"My majesty, where are you going?" 

Rushed steps, almost stumbled. The servant had never seen his emperor like this before.

"My majesty, please slow down. We don't want you to fall or get hurt!"

All that he received, was ignorance and faster steps. With confusion on his face, he finally realized, the emperor was running towards the prison.

/

It was different.

The feeling underneath his feet was different.

It was covered by warmth, without the hardness of the cell's floor.

But the smell of blood was still tingling.

There was no one else but Taekwoon and his executor, and he couldn't do anything but leave a sigh. A shivering one. Thinking about how terrifyingly similar his imagination and reality were.

He wished maybe someone could be there to watch, to tell Wonshik that he died, although he knew, the news would never be summoned in the king's mind.

How would Jaehwan's smile and adorable jokes be faded by anything, he chuckled silently, facade almost unchanged.

Suddenly, the urge to cry hit. The urge to cry for his pitiful self wanted to knock him out. The urge to wrap his arms around his own body, to give his lonely self some love that he had never received came in. But at the center of the vacant land, he knew he couldn't change anything. Even before the moment of his death, he couldn't get a taste of being loved.

/

"Any last wish?"

Silence.

"Are you sure?"

A halfhearted nod.

"Are you sure that you don't have any last wish?"

The prisoner murmured something, his lips almost unmoved.

"What?"

"Can you act like you care?"

"My majesty!" 

And the attention wasn't paid to Taekwoon anymore.

/

"You must have lots of questions. But let me tell you, i don't keep you alive to force you to cough out secrets and plans of your kingdom. All you need to know, is the fact that you must obey me. Serve me, like my own slave."

"But you can get any servant. Why me?"

"The emperor could do anything he wants, and the emperor could decide that he wants to show a person that his life does matters."

/ 

"Tell me about your lover."

Watching Taekwoon's face slowly eaten up by bemusement, the emperor changed the word.

"Tell me about your king. And why you called yourself his lover."

He had to wait for what seemed like a century, to receive an answer.

"The man Jaehwan loves. The man that loves Jaehwan."

"No mention of yourself?"

And he got a blurring look from Taekwoon.

"The man whose lover i want to be."

"And? Why did you call yourself his lover to be caught in that room? That day?"

The sobbing sound started.

It faded after a touch on his hand. A soothing rub.

"Wonshik and Jaehwan mustn't be separated. Jaehwan must be safe. Wonshik must be happy."

It was difficult for the emperor to make out what Taekwoon meant between his cry, not sure if it was because he didn't want to understand, or the voice was way too cracked.

"Even if Wonshik hadn't odered me, i would still have done it."

Somewhere, somehow, a rage started inside him.