Work Text:
Choi Han stood in the middle of the huge hall of the palace, with the sword in his hands.
Scarlet liquid dripped slowly down its blade, droplets falling silently, mingling with the blood of many people.
Scarlet painted the room.
Scarlet, like the hair of a man begging the swordsman to stop.
«Choi Han, what are you doing? Aren't you... I love you! So why do you...»
There were tears in the eyes of the man in front of him.
«Have you gone mad with grief...? Please wake up!»
However, Choi Han only smiled viciously as he looked at the man in front of him.
Looking at the man he would kill no matter what.
«Cale-nim, I swear I will save you...»
Walking slowly forward, swinging his sword, Choi Han replayed the images of the past in his mind...
***
Shouts of joy, relief, and gladness erupted from all sides.
Choi Han, shaking off the blood from his sword, smiled happily.
«Cale-nim, we did it!!!»
Just now the battle was over, just now, finally, they had won...
Without a single casualty.
Only Cale's plans could have led to such an outcome.
Choi Han, turning around, looked fondly at his liege, his friend, his...
Cale was everything to him.
Responding with a slightly tired, but the same happy smile, Cale stepped closer to his dear knight, leaning against him...
And passing out.
Choi Han hugged him gently and affectionately, kissing him on the temple while no one could see.
'Everything will be all right now.'
...And then darkness dawned before his eyes.
***
'Аh?.. Where am I...?'
Upon waking up, Choi Han felt a pain in the back of his head. But as soon as he managed to sit up on the bed, a familiar silhouette rushed towards him.
«Choi Han, are you all right?!..»
Graceful arms wrapped around his shoulders, drawing him into a warm embrace.
Choi Han held his breath, seeing the scarlet hair.
However, the shoulders of the fragile figure in his arms were shuddering...
From crying?...
A bad feeling crept into Choi Han's soul with a chilling ice.
'Something is not right.'
«Ca...»
He froze, for some reason unable to speak.
It was only a couple of seconds later that he could continue.
«Is everything alright?»
A faintly audible cry resounded, accompanied by the moisture that appeared on Choi Han's shoulder.
Cale was crying.
«What's happened?!..»
Choi Han gently wrapped his arms around Cale's shoulders, wanting to look him in the eye, but the latter did not move away, continuing to sob on Choi Han's shoulder.
Freezing, he could only wait, feeling anxious.
It wasn't until some time later, through his tears, that Cale began to speak...
***
Choi Han was lying on the bed with his hands over his face.
Cale sat beside him on the edge of the bed.
Choi Han's voice, when he did manage to speak, sounded dry and unemotional.
«Why...? Why did he... We all... We all together...»
All together they had fought a common enemy. All together they won with such difficulty...
So why?..
Rosalyn.
Eruhaben.
Alberu.
Lark...
Wyatt killed them all.
Choi Han pulled his hands away from his face, dropping them on the bed.
It was horrible.
It was unbearable.
It was...
Seeing the suffering in Choi Han's eyes, Cale shuddered, averting his eyes.
With pain in his voice he said.
«I guess we didn't see what was going on in his soul... Maybe he just wanted to have what I have...»
Cale snapped his fingers lightly, letting the scarlet lightning flash between them.
«My abilities... My glory... Everything I had.»
Cale, turning to face Choi Han again, took his hand, lowering his head.
«That's why he attacked me. That's why he attacked us while we were weakened...»
Choi Han felt Cale's hand squeeze tighter.
«How could I not notice... He's my twin brother after all...»
There was silence.
Choi Han lay silently staring at the ceiling.
Tears streamed down his cheeks.
It was strange.
A strange emptiness spread like a spider's web through his heart.
A strange feeling...
«Can I see him? Can I talk to him?»
Cale flinched. It must have hurt him to think of Wyatt, his own brother.
«...He is unconscious. You can visit him, but...»
Cale looked away.
«Are you sure you can control yourself...? After all, he...»
Choi Han knew what Cale was talking about.
He feared that Choi Han, upon seeing Wyatt, would lose his mind and kill him.
As if sensing his emotions, Cale turned, reaching for his knight, with whom he was now left alone.
In an attempt to support him, Cale hugged him gently.
And so they lay there, as if trying to warm themselves with each other's warmth.
Except...
'Why...?'
Choi Han hugged Cale back and froze.
'Why...'
Had the death of his loved ones affected him that much?
But Cale was so close to him, Cale was there, Cale was alive...
So why...
Why did Choi Han feel only an icy cold and longing...?
Choi Han inhaled frantically, feeling fear.
Cale was so close to him, but it didn't help.
He was so close, but he was no longer so familiar.
Choi Han felt a tear run down his cheek.
The feelings inside him must have died along with his soul, consumed by despair.
'I must have gone mad.'
***
Choi Han was sitting on the couch, reading a book. Wyatt's trial was coming up, only two weeks away. He was still unconscious - Cale said that after Wyatt's sneak attack on their friends, a battle followed between the two of them, during which Wyatt was knocked unconscious. Cale was able to defeat him, though it was too late.
'That's... Strange.'
Choi Han remembered clearly how Cale had passed out in his arms. He remembered that Cale had expended quite a bit of energy. He must have been unconscious for at least a week after something like that.
So how could Cale repel an attack if he was unconscious...?
Besides...
'Why did I pass out?'
Yes, Choi Han had expended a lot of energy on the battle, but...
Not that much.
Choi Han opened his mouth to ask the question to Cale sitting next to him, but...
Something was stopping him.
Something...
Choi Han looked stealthily at the red-haired guy.
The length of his hair, the graceful gestures, the indifferent expression on his face - it was Cale, but...
Choi Han turned back to his book, trying to stifle the strange feelings in his soul.
Apparently, he was really going crazy.
Otherwise...
Why did he feel hatred for Cale?
***
«Can I see Wyatt? I'll hold back. I won't kill him.»
Choi Han was standing in front of Cale, who looked displeased.
The familiar frown on his eyebrows, the slightly pursed lips, and...
Choi Han gripped the hilt of his sword tightly.
«No, you shouldn't.»
«But why?!»
Choi Han couldn't help but raise his voice.
The man with scarlet hair in front of him averted his eyes, answering quietly but confidently.
«Because I am afraid... I am afraid that he will take you away. That he will kill you, too.»
Choi Han flinched.
'Why?'
The phrase, uttered with those soft lips, caused a wave of hatred inside him.
It...
It was strange.
It was strange to look at Cale, imagining how easy it would be to cut his throat - and have him die slowly then, choking on blood. Then he would die, answering for the deaths...
'Ah.'
Choi Han froze.
Suddenly a puzzle came together in his head.
A slight smile appeared on Choi Han's face.
«Okay. I will give up that thought. I won't go to Wyatt...»
A bright and sincere tenderness flashed into his smile. Cale smiled back at him, seeing an expression that hadn't appeared on Choi Han's face for a week already.
Withdrawing his hand from the hilt of his sword, Choi Han added.
«I will be right beside you, Cale-nim. Don't worry, I will never leave you.»
Choi Han didn't know how to act, but...
The truth was so easy to say.
«I'll go train for a while.»
The scarlet-haired man in front of Choi Han looked away slightly embarrassed, apparently realizing how emotional a phrase he had just uttered. A little embarrassed, he replied.
«Alright. I will wait for you in time for dinner.»
Choi Han chuckled, turning away from the man who was looking at him with such a sincerely happy gaze.
And he said.
«Cale-nim, wait for me, I'll be back soon.»
Choi Han was moving away down the corridor, and the scarlet-haired man could not see the smile on his face.
He did not see the twisted smile on Choi Han's face.
After all, the man who looked so perfectly like Cale was not him.
It was...
'Wyatt.'
Choi Han felt the rage, the anger, the hatred beating in his heart.
***
Choi Han slowly took a step forward, going one step lower.
Now a picture was clear in his mind.
Wyatt was always kind and nice around them, but sometimes...
Sometimes Choi Han would catch his strange glances at Cale.
Once he even asked Wyatt bluntly if he was jealous of his brother.
<No, why? Why would I be jealous of Cale? If I wanted to, I could get as much as he did.>
At the time, Choi Han only felt relieved at these words, not noticing the double meaning behind them.
However now...
'It's my fault... How could I not understand...?'
Wyatt wanted to wait until Cale did all the work for him, and then take it all away from him.
Come to think of it now, it was obvious...
Always humble, kind and nice, Wyatt avoided Rosalyn, Lurk, Eruhaben, and Alberu. Avoided them, but...
'Could it really be...'
But he talked a lot to Choi Han.
Memories flashed through his head, now suddenly taking on a scary meaning.
<Come on, we're twins, don't we share everything?>
That was the phrase Wyatt had once uttered when he had asked Cale to let Choi Han accompany him to the forest.
And once he asked Choi Han a question....
<Why don't you become my knight?>
Choi Han thought it was a joke.
But it wasn't.
The looks, full of jealousy, really had been. Wyatt desired Cale's strength, his glory, and... His knight.
Choi Han just didn't want to believe it, wanting to believe the best.
'How could someone so similar to Cale-nim be so...'
Evil.
Choi Han could feel the chilling cold inside squeezing his lungs.
He could feel himself suffocating.
Meanwhile, the long staircase down ended.
His path was blocked by the guards' axes.
***
Choi Han stood before the prison bars. Blood ran down his sword like drops of the blood of his soul.
'They were not letting me in.'
He had no way out.
If he backed out, if Wyatt found out that Choi Han was trying to bypass him and enter the dungeon...
'He could have guessed...'
He had no way out.
Choi Han bit his lip, taking a step forward, cutting through the bars.
Behind it was a cold, empty cell, a cold stone coffin. Only in the corner was a straw mat on which a man lay.
Scarlet hair tangled with straws, quiet, frequent breathing shook his chest, his eyes were closed...
'Yes, that's Cale-nim.'
Choi Han didn't know how to explain it. In front of him lay a man who looked exactly like Wyatt, but...
'That's Cale-nim.'
Slowly approaching such a dear person, Choi Han knelt down, reaching for Cale's forehead with his hand.
Choi Han felt his heart sink back into warmth.
The feeling was hard to describe...
Love?
It was too shallow and ordinary a feeling for what Choi Han was experiencing.
Cale was everything to him...
Cale was more than everything to him.
Cale was...
'Аh?!..'
Cale's forehead burned.
Choi Han grabbed onto his arms unconscious body, the body burning with fire from the within.
'What did he do to him?!'
Choi Han quickly went upstairs from the dungeon.
Anger tangled around his heart.
Anger, despair...
And a fragile glimmer of hope.
He still believed it was a simple fever.
He still believed everything would be all right.
He still...
***
«Cale-nim, please wake up.»
Choi Han held Cale's hand, wiping his forehead with a cold towel.
They were far away from the palace, where Wyatt could not find them, no matter how hard he tried...
And if he found them - Choi Han would smite anyone who came here. He will protect Cale for as long as it takes. He'll protect him until he wakes up, and he'll protect him after...
«Cale-nim, I'm here...»
Choi Han dipped the towel into the cold water again, then slowly unbuttoned the clean shirt on Cale. Gently running the towel over his chest, arms, legs...
Choi Han could feel the tears streaming down his cheeks.
He couldn't stop the flames burning Cale from within.
And yet he was still...
***
«Cale-nim... Please... Don't leave me...»
Choi Han leaned in, gently touching Cale's soft lips with his own.
He wished it had happened under different circumstances...
But it was the only way he could put the medicine into Cale's mouth.
«Cale-nim... Please come back to me.»
Time flowed forward, and Choi Han sat in front of the bed in a chair, clutching Cale's hand tightly.
Maybe the medicine will work.
Maybe Cale would wake up and they would run away together far, far away.
Choi Han will protect him forever.
«Cale-nim, we'll always be together...»
They will be together...
Choi Han is still...
***
The sunset slowly painted the room scarlet. Two breaths pierced the silence - fast and slow.
Too fast because of the sobs.
And too slow because...
«Cale-nim...»
A tear rolled down Choi Han's cheek.
But...
He... still...
***
«Cale... nim...»
The faint light in his heart went out.
Darkness enveloped Choi Han's heart.
***
Standing in the clearing, among the flowers, Choi Han looked at the stone.
It was a simple stone, standing on a small spot of ground that looked as if it had just been dug over.
He stood like that for a long time, smiling.
Then Choi Han turned around, walking away.
«I'll be back soon, Cale-nim.»
***
Choi Han stood in the middle of the huge hall of the palace, with the sword in his hands.
Scarlet liquid dripped slowly down its blade, droplets falling silently, mingling with the blood of many people.
Scarlet painted the room.
Scarlet, like the hair of a man begging the swordsman to stop.
«Choi Han, what are you doing? Aren't you... I love you! So why do you...»
There were tears in the eyes of the man in front of him.
«Have you gone mad with grief...? Please wake up!»
However, Choi Han only smiled viciously as he looked at the man in front of him.
Looking at the man he would kill no matter what.
«Cale-nim, I swear I will save you...»
He looked at the man who had stolen Cale's powers.
The man who took Cale's life, who destroyed him from within.
«Stop pretending. I know you're Wyatt. And you know I know it.»
The man in front of Choi Han stiffened.
Then his face twisted in anger.
«How did you know that?! How the hell did you figure it out?!»
Choi Han only continued to smile silently.
«You... I was... I was playing him perfectly! What else did you want?!!! I was the perfect Cale for you! I... I loved...»
Wyatt clenched his hands into a fist, and then lightning bolts ran through it.
«Okay. I... I couldn't get you, but...»
He waved his hand, sending a blade of wind shrouded in lightning at Choi Han.
«I still have strength and glory!!!»
«Huh.»
Choi Han smiled.
Gently and sincerely.
And then began to read the text of the spell.
Wyatt took a step back, shocked.
«No, NO, NO!!!! FROM WHERE..?!!! HOW DO YOU..?!!!»
Choi Han didn't answer.
He didn't want to explain anything to this man.
To explain how he got into his room, how he found the secret passageway. How he found his notes and research...
And found a way to reverse the spell.
«It isn't yours.»
He will return Cale's powers back to him.
The powers that Wyatt took away by separating part of Cale's soul.
Choi Han didn't come here because he cared what Wyatt was going to do next - with this Kingdom, with this world...
He just wanted to give Cale back what was his.
Because...
***
Choi Han stood once again over Cale's grave.
Over the place where the only one he cared about was.
Choi Han was telling the second part of the spell, bringing part of Cale's soul back.
Then, having finished, he raised his dagger...
This spell required a sacrifice.
Choi Han smiled.
«Cale-nim... I wish it would bring you back to life. But...»
He swung, thrusting the dagger into his own heart.
The blood slowly poured down, soaking into the grave. Bringing a part of Cale's soul back into place...
Choi Han slowly fell down, feeling the life leave him.
«Cale-nim... I'm glad I met you...»
His vision faded gradually, but he continued to smile.
And only one selfish phrase escaped his lips at the last.
«I only hope that if... If souls can be reborn... If rebirth exists... I want you to find me again. I want...»
Choi Han saw only darkness in front of him.
«I want to be near you.»
Because...
«Because, Cale-nim...»
'You are my world.'
Choi Han's eyes closed.