The Suitors: A BTS fanfic

30

Yoongi POV

I stayed in bed much longer than I should have. What I should have been doing with my time was talking and planning and making arrangements. I should have met with my father much earlier in the day, but I was a coward. I waited too long. It would be one of my greatest regrets.

I didn't find myself making my way to my father's chambers until I had noticed the sun begin to set. Night was coming, and with night would bring the choosing ceremony. As well as a violent attack on the castle I had called home for the past two weeks. People would be killed. People that I loved. People that I considered friends. People that I had pushed away so much but felt more like family than foe. My mind could no longer differentiate between who was ally and who was enemy.

Standing outside my father's temporary chambers, I heard men talking in the deep and commanding voices men talk in. I raised my hand to knock, but not without pesky memories clawing their way into my consciousness. I tried so hard to forget everything that had happened to me in the time I was here, but it seemed impossible. I thought of the people I was about to betray. The other men, who had tried so hard to befriend me. The princess's friends, who had been nothing but kind to me, and y/n. How would she look at me when she realizes what I had done? I pushed it from my head again, but deep down I knew it would come back.

I knocked. The voices inside the room died down and I heard shuffling feet. I reviewed my plans. I would ask—no—beg my father to spare y/n's life. To banish her far away but to let her live. It was the only way I could live with myself. Even then I'm not so sure.

The door swung open. It was my father's councilor. His jaw still recovering with its bruise. I wondered briefly if he had told my father of our altercation. I blinked away from him, my hands folded behind my back and posture tall as I walked into the room; just like father had always taught me.

Several other men stood in the room, they all looked to me now. I stayed confident with my walk as I looked to the man that I had come here to meet. My heart quickened when I made eye contact with him. He was taller than me, he always had been. He made me feel small and weak through words and scowls, but that was the universe's sick way of making sure I knew I was inferior to him in every way possible.

His eyes were unreadable, cold and emotionless just as I had remembered them. His face blank. His stature tall and demanding. I stopped in front of him and bowed my head slightly in acknowledgement. "Hello, father."

I raised my head back up and for a split second, his unchanging eyes flickered with something. Anger. Before I could say anything else, a searing pain ripped through the right side of my head, and I found myself laying on the ground.

My eyes felt difficult to open, but I pried them ajar still. He had hit me. He stood over me, face twisting and contorting in anger. So much emotion smeared across his face, but all it did was strike fear in me.

"Idiot!" His voice boomed, making me flinch slightly, still on the ground. I watched as he pulled his leg back, then slammed it forward into my rib cage. I received it with a groan, then a few coughs forced their way up my throat. "I knew I couldn't trust you with anything important. Can you do anything right? Anything at all?" He kicked me again, in the same spot but harder. I prayed that my ribs didn't snap.

After a second there were hands on my collar, pulling me to my feet. "Get up!" He spat. I stumbled as he yanked me face to face with him. His thin lips pulled tightly into a snarl. "The princess was going to die, and you let her live?"

I could feel the councilor's smug smirk on my back. He had told my father everything. I didn't answer, but even if I wanted to, I don't know if I could've mustered any words. Soon, my collar was released, but only so that he could connect his fist with the side of my face. I swung to the side with his force, throwing my hand onto my cheek to cup the pain.