A Deal with the Devil

"Let’s take it from the top again. And one, two …” Lee Chaeyeon’s voice rang out sharply in the dance studio as she went over the last few ending verses of the song.

Meanwhile, Yujin was at the back trying hard to follow along to the sway of the music as she moved her limbs to the flow of the music. She soon gave up and resorted to eating the sandwich she had bought on the way to her mom’s studio, sitting beside Nako who was resting from an hour's worth of being on her tippy toes, balancing out her weight evenly and being able to match her movements to the beats gracefully. Well, ballet wasn’t exactly Yujin’s forte, she preferred sports just like her older sister, Yena, to conforming her body parts to weird angles to convey a message through dance.

She wondered what her siblings were doing right now. For all she knows is that Yena was involved in Westwood Private High School’s boxing club after school activities, Hitomi was busy in the house concocting some mixture in her homemade laboratory aka the kitchen. 

You may ask why she is here instead of following her other siblings or doing activities which she prefers. Well, she had recently lost a bet to Nako last weekend on whether the now Crown Princess, Ahn Minjoo would trip when she made eye contact with Yujin.  

Well yes, the Lees went to the same middle school, Farrer Park’s Public Middle School as the Crown Princess, Ahn Minjoo. Queen Hyewon had wanted the children to mingle with people of different backgrounds, having them being exposed to the real world at a young age so that they would not grow up with people making baseless assumptions on their capability as future leaders in the royal world.

Yujin had realised that Minjoo frequently trips whenever they made eye contact along the hallways. Sure, she held longer gazes with other people around her, but she would always trip when their eyes came to rest on each other’s.

This prompted Yujin to bet with Nako that Minjoo would trip when Yujin made eye contact with her. If Minjoo trips, Nako would have to lend her virtual racing control set over Yujin for a week but if the opposite happens, which Yujin is ninety-nine percent sure wouldn’t even happen, Nako gets to drag Yujin’s pathetic to do ballet in their mom’s studio for a month.

It seemed to play out quite the opposite of what she had expected. 

This ended with Yujin tripping and spilling her iced chocolate on some unlucky kid while Ahn Minjoo walked away with a perfectly normal poise, as if she hadn’t seen the incident or even tripped upon looking in Yujin’s dark brown orbs.

So now, Yujin had to spend a hell of a month in her mom’s studio. She loves and supports what her mom does since it is Chaeyeon’s passion but she can’t seem to bring herself to move her stiff and lanky body, swaying to the beat of the soothing music. She doesn’t understand the way these dancers manage to move their limbs along to form a masterpiece. 

In her eyes it just seemed like two separate ideas were clumped up together like soil and magically formed cement to dump its solid foundation to form a dance. But who cares, it will just be one month worth of this stupid and she’ll be off racing her afternoons with her friends on her bicycle.

Although, the 2030s had evolved to use motorised bicycles linked to fixed routes from the old rusty frames of the good old two-wheeled bicycle production being stopped. But fortunately, she had managed to find someone who was selling a bunch of them at a slightly steep cost. She had her to save up some of her money which even meant having to stop buying her favourite iced chocolate. But in the end she got her albeit rusty but in perfectly mint condition, a high-class bicycle with a majestic silver frame, a Santa Cruz.

“We’re down for the day. Come on everyone, let’s huddle around to have a mirror group picture.” Chaeyeon’s voice rang out loudly in the dance studio.

Nako and Yujin begrudgingly raised themselves from their seats and moved towards the back. 

Yujin carried Nako on her shoulders, owing to the fact that this little petite dancer had always to be in the front for pictures so Yujin decided to be a sweet little sister and have her be at the back just for this once, since she was a towering giant compared to her slightly older sister.

Finally, after what seemed like a good long minute, the flash of the camera stopped and Yujin was able to put Nako down.

They had to wait for their mother who was busy checking up, ensuring that everything was in order and switched off before they went outside to meet with the chilly, autumn wind.

Both the teenagers fought their way into the car with Nako ultimately winning the front passenger seat and a rather sulky Yujin in the back of the car.

“Say, Yujin do you mind ordering the fried chicken and squid ink pasta for dinner. Throw in a tub of ice cream. Any brand, this time round too. I’m feeling a little blue and I want to have something to cheer myself up.” Chaeyeon said while rounding down the exit of Barium Highway leading to Mayflower road.

Yujin hummed as a response before tapping her watch, which showed her a hologram of apps. She swiped till she reached the delivery food app and placed the order.

Not long after, they pulled up to their apartment complex, the Abelia.

They went up to the 18th floor and collapsed on the coach in the living room.

Chaeyeon nudged at the kids with her toes while removing her jacket and placing it on their little robot helper, Andrew, who rolled away seamlessly to the dressing room.

Ding Dong.

Well, that was unusually fast. Usually it took a minimum of ten minutes for the order to arrive, but I guess a slightly earlier dinner wouldn’t be that bad would it. Chaeyeon thought to herself.

She opened the door expecting to see the delivery robot with the box of the crispy, fried chicken and her squid ink pasta along with the ice cream.

Instead, she met with the face of the Minister of (I'm not really sure what the exact name is but I’m just guessing it’s the Defense judging from his military uniform. I can’t be bothered to remember the different government faces when I have 4 angsty and rather hangry teenagers to raise by myself.) and another unfamiliar face. 

“Good evening, Miss. I am Mr Dennis Lim, the Minister of Defense along with my fellow First Class Royal Guard of  Elbonia.”He flashed his shiny, polished medals on the right sleeve of his uniform, bragging them uselessly to the unamused Lee Chaeyeon.

Aha so my guess was correct, but what was he doing here anyway?

“Judging from your facial expressions, you may be wondering what am I doing here at your doorstep. Well, you see, regarding the news that the royal court and the government had released a few days earlier. Two days to be exact. It would appear that we are going around each and every household to scour for teenagers to train for the Royal Guards training.”

Isn’t this essentially like kidnaping their freedom away. I thought the pledge said something along the lines of freedom for the people? Did they secretly revise the pledge too?

“And Miss, we assure you that your kid’s w