"O-Of course, Jungkook!" Jimin sputtered and fixed his eyes over the alpha's bandaged wounds. Jimin couldn't help but to feel the pain in his chest each time his alpha experienced it as well. It was part of their bond, any physical pain someone felt, the other would feel it as well. "Jungkook... are you okay? You don't look well..."

As Jimin gazed upon the mentally exhausted king, he slowly made his way over to his alpha when the king instantly looked up and pierced his terrifying glare at the older omega. Staring into his eyes as if he tried to let the windows to his soul tell his story, but he knew it was best to communicate instead. Jimin stood in place as the alpha's glare only stopped him from stepping forward.

"I haven't been well at all... Jimin, what are you doing to me..?" Jungkook spoke softly and fixed his gleaming eyes over Jimin's worried face. "What are you doing to me?!" Jungkook repeated a bit louder and watched Jimin flinch once the tone of his voice raised.

"Jungkook..."

"I don't know what I'm doing anymore... every breath I take, I feel a sharp pain in my wound and I just don't know what it is anymore. At this point, I know it can't be the arrow... my wounds have been bleeding way before the incident. Every morning it's a challenge to get up and have my servants dress me when my breathing is always off! It feels... it feels as if I'm dying, Jimin. I'm dying on the inside and I can't allow myself to sit back and watch this happen!" Jungkook whispered and raised his right hand to cover his sore eyes. "Everything hurts... I didn't want to show you this side of me, but now I know I can't hide it anymore," Jungkook continued as he then looked over to his silent omega. "Park Jimin... why don't you have an answer for me yet?"

"An answer... an answer on when to marry you? Jungkook, it's my decision... you told me. You promised me..."

"Jimin, I can't be patient and wait any longer. I can't be patient when it could have killed me! Do you expect me to wait forever? To come back to the river and risk getting shot once again?" Jungkook asked and pulled his hand away from his face where his teary gaze locked onto Jimin. "Jimin, I can't follow you if you don't tell me where we're going..."

"Jungkook, of course I want to marry you but now isn't the time to bring that up. I-I need more time... it's too much for me to process-

"W-what?" Jungkook asked as his shaky breathing only tended to increase. "More time? Then, when is the right time, Jimin? When?" Jungkook questioned the omega and sat up to look at his swan from across his throne. "Tell me when so it wouldn't kill me every night I lay awake wondering."

"I don't know..."

"What was that?"

"I SAID I DON'T KNOW!" Cried the omega. With the sound of Jimin's voice echoing through the walls of the throne room, he dropped into his knees and gripped tightly onto his long skirt. "I don't know... I want to marry you Jungkook, but I don't want to marry you now...T-To rule beside you, it's so much pressure! How could I drop my independent mindset to become king with you?"

"Jimin...?" Jungkook asked and began to bare his fangs at the sight of the omega sitting over the ground. "So, you don't... want to marry me?"

"I do... but I don't want to right now. Jungkook, either way, it's my decision and-"

"Park Jimin..." Jungkook spoke once more and rose his hand over his wound and kept his glare locked onto his swan at the moment. "Why are you so stubborn...? How could you keep me waiting, you are to tell me what's on your mind, do you expect me to wait forever? I won't wait forever... patience has pushed me closer to death than I was before," Jungkook hissed. He finally stood up to stare at the omega as his hand slid down his bandaged chest. Instantly, every step he took forward, kept Jimin frozen in place.

"J-Jungkook, what are you saying...?"

"Marry me, Jimin. Marry me now so this could all be over! The pain we've both endured can be over, those overthinking thoughts of mine will be silenced and my happiness with you will begin. I want a future with you, Jimin! How could you keep me waiting like this? It's driving me insane! You will have more choices to make with me and I will give you all of it, all the shots to any decision. You won't lose everything when you marry me, Jimin!"

"I-"

"No more second thoughts, it's about time I took matters into my own hands," Jungkook added. The king then made his way over to the omega and held his hand out to him, his eyes scared Jimin the most; the way the obsessive gleam struck fear into the swan, went unnoticed by the alpha. "Time will not come easy for us, Park Jimin... with the selection, I will be rushed. If we marry soon, I will only listen to you... only you. Marry me."

Jimin looked at the king in fear. He noted how far the pressure of being alone scared him into becoming so obsessive and impatient. Of course, Jimin couldn't find the issues in himself and believed he wasn't in the wrong, but the two were at the same level at the end of the day. Both of them were wrong to the point where they were so blind to see it.

"W-What about my say in things? Are you going to stand here with your hand out, demanding mine? So what if I took a little longer to answer you, does your impatience take away my voice? You said it was my decision, you shouldn't rush me at all when you gave me your word! You promised me and trusted me, where is that now?!" Jimin hissed and looked up at his alpha standing before him as he watched him slowly put his hand down.

"Jimin, not even in the moment that I almost died, did it not awaken anything in you? To think, I would have been dead and you still wouldn't make up your mind! I told you that I would promise you more decisions so you could have a voice, I only wish to rush this one because of the selection and my desperation, it's killing me, Jimin! Why are you so stubborn to the point where you can't see what's happening to me?!" Jungkook argued and ran his hand over his wound to softly soothe the constant pain that burned through his chest each time he raised his voice.

"Stubborn?! I didn't think I would be stubborn for taking the time to decide on what I want! You gave me that choice and you will not rush me because you left it all to me! What is it with you?! Has your desperation truly taken over to the point where you don't know what you're doing now?"

"Oh, I honestly think that since I gave you such a choice, you can't help but to love the power it holds! You've always wanted to be matched with an alpha when it comes to power and now that you have it, you're so selfish that you want to hold it for as long as you can! Knowing that you don't have control over your own life, you believe you can have control over mine! Does it bother you, Jimin? Does it bother you that I will take this from you and you'll go back to being silent?!"

There, Jimin cupped the same spot over his own chest where Jungkook's wound was. The pain was mirrored and Jimin couldn't dare to reply as he looked off to the ground and let out a huff. Even if the wound didn't hurt, he was speechless and couldn't think of what to follow up with, Jungkook managed to strike Jimin deep down to the point where he figured it all out. Jimin enjoyed the luxury of having control over his life for once, that he longed to keep it up. When he realized he also had control over the king; the most powerful alpha in the land, Jimin couldn't dare to let go of such a strong thing like that as well.

For the longest, an omega like him remained at the bottom of the hierarchy as the alphas were held above all his life. Jimin was treated as an object but as soon as he met Jungkook, he was entranced at first sight. The way he was treated was what made the king so different in his eyes. So when Jungkook shared that power with the omega, Jimin valued it and refused to let it be taken away from his hands.

"Yoongi was right, when you give an omega a privilege as high as an alpha, they wouldn't know what to do with it... now I know how it is, Jimin," Jungkook whispered and let out a sharp exhale as his gaze locked onto Jimin.

"You... you must think this is right... even if I'm in the wrong, what makes you think you're any better? You're so desperate, Jungkook... your desperation has blinded you to the point where you believe that demanding my hand is normal! So you shifted the decision onto yourself. What makes that any better than my choice? Now I don't have a say but the king himself does?" Jimin replied as a tear raced down his eyes. "Your desperation has grown ever since the day we met, it's the one killing you as you stand before me! You're impatient, incapable of thinking clearly when it comes to love," Jimin spoke as he broke into tears while staring into his alpha's eyes. "If anything... we're both the cause of what's killing each other."

With those words striking hard within, they looked at themselves as they broke down in front of each other. They bled from the shards of their own broken pieces. Now, they stood in front of each other in silence with nothing else to say. Their minds were crowded, confused, broken... no one was better than the other in this argument since they both fed into this situation at the very end. This was their downfall.

Jungkook pondered the words Jimin spoke and knew it from the start. His mind was desperate, but was he aware of the many things he has done blindly? No, Jungkook was never aware of the issues his desperation caused and Jimin was never aware of his own stubbornness. They looked at each other in pain and felt it deep down, but none of them dared to speak up through it. They both wanted the pain to end but they knew if they continued, nothing would be fixed. At least, not now.

"Do I love you...or do I love the way that you treat me..?" Jimin thought in his mind as he looked Jungkook in the eyes once more.

"Do I love you... or was I just desperate to feel it in return?" Jungkook pondered in his crowded mind as well.

As they both thought to themselves, nothing but their eerie questions remained. Once those thoughts fled their minds, those questions never seemed to go away. They reacted differently to it, but they both grew silent before each other. Once silence continued to eat them alive in that moment, they formed no other things to say. Love, it was such a confusing word to learn when they grew frustrated on finding the definition together.

While the dreadful stillness began to bite down on their pale skins, Jimin dried his tears and finally turned away from his alpha. "Goodbye, Jungkook..." Jimin spoke softly through his endless tears and began to walk away. Hoping that a part of Jungkook would step forward and make things right, but the alpha stood his ground and watched Jimin walk further and further away.

Deep down, the king knew he needed to see this. He needed to experience losing the one he wanted from the start in order to tell if he truly needed him at the end. Jungkook wasn't in the right state of mind at the moment, but something rose out of his desperation and pointed his gaze over to Jimin's figure as he pulled away from him.

Just like that, the swan grew further away from the desperate king. The best thing Jimin did was to leave, but the worst thing he could have done was stayed. If he stayed, Jungkook's desperation would never learn. If he stayed, he himself would then try to find a way to gain control of his life once again so selfishly. But Jimin chose to leave; letting their thoughts process the situation apart from each other, and letting their feelings sort themselves out after such a huge argument. Jimin knew what he was doing the moment he walked away, this was the best thing he could have done for the two after so much. Only time could heal and tell for their future. But, only one question remained unanswered, was this all done out of love?