"The hell is going on?" Jackson asks out loud as the candidates all meet up at Gyeonghoeru Pavilion. Each one had been told by a palace staff member to meet up here. Now all remaining candidates were gathered, confused and slightly impatient. No one, however, answers Jackson's question.
Jimin glances around. It's early morning and everyone is still in their pajamas minus General Min at the front, although he might as well have been in pjs too with the dark circles he had under his eyes.
The sun hasn't even risen, yet here they were sitting at the banquet table, no food present. Just the general himself and a few members of the palace staff.
Across the table, Taehyung's eyes flicker towards Jimin's and they meet for a few seconds. Jimin turns away but he can still feel the other's gaze on him. He does his best to ignore it.
Hoseok finally walks in, appearance just as messy as the rest of them. Yawning, he walks over to the table, sitting right next to Jimin. As soon as his butt is on the seat, General Min speaks up.
"Now that everyone is here," he begins, "I'll be discussing the rest of the competition with you all."
"Kim Seokjin isn't here," Donghyuk comments, not seeming too pleased over the matter.
"He has a justified excuse," Yoongi says dryly, leaning back in his chair. "Lee Jaehwan too, seeing as he's bedridden. As for the rest of you though. Today, all of you will be sent home."
It takes a few moments for these words to properly register among them. Jackson is the first to ask. "What?"
Yoongi dully states, "The competition is over."
"What do you mean it's over?" Kim Junmyeon asks, "there's still ten of us. Five of us are supposed to go to the next round."
"Change of plans."
"Fuck," Donghyuk hisses, "this is because of Kim Seokjin isn't it?" Yoongi doesn't answer. "You're fucking kicking us out and making Kim Seokjin the winner."
The general lets out a breath. "Kim Seokjin's future is uncertain and none of your business."
"Uncertain?" Taehyung asks, sitting up, a sudden worried look to him. "Why is it uncertain?"
Glancing next to him, Yoongi meets eyes with one of the court officials. Minister Moon Jaein clears his throat, getting the attention of the candidates. "Princess Geongmin," the minister says slowly, "was murdered yesterday."
Silence enters the room. Eyes widen and mouths drop. "Murdered?" Hoseok asks, believing he heard the guy wrong.
A nod replies to him. "Due to this," the minister continues, "it has been decided to cancel the competition. Of course, as an apology, we will gift you with the wardrobe you have been using here as well as products from our stylists and provide you with the weekly money we promised for your participation."
Jimin glances around to see if anyone was going to make some sort of protest but he could see how most of the candidates were already doing numbers in their heads. Those clothes and products were worth millions. Naturally, they wouldn't turn them down.
The value of it didn't matter to him though. What he wanted was to avoid going home.
"Since there doesn't seem to be any protests," Yoongi states, "then I suggest you all start packing." Chair squeaking as he pushes it back, the general stands. "That'll be all."
As the general and the staff leave, the candidates gather around, whispering to each other. Jimin remains in his seat though, dazed. So lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice his name being called.
"Park Jimin," The general states once more at the entrance to the Pavilion, "I need to talk to you."
Next to him, Hoseok watches as Jimin stands and walks slowly over to meet the general. Curious, Hoseok tries to read their lips, or at least catch snippets of their conversation. The candidates around him, however, are too loud for him to be able to hear a thing other than their mindless gossip.
He tunes into the chatter a bit too late and can't really keep up with the conversation as a whole.
"Surrogate," Jackson says, snapping his fingers together as if he had a sudden realization. "That should do the trick. It's fucking 2019. We should use science."
Kim Junmyeon pulls back on the urge to smack him upside the head. "That would be an illegitimate child, Wang."
Jackson cocks his head. "So?"
Choi Junhong is the one to answer him. "They want an heir. Illegitimate children can't take the throne."
"Fine, then, adoption."
"If a fucking illegitimate child can't take the throne what makes you think an adopted one can? The heir has to be of royal blood."
"In that case, someone bring in a distant cousin or something."
At this point, Suwoong gives him a look. "When the last king was murdered they murdered all of the remaining relatives. Fuck it, Jackson, have you not paid attention at all during this competition? It's been mentioned several times and we learned about it in history."
"I'm from Hong Kong!" Jackson retaliates.
By this point, Hoseok drowns their voices out. His eyes are locked on the general and Jimin speaking outside the Pavilion, watching as Jimin's face goes blank and he eventually just nods, the general suddenly placing a hand on his shoulder and patting it lightly before Jimin just turns around and walks off.
Pushing his chair back, Hoseok gets up till he feels a hand on his shoulder and sees Taehyung next to him. "I'll go," the younger male says, "I need to talk to him anyway."
Hoseok isn't too sure about that idea. He may not really have a clue as to what's been going on lately, but he has noticed that something hasn't been going well between Jimin and Taehyung. Still, Taehyung's eyes are practically begging him, so he just sighs and gives in, giving him a curt nod.
With Tae going after Jimin, Hoseok just sort of stands there awkwardly for a few minutes before he decides on just walking out. He has no need for gossip, has no need of doing anything other than to go to his room and pack. The news doesn't really take a toll on him, he knew from the beginning that he had no interest in anything other than the publicity.
If he had to be honest though, he was going to miss the palace life, minus the bombs and killing. If a palace couldn't protect the princess of a country, they'd be much less capable of protecting a measly candidate. He had better things to do anyway.
Crossing the courtyard and passing by several of the palace's large buildings, Hoseok notices several palace staff members walking towards him. They don't seem to pay much attention to him, for they keep turning their heads to the side, glancing at something.
Hoseok stops in his tracks and follows their gaze, ears also picking up on the staff's words as they walk by.
"Poor guy must be depressed," he hears one of them whisper. "Those two were always together you know."
"I heard the princess wanted to marry him," another one says.
"How sad it must be to lose a lover so suddenly. Poor General must be heartbroken."
The rest of their comments fade as they widen their distance from him. Hoseok stares at the spot to his side. Jaseondang. The Prince's and Princess's Quarters. There, on the ground next to the building, the palace general laid, sprawled out like a starfish.
Feeling a bit curious, Hoseok decides to walk on over. Personally, the general didn't seem like one to just sleep anywhere, then again, he recalled the night with the alcohol and started having his doubts.
"Um, you okay there?" he asks as he looks down at him.
The general doesn't answer him, just continues laying there, close-eyed. Hoseok continues staring down at him in silence, suddenly worried that he may have passed out. To scratch that from the list of possibilities, he reaches out and bends down, poking the guy's side with his finger.
Yoongi yelps and sits up immediately, eyes wide then suddenly narrow as they land on Hoseok. "That wasn't funny."
"Just making sure you were alive," Hoseok comments, a small quirk to the side of his lips. "It's kind of not a good look for someone with a high rank in the palace to just lay around everywhere passed out. What would the press say?"
"Shut up," the general mumbles, "I'm not in a fucking mood to talk." He lays back down on his back, shutting his eyes tightly. "The press can just fuck off too."
Wondering what's up with him, Hoseok recalls the comments he heard from the staff and suddenly he feels a bit uncomfortable. Remembering the whispering where they said that Yoongi and the princess had a thing going on.
Oh god, that's embarrassing. He had been trying to get a confession from someone who had been taken. No wonder the general had previously ran away, he probably wanted to spare Hoseok of the utter embarrassment of being properly rejected.
Striking up all of his courage, he clears his throat. "Hey," he says, uncertain, "before I leave, I, um, I wanted to say sorry about before."
Yoongi doesn't open his eyes. "About what?"
"About last time," Hoseok says slowly, embarrassed, squirming a bit, "When I, you know, asked you if you liked me. Kind of tackled you down and everything. I wasn't aware that you and the princess were a thing and misunderstood you, sorry."
At this, Yoongi does finally open his eyes. He also sits up, a scowl to his face. "What?"
Gulping and now feeling even more embarrassed under the general's gaze, Hoseok starts rambling. "I swear I wasn't hitting on you," he says quickly, too quickly. Damn. So much for being casual about this. "I just misunderstood your actions because I didn't know that you and the princess had a thing. But now I know and will never misjudge you again, promise."
Yoongi stares at him for a bit. Hoseok starts wondering if he's trying to find a nice way to call him an idiot. "We weren't a thing."
Now it's Hoseok's turn to be confused. "Huh?"
"We weren't a thing," the general repeats. "She was a good friend. Like a sibling."
Uh-huh. He's trying to make me feel better about it, Hoseok thinks to himself. He wasn't one for pity though. Crossing his arms, Hoseok stands firm. "I heard that she said she wanted to marry you."
"Stupid, Geongmin," Yoongi mutters under his breath, too low for Hoseok to hear. The smaller male shrugs. "She had a crush on me, yeah." He says it as if it didn't mean anything. "Namjoon and Jungkook had a crush on me too."
Hoseok raises a brow. "Well, aren't you popular."
Yoongi crosses his legs and rests his elbow on his leg, chin on the palm of his hand. "I guess." He taps on his lip while he thinks. "Namjoon confessed to me about 52 times, Geongmin...47 times, I think? And Jungkook did it once." He cocks his head a bit, "I think he was too embarrassed to confess again though, unlike his siblings."
"You're bragging right now aren't you?"
The ebony haired male smirks. "Jealous?"
"N-no," Hoseok states defensively. "I was popular too. I'll have you know that Taehyung was crushing on me all throughout junior high and high school."
"Congrats." Yoongi doesn't seem impressed. "The kid seems over you now though." Hoseok can feel his cheeks burning.
"Whatever," he says, "I'm bad at feelings so, yeah."
Yoongi hums for a bit. "Why are you telling me this?"
"I don't know," Hoseok snaps, "I'm only here because you looked like you were dying. What the hell were you doing anyway? People are whispering things about you being outside of the princesses quarters, you know."
He doesn't reply. Even while Hoseok is standing there clearly waiting for an answer, Yoongi doesn't reply. Originally, he had just stopped by to check on Jungkook who was supposed to be inside. Once he noticed the prince wasn't there he just started strolling and saw Geongmin's room and felt the chill inside and he felt suffocated and ran out to get some air.
Even on the ground, his breathing was ragged. One of his best friends was gone, murdered before his eyes when he had sworn to protect them. Right now he felt so useless, so undeserving to be alive when he was supposed to risk his life to save them. That was his fucking job. And now, and now he was alive and she wasn't and, and—
"I miss her," he whispers shakily after a while. A few tears falling and rolling down his cheeks, catching Hoseok off guard.
Legs pulled up against his chest, Yoongi tries to wipe his eyes, but the tears keep coming. Fuck. This was embarrassing. This wasn't Namjoon or Jungkook that he was with, this was practically a fucking stranger. Yet here he was having an emotional breakdown in front of the guy.
"Fuck," he whispers, hiding his face into his knees. "Don't look at me."
The taller male, trying his hardest not to look, was at a loss as to what to do and couldn't help but start feeling rather helpless in this situation. Usually, when Jimin or Taehyung cried, Hoseok knew exactly what to do, how to soothe them. But this, this wasn't Jimin or Tae, this was General Min Yoongi.
Hoseok bits his lip, turns his face away but reaches out and pats the guy gently on his back. "Go ahead and cry," he says, "I'll cover you."
"I'm not crying," he hears Yoongi sniffle behind him.
"Then keep not crying," Hoseok says, feeling rather generous today, "I'll cover you anyway."