Hopeless.

It was the one word that described how Hyungwon felt as he sat by an open window of Prince Minhyuk’s countryside estate.

Kihyun assessed Changkyun as well as he could in the carriage but he’d deemed he needed somewhere else to treat the boy, which meant they had to stop at the nearest place in Raemi where Kihyun would have access to the proper tools to work. The wizard had sounded so confident that everyone assumed Changkyun would be on the road to recovery hours after they’d reached the place.  

It had been well over a day since they arrived and Kihyun hadn’t left the room he’d boarded himself and Changkyun in.

There was no hiding the restlessness they all felt. They’d all waited for hours, hovering in the sitting area outside as time ticked by. When the hours began to drag on, most found themselves unable to keep still or keep silent. Wonho kept checking the perimeters for intruders. Shownu had gone to catch dinner. Minhyuk wouldn’t stop gushing about Jooheon. And the red-haired ambassador, who’d arrived earlier in the morning, would only bashfully wave off the blond prince.  

Had he not been as strung up as he was, Prince Hyungwon would have boasted about Jooheon’s efforts as well. Getting the audience with the High Council and explaining to them the situation in about Eodum was the only reason why Prince Hyuk and Lord Dongho had been able to reach them when they did.  

Hyungwon was thankful and grateful for everything Jooheon did, but he couldn’t find it in him to act like was okay. Everyone else was nervous too, Hyungwon knew it,  but his anxiety, unlike theirs,was debilitating.

While the others bustled about, Hyungwon was unable to leave the area directly in front of Kihyun and Changkhyun’s door. It was more like he couldn’t leave, knowing it could open at any moment. He did occasionally get up when he got too restless, but he hadn’t even stepped into the bedroom Minhyuk had allotted him.

Hyungwon was aware he had to be patient with the process. He knew that Kihyun needed time. But each second of not knowing what was going on made him feel like there was a rock pressing against his chest, keeping his lungs from inflating properly.

He was so worked up that his body reacted to the slightest movements around him. When the door to the sitting area opened, he shot up from his seat.

“It’s just me,” Shownu announced, walking into the room with a plate of steaming food in his hands.

Hyungwon’s stomach rumbled as the smell hit his nose. Just the sight of steaming grilled meat resting on puffy grains of rice had him drooling.

Shownu followed his gaze and found that he was hungrily eyeing the plate in his hands. He looked back up at the prince and said, “You should go down and eat something.”

The prince frowned as he tilted his head. “That’s not mine?”

“I’m your guard, not your page boy, Your Highness,” Shownu jested as he gave the prince a smile, hoping the prince would snap back at him.

No amusement or anger passed over Hyungwon. His body remained taut with anguish, making Shownu sigh.

The guard gave the plate a pensive look before he answered his prince properly, “This is for Kihyun. I don’t think he had breakfast. Or dinner for that matter.”

Hyungwon swallowed and sat back down. The herbologist needed to eat more than he did. “Right,” he replied, taking a deep trembling breath. “I’ll just wait here.”

Shownu looked back at him and sighed before moving towards the door, knocking twice, and entering.

The prince barely caught a glimpse of the goings on in the room. From where he sat, he made out a seemingly crazed, desperate Kihyun greeting Shownu. Behind the small man was Changkyun with his eyes still closed, looking as pale as the sheets he was lying in. Hyungwon moved to get a better look but the door shut before he could, and the prince was back to waiting.

His mind was slowly going numb as he attempted to bore holes into the wood panels of the door with his eyes. With each blink and each second that passed, Hyungwon’s eyelids grew heavier. The sounds of the steady stream flowing outside the window lulled the man to sleep.

When Hyungwon woke, the sun was no longer in the sky and a blanket had carefully been draped over him. Water and food had been placed on the table in front of him. There no sound in the halls other than the flickering of the candles which lit them. It was safe for him to assume that the hour was late and everyone else was asleep.

He’d been disoriented until the moment his stomach begged him to eat the cold sandwich in front of him. The prince’s eyes drooped while he chewed. Waiting was tiring but he knew he wouldn’t be able to focus on anything else, if he even dared try. The prince gave a resigned sighed and stared at the door, taking another bite of the dry bread.

The last thing he expected at this hour was for Kihyun to step out of the door.

Kihyun looked like death and that was putting it nicely. The man’s hair stuck out, frizzing up towards the ends. Their usually vibrant bright pink color was muted and chalky. His eyebags were so deep that Hyungwon though he could fit his national treasury in them and have room left over. With his bloodshot eyes, he looked positively insane.

“Damn, Pinky. Should I close the window? You look like a small breeze could knock you over,” Hyungwon greeted the haggard wizard with his usual contempt.

“Shut up before I knock you over,” Kihyun weakly spat back.

Hyungwon snorted. “I’m sitting down. I don’t think that’s possible.”

“Will you stop being insufferable for one second? I have something to say to you and it’s not good news.”

Hyungwon’s smile faded as he saw the solemness on Kihyun’s face as he took a seat next to him.

The older man did not look the prince in the eyes as he spoke. “I’ve tried everything I could but Changkyun’s body isn’t processing the cure. It’s spread too much and there is no way for me to make it stop with my magic. At this point, he’s probably going to die.”

Hyungwon heard the words but his mind was unable to process it. Changkyun? Going to die? The words spun in his head over and over, making his blood run cold and his muscles freeze. His mouth flapped open and closed as he tried to formulate any kind of response. He felt like his soul had left his body.

The pink haired wizard looked up at him with tears in his eyes.

“The reason I wanted to tell you first is because I think there might be a way for me to cure him but I can’t do it without you.”

Hyungwon could see the wizard’s frustration in the way he sounded almost regretful as he was telling him this. But it was absurd. How could he help a wizard who was known to be able to cure anything?

“Me? What’s any of this got to do with me?”

“I overheard that Changkyun’s magic got sent to you when you touched his hand,” Kihyun said as if this was supposed to clarify his reasoning.

But Hyungwon couldn’t recall telling Kihyun any of this and he was sure that Changkyun had never told him this either.

“How did you know that?”

“Shownu briefed me on Jeongnam’s interrogation report earlier,” Kihyun began, frowning further as he went on. “In it, the bastard mentioned that he hadn’t be able to control you, like he had your parents, because some magic was blocking his from getting to you.”

Hyungwon had always thought the people in his court were unnaturally enchanted by the weird man. Knowing they were literally enchanted explained why people cared so much about someone who didn’t seem all that great.

“The important thing is that if Changkyun’s magic can be transferred to you, I can save him.” Kihyun rambled on, rapidly tapping his foot on the leg of the table. “You’ve probably never heard of it, but among wizards, it’s a common legend that the one person you share your magic with is your true love.”

The prince stayed silent, pondering the implications of what the pink haired wizard had said. He was Changkyun’s true love. Did that mean that it was Changkyun’s kiss that turned him back to a human?

Kihyun’s shoulders hunched as he spoke, “I can’t be completely certain that what you two have is true love but if it is there’s a chance I can heal Changkyun.”

Hyungwon skeptically furrowed his brow. “How?”

“You have to carry his blight.” A kaleidoscope of emotions passed over Kihyun’s face, showing everything from his fear to his doubt to his silent pleas for help.

But Kihyun didn’t have to ask or beg. Hyungwon wanted nothing more than for the boy to be healthy again, if that meant giving himself up, the prince would gladly comply. “I’ll do it.”

The Chief Herbologist seemed shaken by his immediate response, as if he was expecting to meet resistance.

“You should know what you’re getting into, Your Highness. This is-”

Hyungwon cut him off. “I don’t care what happens to me! I just need Changkyun to be okay.”

Kihyun couldn’t understand why the prince sounded so desperate but he had to explain to him how grave the repercussions would be.

“If it goes wrong-if you’re not his true love, you could die.”

“Without him, I’d already be dead.”

There was an absolution behind the words that Kihyun wasn’t able to argue with. The wizard was only able to crack a half a smile at the prince and guide the way inside the room.

Hyungwon did his best to not gasp at the sight of bedridden Changkyun in front of him. Up close, the boy’s pallor was far worse. There wasn’t a hint of color on Changkyun’s face aside from the redness of the spidery veins which the scourge had spilled onto his jawline. If shallow breaths he took making his chest rattle as it rose and fell, Changkyun could have been mistaken for a corpse. His eyes and cheeks were unnaturally dark and sunken.

Hyungwon kept his eyes glued to Changkyun, despite how much he hated seeing the young wizard look as he did. “This will heal him, right? No matter what happens to me.”

Kihyun saw Hyungwon’s unwavering resolution in the way he looked at Changkyun. He nodded as he answered the prince.

“This will guarantee he’s healed.”

The prince said nothing as he sat down on the empty space besides Changkyun and took his hand. Heat and sparks jolted up the prince’s arm once again, filling him with a magic. He was unable to tear his gaze from the boy as he lay right beside him. In different circumstances, being next to Changkyun like this would have made Hyungwon happy.

“Do you want me to wait until the others are awake?” Kihyun asked with a gentleness that Hyungwon didn’t know the man was capable of.

The prince shook his head, still refusing to look away from Changkyun. “Jooheon and Shownu-hyung will try to talk me out of it,” he chuckled as he thought of what they might do or say. Hyungwon knew they would plead with him to think of his parents and of Gwangju’s future. But none of that mattered to him with Changkyun’s life on the line. “Better work now before they wake up.”

“Are you-”

“I’m sure,” Hyungwon cut the herbologist off, pinning the wizard to his spot as he glared up at him.

Kihyun was taken aback seeing the sheer determination in Hyungwon’s gaze. From all the rumors he’d heard of the prince, he wasn’t sure that Hyungwon was even capable of being this stubborn. Part of Kihyun wondered just how much the Prince of Gwangju loved his apprentice, because there was no denying it - Prince Hyungwon was most definitely in love with Changkyun.

“Close your eyes and don’t let go of his hand,” the heroblogist instructed, taking a deep breath as he collected magic in his glowing pink palms.

Hyungwon heard a twinge of pity in Kihyun’s voice as he warned, “This is going to hurt.”

When the wizard’s magic started to pull at him, Hyungwon braced himself to  to handle what afflicted Changkyun. The prince had assumed it would be mild discomfort from the way he’d seen Changkyun handle it but he was wrong. What he felt was searing, unbearable pain that left him in so much agony that he could hardly register himself screaming.

To say the blight burned as it spread over him would be an understatement. Every nerve in his arm cried out for him to release Changkyun’s hand as the blight traveled from the boy to the prince. It left the same webbed veins in its wake as it spread from his arm to his torso and neck. Hyungwon could feel his lungs start to fill will with liquid, making him cough violently until fluid spewed from his mouth.

Through what remained of his senses, the prince could taste blood on his tongue. He could hear his other friends slam the door open. He could feel Changkyun’s abnormally warm skin against his.

As his mind slipped into darkness, Hyungwon never once let go of Changkyun’s hand.

Kihyun finished administering the cure to both Changkyun and Hyungwon before faced the others. Everyone else had filed into the room and stood surprisingly silently at the back while he worked.  He braced himself as he gauged their reactions. Each of them cared for Changkyun very much, but the wizard knew that Wonho, Jooheon, and especially Minhyuk wouldn’t be pleased that Prince Hyungwon had to use his own life and limb to save the boy. He understood their shock and confusion they expressed as they took in the sight of the prince and the apprentice.

Out of everyone, Shownu had the most right to be angry with him. It was his job to protect the prince, after all. And Kihyun had gotten in his way, allowing Prince Hyungwon to take the same affliction which wrought itself through Changkyun. But instead of hatred and anger, Shownu’s eyes were filled with sadness and worry. Which oddly enough was directed at him and not the sleeping prince.

Shownu pulled him to the far corner of the room as the other focused their attention on the now ailing prince.

Frustration marred the guard’s features as he scolded him in a low, soft voice, “This was foolish of you.If something happens to the prince, they could hang you for this.”

The wizard was surprised to say the least. Here he thought Shownu would personally want to hang him for putting the prince in this situation, but he hadn’t expected the man to worry about what happened to him.

“If there was any other way, I would have tried but I-” the wizard tried to explain himself but Shownu held up a hand, silencing him.

Shownu’s voice was tender and a little sad as he asked, “Kihyun, was there fear or regret in his eyes?”

The pink haired man blinked, wondering why this would have mattered to Shownu. He shook his head slowly, cautiously looking up at the taller man.

A wistful smile lit Shownu’s face. “Then, there would be no stopping him,” the guard stated, matter-of-factly. “If you’d kept him in the dark and he’d learned out it later, there would only be hell to pay.”

The wizard could tell that Shownu was trying his best to make the conversation feel lighter than it was. Kihyun wished he knew if this was Shownu’s coping mechanism or if this was his way of trying to make him feel better.

“Is he really that stubborn?” the wizard asked, going along with Shownu’s attempts to lift the atmosphere.

Crinkles formed around Shownu’s face as he grinned. “You have no idea.” His smile dimmed as hte turned to look at Hyungwon. “All we can do now is hope your plan works out.”

Guilt to rise inside of Kihyun again as he saw the faraway look in Shownu’s eyes. The wizard had never cared what most people thought of him in the past, but Shownu wasn’t most people.

“You’re not mad at me, are you?” Kihyun asked, keeping his voice level, even though he felt like his insides would explode.

The older man blinked and gave Kihyun a confused half-smile. “Have you seen the way Hyungwon looks at Changkyun?” Shownu made it sound as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “If something happened to the boy, there’s no telling what he would do.” Kihyun could see the hidden sincerity in his teasing and for that he was grateful.

Shownu looked back at the wizard and took his hand. “I think what you did was for the best, Kihyun,” he reassured, giving his hand a squeeze.

Color filled Kihyun’s ears as he avoided Shownu’s eyes, focusing intently on his apprentice instead. As he saw the boy’s breathing grow even, he whispered, “I hope so.”

Light glared through the curtains onto Changkyun’s face. His head throbbed, making him whine in discomfort as he squinted awake. With each blink, he grew aware of his surroundings. This was not his room at Starship Palace. Immediately, he moved to get up and realized that something was keeping him tethered. A hand, specifically Hyungwon’s hand, was holding his. Looking over, the apprentice saw Hyungwon lying at his side sleeping peacefully.

He had to be dreaming. Or dead.

Him being here with Hyungwon at his side, clasping one of his hands in a vice grip felt too good to be true, yet the tightness of the prince’s grip was a sensation too tangible to be a mere dream. Butterflies formed in Changkyun’s stomach as he got flashbacks to the first time he’d seen Hyungwon’s human face. He was still unbelievably beautiful. It wasn’t until his eyes came across the streak of pale red veins creeping up on the prince’s face that flashes of played out in Changkyun’s mind.

Panic rose in his throat as he lifted his free hand to touch the marring on the prince’s face. He tried to detach himself from the prince’s other hand, but Hyungwon, despite being unconscious, refused to let go.

Changkyun tried using his other hand to pry the prince of but he was only greeted by a chastising click of the tongue.

“Just let it be and sleep,” Hyungwon mumbled as he rolled on his side to face Changkyun.

“Can you let me go?” the younger boy murmured, as he weakly attempted to pry himself from Hyungwon’s grasp.

The movement made the prince open his eyes and look at Changkyun, his eyes say more than his words could convey, “No. I don’t think I can.”

“Why not? You were so keen on letting me go back not too long ago,” the boy snapped as he started to tug at his hand once mor