Suzu couldn’t sleep again. The room was thick with silence, save for the ever-present whispers of the dark fairy king. His voice slithered through the night, promising him power, revenge, and an end to his misery, but Suzu hated it. Each whisper twisted his thoughts further, like sharp knives digging into his mind. The fairy king’s words were intoxicating, tempting him to embrace the darkness, but all they brought was more pain. Part of him wanted to get back at his parents, to make them feel the abandonment he’d suffered. But another part of him was overwhelmed by sadness and loneliness. He didn’t belong in this empty house, trapped in his own mind.

As the hours dragged on, Suzu felt the weight of his thoughts pressing him down, suffocating him. It was then that she walked in.

A beautiful, perfect girl, too out of place in this broken world of his. She entered like a breath of fresh air, her presence like a beacon of light in the oppressive darkness. For a moment, everything else seemed to fade. All Suzu could do was stare at her—so graceful, so ethereal. She was stunning, impossibly perfect, and so far removed from everything he had become. She didn’t belong here.

He stared at her, heart sinking as recognition hit him. It was the princess of Eryndor, Daiki’s fiancée. His brother’s perfect match. His brother had it all—the kingdom, the throne, the future. And now, this woman, so perfect in every way, was his. Suzu’s heart twisted with jealousy and bitterness. She was everything Daiki could want. Everything Suzu could never have.

But the longer he stared at her, the more something else crept into his chest—a small, flickering feeling of happiness for Daiki. His brother deserved her. He had earned her love, just as he had earned everything else. A pang of sorrow twisted in Suzu’s gut, but he couldn’t deny that part of him was happy for Daiki, even if it tore him apart.

Yet as he kept staring, Suzu couldn’t escape the ugly truth. He wasn’t the same man anymore. The prince he had once been was gone. His face, once handsome and full of life, now bore the mark of his suffering. A brunt mark on the left side of his face, near his eye—a burn he had gotten when he saved his mother from spilling hot tea. The scalding liquid had burned his skin, but in that moment, he hadn’t cared. He had done it to protect her, but now that mark seemed to define him in ways he couldn’t escape.

His eyes, once vibrant, were now hollow and lifeless. He hadn’t slept properly in months, the dark fairy king’s whispers keeping him awake each night, dragging him further into madness. Desperate for relief, Suzu had asked a witch to help him—he wanted to stop seeing the fairies, to shut them out forever. The witch had crafted a piercing that ran across his nostril and near his eye, a long rod that blocked his vision of the fairies. It had worked. But it had come at a cost. His eyes were now dull, empty—lifeless. The man who had once been full of ambition, full of life, was now nothing but a shadow.

He couldn’t look at her any longer. His shame, his self-loathing, threatened to consume him. He quickly turned his gaze away, the weight of his appearance too much to bear. He couldn’t let her see what he had become.

“Please,” his voice cracked, strained with emotion, “leave. This isn’t the place where you belong. It’s not a place for someone like you.”