9
Their Kingdom Panorama
/\_____/\
They had their bathroom break and dinner was served no later than two hours later. After another bathroom break Victoria quickly returned to digging the hole. It was almost the size of a monster truck’s tire by now. She silently thanked God for giving them moist soil to work with. It had made the job so much easier and quicker. The thought of staying locked in for one more night was suffocating her.
Throwing the chipped wall board aside Victoria knelt down and glanced through the hole. The night sky with shining stars greeted her along with a nice cold breeze.
“Get over here!” Victoria beckoned.
Donghae got off his spot and crawled over.
“Will we fit through?” Donghae questioned.
“You should have worked harder if you don’t fit,” Victoria said then glanced at the locked door. “Be quiet. I’ll go out first.”
Victoria squeezed her head through the hole and pushed her way out. After a minute she was lying on the refreshing grass under the full moon. A smile erupted on her face and she squealed before sitting back up. She needed to get Donghae out as well before she could make the official run for it.
“Ugh…argh…hey pull me out,” Donghae ordered stretching his arm out for her a quarter of the way through the hole.
“Aish…this guy…seriously.” Victoria mumbled. “You’re half the size of me and you have trouble getting out.”
Victoria grabbed onto his hand and pulled him out in less than a second.
“I’m beginning to wonder if you have an ego,” Victoria commented.
“Is this what they call jail break?” Donghae smirked feeling satisfied with himself.
“Oh, please.” Victoria said looking around. “Be quiet.”
Finally getting a look at their surroundings, Victoria was positive that they had been abandoned in the middle of nowhere. She couldn’t see anything except for the trees that surrounded them all around. Then the beep of a distant horn caught her attention. Was it from a car? Train?
Victoria turned and headed into the depth of the woods.
“Hey! Where…where are you going?!” Donghae chased after her.
Victoria glanced around the identical trees before coming to a stop.
“Do you even know where you’re going?” Donghae asked stopping behind her.
Victoria half glared at him with the back of her head. “I don’t know.”
“Then where are you going?”
“We have to start somewhere.” Victoria stated. “I heard a car a while ago. Just follow the noise and maybe we’ll reach the highway.”
“Really? You think so?” Donghae asked.
Victoria shook her head wondering if he was a blonde or a transgender. The survival habits she’d often used back in the days when she was a runaway were slowly coming back to her. However, as the continued she became aware that they were encircling the area.
“How far out do you think the highway is?” Donghae asked. “I’d say if I were to kidnap someone I’d dump them far out from the city.”
Victoria turned to look at him, “Why doesn’t your brain start working sooner?”
“I just thought about it now.” he replied. “But I don’t think we’ll get around in the dark like this. It’s impossible to see anything. This calls for a break, don’t you think?”
Donghae was ready to sit on the ground and even as he sat down Victoria paced back and forth in a circle in front of him restlessly.
After a moment she walked over to him, “Don’t you think they would have noticed by now? That we’re gone? Would they come after us?”
Donghae suddenly got back up alarmed.
“You’re right. What are we going to do if they find us?”
“I asked you,” Victoria muttered through half gritted teeth. “Ah…it’s impossible to rely on you.”
“What did I do wrong?” questioned Donghae with a shrug.
“Lets find a place to hide first.” Victoria said walking around some shrubs.
Donghae followed her and a few minutes later the two of them were embroiled in silence.
/\_____/\
After a long dinner of celebration Kyuhyun finally retreated to his large room. The first thing he did was jump onto his bed and lie down for a few minutes. Getting up he glanced at his white desk positioned beside his bed. A few books and magazines stacked against each other sat on it along with a jar and some pictures.
Taking a seat in the white chair he opened the white jar decorated with gold curls along the sides. He pulled out a faded blue bracelet weaved from yarn and allowed it to dangle between his fingers under the light.
It was a childhood piece he’d created with the help of So Rae. Though it did not hold any special feelings, it harbored their friendship as children. Kyuhyun also recalled that he had regarded it as a good luck charm.
As the light shone down upon it Kyuhyun thought about So Rae’s earlier words.
She was angry at him and at her father. That he was aware of. As a child and in his teens he’d also realized that So Rae often had a hard time accepting things the way they were because she only wanted sincerity from her father. Though he never understood why President Bang never showered it over her he couldn’t do anything as it was their family affair. And he wouldn’t have the right to say anything as he wasn’t family…at least not yet.
By the age of 12 he’d been told that So Rae would become his future bride. The thought neither excited nor made him feel any different toward her. She had always been the same aged friend he’d grown up with. There were no strings attached in their relationship. That was the way he saw it.
However, he soon saw that So Rae was exhilarated by the news. Obviously she was infatuated by him though she didn’t allow it to show. He figured that it was probably her pride that kept her in place. She was always following her father, being obedient, getting good scores in school just to make him proud. She was, Kyuhyun saw, her father’s shadow.
That shadow broke when 5 years ago the plan for their marriage was called off. At a family dinner it was suddenly announced that Kyuhyun was no longer So Rae’s-to-be husband. Detectives had been scattered throughout the country in search of her younger sister and once she was found Kyuhyun’s marriage to her would commence.
And the smile that had lit his face, that unknown smile was seen by So Rae.
He still remembered how she had walked away from the table angrily unable to let tears out. And she had refused to see him before he left to study abroad.
Kyuhyun placed the old bracelet back in the jar and walked over to the large square window in his room. He unlatched the lock in the middle and pushed both sides of the window open. As the breeze flew in the white curtains flew back in the air like dove wings.
Sticking his hand in his pockets he was glad that despite all So Rae’s drama he was back. Silently he wondered when he’d be able to see his future bride.
/\_____/\
The fat tree they were hiding behind was preventing any wind from cooling off their heated bodies. The leaves above were refusing to budge and not even one mice scurrying along the ground was present that night. As the two of them leaned against the tree sitting side by side they wondered when the sun would finally come up. During the hours that had ticked by unknowingly the both of them were only aware of their own boredom. However, they refused to budge in case anyone passed by.
The moon was still high in the sky. A king of his own kingdom. Donghae tilted his head back down and continued tearing the leaf in his hands. Victoria hadn’t spoken at all. During the last hour, as he remembered while they were escaping, she’d yapped so much. Now that she was quiet he was feeling a bit uncomfortable.
“Are you asleep?” he asked.
Victoria didn’t turn.
“In the past my friends often told ghost stories in the middle of the night. I know some really scary stories. Do you want to hear?” he offered.
“Ah…just be quiet,” Victoria told.
“So you weren’t asleep.” Donghae stated.
“How can I sleep in this atmosphere?”
“Are you feeling hot?” Donghae asked. “Cause I am.”
Victoria snorted.
“Say, do you even think we’ll be able to find our way back at all? Even when the sun rises?” Donghae questioned.
“If you keep worrying we’ll probably get lost,” Victoria said.
“You think so?” Donghae wondered then turned so that he was looking at her. “By the way, why were you struggling so much earlier? You should have known that those guys were bigger than you. Shouldn’t you have been scared?”
Victoria was quiet for a bit before snatching the pieces of leaves out of his hand.
“Do you know what the worst thing possible is in this world?”
“What?” he asked.
“Guess.”
“Mmm….” Donghae went on. “Starvation.”
“No.”
“What can be worse than that?” Donghae spouted.
“Being locked up,” Victoria finished.
“Why?”
“You can’t see anyone and it feels suffocating.” Victoria explained. “You’re continuously cramped up in this space and you keep wondering ‘When will I be able to get out?’ And you never know what’s going on in the outside because you’re locked in between four walls. You don’t hear any news from friends or family. Sometimes it’ll feel like you’ve been deserted.”
Donghae frowned wondering where she was getting all these thoughts from.
“Really?” he asked. “But then if you have no one, you don’t have to worry about anyone or anything. That’s the way it’s been for me.”
“Then you might enjoy being locked up.” Victoria said.
“I might.” Donghae replied with a joking smile.
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