rid of the monsters inside your head, put all your faults to bed

King - Lauren Aquilina

Alver and Cale just got out of the library thirty minutes ago and after a quick tea break, they went to his office at the palace to rest.

More precisely, for Cale to rest and for him to work.

There’s a mountain of paperwork that needs to be finished but he can’t find it in himself to do them.

His dongsaeng’s words keep repeating in his mind.

“Alver Crossman. Your Highness, your existence is natural.”

“You are fated to be here.”

“Hyung-nim, doesn’t that mean you becoming king and living as you wish is the right way to go?”

“Hyung-nim. Please become king.”

He doesn’t even notice that the report he’s reading is upside-down.

 

—————

Cale can feel sleep taking him but the stillness in the room keeps him awake. There’s no rustling of papers or the sound of a pen scratching on paper.

He turns his head and sees his Highness staring into space, instead of working like Alver said he would.

‘Is there something wrong?’

Cale sees the upside-down report and he concludes that Alver needs some much-needed sleep but can’t.

Clearly, tea isn’t going to help because they’ve been chugging them since they got out of the library.

 

• Cale, that’s not quite it. Remember the curse, or rather the prophecy underground?

‘Is it something to do with that?’

 

• He doesn’t know the true meaning behind the prophecy so he probably spent countless times doubting his place as the crown prince.
• Right, as a dark elf shunned by the masses, he spent all his life in hiding. You should give him food, Cale. It makes one feel better!
• That’s not how it works for some people, Glutton. Anyway, to have his doubts cleared so suddenly, he most likely doesn’t know to feel.

‘Oh, I see.’

Cale can understand, somewhat. The mind is often the biggest adversary one can have.

As some say, wounds of the body can heal with time but the scars of the mind are never silent.

‘Should I help?’

Thinking of ways how, he remembers the song he listened to on the radio all those years ago before the apocalypse began.

It fits his hyung-nim and he wonders if the artist had people like Alver in mind when writing the song.

He stands up and nears Alver, taking the papers and placing them on the table. He holds his hyung-nim's hands and leads him to the comfy couch situated near the windows.

“Cale?” his Highness asks, curiosity in his voice but letting his dongsaeng do whatever regardless.

Cale sits down at the end and attempts to make Alver lay down. As always, his weak body can’t even do it so he gestures and says, “Lay down and rest your head on my lap.”