Starstruck
sarNie Egg
Thanks so much! Can't wait to read more.
1805, Min Island
- Thread starter neena
- Start date
CHAPTER 14: WEDDED
A warm hand was lying on her tummy when she felt someone was sleeping behind her. She touched his hand and opened her eyes. Yaya turned around and there was no one. She must have been dreaming she thought. Nadech had left the bedroom before she even woke up.
-
Yaya sat in front of the mirror staring at her reflection. This marriage was really happening. She was already wearing a long white wedding gown. Her crown braided hair wrapped all around her head, her face perfectly powdered. A dream of hers was to marry the man she loved and their wedding would have taken place on the beach close to her home. This dream will be shattered today.
Yaya stepped out onto the hallway, a red thin veil covered her face, and it would have been difficult to walk so she was assisted by maids, each one holding each arm. Yaya was stopped by Princess Ja outside before boarding the horse carriage.
“Oh Yaya! What really happened? Tell me so I can help stop this madness! Please! What can I do?” Ja then hugs Yaya, sobbing.
But Yaya couldn’t tell her all the details of Pope’s unfaithfulness to Ja. Yaya hugged her tightly just like how sisters hug when the other marries and goes away. Bittersweet, however Yaya wasn’t going away to start a happy life with the man she loved, she was leaving the place she made her home for the past four years to be with a stranger in his home.
“I’ll be okay; don’t worry about me, your highness.”
“How can I ever face your mother knowing I couldn’t do anything to prevent this?”
“I wouldn’t be able to face your parents either if I wasn’t going to sacrifice my happiness for you, your highness."
"Sacrifice your happiness for mine? You mad girl, you have done enough for me."
"Promise to take care of yourself, your highness.” Yaya turned around and got inside the carriage without looking back. Her duty to the princess ended.
-
On Yasa’s ship, the groom was also getting ready for the big day. From head to toe, Nadech was in elegant clothes made to worn only by those with high rank in the country; this was something he didn’t miss while living on Min Island, these clothes were tight and made him suffocate from the intense heat. When he was finished dressing himself, every man he passed through the ship’s hallways stared at his handsome figure, they were even afraid of him. Nadech walked onto the ship’s deck. Yasa and Pope were waiting for him. When they turned to him they were as surprised as all the men on the ship.
“Whoa…You really look like Prince Nadech.” Said Yasa.
This was too real to be true; a duplicate was standing in front of him. Nadech had shaved, cut all his long hair off, combing it onto one side leaving a clean hair line. Even Pope was afraid of who he was looking at. Pope walks over to “Lord Bai”.
“It’s like he came back from the dead.” Pope studied his face. “Amazing how much you look like my dead cousin.”
Nadech only bowed, pretending to accept it as a compliment, obeying Pope would lead to no suspicion that Pope was actually standing in front of his real cousin.
There wasn’t going to be a wedding. No wonder, it was said that Yaya was going to be his third wife and a wedding wouldn’t be necessary, besides she was just some seamstress.
After dark, the carriage rode up to the Lord’s doorstep. Yaya stepped out and was welcomed by his servants. Immediately, she was led to her bedroom chambers insisting that she was tired from the trip and wouldn't be able to meet her husband. Left alone, Yaya sat on her new bed, adorned still with necklaces and earrings. Her wedding gown covered her toes. She brought her knees to her chest and rested her forehead on her arms, crying. The mosquito net draped all four corners of her bed. Never has she felt so alone.
The entry door to her bedroom chamber cracked open and she looked up. She couldn’t make out his face, the tall figure walking towards her bedside. The lantern beside her bed was too dim to produce enough light past her bed posts.
“Who is it?” she asked.
He didn’t stop until he made it to her side of the bed, he didn’t open the mosquito net to welcome himself in though, just stood there. Still, she couldn’t make out his face, the flickering light only helped reveal him from his slim legs up to his broad shoulders.
“I asked who you are?!” asking again, this time around she was a little harsh.
Nadech waited until no one was listening or standing outside the door. “I was told you wanted to spend this night alone.”
“Were you also told that its not just tonight but every night, so if you’d please, leave me alone.”
“Are you sure? Every night you’d like to be left alone? Even when you don’t even know who I am or rather my intentions are good or bad?”
“Anyone who actually obeys the Queen will only have bad intentions, this includes you. I don’t want to know who you are…for all I know, I was forced against my will to marry you. Marrying without love…don’t you think this is cruel enough? So I only ask that I am to be left alone.”
Yaya blows out the lantern candle and falls back onto her side, to avoid the healing wounds on her back. Nadech traced the mosquito net with his fingers, he watched her fall asleep before but it was different this time, she was his. He closed her bedroom door behind him, he was standing outside her door.
“If only you knew, I feel like the luckiest wedded man right now." he smiled, with his hands behind his back, he walked back to his room.
The next morning the beaming sun woke her up; she sat up and beside her bed was a box wrapped up in white cloth. Yaya opened the cloth up and found ground up herbs inside the box, the note attached to it read:
“Apply this to your wounds. They will help them heal faster."
It didn't say who it was from. Yaya smelled the herbs; they were the same kind she wrapped around Nadech’s foot all those years ago on Min Island. Yaya ran out of her room and searched for him.
-
HIS BEDROOM
Still dressed in her wedding gown, Yaya opened the doors and walked inside. He was nowhere to be found. She searched his whole room. The only door in his room left unopened was his bathroom door. She cracked the door open to peek inside and there he was. Sitting in the big wooden bathtub, naked, his bare shoulders and arms resting on the tub rime, the steam from the hot water made the room foggy. Nadech sighed knowing she was there.
“Mae, is that you?” He pretended to call his servant.
Yaya mouthed, “Mae?”
“I am finished, hand me my robe by the chair would you?”
Still clinging onto the door she almost fell over when he asked her this. She answered in a sweet quiet voice to disguise herself. “Uh…Yes…” Yaya walked over to the chair, grabbed the robe.
Nadech stood up, butt naked. Her mouth dropped and she brought the robe up to hide her eyes from his naked figure, she felt humiliated.
“What are you waiting for? Put it on me.” He stretches both his arms out waiting for her to put the robe on him; instead she hung it on his free arm and ran out. Nadech turned around; he chuckled to himself watching her run out of his room.
Back in her room again, Yaya fanned herself, her face all red, the beating in her heart was faster and louder than usual.
-
BACK AT THE ROYAL PALACE
Princess Ja pleaded with Pope. “Please, I beg of you. Help her; I can’t just sit here knowing she is alone in that place!”
Pope was buttoning his shirt, staring at himself in the mirror. “She brought it upon herself. I have nothing to do with it.”
“You can help her!”
“How can I go against my own mother’s wish? This would teach her a lesson. Besides, nothing can be done now, they are married.”
“How can you say this so casually, you care enough about her to not let this marriage happen. Either way, her majesty was not being fair, how can she expect to marry Yaya off after such a harsh punishment already? This is injustice to Yaya.”
Pope turned to Ja. “Harsh? So her words to me shouldn’t have hurt me?! You have no idea how much it hurts to be told what you mean to someone you have-oh forget it. Your eyes and heart can’t see.”
It took a few minutes to understand what he meant. “Her words?” she gasped and covered her mouth, “This was your entire plan, wasn’t it? This is your way of hurting her…because you…
“I love her. Yes.”
Ja’s turned around hoping he wouldn’t see her tears. “For how long now?”
“Does that matter?”
“Yes it does matter!” She searched for something to hold onto for support, her knees were beginning to give out on her, this was too much of a shock. “If there is one thing I hate the most in this world, it is someone lying to me.”
“And I can’t love someone who can’t even look at me!”
She was insulted by his words and her tears weren’t able to stop anymore. She turned back around to face him once more. “Nong Yaya has a big heart, I know she would never betray me. Is this why she rejected you? And now you wish to marry her to some Lord to keep her here, away from Min Island where she wishes to be. I can understand you completely even if I am not able to see what you do.”
Pope didn’t know how smart she was until now. Silence filled the room until Ja had the courage to speak again.
“Yet you can say I had no idea how it feels...all these years I built an image of how you looked in my mind…” Ja wiped her tears, “Just to be completely heartbroken and hopeless.” Ja covered her face and cried into them.
For the first time in a very long time, he felt disgusted with his actions and words. He even felt bad for once, hurting her, this was making him vulnerable seeing her cry like this in front of him. Finally something clicked inside him and he walked over to his wife, wrapped his strong arms around her while she continued to sob.
A warm hand was lying on her tummy when she felt someone was sleeping behind her. She touched his hand and opened her eyes. Yaya turned around and there was no one. She must have been dreaming she thought. Nadech had left the bedroom before she even woke up.
-
Yaya sat in front of the mirror staring at her reflection. This marriage was really happening. She was already wearing a long white wedding gown. Her crown braided hair wrapped all around her head, her face perfectly powdered. A dream of hers was to marry the man she loved and their wedding would have taken place on the beach close to her home. This dream will be shattered today.
Yaya stepped out onto the hallway, a red thin veil covered her face, and it would have been difficult to walk so she was assisted by maids, each one holding each arm. Yaya was stopped by Princess Ja outside before boarding the horse carriage.
“Oh Yaya! What really happened? Tell me so I can help stop this madness! Please! What can I do?” Ja then hugs Yaya, sobbing.
But Yaya couldn’t tell her all the details of Pope’s unfaithfulness to Ja. Yaya hugged her tightly just like how sisters hug when the other marries and goes away. Bittersweet, however Yaya wasn’t going away to start a happy life with the man she loved, she was leaving the place she made her home for the past four years to be with a stranger in his home.
“I’ll be okay; don’t worry about me, your highness.”
“How can I ever face your mother knowing I couldn’t do anything to prevent this?”
“I wouldn’t be able to face your parents either if I wasn’t going to sacrifice my happiness for you, your highness."
"Sacrifice your happiness for mine? You mad girl, you have done enough for me."
"Promise to take care of yourself, your highness.” Yaya turned around and got inside the carriage without looking back. Her duty to the princess ended.
-
On Yasa’s ship, the groom was also getting ready for the big day. From head to toe, Nadech was in elegant clothes made to worn only by those with high rank in the country; this was something he didn’t miss while living on Min Island, these clothes were tight and made him suffocate from the intense heat. When he was finished dressing himself, every man he passed through the ship’s hallways stared at his handsome figure, they were even afraid of him. Nadech walked onto the ship’s deck. Yasa and Pope were waiting for him. When they turned to him they were as surprised as all the men on the ship.
“Whoa…You really look like Prince Nadech.” Said Yasa.
This was too real to be true; a duplicate was standing in front of him. Nadech had shaved, cut all his long hair off, combing it onto one side leaving a clean hair line. Even Pope was afraid of who he was looking at. Pope walks over to “Lord Bai”.
“It’s like he came back from the dead.” Pope studied his face. “Amazing how much you look like my dead cousin.”
Nadech only bowed, pretending to accept it as a compliment, obeying Pope would lead to no suspicion that Pope was actually standing in front of his real cousin.
There wasn’t going to be a wedding. No wonder, it was said that Yaya was going to be his third wife and a wedding wouldn’t be necessary, besides she was just some seamstress.
After dark, the carriage rode up to the Lord’s doorstep. Yaya stepped out and was welcomed by his servants. Immediately, she was led to her bedroom chambers insisting that she was tired from the trip and wouldn't be able to meet her husband. Left alone, Yaya sat on her new bed, adorned still with necklaces and earrings. Her wedding gown covered her toes. She brought her knees to her chest and rested her forehead on her arms, crying. The mosquito net draped all four corners of her bed. Never has she felt so alone.
The entry door to her bedroom chamber cracked open and she looked up. She couldn’t make out his face, the tall figure walking towards her bedside. The lantern beside her bed was too dim to produce enough light past her bed posts.
“Who is it?” she asked.
He didn’t stop until he made it to her side of the bed, he didn’t open the mosquito net to welcome himself in though, just stood there. Still, she couldn’t make out his face, the flickering light only helped reveal him from his slim legs up to his broad shoulders.
“I asked who you are?!” asking again, this time around she was a little harsh.
Nadech waited until no one was listening or standing outside the door. “I was told you wanted to spend this night alone.”
“Were you also told that its not just tonight but every night, so if you’d please, leave me alone.”
“Are you sure? Every night you’d like to be left alone? Even when you don’t even know who I am or rather my intentions are good or bad?”
“Anyone who actually obeys the Queen will only have bad intentions, this includes you. I don’t want to know who you are…for all I know, I was forced against my will to marry you. Marrying without love…don’t you think this is cruel enough? So I only ask that I am to be left alone.”
Yaya blows out the lantern candle and falls back onto her side, to avoid the healing wounds on her back. Nadech traced the mosquito net with his fingers, he watched her fall asleep before but it was different this time, she was his. He closed her bedroom door behind him, he was standing outside her door.
“If only you knew, I feel like the luckiest wedded man right now." he smiled, with his hands behind his back, he walked back to his room.
The next morning the beaming sun woke her up; she sat up and beside her bed was a box wrapped up in white cloth. Yaya opened the cloth up and found ground up herbs inside the box, the note attached to it read:
“Apply this to your wounds. They will help them heal faster."
It didn't say who it was from. Yaya smelled the herbs; they were the same kind she wrapped around Nadech’s foot all those years ago on Min Island. Yaya ran out of her room and searched for him.
-
HIS BEDROOM
Still dressed in her wedding gown, Yaya opened the doors and walked inside. He was nowhere to be found. She searched his whole room. The only door in his room left unopened was his bathroom door. She cracked the door open to peek inside and there he was. Sitting in the big wooden bathtub, naked, his bare shoulders and arms resting on the tub rime, the steam from the hot water made the room foggy. Nadech sighed knowing she was there.
“Mae, is that you?” He pretended to call his servant.
Yaya mouthed, “Mae?”
“I am finished, hand me my robe by the chair would you?”
Still clinging onto the door she almost fell over when he asked her this. She answered in a sweet quiet voice to disguise herself. “Uh…Yes…” Yaya walked over to the chair, grabbed the robe.
Nadech stood up, butt naked. Her mouth dropped and she brought the robe up to hide her eyes from his naked figure, she felt humiliated.
“What are you waiting for? Put it on me.” He stretches both his arms out waiting for her to put the robe on him; instead she hung it on his free arm and ran out. Nadech turned around; he chuckled to himself watching her run out of his room.
Back in her room again, Yaya fanned herself, her face all red, the beating in her heart was faster and louder than usual.
-
BACK AT THE ROYAL PALACE
Princess Ja pleaded with Pope. “Please, I beg of you. Help her; I can’t just sit here knowing she is alone in that place!”
Pope was buttoning his shirt, staring at himself in the mirror. “She brought it upon herself. I have nothing to do with it.”
“You can help her!”
“How can I go against my own mother’s wish? This would teach her a lesson. Besides, nothing can be done now, they are married.”
“How can you say this so casually, you care enough about her to not let this marriage happen. Either way, her majesty was not being fair, how can she expect to marry Yaya off after such a harsh punishment already? This is injustice to Yaya.”
Pope turned to Ja. “Harsh? So her words to me shouldn’t have hurt me?! You have no idea how much it hurts to be told what you mean to someone you have-oh forget it. Your eyes and heart can’t see.”
It took a few minutes to understand what he meant. “Her words?” she gasped and covered her mouth, “This was your entire plan, wasn’t it? This is your way of hurting her…because you…
“I love her. Yes.”
Ja’s turned around hoping he wouldn’t see her tears. “For how long now?”
“Does that matter?”
“Yes it does matter!” She searched for something to hold onto for support, her knees were beginning to give out on her, this was too much of a shock. “If there is one thing I hate the most in this world, it is someone lying to me.”
“And I can’t love someone who can’t even look at me!”
She was insulted by his words and her tears weren’t able to stop anymore. She turned back around to face him once more. “Nong Yaya has a big heart, I know she would never betray me. Is this why she rejected you? And now you wish to marry her to some Lord to keep her here, away from Min Island where she wishes to be. I can understand you completely even if I am not able to see what you do.”
Pope didn’t know how smart she was until now. Silence filled the room until Ja had the courage to speak again.
“Yet you can say I had no idea how it feels...all these years I built an image of how you looked in my mind…” Ja wiped her tears, “Just to be completely heartbroken and hopeless.” Ja covered her face and cried into them.
For the first time in a very long time, he felt disgusted with his actions and words. He even felt bad for once, hurting her, this was making him vulnerable seeing her cry like this in front of him. Finally something clicked inside him and he walked over to his wife, wrapped his strong arms around her while she continued to sob.
thai-lakorn-fan-forever
sarNie Oldmaid
Thank you for the update na Neena!
^ Oh, I like that idea... .Yaya falling in to this tub by accident. lol
Thanks for the update naka...... It was sooo good.
Did Yaya notice his face? THAT he IS Nadech or did she only looked south and run away. hahahaha
Please update soon naka... can't wait to have Yaya see his face.....
Thanks for the update naka...... It was sooo good.
Did Yaya notice his face? THAT he IS Nadech or did she only looked south and run away. hahahaha
Please update soon naka... can't wait to have Yaya see his face.....
thai-lakorn-fan-forever
sarNie Oldmaid
Neena, update again soon na! Continue with more interesting scenes between Nadech and Yaya please!
zazoured
sarNie Juvenile
A little Hello ! From me just to say that I am soooo missing this FF !!! I am dying to now what is coming next sooooo much...
But I am aware that you have a life so I should be patient ( snif...snif...), it is just to say: " don't forget us Neena ! " the anticipation is killing me lol!
But I am aware that you have a life so I should be patient ( snif...snif...), it is just to say: " don't forget us Neena ! " the anticipation is killing me lol!
thai-lakorn-fan-forever
sarNie Oldmaid
It's only been 2 weeks since the last update but it feels like forever. This is such an interesting fanfic...can't wait for the next update!
I am waiting for update too.......
HI EVERYONE!
Sorry for the hiatus!! Been busy!! Thank you for the comments. I really want to finish this fanfic before TNNKK airs so I will try my best! I will update as much as possible since the next week isn't as hectic! Thank you for reading!
CHAPTER 15: LIKE FIRE & PETALS
Once in a while, in replay, the image of her husband standing up from the steaming bath tub keeps leaping into Yaya’s mind. Yaya covered her hot face. She’s never seen so much of a man in her life. Then his deep voice echoed in her mind, she closed her eyes, still his naked back and muscular back haunts her. A gasp escaped from her mouth when she just replayed in her head when he spread his arms up to retrieve his towel from her, she was certain his shoulder was injured, it was bandaged. She remembered her blade tearing through Nadech’s shoulder the day they fought each other on the beach, now her husband has a wound located where she had driven her sword. He’s entered her bedroom chambers before but she doesn’t recall seeing his face and the steam rising from the tub he was sitting in made it difficult to see his face clearly. Who was this man she saw so much of but has never really seen his face?
“Madam?”
Yaya walks to the door with the servant on the other side of the door. “Yes?”
“It is an order from Lord Bai that you have dinner with him tonight.”
Yaya turned her back on the door. “I don’t wish to dine with anyone.”
Nadech stepped forward and nodded to the servant, a sign for her to leave.
“Should I be the one to deliver all your meals to you then?”
Yaya’s eyes widen, the servant wasn’t there anymore, she turned back around and saw Nadech’s shadowy figure through the beautifully colored flower parchment paper window door.
“Do you purposely want me to have dinner with you in your room then? Just so that right afterwards we can just slip into bed?”
“You’re sick.”
Nadech laughs. “Well then…what are we going to do?”
Yaya was silent; she focused on his shadowy face outside her door. “Laugh again.” She finally said.
“What?”
“…For a second there I thought I knew that laugh from somewhere.”
“Normally people remember someone’s face or memories of them. This person must mean a lot to you if you can remember how they laughed.”
Reminiscing about the days on Min Island, together, they laughed with each other. For that split second ago, she thought she was speaking to Nadech again.
“…Yes…he meant a lot to me, when he…was the person I knew.” she admitted to him.
“When he was the person you knew…he’s still the same person isn’t he?
“Do you know how easily a person can turn into your enemy?”
Of course Nadech knew, he was betrayed just like her. In this intense moment, he put his fingers on the wooden door, he was about to push open the door but stopped.
“Just one mistake…one lie from that person...it can change your whole world.”
“What if…his story was tainted by lies made by someone else…and just like you…he is waiting not as your enemy but as a person who...just misses you?"
Yaya walked closer to the door. Outside the door, Nadech heard her shuffling footsteps approaching the door.
“You speak of him as if you were him."
Yaya puts her hand on the knob, she was turning it but Nadech grabbed the knob on the other side. He held the door tightly so she wouldn’t be able to open from inside.
“What are you doing? Open the door why are you holding it!” She pulled but the door wouldn’t open.
“You are having dinner with me rather you like it or not and you will decide rather I am your enemy or not.”
TO BE CONTINUED...WILL POST TOMORROW EVENING!
Sorry for the hiatus!! Been busy!! Thank you for the comments. I really want to finish this fanfic before TNNKK airs so I will try my best! I will update as much as possible since the next week isn't as hectic! Thank you for reading!
CHAPTER 15: LIKE FIRE & PETALS
Once in a while, in replay, the image of her husband standing up from the steaming bath tub keeps leaping into Yaya’s mind. Yaya covered her hot face. She’s never seen so much of a man in her life. Then his deep voice echoed in her mind, she closed her eyes, still his naked back and muscular back haunts her. A gasp escaped from her mouth when she just replayed in her head when he spread his arms up to retrieve his towel from her, she was certain his shoulder was injured, it was bandaged. She remembered her blade tearing through Nadech’s shoulder the day they fought each other on the beach, now her husband has a wound located where she had driven her sword. He’s entered her bedroom chambers before but she doesn’t recall seeing his face and the steam rising from the tub he was sitting in made it difficult to see his face clearly. Who was this man she saw so much of but has never really seen his face?
“Madam?”
Yaya walks to the door with the servant on the other side of the door. “Yes?”
“It is an order from Lord Bai that you have dinner with him tonight.”
Yaya turned her back on the door. “I don’t wish to dine with anyone.”
Nadech stepped forward and nodded to the servant, a sign for her to leave.
“Should I be the one to deliver all your meals to you then?”
Yaya’s eyes widen, the servant wasn’t there anymore, she turned back around and saw Nadech’s shadowy figure through the beautifully colored flower parchment paper window door.
“Do you purposely want me to have dinner with you in your room then? Just so that right afterwards we can just slip into bed?”
“You’re sick.”
Nadech laughs. “Well then…what are we going to do?”
Yaya was silent; she focused on his shadowy face outside her door. “Laugh again.” She finally said.
“What?”
“…For a second there I thought I knew that laugh from somewhere.”
“Normally people remember someone’s face or memories of them. This person must mean a lot to you if you can remember how they laughed.”
Reminiscing about the days on Min Island, together, they laughed with each other. For that split second ago, she thought she was speaking to Nadech again.
“…Yes…he meant a lot to me, when he…was the person I knew.” she admitted to him.
“When he was the person you knew…he’s still the same person isn’t he?
“Do you know how easily a person can turn into your enemy?”
Of course Nadech knew, he was betrayed just like her. In this intense moment, he put his fingers on the wooden door, he was about to push open the door but stopped.
“Just one mistake…one lie from that person...it can change your whole world.”
“What if…his story was tainted by lies made by someone else…and just like you…he is waiting not as your enemy but as a person who...just misses you?"
Yaya walked closer to the door. Outside the door, Nadech heard her shuffling footsteps approaching the door.
“You speak of him as if you were him."
Yaya puts her hand on the knob, she was turning it but Nadech grabbed the knob on the other side. He held the door tightly so she wouldn’t be able to open from inside.
“What are you doing? Open the door why are you holding it!” She pulled but the door wouldn’t open.
“You are having dinner with me rather you like it or not and you will decide rather I am your enemy or not.”
TO BE CONTINUED...WILL POST TOMORROW EVENING!
thai-lakorn-fan-forever
sarNie Oldmaid
Thank you so much for the update Neena! I can't wait for a lengthier update tomorrow!
OMG Neena.... you had my heart racing.... i thought they were going to meet face to face.... CAN'T WAIT FOR YOUR UPDATE!! Totally stalking it today na.
My fav part "laugh again"....... awwwww....and he almost went in to see her..... Yeah, you totally got us hanging on a cliff..... I am dying for them to see each other face to face and sort out all the misunderstanding and just fall back into LOVE mode. hehehe
My fav part "laugh again"....... awwwww....and he almost went in to see her..... Yeah, you totally got us hanging on a cliff..... I am dying for them to see each other face to face and sort out all the misunderstanding and just fall back into LOVE mode. hehehe
CONTINUED...
Nadech released the door knob, as soon as he did Yaya opened the door but two guards walled her from continuing. Yaya tiptoed between the guards hoping to get a glimpse of him. She watched as Nadech walked down the long hallway, his hands behind his back, not looking back. She rolled her eyes at the guards.
While getting ready to go to dinner, Yaya stared at herself in the mirror; her new maid was buttoning the back of her sky blue gown, it shaped out her body form and the train went long past her feet. Squeezing her waist to have it fit perfectly, the laced sleeves and collar embraced her neck and shoulders wonderfully. The maid was braiding the top half of her hair, wrapping the braid around the back of her head but leaving the rest of her silky black long hair to fall down her back. Her face was already powdered and inside her chest she heard the rapid beating of her heart. Tonight she will know how her husband looked like finally. Will he be her enemy, this will be determined when she faces him.
“Where is Dao?” Dao was the maid assigned to her even before she was married. All of a sudden Dao was nowhere in sight.
“She had to visit her family in a different province.” The new maid responded.
“Why didn’t she say good bye to me? This isn’t likely of her.”
“It was urgent my Lady.”
Something strange was happening, while she was on her way to have dinner with her husband, she noticed how everyone in the mansion was someone she had never seen before. All the old servants were nowhere in sight just like Dao, however the atmosphere of these new employees felt different as well. She was greeted with respect when passing every person, making her feel like a real princess and she was the head of this household.
The dining hall doors opened and Yaya looked around, she was hoping he was sitting at the end of the enormously long table, awaiting her arrival. Instead, he was looking out the large window at the end of the dining table, one arm bend up against the glass window and his forehead resting on his hand, she was wondering if he heard her because he didn’t have any reaction to her entering. Nadech's hair was combed to the side, leaving a little spike at the ends. His black suspenders draped over his white shirt, hooking onto his black pants at the front and back. His back was slender and manly.
After her maid shut the door behind her, she continued in, the sound of her heels falling on the newly polished wooden floor as she made her way farther into the room, she looked around. The dining hall was large enough to hold a hundred people or more and windows circled the whole room overlooking miles of forests.
Finally, after sipping wine from his glass, Nadech turned around. Yaya stopped and her eyes widen. Everything around them, the smell of the mouth watering food on the table, the cries of wild animals out in the forests were unable to be seen or heard.
“What…what are you doing here?” she asked. She didn’t believe he was Lord Bai, her husband.
Nadech smirked. “If I am the only other person in this room, who else could I be?” Nadech lifted his left hand up to show her his wedding ring. “I am also married.” He smiled.
Yaya looked at the ring on her wedding finger. She couldn’t believe it, feeling like she was cheated again. She felt the heat in her face rising. Her hands turned into fists by her sides. Nadech was smiling, she hated that. Yaya pulled her long dress up and walked up to him. They stared at each other for the longest time before she slapped him across the face breaking their silence.
She said angrily. “All this time…you knew, you were making a fool out of me!” Yaya raised her hand again, slapping him a second time. “You are really not the person I knew on Min Island, how could you change this much?” A third time, she raised her arm.
Nadech catches both her hands and presses them against his chest, bringing her close to him. It took just a smile from him to make her stop. His cheek was red but it was like he never felt the slaps, he was still able to smile and stare at her deeply. “I suppose I deserved some of those slaps for lying to you about this marriage...however it's not a marriage I want to let slip away...my wife is beautiful.”
The Nadech she fought against all these years was it the one really standing in front of her? She questioned herself. The feeling of being on Min Island came back to her the moment he looked into her eyes, never stopping his fierce stare. They had to be two different people, never has she felt like this when she met the Nadech who was always by Yasa’s side. This wasn’t going to change her hate against him though and right now, that hatred was at its peak.
Yaya twisted her wrists, hoping he would release her but there was no luck. “Let me go, jerk.”
He squeezed her hands even tighter when she tried to struggle from his hold. “Listen to me first, you have…” He took a deep breath, her face and body so close to him, it was tempting not to want her. His eyes searched for hers, he was hoping they were able to tell her he was sincere, that this was Nadech, the real Nadech. “You have to listen to me; I never got the chance to clear my name for four long years.”
“Why? Haven’t I seen enough with what you did?” Her eyes were teary. “You are able to lie in front of my face and now you want me to listen? You hid your identity from me and now…You have no idea how much I hate you!”
Nadech releases her hands, pulls her into his chest and hugs her tightly. Yaya was so surprised she didn’t know how to react.
“You can hate anyone but I won’t allow you to feel that way about me.”
Upon hearing these words, she was angered, who was he to tell her how to feel about anyone.
In his embrace, she lifted her chin up to keep the distance from him, showing how prideful she still was even when she stopped with the struggling, she said, "After all that’s happened you don’t want me to hate you?”
Nadech brushed his hand over over long straight hair, he closed his eyes and smelled her sweet scent. Her tears began falling onto his shoulder.
“The Nadech I knew on Min Island wasn’t a bad guy. I use to tell Yasa this...and he would tell me I was tricked into your lies, I so wanted to prove to him that you were good, I wanted to find you so much." Yaya cried. "But why...why did you have to turn into what Yasa had said you were? I miss that warm smile..but now I can only picture that smile you had on your face the day you left me with Wan dying in my arms." she sobbed. “So tell me, what other feeling can exist for me but hate after what happened between us? I can’t forgive you for what you did to Wan…I can’t!”
Nadech had tears in his eyes. He wasn’t there for her in her darkest hours, he felt useless. Yaya tries pushing him away, hitting him to release her from his hug, still he embraces her even tighter, putting his arms around her neck, covering half of her face into his shoulder. Nadech was crying silently for her, he felt her pain and was sorry. Then Nadech felt a painful bite on his shoulder, the same shoulder she had wounded with her blade weeks ago, it was still healing but now the wound will reopen because her strong jaw was biting into it. He wouldn’t let go though, he squeezed his eyes, holding the pain inside. She continued to hit him but Nadech wouldn’t let go. Finally, after he couldn’t take it any longer, his hands dropped to his sides. Yaya stopped and stepped away from him.
Yaya touched her wet lips. There was blood on it, his blood. The wound was reopened and the appearances of her teeth marks sank into the cloth wrapped around it. Nadech looked at her after he covered his bleeding shoulder with his hand.
“I’m sorry.” He said. “You will understand one day why you are never meant to hate me, I can’t simply tell you what really went on when I am not the person you have to hear it from.”
“Who is it then?” Her face stained with dried tears.
Nadech didn’t answer; he walked to his chair and sat down. The food on the table was cold but he forked up a piece of fish. Yaya stared at him; he kept a straight face, not looking at her again. Yaya took off the ring and flung it onto the ground.
"I am leaving this place no matter how much you try to stop me, I will run away from you." Yaya opened the doors and walked out of the dining hall.
Nadech dropped his fork on the plate and slouched against his chair.
-
The next morning, Yasa and his men rode their horses to the beach, he watched as his ship was burning to ruins. There was hardly any fire left on the ship but the cloud of smoke from the fire raised far into the skies, it was certain, anyone who was on board wouldn’t be alive.
“What’s going on?!” he screamed. He slaps the horseman who had riden beside him. “Answer me!! Who could have done this?!”
“Boss…where is that flag from?” Another horseman asked, pointing in the ship’s direction.
The Min Island flag was flying high on the ship’s flag pole; it was hoisted up so high above the smoky black clouds, it was the only object they could see in the sky. Furious, Yasa jumps off his horse and decides to swim to the ship regardless of his shipmates’ warnings. He reached the ship and he climbed in. Yasa pulled out his sword for protection.
“Hi…Boss.”
Yasa turned around and there he was, Nadech standing just on the other side of the deck. The smoke was clearing to view Nadech’s face.
“Bai?”
Nadech smirked.
Now Yasa was confused. He’s known Bai since they were little and now he was suddenly speaking. Yasa laughs sinisterly. “You fool! Did I die trying to swim here?”
Nadech laughs sinisterly, mimicking Yasa. “You guessed close enough, because you are on the edge between life and death.”
Yasa’s face turns into all seriousness. But by this time Nadech had pulled out his sword and was charging towards Yasa. When Yasa was finally aware of the attack he blocks Nadech’s sword with his sword. Nadech’s first strike was so powerful; Yasa tumbled back a few steps almost losing his balance. He lost grip of his sword, dropping it on the wooded floor of the deck.
“W-what the…who are you?!” he yelled. “Why are you pretending to be Bai?!”
Nadech raises his sword again, pointing it at Yasa’s heart, “As Prince, I have the right to ask the first question, why was Bai pretending to be me?”
Yasa gasps. “Prince Nadech? but-but you were dead.” He steps back.
“You found someone who looks exactly like me to destroy my reputation and turned Yaya against me…how could I die when I have so much unfinished business.”
Yasa looked behind Nadech, there appeared out of the black smoky areas of the ship deck were men he’s never seen before. They were Nadech’s army from Min Island.
-
Back on the beach, the rest of Nadech’s army had already captured all of Yasa’s men, tying each of them together. Weeks earlier he ordered his army from Min Island to Yasortorn, together they have already taken over the mansion Pope had given to Bai and now they defeated Yasa’s ship.
Nadech threw Yasa on the sandy beach . Yasa was tied up, his face and jaw black and blue. “I’ll tell you everything you want to know about Yaya! Surely, everything was Pope's idea...your cousin is evil! Please spare me." he pleaded.
“You don’t have to tell me anything about Yaya and I won’t let you die until you tell Yaya yourself…exactly what happened that day you turned me into Bai, you will tell her everything...I will watch you tell her, understood?!"
Yasa nodded frantically. Nadech held up a sheet of paper in front of Yasa’s face, Nadech watched Yasa's face turned pale.
“Why do you have the King's seal on this document? What was your deal with the current King of Yasortorn?”
Yasa swallowed. “I…I don’t know what that paper is. I have never seen it.”
Nadech whipped Yasa on the side making Yasa jump up and down, screaming. “I told you I won’t let you die but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you suffer under my wrath."
Yasa breathed heavily, his arms were going to be scarred forever. “Okay…I give in!”
Nadech grabs Yasa’s collar, bringing him up close to his face. “Tell me, what business do you have with my uncle?”
“I helped…helped him.” Yasa was afraid to say more.
“Helped him what?”
“When I was a merchant, I shipped many of the exotic food from all over the world to the royal family. This was a contract I signed with King Aawat to make sure the food delivered to King Virote had zinc in it. To-To kill your father slowly, for years, King Aawat kept track of what King Virote was eating, everything in his diet had large amounts of zinc, if consumed too often, you could get poisoned. H-he was poisoned by your uncle."
Nadech dropped the whip on the ground, his eyes sparkled with tears.
Nadech released the door knob, as soon as he did Yaya opened the door but two guards walled her from continuing. Yaya tiptoed between the guards hoping to get a glimpse of him. She watched as Nadech walked down the long hallway, his hands behind his back, not looking back. She rolled her eyes at the guards.
While getting ready to go to dinner, Yaya stared at herself in the mirror; her new maid was buttoning the back of her sky blue gown, it shaped out her body form and the train went long past her feet. Squeezing her waist to have it fit perfectly, the laced sleeves and collar embraced her neck and shoulders wonderfully. The maid was braiding the top half of her hair, wrapping the braid around the back of her head but leaving the rest of her silky black long hair to fall down her back. Her face was already powdered and inside her chest she heard the rapid beating of her heart. Tonight she will know how her husband looked like finally. Will he be her enemy, this will be determined when she faces him.
“Where is Dao?” Dao was the maid assigned to her even before she was married. All of a sudden Dao was nowhere in sight.
“She had to visit her family in a different province.” The new maid responded.
“Why didn’t she say good bye to me? This isn’t likely of her.”
“It was urgent my Lady.”
Something strange was happening, while she was on her way to have dinner with her husband, she noticed how everyone in the mansion was someone she had never seen before. All the old servants were nowhere in sight just like Dao, however the atmosphere of these new employees felt different as well. She was greeted with respect when passing every person, making her feel like a real princess and she was the head of this household.
The dining hall doors opened and Yaya looked around, she was hoping he was sitting at the end of the enormously long table, awaiting her arrival. Instead, he was looking out the large window at the end of the dining table, one arm bend up against the glass window and his forehead resting on his hand, she was wondering if he heard her because he didn’t have any reaction to her entering. Nadech's hair was combed to the side, leaving a little spike at the ends. His black suspenders draped over his white shirt, hooking onto his black pants at the front and back. His back was slender and manly.
After her maid shut the door behind her, she continued in, the sound of her heels falling on the newly polished wooden floor as she made her way farther into the room, she looked around. The dining hall was large enough to hold a hundred people or more and windows circled the whole room overlooking miles of forests.
Finally, after sipping wine from his glass, Nadech turned around. Yaya stopped and her eyes widen. Everything around them, the smell of the mouth watering food on the table, the cries of wild animals out in the forests were unable to be seen or heard.
“What…what are you doing here?” she asked. She didn’t believe he was Lord Bai, her husband.
Nadech smirked. “If I am the only other person in this room, who else could I be?” Nadech lifted his left hand up to show her his wedding ring. “I am also married.” He smiled.
Yaya looked at the ring on her wedding finger. She couldn’t believe it, feeling like she was cheated again. She felt the heat in her face rising. Her hands turned into fists by her sides. Nadech was smiling, she hated that. Yaya pulled her long dress up and walked up to him. They stared at each other for the longest time before she slapped him across the face breaking their silence.
She said angrily. “All this time…you knew, you were making a fool out of me!” Yaya raised her hand again, slapping him a second time. “You are really not the person I knew on Min Island, how could you change this much?” A third time, she raised her arm.
Nadech catches both her hands and presses them against his chest, bringing her close to him. It took just a smile from him to make her stop. His cheek was red but it was like he never felt the slaps, he was still able to smile and stare at her deeply. “I suppose I deserved some of those slaps for lying to you about this marriage...however it's not a marriage I want to let slip away...my wife is beautiful.”
The Nadech she fought against all these years was it the one really standing in front of her? She questioned herself. The feeling of being on Min Island came back to her the moment he looked into her eyes, never stopping his fierce stare. They had to be two different people, never has she felt like this when she met the Nadech who was always by Yasa’s side. This wasn’t going to change her hate against him though and right now, that hatred was at its peak.
Yaya twisted her wrists, hoping he would release her but there was no luck. “Let me go, jerk.”
He squeezed her hands even tighter when she tried to struggle from his hold. “Listen to me first, you have…” He took a deep breath, her face and body so close to him, it was tempting not to want her. His eyes searched for hers, he was hoping they were able to tell her he was sincere, that this was Nadech, the real Nadech. “You have to listen to me; I never got the chance to clear my name for four long years.”
“Why? Haven’t I seen enough with what you did?” Her eyes were teary. “You are able to lie in front of my face and now you want me to listen? You hid your identity from me and now…You have no idea how much I hate you!”
Nadech releases her hands, pulls her into his chest and hugs her tightly. Yaya was so surprised she didn’t know how to react.
“You can hate anyone but I won’t allow you to feel that way about me.”
Upon hearing these words, she was angered, who was he to tell her how to feel about anyone.
In his embrace, she lifted her chin up to keep the distance from him, showing how prideful she still was even when she stopped with the struggling, she said, "After all that’s happened you don’t want me to hate you?”
Nadech brushed his hand over over long straight hair, he closed his eyes and smelled her sweet scent. Her tears began falling onto his shoulder.
“The Nadech I knew on Min Island wasn’t a bad guy. I use to tell Yasa this...and he would tell me I was tricked into your lies, I so wanted to prove to him that you were good, I wanted to find you so much." Yaya cried. "But why...why did you have to turn into what Yasa had said you were? I miss that warm smile..but now I can only picture that smile you had on your face the day you left me with Wan dying in my arms." she sobbed. “So tell me, what other feeling can exist for me but hate after what happened between us? I can’t forgive you for what you did to Wan…I can’t!”
Nadech had tears in his eyes. He wasn’t there for her in her darkest hours, he felt useless. Yaya tries pushing him away, hitting him to release her from his hug, still he embraces her even tighter, putting his arms around her neck, covering half of her face into his shoulder. Nadech was crying silently for her, he felt her pain and was sorry. Then Nadech felt a painful bite on his shoulder, the same shoulder she had wounded with her blade weeks ago, it was still healing but now the wound will reopen because her strong jaw was biting into it. He wouldn’t let go though, he squeezed his eyes, holding the pain inside. She continued to hit him but Nadech wouldn’t let go. Finally, after he couldn’t take it any longer, his hands dropped to his sides. Yaya stopped and stepped away from him.
Yaya touched her wet lips. There was blood on it, his blood. The wound was reopened and the appearances of her teeth marks sank into the cloth wrapped around it. Nadech looked at her after he covered his bleeding shoulder with his hand.
“I’m sorry.” He said. “You will understand one day why you are never meant to hate me, I can’t simply tell you what really went on when I am not the person you have to hear it from.”
“Who is it then?” Her face stained with dried tears.
Nadech didn’t answer; he walked to his chair and sat down. The food on the table was cold but he forked up a piece of fish. Yaya stared at him; he kept a straight face, not looking at her again. Yaya took off the ring and flung it onto the ground.
"I am leaving this place no matter how much you try to stop me, I will run away from you." Yaya opened the doors and walked out of the dining hall.
Nadech dropped his fork on the plate and slouched against his chair.
-
The next morning, Yasa and his men rode their horses to the beach, he watched as his ship was burning to ruins. There was hardly any fire left on the ship but the cloud of smoke from the fire raised far into the skies, it was certain, anyone who was on board wouldn’t be alive.
“What’s going on?!” he screamed. He slaps the horseman who had riden beside him. “Answer me!! Who could have done this?!”
“Boss…where is that flag from?” Another horseman asked, pointing in the ship’s direction.
The Min Island flag was flying high on the ship’s flag pole; it was hoisted up so high above the smoky black clouds, it was the only object they could see in the sky. Furious, Yasa jumps off his horse and decides to swim to the ship regardless of his shipmates’ warnings. He reached the ship and he climbed in. Yasa pulled out his sword for protection.
“Hi…Boss.”
Yasa turned around and there he was, Nadech standing just on the other side of the deck. The smoke was clearing to view Nadech’s face.
“Bai?”
Nadech smirked.
Now Yasa was confused. He’s known Bai since they were little and now he was suddenly speaking. Yasa laughs sinisterly. “You fool! Did I die trying to swim here?”
Nadech laughs sinisterly, mimicking Yasa. “You guessed close enough, because you are on the edge between life and death.”
Yasa’s face turns into all seriousness. But by this time Nadech had pulled out his sword and was charging towards Yasa. When Yasa was finally aware of the attack he blocks Nadech’s sword with his sword. Nadech’s first strike was so powerful; Yasa tumbled back a few steps almost losing his balance. He lost grip of his sword, dropping it on the wooded floor of the deck.
“W-what the…who are you?!” he yelled. “Why are you pretending to be Bai?!”
Nadech raises his sword again, pointing it at Yasa’s heart, “As Prince, I have the right to ask the first question, why was Bai pretending to be me?”
Yasa gasps. “Prince Nadech? but-but you were dead.” He steps back.
“You found someone who looks exactly like me to destroy my reputation and turned Yaya against me…how could I die when I have so much unfinished business.”
Yasa looked behind Nadech, there appeared out of the black smoky areas of the ship deck were men he’s never seen before. They were Nadech’s army from Min Island.
-
Back on the beach, the rest of Nadech’s army had already captured all of Yasa’s men, tying each of them together. Weeks earlier he ordered his army from Min Island to Yasortorn, together they have already taken over the mansion Pope had given to Bai and now they defeated Yasa’s ship.
Nadech threw Yasa on the sandy beach . Yasa was tied up, his face and jaw black and blue. “I’ll tell you everything you want to know about Yaya! Surely, everything was Pope's idea...your cousin is evil! Please spare me." he pleaded.
“You don’t have to tell me anything about Yaya and I won’t let you die until you tell Yaya yourself…exactly what happened that day you turned me into Bai, you will tell her everything...I will watch you tell her, understood?!"
Yasa nodded frantically. Nadech held up a sheet of paper in front of Yasa’s face, Nadech watched Yasa's face turned pale.
“Why do you have the King's seal on this document? What was your deal with the current King of Yasortorn?”
Yasa swallowed. “I…I don’t know what that paper is. I have never seen it.”
Nadech whipped Yasa on the side making Yasa jump up and down, screaming. “I told you I won’t let you die but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you suffer under my wrath."
Yasa breathed heavily, his arms were going to be scarred forever. “Okay…I give in!”
Nadech grabs Yasa’s collar, bringing him up close to his face. “Tell me, what business do you have with my uncle?”
“I helped…helped him.” Yasa was afraid to say more.
“Helped him what?”
“When I was a merchant, I shipped many of the exotic food from all over the world to the royal family. This was a contract I signed with King Aawat to make sure the food delivered to King Virote had zinc in it. To-To kill your father slowly, for years, King Aawat kept track of what King Virote was eating, everything in his diet had large amounts of zinc, if consumed too often, you could get poisoned. H-he was poisoned by your uncle."
Nadech dropped the whip on the ground, his eyes sparkled with tears.
