Sacrifice || ENHYPEN FF

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 129

~guess whos back.... me!~

~i feel very lonelyll soooo comment a lottt~

-Start of Chapter 129-

No one stopped Jungwon.

Not Jay. Not Heeseung. Not even me.

No one told him it wasn't healthy. That his body needed rest. That his grief needed stillness, not movement.
Because we all knew-

This was his way of coping.

He needed to do something. Anything. Even if it meant running headfirst into the unknown with nothing but heartbreak in his chest.

So we packed.

Silently.

Deliberately.

I had written a letter to my brothers the moment the decision was made. Short, direct-yet heavy with truth. I told them what had happened. I told them we were coming. I told them... we lost someone.

And now, here we are.

The carriage rumbles quietly beneath us as we pass through familiar trees, the ones I grew up chasing shadows through. The ones that stood guard outside the palace walls of my childhood.

My home.

It's strange-how the roads haven't changed, how the air still smells like pine and faint morning dew, how the breeze feels like it remembers me. The same cobbled paths, the same sweeping hills, the same mist curling against the fields. Everything is the same.

And yet-
Everything feels different.

No one talks much during the journey.

In my carriage, it's Sunghoon, Jake, Jay, Jia, and me.

In another-Heeseung, Sunoo, and Riki.

Jungwon takes a carriage of his own.

By choice.

No one questions it.

And no one talks back.
There are no jokes. No laughter. No idle humming or familiar banter to fill the silence.
Only the sound of wheels over earth. The soft clink of armour. The occasional call of a bird overhead.

Grief settles over us like fog. Heavy and unmoving.

Hours pass this way. Wordless. Hollow.

And then-

We arrive.

The gates of the palace come into view, carved from silver stone and flanked by guards in violet and black. The banners of my kingdom flutter above them, catching the wind like breath held too long.

And standing just before them-

The TXT princes.

My brothers.

Their figures are tall, composed, still as statues. So familiar it aches.

Yeonjun stands at the center, a hand resting lightly on the hilt of his sword. Soobin beside him, brows drawn but soft. Beomgyu, arms crossed but eyes watching everything. Taehyun stands silent, face unreadable, while Hueningkai shifts ever so slightly, glancing between the carriages as they slow.

They don't smile.

But they bow.

A small, synchronized motion. Polite. Controlled.

You can tell they're trying to be respectful.

Trying not to let curiosity or concern overtake what this moment is.