"what are you trying to say?!" the king asked, suddenly rising his head to look at his wife who was standing in front of him inside his office.

the queen fidgeted with her fingers as he gulped the lump that had formed in his throat.

she knew that her husband didn't want to hear about the demon realm anymore.

but he would do anything for their son, and she was certain of that.

"i chatted with the doctor." she said. "he told me doyoung had a problem of body temperature, and that he needed to be in a hotter place."

"we'll install more heaters then. and bring him to a smaller room, they're easier to heat." the king explained.

"it's not all..." the queen whispered.

the king lifted his head from his papers again, looking at his wife who seemed to be stressing a lot.

"have a seat, honey. you're scaring me." he said, motioning the chair that was just in front of his desk.

"y-yeah..." the queen sat down, wiping the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand.

"tell me what's bothering you."

"the... the doctor mentioned other things... underweight and lack of sleep." she started. "he said that they could be linked to the body temperature thingy."

"then, if we deal with the body temperature problem, we solve everything?" the king asked.

"well... he also mentioned something very important..."

the king raised a brow, seeing his wife getting more nervous with each second passing by.

he felt as if she was hiding him something.

"what is the problem?" he asked. "why are you reacting like this?"

"i-i... i know you won't like it..." the queen spoke slowly.

"i won't like what?"

"the reason why he's like this... and the only cure..." she told on the same tone.

"hey... love..." the king spoke.

the queen lifted her head, meeting eyes with her husband.

she found the comfort she needed in his eyes, as if she was meeting the young teenager she had fallen in love with long ago.

"you know that i would do anything for the safety of our son." he said, his hand reaching for his wife's shaking hand.

"yeah..." the queen nodded, intertwining their fingers.

"so, tell me everything. i won't get mad."

the queen took a deep breath, her head unconsciously lowering as she spoke.

"his problems were caused by a traumatic even, one month ago. and the only way to solve them is by giving him what he wants..."

the king didn't answer right away.

she didn't even feel his hand tightening its hold on hers.

she hesitantly looked up, trying to understand what was going through her husband's mind.

"i was scared this was going to be the problem..." he sighed.

"a-aren't you angry?" the queen asked carefully.

"of course, i am." the king nodded. "but i may admit that what we did was too harsh for him. we didn't even let him explain clearly."

both parents agreed on this point.

as soon as they had learned about their son's love adventures, they had gotten mad.

the first feeling being betrayal; how could their own son betray them like that?

and then, they had gotten even madder when the demon king had told them that he had given the order to capture doyoung every day.

but then, they started blaming themselves.

how could they not see that their son wasn't living a normal life?

how didn't they notice that he was half-living in the demon realm?

what kind of parents were them?

perhaps that they never noticed because doyoung was feeling good inside the demon realm.

perhaps that they were treating him right, and that they were friendly to him.

perhaps that he had discovered new interesting things, one of them being love.

and they had taken them from him, by force.

they were awful parents.

"i know that we don't like demons, and that it has been like this for generations..." the queen spoke. "but doyoung had a point. we do not know why the realms were separated, and we do not know why we hate demons. we never actually tried living with them to see..."

"except doyoung." the king stated.

"doyoung that is slowly getting weaker in his bed because of what we did..." his wife specified.

the king sighed loudly.

"he has the right to choose. i never trusted him enough, but he's getting older, and more mature. i know he's reasonable and that he knows what he's doing..." the king spoke slowly.

"he's the only one aware of how the demon realm is." the queen added. "and he's trustworthy. maybe... maybe it's time for him to take the lead. or at least, start making decisions."

the king thought for long seconds.

he stayed silent, inside his office, sometimes meeting eyes with his wife.

his mind was a mess, tons of ideas navigating left and right through his brain.

"i think we owe him an apology." he said after a while. "but first, i need to visit the demon king, and we need to have a small conversation."