Royal Misconception | HEEHOON

Repercussions

The atmosphere at the palace was tense for a while after the wine incident. The weeks after it had happened, a lot of staff had to be borderline interrogated and Soyeon was busier than ever in her life. She apologised to them several times, blaming herself and saying she should have been more attentive over the staff. Neither Heeseung nor Sunghoon blamed her for it, the staff had worked perfectly fine until that night and had Sunghoon not said anything to that one maid, nothing would have happened. Regardless, Sunghoon didn’t think it had been anyone’s fault other than the people who did it. They had weird intentions and would have snapped at one point or another.

Another thing, much smaller to take care of but still important, was their health and whatever effect that wine had had on them. Kai checked them once their apparent rut and heat had ended. According to him, it was just that, a drug that would induce a pseudo-cycle that would not last more than a day, depending on quantity ingested. It was, however, an illegal drug and that would require an investigation of its own. They also talked to Chaewon, just in case and given that they had been drugged. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to have affected them that much. Chaewon would still keep an eye on them.

After a month had gone by, Soyeon assured them everyone had been investigated and those who had been involved were fired. Several others who defended the culprits were also fired to prevent future incidents. However, this also meant that Soyeon would now have to interview and hire new staff for several areas. Heeseung could not believe how many people working at the palace agreed with those maids.

“I feel like you sometimes forget your own reality,” Sunghoon commented as they were talking about it. “You are not traditional, and you surround yourself with people who think the same way… but there’re still many who will disagree.”

“I know,” Heeseung said. “At least, I thought I knew… It’s hard to think that these people are from my kingdom…”

“Your father ruled for many years, and he wasn’t particularly open-minded, now, was he?” Sunghoon pointed out, to which Heeseung had no other option but to agree. “Many may have been against him, but many others may have been on his side as well.”

“I understand that, but it’s hard to accept,” Heeseung explained. “It’s as if I can comprehend what you are saying, but it still baffles me that that’s the case.”

“It is quite mind-bogging when you encounter the opposite of what you believe,” Sunghoon chuckled. “Trust me, I had a lot of adapting to do when I first got here.”

“Oh god… you lived in their reality…” Heeseung was concerned and sorry for Sunghoon. It was as if he was finally understanding every interaction they had and every demand Sunghoon had had.

“I lived in a reality which you slowly altered and changed,” Sunghoon expressed. “From terrifying to lovely, so I don’t really mind. But the change was drastic and confusing at first.”

Wrapping your head around understanding that people may still hold rather harmful views can be a challenge, Sunghoon knew they’d be having this conversation again, several times. For the moment, though, they had both gone through enough. Heeseung returned to work soon after, and Sunghoon talked over with Jungwon and some more people to decide if they should host a Christmas ball or a New Year’s ball. They ended up deciding on the second one, just to have a couple extra days to fix everything with their staff. Give the new members some extra time to get used to things and make sure that no one would try to pull a stunt like the maids had.

Way past all festivities, and with no plans for a ball or reunion anytime soon, Sunghoon was feeling lethargic. Normally, he’d have his heat around this time, but he assumed the incident with the altered wine had skewed his schedule a bit. Maybe it was for the better and he’d have his heat together with Heeseung’s rut. Lazily, he started making mental notes for their anniversary. There were still over two months before it, but Sunghoon didn’t have much else to do. He realised as he started making some calculations, that Beomgyu would give birth before then. Maybe he could plan something for him, something nice.