Claw's Bridge(Discontinued)

25. Envelope

(I felt generous, so here's an extra update.)

I spent most of the day in the library trying to find more information on the merpeople. Another thing I learnt during my time as an assassin was that I needed all the information I could get about my enemies. What annoyed me was that they had very limited books in English. I was annoyed to the point that I had to start reading an 'English to Korean: Learn Languages' book. (I can vouch that Korean is quite hard to learn. It's been months and I still mess up Hangul.)

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Hoseok approaching my stressed figure. I looked up when he awkwardly stood beside the table. He placed a black envelope beside the book.

"Can I sit?" he asked. I nodded and went back to reading. I could always open the envelope later. I felt his eyes on me. "Namjoon could teach you Korean. He's the most fluent in English."

"No, I'm good," I rejected. I closed the book when my brain stopped processing the letters. I removed the black parchment from the envelope and read the words written in white:

Hi Nighter,

Hoseok and I were wondering if you wanted to roam the outskirts of the palace today? There's a carnival in the heart of town, Hobi and I are going. We can go elsewhere if you'd like.

~Namjoon :)

"Sure," I replied. A big hearty smile broke onto Hoseok's face. I placed the book back on the shelf and followed Hoseok. There were small jumps of excitement in his steps as we walked. "You know you could have just asked me?"

"We know. But we were nervous. So Namjoon wrote instead," he replied. "The public doesn't know about you, yet. So if you want, we can avoid going to the carnival, and just go elsewhere."

"It's fine," I said. "Is there a special reason for the carnival?"

"Oh yes! Our country is celebrating the death of Seokjin's father five years ago," he cheered. "We usually clear out of the palace on this day, every year to give Jin some space. He prefers being alone on days like this."

"It's kind of messed up that you're celebrating someone's death. But it's understandable if he mistreated everyone," I said.

"Yeah," Hoseok responded. His cheerful self turned sorrowful as we continued talking about Seokjin's father. I didn't want him to feel sad. He had a beautiful smile and a heartbreaking sad expression. I didn't want him to feel sad.

"So," I started, changing the topic. "How genuine is Yoongi with his apologies?"

"He doesn't apologize if he doesn't mean it. Why?"

"He and Seokjin apologized to me about that day."

"Oh. That's good. Are you still hurt from that day? Do you need any medical aid?" he asked. I frowned when I realized that we weren't headed in the direction of any of the exits I was aware of.

"I healed. Where are we going?" I asked as Hoseok and I were climbing a spiral of stairs that was trapped between two walls. Why were we in a tower? We met Namjoon halfway up.

"Well, the plan was that Namjoon shifts into his dragon form. You and I sit on his back and we fly over to the carnival. On the way, I will introduce you to some things that we fly over. We get to the carnival and have some fun," Hoseok explained in brief. "And of course, I have Namjoon's clothes in the bag, so he can wear them when he shifts back to human."

"Is there any place you wanted to go, Nighter?" Namjoon asked. I pondered for a while.

"Can we drop by my ship?" I asked.

"Of course. We can do that first," the silver-eyed male replied.

Once we reached the top of the tower, I turned my back to Namjoon, who started stripping. I heard the shuffling of his movements as Hoseok stood beside me while neatly folding and stuffing Namjoon's clothes in a small black shoulder bag. I grimaced at the sound of his bones moving into shape. I yelped when he nudged my arm with his dragon head. I moved away a few steps as I turned around to see Hoseok mounting the dull grey-blue dragon.

I took a deep breath as anxiety crept up my nerves when I remembered my previous encounter with a dragon. I slowly approached Hoseok who was waiting for me. He helped me sit behind him.

"Are you ready?" he asked. Not receiving a response, he craned his neck to look at my visibly scared figure. I was awkwardly moving my hands about, trying to figure out how to hold on, and I felt fear bubbling inside me when I saw the distance between my feet and the ground. "Nighter?"

"What do I hold on to?" I asked, composing myself to not show fear. I mentally cursed myself for slipping up.

"Well, you have to balance your body just right in order to not fall. We usually have saddles, but since we are used to it, we didn't get one, which was inconsiderate of us. You can hold on to me. You won't fall," he replied.

I pursed my lips and nodded. I was showing weakness, but I didn't have an option in this case. I already agreed to tag along. I knew Taehyung and Jimin left the palace hours before, I didn't want to be left alone with Seokjin and Yoongi.

I held Hoseok's shoulder, taking a deep breath as Namjoon shifted into position.

Oh, how I regretted agreeing to the outing.