ROYALLY UNFAIR .

NINE - TEARS AND CREATURES

nine . tears and creatures

☀☀☀

"Your daughter has quite a habit of storming out, doesn't she?" Lady Kim joked light-heartedly, trying unsuccessfully to ease the stony glare Pixie's mother was sending at the door the girl had just slammed.

"I don't blame her," mumbled Taehyung, quickly exiting the room after Pixie.

Pixie had completely disappeared, giving Taehyung a rather difficult choice: the gardens, the gallery, or her bedroom? Where was she most likely to be? The boy raked a hand through his hair, sauntering towards the staircase as he debated with himself. A maid who stood on standy frowned at his awkwardly slow pace and approached him, asking him if anything was wrong. Taehyung, in a polite manner, asked the woman if she had seen where Pixie went — and to his luck, she did.

After a few minutes of bursting dramatically into various rooms on the second floor, Taehyung managed to find Pixie's bedroom.

"God, this place is like a maze. Every hallway and every door looks the same to me," He chuckled as soon as he recognised the room her stood in, smile dropping when he saw Pixie on the floor, "Ah- Pixie, I'm sure we'll find them," He whispered, suddenly afraid. He was at loss when confronted with Pixie crying — he was the same with any girl, aware anything he said to them would either worsen or help their situation in a massive way. And Kim Taehyung seemed to have a disproportionate record of making things worse.

"How are you so sure?" Pixie managed to choke out, a painful lump in her throat. Her eyes stung and she didn't meet Taehyung's eye, embarrassed. "And it's not just that. How is everyone acting so fine? About all of this? I can't just accept being forced to marry a guy I don't even know! Jordan can't either! And now she's missing! Missing! Does no one understand the gravity of this?!"

Taehyung winced at her words and sighed, "I do. Jeongguk's my friend, okay? I'm worried too. I'm also being forced to marry someone I don't know. So is he. But there's nothing we can do about it," He murmured, an unrecognisable change to his tone, "We can do something to try and find Jeongguk and Jordan, though. If you ask me, crying is probably the least helpful thing to do for them right now. Unless it's bringing them back by magic or something."

His words stung Pixie and she swallowed, angrily wiping her tears on her forearms, "I'm sorry for caring," She muttered, standing up. Her eyes still didn't meet Taehyung's and she grabbed a makeup wipe, turned away from him as she wiped her eyes to get rid of the smudged mascara which was bound to be there.

Taehyung bit his lip guiltily, rubbing the back of his neck, "I- I didn't mean it like that."

"No, you're right. Come on, we should go and look for them." She sighed deeply and turned back to him, giving him a weak smile. She was heavily unhappy and for once, it was beginning to show. It was slowly becoming harder for her to hide all the hurt and pain which had built up over the years, to keep her mask on.

That scared her.

☀☀☀

Jordan seemed to have lost control of her lower jaw, her mouth wide open. Jeongguk's eyes were nearly bulging out of their sockets, and he brought his hand around Jordan's arm to move her backwards slightly. Both of their minds were completely blank at the sight in front of them. There was no way this was real. That creatures like this were an actual thing. But yet it stood in front of their sober eyes, living, breathing, just as shocked to see the couple as they were to see it. Or her.

"Did you say humans?!" A gruff voice was heard, followed by a clip-clopping of hooves. A 'man' appeared, a grin visible through the hairs of his thick, curly black beard. He stopped before them, "I haven't seen a human in about a de-"

"Are you guys real?!" Jordan squeaked, the idea that maybe she was dreaming running through her mind once more, "What the hell are you?"

"As real as you are," Replied the male, patient despite the somewhat rude nature of Jordan's comments. He was still grinning, excited to see humans after so long, "We're cervitaurs. This can't be the first time you've seen a cervitaur surely, all the villages around here are cervitaur villages."

"Actually, we hmmgh shnh- Jengdjsk!" Jordan's words were muffled as Jeongguk brought his arm around her shoulders and his hand over her mouth. The girl sighed loudly and roughly pushed his hand away when he began speaking.

"This isn't the first time, Jordan here hit her head on the way and- Well, we've got a long way to travel to get home. Do you mind if we rest here for a while, warm up? Only if it isn't too much trouble, of course," Jeongguk asked politely, giving the two his sweetest smile. The insincerity of it was only visible to Jordan.

"Of course," The female cervitaur smiled, stepping back, "It's fine, right Harrison?"

"Of course it's fine! You look freezing cold, it would be murder to refuse," Harrison waved his arms to usher the two in. Jeongguk gave him a grateful smile while an expression of confusion remained plastered on Jordan's face. "Would you like some warmer clothes? We don't have anything for those legs of yours, but Alesha is amazing at sewing."

"It's true," Alesha, the female, beamed proudly, "but it may take a while. Maybe it would be better for you both to stay the night? It'll be getting dark in a few hours, and it looks like you need the rest."

"That would be so nice," Jeongguk spoke for the both of them while the cervitaurs led the way into their living room. The couple were seated and left alone, while Alesha boiled some water for tea and Harrison prepared their spare bedroom.

As soon as two were alone in the living room, Jordan turned to look at Jeongguk, "Are you crazy?!" She whisper-shouted, "Why are you acting so chummy chummy with these- whatever these things are!"

"Cervitaurs."

"I don't care! We don't know them! What if they try and eat us or something?" She brought her hand to his sleeve, tugging on it, "We still have time to run."

Jeongguk chuckled softly, taking her hand and moving it onto her lap, "Jordan, you're over-"

"Don't say it," Jordan murmured, raising his hand with hers in exasperation, "We're God knows where and you've brought me into a house of-"

"Is everything okay in here?"