•Chapter twenty eight•

I'd be there though it doesn't seem so. 

"Child, the lambs!" 

Taehyung gasped, letting go of the stick he was using to draw on the wet mud and jerking to his feet. "Shit, I forgot!" he whisper yelled to himself, shooting forward to the fields where he let all the tiny lambs to run around. 

Unfortunately, he found only three there. The fourth one wasn't anywhere around. 

"You have all of them, right?!" the lady yelled, not in sight as she was lost in between the tall crops. 

"Y-yeah!" Taehyung lied before beginning to whisper scared whisper to himself. "The fuck am I supposed to do now? Shit, she's gonna kill me." 

Grabbing one of the lambs which shrieked loudly at the way he held it, he asked it where the other one was. "Find him please," Taehyung begged the lamb. "Go sniff around and bring it back." 

"It's not a dog," Chohee reminded, setting down a huge bag of crops on the ground. "You lost one again? You had one job, Taehyung. She even warned you and gave you just four out of so many because you're careless." 

"Find them for me first!" Taehyung quickly glanced around to find the woman still not in sight. "She's so going to kill me." 

Four weeks passed since he came here. Almost a month. 

No one knew much about Taehyung. Though he wasn't as closed off and scared as  he always was in the beginning, he said not even a single word about the past life in the castle. 

They could clearly see that it was something bad, and that's why he chose to avoid. 

Perhaps, someone had cheated him? 

Yeah, that was the closest they could guess. They had concluded that someone cheated on him after having a romantic relationship. Youngmi would've told him something he didn't like and he wouldn't packed his bags and left from there. 

Though it all seemed too immature of Taehyung, they blamed it all on the "cheater" and the ex-queen. 

Even if Taehyung murdered someone, they would blame the victim. 

It was going just the way they expected it to. There was just something that ran down the blood of the family of Taehyung's mother that attracted everyone. Just the way they loved Taehyung's mother and brothers, they ended up loving him. 

But they yelled at him a lot too, not showing the same sweet behavior always. 

He liked it this way. This wasn't how Youngmi had been, and he has been using her as a scale to know how genuine a person is nowadays. 

Taehyung looked around desperately, holding onto his slightly protruding belly out of instincts. 

Would it be a surprise to know that Taehyung already fell head over heels for his child even when all the pup did was show small signs of being there? It shouldn't be. 

Taehyung absolutely had no reason to dislike this tiny things growing in him. His love grew every night, every day, every moment. The thought of the pup never left his mind. 

These people were all only familiar with his sweetened scent so no one, except Chohee noticed anything. 

It was so free and happy to be living in this village with his little one. His morning sickness had all decreased, and the moon swings or cravings hadn't started yet. He was on a bridge that lay between two bad places, enjoying the sweet moments with his baby. 

And he'd be happy to leave it at that. 

He cannot imagine about how bad it was to Jungkook who couldn't even see how his tummy was growing because their baby. 

It was too heart-breaking and unfair to Jungkook; Taehyung couldn't even think of how bad things are for his alpha. 

Taehyung didn't receive even one letter from Jungkook. 

He was disappointed but not deprived of hope. He just needed to fulfil all promises he made to Jungkook--being happy and healthy--until he gets to return to his king. 

It wasn't that difficult. Except, it was. It was because being happy meant removing every though of the palace--including Jungkook himself--from his mind. 

He would busy himself in work and forget all other things, including the work itself, and enjoy the beauty of the day. 

"Where is that devil?" Taehyung muttered. the sun was setting and he will be killed if he doesn't find the lamb before that. "Did he get eaten by some animal?" 

"No, she didn't get eaten up," Taehyung snapped his head around, practically heaving out the most relieved sigh when he found some boy holding the lamb. 

He didn't even look at the boy as he went ahead to grab the lamb and take it into his hands. "You had a whole lot of land to yourself, bitch! Why did you have to run away from there?!" 

He didn't even look up at the chuckling boy and turned around, about to leave. 

"No thank you? Even when i basically saved your lamb from wandering off to a forest?" 

"I didn't ask for it," Taehyung grumbled, still glaring at the lamb while having his back at the boy who brought back the lamb. The boy let out a dramatic gasp. 

"Then give her to me and I'll leave her at the forest again." 

"It's a boy!" Taehyung yelled, not sure whether he was right or wrong but just annoyed at this man who was getting on his nerves with his nonsense. "I don't care if it isn't. Go home and rest rather than speaking to me." 

"At least tell me your name!" The boy requested, frowning. Taehyung turned around, boring holes into his head before running his burning eyes down the male judgingly. 

"I don't see why I should do that." 

Hyeon was heavily startled by his rudeness. He tried not to let himself make an opinion about Taehyung just by those few moments. He didn't like judging people so quick, and he had heard that the newcomer wasn't extroverted. 

He was the only male young adult in the village and didn't quite get along with girls so saw it as a good opportunity to befriend someone when he heard of Taehyung. 

But the omega had just been so mean to him even when he was trying to be inviting. 

Was it that difficult to look at him properly and acknowledge his smile? Well, this wasn't the last time he will be trying to speak to Taehyung though because he was genuinely curious of how he had lived and what it felt to be in a palace. 

But Taehyung didn't have quite a good first impression on him. 

It's alright to have a friend who is salty for no reason. Hyeon told himself. His eyes... God, his eyes were so beautiful. For someone as beautiful as him, it really would be a great thing to be his friends. I mean, he would have a huge pride too and wouldn't like to just be with anyone. 

He shows all signs of a prince. Even with muddy, dusty clothes, he looked so powerful with this strange aura around him. If it wasn't for his scent, I would conclude that he is an alpha like I am. 

I shouldn't be like this. Let's not take this meeting seriously and see what he is from our next meetings. 

He surely is much harder to get close to than I thought. 

But it would be the first friend of mine that would be a boy. I am so excited for this. 

He smiled at the boy when he still got caught by the owner of the lamb who was now twisting his ears and asking him why he was so bad that he couldn't handle four lambs. 

Taehyung looked so cute with his features scrunched as he tried to get her away. Please don't push me away. 

*-*-*-*

Jungkook stared blankly into the night sky through the window, not caring less about Mira who was sleeping just centimeters away from him, cuddled onto his side.

He had always loved admiring these beautifully dark nights illuminated by the stars.

Now, he didn't see anything great about them. It didn't put a smile to his face or leave him awestruck.

It wasn't their fault. These stars were just as perfect as they always were, but nothing was bright and beautiful to Jungkook's eyes anymore.

No, nothing had been easy in the past months. It was horrible. He couldn't describe how everyone and everything were just getting on his nerves.

Mira was going through a lot of mood swings, and though he stayed by her side only in the night when they had to sleep, he'd be forced to let her stick to him so she could stop crying and just sleep.

He let her do so because he felt a sense of duty to the child in her.

But every time she was around, he felt like he was being unfair to Taehyung, the rightful owner of all his attention and love.

If that's not enough, he rarely even got a chance to be himself, to be Jungkook.

He didn't speak when it wasn't related to work, didn't speak to his lifeless, guilt-tripped mother, and had to go through all these troubles that Mira created due to pregnancy. She'd keep coming to him to complain about how the maids didn't obey her or how she isn't happy.

It got on his nerves.

His patience was commendable.

All Youngmi tells him-- begs him is to bring back Taehyung. She lost all her happiness since the day her omega child left, and she hasn't been at peace ever since.

It hurt Jungkook to see her like this. He couldn't do anything about it as she brought all this upon herself.

Yoongi sent a few letters, the number of letters being sent and received reducing slowly. Yoongi seemed to be happy, and Jungkook had sent a few loyal guards to secretly guard them just in case because Taehyung asked him to take care of them.

Taehyung...

Every moment he spent, he wasn't reminded of his own problems, sadness, or loneliness, he was reminded of what Taehyung must he going through just for surviving in this harsh world.

It was hard.

Staying away was hard.

Many a times, a few stupid thoughts haunted him. When he came closer to Mira, he wondered if there was some other alpha was had gotten close to Taehyung.

There were many chances of that happening. He wasn't doubtful or suspicious of Taehyung's genuine feelings towards him, but he didn't know how strong they were.

When all Taehyung got from the bond was suffering, why would he stick around? Why was staying better than leaving?

Jungkook would lose himself if Taehyung went away from him. Even so, he aat back quietly. He wanted to quickly go to Taehyung's village and bring him back, but he had no right to do so.

Not until he got rid of all his problems first.  He would share all of his life with Taehyung but only share his problems with him when he himself couldn't handle them.

If his problems were troubling Taehyung, he will do everything to take the whole situation under his hands.

He couldn't wait till he got Taehyung back. God, the day he brings Taehyung back will be nothing less the day his biggest dream comes true.

I hope you're doing well, Taehyung. Jungkook sighed, slowly pulling his arm away from Mira and leaving the room to go to the room he sleeps in now. 

Taehyung's room. 

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