"I'm not going to the ball with you."

I pushed him off of me, I could see in his eyes. That he was acting all flirtatious because he didn't have a date to the ball. "I DIDN'T EVEN SAY ANYTHING," he defended himself.

"Ok Taehyung, why did you suddenly change your attitude towards me?" I tilted my head cockily because I knew I was right. "Ugh fine, I'll just go with Nova," he stuck out his tongue. "We're going as a friendship duo, suck my dick," I copied his childish action, sticking out my tongue too. "WHAT NO FAIR, let me join and make it a trio. Please please please it's so embarrassing to turn up alone," he pleaded.

"Give me one good reason I should let you join us," I said, I was going to let him come with us but it was so fun to see him beg. "I'm the reason you started smiling again," an answer has never made me shut up so fast. "Fine you can come with," I rolled my eyes as if I wasn't planning on letting him come anyway. "We're going to move into the dorms after the ball, so pack your stuff," he told me, getting up from the bench as it was quite late now and he had to get back to the ED.

"Oh, the teachers recommended to keep your identity a secret since it might cause chaos between the students. They're keeping your earthy name the same, but since Jackson is the royal families surname we've changed it. So don't get too confused when they introduce you as Jewel Whinehouse." He chuckled.

"Fuck off, when did it change from white house to whine house?" I asked. "I told them to call you Whinehouse because all you do is whine," he faked his annoying smile. "I literally never whine stop the lies," I put my hand in front of his face like a kid. "You ask endless questions-"

"NOPE." I moved my hand closer to his face and cut him off. "You annoy me all day-"

"SHUSH." I was about to just completely cover his mouth with my hand when he suddenly grabbed my wrist and yanked me close, 2cm away from his face.

"Stop cutting me off Jackson."

"Stop being so bipolar Kim."

I matched his energy, removing his hand from mine as I looked at the watch on his wrist to glance at the time. "I better get going for dinner," I parted ways with him and headed back to the castle. "You and that boy have weird ways of flirting," my dad shook his head as soon as I entered the dining room.

"How do you- ah you looked at what I was doing again. And flirting my foot, he's so rude, I merely tolerate him because he's helped out quite the bit." I said. "Whatever you say~" he shrugged while I took a seat at the table. "Oh, my friend will be joining us I hope you don't mind, this is Mr Yoon." He spoke as a man entered the room, bowing before he took a seat in front of me.

"You must be Seojun's father," I said, starting to eat. "Yes I am." He nodded, picking up a fork to take a bite out of whatever food he liked. The rest of dinner weirdly went through a tense atmosphere. All I could think of while looking at his face was... God Seohyun looks so much like him. But that doesn't even make sense since he only has one child, so why is the resemblance so strong? Like how. Maybe she was a secret child? But you don't hide a secret child with your real child on earth. UGH THIS IS HURTING MY BRAIN.

"Azriel are you ok?" My dad asked, noticing me in deep thought, I shook it off and nodded. After dinner both the men talked as a maid helped me to get to my room. It was purple customised, it made me feel, I don't even know the feeling. It felt like I was accepting myself. I sat in bed, not feeling the slightest bit sleepy.

-knockknock-

"Can I come in?" His familiar fatherly voice questioned, "you don't have to ask." I smiled, sitting up straight. He walked inside the room, clapping his hands to make a sofa appear beside my bed, he took a seat on it as he smiled. "It's great to have you home Azriel," he just admired me. It must've been hard to be away from your own blood all this time, I hadn't even known so I couldn't miss them. 16 years of yearning to see your own lad. "But this, Azriel name, why did fa- godfather, call me Jewel?" I asked.

"Because, your real name is one in a million. Runer must've done it to keep you safe. Me and your mother hid when the pregnancy was successful, for 9 months, the king and queen were missing. People were after you since you were in the womb, he had to hide your identity. I'm glad he kept my surname attached to it though, you are my little girl," he tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear.

"During those 9 months, your mother and I struggled on picking a name for you. You were a princess, and you were going to be very very powerful. We wanted something that suited that, and what better than naming you after a mix of 2 of the most powerful beings," he said, snapping his fingers to create a pen.

"My name is Alzar Jackson, and your mother's name is Ivey, her last name used to just be Satan since her father wanted his children to be like prizes that belonged to him. One of the first things she did after marriage was change her last name to Jackson. Anyways, we took letters from our own names and made up your name," he said, as the pen wrote in thin air.

A L Z A R  + I V E Y = A Z R I E L

"Your mother was salty that your name had all the letters of mine, but her name had such unique letters they never mixed with mine properly." He chuckled as he snapped one more time to make the letters and that pen disappear. "I thought Azriel was some sort of code the first time it appeared in front of me. You know you can make words like, lie, liar and real out of it." I felt embarrassed at what I tried, why did I play scrabble with my own name?

"We knew you'd do that, we kind of wanted you to. Your life was going to be filled with lies, and people who are liars. People who only pretend to be on your side, who wait for the right moment to stab you in the back. You were going to know so many, liars," he sighed, leaning back onto the sofa.

"Sometimes being alone is so suffocating, it makes you feel like there's a crowd of people near you, but they just don't see you. It's like screaming silently. It leaves you wishing you had someone... anyone by your side. But you've got to be careful Riel, the devil hears your wishes too. And sometimes he doesn't come with flames and clear intention to hurt you. He comes as everything you've ever wanted," my dad sighed, leaving me in deep thought.

"Alright, you've got a big day tomorrow, I'll let you sleep. I'll have the maids pack you the Paradox uniforms and extra clothes for the dorm there, they'll get you ready too." He said, leaning over towards me, pecking me lightly on my forehead, "goodnight."

Next day

"We're going to be late!" Nova rushed as she put on the final touches of her makeup. My dad had teleported me to her house since I couldn't just walk around in such a grand dress. Not only did I look like a princess, I have to say I felt like one too. It really did feel like there was a crown sitting above my head.

Dress:

The lavender colour made me feel like me.

I didn't know I liked feeling like me.

Nova's dress was fitted and red, she looked wonderful. She lightly put on some lipstick to tint her lips, she didn't need makeup to be as pretty as she was, but the addition of it certainly enhanced her beauty. The maids had gotten me ready, they straightened my messy beach waves, leaving it out simply. They did my makeup, inserting a hazel coloured contact into my dark chocolate eyes. They made everything pop more.

Me and Nova looked each other up and down with blank faces, we both let out a sudden squeal of the excitement we were containing. "Taehyung's waiting outside with the carriage, we should hurry before we become later than we already are." She grabbed my wrist as we rushed down the stairs, I struggled not to fall with the long dress.

"Why don't we just teleport there?" I asked, as we stepped outside the front door. "Because we haven't been taught that spell yet," she chuckled. Taehyung peeked out the carriage, eyes gawking at both of us while we boarded the carriage. "God your dress is huge," he complained as I tried to sit down without ripping anything. "Shut up whinehouse," I rolled my eyes as he smiled at the reference.

We set off as Nova was biting her nails nervously, "we're so damn late," she panicked. "No we're not, relax," Taehyung told her as we arrived at the Paradox. "Then tell me why all the carriages have already gone, UGH." She quickly got off and ran inside the castle type school, we chased after her as I think we were trying to get to the main hall.

"TAEHYUNG KIM THERE YOU ARE." A teacher angrily stomped her way towards us, she was wearing quite the funky outfit. "You were missing for a whole day, you missed the rehearsal," she whined, making me tilt my head in question, leaning over to Taehyung's ear. "You were on earth for an entire week though," I whispered. "Yeah but my shitty cloning spell must've worn off on Friday," he whispered back. A CLONING SPELL? I wanna learn that. "My apologies professor Zimbless-"

"No time for apologies kid, hurry and follow me backstage, everyones waiting for you." She yanked him by the arm, taking him somewhere. Suddenly my wrist was pulled too, "The headteachers about to introduce the new student, aka Jewel, aka your fake earthy name, AKA YOU." She panicked as we ran down the hall like they do in movies, all you had to do was put us in slow mo. We stood outside a really grand gate, we leaned in to listen to the supposed headmaster talk.

"Before we start this years annual ball, I'd like to give the announcement that we'll be moving to our new dorms along with a new student joining us," an old mans voice uttered. Students erupted into chatter at his statement, saying things like, 'a new student near the middle of the year? That's never happened before.'

"I hope everyone shall treat her with kindness and help her feel welcome," he spoke again, Nova pushed me near the centre of the gates, "that's your cue." She screamed in a whisper, I got nervous about it and resisted, trying to get beside the wall, she pushed me again, trying not to laugh at my panic.

"Her name is Jewel."

"Nova stop no" I tried to get back but it was too late. The door had opened with me in the centre of it, I hesitantly looked up to look at everyone, mainly at the headmaster who stood right at the end of the enormous hall. At least 600 eyes were on me, that's a lot more than there normally are. Fuck you Nova. I took a deep breath as I walked down to the head.

The headteacher stared me straight in the eyes, smiling lightly as he scanned my face. "Welcome home," he leaned to whisper in my ear to continue.

"Azriel."