Through Time

IV

Minister of War's quarters

"Minister of War, why have you summoned me to your quarters?"

"You already know that the King allied with Goguryeo, yes?"

"I do know that, but why are you talking about that subject?"

"Ah. The king has informed me of his plans on unifying the three kingdoms of Korea. He wants to invade Hubaekje, in order to strengthen the power of the realm. It may be bloody, but he wants to make sure the Finance Ministry has enough money to support the war."

"Is that so? I'll ask my subordinates in the Finance Ministry to study the topic."

"Oh, I forgot. You can't say this to anyone. Study it by yourself."

"I see."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Taehyung/Tae-Suk's POV

I suddenly heard the sound of sticks in front of me. Like they are really making we wake up from my sleep.

"Tae-Suk! Wake up already!" I heard these voices in my head.

"Aish...please, ten more minutes..jebal." I whispered, with an irritating tone.

The sound of the annoying sticks repeated again. This time louder, and I'm forced to open my eyes.

"Ah! Jinjja?! Fine! I'm waking up already!" I shouted.

My eyesight became clearer and realized it was Min-Ji who was waking me up, but he was already in full Hwarang dress.

"You're the only one left undressed. Go dress up already. Or else you'll be late for our morning call." Min Ji said to me.

"Yeah, yeah." I lazily got up from bed, and saw Kuk Jung above my bed (It was a double decker) just lying down, boringly waiting for me to wake up.

I went immediately to the shower room. No one was there, it was only me, since everyone was probably in their rooms, getting ready for the morning call, as Min-Ji said. But I have no idea what they do there, since I'm not from here anyway..

When I finished showering, I went back to our room to dress up. Everyone was still there for some reason.

"Hyung, can you help me with my hair?" I asked Jin-suk hyung.

"Shoudn't you know how to do that?" He answered.

"Yeah, but when I do it, it just easily falls down." I answered, obviously begging him to really do my hair, since I don't really know how. I watched historical dramas on TV, but really, I don't know how. I just know they look cool.

It took Jin suk no time to fix my hair.

"Finally! You're finished. Should we go now?" Jun-nam asked everyone.

And we all went to the main courtyard, only to see we're the last ones to arrive. Everyone was already lined up.

"You seven. Come here." The hwarang headmaster shouted to us, he looked angry.

"Clean the whole courtyard after this morning call. That's your punishment for being late." He said to us.

"We understand." We all said in unison, and went back to our respective places in the lines.

"Ugh. Why us?! Seriously? After morning calls? This place becomes full of mud from their shoes after morning calls." Gi Yun whined.

"Be thankful he didn't ask us to do push ups. Or else the court ladies will just laugh at us while doing it." Kuk-jung replied.

We did head counts and shouted our names for the morning call. Well since I was the last, I saw them doing the stuff, so I copied it when my turn came.

"Kim Tae-Suk, a knight of the Hwarang, for the future of Silla!"

Everyone walked out of the courtyard and all we saw was - mud. Gi Yun was correct, atleast we didn't do push ups.

And we started to clean. It was gross. Jin suk just stood there, but whenever the headmaster comes to see us, he starts to clean. Aigoo.

Suddenly, court ladies appeared at the courtyard. From their looks, they were looking at our faces, blushing.

"What's up with those court ladies?" Kuk-jung asked. He looked at them and saw a woman doing a heart gesture. He just smirked back.

"I'm not sure? I thought the headmaster had the courtyard doors locked? He gave me the keys earlier for us to go out and lock it back." Jun nam replied.

"Look at tae-suk. He's so cute! He looks out of this world." A court lady squealed, enough for me to hear since I was just near her.

I didn't react, but I gave her a smile.

It was nearly an hour when we finally removed the mud in the courtyard. Everyone was full of sweat, and we all wanted to lay in our beds. As I was about to go to the quarters-

"Tae-Suk? Where are you going? Have you forgotten? The Hwarang parade is today. We'll be walking around the capital." Suk-jin reminded me.

"Oh? I must have forgotten." I replied, even tho I really didn't know there was a parade.

We went outside the courtyard to the meeting hall for the hwarang knights, we were pretty early now, and the headmaster wasn't there yet, so we sat in front. Only a few were there, maybe because they put more makeup in their faces to look nice.

When everyone arrived, the headmaster finally came.

Everyone stood up, which I followed.

"Greetings, Park Seo Joon. Glory to Hwarang." We all said in unison.

"You may sit down." he replied. "Have you finished cleaning the courtyard?" He stared at us.

"Yes, headmaster. We have." We said in unison, once again.

"That's good. Anyway, all of you know there will be a parade today showcasing the Hwarang Knights, which the Queen personally asked. The king will also be there too, but only as one of the spectators. He won't be dressed in any outfit, so he won't be distinguishable. Try to get his attention, but don't go over."

"We understand."

Everyone was pretty excited, but some were pretty sad, like Gi Yun, who just wanted to sleep all day.

"Aigoo, why do they do these stuff? We're soldiers anyway." Gi Yun whined.

"Aish, be thankful we're selected for these types of events. Be thankful you're a hwarang." Min-ji replied to him.

After a few minutes of waiting for the go-signal of the headmaster, we went outside the hall and to the courtyard once again. This time to prepare to go outside of the Hwarang House.

*Finally, I'll go see what's outside of this place. I feel like I've been in prison for a year already.* I thought to myself.

A large gong was sounded suddenly, I was surprised, but I hid it fortunately.

The gates finally opened, revealing the busy life of the city.