When the king of Levanter tries to teach his oldest son a lesson, he ends up assuming something far from the truth. Minho wishes he could correct his father's wild imagination but doing so would mean seeing Jisung's head removed from his body. Neith...
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Minho spent the night in his cell without so much as a word about how Jisung was doing. He asked the guards and the servant girls who brought him food and water, but they refused to tell him anything. His father had likely forbidden them.
He couldn't sleep.
Did his father really take the flower to Namjoon or had it all been a lie to take the flower and remove any hope of saving Jisung? Could his father be so cruel, even to his own son? Lee Jiho had already condemned Jisung to death twice now, it wasn't an impossible thing to think.
If his father had lied to him, Minho already made up his mind to run away rather than continue to live under such a man. Of course, he'd offer his younger brother and sister the same opportunity but he'd never force them.
Because as much as Minho bent and yielded to their father was as much as Felix and Ryujin argued and fought against almost everything to do with their father. He could easily guess the choice at the end of the day.
He'd find a small piece of land and live the life of a farmer, just a simple peasant. Enjoying the freedom of not bearing the throne and crown. And if Jisung lived, that sort of life didn't sound half bad either way.
Rethinking the interaction, he should have made his father release him so he could give Namjoon the flower himself. He could have been there to watch Jisung wake up.
It should've been an instant antidote, right?
Or was Jisung dead already?
Was he too late?
Would he never see that rambling, clumsy idiot of a squirrel again?
Never hear his overly chipper voice wake him up in the mornings?
Never see that beautiful and bright smile again?
Minho left his meals untouched, not hungry at all.
***
He looked up as Jeongin raced down the stairs.
"Jisung hyung's awake!" he rushed out.
Minho hurried to his feet. "He is? My father kept his word. He gave Namjoon-ssi the flower?"
"He did."
"Oh, thank the gods." Minho's back hit the stone wall behind him and he slid down to the ground. Days of worry and fear finally lifting from his shoulders, leaving him shaky.
His father didn't lie. He kept his promise, for once. His father cared enough about what Minho wanted to fulfill his promise of saving Jisung. The man who his father believed was his lover. Maybe it was a form of manipulation. At least this way he could make Minho do whatever he asked and hold Jisung's life over Minho's head for the foreseeable future.
