Audio Chapter 2

       "Wangja-nim!"  

       He opened his eyes to an unfamiliar place and an unfamiliar feeling. Something isn't quite right, Taehyung could sense it but could do nothing more. The sunlight streaming through the window met his eyes harshly and with a soft groan, he covered them.

       "It's time to get up," the soothing voice stated again and he woke up, body moving on its own accord, knowing exactly where to go and what to do. It was all very odd- the places were unfamiliar and yet he felt like he had known it all his life. He wanted to turn and ask someone what is going on, but the disembodied feeling has him feeling more lost than ever.

       "Wangja-nim," the lady called again as she brought him robes with a grandeur that matched the white silk he had apparently worn to bed. “You have a long day ahead of you. It’s time to get ready.”

       The resigned smile that he felt his lips stretch into as he accepted his clothes, Taehyung learned, was only a hint towards all the things a body that seemed to do beyond his control.

       After a grand breakfast, he was escorted to the garden by the servant who had stayed by his side for most of the time since he woke- or was he at all awake? Taehyung had given himself to the idea that this must be a dream, despite how real everything felt. But what else could explain the inability to turn and ask anyone what was happening around him?

        "Your calligraphy lessons can begin as soon as the master arrives," he was told, and with instructions that he would come to the room in a while, dismissed her.

       There was something off, Taehyung could tell, even if much was inexplicably odd as it was. As his legs took him down winding paths, strolling down the palace garden, it seemed as though the wandering was not nearly as aimless as it seemed.

       He could see it- could not yet quite understand the importance, but at approaching the large tree to the corner of the palace garden, Taehyung could feel the pace of his heart quickening along with his steps. It took a very short amount of time before he reached the other side where someone sat, and it occured to him that this was the reason for that quickening of his heartbeat. He was to meet someone here.

       The clothing the other wore was plain, much like those he’d seen the servants wear. But unlike them whose hair was arranged neatly under a gat, this person’s jet black hair fell over his shoulders, a few strands from each side pinned in the back.

        The person glanced up. Shock and some level of relief washed over Taehyung at seeing the face looking back at him. This was unlike the other unfamiliar faces and voices. This one, he knew- so it surprised him what name slipped from his lips instead of the name he had meant- "Yejun.."

       Jungkook. Jungkook looked back at him and smiled as though there was nothing unnatural about this, moved aside to give him room to sit. And Jungkook’s voice spoke the words.

       "Seung-yoon, good morning." Jungkook cast a glance down the path he had come through. "Completely alone this morning?"

       "You will have us sit on the ground again?" The air of playfulness in his voice, the hint of a natural arrogance—it was all a far shot from what he was truly feeling, mind reeling and trying to find some meaning in what was going on. The face of his classmate seemed all in one a blessing and a tease- he had not called him Jungook. And he was not called Taehyung. But his body reacted to the name almost instantly.

       "Ai pointed out that there were grass stains the last day, and we claimed that we fell." Tearing a wide leaf from a plant nearby, he laid it on the ground and gracefully gathered the silk robes he adorned to take a seat next to the other.

       Close. Too close, he couldn't help but think, but it didn't seem to bother Jungkook any.

       His gaze drifted over to the book and the arrogant air about him dissipated, he cast a curious glance at Yejun, a ghost of his smile on his lips.

       "Alone indeed, I dismissed the others.” The words were hushed- the 'I' somehow unnatural, and there was an overwhelming wave of emotions he couldn't place and could barely claim his own despite feeling the effect of them.

       Jungkook- Yejun hummed in response. "I like it; sitting on the ground is relaxing to me, you know that." The response was just as light hearted as the question itself. Yejun continued to gaze at Seung-yoon, and Taehyung noticed again that even though the other was clearly Jungkook, they were both moving as though they knew, clearly knew, what they were doing. Though Taehyung had no clue. "I suppose from tomorrow I should set a leaf down for you in advance, hmm?"

       "With all that occurred the last time you were asked to do something for me, Yejun-ah, I think I will refrain from asking you anymore, but what you do of your own will- that I will accept gratefully,” Seung-yoon quipped. A vision flashed before his eyes, and Taehyung had made enough sense of the situation to understand it to be a memory.

       The vision of Jeongguk- Yejun creating some mischief when he was assigned some task simply because it was convenient. It was not Seung-yoon who had asked that of him, but he was the one to bear the consequences when the medicine he was to have tasted more bitter than it ever had been before. Instead of animosity though, it was his curiosity that spiked with the other's guts to prepare it with an unpleasant surprise- and why? And Seung-yoon had been persistent in finding out more about this mystery boy.

       Seung-yoon laughed softly, shaking his head and Yejun smiled down at the book, apparently just as amused by the memory. Dismissing the thought to glance down and nod towards the book in Yejun’s hands, Seung-yoon spoke up. “Have you read it?”

        Taehyung tried to make out the words on the page. Japanese, he recognized and could make very little sense of the aureate sentences, but once again there was a part of him that seemed to know well what it was. "I am afraid master would have father reprimand me for reading such things. Did you find it interesting?"

        “I started it recently,” Yejun replied, “I need something to do while you're working on your calligraphy and such, after all. I must admit, learning another language was a good idea. Thank you for that insight, Seung-yoon." The boy turned his gaze back to Taehyung, giving him a slight smile, "There will be a day you can read it without such worries, just be patient until then. I can guarantee the words of Nanshoku Okagami* won't change before then; and it will be worth the wait." Yejun closed the book gently, "Although the other option would be to steal away from the others and read it in privacy."

        Sengyoon replied with a sweet, cryptic smile. "Steal away? The times I steal away, I am with you. I shall settle for the poems of  Ihara Saikaku, and the prose shall wait. Perhaps, if you can find portions that capture you, you can read those excerpts you enjoyed to me?" Seung-yoon's head was tilted, a small smile on his lips and a look in his eyes. Though he couldn't see it, Taehyung could feel it as if it were himself. "But now, tell me, you will come to the Chilseok celebrations tonight, won't you?"

        Taehyung's world was spiraling uncontrollably. He could feel himself falling back, and hit soft ground.  

        His eyes flew open, and he was frantically looking around. If the unfamiliar place were not enough to tell him that despite his own state of panic, it was not him controlling the actions of the body that he seemed to be in, then the auburn hair hindering his vision said enough. He knew that hair. Seung-yoon.

        He was in a library, searching around carefully for someone. Yejun, Taehyung concluded when the familiar feeling dawned on him. The sounds of celebration was not from far away, and the library was quiet and lit only by the lights outside from lamps set free, and the gentler glow of the moon.

        Yejun, Seung-yoon whispered to himself. We had agreed to meet here, had we not? Where are you?

        Though he couldn't make anything of the situation, a gut feeling gave him the sense that trouble was on its way. He couldn't ignore it, and it wasn't until a few seconds later that he realized all the physical manifestations of that uneasiness was there. Which meant Seung-yoon was feeling the same. Was it Seung-yoon all along who felt those things? As apprehension grew, he began to quietly pace around, and soon took to looking around the aisles, glancing through book titles by the light of an oil lamp he had brought along.

        A tug on his hand had Taehyung starting, but his body seemed reassured and quickly gave into the tug and the whispered words that accompanied it. "Seung-yoon... Sorry I'm late."

        Jungkook was there again, with a sheepish smile on his lips.

        Yejun's voice drew a breath of relief from Seung-yoon, and Taehyung could feel every muscle of his body relax and heart lift. He couldn't be sure, but it was becoming exceedingly clear what hold Yejun had on the prince.

        Clutching the hand that took his, a bright smile spread across his lips.

        "I was afraid you wouldn't come," Seung-yoon confessed, gaze falling over the shoulder length jet black hair that framed chiseled features. Was he mesmerized? Taehyung too couldn't help that, and he figured it was the time and place, and the light of the flickering flame.

        Yejun shook his head lightly, "I will always come when we make plans." There was a solidity in those words, a feeling that Taehyung didn’t miss. Nor did Seung-yoon, if the pang of a foreign feeling was any proof.

        There was no time to waste, so if he was distracted, it was only for a second. Tugging that hand, Seung-yoon led the two towards a side of the library where cushions and tables were set for them to read. Setting the lamp on the table, he tucked back auburn tinted strands behind his ear and pulled two cushions over, kneeling on one and sitting back on his heels, quietly asking Yejun to do the same. He spoke with his voice lowered, soft. "Yejun-ah, do you know why we celebrate Chilseok?"

        Yejun knelt on the cushion beside him, and let out a soft hum in thought, "Chilseok... it's the one time each year that lovers who were separated by the heavens can reunite... right?" Yejun’s gaze turned to him in question, curiosity as to where this thought was leading etched in his features.

        "Indeed," Seung-yoon glanced out the window to see lanterns floating in the sky, colourful and bright against the bluish-black backdrop of nature itself. Taehyung was almost sad when Seung-yoon looked away, for now having become accustomed to the idea that he had no control over the movement if this body. But it wasn't an unsightly thing that his attention was turned to.

        There was little distance between them as they sat facing each other. "Jiknyeo and Gyeonwu. Jiknyeo, the one who would weave the most beautiful silk, and Gyeonwu the heavenly shepherd. A tragic story...” The heavy feeling of sorrow and pain in his heart took Taehyung aback with its intensity.

        Seung-yoon seeme