Shine Bright Like A Diamond

Chapter Two:

It was early, and a bright morning, but to Ji Yong there was no better morning for the day of his birth. He instantly breathed in the calming cool morning air as he stood at his balcony, watching the majestic way that the sun raised. The cold night sky lighted itself with warm oranges and yellows as the sun started to settle itself, and Ji Yong softly smiled at the beauty of it all.

Walking back into his bedroom, he picked out some of his eccentric clothing from his closet, before bathing. Once he was finished getting ready in a simple black shirt, studded belt, slightly baggy blue mesh jeans, black boots, and a jagged white and black sweater. He already had several piercings in both his ears, but for once he was not feeling like adding any more accessories. He skipped out of his room.

In all honesty what he wanted today was just to reflect on himself, and how to better change his image to something more positive. He needed to figure out what he was doing wrong. He frowned when misery wrapped itself around his heart and he felt the hot vile of dread threaten itself up his throat. What was wrong with him? Curling and uncurling his fingers, Ji Yong thought that perhaps he needed to learn more control over his developing powers. There was no telling what kind of messes he could cause. Maybe if he practiced outside.

He could already remember last week when he had just been trying to relax his powers, and he ended up blowing up a few things. He had never intended for the explosion to cause a flood, then again, he had not expected to create such an explosion. It had nearly darned frightened him, but not today. Today was his day and he was going to make sure that he enjoyed it, even if his siblings wanted to take him out shopping for a…personal servant.

The word was still something that he dreaded as he headed out towards the dining area. When he got there, he found Daesung, Seungri, and Young Bae already eating breakfast. They all looked so happy and enthusiastic that Ji Yong had to wonder just who’s birthday it was. For a moment he was a little envious that they could seem so calm and happy when he himself couldn’t seem to relax that way.

“Good morning Ji Yong!” all three of them greeted him, with bright smiles, “Happy birthday!” Ji Yong frowned at them, grunting a greeting in return as he walked over to the table to sit down.

“Aren’t you excited about getting to go shopping for a servant today?” Seungri asked, showing that enthusiasm that Ji Yong just couldn’t understand. Sighing Ji Yong grabbed his cup of blood, downing all of it down in one go. Ji Yong slammed the now empty glass down on the table, slickly his lips, and nodded his head once before looking around for more blood.

“Sure, whatever,”

A chuckle suddenly sounded from the side, as Dong Wook entered the room, “You’ve have got to be the least excitable person in the world, Prince G-dragon,” the man smiled, placing a small box in front of Ji Yong. “Happy Birthday, love”

Ji Yong coldly flicked his eyes at it, but didn’t dare to touch the box. He knew better than to accept any gift from an unmated male. Especially one who has made his intentions clear on trying to claim him. “Prince Seven, when did you get back?” Ji Yong asked, arching an eyebrow as he turned his eyes to the dark haired man.

“Just this morning, in time for your birthday,” Dong Wook smiled, and took the empty seat beside Ji Yong. “You should really open my present, I’m sure you are going to love it.”

Ji Yong chuckled, getting to his feet. “I rather not accept it.” he politely nodded his head and flicked his eyes to his siblings as a cue for them to leave. Seungri, Daesung, and Young Bae immediately jumped at that, and bowed their heads while politely calling goodbye to Dong Wook, and they followed after Ji Yong.

Dong Wook only chuckled at how adorable Ji Yong was when playing hard to get, and decided to eat the untouched breakfast that Ji Yong had left behind.

Soon the siblings found themselves out in the main city of Seoul’s Kingdom. Seeing as they all had odd colored eyes, hair, and very different clothing from the average commoner, it was easy to tell that they were royalty. A few girls even paused to look at them, giggling and blushing as they either tried to take their picture with their cell phones, or just spaced out seeming like they wanted to say something but they their brains just wouldn’t function. Others seemed to stop breathing and faint from the lack of air.

It was kind of funny.

“Hey ladies,” Seungri eagerly greeted, wanting to flirt just for the fun of it, but Daesung pulled him to keep walking forward. Young Bae chuckled at Seungri’s silliness.

“Oh, look,” Ji Yong said, taking a detour to go into a large jewelry shop. The others rushed behind him, and grabbed him by both arms, to drag him out of the store. It was impossible. They knew Ji Yong was obsessed with jewelry and accessories. Not to mention that he was stronger than them when it came to sheer strength. They knew that especially when depressed Ji Yong likes to binge shop for jewelry and clothing. It became a struggle to pull him out, especially when both Seungri and Daesung spotted things that they liked and Young Bae was left alone trying to catch up.

By the time that they were walking again, all four boys each had a bag filled with new things. Ji Yong had four, and feeling proud of them. “So where are we going?” he asked, already wanting to go back home to put his new things away properly.

“Well, Jae Sung’s shop is somewhere around here, you know the one that has been opened for years and they sell the best servants,” Daesung said.

Human’s slaves happened in their world, and they were usually old or poor people whom needed homes. Others were mixed human and vampires born to both species, but where the human genes dominated and they couldn’t make it as vampires. They were all treated like animals and had no rights as they waited for someone to sort of ‘adopt’ them and give them a proper home. At least, that is how Ji Yong saw it.

“Over there,” Seungri pointed to a tall building, with glass front doors, and tall beams that arched onto the building. It was almost reminiscent of a horse stable.

“This place is huge,” Young Bae said in amazement.

“Well, it has only grown since it’s been opened.” Seungri said.

“Well, let’s go in,” Daesung suggested, and they nodded. The doors slid open and they walked inside, being hit by a blast of fanned cooled air as the stepped inside. Once the doors closed, the fan turned off, and a small ding sounded around them. The front was sort of a small office, with a desk and a large informative screen behind it, and on the side there was a door.

For a moment, they didn’t know what to do, until the door opened and a man dressed in a suit walked in. Over his face there were sun glasses and his hair was sleek and neatly combed back as usual. Just looking at him, and they already knew who he was. “Hello, welcome, Patron Park Jae Sung, at your service.” The man bowed, and strictly looked at them, “How may I help you today, princes?”

“We’re looking to purchase a slave, personal,” Young Bae said.

The man nodded his head, flashing them a crooked half smile, “Well, you’ve come to the right place. Let me show you the potential slaves so you can decide and we can get the paperwork started,” Jae Sung said, walking to his desk to grab a clipboard, “all four of you are getting one?” he asked, really wanting to hit a bargain.

“No, just G-dragon,” Seungri placed a hand on Ji Yong’s shoulder as he said it.

The man nodded his head and signaled for them to follow him through the door he had first exited from. “Come, come, don’t be shy,” he told them with a slight grin. “The slaves don’t bite. Unless trained to do so, of course,” and that crooked smile was back, making Young Bae even more suspicious of the man.

Ji Yong bit into his lower lip as he saw many slaves. Each of them looked healthy and well taken cared off. Yet there were so many of them. There were tall, thin, ugly, pretty, fat, males, and females slaves.

“They all have names already, but you can change the name as soon as they are yours.” Jae Sung said as he walked them through. “This one here is perfect for a personal slave, a real eager to learn young man,” he tapped a cage with a young blond male inside. Then he moved to another one that held a female with long brown hair, explaining a bit about her learning and status.

“This one is cute,” Seungri said as he looked at a small boy. He looked like he was around eight or something, with brown hair and large curious eyes. Young Bae looked down at him and raised an eyebrow.

“Completely human?” he dared asked. So far he was surprised that he had not seen any spliced slaves.

Jae Sung walked over, and looked at the boy before nodding his head. “Yes, fully human, nothing funny. No DNA engineering. I know what you are thinking, he might die within a hundred years or so, but human slaves do make the best. Especially when young,” Jae Sung started to explain while Ji Yong and Daesung wandered off to look around. “This one here has been with me since he was an infant, are either of you interested?”

Ji Yong frowned, looking at each slave that he passed by and neither catching his attention. He kept looking around, at every face, until he reached the very back. A maroon curtain seemed to obscure what was being hidden in the room, but as he stepped forward, he pushed the curtain back and walked inside. There were more slaves there, but they seemed to be ‘damaged’ in some way. The signs on their cages also told him exactly what kind of illness they were suffering from and descriptions that suggested that neither of these slaves were proper for being considered as personal.

Ji Yong ignored the sign and curiously looked around, he gasped when he found one that looked like an old man, and his eyes were unfocused, obviously blind. Another one as he opened his mouth, obviously no tongue and teeth. Missing arms, legs, and plenty of things, until he found one that looked fairly normal, of course, he looked with disgust when he learned that this human had sickle cell anemia. They had the worst tasting blood and a half life.

He then made a turn to look at the cage hidden in the very back, nearly hidden, but largely obvious, he could have never prepared himself for the sight of this slave.

His eyes had been Sewn shut.

His lips had been glued together.

His hands had been tied behind him, with a single rope that held them tightly wrapped, and allowing him no movement.

The collar around his neck was made of pure gold, embroiled with jewels, as was the chain that seemed to entangle itself throughout his whole body, further immobilizing him. His hair was matted and dirty that nearly looked gray from the lack of maintenance. His skin was a sickly pale and he could see his blue veins, and his body was so lanky and bony from lack of nourishment.

Ji Yong, who had been looking through every slave cage with sympathy for each slave, was now paused in shock when he saw him.

Empathy shot right through him, and he could almost feel the pain that this male was in.

“Err… there you are.” Jae Sung walked over to Ji Yong, smiling before pausing in slight shock when he saw what cage the prince had stopped at. For a moment, he stared at the slave he had completely forgotten about, before he decided he needed to divert the Prince’s attention somewhere else. “As you can see this way,” The Patron started speaking again, placing a hand on Ji Yong’s slender shoulder to direct him outside towards the other slaves, “We have some of the most gorgeous females, you can even make your own harem,” he suggestively said, but Ji Yong refused to look away from the slave in front of him.

“How much?” he asked.

Jae Sung shook his head, “No, no, this one, he is not for sale,” he smiled, “But if it’s a male slave you are looking for, I have one of the cutest one that just came in,” the man offered, trying once more to direct Ji Yong away.

Ji Yong growled, angry at the Jae Sung’s evasiveness, and bared his fangs for good measure, “I want this one.”

“I already said he is not for sale!” the man urged, “Besides, he’ll die soon. Why would you want someone who can’t do anything?”

“You can’t let him just die, that’s callous,”

Jae Sung barked a laugh. “You may be the crowned prince, but there are even things that just aren’t meant to be sold. Trust me, you don’t want this one”

“I don’t care, I want him,” Ji Yong pushed and Jae Sung was getting a little impatient with the prince. He knew he shouldn’t deny the prince what he wanted especially on his birthday, but this was for real. He just couldn’t go off and sell the most priced slave he had ever gotten. The prince could never understand just how special this one was. It shouldn’t even be possible for that specimen to exist in the same plane of time and dimension as them.

“I’m going to have to ask you to leave, if you are not here to purchase a slave,” Jae Sung said in a serious tone, getting an angry look on his face.

Ji Yong bared his fangs again, “I’ve chosen this one,” he said, pointing his finger at it.

Jae Sung moved around him, pulling a long black curtain over the cage to conceal it from Ji Yong, “I suggest you leave now,”

Ji Yong’s eyes flashed with anger.

“What’s going on here,” Young Bae asked as he came over to them, glancing from side to side to each deform slave. He was left a little speechless as he looked at them and felt bad for them. Seungri walked in right behind him and had no inhibitions in saying exactly what was in his mind.

“Oh damn, such ugly slaves,” he said, fascination glittering over his brown eyes. “Look at this one,” he gasped. Young Bae shook his head and then Daesung bounced right inside.

Jae Sung was getting a little worried about this and no longer felt comfortable. “I’m afraid I will have to ask you all to leave. Now,”

“I’m not leaving until you sell me that slave,” Ji Yong hissed, pointing a finger to the cage covered with a black curtain. Young Bae and Daesung looked at Ji Yong with uncertainty. They could see there was an obvious reason why these slaves were here and most likely not for sale. Seungri bit into his lower lip as he looked at the sad faces and thought maybe it would be better to leave before Ji Yong got crazy about buying something that was so deform, you had to question if it was human or vampire. It wasn’t a case that he was being mean, by all means these people were all functional, but they were probably better off in a place where they could be taken care of and not strained to do labor.

“Let’s go already,” Seungri pleaded as he grabbed Ji Yong’s arm. Ji Yong looked at Seungri, and shook his head.

“I want-”

“We know, but maybe it’s better you don’t. Let’s go to a different shop. I’m getting scared,” Seungri pleaded, pulling Ji Yong along with him. Ji Yong made faces, trying to decide what to say without sounding to rude, although he wanted to sound as rude as possible. He was struggling with the side of him that asked him to keep a professional image, and the side of him that begged him to destroy this shop and get what he wanted.

But before a decision could be reached, he had been led outside and he was walking in the middle of his two brothers and Young Bae at the front. They were nearly half way back to the castle when Ji Yong suddenly paused in his walking, his hands gripping the bags in his hands.

“Ji Yong?” Daesung questioned.

“I’m not going to another shop to look for a slave,” Ji Yong said, “I want the one back in that shop and I’m going to get him, one way or the other,”

Young Bae, Seungri, and Daesung looked at Ji Yong with disbelief.

“What are you saying?” Young Bae asked, although he was afraid of the answer to that question.

“I’m going to take him,” Ji Yong said with conviction, “tonight,”

“But, what about everything that our father has always thought us about shoplifting” Daesung rationalized, “Are you really willing to get into trouble by kidnapping a slave?”

Ji Yong scoffed, “I’m not going to kidnap him! I’m going to save him!”

“Why do you want that slave so much?” Young Bae suddenly asked. He knew that Ji Yong never did things so irrational without a reason. Ji Yong always had a thought out logic for the things he did, especially when it came to breaking both law and rule.

“I don’t know,” Ji Yong truthfully said, “I just feel like I need to help him. When I saw him, with his eyes Sewn shut, his lips glued together, and chained like that…I felt like he was trapped and I have to do something to get him out of there. To help him,”

“Sewn shut?” Daesung gasped, looking appalled at the idea.

“That’s abuse,” Seungri cried, “why would he have someone trapped like that?”

“Maybe he committed a wrong,” Young Bae tried to justify, despite how his stomach was revolting at the thought of someone in that state. “There has to be a logical reason for Patron Park Jae Sung to keep that slave in that way and not want to sell him either.”

“Then he should have come to the king and told him!” Ji Yong argued. “Besides, it’s not my morality to leave someone to suffer that way when I could do something about it.”

“But its larceny,” Young Bae implored Ji Yong, “What will the king say in the prospect that you didn’t come to him and instead decided to go stealing!”

Ji Yong frowned as he looked at Young Bae. All this time he had always had some hostility towards Young Bae, but the problem was never Young Bae itself. Because right now it wasn’t about who would be the heir or getting ahead. This was an issue of a true friend worried about his friend’s actions, and Ji Yong was thankful, truly was. But something inside of him just screamed that he had to have that slave. “That patron could easily hide the slave and I might never see him again. I can’t take that chance. I’d rather be punished and know where the slave is than anything else right now.”

Seungri groaned, barring his fangs “What is so special about that slave?” he wondered, making the others look at him oddly.

“Haven’t you been listening? Nothing is special about him; Ji Yong just can’t live with himself knowing that he could help him.” Daesung explained. “He wants to set him free and judge for himself if it’s right to keep him…the way he is.” He looked down, thinking about the pain that person had to be with his eyes Sewn shut and his lips glued together. It was a terrible faith.

“Well, yeah I get that. But it’s not like he’s one of our family members.” Seungri tried to justify.

“Oh Seungri,” Young Bae shook his head. Ji Yong glared at his brother. Daesung flinched, but didn’t say anything. Seungri gave them all an apologetic look and shrugged.

“Look, all I’m saying is that we can’t help everyone. This guy sounds creepy. And Oh, also that whole curiosity killed the cat speech” he shrugged, “I’m sorry,”

“It’s okay,” Ji Yong said, “but I’m going to steal him. I don’t want any of you telling on me or anything.”

All three of them grimaced as they watched Ji Yong briskly walk the rest of the way. Worry was churning in their stomachs and they could only hope that Ji Yong was not about to do something that would get them into trouble.

Knowing from Ji Yong’s younger escapades, the boy had a knack for finding things people had left untouched for year because they were cursed. It was as if something in Ji Yong told him that he could open it. It wasn’t always the best idea, and it would have been better to have left it sealed, but it also seemed that just as easily it was for Ji Yong to get in trouble, it was also easy for Ji Yong to get himself out of the trouble. That also didn’t mean people did not end up hurt, or nearly dying for it.

They just hope that this wasn’t one of those times.

Relief had washed over Jae Sung when the prince and his family had left, but the worry came right back as he looked at the cage of the slave the prince had seen and wanted. If the king was told about him, then surely they would ask the crime this one had committed to continuously suffer all the time.

The problem was that he couldn’t tell the truth.

Not about this one, despite it never being his fault.

His mouth opened wide and he wanted to escape his own skin. He closed his mouth and gripped his hair in dismay. The history about this slave was much more complicated than he would like to admit.

When his father had been killed, he had inherited this particular slave as a gift and been told that it was his father’s most prideful and joyful possession. Sure, that was his best thing in the world seeing as he, his own son, was nothing but a huge disappointment. The cherry on that cake had been the last message his father had left along with this present – take better care of him than you do for yourself, and don’t be lazy, his life is worth more than yours.

He had been tempted in killing this thing that his father had loved so much, but he wasn’t that heartless and decided to get to know it instead.

At first it wasn’t so bad, the boy had remained peaceful, with carrying out orders and everything. And yes he said boy because he looked no older than his twenties, despite knowing that his father had owned him for more years than that. The boy was tall, slender, and had seemed very handsome at first. For the life of him, he couldn’t really decipher how his father had done it when this boy didn’t seem to poses any magic, nor did he own fangs like a vampire, and to tell the truth his presence radiated that of a human.

Two years passed and everything remained normal. In fact he was still trying to figure this boy out, seeing as he wouldn’t eat, and refused any of the food he was given. It was as if he didn’t trust him and at one point the boy had learned that his past owner, his father, was no longer in existence. He never talked or asked though, but Jae Sung felt like he had to explain to him that he wasn’t being left here for a period of time, he was here forever with him.

And then, that happened.

The boy’s eye color had shifted, from a deep black where a white ring appeared around his pupil and the outer part turned a deep blue. Then he had attacked him. He didn’t remember much of that night, only knowing that he had nearly lost his life. He had been saved since he kept a gun nearby and shot him. Even now he doesn’t know what kind of creature it is, and he was sure that he had only been after his life, and had not done it out of hunger.

Judging by how he attacked him for what he believes was no real reason he had no qualms in locking him up. But he was scared he would wake up and attack him again so he grabbed super glue and sealed his lips. He then placed him in a large double cage and chained him, with gold chains seeing as they said gold was very tough to rip apart. Probably not impossible, but still he had to be cautious. So he added a circle of salt around him. As for his eyes being Sewn shut, he had done that so those pitiful infinite black eyes would not look at him pleadingly.

He guessed that he was weakened, and did the only thing that had come to mind at the time, which was to sow his eyes shut.

Since then he had not bothered with this slave.

He had gone about his regular routine not caring about him much. He had almost become like that thing in the corner collecting dust.

“Now how am I going to get rid of you?” he wondered his eyes trained on the pitiful creature before him. His mouth twisted into a frown as an idea entered his head. One, two, maybe five clean bullets to his heart and head and that would be it. He could leave him here once more, and no one would ever know anything. If the King and his people came he could say that he had always been dead and that he was just there for display when Halloween came. And if he looked at him, he pretty much already look dead and that is why he had not sold him.

It made perfect sense.

Rushing to grab his stashed gun, he returned with it on hand. He quickly loaded the pistol with new bullets, all twenty four of them and aimed it. For a moment he hesitated at the sight of the wounded face of the captive slave. Despite how much dust and dirt had accumulated on him, despite his sewn eyes, swollen cheeks, and glued lips, he was still the most handsome thing that Jae Sung had ever seen.

Because he still remembered those deep dark eyes. Those were different from vampires, and sure vampires were already beautiful-but there was something about this creature that was different from the beauty a vampire possessed. For a second the letter in where his father had asked him to take care of this creature came to mind-he worth more than your life.

He’s worth MORE than your life.

The gun shook in his hold, but this was not the time to hesitate. Not when the prince could be back with the king and the court. So, he steeled himself and shot the gun.

One, two, to the head, third, fourth, and fifth to the chest, before he fell to his knees and amazingly Jae Sung found himself crying.

…I’m so sorry…