The Beautiful Quiet Night

Nightfall came a little too quickly than they had anticipated. Jihoon had slowed down for Rania to catch up with him; they were, after all, the dependents on this mission. They were also barely close to the Obren border, the first sign that they were almost getting to Drarun.

Sure, they would get there, but for now, they had to make a stop.

Jihoon tried to hint at them stopping for over thirty minutes, but Kim Rania had always saddled her horse a little harder and faster. It was almost like she was determined to prove something. Then again, who the fuck was she to prove herself to?

Surely she wasn't going hard on herself to impress Jihoon, right?.

"Rania, we should make a stop for the night. We've been on the road for over ten hours. The horses need to rest and we also need to sleep," Jihoon forced himself to say to Rania.

He knew well that the woman would probably disregard him like she had done the past few miles. They hadn't said they would be friends on the mission, but at least they could communicate with each other, yeah?

Maybe that was a new concept for Rania, but the young werewolf needed to understand that they were to work as a team.

"I heard you the last hundred times. Just shut up alright? Unless you are trying to create some sort of music by calling my name. Need I tell you, you would make a terrible singer," Rania said and this time, Jihoon didn't have a comeback.

Instead, he got off his horse, and walked it to the nearest tree, before tying the horse there. If Rania wanted to continue the journey, he wasn't going to stop her. She had drained him enough for one day anyway.

"Y'know what? Do what makes you happy, Kim Rania." Jihoon said to Rania. He was done with her, at least for the night. Maybe tonight, he would pray to the goddess to give him a way to crack Kim Rania, but would he ever succeed?

With the Calindra alpha taking his break from their journey, Rania knew she had to make a stop too. She may have been a stubborn wanker, but even she knew that this mission would only be a success if they worked together.

She walked her horse and brought it closer to Jihoon's horse. Maybe she wanted the horses to not feel lonely, but what if Rania wanted to tell Jihoon that he was right, though she didn't want to tell it out loud right? 

Jihoon was quiet too, a little too quiet for a man who was pestering her barely a few minutes ago and she was tempted. Rania wanted to provoke him, and she wanted to make him feel like shit, but she couldn't.

Not because she pitied Jihoon, but she couldn't because she was tired, and to top it all off, she was feeling sad since she missed Dalrae. Her best friend could have given her a way out of this, but today, she wasn't.

"Hey, get up, let's find some firewood and light up a damn bonfire. It's too cold and we will freeze to death," Rania said and Jihoon just ignored her. He was staring at her, wondering when she had grown an extra brain cell.

Jihoon was currently seated on the forest floor, the cold making him feel like he was about to freeze to death. His hands felt like they had been dipped in water for years, his whole body made him regret coming along with Rania to this damned mission.

But he wasn't about to get into a banter with the woman from hell. He was determined to keep his cool. His options were pretty clear though; freeze and have some peace of mind, or work with Rania and earn himself more questions than he already had answers to.

"Hey—" Rania insisted, before giving up.

She knew he was rebelling, but could she blame him? The man had tried to get information about his mate, yet Rania didn't have shit to say to him about what had happened that day. Maybe she needed to give him a break.

"Fine, I'll do it myself," Rania said to Jihoon who was pretending to close his eyes, when Rania glared at him. She was contemplating doing a lot of things to him, but this was not the time. This wasn't the place either.

****

The moon was shining high in the sky, lighting up the forest beneath it. It looked so pretty in its crescent shape, that for a moment, Rania forgot about the dry wood she was looking for, and stopped to admire the moon.

She loved moons, and while she and her people always shifted on the full moon, she still appreciated that there was a crescent tonight. The stars around the moon were pretty too, and Rania wished everything could be as wholesome as that moment.

She subconsciously sat herself on the forest floor, a few pieces of wood in her hands, as she stared right at the sky, admiring the nature that was up there. Maybe she wanted to wish on a star, or maybe she just loved the moon so much. 

As time went by, Kim Rania fell asleep. She had been tired from the horse ride, even though her adamance to continue had been obvious. Her fatigue had been written all over her face despite her not wanting to take a rest.

It was important for her to finish the mission and run away from home, and not taking a rest was a risk she was more than willing to take. Tired, her body slumped on the forest floor, the few dry planks of wood in her hands, flailing down.

She was truly tired and it seemed like she had needed the rest because she never once woke up to make the fire she had wanted to.

Jihoon had been watching her carefully as she watched the moon. Of course, he had controlled his breaths so it would seem like he was sleeping. That was an art he had mastered over the years of being a wolf with so many enemies.

Besides, he knew if Rania saw him watching her, she would cause a fiasco again, and Jihoon was just too tired of her madness to let her ruin his night. He watched her as her body gave up, slumping on the forest floor, and the cold breeze making it a little hell for them.

Quietly, Jihoon got up and walked toward Rania.

He made sure his steps were too slow to even raise any alarm. When he reached Rania, he couldn't help but admire how vulnerable the woman was. Her hair, which she had tied when they got out of the palace, had somewhat been untied.

Jihoon couldn't remember when, but the hairs on Rania's face made him want to push them away. He was hovering over her, the dangerous and untamable woman who made people sleepless nights for different reasons.

For some reason, Rania had managed to add the royals of Obren to the list of people she gave sleepless nights to.

'She truly is something,' Jihoon said to himself. He would never admit it out loud, but seeing Rania so vulnerable and so beautiful made him feel something else. He wasn't quite sure what it was but he would always insist that it wasn't affection.

He couldn't betray his Yanna like that.

Jihoon picked the woods that Rania had been holding onto and used them to create a fire. He may have hated the woman, but seeing her dead wasn't something he could put her parents through. Hell, he wasn't even sure why he was thinking in that direction anyway.

So, he lit a bonfire close to Rania, so she could feel warm. He told himself that he wasn't a selfish man, and didn't want Rania to be sick on their mission. There were so many excuses that Park Jihoon gave, but at the end of the night, he had fallen asleep next to Rania.

He was not on the other side of the bonfire, no. he was sharing the same space as Kim Rania. Their bodies were almost too close for people who hate each other.

They were breathing in each other's breaths, and didn't even know about it. But as they always say, every night has a day, the long night ended, and boy did the alphas have things to say.