King of Nothing | Taekook

Chapter Three

I couldn't sleep. This is the one of the first restless nights I've felt in a long time. However, it's been like this for the last few days. I've slept less, but I don't feel tired. I sleep for a little bit, wake as the sun rises, eat, and then go about my duties. My father has been schooling me on how to handle rising tensions. It stresses me out, but I take it in.

I've only been able to sneak out and see Taehyung once since the day he hurt his hand. We sneak glances as I pass with my father occasionally. But there's never anything more.

"I'm going to the east side, son. Your second uncle and I are hoping to have a peaceful conversation with their king. It's possible that we may negotiate and bring down their steam. Dilute their fighting will."

I nodded.

"I will be gone for, at max, four days. Are you okay with that? Do you think you'll be able to run things smoothly. I don't doubt you."

"Yes, of course I can. You can count on me." I assured my father in confidence.

"Good, good."

"When do you leave?"

"Two days from now. I leave at sunrise that morning, for ease of travel." He said, taking a seat at his desk. This large, unruly man, stared at me. I admire this man. I see myself in him, but only because he is my father. Not because I will one day become him. What Taehyung said stuck with me, I do not have to become my father. Yet, it's still a fear.

"You're dismissed." He nodded his head once to me. I nodded back and excited in slowly, with respect. But, as soon as the door closed, I was quickly making my way to my quarter. I stripped off some of my clothing until I was left in only my pants and white shirt. I sped downstairs, feeling so suddenly giddy. I jumped my way around the corner, startling a woman. I apologized and sped past her to the back area.

"Taehyung!" I said, waving to him. He spun around in surprise.

"Hello."

"I'm free from my father now. How's your hand healing?"

"It's alright, I took the bandage off yesterday." He showed me his palm. It was healing well. "I fixed the shelf,"

"Oh, I could have helped with that."

"You're too willing to do things, it's very odd to me. I tend to forget sometimes now, that you're a prince, and not a servant like me." He joked.

"It's boring, doing the same thing every day."

"Understandable. I've been doing it every day my whole life, hah. If you're so eager to do something, grab that bucket, there, you can come with me to get water."

"I know a better place."

"What do you mean?"

"There's a lake, it's about a mile hike but it's worth it." I said. I haven't been to the lake in so long.

"Jungkook," Taehyung laughed, "You seem eager to get out, but remember, this is my job, now. I have to do it."

"Fine," I sighed, "I'll help you get everything done quickly, then in two days time, we can go down. We can spend the day there. Usually our servants get days off, anyways. Plus, you're with me. It's not like you'd be sneaking off alone, avoiding work. And, I'll be your boss someday." I winked at him. Knowing inside that, the moment I become king, every servant here is granted full freedom.

Taehyung bit his lip, "If you get either one of us in trouble, I'm going to take your toes."

"Oh no! Not my toes." I said sarcastically. "I take it that you'll come with me? I promise it'll be fun. I'll bring a lunch, too. The fancy kind."

Taehyung laughed and shook his head.

•

I sat the basket of food down on a rock, admiring the body of water in front of me. The lake itself is very small. But like my own little sanctuary. It's still early morning. I didn't let my mother know that I would be leaving. I know she won't look for me. Nobody ever does unless a day or more goes by without a sign of me. Then they send the search party. It's happened before.

"Isn't it pretty?" I said, looking over at Taehyung who's come to stand next to me.

"Yeah," his jaw fell wide open. "I've never been to a place like this before. When you said lake, I wasn't expecting this."

"Well, then what are you waiting for? It's hot, come on!" I said, running down to a lower ledge. I pulled off most of my clothing, not caring, and jumped in. When I came back up, I saw Taehyung still standing in the same place.

"Come on!"

"I don't know how to swim." He said, laughing nervously.

"It's fine! I'll teach you." I laughed, urging him to join me. Taehyung glanced at me and then the water. "Come on, Taehyung. I'll save you before you drown."

Taehyung shook his head, laughing at me, and made his way down to where I jumped from. He hesitantly took off only his outer shirt, leaving the bottom one on. He kicked off his shoes and then went frozen.

"It's scary from up here."

"You'll be fine, just count to three and jump in." I swam closer. Taehyung nodded and closed his eyes momentarily, when they opened, he suddenly had a wild look on his face. He leaned forward and jumped down into the water. He came up struggling, but got the hang of keeping himself up quickly. I grabbed him and pulled him up. He pushed his hair out of his eyes and laughed.

"That was terrifying." He chuckled, and I dragged him over to where it was more shallow so we could stand.

"Not so bad, huh?"

"No," he laughed. We swam around for a few hours, playing around and losing track of time. We got out to eat near high noon. He was surprised when I pulled out our lunch. I guess he's never seen such "fancy food" in his life. We feed our servants relatively well, but what I've brought with me today is more on the fancy side.

After we ate, we got back into the water, but only for a little while. We decided it would be best to head back before the sun started going down. The hike back was nice, we were both a little tired, but that made it peaceful. Today was the most fun I'd had in a long, long time. For him, this was one of the first days of his life that he's done something fun. Just hearing him say that made me want to do this more often.

We stopped in the garden just before going back, he wanted to hug me. I wouldn't object to something like that.

"Thank you," he said, "I had a lot of fun today."

"I did too, we should do this more often."

"I wish we could," he sighed, "that would be nice." Taehyung looked down at his feet.

"We can, it hurts me that you've been shanked out of having a good life. I hate it for all the servants here. You deserve it, Taehyung. Plus... I... I just..." I bit my tongue. Trust yourself. Say what you want to say.

Yet, I said nothing.

"You just what?" He asked, turning his head to the side with curiosity.

"Never mind, I lost my train of thought."

We then walked back to the castle and parted ways.