long live the king - nct, markhyuck

♕ 26 ♕

d-14 before the execution

eyes closed and head leaning back against the wall of his cell, donghyuck listened carefully to the noises surrounding him. silence, once in a while the slamming of a door far away, but mostly silence, as if the place he had been locked in was supposed to block him from the world and to deprive him of any human contact.

here, in this small cell, donghyuck was left alone, alone with his dark thoughts and in complete silence, suffering the consequences of his actions and endlessly wondering if he had done the right thing.

at times, he believed that he shouldn't have defended his father, that he should have let mark kill him out of spite, and pretend like he wasn't linked to this awful man. but at other times, he realised that as much as he wanted to, he'd never be able to detach himself from the fate that hung above his head. one day or another, someone would find out who he really was, and what he had really done.

as hard as he tried not to, donghyuck was moping, brain refusing to stop thinking about hurtful things, and body getting weaker and weaker from exclusion. his mother, his family, his village, his restaurant, his co-workers... he all missed them and wished nothing than to be with them again. but what he missed most – now he realised – had to be his mark.

six days had passed since he had last seen him, since he had witnessed the royal getting into mad fury and taking the life of his father before turning his back on him. it felt awful to go from a relationship in which you saw each other every single day to one where you had no news of the other anymore, and where the other party probably hated you.

in his loneliness, donghyuck wondered how things were for the soon-to-be king of aes. had the news of donghyuck's betrayal caused him to mourn again? did he feel better now that he knew that the responsible for his father's death would soon disappear from this world? had killing the head of the resistance movement helped him? was he happier now? was he better without donghyuck by his side? had he moved on?

the questions haunted his mind, keeping him awake at night, and preventing him to rest during the day. and if his mind used to be clouded by thoughts of his father and mark, now that he had come to realise that his father's death was more relieving than painful, mark was the only thing that was on his mind.

one thing was sure on donghyuck's side; he hadn't moved on.

as hard as he tried chasing those painful thoughts away, he couldn't stop thinking about mark, how they had met, how they had grown closer, and how they were before the truth had come up. donghyuck truly missed all those times they had spent together, cooking, fighting, laughing, talking and just loving.

but now, he was pretty sure that this was all one-sided. there was no way that mark could still be thinking about him, could still be missing him, when he had learnt that donghyuck was the reason of his main trouble.

it hurt. it hurt so bad to be himself at this moment, but donghyuck knew that all of this was just karma hitting him square in the face just like he deserved it.

as donghyuck's heart felt like it was breaking further into pieces at these horrendous thoughts, the deafening silence that had been surrounding him forever was broken by the sound of footsteps approaching.

it could have been food, donghyuck was quick to think at first, but then he realised that it didn't seem like a plausible reason, his previous meal having been brought and taken away only a few hours ago. he wasn't sure whether it was day or night, the cells being buried deep in the ground under the royal palace and not leaving space for any kind of sun or moon ray to slide through an opening.