Stop!
300 Into the Future
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The Ice Lord's messenger bowed his head after conveying the news his general had tasked him to deliver. The Palace was dark in the wee hours of the morning and the Crown Prince, still dressed in his sleeping robes, smirked. With a lazy wave of his hand, he dismissed the soldier.
Looks like Jiyong had messed up big time. He wondered how the King would react if he were to know his oh-so-capable Jiyong had allowed two consecutive defense towers to collapse like that without nabbing any culprits. Ousting him from the Fire City would be nothing close to a problem if the enemies were to strike because of his negligence. Taeil knows that Jiyong can be even charged with treason. Seems like the heavens are on my side. Taeil chuckled darkly.
But again, Jiyong's message was for the palace to send men and funds over to rebuilt the towers, and Taeil, no matter how much he despises his younger half brother, knows the importance of them needing to be up again as soon as possible. An invasion or battle by the boarders would be favorable for him, but he's aware of the price and the number of civilians that would be lost. The Crown Prince sat down by the edge of his silk bed, resting his chin on his interlaced fingers as he mulled over his options.
Prince Taeil sat there for a long while before he abruptly stood up and pulled the doors to his chambers open. The hallways in the palace are entwined like a maze to prevent assassins. The long pathway from the Crown Prince's chambers was lined candle flickering in the silent darkness and Taeil treaded along soundlessly, his robes gliding on the floor behind him.
The capital's finance magistrate was deeply absorbed in his calculations when his doors were pulled opened, revealing the Crown Prince. Surprised by the sudden visit this early in the morning, the magistrate stood up, flustered, and hurried into a low bow.
"Your highness, how may I be of your assistance?" The old magistrate muttered as Prince Taeil glanced down at him coldly.
"We have a situation in the Fire City. I'm approving the grant that they are requesting." Taeil said lazily, strolling around the room filled with rows of scrolls and books.
"Of course, Your Highness, if you would just seal on the accounting scroll..."
The Crown Prince spared the thick book a careless glance and picked up the brush on the table top, dipping it into the bottle of ink. Just as he was about to lower the brush onto the thin, crisp paper, a voice stopped him.
"Hold it."
The Crown Prince spun around immediately, his eyes wide with surprise and he pressed his lips tightly together once he realised the source of this familiar voice. The Magistrate sunk into a half bow behind him.
Lady Kim strutted into the room, scrutinizing her surroundings. S would've never stepped her feet into this dust filled book sty if it wasn't for her son. It's barely 5 in the morning but as always, she is already primly dressed in her royal court gear, her bright, red hanbok flowing to the ground and her hair braided and pinned on her scalp without a strand out of place, giving her the impression as a woman that is not to be messed with.
"You've been very diligent, Official, for you to be at duty this early." Lady Kim remarked, squeezing out a small smile at the flustered finance minister while ignoring her son, who's staring straight ahead with his jaws tight.
"Yes, my Lady. It's only my duty." The official muttered, his eyes directed towards the floor.
"Would you give us a moment." Lady Kim requested. The official hurried out of the room.
The royal lady dropped the air of benevolence around herself and picked the accounting book from the table with two fingers, flashing the Crown Prince a glare.
"What are you doing?" She asked quietly, eyeing the book at a distance.
"I have the authority to transfer funds anywhere within the state, mother." Her son said stiffly, his eyes still staring straight ahead, as if he's a child thats caught stealing from a jar of sweets.
"I'm asking what are you doing?" She hissed, edging closer to her son. "I've asked the slave sent from the Fire City. Are you helping that little brat? The one that threatens your position?"
"I'm not helping him, mother! You know the towers are important-" the Crown Prince began agitatedly.
Lady Kim let out a dry laugh. "Don't be stupid, Taeil, those Taeyang bandits wouldn't dare to attack us just for the advantage of two towers, son." She whispered, and sighed, before approaching her rigid son to brush his hair off his face. The Crown Prince flinched at her touch, but his eyes softened.
"You know I only want the best for you, right?" Lady Kim said softly. However, within the depths of her eyes that should've been filled with love was filled was hollow instead. "You would want the best for mother too. Don't you?"
"Yes, mother." Prince Taeil answered in a quiet tone. The royal concubine flashed him a smile which showed her teeth.
The Crown Prince swallowed and his eyes followed his mother's hands as she tucked the account book back into the drawers.
"What's propanol again?" Jiyong asked blankly.
Dara sighed in frustration. This is the fifth trillion time that she had explained what the chemical is in every way possible, but Jiyong just couldn't grasp it. He found it hard to believe that something so harmless looking is able to burn at such speed. From the way she's describing it, it sounds almost like some sort of magic potion.
"Okay, I'll just go back and see if there's any remnants. You need to see it for you to understand-" Dara concluded.
She stood up from her bench but was yanked back down almost immediately. "You're not going there without my watch again, ever." Jiyong said firmly, flashing her a glare. The culprit was still at large, even though he's sure that he couldn't run far with the injury that he caused with his arrow. Even though it had missed his heart, where Jiyong was aiming for, because his hands were shaking so badly at that moment, he was sure that it had at least caused some sort of physical harm.
Dara decided that whether the Ice Lord can understand what a propanol is isn't important. What's urgent is to find out where is the source of it.
"Hey!" Jiyong called in alarm as Dara got up again, but she was only heading for his shelves of manuscripts. Flipping through the different rolls, she pulled out one and spread it across the table in Jiyong's room, revealing the map of the three kingdoms.
"You even know where I keep my stuff..." Jiyong muttered.
"Look, this is the Yellow Sea." Dara said, pointing at the map. "It existed before all these, it existed in my time."
"I know what the Yellow Sea is." Jiyong mumbled in annoyance. He had passed the imperial scholar examinations at seventeen years old, becoming one of the youngest scholars in the nation. Why is she making him feel like an idiot learning alphabets for the first time?
"In my time, there had always been rumors that the Yellow Sea held natural gases and oil. We used crude oil to burn and it generates energy that was used to sustain everything." A way to get propanol is to distillate crude oil. Dara had pondered over the unsolvable question for the whole night: Whoever it was, how did he get the technology to get fuels from the deep sea? That's not possible, even though Dara had an almost impossible guess for it...
"The largest distributor, which means a seller," Dara added quickly as Jiyong looked more confused, "was Korea Gas Corporation, who had always denied the existence of natural fuels in the Yellow Sea. There were sayings going around then that the Corporation had actually grabbed the crude oil for themselves and hid it to sell at higher rates when the prices of crude oil goes up."
Jiyong frowned, contemplating her words. So with the way this is going, is she suggesting that whatever this propa-thing was, it had been hidden for a very very long time before the arsonist gets it?
"And guess where is the Corporation headquatered?" Dara said excitedly as she almost reached the end of her theory, "Right here, in the old time Seoul." She said, pointing at the heart of the Taeyang's capitol city before meeting Jiyong's blinking eyes.
"I knew it..." He muttered, raking his hair in frustration as he sat up, grabbing his map. "You're smarter than I though! I'll be back soon!" Jiyong grinned, messing up Dara's hair before he quickly got up to leave the house.
Dara smiled to herself as Jiyong rushed out of the house. Maybe those chemistry classes weren't that bad, Dara thought amusedly, at least I'm not that useless here.
But there was still one riddle that can't be solved by science, and it has been throbbing in Dara's mind for a while now. Why did the arsonist threw the match stick away?
It didn't made sense. Whoever the one that was on top of the tower last night, he would've known how fast propanol can take the tower down. Dara wouldn't have a chance to escape. Isn't it only right for him to silence the only witness and finish his mission at the same time?
Why did he spared her?
[DARA]
This is giving me a headache.
I stood up and stretched my stiff arms. It seems like Jiyong wouldn't be back anytime soon. The clouds were rolling about lazily on the sapphire sky outside. It's almost 3 in the afternoon. On any other day I would be sneakily asleep on my desk in the office or secretly skyping Bom with my work desktop. That sounds like a faraway life now.
The air outside is much better than indoors, and I strolled out of the residence. I remember how the servants used to not allow me to get out so easily. Luckily it has stopped, or I'll break a leg trying to climb out from the fence.
There is a sound of leaves rustling and I spun around just in time to see a pair of round, doe eyes belonging to a child before he turned around and sprinted away. I didn't even have the time to ask him to wait. Why was he running around here? Confused, I continued on my way.
It has been a while since I saw Soo Hyuk. I loitered to the market and our usual noodle shop but of course, he wasn't there. I detoured to the historian's but he said that that git was out again, looking dejected and grumpy as he muttered about "...should have checked his credibility with his previous employer before hiring him.." I sighed, disappointed with the futile search as I headed back home. I thought I saw the same pair of round, adorable eyes amongst the crowd in the busy market place but they disappeared again before I could call out to him.
Hmm. The child must be trying to play with me. I noted to myself to bring along a sweet or candied gourd with me the next time so that the kid wouldn't run away again. I crossed the market and was back on the stone path that leads home when I looked up, and there was the git that I was looking for.
Soo Hyuk didn't seems to notice me yet, carrying a bag of rice on his left shoulder with sweat dripping from his furrowed forehead, seemingly from the weight. Ha, at least he's not out doing something weird and is actually working.
"Hey!" I yelled cheerily, and he looked up, frowning at the sight of me. "Where were you? I couldn't find you anywhere!" I said, nudging his right shoulder.
Soo Hyuk gasped, dropping the weight on the floor as he groaned in pain, flashing me an anguished glare. Psh, look at him trying to scare people with his over-reaction again. "I didn't even used force. Don't fool around." I rebutted, crossing my arms.
Soo Hyuk puckered his lips before dropping his pretense, picking up the bag of rice from the floor again. Wait- is he just going to-
"You're leaving now?" I asked, surprised. When did he become this dilligent? "Wait, you'll never guess what almost happened to me yesterday night- I nearly died-"
"Not interested!" Soo Hyuk called back immediately, cutting me off. "Find someone else to bother." He added in a mutter.
That didn't missed my ears. Okay, that's a little hurtful. He can't be still pissed with... what I told him last time that made him walk right out of lunch, can he?
"Wait!" I exclaimed, catching up ahead of him and blocking his path, forcing him to stop in his tracks. "Are you still pissed?"
"Don't speak in your alien tongue." Soo Hyuk sighed, lowering the rice again before straightening himself to face me with a I-don't-have-time-for-this expression. Right, he wouldn't know what being pissed meant.
"Are you still angry with me?" I asked. I really shouldn't have told him if I were to know he had disliked the Ice Lord this much. Well, he didn't respond whenever I said something nice or approving about Jiyong's rule in the town, but I thought he was just tired of hearing about him since most people in the Fire City discussed about the Ice Lord almost all the time.
"What for?" Soo hyuk asked back, pressing his lips together.
"I don't know, you've been this this since I told you about the Ice Lord that afternoon!" I said. "I didn't know you hated him this much." There had always been people that didn't liked how Jiyong remained cold and slightly arrogant-looking, even. Soo Hyuk must've been one of them. Even I was irritated by how cocky he seemed to be when he had foiled my plans to escape from this place during my first day here.
"It's not that!" Soo Hyuk said agitatedly.
"Or I should have told you earlier?" I tried, because this is the reason that gets Bom, my bestfriend back at home, mad at me; when she thinks I should've told her about the greatest gossip way sooner.
"What are you going about now?" Soo Hyuk murmured, his eyes flaring with impatience.
Ok, this doesn't work. I'm only making him angrier and angier. At first he still joked around and stuff, at least. I should've never brought Jiyong up infront of him. But if we don't make up, he's just going to continue avoiding me.
"I'm sorry?" I offered meekly, raising my brow.
Soo Hyuk groaned in annoyance. "You don't even understand."
"Understand what?" I retorted. Hey, I'm making efforts to patch things up, so maybe he should at least explain why on earth is he so upset-
Soo Hyuk cupped the side of my face all of a sudden locked our lips together. I blinked. What is he-
????????
It hits me that our lips are touching and I struggled to pull myself away from him, horrified. What is wrong with him today? Why won't he let go? The more I fought, the harder he grabbed on. My heart started pounding at an increasingly rapid rate, but it was unlike how it pounded when Jiyong kissed me. It was pounding with confusion, with panic, and the unsettling feeling of how wrong this is...
As sudden as his lips met mine, it pulled away abruptly. I staggered back at the force and the next thing I saw was Jiyong, hammering Soo Hyuk to the ground with his fists, raining punches down on him. I stared, flabbergasted at the scene as my eyes darted between Soo Hyuk that had reacted and was starting to fight back with equal ferosity, and Jiyong, who seemed too blinded with rage to draw his weapon. Hold on- Jiyong has a sword on him!
Just as the realisation hits me, his hand automatically flew to his sword and I rushed forward, yanking him away from Soo Hyuk, who had the lower hand.
"You'll kill him!" I screamed, as Jiyong attempted to fling me away from his arm.
"Get off me, Dara." Jiyong growled warningly, landing kicks on Soo Hyuk mercilessly.
"No- No stop! Please!" I yammered in futile. "He didn't know what he was doing!"
"No, I knew what I'm doing." Soo Hyuk managed to groan out as I restrained Jiyong from the back. "You wanted an answer and I gave it to you." He said seriously, ignoring the cuts on his lips and below his eyes.
Jiyong made a movement to break away from my arms again as Soo Hyuk said that, and the latter snarled back agressively at him.
How can it- I mean- we're like brothers! We acted like badly-behaved siblings around each other. Soo Hyuk was being like this all this while because he liked me...?
I hadn't got the time to be shocked at his words and actions as Jiyong managed to grab Soo Hyuk by the collars. I yelled in protest, finally managing to break them up. Jiyong staggered backwards and launched for his sword that I managed to threw on the floor. Alarmed, I quickly kicked it away before he could reach it.
"Dara!" Jiyong yelled in anger, meeting my trembling eyes as I shook my head, wordlessly begging for them to stop.
Soo Hyuk coughed, spluttering a bit of blood. Oh my god, I gasped, making a step foward but finding myself unable to approach him after that unexpected kiss. Instead, I grabbed Jiyong's hand, and dragged him away from Soo Hyuk after picking up his sword to prevent him from aggravating both of their injuries. Jiyong too, had a bruise on his cheekbone and a broken lips.
"We need.. some time away from each other." I said shakily to Soo Hyuk before turning away quickly to leave, unable to face him, and pulled Jiyong back along with me.
I'm so sorry for the late update!
There's some issues cropping up at home and it got me kind of dejected and
down lately.
Anyway, yeah, I finally made Soo Hyuk admit and Dara to realise.
Milestone!!!!!!!!
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