Chronicle of the Wingless Fairy | taegyu

Chapter 18: The Love, Anger, Death - All at Once

There are five dangerous faults which may affect a general:
(1) Recklessness, which leads to destruction;
(2) cowardice, which leads to capture;
(3) a hasty temper, which can be provoked by insults;
(4) a delicacy of honor which is sensitive to shame;
(5) over-solicitude for his men, which exposes him to worry and trouble.
— Sun Tzu, The Art of War

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Love is something as powerful as the wind and as strong as the raging waves of the ocean.

It can be admiration, adoration, appreciation, anger, anxiety, awe, awkwardness, boredom, calmness, confusion, empathic pain, excitement, fear, horror, interest, joy, nostalgia, relief, desire, — every feeling coming to you all at once, and you wouldn't even know when it hits you. There will be times where you are happy. You feel the comfort cuddling you both. You feel the fuzziness taking over your whole. You feel euphoria.

But how will one know how strong their love is when they don't know it even exists in the space of your soul? How will it be the calm in your raging storm when you don't know that love hit you already?

Taehyun asks, when did it begin? Had it begun the moment he met his eyes? Was it when the other uttered his name for the first time? Or maybe it was the second he saw him with his long, messy raven hair that made him feel something "weird" and the want to hold and run his fingers through his hair?

Was it the moment Beomgyu listened to him every time he talked? That there would be someone out there who's a little bit like him? Could it even be the moment when they have been fighting for no reason at all? Will it matter when it started and when it will end? Will it ever reach its end?

Whatever the answer might be, he hopes that at the end of the day, Beomgyu will be free from the latches of his pain and agony.

"General Kang!"
"Sir Kang!"
"Your Highness!"
"What the fuck, Taehyun?!"

As they were perched waiting for Yeonjun, about five servants, together with the one they were waiting for – had come dashing to them with terror plastered on their faces. The way Yeonjun's face had looked at him, it was like cold water seeped into Taehyun's soul.

Once his friend had stood in front of him, Yeonjun brushed a hand across his forehead to get rid of the sweat wetting his face, then started to catch his breath from all the painful running he's done.

"What... Happened?" Taehyun was perplexed.

Every time this happens, Yeonjun's either going to break good or bad news, or he'll tell Taehyun that he just chugged down a pitcher of cream.

"Hyun, oh, shit..." Yeonjun's eyes were bloodshot, his body had trembled and his uniform has been crumpled. Panic had come to him and he doesn't know how to break the news. "Please... I want you to... maintain your shit together... When you hear what I say..." Yeonjun cried out and put his hands on Taehyun's shoulders, tightening as each second passed.

"Just tell me what it is instead of putting me on edge here." Taehyun frowned his face from the confusion Yeonjun was giving him. Yet he can't say he isn't scared of what the other was about to tell him.

Was this something serious? Taehyun couldn't decipher.

"Your mother... The Queen..."

"What's with mother?" He almost cuts him off.

"Your mother... She's b-bleeding to death!"

Taehyun thought he'd been able to master his control with anger.

"What? W-what do you mean?" The general scoffs. Yeonjun must be joking, right? It's impossible.

"I knocked her door... To ask if she's okay because you were worried... And when I opened her door, she..." Yeonjun couldn't keep to himself. He moved from left to right, then right to left. He feels unable to even break the news to him. He can't bring himself to tell Taehyun.