

I head back to my original route.

Another pause.

No, it had to have been the other way.

I realize that I'm going nowhere and getting nothing down.

With a restless huff, I spin on my heel and commit to one direction—the right. A nagging feeling tells me I'm going the wrong way, but I ignore it.

I'd probably get the same feeling again if I turned around and enter another cycle of flipping directions.

Bracing my hand on the cold stone wall, I walk alongside it in the darkness.

Because of how quiet it is, my breathing and cotton-covered feet rustle against the floor and bounce off the wall obnoxiously loud. I let out a parched cough due how dry the air is and nearly scare myself with how loud it sounded.

If I didn't know any better about how sound works, I would have thought I had woken someone up.

Eventually, I leave the dark halls and end up in the familiar passage full of windows and polished marble floors, the same route I took with the girls.

A sense of relief washes over me, and I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.

I let my gaze linger on the massive windows, which still have a lot of natural light pooling in. I thought it looked beautiful in the morning, but it was a different level at night.

It made the castle seem enchanted.

The pale moonlight highlights tiny specks of dust dancing about in the air, making them look like white bouts of pixie dust falling mythically. The light illuminates the glossy floor, somehow distracting me from the cold of it under my feet. The layers of socks can only do so much.

At the end of the hall is a familiar oak door; I understand that beyond it is a long winding staircase that takes me a few levels down to be on the same floor as the dining room.

The only difference was that it was open before; now, it stands firmly shut, with the door rapper glistening in the light.

My stomach growls one more, urging me to hurry, and who am I to deny myself the desires of my flesh?

I pick up my pace, doing so comfortably now that I can see.

The size of the gargantuan door alone makes it impossible for me to pull it open from the handle.