New Rules ⇿ YEONBIN

⇿ 14 ⇿

Soobin's eyes fluttered open. He hated how empty he felt as the world came into focus, his eyes meeting the same-old bland ceiling of the room he'd been staying in for what seemed like forever.

Each time he woke up, he felt less pain from his cuts and bruises. However, even though he felt entrapped, Soobin didn't want to leave this room. He didn't want to face working as a simple Palace guard. Not when he was so used to protecting Yeonjun. He couldn't even bare the thought of the Prince getting a knew knight, but, seeing as what had happened, the Queen probably didn't want Yeonjun to have a knight ever again.

Soobin jumped up at the sound of the door to his room opening, hope bubbling at the pit of his stomach as he sat up to look at the door. However, he soon frowned and laid back down at the sight of who it was, a deep sigh escaping his lips at his stupidity.

It was a common occurrence. Soobin would always feel excited and hopeful whenever he heard his door creaking open, and then he would let himself wallow in self-pity when it wasn't Yeonjun. For whatever reason, the noirette was forcing himself to believe that maybe, just maybe, one day, the Prince would come back to him. Or, that Soobin would be able to go back to the Prince, however, in his current physical state, it wasn't possible.

"You always do that. Why?" A voice that had begun to grow familiar asked, its gentleness causing the Knight to feel less tense.

The voice belonged to Kim Taehyung, a nurse that had been assigned to visit him and tend to his wounds and general health until he was better. Over the weeks, Soobin had become close to Taehyung, seeing as the Knight was always alone in the room and often found himself blabbering nonsense just to not go crazy in his his thoughts.

"Soobin?" The familiar voice asked again, causing the said male to widen his eyes.

"I-I'm waiting for someone" Soobin, finally, answered quickly, avoiding eye contact since Taehyung could read people like a book.

"I don't think they're gonna come" Taehyung deadpanned, causing Soobin's heart to sink.

It was true, Yeonjun wasn't going to come and he never will. It was over as soon as Yongsun had snitched on them.

"Who do you wanna see, anyway? I'm sure I can call someone to get them for you-"

"It's fine, they don't wanna see me" the Knight interrupted, sitting up fully and taking off his shirt so that Taehyung could re-do his bandages.

"Why?" Taehyung asked, and Soobin felt like he was in a therapy session.

"I ended things, because I was scared of how people would react to us being together. He basically thinks I'm a coward, because I was the one that encouraged him to be free, but I'm still letting myself be bound back by people. Some of which aren't even here" the noirette explained, wincing lightly at the feeling of Taehyung cleaning his cuts that weren't fully healed over.

"Some of which aren't here?" Taehyung repeated, soon letting out a quiet 'sorry' when he applied too much pressure to the younger's cuts.

"My mother. She died a while back, but, I still- I feel a need to become what she wanted me to be. I-I can't stand the thought of her being disappointed in me" Soobin stammered, his heart beginning to feel heavy at the remembrance of his late mother.

"Don't you think she'd be more proud if you were yourself?" Taehyung suggested, sitting in a chair beside the noirette's bed after finishing tending to his cuts and bruises.

"No, she's old fashioned just like everyone else here. She would disown me if she knew I liked a boy, especially if it was Yeonj- Yeon..sung" Soobin pursed his lips, squeezing his eyes shut at his stupid mistake.

"What? Does your mother not like Yeonsung?" Taehyung asked.

Soobin felt nothing but relief running through his veins at Taehyung's cluelessness, quickly nodding his head in reply.

"Why?".

"Uh, it's, like, um, a-a family feud thing" Soobin lied, hating how much he had to stammer and stutter to get through his sentence.

"Oh, that's rough. I think you should  confront Yeonsung yourself, and tell him that you're not scared to be with him anymore. Because, you shouldn't if you love him as much as it sounds. You have to accept that your mother isn't here anymore, and that if she was prepared to judge you like that she wasn't a very good mother to begin with. Maybe just take your own advice" Taehyung spoke his thoughts.

Soobin froze, letting silence float across the room as he began to reflect. He felt similar to the last time Yeonjun had spoken to him, he felt like he was being suffocated by the truth. However, it wasn't the type of truth that caused a silence that wrapped its venomous arms around Soobin's neck and choked him until tears formed in his eyes and he felt like he couldn't breathe anymore, it was a type of truth that made him want to jump from his bed and sprint to the Prince's room and tell him of his revelation.

However, Soobin's heart quickly began to sink, because he would never be able to speak to Yeonjun. Not when everyone knew of the two being together, not when he would have to travel across a palace to a room guarded by the Queen's guards to even see the Prince's pretty blue hair and large brown eyes again-

"I know you've been lying to me" Taehyung suddenly spoke into the silence, a sad pout on his face.

Soobin froze.

"Wh-what do you mean?" The Knight stuttered, his blood running cold.

"Yeonsung isn't a real person".

The noirette widened his eyes.

"How-"

"All the workers in the palace whisper and gossip about a knight. Whenever I come here for a shift I get all sorts of tea. As soon as you started talking about your forbidden love, I could only guess you were the Knight that had formed a relationship with Prince Yeonjun" Taehyung deadpanned, crossing his arms with a small smirk.

"Oh" was all Soobin could say.

Taehyung chuckled at the younger's lack of words, a blush spreading across the Knight's cheeks in slight embarrassment.

Then, there was silence again. Taehyung looked like he was deep in thought, almost like he was analysing every word of his sentence before he, finally, spoke.

⇿ "I think I know a way you could talk to the Prince again". ⇿

sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry for not updating im the worst author ever. y'all got this book to 10k like acc legends n i still couldn't update, ily all sm for enduring my slow updates. ❤️