Krampus [Book Two Of King-Queen, Jester Series](CYJ)

4 :: Darkness



"He arrives forth, ringing the bell
From the lacunae of darkness"

⊱ ───ஓ๑♧๑ஓ ─── ⊰

According to Buddhist teachings, which is a great way to analyse the inner workings of the mind , the root of fear is love. Where there's no love, there's no fear. Just like many other concepts in Buddhism, this may be hard to grasp at first.

But in order to broadly elucidate the lucidity of this concept, examples of general fear is like a petty dime. Consider the fear of death. It arises from the love for one's life and not being able to let it go. Interestingly, once you momentarily stop loving yourself, you don't fear death. That's how suicide happens.

Therefore, anything that we're afraid of, in psychology, is a consequence of our love for its opposite.

"Beomgyu, complete your assignment before the time ends. Kai, you can't add sin A plus cos A to get one. It has to be squared." Pushing his black rimmed glasses on his nose bridge, he took the notebook from the little boy, Kai's hands, and jabbed his pen over it to solve a trivial looking trigonometry.

"Why not? You see, if we root both sides then we get sin A plus cos A equals to root over one. Root over one equals to one. Therefore, sin A + cos A should also equal to one." Pulling his lips into an upside down horse shoe, Kai questioned his teacher.

"That's really an interesting question, bub. However, in order to answer your question, I want you to add the squares of every T-degree for sin and cos that you know of. Only then are you allowed to add every T-degree of sin and cos without their squares. See if you get the same answer. I'll be back in a minute." Yeonjun handed the notebook back to Kai as he got up and slowly trotted to the window, staring out on the road.

It was dark outside, and the street lights didn't properly light every part of it. The street was desolate. The storefronts were devoid of displays, which was just as well, because not a single person was there to admire them. Cars sat empty along the curb, collecting dust.

The streetlamps that weren't burned out projected little circles of white light onto an empty, cracked sidewalk. The traffic light swung in the breeze, telling all the nonexistent drivers to stop. The "walk" sign was on, letting all the nonexistent pedestrians step out onto the faded white lines of the crosswalk. Only a few windows appeared to be lighted from inside, one being his apartment and the other being a nearby grocery store.

"Lonely outside, ain't it?" Yeonjun hummed to the question that was directed towards him.

"You're thinking about Binie hyung, right? Give him a call, maybe." Taehyun jumped onto the platform of Yeonjun's oriel window, making place for him to observe the isolated place with the older boy.

"He has cram school after classes today. He's busy there, obviously." Yeonjun gave a brushed laugh, something that he often did when his heart and head did not agree. Taehyun had known him long enough to differentiate between the several moods and tones Yeonjun had.

"That doesn't help your heart. You cannot force it to believe what you cannot accept yourself. You're worried and your fear is clearly visible on your face." In the desolate solitude of the area, Taehyun's immature, high-pitched but soft voice rang on loudspeakers.

"I will not disagree that I'm worried. So many things have been going on simultaneously that I cannot help but worry. "His eyes looked at the distant street light. Soobin usually stands there to wave at Yeonjun before departing for school. He didn't do that today.

A certain shudder crept up Yeonjun's spine. Must have been the cold wind that blew through the window. Or that is what Yeonjun tried convincing himself.