ENIGMA

11 June 12.00 a.m.

“Kim Minjoo. Kim Minjoo. Kim Minjoo.” 

Queen Sakura growled out as she scoured round the dimly lit hallway, oddly twitching her neck every now and then.

Droplets of blood continuously trickled down her palm, before blending in with the red velvet carpet.

The queen's eyes darted round and landed itself in front of a picture of a brass scale.

"How ironic." Sakura maliciously spat out as her eyes traced the faint outline of the brass weighing scale shadowed by the faint outline of the yellow moon. Yet strangely, it casted itself as a blue weighing scale in Sakura’s perspective which went unnoticed for her head drooped down.

"Ding Dong. Why don't Mommy tuck you into bed, tonight?" Sakura growled lowly as her slim fingers wrapped themselves gingerly round the brass door knob.

With an achingly slow twist, the door creaked open to a gap just wide enough for Sakura to slip in through.

"Mommy will make sure to have you go to sleep with a bedtime story. Isn't that lovely, my dearest Minjoo?" Sakura spoke out aloud as she inched closer to the hunched figure in the middle of the bed, enclosed by the wispy blood red curtain.

"Let’s start with my special version that no one has heard of." With a dramatic pause, Sakura lifted up her arm holding the shard of glass before retracing her steps to provide a small gap.

"It was such a fine breezy night. When Eugene went up the hill to fetch a pail of water and Minjoo trailing behind like the filthy dog she is." Spitting out bitterly at the last few words, Sakura proceeded on as she slowly traced the sharp edges of the broken shard with her fingernail.

"But guess what, Minjoo fetched a pail of blood instead of water like Eugene did." As the pitch of her voice rose, the shard rose along with it.

"And for that, she got punished by being drowned in a pool of her own blood." Swiftly withdrawing the curtains as the shard came plunging itself down, Sakura repeatedly stabbed at a single spot without taking heed of her surroundings as the droplets coated her messily.

Liquid spurted out but it wasn't as thick and volatile as blood was, instead it seemed to slosh around in the bed.

"Better luck next time, Mrs Ahn. It was nice knowing your true character even if we hardly meet." A voice drawled as Sakura whipped round to find the source.

The Queen was only met with a swift blow to her head, knocking her backwards into the messy pool of fake blood as her vision out simultaneously.

"Jeez, I hope this keeps you unconscious for the time being while I try to find my way out of this hell hole of yours. Chaewon better compensate me well for today.”

A masked figure muttered as she swiftly bound Sakura’s hands with her limp legs following afterwards, knocking her light peach coloured mask askew, revealing thin lips which pulled itself back, revealing rows of gleaming white teeth.

“Who the hell are you?” Sakura sputtered as her eyes, which returned to an earthly brown shade, struggled to flutter open as memories began to slowly fade away from the weak grasp of her mind.

“I’m just someone that enjoys baking and does not enjoy separating families. I think that would certainly answer your question, dear Queen Sakura.”

Before the helpless queen could ask for help once again, the masked lady flashed a wicked grin before hitting Sakura with her brass knuckle.

“Honda Hitomi would simply suffice, your Majesty.”

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

11 June 8.00 a.m.

"You know not a single person in this household enjoys their mornings, quite like you do, Eugene.” A voice softly whispered, forcing Eugene to set down her cup of chrysanthemum tea.

“I just enjoy the peace and stillness of life before chaos reigns over the later parts of the day.” Shrugging her shoulders, the crown princess stood up to shake Queen's Eunbi's outstretched hand.

Taking no heed of the invitation, Eunbi simply waved it off with a dismissive glance.

“I’m not here for pleasantries, Eugene.” Eunbi softly uttered as she took her place in a chair, pouring a cup of tea for herself in the newly constructed pavilion settled at the edge of the garden maze.

“Then what brings you here? Is there a deal to be made over the table or otherwise?” Sipping quaintly from her tea cup, adorned with intricate imperial red lines, Eugene’s hands lightly hovered over them as her eyes followed each little drop which slowly settled with the rest of the amber liquid in Eunbi’s cup.

“No.” Taking a sharp breath, Eunbi took a short sip of tea before sighing in relief. 

“Your country really has a wonderful way of brewing chrysanthemum tea, you know?”

“You said you wanted to simply exchange pleasantries so why are you here, brewing trouble?” Eugene scoffed.

“I thought you wanted to enjoy peace before the rest of the day begins anew.”

“Well, yes but-”

“You need to cultivate patience, Ahn Eugene. Just like how your country takes patience in cultivating these handful of chrysanthemum flowers.” 

“I have them but you just seem to be testing my patience, for some absurd reason, this morning.”

“Patience is not something that you can simply pick up overnight and it is not an object. It is having the capacity to accept the fact that change will come sooner or later. There isn't a guaranteed time frame but once that change finally settles, you will understand the meaning of patience.”

“Okay.” Breathing out a defeated sigh, Eugene settled her cup on her plate, prompting Eunbi to do the same.

“Well, I’m afraid time is taking their privilege from me and the same goes for you. So I’ll hand this piece of enigma.”

“Enigma?”

“When the blue moon takes its place in the clouds, change is inevitable in the House of Ahns. Patience intertwines with another virtue allowing the blue moon to unveil itself.”

“What is the meaning of this? What’s with all these blue moons and change? Are you plotting something against my family, Queen Eunbi?” Snapping her head to face Eunbi dead in the eye, Eugene abruptly stood up.

“Eugene, relax. I was made to relay this when you are simply of the right maturity to envisage this. Especially since we arise from the same blood of our ancestors.”

“You expect me, Ahn Eugene? Crown Princess? Of this bloody Palace Elysian of Elbonia or what similar ancestral blood I have flowing through me, to understand all of this? When I haven’t even been presented with a chance to understand myself? You, out of all the people here, expect me to contain all these virtues like an empty vessel just to allow change to occur. I had one major change and it has flipped my view on the world into many different perspectives. That’s it, I’m done with peaceful mornings.”

In a fit of her anger, the enraged Princess smashed her cup on the white platform, allowing shards of porcelain to embed themselves in her legs.

Just as she was about to abruptly stalk off, Yujin took a quick glance at her bleary reflection, splattered with blood drops and amber droplets of ch