02.
Royal fools“Marry me, Do Kyungsoo”
“What do you take me for?” Kyungsoo asked through gritted teeth, barely avoiding raising his voice at the ludicrous thing the king just suggested.
“I take you for a man so devoted to his kingdom that he would take any offer I make, disregarding whatever he may personally feel about it” Jongin shot back in all seriousness, turning the table on the younger prince.
“That, I am; but there exists a line separating devoted from utterly idiotic, there’s a limit to how much humiliation I’d take for the kingdom and I don’t expect you, someone I hold in my heart as a dear friend, be the one who asks me to cross it”
“Humiliation? How is marrying a powerful King in any way humiliating?” Jongin asked rhetorically, raising a brow at the hypocrisy of the younger’s words.
"I am a man!”
“So?” the King asked, feigning disinterest, but he wasn’t wrong.
It was a time before any religion had a say in politics, a time before the book that would deem what’s right and what’s wrong: Homouality was ok, polygamy was common, was encouraged, s were the norm.
But that wasn’t the problem.
“I’m a Crown prince, a King! And you want to make me your queen?! How degrading!” Kyungsoo shouted angrily, not because women were lesser beings, but queens as they stand, holding little to no political power. Truly, it depends on how much their husbands allow them to serve them as advisors, and while many a war had been avoided thanks to a queen’s wise whisper, they are never credited and thus, remained unacknowledged as equal rulers.
“You’ve said so yourself, you’re a man, how could you be my queen? No, you’ll be my king, Kyungsoo” Jongin reassured confidently, shocking the other, who huffed in disbelief.
“You expect me to believe you’ll have me as your equal? A kingdom with two kings?” he questioned skeptically.
“Why not? Is the way it always should have been. If your sister taught me something is that women are capable rulers also. Kings and Queens should rule as equal, it is the way I did with her and I can do it with you too” he defended and Kyungsoo had to admit, against his own pride, that that much was true. If there was ever a king who treated his wife as an equally capable authority it was King Jongin; she was, along with his brother Joonmyeon, the advisor he’d go to first and last, always taking her opinion into consideration in both trivial and crucial matters.
It was a downside that as a princess, Soojung hadn’t been educated in political matters, so her opinion was always from the heart, any experience she had witnessed or whatever felt right; however Kyungsoo, as a trained diplomat and knowledgeable strategist, would be a golden addition to his close circle of advisors.
“Will your people really allow it?” Kyungsoo asked, only half trusting the older’s words.
“Can my people really oppose me?” Jongin questioned back with a confidently raised brow. Kyungsoo opened his mouth but no sound came out. He had no arguments to refute that statement, a king’s word is absolute.
“Very well, then. I’ll speak to my father about this new arrangement, he’ll decide” he offered with a bow, as if to leave and drop the subject as it was, but Jongin wouldn't have it.
“Don’t” he halted the other in his obvious intention to leave the room, even if he had yet to make a single move towards the exit “I don’t want your father to decide, you’re not a princess, the King doesn't choose who gets your hand in marriage, you do, and that’s what I’m asking for”
“With all due respect, your highness, how narrow-minded” he accused with an even tone, but scowl telling of his displeasure “This isn’t about me, it’s about my kingdom and yours”
“If you accept, Do Kyungsoo, it is no longer your kingdom. Your brother will rule there, you will rule here” he simplified, but the younger was still unconvinced.
“And after we pass? I’m biologically unable to give you heirs, and I will not seat and watch as you breed with concubines. It may not be a marriage out of love, but a marriage all the same and I will not be disrespected” he sentenced angrily.
“Never would I dream of it, Prince Do” the King swore “I have a child already and she will inherit our kingdom. A child who is also your niece so I expect it won’t be hard to raise her as your own.
“A queen with no King? Are you listening to yourself?!” the shorter questioned, raising his voice.
“If she wants a husband, she’ll find him when time is due, but I refuse to impose one on her” the other declared.
“But that’s the way it’s always been” he countered weakly, baffled by having every conservative value he knew and defended, affronted by his close friend. Whenever they'd talk, politics was a topic they both rathered steer away from, he knew of Jongin's free spirit, but this was his first time having to argue against his progressive thinking, realizing how old-fashioned he himself was, despite being the younger of the two.
“That doesn’t make it right. Our kingdoms have always been at war, then should we never seek out peace?” he asked rhetorically, shutting the other’s rebuttal “Change is a good thing”
Kyungsoo stood muted for a time, staring at the man before him, his good friend Kim Jongin. A friend who despite their , always stood on even ground with him, treating him like an equal. Jongin’s ascension to the throne had changed that, yet here was the opportunity to turn back to those times when he had someone to talk to confidently, who didn't judge his every word and action.
But a marriage?
He had been ready to take the responsibility of marrying princess Yeoreum, had detachedly offered his services as a peace ambassador disguised as a husband when his parents had made it clear that his little brother was chosen for the throne, even if it was his own birth right.
He had been bitter and accepted his fate without muse, so what made it different now?
Because it was Jongin. And Jongin was different. Jongin wasn't a little girl he could play pretend with. Jongin was a young and handsome man, one whose character and attitude had captivated his young self all those years ago.
They call it puppy love, but his childish self couldn’t figure that out, didn’t know that a man loving another was a thing. Acknowledging that yes, he had a crush on his friend had been the first step to getting over it, coming to terms with the improbability of his feelings ever getting returned.
Now he didn’t harbor that kind of affection, now it was merely platonic. But Jongin was the same, if anything, even more handsome than before, but behind the tough exterior that he as a ruler had to put up, he was still the cheerful, funny, loving man that Kyungsoo had fallen for.
And if Jongin had the same character, and Kyungsoo had the same taste, he was bound to fall again, but worse now that he knew what he was feeling. He would unavoidably be buried in a pit of his own one-sided love if he had to spend every day of the rest of his life by his side, without ever truly entering his heart.
“Very well, then, King Kim... I accept”... It would be torture.
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