Tyranny

Chapter-12: Comfort

"You know, you remind me of an old friend of mine."

Seungmin tilted his head, curiousity filling him, as he asked. "How so?"

Brian stopped abruptly, making Seungmin stop as well. He heard Brian sigh, but as a few moments of silence passed, he heard him speak up.

"Wonpil.... was his name. We were close friends", Brian said in a small voice. Flashbacks played in his head, the memories clear like crystal. He shook his head, trying to focus on the present as he started walking again towards the royal dining room.

Seungmin quickly followed, and his curiousity stuck to him as a tail sticks to the dog.

'Close friends? Maybe from his youth? Was he important to him? How do I remind him of this.. Wonpil? Speaking of.. has Brian always been a servant in this castle? He looks too young..'

The lack of context was killing him, but he decided to not question further as he respected Brian's privacy. As the questions filled his head, clouding his sense of surrounding, he suddenly bumped into something. Immediately bowing his head he apologised.

Brian replied reassuring him that it was fine, and further informed him of their arrival.

Looking into the room which was quite spacious as all the other rooms, a large almost rectangular table stood in the middle, with chairs embroidered with royal carvings surrounded the table. On the sides of the room were large windows, curtains of silk tied up to let sunshine envelop the room with its warm light.

On the far end of the table, sat on the chair larger than the others, was Hyunjin, eyes sharp as he stared at the boy who just entered the room.

Seungmin was guided by Brian to sit at the other end as he quietly did.

After doing his job, Brian bowed curtly and went to call the maids to serve their dinner.

The room, after being left by Brian was silent. Hyunjin stared intently at the boy who sat in front of him, while the aforementioned did quite the opposite, looking anywhere but the older.

The silence was quickly dissolved as the maids came in and spread the royal dinner.

It was, in one word, spectacular. Seungmin enjoyed everything given to him with gratitude. Hyunjin, however, silently ate stealing a few glances at the boy who was enjoying the, according to Hyunjin, every day food.

The dinner ended quite different from lunch, as Seungmin and Hyunjin didn't speak one word to each other. Surprisingly, Hyunjin finished before Seungmin, and he went out the room right after.

Seungmin, although surprised at the lack of interaction, decided to not question the contrast of the king's actions as he was fine with it. The scene from noon however lingered in his mind.

Seungmin sat on his bed, resting his upper body on the headboard with a pillow on his lower back, reading the book from earlier. It was a book written by an anonymous person with the pen name, 'esprit de corps'.

The story held in the book was about eight different people, who became closer through experiences, and slowly found camaraderie within the group. The story started with a young boy who went through years of training, more years than most people, slowly going through a dark phase, doubting himself, if he was even good enough. Every night he spent crying himself to sleep, the voices in his head belittling him. He rested for just a few hours every day, working as hard as possible, so hard that his friends told him to take it easy, that is, until he met the other seven boys. Through hardships they became the best knights of Kingdom.

Their friendship reminded Seungmin of Felix and Minho. The thought of them however made Seungmin get hit with guilt. Here he was, having the best dishes, books to entertain him, cutting out the fact that he was basically the plaything of Hyunjin, he was having a good time, but them... he didn't even know if they were suffering or even alive...

He quickly shook those thoughts away as he banged his head on the book multiple times.

"Think positive" he told himself. What would be the use of overthinking anyway? Will his thoughts magically make him see whatever he wants? No, so it was useless.

Guilt, however kept sticking to him. His heart heavy, he pulled the sheets over his head and curled up.

The long expected tears came down his face, wetting his pillow and sheets. He bit on his fist to muffle out his sobs, as his body trembled.

Loneliness consumed him,and yet the feeling of helplessness just added more waterworks to decorate his beautiful face. The people he considered family, people he called his haven, taken away from him just like that. Even if he escaped.. he still wouldn't know where they would be. He'd be alone in the harsh world and, frankly, he doubted he would be able to survive alone.

Just as the previous night, his sobs and whimpers served as lullabies as he slipped to dreamland.

"My son. . .  be patient. I assure you this: Happiness will slowly find its way to you, so don't lose hope. Sadness is but a mere obstacle in life for us to be stronger in the future; an obstacle for our goal called life. You will find your knight to protect you,  but you'll get strong enough to be a knight for yourself as well. We love you. . ."

Seungmin's troubled sleep got eased as if some fairy had sprinkled stardust on him. That night he slept, comfort hugging him as he did so.

The moon shone on his face, the light breeze of the night gently hitting him. Stars embroidered in the sky as if by the finest thread known to kind, the material of the stars, too, emitting soft light: each individual dot decorated the night sky, shining on the world as if to tell that they're there whatever happens.

That Light may hide them during daylight, however whenever day runs out and is replaced by night, stars remain in their position, as if unfazed by whatever was going on, but instead reassuring us by their presence. Oh the things Hyunjin would do to have someone to be his star. But, for now, at least, those thoughts were mere wishful thinking.

He talked to the ghost of the night once more, his every problem and burden being eased from him just by saying them out loud. And sometimes– just sometimes, he felt as if the wind would answer him, or as if nature comforted him with its metaphorical arms, embracing him and whispering sweet words of reassurance to him.

May it be just his imaginations, or may it be true, he was thankful for the moon, the stars and nature, and he made sure to thank them every time he would talk to them.

It wasn't like he had no friends, no, not at all. There were three people, a prince who now was king, a prince and his guard. They were all once closer than siblings who grow up together are, but their royal duties forced them apart.

They did visit each other every once in a while when royally duties weren't piled up, but that was a rare circumstance.

After quite the time of spilling his thoughts out to the world, he passed out on his bed, exhausted from his alcohol intake. Wine and other alcohol were the only things to make him sleep peacefully, otherwise he didn't sleep at all, the reoccurring nightmare scaring him away from sleep.

Oh what a hassle for the maid...

☾︎𝔱𝔬 𝔟𝔢 𝔠𝔬𝔫𝔱𝔦𝔫𝔶𝔢𝔡. . .

just changed an important detail-