The Spoiled Prince || WooSanSang

A Rude Awakening

By the time San had woken up, the guards had already burst into the room. He had time only to meet Yeosang's panicked eyes for a moment before he was grabbed and dragged out of his bed. Still in that in-between state, no longer asleep but not yet fully awake, San couldn't fully grasp what was happening.

He had a sense of déjàvu as he was roughly thrown to the ground. This had happened before, San knew it, yet he was now conscious enough that he knew this wasn't a flashback or a nightmare. Especially when he heard Yeosang cry, "What are you doing?!"

"Do not speak, son," a female voice snapped. San looked up to see the Queen towering over him. She wasn't looking at him but Yeosang, disgust and anger evident in her expression. "I do not have the words to express how disappointed I am."

Yeosang stood up shakily, tears already streaming down his face. "Do not hurt him."

The Queen scoffed, gesturing for the guards to drag San back up into a standing position. "It is not of your concern what happens to the servant," she told him, then finally looked at San. He had never realized how tall the Queen was, probably because he had never been this close to her, but their eyes were level, and the Queen's held such fury when she slapped him across the face. It stung but the last thing San would do was let his pain show.

"I do not know how you managed to taint my poor son," she spat. "But you will be punished for it."

He could still hear Yeosang crying. He wanted desperately to look at him, tell him silently that everything would be alright, but the Queen was still right there and San had a feeling that doing so would only make things worse.

The guards' grips were bruising, sinking deep into the muscles of his arms. He couldn't even struggle for fear that they would snap his bones.

"He did not taint me, mother," Yeosang pleaded. "This is who I am."

San winced, knowing that was the last thing the Queen wanted to hear. Yeosang was only making things worse for both of them. The prince tried to pull the guards away from San but they pushed him away easily.

He looked between them and his mother in shock, but the Queen did not reprimand the guards for laying their hands on her son. She turned her back to San, addressing a figure that San hadn't realized had been standing just outside the doorway, watching the scene unfold. "I apologize for doubting you, son."

Jongho didn't reply. He didn't show any reaction at all as he looked between Yeosang and San. The Queen snapped her fingers. "Take him away."

San didn't protest when two of the three guards pulled him out of the cramped room. Everything in San told him to look back at Yeosang one last time but he just couldn't. It would only make things harder in the end. He did glare at Prince Jongho as he passed, though the prince once again showed no emotion.

He knew where they were going. Down, down, down into the castle's holding cells. Perhaps they would kill him. Perhaps they would torture him and then kill him, or maybe force him to perform slave labour for the rest of his limited days.

It was such a parallel to what had happened before, back in Cheshire. Except that last time, Yuna had managed to have him pardoned. He was disgraced from knighthood but still allowed to serve the castle. But San knew that not even Yuna and Yeosang combined would be able to accomplish that again.

~~

Yeosang collapsed back onto the bed. Watching them drag San away had to have been the hardest thing he'd ever had to witness. He tried desperately to catch San's eye one last time, but San ignored him. His mother stayed in the room along with a singular, unfamiliar guard, and Jongho didn't leave nor come any closer.

"How could you let him do this to you?" His mother asked.

"He did nothing to me, Mother! Why should it matter what I do in private when I will be marrying Princess Chaeryeong regardless?"

"It is simply not right for a prince to behave as you did. What do you think would happen if word got out about this? It is a good thing your brother brought this to my attention now before anybody else discovered what you have been doing."

Yeosang looked at Jongho. The betrayal stung, especially when his brother didn't look the slightest bit remorseful. He didn't know how Jongho found out and truthfully, he didn't care. All he knew was that his brother--the one who he had been closest to for so many years--did not seem to care for him anymore.

Yeosang looked him right in the eyes. "I hate you."

"Do not take this out on your brother," his mother told him. "He only came to me out of concern when he saw that servant practically molest you in the garden."

"He did no such thing!" Yeosang cried. "I wanted to kiss him, Mother!"

The Queen shook her head, looking at him with pity. "He has poisoned your mind, son. This is his fault for doing so but also yours for letting him."

If only Yeosang could stop crying. He felt so weak. "Do not punish him, Mother, please. I will do everything you say. I will be married and become King just as you wanted."

"That you will," his mother agreed. "But until our trip, you shall stay in your room and think about what you have done." Then, she repeated her words from earlier. "What happens to the servant is none of your concern."

Yeosang's jaw dropped. "You cannot keep me locked up!"

The Queen shook her head. "Your father and I have spoiled you for far too long, son, and look at what happened as the result." She turned to the guard. "Bring him to his bedroom and do not let him leave without my approval. A guard must be watching the door at all times."

Unlike San, Yeosang struggled against the guard as he was dragged away. Even when he felt bruises forming on his arms and his voice was hoarse from yelling. He was no match for a trained guard, Yeosang knew, but fighting felt better than going quietly.

He hated his family. Every single one of them. Even his father, who had gotten sick and caused all this. He regretted being born into this life. Perhaps if he was a normal townsman he would have been able to make a life with San or Wooyoung. The sensible part of his brain told him that he never would have met either of them if he'd been a commoner, but he felt a longing for the lost life regardless.

They'd only made their way out of the servant's wing before the guard lost his patience. "Stop squirming, prince!"

"Unhand me, then!" Yeosang demanded. 

The guard ignored the order. "You are not King yet. The Queen's orders still outrank yours."

His words finally cracked something in Yeosang. Nobody would listen to him anymore, he realized. Not until he became King. And even when he was crowned, it would be too late. Whatever his mother was planning to do to San, it would surely be done before the coronation. Within the next day or two, probably.

Yeosang stopped struggling, fighting to maintain his dignity when they passed other servants in the halls. Some looked at him with curiosity, others with undisguised delight. He committed the faces of the latter to memory, vowing to take revenge on them when he became King.

Finally, he was deposited into his bedroom. The guard was far from gentle. "I will be right outside," the guard told him. It sounded like a warning.

Where was Wooyoung? Yeosang hadn't seen his guard since the previous evening. What Yeosang wouldn't give to have Wooyoung outside his door rather than that unfamiliar, hostile one. 

He knew the door would be locked from the outside but he tried the knob anyways. Sure enough, it didn't budge. He felt tears prick at his eyes again, though his eyes were still sore from all the ones he'd shed earlier. 

Yeosang looked around his room, which for some reason felt more claustrophobic than San's tiny one had. Unless he wanted to kill himself by jumping off his balcony, there was nowhere else to go. Nothing else to do but sit and wonder where San was at that exact moment. If he was in pain or simply waiting. Did he regret getting involved with Yeosang? He probably did, given the outcome. Yeosang regretted it, too. He'd ruined San's life.