Samurai ↔ Nishimura Riki

twenty three

sooo halloween special? i dont know if any you guys celebrate halloween but here its pretty big even though im too old to go trick or treating. hopefully i can get that down along with the next chapter and publish them the same day. whether ill be procrastinating a lot is the question tho...

am satisfied with the beginning but the end of the chapter is kinda... meh? IDK YALL I REREAD IT I CRINGED.

This felt so wrong. So wrong by so many levels.

They shouldn't be doing this, sharing a forbidden kiss that wasn't meant to happen anyway. Worst of all, they had witnesses. Lia would probably blab to the royals. The higher ups were bound to find out either way.

Every cell and muscle screamed at her stop, but Hyewon couldn't bring herself to push the prince away. It felt so... right. She'd never been in this kind of predicament growing up and part of her liked it, the intimacy, the timing, his arms wrapped around her waist, the warm kiss. That selfish part of her whispered into her mind. Screw it. Screw the rules. She didn't care give a damn about what people would say.

But all of it was so wrong too. She wasn't living in some kind of fairytale. Hyewon was certainly no poor damsel in distress. She didn't need a prince to save her. And deep inside, she knew that if it progressed, assuming Riki even felt the same for her, there would be no happy ending to this story, only sorrow and pain. Commoners weren't meant to mix with royals.

Too late, she found herself, to be falling for the person she could never have.

She didn't know how long they stood, locked in that position, but after what felt like hours, Riki pulled away. Hyewon didn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed that it had ended. The warm sensation still lingered on her lips as she stared at him in shock.

She didn't know what she was expecting him to say, but the first thing he said after the... event surprised her.

He backed up a bit and turned around. He let out a sigh of relief. "Whew, she's gone."

"Huh?" Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. Who?

The prince cleared his throat. "Lia, I mean." He scratched his nape awkwardly, refusing to look at her in the eye. "S-Sorry about that," he apologized. "I didn't mean to do that. It was in the spur of the moment. Lia was there and she was bothering me alot-"

"So you did it to make her go away." Hyewon finished, making Riki nod, "Well, if that's the case, you did a perfect job of that."

She felt empty, void of emotion. Of course, that was the reason, she thought to herself. He would've never had kissed her otherwise, especially considering his role as Crown Prince. She had been a fool to think otherwise, that he actually liked her back.

Emptiness turned to disappointment and then to fury. How could he use her just like that? Did he even put her feelings in consideration, that it may give her the wrong idea? She only had started to think that for a male, he wasn't so bad. Maybe he would be different from most aristocrats she had met. But of course, he had to crush that wistful thinking. She had been led on the whole time and she was stupid to have fallen for his nonexistent charms.

Hyewon never had been in 'love' before, but she was certain that the boiling feeling in her veins was not heartbreak. No, she would've never stooped that low for a mere male. Anger coursed through her system instead, a dark hate that needed to be expelled.

She took a step forward, closing the distance between them. "Who the hell kisses someone without their consent to make people go away?" she asked dangerously soft, her eyes piercing into him. "Weren't there better alternatives?"