POV: Hae Na RI
I leave the palace feeling a little mad.
"Nari'sshi, you can rely on me." That's what he had said, Then he got mad over something like that.
I am mad enough that I refuse to go with the driver–who is actually an unmasked guard–waiting for me at the main door. He moves out of my way and my eyes take in the long path to the main gate. Not only would I have to walk, but walk through a sea of creepy, masked guards.
"You will be bored here simply standing and doing nothing," I tell the guard. "Take me to Cafe Hanul."
The guard looks around my age. Like all the guards, he is tall and probably muscular underneath that long black coat. And handsome, with an idol-like face. However, while all the other unmasked have either an emotionless look or a scary expression, this guy appears…done and tired.
He yanks open the car door for me as if I am a hassle.
I suddenly remember he was the one who drove me around yesterday. He probably got scolded because of me.
I don't get in. "What's your name?"
"918," he says.
Oh, so that rule also applies to the guards too. "You are Steven. S-t-e-v-e-n." I spell it out in English. Another one of my friends.
Confusion clouds his face. "No, I am not."
"I am naming you. I will call you Steven," I say. He opens his mouth to tell me it's not allowed. "I know, I know, it's not allowed. I will call you that in my head only, in here."
Lately, everyone has been looking at me like I am crazy. I wonder why.
Anyways, I get in the car.
I try to chitchat but he doesn't show enthusiasm.
"What year were you born in? I am asking to know if I have to call you Steven or Steven oppa in my head."
He glances at me but doesn't answer.
"I have been abroad for so long, I forgot how people keep to themselves here. Americans are different. You chitchat and they share their childhood trauma and therapist with you."
He wants to say something but then probably thinks better of it and focuses on the road.
I take off my seatbelt and lean forward, grabbing the shoulders of the front two seats.
"What are you doing?! Ma'am please put on your seatbelt!"
"I am not the impulsive type, but it's hard to say if I can die." I say.
Then I explain. "It's a secret, only his Majesty and the people around him know. It's either one of the two things. I might be in a dream and you are a figment of my imagination. The second is that I have travelled to another universe, another world. In the first case, I can't die. In the second… I don't know. Maybe… I am immortal." I suddenly gasp. "That's why I don't die! If I can have the ability to open interuniverse portals and go through, I can definitely be Immortal."
Steven slows the car down and stops it on the side of the road.
"How about we test your theory by having your walk right into the traffic?"
I eye a bike zooming past us. "We shouldn't risk it."
"Yes ma'am, so please put on your seatbelt."
"Alright." I move back and meekly secure the seatbelt, feeling like a disobedient student getting scolded by their teacher/
Steven doesn't immediately start driving. He sits still, hands gripping the steering wheel. Through the rearview mirror I can see his eyes. "You really believe in that or are you joking?" He asks. Steven looks concerned.
"What do you mean believe?" I am offended. "It's either one of those cases. Though there is another scenario. We could be in a simulation and somehow–due to a glitch or something–I have become aware of it."
He stares at me through the mirror. "Are you seeing a doctor?"
I take in a deep breath and release a sigh. "I am not crazy."
"It's good to see a doctor, crazy or not."
"I will see one then," I lie, something easier than convincing people my entire world has flipped over, like seeing the world from a car turned over after an accident.
Not the right way to put it though.
"I was born in 1997," Steven says and turns the car back to the road.
"Oh me too!" So we are the same age.
The rest of the ride is silent, with just me searching up different things about this world on my cellphone. It's an unfamiliar mobile manufacturing company, of course.
We reach the cafe. Steven stops in front of it and waits for me to get off.
"Hae Nari'sshi," he calls out as I am about to leave. There is a hesitancy in his manners. "Just an advice. Even if you think you are an alien, you shouldn't tell people that. It would make them not take you seriously."
He's right. But things have become terribly crazy. I feel crazy. I am sure the feelings would change, but for now it doesn't matter what others think.
"I will keep that in mind," I tell him.
★★☆☆★★☆☆★★
POV: Unknown
Three people have gathered and called up a meeting in a tiny, quiet room, tucked away from the rest of the happening places on the first floor of the palace. Lee Sunwoo, Kang Jae Hyuk and Kang Shinja take their seats at their usual spots on a small round table.
Sunwoo presses the tips of her fingers together and leans in. "So we all agree that we need to get rid of Hae Nari before these three months are over?"
"Can you not use the word 'get rid'?" Shinja's face scrunches up, as if she feels bad about it.
"Alright, so we all agree that we need to kill Hae Nari before these three months are over?"
Shinja bestows Sunwoo a dark look. "Yes, we agree…" Her words come out in an irritated hiss.
"As I see it, the sooner we do it the better," Jae Hyuk finally speaks coldly. The royal guard captain with years of training is used to calm thinking but swift actions. "His Majesty is becoming smitten with her. He may even have developed a crush on her he isn't even aware of."
The news falls on the two women like a metal spoon clattering on the floor in the middle of the night.
"What makes you say that?" Shinja asks sharply.
"As a man, trust me on another man." His reply is mysterious.
Sunwoo's gaze becomes more determined. "Then we should definitely speed up things."
"But all of us can't get involved. Only one person will do it and take the downfall for it. Because it will definitely invite His Majesty's wrath. He will dismiss and punish us all." Shinja's voice lowers, a desolate tone slipping in. "But we all can't leave His Majesty's side."
Jae Hyuk adds. "There are already very few loyal people around him."
Their faces reflect their anxious hearts. No one wants the history to repeat itself.
Sunwoo takes a deep breath. "Very well, then let's decide which one will do it and bear His Majesty's wrath all alone."
They all glance at each other.