It dawned on him slowly. Ryung’s words only repeating themselves in his head in a slur as he straightened his posture into how he’d been taught a prince should stand as he feigned indifference. Insu had been marked and it must’ve been his friend Kangdae who had been with him last. He was marked and there was nothing he could do about it independent of the way his heart was skipping beats every few seconds, pumping erratically and making it hurt in his chest.
“Is he okay?” He asked, at last, not wanting to stretch the silence any more than he already had.
Ryung looked like he was about to burst. With a heavy sigh and a hesitant look to the side, the latter bit on his bottom lip and shook his head, voice somber.
“I’m scared we’re gonna lose him.”
Insu opened his eyes to the alpha’s sleeping figure across from him on the bed. With the heat gone and how it always made him feel squeamish and disgusted with all the mess it left behind, he decided to drag his boneless body to the bathroom, to try and take a shower on his own before the servants would show up to do it for him. Pushing the covers to the side, he scrunched his nose at the identifiable permanent scent that was filling his nostrils and subconsciously compared it to the prince’s. Kangdae’s scent was good, but Namil’s… Namil’s was something else. A unique scent that he couldn’t put under any specific category and he could still recall it perfectly well even though the alpha wasn’t around at that moment.
Getting up to his feet and actually walking was an absolute challenge, but despite his condition, he managed to get himself to the spacious bathroom with the help of the walls and the furniture that he leaned on, on his way.
Gripping on the sink’s marble stone to keep himself standing as the tub was getting filled, he glanced up at his reflection in the mirror. He looked like an absolute wreck.
His eyes were hollowed and had two meters of dark circles surrounding them. His cheeks and his neck had faint traces of fingerprints on them, courtesy of the rough tugs he had to endure. His lips were bruised from the endless bites and nibbles and his hair was sticky with… well, he didn’t really want to think about it.
Insu lifted his hand up to the left side of his neck where he had an angry red bite mark with dried blood decorating the skin that was bruised in black and blue. The sight was terrifying and it hitched his breath. His body going lax momentarily when his fingers came in touch with his freshly wounded swollen flesh. It hurt.
Blinking rapidly as he held in his breath, Insu swallowed the lump in his throat that had been rising sneakily little by little from the pit of his stomach ever since he had opened his eyes mere minutes ago. If you asked him how he felt, he couldn’t find any other word but one: remorseful. A decision that he made in the heat of the moment was now a mark he had to carry for the rest of his days. The mark of someone he could easily say he despised.
Staring at the bruises around his wrists and grimacing at the remembrance of how much it had hurt, how much he had enjoyed the hurt and how much he still wanted him to be there to soothe it all somehow, Insu tore his eyes away from the mirror and strolled his way across the tiles to the tub that was now overflowing with hot water and steam filling the air.
Leaning his palms on the wall, he got into the tub one leg at a time, skin alight in a pleasing burn as it got red. Everything was going well and he was careful in his calculated movements until he sat in the tub. Hot water came in touch with the crook of his neck and he was forced to sit up with his back straight and away from the water subconsciously when it stung severely where he had the holes of the canines on his scent gland. He found himself panting with widened eyes many seconds later when he came back to it. Just how deep had those teeth torn into him? He felt nauseous and was sure he would have thrown up if there was anything to throw up at all. He hadn’t eaten in more than a week now, only barely hanging on with the shots of lord knows what they kept injecting him with.
Leaning back on the ceramic of the tub ever so slowly, he pushed back the feeling of vertigo that hit him when he drowned himself in the water up to his nose. It stung still, but he had to get himself cleaned up and that was a must. He ignored the way his skin was tingling weirdly all over and how he felt his blood pumping through every vein a little more fiercely than it should, too. He just wanted to rid his body of all the dirt.
Getting out of the tub and washing over his skin with the provided soap was a whole other story and he barely, miserably, managed to do a poor excuse of cleaning up as best as he could. He had to eat later, gain the lost energy, and come back to take a long proper shower. Wrapping a towel around his naked body loosely, because he didn’t have the power to tighten the robe, he slumped his way to the couch and just finally let his consciousness slip through his fingers when he landed on the soft furniture. The last thought on his mind before everything went dark was ‘it’s so hot.’ He felt like he was burning from the inside out.
Insu woke up to a hand slapping the side of his face gently. A voice so far calling his name repeatedly, worriedly, as he regained awareness slowly. He groaned in pure ache before he forced his eyelids to open half-lidded.
“Insu, please say something. Can you hear me?”
The blurry sight of the doctor came into view as he saw the hand that had been hitting him held in the air next to his face with the corner of his eye.
“…yeah.” His voice was weak and his own ears had a hard time hearing it.
“It’s so hot.” He panted, lips dry and wanting nothing but to gulp down gallon after gallon of water.
“You’re burning. If I hadn’t come to check on you, you could’ve died from the fever. Come on, let’s move you to bed.”
Strong hands were wrapped around him as he got lifted up in the air by none other than the person who had his scent mixed into his cells. Kangdae placed him on the new clean bed sheets carefully, his eyes attentive when he pushed the collar of the bathrobe to the side to examine the mark.
A gasp, and then the alpha was pushed away. Ryung’s eyes were widened to their very limit with rage as he leaned in to look at his neck before turning around.
“ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?” The doctor yelled, not caring there were servants and nurses around. The room was too crowded for his state of mind and the lack of clothes. No replies came from the man in question.
“What were you thinking marking him while he’s barely even breathing, Kangdae? Couldn’t your eyes see how weak he is when you decided to sink your teeth into him?” The black-haired boy didn’t wait for an answer as he sat down on the edge of the bed and pushed the collar more to the side, grimacing at what he was seeing.
“This doesn’t look good. This doesn’t look good at all.” The black eyes looked at him with worry and back at his wound that was extremely ticklish. “Something’s not right. Come on, sit up for me so I can look at it better while the maids help you eat some soup.”
When he failed at moving a muscle, Kangdae simply changed him into a seated position and walked a couple of steps back again. His scent was there, right under Insu’s nose, but it wasn’t as strong as before. Maybe it was the lack of heat working tricks on him again.
A spoon was pressed on his lips carefully as the maid tried to feed him with this look in her eyes, a look that almost fooled him as if she cared. Staring into her eyes for a second or two, searching for genuity, he parted his lips the best he could, which was only a seam, and swallowed the hot liquid that soothed the dryness as it slid down. Ryung had managed to push the towel down the side of his shoulder.
Before the doctor could get his fingers anywhere close to his neck, it felt like something slid down his skin and tickled it, like gathered beads of sweat, and Insu’s hand attempted to reach out shakily to wipe it away. Ryung gasped again and held onto his wrist to stop him from doing so, eyes only focused on the gland when he turned his face to see why he wasn’t allowed so.
“This doesn’t look normal.” The other mumbled under his breath when he started cleaning up the wound with something that stung and hurt like hell and he had to wince and curl into himself, his vision turning black momentarily and perhaps eyes rolling back since the maid gasped dramatically and Ryung, too, panicked a little and stopped his actions to check if he was okay. Speaking hurt too, but he was damn curious.
“Is… it… supposed t-to hurt t-this bad?” He managed to say one word at a time.
“No.” was the only reply he got, and the doctor threw a side-eye at the alpha standing there silently throughout the whole thing. A part of him wanted the man to come closer, and the other part wanted to scream at him to fuck off.
After making sure he finished his soup and drank the beverage he was given, everyone left him to rest. Ryung said he’d come in a couple of hours to check on him again. Kangdae, too, left without a word and he wasn’t going to lie, it had hurt. He actually fell into a deep sleep and must’ve been knocked out still when the beta came to check on him and changed his bandage. When Insu woke up again, he was alone and the lights were off. Standing up to go to the bathroom, he stood in front of the mirror after he was done washing his hands and splashing water on his face for good measure. It felt like the wound was throbbing and it pulsated throughout his entire body from there. The more he gained consciousness, the more it started to hurt, and the throbbing got worse and worse. Taking a deep breath and holding it in for the ache to come, he carefully ripped the bandage off and was scared to death when he saw just how swollen and infected it was. Was it infected? It looked like it. The moment there wasn’t any pressure of the cloth on the mark anymore, a yellowish liquid started to slowly collect at the canine holes and rolling down on his skin. It tingled and stung like before and made him wonder if the same thing had happened a few hours back. He cleaned it up cautiously with a few tissues and placed the bandage on it again. Whatever was going to happen, he no longer cared. Washing his hands that were covered in sanies, he made his way back outside to lie down again. Only that with each step he took, his body felt heavier, his lungs closing and his heart pumping so fast only to slow down dangerously slow making it hurt severely in his chest. He never made it to the bed. His vision turned black and he could only register the pain briefly when his body went limp and he crashed onto the cold hard stones of the floor. I miss my family the only thing on his mind.
“I’m scared we’re gonna lose him.”
Namil was in the middle of licking over his lip, his tongue pausing over the chapped skin from the lack of rest before he bit on it when the words sank in fully.
“What do you mean? Did Kangdae hurt him? A mark shouldn’t put an omega’s life in danger in any way.”
He couldn’t smell him. He could always smell his scent in the castle even from afar, but now there was nothing. Had Insu really become that weak already? But why? Goosebumps spread over his skin at the thought of the omega actually dying. Images of the scenes he wanted so desperately to forget rushing back at him and making him curl his fists and bury his nails into his palms painfully while his expression remained more or less neutral.
“I had to go ask for master Kim to come check on him because I have no idea about what’s happening to him.” His friend said, blinking rapidly.
“Namil-… the master said his body rejected the mark.”
Silence. It felt like everything around him blurred for a few long seconds, a buzzing noise the only thing his ears could hear before it subsided and he came back to reality.
“But… but if an omega rejects a mark they’d…” He didn’t dare say the word.
“ …die.” Ryung said it for him as his eyes glistened with wetness. “He’s dying, Namil.”
His lips parted and his breath hitched. Eyes widening and color leaving his skin as worry and fear painted over his expression. He was already halfway around his friend when a hand on his shoulder stopped him.
“He’s not here. I came to get the blanket he was asking for nonstop but couldn’t find it. He’s at my hospital.”
And Namil didn’t need to listen to any more words when he turned on his heel, walked a few fast steps until he gave up and started running toward the building attached to the castle. He can’t die the only thing repeating in his head.
A.N: Hi besties! Let me know in the comments what you thought of this chapter and please subscribe to me or the story! Thank you ^_^
Comments (2)
See all