Chapter 9: She who has to stay hidden

As he stared at her lying body, it was of no doubt she was shinning even brighter. Not only that, he could feel them coming. Yes, the aliens he was talking about not long ago. They called themselves the 'guardians'. They were the keepers of peace and they eliminate what they believed to be what could tip the balancing scale off. No begging could save anyone. Not even the most powerful and respected being in the universe

"What are you doing here?" the lady on the bed asked him. In fairness, he was standing there for a good minute without uttering a single word and it probably annoyed her.

"I want to confirm that you do not remember anything about your life's history," Sungjae took a seat and crossed his arms.

She let out an annoying sigh and went under the cover even further, pretending to be asleep. "You do know Irene is trying her very best to not get you annihilated by some 'aliens' out there, right?"

No response from the other person in the room. She was under the thick duvet, looking so comfy. "Fine, if you are not going to do this at least do this for Irene. Do you know how much she has been going through? She looked after you, cared for you and from the looks of it, she is willing to do everything just for you to be within her sights. Can't you see how much she cares for you?"

Sungjae waited for any kind of answer. He remained seated for a good five minutes and when he got nothing, he got up and left the room without a word. He went down to the living room where he saw both Changsub and Irene discussing something. They were seated side by side looking at papers and papers and mountain of papers. And there he thought he was the one who should be drowning himself with papers as he was the king of the Sun. With this investigation and his workload as king, he found it too light. It wasn't that he was complaining but he wasn't used to this type of lifestyle. 

His lifestyle back on the Sun was usually working non-stop for half an Earth's rotation around the sun. This hectic work included engagements, meetings, festivals and extremely long conversations with other important beings representing their own planets and galaxies. The other half of the year went to locking himself in his great office doing writings and readings and signings until his eyes and hands were ready to bleed lava. In short, he never had a time to take a breather. As a result, his body was more used to doing something all the time than nothing. Staying still for a few short hours would drive him crazy.

"Any updates?" He plopped down on the free chair and let his whole body relax except for his ears and maybe his brain.

"If this is the first thing you say to us then it means even you couldn't get her to talk. There must be something wrong with that dear friend of yours Irene." Changsub threw the papers he was grasping to a pile which they considered irrelevant, useless... trash.

"I should've known better that it will turn out this way." Irene flicked a sheet towards the trash pile. "Maybe then, this would not happened if I have protected her even better."

"No matter what you do, she would still be found sooner or later so there's no point dwelling in the past. Let's do our best to keep her safe instead until we figure out what she is." Changsub gave her a pat on the shoulder and it gave her a bit of comfort and reassurance.

"We have no choice but use our last option: Irene's idea. They are coming at full speed, we don't have the option to wait until the new moon. Meaning, we have to contact whoever that is now," ordered Sungjae. 

Irene remained seating, lost in her own thoughts. This was meant to be the last resort. Meaning, consequences of what was going to happen were way heavier and severe. Maybe it could even affect the whole universe. Everything was on her shoulders.

"Wait..." Sungjae was already out the door and was looking up to the sky. 

Irene ran outside to see what was happening. The skies were clear. Nothing out of the ordinary. A few clumps of clouds here and there but nothing to be concerned from her eyes. 

Sungjae's eyes were unreadable however. She could not predict what the guy was thinking. Living with them for a few months made her think she knew them when in fact she barely scraped the surface. All three of them were constantly working and finding solutions that there was no time to 'be friends'. There was one time they forced themselves to go on a break and spent a full day at the beach. They even prepared a picnic basket and went for a quick swim despite the freezing cold water. Sungjae, being a sun king himself, just stayed dry and absorbed as much sunlight as his skin would allow. Apparently, that 'replenished' him and he was indeed glowing as soon as they arrived home. Unfortunately, they had no time to relax even further so their noses were back on the books.

"What's happening?" Chansub joined the two at staring at the skies. He too was having trouble seeing what Sungjae saw. 

"They turned back." Sungjae stated with a bit of uncertainly in his tone. His mind was running a million miles an hour trying to figure out the explanation to this occurence. Guardians rarely change their minds. Once their target has been set, they would fly at full speed toward the destination and remove whatever made them believe they were of harm. Sungjae was certain their target was the stubborn lady laying on her bad on the attic of the mansion yet why did they change course.

Irene glanced confusingly at him. "What does that mean?"

"It means Park Sooyoung is not their target for now," Changsub answered. "But why?"

Nothing else was out of the ordinary. Nothing changed for the past few minutes so what made them change their minds. The guradians were heading towards them at a very fast speed, like there was no hesitation on their mission, and when they were close enough they backed out. Sooyoung was still in her room, the same as when he left her.

"We are safe for now. For the meantime, we'll continue investigating."

"You should have realized by now Your Highness but we are heading nowhere with our findings. There is no such thing as a being like Park Sooyoung. With our current resources, we don't have a chance of actually finding our answers," pointed out Changsub as he started cleaning up the books by piling them up.

Sungjae glanced at Irene who was silent. He could sense the relief as her body relaxed after knowing Sooyoung was no longer their target. Not to mention her idea. Their last resort. Irene knew who she was. She knew what type of being she was, where she was born and probably the story of her life. Her decision to remain silent on the matter was something he was curious of. But if Irene decided to stay quiet, it meant it was a secret that should not be easily shouted quietly to the atmosphere.

 Pulling it out of Irene could solve majority of their problems but this could mean the rules of the universe is broken. As they were of different species any interferance could result in severe punishment, especially those without permission from the High Orders. Sungjae was a king but his position could not hide him from the rules of the universe.

Sungjae turned to Irene. "It seems you know who the young lady really is. I won't force you to tell us. However, I want you to find an alternative solution. There should be something out there that can help Park Sooyoung."

"If there was, I could have done it already" she answered back. 

A/N

Aaaannnnddddd long time no update. Hopefully everybody is doing well despite the whole COVID 19 thing. Pretty short update but I got into a writing slump (until now- this chapter was written a long time ago and I was planning on expanding it but no ideas came to mind).

Please keep safe everybody.