FALL IN LOVE WITH A MONSTERS [HEEJAKEHOON]

past

(Flashback)

Castle:

The sky above the castle was heavy with storm clouds, dark and swollen, as if even the heavens mourned what was about to be broken.

In the secluded garden behind the royal chambers, two figures stood facing each other one cloaked in royal velvet, the other in the black armor of the king's most trusted knight.

Prince Solon's chest rose and fell rapidly, his golden hair disheveled, his lips pressed into a thin line. Across from him, Knight Heli stood frozen, his sword still hanging uselessly at his side, his hands trembling not with fear, but with something far worse.

Betrayal.

"You," Heli said at last, voice raw, barely above a whisper. "All this time... it was never me, was it?"

Solon flinched, guilt flashing across his features.

"Heli, listen to me-" he began, stepping forward, but Heli recoiled as if burned.

"How long?" Heli demanded, the mask of the stoic knight slipping, revealing the wounded boy beneath. "How long have you been lying to me?"

The prince opened his mouth to speak, but no words came. What could he say? That he had shared secret kisses and stolen promises with Heli's own brother? That while Heli guarded his door with sword in hand, it was Jino who guarded his heart?

The silence between them cracked like glass.

"I would have died for you," Heli said, a sharp laugh escaping him bitter, hollow. "I fought your battles. I bled in your name. And you..." His voice broke, and he turned his head away, struggling to gather himself. "You chose him. My brother."

Solon's hands clenched into fists at his sides, shame thick in his throat.
"It wasn't meant to happen," he said desperately. "I never wished to hurt you."

"But you did."
Heli's eyes burned, and Solon saw the boy he had once known, the boy who had knelt before him and vowed loyalty with such pure, unbreakable faith.

And now that boy stood shattered before him.

"You could have told me," Heli whispered. "You could have trusted me."

"I was afraid," Solon admitted, the words tasting like poison on his tongue. "Afraid you'd hate me."

The knight's lips twisted into a sad, broken smile.
"You were right."

For a moment, neither moved. The storm rolled above them, thunder growling like a beast held barely at bay.

Then Heli stepped back one step, then two as if the sight of the prince physically pained him.

Without another word, he turned and walked away, his black cloak snapping behind him like a wounded bird.
And Solon stood there, alone in the garden, the weight of what he had done crashing down upon him like the first heavy drops of rain.

_________________________________________

Heli stumbled down the empty stone corridors, the echo of his boots chasing him like ghosts. His chest ached as if a blade had been driven straight through his heart a pain no armor could protect him from.

Tears, hot and shameful, slipped down his cheeks before he could stop them.

He wiped at them angrily with the back of his gauntlet, but they kept falling, carving cold trails down his face. He had promised himself he would never cry again, not since he first took the oath as Solon's knight. And yet, here he was broken by the very boy he had sworn to protect.

The boy I swore I would die for.

Heli's vision blurred as memories rushed in of two boys sitting beneath the old oak tree, fingers intertwined, making promises under the stars.
"You'll never leave me, right, Heli?"
"Never," he had said without hesitation, pressing his forehead against Solon's. "Even if the world falls apart, I'll stay by your side."

A bitter laugh tore itself from his throat.

Those promises were ashes now.

Solon had left him first not by distance, but by heart.
He had given his love, his secret smiles, his stolen nights to Jino his own younger brother.

Heli's fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles went white.
It wasn't just betrayal.
It was humiliation.
It was being replaced.

Hatred, raw and unfamiliar, coiled inside him like a serpent. It wasn't just anger at Solon.
It was rage toward Jino the brother he had trusted, the brother who had smiled at him across countless battlefields the brother who had stolen everything.

He wiped his face again, breathing heavily.
But the tears didn't stop.

Heli pressed a hand over his heart, as if trying to hold the shattered pieces together.

"I was supposed to be the one."
"I was supposed to be enough."

Yet Solon had chosen someone else.

The boy he loved most had broken him.

And something inside Knight Heli something pure, something loyal crumbled into dust that night, carried away on the storm winds howling beyond the castle walls.

(End flashback)

Back in present :

Back in the dusty halls of the abandoned mansion, the old man's voice drifted through the air, brittle as dry leaves.
"And so," he finished, his gaze distant, "the prince was locked away. His soul burned with sorrow. And the knights... their fates lost to time."

The students murmured among themselves, some wide-eyed, others exchanging nervous glances.
But Heeseung didn't hear them.

He stood stiffly near the back of the group, his eyes shadowed under the flickering chandelier.
The words prince... knights... betrayal... stirred the storm that had never truly settled inside him.

Slowly, almost unconsciously, Heeseung clenched his fist so tightly that his nails dug into his palm.

The memories clawed at him flashes of another life, another time.
Solon's tearful face.
Jino's promises.
The cold, cruel bite of fangs sinking into his neck.

Jake.

You're the reason I became this... monster.

Heeseung's jaw tightened.
What the prince thought was salvation what Jino had begged the ancient vampires for had become Heeseung's curse.

He hadn't wanted eternal life.
He hadn't wanted immortality chained to endless thirst and darkness.

All he had ever wanted was Solon.

But instead, he woke up alone, a blood-sucking creature hated by the very kingdom he once vowed to protect.

And Jake... Jake had made that choice for him.

You destroyed me, Heeseung thought, his gaze flickering briefly toward where Jake stood with the others, laughing quietly, unaware of the storm brewing inside him.

The weight of centuries pressed against Heeseung's chest, suffocating.

He no longer knew if he wanted forgiveness...
Or revenge.

But one thing was certain
Tonight, in this cursed mansion...
The past would bleed into the present.

End pov: