No Longer a Monster | Chenji

Chapter 1:

A new day starts as he's able to finally go home. Jisung has been in the mental hospital for a year and it's finally gone. His thoughts have finally changed just like himself. He's finally feeling like he's free from his degrading thoughts.

But leaving the hospital feared him a lot.

Will his brothers even accept him after everything he has done to them? Or will they treat him like the monster they've met before?

"Just calm down a bit, Jisung. You'll be fine."

The doctor tells him as Jisung nods, still feeling nervous about the whole situation. He walked out of his room, holding his doctor's hand for comfort as he was greeted with multiple smiles. There he sees his brothers, Haechan and Jeno, walking towards him.

"I'm glad you're alright now."

Haechan says, putting his arm around his brother as he shows Jisung that he's comfortable around him. The three of them finally went to the palace, all of them feeling a different kind of energy. It felt like all three of them were feeling free from everything that happened in the past.

Especially for Haechan as he still tried to forget that Jisung was the man who wanted to kill him and also the man who killed his mother.

As Haechan was already the king of the New Sun-Fire Kingdom, he knew that it was his responsibility to handle everything inside the kingdom. He even became more open-minded with what Jisung's situation was that he even gave Jisung a chance to change.

Haechan must've developed having a softer and a more understanding side as he's married to his only hope, Mark Lee.

"Well... I hope you don't mind but I redecorated the palace and... does it look good?"
"... It does look good."

Jisung replies as Haechan suffers from the awkward silence that fills in the halls of the palace. Jeno sighs, sitting on the couch next to him as he asks Jisung a bunch of random questions to get to know him.

"Do you like... the color of this room?"
"... It looks better actually... The white color sucked and I didn't know bronze fits the palace... Wow, it's been a long time that I don't even remember how this place... haunted me..."

Jisung says, drifting to his past thoughts as Jeno frowns. Jeno stands up from the couch and puts his arm around Jisung, comforting his little brother. Jeno knew that Jisung must've felt bad about himself and what he had done.

"You're gonna be fine. Haechan and I are here anyways so... I doubt that you'll feel like an outsider-"

Jeno gets interrupted as Mark, the other king, entered the room.

"HI, ROOMMATE!"

Mark greets Jisung with a welcoming hug. After a month of being married to Haechan, Mark developed this "extroverted" personality as Haechan turned... hyper because... it was his true self.

"Honey, do you really want to mess this up?- For the love of god, it's HIS FIRST DAY!-"
"Calm down! I just want to make a good impression!"
"... You're an idiot."
"Correction for that is that I'm YOUR idiot."

Even after Mark was married to Haechan, Mark was still falling in love with him every day. It's just how they are... they're destined just like what Mark says. Of course, it was the same for Haechan.

They love each other a bit too much that they can never fight about literally anything... because that's how marriage should work, right?

After a while, Jisung already felt comfortable around the palace. He goes back to his old bedroom, placing all of his belongings to where they should be. He looks outside of the window, seeing how the stars look like they were just near the ground.

Jisung lights up a candle as he lies down on his bed, thinking of all the new things he could do tomorrow as a fresh start.

~

"... Jisungie? Jisungie, wake up..."

The head of the servants, Na Jaemin, wakes him up with a sweet tone as Jisung squints his eyes. Jisung sits up from his bed as Jaemin smiles at him, fixing the covers.

"You know, I shouldn't be doing this but Haechan was still persistent... That's something he didn't get rid of when he healed."
"... Oh, he's still persistent?"
"Definitely."

Jaemin answers loudly, resulting Jisung to shake his head. Jisung gets up from his bed, making his way to the closet as he wears something that makes him look more presentable. Since he's been at the mental hospital for over a year, he learned to be more independent and to do things the right way.

Finally, the two of them went downstairs to eat breakfast.

Jeno, Mark, and Haechan were already at the dinner table as they waited for Jisung and Jaemin. As Jisung waved at the three of them, he took a pause to look at someone familiar.

It was Chenle... the one he treated badly in the past.

~

"Let me go!"

Chenle screamed at the knights, trying to get away from their hard grip against him. The knights suddenly pushed him, causing Chenle to just fall on the ground. Chenle didn't even know why he's being held hostage like this.

"He's an elf, Prince Jisung."

One of the knights said as Jisung gave them a smile before crouching down to Chenle's level. Jisung observed how Chenle's traits and details were different compared to his, smiling when he sees how his ears were pointy.

"So, you really are an elf?"
"... I am... What do you want?"

Chenle replied, struggling as his wrists were tied behind his back.

"I want to know what you elves can do."
"... Why?-"
"You don't have to know."

Chenle was offended when Jisung just cut his words off like that. He found it very disrespectful towards him.

"... Alright, leave us alone. I'll be having a minute with him."

Jisung told the knights as they left the basement immediately, not wanting to make Jisung angry or they'll end up dead. Jisung, then, locked the door as he doesn't want any interruptions. Jisung was very discriminative towards elves but seeing and talking to one made him feel fascinated about them.

He wanted to know more about what elves can do as he believed that it will be quite helpful towards his plan in killing Haechan.

"So, where were we?"
"... I don't know?- Why in the world did you bring me here? And who are you? And-"
"I brought you here because... I find elves like you very fascinating."
"... That's kind of odd... You could've just asked me a simple question-"
"You know what? Shut up."

Jisung replied as Chenle gave him an annoyed look.

"... Anyways, I'm going to ask you some questions and I want you to be completely honest with me."
"Well, that's good enough-"
"But cooperate with me."
"Damn it."

That's when it all started.

Chenle didn't know who to trust at that time.