ariadne's thread chapter 14 sneak peek! (bc im stuck at a boring bit and i just wanna write hyunjin x reader!!) if you havent read any of ariadne's thread before you can start here!
“You're here."
Hyunjin's voice was torn between despair and admiration. The crestfallen smile that crossed over his face disappeared with a flash of lightning to reveal the glowering gaze that consumed him once more. It was almost like he was untethered, vibrating between emotions like an electric wire. Flip-floping between rage and acceptance.
The Runner took a step forward and there was a rumble in the strange ethereal room like thunder. He took a step back for the first time.
“Beware, Y/N.”
The word was deep and inhuman from his lips. Like a wolf cornered, he bared his teeth in a facsimile of a smile.
“I have been generous up ‘til now. I can be cruel,” Hyunjin warned.
Once upon a few hours ago, that threat would’ve been fear-inducing. Now, she simply scoffed.
“Generous?” the Labyrinth-Runner repeated, almost laughing.
Like a movie reel, moments of her journey flashed through her mind. Being dropped into an endless labyrinth, walking for hours on aching feet, falling, tumbling, bleeding, being chased, being taunted, being trapped, being torn through space and time.
“What have you done that’s generous?” she asked.
“Everything,” the King claimed, taking an insistent, desperate step towards her. His fingers outstretched as if to touch her. He trembled with some sort of emotion she couldn't place.
Y/N did not shudder like she once did as he crowded closer.
“Everything you wanted I have done,” his hands did cup her cheeks now - with ferocity. He directed her eyes met his. Deep and dark, he swore her eyes were almost as dark as the infinite of the magic around them. “You asked to be stolen away, I took you. You cowered before me; I was frightening. I have reordered time. I have turned the world upside down, and I have done it. All. For. You.”
The smell of smoke danced in the air; it was fire-smoke with a hint of honeysuckle illusion. The world about them shuddered and shifted with his emotions like an old glitching, fizzing television set. An undulating creature, alive. Part of him. Or perhaps he was part of it.
“I am exhausted living up to your expectations,” Hyunjin murmured.
His voice was gentle now, lacking the frustration and disdain it previously held. His head lulled forward, and she was reminded of her peach-induced fantasy. His gentleness mixed with his cruelty always gave her whiplash even now. His long hair brushed her cheek with a knife’s gentleness. His forehead pressed against hers for the barest of moments. Icy cold skin sizzled against her warmth. His eyes fell shut, and he shuddered quietly.
“Isn’t that generous?” he breathed out with a soft, disbelieving laugh.
“What more can I do?” he whimpered, his fingers tightened on her temples as he threaded through her hair distressed. He didnt tug or pull... yet. “Please, Y/N. Tell me.”
It was strange to see him jump from threats to begs. It would’ve confused her before. But here, before him, she felt different. It wasn’t as frightful. He wasn’t all that powerful she realized. Everything he’s thrown at her, she’s been able to face. By herself or with her friends. Her friends who were nearby, always with her even if they were far away.
When she didn’t say anything, Hyunjin sucked in a breath through bared fangs.
“You are cruel, YN,” he hissed.
It wasn’t a scold. It was almost pained. He turned away from her, pulling away from her skin. It felt like honey clung to his bare hands. He clenched and unclenched his fingers. He moved, circling her despite his gaze flickering around the strange room. His footsteps lingered in the air, almost palpable as he stalked her. Like a wolf, circling its prey.
But she refused to be something so weak. Her feet began to mimic; her steps echoed his until she was nearly one step ahead of his pace, walking with him in circles.
His gaze flickered to her sneakers… sneakers! It made a mad sort of laugh bubble up in his chest. A random human had made it here in tennis shoes. A dumb, useless hu- No… no… she wasn’t-
He couldn't even finish his thought - it was such a lie.
“We are well matched.” He almost giggled.
His hands, bare of any gems or metallic jewelry, tugged at his darkened locks, pulling at them as if that’d help him think clearer. He couldn’t think around her anymore, consumed by the anxiety, the whirl, the heart pulsing, head rushing energy that pushed through him like a hurricane.
“You and I… I need your cruelty,” he admitted, glancing her way. His eyes gleamed like golden sunlit seas, shimmering inhumanely. “Just as you need mine. I can endure, Y/N. What do you need from me?”
“I don’t need you.” She said, looking at him solidly.
It wasn’t a lie. They couldn’t lie after all.
His mouth didnt move and yet Hyunjin’s laughter sounded all around her. Damp and watery like it was echoing in a inlet of an ocean cave.
“You’re acting like… like you’ve won,” he lamented, facing away from her. The room vibrated and undulated like a beating heart.
“I am here,” she simply said.
“You understand nothing,” Hyunjin bit out, turning to look at her. “You have answered none of the Labyrinth’s riddles. You don’t even know what the questions were!”
He sounded like a child now. Her head tilted.
“That wasn’t our bargain, now… was it?” she asked....
