07/14/12

Above picture: How they travel in their journey. By camel :D

Nichkhun and Victoria's first meeting~ They didn't really start off on a good note...

            Victoria won. She won. She didn’t want to win, but she won anyway. She could have just given up during any of the rounds, but her love for competition kept her going. Why did I have to be so competitive? She asked herself. Hyuna’s mom said it was a good thing, but to me, it’s a curse. Victoria knew many girls between the ages of 12 and 20 who wanted to become queen, but she just had to win. Hyuna would have wanted to become queen, Victoria thought. But she wasn’t chosen to be part of the competing group. Instead, she was assigned to be my assistant if I ever became the queen.

            Victoria thought of what Hyuna would always tell her: You should be grateful for your chance to become the queen. You can change the world and make it a better place. The last election of the king and queen was a century ago. You should be glad to be alive during this century so you can compete.

            Hyuna had such a selfless personality. Victoria still wonders why she wasn’t chosen to compete for the chance to be queen. Wasn’t the queen supposed to be gentle and selfless? Wasn’t Hyuna just that? Hyuna says that she didn’t have enough “lust” for competition, but Victoria didn’t think that competitiveness was a key ingredient to be qualified to become queen. Instead, she thought it was one of the worst qualities a queen can have.

                                                :::::

            Hyuna was so excited! Her best friend was the queen of the land of Tawaran! She quickly started packing up all of Victoria’s and her clothes once she was notified by the messenger. Victoria was going to be back in one day, and the day after that, they’ll start trekking toward the Palace with the king, advisors, and workers from the Palace.

            There was a slamming of the door, and Hyuna knew that Victoria was back. She knew that Victoria never wanted to become queen, but every part of Victoria was made for the role of queen! She would never tell that to Victoria, though, because her temper is quite unstable.

            “Why did I get picked?!” Victoria came storming into Hyuna’s room. “There has to be a mistake!”

            “There wasn’t any mistake, Vic,” Hyuna told her friend. “I mean, the last test is quite hard to pass. There are very few people who have a birthmark in the shape of a star.”

            Victoria glared at Hyuna. “Why can’t we decide our future instead?!”

            “Then the person that the advisors pick will be the wrong person,” Hyuna reasoned. “The person the advisors want has to resemble the past queens in personality, appearance, and location. They try their best to find the right person, and they know that that person will refuse to cooperate. It’s all planned out already. “

            Victoria eyed Hyuna suspiciously. “You don’t believe all of that, do you? I mean, all of that is just part of their religion. And besides, I wasn’t born in Ming Guang, anyway.”

            “I don’t know anymore,” Hyuna thought about it. “I don’t know if all of this can ever be scientifically proven. Just the fact that the king can choose the three correct objects out of a thousand items is weird enough. There must be some type of supernatural force that’s making everything happen.”

            There was a knock on the door, and Hyuna told the knocker to come in. It was her mom. “Victoria, we have to get going.”

            Victoria furrowed her eyebrows. “Why do I have to go when I don’t want to go?”

            “You have to because you were chosen to become queen. The advisors made it a rule that whoever is chosen will have to become queen whether she wants to or not,” Hyuna’s mom said.

            “No!” Victoria shouted. “I’m not going to go! I don’t want to be ruled by a bunch of old guys for the rest of my life! I want to have a future where I can decide things for myself!”

            Hyuna tried to coax Victoria to calm down a little bit, but her mom, who accompanied Victoria to the competition, had reached her limit. She grabbed Victoria by the hair and pulled her face toward her own. “Listen carefully, Victoria. We’re lucky that we’re still alive in this world. This country hates disbelievers like us. We have to become one of them if we ever want to survive in this world. Go and participate in the Passage and become queen. It’s the only way you can stay alive. If you escape from the advisors, we’ll track you down and kill you ourselves!”

            Victoria calmed down, eyeing Hyuna’s mom with a mixed expression of fear and annoyance. Hyuna took Victoria’s hand to try and reassure her. She never liked how her mom threatened Victoria, but she knew that her mom was only doing it for Victoria’s own good. Victoria had such a temper, and if she lets something about her birthplace slip, then it would be the end of her life.

                           ::::::::::::::

            “Come on, Vic!” Hyuna tried to coax Victoria. It was the evening, and the next morning was going to be the first day of the Passage, or the journey to the Palace. “You should be happy!”

            “Hyuna, you know that I never wanted to become queen,” Victoria said. “Especially since the advisors decide everything for you, and you have to one day be married to somebody without your permission. I endured all of the training for the competition in hopes of failing and regaining my freedom, but instead, I actually won the stupid thing.”

            Hyuna tilted her head and smiled a little. “Vic, it’s not going to be that bad, okay? The king was chosen for his qualities, like competitiveness and understanding of life, as well as physical capability.”

            “That’s the thing, Hyuna,” Victoria said. She ignored the fact that Hyuna sounded like she came out of a textbook. “They chose him, but we didn’t choose each other. Why do we have to get married? What if we don’t like each other?”

            “Don’t worry, Vic,” Hyuna reached up and patted Victoria on the shoulder. “Everything will work out. You two were destined to be together, like how we were destined to be together as well.”

            Victoria smiled. She remembered the first day she met Hyuna. She was ten, and the teachers were judging the kids in the class and deciding which girls were going to participate in the competition based on their competitiveness. The girls who weren’t chosen had another test. Based on that test, those girls were assigned to assist a girl participating in the competition. That was when Hyuna met Victoria. Victoria was as unwilling as she was now, but the two of them soon became inseparable best friends. Not to mention, they had the same backgrounds, both of them moving to Tawaran from the same place.

            “That’s different, Hyuna,” Victoria told her. “We both came from the same place, and we don’t have to get married. And besides, you can be friends with anybody if you wanted to.”

            “Stop flattering me,” Hyuna dismissed Victoria’s comment with a wave of her hand. “It’s not as easy as it seems. But I understand your worries. And I’m telling you that you’ll be okay.”

            Victoria sighed and nodded, smiling down at Hyuna to reassure her that she was okay. As long as Hyuna’s here, Victoria thought, I have less to worry about.

                                          ::::::::::

            It was the big day. The “Passage” to the “Palace.” Nichkhun had to wait for the “queen” to arrive before they could leave, though. He looked disapprovingly at the late camels trudging across the windy desert.

            “It is okay, Nichkhun.” Hyunseung told him. Hyunseung was Nichkhun’s assistant, just like how Hyuna was Victoria’s assistant. Nichkhun scoffed. “Now I know a little bit more about my

‘queen.’”

            “Give her a chance, Nichkhun,” Hyunseung replied. “Remember that you’re going to be living with her for the rest of your life.”

            Nichkhun winced at the thought. “Don’t remind me of it. I don’t want to remember.”

            Hyunseung laughed at his friend’s reaction. “Well, I’m sorry, but I have to remind you of it. It’s my job.”

            “Then quit it and just be my friend,” Nichkhun complained.

            “Sorry, but friends also remind each other of the bitter truths,” Hyunseung fake-apologized. “I guess you’ll just have to deal with it.”

            The three late camels reached the rest of the group. A woman around the age of 40 stepped down from one camel. She rushed toward Nichkhun and knelt down at her feet, bowing and touching her nose to the sandy ground. “I’m terribly sorry, my Lord. The queen has been very difficult today.”

            Nichkhun let out a sarcastic laugh. “It is alright. Let’s just go.”

            Nichkhun turned around and signaled his camel to move. Although he didn’t look back, he heard Hyunseung get off his camel to help the woman up and get her on the way back to Ming Guan. He heard the woman say her goodbyes to the two girls. Afterward, the journey to the Palace began.