long live the king - nct, markhyuck

♕ 24 ♕

donghyuck has stopped crying. perhaps the fact that his body didn't have enough water anymore to allow him to waste it through useless tears, he couldn't be sure. but all he knew was that he had stopped crying.

the first three days of staying locked in a small cell were painfully hard for donghyuck. royal guards had brought him leftovers of food and water for lunch and dinner, but for the remaining of the time, donghyuck was on his own, alone with his solitude.

his father's body had been removed from the cell adjacent to donghyuck's in which he was previously locked in, leaving only a trace of dried blood behind him for donghyuck to remember him.

the first three days, donghyuck hadn't been able to look at that cell without bringing tears to his eyes and making him feel the urge to throw up. each time he managed to calm his breathing down and stop his tears, a small glimpse to the splotches of red on the floor had brought back to him the vivid memories of his father's life being snatched before his eyes. and of course, this was enough to make him spiral back in an endless sorrow.

however, it had now been five days that donghyuck was locked in this awful cell, five days that he let his thoughts run wild and five days that he had accepted his fate. executed on the public place, the regent queen had said. donghyuck had no idea what it would mean. would he have his head cut off or a blade thrusted at his heart? would he be hung or poisoned? he hadn't been told yet, neither about the 'how?' nor about the 'when?'.

each day that donghyuck was passing in this cell was perhaps his last. each hour passing made him closer to his death. but he still had no idea if he were to rot in here for a few days more or for longer. not that it really mattered anymore, he had no one to go back to, his mother had passed years prior, his father had been killed, and his lover – could he still be called that? – probably didn't want to have anything to do with him anymore.

in the first days of his imprisonment, a lot of his tears had been linked to mark, and more thank because of what he did, these tears were linked to what he had lost.

with mark, everything was perfect, amazing and dreamy. never in his whole life donghyuck had ever thought that something this good could occur to him, not when he was just a mere peasant. but it had, his encounter with mark was the greatest gift he had received from the gods above, and he would have abandoned it for nothing in the world.

but well, things changed, and now that mark had discovered about donghyuck's true nature, it wasn't all perfect anymore. donghyuck felt rather dumb for thinking that he could hide it forever, that he could pretend like everything was normal and that he wasn't the main cause of mark's ills. too naïve of him, once again... his father had repeated him that countless of times already – but well, it wasn't like he would repeat it ever again now...

for some curious reason, donghyuck couldn't really blame mark for being mad at him. sure, he loved the man dearly, and having him far from him hurt donghyuck like hell, but at the same it, it's as if he understood the royal for his actions.

after five long days locked in two meters square, donghyuck's brain must have short-circuited. it seemed like he didn't think as rationally as he did before, and his perceptions had somehow changed... this was surely why he couldn't find himself to blame mark and hate him for what had happened.

speaking of which, something had somehow shifted in donghyuck's brain the 4th day. perhaps was it what had caused donghyuck to stop crying – he could never be sure – but something had changed in his perceptions of things.

somehow, ever since the 4th day, donghyuck felt free, but not free in the way he felt when he was with mark and when he forgot about the rest of his life. right now, he felt freer than ever, as if he had been liberated from a huge load that had been weighting on him for ever.