Jk's P.O.V.

I flutter my eyes open and an overwhelming feeling punches me in the gut, throwing me to the edge.

The feeling was new, rare, exotic. Something I'd never experienced before, something a part of me wanted.

The window beside me is bare, the curtains agape, revealing the horizon outside. Where maroon and orange tints lacerates the waning dusk, where the moon is far up to change posts with the sun like the shifts of the royal guards.

Soon, the kingdom will be blanketed by the thinning layer of warmth provided by the sun. The people will retrieve from their nightly affairs and tuck children into their bed.

Soon, the birds will bask in the lovely heat, the animals will surge through the narrow spilling paths of the city like a labyrinth. Delighted of the lack of human presence.

The air will whistle and chime with the trees, courting the lovely flowers of their bright and radiant colors.

Beautiful it was.

Only if it weren't locked away from me.

My eyes drop to the walls and the hope peaking at the world beyond vanished before me. The walls are tall, iron steel of clasped limbs dart up the sky with arrows - like jagged teeth ready to pierce at anything that dare to pass through.

They span around the castle, leaving no exit but a large archway in front - still guarded with iron.

Everything inside is dull, black, burnt.

My soul ached for something. Something with life, beauty, radiant, tenderness, light.

Yet it was too farfetch, too beautiful, too far. Nothing can help, nothing would. It is a dream containing shattered hope - a tapestry unmade, strings detached that fray laggardly against the seams, hoping for a work to construct it.

Hoping for a hand to piece it one by one.

Hope for hope.

But the new feeling nags at me, pulling at the strings unwickedly, unbidden, tender. It's just at the tip of me, waiting to spill.

Nothing comes.

I sit right up and close the curtains, veiling my room with black, the sunlight but a desperate stream against the thick curtains as it lights my room a bit.

Darkness was my preference, I'd rather not see than to see the aching beauty outside that I could never get, never take, never hold.

With my first steps towards the door, a pain shot through my chest making me surge to the bedpost to steady myself. The pain seared through, blossoming out my torso like a flower blooming - its petals caught at my vessels, my marrows.

Something in me shifts as I hold my chest with my other hand, I can physically feel something moving underneath my hand, like a hand was carving something into my skin, lacerating it with such tender strokes.

Letting go of my chest I peek at my hand, there is no blood, nothing but the sweat building up in between the lines of my hand, spilling out like lightning.

"Which does she prefer?" I hear it, the words thump at my ears, echoing inside. The voice wasn't from outside, but from the inside, tickling me.

"Ask what she prefers" It whispers again, soft and thin like thistle, migrating throughout my body, settling in the deepest crevices.

Who's she?

I can feel him, knocking at the door of our souls, restless and frustrated. A question without an answer, and it shows because thereof.

What happened last night?

----

Y/N's P.O.V

I didn't answer the King last night. I wasn't able to. Not that I wanted to ever. I simply didn't have the right answer.

It doesn't matter.

My eyes flit to the curtains, fluttering with the remnant of the air at the motion of the door shut after Jin's visit.

Today wasn't an ordinary day.

It was his birthday. And I was invited to attend the party gathering at the main hall of the city. Lovely Jin just came to inform me, a folded dress snug tightly in his hands.

That's what I'm looking at right now, splayed elegantly across the span of the bed. It is a black dress, ending to what I estimated down just below my knees. Cute black laces decorated the lapels of the sleeves and the flounce.

Simple yet charming.

The color is enigmatic and innocent, reminding me of the man who brought it to me.

My eyes land on the cloak beside it, mind running at the regret of keeping the dress hidden in a large black cloak.

Finally sighing I bunch the dress in my arms, step into the bathroom extension of the huge room and step into the dress.

The bodice perfectly shows the curves of my waist yet it was thick enough to warm me from the biting air. Completing the look with low platform shoes and a ponytail I was set and ready to go.

But it wasn't time yet. Midnight has yet to come. The darkness must set upon the whole city before we were able to go out - only that, it doesn't apply to me.

During my stay here I have come to know that something terrible happens once people go out to the ringing heat of the sun. That terrible though, I do not know.

I have yet to know. But I'm afraid time is running fast, tomorrow is the set day for me to go back to my home, tomorrow I will forget about everything. The strange man and the even stranger city he rules will be burned to ashes in my memory.

A strange sensation always vibrates in the middle of my chest - specifically, the locket Jimin gave me. It wasn't pain, not even close to it, but it's a searing one - not to my skin, but to the innest part of me, stroking my core with the most elegant touch I could feel.

So I let the locket go and bind it with the clothes I shed, I didn't need it anymore. It will be given to my brother. I know he isn't going back with me, I always felt the clarity of the things unsaid from him.

His home was here.

I didn't know how, but I always knew he was different. Not the different that stands out, a different you could feel close to him.

A different being. An entity.

----

The hall was a large place, with a fountain equally large as the room my eyes passed when I walked the corridors of the palace. Banners and Japanese lanterns decorated the place, fairy lights drooped against the trees, the people a pale smudge in the intensity of the lights.

It was simply decorated yet thousands of people has come to set it up, not by orders of the King, merely their voluntary nature.

They love him. From what I've eavesdropped from the people after the hour we've settled in.

I came with Jimin and Yoongi, dashing in royal cloaks. Jimin adorning the one he left with and Yoongi a white cloak - still twined with golden threads.

We are by the platform, a stage in the center of everything. And while the people constantly passed by us gave the two of them mixed reactions, some were feared expressions, bowing in front of their princes, others - mostly young women - were preening and twirling their hair, a cake of make-up slapped in their faces to cover their natural beauty.

I particularly, is an anonymous figure, covered under a large cloak - which my brother insisted to be pulled up.

A dark entity in the midst of a happy event, the shadows in the light. Perhaps this was good, because in every light there must be the presence of darkness and I proudly take the position to balance everything out.

The king wasn't coming, I have come to know he never misses a night of his birthday without being there. Always absent despite of the law stating every birthday of a royal is a holy day and it must be attended by the celebrant himself.

But something caught my attention. There in the platform, stood the King himself, smiling down on children and brushing his fingers on their heads. The toothy grin he adorned last night full on display this night.

Jimin's eyes are sharp, taking character of a personal guard rather than a prince. He's looking at everything and everyone passing, almost too protective of someone.

Yoongi left to fix some matters.

"Why's the king there? I thought he wasn't going to attend his party," I say and point to the said man, confusion and horrification touching my words.

Jimin looks at the King and to me, warmth replacing his sharp eyes - they are now clear, open and vulnerable to anything daring enough to take advantage. Through his eyes, I could see the reflection of my words to my features, my mouth is agape, eyes shocked.

And then a worried feeling passes through him, I can see it from the snug of the light in his eyes, and the gentle tremor moving his lips.

He splays his arm out to a circle, like a hug was coming my way. But it was the people to a brewing storm, or a lovely mother placating a tantrum child. Soothing whatever fire is starting to explode the bomb.

I was just confused, nothing more and nothing less. But to his eyes it was completely different

His steps are careful towards me. I felt as though a quivering prey stalked by a lion. But I didn't move. Never budge.

Stay still, Y/N. You're not a prey.

"Stop that will you?" Yoongi's annoyed face comes into view, followed by his body to stand like a strong monolith between us, blocking our sight of each other.

At first he faced Jimin but he turns to me and nod to the King perched on the front view of everyone, still happily caressing the children's heads.

"That is not the King," a small mocking smile tugs at his lips, shifting much more to a smirk, "That guy has taken a liking to you."

What kind of answer is that? I press my lips shut, hoping for a sliver of a joke to come in his next words. But his expression is dead serious, mad serious. The usual face of the man who hates me.

Never playing, always fighting.

"Who's he then?" I ask, irritated from the lack of answer from both of us, even Jimin who stayed frozen behind him. I can see the dread and anticipation building up in his eyes.

"That's Jeon Jaehyun, the King's twin brother," he bites his tongue to suppress the next words but it spilled out anyway.

"And you know what's much more interesting?" he clicks his tongue, "They are in the same body."

----

[A/N]

UNEDITED.

Btw guys, I've been thinking a lot about this and how the name specified Y/N is ruining the story. So for that matter, I ask of your opinion if I should make a name for her. It's kinda dull and it makes the exciting parts kinda meh.

Let me know what you think.

Sorry if I update late, I'm going through personal issues😔

Thanks for reading!