Those of Us Alone

Chapter 45: A - Uh - Productive Night?

Midori's POV

It was later that same night that Soo-won came to my room.

Now, I know what you're thinking, and NO - stop thinking like that! We were meeting to talk about this festival that we tricked Geun-tae into.

I had just finished getting out of the bath when he knocked, so it was reasonable to have a towel across my neck, trying my best to dry my hair as I let him inside, "You know if someone sees you we're going to have rumors going around."

"We already have rumors going around," Soo-won shrugged off the thought of people talking about us and sat down at the table in my room. "They gave you a nice room."

I shrugged, heating up the tea in the tea pot and grabbing two cups, "I guess they thought that," I made air quotes, "a lady of my stature and rank," I moved the now hot teapot to the table with one hand and the cups in the other, "should have a decent room. Tea?"

"Please," soon, the two of us were immersed in the talk of the festival.

~~~~~~~~~~

The two of us had come up with many ideas, but we ended up vetoing pretty much all of them. We were at a loss. I sighed, "There has to be something we can promote - something we can use."

I was correct in my assumption earlier: that this trip was to find a way to fix the economy of the Earth Tribe - in particular Chi'shin, but if the capital had a decent influx of money, so would the rest of the tribe. How did I know I was correct? Well, like with most things that have been discussed tonight, I needed a reason for the festival to begin with.

Soo-won sat across from me, leaning on his hand with his face scrunched up - trying to find a solution to our problem.

After letting out another sigh, I reach to pour some more tea. As I began to pour it, the sweet aroma relaxed me - then, I had an idea, "Wait!" 

I guess I was rather loud just a second ago, that only being confirmed as my companion jumped, hitting his knee on the table, "Ow!" Sighing, his eyes met mine with a questioning gaze, "Did you get an idea?"

"I'm not sure why it took me two hours to come up with," I shrugged, but seeing as he was getting antsy, I continued, "isn't there some people in the north that like aromatic everything?"

A twinkle grew in his eye, "Kai Empire, if I recall correctly."

Realizing that we hit a part of the festival that could happen, we were ecstatic, "Can't you invite someone from there - maybe not important officials, but maybe a merchant? Someone who could spread the word around the Empire quickly?"

"That's a good idea," praised the King. "Though, the question is whether I could get someone to serve the tea to - "

"Why not Lady Yun-ho?" He raised an eye brow at the fact that I didn't volunteer, "Don't give me that look. I know next to nothing about this tea. If anything, Yun-ho would be the better choice because she could make a dramatic story about trial and error."

Nodding, "You're right again, Midori. But," he looked back down at the table, "we have to have something else. . ."

"You were planning to let Geun-tae win the mock battle weren't you?"

There was a bit of laughter before he looked back up to me, "I'm a little concerned that you can see through me so well - even with less memories of how you used to do it before."

I smiled sadly. This kind of interaction seemed to be second nature to me - the whole night had actually. I just . . . I don't know. Looking away did nothing but concern my only company, but I didn't know what to do. I was so conflicted. I really did think that I couldn't have liked this guy after what he did to Yona, but when we can sit around and joke without any restraint - for hours even!