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𝐓𝐇𝐄 darkness of the night swarmed into the room like a parasite, the only light in the cold dark room was by a sole candle in front of a painting.

Na-ra's legs worked up towards it sunken , etching for to see the painting more closer. Her hands hollowly moving forward the vague colors and patterns til her gaze adjusted to it.

A familiar painting to be exact. The frail cherry blossoms amidst of withering ones that almost appeared to be raining on a woman's figure that only showed her behind, staring at a far end from the cliff that she stood alone. Her attire were scarlet red in between the diminutive pure white that stood out here are there ,Her unbound loosened hair fairly cascading most of her figure.

Nonetheless, what caught the eyes of the drains in the painting was none other than the debilitated flowers that showered her head to toe.The delicate flowers that fallen upon her, originally the most desirable hue of pink til it touched the woman.

The light in the frail flowers reeling out by the paint of crimson red that cascaded them as they met her 𝘰𝘳 the flowers that appeared to be frail in the eyes, trickled down through her like blades,painting itself and her like a scarlet canvas.

The more the time she consumed to study it by the eyes she beheld, the more the horror of her mind speculated.

The hand she held out to touch the tempting painting offered a sudden pain pricking her finger , drawing out a crimson fluid matching the color of the attire of the woman in the painting.

The second her gaze that been petrified moved back to the painting,her whole body faltered at the sight of the drop of her blood that stained the painting spread through like a mare , swallowing out the colours and the patterns til it was nothing other than a red canva.

And a snap of reality, she was in her dorm room with Young-hee, who appeared to be drastically wiping Na-ra's hands with a cloth.

Her eyes roamed in zero understanding of where was or she is .

There was a paper in front of her with ink scattered over, the brush she usually use to write broken into pieces and the familiar crimson blood creased over in bits of it. Then her eyes fitted onto her hand,the blood of her own seeping out before she held her gaze with frantic eyes of the girl.

Something is wrong.

❃.✮:▹　◃:✮.❃

" Good thing it's not a deep wound,it would heal in no time. "

The smell of the medicine hitted her senses turning her conscious comes back to the room than the words of relief. She didn't even remembered the path or the time she took , barely a vague feeling of people's eyes boring into her.

Then the next thing she knew, she was in front of the Kim Yeon-hwa with thousands of questions as she took care of her wound, which is barely a deep cut.

" I told her that, she wouldn't believe me. well, It's not like I was an literal student here for a decade was I ?? "

The sarcastic remark towards Young-hee's unbudging willingness to hear out Na-ra's words of reassurance were answered by an eye roll along with a heavy sigh on her lips.

The two of them didn't took any much time of the Kim girl , even when the other wished to spent and just as they stepped out from the room,the murmurs of farce directed to someone from an corner was heard to stop in their tracks.

" Jang Uk, That arrogant Mage from before?? Why him ?? "

Her brother has been called by many names and she personally wished to name him the idiot twin . However, the title arrogant was something only the future gold crowned man favored to call.

Nevertheless, how much she wanted to see the person behind the one who slammed the title to her brother's head, she chose to leave it behind as the term engaging in a fight seemed to be more than life consuming at the moment until the words that cannot retain seeped out.

" Young lady, I even heard he's an illegitimate child who was born in an affair- "

The scornful words of the farce was cutted by the sudden appear of the girl from the corner, her eyes narrowed to the one who spoke ill of her brother before it fell to the one beside, a surprised yet not so strangely a face of bewildered stucked onto her.

" You still haven't changed... "

Words of the girl stricken down the other leaving no words in the mouth of Yun-ok,
The two knew what Na-ra meant by the words with the slight mocking smile in the end of her lips regardless, the one beside the one who was speechless didn't. All she seen was the uncomfortable pale face of her lady.

" Young lady, isn't it rude to eavesdrop to someone else's conversation?? "

The hint of criticize in the words of the maid irritated to her gut. Rather than apologizing or leave it out, she chose to disparage her behavior and words??.

A scoff of disbelief escaped Na-ra's lips, holding out her hand halting any words from Young-hee , who appeared to take the life out the other simply with her gaze.

" And talking something vile like that isn't?...First of all, you're talking in a exposed place, people can't help but not to hear your shrieking voice of- "

" That is-"

" You'll speak when I'm done ."

The words to twist her own words were shunned out by the girl, who couldn't help but to voice out her outrage in the calmest voice as possible while the other two couldn't do nothing but to watch.

One with fear of taking a wrong step and the other in proud as they watched her letting out the contempt.

" Second of all, what makes you think that you can even utter something like that in your place...."

Her slow steps towards Sun-yi,who gulped down in fear by the gaze that buried her in her stance made her to profusely glance to her lady for help and as if she was in a trance til now, the faltering words of Yun-ok were came out only to be ignored.

" Na-ra, she was just mistaken- "

" If you ever mumble out something vile like that again.... I will rip out your tongue that even your young lady cannot fix it. "

The air tightened around the two in the intense moment til the one who was too caught up in the inferior past fragments choose to intervene before things could escalate to further destruction.

" Young lady Na-ra, be careful with your words- "

" You... "

Yun-ok's voice was quickly cutted off by Na-ra's narrowed eyes replaced to hers, rather than the contempt she held for her maid now traded by hatred and disgust.

" Stop playing nice, it makes me sick... "

The words almost hitting the other's complex she held on. She would never have thought the man she taken interest would be the brother of the girl she wronged in the past, if she could travel back in time she would have stopped her doings to her that made almost live in the regret of now .

Regardless, the word apologize never crossed over her inferior mind until now.

" I apologize for my past doings that I shouldn't find any excuses for and Sun-yi was mindless of the words she had said. Please forgive her- "

" And you?...Should I forgive you too...??"

The word forgive seemed to be idiotic in the ears and tongue, how could she blatantly choose to forgive someone when she just can't??. Atleast not for a atone that consisted with no guilt for the past that consisted in a mere line.

" If you really want to apologize, make up for it.... Even though I doubt if you ever can. "

Pure mockery in the words she put up towards the one with no words to defend for herself before she chose to walk away as Na-ra didn't move an inch from her stance. The next second Na-ra knew,all she heard was an sudden gasp along with a scattering sound reverberated from where the girl just turned to.

Quickly enough, Young-hee and Na-ra's eyes met in confusion as they turned back hasty and the sight was Very much....appealing.

The maid who spoke ill of her brother covered in an green liquid from head to toe, which Na-ra identified as an medicine she hated the most in Sejukwon because of the awful stench that could nauseate anyone in the room, and the girl was relatively covered in it.

" Oh my!... Sorry, I didn't see you there."

Na-ra peered over to see the face of the one who treated her wound just before, with an apologetic smile painted on her lips.

She wasn't bad at acting.

❃.✮:▹　◃:✮.❃

The first one to encounter when she returned to jeonjjingak was none other than Yul, who appeared to be petrified not seeing at her dorm and when relief came over as he met her face, surely it didn't last longer as his eyes fell upon the cast of her hand.

" What happened?!? "

His concerned gaze were fixated on her injured hand as his His hands cupped hers delicately not to hurt her by any means.

For a second Na-ra stared at the boy's concern with a star stricken eyes and gentle smile before the alarm of knowing that Young-hee stood right beside her ringed as she swiftly withdrawn her hands from the perplexed boy by her act.

Nonetheless, the act was too slow as Young-hee eyed the two in surprise taking over her features for a second before a wide smile plastered on her lips.

"Oh I forgot!! I needed to water the books Before it could swim away."

With an excuse that doesn't makes sense in every language, Young-hee simply ran away leaving the two alone before Na-ra could object or defend herself from the latter's true conception of the two.

" What has happened- "

Before the impatient boy for the answer could repeat his question , he was pulled by the girl to a secluded corner of the hall where no other could reach eyes.

" We have to be careful. What if Uk sees us like this?!? "

Her voice shrieked in the thought of her brother's reaction to his sister's and his friend's new found relation, while the former appeared to be confused by her fear of her brother.

" We should simply tell him then?... I was thinking to tell him but I wanted to speak with you before- "

" You were about to tell him?!? He would kill you for liking his sister and me for liking his friend!! "

Her voice gone two octaves higher than her usual before she slammed her own hands directed to her mouth not to let out any voice as she looked over to find any other soul.

" I thought we should, Since we love each other and we are- I mean I thought we are- did I think too ahead and- "

The unsure stuttered words of his were shunned out by the sudden kiss pulled by his collar, which quickly turned to earnest one that lasted couple of seconds before she pulled away. The smile of devotement filling her lips as she stared at the boy who's clearly flustered as his ears were flushed in an red cast.

" So we are- "

" Yes, we are. "

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𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐮𝐲𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 :

𝐇𝐞𝐲 𝐠𝐮𝐲𝐬,
𝐘𝐞𝐬. 𝐈'𝐦 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐲 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐩𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐰𝐨. 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐛𝐫𝐨?? 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐮𝐲𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐬 𝐝𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐈'𝐦 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐭 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐨, 𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝟏𝟓 𝐥𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐬𝐬𝐬.

𝐈'𝐦 𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐈 𝐚𝐦 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐈'𝐦 𝐚 𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫.

𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐬 ♡