cassiopeia ꒱ markhyuck

nine

The next time Donghyuck saw Mark, it was when the king stumbled upon him while he was walking through the royal gardens.

Donghyuck had taken to walking through the garden regularly, both in order to keep himself fit and exercised and also so he could spend time in a place that felt comfortable and familiar to him. He had been sitting on the bench next to the fountain, staring at the rose bushes once again when Mark had suddenly turned the corner and entered his field of vision. Both of them froze, staring at each other for a long, silent moment, before Mark cleared his throat and strode forward, taking the seat next to him on the bench.

"Lovely to see you again," the king said dryly. Donghyuck scoffed, glaring at him out of the corner of his eye.

"Liar," he snapped, continuing to stare at the flowers and refusing to fully turn his head and look at him, "been a while since I saw you, though. I was expecting you to be a little more persistent in pursuing me."

"You seemed deeply irked by last attempt at courtship. I thought I might give you a couple days to cool off and become more reasonable before I tried again," Mark scowled.

"I personally think it's very reasonable that I have no desire to mate with my captor," Donghyuck retorted, finally turning to look at Mark defiantly. The king let out a long sigh, tilting his head back in frustration.

"So stubborn. I do not understand why you think being subjected to any sort of relationship with me would be as terrible as if I were to publicly execute you in the town square."

Donghyuck's eyes widened in alarm. "Holy shit. Do you actually do that?"

Mark's lips quirked up a little in amusement. "Not very often. The last time I witnessed it was when my father initiated it. It's a punishment reserved only for the worst criminals."

"What did those people do, then...?" Donghyuck muttered, suddenly hyper aware that he was in a world where he could lose his life as a punishment for breaking the rules.

"They were members of an alpha gang. They call themselves the "Red Moon", and they go around murdering omegas."

Donghyuck flinched. "What? They kill omegas?"

"I told you already that omegas have gone extinct in our kingdom," Mark sighed, "well, that is the reason why. My father tried very hard to stop them, but it was already too late. No omega has presented in the kingdom since my mother's passing."

"That's... terrible." Donghyuck murmured, his face paling as he drew his knees up to his chest, planting his feet on the stone bench.

"You understand now why you are guarded so heavily, right?" Mark said, glancing over at Donghyuck. The omega just nodded slowly, resting his chin on his knees.

"I wanna go home," Donghyuck whispered under his breath, his mood turning solemn under the weight of the terrifying realization of exactly what kind of world he had been brought into, "omegas have it rough in my world, sure, but not... nothing like that."

"You have nothing to worry about. I will protect you with my life, Donghyuck. They will have to kill me first if they ever want to lay so much as a finger on you."

"Don't go all knight in shining armor on me now," Donghyuck spit, his voice dripping with venom as he inched away from Mark on the bench, "you're a selfish, terrible man. You brought me here against my will, into a world where I could be murdered at any point, just because you're too old fashioned to even consider having babies with a female beta."

Mark stared at him silently for a long moment. The wind brushed past them, ruffling Donghyuck's hair and cooling his bubbling irritation slightly as the fresh air and the vibrant smell of the plant life around them filled his lungs and calmed his beating heart. Mark let out a long exhale, like he too had been savoring the floral breeze.