𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐲'𝐬 𝐇𝐮𝐬𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐝 || 敵の旦那様 (𝐁𝐋) ✔ [COMPLETE]

79. Love until the end of times

As soon as those words left Fu Lin's lips, he felt his entire being getting thrummed by the weightlessness of it; the weight and heft of the feelings he carried within himself for so long. A pleasant and radiant shock convulsed through his body, unable to contain the relief of it all. He gazed down, his heart threatening to hammer through his chest, and raised his eyes to meet the General's own.

The General met his gaze a beat before his eyes softened.

"I... am extremely grateful for the Seventh Prince's feelings. However I'm unable to accept them."

Fu Lin's heart sank. All the air and weight left in a haze returned tenfold and burdened down on him as he asked- his voice shaken, "Wh-what do you mean, your Highness?"

General Haoran paused his gaze on the prince for a second. Then averted his eyes, "It means that what I have now in my possession are merely the mortal remnants of a warrior and the

belligerent soul of a soldier who doesn't wish to part ways with his ideals. And...It means I no longer have my heart in possession to give it to you."

Fu Lin nearly sat himself, disbelieving the words coming out of General Haoran's lips- words he never reckoned could come out of him. Fu Lin staggered himself to stand up and took slow steps towards the General.

The three lieutenants immediately tightened their swords and aimed all three tips of the silvery blades at Fu Lin's emaciated figure. "Stand down," Haoran ordered the trio, "This is between him and me."

The trio looked at each other before Jiang started, "But Imperial General, he could be hiding a weapon—"

Haoran sneered, "A weapon makes no difference—he's weak. I can take him down in one knock."

Fu Lin froze. Slowly but surely, pain hollowed out from inside him and was replaced by another, repulsive emotion; red, hot scalding wrath. He had been called 'weak' and a 'coward' by almost everybody in his life but the one person he never expected to hear it from uttered the very same thing in the most unpardonable context; after he had bared his feelings to him.

"Pray tell, Imperial General," Fu Lin once again began advancing towards him, "If your heart's not in your possession, then where is it?"

"It belongs to my country," General Haoran said, "To its people and my Emperor. It shall forever belong to them—only them."

"Oh, but that doesn't seem to be quite the case." Fu Lin dragged himself to stand before the General now, a few inches apart. "Because what you harbour for me right now seems very much like something more than simply not 'accepting feelings'. It seems your emotions have transitioned to one of hate from love and surely, hating somebody takes up a significant portion of one's heart too?"

Fu Lin tilted his head up and leaned into the General's face. "In that case, I'm glad. Do you hate me now, General Haoran?"

General Haoran gazed at him evenly and said,

"Yes."

That was all he was able to utter before a flash of silvery white appeared before his eyes; the knife Fu Lin held onto earlier making its appearance and grazing past the General's neck while he stood still as an immovable rock. He stood on alert as he gazed into Fu Lin's feral eyes until the knife moved again, this time to make a full circle around his neck to land right on Fu Lin's

own neck; out of his own accord. General's eyes widened slightly, and he had moved before he himself had recognised what he'd done.

The knife clattered to the ground, as a warmth permeated from where he stood, Fu Lin felt himself getting held in place by the General.

"Liar," Fu Lin spat as he looked into the General's eyes, "Mighty actions for somebody who hates me."

The General sighed, his eyes softening. He held Fu Lin's face. "Why... are you doing this to me?"

"What do you mean why?" Fu Lin asked confused, "I just told you I—"

And then Fu Lin saw it; the sheer sense of fear in General Haoran's eyes. The fear of having been abandoned time and time again; the fear of getting cornered and not receiving the equanimity of what they gave. His lock-like eyes were no longer the locks they used to be. They were worn and opened several times, only to be cruelly shut down by the likes of their very own key.

General Haoran, who withstood a decade's worth of bloodshed and feared no man, was before him in all his vulnerability because...

"I do not know when you'd abandon me," said the General, his voice barely a whisper, "I have given everything in my possession to you and yet wasn't qualified to have your heart. I do not know how I shall survive your abandonment again if you were to leave me in lieu of your family, loyalty, or home. I do not wish to be abandoned again, because..."

General Haoran pressed their foreheads together. "You are family, cause for loyalty and home to me. You're everything to me and I am not to you... so go. One heart isn't enough to make love blossom.

Hence I cannot accept you."

Fu Lin stared after him, shattered, as he squeezed his hand one last time and walked away to stand by Jing Hui. His eyes stung by the picture before him, but he felt he had to accept it. This was retribution for breaking his heart over and over again despite the numerous times he had come after him. Professing his love ardently. This was the aftermath of the choices he had made for himself, and he had to live with it.

It was true that he had chosen his family and loyalty as opposed to the man who chose him again and again in the course of everything that happened. But it was also true that all that while he did indeed love Haoran.

It did not matter if Haoran loved him no longer—he would continue to love him until the end of times.

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