The Cold Curse | MarkHyuck

Chapter 23:

"What is happening to me?! I get happy and this happens!-"
"None of it is your fault, Haechan."
"It is! Maybe if I just wasn't born at all, none of this would happen-"
"Haechan. Don't say this."

Mark tells Haechan, trying to calm him down because of what was currently happening. Haechan felt like he was someone who doesn't deserve to be happy. He thought of it because he became happy once since five years of being emotionless and this situation happens.

He felt like it all happened because of his existence.

It got to the point that Haechan wanted to just disappear and not come back ever again. He wanted to die because he already suffered too much and he never wanted to live a life like this. The world felt like hell for Haechan.

"Mark... it's all my fault-"
"Haechan, please-"
"You can't say otherwise! I am the worst person to ever exist! You could die from all of this, Mark!... I don't want you to die because of me-"
"No one's going to die, Haechan! Please I can't stand this anymore! I hate seeing you like this!-"
"This is my true self. I'm a monster, Mark-"
"No, you're not! Haechan, how many times do I have to tell you that you're not?! Why can't you just listen to me for once?!"
"Can't you see, Mark?! I'M HORRIBLE. I'm a freak! No... Just... Don't believe in me anymore. There's no progress or improvement, Mark. I don't deserve to be happy, Mark."

Haechan chokes out, crying hard from the rush of intense emotions. Mark tears up, walking closer to Haechan as he pushes him away. Haechan pushes Mark away harder, trying to scare him off and convince him to just leave his side as he wanted to prove to Mark that he can never be changed anymore.

"Don't come closer, Mark."
"I can't, Haechan. I can't leave you because of this. Please-"
"GO AWAY, MARK!"
"Haechan-"
"GO AWAY, MARK. PLEASE GO AWAY!"

Haechan yells at Mark, touching and freezing the wall behind him. Mark was startled, still trying to understand Haechan even if he's trying to push him away. Haechan thought that he had no chance to ever turn back into his past self.

Haechan saw himself as a monster.

"Please, Mark... Please go away."
"But I don't want to leave you... Please... You can still get over this, Haechan... Just trust me-"
"No, Mark... There's no cure to this... Just leave me."
"Please, Haechan... Don't leave me hanging like this."
"I'm sorry but I love you, Mark... I can't let my only hope die because of me."

Haechan says as he stands up from the floor, giving Mark his last kiss for him. Mark wanted the kiss to last longer because he truly loved Haechan as much as their relationship. Mark cups Haechan's face, making the kiss last longer than Haechan expected.

Mark couldn't accept that their relationship ended this quickly... because Haechan wanted him to be safe.

~

"May you be the New King of the New Sun-Fire Kingdom."

The head of the new royal council announces as the audience clapped at their new king. Since Jisung was young, this was already his dream. Now that he finally achieved his dream, his next step to being unstoppable as a king will still continue.

Jisung knew that if Haechan comes back from wherever he is, there will be chaos and riot against his name especially that he hasn't found Chenle and Renjun yet.

He wanted his royalty to be all by himself as he doesn't want any obstacles in his way of finally gaining full power. First, he wants to rule this kingdom. Second, he wants to rule the whole country. Lasty, he wants the whole world wrapped around his finger.

Because of his incredible intelligence and his deceiving looks, he can easily rule the whole world if he exerted much more effort.

He wanted everything to be under him and the only thing left to do is to kill Haechan. Of course he was afraid that even his royalty would be taken away from him by someone who is actually deserving to be king. Jisung wanted to be the protagonist while Haechan will be killed off as the antagonist of his history.

The other side of Jisung says otherwise.

Jisung's other side is literally just an eighteen year old who needed to feel love and appreciation. Jisung grew up as the "underdog" of his father and his half-brother since childhood. Therefore, he wanted to achieve "a lot of things''.

Now that his coronation was near to end, Jisung felt so much pressure on his chest that he had to take deep breaths.

As he was starting to feel better, he saw another figure of his father.

"No, it can't be... Please it can't be..."

The figure was waving at him, congratulating him but convincing him to do better at the same time. Jisung started to get dizzy, fainting right after the ceremony ended.

~

Jaemin walked around the halls of the abandoned palace, thinking about everyone's current situations. He was feeling disappointed within himself since he thought that he had brought nothing but his uselessness and his "annoying habits" to the three. He tries to not think about it every once in a while since he knew he isn't known to be sad.

He sits on a step of a staircase, feeling down because he didn't know what to do to help them.

Jaemin sees Chenle who was staring at him. Chenle noticed that Jaemin looked down and expressionless for the first time even if they've interacted just two days ago. Chenle knew that Jaemin was a type of "happy virus" and that he just gave off positive energy to everyone in the palace.

This made Chenle sit beside him. Chenle was nice towards him because he knew that Jaemin treated him like an actual visitor and not like a prisoner.

"Hey... Are you alright?"
"... Not really..."
"Well, you can tell me anything. I know that you're not someone who's most likely sad all the time..."
"... Hmm?"
"... What I'm saying is that you're really a nice person and that you really spread happiness everywhere."
"Really?... How?"
"You know that Renjun has these creepy mirror shards, right? Sometimes, I watch what's happening in there and I notice that you make the people around here laugh all the time... I sound like a creepy stalker but I can assure you that I'm only doing that to keep you all safe..."
"... That's so sweet!"
"... Now, can you tell me what's going on?"

Chenle asks with curiosity in his eyes. Jaemin sighed and gulped before he finally told Chenle what was going on.

"I feel terrible... I don't really know how to mingle around them because I'm not related to any of them in any way... I don't know how to help them at all and I'm pretty sure my jokes won't fix anything..."
"... Well, maybe just asking how they're doing and listening to their problems can help. Plus, you can also give them advice! Maybe being not "related" to any of them is easier since you don't feel the pain two times harder and they can learn things from someone they never knew before... Maybe it's a good thing, Jaemin."

Chenle nicely gave Jaemin advice as Jaemin immediately gave him a hug. What Chenle said was true, Jaemin is a really nice person who spreads happiness. While Jaemin hugged Chenle, Renjun watched them and smiled at the view of Chenle being happy and getting along with Jaemin.

"Thank you for the help, Chenle."

Renjun mumbles to himself, thinking about how his work is done and the only thing left to do before he leaves is to fight alongside Haechan against Jisung.