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warning: some cursing
<<<
choi yeonjun pushed through the crowds at the marketplace, making sure to send a small wink to his friend, beomgyu—who was a palace guard helping his parents sell bread at the market for the day. he frowned in response, not surprised. so that was where the shouting was coming from.
the guards that were chasing him came soon after on his tail. beomgyu was a little concerned for his friend—who usually took bread from his parent's bakery without charge. the thing was that no one really minded; he was charming, cunning like a fox.
quick like one too, evidently, because he lost them in the forest. but he was distracted by one of the many wanted posters that was stapled onto a tree trunk.
"shit! they can't get my lips right!"
it was true. in the drawing, his lips were as thin as a line. picking up another on the floor, his yelled in frustration. he swears they do this on purpose.
in the next drawing his lips took up half of his face. he was offended, really. they didn't catch much of his handsomeness in his opinion and he felt it to be plain wrong.
when he heard the shouts come closer and hear someone yell "right there!", he bolted, the piece of paper left flying behind him. he lost them again—like always. bringing a hand to the brown side bag at his waist, he checked to see if it was there and sighed in relief when it was.
thirty minutes ago.
it was shiny. yeonjun appreciates shiny things—they're usually expensive.
he teamed up with na jaemin, another person looking for a good amount of money who he literally left and betrayed by taking the crown for himself. he too had a good amount of wanted signs with his face on it. yeonjun didn't know what he was getting into.
lowering down from a rope through a hole in the ceiling, yeonjun waited until he had gotten close enough to reach and grab it from its display case.
the missing princess' crown, remaining unused, was in a glass case that was easily opened from the top. they didn't think they needed anything else—there were so many guards making sure no one got the chance to steal it.
who would have thought. but when they recognized who the thief was, it was no longer much of a surprise.
he's kind of an idiot, but for some miraculous reason:
choi yeonjun just pulls it off.
leaning back on what was supposed to be a vine covered rock, he fell through—taking him by surprise— and landing on the other side of a small crook in the forest. even though he had run into these same woods more times than he could count, he realized he had never seen this part.
one reason being the tall stone tower in the middle of the small circle that was backed by a huge mountain. it looked like a cage almost. and he definitely would remember if he saw that. he was curious.
like a normal person would, he climbed the old stone tower using the knives he carried around as picks. all he was expecting was a creepy abandoned room with winding crumbly stairs, but he was surprised.
"woah," he said to himself, looking around at the large painted murals that adorned the walls. the comforting, warm smell of lavender and firewood filled the air.
as he continued to study each intricately detailed painting, a girl was scared out of her wits in the closet of her bedroom, smothered by both her clothes and silver hair—which she had desperately bunched in her arms when she heard noises. hiding amidst getting ready to cook, she still clutched the pan in her hands. she was home alone—her mother had left a couple hours before for a three day trip to the special violin maker she was going to get her upcoming birthday present at.
her heart was in her throat and she was having a hard time swallowing it back.
"soobin!" she exclaimed, voice hushed and panicked. "what are we going to do?!"
the little bunny the size of her hand sat next to her, the crack of light from where the doors didn't shut entirely illuminating only one of his big dark eyes. he blinked twice.
"what do mean murder him before he murders me?!!"
<<<
yeonjun on the other hand, was still admiring the intricately and beautifully colored paintings. whoever made these was talented.
or lonely. maybe a bit of both.
hwang yeji lived in that tower with her mother and has never left. not once. like the good daughter she was—or what her mother defined a "good daughter" to be. it was the only life she knew. but what she really wanted, though, was to see the world and more specifically, the lights.
the most eye-catching painting was the lanterns, he recognized immediately when he saw it. to him, they weren't special in the least. the only significance they had was to celebrate the missing princess' birthday.
but to her, it was. she never failed to miss them—the view outside her window of the glowing lights that spread into the dark sky like it always had on her birthday. if she didn't have a book on astronomy, she would have thought they were stars. maybe the world isn't as bad as her mother made it out to be if there was something as beautiful as that out there, she figured. and her birthday was in two days, also considering the fact that her mother had yelled at her for suggesting it again...
yeji had an idea. a bad one? potentially. but life changing?
absolutely.
crawling out slowly and as quiet as possible, she peeked from the doorway, still clutching the pan. from there, she got a glimpse of him, recognizing him immediately. yeji froze where she crouched.
her mother had brought back a wanted sign from the forest to show her an example of how horrible the world was after very harshly refusing her request to go outside and see the lights for herself. she sneaked over to open a drawer and pull it out, comparing—his lips were different. the reward for his head was five hundred thousand. that meant he was dangerous, she thought—but he didn't look that dangerous in her opinion. he had features that she found cute like his cheeks and eyes. he reminded her of the little fox that she saw outside her window sometimes, except that his hair was a vibrant blue.
as she looked at the sign, she didn't notice him approach her deadly quietly. it startled her to no end when she looked up to see him towering over her.
yeji screamed in his face and in response, he screamed in hers. out of panic, she swung the pan and it connected to the side of his face, knocking him out before he could dodge.
