Don't Forget | Jaeyong

where we fall: part three

The Young Leader looked to be contemplating, resting in the corner of his quarters and gazing out of the open window. The only thing managing to touch him was the very subtle breeze; making his jet hair and thin green gown float elegantly. 

The night breeze comforted him, just like the slow-burning candle on the table beside him.

He needed to be isolated like this, he needed to think.

What was right and what was wrong?

His room, much like his thrown, had multiple waterlilies and various other floral patterns decorating the furniture. His elevated bed, made from cherry wood imported from a faraway community named Xīn Lì, was one of these main objects with those patterns. The silk of the bedsheets had intricately been decorated with wave patterns to mimic the waters in the sea and the canal's separating land between farmers and civilisations.

In the eyes of a Tiān-Dì resident, waterlilies were symbolic. They symbolised good luck and fortune, prosperity. Only the richest were allowed to wear a fabric of that kind, let alone have every single furniture piece decorated with at least one waterlily.

The waterlilies often grew in the lakes and canal's near the north side of Tiān-Dì, where the leader's and the rich lived. That's why they were seen as symbolic. These flowers only grew where the rich lived.

These flowers, traditionally, were also used to make soup or stew. One would either typically boil them in fresh water until the flavour and goodness were boiled out of it, then you would drink that water - it was said to heal inner and outer wounds. Then, the other way was simply just turning it into soup or stew, it was very expensive to make though since these flowers only grew in the richer areas of Tiān-Dì. This was not a problem for The Young Leader, he often drank these medicinal mixtures and recipes on a day to day basis.

He sighed.

His mind felt empty yet it was swirling with uncertainty. Last week, when he cried in front of those people, it seemed ever since the humiliating incident, it had been difficult to break The Young Leader out of silence and thought. He was constantly daydreaming, constantly stuck between a rock and a hard place. It made him question his motives.

"Young Leader." A female voice echoed through the room, the male's once dismal expression soon softened once he noticed that it was his other servant standing between the entrance, Miyoung. The Leader had always had a delicate spot for Miyoung, she was there for him during difficult times, she always was. When he cried out for help she would always appear like a guardian angel. Perhaps she was. "I brought you your evening meal." She stepped in, holding a familiar bamboo stray with a bowl of soup and various other side dishes.

"I wish not to eat." Jaehyun waved his hand, a simple gesture to swat her away.

Yet, as per usual, she ignored the gesture and approached The Young Leader sitting quietly in his chair beside the window. She groaned once her eyes met with the last tray of food that she had brought up, it was once again, left untouched. "How foolish, are you really going to starve yourself?! I do not recall you being so silly, the last time you were this childish was when you were a boy!"

He shrugged.

"What has affected you this much? Did your uncle beat you again? Did your mother's dog bite you? Is Yuta being too bothersome again?" She was listing all of the common issues that Jaehyun had usually complained about, yet none of them ever caused him to isolate himself to this extent. "What is it?" She commanded an answer, she was not like Yuta in the sense she would follow every single order. She more often than not, was the one ordering Jaehyun around, like his busy mother was supposed to do.

This was what The Young Leader liked the most about Miyoung, she was not like everyone else he knew: she never once distressed him, yet she still told him what to do, she gave him the directions that he never would have known to take by himself.

"I lost my faith." It felt weird slipping out of his tongue, he had kept it inside of himself for too long. "I lost my core beliefs, I still believe in The God's... I just feel like, maybe, somewhere along the lines of Tiān-Dì history, my ancestors decided to change things to their own liking. How can it be what The God's want if they never asked for certain laws to exist in the beginning?" He moved his eyes onto Miyoung's, they were desperate. "I believe that we should not be hurting people, that we should help those poor farmers living along the border, that we should- let those deformed babies live, let people love whoever they want to love. I want freedom for The Tiān-Dì District."

Miyoung was speechless.

"I want to fall in love."