The Untouchable Prince | A Norenmin FanFiction

一百九

One Hundred Nine
Updated: March 6, 2024

That tomorrow that Renjun wanted. It came and went. In fact, multiple tomorrows came and went, and not a single tomorrow was he able to try anything with neither Jeno nor Jaemin. The days that went by got busier and busier within the court, and although Renjun saw his fiancés daily, they were too busy to stop by and spend even an hour with him. And, as always, Renjun stayed in court for thirty minutes at a time, returning every few hours to help out, but again, his stay barely helped.

It bothered Renjun more than anything. That he couldn't do much to help with his court. That he couldn't do much but sit in and listen, answering only a few questions when he needed to. He could barely participate. He was basically... useless.

A week had gone by since Renjun's last interaction with Jeno and Jaemin, the two of them being too busy and exhausted to visit, but Renjun didn't put it against them. He knew how much work it was, and how exhausting things could get, yet somehow... Renjun felt a twisting in his gut whenever a night went by without seeing them.

In this past week, he started painting again.

Picking up the brush and grinding his ink, it felt like meeting an old friend again. It had been almost a year since he painted something, almost forgetting how it felt when the brush slid across a white sheet of paper. The smoothness of the glide, the way the ink was absorbed into the paper, liquid sinking down. That pungent smell of ink, penetrating through his recently washed clothing. It was so nostalgic.

He painted two paintings that week, both of which were simple depictions of his budding lotus plants. However, neither of them ended up being framed. The paintings looked crude, ugly. Edges rough with his shaking hands and lines fuzzy with the lack of ink control. They didn't look as elegant or beautiful as the paintings he made in the past, so he couldn't bear to give them to anyone, let alone frame them.

The night was still young when he finished his third, a simple painting of two little birds on a branch. But, this one, too, was ugly, birds fat with feathers that looked too messy and a branch that looked too much like grass. That gentleness of two peaceful birds didn't even exist as he intended it to be.

"Kun-ge..." Renjun held up the thin sheet of paper.

"Your Majesty." The guard stood a good distance away.

"It's ugly, isn't it?" He asked the guard, but he didn't show the painting to him, just holding it up only for himself as he stared at it with a disappointed expression.

Kun couldn't see the painting, but he looked up anyway as if he was. "It's beautiful, Renjun," he answered, dropping the formalities.

The emperor only sighed, folding the paper in half as he stood up. "You can move it inside." He was talking about the desk.

"Do you want me to bring the painting to the room?"

Renjun looked down at his desk and at the dark impressions on the back of the painting. "Doesn't matter to me." Then, he left it, walking down the steps from his room across the courtyard to his pavilion where there was a warm pot of tea waiting for him.

Kun only let out a small sigh before he grabbed the other three to help bring the stuff in. Renjun had been like this since a few days after his ascension. His mood was low, and the emperor didn't want to do anything. The only things he did was tend to his lotus plants and then spend the rest of it sitting at his pavilion, staring at nothing when he wasn't in court. No matter what Kun or the others tried to do, Renjun simply wouldn't pay any mind to it. Even when Chenle, Jisung, or even Donghyuck visited, Renjun's mood wouldn't improve, and since that attack from a week ago, that depressive mood seemed to have gotten worse. At this point, they could only hope something would change.