Once the drink was poured into his mouth, moisturizing the dryness in his mouth, he knew why his mother was looking at him with such concern, not at him of course but at the planned that he ruined.
He smirked as he gulped down the liquid. 'Poison? How like you, mother.' He almost said out loud. From the taste of it, he knew that it was strong, he won't be able to hold it in for long.
Tari was giggling with Ashkan as he frowned at the strong taste of the rice wine. "I can't hold my liquor." He said as he shivered off the strong taste leaving Tari admiring how cute he looked, just like a child who tasted lemon for the first time.
"I guess you can hold your…" she said turning her head to Joon Wo but stopped when she saw how lifeless he looked.
"Jooni?" she tilted her head to take a better look at his face. "Are you okay? You look like you've just seen a ghost."
He raised his head to look at her, at this point he could already taste the blood that was finding it's way to his mouth. "I'm…" he said raising his hand to cough, blood covering his balm, he fisted his hands and said, "just a little tired no need to worry."
"I would like to excuse myself, Your Majesty." Joon Wo said his face was getting paler by each passing second. Tari looked at him thinking that he is more than just tired but before she could say anything he was already on his feet heading out of the room.
Her eyes widened and her mouth fell agape. "B-blood?" She mumbled to herself after she saw the blood sipping out of his mouth, or so she thought.
"What was that?" Ashkan turned to look at her.
"N-nothing," she faked a smile and then turned to look down at her plate. 'Was I imagining? But there was definitely blood coming out of his mouth, I'm sure.' She started having a fact fight with her inner self. She couldn't take it anymore and stood up on her feet so quickly making Ashkan yelp on the wine in his hand.
"Your Majesty," she said. "I'll excuse myself for the night."
The king just looked at her in questioning and wondering. "A-as you like, Princess." He awkwardly nodded.
"Azar," She said as she started to walk along the table passing Azar's seat. "Come with me. I have got a feeling that I'll need your help."
"But I'm not done yet!" he protested but his protest fell on deaf ears, he groaned and hurried after Nefertari. "I'll see you later, love" he winked at the maid behind him that he was filtering with since he took his seat. His comment made the maid blush and Tari rolled her eyes.
"What is it, princess?" Azar said as he hurried to keep up with Nefertari.
"I don't know, I just have a bad feeling." She said as she scanned the hallways looking for Joon Wo. "I think something happened to…"
She halted looking closely at the ground, blood, her heart sank at the 3 drops of blood on the floor.
"Jooni!" she ran.
Azar tried to keep up with what is happening, he looked down at the ground and cursed. "Damn it, Princess wait!"
Not long after she started running did she did another triangle-shaped blood drops on the ground helping her to navigate and find who she is looking for. Taking one more turn left ignoring the shouts of Azar to stop, she heard someone coughing. Not the normal cough no, it was the one that you feel your guts move cough.
She looked in front of her to find a bundle of purple-blue on its knees. "Jooni!" in a blink of an eye she was beside him on the floor, her heart stopped as she saw the bloodstains on his clothes soaking through the fabric and blood that sipping between his fingers as he had his hand on his mouth.
"W-what the h-hell…" she stuttered feeling the tears in eyes starting to form. "A-are you o-okay?" she asked even though she knew the answer to that question.
He parted his lips to talk as he looked at the two silver orbs that are worriedly looking him but the only thing that came out was more blood. He couldn't stay focused, his eyes losing focus no matter how hard he tried to make them not to, darkness started to spread from the corners of his vision. The last thing he saw was the tears spilling out of Nefertari's eyes.
'Don't cry, I'll be fine.' He tried to say but nothing came out, only nothingness came.
"Princess!" Azar came from behind Tari struggling between his heavy pants. "What the…" he blinked a couple of times before he took in what's in front of him. He fell to his knees beside her trying to check for a pulse by holding Joon Wo's wrist. "He still has a pulse, we need a doctor now!"
"A-Azar go get h-help, h-hurry!" she said as she hugged Joon Wo's head close to her chest as her tears fell down her cheeks.
He nodded and went to get help.
"You will be o-okay, I'm sure." She mumbled caressing his hair with her trembling hands. The only thing on her mind is the thought that she might lose him.
~~~~
The glass shattered across the room.
"That damn brat!" Queen Eun Ae cursed, breathing hard with anger. Her maid standing in the corner of the room flinching at her Queen's loud voice.
"My only perfect chance is now gone! All because of some useless sympathy that he has for those little bastards!" she yelled holding the vase on the table and smashing it against the wall opposite to her, sending pieces of marble scattering everywhere on the ground.
"What happened to that brat called my son?" she glared at her maid strengthening her back while taking a deep breath trying to calm down her nerves.
"He was moved over to the physician," her head maid said looking at the ground in fear from her Queen.
"He is alive?!" she looked stunned at what she heard. "That poison is enough to kill a horse!"
"I don't know my Queen, that is all I know."
"I guess I've to go see him to avoid rumors," she sighed. "Get me a new outfit."
"Yes, Your Majesty," she bowed.
"That damn arrogant boy,"
~~~~
Tari sitting on the edge of the bed watching Joon Wo sleep peacefully. "Is he going to be okay?" she said in a low voice.
Azar nodded. "The physician said that he will wake up soon, it was a miracle if his body wasn't trained against poisons he wouldn't have been able to survive."
She took a deep breath pushing back the tears as she looked at him, her heart ached. She held out her hand and took hold of his ice-cold hand.
"I'm sure he will be fine, princess," Azar placed his hands on her shoulder trying to give her the support that she needed. "I'll be outside."
She watched as he left and with it, the princes came flooding the room.
"Hyung!" Min Jun said hurrying to his brother's side, the worry was clear on their face. Despite the resentment that they had to him when he came, the news that their brother almost died, melted away any hate or anger between them.
"Why is he not responding? Is he okay?" Min Jun asked as he looked with tearful eyes at Tari. She ruffled his hair with a reassuring smile. "He will be fine, he is just in a deep sleep," she said those words in an attempt to calm herself more than calming the young boy in front of her.
The fact that he is worried like this over his brother made her heart soften. All 3 of them actually, all of them were worried it was clear in the hurt that displayed in their eyes.
"What happened?" Yu Jun said trying to stay focused and pushing off the fact that he was the one who should've been in this bed.
Tari shocked her head. "I don't know, some kind of poison. Who would…" she said and stopped after she felt the anger that was starting to kick inside her.
"P-poison!" Jin Wo exclaimed. "Who would want to kill him! What did he do!"
Yu Jun clenched his fists next to him turning his knuckles white. "It was meant for me."
"What?" the two youngsters said in unison.
"Doesn't it seem suspicious that Joon Wo got poisoned from the cup that was meant for me to drink?" he hissed but his brothers knew that it didn't anger at them but to whoever did this.
Cursing himself for agreeing to the King's plan in the first place. Tari was quite through this conversation because she already grasped that part but she needed to hear it from Joon Wo himself to be sure. She slightly tightened her hold on his hand.
"Come back to us, Jooni…" she whispered as the brothers were still having their heated conversation in the back.
And as if he could hear her…
His eyes fluttered open.