Royal Secret Tales (Where Your Eyes Linger AU) (Completed)

Chapter 3

Tae Joo was in a open pavillion in the garden covered in snow, the prince was sitting there with one of those weird books, or well... Kang Gook couldn't help but define them as weird, the title of the work was on the wrong part of the cover and the symbols used on the pages were strange as well... long series of those symbols in all possible combinations

"I am really sorry your highness but I have to remind you that there is a meeting in ten minutes... you said that it was really important..." Kang Gook said as a servant pushed him lightly to remind him the same thing

"Do you believe that I will be a good king? Like my father... my grandfather... and so on?" Tae Joo asked

"You will surely be a perfect king your highness, your dynasty will have another bright star in its history when you will receive the crown, the whole country will be proud of you" Kang Gook said smiling

"Now that the secretary answered... I want to hear your answer Kang Gook..." Tae Joo replied still looking at the garden

"I don't understand your highness..."

"I said that I already listened to the secretary's answer... but I want to listen to the answer that the real Kang Gook would pronounce... come on, be yourself and tell me what you think, it is necessary for a good king to listen to his people... am I right?"

"That is really wise your highness... but since you mentioned it... well... I actually think that you don't take your duty... really... seriously..." Kang Gook said with a calm tone, Tae Joo stood up rapidly 

"So... you believe that I see all this as a stupid game!?"  Tae Joo said irritated, Kang Gook was used to calm himself down and manage to be kind... but this time

"I always have to remind you your meetings, you spend most of the day and part of the night reading those books or playing that stupid instrument! So yes! You don't take your duty seriously as you should!" Kang Gook said with a much more serious tone, almost frightening to be honest. 

"You... you ... how dare you talking like that to your future king!" Tae Joo shouted

"It is necessary to listen to your people... you said that yourself... but you probably didn't think about a little detail... your people don't always agree with you!" 

"You little... little..." Tae Joo stuttered before coughing, then he looked at another servant who immediately came to help him, he went to the throne room for the meeting without adding anything else

"Your majesty... if we add more taxes... there will be rebellions! We already tried our best to keep the population calm but there are some parts of the country that are getting unstable... like Jeju! We believe and recommend to reconsider your decree your majesty" an old minister said, another one replied and this continued for a while, Kang Gook controlled Tae Joo for the whole time, he looked pale and he continued to ask for water to a servant who was next to him

"Your majesty, an officer has an important information for us, he wants to enter" an officer said, the king accepted and as the doors opened the young officer entered and bowed

"So, what happened? What is so important... to stop a meeting of the royal council!" a minister asked disappointed

"It is about the great general Yi Rim, he's dead!"

It was at that moment that Tae Joo finally gave up and sank to the ground, he was too sick to handle a situation like that and after the fight with his own secretary his condition got even worse. 

Kang Gook immediately ran to him while the other ministers started whispering about the dead general

"call the archiater... what are you waiting for? Call the doctor... now!" Kang Gook said as he stood up with his hand around Tae Joo's waist. He slowlu got back to the prince's room and left him on his bed, in the meanwhile the doctor arrived and pushed the secretary and some servants out of the room. 

"What happened?" Ji Tae asked as he reached the room as well, Kang Gook looked at him, he was so shocked that he needed a few seconds before recognizing him

"He fainted... during the meeting... I knew that all that time outside wasn't a good idea..." 

"He fainted! I came here to talk about the death of general Yi Rim but I didn't know that Tae Joo was sick as well... oh my God... this is a tragedy..." Ji Tae said

"hey, calm down... the doctor is taking care of him, I'm sure that he will be alright... we don't have to worry..."  Kang Gook replied

"well... I think you're right... I'm just overreacting probably... but try to understand... Tae Joo... I mean the prince... he always lived here in the palace... protected... maybe too much... so he's pretty weak... and his hobbies surely don't help..." Ji Tae added sighing

Kang Gook didn't reply and kept thinking about what Ji Tae said and what happened a few minutes before.