Title : The Garden Of Gojoseon - side notes about the personas of Kim Kibum
Prompt-# : 109
For: Anonymous
Pairing : Jonghyun/Key
Author : >Anonymous until reveals<
Word count :  2,680
Rating : PG-13
Warnings : none
Summary : Jonghyun was cursed to have an eternal life looking for his soulmate. Here are the side notes talking about some of the personas his Kim Kiibum lived in.

❖❖❖

« For your disgrace, I King Wiman of Gojoseon condemn you to eternal sufferance and torture. For committing such sins as getting involved with a male servant, Kim Jonghyun of Gojoseon will spent the eternity in loneliness, devoid of any kind of happiness! »

« Love shall never be punished, especially in its purest form. Eternal Loneliness and darkness shall not hang upon you if your love was pure. Eternity shall end once the souls meet and experience the intense and pure love that caused the anger of King Wiman. »

I was cursed.

Cursed because of love. A love for the most mysterious and magnificent person I had the chance to meet.

Kim Kibum was nothing more than a servant in the castle of King Wiman of Gojoseon - a relative of my father. For reasons I’m not sure anymore, I was meant to become his successor. Therefore, the training I needed to receive made me live with the King, away from my family.

Being the future successor of the King also meant working hard and spending most of my days studying the arts of speaking and negotiating among others. This implied forgetting about my carefree youth and playing with kids my age; I had to grow up quickly.

Of course, just like every single royalty member, I had my own personal maid taking care of me when needed. She’d clean my room, help me getting dressed, calling me when the King or someone else wanted to talk to me. She’d be also the one helping me during my studies. I cared a lot about her. However, one winter day, she fell sick and died in a matter of a few weeks only. It pained me losing her as she was the only person I could be myself, not Kim Jonghyun the successor of the throne of Gojoseon, but Kim Jonghyun an ordinary young man. I had requested a honorable funeral ceremony for her, she deserved it.

Shortly after, the King asked me to choose a new servant as he presented me the whole personal in the main hall of the castle. I didn’t really mind who it would be; in my mind no one could replace Yinhye.

Oh how wrong I was.

Kim Kibum caught my attention with his nonchalant posture, almost arrogant, opposed to the straight and tensed bodies of the others next to him. He stood out to me being so careless, as if I didn’t matter, as if I was no one compared to his fingers he was observing so intently. Instead of angering me, this kid fascinated me, he was the expression of what I wanted to be. Forget about mannerisms, about etiquette, about hypocritical talking. He was the definition of authenticity. So I chose him as my new servant.

My impressions were confirmed the next morning he came in my room for the daily routine. Careless acting, informal speaking. Just what I thought. I wasn’t the successor to him, just a human.

This particularity of him attracted me more every single day spent with him. He broke so many of the social rules, making me sneak out of the castle at ungodly hours of the night, pranking the other servants with silly jokes, stealing alcohol from the King’s personal reserve and drinking it in my room.

I felt myself live even more. Naturally we grew closer, to the extent I made him move in the room across mine with the excuse my servant had to be reachable whenever I needed him. Said room wasn’t used for long as Kibum didn’t even bother to quit mine anymore. One thing led to another, our social roles fell alongside the pieces of clothes covering our bodies. They completely disappeared the moment we became one.

It lasted for a few months, between stolen pecks and secret touches during the day, and long pillow talks in the night. It was beyond perfect, we stuck to our roles but knew deep down how they only were a cover we got rid of once I locked the door of my room with Kibum by my side. Everything was beyond perfect, and that perfection tricked us in most wicked way. Nobody was to blame. Nobody but us for not being careful enough, for foolishly believe our behavior didn’t rise suspicion. It did, and gave the perfect occasion for enemies to make us fall.

We were exposed and both Kibum and I knew the downfall would be painful. We’d never imagined how much, though. Wiman killed my precious in front of me with an arrow piercing his chest, right in the heart. I still don’t know why he chose to curse me instead of giving me death - maybe a way to keep me away from my love.

So many events followed this one, I haven’t even had the time to fully realize what had happened. The castle and kingdom got attacked by the Hans a few days later, panic spread in the whole territory. Every single person got mercilessly killed by the enemy: the maids, the queen, my teachers… As the only survivor I ran away from there and started my new long and tiring life.

After days and days of walking, exhaustion took over my body. My feet hurt and starvation made me feel dizzy. I leaned against a tree and closed my eyes to get myself together, air escaped my lungs in short puffs. I needed to rest. By chance, somebody passed by and took me with them. The man took me in his home with him and let me rest on his cart during the journey.

He was married with four kids. All of them welcomed me without hesitation, providing me food and a roof. In a moment of trust, I told them my tragic story, all of it. From the decision for me to become the successor of the king, to the day I was cursed. They listened to me and cried with me. The reality had finally hit me.

What kind of life was I going to live if I have to deal with people’s death? With me not ageing, they’d become suspicious of me, and even afraid? A life spent in loneliness and devoided of any kind of happiness, indeed.

«Love shall never be punished, especially in its purest form. Eternal Loneliness and darkness shall not hang upon you if your love was pure. Eternity shall end once the souls meet and experience the intense and pure love that caused the anger of King Wiman. »

Throughout my existence, I met Kibum more than two hundred times. And during all of these times I got to explore two hundred different aspects of his personality based on their background.

After the curse was spelt, I found Kibum again under the name of Caelius Cassius a gladiator in his thirties. The most famous one of his time. I had the chance to talk to him only a few times. He died at his last gladiatorial show in front of my eyes.

The second time, Kibum came into my life was in Gyeongju as a Kim Soobin, a young aristocrat living in the Silla Kingdom. How ironic to have our roles switched. He as the rich dominant one and me as the private servant of the young lord. The chemistry between the two of us operated and lasted for as long as it could. Of course, he noted how he was aging but not me. Soobin couldn’t be fooled, he wasn’t stupid. I had no other choice than revealing him everything. His answer was nothing more than an incredulous laugh. A laugh that sounded so angry, a laugh that broke my heart into pieced. He chased me away without looking back. I couldn’t blame him: who in his right state of mind would believe such nonsense as “Hey, you know what? We used to be together a century ago but I was cursed to live into eternity trying to look for you so I can be set free”? Right, nobody.

And so, most of the times I got to spend my life with Kibum, be it from afar or as a major actor of their life I hid this secret. I hid it to avoid the same situation all over again.

And so, Kim Soobin became Zhang Wei Zhi, the daughter of a peasant in the middle of China during the Han dynasty. Spent three years with her - died of Tuberculosis.

Genovefa Aust, a lively Germanic girl with a passion for her brother’s tales. Victim of a fire started by the enemy camp I had joined. Didn’t manage to save her.

Lilith, the slave of a rich patrician who lived near Jerusalem and one of the most beautiful person I was gifted to see. Long dark hair, big dark eyes, delicate features, wise mind. She was born as such, therefore she had no surname. I could find in her the careless and arrogant-like side of my original Kibum.

Her master despised her manners and wouldn’t hesitate to punish her in the most violent ways. But instead of crying and complaining she remained stoic the whole time, and even smile from time to time. Jasper, the patrician was a cruel one and I simply couldn’t stand torture my love. Convincing Lilith of running away didn’t require much efforts, she followed me without hesitation. I loved her as sincerely as my heart could, threating her the way she deserved, covering her in gold and expensive cloths. Every single wish of hers would be my command. Appears she didn’t need me to be her slave - the fortune was enough as she left me behind, running away with all of the presents.

Akram El-Amin

Ekene Ihejirika

Piers Archambault

Amis Talbot

Borislaw of Rila

Kivanç Karaman

And many more…

Maiara was another memorable aspect of Kibum. The period our paths met, the world was writing its history. The crew of the ship and I had spent weeks on the sea, sailing to god-knows-where. Needless to explain the joy we all felt after Julio claimed he caught sight of a piece of land in the far. During this trip, we lost half of our men. I wished more than once to be one of them, but the curse kept me alive.

Touching dry land was a hell of a weird feeling. However, I couldn’t enjoy this moment for long as a group of people approached us. They had feather in the hair and pain on the face. Astonishment hit us. Who were they? How did they come in this place? So many questions ran through my head, but Maiara was there, hiding behind one of the men, as if afraid of our presence. The tribe led us to their basement and were so kind to offer us food. On instinct I went to her. We couldn’t communicate because of the language barrier, but somehow we managed to understand each other.

Days passed and we spent more and more time together. Everything seemed fine until, one day the whole tribe was hit by a wave of illness. It struck them down. All of them. We had killed them by our presence.

Juan Galicia - a seven-year old kid. Both of us were present at the Wedding of Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII of England. Never got the chance to see him again.

Kim Gwiboon worked as an assistant for one of my dearest friends, Jung Sera, in the periphery of Hanseong. Sera had and intimidating aura while Gwiboon was quite the opposite, quiet and compliant, but both seemed to complete each other and make a great tandem that could be seen in their artwork of ceramics. Me relationship with Gwiboon was nothing complex and, surprisingly (or not so much), Sera helped us a lot in this.

Nothing came to disturb our lives. We even managed to have a home of our own and spend grow old together. She’s never asked, however, why I wasn’t ageing and I’ve never bothered to talk about it. It was the purest form of love I had so far with Kibum, yet the curse kept me in hostage. Gwiboon was 65 when her soul joined the next body I’d have to meet.

Bao Min Ling - 1731 - orphan - Henan province

Géraldine Soriot - 1789 - revolutionist - Paris

Drupada Kumar - 1834 - peasant during the colonized India

Jayden… He, for sure will remain one of the human beings that moved me to tears the most. What we shared can be described as one of the biggest and sincerest friendships. All these centuries of traveling, discovering the world and witnessing the evil of the human being made me feel so bad. I realized that this curse wasn’t only mine to bear, but Kibum also had his share of pain to deal with through the faith of their personas.

Jayden was just another victim of the white cruel supremacy; third generation of African slaves in South Carolina, United States of America, working fifteen hours a day in the large cotton fields. To make the work less distressing he would sing songs his parent taught him during his happy days. The other slaves would sing along despite de distance separating them. The breeze would accompany them in their art and carry their voices even further.

My place in the whole picture couldn’t bring much - I contented myself with listening to them and immortalize these moments with a record device. It still satisfied me, as long as I had him besides me. He couldn’t survive the end of the Civil War to live freely.

Lee Sukja bumped into me one evening in the streets of Busan shouting in desperation for help. I frowned at her, not understanding what was going on. She pushed me in the nearest dark street with her hand on my mouth to muffle my protests. I tried to free myself, but hell, she sure had a strong grip. After making sure there was no danger we exited the street. She apologized with a ninety-degree bow. “Comfort women” she then added. I didn’t need more to understand the reason behind her running. One less person suffering from this hell, I remember telling myself then.

Haruki Nishimura - 1949 - soldier of the Japanese army - Seoul

Karen Jameson - 1975 - wife of Steven Jameson, US military forces, Gimpo

Kim Kibum’s sassiness and overconfidence had reached a whole new level. Taemin, Jinki, Minho and I were taking a break after hours of dance practice when the door of the studio opened on this teenager. Curiously this time my heart didn’t throb at his presence. Almost thirty years had passed since my last encounter with my own Kibum, maybe because of my long stay in Korea. I just didn’t want to leave the country and creating a new life. I couldn’t suppress the disappointment. He was Kim Kibum, and I was Kim Jonghyun. The combination happened for the first time in my two thousand years of existence. Even the personalities matched, even the looks, but nothing.

The five of us have been preparing to debut as a boyband under this Kpop agency. I still wonder what on earth made me take this path, but I enjoyed it so far. New atmosphere, new challenge, new friends.

The debuts led the five of us to success and fame, as we went on with the adventure, I saw each of the members grow up and as ordinary teens existential crisis appeared. Surprisingly enough even I was dragged into it and started doing stupid things, from a dating scandal to a car accident that resulted into a broken nose.

I don’t regret them, because even if they caused pain and sorrow, I had Kibum back in my arms. And as a bonus, 3 precious bandmates and friends I could rely on for a good amount of time.

Kim Kibum - 2009 - to be continued.

A/N: Uh... okay this may seem weird and also disappointing, but this prompt went out of control on my side as I had over 5 ways to work on it…. When I finally stopped on the final storyline, I started typing but I quickly realized it became way too long to be just a one shot. So, for this event, I’m presenting you only this small part as I’m about to publish the whole thing once the event is finished. I am really sorry, but please, look forward to the main story and take this as a loooong prologue/teaser/whatever.

Merry Christmas everyone!!! :)