Kingdom

59. Truce (17)

"Can I have a drink?"

"Good evening to you, too, Jungkook." Jin greets the unexpected guess with sarcasm. "Isn't it a bit late for a visit?"

"Not at all!"Jungkook grins. "I was going back to my room but I saw you walking in the distance. I know you are the type of person to drink until late, so I thought it was destiny that made us meet tonight."

"But you don't drink...." Jin squints his eyes at him.

"Right now I need something like alcohol." Jungkook says, his eyes widening as if seeing something quite bizarre."A very strong alcohol."

"Fine, come in." Jin moves back and slides the door open."You look startled."

"I was with the King..." Kook says, entering the room.

"The King?" Jin looks at him with a sudden spike of interest.

"He was in the Princess's room... "

"Now that sounds promising," Jin puts his hand around Jungkook's shoulder, "Come and tell me more."

Jin pushes Jungkook into the reception room and instructs him to sit on the pink cushions spread around the table. Only one lantern is lit inside, a huge tall lantern, placed by the entrance. But as enormous as that lantern is, its light is hardly enough to reach all corners of the space. Yet, the twilight makes the room look less formal, more cosy and welcoming. It is an elegantly arranged interior, consisting of just a few pieces of furniture: a table, two shelves with books on each side of it and a small plant in the corner.

The most spectacular thing in the room must be the huge folding screen that spreads from one side of the wall to the other, painted with various sceneries of the sea: ships surrounded by seagulls; sunsets bathing in clouds of gold; endless vast oceans spreading into infinity.

Jungkook yearns to stare at the paintings for a while, to study every shade of color and every stroke of the brush that gave birth to those images. Pictures that remind him of a half-forgotten dream. But Jin pushes him forward.

"Wait there, I will go fetch some drinks." he says and disappears into another room.

A huge blue fish stares at Jungkook from the table. Is it a shark or a dolphin?

Kook cannot tell. The drawing is rather clumsy, more on the cute than the artistic side. It must be something Jin drew himself. While drunk, probably.

"Tell me everything." Jin smacks a bottle over the fish's mouth and adds two glasses next to it.

Jungkook swallows slowly, suddenly uncertain what he should say and what he should remain quiet about.

"Who painted this?" he asks, pointing at the screen.

"I have no idea." Seokjin shrugs. "It's a gift."

"A gift from whom?"

"The Prince of Busan. He sent a lot of things to us when we agreed to resume peaceful negotiations with them. And Yoongi let me keep this one."

"It is beautiful."

"Yeah, but you are not here to stare at the walls, right?" He slaps his back. "Tell me about the Princess."

"I went to her quarters, because I was on shift tonight."Jungkook says."The King was there with her. They invited me inside. I mean, Nori did; the King was not very keen on having me there...."

"Why did she invite you in?" Jin sits in front of him and generously pours the soju into the glasses, spilling most of it over the table as he tries to keep his eyes on Kook.