Sanghyuk was sure that was the moment his heart would stop for sure, but he didn’t have the time for that.

“Hakyeon!” Sanghyuk panicked, but he couldn’t allow himself to succumb to his fear.

“Hakyeon, Hakyeon! Please wake up, please, please!”

He quickly gathered the older in his arms, carrying him back to the opening in the roof that led through the attic.

Even more careless than before, he pushed things out of his way as he made his way through the crowded space, nothing but getting help for Hakyeon on his mind. He ran down the stairs as fast as his legs could carry him, but he was unfamiliar with the area of the castle he was in.

“Hongbin! Hongbin, help!”

He yelled, darting down the closest hallway, but quickly realized he didn’t recognize a thing about it.

“Damn it! Wonshik! Hongbin, Wonshik! Help!”

He ran back, trying another hallway, and at least that one seemed to lead somewhere. Where, he couldn’t tell. He had no idea where he was going, or where he should be going. Where even were Hakyeon’s chambers?

“Hongbin! Help! Where are you?! Wonshik!”

He took another flight of stairs down, trying to at least find back to his own chambers, and he thought he vaguely recognized the hallway he ended up in.

“Where is everyone?! Hongbin! Damn it! Jaehwan, Taekwoon! Anyone!”

He kept running, barely feeling the weight of the other in his arms in his panic.

Finally, he heard footsteps running towards him, just as he recognized the hallway he’d just turned into as the one leading to his own chambers. Both Hongbin and Wonshik were approaching him quickly now, eyes wide as they saw him and the man in his arms.

“He just passed out, I don’t know… Help!” He gasped as they came to a stop, staring at him with wide eyes and open mouths.

“Over here, come, let’s get him to your room.” Wonshik pulled him with him, and Sanghyuk quickly followed him to his own chambers where he gently laid Hakyeon down on his bed. He turned around again just in time to see the door open to allow the butler and cook in, and it took him a moment of confusion before he remembered he’d called out for them, too, as he was running blindly through the castle.

“What happened? What’s wrong? Omo, hyung! What the hell is going on?” Jaehwan burst out, his eyes wide in shock.

Sanghyuk wrapped his arms around himself protectively, shivering under the cold look from Taekwoon’s eyes as the cook shoved him aside to get to Hakyeon on the bed.

“The roof-… I saw- He was there. I-I ran there, but- I made it just in time, but he told me to leave. I told him- That I don’t hate him! That I love him! He- he froze, and I took the chance to get him away from… anyway, I- I kissed him, and then he just- He just fainted! I don’t know- I don’t know why, why would he faint?!”

He stammered, trying to explain what had happened, too confused to understand what had really happened himself. When he looked around at the gathered servants, though, one by one he saw some kind of understanding flash in their eyes, but no one spoke up. It only unnerved Sanghyuk even more.

“You know something! I can tell you do! What is it; what’s wrong with Hakyeon?!” His voice broke. “Please, I need to know!”

Eventually, Hongbin looked up and finishing patting a crying Wonshik’s shoulder while he passed him on to cry against Jaehwan’s chest instead. He closed the distance to Sanghyuk then, who had to remind himself to stand his ground and not step back when the servant approached him.

He would have expected a punch to the face or something like that, a punishment for allegedly hurting Hakyeon, but nothing could have prepared him for reality.

Hongbin wrapped his arms around him and pulled him into a tight hug.

Sanghyuk gasped, surprised beyond belief and unsure of how to react.

“Ho-Hongbin-…”

“You saved him, Sanghyuk.”

Sanghyuk didn’t understand a thing.

“You saved him! You broke the curse!”

Sanghyuk heard a quiet gasp form someone else in the room, but couldn’t make out who.

“The curse?! What curse?!”

Hongbin finally let go, wiping at a tear on his face as he stepped back.

“Look at him. Look at his face. You can see him, can’t you? And you don’t hate him when you look at him, right?!”

Sanghyuk looked at Hakyeon’s face, resting with a perfectly peaceful expression on his pillow, then back at Hongbin, who he thought must have lost his wits at some point.

“Of course I don’t hate him!”

Hongbin shook his head.

“But you used to, right? Whenever you met him in the mornings, in his study. As soon as you saw his face, you’d feel an all overpowering hatred, right?”

Sanghyuk took a step away from Hongbin, raising his hands defensively.

“I didn’t want to! I didn’t hate him! I don’t know why- I didn’t control that!”

“It was the curse, Sanghyuk!”

Sanghyuk shook his head, retreating further and not understanding a thing. That was when Taekwoon stepped in, placing a hand on Hongbin’s shoulder and telling him to step down with a shake of his head.

“We’re getting nowhere like this. Jaehwan-ah…” He addressed the butler, who was still holding onto Wonshik, and the other nodded in understanding, clearing his throat.

“This is a little complicated, but I’ll try to explain.

“Hakyeon was still young when his father fell ill. He was very close to him, and it devastated him –and all of us, but of course him the most- to see disease deteriorate his condition so quickly. He asked a healer from the village over to come and help him, but the old Lord Cha died anyway. Hakyeon was sick with grief, and when the healer came in just moments after the Lord had expelled his last breath and demanded payment, Hakyeon lost it. He cursed at the woman, blaming her for his father’s death. The woman didn’t take Hakyeon’s cursing lightly, and decided to curse him instead;

“He was to never again meet someone that could stand looking at his face without hatred; he was to stand out as a misfit in any crowd when he stepped out of the house; never again would he be able to take a meal with company without the food turning to dirt in his mouth; rest should forever elude him except for the bare necessary to survive; no laugh would ever pass his lips again...

“To name just a few of the curses.

“We didn’t think much of it, waited until the woman was done, paid her and sent her on her way. But the curses came true. Every single one of them. And Hakyeon has been suffering from them ever since.

“We tried our best to find a way to break the curse, but there was nothing we could do. It would take someone who didn’t know Hakyeon before the curse and nothing about the curse to fall in love with him to break it. We all love him, but we’d known him before the curse and knew about it from the moment it was cast. And it wasn’t the right kind of love, either. But everyone else who met Hakyeon for the first time immediately hated him, and it was impossible for anyone to fall in love with him that way. So eventually, everyone kind of gave up.

“Until you came. You gave us all hope again, but… let’s just say, we are terrible advisors and Hakyeon probably shouldn’t have listened to us… At least then you wouldn’t have had to get him down from the roof!

“Anyway, if it hadn’t been for you, Lord Sanghyuk… I’m so glad you saw him out there and went after him. I can’t imagine-… What he could have done-…” He finally broke off, shaking his head.

“But you saved him, Lord Sanghyuk. And you really broke the curse, if I’m seeing this right.”

Sanghyuk shook his head, massaging his temples as the flood of information he could hardly believe tried to settle in his brain. Eventually, his eyes wandered towards Hakyeon again; he hesitated before looking up at his face out of habit, and his heart clenched painfully.

“But… why isn’t he waking up? Why did he faint in the first place?”

If it wasn’t for the faint raising and falling of his chest, one couldn’t tell the other was still alive as he laid there, perfectly immobile.

“It must be the shock from the curse being broken… My grandmother once mentioned that something like that could happen when a powerful curse is lifted… Hyung’s curse was pretty powerful…” Wonshik piped up from Jaehwan’s embrace.

“And how long does it take for him to wake up again?”

No one had an answer to that.

“He hasn’t slept properly in years. If the curse is lifted now, I can imagine him catching up on that now…”

Sanghyuk’s eyes widened fearfully at Wonshik’s remark, but Hongbin elbowed his lover with a shake of his head.

“I can’t tell, really, but it shouldn’t take long. My grandmother never said anything about sleeping for a significant amount of time after fainting…”

“If your grandmother didn’t consider the amount of time you manage to sleep on average when no one wakes you a significant amount of time, then we could still be waiting here for hyung to wake up when we are old and grey…” Jaehwan muttered under his breath, but Hongbin kicked his shin, too, chastising him for potentially scaring Sanghyuk further.

“I believe he’s going to wake up soon and be alright then now that the curse is broken. He never slept for long even before the curse.” Taekwoon gave the first answer that managed to reassure Sanghyuk somewhat.

Hongbin nodded at the cook’s words.

“I think so, too. We should just let him rest. And you need to rest, too, Sanghyuk. But not before I take a look at your hand!” It was only when the servant pointed it out that Sanghyuk remembered he’d cut himself on the attic.

Suddenly exhausted, he sat down on the edge of the bed and nodded weakly. It was Hongbin who took it upon himself to the others out of the room, just to return shortly after with a small water basin and a roll of clean linen strips.

Sanghyuk let him clean the wound on his hand in silence, watching him disinterestedly as he covered it up.

“Sanghyuk-ah… You really should sleep, too. You won’t do Hakyeon-hyung any favours if you exhaust yourself. He’ll wake up soon enough, and you won’t miss it.”

Sanghyuk grimaced, not wanting to go to sleep and wait instead, but for the first time his servant’s stare actually intimidated him and he followed his order to get into bed, although begrudgingly.

No sooner had Hongbin left the room, though, sleep had already claimed him as the exhaustion of the last few days took its toll.