Chapter 1

~Areum~

Areum. That’s my name. Areum Means “beauty,” the second I slid out of my mother, still covered in blood and screaming, she took one look at my face and laughed like a crazy person. “Look at this one,” she told the midwife, “he’s prettier than half the girls in the village already, call him Areum.” My father just stood there drunk and nodding like, “Yeah, sure, whatever, the kid’s fucked anyway.” So that’s me. Areum. Beauty. The joke that never stops being funny to everyone except me.

***

I woke up to Hyejin’s heel grinding into my stomach like she was trying to juice me like one of those damn peaches.

“Morning, my queen,” she sang, twisting harder. “Whole palace is taking bets on how many days you will last. I put money on three, don’t make me lose. You know, given on how life's so cruel to you, I bet you betrayed your country in your past life, cuz trust me, there's no way someone will write another's destiny and make them suffer this much.”

"Haha tell me about it." I couldn't even laugh properly , I curled up, coughing blood, trying to protect the ribs that were definitely cracked now. My hands shook so bad I couldn’t even push her off.

She grabbed my hair, yanked my head back until my neck screamed. “You hear that, Areum? Your name’s trending. Everyone’s saying the King’s a genius, sending the boy literally named Beauty to the monster who eats brides. Poetry, right?”

I spat blood on her shoes. She laughed and kicked me again for the mess.

“Get up. Basket. West Hall. Lyana wants her fruit cut by the walking dead man.”

I dragged myself upright, tied my long hair with the same filthy rag, hands shaking like I had a fever. She shoved the basket so hard it slammed into my bruised ribs and I almost puked.

“Don’t drop anything,” she hissed, “or I swear I’ll break every finger you’ve got left.”

I opened my mouth.

She slapped me before a sound came out. “Walk.”

So I walked.

The corridors were packed. People didn’t even pretend not to stare. Two kitchen girls were practically screaming.

“His own mother named him Areum because he came out prettier than her! She literally cursed him at birth!”

“King’s just finishing the job. That’s hilarious.”

Someone threw a rotten apple core. Hit me right in the temple. Juice ran down my cheek mixed with blood. I kept walking.

Guards outside Lyana’s door were taking bets out loud.

“Ten silver he cries when they put the veil on.”

“Twenty he pisses himself on the way to the altar.”

One grabbed my arm, twisted until my shoulder popped. “Don’t bleed on her floor, Beauty. She’s emotional today.”

Then shoved me inside.

Lyana was a hurricane. Hair half-brushed, eyes swollen, pacing so hard her slippers were smoking.

She saw me and lost it.

“YOU!” she screamed, charging over. “They’re sending YOU because your a beauty and you look like a fucking girl and nobody gives a shit if you come back in pieces! So you better act well! I can't marry that cursed man. I can't…. If only you were a girl, this could be a lot easier.”

I dropped the basket. Peaches rolled everywhere.

She slapped me so hard my ears rang. “Say something!”

“I didn’t fucking ask for this!” I yelled back, blood flying from my split lip.

Another slap. Then another. My head was whipping side to side like a doll.

“You think I care?” she shrieked, grabbing my shirt with both fists. “Do you have any idea what he does? He keeps them alive for days, Areum. Days. They either run mad or die during childbirth or get hung, what if I'm next..!”

Her voice cracked. Her nails dug through my shirt into my skin.

“Say thank you,” she whispered, shaking so hard her teeth chattered. “Say thank you for taking my place.”

“Thank you,” I spat blood on her pretty silk dress.

She stared at the red stain, then laughed this awful broken laugh. “Gods, look at you. Areum. Beauty bleeding on my floor like the sacrifice you are.”

She shoved me so hard I crashed into the table. The knife went flying. My ribs hit the edge and I swear I heard something crack for real this time.

“Pick it up,” she said, voice dead now. “Cut the fruit. Make it pretty. Last meal should look nice for the bride, right?”

I crawled, picked up the knife, hands shaking so bad I sliced my own thumb open. Blood mixed with peach juice on the table. She didn’t say stop. Just watched me bleed while I sliced.

When I finished she didn’t even look. Just whispered, “Get out.”

I ran.

Guards threw stuff, laughed, shouted “Runaway bride!” Someone tripped me. I ate dirt. Got up. Kept running until I hit behind the stables and collapsed.

Then the real beating started.

Seven guys this time. Maybe eight. They’d been waiting.

“There’s our pretty bride!”

The first punch folded me in half. The second cracked across my face. Third went for the ribs Hyejin already ruined. I hit the ground tasting copper and dirt in my mouth.

They circled like it was a festival.

“Gonna look so cute in red, Areum!”

“Save some screams for the wedding night!”

Someone stomped my hand until I heard bones snap. Another kicked me in the balls so hard I almost blacked out.

“That’s for having a prettier face than my sister!”

“That’s for existing!”

One yanked my hair, forced me to look up. “Heard your mother laughed when she named you. Bet she’s laughing harder now.”

I spat blood in his eye.

Big mistake.

They went feral. Boots, fists and knees. I stopped feeling individual hits, just one long wave of fire. Someone cracked something across my back that felt like a board. Someone else pissed on me while I was down. I think I screamed. I even begged. It didn’t matter.

Eventually someone yelled “Captain!” and they ran off laughing.

I stayed on the ground. Couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. Everything was wet. Blood, piss, tears, I couldn’t tell anymore.

Then soft footsteps.

I looked up through swollen eyes and there was Lyana, barefoot, hair down, face blotchy from crying.

She stared at me like I was a ghost.

“You okay?” she whispered.

I laughed. It came out a sob. “Never fucking better.”

She crouched. Reached out, fingers shaking, then pulled back like I’d bite.

“I told Father no,” she said, voice cracking. “I begged. He laughed. Said your name literally means beauty, said you were born to take my place, said nobody will miss an Omega boy with a girl’s name.”

She started crying for real.

“I’m sorry,” she choked out.

I closed my eyes. “Fuck your sorry, Princess. Fuck all of you.” I only wish I could say this out loud.

She made this broken animal sound and ran.

I lay there until the sun cooked the blood on my skin.

Eventually I crawled back inside. People stepped over me like I was trash. Old Mira tried to help me up, I shrugged her off.

Collapsed on my pallet.

Curled up as small as I could get.

And cried.

Because my own mother named me cursed beauty the day I was born. And unlike the royal life I deserved, I somehow ended up here.

But it would get better right? Because tomorrow they’d wash the blood and piss off me.

Put me in a red dress.

And send me to get torn apart.

Because that’s what you get when your name is Areum and you’re too pretty to be a boy with a family that's not responsible enough to stay alive for you.

My hands kept shaking. I sat now on my small pallet in the storage room and hugged my knees. I wanted to believe this was just gossip. People talked all the time. 

But deep down, in the part of me that always expected the worst, I knew.

They would give me away.

Not because I was useful.

But because nobody would mi

ss me if I died.

I pressed my forehead to my knees, breathing slowly through the aching in my ribs as the future felt like a punishment waiting to happen.