Kintsugi // ATEEZ [Ishihara Sequel] ✔

55 Snow

San looks over the edge of the cliff, mouth pushed out as he sees how far the fall would be, but gets slightly entranced by the view. He would never have guessed that the abandoned kingdom would hide the raw beauty of undisturbed nature where the palaces in every other kingdom are surrounded by tall fences to deter any break-ins, while a huge part of the Ileara palace is gated by the sea around them.

He tugs his jacket, slightly feeling nauseous from the journey they had - the 'quick' journey from Lucida to Ileara - as he only blinked while both of them were on the horse before the next thing he knew was that Sara had hopped off from behind him, before they went through a broken bridge that would lead them to the island.

"Be careful or you'll fall," a voice comes from behind him and he does almost fall, before his hand gets pulled so that there's a distance between him and the cliff.

He turns around to see Sara with a cat on top of her head, taking in measured breaths as she's already starting to feel cold as they stand outside. "Do you not put any barriers between the sea and your palace?" He looks over the edge again, "The fall's pretty high."

She splays out her fingers on either side of her shoulders as she utters, "There's no one falling from that height since I'm the only person here anyway." She sighs, "We did have a barrier surrounding our palace, but everything was destroyed that day. It's not like I'm finding the energy to build it back, so I let it be."

He sticks out his lower lip, nodding. "I guess that's fair. So you asked me to wait outside while you clean up some stuff inside," he tilts his head towards the palace building, "are you done?"

"Well, uh..." she bites her lower lip as she scratches her head. "So um, considering the fact that I only live alone and that I don't have anyone taking care of the palace besides myself, I hope that you can understand the condition might not be as great as yours or even the Lucida palace." She grimaces, "Please don't compare."

He shrugs. "Alright, I won't judge." As he sees her looking at him with a more pressing stare he nods, "I promise." He takes out his pinky finger, and this time around she does it without any hesitation.

"But," her mouth runs to say as they turn towards the direction of the palace, "do we have to always seal a promise with our pinky fingers?"

He chuckles without replying as they go up the stairs, and he flinches as he realizes that some wild animals are lining up beside the stairs, eyes red as they look at the two ascending. He looks at them warily as he gestures towards them. "Are they your... pets too?"

She looks at where he's pointing at before she nods. "Yup. But Twinkle and Micko are the longest pets I've had." She takes a deep breath as they arrive at the top, fluttering her fingers as she grabs the door handle, pulling it open as she tilts her head to the inside of the palace. "After you."

San silently enters the palace, not knowing what he should expect as he steps inside. From Sara's description he probably should have expected he'd run into some rundown interior with cobwebs everywhere, but he gets pleasantly surprised when he sees that it's not even that bad. Sure, you can tell that there is not a person maintaining the interior regularly, but you can tell how hard Sara tried to maintain the palace on her own, as every corner breathes her personality. He's possibly in awe as he looks around the interior that he doesn't have time to say anything.

Sara thinks that he's obviously judging that she pokes his arm, hard, as she utters, "I told you not to judge."

"It's not like what you made it sound like," he says, chuckling. "It's beautiful how you maintained it alone."

She beams, but only shrugs not long after as she brushes her pink hair over her shoulders. "Of course, you're talking about Sara Chae."

He doesn't say anything as they stand under the moonlight pouring in through the window on the rooftop, bathing them in a dreamlike glow. He watches as she joins him under the light, looking up to see the moon peeking at them from the corner of the window. As she looks up, he's only looking at her, somewhat feeling regretful that they might not have that much time together.