The sunset festival is an extremely important and somewhat magical event that involves Jung Hoseok, the veiled partner of Emperor Min, to dance as a sign of gratitude to the Gods. Each Kingdom in Korea has a representative for each God or Goddess. For the Solar Kingdom, Emperor Min and his partner are both representative of the daylight Gods (specifically, Emperor Min is representative for the God of Harvest and wealth, and Hoseok is the representative of the sun God).
The Hwarang's task was to split into two teams. One team would guard the emperor, and the others would guard Hoseok. Unluckily, Taehyung was assigned with Emperor Min, and Seokjin was assigned with Hoseok.
A night away from the festival, the Hwarang were gathered in the throne room. All of the members were quite comfortable in their roles now, and the tension between the soldiers and the emperor eased greatly. Emperor Min still loomed over them, but his gaze was met by the beautiful gaze of the many men before him. Each pair of eyes sparkled in their own unique way, which only emphasised the beauty of each man.
Of course, Hoseok was in the smaller, yet still grand throne next to his partner, with his golden veil draped over his face. The material was translucent, so you could still see his face. The veil was oddly long though, but it made sense as Emperor Min was the only one who could touch Hoseok's skin causally. The only other time his skin would be touched was by his stylists, who were given special permission. Nobody else has ever seen him without the veil on.
Veils were given to people who requested them from the emperor's family before their wedding days. In older traditions, the girls would wear them, but these days anybody can wear them. If a person did own a veil though, it would mean that they would have to wear it during formal occasions, such as the winter festival and the sunset festival.
The Hwarang were split into their two teams, and from there, those teams were further split up to go on a rotational duty of night guarding. Seokjin was set to guard outside of Hoseok's chamber for the first half of the night, and Taehyung was set to guard Emperor Min's chamber for the second half of the night.
Taehyung wandered back to the dorms, supposedly to go to sleep, but he did his usual antics of sneaking out to see Agust.
The fields were as calm as ever when he peeked out of the window. The moon shone in its final phase before the full moon tomorrow. The sunset festival was timed perfectly so that both the sun and moon were in the sky for Hoseok's dance. Taehyung was ever only in the back of crowds when Hoseok danced, so seeing him dance for the first time ever was exciting for him.
When the other members were asleep, Taehyung slipped out of the dorm, making his way towards the city gates yet again to meet the farmer. The journey was a breeze as per usual, but the journey wasn't the same.
The ivy was scattered with thorns. Odd. Thorns don't usually grow that quickly. Not a problem for Taehyung though, since he brought a dagger with him to cut them down.
The stones were suddenly extremely slippy, making the man struggle with his grip. Again, not a problem for Taehyung, as he once again used his dagger to give himself extra grip.
Once he found himself on the ground, his legs were shaky. His breath was heavy, and his eyes were tired. He looked at himself in the reflection, and noticed the dark circles forming under his eyes. Was he really that tired? Last time he checked he was getting a decent amount of sleep.
Even the field was unusual. The grass didn't sway and the water didn't ripple. Taehyung proceeded through the field with caution, as nature stopped in its tracks. His footsteps echoed into the silence as he followed his usual path to the Farmer's. Perhaps he's seeing this oddness too.
"Fancy seeing you here Kim Taehyung."
Startled, Taehyung swung around, his dagger pointed towards a figure. Luckily, it was the familiar figure of the farmer, and Taehyung was safe.
"Y-you scared me," Taehyung stammered. His head was spinning in the daze of silence. Agust stepped towards him, analysing his facial expressions.
"You're tired. Why are you here? I thought you'd be guarding the Emperor and preparing for the festival tomorrow,"
Taehyung was confused. It didn't seem like Agust came from the city, and that's an assumption based only off his name. However, there must be others who wander near the city walls just to hear the song of Hoseok's dance. Things never added up when it came to the Farmer, but that was something that Taehyung learned to accept. The Rice Farmer was just an array of different open books.
"How did you manage to get over the city wall?" Agust asked the puzzled younger.
"It was a struggle for me to get myself over, but usually I can grab onto the rocks and pull myself over. This time I used my dagger for some grip,"
"That's expected," Agust said with a frown. He was looking up towards the wall with an expression Taehyung couldn't read. Sorrow? Sadness? Anger? Like usual, he could never tell.
"What's expected?"
"You had some struggle climbing the wall tonight. I would like to give you my congratulations though. You're the first one,"
"The first one? The first one to do what?"
"Get over the wall whilst I'm here,"
"Others have met you before?"
"Yes, but they all fell to far,"
Taehyung's mouth dropped. His eyes grew wide. The silence of the fields turned into the weeping of the bluebells and the sobbing of the river.
"Do you see the Lillys Kim Taehyung?"
Taehyung couldn't utter any words. He simply nodded at the sight of beautiful white Lilys.
"If your blood were to have fed the soil tonight, more Lilys would have bloomed."
Sadness filled the Farmer's eyes, as if he could see the few who drowned in their curiosity.
Taehyung looked more closely, and he felt as though he could see the emotionless, pale faces of young men just like him stood still. Even though the wind took its course, their garments remained at a standstill, as if they were still awaiting for their burning curiosity to be distinguished.
"Why couldn't they get over the wall? Is it something you've done?"
The Farmer shook his head. "The truth is, if I weren't at the gate tonight then your climb would be just fine, but it's not like I pushed the other young men,"
"Do you want to climb over?"
It was the farmer's turn to cock his head at Taehyung. The young man held out the dagger he used to see him.
"Why are you giving me this? You need to go back over,"
"I can use my hands to get back over. I know you want to see the festival just as badly as I want to see the fields."
Taehyung approached the wall with clenched fists. He didn't make eye contact with the farmer as he pressed his palms against the cold stone. It was as if it were raining. Taehyung knew all too well that it didn't rain, but each time his skin made contact with the stone, he shuddered. At least he knew that the farmer was protected with his dagger. That's two people to protect tomorrow.
"Be careful, Kim Taehyung,"
"I'll see you at the festival tomorrow, Agust."
