ELVEN | K.TH

16

JUNGKOOK

She laughs.

It's a beautiful laugh. But it makes me more terrified, than I would've been if she'd rather held me by my throat with a knife.

Her eyes turn to me again.

"When did you notice?"

"Last time." I say, trying to keep my voice steady under her penetrating gaze. "I saw your ears. And you just kept calling me human. I would've caught on sooner or later, honestly."

"So why tell me, Jungkook?"

My eyes flash up. She'd told me her name the first time we'd met, but I'd never told her mine.

"How..."

"Why let me know? There must be a reason, no?" She asks, undoing her hood from her head. Her blonde hair spills behind her shoulders, in a icy curtain of silk.

Arlen smiles.

"What can I do for you?"

God, she'd read me like a book.

"I...so my sister." I start, feeling weirdly nervous in front of her. "Rinei. She's been seeing this elf, and he courts her. Almost every day, until for the last week. He stopped coming, as if something's happened."

"His name?"

"I've heard her call him Tae."

Amusement crosses her face before she bursts into laughter again. This time it's like she genuinely finds this funny, that an elf is courting my sister.

I cross my arms.

"You know, it's really not that fun—"

"The Elven Prince is courting your sister." She cuts me off, her fingertips tapping thoughtfully against her upper arm. "But an outsider. I would've never thought..."

"You know— wait, he's the what?"

"Kim Taehyung is the Second Prince of Elven." She repeats, her eyes glowing. "And the King holds hatred for the outsiders. I'm aware that he punishes anyone who leaves the forest boundaries without his permission."

"So you think his father found out? That he's been coming to see Rinei?"

She nods, lips pursed together.

But then I blink.

"Then aren't you also in danger? You're coming to see me right now. What if he finds out about you too?"

She smiles. "Are you worrying for me?"

"...no."

"You don't need to. No one would suspect a noble Lady to be sneaking out like this, every night. I tend to stay very ladylike when I'm at the Palace."

I give her a look. "You sure?"

She looked like the type of person to slit the throat of any men who came to court her instead.

She raises a perfect brow at me for my doubtful reply. "You think I'm not ladylike, Jungkook?"

I change the topic right away. "So what do you think is happening to him? He's really done a lot for my family, and I—"

"If Lord Elven did find out, he is most likely being punished." She says, and the blood slowly drains from my face as she continues in a flatlined voice.

"He is probably being held in the deepest room in the undergrounds of the Palace. The King is very violent— especially with his sons. He'll be locked there for at least the next month."