55
Their Kingdom Panorama
/\_____/\
“Is it really true? The text you sent me?” Mi Sun questioned sitting on the chair in front of So Rae’s desk.
She watched her friend open the lunch box she’d bought her.
“Do you think it’s worth lying about such a stupid thing?” So Rae lightly snapped breaking apart her chopsticks.
“How would I know?” Mi Sun asked. “But isn’t it about time you give him your blessing?”
“Why would you tell me this after all this time?” So Rae angrily said.
Mi Sun smiled easily as if So Rae’s temper didn’t affect her at all, “A few weeks ago he came down with Victoria to see your mother.”
So Rae lowered her chopsticks from , “What?”
“You didn’t know?”
“Know what.” it wasn’t a question.
“When Victoria came to persuade your mother to speak with you, Kyuhyun seemingly tagged along,” Mi Sun explained, “they slept the night at my home because of the storm.”
So Rae snorted and bit her lower lip. Setting down her chopsticks in the lunch box she pushed it away from her.
“I’ve totally lost my appetite, thank you.”
Mi Sun laughed lightly, “Why? You need to eat.”
“After telling me that junk, you want me to enjoy my lunch?”
“Well, why can’t you?”
“Mi Sun!”
Mi Sun sighed, “You’re going to have to give it up one time or another. Cho Kyuhyun, don’t make him suffer for you.”
“How would I make him suffer?” So Rae questioned stubbornly. “I could give him the world if he asks for it!”
“Exactly,” Mi Sun nodded, “it’s burdening.”
“What?”
Mi Sun crossed her legs, “That you want to give him so much.”
“It’s only because I want to give him all that he wants. How does that hurt one’s pride?”
“Your mother,” Mi Sun changed the subject, “has asked Kyuhyun to care for you in her place. Your mother wants Kyuhyun to push Victoria aside when they’re married to take care of you. Now, does this hurt your pride?”
So Rae rolled her eyes and looked away from her friend.
“Who does she think she is to ask him this?”
“Your mom.”
“She’s not my mom. She stopped being my mom when she finalized the divorce.”
“Kyuhyun will still try to uphold his promise,” Mi Sun added.
“I don’t need that person to worry for me when he’s going to enjoy the rest of his life with someone who doesn’t deserve him.”
“Well, I guess I can’t say anything against that,” Mi Sun told. “I’m not in your shoes, but a bystander.”
Mi Sun got up from her chair and stopped before the door.
“Man Shik, I think he was a friend of your mom’s. I couldn’t get any personal information about him as his relatives and friends denied me. I’m not a private investigator so I couldn’t do anything about it.” Mi Sun told. “Why don’t you ask your mother about him?”
/\_____/\
When she saw Donghae sitting at his usual spot on the couch So Rae pushed the lunch box into his hand.
“Here, have it,” she arrogantly offered, “go home early. I’m heading out.”
Escaping the business building she rushed for a cab and later found herself standing before the gray door that would lead her to Kyuhyun. After knocking she heard a voice and took it as the signal that she could enter. Pushing the door open she discovered the neatly dressed Kyuhyun sitting behind his expensive desk.
“Oh? So Rae, what are you doing here?” he looked up as she strode over.
“Is it true?” So Rae still asked, probably hoping that he’d deny it.
“What?”
“How can you agree to the engagement?”
“So Rae,” he tried setting down his pen.
“No, I thought you wouldn’t go through with it. I know you like her, but I didn’t actually think you’d go through with it!”
Kyuhyun sighed, “You knew what was in store for me, I don’t get why you’re acting up.”
“I don’t want you to become my brother-in-law!”
Kyuhyun stared at her.
“I may have shot those words at you, but I didn’t mean it!” So Rae went on. “Don’t, don’t get engaged to her! You deserve a lot better than that!”
“Bang So Rae,” Kyuhyun steadied his voice into a deep husky tone, “who are you to decide this for me?”
“The child who grew up with you!” So Rae shook her head furiously. “Do you think Victoria will really stick by your side throughout all this? Because I don’t!”
Kyuhyun stared at her upset.
“You don’t even know her,” So Rae’s voice quieted.
“I know her in better terms than you do,” Kyuhyun spoke softly.
So Rae sent a glare at him.
“You haven’t gotten to know her yet,” Kyuhyun pointed out, “I will, for sure, take her out of that house and put her by my side.”
“You…”
“Enough,” Kyuhyun stated, “no one, but Victoria should tell me that this engagement shouldn’t go on. If this is all you have to say to me, please go home, I have a lot of things waiting to get finished.”
So Rae stared at him surprised by his rash decision.
“You…will certainly regret making this engagement happen,” So Rae muttered.
“There’s one thing I’ve always wanted from you, So Rae,” Kyuhyun told, “your blessing for us.”
Biting her lip, she turned around and walked out closing the door behind her.
So Rae was so angry, angry to the point where she couldn’t have cared less about anything else. When she stepped of the taxi and headed toward the gate door, it opened and Victoria walked out with a bag of goodies. Victoria glanced at her quietly and started down the walk, but So Rae purposely bumped into her causing her to drop her bag.
So Rae turned to Victoria when Victoria stared at her, “Why?”
Victoria turned away and picked up her bag only coming to a stop after a step forward.
“How did you do it?” So Rae questioned spinning around so she could stare at Victoria’s back. “Cho Kyuhyun…how did you make him so undeniably crazy about you that he would put everything on the line for you?! How could you make him forget everything we’ve been through together?!”
Victoria turned around coolly and just stared at her, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You don’t know? You don’t know?!” So Rae raised her voice by the second.
Victoria shrugged, “I said I don’t know.”
So Rae took a step forward.
“I’m not in the mood to be bullied by you right now, unnie,” Victoria retorted so calmly that So Rae felt even more angry. “You can throw a fit when I return later.”
So Rae let out an exasperated breath and bit her bottom lip as Victoria trudged away from her.
/\_____/\
Shaking her head as she made her way down the walk Victoria turned her attention to the bag that had dropped. Making sure that the food from the containers hadn’t leaked she speed walked all the way toward the shelter where the Three Musketeers were awaiting her.
Setting out the food onto the newspapers they’d spread out like a picnic table Victoria glanced at them one by one.
“Have you guys gone to the public bath house?” she asked.
Their faces immediately flushed red.
“Yah!” Eunhyuk shrieked. “Why would you ask us this?!”
“I didn’t think you were a ert,” Yesung muttered.
Victoria laughed and waved her hand, “Not like that, but your appearances are a little muddy.”
“It’s not like we’ve been rolling around in mud,” Ryeowook said, “we only take baths every Sunday.”
“Every Sunday?!” Victoria’s voice reached the top of her lungs.
Eunhyuk leaned forward in panic mode and tossed his hand over her lips.
“It’s embarrassing! Don’t you know how to be quiet?!” he scolded.
Victoria shrugged a little.
“Why are you asking for our bath schedule?” Ryeowook wondered.
“You’re kind of peculiar,” Yesung noted.
Victoria cleared , “Nothing, I was just curious.”
Eunhyuk frowned at her, “Could it be…that you like one of us?!”
Victoria snorted, “No.”
“Can’t you tell? She already has her mind set on someone else.” Yesung pointed at her.
Victoria slightly laughed at them.
/\_____/\
There was something about Victoria that had been annoying him for the past week after their talk by the harbor. She was all so cheery and…completely normal. Donghae tossed and turned in bed, but couldn’t quite understand any of it. What bothered him most second from normal Victoria was why he was so caught up about her.
“If you tell me one more time,” Victoria began, “that you like my unnie, then I can do it without a regret.”
Or was it something she’d said there that bothered him? Shifting onto his side Donghae stared at the plain wall. Maybe it had to do with the fact that he’d actually told her he didn’t like her again.
Sitting up Donghae ruffled his hair roughly, “Gahhh!!!”
The next day at work he caught Victoria in the hallway before she could make it to her desk.
“Do you want to have lunch together today?” he started. “I was wondering if we could talk over a meal or something.”
“Lunch?” Victoria repeated before her phone rang. “Hold on.”
He watched as she answered her phone, had a slight conversation with who he guessed was Kyuhyun, then hung up.
Turning to him she smiled, “I’m booked, sorry. How about tomorrow? Or dinner later?”
“Forget it!” he snapped then turned away. “And here I was trying to be nice.”
/\_____/\
The door to So Rae’s office opened and Victoria looked up when she heard Mi Sun, “We’re heading out for dinner, do you want to join us?”
“Why are you asking her?” So Rae muttered from behind.
“Well, why not?” Mi Sun said.
Before Victoria could speak, So Rae interrupted, “Then the two of you go ahead.”
Without waiting to hear an answer So Rae strutted off.
“I have an appointment later, why don’t you go ahead,” Victoria suggested.
Mi Sun put a hand on her shoulder before walking off. Flicking her bangs aside she turned back to her computer then glanced at the clock. Turning off her computer she started toward the elevator. When the doors opened Donghae stared back at her.
“Oh?” came out of . “I thought you left.”
“I forgot something.”
“What’d you forget? I turned off all the lights already.”
Donghae turned his face away.
“What?” Victoria wondered. “You really forgot something?”
“Just come in,” Donghae mumbled.
Victoria eyed him before stepping into the elevator. They stood silently together. Glancing at Donghae through the corner of her eye she wondered why he wasn’t saying anything. Hadn’t he been strangely talkative this past week, or had it just been her own thinking? Victoria slightly shrugged to herself before the elevator shook.
“Oh? What just happened?” Victoria asked then glanced at the flashing number 1 on the screen.
Confused about why the doors weren’t opening she stepped forward and tried to pry them open to no avail.
“What’s going on?” she wondered then pressed the open button, but the doors still didn’t open.
“I think we’re stuck,” Donghae uttered from behind her.
Comments