𝐊 𝕺 | k.th

Unpraising Daisy

She pulls you in and hugs you tightly, and your father pats your back from the side.

Then, you hear a throat clear from your mother. "So, you will be choosing His Highness, yes?"

You let out a laugh even with your red, puffy eyes and flushed cheeks. "No, I'd rather marry a man I've never even been conscious enough to remember," you say sarcastically.

She pulls back and makes a face. "Now, that boy is proving to be quite troublesome, isn't he? He's trying to make the populace turn against you."

"I know," you say. "I'm not sure if he intends to force me into marriage, or if he thinks this will win my heart, but it all seems foolish."

Taehyung leans back in his seat and stretches. "If only my dad wasn't on his side."

Your parents' eyes widen. "His Majesty? Allied with Yoongi?"

He nods. "He's taken a strong disliking to Sooyun, for whatever reason, and it seems he's directly trying to tarnish her name alongside him."

Your mother gasps. "Sooyun!" she exclaims. "What have you done!?"

You laugh at words that would've made you defensive and angry just a week ago. "Nothing! Just... Well, I once told Taehyung I'd leave the Harvest in front of him, and I fought with him, and... I remember doing so with a large amount of inappropriate, unfeminine language." You give a sly grin.

She gasps again. "You really never learned anything from all those classes, you dumb, dumb girl!"

You giggle, and Taehyung, who's been very quiet this entire time, gently pushes a stray strand of hair behind your ear. You blush.

"Ah," your father starts. "I suppose we've been here for quite some time, Sooyun. I believe Hoseok has something he wishes to tell you, so we'll take our leave now."

You get up and bid farewell to both of your parents. Once they leave, and only you, Hoseok, and Taehyung remain in the room, your brother gets straight to business. "Listen," he points at Taehyung, "I don't like you, and I don't care what type of royal you are, I will not hesitate to kill you if you ever mistreat my little sister."

You choke on your spit. "Huh?"

Taehyung chuckles. "Would I ever do that? I wouldn't. Right, Sooyun?"

You narrow your eyes. "Aside from the first few months of cheating and being acutely unaware of the fact that you were being an asshole... Hmm, maybe."

He gasps and puts his hand up to his heart. "Never."

You roll your eyes before turning your attention to Hoseok. "You...

"So...mom and dad know about your rebel thing?"

"...No."

"Thought so," you reply. "How... How do you feel about it all now? I suppose I'm on your target list too, now? It'd only be fair since I apparently have royal blood in me."

"No," he breathes. "Of course not. I'd never turn on you. But to answer your question, I don't really know what I feel or what I should feel. Now...I don't think I'm fit to be the leader of those poor people; even with a few meetings, I've softened up to your stupid Prince because you're so enamored with him, and I have to admit he looks more human than monster to me now. Maybe my ideals aren't solid enough for this... I-I don't think I deserve their loyalty."

Taehyung smiles mischievously.

"Still, I wouldn't find it hard to kill him for you." He takes a quick turn on the subject matter. "That King, on the other hand; it doesn't look too difficult at all to kill him, especially now with his alliance with Yoongi."

"Shush, Hobi." You furrow your brows together. "We don't know this room is safe, firstly; and second, remember that you're saying this in front of his own son.

"Please," you beg. "I don't want another sibling on the execution block. Please don't do anything stupid. I'm only helping in your rebel thing because I want to believe that in your heart, you don't actually mean any harm and you believe rebelling is the right thing to do; that doesn't mean it actually is though."

"If you knew what I know then you wouldn't say that."

"If you're so sure of that, that why don't you tell me!?" you retort. "You've been giving me your same, generic response of being 'true and just,' thinking that I've actually been fooled by it? If you want me to know so badly and you're so sure of being right, then tell me. Tell me all the secrets of this world that I haven't been so lucky to know, Hoseok."

"You wouldn't understand, Sooyun! You're right, I don't know that I'm actually justified when I can't even hold onto one perspective of this Prince after a single talk in person; but you know what, I can still recognize simple cruelty when I see it.

"The people starving on the streets, the backwardness of this Harvest farce, the damned caste system?!"

"How's rebelling going to fix that!? You're just going to make more people starve on the streets and live in slums if you kill off the people in charge!"

"The people in charge," he growls with gritted teeth. "Can all rot in hell.

"We need new people in control."

"Oh really?" you ask. "And then what? When and if I become Queen, when Taehyung is King, you'll have new people with power. Will you still criticize the government then?"

"If you don't do anything right, then of course I will!"

"So you'd kill me if I was this evil, power hungry, dishonest person like you think?"

"I"— he looks away. "You can't ask questions like that. You already know how wish washy I am with being apart of this group, and now you're forcing me to admit that I wouldn't kill someone that's a threat to society."

You scoff. "God, Hoseok. Just shut up already. 'I wouldn't kill someone that's a threat to society.'" you mock. "If you have something to say, if you want to enlighten me, then go ahead. But you're clearly just afraid to act on either side so just stop. It doesn't matter to me now."

You turn away, taking Taehyung's hand with you.

This stupid fuck is going to get himself killed, You think. All for his stupid, baseless ideals. He probably doesn't even know anything himself and was just given the same poor justification as he gives me.

Ugh.

"Sooyun," Hoseok calls out. You stop. "Maybe I'm not ready to tell you everything yet, but if you need proof that our ruler is evil, on the simplest level of human cruelty," he points at Taehyung, "ask him about his back."

To be Continued...

(A/N Ty so much for reading and thank you for 43K! 🥺💜)