• Selfish Prince • || KookMin

28. What love does

It is not enough.

It can't be enough.

No matter how much time Leeseung spends hugging him, Jimin doesn't feel it is enough and is desperate for it to be enough.

His frustration becomes obvious to the emperor who grabs his face, "What ails you?"

"I want to see Jungkook" JImin mumbles without thinking, frustrated and anxious. "I want... I want to go there again" stands up from where he is and Leeseung furrows his eyebrows. Jimin runs his hands over his face and takes a couple of steps away. "I... I really don't want to be here."

He wants to be with who he wants.

He wants to be loved by him.

Jimin doesn't know how to get it and it frustrates him, but maybe he should settle? With him being there.

To be used by him until there is no more to use.

He gives a broken groan and shakes his head. He has to go and-

Jimin gives a shriek of fright, turning to those who open the doors to the huge living room. Being several guards. Jimin steps back, intimidated and confused. Leeseung grabs his shoulder to whisper something in his ear.

"I forgave you the first time... saying another man's name, being in my arms... I won't do it again." announces Leeseung quietly and Jimin feels a lump in his throat, one that chokes him. "And if you're not with me... you won't be with him either."

Leeseung presses a kiss to his temple and pats Jimin's shoulders.

"You committed a terrible crime by trying to seduce me," Leeseung announces and Jimin doesn't manage to escape the guards. "Take him away and ready his execution. I want him exterminated by tonight."

"NO! NO! I...! LET GO OF ME! NO!"

His shrieks echo throughout the palace and he realizes the worst misfortune of all: as all those who look at him with love, also look at him with satisfaction. They know they won't have him, they know they can't even touch him; seeing him dead is the only way they get the selfish desire not to see him in anyone's arms.

Jimin is thrown in a cell and although he tries to open it, to convince anyone to let him out, there is no response. Only the same murderous and hateful impulse from everyone. The crying is irrepressible and desperate, with moans coming out more and more muffled and high-pitched.

"Let me... I don't want to die." Jimin sobs, hunching over.

. . .

The sun falls in the west and escorted by more guards than should be, Jimin is moved into the courtyard of the imperial palace. The emperor, the princess and all their nobles, in their seats as happy spectators. Jimin notices that his parents and siblings are there. All of them with broad smiles of joy.

I don't want you to suffer and for that... you must die, is what he can feel from those unhinged eyes.

I don't want to see you in someone else's arms... you must die, is the emperor's thought.

I cannot have you... and no one will, you must die, think the nobles and others.

I cannot touch you... and no one will, you must die, think the guards who place him on the guillotine.

I cannot purify you... you must die, think those who belong to the institution that condemns his existence.

The worst part of the case is that they are so blinded by love that none of them realize that in essence, they are murdering someone as innocent as a child and who cries just like one. Jimin is afraid of dying, he is afraid of pain and he keeps crying for help.