56
Their Kingdom Panorama
She spun around, “What?”
“I said we’re stuck.”
Victoria frowned, “That only happens in those absurd dramas.”
Donghae seemed to sigh then pressed the emergency button.
“There, maybe someone will notice,” he told then glanced at his watch, “it’s only 4:30 right now.”
Victoria only stared at him and watched him slide against the wall to sit down. After a moment she also sat next to him and crossed her legs.
“Well, in the meantime I guess we’ll have to count ourselves lucky for being stuck here,” she told.
They sat quietly and Victoria could feel herself reminiscing again about the past. Unknowingly, her heartbeat began tripping over itself and she clutched onto her bag.
“Do you think So Rae unnie knows you like her?” asked Victoria.
“Why do you care?” he asked turning his face away from her.
“Why?” Victoria glanced at him. “You’ve been rejected?”
He still didn’t turn to her.
Victoria let out a laugh, “Ah…poor Donghae has been scared of confessing, hasn’t he?”
She his hair playfully, but ended up get her hand slapped.
“Ow!” she shouted.
“Leave me alone.”
Victoria frowned, “Why? What’s gotten into you? Can’t I just play around a little?”
Pressing her lips together she stared ahead at the closed doors.
“I wonder why it suddenly stopped working,” she said.
A moment of silence passed between them and Victoria suddenly felt like being playful. Half leaning over she discovered that Donghae had shut his eyes with his forehead against the wall. Pinching his side she started tickling him. His shout deafened her ears and he turned toward her accidentally knocking his forehead into hers.
“Ah!” Victoria screamed putting a hand up to her forehead.
“Yah!”
Victoria opened her eyes to look at him. Donghae, whose face was inches away from her, suddenly in his breath. Victoria gulped and suddenly moved back to her spot beside him. They remained auspiciously quiet during the few minutes that ticked by.
“So why’d you come back up?” Victoria started easing away the uneasy feelings shrouding the atmosphere.
“My car died.”
“Oh.”
“Yea.”
Silence.
Then a creak.
Something loud against the door resounded.
Victoria stood up when the doors suddenly opened and a few security guards appeared along with a fireman.
“Are you two ok?” the fireman questioned.
Getting off her phone, Victoria turned back to Donghae in the underground parking lot.
“Cho Kyuhyun said a tow truck will be here,” Victoria explained, “why don’t you join us for dinner?”
“I’m fine, I can head back on my own.”
“If you think you’re bothering us, you aren’t, so don’t worry about it,” Victoria added, “he’ll be here shortly.”
Donghae turned away from her and Victoria wondered if something was wrong with him.
“Is something wrong with you today?” asked Victoria. “You don’t even look at me when I’m talking to you.”
He turned around and stepped toward his car kicking at the ground.
“No,” he replied turning around with a smile.
The tow truck noisily entered the underground lot and started toward them. The driver stepped out of the car and started toward them. She watched the two of them have a small chat before another car drove into the lot and stopped before them. Kyuhyun stepped out of the car and walked toward her.
“You ok?”
“Of course.”
“Come on, lets go,” Kyuhyun urged.
Victoria turned around and felt her mind go blank forgetting that Kyuhyun was there with her. Feeling her senses perk up she felt herself spin around looking around for Donghae who was no longer in sight.
The beep of her phone caught her attention instead of Kyuhyun’s voice.
“Enjoy your dinner, I’m off.” she read his text.
Kyuhyun took her by the shoulder and spun her around.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“Ah…” Victoria smiled, “it’s nothing.”
/\_____/\
“Thanks,” Donghae thanked before stepping out of the tow truck.
“No problem,” the man waved toward him before driving off into the street.
Donghae watched as the car disappeared before making his way toward the suite he’d been occupying for a while now.
“Empty your mind, empty your mind,” he repeated to himself before coming across the bridge they’d seen all the way from the golden field.
Walking toward it, he climbed up the steps, and carefully avoiding traffic stood by the railing. He stared out across the vast field and tried to spot the woods where they’d ran out from. It’d been so long ago that they’d had such an adventure together.
“Wait,” Donghae told himself, “what are you thinking about?”
Shaking his head he turned around and leaned against the railing focusing his attention on the cars zooming by instead.
“Who cares? She’s getting married for all that matters to you,” Donghae spoke aloud, “good for her! Go and get married!”
He turned when two high school girls walked by staring at him with wide eyes.
“What?” he asked loudly. “You haven’t seen an old man talking to himself before? One day you’re going to turn out like me!”
“He’s crazy!”
“Lets go!”
He watched the two of them run off and letting out a groan he turned back around to stare into the large field.
/\_____/\
The calm glow of the lights bounced off her eyes and hit the ceiling rebounding against the light bulb before coming back down on her. As Kyuhyun continued on about his nanny Victoria found her mind climbing the invisible wavelengths in the air. The moment after their foreheads had slammed into each other, the silent moment they’d had in the elevator, and the fact that his face had only been inches from hers was now making her heart collapse.
It was too obvious of a fact that she still liked him. Why did a one sided relationship have to be so awful?
“You ok?” Kyuhyun asked her moments later in front of the gates to her house. “You looked kind of engrossed with the light bulb back there.”
Victoria laughed. “Ah…you noticed?”
She felt surprised when he placed both hands on her shoulders turning her to fully face him.
“Are you going to stop by soon? My mother would like for you to visit again.”
“Oh…”
“It’s ok, I know you have things going on too. I want to apologize ahead of time about not having time to go with you to look at decorations for the engagement ceremony,” he sincerely told.
Kyuhyun…was a good guy. The words pass through her mind.
“Thank you for staying with me even through all the trouble you may have experienced because of me,” he thanked giving her a peck on the cheek, “good night.”
Victoria stared at him with her mind still unbelievably blank.
“Go in,” he smiled.
“Good night,” Victoria told before walking in through the door.
When she walked up the steps she found her father sitting at the bench where Kyuhyun had first kissed her.
“You’re back?” he asked.
Victoria walked toward him, “Why aren’t you inside? Did you eat?”
“Of course,” he replied. “Sit down.”
Sitting next to him Victoria turned to stare at the glittery sky. How great it might be to just become a star and watch down upon others.
“Are you ready?” he asked. “The engagement is coming up pretty fast. I have a few examples of the invitations inside, why don’t you see which decoration you like better and then we’ll send them out?”
“It doesn’t matter, they’re all pretty.”
“You can’t be like that,” her father told, “you have to wholeheartedly choose which design you like best. You’re the special woman of honor, all this has got to be important for you.”
“I got it, dad.”
“Don’t forget to go look for your dress. I won’t have time, so why don’t you ask So Rae to go with you?”
“She’ll probably be busy with her upcoming meetings. The stocks aren’t doing so great lately,” Victoria said.
“Then why don’t you…”
“I know, I can get someone else to go with me.”
Her dad lightly laughed before putting an arm around her, “You’ve done a good job.”
The next morning Victoria woke up early and snuck out of the house quietly. It was late and she knew the engagement was the upcoming weekend, which meant she didn’t have much time left to look for a dress either. Jumping down the steps she ran the rest of the way toward the shelter.
Poking her head through the entrance she spotted the Three Musketeers sitting around lazily.
“Oh?” Eunhyuk said when he noticed her. “What are you doing here so early in the morning?”
“I have a favor to ask,” Victoria told.
Just minutes later Victoria entered a large dress store with the boys behind her. Their chins had literally reached the floor when they realized where they were.
“Can I help you?” the sales woman asked.
Victoria could feel the boys noisily hide themselves behind her and smiled awkwardly.
“I’m looking for a dress.”
“Is there anything you have in particular?”
“It’s for an engagement.”
The sales woman smiled and Victoria loved the way her cheekbones shone under the light.
Moments later she found herself walking down the aisles wide eyed as she followed the sales woman beside the clothes racks. The Three Musketeers followed her letting out “Oohs”, “Ahhhs”, or “Whoa” every now and then.
Dress in all various sizes and lengths all glimmered before her eyes. Victoria had never known for there to be so many kinds in the world before.
“I think these will be appropriate for the engagement,” the saleswoman handed her a few dresses, “who’s the special man of honor here? Is he here with you?”
Victoria followed her gaze toward the Three Musketeers and quickly shook her head.
“Not one of them, he’s not here,” Victoria shook her head.
The sales woman laughed at her and led her to the dressing room. Victoria didn’t know how many times she had walked back out and back into the dressing room. Nor did she have any help in finding which dress suited her better because every time she stepped out the Three Musketeers were always clapping in awe.
“So pretty.”
“Wow.”
“….”
In the end Victoria randomly selected one and handed the woman the card her father had given her.
“It’ll be delivered to you in a few days. We’ve adjusted your size so it might take a few days.” the woman explained.
When they exited the store the boys quickly followed her out.
“What was that?”
“You’re getting engaged?”
“You never told us!”
“How about…I explain over lunch?”
After they’d found an empty table in the loud restaurant and had ordered all their food Victoria watched as the boys ate hungrily before her. Their appetite made her go hungry as well, but the food didn’t taste the same in .
“So what’s going on?” Eunhyuk asked after gulping down the rest of his rice.
“What’s with the engagement?” Ryeowook butted in.
“Yea, you never said anything about it.”
“Ah…” Victoria looked down at the table beneath her arms.
“Why aren’t you eating?” Eunhyuk asked then placed a bowl of soup before her. “You have to at least have the appetite to eat if you’ve brought us to such an expensive place.”
“That’s why I said we didn’t need to eat somewhere expensive!” Yesung pointed out.
“Me too, but Hyuk wouldn’t listen,” Ryeowook chimed in.
“Yah!” Eunhyuk pointed fingers at both of them. “But who were the ones who ate faster than I?”
“Ok, ok, stop it guys,” Victoria told.
They turned back to her expecting to hear the rest of the story. Victoria searched her mind for the words, but instead felt like she was melting. The engagement was that upcoming Saturday.
“Yea, it’s true, I’m getting engaged this Saturday,” Victoria spoke.
“Oh! Then congrats!” Yesung clapped his hands loudly.
Other customers turned their heads to glance over.
“You should be happy!” Yesung added then quieted when he realized Ryeowook and Eunhyuk weren’t playing along. “Why? What’s wrong? Getting engaged is a happy thing, isn’t it?”
Ryeowook elbowed him in the ribs beneath the table.
“Are you ok?” Ryeowook questioned.
“Want to accompany me for drinks tonight?” Victoria said.
***If I can update tomorrow, I'll try to get to the engagement. Something big, I promise you, will happen
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