The King Likes Men

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HueningKai and Taehyun all take turns watching over him while Yeonjun and Beomgyu go off and work back at the palace. Other than the kids, no one bothers with him. He guesses that the other rebels have taken Jaehwan's warning seriously.

For the most part, it's not all too bad. Sure, he's handcuffed all day and has to be followed to the bathroom when he needs to poop, pee or shower, but he has meals brought in and has a TV in the room so he mostly spends his time watching dramas. At night, he watches The Reveal.

The Reveal hasn't showed much new content, nothing exciting. Majority of the show consists in just showing the candidates studying or walking around the palace. Yeonjun says it's cause without the King, the show can't move on and unfortunately for them, the king has locked himself in his quarters since the bombing of the Olympic stadium.

Seokjin was getting worried. Was Namjoon okay? Staying locked up in a room can't be good for his health. And Yeonjun said that the palace staff hadn't seen him leave once, the only one entering and exiting the room being General Min.

There was something else bothering him as well. While watching The Reveal he had noticed that the show at some point had stopped showing Taehyung. Seokjin hadn't seen his face on the screen once since he's been announced as dead. 

That was probably what worried him the most. Yeonjun and Beomgyu don't want to tell him anything and he's growing anxious everyday the more he thinks about something happening to Taehyung. Was he eating? Had Jaehwan conveyed the message that he's alive?

A knock on the door brings him out of his thoughts. "Seokjin, it's me."

Jaehwan. Seokjin takes in a deep and sits up, mentally preparing himself. "Come in."

The door opens. Jaehwan quietly steps inside and closes the door behind him. Seokjin feels his face muscles tense. He's angry. Who the hell makes a person wait two weeks to explain himself? Seokjin has tons of questions, wants to know what the hell is going on and if he's ever going to be let loose.

Standing awkwardly by the door, Jaehwan sighs and makes his way to the bed, taking a seat. "Let's get this over with."

Seokjin nods and then waits.

"Before I start I want to clarify something," he says, looking down at his hands. "At no point, have I lied about our friendship nor wanting you to be the one to marry the king."

A brow raises on Seokjin's face.

"My dad is part of the court council. Our family has been for years. Generations and generations of politicians serving the palace. Those sort of families tend to get greedy. They start to want higher positions, be it through them or the next generations. His goal was to make one of his children marry into the royal family. My mom got fed up with my father's obsession over the idea of one of his three sons becoming royalty and left him, taking us with her."

"The morning the letters for the competition were sent out, my dad appeared at our door. Told me it was about time I became useful as a son. He made a deal with me. He'd put my name on the list of candidates, even though I wasn't there originally, and he'd leave us alone. I agreed because he said all I have to do is join the competition, not win it. But apparently my dad had planned on making me win from the beginning."

He lets out a huge breath and stares up at the ceiling. "I didn't even think I'd make it this far. Top thirty? How? The king had never even spoken to me and obtaining the public's favor of me was never in my interest so how the hell am I still here? I found out that my dad had a bit to do with that. He's been rigging a lot of the public voting."

"What about BigHit?" Seokjin asks. "What about Ex-General Han and his daughter?"

A frown appears on Jaehwan's face. "Ex-General Han is a bastard. The guy has been wanting to overthrow the royal family for years now. His daughter too. She was supposed to take on his role as the palace general but the queen appointed General Min instead. Thank God too. The last two kings died because Han himself planned their murder. His plan with my father is to make me marry the king, have him murdered and then have his own daughter marry me. He's the real leader of the rebels."

Involuntarily, Seokjin gulps. His hands are shaking. "By rebels you mean the kids and everyone else in this building? Why are they so against Namjoon being king?"

He shakes his head. "No. The people wanting to overthrow the royal family aren't civilians. It's people within the palace. Government officials. Royal advisers. People who just want more power. Those are the real rebels. This company is just a normal entertainment company. They're just involved because they're being threatened by people of power. Got unlucky."

Seokjin pinches the bridge of his nose, takes in deep breathes. "Okay," he whispers slowly. "Okay, I get the picture now." He raises his head. "So what's going to happen now?Your father isn't just going to let me go free isn't he?"

"My dad wants you dead."

The blood leaves Seokjin's face.

"But I won't let that happen." He pats Seokjin's thigh soothingly. "I have a plan. But you're going to have to completely trust me for this to work."

Could he though? Seokjin wonders if this could be just another web of lies. Still, he couldn't just sit around here anymore. Not when it seemed like Namjoon and Taehyung were suffering. "Okay, fine. What's your plan?"

"We're going to fake your death."