hc + loss
prince and the pauper alternative.
Chanyeol smiles as he bows at the sight of the queen, eyes empty and fingers holding the bowl of cold water steady.
No longer the king’s personal assistant, he has been lowered in status to serve as the queen’s only and trusted servant. A lesson that will serve him good, as the last king had once said, eyes filled with disappointment.
Chanyeol is miserable.
Everyday, he serves the woman who has taken everything away from him, who excels in every aspect, who is far more than he will ever even hope. Chanyeol had fooled himself to think he was someone special to Anthem, someone irreplaceable. He had given it all. His entire being was owned by Anthem, and the young slave would have gone through wars to call his love his own.
Anthem, who had been enclosed most of his life, had only known Chanyeol. The king to be loved him, he loved him, he knows that, but Chanyeol is not special, not irreplaceable.
The current queen is a beauty. Song Qian is grace impersonated. Her red lips smile prettily for the world, her eyes curved and seemingly made to only gaze lovingly to her king. The entire empire falls in love with their new reigning queen, and the feeling travels throughout the entire home. She is kind, she is nice, she is an intelligent and talented scholar, and she has the ability to impresses everyone. She’s playful, witty when she’s made to, and is the one who often makes the king burst with joyful laughter, filling their castle with their abundant love.
Chanyeol watches it all happen and does not utter a words, the loss he feels embedded deep into his skin, his body and mind gone numb.
Everyone in the castle knows what happened between the young slave and the king, even Song Qian, and they are reminded of his crimes by the tag that identifies him, a black armband that identifies him differently than the rest of the staff.
He is to be spoken to, but not allowed to speak. To be given orders, but not hospitality. The only who can return to the room that once enclosed the king in the early years, solitude added in all the other ways he must redeem himself.
