✓ the hooded princess • kim seungmin

t w e n t y f i v e

A staring contest between her and the fabric hanging on the wardrobe had long begun since ten minutes ago. Instead of glaring, the eyes weakly bored into the cloak, probably too tired after a long day.

Now she knows why Seungmin hesitated to tell her the truth.

"Sonia..." the princess muttered as she desperately looked at the emerald green cloak, as if it can speak up to entertain her. "If you were there you would have told me the truth... right?"

Unfortunately, Sonia wasn't there when that night happened. She was at the carnival and both girls escaped from the elder's eyes. She admitted, they were stubborn for not sticking with Sonia.

"...is that why you wore that?" she pointed to Seungmin's right hand that was covered with the black glove.

The male nodded and chuckled, "He was about to stab you and I was too stupid for shielding it with my hand when I have the sword."

The hug on her knees tightened, a habit whenever she feels bad or helpless. Her eyes moved down to her hand. The incident of nine years ago almost felt like it was yesterday. She remembered how she cradled Mina's unconscious body with blood painted both of them.

"...she lost so much blood that they assumed it's because of the stabbing, not the liquid."

"But Mina is already bleeding in the first place..."

"The liquid might be the one that killed her faster."

"Han..." a small tear escaped her eye. Eunkyung quickly wiped it away but then her heart felt heavy. The urge to cry was there. She lightly shook her head before burying it in her knees and soon, faint sobs could be heard through the four corners of the room.

༆

"Here." a paper was slipped on the table. Seungmin looked up to see the princess with a blank look covered the paper using a textbook. "I drew him last night."

"That fast?" he peeked the drawing and examine the features. It looked exactly like what he saw that day. "You draw great."

"I want to know why as soon as possible."

"Is one enough?"

Eunkyung took back the paper and rolled it neatly. "I just showed it to you for confirmation. The royal secretariat will do photocopies later this evening."

Seungmin nodded at the information and Eunkyung went back to her place. Jisung wasn't there yet. She quickly kept it in her bag and let out a small sigh.

Now that she knows what he did, what's next?

It's becoming harder to talk to him normally without imagining the innocent face had actually associated with the murder of her best friend. She even couldn't believe it when Seungmin told her Jisung was fast to approach her before Felix and him do. Other than that, she couldn't even remember if she's seen them a few years ago. Everything seems blurred by the death of Mina.

She paid attention to nothing but grieve.

Also, what's more shocking was the fact that Seungmin...

"....so you like me?"

"Huh?" Seungmin's eyes went big at the question.

Eunkyung glanced away, "You said you wanted to go there because of... you know."

Silence.

The guy tried to come up with a more reasonable reason yet he couldn't. "You know... kids." was all that he answered. "It was long ago, anyway. Things have changed."