[AGUST]
[One Day Ago]
"You can't seriously be considering this. You know the risks, Agust. You know how dangerous what you're trying to do is, and yet you still choose to do it? What the fuck, man?" Kim So Hee, the Lycan king's enforcer and best friend said as she looked at the king.
They had been at this for the past three hours and she was getting tired. She had tried her best to make him change his mind, but after a year of being away from Jiminie, Agust was sure he had to do this.
Perhaps it was because he felt guilty about what he had done to his erasthai, or maybe it was because he wanted to make sure Jiminie had the best of lives out there without having to worry about anything.
It was too great a risk and even Agust one wit, but just like the first time he had run away, this time, he was doing it for Jiminie. Would Jiminie understand that thing?
"My beautiful petal hates me, So Hee-yah. He doesn't want to have anything to do with me and I can't even blame him for it, I was cruel to him at the time he needed me the most.
"I should have been a better mate, and yet each time I thought my staying away would serve out links. I always imagined he loved me because of Stockholm syndrome and that it would pass if I stayed away.
"But I forgot the part where I had asked him and laid my claim on him. I didn't give him a choice, So Hee. I didn't give him a chance at a better life, or even a life without me. Everything about my bond with him was doomed from the beginning.
"And with the risks here, it is easier for me to do this instead of watching from a distance as the worst unfolds with him in the middle. I am selfish when it comes to Jiminie, I know that. But it is the only thing I can do for him.
"Please don't make me change my mind this time," Agust said as he looked at his best friend. He knew So Hee was right, and he knew the risks were way too much even for the both of them.
Agust knew that there was a chance they would never be able to get through their days as usual, but even with all of that at the back of his mind, King Agust was determined to see this through.
It would break him and ruin him, but that was a sacrifice he was determined to make. For his Jiminie, he would burn the world down just to keep him warm. He had caused Jiminie enough pain by barging into his life and the madness that had followed.
Jiminie was innocent and Agust knew that too. His Jiminie didn't deserve this.
Sure, the war between the Lycans and the wolves was still on, but Agust had long made it clear that the first person to lay a hand on his Jiminie would be the only reason that the Lycan kingdom, Helia, would be reduced to ashes that would never be gotten back.
It was a threat for many, but it was a reality that Agust wanted to hold onto. He loved him. He adored Jiminie and he would be damned if he let shit happen to the love of his life again. This was his punishment, and he would gladly take it.
"There has to be another way. Ming Chang Zhu has never reached Kiyoto and it's been almost two years since the first alert. Maybe he is playing games with you to see what choice you will make. You can't let him win, Agust.
"That is not how this was supposed to be. You fought hard for everything that was to be fixed. You fought to make things better, surely you more than anyone understand how hard it had been for you to deal with the pain that followed, right?
"You can't just let it all go like that," So Hee insisted and king Agust smiled at her, the sadness on his face as he tried to think of positive things and found none. His happiness was Jiminie.
His lifeline was Jiminie and if his twin brother got to Jiminie, Agust would lose his mind. It was already bad enough that his father had turned him into a monster. If he lost Jiminie, nothing would ever matter, and he would forever lose touch with his humanity.
"Oh, So Hee. I know you intend well, but this is a fight between me and my brother. Have to be able to protect Jiminie and if casting this last spell is the only way for me to do it, then I will.
"I will trade my life for Jiminie, if that is the only way my beautiful petal gets to bloom. It doesn't matter what happens along the way, as long as my Jiminie lives and is always happy.
'I know you fought well, which is why I intend to make you the queen of Helia when I'm gone. But you must swear to me that you will never harm Jiminie, that you won't ever make him cry. That pretty boy has cried enough times in his life.
"I'd hate to see him sad again. If he wants to hate me, let him, but make sure he isn't hurt. Can you do that for me?" King Agust asked and So Hee sighed.
A part of her had long known that such a day would come, but she hadn't expected that it would be just two years after Agust finally had the courage to see his erasthai, it was an accrual world that they lived in, a world that knew nothing of love and mercy.
No matter how hard Agust tried, there was always going to be a downside to the madness, and while So Hee had expected her best friend to be rational she should have known that when it came to Jiminie, Agust didn't care about shit, other than the pretty alpha in Kiyoto.
There was so much that Agust had done because of Jiminie, rules that he had broken, alliances he had ruined because the people in the alliances had threatened Kiyoto and the love of his life.
So Hee had seen Agust blame himself for everything that had happened to Jiminie and it had broken her heart countless times.
This right here was the final straw.
"You're Agust. The great king Agust. You never give up like this. You never surrender and yet you want to surrender because of your erasthai?" So Hee asked, her eyes watering at the sight. She couldn't imagine what life would be like for them in Helia.
Part of the reason why Helia was feared and the Lycans had been so courageous in their endeavors, was because of Agust. King Agust had come into their lives and saved them from the past oppressive Lycan king Ho Jung.
Agust had fought with King Ho Jung in the battle that earned him the rest of his scars. They were bright, powerful, and cruel in the roast of ways, and were relentless. Ho Jung wanted a dictatorship.
He wanted a Helia that didn't question anything that he did, a Helia that screamed fear within and beyond. King Ho Jung didn't care that his people would hate him for what he was doing, all that mattered was that he was there to rule over them.
So, when Agust, a newly turned Lycan, one who was born a wolf and ruined by his father in the worst of the worst, showed up. Agust saw his father in king Ho Jung. He saw how his father had treated him, in the way that the Lycans were treated by the mad king.
He then challenged the mad king to a fight, one that King Ho Jung had gladly accepted because to him, Agust was just a wolf, one who was transitioning into a Lycan.
What King Ho Jung didn't know was the fact that Agust had been cursed by the fates for what he had done to his father. He had killed his father in cruel ways, something that forced the fates to force her into a beastly form that he would never be rid of.
And for over three thousand years that had been the case. Fighting King Ho Jung was the greatest thing that Agust did for the Lycans and when he won by killing King Ho Jung, the Lycans crowned him their king.
"In the face of love, So Hee, we are weakest and strongest at the same time."