Jin's eyes darted around the court room.

Who was it? Which person here could he trust? Who was really on his side?

He had overheard some Ministers gossiping about his ability as King and how they wished someone else were on the throne. Someone who was realistic about what was possible, someone who was okay with the fact that the difficult choices they had to make meant they couldn't always be a benevolent ruler as they wished. He knew that's what they were thinking. They favoured Jisoo. Why wouldn't they just come out and say it? They wished she were a Vampire too so she could rule alone - why didn't they just say it? He knew that's what they were thinking.  Ever since the Reeth incident the representatives had been increasingly turning to Jisoo and the press were noticing. They were praising him for allowing his wife, as a foreigner, have such a contribution to the running of the country. The right wing news was livid, as usual, but the left was happy indeed. Were the right-wingers right to be so angry about this? Should he just keep playing it off as him allowing his wife to contribute to governance in order to cover up his own weakness?

That would work, right?

If she wasn't going to be useful to him to protect and promote his image as King, then what use was she? She was never supposed to be a ruler in her own right and now she was making him look so weak and small. There must be something he could do.

Forbid her from going to court.

Send her off to the far west provinces.

Lock her in the bell tower.

Poison her meal.

No. Those all made his intentions far too obvious.

Jin's eyes landed on Min Yoongi.

His heart calmed down for a moment. For sure if there was someone he could trust, it would be Min Yoongi. He always tried his best to guide him and give him advice, but Jin was never able to be quite so firm in his rulings as Yoongi recommended. He would listen to him better from now on. Maybe the Ministers were right, maybe he couldn't be a good, wise and benevolent King all the time. Yes. Yoongi, Min Yoongi would be able to help him. He ought to pay more attention to him, perhaps make a closer friend of him and get full directions from him so he didn't have to stress and worry so much over every decision. Citizens weren't happy that his generous rulings were costing them money, raising taxes here and there, upping the minimum wage and lowering working hours.

Jisoo he would deal with later.

"His Highness King Seokjin has sent for, your Majesty."

Namjoon looked over to Jisoo as she lay by his side, her head on his chest. That was odd, Jin was never calling for Jisoo these days, especially as everyone knew that he was her lover. Jin had Jung Hoseok by his side, someone he was as passionate about as Jisoo was about him, though something was feeling a little off with her these days. She was more distant and being secretive, to the point where he had confronted her about it and she had told him that she would tell him when the time was right. He had tried following her on several occasions when she took one of her walks alone, but always seemed to lose her at some point. It was as th