Dark Embrace [Hoseok FF] [SOF Prequel 0.2] ✔

Chapter 28

"It has been two days. Has the General recovered?" the King asked the Royal physician while he walked away.

"His heart is affecting his body my King. He is not well yet." The Royal Physician replied.

The King nodded and went out, thinking about the 4th Prince who too had collapsed suddenly when the news of the fire and the death of the General's brother and wife had reached the Palace. Still a little concerned over him, the King left the Royal Crystal House and went towards the Prince's chamber, taking the physician with him to visit the Prince.

Ha-Ru waited till the King and the Ministers left, then he alone entered the chamber where a lone man lay down silently on the bed. His sturdy frame lacked any vitality as he remained listless and quiet.

His eyes were open, staring up in the space. Twin streams to tears kept falling from the corner of his eyes, never stopping. Hoseok lay there, unresponsive to the world, not sleeping, not eating, not talking.

Just. . . . . breathing.

One hand clutched a bag containing two letters and a binyeo.

Ha-Ru sat on the stool beside him quietly as he had for the past two days. He too, could not speak. Little Tang had been taken back home to Arissa, who had fallen to bed after reading her letter and knowing what had taken place.

In the space of just one night, a happy family lay broken beyond repair, the wound inflicted on them a vital one from which they would never recover.

After two daysof silence, Ha-Ru cleared his throat. His voice hoarse, he spoke, "She sent me a letter too. What I did that night was because I needed to obey her."

Hoseok did not respond.

Ha-Ru swallowed, but still continued in a low voice, "I didn't want to. When she wrote to guard the doors until both of them died, every part of me rejected it, even though I knew what consequence you would face if she lived."

"Then. . . . . why . . . . did you?" a scratchy, barely audible voice asked.

Hanging his head down, for a long period of time, Ha-Ru did not reply.

When almost an hour had passed, his voice sounded again, "She said she wished to meet you again in her next life. But she held a belief that if she committed suicide, she wouldn't be able to. If you were charged with treason, she would have ended her life before your sentence would be carried out. And she would hold me responsible for the crime of making her lose you forever.

I knew by then that since that evening, both of you could not live to be together, no matter what happened. But she requested that she did not want to be given to another man, which would happen if her identity as a Princess Anya was discovered. She wanted to die being yours. Even if it was in name."

That made Hoseok look towards him. For a long time he kept his gaze on Ha-Ru, then he asked another question, "Then why did you stop me from going in that building?"

Unexpectedly, Ha-Ru's face hardened with rage, "Because I needed you to live." Standing up, he looked at Hoseok with eyes filled with extreme hate, "Because I cannot kill the Prince by myself, and I will not allow him to breathe the air after what he made me go through. I need you, to kill him. I could not let you die before I see his painful death."

Slowly, bit by bit, Hoseok's tears stopped.

Slowly, with difficulty, he sat up.

"Leave."

Ha-Ru nodded at once, "My men will be waiting your command." Then he left the chamber, his heart burning with vengeance at wanting to see the Prince butchered. He would not be satisfied with just a simple death. No. Ha-Ru needed the Prince to pay for what he had done to the General he admired. To the little boy he loved. To the Princess, he worshipped.