𝐫𝐨𝐲𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐲•𝐣𝐢𝐡𝐚𝐧

prologue

"DO YOU, yoon jeonghan, take min suhae, as your wife, in sickness and in health, in..."

jeonghan tunes out, finding his own wedding astoundingly boring and hackneyed. the priest's mouth had been blabbering on and on, about how beautiful love is, yet he knows that jeonghan and suhae have been fixed just for jeonghan to take the throne. what a circus. jeonghan wants to run away from his wedding.

suhae is a great woman, but jeonghan doesn't love her. cliche or not, jeonghan still believes in finding love in the right person. himself counted. and, also, jeonghan doesn't love the throne that much to give away his wedding finger for that golden seat.

does jeonghan have what it takes to be the next king of bellezia, though?

"jeonghan?" suhae softly asks, snapping jeonghan momentarily out of his cloud of thoughts. jeonghan nods curtly in response, embarrassed.

"i do." there we go. goodbye, ring finger, freedom, 'prince jeonghan', single status and etcetera. jeonghan is surprised that he let himself be pushed in to fixed marriage, since those kinds of things are barren now, anyway; besides, jeonghan can find a man or woman for himself very well, thank you very much. the unspoken truth—

bang!

chaos ensued. hearing that one loud gunshot inside the supposedly weapon-free church alarmed everyone inside, who certainly did not sign up for a crossfire, or a live action of someone getting shot. also, that someone presumably a part of the royal family.

jeonghan looked down to his all white suit, glad that it wasn't stained with blood for two reasons: it was expensive and jeonghan did not enjoy getting hurt. nor dying—which, thankfully, does not take place today.

but.....

"suhae!" jeonghan's eyes widen, looking down after hearing another bang!, but this time, fainter. it was the sound of min suhae falling down to the floor after getting shot. "suhae, we'll call an ambulance. hang in there."

suhae smiles as jeonghan scoops her head up from the floor. jeonghan gently lays suhae on his lap, holding her with both of his arms. now, they may have had nothing special, but suhae had been a good friend with no ulterior motives. unlike everyone else, who befriends him because of his title and money. suhae was one of the sincerest people jeonghan had in his life.

bang!

"agh!" jeonghan yelps, seeing a dark red blob of liquid blooming on the sleeve of his white suit jacket. it didn't look enticing. "the bullet scraped my shoulder!"

"j-jeonghan! you should let me go, your arm won't hold up—" suhae cuts herself short, as she feels jeonghan gently laying her on the floor. "—for longer."

jeonghan took out his gun, aiming perfectly at the figure on his northwest. he shoots once with his injured arm (surprising even to himself) and ignores the hitman. jeonghan quickly diverts his attention to suhae, and cradles her with his arms again. jeonghan wasn't sure if the hitman was dead, but jeonghan was sure that he hit the hitman. that was enough to buy him some time.

jeonghan gives suhae (possibly) her last hug.

"jeongh-han...." suhae whispers, feeling the ragged breathing of jeonghan on her nape as he embraced her. "my sister... my sister hired the hitman to kill me and you."

"you knew about it?! why didn't you do anything to stop her? or postpone the wedding?" jeonghan asks, his statements against this fixed marriage being immediately disparaged.

jeonghan was a good person. that trait of his sabotaged all his other bad habits and deeds that he'd done in the past—be hurt, than let others be hurt. kind people are happy with being hurt. that was what jeonghan's mother always used to say.

jeonghan knew that his mother's statement is not entirely true. who would be happy getting hurt? nobody, no-one, no fucking person in this world would let themselves be hurt and laugh it off.

pain is still pain. pain demands to be felt.

but then, jeonghan slowly came to understood. it all came crashing down on him when he watched his mother die on her death bed, realization eliciting mainly because of this thought: i'd be happy to be the one in pain than see my mother be in pain.

"if we d-did that, she would find other chances to kill me and you. go now. g-go!" suhae yells with all her might, making jeonghan flinch a little. her lips were near to jeonghan's ear after all. "if she knows that you're still alive and you stay within her vision... you're going to end up like me."

"okay! okay!" jeonghan gives up, pulling away and looking at suhae. "when you become a star, i will update you on everything that's happening. i promise."

"i promise t-too," suhae adds, blood trickling down from the corner of her mouth. despite this, she still smiled at jeonghan. "i promise to always lis-listen."