Title: Asunder [III. Clockwise]

Author: RichelleBrinkley

AN: Sorry this is a day late. This is also a drabble, since it's really quite short.

Usual reminder that chapters of this story are not necessarily interrelated, and that ratings, genre and characters for this particular chapter are as listed below.

Rating: K+

Genre: Romance, humour

Characters: Ryang, Fanta

Disclaimer: I do not own Faeries' Landing, it is the property of You Hyun.

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III. Clockwise

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It's history and fairytales repeating themselves over, and Ryang is kicking himself for not seeing it sooner.

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Ryang has never believed in fate. An intangible thing, a foreign concept – fate and destiny and the like were best left entertained only in wishful thinking, but not the realities of everyday life.

It is only when a girl representing everything that couldn't be true, a girl that had prophecies and magic and power crashed her way unceremoniously into his life that Ryang began to grudgingly admit that yes, maybe there were some things that couldn't be ruled down to simply being of coincidence.

Maybe some things were meant to be.

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"I'm the heavenly maiden. You're the woodcutter. You see?"

"No, I don't. You might be a maiden, but do I look like a woodcutter to you?" Fanta laughs at this, a pretty, amused sound that immediately makes Ryang's eyes flicker to her.

"Think about it. You met me because you helped Goodfellow – the deer – hide from the policemen – the 'hunters'. And you forced me to stay on earth with you because you ripped my dress."

"That part isn't in the story. The woodcutter stole the maiden's dress, he didn't rip it."

Fanta rolls her eyes and nudges him with her elbow. "This is the modern day, Young Master. Alterations have to be made."

Ryang shakes his head, tearing his eyes from her to thumb through the pages of the storybook in front of the two of them. The pictures, bright and exquisitely painted, merge into images of him and Fanta before his eyes.

He scratches his head. Surely it was all a coincidence. There was no such thing as fate.

Reaching the last page, he absentmindedly skims the accompanying text – then does a double-take.

"Hang on. If what you're saying is true–"

"It is."

"–Then does that mean you're going to leave me and I'm going to turn into a rooster?" Fanta starts laughing again, and Ryang turns to look at her exasperatedly. "Shorty, this is all a load of crap. There is no way in hell I'm going to turn into a rooster."

"Maybe not," Fanta concedes, and closes the book with a thud. "But you have to admit, most of the story elements are true."

"Forgive me if I'm right, Shorty, but we have not fallen in love, nor have you bore me any children."

"No?" She has leaned in closer, and Ryang finds his gaze flickering from her eyes, to her nose, to her lips. "I am by no means – or at least to my immediate knowledge – pregnant with your child, but Ryang..." She lowers her eyes, and she is so close to him that her eyelashes brush at his cheeks. With a tilt of her head, Ryang feels the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as Fanta's lips graze his ear and she leans in to whisper to him:

"Are you not, even in the slightest, in love with me?"

He has to admit; maybe the legend was right in some respects.

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AN: The next update will be two Sundays from now. Thanks for reading.

Much love,

RichelleBrinkley xx