Chapter Text
“You… want me to marry a robot?” Seonghwa stared at his mother. It was too shameless of him, but what she said surprised him so much he forgot his manners for a moment. He must’ve understood wrong.
“Don’t worry, Seonghwa. She is going to be designed just for you!” the Queen said, as if it was the best thing Seonghwa would ever hear. She was smiling that lifeless smile, her gaze cold as ice, as usual.
“Your father and I discussed this already. It’s too much of a risk for you to marry a princess from another kingdom at a time like this. We simply can’t take the risk. Who knows what they have in mind. We came to the conclusion that this is the best option for us. This way we can ensure the kingdom and its people’s safety. Don't worry, she is going to look and act just like a human, no one will question anything,” she continued.
Seonghwa kept his face blank, but inside, his heart had dropped. His parents would marry him off to a robot. He would spend the rest of his life with an emotionless machine. Even though he had long ago accepted the fact that he would never experience real love, this was not the way he thought he would live his life. He lowered his head again—just like a proper prince did in front of the Queen herself.
“Don’t you want your people to be safe?” the Queen asked when Seonghwa didn’t answer.
“Of course, mother.”
“You will be King one day. This is only going to help you. She might look and feel like a human, and she can do many other things, but she doesn't have feelings and so won’t be able to form opinions. She’ll do and say whatever you tell her to. She won’t be able to distract you from making your decisions,” she said with a more serious look on her face.
“Yes, mother.”
The Queen smiled again. “Besides, like this you won’t ever have to worry about her disobeying you, or not satisfying you.”
The Queen left the room. She didn’t ask Seonghwa’s opinion, because it didn’t matter. It was decided.
A couple days later...
A warm breeze blew through the window of Seonghwa’s room. He sat on the window and looked over the ocean. He couldn’t see the city, but bright lights reflected on the water.
He didn’t know much about the city or the people, as he rarely stepped outside the palace. The King told him they didn’t need Seonghwa there, so he had no reason to go.
‘The royals only leave the palace with a purpose.’
Despite that, Seonghwa knew that the whole kingdom had changed drastically over the past decade. When just 20 years ago people had lived in harmony with nature, humans had now taken over everything.
Seonghwa sighed. He was only 14 when the last tree had been cut down from the city. There had once been a huge forest near the palace that had acted as a major carbon sink in the whole kingdom. As the new laws came to effect, it was all cut down and in ten years it was all gone. Now the only place that had plants other than small weeds was the palace. It had a huge garden outside, where only a few people were allowed to go. Seonghwa often went there to escape the palace. They had gardeners, but Seonghwa liked taking care of the plants. It soothed him. Near the plants, he was able to just exist—even if it was only for a minute.
Someone knocked on the door and entered. It was a servant—the small young girl in her twenties, who had been ripped away from her parents when she was 14. She had been brought to the palace as compensation for her parents' debt, and had been stuck there ever since. Seonghwa wasn’t allowed to feel empathy towards her. That’s what he was always told, but deep down his heart said otherwise.
“Your Highness.” The servant bowed respectfully. “I am here to inform you about your upcoming wedding.”
Seonghwa felt his heart drop. He hadn’t realized the day would come so soon. He nodded slightly.
“Your wife is now ready,” she said, and only that itself made Seonghwa feel sick to his stomach. He knew it had to be done like this, but found himself having a hard time accepting it.
“The wedding is scheduled for tomorrow. You will meet her briefly before the ceremony and get to know her a little. The ceremony itself is to start at 2pm.”
Seonghwa had expected it to be as soon as possible, but wasn’t tomorrow way too soon? Couldn’t he even get a little heads up? But then again, the King never gave warnings. Seonghwa should’ve known that by now.
“Thank you.” Seonghwa nodded, and the servant left the room. Silence filled the room once again. Only the soft muffling of heavy curtains thrown around by the wind broke the silence.
He didn’t know what to think. He had always tried to view things from a positive perspective, but this was by far the most absurd thing he had ever heard, and it was going to happen to him tomorrow.
Seonghwa couldn’t gather his thoughts fast enough and the room started to move. His throat tightened, and he dropped to the floor. A cold sweat covered his back and tears filled his eyes. A panic attack was nothing new to him, but it was still as scary as it had been the first time he had one. Now he was sitting on the floor and staring at the wall like always, since he still hadn’t come up with a better way to calm himself down. He just had to wait it out, no matter how painful and scary it was. After a painfully long while, his breathing steadied.
He got up and sat on the chair by the dressing table, his body still twitching a little. He stared at himself in the mirror. He looked like a mess with his face flushed with tears and hair all over the place.
He studied his appearance. His hair had gotten a little longer—it was probably going to be cut the first thing tomorrow. People always told him he had to keep his hair short to make him appear more masculine, but sometimes he allowed himself to imagine what he would look like with long hair. When he was younger he once even asked his parents to let him grow it out, but they said it would make him look like a girl. They told him to stop being ridiculous, so he hadn’t asked again.
Seonghwa’s gaze wandered to his clothes. They were so sparkly it almost hurt his eyes. It was a common look for a royal—showing off their status and wealth through clothes. He remembered the time he had been given the most sparkly shirt he had ever seen, full with diamonds, beautiful fabrics and expensive ribbons. But when he tried it on, it didn’t fit. No matter how the tailors sewed and modified it, it simply looked odd on him. The dimensions were not right, and it looked as if they had done it on purpose to make him appear bigger than he was. The tailors and servants all said it looked perfect on him, but Seonghwa knew it looked wrong. Despite that, he never complained—just told the tailors they had done such amazing work once again. He knew he had no choice other than to fit into the shirt, no matter what.
He had started to have these kinds of feelings ever since he started to look at himself in the mirror more observably. The clothes he had to wear were made especially for him, but they never looked like his. For years, Seonghwa convinced himself that he belonged in the clothes that would never fit him. Saying that he wanted something else would’ve been a huge offense to the royal family. It would’ve been as if Seonghwa didn’t appreciate his family or his title.
Seonghwa had the sudden urge to get out of the palace. Maybe he wasn’t thinking clearly after all. He knew he couldn’t run away from this, but he needed to get out. Half an hour. That would be enough for him to gather his thoughts outside of his home.
Seonghwa had never left the palace on his own—he wasn’t allowed to—but he knew he’d be able to get out. He knew the palace garden inside out, and there was a gap in the hedge in the garden that was big enough for him to fit through. The only hard part would be on the streets. He would need to be as discrete as possible, since he couldn’t let the citizens recognize him.
Seonghwa had never been one to defy the rules or act spontaneously, but now he found himself going through his clothes to pick out the most ‘normal’ clothes he could find—something to cover his face as well.
One of the rules that the royals had was to have their face visible at all times. It was a disgrace for the royals to have their face covered. Seonghwa felt the guilt building up, but continued anyway.
He started considering any possible positive sides once again. He had always wanted to see the people from a different point of view. He had only ever seen them from a carriage and platforms much higher than them.
The people loved the royals, and Seonghwa wanted to love them back just as much. He wanted to understand them and see how they lived from their perspective. That way he could be the King they would need in the future. Seonghwa grabbed on to that idea. He wouldn’t get a chance like this after tomorrow.
Maybe his father would understand. Maybe he would be forgiving if Seonghwa begged for forgiveness on his knees. But Seonghwa knew that wouldn’t be the case, and the guilt was eating him alive already.
Seonghwa found a black cloak and a scarf to cover most of his face. Maybe they weren't the most “normal” pieces of clothing, but they would have to do. He put them on and looked at himself in the mirror. He still looked too royal. He cut off the golden ribbons off the cloak and glanced at the mirror again.
Normal enough.
No one would recognize him in those. Right? Maybe the citizens wouldn’t, but the people in the palace would. He needed to get outside without anyone seeing him. But then again, Seonghwa was the oldest prince, the kindest and most gentle one of the three brothers. No one considered there would be even the slightest possibility that the calm, collected, and always obedient prince would escape the palace. But neither did Seonghwa. Not in a million years would’ve he guessed he would do something like that. His mind was still all over the place. He wasn’t himself.
Seonghwa wasn’t exactly forbidden from going to the garden alone, but since it was already late, he knew the servants would follow him. Not wanting to let anyone know he has left his room, he decided to climb through the window. His room wasn’t too high from the ground, so he figured he could climb down just fine. And so he did. He climbed down with ease and lastly dropped in a bush below him.
He walked through the garden, and through the vines he finally saw it. The gap on the hedge. His heart was about to pound through his chest, but he crawled through it anyway. The hedge was thick and he had to tear it a little to fit through it better. The sharp thorns poked his skin, but he kept going.
Seonghwa was halfway out when his heart dropped to his stomach as he saw the ocean right below him. He hadn’t realized it would be right there. He took a deep breath and looked around, contemplating logical options for moving forward. In theory, he could carefully move along the edge while holding the hedge for support, but it would definitely have its risks. Was this really something he needed to do?
Well, no,
but he put his life on the line anyway. He had obeyed the rules his whole life and wanted to feel something for once. No one would find out anyway… hopefully...
He grabbed the sharp hedge and started moving. Halfway he made the mistake of looking down. He gulped nervously and tightened his grip. The ocean was pitch black. The waves crashed hard to the cliff and threw water drops all the way up to Seonghwa. It was as if the ocean was waiting for him to fall—waiting to swallow him and making him a part of itself.
But Seonghwa managed to make it to the other side without dying.
Great!
The world outside the palace was completely different than he had imagined. There were no people to be seen. He figured it was probably because night was about to fall, but in such a big city it felt weird. Seonghwa hadn’t gone to the city too many times, but every time he had, it had been totally packed with people.
As he slowly climbed down to the street, shivers ran down his spine. It was quiet—too quiet. Something felt wrong. Where were all the people? He felt the sudden urge to go back, but didn’t allow himself to do so. He couldn’t retreat when he was already there. Wasn’t this what he wanted after all? To feel something?
Despite the creepy atmosphere, he walked further into the city. He tried to think positive and keep his mind calm and collected, like always. At least like this there was no danger of someone recognizing him.
With no people around, he could now clearly see the condition of the city. The buildings were dirty, there was shattered glass all over the street and the concrete itself was cracking in multiple places. It was contradictory—he could see artificial colors shine further in the city. Seonghwa could almost smell the electricity in the air from all the technology. The city didn’t look abandoned in any way, quite the opposite, instead it looked like there lived way too many people there.
Suddenly something started beeping loudly next to him. With that, a trash can leaning to a building—which Seonghwa assumed to be some kind of pharmacy—fell loudly and a black cat sprinted out. Seonghwa looked closer. The beeping came from a pole with a red light, on the side of the street. Then another beeping started further on the street. Then another. And another. He noticed dozens of beeping poles along the long street.
The sound only lasted about 10 seconds, then it was completely quiet again. Seonghwa kept looking around, expecting for something to happen, but the city stayed still.
He spotted something from the corner of his eye. It hid so quickly Seonghwa thought it was nothing, and just ignored it.
He kept walking, and the further he walked, the more intensive the lights became. In the dark of the night, it started to hurt his eyes, but he did have to admit that there was something beautiful in the mess of the city. If only he had seen some citizens, too.
Seonghwa hadn’t even noticed the fog starting to form around him. It was only when he could only see a couple meters ahead of him, he realized how intense the fog actually was. He could still see the different colors of the lights, but that was it. Panic started to grow in his chest, and he tried to turn around to go back to the palace, but he had totally lost his sense of direction. Out of nowhere, he was now stuck in the middle of a mist.
A muffled sound came right next to him and his heart jumped to his throat. Was he not alone after all? Seonghwa spun around like crazy, trying to figure out who or what was there with him. He didn’t dare to use his voice, nor was he even able to. His throat had tightened and he could barely breathe anymore.
Maybe it was from the spinning, but Seonghwa started to feel light-headed. He fell to the ground heavily, and started to lose sense of reality. Shadows flickered around him. He had no idea how many there were, but it felt like hundreds.
He felt a sensation on his back. It was as if something was crawling on his back, digging its claws deep into his spine. Although it didn’t hurt, Seonghwa started shivering violently and his vision blurred completely.
He noticed the world move behind the blur, and only then realized that something was dragging him. The rough concrete scratched his skin painfully. Something strong had grabbed him under his arms. He couldn’t see it, but they were undoubtedly human hands.
Seonghwa started to shift away. He wasn’t in pain. Quite the opposite. It felt like he was in a dream—a pleasant dream.
The last thing he heard was voices of multiple people, though it only sounded like mumbling in his ears.
Then the world fell silent.