Be With You | Park Seonghwa

9

"Greetings, Your Majesty."

"Eunyoung," he stopped breathing when you shut the door and reflexively, he went to pull the string on his bed to ring the bell that would alert the guards but you sent a dagger in that direction, cutting the string and frightening him.

"I am not here to hurt you," you told him and he froze, "I'm here to have a conversation. Look," you put your hands in the air, sitting on the chair in front of him. "Only here to talk."

"How can I believe you?" He basically spat those words.

"I should be the one saying that," you laughed sarcastically, "I mean... you are the one who betrayed me after all- sent one of your most loyal servants to the enemies. Used my family to make me shut up and willingly leave my home and rot in the prison. Yet still... you pretend to send men to hunt me down. I have to say, quite clever of you to do so."

"I had no choice-"

"You had so many choices," you seethed, "You could have stopped and made a peace treaty with Utopia. You could have ended this foolish war that your parents spent all their life trying to resolve without shedding blood. They must be turning in their graves after what you did."

"Do not talk about my parents with that filthy tongue of yours-"

"Filthy?" You stood up after he did, "I can't believe I called you my friend. Is this what a friend does? Sell their friend off to the enemy nation and mark them a traitor when they spent all their life in service of their homeland? And for what, huh? Some stupid hierarchy thing that's all in your head?"

He said nothing, his hand resting on the dagger belted to his side. You shook your head. "Kill me. Go on. But remember when you end me, the secrets of Utopia will be made public. Your name will be tarnished forever- I made sure of that."

He clenched his jaw, eyes full of rage. "How dare you threaten me?"

You'd had enough. You took out your dagger and held him by his collar, the dagger resting in the middle of his throat, "How dare you threaten me with the life of my sister? How dare you throw me away like nothing to the hands of our enemies? Don't even get me started on what they did to me in the prison, oh no. How dare you call yourself a king when you can't even protect the people in your service-"

"That is enough."

You froze as you heard the voice that you'd recognize anywhere.

Seonghwa.

"Step back," his sword poked the middle of your back, threatening to lodge in your heart dare you try anything.

"I thought you weren't here for the night."

"I wasn't," his voice grew cold, "but something came up. What are you doing, Chaewol? Explain yourself."

"Chaewol?" The King scoffed, "Is that the name she told you, Seonghwa? She is the spy we've been hunting for- Eunyoung-"

"You shut your mouth-" you pressed the dagger to the King's throat and Seonghwa pressed the sword further in your skin, stopping you from going further.

"What is he saying?"

"Yes. I am Eunyoung. Listen to me, Seonghwa," you began, meeting eyes with him for a second before turning to the King. "I served this man and his parents my entire life as an intelligence agent. His parents treasured me because I was one of a kind. I called this filth my friend, Seonghwa. He tainted my name- I had the information to prevent the war between Utopia and Eden. I risked my life in Utopia for that- but he... he wanted to use this to threaten Utopia into submission instead of negotiating for peace. Do you know how much bloodshed we could have prevented? I dared to call him out and he used my sister to make me submit to him and sent me to prison in Utopia. My sister was here this entire time, rotting in the dungeons, because of his selfishness. So give me a reason to spare his life, Seonghwa."