Once In A Lifetime || Hwang Minhyun

Chapter 24

Date: July 13th 1887

After long days and long nights I finally made it back to the castle. Even though I haven't been there for more than two weeks it felt like I haven't been back in months because it was the first time for me to leave the castle more than three or four days. I kept walking towards the front gate and saw Dongho guarding the front gate. He saw me from far away even through the dark night and ran towards me. His eyes widened in shock because of the way I looked and maybe because of the tiredness that was written all over my face.

When I realized that I have finally made it after all this time I smiled and collapsed on the floor. Dongho placed his arm around my waist trying to hold me up which he did successfully. He grabbed my arm and placed it over his shoulder as he held my things in his other hand.

"What happened Minhyun? Why are you in this horrible state?" He asked sadly. I could tell from the tone of his voice that he pitied me. "I told you to stay safe and take of each other. Why did you come back?" He said struggling to hold me up.

"Where's Edlyn?" I asked him without even answering his questions first. "She arrived around a week ago." He answered as he was dragging me towards the front gates. "I was absolutely shocked when the guards stopped the carriage and dragged her out of it. I thought that you two have already made it out of the country." He said without hesitating.

"At first I thought you were with her then I assumed they killed you but then I asked a guard and he said that they didn't bother to catch you." He added. "I need to see her." I told him barely being able to walk in a straight line. "It's fine. She's in her chamber I'm sure because everyone is asleep now." He told me as we walked inside the castle. "You have to go on your own now." He said as he placed my stuff on the ground and I nodded then he left. I made my way up the stairs taking my time as I looked around. It felt like I haven't been in the castle in months and the nostalgic feeling hit me all at once which I liked. It made me feel like I was back home.

I kept pushing myself to make it back as fast as I could back to the castle to be able to tell her everything I had in my heart I wasn't able to tell her before. When I felt like my legs kept getting weaker and found it hard to keep going, I kept telling myself I would be able to see her face after all those long nights just to gain energy from my own words. I made my way towards the third floor. My heart started to beat faster and faster every time I took a step close to my destination. I was very delighted to see her after all those long days and nights I haven't seen her. She meant the world to me. My heart longed for her for long days and nights. My heart longed for her even if she was in front of me because she wasn't mine and never was. We both wanted each other but there was this huge wall of reality that was between us keeping us apart from each other. I arrived on the top of the stairs and was met by her which caught me off guard.

"I've missed you." I breathed out tiredly once my eyes met with hers. I was still looking at her with love and desire but she was looking back at me with sadness and pain in her eyes. She wasn't that happy to see me, she was frowning. I thought that once she saw me she would run into my arms but her standing in front of me sadly not greeting me was a reaction I didn't expect even in the worst scenarios I had created in my head. I was expecting her to run towards me and give me a huge after coming back to her after this long journey but she didn't.

"What's wrong my love?" I asked softly as I walked towards her but I stopped when I saw that she took a step back. "Why did you come back?" She asked but it came out as a whisper. "For you. I came back because I'm not going to give up on our love that easily." I said honestly. "You'll get hurt and punished, please leave now before anyone sees you." She said as tears started to form in her eyes which broke me. "You should leave and forget about me. I don't think we can ever be together. If we try leaving again my father will kill you." She said and quickly wiped the tear that fell down her face as if she thought I wouldn't notice it. "I don't think we're meant to be together in this lifetime. Minhyun, our story doesn't have a happy ending." She said as she choked on her words.

"We can change our fate, we can rewrite our story. We'll do whatever it takes to make it work." I begged her hoping that she would give us a chance to change our story and make it have a happy ending instead of a miserable ending. "No one can rewrite their story, Minhyun. Stop giving me hope in something that is impossible to come true. That'll hurt me even more. It'll make us even more miserable." She said trying to hold her tears in.

"We can find a way I promised you and I promise you again-" I couldn't continue what I was about to say because I saw the king walking towards us. Edlyn noticed someone's presence and turned around to face her father. "Edlyn go to your chamber. I need to talk to Minhyun alone." "But father-" He cut her off by saying "I promised you that I won't hurt him and I won't break that promise." He said and I could tell she felt at ease then made her way towards her chamber. The king turned around and walked down the hallway, I knew he wanted me to follow him so I did. We arrived to his library, the place he treasured the most, the place were he would go to if he wanted to be alone and didn't want to see anyone. He sat down on his desk and I stood in front of him.

"I'm very disappointed in you. I told you to not cause any trouble because Edlyn is getting married in less than two weeks. You thought that if you two ran away that I couldn't find you two? You know me more than anyone else in this country, you know that I have access to everything but you still disobeyed me. I really admire you even though you're younger than me. You remind me of myself when I was around your age." He said and I couldn't do anything but listen to him speak.

"I mean it Minhyun, I'll give you one last chance. You know your punishment very clear, you're supposed to be executed for the treason you've committed but because I know you very well and don't want your parents to suffer I will consider that what happened didn't happen." He said genuinely. "Your parents asked me to forgive you and to reconsider my decision. They have never asked me for anything so I couldn't deny them especially after I thought deeply about it. I'll give you one last chance for you to keep guarding the future queen as a relationship between a teacher and his student nothing more. If you think of doing what you did again I would execute you without hesitation." He added.

"I'll give you the time to think about what I said and I'd like to hear your answer tomorrow. You're excused Minhyun." He lastly said. I walked back to my chamber, it felt like everything in my chamber was in it's placed untouched as if I never left. I walked towards the window and stared at the moon that was shining brightly. For some reason it felt lonely or maybe it was just my emotions reflecting on to it.