Krampus [Book Two Of King-Queen, Jester Series](CYJ)

18 :: Aglow

"Oh he's the devil's possession
The Yule fire aglow in his eye."

⊱ ───ஓ๑♡๑ஓ ─── ⊰

Despair, a profound and complex emotion, transcends mere sadness or disappointment. It encompasses a deep sense of hopelessness and anguish that can engulf an individual's psyche.

Despair can be described as a state of extreme emotional distress characterized by the belief that all avenues for improvement or change have been exhausted. It often stems from a prolonged sense of disappointment, unmet expectations, or a series of setbacks, gradually eroding one's optimism

Soobin was never the optimistic kind, but a hopeful soul. The day his stolen phone's battery died, he had lost his last hope of communication. The month had almost ended. Maybe 10 days until his birthday, he'd assumed.

Trapped within the suffocating grasp of captivity, the tendrils of desperation clung to every fiber of his being. Hope flickered like a distant candle in the abyss, offering a glimpse of freedom, but its feeble glow was never enough to dispel the enveloping darkness. Each passing moment was a reminder of the chains that bound the spirit, the relentless torment of yearning for release that remained forever out of reach.

The heartache of false dawns, the emptiness of promises unfulfilled, cast a shadow of desolation over the young man's soul. The agony of a life suspended in limbo, held captive by circumstances beyond control, whispered a cruel truth—freedom's dream, forever deferred, etched a profound sense of helplessness that gnawed at the edges of his sanity.

That day when Yeonjun picked up the last call, yesterday, he was speaking broken sentences. He started with saying that he'd found out who held him captive and how he'd get him. But then he paused and told him about how much he felt pressured to stick with Yi Young.

He couldn't connect those dots. What happened between his brother and his soon to be sister in law, as he called them? Why would he be pressured about her?

As Soobin thought through it, Soobin realised that Yeonjun had also mentioned about duplicity in the woman.

"What did he tell me that day?" Soobin looked up at the moss etched ceiling and asked himself.

"I was telling her how I miss you... She tells me about modelling and the money... But she abandoned the text in between... Came back at 2 am and told me that she had a work... I asked what she was doing... But she doesn't have a dog so how could she feed a dog? Who feeds a dog at that hour?"

Banters like that were ordinary for Yeonjun to utter. He had only Eunseok and Soobin to listen to his rants. But he never lashed out on Yi Young. It's weird. He deeply respects her and could be the most loyal fellow he'd ever known. How come he say stuff like that with little to no context given?