❛ 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 ❜ | jsc

16

aera was standing at the base of one of the watchtowers, waiting for renjun's shift to finish. he had promised to take her outside of the border to the pretty flower field on the other side and she had worn her best dress to match the tulips.

she was too preoccupied humming to herself to notice sungchan's soft steps towards her, but when she turned around, it was too late to run away and avoid any type of contact.

"aera..." sungchan brought out, his voice hoarse from the amount of crying he had done during the night. she couldn't help but notice his swollen eyes and his sunken expression.

she chose to ignore it.

"i'm sure there's a mistake, we're soulmates. the mark... it can't fade just like that." he pleaded with her, his hand clutching the place where the mark once was desperately.

aera wanted to hug him, she wanted to feel his embrace around her and feel reassured, but he was going to marry someone else, someone who he had proposed to himself. she knew he didn't love her and so she stood rigid.

"sungchan, it's no mistake. the mark disappears when soulmates don't love each other anymore. i don't think you ever loved me." the last part was spoken softly but sungchan still heard her clearly.

she turned away from him so that she could look up the watchtower. she was wondering what was taking renjun so long when a pair of arms snaked around her waist from behind and she felt sungchan's head rest on her shoulder.

"sungchan-" she started but he shook his head.

"aera just listen to my heart." he said and for once she listened to him. she stopped to listen to his heart but as soon as she stopped speaking, all she could hear was a squeaky, high-pitched voice as a certain princess made her way towards the ex-soulmates.

bom dropped the basket in her arms when she saw sungchan's arm around aera and she went a delicate shade of red.

as almost a sort of test, aera stayed completely silent. this was sungchan's last chance, she would see how he would handle this situation.

the arms around her waist were taken away and sungchan cleared his throat. "it's not what it looks like." he told bom and aera rolled her eyes.

aera's voice wasn't sad, she was used to sungchan disappointing her and so she just nodded along, "yup. we're friends nothing more."

bom cleared her throat. "good because i'm his soulmate."

aera's eyes widened when she heard that and sungchan lifted his head with a sharp movement, what on earth was she talking about?

bom lifted her sleeve and on her arm, there was a dove, much identical to the one that used to adorn aera's wrist.

sungchan lifted the wrist he was familiar with. "i don't have one bom."

bom smiled sweetly at him. "your other arm," she said with a sharp edge to her voice and indeed when sungchan lifted his other sleeve, there was a dove that was never there before.

it was at this moment that renjun chose to appear, his eyes and ears taking in the situation before him. he sighed, in utter disbelief that sungchan had to do something to break aera's heart every time he wasn't there. renjun went to aera's side and intertwined his hand with hers, bringing his other hand up to delicately move a strand of hair out of her face.

bom stared at aera and renjun and felt relieved. "i guess i didn't need to be so defensive, i'm sorry." she clearly thought that aera and renjun were soulmates.

aera couldn't speak. what was there to say at this point? she let renjun lead her away but didn't  fail to notice that sungchan's eyes followed her as she walked away.

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it had been an hour since the incident and renjun had sat reciting poems from his favorite book to aera since then. it was all in an effort to cheer her up and it worked. she had sat up and was now running around the field, trying to follow the butterflies that were startled by her laughter.

renjun had dozed off, something that rarely happened as he was usually alert in case anything happened to his love.

in that small moment, he heard a scream and he bolted up from his position. a group of bandits had stopped their horses and had surrounded aera, clearly pleased at seeing a beautiful noble girl outside of the borders.

renjun stood up and unsheathed his sword, running towards them, enraged at the sight of the bandit leader's hands on aera.

he was fighting but it was clear that he was going to lose. it was one against ten and most of the bandits weren't even fighting. they were watching in amusement as renjun struggled to dodge the attacks and he took one last look at aera's teary eyes before his sword was thrown out of his hands and lay in the grass across the field.

he was unarmed and the bandits laughed at him, one even kicking his injured body.

the bandit leader chuckled. "this your girlfriend or something?"

renjun spit on the ground and made the leader even more mad. "what's your name coward." renjun managed to say. "you can't even fight me yourself."

the bandit smirked. "it would take me five seconds to kill you if i was the one you fought. i'll tell you my name since you'll never catch me anyways. kim taeyong."

taeyong dragged aera to his horse and forced her get on, her hands bound by a piece of rope. she turned to look at renjun laying in the dust with tears in her eyes.

"i love you and i will find you." he told her.

aera didn't pause when she replied, "i love you too renjun, i'll wait for you." she said as the horse took off.

they were too distraught to see the new tattoo forming on their arms. the outline of a fox.