‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍Meiyang didn't need to see Iseul to tell that he was furious. The way he was dragging away Yongsun screamed volumes but not as much as the way that Yongsun was resisting . His wails were mixed with repulsion and disapproval of the contact created with his cousin

"Why are you pulling me ?",

Meiyang's whip glowed at the sight of Iseul . he looked at it and wondered why it was behaving as such to him . he also wondered if he should go and save Yongsun from Iseul . Nonetheless his conscious convinced him that it has never reacted this way before so he should check for forces in the room than think they are from Iseul.

He created a two hundred palm-sized snowflakes to check for an presence in the room but unfortunately the elements melted and revealed Iseul boring dangers at him .

Meiyang felt intimidated all because of the way that Iseul was . For the entirety that they met all day, there hasn't been any signs of peace nor war but it is incredibly tense . With the way he is practically visually judging him right now , it feels like he is saying that Meiyang looked for Yongsun only to cause this sort of shenegance .

" he needs to rest ! ", Meiyang subtly suggested

Yongsun aggressively pushed Iseul making the youth staggered close to Meiyang. Yongsun suddenly got dressed in a cell of disgust and hostility and aimed it at Iseul. Meiyang felt himself pity Iseul in a way that he didn't even understand.

One would have thought the cousins were close or at least have some underlying unresolved issue that might also bring them close but the way Yongsun is berating Iseul right now changes all of that . it is as if Iseul has asked for a little bit of humanity but Yongsun doesn't even regard Iseul as worth of chewed up bones on his plate . His gaze was as if he thinks of him as a lowborn of a honourless man.

Initially Iseul didn't feel anything looking at Yongsun but the more that he tried to process this attitude from Yongsun was stinging him . he suddenly remembered all the things that he has been doing for Yongsun thinking that it would show some sort of brotherhood for Yongsun but now it seems that Yongsun secretly hated it

"I am up to my eyebrows with you. Seeing you , breathing next to you is enough to make me want to set myself on fire. I used to wish I never have to see your face but now I just wish you were never born ! It would be great if you'd disappear again. Nobody noticed back then and I bet my life , that they won't give a damn this time either . Nxm! ",

"Don't ever touch me !Twart!", he screamed and he stormed out of the room .

Iseul froze in place

He felt the ground shake beneath his feet and at the same time , he followed a piece of his black heart leave his body and crush to the ground . The shelves started to raise and he thought that he was sinking . Unknown forces pressed his periphery in techniques and degrees he never thought he would experience simply because of a moody relative.

He wanted to say something and act like he has been hurt but his heart and soul refuses to accept the reality of what just happened so he was quick to feel emptied and stumbled on.

Meiyang's whip momentarily stopped moving erratically as it in synced to the chaos that was in Iseul .

' did he have to say such traumatic things ?', -Meiyang

'So that's how you really feel ! ', -Iseul

'...', -Yongsun

Iseul turned slowly and seemed like he was about to cry . He didn't know that his eyes had turned reddened in such a short span of time . He swallowed a lump and he went to the west side of the archive .

Meiyang didn't know if he should follow Yongsun or Iseul but he decided towards the crown prince because he is the one not thinking straight . and by the looks of things , it seemed that Iseul needed sometime alone .

****

Seunghu closed his eyes at the small table .

He prayed for wisdom and courage . he has been doing this ever since he learnt how to speak . his mother and grandparents are really spiritual people but they don't believe in a certain god or supreme being but rather in a power of good will they call the heavens .

He stood up from the place and he crawled back to his study table and he opened his gift basket . it was a bunch of small dumplings and meat. On the underside of the lid was a very small note and it was written good wishes for him . he peeled it off then stuck it onto a another pile of these notes that he has kept

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

He really doesn't know know who sends him gifts but he has a strong hunch of who that unnamed person is. Initially he thought someone tried to poison him so he avoided the food for the first three months. However there came one day he got so hungry that he couldn't help himself and ended up eating them .

That brief moment of desperation brought him so much joy and when he saw the note he went back to the garden where he buried the unopened gifts and he undug them out . the gifts turned into a daily hobby . From food , to ribbons , to poems to books and all the like . the best part are when the notes that ranged from wishes to inquiries .

He smiled and thanked the heaven for whoever the person was . he ate them while studying and after putting everything away he fell asleep

(Five hours later )

Iseul was with Siwoo in the royal library studying . Siwoo is in economics and Iseul does engineering

The rich tend to transfer their children to schools that have a different education system here . Siwoo and Iseul went to the same school and graduated after five years but they were too young to work so they are going to be studying and taking exams every three months in their respective disciplines until their colleagues who are currently school-going to graduate. Where their agemates graduate and become interns , Siwoo and Iseul would already be licensed and acting as attendings, meaning that they are considered to be better experienced in the field .

While they were studying , Iseul tried not to think at all about what Yongsun said but it was hard not to . For the better half of the day , all he do was ponder the meaning of those words.

Arbitrarily he remembered all the letters that Yongsun wrote him and wondered if those were lies and that everytime Yongsun said he missed him was he just saying that out of conversation. Could it be that Yongsun really wanted to replace him ? Has Yongsun really wanted to be the crown prince to the point where he curses Iseul's birth ? But even if he was never born, Yongsun would have never been the crown prince because his mother was the wife of the king's closest friend and Yongsun is an illegitimate child . The king and Yongsun's father are spiritual friends and his father abandoned the two way before Yongsun was born and there is no guarantee that Yongsun is even the man's biological father . Anyway there is no blood relation between Yongsun and Iseul

Currently he is now more disturbed than he was ! It's true that he is a monster and is literally trying to kill his father which is fueled by that he feels that he acts like a better father to his cousin than he does to him . and another fact is that he wants to avenge his mother whom he couldn't even mourn.

He left for school in place of Yongsun not long after Yongsun's mother's burial . The said lady took her life not long after the Queen's passing . Yongsun had a lot of trauma because of the fact that he found his mother .Iseul knew about those post-trauma disorder because he heard the maids talking about it but he never witnessed it .

It is culturalistic that after a child , parent or spouse is lost, the bereaved are secluded from the world for 7 nights and days where they are cleaned and prayed for . Most families can extend the period depending on how tragic the deceased was lost . For Yongsun it was three months .

Once those three months passed , Iseul was the first to cling onto Yongsun almost as if he had forgotten that even the queen passed. However Yongsun wasn't receptive to this causing Iseul to stop. Eventually then Hyanni suggested that Yongsun goes to school and then that's when Iseul took Yongsun's place .

At school, Yongsun wrote letters to his cousin but some of the letters didn't arrive because Hyanni kept taking them and burning them. She, like ,everyone else doesn't know that the boys have swapped places and she couldn't even pick the hints in the letters because they wrote them in Yongsun's mother's tongue . She, by , virtue of entangling with a holy man adopted the language of the heavens and taught it to Yongsun who passed to to Iseul . They would use this language whenever they were together or wrote something . When Yongsun uses it , he sounds like he is chanting while Iseul sounds like he is reciting curses . nonetheless it is arguably sweet that they have a language understood by just the two of them.

From then to now , a lot had happened and one of those things is Shejin . Initially Iseul didn't know what to think of Yongsun and Shejin's relationship . he was jealous of their closeness and how Yongsun could have Shejin all to himself like that . he wanted Shejin's presence but all of that disappeared and was replaced by hatred and menace. And all this was worsened by when Shejin started acting like Yongsun is his priority . There has never been a point when Shejin prioritized anyone the way he does Yongsun. The day he hit Iseul made Iseul realize that Shejin truly cares about Yongsun however that just made Iseul hate him more .

Anyway he is sure that Yongsun's mother had a play in the Queen's passing because he had seen her soul and she is chained up in hell meaning that she has done a deed so bad she can't even be free.

The royal maids came and told the two that lunch is ready but Iseul quickly declined .Siwoo eyed him and Iseul reacted

"You are quiet!", Siwoo told him but Iseul didn't comment for the very fact that he thinks he is always silent

" I know you won't say anything to me but I can tell you that avoiding a hard conversation must be best but it may lead to damaged bridges",

"Someone said some honest things that made me introspect myself !",

" So that's why Jiulin doesn't come here these days ! What did he do this time? ",

" Why do you have to always assume everything is because of 'that ' . Let's change the topic! ",

Siwoo rubbed Iseul's head and told him to go easy on himself . He smiled while Iseul just focused on his work . Siwoo broke their contact and he unhooked his hair-clip , he then showed it Iseul

" I wanted to get the scorpion one but the Hades serpent looked better! ", he displayed it to him

In the next second , he launched it onto Iseul's hair and took Iseul's clip of silver leaves . In quality Iseul's was much better but in terms of rarity, the Hades serpent takes the throne .

"I don't like it !" , Iseul complained

"I don't care ! Just wear it ! You look brave in this and girls like brave boys !", he scolded him

"Girls?", Iseul asked and looked away without probing any further