The Night Belongs to the Moon | Taeyong

43 | First Rain of Spring - I

Dal-ae waited, the air around her still, the clouds above her stationed in the hollowness. In the white oblivion of the wilderness, she stood watching, her eyes fixed on the entrance of the castle. Taeyong took a step forward and stopped beside her, taking her hand in his and stroking the back of her palm till he felt her heart steadying.

Not long after, they heard footsteps, hurried and frantic, shuffling through the snowy gravel. And, in the distance, Dal-ae saw it – Yuta emerging from the faint mist that surrounded the castle. He was wearing a different cloak; it was thicker and longer and seemed to weigh heavily on him as he was running towards the gate.

But at the sight of the visitors, he halted abruptly just a few metres away from where Dal-ae was stood. His eyes scanned group, Doyoung, Jaehyun and Taeil, who were standing alert, ready to give a chase should he run, but his gaze landed on Dal-ae, more specifically on her hand which was holding Taeyong's.

Pushing the damp iron door open, Yuta stepped out of the castle grounds and shut it behind him, the metal scraping against the gravel.

'So this is what it has come to now?' he gritted out, looking straight at her. 'I never imagined that you would block my path someday,'

'You should surrender,' Dal-ae spoke, her voice lower.

'You're mistaken.'

'I was but not anymore.'

There was a pause before he spoke, 'Look at you, questioning the motives of the one who raised you. Shouldn't you be grateful to me that I saved your life that night?'

'Saved my life?' Dal-ae scoffed despite herself. 'You are the one who killed my family. You are the reason I was lying on the street that night in front of my burning house. You didn't save my life, you spared it.'

At this, he laughed, his voice echoing against the trees that surrounded them. 'Ah, you really have grown up,' he said, the wild looking returning to his gleaming eyes. 'You're right. I did kill your family and would have killed you too if I had found you earlier in your house that night. Where were you hiding? All these years, I have wondered how I missed the smell of your blood.'

He ran a hand through his hair, sighing. 'You really were so pathetic when I found you. Do you remember that night? The way you clung onto my pants and looked up at me like I was some angel sent to save you. Children are so naïve, no? You used to follow me around everywhere I went with that reverent look in your eyes, even after I pushed you away several times. I even bit down on your tiny hands once when you grabbed feet but all you did was smile and hugged my leg. Your fingers were bleeding out but the pain didn't affect you, no, you were so happy to be near me when I nursed them for you.'

'That's enough,' Dal-ae seethed.

But Yuta paid her no heed. 'Do you know what I realized that day?' The grin on his face stretched wider and his eyes shined in the grey gloom. His words came out slow, almost mocking. 'I realized that you would believe anything I told you, and would do anything I asked you to do. So when you questioned about your parents, I gave you a name... his name. It was the first time I had seen a fire in your eyes. I had given you a purpose and you wanted to live for it. But who knew you would grow up to be such an ungrateful bitch.'

'Yuta!' Taeyong yelled but Dal-ae squeezed his hand asking him to calm down.

Yuta's eyes were still fixed on Dal-ae. 'I should have known,' he said. 'Children learn what they see so I guess this one is on me, right?'

Dal-ae did not remember much from the night she had first met Yuta; she was barely four years old and did not even know what death had meant to understand what had happened to her family. She had a vague memory of an elder brother, whose face she had long forgotten but his voice was still fresh in her mind telling her to hide in the closet and not make a sound no matter what she hears outside. She had done just that.