Kintsugi // ATEEZ [Ishihara Sequel] ✔

5 Feelings

"And... that is how you do it."

Yunho drops his sword to the ground before giving a roundhouse kick to the dummy's head, earning impressed 'ooh' and 'aah's from his audience who's made up of Mingi and Yeosang. He wipes the sweat off his forehead with the end of the sleeve of his shirt, dabbing it a few times as he tries to catch his breath.

The sun has barely shown itself but he's already sweating from the workout, something that he hasn't done in quite a while. They haven't even had any breakfast yet because it seems that his two 'students' are eager to learn the 'art of fighting' as they had put it, because they jokingly said that they may never know when there would come a time where they'd need to go to war.

"We're not going into war anymore," Yunho says, plopping himself on the ground beside Mingi as he uncaps the water bottle. He gulps the whole content hastily, wiping the liquid dripping on his chin. "If Akira decides to take on the throne at Lucida, war would be the last thing she'd command to. She was the leader of an army, but ever since she came to Nyla... she's different." A smile plays on his lips as he upends the bottle again, searching for another drop of water. "We're at peace with the other two kingdoms, and Lucida is about to be headed by Akira, if she ever decides to take the step. The call for a war seems far away now."

"You never know," Mingi utters. "If there comes a time when war is the only necessary way, it can break out. As long as our country is divided by different kingdoms who are headed by different royal families, each with our own importance, there will always be a possibility. The Kingdom of Estar or Fyrae, we'll never know what they might be thinking of. What if they want to take over Nyla someday? Or even Lucida?"

Yeosang snickers. "Let them try to take over Lucida when Akira is queen. They won't even find their way out of the kingdom."

Mingi nods like a woodpecker. "She still scares me... a bit," he admits.

Yunho hugs his knees to his chest, crushing the water bottle in his hand before dropping it to the ground. He leans forward, looking into the distance. "But underneath all of that she's actually really nice." He picks on some grasses and rolls them around in his palm. "She's only made to be that way because of how she was brought up."

Yunho's mind travels to when all three of them - Emira, Akira and him - were children, when they were the best of friends. Even then their friendship wasn't approved by Emira's parents, especially the queen. The queen wasn't fond of the two, but it was obvious that her spite was almost entirely directed at Akira. They never understood why; the only reason why they thought the queen acting that way was because she's a servant who shouldn't be mingling with her daughter.

Little do they know that Akira has an even much closer tie to the throne than they originally thought.

"She's a strong woman isn't she?" Mingi mulls, leaning backwards as his palms lay flat on the ground. "To go through all of that, not even knowing who her parents were, enduring the hate from the highest authoritative figure in the palace from such a young age."

"She didn't even know her father was there right all along with her." Yunho's fist hits the ground. "She was born thinking that she had no family to love her. And now my poor general is going back to the kingdom which took everything from her." He buries his face at the crook of his arm, his shoulders slightly shaking.

Mingi and Yeosang look at each other, utterly confused.

"Lieutenant Jeong," Mingi starts, "are you crying?"

Yunho pulls back his head, his eyes already watery and red. His voice croaks as he says, "Poor Akira. She's suffered so much and now she's going back to the very kingdom that made her suffer," he wails. "Can she never get a break?"