Taemin

Kibum has opened the window, but I am still endlessly hot. Again and again I pull at my thin turtleneck. He looks at me with raised eyebrows. I must really cut a pitiful figure if he is genuinely concerned. But that's how I feel anyway. Not even the beautiful robes can make me look majestic.

"Taemin..." Kibum lowers his shoulders slightly and comes towards me.

"You will make a good king." He wants to assure me, but I cannot believe his words.

"I don't even know how to do that. I...I..." but my throat dries up and the words do not find their way to me. Kibum sighs slightly.

"Yes, you do." His fingers grip around my shoulders.

"Look at me." He sounds sterner now. Slowly, I lift my head. But instead of looking into strict eyes, Kibum looks at me confidently.

"I know you are afraid." That's an understatement, I think, but I don't dare say it. Father brought peace to the land, how can I ever follow in his footsteps?

"You will only be officially in power in a few minutes, but you have already achieved so much!" he wants to cheer me up. But as my valet and friend, I suppose he has to. I have prepared a speech for my coronation but all words have fled from me in panic.

"You saved the lives of four men who were sentenced to death."

I want to tell him that it wasn't me, but Siwon. After all, he had managed to get Yoona and Mark in time. Without them, I wouldn't have been able to save my friends immediately. They would probably have been locked up in the dungeon until Siwon's return. But I don't get to explain it to him because Kibum promptly continues talking.

"Since your return, you have accepted twice as many supplicants as your father. You don'