“I was worried about you,” the King said. Pale fingers skimmed Min-jun’s arm. “What made you leave without telling me?”
“I didn’t want to wake you,” Min-jun said. He took hold of the King’s hand.
The King paused. His eyes scrutinized him, purple irises bright in the cloudy night. “You’re doing it again.”
“Doing what?”
“Whenever you try to distract me, you turn into the person you were when we met.” The King waved his hand in the air with a flourish. “You pretend to care about me and act concerned. You act … well, I suppose you act the way a consort is expected to.”
Min-jun tipped his head to the side, hair falling over his shoulder. “Is that wrong?”
“With you?” The King crossed his arms and nodded his head. “It’s suspicious. That’s for certain.” The King looked over his shoulder. “I gave Sun the night off since I was there. There was the chance that you’d go out on your own, but I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt. A misplaced sentiment, clearly.” He walked a few steps past him. “Going by the direction you’re heading away from, you were either making a trip to the Ministry of Officials, or paying a visit to our friend in the holding cells.”
Min-jun kept his eyes forward, staring into the night. “If you figured out that much, you can make the next leap on your own.”
The King didn’t speak for a long while, so Min-jun decided it was best to walk away. What did it matter to Min-jun if the King followed him or not?
“You should go home,” the King said. Min-jun gave a sardonic laugh. “I’m assuming whatever you’ve done is going to upset me. You’d best not be there when it happens.”
Such petty threats. They weren’t empty, however, and Min-jun deigned to air on the side of caution. He chanced a glance over his shoulder. The King had already gone away, not bothering to wait for his reply.
“I’ll be off then,” Min-jun whispered into the night air. The path had grown colder, and the flowers growing along the road had lost their healthy bloom. Min-jun knelt down near a lily bush, one that had spread its petals out wide in the moonlight just moments before. Did the King have the ability to take life away as easily as he gave it? His mind wandered as his fingers brushed over the underside of the petals. It didn’t seem like a conscious effort on the King’s part.
Min-jun stood up and wrapped his durumagi tighter around himself. No matter how he framed it, this whole gift business eluded his understanding.
. . .
Cheol knelt down next to the prisoner’s corpse. From outside the cell, he could already tell that the man had died, but it never hurt to be certain. Two fingers pressed against the prisoner’s cooling neck. Cheol felt nothing but the smooth texture of his skin, now breathless. Must’ve been quite the potent poison if it knocked an adult man out in such a short span of time.
That confirmed one thing at least. The prisoner and his consort were undoubtedly connected. So much for Min-jun’s outstanding detective skills. He’d known about them from the beginning.
“I-it was that man’s fault,” the guard stuttered behind him. He’d fallen onto his knees, sinking into a low bow. At first, he’d given begging for forgiveness a fair try, but now all that came from his mouth were accusations. He hadn’t attempted to escape yet, and Cheol had yet to decide whether that was foolish or admirable. “I had nothing to do with this.” Foolish. Definitely foolish.
“What is your name?” Cheol asked.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Choi Dol-gu,” the man said. The way the words strangled out of his throat made his fear all the more apparent.
“Relax.” Cheol sighed. He really couldn’t get a single night of rest. “I’m not going to go out and execute your family for something like this. Your punishment will be yours to bear.”
“P-p-punishment?”
Cheol twisted his face into a gentle, mild smile. Most people cowered when he did so, and presently, he didn’t mind watching the guard cower before him. “What? Do you think you’re undeserving of one after allowing a prisoner’s life to be taken?”
The guard lowered his head, panic rising within him. “No, your Majesty! Of course not! I deserve death for my sins!”
They’re all so quick to give up their lives. “You’ll be flogged, as the law states. And, of course, you’ll have to seek employment elsewhere. You might not have known that man carried poison on him, but your incompetence and greed turned you into an accomplice. I can’t have a person like that working for me. Now …” He kneeled down next to the bowing guard. “Describe this man to me. Unless you’d prefer I double your punishment?”
“N-no, your Majesty. You are very wise and just. Thank you, your Majesty,” the guard said. With trembling hands, he gestured to his face. “He was very pale. Ah, for a second, I thought he was a virgin ghost in men’s clothing, because he only wore a durumagi and his night clothes. His clothes looked very expensive, and he had flowers embroidered on his sleeves.” He paused and glanced at Cheol, uncertain.
Cheol waved his hand. “Go on.”
“His face …” The guard framed his own face. “It was very delicate but noble, like a flowering knight from the olden days. He spoke in a friendly way. Yes, his beauty and warmth disarmed me completely.”
Pretty face, sickeningly sweet manner of speaking, expensive clothes. He could’ve at least tried to be more covert.
“Did he ever mention his name?”
The guard shook his hand. “He looked like a smart lad. Wouldn’t let anything slip.”
“I see,” the King said. “If you recall anything else, you are to report to me immediately. And …” He touched his shoulder. “If I hear you running your mouth to anyone else, it’ll be the gallows for you instead.”
“Yes, your Majesty.”
“Good man.” Cheol patted him on the back with a tad too much force. He stood up and then looked down at the pitiful guard. “Rise.”
He scrambled to his feet, scared out of his wits. Cheol supposed he would be as well. It was only Min-jun who seemed to forget his place even in times like these.
Cheol held out a hand. “I’ll be confiscating the money he gave you.”
“M-money?” He dares to pretend not to have any?
“Shall I search you for it? Perhaps a night in the cells will make you reconsider.”
He hung his head, dejected. The tears had stopped running down his face, but he looked ready to burst into a fresh crying spell at any moment. Slowly, he pulled a string of coins out of his sleeve. Swayed by a couple hundred mun. What a disgrace.
“Sun,” he called. Sun stepped forward from the shadows, in a rather glum mood after being forced to leave Ji-won’s side on a rare night off. “Lock him up and tend to the body. Get another guard on duty. Once you’re done, feel free to go back to Ji-won.”
“And the little miscreant?”
Miscreant. “Careful,” Cheol said, lowering his voice so the guard wouldn’t hear. “That’s my consort you’re slandering.”
Sun snorted, noncommittal. “It’s not slander if it’s true.”
“I suppose.” Cheol sighed again. “I’ll take care of our little troublemaker. You just make sure everything is taken care of here. And then you can go back to playing house.”
Sun grimaced at the ‘playing house’ bit. “Yes, your Majesty.”
. . .
Jangmi Villa seemed fast asleep when Cheol arrived. Trees swayed in the breeze and shed leaves and petals, as the sky cleared to reveal stars. Cheol headed inside, walking through the dark corridors until he came to Min-jun’s doors once more. He didn’t bother knocking.
Min-jun laid on the mattress, still but awake. When the door shut, Min-jun flinched. Cheol crossed the room to sit next to him. In the darkness, Cheol could barely make out Min-jun’s face, but he could tell from the stillness of his form that the poor man must be in shock.
“You’ve never killed anyone before, have you?”
The moment passed them by, and Cheol wondered if he’d reply with anything other than anger. “I didn’t kill him.”
Oh dear. Min-jun sounded just about ready to break with the way his voice had cracked. Cheol would have to tread carefully.
“You don’t seem to believe that,” Cheol replied.
“It was your fault!” Min-jun shot up in bed. “You would’ve done worse. You would’ve tortured him for answers and then killed him.”
Cheol nodded. “Probably. It was already suspicious enough that you were able to catch him so quickly. I want to get to whoever you’re working for. Even if I can’t get the answers out of you, I have no qualms forcing them out of your friends.” Cheol tilted his head to the side in an attempt to catch those evasive eyes. “What? Does that make you feel better?”
Min-jun’s hands clenched on the blanket. “How do you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Kill people. Without feeling anything. I thought I … I thought I wouldn’t feel anything, but …”
Cheol exhaled a laugh, caught between exasperation and a distinct feeling of ‘oh, of course he would think that.’ “Really, my dearest consort, do you think so low of me? What makes you think I don’t feel anything?”
Min-jun opened his mouth, and then shut it, thinking. Finally, he spoke, “I can’t imagine you’d ever be able to do it again if you did.”
Cheol hummed and leaned his chin on his hand. “Oh, are we having second thoughts? Is my life finally out of your hands?”
Min-jun’s hand made its way to Cheol’s chest. It was them and his heartbeat then. “No. I’ll kill you even if I go mad because of it.”
Ah. It might not be the loyalty Cheol was used to, but there was something undeniably thrilling in Min-jun’s searing determination. With a creeping slowness, Cheol wrapped his hands around the one at his heart. “Then you have nothing to worry about. Isn’t that right?”
“You’re terrible.”
“I know.” Cheol let Min-jun’s hand slip away. “I find that I like making you wait.” Gently, he took Min-jun’s face in his hands, as a lover would. “Truthfully, I hope you despise yourself for a little while. What you did today inconvenienced me greatly. That man was no innocent victim, but there’s only one life worth extinguishing in your eyes, isn’t there? I might’ve provided a reason for you to give him poison, but your actions were your own. If you think that you did kill him, then perhaps you should accept it.”
Next thing he knew, Min-jun’s palms were on his chest, and he was being pushed away hard enough to give them some much-needed distance.
“Not the answer you’ve been looking for?” Cheol asked. “Figure it out for yourself like the rest of us murderers.”
Min-jun flinched for the second time since Cheol had entered the room. Had he gone too far? The places where Cheol had caught himself stung against the bamboo flooring. He had come back to Min-jun’s room with the intention of hurting him like this, but Cheol felt no satisfaction in this punishment. For all he’d said, Cheol had pieced together one thing: Min-jun was no murderer. He didn’t have it in him. It was why he had given the prisoner a choice.
He makes a terrible assassin.
Cheol rubbed the back of his neck. He had to redirect this somehow. Otherwise, Min-jun would spend the rest of the night wide awake and furious and terrified, and he had already told Sun to take the night off.
“Though I know it’s of little comfort, I wouldn’t say it is your fault. He took the poison knowing what would happen. My soldiers are taught to do the same,” Cheol said. He placed a hand on Min-jun’s shoulder. Perhaps this would heal some of the wounds from his taunts. “I understand the loyalty we hold for certain individuals. However, few people are worth dying for, Min-jun.”
“Are you worth dying for?”
No.
“It’s not something for me to decide.”
A look of pure irritation crossed Min-jun’s face, his lips carved into a deep scowl. Without warning, Min-jun grabbed the pillow off the mattress and threw it in Cheol’s face. And after he’d gone to all those lengths to comfort him.
“You just have the perfect answer for everything, don’t you?” Min-jun grumbled, as he turned onto his side and laid his head down to sleep. “You’re such a politician.”
Cheol smiled despite himself. He’ll be fine. At least, for tonight. Ah, he really couldn’t stay mad at him. He was just too pitiful in this state.
Cheol placed the pillow back on the mattress, and finally, blissfully, laid himself down to sleep.
Thanks for the chapter ♥️♥️
❤
i love their dynamic <33
I love it too ❤. Thank you for commenting
“It was your fault!” Min-jun shot up in bed. “You would’ve done worse. You would’ve tortured him for answers and then killed him.” grow up already
Not the answer you’ve been looking for?” Cheol asked. “Figure it out for yourself like the rest of us murderers.” SIGH 😕 ONLY WISH HE HAD LEFT AFTER THAT SIGH. FINALLY GETS A LESSON
By the way Zuòzhě loving your work. Don’t mind if I complain about a character always hated at least one lol thanks for another great read
lmao i complain about min-jun all the time too so i don’t mind