Everlast | yang jungwon 정원

[0.12]

Jungwon and I sit in the quiet horse stable as I think about what he has told me. The fact that I'm an earthling in a hanian world- where I'm always at a high risk of harm, makes me feel very uneasy. What's also making me uneasy, is the fact that Riki and Sunghoon haven't arrived yet- and it's been about twenty minutes since we arrived. They couldn't be that far behind, could they?

"Do you think they made it out?" I ask Jungwon, breaking the previous silence.

He looks at me with a frown, "try not to think like that, it will only make you even more worried." he tells me.

"But both of them were injured and we just left them there. I feel horrible about it." I admit while a deep frown appears on my face- in the moment I didn't realize until now how bad that sounds.

Jungwon suddenly stands up in front of me, I look up to see his eyes that flicker a familiar purple. I raise a questioning brow as he holds out a hand, urging me to take his hand.

"What are you doing?" I ask while taking his hand. He silently guides me outside of the stable- back towards the gate near the edge of woods.

"We're going to wait for them to arrive." He simply says as I watch him ascend up a tree- right up against the gates wall. He peeks out over the wall from where he sits crouched in the tree, then he looks down to me with a thumbs up. "Climb up." he says, and I just sigh in defeat, deciding to follow his order. Once I reach the large branch that Jungwon is sitting on, he grabs my hand to make sure I'm stable as I squeeze myself between the tree trunk and Jungwon's body. The bumpy branch is very uncomfortable to sit on, but I guess it's better than nothing.

"Why can't you just demand them to open the gate, you're the prince they should listen to you." I mumble as I peek over the wall to see the guards still standing in their same positions that we last saw them in.

"Why are you afraid of heights?" Jungwon teases- I roll my eyes.

"No, I just think this is unnecessary. We could be waiting on the other side of this gate, but instead we're stuck in this tree, which will be really painful if we fall by the way."

Jungwon snickers, but it quickly dies off and silence takes over. Confused at his sudden change in demeanor, I look to him to see him carefully watching the guards with a stoic expression.

"If only it were that easy to have power. I may be the prince, but my father has all the power, everything goes his way, and until that changes- this title of 'prince' will be nothing more than meaningless words." he utters, and I notice his jaw is clenched. I look at him stunned, I definitely wasn't expecting that as an answer.

"So, you mean that your status holds no power? None at all?" I question feeling confused.

"Well, some of course, but none in the aspects that actually matter. I don't think my father trusts me enough to let me make any decisions on my own." he vocalizes and sighs slowly. I follow his eyes that roam up to look at the sky- night will fall soon. "Those guards won't open the gate for us, not unless my father approves of it." He explains and I frown.

"The king sounds like a shitty person." I remark blatantly as Jungwon turns to look at me with wide, stunned eyes- but his lips are forming a smile.

"Yeah, he is."

"Open the gates!" a familiar voice yells from the ground. Jungwon and I pause our conversation and peek over the golden gate. I feel relief wash over myself as I spot Riki and Sunghoon entering through the now open gate, but my heart drops to my stomach once I realize that Sunghoon is holding onto an out cold Riki in his arm, holding onto the horse reins with his other- injured and bloody arm.