Rule of 3 [NC-16].

Soojin felt devastated.

Not being able to look into her own Mother's eyes meant that she'd sullied her honour.

She'd trampled on the pride she'd held close to her chest, at every cost.

Few moments of gentle caresses and love had made her blind.

She'd grown to love nestling herself in the comfort that velvet brought and now she was lying over a wrath of barbs, piercing her spine and reminding her just how great of an escapist she'd been.

Was she wrong all this while?

Trusting the wrong man?

She'd begun recollecting her encounters with Bohoja.

The man who'd draw swans on her ribs and yet had her chest feeling heavy, after every late night meeting.

His saccharine coated words were a little too honest, perhaps a little to over-the-top?

But then again, why was Yun Ki hated by many in his Kingdom?

What had he done so grave that his own subjects were willing to overthrow him, at the slightest chance?

Who was right and most importantly, was she in the wrong?

The past few days had her realising that perhaps her own husband was a good man from the heart. His head got to him most of the times but, his heart.

His heart was very much viable.

Conversing with her Mother had opened her eyes.

Not everything is as it seems.

And truly, things were becoming harder for her to understand.

It was as though she were in a maze, vision blurred by clouds of smoke, blinding her eyes and irritating her conscience.

Should she summon Bohoja?

How could she?

The Chief Guard was back in The Palace.

She couldn't trust anyone else but she hoped The Guard would've conveyed to Bohoja that she was at her mother's.

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"Ssibal!" Lee Min Hyuk curses, losing to Bohoja at a game of Gonu.

Bohoja grasps his stomach, loud eruptions of laughter echoing through Silkim's Palace Hall.

"Now Now, don't be a sore loser. Besides, scheming tactics aren't quite your strengths, are they?" He laughs, mocking the King who'd been pouting.

He lets out a loud sigh, discarding the wooden block.

"Of Course, The King's despised Twin. You are the only one who'd be up to date with all the scheming work, wouldn't you? After all, you are The Future of Baekmin.." Lee Min Hyuk says, taking a big gulp of the liquor Bohoja had poured into his cup.

"Mullon-iyo! I have that imbecile's entire Kingdom wrapped around my finger." He mumbles, drunk, raising his pointer finger.

The two men giggle tipsily before Min Hyuk catches Bohoja's inked wrist.

"Aish, what have you got embellished on your wrist. Let me have a look!" He screams, knocking the Gonu checkered board that was placed between them.

"S-Saho..ani..S-Soo J-Jin.." He reads out loud, feeling over the freshly inked skin.

"AHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHHA!" The man bursts into a bout of laughter, wriggling his hands and legs.

Bohoja grumbles, hitting the man on his shoulder.

"Stop laughing.." He mutters under his breath, teeth gritting.

"I-I can't help it, you look like an absolute fool! You have her name marked on your body ahahahahah!!" The man teases.

Bohoja kicks the table that had the pot of makgeolli on it.

The ceramic crashes onto the hard wood floor, white liquor spilling all over the tiles.

Min Hyuk continues laughing, tears welling in his eyes from all the fun he was having at Bohoja's expenses.

"Aigoo, you fool! Did you get her into bed yet?" He asks, patting Bohoja's hunched shoulders, comfortingly.

Bohoja's jaw is clenched.

Min Hyuk watches his hardening expressions, rolling on the floor.

"S-SO let me get this straight, you've adorned your body in her name and yet you've never seen her ..bare?" He asks, mist giggles.

"What's it to you? Besides, I already have a fiancé, whose libido is beyond my expectations." He replies curtly.

Min Hyuk leans in.

"Want a concubine? I'll get you like, 5 of them. All of them would feel like Soojin if you have your eyes closed. Young, perky, taut and most of all, trained." He whispers.

Bohoja wrings his arm away.

His eyebrows are furrowed.

"If I wanted a cheap fu*k, I'd have come to you ages ago. It's about deflowering my own Brother's wife. Wrecking what he owns and wants, but can't have. That's what Soojin is. A prohibited territory, one I'd want to trespass into and render barren before my brother can lay his hands on it. God, it'd crush him to bits if he saw his own wife carrying the child of his Banished Twin."

He smirks evilly, rubbing his hands.

Min Hyuk smirks in response.

"You're sick, you know?" He asks Bohoja.

"I know!" The two men roll on the floor laughing.

Min Hyuk claps his hands twice and 2 maidservants walk in, carrying a fresh tray with makgeolli.

Just as they've placed the pots and assorted cashews beside the two men, Min Hyuk grabs their bodies from their waists, planting them on his lap.

The two servants sit on either side of his lap.

He grabs their chin, making the two of them face him.

He squeezes their waist, causing them to squirm in his lap.

"How old are you two?" He asks them, leaning into one, nibbling the tip of her ear.

"W-We're 20, Your Majesty.." One of them speaks as Min Hyuk pushes the girl seated on his left thigh over into Bohoja's lap.

She lands between his parted thighs, hands on his chest.

"Have you been deflowered, yet?" He asks the girl in his lap, fondling her breasts over the fabric she had on.

The girl's head rolls back into Min Hyuk's shoulder.

"N-No, Master. We're both virgins.." She mewls out as Hyuk smirks in Bohoja's direction, who looks at him wide eyed.

"Do to her what you'd want to do to Soojin." Min Hyuk mutters, slipping his hands under the girl's robe, untying the knot of her underwear and hurling the fabric to a corner of the room.

"Let us both deflower, together!" Min Hyuk chimes before entrapping the girl's lips with his, fingers working at her glistening core.

Bohoja's eyes go dark with lust before he strips the innocent girl in his lap and deflowers her.

——————

"Is there any way we can get my hair to look black?" Yun Ki questions the woman before her.

Her hands are shaky as she thinks fora while.

"Sire we can use charcoal water to cover the ash Grey hair you are endowed with but it may wash away when it gets wet." She comments.

Yun Ki huffs out loud.

Chief Hong was seated behind him, watching his worried expressions in the mirror.

"Your Majesty, must you go to these lengths?" He asks.

"—We could just summon Queen Consort back to The Palace for questioning.." He completes.

Yun Ki fiddles with the ends of his long mane before looking at his Chief through the mirror.

"I-It's necessary. I need to confirm a notion that my heart bears. It's unlikely and yet, I must go through with it." Yun Ki breathes.

The maidservant comes up with an idea.

"Sir, how about we place your hair in a Sangtu and cover it with a manggeon?" She asks of Yun Ki.

He shakes his head no.

"Soojin is observant. She'll see the colour of my sideburns. I cannot take any risks, now. Besides, Sangtu's are only worn by royalty." He states.

"Dye my hair black, I'll have it cleaned out tomorrow." He orders, removing his robe and leaning his head back on the seat, hair splayed across, ready to be dyed.

"Master, are you doing the right thing?" Chief asks.

Yun Ki's fist clenches.

"I've never been more sure." He states, closing his eyes as the maidservant brings in a bucket filled with charcoal water, her forearm coated in black.

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Korean Terminologies used in Chapter :

Ssibal = f*ck ; shit!

Gone = Gonu or Kono is a group of Korean traditional boardgames.

Mullon-iyo = That goes without saying.

Aish = oh shit!

Aigoo = Oh dear!

Ani = no

Makgeolli = is a Korean alcoholic beverage ; Milky, off-white and lightly sparkling rice wine.

Sangtu = top knot worn by royal married men.

manggeon = type of Korean traditional headgear worn by men, which is put under a gat (hat).