My Prince, My Love

Chapter 31

Boss's POV:

"Baby," I begin, but my brain comes to a halt. What can I say to him that will not confuse him further. "P'Boss? Where are we? What is this place?" he says, looking around confused. "And why are only you all here? Where is Yayi?" I am so worried about him. He looks so out of it. "P'Boss? Can Eul sleep? Eul is tired," he says, bringing my attention back to him. I am shocked, I am sure the others are too. He sounds like a little boy, his voice like that of a small child who got his playthings stolen. "Sleep baby. I am here," I say, holding his hand. He immediately droops. "Doctor? What just happened?" Eva asks the most pertinent question topmost on all our minds. "He has just gone through a shock. He seems to have regressed. This is probably his coping mechanism. Give him some time, let him rest. He should be fine within 24 hours. Please don't worry," the doctor says.

'Easy for him to say,' I think. I am unable to even get up and hug him. I feel miserable. "What do you think happened to him? This seems so sudden," Nuer says. "I agree. I mean, we have known Eul for 13 years. This has never happened. This is so scary," Prem says. I look at the boy sleeping next to me. Then I look around. Everyone is staring at Eul, worried. Every single person, except Syn, that is. "Where is Syn?" I ask. "Talking to his Gran. He is hoping she has some answers to what happened at Yayi's house," Nuer says. I nod. That makes sense. I look up when the door opens. Syn walks in. "What is his prognosis?" he asks. "He regressed," Cho says. "What? What did you say?" Syn asks. "He didn't know where he was. And he sounded like a small kid. He was talking about himself in 3rd person," Peat says. "Damn! I can't believe it! Gran got that right," Syn says.

"What does that mean? What did she say?" I ask. I feel a bit frantic, and my voice shakes. Eul must have noticed the change in the tenor of my voice. He stirs, immediately and instinctively turning towards me. I rub my thumb on his knuckles and he settles at once. Syn waits till Eul is completely settled. "Gran said that the bond has not broken between the two of you. However what Eul did, shook the basis of the spell. Although his Yayi," Syn spat out the word, and I got him completely. "Although she was not the one who cast the spell, she was the reason it was cast, the reason such a step was taken, therefore with her passing, especially Eul did it, there would be some backlash, including somewhat of a loss of memory, maybe regression in age and possibly nightmares. She has said that you must stay with him no matter what happens. And you cannot remove the bracelets," he adds.

We all nod. All of us are looking at Eul. "I know we are all worried about Eul. But are we not going to address the elephant in the room?" Ayan asks. I know what he is trying to say. "I think we all want to know the answer to that," P'Pakin says. "Eul is a trained martial arts expert," Prem says. "Huh? Why?" Dean asks. "P'Boss, did Eul ever tell you about how he figured out he was gay?" Peat asks. I shake my head. To be honest, I never bothered to ask him either. As far as I was concerned, he was gay, he would not marry my sister and I could positively pursue him. That's all I cared about. "When Eul was 15, a girl asked him out. She was one of the popular girls and we advised him against it, because, well, he was a shy fellow. After everything that had happened, he tended to stay to himself. But the girl was pretty persistent," Peat says. "A while after they started dating, she tried to kiss him. That made him very uncomfortable, and he ran away from there," Yihwa takes it up.

"He started to avoid her. He told us what he had been feeling and we sort of understood what was happening to him. We made him go to the school counsellor and while it took some time, he was fully on board with the fact that he was not straight," Petra says. "I still remember the day he told us. And we told him about us. Well, excluding Yihwa. He was very happy and you could see how happy he was to be accepted by us, and finding acceptance from us," Prem says, his eyes filling with tears. "His joy was short-lived, because the girl somehow found out. He was bullied and hated upon. He mostly ignored all the taunts, until one day, Peat and Prem went looking for him when he didn't come back from school. They found him beaten and badly bruised at the back of an alley way about two blocks from the school," Syn says, his voice clearly betraying his horror at the re-telling. "When he woke up at the hospital, he was determined to never feel that helpless again. so he learnt it to protect himself," Yihwa ends the tale.