Seonghwa had brought Hongjoong through his beautiful village without further incidents. He kept inroductions short, giving the people they met the bare minimum of information. Hongjoong was Youjin's lover and a fae. The people did not question him and Seonghwa did not explain himself. Every encounter seemed closed off.

Why did he not just tell everybody that Hongjoong was human? He did not know. And he also cared more about how he was supposed to get away from here than what games Seonghwa was playing again.

Hongjoong was introduced to Seonghwa's home last, the prince living in a decent sized hut a bit further up between the trees and at the northern end of the village. Just like the fae, the elves too lived in harmony with their surroundings, there even was a tree growing through Seonghwa's living room. Different from the fae however the interior was all wooden and carefully crafted but there were no messily growing plants everywhere. It seemed more tidy.

Seonghwa let go of his tight grip on Hongjoong's arm after he closed the door behind them, sighing as if he had oh such a hard life. Arrogant prick.

"Won't you tell me what the reason for your feud is? I might be human but I am actually capable of thinking rationally, you know?" Hongjoong crossed his arms, watching Seonghwa venture deeper into his home after kicking his boots off. The man barely scoffed at him.

"Are you now? How curious. So far you proved to be fairly stupid. Do you claim to have a basic wish of survival too? Because after what I saw you certainly don't have that either."

Hongjoong asked himself what was worse. This high and mighty elf being rude towards him or going home only to be bullied for a lifetime by his family. The fae's lands were an absolute heaven for him but his destiny did not seem to care for his personal feelings. Hongjoong pushed away the thought, concentrating on his companion.

Seonghwa looked fitting to his ornate home with it's clean and beautiful look. However Hongjoong felt out of place completely. It was all too nice, too otherwordly for him to be comfortable. He distracted himself with their coversation again.

"I certainly would be more understanding towards your motivations if you just told me what your damn problem is. Humans have wars too, it's not a foreign concept for me."

Even better, his own village was part of a country that had been in time of war until recently. They might have won but poorer families like his own were still trying to get back onto their feet after that. Hongjoong not seldomly got left out during meal times as they needed to sustain the working people instead.

It was no comfortable life like the one Seonghwa was living here. But at least it was a honest one. A just one. He hated Seonghwa even more for being this snobby with it.

"You are a mere bait for me to lure Youjin with. That's all. There is nothing more for you to know and no more importance for you to be here."

Seonghwa finally stripped down his dagger and Hongjoong did what he so desperately wanted to do for a long time now. He barely waited until Seonghwa placed the heavy object on a dresser slowly, before he was quickly stepping towards the man. He heard him at last and turned around, his expression guarded but he did not anticipate the hit.

Hot pain errupted in his fist as it made contact with Seonghwa's jaw. Hongjoong might be a weakling and considerably more small than the snobby elf but at least he was honest. And he was honest in putting all of his strength into that one punch.

Surprised from the sudden attack Seonghwa stumbled backwards, lifting a disbelieving hand to his face.

His eyes darkened as he met Hongjoong's angrily breathing form.

"Oh, you want to fight? Fair and square? Well, come at me."

"Fair and square with you?" Hongjoong snorted. "I don't think so. But I will fight you, yes."

Lunging at Seonghwa again Hongjoong let all of his pent up anger and frustration go, angrily hitting everything he could reach. He thought about the elf's arrogance, Youjin's pained screams and him being discovered by that one person who made a living hell out of it.

Seonghwa mostly dodged him, only touching Hongjoong to push his hands off him and it fueled his danger even more, his movements becoming unccordinated.

Hongjoong was breathing heavily and Seonghwa was barely straining.

Hongjoong fought and fought some more and Seonghwa did not even reciprocate it.

Hongjoong hated so intensely and Seonghwa just did not care.

"Fight me you absolute lowlife!", Hongjoong growled when it got too much, his burning anger exploding and Seonghwa's eyes flashed for a bare second, a single warning.

Hongjoong suddenly lost his footing, crashing hard onto the ground as Seonghwa got him immobile with a single movement. Before Hongjoong even regained his sense of orientation the other's weight was above him, a hand against his throat to suffocate him.

Hongjoong trashed and yelled, kicking whatever he could reach but Seonghwa's grip only grew tighter, pressing the energy from Hongjoong's body. Desperate tears coated his cheeks and Hongjoong was babbling airily, growing more quiet by the second. Seonghwa's hand was left bloody as his own hands grew weak with scratching him.

Hongjoong was nearly blacking out, when the grip suddenly loosened, just staying there to warn. Hongjoong breathed greedily, not caring for Seonghwa leaning above him and watching with rapt attention.

"Is this your way of protecting him? By getting youself killed?" Seonghwa's voice was calm and calculated.

Hongjoong chuckled weakly, hated to admit he was the losing one here.

"Fuck you."

And Hongjoong just grinned wetly when Seonghwa's face contorted in rage, his grip tightening brutally until Hongjoong finally lost consciousness.

-

Hongjoong awoke alone and with a hurting neck and airways. He was pretty sure Seonghwa had left an imprint of his hand on his skin and he would love to scratch himself bloody to get it off but now was not the time.

He was alone, Seonghwa being somewhere doing some bastardly things probably.

Hongjoong sat up swiftly, fighting the nausea and hunger overtaking him in order to look around quickly.

Did Seonghwa arrange for a guard? Probably not with how high and mighty he deemed himself. He was exactly the type to lose his prisoner by accident.

"Greed always leads to a sorry end, Park Seonghwa. I'll be back to see to your punishment.", he mumbled, reminding himself constantly to never become that greedy with something as he slipped through the door.

No guard, as expected.

Running from up there was entirely too easy. It was night and most elves away on their diplomatic meeting. Hongjoong pondered stealing a stag but decided against it. Those animals were rude enough to be entirely on the elven's side.

Hongjoong could not appreciate the warm light of softly glowing lanterns strung above his head, could not halt and take the full sight of what he would hopefully never see again.

The air was still warm from the day as Hongjoong quietly left the village, wandering in whatever direction he chose upon. It only mattered to get away. He was not sure how their system worked, when exactly Seonghwa would come after him and he just prayed that he found somebody else before that. Youjin preferably.

To his own surprise Hongjoong did not cry in the lonely darkness of the night. Neither did he doubt himself. For once he strode with a purpose, with strength and he was ready to believe whatever Youjin had to say, because those 'good' elves? Hongjoong saw why nobody wanted to be friends with them.

He was going around for some time, never switching directions and only going straight ahead. There had to be something somewhere. If it was other fae they could help him go home. It it was the exit of the forest and a way back into the human realm, he could also work with that.

Everything was fine as long as it was not Seonghwa.

After sleeping the whole day Hongjoong had a lot of energy for walking and when his energy started depleting after several hours, he found himself a nice big acorn with some kind of cave between it's roots.

It was just big enough to fit Hongjoong and after checking that it had no other owners Hongjoong crawled in, dirtying his white clothes with the wet forest earth.

He did not care.

Hidden in a comforting darkness Hongjoong curled into a little ball, listening to the sounds around him for a while. Sometimes there were animals shuffling around outside, often an owl sounded from somewhere above him. It was peaceful though.

Hongjoong let himself be lulled into a deep slumber by the calming noises around him, forgetting all of his worries.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow he would go and find Youjin somewhere.