Prince Caspian -Jung Yoonoh NCT

41. The Devil's Spawn

The wine makes me giggle, and it seems to me that everyone is smiling at me as we leave the restaurant. 

"Enjoying yourself?" he asks, as I sit beside him in the car, and I smile back at him, flushed, excited. 

"I'm having a lovely evening." I touch my face. "I think I'm drunk."

He laughs, and squeezes my hand.

"It's just the beginning; I've wooed you with flowers and wine. Next on the bucket list, the violins..." He laughs, casting a wicked sideways glance at me.

The music hall is all lit up. Jae tells me it is an exclusive club for selected clients - and by clients, I'm guessing he's talking about rich men and beautiful women. My jaw falls open, looking around me, my eyes drinking in the sights and sounds, the band music loud and pulsating in my ears. There is a frenetic, palpable excitement in the air; the walls, the floor, the entire hall throb with the pulsing beat and the feverish rhythm of the music.

Over in a darkened corner, a bar stands, attractive people sitting on tall stools, some leaning against the counter. Glasses chink, and cubes of ice rattle against tall, delicate glasses, filled to their brims with sparkling champagne and frothing bubbly.

A bunch of people are gyrating on the floor, and up on the stage, a golden-haired girl is pirouetted against a background of stars; a slim, dark boy is singing a song to the sea; and through it all a mad, jigging tune is whispered on a violin, inserting itself in the memory, persistent, unforgettable. 

The boy sings of love and loss, and the violin tugs at my heart so mournfully, and the boy sings so beautifully that I almost cry, and I look at Jae, and think how easily I could die for his love, and just thinking it makes me sadder, and I start to cry all over his shoulder, and he wipes away my tears, and strokes my head kindly, like Grandfather used to do when I fell down as a child and scrapped my knee, and holds me comfortingly in his arms, and says, laughing a little, his voice low in my ear, "Darling, you're drunk", but I hiccup, and cry even more, and wail, "It's so sad. It's so so sad. It's so so so so so so so - " , but thankfully, the song comes to an end, the boy bows, and my sadness is forgotten, and the next thing I know, I'm happy again.

The band strikes up a new tune; and it seems as though a hundred faces are shimmering up at me from the crowded tables – bare arms, silver dresses, dark eyes, white shirt-fronts; so much bustle and clatter and laughter. Now we are dancing at last, the lights a little dim; I turn my face to right and to left, searching the faces of the passing couples. A beautiful woman in green smiles at Jae over her partner's shoulder; infectious, an invitation in her eyes. He smiles back, but he is not interested; he has eyes only for me, his eyes are flirting with me. I have a mad desire to draw his head down to mine, and kiss him, to brand him as mine, my property, so that that woman, and all the women in the room will know that he is mine, that he belongs to me. I stare into his eyes, and they are very dark, very intense, looking down into my upturned face, and surely, surely he is thinking the same thing I am thinking? "I belong to this slip of a girl, I am hers, I belong to her."

Soon, it comes to an end. I don't know if it's three or four o'clock – I have lost all count of time, and I could have gone on dancing for ever. 

He holds my hand in the car, keeping his other hand on the steering wheel.

"Did you enjoy yourself tonight?"

"Yes." I smile at him, too full and happy to speak. 

"I'm glad." He smiles at me, and there is a softness in his eyes.

"You've given me the most wonderful evening I've ever had in my life," I say, a little breathlessly. "Thank you so much."

He lifts my hand to his lips, and kisses it. His mouth is warm and lingering, and I feel a jolt of pleasure.