Meaning. Mingyu wanted to laugh. He was so far past looking to anything for meaning. If life had taught him anything, it was that there was no meaning to anything, no rhyme or reason to the tragedies that befell some while others lived unfettered and free.

There was only human nature. Human heartlessness. Human greed.

"Things don't happen for a reason, they just do. They just happen, Highness," Mingyu whispered low, face half hidden in Lee Chang's shoulder. "I heard once, read somewhere—"

Mingyu swallowed hard against a too-tight throat, forcing the rest of his words out.

"...that life is just a series of rooms. And who you end up in those rooms with determines the entire course of your life. I think about that more and more lately. It's just... where you are and who you meet. That's all. There's no greater meaning. If it wasn't for me—"