Serendipity

Proximity

The queen choked out, while patting the knight's head lovingly with her trembling hand,

"Oh, my poor child! I didn't mean to hurt you, love. I was just being formal, because of the reasons you already know, Minhyuk-ah."

"I understand, ma. I really do. But Jungkookie going out like this triggered the worst of my insecurities. I am sorry for being this sentimental." The knight shook his head, trying to send the tears away.

"Minhyuk-ah, I know. I know everything. I know how hard you tried to protect Joana, I know how hard you are trying right now to protect both these kids and our little blessing. So much so that you even ignored your own daughter. I even know that if you could turn back the time you would go and protect your brother and his wife. If only life wasn't this cruel to me, we all could live peacefully under one roof and I could have all my children and grandchildren under my wings. But we both know what's lurking outside those palace gates. It won't let us breathe till we finish it all." The queen said, looking into the empty space ahead of her.

"We will ma. Soon, we will."

👑👑👑

It was still an hour later when the prince entered his room. He looked like he had cried for hours. Seeing him, Taehyung jumped out of the bed startling the prince in the process.

"Why are you still up? Isn't it messing up with your bio-clock, or something?" The prince asked, coldly; walking directly towards the walk-in wardrobe, where Taehyung hurriedly followed him.

"Why were you out so late? You didn't even tell me where you were going? You had no security details with you. You even switched off your phone. I was worried, you know?" It made the prince scoff.

"YOU were worried about ME? You want me to believe that the ultimate genius, Dr Kim Taehyung, was worried about ME? Did I hear that right or did grandma ask you to say this as well?" He asked, bitterly.

"Are you mad at me? You sound mad!" The scientist pouted. But still walked towards the prince, who was pacing around the comparatively small room trying to gather his things.

"Oh, so now you can tell what people are feeling. Good progress. But no, I am not mad at you. I have no right." Junkook retorted, still gathering his clothes and other necessities.

"What do you mean? Why do you sound so angry then? I don't like it. Please don't puzzle me like this. Talk to me, please."

"I said I am not angry, Taehyung, I am just upset. And it's not about you. It's about me. Solely me. And I am talking to you, am I not?" He said while putting all his things into a big camping bag.

"No, you are not talking to me normally. And why are you packing your things? Where are you going, again?" The scientist asked, panicking. He grabbed the prince tightly by his wrist and turned him towards himself. To which the prince reacted by jerking out of his hold.

"I don't have time for this Dr Kim. And I am sure you don't as well. You are too busy for the emotional matters of us, people with average intelligence, right? Then why do you care? And if you are getting bored because I am not engaging with you, you can always just go behind my back and discuss my past with grandmother. Hope that will give you both something to gossip about, to kill your time."

"I never said you are average. I always said you are above average. And we didn't gossip about you, if  that's what you are angry about. It should have been you who told me about your past, so that if something like this happens I would be ready. But you didn't. So grandma did." Taehyung explained.

"That's the thing, it was not her story to tell. It was mine. And I didn't talk about it because I was not ready. It is painful, you know? To admit that the person I once loved and trusted,  backstabbed me. Ruined my name and threw dirt on me for the things I never did. And why did you want me to talk to you, when I hardly know anything about yours."

"You want to know about my past? There is nothing in my past apart from work and some rare one-night-stands, which I hated to be honest. I didn't do relationships, you know…"

"Yeah, too busy for that, I know. But then why are you suddenly interested in my past?"

"What are you on about Jungkook? You are just arguing for the sake of it. If grandma thought I should know about it, what's the harm? It did come handy. Don't you think she knows better?"

"Yeah right, she does know better. And that is why I am going to listen to her. For both of your kind information, I am going to make a surprise visit to the military base for a few days. Grandmother had been urging me to do that for 2 years now. I think right now might be a good time. Please inform her on my behalf. Anyway you two clearly talk to each other more than you both do to me." The prince bit back, bitterly.

But it made Taehyung panic, "What? You can't go there now. I won't let you. You can't leave me alone here."

"Why not? Anyway, you made it clear that you don't like me around. And you too go away for work, then why can't I?"

Taehyung didn't know how to argue that. He didn't know what to say or how to act. Anyway, handling someone close to him being angry was never something up his alley. Because Hoseok never got angry with him, no matter how much of a brat he would be. And even if he did, he would cool down immediately. And Jin? Well, he was accustomed to Jin's anger. He never paid much attention to it because it was always Hoseok who handled it. But now Jungkook was angry, he didn't even know why, he didn't have any help and the prince was even going away for a few days.

NO! He can't have that! He needs to do something; anything! So, what should he do?

(A.N. If you guys could predict his next move, what would it be?)