❝ あなたの髪の一本まで全部
A million dollars I'd say raise❞

xvi. ruin: black widow

──

The afternoon sun rays refracted from the glass window panel. The toxic atmosphere spread its vicinity to noxious and influenced every person seated inside the council room to an extreme state. Through their eyes, the pre-eminence of panic illuminated darkly. The missus of the crown prince, the other heir of their infamous clan was an invisible stranger to these ten, but her impact of authority and recklessness is not new to them. If a story was written and she was the protagonist, it would assuredly have a disastrous end.

Chaeyoung ran her pale white hands through her ocean wave hair in a hasty state, "What is her motive?" Jeongguk shrugged nonchalantly and reverberated his vocal cords to answer, "I'm not the best person to be asked this question, rose." Lisa clutched her knife-pleated skirt throwing a stare at Jeongguk, "The high ranks don't mingle in our business randomly. It is either there was chaos inside the ranks, or we crossed our borderline. Both won't end well for devil's sake." Caroline nodded her head approvingly, "was a meeting called? any dispute inside the blue blood of the clan?"

No 'yes or no' was heard through the slim crowd, everyone remained silent with their tongue rolled inside. The tension could be cut with a knife; intense and haunting them for almost an hour. Nothing scared them as much as an uninvited high rank from their clan Atsuda trespassing their territory. These ten were never a favorite of the spouse of the crown prince, they always had some unexplainable aversion. Even though they have never seen her personally, they can say her heart got teeth. They are strangers with different blood.

"S- sir J- Jeon!" a young student working under Jeongguk's fraternity came rushing and stuttered, leaning his hands on the white-painted wall and breathing heavily. "Easy does the job brother, what happened?" Jeongguk stood up from his seat and went to assist the panic-stricken brunette. "I- In the cafeteria, Hell broke loose t- there!" using the last bit of oxygen he stored in his lungs, he said what he wanted with a lot of stammers. Jeongguk averted his gaze towards the 9 who were wearing frowns as their expression and spoke, "I'll go ahead and check what happened, you guys carry on with the meeting." The 9 nodded their head, of course, the whole situation concerned them, let alone their uninvited old guest but, they decided to let Jeongguk handle the current situation they are facing.

"Lead the way," Jeongguk commanded to the brunette and he nodded without taking his exhaustion due to all his running into account. Jeongguk felt his instincts whispering something bad is happening, but he is not a person who goes behind his guts and respects logic. As if awful energy surrounded and made him restless, his bones and flesh were shivering to the coldness. Jeongguk trailed close behind the brunette, thinking about all the worst-case scenarios, and absolutely she was on top of the list. Where there is trouble, there breathes her.

When they reached the cafeteria, Jeongguk searched for the havoc and as soon as his eyes landed on the despicable human being ever lived on the planet he felt his feet rooted to the floor. A nostalgic wave of fear struck his bones and felt goosebumps covering his flesh. 'My instinct was correct, after all,' was the only thing that ringed inside his brain. Considering the situation he was in, all he could think of now was run away, run away so far that he can never come back to this place but, his whole body gave up.

Her sharp whiskey eyes covered with dark eyeshadow rested beneath the black veil made it impossible to see her, dark red-painted lips that screamed daylight devil and midnight demon. More than 50 people were roaming there, fighting each other and spilling lots of blood yet, her addicting scent dominated the area. A woman of honor, dignity, pain, and troubles; hell follows her to death. She never spoke a single word, yet Jeongguk felt threatened to the core. He never met her face to face, or even know how her facial features look and still he would rather die than being with her in the same room.

Her heels clicked as she walked towards the startled Jeongguk, 'even if I saw this coming, why am I still petrified like a stone?' he asked himself as he saw her image become wider and wider. Her hands reached his arm, she leaned her petite body towards Jeongguk with an unexplainable smile hidden beneath her cover. "Happy morning," despite the catastrophe happening inside the cafeteria, she spoke as if wishing her son after waking up. "W- What are you doing here?" His voice reflected the fear he felt inside. "Oh, you don't know?" she chuckled mischievously and leaned in more forward.

"The crown prince of your clan is dead."

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❝ Down to the very last hair on your head
A million dollars, I'd say raise❞

+ finally updated :)