part three:: introduction and rondo capriccioso

Halfway through the two-day sea journey to Guangzhou, Jongin realizes that though Joonmyun professes that he will protect the coastline villages from the Empire, he himself needs to be protected from something a lot less treacherous: the sea waves. The tanned fisherman winces as Joonmyun heaves the rest of his piscine breakfast in a greenish mess over the side of the boat, clutching his stomach with a grotesque expression on his face. Jongin feels a little pity for the older man, but it’s quickly obliterated when he notes that Joonmyun is unaccustomed to the rough waves because of his cushy upbringing in the Palace. His countenance turns stony and he turns away in righteous anger, storming away to the hull of the ship in order to find Sehun, who seems to be eluding him.

Jongin finds the younger boy is perched rather precariously on a crate of fish, fiddling with a strand of hemp and dreamily staring out over the undulating waves. Once Sehun notices the older man approaching, he attempts to make a fast getaway into the cabins, but Jongin is too quick for him, and he soon has Sehun cornered in the hull.

“So, Sehun-ah,” he begins, rather conversationally, “why exactly have you been avoiding me?”

Sehun looks like a fish flopping on a beach, and he glances from side to side in search of an escape route. “I…uh, that is…I, um, wasn’t feeling well, Jongin hyung. And I didn’t want anyone else to get sick. So I was avoiding you.”

Jongin rolls his eyes, seeing through the excuse. “Really, Sehun-ah? You gave Jinri-ah a hug before we left, you know.”

Sehun flushes in embarrassment, probably not because his excuse has been debunked. “Well, Jinri-ah would be mad if I left without saying goodbye properly, and I didn’t want to come back and have her yell at me…”

Suddenly realizing the real reason behind Sehun’s embarrassment, Jongin resists the urge to bang his head on the mast. He smirks a little. “Sehun-ah, you don’t need to be scared, you know. I completely approve of you and Jinri-ah.”

He turns his back on Sehun, leaving the younger boy gaping after him. Despite Jongin’s façade of complacence with his sister’s relationship with Sehun, he’s practically boiling inside with resentment—not against Sehun or Jinri, but against himself for not knowing this most important development in his sister’s life. Jongin has already come to terms with his absence in anything related to Jinri, but this crosses a line he hasn’t really anticipated. He stops walking around aimlessly and leans against the mast of the boat, sinking down to sit on an empty barrel as he contemplates his careless neglect of his only family.

Unfortunately, Jongin is only allowed to wallow in his misery for so long before a nuisance comes by. Joonmyun is apparently trying to make conversation with him again, and he squeezes his eyes shut, attempting to control himself from strangling the seemingly tactless man.

“So, Jongin-sshi, what’s your plan for the trade-off with China?” Joonmyun obviously does not sense Jongin’s atrabilious aura at all, and he proceeds to sit down next to the younger man on the barrel.

Jongin’s fists clench in righteous anger. Joonmyun is such a royal hypocrite, with all his idiotic attempts at small talk and his phony concern about Jongin’s well being and his trade with Guangzhou. “It’s none of your business, Suho. The only reason you’re here is to make the trade look official. That’s why Qian-sshi and Yifan-sshi are coming to the shoreline from Beijing. So just shut your mouth and stay quiet until we’re back in the Empire. Then you can run back to your white-faced friends in the Palace.”

Joonmyun hangs his head and stays silent for a while. Jongin thanks all the higher powers he can think of that the older man is finally allowing him to peacefully wallow in his sentiments. Neither of them is really willing to provoke the hostilities or ameliorate them either, and Jongin wonders whether Joonmyun will leave him alone at all.

Suddenly, Chanyeol comes jogging toward him, a reluctant Baekhyun in tow, and Jongin is relieved of the unnecessary tension in the air. “Jongin-ah! We’ve reached Guangzhou! Now we can go see Yifan-sshi and Qian-sshi!”

Jongin stands up abruptly, his attention snapping back to reality as the overly exuberant man bounds towards him. “We’ve reached Guangzhou? Then get the fish hauls ready and find Sehun. That midget is the only one who can speak Chinese here.”

Chanyeol grins and steps aside to reveal a sheepishly smiling Sehun. Jongin smirks; Sehun’s embarrassment is obvious by the red flush of his cheeks. He lightly ruffles Sehun’s hair as he passes by, but the younger boy swats his hand away and whines, “I’m not a midget, hyung!”

Jongin rolls his eyes at Sehun’s immaturity, but his lighthearted mood is quickly darkened as he notices the Guangzhou embassy awaiting them on the shore, the promised loads of timber lined up neatly on the shore. He heaves a sigh as the overly enthusiastic Chanyeol jumps in front of him, obscuring his vision.

“Jongin-ah! Should I wave a white flag to them? Like this?” He raises a piece of what looks like dishcloth tied around a stick and waves it around wildly.

The tanned man resists the urge to find a wall and bang his head against it repeatedly. “Chanyeol,” he grinds out through gritted teeth, “put that thing down now. Don’t make me look like a fool in front of those imbeciles, you nitwit. Get out of my sight.”

Quite intimidated by Jongin’s dour temperament, Chanyeol scurries away and hides behind Baekhyun, who shoots Jongin an exasperated look through kohl-rimmed eyes. Instinctively, Jongin glares back at him, but his attention is diverted as the head of the embassy—Yifan—greets him with a smile and a friendly wave. He narrows his eyes in distrust; these Chinese ambassadors, in his opinion, are as slippery as oiled eels. But Sehun steps forward and returns the greeting with something in Chinese, shouted out over the sound of rolling waves slapping against the hull of Jongin’s boat. Yifan responds with something else, a much longer string of syllables that bewilder Jongin to no end. The older man frowns in frustration, but it’s cleared away soon enough as Sehun whispers a hasty translation into his ear.

“Yifan-sshi says that they have the cargo and he will give it to you as soon as you dock the boats. And he wants to know where Joonmyun hyung is.” Sehun looks at him expectantly, evidently waiting for some sort of order from the older man.

Jongin is rather annoyed. “You don’t say? Of course they have the cargo. I can see it with my own eyes.” He halts abruptly, realizing the implications of Sehun’s last sentence. “Get Suho down here and dock the ships. I want this gotten over with as fast as possible.”

Sehun scurries off obediently and disappears into the bowels of the boat. Jongin turns his face to the side, letting the cool sea air whip his face and slap him awake. He closes his eyes to savor the salty tang of the wind that enters his nostrils and fills up his breath. His head pounds from the amount of stress from Joonmyun and the Guangzhou trade, and all the tanned fisherman wants is a full night’s rest without any haunting dreams of long auburn hair whipping around a delicate pale face with scared brown eyes.

Sehun returns, not only with Joonmyun, but also with Baekhyun, who has apparently doubled the amount of kohl under his eyes, and a rather sheepish Chanyeol who clings to his cousin’s arms as though to a lifeline. Jongin feels a little guilty for upbraiding Chanyeol enough to wipe off the friendly smile from his face, but he has other things to worry about. Stepping forward, he grabs Sehun and waits for Chanyeol and Baekhyun to fasten the boat to the stake that has been so conveniently hammered into the ground at just the right height for his boat’s tether.

Jongin’s brow is furrowed in annoyance now. “Ask them to give us the cargo. I want to get out of here now…I’ve got a bad feeling about this place.”

Sehun sighs in exasperation, rather used to his friend’s jaded racism. “Fine. I’ll tell them we need to hurry up with this transaction.” He yells out something else, and Jongin snorts in disgust as the harsh sounds of the Chinese language assault his ears. Suddenly, Sehun grabs hold of his sleeve and tugs him towards the hull of the boat.

“What are you doing?” he snaps, rather surprised by the sudden jerk.

“Yifan-sshi wants us to come down and have a cup of tea with him and his siblings. And no, we are not saying no to them. That’s a breach of hospitality for the Chinese, you know. It’s their custom to accept any invitation.”

“Even if the invitation is to a tea party that might have soldiers surrounding it, ready to ambush us?”

“Jongin hyung…really now? Put it this way. It’s a diplomatic mission that might just get us extra fishing waters and we need to establish friendly relationships with the Guangzhou authorities.”

“Fine. Whatever. Just talk to them and make them understand that this had better be over fast, or else.”

Sehun relays the information to Yifan, who smiles gently and beckons them with one hand. Sehun and Jongin follow him, Chanyeol and Baekhyun trailing behind them. It takes them around ten minutes of walking—and keeping up with Yifan’s long legs—to make it to the Chinese ambassador’s hut, but Jongin thinks it’s more like an hour. The time seems to drag on endlessly as he plods on and listens to Sehun and Yifan chatter away in Chinese, and finally he slows down a little until his steps match Chanyeol’s.

Casually, Jongin slings an arm around the taller man’s shoulders, hoping to bring a smile back on his usually cheerful face. Sure enough, Chanyeol breaks out into a wide grin and he put his arm around Jongin’s shoulder, the sunshine starting to appear on his face. And suddenly, the heavy weight on his chest disappears into thin air, and Jongin allows Chanyeol’s infectious happiness to spread to him.

The group of men reach the hut a little too late for Jongin’s liking. He suspiciously scans the bushes surrounding the small dwelling, but he finds nothing. Noticing his hyung’s wariness, Sehun puts his hand on the older man’s shoulder, trying to alleviate the tension in the air. Unbeknownst to both of them, Yifan looks upon the exchange and smiles benignly, recalling a time when he too had a friend upon whom he could rely for support.

Once they step into the hut, the men take their seats around Yifan’s polished mahogany table and the negotiation begins. Sehun and Jongin soon learn that the Chinese ambassador is a hard bargainer, and the situation gets tenser as Yifan’s sister Qian enters the scene. Joonmyun isn’t helping either, with his nervous demeanor and the expression of worry on his face.

At some point, between Sehun’s hasty translations and Joonmyun’s incessant questions, Jongin’s patience wears thin and he lashes out at Sehun in a volley of rapid-fire Korean. Qian is rather confused by the sudden outburst and she looks to Sehun for some sort of information. Sehun looks rather flustered and manages to spit out an annoyed “Shut up and let me finish the negotiation, Jongin” before turning back to Yifan and his sister and apologizing profusely in Chinese, bowing to the ambassador before quickly finishing off the conversation with an incessant stream of Chinese that leaves both Yifan and Qian rather bewildered by the sudden change in behavior. The Chinese man stands up, bowing to Sehun and Jongin in turn before escorting them back to the boats with a ceremony that seems rather obsequious in Jongin’s opinion. As they clamber onto the boats, Yifan makes a half-hearted attempt at speaking Korean, but when Jongin opens his mouth to make a scathing comment about the older man’s pronunciation, Sehun grabs his sleeve and pulls him sharply off balance. Jongin trips over the coils of rope on the deck, and as he picks himself up, he notices that they are already quite a distance away from the Guangzhou shoreline. He turns around abruptly, only to come face to face with Sehun, who is poised to deliver a lecture on international hospitality, but they’re both interrupted by the sound of Joonmyun retching. Jongin sighs—it’s going to be a long two days back home to Busan.

|ethereal masquerade|

Soojung, in all her eighteen years of life, has never been in such an awkward situation before. And she has absolutely no experience in comforting sobbing people. A couple days after the escapade to the docks, she’d come into her sister’s room looking for a book that Sooyeon had ‘borrowed’ some time earlier, and she had chanced upon the older girl huddled on the floor in a tearful mess of kohl, lipstick, and wine. Now here she is, attempting to give her sister a one-armed embrace while her other arm is wedged uncomfortably between a bureau and the bedpost. Soojung takes note of the numerous cups of soju, empty and otherwise, surrounding Sooyeon, and she is struck by the thought that maybe her sister is a closet alcoholic, but she quickly shoos the stray thought away from her mind. She’s never seen that much soju anywhere in the Palace, and she wonders whether Joonmyun had brought Sooyeon the drinks.

Rather unnerved by the lack of noise from her older sister, Soojung prods her in the side, hoping to elicit a response of some sort. Sooyeon merely turns her head to the side to give her a scathing glare, but it lacks the usual venom and bite that happens to be Sooyeon’s trademark. The younger girl merely smiles innocently at her sister, and proceeds to poke her even harder in her sensitive spot. Sooyeon swats her hand away with a playfulness that Soojung’s quite certain she’s never seen before, and her eyes widen a little when Sooyeon allows a small smile to grace her tearful visage.

Thinking upon the situation a little more deeply, Soojung narrows her eyes in suspicion. Sooyeon could be following her mother’s orders to stop her from doing something or she could secretly be spying for the Queen. The most likely option, Soojung decides, is that Sooyeon wants her to let her guard down so she can make another jab at the younger girl. So she plasters on a fake smile yet again and plays along with Sooyeon’s game, all the while pushing the burning tears back behind her eyes. After all, if Sooyeon wanted her to let her guard down, Soojung just couldn’t give her sister that satisfaction, could she?

A/N: okayyy…angsty jungsis and annoyed jongin for y’all. Poor Soojung TT.TT but Joonmyun’s seasickness XD Sorry it took so long to update (so much homework!)