Chapter Text
Hakyeon’s still in the shadow of the castle when he picks up on the sound of another horse galloping towards him at top speeds. Ten minutes. Sanghyuk found him in ten minutes. Though his plans are effectively ruined, Hakyeon can’t help but to be impressed. The knight is very good at his job.
“Your Highness!”
“Sir Knight,” Hakyeon calls back, stifling a laugh. Sanghyuk’s horse, a large and pretty thing, falls into step with a happy gait. The horse is clearly enjoying the crisp spring day, her owner not so much.
Sanghyuk sighs so deeply it’s a miracle he isn’t pushed right off his horse. “Sneaking out again?
Your Highness, how many times must I ask you to not go off gallivanting on your own like this? The king has only just acquired this land, we have no idea what lurks in these parts.”
“But I’m not alone! You’re here, aren’t you?” Hakyeon gives Sanghyuk his best princely smile, cackling outright when he gets a disgruntled look in return. “I’ll always be safe with my trusted knight- nursemaid by my side. Wherever I go he will follow.”
To prove his point, Hakyeon kicks his horse into a run, heading full speed towards the thicket of trees he’s been curious about ever since he first saw them from the view of his personal chambers.
Of course Sanghyuk follows behind, yelling curses that he is not Hakyeon’s nursemaid and that Hakyeon needs to respect him even if he is the youngest knight in the castle.
The moment Hakyeon breaches the forest, he decides it was worth bribing all of the guards to let him off the premises alone. All around him, the trees are healthy, full of life. An awe-inspiring mix of greens and browns. Hakyeon comes to a stop when he reaches a clearing, both to take in the scenery and to let Sanghyuk catch up with him. If Hakyeon got lost here of all places he thinks Sanghyuk would seriously campaign to lock him up in the dungeons.
It isn’t long before the telltale clunking of Sanghyuk’s armor announces his arrival. “You know, I wouldn’t have to play your maid if you left the scouting to the men tasked to it instead,” he grumbles, another low hanging branch hitting him right in the face.
Hakyeon chooses to not bring up that those same scouts have been taking forever . Three weeks into their move up north and none of the scouts have gone farther than the town surrounding the castle.
More specifically, they’ve gone no farther than the tavern in town. If it’s not at the bottom of the mug of cheap mead, it’s not getting found. But princes aren’t supposed to gossip. Instead Hakyeon gestures to all the nature around them, “But if we left to the scouts, then we’d never see this . You used to love adventuring with me! Before you got knighted and your horse shit out your sense of fun.”
“The only thing my horse shit out, Your Highness , was your common sense. Haven’t you heard?” Sanghyuk comes closer, glancing meaningfully at the stream nearby. “They say that something unnatural lives in these parts. A witch.”
“A witch?” Hakyeon shivers despite himself. Lately the castle has been abuzz with talk about supernatural happening, and while Hakyeon doesn’t quite believe in witches and witches he can’t help but to be on guard.
Kibum, surprisingly, is quite knowledgeable on the subject. His friend’s ramblings on faerie rings and moon cycles go right over Hakyeon’s head, but he does try to heed his warnings, even if they’re absurd orders to never stand in a circle of rocks or flowers.
As if worried that the trees themselves are listening in, Sanghyuk pitches his voice low so that only Hakyeon can hear. “I heard it from some traveling fool. This land used to be barren for generations, until some witch arrived and lifted the curse with the blood of innocents.”
“So this witch is a...gardener?”
“Not funny Hakyeon.”
“I’m just saying it’s a bit absurd to be afraid of a...” Hakyeon trails off as a figure emerges from the darkness of the trees, striding quickly past them.
For a moment, Hakyeon fears it’s a hallucination until Sanghyuk draws his sword in alarm. “Halt! Who goes there?” The figure, tall and human shaped, cloaked in a black cape ignores them both.
“Halt,” Sanghyuk repeats. “State your business, stranger.”
Finally the figure stops. “Why must I state my business when you are the trespassers here?” it asks, voice soft and airy like the wind.
Sanghyuk points his sword at the other, rays of sunlight glinting off the blade. The threat in the action is clear. “I will not ask you again. What are you and what are you doing here?”
It’s hard to tell, but Hakyeon thinks he hears the stranger sigh petulantly. Then they turn, looking up at them from underneath the wide brim of a pointed hat. Hakyeon and Sanghyuk both are taken aback because this imposing stranger is...pretty?
Dark eyes bore into them unblinkingly. “I’m the witch of the woods,” he says, haughty. “And my business? Breathing.”
“You expect us to believe you’re a witch?”
The self proclaimed witch shrugs, “Doesn’t matter to me.” He turns as if to leave, cape fluttering behind him dramatically.
“Wait!” Hakyeon calls out, dismounting from his horse to approach the witch--much to Sanghyuk’s protest-- as non threateningly as possible. “Please excuse my knight, we mean you no harm. I am Crown Prince Cha Hakyeon and--”
“You’re the prince?” the witch’s eyes alight with interest for the first time. Hakyeon knows he might have made a mistake when the air around them begins to grow heavy with energy. Like the feeling right before a thunderstorm, seemingly focusing on him. Smiling, the witch extends his hand, “Well, that saves me some trouble.”
And before Hakyeon can even move, his vision goes black.
(∩ᄑ_ᄑ)⊃━☆ﾟ*･｡*･ :(¦)
The first thing Hakyeon notices when he comes to is humming. Which wouldn’t be unusual, the maids hum all the time as they putter about in the mornings. Only that this humming is a lot deeper, and when Hakyeon blinks up at the ceiling it's a lot lower, and he doesn’t remember going to bed--
Hakyeon sits up suddenly, startling the other person in the room. They both stare at each other wide eyed. Hakyeon notes slightly overgrown dark hair and classically handsome features, just as the other man exclaims, “You’re awake!” He sounds genuinely happy about it, dimples emerging as he smiles. “Taekwoon! He’s awake! You haven’t committed murder!”
Dimple-boy runs out of the room screaming for this Taekwoon, leaving Hakyeon alone and even more confused than before. His advisors have drilled him on what to do if someone were ever to try to abduct him for ransom or political gain, but no one’s ever trained him on escaping from cozy cottages with soft feather filled beds and elaborate tapestries on the wall.
Before Hakyeon can decide if he should make a run for it or not, Dimple-boy comes back with a familiar face trailing behind him.
“You!”
The witch blinks at him, “Me?”
“Y-you’re the witch from the forest!” Hakyeon points an accusatory finger at the other, less dangerous looking now that he’s missing the heavy black cape and hat. Regardless, Hakyeon is on high alert, glancing around for any kind of weapon. “Did you kidnap me? Where’s Sanghyuk?”
“I did not kidnap you,” the witch protests--sulks even.
Dimple-boy snorts, “Knocking someone out with a sleeping spell for three days and bringing them back to your home is quite literally kidnapping. Well, prince-napping in this case.”
“ Three days ” Hakyeon shrieks. “I’ve been asleep for three days ?”
The castle must be in a frenzy by now. His mother is going to kill him. Sanghyuk--if he’s still alive--is going to kill him . Even worse, he bet his skin looks terrible right now.
“If it makes you feel any better,” Dimple-boy smiles sympathetically, “ I think Taekwoon only meant to knock you out for a few minutes. He’s just absolute shit with hexes.”
“Thank you, Hongbin,” Taekwoon deadpans, and then promptly snaps and turns Hongbin’s shoelaces into snakes.
Hakyeon screams.
Hongbin shrugs like it's just another day. Horrified, Hakyeon comes to the conclusion that this very well may be the norm. Judging by the way the two men banter with so much familiarity, Hongbin has been here for a long time.
There are a million questions swirling around in Hakyeon’s head. But for now he settles for the most pressing one: “Why am I here?”
“To talk,” Taekwoon says nonchalantly.
“To talk...You knocked me out for three days just to talk? ”
“I didn’t mean to!”
“Well you don’t sound so apologetic about it!”
Taekwoon looks Hakyeon directly in the eye, gaze intense. “I’m so sorry that your human body is so weak to magic.”
For a brief, intense moment Hakyeon is overcome by the desire to strangle Taekwoon with the ties of his fluttery, half unbuttoned shirt, but Hongbin beats him to it. “Go make yourself useful and go find that knight again. I’ll get the Prince here cleaned up.”
(∩ᄑ_ᄑ)⊃━☆ﾟ*･｡*･ :(¦)
After kicking Taekwoon out, Hongbin leads Hakyeon to a small bathroom. There he’s given his old clothes back, freshly washed, along with his sword and his money pouch. Nothing’s been touched as far as Hakyeon can tell--it even looks like his sword has been polished when he was out.
Talk about hospitality.
Hakyeon mentally gives himself a shake. No, he still needs to be on guard. If the fairy tales are true there is as much to fear from a hospitable witch as one that’s openly trying to kill him.
So when Hongbin slides him a bowl of delicious smelling soup a bit later on, Hakyeon can’t help to eye it suspiciously. “What is it?”
Hongbin looks down at the bowl then back up at Hakyeon. “It’s soup,” he says blandly, giving him a look so judgmental it could peel the silver off armor. It’s such a Taekwoon expression, Hakyeon worries if the other man has been possessed. “Do they not have...soup at the castle? I can assure you, us commoners aren’t using horse dung as ingredients, and Taekwoon’s a pretty good cook--”
“He made this?” Hakyeon warily pushes the bowl away with his spoon. “Are you sure it isn’t....you know...poisoned?”
“Why would Taekwoon poison you? He’s a bit weird, but he’s perfectly harmless...and I don’t even think he knows how to make poison.”
“He can’t make poison, can’t do hexes, what can he do?” Hakyeon blurts out without thinking, slapping a hand over his own mouth when the words register.
Hakyeon expects Hongbin to get mad, after all he’s Taekwoon’s underling or something, right? But instead Hongbin just bursts into laughter, showing off an impressive array of teeth.
“You’re--you’re right,” Hongbin says breathlessly. “Taekwoon is kinda a shitty witch. Which is why he’s harmless. ‘Sides if he wanted to kill you, he would’ve done it while you were sleeping.”
“Thanks for the comforting words, I guess. You seem to know, uh, Taekwoon well. How’d you end up living here? You come off so...normal.” It’s been bothering Hakyeon for a while now. Is Hongbin being held against his will? Some kind of indentured servant?
“So you won’t eat my soup, but you’ll dig around for my life story?” Hongbin gasps, faux scandalized as he takes a seat across Hakyeon at the antique looking dining table.
The kicked dog look makes Hakyeon feel guilty for distrusting him for the briefest fraction of a second. Then he remembers. “You didn’t even make this.”
Shameless, Hongbin shrugs. “I chopped the carrots. That’s work.” When Hakyeon continues to stare unimpressed, he sighs. “Tell you this. You eat. I talk.You get to be the nosey, I don’t have to deal with Taekwoon pouting when his famous Jung family soup goes uneaten.”
Convinced somewhat, Hakyeon pulls the bowl closer once more and digs his spoon into it. The consistency looks normal, there are no eyes of newt floating around, but the taste...
Hakyeon takes the tiniest sip possible, ignoring Hongbin’s glorious eye roll at his theatrics. And it’s....good? It’s a flavor profile Hakyeon’s never encountered before, but that doesn’t stop him from really digging in once he doesn’t drop dead from poison.
While he eats, Hongbin tells him how he first stumbled upon Taekwoon, catching the witch right in the middle of putting a hex on a corrupt tax collector. Only the hex for bad fortune was actually a portal to summon a demon. And for whatever reason Hongbin decided that he’d be better off keeping an amateur witch from killing himself than being sent off to the church like his parents wanted.
He’s just getting to the part where the two of them tricked the demon into going back to where it came from using a goat, when Taekwoon himself appears in the tiny dining room.
“The prisoner has eaten,” Hongbin informs him. All he gets back in response is a nod, but Hakyeon swears Taekwoon seems a bit more pleased than before.
Hakyeon realizes that he’s staring--even worse--admiring Taekwoon’s face now that he’s not scowling, and drops his eyes to what remains of his soup. “So....did you find Sanghyuk?”
Taekwoon nods again, a devious smile curving his lips. “He’s outside. Said something about not wanting to step into a den of evil .”
“Evil,” Hongbin snorts ungracefully. “Your aesthetic is much too...gay to be evil if you ask me.
The knight is still mad about you giving his armor sentience then?”
“Furious. You cast one spell on a human and they’ll go to the grave convinced you’re devil spawn.”
That sounds like Sanghyuk. Hakyeon doesn’t know if holding a grudge is included in a knight’s training, but there’s no way in hell Sanghyuk will ever trust Taekwoon as far as he can throw him. And Sanghyuk could throw him very, very far.
“Well, if you would stop casting spells on humans for no reason, maybe then they wouldn’t think you’re so evil,” Hakyeon butts in, unable to keep quiet. “We may have trespassed on your land but that doesn’t give you the right to do whatever you want!”
One of Taekwoon’s eyebrows quirk beneath his fringe. “But don’t humans do the same thing? You claim land that doesn’t belong to you and then go around executing each other based on arbitrary laws. Good and evil are just false notions to make yourselves feel better.”
“Those sound like words of an evil being if you ask me,” Hakyeon grumbles, puffing out his cheeks childishly. The witch may have a point, but Taekwoon is the last person Hakyeon ever wants to have a debate of ethics with.
Taekwoon gapes at him, “I am not evil! You just don’t want to admit that your people aren’t holy and good just because you say they are.”
“Just kiss already,” Hongbin quips, sounding bored of it all. Both Hakyeon and Taekwoon glare first at Hongbin and then back at each other.
Hakyeon’s about to vehemently deny the possibility of that ever happening, when Taekwoon drops eye contact to stare at the floor, fanning his face in embarrassment. Loathe as Hakyeon is to admit it, there’s something oddly cute about the whole thing.
Oh god. Hakyeon has got to get out of here; he’s beginning to enjoy the company of this weird witch and his slightly less weird assistant.
"Can I go now?" Hakyeon asks, head in his hands. Cute. He really just thought Taekwoon was cute .
Taekwoon--who is definitely not cute-- looks up at him. “Oh yes. Hongbin. Go get the thing."
The vague directions don't seem to phase Hongbin at all, he slips out of his chair and disappears back towards where the bedrooms were. Further down the hall was a room full of magical odds and ends. Hakyeon couldn't make sense of most of what was in there, but Hongbin returns in no time to toss him a small velvet bag.
Nosey, Hakyeon unties it to find a rock. Small, palm sized, smooth, and totally unremarkable save for the rune like etching on one side. “Are you telling me you knocked me unconscious for three days to give me a rock?"
“It's not just a rock," Hongbin explains, as if Hakyeon is daft for thinking otherwise. "Well, it is, but not to the faerie in the castle."
“There's a faerie in the castle? At this very moment?" Suddenly Kibum's rants on magic don't sound so silly anymore.
At some point Taekwoon has meandered over to the soup warming over the fire, and is eating straight out of the giant pot. “You haven't seen him?" he wonders, spoon poised before his mouth. “Good. Keep it that way. His name is Jaehwan and he's a menace. Easy on the eyes. But still a menace."
Hakyeon stares down at the rock in his hand, “Okay. So why the rock?”
“The old king that lived in the castle didn't believe in magic and started messing with things he shouldn't have," Hongbin tells him. “Jaehwan's really...”
“Annoying?” Taekwoon offers, still eating soup from the pot like a heathen. When he catches Hakyeon staring at him in disgust, he hunches over defensively. “What? Magic makes me hungry.”
Hongbin sighs. “I was going to say he’s particular. Apparently someone in the castle started ruining his faerie circles, and it didn't go too well. That's why the old king was so eager to give up this land. He's convinced it's cursed."
The fear must show in his face, because Taekwoon leaves his soup to come over to Hakyeon and pat him on the shoulder in an awkward show of comfort. Hakyeon nearly short circuits from the unexpected magical jolt that goes through him.
“There's nothing to worry about," Taekwoon tells him softly, sounding totally untrustworthy as he begins to herd Hakyeon towards the exit. “Just offer Jaehwan his stupid rock back in one of his faerie circles, and you won't have to fear he'll drive you to insanity like the last royal family."
Hakyeon allows himself to be herded, eager to be back out in the sun. Still he can't help but to be wary. “You promise?”
“We swear to it. Witch's honor.”
From behind them Hakyeon hears Hongbin mutter Witches don’t even have honor, but the implications of the phrase pale in comparison to the joy Hakyeon feels when he steps outside to see Sanghyuk and his obnoxiously shiny armor standing a good fifty paces away from the front of the cottage. Hakyeon’s horse is there too, looking as healthy as ever. “Hyukkie!” he cries, running towards his friend, arms outstretched.
Normally Sanghyuk would act disgusted by the public display of affection, but he must have really been concerned about Hakyeon’s, because he not only lets Hakyeon wrap him up in a big bear hug but squeezes him back.
“You’re awake! Finally! I was sure I was going to have to find a cure for you myself!” Sanghyuk gives Hakyeon a long once over. “You are Hakyeon right? They haven’t replaced you with anyone else? I went through three days of hell covering this up, I better bring the right Hakyeon back.”
“And you call me dramatic. Enough of that, what did you tell everyone in the castle? Surely they’ve been worried about me.”
Sanghyuk nods his head towards Hongbin, “Your friend there forged a letter in your hand. We all made up something about you going to visit the southern lands to boost morale. While illegal, it was the best option to avoid...questions”
So as far as anyone in the castle knows, nothing supernatural at all has gone on, and the secret of the forest will remain a secret. Hakyeon’s more than a little relieved. While he’s not totally convinced Taekwoon is harmless, he’d still feel bad knowing him or Hongbin thrown into the dungeons for this.
“It must have really hurt you to commit a crime, Sir Knight,” Hakyeon teases as he saddles up.
“Don’t remind me,” Sanghyuk glares at the cottage. “It pains me to know there’s a rogue witch in these parts. Say the word and I’ll have the guard here to apprehend them.”
Hakyeon too glances back at the unassuming witch’s cottage, clean and earthy with its abundance of plants and flowers surrounding it. “No need. There was no real harm done.” The longer he stares the more Hakyeon begins to feel as though he’ll actually miss this place.
“You can come back anytime,” Hongbin says, reading Hakyeon’s mind. He frowns. “Just not late at night. Or too early in the day.”
The fumbled show of hospitality puts a smile on Hakyeon’s face, “So not anytime? But thank you. Hopefully there will be no more sleeping spells.”
All eyes go pointedly to Taekwoon.
The witch in question hums thoughtfully. “I don’t know...I finally think I was getting the hang of it. Next time I think I’ll only knock you out for two days.” When they all just stare at him, Taekwoon huffs, offended. “I was joking.”
Hongbin cringes so hard it looks painful ,“We’re going to have to workshop your sense of humor, old man.”
“The trees thought that was pretty funny.”
“Now that was a pretty decent joke,” Hakyeon tells him.
Taekwoon blinks up at him. “No, I was serious. The trees are listening.” He gestures to the large oak tree looming over the home. Instead of nonsensical lines running through the bark, the trunk has formed into the shape of a face laughing with mirth.
Hakyeon screams.