Chapter 8

The last three days have been very busy for the whole Kingdom. In such a very short time, the Vice President's death has quickly taken a toll on the country's trades and international relations, and in extension, is dealing quite a blow on the whole Royal entourage. Mo-Yeon and Shi-Jin have been bickering more so than usual, the Generals are more irritating and agitated than ever, and Dae-Young is even more rigid than before.

Myeong-Joo paces around her office, having just called for Shi-Jin to report to her about their itinerary for the next few weeks. Mo-Yeon will be very busy in the next few weeks as she is scheduled to pay courtesy calls to a number of allied countries and Myeong-Joo knows how particularly taxing it will be for her since she will be addressing the investigations on Denmark's Prime Minister, Daniel Spencer. A couple of Mo-Yeon's Royal Guards, of course, will be accompanying her, and that means the Chief of the Royal Police, too, Seo Dae-Young.

Yoon Myeong-Joo and Seo Dae-Young's relationship throughout the years has been quite a ride. Growing up close to the castle together, she and Dae-Young have managed to create a very unique, albeit close bond. But at the end of the day, the two never really cleared or defined anything. Especially after Myeong-Joo became Chief of State Police, and then Commander-in-chief short after, they really never had enough time to think about their relationship.

Remembering that Dae-Young will be accompanying Mo-Yeon on her overseas tour, Myeong-Joo begins to think about the development of their relationship for the past few years—which is close to nothing.

A knock interrupts Myeong-Joo's thoughts and Dae-Young lets himself in before she could respond. Myeong-Joo looks at him as he approaches her, stopping just an arm's length from her.

"I called for Shi-Jin—"

"The Captain sent me," Dae-Young interrupts her.

Myeong-Joo eyes him and nods. "I see. So, your report, then?"

Dae-Young is always very formal towards Myeong-Joo, even when no one else is around. And while Myeong-Joo knows it's all protocol, she can't help but feel disappointed that even after all these years, their ranks still would come in between them.

"Captain Yoo has ironed out Her Majesty's schedule and we will be leaving tomorrow at six in the morning," Dae-Young starts, not falling out of his stance. "Our first stop, as discussed, will be Denmark, and Shi-Jin estimates that we will be spending a week at the capital before transferring to neighboring European countries. Shi-Jin has tasked me to keep you updated and I will send you a detailed report at the end of each day at seven in the evening. The Royal Entourage will comprise of Captain Yoo, myself, and seven other Royal Police members. The final list has been forwarded to you earlier today, I presume."

Myeong-Joo takes one step toward Dae-Young and he doesn't make a move. "I guess you'll be gone a while, then?"

Dae-Young nods silently, their eyes still locked onto each other.

Myeong-Joo sighs and rests her head on Dae-Young's shoulder. "I will be looking forward to your daily reports, then."

"Same as I."

Myeong-Joo frowns at Dae-Young's lack of emotion and moves to hit his shoulder with her right hand. She is surprised when he catches her wrist before it hits him so she lifts her head from his chest. Myeong-Joo puts her hand down but Dae-Young keeps his grip on her wrist.

"I will miss you, you know that, right?" Myeong-Joo says angrily. "You never spend enough time with me."

"I know."

"When all this is done, whoever has caused all this, I promise, will receive a proper beating from me," Myeong-Joo says through gritted teeth.

"With all the paperwork that the incident has caused, I guess you'll have to wait in line after Shi-Jin," Dae-Young replies to lighten the mood.

"Will you spend more time with me then? When all this is done?" Myeong-Joo looks at him.

Dae-Young doesn't move or talk for a moment and just lets the silence bring them closer, their breathing in a harmonic duet. He lets his hand slide from her wrist to her hands, and he squeezes just lightly, assuring.

He then moves to let go of Myeong-Joo's hand but she tightens her grip on his. "If I let you go, I'm afraid you won't come back to me," she says quietly.

Dae-Young moves his other hand so both are holding on to Myeong-Joo's. A familiar warmth spreads within Myeong-Joo, emanating from Dae-Young's huge and slightly calloused hands now softly caressing hers. "I was just always here, Myeong-Joo. And I'll always be."

xxxxx

Mornings that once have been a cause of chaos and ruckus in the castle are now quiet and fuss-free. Ever since the incident, Min-Ji always arrived to an already awake Mo-Yeon, who is always silently combing her hair in front of her dresser.

Today is no different. Mo-Yeon is scheduled to board the plane with Shi-Jin and the rest of her entourage at six, so at five, she's already bathed, dressed, and ready to board. Min-Ji enters her room and notices that Mo-Yeon, yet again, is absent-mindedly combing her hair in front of her mirror.

"Good morning, Your Highness," Min-Ji greets her and moves to comb her hair for her. She receives a weak reply from Mo-Yeon and a yawn.

"Are Shi-Jin and the rest of the guards ready to leave? Is Myeong-Joo awake?" Mo-Yeon asks.

"Commander Yoon, Captain Yoo, and Chief Seo are already at the hangar. Commander Yoon has asked me to pick you up and bring you to the hangar and wishes to inform you that you can have breakfast on the plane," Min-Ji replies. "I have brought your bags to the hangar, too. If you think you'll need to pack anything else, let me know so I can fix it for you now."

Mo-Yeon smiles at Min-Ji through the mirror and shakes her head. "I have nothing else to pack, thank you, Min-Ji." Mo-Yeon then stands up and picks up the handbag sitting on her bed. "I am ready, should we go?"

Min-Ji nods and the pair walks out of the room, towards the hangar at the other end of the castle. Min-Ji looks worriedly at Mo-Yeon and fails to keep herself from bursting out, "Are you really sure you don't need me with you, Your Highness? I still think I can be of more help if I came with you."

Mo-Yeon looks at Min-Ji and smiles. Min-Ji has been worrying over her for the past few days, even more so than before, and all the worrying is rubbing off on Mo-Yeon. Instead of feeling better, she feels that Min-Ji's apprehension and concern is only causing her own anxiety to refuse to stay at bay. This is why she has refused to take Min-Ji with her on her international tour.

"I'll be fine, Min-Ji, you worry wart. Don't worry, I won't make too much a fuss about my clothes. And I'll be sure to shop a lot at Denmark so I can keep my head straight," Mo-Yeon says reassuringly.

Min-Ji looks like she wants to burst into tears so she decides to keep shut instead. In the end, the two ladies spend the rest of the way to the hangar in silence.

As they arrive, Mo-Yeon sees Myeong-Joo and Shi-Jin fussing over Dae-Young's suit. Dae-Young looks extremely uncomfortable so the two must be teasing him again. As Mo-Yeon nears the trio, Shi-Jin notices her and peels himself from the group to meet her.

"Thank you, Min-Ji. I'll see you in a couple of weeks," Mo-Yeon makes the move to hug Min-Ji, who is now hurriedly wiping tears from her eyes. "I'll be fine. Hurry back to the castle now, they might need your help over there."

Min-Ji nods and curtsies before she leaves. "Please take care, Your Highness."

Mo-Yeon nods and watches Min-Ji clumsily make her way back to the castle. Shi-Jin stops beside her and takes her handbag from her. "You don't look rested," he says.

"Why do you say that?"

"You're not as pretty as you usually are." Shi-Jin smirks.

"So early and yet you have the energy to bully me." Mo-Yeon scoffs at Shi-Jin and marches towards Myeong-Joo and Dae-Young. She catches Myeong-Joo's words about not missing meals or staying up too late watching before Myeong-Joo notices her and turns to her.

"You, too. You don't have me or Min-Ji to take care of you so don't be stupid or forgetful about what you need to eat or do," Myeong-Joo starts to lecture her as she approaches.

"Copy that, Commander Yoon." Mo-Yeon fakes a salute at Myeong-Joo and smiles.

"I'll be sure to take care of her, Myeong-Joo, don't worry," Shi-Jin cuts in as he takes Mo-Yeon's side.

Mo-Yeon throws a glare at Shi-Jin before she turns back to Myeong-Joo to give her a hesitant hug. Myeong-Joo swats Mo-Yeon's arms just after short of two Mississippis and says, "Okay, okay, that's enough hugging. You three board that plane before I change my mind about letting you take Dae-Young from me."

Shi-Jin chuckles and ruffles Myeong-Joo's hair—to her immense dissatisfaction—before the three of them make their way to the plane. Mo-Yeon and Shi-Jin are quick to climb the stairs to the plane door, and Dae-Young follows suit, but not before sparing one last look at Myeong-Joo.

"We should have taken Myeong-Joo with us, you know," Mo-Yeon whispers to Shi-Jin, as quietly as she could to keep Dae-Young from hearing her. "It'll be like a holiday."

"Or a double date?" Shi-Jin replies as softly, with Mo-Yeon's face still inches from his ear.

Mo-Yeon scowls at Shi-Jin's response and pushes him on the shoulder. "I'm just saying, I don't like seeing Myeong-Joo so sad."

"You do know someone has to stay at Urk to take care of the important stuff while you're gone, right?"

"We could have left you and taken Myeong-Joo instead." Mo-Yeon rolls her eyes, settling herself in her seat.

Shi-Jin plops down across her and crosses one leg over the other. "After what happened, I'm not letting you out of my sight. I'm not letting anyone lay a finger on you."

Mo-Yeon bites her lower lip and looks away from Shi-Jin's serious face. "Why do you always have to make it awkward!"

Shi-Jin chuckles and turns back to face Dae-Young, who has taken a seat behind him. "And you, I can't believe you're willing to leave Myeong-Joo like that. You're so heartless!"

Dae-Young doesn't face Shi-Jin and pretends to fix his tie. "Myeong-Joo is capable enough of looking after herself. It's you who needs taking care of."

Shi-Jin scoffs at Dae-Young and shakes his head in disbelief. "Me? The great Yoo Shi-Jin? Let me tell you, Chief Seo Dae-Young—"

Dae-Young cuts Shi-Jin before he launches into a litany of his self-proclaimed titles and awards such as being a member of the Order of The Handsome King, honorary member of the Court of Fine-looking Militias, and recipient of the Most Attractive Personnel Award. "Let me rephrase that. Someone has to stop you from causing our Queen unwarranted stress and dissatisfaction," Dae-Young nods to Mo-Yeon, who looks smugly at Shi-Jin.

"Kiss ^ss," Shi-Jin mutters under his breath, but loud enough for both Dae-Young and Mo-Yeon to hear.

Mo-Yeon lets herself get buried in the comfortable plane seat and lifts her feet up on the table in front of her and Shi-Jin. Shi-Jin looks at Mo-Yeon for her blatant disregard for primness and properness. "So, three hours to Denmark. Three hours before more tedious respectfulness towards Denmark's Queen."

Shi-Jin leans back on his own seat. His hands settle comfortably on the armrests and he props his feet beside Mo-Yeon's on the table. "And three hours of time, which will be well spent with Yoo Shi-Jin," he adds.

Mo-Yeon gives him a mocking smile and looks out of the window. She watches the crew on the ground still running about, finishing their rituals before the plane makes it ascend.

"Doctor Kang, did you know that there's this woman who was arrested in Florida for smuggling in a freshly severed human head on board a plane?" Shi-Jin interrupts Mo-Yeon's thoughts and motions to the suitcase sitting beside his seat. "The head still had its teeth and hair intact, and it was believed that it's useful in keeping evil spirits away."

Mo-Yeon looks disgusted at Shi-Jin, and then at the suitcase, and then back at him. "Don't tell me you have a human head in there, too? You're the kind of person who looks like they've got voodoo sitting in their closets."

He crosses his arms across his chest and smiles evilly at her. "Well, I'm not allowed to tell you that underneath this terribly handsome face is a face of a fifty-year-old man. That would break the voodoo."

Mo-Yeon's frown deepens and wrinkles her nose. "That explains why you smell like a fifty-year-old!"

Shi-Jin laughs at her and notices a young man approaching. He then quickly pushes Mo-Yeon's feet from the table with his. Mo-Yeon is caught off-guard as her feet slides from the table and falls onto the floor clumsily. Shi-Jin watches the young flight-attendant pass their table and head straight for the pilot's cabin as Mo-Yeon glares at him. "What was that for?!"

Shi-Jin collects his own feet from the table and crosses his left leg on the other. "That young man was passing and I didn't want him to get a peek at your indecent position, so you're welcome."

"What indecent—did you see my—" Mo-Yeon's face turns from oblivious to embarrassed to fuming as she realizes that Shi-Jin has been privy to her intimates all this time and did not even bother to point it out. "You could've told me!"

Shi-Jin stands up and picks up his suitcase. "Well I've already seen it, there's no point asking you to change your position if that was a comfortable one. I just couldn't risk other people taking a peek." He chuckles and starts to walk away from Mo-Yeon.

"Yoo Shi-Jin, you p$rvert!"

xxxxx

It was September 2008 and the temperature in Britain has become wet pretty quickly. Autumn was just starting to sink in but the winds were not forgiving and the rains came at the worst moments. This was why Shi-Jin was only too willing to go in behalf of the British crown to Australia, where Spring was in its full bloom. The British monarch assigned Shi-Jin to present an important artifact to the Australian Prime Minister and deliver a considerate gift in return for a previous favor, so Shi-Jin was currently on-board the British royal plane, already on his way to Canberra, Australia.

The flight from London to Canberra was a tedious 23 hours or so and Shi-Jin wasn't even at the five-hour mark and he was already bored out of his mind. He put his book down and brought out his laptop to become a tad bit productive, intending to answer his e-mails and sort out his correspondence. He went through his inbox and found it a pleasant surprise to receive an e-mail from Myeong-Joo since communication from her has been scarce since her father's death in March. He opened the e-mail and went through it twice in a minute.

The e-mail was short. Shi-Jin immediately slammed his laptop lid close after his second reading of the e-mail. Myeong-Joo expressed her concern about Shi-Jin's father, who she heard has yet to contact anyone from Urk since he was sent to Russia last month. Shi-Jin clenched his teeth as he remembered his last conversation with his father, where he informed him of his assignment in Ingushetia.

"Don't lose sight of your duty to the Crown of Urk, Shi-Jin. It comes before everything else, even your own life. Forgive me if I have been less of a father than a solider, but this is what we are destined and expected to be. You have already made me proud, son, but I have faith that you will bring more honor and glory to our family and to our kingdom."

Shi-Jin caught himself saying his father's last words to him aloud, every word still etched in his memory. At that time, it felt like an order, a command from his father, that his life will always be for the Crown. More recently, it felt like a reminder of his and his father's duty to their kingdom, wherever they are. But at that exact moment, sitting at the plane, remembering Myeong-Joo's concern and his father's voice, Shi-Jin thought that his father's last call felt more like words of goodbye from a father to a son, from a captain to his officer.

xxxxx

Shi-Jin feels small and delicate fingers resting on the side of his neck. As his eyes open, he sees Mo-Yeon just inches from his face, the index and middle fingers of her right hand pressed on his neck, right below his jaw line, and the other sporting her watch. Mo-Yeon is focused on the watch on her wrist but she is close enough for him to hear and feel her breathing.

Shi-Jin gazes at Mo-Yeon, who is silently mouthing her count as she watches the hand on her watch tick. He watches her eyelashes bat every so often, her eyes following the hand, the fine strands of hair dancing in front of her face like thin branches swaying to a spring wind. A few seconds later, he catches her eye.

"I was taking your pulse from your carotid artery," Mo-Yeon interrupts the silence that has hung in the air. "I wasn't satisfied with what I was reading from the radial artery on your wrist so I tried your neck."

"That doesn't answer my question; why are you taking my pulse?"

"You looked pained in your sleep. And you were murmuring to yourself," Mo-Yeon says softly, her gaze falling back to her watch. "I didn't want to wake you so I tried taking your pulse to check if I had to."

Shi-Jin notices she has yet to let go of her hand on his neck. He clears and the vibration on his neck alerts Mo-Yeon that her fingers are still nestled on Shi-Jin's jaw line. She hastily withdraws her hand and collects herself from being seated on the table in front of him. Her fingers fly to her own neck, absent-mindedly rubbing the spot behind her ear. She shuffles back to her seat in front of him and asks, "Do you remember what you were dreaming about?"

Shi-Jin lets out a sigh and rubs his temple, remembering the dream like a forming headache. "It was 2008, I was on my way to Australia. I was thinking about my father, how he's disappeared like a friggin' mushroom."

"I heard your father was in Russia." Mo-Yeon's hands now rest on her lap.

"Was, is, I don't know. He still has yet to make contact until now," Shi-Jin's face hardens and the headache is now starting to settle, too. "We've sent multiple search parties for him but nothing has turned up."

"I'm sorry," Mo-Yeon offers, her hands fidgeting on her lap. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"No, it's fine. Myeong-Joo does send a search party every other month to Russia, just in case something new turns up, or he himself turns up. I don't know, I don't give it much thought nowadays because it's just frustrating not knowing. I've been to Russia once, too, just to try for myself, but yes, it's all so very futile, I know. But we're not giving up just yet. My father is a stubborn old man and he's got quite a knack for top-secret missions. So if he's found something very important and sensitive, he won't risk the slimmest chance of success with a phone call or a text. Who knows? He might just turn up tomorrow, or next week, and he's solved the elusive concept of world peace."

Mo-Yeon looks at Shi-Jin as he rambles about his father and tries to search him for emotions. He's trying not to show anything, but for the first time, she sees he is lost, unsure of himself. Shi-Jin scratches the back of his head and settles back in his seat, a little more uncomfortably than before.

"I'm sure he's going to turn up. And when he does, we should make sure he still has a decent kingdom to return to." Mo-Yeon tries to smile.

Shi-Jin looks at her and appreciates her effort to comfort him. He is too uncertain to force a smile of his own but he settles for a nod.

Mo-Yeon looks at her watch. They have an hour more before they arrive at Denmark. "Do you have more of those plane facts to share with me? That headless story was particularly fascinating, to be honest."

Shi-Jin continues to fix his gaze at Mo-Yeon for a moment—or maybe it was longer than a moment. She was trying to distract him, he knows. And frankly, he didn't want to go back to sleep either, in fear that another memory might take over his dreams. It is the first time in a while, well since he has come back to Urk as the Captain of the Royal Guards, that that level of frustration and uncertainty has made its way back to Shi-Jin's consciousness. He has been consciously trying to keep his unresolved father issues at bay, but this time, he's let his defenses down—and in front of Mo-Yeon, no less.

He is still looking at her and her gaze is still fixed on a point in his suit, unable to meet his eyes. He realizes how Mo-Yeon is unlike Myeong-Joo, who is the type that would claw at him for details every chance she gets. Mo-Yeon is more like him, someone who knows when it is better to keep the lid on some boxed-up unresolved emotions. It is not the healthiest way of dealing with things, no, but there are certain issues that just beg for the right time, the right place, the exact right moment, to be let loose and faced head on. And this is that kind of issue, and not the right kind of place nor time. And she understood that.

He sighs a small smile and starts telling the tale of a dead old man, who was smuggled into a commercial flight in a wheelchair by his wife, saying that his husband was just extremely sleepy.