CRYSTAL EMPIRE | JINKOOK

TWENTY FOUR

When JungKook entered the master bedroom that night, he found a bone-chilling emptiness, and a bad omen settled in his chest. Not greatly alarmed, or at least trying not to show it, he went around the room looking for him, through the bathroom and the balconies, but there was no sign of Jin. It was well after half past ten at night, so the young man should already be asleep. The tall man decided to go to the former maid's room, but he was not there either.

"Where is SeokJin," he asked a palace servant who was carrying a tray of chopped fruit in his hands, surely cravings of the pregnant man.

"I don't know, Emperor. All day today I have not seen him," And that meant only bad news. 

"Look for him,"

His order was obeyed, but deep down JungKook knew that perhaps no one would find him, not in the palace at least. Back in his room, he set out to take a bath to help relax his body, it worked well until the servant informed him that there was no trace of the boy in the palace.

'Where did you go, SeokJin,' he thought torturing himself as he moved to the most important room with quick steps.

"Call Jimin and Hansol," he ordered one of the guards in the throne room.

"Sir, it's too late to...,"

"Bring them in,"

JungKook's annoyance was beginning to show, and no one wished to be the target of any attack when anger dominated over his reasoning. Between worried pacing, nefarious thoughts and his conscience blaming him, an hour passed and maybe a little more; then he finally caught sight of the maids who arrived accompanied by their husbands.

"What is the emergency such as for you to wake up a maiden so late at night," Jimin said in annoyance.

"I need your help, Jimin, it's paramount."

"If you lost Taehyung you well know you'll find him in some man's room, "Jimin blurted out without even giving it much thought.

"SeokJin is not here," refuted the Emperor with a frown.

JungKook noticed that immediately after the missing maiden's name was mentioned, Hansol and Jimin's faces showed concern and nervousness.

"I know you know where he is, but I need you to tell me,"

"I'm sleepy, JungKook , it's already too late for this,"

"Don't you think it's important that SeokJin is missing?"

"If he's missing, there must be a reason," Jimin replied in his typical scathing tone.

"What do you mean?"

"Just think, Jeon, you are no longer the best Emperor of Greece, you are no longer SeokJin's Hercules, and instead you became his Hades, holding him captive and suffering,"

The Emperor of Greece thought that in the beginning their relationship was based on sentimental passions rather than carnal pleasure. To hold him in his arms under the action of a simple embrace was enough to ignite him like a burning flame, but to hear him speak was a delight that not even the Muses themselves could give him. He himself was ashamed of his action, he alluded that he let himself be carried away by irrational anger, by the anger and feeling of strong betrayal that, until now, refused to leave him.

"SeokJin is fine JungKook," Hansol tried to calm him down "we will soon hear from him,"

"He might be in danger, in his convalescent state it is very unwise to run away,"

"We thought that being so amused with that dwarf you would not notice that you are missing the traitor,"

"That is a matter for me alone."

"You're wrong. Kook, you know that SeokJin is important to us and to see him suffer because of you is unbearable,"

"Please, I demand you to tell me what you know," But none of them dared to even open their mouths. "Speak!"

"Don't yell at me and expect me to help you!," Jimin grumbled, nothing short of collapse "If SeokJin left it's only because he couldn't stand being the trash you turned him into. Or is it that your memory doesn't let you remember how much you humiliated him?,"

As a child, JungKook always felt that Jimin, being a maiden, would make an excellent dad, unmatched in character and temper, but loving to immortality.

His yelling and accusations didn't surprise him, not when he knew if he was to blame for everything he lost.

"You expect me to believe you're worried about him? Impossible after you treated him like a common whore, not when you didn't believe him about his son,"

"I was angry,"

"And your anger led you to become the irascible man you always feared you were."

"I felt betrayed and believed his son was an excuse for me not to kill him for treason,"

"You should know what is done for a son, JungKook. A father would give anything for his baby no matter what the consequences,"

"But I don't have children," JungKook growled wearily.

"But you could, you could have had your firstborn and SeokJin; and yet, being a wild animal cost you dearly, made you lose everything,"

A lump formed in Jeon's throat and another in his stomach. Jimin's words cut deep inside him, so much so that he finally felt his conscience being released to give him a stern rebuke.

"I'm sorry to say that Jimin is right, JungKook. If it were otherwise then you would never have allowed Taehyung to sell SeokJin to as much man as he could," Sell? He didn't fully understand what he had just heard.

"What did you say," Jimin turned around with that importism me and walked to the General's side, he didn't feel like arguing with the tall man anymore.

"You didn't know? SeokJin told us about the marks on his body, we thought it was you but he said it was other hands that,"

"You dared to sell him as a commodity,,"

He could hardly believe even his own words, his breath hitched for a minute as his brain made a magnanimous effort to make sense of it all. His hands balled into fists as anger returned to his body, but this time he would take it out on the right person.

"SeokJin went to Sparta, didn't he?,"

"This morning," Hansol stated.

"They will kill him,"

"Maybe, but it's all the same to SeokJin," Jimin commented with glazed eyes "He said he didn't care if he died here or in Sparta, that at least there he would have his son while here. You almost destroyed him,"

 "Thank you. you may leave now," he requested with an embarrassed face and heart beating at a frequency dangerous to his health "Nam, please I need us to leave today, and I require a squad to accompany us,"

"Do you think you will arrive in time to save him from the fate you yourself gave him?,"

"If not, then I will not return either, Jimin. I would rather know hell with him, than to know loneliness and sorrow for the rest of my life,"