The King's Pet

Chapter 5: The King That Cares

Hyunjin's P.O.V

The dinner with my parents was lovely. Though Makita was nervous in the beginning his nerves melted away as the evening went on. My parents had gotten to know him better and it all seemed great. However, while they were in a world of jovial conviviality, I was lost to my thoughts.

The permanence of the welts on his back were unmistakable. Horrifyingly, the scars seemed to wrap around the delicate curves of his back. It angered me to see them on him to say the least. So much so that I thought about it for the rest of the weekend and all of my Monday morning.

Even though I was upset, I didn't forget to walk him back to the garden from tutoring when lunch time came by. I knocked on the tutors classroom door on arrival. The tutor, Xiuying, answered the door and let me into the classroom. Makita was writing something from the board down, just getting finished with the lesson.

"How is he Mrs. Xiuying?" I asked softly, not wanting to disturb him. "Quite surprisingly, he's very good. Despite not having an education in the most important years he absorbs information as if he were." She reported, sounding hopeful about teaching Makita. "That's good." I said, not realising the soft smile that beset my features.

"Is Makita someone special to you?" She asked, picking up on my fond gazing after him. "Yes." I answered, still looking at him. Before she could say anything more he announced that he was finished. She went back to him and they spoke for a bit before he was released.

I carried his bag for him and immediately took his hand into mine on instinct. We walked together in a frail silence, all the way to the garden. Once we were seated I got a cook to organise some fruit salads for us.

"How did you find the first day?" I asked him, hoping to catch his eyes as he'd yet to make direct eye contact with me. "It was fine, my King..." He responded with a meek voice. Just as on Sunday, Monday was not short of an awkward tone between us. Ever since I saw his scars there had been a quiet tension in our conversation. I didn't want to be the one to press for a discussion on his trauma, that wasn't my place. Or at least from my perspective it wasn't. "Just fine?" I questioned, trying to get more conversation out of him. He looked off to the side, making sure to use his hair as a cover.

He let go of a short, soft but evidently frustrated breath before he looked directly at me finally. "My King, I want to talk about what happened on Saturday." He uttered softly, still looking at me. I nodded shortly, motioning him to go ahead. "I know it was unexpected but I...I promise that I can still be a good servant to you, I'm not broken." He spoke shamefully and I almost didn't let him finish. "Makita...do you think I'm upset with you?" I asked him as it seemed that's what was going on. And as I suspected he would, he nodded in confirmation.

I sighed softly. "I'm not upset with you, I'm upset that you had to go through what you did and I'm upset that Jian did that do you. Honestly it makes my blood boil, knowing you were abused." I expressed, trying not let on exactly how angry I was. "Abused?" He questioned with an adorable confusion. "Mistreated unnecessarily and for a long time." I clarified for him. He nodded in understanding before falling silent.

Then he found his words and spoke again. "I don't mean to be rude but, why do you care about me, my King?" He asked gently, making me blush slightly as the honest answer was far too affectionate for me to give. "Because you're not a servant, you're a human being and you deserve to be cared about." I answered. It was still an honest answer, just not the whole truth.

Makita smiled softly before a look of consideration swept over his face. "My King, may I...tell you why it happened?" He requested shyly. I nodded immediately, happy that he was offering to tell me. Though the happiness I felt was soon replaced by anger and disgust as he told me the story behind his scars. I couldn't help the feelings that mixed inside me as I listened to the cruelty of it all. The more I heard the more I wanted to put Jian in front of a firing squad and the more I wanted to hug Makita.

"I'm so sorry he did that to you..." Was all I could manage to say in response though it seemed to be enough for Makita. "It's okay...it was a long time ago and now I'm here, where I'm cared about." He responded with soft smile. I smiled in return before calling for our lunch to be served.

I couldn't understand Makita's forgiving nature. I didn't get how he never became vengeful and ridden with hate for Jian. Knowing the kind of person he was I was almost sure he'd done more than just tricking Makita like that. But there was nothing to be done, I supposed dwelling on the anger rather than letting it go did nothing but prolong the misery. With that consideration I decided to take the same route and not hold onto the second hand rage I felt. Instead I was happy that he was finally out of that situation and with me in my kingdom, where he wasn't disposable.

"Makita, have you ever been swimming?" I asked him as something came to mind. "No I haven't, my King." He responded, sounding curious. "Would you like to try? This coming weekend is my parents anniversary and it's somewhat of a national holiday. We celebrate it with a kingdom-wide swimming competition because my parents love the sport, would you like to come and watch with me—we can swim together when the competition is over?" I proposed, hoping he'd agree.

"It'd be a pleasure, my King." He answered optimistically. I smiled and cheered inwardly. Even though I didn't know for sure if he agreed because he wanted to or because he still viewed me as his king, I felt as though he genuinely wanted to come with. And the sheer idea that he was warming up to me filled me with a juvenile excitement. I was excited to see how our relationship would progress and even then, so early into it, I could see us together more intimately.

The mere idea made me blush.

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Additional Information & Disclaimer: The main characters, in case anyone is interested, are both Asian. Hyunjin is Korean and Makita is Japanese. In the rest of the book there will be all kinds of ethnicities because I wanted to add more diversity in my writing. However, as I know nothing of the various ethnicities around the world and out of fear of misrepresenting them, I have only used ethnic names and not attempted to describe any cultural or traditional practices. So please forgive me for that as well.