Chapter Nine

Precipitation 

Sungmin nearly collapsed from exhaustion onto his bed. Apparently, he had arrived at the busiest time ever for the slaves in Eden. He wondered if that was why the Heroes had been a bit more lenient about whom they allowed to serve them. It had been chaos, as all of the others rushed around and tried to prepare for the giant celebration called for to commemorate a year of New Earth’s existence. Sungmin had barely even seen most of Eden, it covered hundreds of thousands of acres. However, he had tried to join in the immense effort, having devoted to cleaning every inch of space within the main house. His participation had not been so valiant though. Sungmin, after his initial refusal to wear his new uniform – which he now had to wear ever since, however it was replicated into many different colors so the Heroes would not get “bored” – had gotten onto the man’s bad side.

In the Garden, there had not been much of any kind of hierarchy that existed among the slaves. At the palace in Eden, it apparently was different. As Sungmin was new, he did not have the power to influence anyone. Seniority seemed to determine who ordered who around, and as such it was not only the Heroes that could tell Sungmin what to do. As such, he had been forced to work much harder than some of the others, his knees sore from having to scrub the floors for hours. Sungmin noted the dark bruises that had blossomed forward onto his skin.

He could not care less about the celebration. Word had gone around that even more Chosen were going to be walking around and expecting them to serve them, along with having to continue to serve the Heroes and keep Eden presentable. Sungmin knew he would have to go along with it, however it really was too much to force upon the small population of humans. He wondered why it was so unheard of for the Chosen to bring along their own slaves. Did they really expect any of them to be idiotic enough to try and set the place on fire or something? The Chosen had instilled enough fear to keep away attempts to overthrow them. There were not enough humans that were willing to fight.

“Sungmin… that’s your name, right?”

His eyes wandered to the door, glancing over the younger boy. Sungmin recognized him faintly, he believed the boy’s room was beside his. As he had kept mostly to himself, however, he was not quite sure. He nodded at the question, watching as the boy entered, looking for a place to sit and settling for the windowsill. Sungmin had not spoken with anyone other than the one older man, as he had noticed most of the others kept to themselves. Back at the last home he had served, those around him shared gossip with him all the time. Here, it was as though everyone was afraid that just speaking would get them sent to Seventh Circle.

“You’re probably not used to how things work here,” The boy said, noting his thoughtful silence, “I’m sure it’s a bit overwhelming. Especially with the way that higher-up worked you today.”

Sungmin made eye contact to signal he was listening, as the kid added in with a small smile gracing his lips, “I’m Henry, by the way.” He attempted to return the smile to the younger boy, however even the littlest effort seemed tiring.

“It’s not normally this hectic,” Henry assured him, “You unfortunately came in at a bad time to adjust to here.”

Sungmin realized he was providing little conversation in return, and by little, he meant none. He leaned up against the bed railing. “I guess it’s alright, nothing really bad has happened.” He finally spoke. Sungmin had been worked hard, however that was something he expected. From all of the stories he had heard, though, he had thought it would be much worse. Sungmin had thought that people would be shipped off to Seventh Circle once a day because they sneezed or something.

“Don’t assume bad things don’t happen here, after all, Eden is pretty big.” The younger boy’s warning was sincere.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m sorry to say this, but you really can’t let yourself get comfortable here,” The boy’s easygoing demeanor threw his words off a bit as his comforting smile disappeared, “The Heroes will trust you as far as they can throw you, especially when you do dumb things – no offense.”

“And by dumb things…?”

“You know, the others thought you were insane when they heard you disobeyed orders. No one has said anything to the Heroes or you would’ve been gone. I mean, some of us found it pretty impressive, but… don’t let that encourage you. No one would dare go against the Heroes unless they have a death wish. You need to be careful, after all, you’re only one person.”

Sungmin raised an eyebrow, “You were impressed?”

“I mean, I guess so,” Henry said awkwardly before laughing, “There are many more out there that think you should be committed. So, don’t expect anyone to support you and your craziness.”

“I’m crazy for not wanting to have to follow orders all the time?” Sungmin asked a bit sharply, causing the younger to draw back a bit in surprise. He apologized soon after however the other boy waved the question away, a friendly grin returning to his lips.

“No, that makes you perfectly normal. You’re crazy, because you seem to think you can do something about it.”

He noted the dejected look cross Sungmin’s face and sighed, “Don’t worry about it so much, Sungmin-ssi. You’ll see that things will get better here. After all, there’s a party coming up.”

“It’s all I’ve been looking forward to.” The older spoke sarcastically.

Henry sat up higher on the edge of the window, “Oh, believe me, it will be much more entertaining than you think. We can make fun of all of the Chosen that are coming.”

Sungmin simply responded with a questioning look. His dongsaeng chuckled, “The Chosen coming from the City are bound to be interesting. They’re practically celebrities or something, they’re so popular among the others.” Sungmin remembered that vaguely from back at the Gates. Some of the girls that had lived in the house he had served had always talked about that whenever they got the chance. He remembered them constantly mentioning checking up on the City’s elite Chosen’s twitters, however he had never thought about it much.

“You’ll see.” Henry wiggled his eyebrows, before leaving the room. Sungmin found the new boy entertaining, however there was one thing that was bugging him. Apparently, he was all alone in wanting to change things, well, excluding the mentally unstable. He supposed he would have to deal with it. Sungmin was not planning on giving up like the rest of them.

Author's Note:

Phew. Finally up. Sorry it took so long to update. I hope you like this chapter... It's a bit more dialogue than usual so it took me a while to figure out how far their conversation should go. Unlike me, I guess most normal people don't talk for hours on end :P. 

~*Carissa*~