cassiopeia ꒱ markhyuck

thirty two

The silence was suffocating as Mark and Donghyuck sat across from each other, neither of them saying anything as the servants bustled around them to prepare their meal.

Renjun and Jeno were both there, standing off to the side and exchanging weary looks, glancing between the queen and king with worry. Jeno and Donghyuck briefly met eyes, but the omega just bit into his lip and looked away. Jeno winced, guilt churning in his stomach. He had to remind himself to find Donghyuck later and smooth things over between them, because he would hate to be yet another person on Donghyuck's bad side during what he was sure was an already difficult time for him.

Donghyuck himself kept trying to catch Mark's attention, staring at him and coughing or purposefully bumping his knee against the table—anything to try and get Mark to acknowledge his presence. However, no matter how much he tried, the king stubbornly ignored him, looking everywhere in the room except directly at him. At some point, Donghyuck started to get increasingly more frustrated, which is when he decided to finally break the deafening silence.

"Lovely weather we're having today, am I right?" Donghyuck drawled, his leg bouncing anxiously under the table. He sat and stared, waiting for some sort of reaction. He was met again with nothing but silence.

"Not... not a cloud in the sky, haha. Beautiful, right?" Donghyuck tried again, voice shaky. Mark didn't even flinch, not even a hint of an expression on his face. It was like he wasn't even in the same room as him.

"Are we seriously doing this right now?" Donghyuck sighed, exasperated. Nothing.

"This is so childish, Mark. You invited me, can't you at least look in my general direction?"

Mark hummed and looked to the side, out the window.

"Jeno, do you see that cloud over there?" Mark finally said, his eyes purposefully avoiding Donghyuck's direction as he turned to look at the alpha guard. "It looks like rain today."

Donghyuck felt his face start to heat with anger, growing more and more frustrated.

"You can't ignore me forever," Donghyuck snapped, "you cared so much about me saying goodbye before I leave. What good will me saying bye do if you refuse to even acknowledge my presence?"

A hint of something finally flashed across Mark's face; hurt, anger. But it was gone in the next instant, and the king went right back to pretending Donghyuck simply did not exist.

"Okay, fine," Donghyuck scowled, sitting back in his seat and crossing his arms, "if you wanna play it that way, then we can do this all week. You can continue your little silent treatment until I'm gone, and then you never have to deal with me or see me again. Will you be happy then?"

Mark's jaw clenched, more emotion leaking into his facial expression. He finally let out a deep sigh and turned to Jeno, who looked incredibly uncomfortable where he stood.

"Jeno, if you'd be so kind, please tell the soon-to-be ex queen that I have a right to feel mad at him, and I have good reason for not wanting to talk to him."

Jeno visibly hesitated, sharing a frantic glance with Renjun before he turned towards Donghyuck and cleared his throat. "Um, Your Highness... according to His Majesty—"

"Renjun," Donghyuck said, his tone ice cold, "please tell the king that I don't understand why he even called me here, if he's just going to sit there and fume and refuse to speak to me."

Renjun paused as well, looking between the king and queen wearily before clearing his throat.

"Your Majesty... he says he doesn't understand why you called him here—"