[C] The Most Beloved Consort || Kookv

Chapter 22

Taehyung toyed with the Dragon Stone, his fingers tracing the smooth ridges. He almost wished he could keep it in his study, where the stone alone could keep the room comfortable and cool. It would be helpful in preserving the many rare books he had painstakingly collected and his own paintings.

"His majesty the King arrives." An attendant announced.

However Taehyung is not someone who would covet another's treasure. He wrapped the stone in silk and stood up to greet the King, intending to return the stone to Jungkook who just arrived for dinner at Taehyung's palace.

Jungkook's eyes flitted to the slight bump on Taehyung's lips. "Sit, my love. Are you feeling better?"

"I am, your majesty." Taehyung passed the stone over to Jungkook. "Thank you."

Jungkook pushed it back. "You can keep it."

The Dragon Stone was Royal Consort Lee's most beloved possession as it was the King's last gift to her. Her love for the previous King was legendary. Rumours say that the previous King loved her as well, but they fought and he never visited her. She fell sick and then it was too late. The last thing she did before her death was to bury the stone with a jar of wine.

The previous King never took another Consort after her death, instead spending his remaining life grooming Jungkook to be the next King.

Taehyung looked up, mouth slightly agape. He too had heard about the story behind the stone and how Jungkook treasures all of which Royal Consort Lee had left behind.

Jungkook looked at the stone, gaze faraway as he recalls his mother's last words and his promise to her. He told Taehyung, "she would have wanted you to keep it."

She would? Taehyung found himself intrigued about Royal Consort Lee, Jungkook's beloved mother and said to be the previous King's true love.

"What was she like?" Taehyung asked, his voice curious and encouraging in a gentle way.

Was it the sight of the stone? Or was it because it had been too long since someone had asked about his mother with such a tender tone, yet without pity, Jungkook found himself easily thinking back to the days when he was a twelve year old boy.

It was startling how the King's own blood and consort could be treated so coldly by the attendants in the palace once the King's favour was lost.

They did not have enough coal in the winter and did not have enough food on some days. They would dig up vegetables from the garden patch and Royal Consort Lee would personally cook to add more food to the table. On bad days, she would go hungry so that Jungkook could eat more. And even then, she hoped, and never lost her spirit. She was a woman who loved too hard and Jungkook thought she would never give up, until she started breaking by the seams at the end.

Jungkook slowly spoke, his mother's smile and activities they had done together not as Consort as Prince, but as mother and son coming to his mind. "She loved to smile and always had a talent for crafts. She makes the most beautiful kites and she decorated the swing with dried flowers herself. She not only knew how to make wine, she could also make pastries, the best vegetable stew, and I would eat only her cooking when I was sick."

Jungkook smiled, "she loved butterflies. She would make me catch them with her and then release them all later. She said she only wanted to look at them closely but not to trap them."

Jungkook stopped, his heart filled with coldness and warmth at the same time, absentmindedly stroking the half covered stone. Taehyung and Jungkook fell into a comfortable silence.

"Do you miss her?" Taehyung asked.

"Everyday." Jungkook admitted. He heaved a sigh, feeling lighter that he could let it all out. He was being un-King like, something his father had always despised, to be truthful to himself, to be...vulnerable. He surprisingly found solace in it.

His eyes flicked to Taehyung's soft gaze and that bump on his lips.

Taehyung noticed and said, "oh, it probably was a bug bite. That sneaky thing, it bit me and escaped."

Jungkook sputtered, caught unaware by the sudden appraisal of his roguish act. "S-sneaky? Yeah I guess, haha..." what was he expecting? A five-star review? He should be thanking the Gods above he wasn't caught in the act.

Taehyung raised a brow. Did the King just stutter and laugh awkwardly?

Jungkook coughed and said in an attempt to distract Taehyung, "I'm starving today, my love. Perhaps we should start our meal soon."

Taehyung blinked, successfully diverted, "hmm okay."

Somehow, dinner seemed to be cosier than usual.

- a/n -

More Taekook interaction!

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- rsv