Royal Misconception | HEEHOON

Car Ride

The scenery changed behind the car’s window, leaving Sunghoon feeling emptier with every passing object. It felt like he had completely disconnected from reality. For a while, he tried to think of what he knew about Heeseung’s kingdom. He tried to correct himself at first, to think of it as also his kingdom, but quickly gave up on the idea. The fact was that it wasn’t his, he was moving there, but that was it. Though, if he was honest, the kingdom he had left a couple of hours prior had never felt like his either. Knowing from the start that he wouldn’t belong there once he grew up, cause him to never form a connection to it. His only true connections were to Jaeyun and Sunoo, not the kingdom and definitely not his parents.

Growing up, Sunghoon had never been let to learn much about anything, especially nothing related to politics. He’d never had much of an interest either way, so he hadn’t tried to even sneak a book or two about it. Now, though, he wished he had insisted more. He was moving to a new kingdom of which he knew virtually nothing about. He had no knowledge of their traditions and culture, of its history and people. Sunghoon was walking into this kingdom completely blind and unprepared. He’d been taught about and trained for one thing, and one thing only; to please his alpha. He shuddered unintentionally as the thought entered his mind.

“Are you okay?” Sunghoon jumped at the sudden interruption of his thoughts, pressing himself further against the car’s door. “Um… you smell anxious?” Heeseung explained at Sunghoon’s odd reaction.

“I’m fine,” Sunghoon lied.

Heeseung didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t insist either. For a couple of seconds longer, Sunghoon just started at him and tried to pick up any hostility from his part. Nothing particularly stood out to him, and he could say Heeseung seemed genuinely concerned. Admittedly, though, Sunghoon couldn’t be sure about the reason for his concern. It was possible he was just trying to save appearances in front of the driver. After all, he knew as much about Heeseung as he did about his kingdom. It was a double threat.

“You know,” the driver suddenly spoke, it brought Sunghoon’s attention to the front of the car. “Maybe it’s because he’s moving to a totally new place where he knows no one?” While it was phrased as a suggestion, a possibility of what Sunghoon may be going through, it had a mocking tone to it.

All the blood drained from Sunghoon’s face as he realised the driver was mocking Heeseung, his king. With wide opened eyes, Sunghoon turned to look at Heeseung, fearing both for the driver and his life. An angry alpha with power was never a good thing.

“Ah— Jeongin!” In contrast to Sunghoon’s paleness, Heeseung had gone so red the colour had even reached his neck. “You are not supposed to make fun of me,” he complained, but his voice was mostly just a mutter of words.

“Right, not in front of your queen, sorry your majesty,” the driver, Jeongin, answered with a smile. He didn’t sound sorry at all and he would dare say he even continued to sound mocking at the very end.

Heeseung didn’t answer back, covering his face with his hands and groaning. It sounded like he was saying something, but Sunghoon couldn’t make out any of the words. He refused to look at Sunghoon for the next couple of minutes, his red ears telling Sunghoon he was probably embarrassed. Sunghoon was flabbergasted, he’d never seen an alpha so embarrassed in his life. His father was too prideful to show embarrassment, and Jaeyun was shameless or too stubborn to be embarrassed. He’d never been in contact with that many alphas for long enough to see them be embarrassed, so this was a new experience for Sunghoon.

“I just wanted to know if I could help somehow,” Heeseung clarified, but the pause in the conversation made his sentence sound awkward and out of place.