d-14 before the execution

eyes closed and head leaning back against the wall of his cell, donghyuck listened carefully to the noises surrounding him. silence, once in a while the slamming of a door far away, but mostly silence, as if the place he had been locked in was supposed to block him from the world and to deprive him of any human contact.

here, in this small cell, donghyuck was left alone, alone with his dark thoughts and in complete silence, suffering the consequences of his actions and endlessly wondering if he had done the right thing.

at times, he believed that he shouldn't have defended his father, that he should have let mark kill him out of spite, and pretend like he wasn't linked to this awful man. but at other times, he realised that as much as he wanted to, he'd never be able to detach himself from the fate that hung above his head. one day or another, someone would find out who he really was, and what he had really done.

as hard as he tried not to, donghyuck was moping, brain refusing to stop thinking about hurtful things, and body getting weaker and weaker from exclusion. his mother, his family, his village, his restaurant, his co-workers... he all missed them and wished nothing than to be with them again. but what he missed most – now he realised – had to be his mark.

six days had passed since he had last seen him, since he had witnessed the royal getting into mad fury and taking the life of his father before turning his back on him. it felt awful to go from a relationship in which you saw each other every single day to one where you had no news of the other anymore, and where the other party probably hated you.

in his loneliness, donghyuck wondered how things were for the soon-to-be king of aes. had the news of donghyuck's betrayal caused him to mourn again? did he feel better now that he knew that the responsible for his father's death would soon disappear from this world? had killing the head of the resistance movement helped him? was he happier now? was he better without donghyuck by his side? had he moved on?

the questions haunted his mind, keeping him awake at night, and preventing him to rest during the day. and if his mind used to be clouded by thoughts of his father and mark, now that he had come to realise that his father's death was more relieving than painful, mark was the only thing that was on his mind.

one thing was sure on donghyuck's side; he hadn't moved on.

as hard as he tried chasing those painful thoughts away, he couldn't stop thinking about mark, how they had met, how they had grown closer, and how they were before the truth had come up. donghyuck truly missed all those times they had spent together, cooking, fighting, laughing, talking and just loving.

but now, he was pretty sure that this was all one-sided. there was no way that mark could still be thinking about him, could still be missing him, when he had learnt that donghyuck was the reason of his main trouble.

it hurt. it hurt so bad to be himself at this moment, but donghyuck knew that all of this was just karma hitting him square in the face just like he deserved it.

as donghyuck's heart felt like it was breaking further into pieces at these horrendous thoughts, the deafening silence that had been surrounding him forever was broken by the sound of footsteps approaching.

it could have been food, donghyuck was quick to think at first, but then he realised that it didn't seem like a plausible reason, his previous meal having been brought and taken away only a few hours ago. he wasn't sure whether it was day or night, the cells being buried deep in the ground under the royal palace and not leaving space for any kind of sun or moon ray to slide through an opening.

the possibility of someone bringing him food being put aside, donghyuck was quick to wonder if this was finally the time he was taken out of his cell to get executed. he had been promised an execution on the public place for what he did, but he hadn't been told when nor how. perhaps that now was the time he'd get to know what his fate would be.

the footsteps sounded closer and closer, and the tanned male barely lifted his head from his seated position on the floor to look at the person who had come in.

it was a single royal guard, one that wasn't dressed in his full-armour compared to all of the others that had visited him in groups – weird.

the guard approached the door of donghyuck's cell under the peasant's curious eyes, he lifted his shirt slightly as he reached for something tugged in the waistband of his trousers, revealing a small blade hidden there.

donghyuck blinked in confusion as the guard turned his head to look above his shoulder before taking a step closer to the cell's door and inserting a key in the lock.

"w-what i-is happening...?" donghyuck questioned barely above a whisper, staring at the guard as he unlocked the door and pushed it open.

"come with me." the guard simply stated, stepping aside and gesturing for the tanned male to follow him outside.

the peasant stayed unmoving, head tilting to the side in confusion. "w-why?"

the guard heaved out a sigh, a hand sliding through his raven hair. "you can't recognise me..."

flashback

"meet me again here next month. i'll find a way to be assigned to this part of the gardens."

"alright." the royal guard nodded. "i'll see you next month, then."

"and don't forget to check what i asked you."

"i won't."

the conversation being over, the royal guard turned on his heels in the royal palace's backyard garden, leaving the peasant gardening there for community service continuing to shovel whatever plants needed to be shovelled. he took careful steps across the grass, heading directly to the back door through which he had gone through a few minutes prior. except that this time, the door was open, and someone was seated in its frame – actually, not anyone, but the future king of aes himself.

the guard straightened his back, approaching the royal carefully.

"y-your highness?" he called slowly, causing the future king to jump to his feet immediately.

"i thought i had told you to call me- "

the royal stopped himself mid-sentence, staring at the guard confusedly, the smile that had previously appeared on his face now morphing into a frown.

"o-oh..." he let out, sitting back down where he previously was.

"your highness, what are you doing here?" the guard couldn't help but question, somehow hoping that the future king hadn't witnessed him in a conversation with the peasant gardening.

"well, just enjoying the landscape, you know?" the royal explained, gesturing to the landscapre. "what are you doing here?" he then added with a brow raised.

the guard thought in less than a second, finding a plausible answer that the future king could buy. "i was informed that an intruder was roaming around, so i came to check."

the face of the royal somehow dropped, as if he suddenly got worried. "and? did you find anything?"

"no, your highness." the guard answered with a bow. "i will be reporting this to my superiors."

"alright, you can go." the future king informed, to which the guard bowed and slipped through the back door.

once inside, the guard stayed close to the door for a minute, just enough for him to peek through the door and find the future king of aes hiding behind a bush with a young and tanned peasant.

doing his usual round around the main corridor close to the royal palace's entrance, the guard blinked as he caught a glimpse of the regent queen of aes heading in the direction of the entrance, right where guests were usually dropped off and picked up.

that night, the future king and the regent queen had had a dinner with who they had called 'the nephew of the lumen king'; however, he was aware enough to realise that this boy who was supposedly from the southern kingdoms and who appeared to be the nephew of the lumen king was no one else but the peasant that he had seen by the future king's side in the gardens weeks prior.

it was obvious that the future king was lying, and that the peasant was pretending to be someone that he wasn't. but judging by the way the queen spoke about all of this, she wasn't aware of the masquerade that was going on inside her own palace.

"has donghyuck's carriage left for lumen?" the queen questioned as she stood next to one of the guards supposed to watch the royal palace's entrance.

hearing the question, the royal guard aware of the act of the future king and the peasant sped-up, taking faster steps towards them.

"the carriage should have left, your majesty." the guard next to the queen replied as he bowed. "however, i never caught a glimpse of his carriage arriving and- "

"the carriage has left for lumen a dozen minutes ago, your majesty."

hearing the new guard's words, the queen diverted her attention from the one guarding the entrance to the other who had just arrived.

"it should be reaching the border of aes in a bit less than an hour." the guard lied with ease, ignoring the frown that the other guard sent him. thankfully, the queen seemed to be too engrossed in the lie to notice the first guard's scepticism.

"thank you." the queen flashed him a smile, somehow content with the answer given by the guard, and absolutely not aware that the 'donghyuck' in question had left through the backdoor of the palace a while ago to get back to his own village, lost in the wild of aes.

this time, the royal guard's shift consisted in patrolling around the royal quarters' corridors and ensuring that no intruder made their way there. this part of the palace wasn't usually overlooked by guards, but it had been a few weeks that the regent queen seemed more on her guards, asking to reinforce the protection everywhere around the palace.

and so, this is how he had ended up taking long strides across the corridors where the royal quarters were located, walking endlessly without ever being bothered with how little people came through those corridors.

and of course, this is the exact moment someone decided to appear in this exact void corridor – at least, that's what the sound of footsteps told him.

the guard turned around, catching a sight of mark and donghyuck a few metres away from him, hand in hand and frozen into place.

in less than a second, mark had pulled open the door of his room and pushed donghyuck through it, hiding it from the guard's eyes.

"your highness." the guard said, bowing to the royal as naturally as he could.

"yes." mark answered, visibly stressed.

the guard tried staying as natural as possible. "is there a problem? can i help you with anything?"

the words left the royal's mouth in what seemed like a single word. "please pretend like you didn't see anything." he almost begged. "if the queen asks, pretend like you didn't see." he added.

the guard blinked, a comprehensive smile making its way on his face. "why? is there anything i should have seen?"

there were a few seconds of silence, the guard wondering if the royal wouldn't have a heart attack right here and there.

of course, he had seen the royal and the peasant hand in hand, even if the queen had explicitly told them that they should immediately come to her if they caught a glimpse of the tanned male within the castle walls.

however, the queen wasn't in the palace at the moment, so there was no possibility for him to get to her and tell her.

"your highness, if you don't need me, i'll go back to the main entrance where i was previously heading." the guard spoke again as he bowed, judging that guarding this corridor wouldn't be useful anymore. "do not hesitate to come to me if you need any assistance."

and with that said, the guard turned on his heels, heading away and surely leaving the royal completely lost in his thoughts.

end of flashback

the prisoner stayed silent following the guard's words. 'you can't recognise me.'

he didn't. but at the same time, he wasn't sure he totally didn't recognise him either. there was something about this guard that was familiar, something that donghyuck couldn't seem to pinpoint.

gathering all the lucid thoughts he could, the tanned male frowned, eyes travelling across the royal guard's face. his raven hair was pulled back, revealing his forehead and allowing donghyuck to see his thick and dark eyebrows that seemed familiar to him. he then stopped on his almond eyes, his straight nose, his plump lips and all the way to his thin chin.

it seemed crazy, but the guy was familiar, as if he had seen him not long ago, but not exactly him at the same time.

and after long seconds of confusion, it somehow all clicked in donghyuck's mind. bribes of images of him peeling potatoes back when he was young and of conversations of becoming royal guards later on.

donghyuck almost gasped in realisation, looking up at the grown male with wide eyes.

"y-you're mujin... myunghae's son..."

and well, there are three very important things that people need to keep in mind when meeting someone.

first, you cannot choose the family you are born in.

mujin hadn't chosen to be born in a small village on the lands of aes, birthed by two active anti-royalists who wanted nothing but the death of monarchy.

second, the family you are born in defines who you are and what your life will be.

as hard as he had worked to become a royal guard and to swear allegiance to the queen and the future king, he remained the son of two anti-royalists, a peasant from the lands of aes hidden under a shining armour.

and third, there is unfortunately no way to change that.

so, when he looked at donghyuck, a poor boy who had, similarly to him, been born from anti-royalist parents in the same miserable village, he couldn't pretend like this wasn't who he was as well, and not be compassionate towards him. right now, if there was one person he would swear allegiance to it had to be him – his roots – and not the royals that had hosted him for the past years and who considered his roots to be nothing but filthy.

"i am." mujin nodded, flashing the tanned male a smile. "now come with me, the kingdom needs us."