Ca Ira | yoonmin

Ten

The history books are always written as definitive facts, in black and white, with all the emotions filtered and removed.

In the history books, the fate of French revolutionary general Yoongi and Prince Jimin ends in tragedy, perhaps as expected of two souls at opposite ends, in a turbulent time where many lives were crushed by the waves of change.

On an unassuming night in April 1790, Yoongi and Jimin had a heated argument in the master bedroom of the Toulouse palace. The head servant Jin reported of hearing shouting and screaming, followed by gunshot. By the time he made his way to the room, fire had already broken out from a tipped coal heater, trapping the two injured victims in the room. All the servants scrambled and escaped unharmed, but the flames spread viciously, aided by strong night wind. By the time the fire has finally been put out, it has already swept through three neighbouring blocks, and decimated most of the palace, amongst many other buildings. The golden gallery, with all the priceless artifacts and paintings, the glittering chandeliers and memories of a hundreds lavish parties, is no longer.

In the debris, people are able to find the charred remains of the generals and the prince, two allied enemies that turned on each other in the end. Prince Lamballe's prized personal possession, a blue diamond encrusted ring that had never left his finger, was found as identification.

In the wake of his death, Jimin's aging father, the duke of Penthièvre, was investigated by the Paris police, but eventually sent to remain at chateau Rambouillet until he died of old age six years later, with the family servant Jin by his side.

Captain Namjoon became the infantry general, as replacement for Yoongi. Namjoon lived a long and illustrious life, exiled after the revolutionary assembly crumbled, and returned to Paris during the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte to be promoted to the grand admiral of the French army.

Victoria de Bourbon drifted between multiple repositories for exiled royals, before meeting and marrying Phillippe Orleans. She gave birth to a son, Louis Philippe Orleans. The family of three returned to Paris after Napoleon's empire ended, and Victoria's son became the last king of France by birthright. Victoria restored the family crypt of the Bourbon and Orlean families, and moved the remains of her brother, Prince Jimin, back to the crypt. Her final resting place was right next to him.

That is the conclusion of this story, according to the history books - in black and white, with all the emotions filtered and removed. All the laughters and tears, the longing and heartache, forgotten and swept away by the passage of time.

But history books are no more than stories that were shaped and moulded by the living, so that they can make sense of the past, and be comforted by the logical progression of events. Even when the past doesn't usually make sense, even when feelings are often messy and illogical, beyond our control.

Contrary to what the historians would like us to believe, emotions are what truly matters, what form the basis of our past. After all, the world is nothing but a mirage on our mind, and all the muddled sensations between the black and white are what we are made of.

The story of revolutionary general Yoongi and Prince Jimin may have happened very differently than what was recorded. It may have occurred somewhat like this:

Dark, cold and damp.

The street outside of the Toulouse palace is quiet, faint lamplights from the houses lining the street too feeble to reach the cobblestone pavement.

They slip through the palace gate together, head lowered and shrouded by worn out capes that concealed the common garbs underneath.

With each step, Jimin can feel the weight of the pistol in his coat pocket, and the shifting of the small dagger strapped on the side of his belt.