*A/N* I just want to apologize for how long it is taking me to get these chapters out...and how short they have been and probably will be. I've been rather busy with work and am coming up on a rather trick part to this story...so bear with me ^^

~~

Dara wasn’t the least bit surprised to see the normally smiling Daesung sitting in a brooding stupor on the ground across the table from Seunghyun; Seunghyun was rather notoriously difficult to deal with. It was something the Pharaoh worried about…and Dara knew this because she always accompanied the Pharaoh and his queen into the temple while they asked questions of the Oracle (sometimes it paid off to be a temple servant).

Of course, it wasn’t necessarily a secret, as basically everyone was aware of how impossible it was for anyone except those who had grown up with Seunghyun to deal with him. Dara and the girls she worked with believed that it was possible that ONLY Taeyang and Jiyong were able to get along with him on a fairly regular basis…and that was probably mostly due to the fact that they saw him rather infrequently.

It was pretty common knowledge, also, that Seunghyun wasn’t really into the whole ‘father large numbers of potentially murderous children’ thing. This fact made a lot of people question the Pharaoh’s choice of Seunghyun as second to the throne after his older brother. But Dara believed that there was a lot more to Seunghyun than just an acidic attitude and a disinterest in concubine children. And even though she didn’t know exactly what the Pharaoh had been thinking when he had named Seunghyun the second in line, she did know that Oracle believed that Seunghyun would do something great.

She looks back at Daesung as they weave through the busy grounds of the temple and smiles to herself before turning her attention back ahead of her. Daesung was important in some way, and she knew that because Jiyong and Taeyang were hiding something rather important about him. She had seen the clothes that he had arrived in; had helped launder and return them. She knew that there was something different and strange and foreign about him….but she didn’t know what and that was frustrating.

But it didn’t matter, she got to spend the afternoon with him, and she was excited because he was adorable and you couldn’t help but to smile when around him. Unless you’re name is Seunghyun… she thinks with a sigh as they round one last corner and arrive at a small tent that wasn’t normally as empty as it currently was.

“Sit!” She says cheerfully, pointing to a rug over in the corner. Daesung obliges quickly and she smiles at him before turning around and searching for something to draw with.

“What?” Daesung asks, and Dara smiles broadly; he may not have enjoyed himself with Seunghyun, but he had definitely improved his speaking.

She whirls around to face him, a short stick in her hand and a grin on her face before pointing to the sandy ground in front of Daesung. He looks at the ground, then back up at her and her stick…then back at the ground before comprehension dawns and he turns a bright smile on her. She was going to enjoy trying to teach him how to speak their language…but she hoped that he was a quick learner; she’d never had to do this before and she wasn’t certain if she would be able to steal him from Seunghyun often enough for it to be a really effective class.

Fingers crossed! She thinks hopefully, before taking a seat beside Daesung and drawing a picture in the sand before them.

***

Ancient Egyptian. Daesung could barely believe his eyes and ears; he was being taught how to speak and read in Ancient Egyptian. He wondered if the novelty of this whole experience would ever wear off, but he highly doubted that it would for quite some time.

He was so glad to be away from the rather oppressive watchfulness of Seunghyun for the time being…and really hoped that maybe they could continue this whole thing tomorrow as well. Dara seemed exceedingly pleased with his progress, and if he were being honest he would have to say that he was really starting to understand more…though he would have to see if that was still true later on when Dara wasn’t there to gently guide him through the sounds and basic words.

He hadn’t been this content in quite a long time. “Thank you!” He says suddenly, his eyes scrunching up as his mouth pulls into a bright smile.

Dara laughs and pats his arm, “You’re welcome.” She says, and he knows she’s laughing at him, but he really is so incredibly thankful to her, and he is just really glad that he could actually say something to her.

He wanted to ask her so many questions…like what the festival was for and what Seunghyun’s role in it was; but he didn’t know how to say it, and h figures that it was this frustration that was helping him to learn so quickly.

***

Seunghyun drops tiredly into the chair Jiyong offers him and stares up at the ceiling of the small room that they had met in when he had first arrived less than a week ago; it felt like an eternity had passed between then and now. They had spent countless hours wandering through the temple grounds trying to come up with the perfect way to shuffle the large numbers of guests that would be arriving for the festival through the temple in an effective manner, and Seunghyun was exhausted.

“If I didn’t know any better, I would say that that was the most work you’ve probably ever done in your life.” Jiyong says, pouring them both some water. Seunghyun must have missed the entrance of the servants as he was fairly certain that there hadn’t been any food or drink on the table before.

“But it would be sadly correct to say that it has been a rather long while since I’ve done this amount of work.” He replies, causing Jiyong to laugh lightly.

“I missed this. I was gone for far too long.” Jiyong says, staring down into his cup, a small frown on his face.

Seunghyun sits up a little, “I know that I mentioned it before, but we were all rather worried by your sudden disappearance. Youngbae did a great job here while you were away…but he was probably more worried than anyone else.” Seunghyun tried to put enough of a reprimand into his voice that Jiyong would feel obliged to explain himself. In truth, though Youngbae had been extremely worried, he had hidden it really well. Seunghyun had been exceptionally curious and worried, which was a poor combination with him as it normally made him very unhappy and difficult.

Jiyong his head to the side without looking up and shrugs his shoulders. “He knew what was going on…mostly. I highly doubt he was as worried as you seem to believe that he was.” He says, and Seunghyun rolls his eyes.

“Yes, and you believe that about as much as I believe it. He might not have seemed worried to the random observer, but you know as well as I that he isn’t perfect at hiding things like that.” Jiyong sniffed lightly and made a motion with his fingers in the air; trying and failing to look unaffected.

“It doesn’t matter. I was on a mission from the Oracle and could not return until I had completed it, which I did, and that is all that I can say at the moment.” He says finally, and Seunghyun nods, knowing that that was all he would be getting out of Jiyong on the matter. He had learned long ago when it was time to stop pressing Jiyong for information.

“Right, of course.” Seunghyun says, closing his eyes and stretching his neck.

They are silent for a little while, and Seunghyun reflects on the fact that he had probably hit a sore spot with Jiyong. Talking about Youngbae and feelings in the same conversation always through Jiyong off, but it was never quite this easy. The year away must have really affected Jiyong deeply to have made him change in that way.

There was a light knock on the door, and Jiyong half-heartedly looked over before beckoning the person over. “I thought you’d never come.” He says conversationally, “Getting sloppy and slow at your work?”

Youngbae scoffs softly as he walks into the room, nodding his head at Seunghyun as he passes and sits down. “I stopped by to see if maybe Bom or Chaerin would be free tomorrow to study with Daesung and Dara.” He says before grabbing the pitcher of water and pouring himself a cup. “Then, of course, I had to find the two of you.”

It was Jiyong’s turn to scoff, “It’s not like there were many places that we could have been.” Youngbae gives him a hard look and Jiyong shrugs it off, flicking a glance at Seunghyun (that he only almost missed) before directing his gaze back at Youngbae. “They have all of the ritual cloth laundered and put away properly?”

“Yes, I went by and purified it this morning, and they were just finishing the cleaning of the tools when I stopped by.” He takes a gulp of his water and Jiyong passes him a napkin. “We decided that Bom would help Dara tomorrow while Chaerin oversees the cleaning of the inner halls. Everything is moving along rather nicely. Almost smoothly.” He says with a smile, as if the temple preparations running smoothly were some kind of hilarious joke that he was proud of himself for telling.

Seunghyun clears his throat as Jiyong nods in approval of Youngbae’s assessment. “So, what do you mean by study?”

Youngbae’s eyes go a little wide and he turns to look at Jiyong, causing Seunghyun to do the same. Jiyong shrugs his shoulders and leans back. “We decided that if we could find a trustworthy person who wasn’t too busy today, we would have them try to teach Daesung some of our language. Especially since I needed your help this afternoon.” Seunghyun nods and turns toward Youngbae.

“So I will assume that the lesson today went well?”

“Yes, actually!” Youngbae says happily. “It was amazing, Dara said that he had already learned some things during his time with you, but he progressed through her very simple lessons exceptionally quickly.” Youngbae smiles again, “He greeted me when I came in with a big smile and a ‘thank you, Youngbae, you’ve been so helpful,’” Youngbae shakes his head. “I was so surprised that I stepped back a bit. He doesn’t even sound foreign when he speaks, it was truly amazing.”

Jiyong smiles broadly and smacks his hand against the table. “The Oracle was right. The gods steered him to us for a reason. How amazingly miraculous.”

“Yes, miraculous.” Seunghyun says quietly, his head tilted to the side. He was a little uncomfortable with leaving Daesung in the hands of the two women tomorrow, but he couldn’t really fathom why. He knew that both were exceedingly good workers and they were doing a great service to the temple by helping this young man…but he still didn’t like it. “Are you sure that watching him tomorrow won’t put them behind at all?”

Jiyong laughs lightly, “Honestly Seunghyun, you can’t believe that we would do anything that would ruin the outcome of such an important time in our temple’s calendar? And besides, I highly doubt that you want to spend any more time with him.” Seunghyun makes a noise as if he were going to disagree but Jiyong gives him a look and Youngbae snorts. “You can’t lie to either of us; we know that you probably found it eternally frustrating to deal with him for the last few days. But it doesn’t matter now, we’ve got a solution, and that solution will help everyone out in the long run.”

Seunghyun knew that Jiyong was right, but it didn’t stop him from feeling exceedingly lonely when he finally went to sleep later that night; his tent empty and quiet. It had been decided that Daesung would stay with Jiyong and Youngbae that night, before possibly returning to Seunghyun’s care the night after that.

Seunghyun had a hard time falling asleep…and had never been more disappointed to wake up to an empty room in his entire life.