Princess Hours | SUKHOON | [✓]

I love you

Hyunsuk entered the room and the queen mother was already seated there beside the king. He felt ashamed and humiliated. The burden of Yoshi's confession barred him from even meeting her eyes.

She asked, with a slight ache in her voice,
"Bingung, please tell us honestly...do you feel the same way as Prince Yoshi?"

And with that Hyunsuk couldn't cease his tears from rolling down his cheeks. He lifted his head up to see her troubled face and felt a storm of feelings suffocating him. He did a little shake of head sideways but that was it.

He could say nothing. How was he to explain to them the complex emotions he was feeling, how was he to answer the questions that sounded absolutely baseless to him and how was he to tell them that he loved Jihoon.

He cried and cried until the king raised his voice to shut him off,
"Stop crying this instant. I'll think of your punishment but leave us for now."

He left the room, face smothered in tears and snot, heart throbbing with an intense fear.

Jihoon saw him return to the room in that state and as he locked the door, but couldn't reach out to comfort him, to wipe those tears off his face.

-

The king had a soft corner for Yoshi and hence he decided to personally share a word with him over the matter.

"I'm supposed to make a tough punishment for you. But I don't wish to do that, if anything I hope to put an end to this as soon as possible..."

"...Prince Yoshi, I know that the age you're at is the kind where you only like to do what your heart says and nothing seems more important than love. But there are some people in life that you just can't have. The only wise decision in this case would be if you forget these feelings and marry someone by the choice of us elders."

Of course none of this talk would stumble Yoshi's determination. For the first time he expressed his rejection towards the king's order as he stood up in a breath,

"My heart is not a machine that I could turn off the feelings with a button, your majesty. I'd like you to erase the assumption that I'd be interested in marrying someone just because of the pressure from the palace."

"Yoshi!!" The king's slip of tongue was evident of the anger he was feeling, but more of the helplessness as those words felt like the reminder of a regretful past.

"I apologise for misbehaving, but I'm firm on my feelings. I shall take my leave, your majesty."

. . .

"I don't like the idea of sending Prince Yoshi away from the palace. That is too cruel and he's only returned here recently."

The queen mother tried disapproving the king's decision which he himself had taken upon after serious thought.

"Halma mama but this is the only solution. If he'll stay out of the palace, these thoughts wouldn't bother him." The queen pitched in.

"But.." The old lady looked upset but she knew that there wasn't any other solution to this.

Minji who was also sitting there, took a moment to spare a glance at Jihoon's poker face and then turned to her father,
"Are you going to wed him once he leaves?"

"Of course, he'll have to get married, to forget one you have to meet new."

Hyunsuk heard about this news from the court lady and immediately felt horrible for the unjustly punishment Yoshi was being put through. He stopped Jihoon who was returning to his own room,