Slave to a King | Jinkook

Fifty-Six

A/N: Umm... ignore me as I leave this here.

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This was harder for Jungkook than he expected. It went against everything he was used to, against his instincts, his pride, and the carefully built walls he had spent a lifetime fortifying. He didn't want to be here, seated across from the Queen, a woman he had called mother his entire life but never truly known as one. The silence between them was stuffy and uncomfortable, weighing down on him like a storm he couldn't see but could already sense coming.

He couldn't stand the thought of it. The idea of having to sit down and talk openly with her made him uneasy, something he had tried to avoid for years, perhaps his entire life. If it had been Seokjin sitting across from him, he wouldn't have felt so vulnerable. Seokjin had earned the right to his vulnerability and his pain. Seokjin had seen the darkest parts of him and stayed. But with the Queen, all Jungkook could feel was distance, resentment, and confusion that knotted in his chest the longer he sat in that room.

He didn't know where to begin. Deep down, he wasn't sure if he even wanted to. What was there to gain from a woman who had stood by and watched him suffer? What healing could possibly come from someone who had worn a crown with such elegance while letting her son drown in silence? Everything she had done or failed to do had already left scars that no apology could erase.

He adjusted himself in his chair, his jaw tensed and avoided looking directly at her for too long. She had a tired look in her eyes, one that seemed gentler, but Jungkook wasn't sure if he could trust her gentleness. Not at this moment. Not when it felt like it was too late. Yet, he stayed, and the fact that he hadn't left yet had to mean something. He just wasn't sure what that something was.

"I'm guessing Seokjin told you we spoke?" the Queen asked, breaking the silence.

"What do you think?" Jungkook responded.

She drew in a slow breath, her gaze fixed on him as she offered a faint, almost hesitant smile. It lacked warmth, serving only as a small effort to lighten the tense atmosphere. She understood why he wanted to meet. She had imagined different scenarios in her mind and practiced what she might say, but now, sitting there with him, she felt her sense of regret grow even stronger.

She had convinced herself that she was ready for this moment. But nothing could have truly prepared her to face the son she had failed, not like this, not when he looked at her with so much distance in his eyes.

"Seokjin cares deeply for you," she began softly, carefully choosing each word. "He came to me hoping he could help you, though I'm not certain I deserve the faith he placed in me."

Jungkook's jaw tightened slightly, but his gaze remained steady. "So now you suddenly want to help?"

Her expression softened even more, and the sadness in her eyes was clear. "I know it's late, probably too late, but after talking with Seokjin, I've come to understand that sometimes late is still better than never. That realization doesn't ease the guilt I carry, but it's what brought me here today. I spent so many years avoiding you, Jungkook. I avoided conversations like this one because I didn't believe I had the right to have them. Not after everything I let happen. Not after the silence I chose."

She paused, her gaze falling to her hands before she slowly lifted her eyes to him again. "It wasn't that I didn't see your pain. I did. I saw it every time I looked at you. I saw it in your eyes when you were still just a boy, trying so hard to be strong, trying to figure out how to survive in a world that was already so cruel to you. I saw the anger, the distance, the way you carried the burden of things no child should ever be asked to carry. But facing that pain meant facing myself. It meant admitting that I had abandoned you in ways I cannot take back."