scintillating ; lee minho

01 - stuck behind

✧.*

To see colors truly is a gift.

I've been watching the world shift in black and white all my life, confined within the monotonic boundaries around me.

There's a putative tale that's extended down from centuries all across different Kingdoms. It claims that the descendants of one of the two kingdoms in Incheon enraged the Goddess of Light long ago, breaking bonds between the people and the spiritual realms. Through heartbreak and betrayal, the Goddess of Light casted a curse that rid the world of color.

It was always funny to me how the whole concept felt like a game. We had to earn the ability to see colors, it wasn't just handed down to us.

At least not anymore.

Color was only visible once you've hit a breaking point in your life. My mom began to see color when she had her first kill in training, my dad saw it when he met my mom for the first time. Romantic.

Even my friends began to see color whenever something exciting had finally happened to change their life.

And then there was me.

Completely oblivious to the world encased in the marvelous spectacle of colors while everyone else my age indulged in it. It feels like my eyes have been closed my whole life, entrapped in these colorless bounds that everyone else has crawled past.

I've had my fair share of turning points though. I underwent Coronation day when I was 16, which was only two years ago. I had my heartbroken by a knight I swore to marry when I was 8. I've even rebelled against my parents and am now living on my own.

So l really don't understand why I still can't see colors after all that's happened.

But the tale never sat right with me. There was something about the whole thing that just felt off, like there's a gap somewhere amongst the story that no one cares about resolving. What if—

My thoughts halt when I see Seungmin nearly fucking up my new dish.

I hollered, "Seungmin! That's salt, not sugar!" I ran up to the clueless boy who was about to ruin my Dasik, a rich blend of tea cookies that Grandma loves.

I was too late though; he had already poured the entire bag of salt with the flour batter.

He looks up at me, furrowing his brows in my place as if I was at fault, "Maybe if you used labels I would have known!" he defends. "Ara look around! Your kitchen is a mess—there's spoons on the floor, baking towels hanging from that cabinet and is that—is that your toothbrush?" he asks mortified.

I stare at his face, chuckling at how innocently provoked he was. I tickle his chin, "You're like a cute puppy when you're mad."

"Stop that," he pouts and nudges my hand away. "I am not cute. I have ladies, and gents, lined up to get a piece of this—"

"Shut up and help me make new batter," I say as I look around at the mess that was my kitchen.

He did have a point. I was all over the place lately, and haven't had the time to tidy myself up. I totally defeat the bullshit image of being a lady.

Or even a princess at this point. That image was tarnished long ago.

There is a baking contest that takes place in town every three years, and it's only a few months away. When I still lived under the chains of the Kingdom, I had no access to leave it and attend the contest among the common folk.

It's just not what royalty abides by.

I could almost hear my mother's voice scolding me in my head even when we're miles apart. Except now that I live with Grams and Seungmin, I decided to join the competition this year. However, I really underestimated the whirlwind of stress it pushed me into.