!WARNING! kind of major character death?? !WARNING!

You can reference certain facts here

*Gyeongbokgung Palace was the main palace out of the 5 main palaces of Korea. I haven't ever been and my knowledge is minimal at best.

**King Mokjong was an actual king and was known to keep male lovers though he was part of the Goryeo dynasty I made him part of the Joseon dynasty here instead.

*** This is in fact false, Korea was doing very well for itself during this time. There was a widening income gap and the agricultural and industrial stocks were changing but the economy was booming.

****In Korean history there is a 200 year of peace following a war between China and Korea and Korea's subsequent defeat and this is when Seokjin is alive sometime in the middle of the 1700s.

1972 



“So the Gyeongbokgung palace* was built in 1394 by the great King Taejo! He was the founder and first king of the Joseon Dynasty, In China, this was when the Ming dynasty was ruling. America was still undiscovered, England was in the midst of the 100-year war, and the Ottomans were leading an eight-year siege on Constantinople.” Yoongi said as he ran over other facts and information to tell the English speaking tourists.



It was 1972 and Yoongi had left America to see more of the world and go to a university somewhere other than where he had grown up. He had applied all over the world but when he got his acceptance letter from Seoul, Korea Yoongi had packed up and left. The Seoul national university was prestigious but also cheaper than all the other schools in England and America he had gotten accepted into, plus even though Yoongi had only visited Korea once in his life previously, he had grown up in a Korean household to Korean parents. It felt only right to travel back and reconnect when Yoongi didn’t feel like he had a lot left anymore.



Seoul was hard at first. He had to study plus work part-time to make ends meet and on top of that, he was in a land that felt foreign even though everyone looked like him and talked like him, but he still didn’t quite fit in. However, if you lived in a place long enough even that eventually became home. Yoongi had learned that lesson multiple times and it was still true so, despite the minor culture shock and process of assimilation, Yoongi did eventually begin to feel at home.



He was used to hardship anyways. He was born to a taxi driver father and a housekeeper mother in America who had both tragically passed away in a car accident and he had been on his own ever since. He was eighteen by that time so no relatives wanted him and instead, he scraped by on the bare minimum, finished school with an outstanding GPA, and started working. When he finally had enough money he had applied to universities wherever he wanted because he had the grades to back him up and the lack of a home made it hard to be sentimental so he could apply as far as he wanted.

So yes, Yoongi was used to suffering.



This was nothing compared to the hell he had lived through the first year after his parents had died. The nightmare of grief and sadness and anger at the world and a possible god. The anger at being completely alone— but he was determined to come up through the ground and make a better life for himself. His parents had made sure to beat into him the worth of education and hard work and thanks to that his prospects of not ending up as a street corner druggie no matter how much he wanted to give up sometimes fared much better. Currently, he was studying business administration at SNU and he wanted to get into a good company and hopefully work his way up to a cushiony life so he would never have to suffer as he had again.



So Yoongi kept at it. By the end of his first year he had learned how to speak Korean fluently and had mostly rid himself of any lingering Korean American accent and he had made some friends as well. But the real highlight of his year was when he got to quit his job at the food cart he worked at and instead got hired at the palace as a tour guide for American tourists. He got paid better and he didn't have to deal with drunkards shoveling down greasy street food only to puke it up again a few minutes later.



Yoongi continued on with the tour and smiled and answered all the questions sent his way. It was routine now, he didn't have an issue.



__________________



He’s helping close up one day, checking around the palace for any stragglers and helping pick up some litter here or there. He’s passing by the moon pavilion, a small room that was thought to belong to one of the king’s favorite servants, but Yoongi always wondered because the attention to detail and design was too lovely to belong to just anyone.



He had checked all the way to the northernmost walls and he was on his way back, the whole palace was shrouded in darkness with just a few spotlights here or there to lighten it up and Yoongi looked up at the moon pavilion and spotted a person sitting on the window ledge and he stopped.



Damn tourists always trying to live some k-drama fantasy.



“Hey!” he called as he started walking over, and the person turned and looked at him. Yoongi couldn’t really see him that well from here, but as he got closer the person was stunning. A small regal face with smooth skin and rosy cheeks.



“Hey,” He said a little weaker, “You're not supposed to be here. It’s closing time, the palace is closed to tourists.” He was just a few feet away now and the person was wearing a men's hanbok with large billowing sleeves and the entire outfit was of expensive silks from the way it shone and gleamed. The man, at least that's what Yoongi thought he was from his clothes, though his face looked otherwise— had his hair down his back with half of it pulled back with a rope tie.

Damn this guy really went all out. He literally looked like someone slipped out of Korean period drama.



The stranger just tilted his head at Yoongi mischievously with a small smile gracing his lips and then Yoongi blinked and he was gone.

Yoongi stopped.



He immediately felt ice fill his lungs and he froze before he wildly looked around feeling sick.



“What the …” He whispered rubbing his eyes. What the had that been? He felt a chill run up his spine so he hightailed it out of there refusing to even think about what he had just seen.



__________________



Yoongi helps with a few more closings but months go by and he doesn't see anything again. He’s glad because even though he tries to be brave, he is ing terrified of ghosts. He blames all the lore in Korean legends and his uni classmates who fill his head with it for fun because they like to watch the ‘American kid’ squirm is what they say. But still the fear eventually ebbs away and Yoongi is back to being blissfully unaware and uncaring.



__________________




It’s when he’s taking a group through the imperial gardens that he sees him again. He's wearing the same clothes with the billowing long sleeves and the pastel silks that hang around his body. They are clothes meant for a man but the way they are designed Yoongi knows they aren't exactly convenient. The sleeves are a little too long and made of too thin material and the silks look too luscious and layered for any working man of that era.



The man walks on the other side of the pond, Yoongi sees him for just a second as he walks behind a tree and just never reappears, vanishing into thin air.



Yoongi loses all train of thought. He was just telling the group about the pavilion and now his mind is blank as he waits for whatever it was to come out from behind the tree, but it doesn't because it wasn't human. Yoongi saw how light passed through its body. It had looked straight at him, smiled, and then disappeared.



“Um,” someone says behind him and Yoongi grabs his now shaking hands together and throws the group a huge smile.



“Sorry! Lost my train of thought there! Where was I?”



__________________



He sees him a lot after that. Yoongi isn’t sure what exactly triggered it but maybe this thing, whatever it was, was tired of hiding or maybe not being seen. Yoongi knew how that was. So although he’s terrified he sympathizes.



Usually, he sees it  at the moon pavilion, sometimes it’s walking about the gardens, but never anywhere else. It always looked the same too, and was always staring right at Yoongi. It freaks him out, and the first few months it had happened Yoongi thought he was going insane because no one else had heard of any ghosts especially like the one Yoongi was describing. Instead he thinks he’s possessed or something, like maybe his ty apartment was just waiting to burst with poltergeist activity, but that thankfully doesn’t happen. Instead, it's as peaceful as it always is, only Yoongi sees a beautiful ghost at work sometimes.



__________________



The first time it speaks to Yoongi he’s helping shut the palace down again, he’s in his third year of college now.



He isn't really surprised when he sees the ghost sitting by the window in the pavilion watching him, he just quickly turns his head away and proceeds to make his rounds till the northern walls and is making his way back to the main gates, resolutely keeping his head forward when he hears it.



“Hello,” an almost musical voice beckons him and Yoongi’s head snaps up and he sees the face of the beautiful ghost looking at him. He thinks he imagines it but it speaks to him again.



“May I ask your name? You are always around here.”



And Yoongi thinks he’s gonna be sick as his heart speeds up a mile a minute. He lets out a gasping breath before he turns on his heel and runs so fast he trips twice in his haste to get away. Nothing follows him home and it's still peaceful but Yoongi feels like he hears the ghosts musical tone everywhere.



__________________



Yoongi heads to the Seoul library for the first time since he’s been to Korea and he runs straight to the section on Gyeongbokgung palace and starts reading about it. Going through everything about its rooms, to the everyday life, to the architecture, anything he can find, especially something on the moon pavilion.



He does find some passages but they all know as much as he does after working at the palace and it's not very much. The moon pavilion was a pavilion built in secret by King Mokjong** and no one knows who it was for, as no one saw anyone in it or occupy it during his lifetime. It remained empty till he died many years later and after that, it was just a slew of princesses or noblewoman who resided there because of the beauty, intricacy, and love put into it. And when it started to deteriorate it was usually given to a high servant of the king, but a man has never been recorded of staying there.



Yoongi goes home tired and confused and even more defeated.



__________________



The second time the ghost talks to him it's in broad daylight as Yoongi is on break. He’s sitting by the northern gardens because there are tourists everywhere else and he just wants some peace and quiet away from the chatter, and the northern parts of the palace are mostly restricted so there are usually very few people around and the ones who are are staff are busy running around doing their own thing.



He’s eating quietly minding his own business when he looks to his left and there is a beautiful face not even a breath away staring at him and to Yoongi’s credit he doesn't scream, but he does let out a loud gasp and jumps about a foot in the air. He moves back a bit as the face keeps looking at him and he expects it to deform and morph into something terrifying like in those creepy Japanese ghost movies, but it stays innocent and lovely and keeps looking at him till Yoongi calms down a bit.



“Wh-what are you?” He asks stupidly and the ghost tilts its head but doesn't answer and it unnerves Yoongi.



“Wh-who are you..?” He asks instead and the ghost eyes widen a bit before he smiles sweetly and answers.



“I am called Seokjin.” He responds in an archaic way of speaking and if Yoongi hadn't spent time watching historical dramas he might not have understood. At least his procrastination was rewarded in some way. However, he realizes the ghost just responded so now it's his turn for his eyes to turn wide.



The ghost just tilts its head again and Yoongi doesn’t know what to say, but the ghost— no Seokjin— breaks the silence.



“What is yours?” He asks sweetly and Yoongi swallows nervously before speaking.



“Um, Yoongi.” He responds and Seokjin eyes crinkle.



“How sweet. Someone who shines, correct?” Seokjin says and then giggles. “Suits you.”



And Yoongi is talking to a ghost but he can't help but blush. But then he’s hearing his name being called— not by the beautiful ghost but by a coworker and he startles. When he turns back Seokjin is gone.



He can’t get the ghost out of his thoughts that night.



__________________




Yoongi continues to see Seokjin after that at various times. Sometimes he talks to Yoongi sometimes he doesn’t, almost always he smiles, but sometimes Yoongi sees him when he's closing up at night at the pavilion window and his gaze is far away and distant and very very sad. When he turns to look at Yoongi it remains a cold mask of pain and Yoongi wants to ask but even ghosts need their privacy.



Most of the time though Seokjin is just flitting about. He sees him often strolling around the gardens just barely dancing out of sight of other tourists but Yoongi always manages to catch him or maybe it's only Yoongi who is meant to see.



Sometimes before he leaves and he's cleaning the northern area up a bit Seokjin will accompany him and ask him things. When he learns that Yoongi is from America he is fascinated and he bothers Yoongi every free second of work for the next two days until his curiosity is satisfied. He also seems enthralled every time Yoongi divulges a bit of his personal history and a bit about his personal life. Like what he was like as a kid, what he enjoyed—basketball, and school, and music, and what his parents were like.



Seokjin, in turn, would share things about his own childhood and Yoongi would laugh along to all the stories. Seokjin seemed so docile at first but the more he got talking the more layers one uncovered of his fiery personality and mischievousness, and it was beyond endearing.



It was weird, Yoongi was talking to a ghost but he seemed so alive, even as sun rays shone through him and Seokjin sat there barely there physically, he was there fully in presence telling him stories and laughing his cute laugh



Yoongi doesn't even know when it happens, but he goes from being afraid of Seokjin, to weary of him, to then becoming friends.



Their friendship grows as months go by and soon Yoongi is a fourth year about to graduate and Seokjin is still an ageless beauty.


__________________



Post-graduation Yoongi’s future is as gloomy as the world's.



The world is in an economic slump including Korea*** which is barely on its hind legs.



He’s been out of school for two months now and he had been trying to apply even before that but not even having graduated near the top ranks of his class could seem to land him a job in the hopeless economic market right now.



Yoongi basically drags himself to work these days.



Seokjin and his presence manage to cheer him up a bit but everything hurts when he has worked so so so hard for so long and there's nothing to show for all the effort. He feels like a fool and he cries and Seokjin tries to hug him but he’s not even real so Yoongi just cries harder and Seokjin sits distressed and pained at his side.



“I'm sorry, I’m sorry I can not be there for you in body Yoongi.” And Yoongi shakes his head and tries to smile for him but he just ends up bursting into a fresh set of tears as he sobs. He chokes on pain and hopelessness and Yoongi rarely cries but being with Seokjin opens up a dam of feelings so he just lets it out.

It feels better to cry with someone by your side than to cry all alone by yourself.



__________________





He feels a lot better after that day, Seokjin still fusses over him and worries but Yoongi works to keep pushing even though he feels kind of hollow inside. He still continues to try his best because It's all he knows how to do honestly and he’s too afraid to give up trying for a better life because he knows if the day came where he truly gave up he wouldn't have anything left to live for anymore.



He doesn't have a family, his friends and him have lost contact after he moved to Korea and the ones he made here were nice but nothing to keep him here, no girlfriends, no nothing. He has Seokjin, though, the only person he can talk to, but Seokjin is already dead. Yoongi has a bottle of pills he has kept with him from those first few months when he was eighteen and on his own as a reminder of where he grew from but he kind of feels like he’s back to where he started. It would be so easy to give up.



Seokjin appears in front of him more, gives him these looks like he understands it all and that's what gets Yoongi. What had Seokjin been through to warrant a look of complete and utter despair it reminds him of the early days when he had first started seeing Seokjin and he had been sitting in his windowsill and his face would be so empty and haunting, it was the only time he looked like a real ghost, even more so than when he was half transparent still managing to shine brightly under the sunlight.



He wants to ask he really wants to know but will that be crossing some sort of imaginary boundary if he does? However, it turns out he doesn't have to think about it too much. It's closing time one day and Seokjin finds him as soon as he’s off to check the palace grounds.



“Hello, Yoongi. How are you doing?” And Yoongi not even startled by the sudden appearances anymore looks over and smiles.



“Hello to you too Seokjin. I’m alright,” He says a little hesitant and Seokjin catches him immediately because yeah, today isn't a good day for Yoongi.



“Liar.” he frowns and Yoongi sighs.



“I got rejected again.” He says trying to hold back tears but his voice still shakes as he trudges on and does the nightly check. “What am I going to do, Seokjin? I came here and betted everything on working hard and making it. I never had the thought of not succeeding because I was prepared to do everything possible to succeed. And I did! I did do everything! I barely slept, I just studied and worked and studied and worked I even lost the of fat I had left. All I see in the mirror at home is skin and bones,” And then he turns to Seokjin looking at him, his face ugly as he openly sobs and tears stream down his face as he hiccups breaths and god—! Yoongi has never cried this much infront of anyone before, he feels so horrible and Seokjin looks surprised which is a funny look on someone who's supposed to be a ghost. “So tell me why I’m still such a loser, Seokjin? I don’t want to do this anymore. I've worked so hard for so many years by myself because I had no one else in this world but I don't want to be alone anymore. I worked hard but I'm still a no one and I'm still alone.” And he was just blubbering at this point so he's opted for loudly sobbing instead and Seokjin fretted around him.



“Yoongi. Yoongi do not say you are alone. I am here and I know that is hardly comforting when I am a ghost but even though my soul is the only thing left I still care and worry for you, Yoongi. I wish I could do more.” And Seokjin looks so upset that he too would cry if he could and Yoongi wonders if ghosts can cry but he doesn't want to test that theory on Seokjin. Sweet, kind, sincere Seokjin. Instead, he breathes deep breathes and scrubs at his face with his shirt sleeve sniffling but calming down and Seokjin looks at him with barely contended relief.



They walk in silence for a while when Seokjin stops him.



“Stay with me in the palace tonight? I want to… share some things,” and Yoongi doesn't really want to be charged with illegal trespassing if he gets caught but he also wants to hear what Seokjin has to say so he agrees.



He finishes up the rest of the check around the area as Seokjin disappears and then reports back to the staff head. She dismisses him for the night and when he runs back to his locker to grab his stuff, he ducks into the garden behind him instead of actually leaving.



It takes an hour for everyone else to report back and slowly leave, chatting as they exit and then for the head staff to also grab her belongings and go.



There are still night duty guards patrolling the premises but they are sparse and usually just stick to one area unless there's a noise that makes them go check so Yoongi is quiet as he starts making his way down to the northern end. Seokjin joins him halfway there and his slightly illuminated silhouette is easy to follow.



When they make it to the moon pavilion Seokjin leads him inside. The inside wasn’t open to the public anymore but the setup was still here. Like a lot of the rooms in the palace, it is also set up in a way to show how it would have been back in the day. There’s blankets and a little desk and boxes that hold little bits and bobs for a noble.



Yoongi cautiously walks around and Seokjin is close behind him. “Sit anywhere,” Seokjin says pointing to the bedding on the floor so Yoongi takes a seat in the middle and crosses his legs and Seokjin sits with his back against the wall close by and has his eyes closed and they both don't say anything for a while.



Finally, Seokjin begins. “I was born in the Joseon dynasty in the year 1734****,” Seokjin says and Yoongi knew Seokjin was old, probably ancient but his heart still leaps when Seokjin tells him and he takes a deep breath but nods so the other can continue.



“I was to a noble family,” and Yoongi can see that, Seokjin has very regal features plus his skin is so pale it looks like he hasn't seen a day of sunlight. “I studied hard and passed the examinations and became one of the advisors to the king though I'm pretty sure half the reason I got in was my birth. Anyways, at first it was fairly uneventful, I joined the ranks of other men and I didn't really partake in the conversations much. I was much younger than the other ministers and I did not have a political agenda I was attempting to push like many others. Instead I just kept quiet and kept my head down, choosing to be ignored rather than trying to fight and compete with old men who more resembled snakes.


However, It was a day where we were discussing foreign policy you see. I was always very intrigued by China and always thought they had much to offer that we could learn from,” Seokjin says looking over and Yoongi nods. “Korea had gone into isolationism after the war with the Manchurians and we hadn't come out of it ever since. I suggested that day if we should perhaps extend a hand to China and there was a great debate over this but it's the day the king finally noticed me.” Seokjin says with a faint sad smile ghosting his lips.



“The king sought me out on his own after the meeting. A servant came to tell me he was asking for me and I of course obliged and went to see him. He never said much that first time except that he was intrigued by my ideas and wanted to hear more. I remember being so excited to be noticed and acknowledged so I went on and on for an hour I think. I don't even remember what I told him, just that I had so many ideas and plans and he just quietly sat there and listened smiling the whole time. After that, he called me to him again the next day— And the day after that, and the day after that, and I thought nothing of it at first, but then I brought up another debate at one of the meetings and I looked to the king to back me up, but he never did.


I didn't understand. I started noticing he would never offer many opinions himself or really contribute much to our talks. But then why would he keep calling me to talk about something when he didn't really care for it? I thought maybe he was trying to hide something from the other ministers but no one really went against the king. They were all very loyal to him. But then why? I was very upset that night and when he called me I went in and I asked him.


That's the first day he let his intentions be known to me. He asked me how I thought about male relationships and I was… I was scared and terrified and I had lived a very sheltered life. I expected to just serve in the king's court, be married, have kids and die a respectable lord. But here the king was showing interest in me and showing me something I had never even considered in my wildest dreams. So obviously I ran out of there and I sent a servant telling the court I was sick the next day. But there was only so long I could hide and I had to be back in court by the start of the next week when my family started questioning me. I remember I tried to race out of there the second the meeting adjourned but the servant got to me quick and the king was looking straight at me as the servant told me he wanted to see me. I, of course, obliged.


He told me how he cared for me that night and that he wouldn't pressure me into anything if I did not want to and that he only wanted his feelings known. However, he did want an answer but he said he would wait for it, and so I left again and I was just so confused, Yoongi. I was so ready to say no and end it all but then it all started coming back to me. How I had never really felt anything for girls, and a future with a wife never filled me with happiness like it did other boys, how the king was so handsome and his care for me had my heart fluttering. I don't know I was just so confused and everything was a whirlwind in my head. I went to court but I couldn't pay attention for a solid week and during my days off when I usually went out with my friends or had fun I just stayed holed up in my room instead, or sat outsid