Author's pov:
The sky roared in agony sending chills down the spines of the spectators who raised their heads, watching it dull further in gloom. Just like the snap of the fingers, it began pouring cats and dogs.
The pit in Y/N's chest dropped even further, her heart hammering, anxiety taking over her entire being. She didn't know why she felt a pang in her chest watching the downpour, a question ringing in her ears.
What do you weep for?
Noticing her going rigid, Jungkook kept a hand to her shoulder making her flinch. "Are you alright?" he asked, concern weighing down his eyebrows. "Do you not feel well?" he added, watching the colour drain away from her face, a dull, pale, cold skin left behind.
She stays silent, mostly due to a lump forming at the back of her throat. Her conscious has already warned her about something going very wrong but what could be the possibilities of it being so numbing? The sickening feeling was so deep and creeping, she hadn't even told him the thing for which she ran through the entire castle. As she lifted her hand to gently place it on her chest, she noticed it shaking. Softly grazing her cold fingers right above the heart, she took a shaky breath. "I feel torn."
Yuki ties the horse to a tree, far away from the eyes of the royal soldiers. The rain just kept on worsening, so she chose a big shady tree to secure the horse. Giving it a few pats she starts taking slow and calculated steps towards the camping area. Even though she wore the same uniform as them, with the rain making it difficult to directly look at a person and also covering up the trail of footprints she left behind, she still didn't want to take any chances.
She slowly begins to cut the thorny fences, laying flat on the ground. It consumes so much time that her arms begin to feel sour after staying stiff in the air. After ensuring enough space to pass through the gaps, she crawls like a caterpillar, the armour making it way more difficult.
Standing up straight, she tries to act normal and not flinch away when a soldier passes by or nodding at her. She blended well with the mud and dirt from before being washed away by the rain.
She maintains a safe distance from what she believed to be Taehyung's tent which was significantly different from the others. She'd witness tribals after every few meters, the women and childern trembling and wailing through the suffering and heartbreak of watching their houses being smashed to nothing but pieces and broken parts.
"Yah! Get the bodies ready." A yell from a guard catches her attention.
What bodies?
She decides to follow the men into a small tent. The pitter patter of the rain droplets on the tent sheets echoed everywhere. She stops in her tracks to see four human bodies covered with a white cloth. "What are you doing there!? Standing like a statue! Get to work." He yells at Yuki who stood glued to her spot.
She quickly snaps out and begins to follow whatever the other guy was doing. "Euk! I don't want to do this. This one smells like pee." He whines loudly.
"I know, right!" The other huffs. "I still feel goosebumps remembering how brutally King Taehyung slashed his neck." Yuki stills, not being able to believe whatever he just said. It felt unreal. Even though Taehyung wasn't the bestest of the siblings, he was the nicest amongst them. "Hey, you. Bind their hands and feet together, we'll come and check in a minute." He orders and quickly fleas with the other eagerly wanting to run away from the task.
Yuki sighs and bites her inner cheek. Having lived a terrible life didn't mean she was used to such terrible sights. These were dead people, probably innocent who just fell prey to a fragile man's wrath. The smell of blood mixed with their own fowl scents that they must have developed on living underground with no proper care, made her want to gag.
She shakes her head, mustering up strength to just get this over with and look for the person she was here for. Another lightening strikes hard before an ear ringing thunderclap echoes. A blow of cold wind makes the tent flutter hard. The thin white sheets covering the bodies come off in a blink.
A squeak leaves her mouth as she tries to run after the sheets. As she grabs hold of one, her foot slips due to the wet mud on the pads and falls onto her knees. Quickly holding onto the platform where the bodies layed, she steadied herself. The cold metal pricked at her bare knees earning a low hiss from her. Annoyed, she crumbles the sheet between her gloved hands, throwing it on the body nearest to her. The sheet flutters along the wind making her look up at it with a glare. "To hell with this!" She curses under her breath, immediately thinking of discarding the job given to her and just find Hoseok so they could just leave as soon as possible without getting detected.
Holding the platform, she begins to stand up but abruptly stops-a better word- freezes. From the corner of her left eye, she gets a glimpse of a very familiar brunette hair. Hands going weak, she drops to her knees with a thud as she sat still, frozen. When did turning your head become so hard? Cause she couldn't bring herself to turn. It felt physically impossible to just fucking turn!! It wasnt that hard, it didnt even require much effort but she refused to look anywhere else but straight ahead at the fluttering tent sheets. Maybe she had just assumed the worst and it wasn't him, it could be anyone else. There were a ton of men out there with the same hair colour...but why did she suddenly feel scared? Why did her chest feel so heavy with pain, heavy with such a crushing weight she wanted the earth to consume her?
He wasn't even related to her, damn it, he was one of the least likable personalities in her books, she had nothing but indifference to give him yet the thought of turning and witnessing what she was afraid of felt like the worst of her nightmares. If it was indifference she felt towards him, she wouldn't even feel the negative emotions that were chewing at her will, hell, she wouldn't even be here, disguised as a soldier trying to get him out safe and sound.
Holding onto a very thin thread of hope, she finally turns. The thread snaps into two the very next second, the impact of it so strong it renders her speechless, motionless, like a hollow shell, just like what he had become.
She stays numb for a long minute before the gravity of the situation tugs at her heartstrings so hard, a pained gasp leaves her throat, knees weakening to the point she holds onto the platform to stay stable.
Skin pale yellow, colder than the isolated walls of her chambers, deep dark hollows under his eyes, lips dried like a resin shrinking in saturated salt water, bruises on the forehead and the lower lip. Despite the storm he went past to become that weak version of his strong self, there was a peacefulness on his face she couldn't quite understand.
Out of all the possibilities, this wasn't even close to what she had anticipated while on her way here. She was absolute that she'd get him out of there, her resolve so strong that it didn't even cross her mind how unlucky she actually was. A black sheep. How could she even think her wanting to do something would actually make it happen? But damn it, it hurt.
Why was this hurting so much?
Why wasn't she able to picture a possibility of him dying even before she reached there? Cause you didn't want him to die, not even in your imagination, a voice speaks in her head.
But there he was, lying lifeless. His eyes weren't narrowing down on her in wittiness, his lips weren't moving to throw an absurd remark at her, his head wasnt tilting to the side in mock. The things that she resented about him, why was she suddenly wishing for them to happen?
"H-hoseok?" The name felt foreign to her lips. She always called him names, 'you swine', 'you peasant', 'soldier'. Never once she addressed him with his rightful name, not even when she was alone in her room with her mind filled with the thoughts of this man. She felt scared to acknowledge him, for deep down she knew she get attached in some sort of way. Even if that attachment involved nothing but bickering and fights. Even though they had a relation of spiteful enemies, still they had a relation.
How funny, the first time she calls him by his name so softly without any sort of despise or hate, he wasn't even alive to hear it.
"Hoseok?" Her gloves were long gone along with her helmet, as her hands lingered near his face, wanting to wake him up, this entire thing to be a prank he usually pulled at her. Her hands shook, not having enough courage to touch his skin. She had never touched him before.
Taking in a distorted breath, she clears his forehead off the hair flicks fallen from the blow of the wind. "H-hoseok?" Her lips trembled when his cold skin touched her's. She hovered above him, looking intently, wanting to catch any sort of movement he made. None. "Don't p-play with me, y-you pig." Her hand fit perfectly to the swell of his cheek as she caressed it softly.
Eyes going south, she notices the handprint on his neck. The burning mark still lay fresh and warm. Face morphing into a tired frown, she caresses the mark delicately, as if, putting force would hurt him. "How cruel." Her view blurs with unshed tears, eyes finding their way back to his face.
It felt like a personal loss. It hurt more than the abandonment she faced throughout the years, it stabbed at her chest so hard that the pain and hurt cause a hot tear to run down her cheek and fall onto his.
She didn't like this man, absolutely resented him, hated him from the bottom of her heart yet she never wished upon his death. He was good at heart, more pure than a white lotus that it made her feel like a spiny thorn of evil. He tested her patience through and through yet was the only person who saw her, noticed her, the real her. She wasn't invisible to him. She didn't have to put in effort to make him notice her.
"Please, w-wake up." One long tear turns into two, three, four and before she knew she wails like a child. "I'm h-ere to t-take you back. I'm h-here to t-take you to your s-sister. Get up, l-lets go, please." Nose gets clogged as she breaths through her mouth.
Tired, she rests her forehead against his. All the memories of him flash before her eyes like a film. Never in her dreams she thought those will become precious to her, the times he made her blood boil and shout like a maniac while he chuckles or laughs to see her helpless.
"Hoseok." She doesn't question him, there is no uncertainty, just an air of acceptance and embrace filling her lungs as she calls his name with finality. Placing a tender kiss on his closed eye, she stands up on her feet, but not before whispering the words that she meant and was grateful for from the bottom of her heart. "Thank you for giving me a purpose."
***