without love | markhyuck

twenty-three

the palace was as quiet as ever. the king sat alone at his quarter. the confession his son-in-law made had already been told to the king. his mind was occupied by the letter sent by the interrogator. sighing, he took another shot of alcohol, a thing he rarely does.

"the blood isn't his? what's the purpose of faking it?" he asked the lower rank male as he threw the paper on the table.

"lee donghyuck said that both of them are not ready so the crown prince finds an alternative way to make it looks like they were actually doing it," the interrogator replied.

the king massaged his temple as he sighed. how could they play him like this? and even worst, he believed what they had said. the court lady who was in charge of inspecting the blood was fired for her carelessness because she didn't check the blood thoroughly. the truth was found out when donghyuck himself confessed that the blood didn't belong to him.

"but a maid in the crown prince's quarter has claimed that she had washed another bedsheet that had blood on it," the interrogator continued.

the king furrowed his brows and chuckled. "what? faking another one?"

"no, your majesty. she said it was lee donghyuck's blood because that morning when the maids changed the bedsheet, donghyuck was having difficulty to stand and walk and the servants had to assist him and bath him. the servants then claimed while bathing donghyuck, he had blood that dried up along his inner thighs. it's believed that the crown prince and lee donghyuck had finally done it the night before," the latter explained.

the king huffed, thinking for a while. "they do know what's the punishment for lying, right?"

"they knew it very well, your majesty," he replied.

"alright. stop the interrogation and you know what to do, right?" the king asked the experienced interrogator.

the latter tried to think what the superior meant and he caught it quickly. "i do, your majesty."

"good. for the time being, let's just wait for the crown prince to get back. i wonder what's taking him so long," the king muttered, shaking his head.

it was his fifth day in the prison. the pain on donghyuck's legs wasn't getting any better when he had to spend for god knows how many hours being interrogated and tortured. this is not how donghyuck imagined he would die, though he never thought of it. however, he was on the verge of giving up. no matter how many times he confessed the truth, the interrogator would never believe him. he just wanted to lie instead of saying the truth because that's like how the authority wants.

it affected the tanned male in many possible ways. instead of worrying about himself, his mind was filled with the thought of his husband and his father. he wanted minhyung to come back and save him from this pain but at the same time, he didn't want minhyung to see how hurting he was. how weak he had become.

as for his father, holding the title of the first rank senior as the kingdom's councilor, he was respected by the others. however, with this issue going on, donghyuck felt sorry for putting shame on his father's name.

donghyuck believed, it was karma for him. he couldn't point a finger to jaemin that his secret was blown up. to think that he was an obedient son, lying toward his father was a big mistake. he now admitted that he shouldn't be acting like that in the first place. but what could he do? he was blinded with love that he chose jeno over his father.